Grace

Ah Halloween. I can make this an excuse to draw Oberon + Puck. Watch me...


Happy Halloween by ~darth-jurious on deviantART

There, see? :)

(Sorta kinda based on the Shakespeare characters as portrayed in the production of MSND by the Studio Theatre Club. The Halloween stuff has nothing to do with anything really!)

Blimey, I've realised that I spent more time driving yesterday than sleeping - sleep came in at under 4 hours, driving came in at at least 5! Whoops! Also, dinner was sacrificed and no foods were had between midday and midnight. Double whoops! This is what a flying trip to Abingdon following a day at work does to one!

But it's always worth it. :) The play my friend and I went to see by the Studio Theatre Club this time was "The Hollow", an Agatha Christie story. Christie adapted it herself from her own novel of the same name, and made several changes, notably the removal of Poirot - which is no loss. The play certainly doesn't suffer without him.

Last night was a full house - absolutely packed, which contrasted a lot to the half-full-ness of "The Man Who Was Thursday" last May (more of you should have come to see that - it was cool). All the action centred around one room in the country house known as "The Hollow", with various characters to-ing and fro-ing during a weekend when the house owners had family and friends down to visit. As per usual, all the cast were excellent -- my friend Bec and I were particularly tickled by how many characteristics Bec actually shares with the delightfully dotty character, Lady Angkatell (played by Kath Leighton). It was rather amusing! The story was engaging and, both during and after the murder, red herrings were flung all over the shop to attempt to to keep you guessing and counter-guessing at who may have committed the crime. (There was actually a red lobster in the play at one point, but I digress...) Thankfully we didn't end with everyone sat in the room whilst the sleuth explains every bit of the plot, but with a satisfyingly tidy resolution and just desserts came to the culprit. It really was very enjoyable - an excellent lil production and well worth the drive down south to see.

Now I really must catch up on my sleep. Seeing the play has cheered me up, at least - been in very good spirits today despite fatigue. Always nice to be cheerful. :) There's now not another STC play until February - which will be Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors"! Yay! - so I'll have to fill my time with a few other lil trips -- including "Going Postal", which the Grantham Dramatic Society are putting on this December!

--x-posted to http://jurious.livejournal.com/

Went to the Kennel Club International Agility Festival last weekend. It ran over three days but my friend and I went just for the Saturday. I had entered my dog and was down to handle my friend's Sheltie, too, so had five runs in all during the day. The weather was kind to us and the dogs behaved beautifully. Me and little Saffy the Sheltie came away with two clear rounds - her first at KC level - whilst me and Phoenix bumbled along with 10 faults in one round and eliminations in the other two. Ah well! He was very good though - I was proud of him.

Unfortunately, the day was overcast by a terrible tragedy when a man collapsed after running his dog and, despite the best efforts of paramedics, who arrived very quickly, died soon afterwards. :( This man had been set to judge on the Sunday and, though I didn't know him personally, it sounded as though he was well liked by many agility people. It just goes to show that you never know how long you've got, so live life to the full. So sad, though...

I've been a bit hyper this week so far - got my hair cut, sorted some of the garden, tidied my room, changed my bed, done my laundry, sorted my clothes, bought some much-needed new clothes, been training with my dog, etc, etc... Am quite pleased that I've been productive for once. It's so easy sometimes to just sit on the interwebz all day and scribble in my sketch pad. Which isn't a bad thing, either, but it means I forget to do things I should be doing. :P I think I'm cheery because I've managed to wrangle a trip to Oxford Saturday evening to see the Studio Theatre Club's next play, an Agatha Christie number called "The Hollow". :D Yay! I didn't think I'd be able to make it because money is very tight at the moment and, also, I am at work most of Saturday and then Sunday as well. *But*, by providence, because I usually get paid on the 21^st of each month, and that falls on Sunday this time, I get paid on the Friday before instead - so I'll have money for Saturday! I can afford to fill up my car and make a boomerang trip down south. Really quite pleased -- and it'll certainly punctuate my otherwise dull nine-days-of-work. I'll get very little sleep Saturday night in return but, hey, I can collapse when I get home from work Sunday afternoon... ;) It'll be fine. I'll have had my fix.

I've updated my satnav today with up-to-date maps and have also changed the voice. It was my first time using this satnav last Saturday, for getting to the agility show - this being the satnav my dad gave me after my old one got stolen - and my friend and I quickly tired of the preset voice of "Emily", who sounded thoroughly emo and gave one the impression that she would rather be doing *anything* other than telling you where to go. She was such a misery guts that I have today downloaded a few more voices in search of someone a bit cheerier. Since I've never had a male satnav voice before, I decided to set the voice to one called "Daniel", who sounds like he's going to be debonair and ever so slightly cocky. We'll see how long we can put up with this chap before I have to change it again... ;) He'll be dictating directions to Abingdon on Saturday - though, in all fairness, I should know where I'm going by now! I've been to Oxford twice now, and also go the same route to Wincanton and use Oxford as my midway stop. ^^; I'm sure I'll have it memorised by the time I've driven down to Wincanton for Hogswatch in November. If not then I should be concerned that I never pay any attention to where I'm going whilst I'm driving.

Gonna try squeeze in some drawing this evening but I am feeling rather tired so it might be a early night for once ready for my 4am rise-n-shine for work tomorrow. Oh joy. :)

--x-posted to http://jurious.livejournal.com/

I've not been feeling too hot this week. I've had my nine consecutive days at work but, owing to my need to cover other peoples' shifts whilst they're on holiday (all right for some...), I've had to get up at 4am on seven of those nine days. I don't think I've had enough sleep, and the total disruption of my routine has meant that my body has given me the middle finger and I feel like pooh. I'm glad my weekend off is here! Time to recuperate.

I've been doing some doodling, as per usual. This one might be worth psychoanalysis since I was in a very low, unhappy place when I drew it. And, like when your characters run away with themselves when you write fiction, this picture just *happened* of its own accord. I've no idea why I want to draw a wolf with That Man but it asked to be done. *shrug* And a very unhappy wolf by the look of it.

( 'Ventage' doodle... )

Meanwhile this is a WIP for *another* MSND doodle - because, apparently, I'm not dun with that topic yet. Sketch of Oberon and Puck, and Titania with the Changling. They're all so cool that they walk into gale force winds, too. ;) Heheh. There's something wrong with Oberon's legs, I swear it - what do you guys think?

( MSND Doodle )

I'm excited because I've discovered there's going to be a theatre production of the Discworld novel "Going Postal" later this year at Grantham, which is prolly about 15 miles down the A1 from me. Cool! That'll be my first ever Discworld play. It runs from Wednesday November 30^th until Saturday December 3^rd, which is the week after Hogswatch in Wincanton. (I don't know if there are any other Discworld fans in my region, or any who would like to travel to the East Mids to see the play, but if you wanna come with, get in touch and let's organise something! It'll be fun!) For more info, clickety-click: http://www.granthamdramaticsociety.co.uk/p/latest-production.html

There's also gonna be a one-day-run of (guess what?) "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Lincoln at the start of September. Debating whether or not to go. It'll have a lot to live up to, after all. ;)