The Casino Royale Performance

Today at college, me and all the creative and media crew went down to the theatre at our college and lined up to see the show Casino Royale. Not the James Bond film. As we were lined up, some smartly dressed men came to greet us at the door. With heavy Chicago accents, they asked us to come in. When we got in, it was fully decorated like a las vegas casino with a huge roulette wheel on the floor, playing cards scattered on the floor and tables, waiters and waitresses running round attending peoples needs, it felt like i'd just walked into vegas. We then went and sat down at our table where the show had only just begun. The lights went down and the spotlight went onto the stage in the middle. Then the show got to a firing start. There was dancing girls and boys everywhere, leaving the boys with drool on their chin and the girls with their eyelashes fluttering. The main characters of the show were the ring leader, Hansel and Gretel, ABBA and Mr Bean. They also had loads of random characters like a huge giraffe, a bearded lady, a huge lady-man, conjoined twins, jugglers and many, many animals. This was a practice run so there were only a few mistakes.


Overall it was a very good show - go see it! :) <3 x

Shakespear's House

After the tour bus, the creative and media group then went on to shakespears' house. It was a small, thatched cottage in the town square where there were many tourists from all over the world, all coming to see where the world famous writer lived. No offence to shakespear, but his house really smelt, i suppose it would after how long its been there. When we walked in, the was a young looking woman wearing old tudor-time clothes waiting there to greet us. She explained how the house was made, when it was made and who lived there. She then led us into a room where there was just a corridor and a bed. This wasn't a bedroom, it just happened to have a bed there. The bed was small and would have average sized men of our age with their feet hanging over the bottom of the bed.
We were then led into Shakespears' father's workshop where he made a living and profit from making and selling gloves. The gloves were made from rabbit and deer fur, which made them very expensive for the buyers. Which also made Shakespears' old man some serious money. The workshop didn't have any of the actual gloves which were made in the day, but fake replacas of the precious items. Altough the gloves were fake, the only other things that were fake were the stairs for obvious safety reasons.
Which we were about to use to get up to shakespears bedrooms. As we climed up the stairs, we entered a room of which we were able to see some of shakespears' work up close and personal. This work included shakespears' first draft of some of his writing and some drawings from when he was young. It also included little 'relics' of the house like cutlery, ornaments and lots of other things that could easily be taken or broken. Im not too sure what this room was, but it had a part of the ceiling removed and it had a table up there. I would have thought it was too unsafe for young children to be up there, especially with no stairs (none that i know of anyway).
We then went on to a bedroom which was for when the kids got older, then being big enough to have a bed without their parents in.
Which brought us to the next room, all decorated in red and green (colours to keep evil spirits away), it was Shakespears' parents bedroom. The Bed they slept in with all of their children in it until the age of 6. It must of been a very crowded household.
Then we all made our way down the stairs and into the kitchen/dining room. It was cramped room with some table and chairs with the kitchen through the door. The Kitchen was like a cupboard, hardly any room to move. There was a goose hanging over the table and a pig's head in a bowl, not real obviously. There was also a cellar in the dining room but the door was locked. I wonder what was down there.
When we went outside, the garden had lots and lots of flowers and plants, it looked very pretty. But as soon as we sat down at the benches set in an arch, we knew something was going on. A big tall man started staggering towards us. He was wearing a big fancy hat on his head and a satin suit. He fell on the floor in front of us and started grunting. He was drunk, quite obviously. Not long after a young woman with blonde hair came up to him and they had a huge argument. I didn't understand a word.

On the whole, Shakespears' house was a great way of learning about how Shakespear lived because you could see the whole thing. What also made it great was that the people presenting it to you were in character. Great stuff! : ) x

The Tour Bus

Last Friday at college, me and my creative and media group from college went on a tour bus. Being as the college is in stratford, it was about a ten minute walk to the tour bus station. We walked through the upcoming mop on the way, and we were looking at the all the rides that would take place tonight. When the ten minute walk was over and we were at the tour bus station, our bus took about five minutes to get there. The bus was a vibrant red, double decker with half the top uncovered. We all sat at the top part which was uncovered. After we had sat down on the bus and waited for any other people to get on, the bus driver came up and gave us all some all some vibrant red headphones - which we could keep! As soon as the bus driver has gone down to drive the bus, and we had plugged in our headphones, the bus got going. The woman then started talking into our ears and telling us some intresting facts on the way to each location. As the bus journey grew longer and longer, we got colder and colder. We were absolutly freezing, infact some of us even went inside and/or curled into a ball to keep us warm. When the sun came out, it was amazing. So warm. On the whole, the bus journey was very cold, cold, cold. But, the historic part of how shakespear lived and who effected his life was quite cool. x

