Of Blowing the Right Notes

I went to the south coast yesterday for to help an old mucker, EP, hunt for some property. We ended up in a place called Rottingdean which is one of the most quintessentially English villages I have seen in a long time. It has its own bakery, florist, butcher, local post office, village hall, private men's club and some gorgeous quaint little pubs serving some really good pub grub. I don't think I've seen a village with so many blue English Heritage plaques on the wall boasting that famous Englishman so-and-so used to live here including one for Rudyard Kipling himself who apparently was inspired to write "Wonderland" by a secret tunnel nearby that leads to Roedean the famous all girls school just up the road.

In the evening we went to the Ivy Restaurant in Covent Garden. Both the food and the service were exceptional. The French waiter lovingly presented me with a bottle of Lebanese red to try which slithered down the throat beautifully as I tucked into my Eggs Benedict followed by chocolate pudding with mint ice cream. When I asked him the rugby score he said he didn't know but would find out returning with a piece of paper presented on a silver dish with the message 17-9 to England written out in full.

Afterwards we headed to the Royal Opera House to see the highly acclaimed "Nicole" which tells the tragic tale of Anna Nicole who married a billionaire octogenarian when she was just in her twenties. You know the opera is going to be different when the leading lady's first line on stage is "I want to blow you all". In fact I think this we the bluest show I've ever seen on any stage making even Rigoletto look like Mary Poppins. "Nicole" was brave, daring, outrageous, shocking, thought provoking, funny, sad, tragic and one of the best West End productions I've seen. It finished by the way with the lead singing "I want to blow you all.... a kiss goodbye".