Monday 5 August 2013

Camping and Shakespeare ... reasons not to write a blog.

Life in the land of Secret Housewife has been rather busy since the summer holidays began. I look at my last post and realise that its nearly a month since I last wrote. The reason for this is that I've actually been out and about - camping, theatre going, eating, gardening ...  all good stuff, but things which have meant my computer use has slumped!!

We began by a spontaneous camping trip to Crowborough. I had tweeted that I needed ideas for things to do with 2 bored teenagers and my lovely friend suggested coming camping with her - that very day!! My first reaction was "No Way!!" but this was quickly replaced by ... "Well ... maybe ..." Before I knew it I had the car packed with tent, food, sleeping bags and two bewildered boys! We headed off to Crowborough - a place I had never heard of and to be honest if I didn't have the Sat Nav I wouldn't have known where to find it.

The campsite ( which I found easily) was neat and clean and friendly. I put up my tent with the help of my lovely friend and the campsite man and opened the wine!!


There is something rather fab about camping. We used to go for our two week holidays in the summer, before too many of those weeks ended up with us bailing our tent out and picking slugs from our suitcases ... I swore I'd never go camping again for a long holiday, but a quick, chuck it in the car and spend 2 nights with good weather camping trip, is fun!


We had fish and chips the first night and then in the morning I braved the gas canister and cooked sausages for breakfast. It might sound a bit light weight, but I'd never done that before. In fact it was a real moment of strength for me to actually be able to do the whole camping trip by myself. Its so easy when you're married to let your man do all the "man stuff" like sorting out gas and putting up tents. I knew I could do all that stuff, but to actually do it and do it well was great.

We had 2 days of camping freedom. The boys slept and played and wandered with their friends around the camping area. I read and drank wine and chatted with my friend. All good!! I highly recommend it. You don't need a whole load of equipment - and you don't need to go very far. Heck, you can even camp in your back garden if its big enough!!

When we got back things shifted in to "cultural" gear ...  I had booked tickets ages ago to see MacBeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. My son is studying MacBeth for GCSE so I had thought it would be a good idea to see it live.


The Globe is a fantastic theatre and as a big fan of the Bard I do love a bit of Shakespeare!! I had never seen MacBeth, but I have to say it was brilliant!!


Even my boys, well the bigger one really, enjoyed it. Its like watching a film with subtitles in a way... you forget the language that can appear difficult to understand on the written page, and are carried away by the story, acted so beautifully by the cast. As MacDuff asked again and again whether all of his family had been murdered I felt the tears pricking my eyes. It was so moving.


There is no fancy lighting, no gimmicks - its just beautiful acting, lyrical words that transport you to another time. The theatre is a wonderful place.

I think that's probably enough of my rambling for now, but I promise to write about some of the other things we have been doing ... a trip the Le Gavroche as a birthday treat and a solo trip to a lavender farm for me. All lovely.





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