The British Art Museum

Last tuesday, i went to the British Art Museum on an Art trip with school. Our focus was on North American artifacts, African masks, Egyptian Mummies and the Egyptian sphinx. After we had all got on the bus, taken a two hour journey to London and got in the museum, i was outstanded. The ceilings were patterned glass, letting a large amount of light in, the floors were a cream marble, sparkling in the sunlight and the walls were plain white, complimenting the museum hugely. It was amazing. But, i had some drawing to do, and couldn't stare at the ceiling all day. First, we headed off to the African masks. As soon as we walked in, it was like we'd entered Africa. Brightly coloured masks all over the walls, all decorated with feathers and beads. Some were HUGE and some were tiny, some were very standing out, some were hard to find. The one i settled down to draw, was a medium sized mask. It was a vibrant red colour, covered in feathers and what seemed to be dreadlocks. We only had a certain amout of time in each section, so off we went to the North American artifacts. Again, it was like we'd entered a completely different world! This time, there were more varitey. And that was good because we had to squeeze in another drawing this time! For my first drawing, i had to draw a Kawackawacka bird. It looked like a penguin, parrot and Toocan all put together with much duller colours than the mask. Greys, browns and blacks covered this intresting North American artifact. Next, i drew yet another mask. This time, it was of a Eskimo looking woman, her hair swooping over part of her face and a rather strange facial expression. She looked slightly pained, worried and greiving. And on the information list, it said that most of the masks in the museum are made from real people (or at least inspired by them!). Then, we headed off to the Egyptian part of the Museum, with Mummies, Sphinxs and rude looking statues. For my first drawing, i settled for a nice looking statue of a man carrying a sword, with his hair all wavey at the back. He was very elegant looking. For my second, i drew a Canopic jar. I have a great fasination in the Egyptian history, espeicially about Mummies. They used to put the late Egyptian's body organs in these jars, along with a few other things to help them in the after life. For my very last drawing, i decided i would draw a sarcophagas. The 'coffin' of the late Egyptian. Where the head would be, there was a big gold cat's head, which would of proberbly meant the person in the sarcophagas was quite special, being as the cat is sacred in Egypt.

In conclusion, i found this trip to the British Art Museum was a very good idea of the schools, i thoroughly enjoyed it and strongly recommmend a visit there for anyone intrested in Art, History or just some funny looking masks and statues! x

Events In Warwickshire October

In warwickshire, there is a lot of events going on. These events include:

2nd Oct The Roller Disco at St Nicholas park leisure centre
3rd Oct The sound of music at Royal spa centre, Leamington spa
2nd Oct Dungeons after dark at Warwick castle
2nd Oct Princess Towers at Warwick castle
2nd Oct Illustrated graffiti North gate methodist church
2nd Oct How to start writing a... Biography Friends meeting house
3rd Oct Heal your life weekend Warwick district council leisure centers

There are thousands of other events this October and about 20 happening every day. The website you can go on to view all of these is:

www.visitwarwick.co.uk

The Wedding

The night of Jo and Simon's wedding was amazing. Me, Mum, Amy, Arwen, Collete and Lauren got to the after party at around 8:00pm and the party had definatly already started! There was a buffet, a DJ, a bar and some drunk people. You can't have a wedding without drunk people! I don't really know Jo and Simon too well, infact.. i don't know them at ALL! Its Mum, Amy, Arwen, Collete and Lauren's Boss. After about half an hour of sitting around and chatting about Jo's dress (which was Lavley!) some performers came up on the dance floor. They did a remix of songs including, Britney Spear's 'Womanizer' and Beyonce's 'Single ladies'. They were absolutley fantastic dancers and some even sang! Infact, one of the girls who sang was 21 year old Amy who got through to the first part of boot camp of x-factor! She even shared a room with Cher Lloyd (who i recon is going to be a star!)! After that, the night just went on to be full of dancing, laughing and drunkness. Especially Arwen who was sick the morning after due to a terrible hangover! Very good night all in all, just wish i hadn't of worn those painful high heels! :) <3 x

Shukurs In Kineton

In Kineton, there is one main attraction, Shukurs. Shukurs is an indian restaurant owned by well-known chef, Shah. Shah has been a celebrated chef in kineton, and out of kineton and he has even met Prince Charles after Shah came across vegetarian meat. Everyone goes to Shukers to have a great meal, great service, and sometimes even great entertainment when Andrew James comes every other tuesday and Gary Glenn (an Elvis impersonator) comes every other thursday. This is exactly where i went on friday when my mum brought home friend Amy from work for the wedding of their Boss and her husband the following day (see 'The Wedding' Blog). When we got there after our brief walk down the road, the vibe hit us as soon as we walked through the door. With the Indian music playing in the background, flowers and leaves gliding across the ceiling, i felt like i had just walked into a completely different world. My mum used to work here as a decorator, so it was a very warm welcome that we had. We were guided to our table and seated almost immediatly, with napkins placed on our laps as soon as we sat down. The first course was poppadoms and a very posh, silver triple-dish containing mint sauce, chilli sauce and onion salad. This came automaticly, and wasn't counted as a starter. The main course for me was Butter chicken, for Mum it was a lamb balti and for Amy it was a fish and chips (Yes, they do english meals!). As soon as we'd finished, a basket of warm flannels were passed around the table. They were a lemon smelling kind, Lavley! For dessert, there was a choice of either one, or two scoops of a selectable icecream and we all shared two scoops of vanilla. The Night was great and i look forward to coming again. Especially to see some of their entertainment! :) <3 x