HB Allan D

Has'nt been around much lately but have a good'un anyway.

I hope those are not American breasts.


Many Happy Returns, AD!

MHR, AD.  

PeterCS wrote:I hope those are not American breasts.


Many Happy Returns, AD!

no problem ... provided they are Republican or Tea Party cupcakes

I note the absence of oranges and bananas

Many thanks for the good wishes to BD, PCS, lb &, as always, Skully. Apologies for being AWOL for so long but seduced by Twitter to express my thoughts, ramblings, and inaccurate cricket stats, courtesy of Cricinfo Statsguru (whenever I can make the damn thing work properly).

As with last year 22 July turned out to be the hottest day of the year in the Great Wen although thanks to Swann & Hotspot it didn't coincide with a Test Match (today was the first anniversary of Hashim Amla carting the English attack around The Oval for 311 - a rather different story this year).

This year I decided to venture into the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew so some oranges & bananas, lb, as I had my lunch (courtesy of a generous friend) in the Orangery - though found unsuitable for growing oranges & inspected several banana plants although none bearing fruit yet.

Although I have visited the Gardens before my chief interest was Kew Palace which despite its name is actually a rather modest house, lived in by George III and his family before he was carted off in a straitjacket to live out his days in Windsor Castle in conditions which would be worthy of, if not an inquiry, at least a cover-up by the last Labour Government, recently renovated and opened to the public.

Despite almost falling victim to heat exhaustion I managed to last 6 hours inside the gardens thanks to rather overpriced fluid top-ups from the various relief stations dotted around the grounds. I then returned to Central London for my annual theatrical treat which this year was A Chorus Line. I had wanted to see Top Hat at The Aldwych - a confection of Astaire-Rogers musical numbers but the lazy actors in that production obviously had the assistance of Len McCluskey in negotiating their contracts and refuse to work Mondays.

A Chorus Line was nevertheless a more than adequate and well-performed substitute, especially the number that is favoured by the new (or is it the old?) Australian PM. All together now:

Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you.
But I can't regret
What I did for love, what I did for love.

Not a bad show at all. I saw it way back in 78 in Melbourne, probably in May I think. Long time ago.

lardbucket wrote:Not a bad show at all. I saw it way back in 78 in Melbourne, probably in May I think. Long time ago.

I've only seen the 1985 Attenborough film on video although I bought the soundtrack and the soundtrack to the Joe Papp Central Park version so I knew most of the songs already- like Lloyd Webber musicals where the audience goes in to the theatre whistling the tunes. The cast were excellent though and managed to keep the material fresh and engaging.

Adolf sends his regards.