Nights Out

I didn’t mention it before but last week I went to see the play called ‘A flea in her ear’ at the Old Vic Theatre, directed by Richard Eyre. I generally love London for its theatres and I try not to miss productions or actors I generally like. Sometimes I get disappointed (Dame Judi Dench in last year’s Madame De Sade was a bit of a let down) or pleasantly surprised (Daniel Radcliffe in Equus I feared would be simply abysmal). I try not to watch only West End Productions and I visit regional theatres. I generally love ‘National Theatre’ productions as well as plays I’ve seen in the ‘Barbican’, the ‘Lyric’ or the ‘Soho Theatre’. OK, the Old Vic is a generally renowned theatre, especially since Kevin Spacey took the reins, but you get my point.

Anyway, back to the ‘Flea’. It received raving reviews and I expected to like it but I was generally disappointed. It’s a loud sex comedy of misunderstandings, miscommunication and stereotypes (boulevard theatre). Have you seen the ‘Moulin Rouge’? Do you remember the scene where Nicole Kidman and the producer are trying to hide McGregor from the Duke in the elephant? I might be wrong about the plot since I’ve only seen the movie once (which I didn’t really like for the same reasons). But I remember that being a really loud and fast scene of visual comedy which unfortunately is not my cup of tea. I found the ‘Flea’ for the same reasons tiring and predictable. Some of my friends loved it and I believe most of the audience liked it as well, but not me. I laughed only in a couple of occasions and I smile a couple other but that was it. I wasn’t holding my belly laughing like other people of the audience. It wasn’t a bad production but I didn’t find it that entertaining…

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On a very different subject I had a really nice time with JJ yesterday. The Chinese restaurant we went to, called the ‘Chinese Cricket Club’ (don’t ask me why), was nice. I really loved the starters (dumplings, spring rolls, and squid) but I wasn’t very impressed by the main. The food was very spicy and we had even trouble distinguishing the pork from the chicken because of the spices and sauces. We did laugh a lot though and at some point we gathered the eyes of the surrounding tables when JJ called me ‘honey’. Of course we were the only same sex couple in the place.

JJ told me the story of a friend of his we’ll call ‘Anne’. Anne is Finish and used to be JJ’s housemate. Last January she arranged online to meet a guy called George. George cancelled the last minute because something serious had happened so Anne arranged and met another guy we’ll call Sam. Sam and Anne fell in love. Anne had to move back to Finland and she took Sam with him. They’ve been happily living together for more than a year there and decided to get married! Before getting married this summer, they’ve decided to visit London in March. What’s really interesting in the story is that Anne kept contact with George and while she’ll be in London, they will go out to actually meet each other! Sam knows about the whole thing and according to Anne, he’s fine with it!

Am I prudent to think the story funny and slightly weird? Anne and Sam are supposed to be getting married this summer and are planning to spend the rest of their lives in Finland. Does Anne really require a new ‘friend’ who was supposed to be a potential boyfriend? If you were Sam would you be happy with this ‘arrangement’? I don’t think he is happy, but is he in a position to forbid her of going?

Anyway, the chocolate cake I made was greatly appreciated. We took some pictures of JJ trying to devour it, but we didn’t manage to finish it.