A place to sit and read

After a bit of an argument with the family, I walked out the house and set off looking for somewhere to sit alone and read my book (Far from the madding crowd by Hardy)
It was cold and I didn't want to go far.
I ended up in the Foyer of the cliffs theatre... I sat overlooking the Thames watching it slowly get darker while reading my book. A production of 'singing in the rain' was being preformed and heard applause every so often, and apart from the 15 minute interval when it was jam packed and buzzing I had a very peaceful2 hours and read a lot of the book... It was very relaxing and improved my mood no end. I hope to do it again soon. Although I'll have to find another book I can get lost in and enjoy as much as that one (didn't think I'd be a fan of Hardy, but once you get past all the descriptive language, the story has a lot of emotion and life in it)

Vist Up North (Day 2)

Had fun abusing the buffet breakfast
Went for a drive and had lunch in a pub called the harrington arms in Erewash near were Dad was born - Draycott I think.
We then walked around St chads water - it used to be a gravel pit - but they filled it in and made it a Local Nature Reserve - very pretty...
some lovely pics from there
then we drove home...

Vist Up North

Went to visit Sarah in Shepshead and we went to a pretty abbey
Then on to Loughborough to get a train to Leicester and back for my Aunt & Unlces wedding Anniversary...
the station was themed in 1970s style and renamed 'cemetery junction' for the filming of this new movie by Ricky Gervais http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1196204/
and then stayed in a hotel in Derby - I'll add more details and pretty photos soon.xxx

The Plays of Oscar Wilde

I very much enjoyed this book. Having never really read many plays before (probably only really for school - 'An Inspector Calls' and a couple of Shakespeare (King Lear/Henry V) I was doubtful whether this would be any good, but bought it as I thought it might make my reading more varied...
I enjoyed many of these plays, as I felt a lot of them were like little mini, gossip dramas, maybe like a soap or things friends chat/gossip about... there were a couple of dull ones, especially ones he had written after going to America... but a few very enjoyable little plays...

I picked out a few quotes from a couple of the plays that I particularly liked:

*Lady Windermere's Fan
- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
- In this world there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
- (what is a cynic?) A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing

*A woman of no importance
-The one advantage of playing with fire, Lady Caroline, is that one never gets even singed. It is the people who don't know how to play with it who get burned up.
-Hearts live by being wounded. Pleasure may turn a heart to stone, riches may make it callous, but sorrow - oh, sorrow, cannot break it.

*An Ideal Husband
-It is not the perfect, but the imperfect who have need of love. It is when we are wounded by our own hands, or by the hands of others, that love should come to cure us - else what use is love at all? All sins, except a sin against itself, love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true love should pardon.
- 'I'm glad you have called. I am going to give you some good advice.' 'Oh! Pray don't. One should never give a woman anything that she can't wear in the evening.'

*The Importance of Being Earnest
-The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
- All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

These were probably my 4 favourite plays as well, and would recommend people reading a few, they are only short and don't take long to read and are quite entertaining - exactly what reading should be like!