Lazy Saturday, Gilbert and Sullivan
It was a lazy Saturday on a whole, involving shopping, meeting friends, browsing in bookstores and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta - always a treat. Having had a late night on Friday, I slept in till about lunch, whereupon I received a phone call from Juliet with whom I danced ballroom with for the last academic year. Apparently, there were going to light the Christmas lights up today, and there were events planned, with Shrek and his donkey coming along to the festivities no less. I thus headed on down into town with Juliet, Jennie and Suneet (who were coincidentally all on the beginner's dancesport team) and Vijay, a friend who was a fellow cheerleader (Juliet and Jennie's replacement for dancing!).
All in all, we had an amiable stroll through town which was also instructive in a way. First port of call was naturally Thornton's, seeing Juliet's general chocoholism. Jennie bought a chocolate angel, and I managed to resist temptation, something that was probably wise seeing that I had stocked up recently on that utterly crucial student commodity just a few days previously. Next we went to what must be one of the most classic girly shops I have ever been in (located in the Clarendon Center), and of whose existence I was not even aware of before that day. It came complete with pink decor, and clothing adorned with cartoons decrying "boys are stupid". At that point, Juliet headed off, and me and Suneet decided it was wise, seeing Jennie and Vijay's plans to go off to a hat shop, to wander off to a late lunch, and leave them to their own devices, rather than stand rather abashed in a corner of whatever shop they were inclined to wander into. Lunch was in Georgina's at the covered market, one of my favourite cafes - we were lucky enough to get a table - the place is usually packed all hours.
Waterstone's and Borders were having 20% off everything, and this clearly necessitated a round of book browsing - me and DT went to Waterstone's for a good two hours. It is usually not a good idea to throw yourself into the jaws of temptation, but I survived relatively unscathed - that is until I went to Borders later that evening and promptly bought 5 books (2 of which in all fairness were academic).
The evening was spent watching a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta - in this case "the Magician" which was set in the British Raj and involved a love potion that sets off a whole chain of unintended love matches. It was classic G&S - wonderfully witty, sometimes downright silly songs (such as one sung to jam, tea and ham), and always great fun. I have developed a great love of G&S since coming to the UK, with this being the 5th operetta I have seen. All in all, wasn't quite as witty as some of the others, and the music was a bit one-dimensional, but it still made for a hugely enjoyable evening. An enormous plus was the cast which was one of the best I have seen, all the more impressive seeing that many of them were freshers. A fantastically fun evening, it must be said. On an off note, I was quite astounded by the number of random people that I recognized - both as part of the cast and crew, as well as in the audience. Looking through the program, I recognized one of the leads whom I had sung with in Keble Choir, as well as two people in the chorus. Then, the person with page turning responsibilities turned out to be Mira, whose brother is Johann. There were also a huge number of random people in the audeince I knew - Jennie for one, and Dan from Keble, as well as other friends from St Catz, Lincoln and Hilda's. Either Oxford is really frighteningly too small or else I have been here too long.
All in all, we had an amiable stroll through town which was also instructive in a way. First port of call was naturally Thornton's, seeing Juliet's general chocoholism. Jennie bought a chocolate angel, and I managed to resist temptation, something that was probably wise seeing that I had stocked up recently on that utterly crucial student commodity just a few days previously. Next we went to what must be one of the most classic girly shops I have ever been in (located in the Clarendon Center), and of whose existence I was not even aware of before that day. It came complete with pink decor, and clothing adorned with cartoons decrying "boys are stupid". At that point, Juliet headed off, and me and Suneet decided it was wise, seeing Jennie and Vijay's plans to go off to a hat shop, to wander off to a late lunch, and leave them to their own devices, rather than stand rather abashed in a corner of whatever shop they were inclined to wander into. Lunch was in Georgina's at the covered market, one of my favourite cafes - we were lucky enough to get a table - the place is usually packed all hours.
Waterstone's and Borders were having 20% off everything, and this clearly necessitated a round of book browsing - me and DT went to Waterstone's for a good two hours. It is usually not a good idea to throw yourself into the jaws of temptation, but I survived relatively unscathed - that is until I went to Borders later that evening and promptly bought 5 books (2 of which in all fairness were academic).
The evening was spent watching a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta - in this case "the Magician" which was set in the British Raj and involved a love potion that sets off a whole chain of unintended love matches. It was classic G&S - wonderfully witty, sometimes downright silly songs (such as one sung to jam, tea and ham), and always great fun. I have developed a great love of G&S since coming to the UK, with this being the 5th operetta I have seen. All in all, wasn't quite as witty as some of the others, and the music was a bit one-dimensional, but it still made for a hugely enjoyable evening. An enormous plus was the cast which was one of the best I have seen, all the more impressive seeing that many of them were freshers. A fantastically fun evening, it must be said. On an off note, I was quite astounded by the number of random people that I recognized - both as part of the cast and crew, as well as in the audience. Looking through the program, I recognized one of the leads whom I had sung with in Keble Choir, as well as two people in the chorus. Then, the person with page turning responsibilities turned out to be Mira, whose brother is Johann. There were also a huge number of random people in the audeince I knew - Jennie for one, and Dan from Keble, as well as other friends from St Catz, Lincoln and Hilda's. Either Oxford is really frighteningly too small or else I have been here too long.
posted by Caleb Liu | 10:10 PM
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