Been too busy to blog properly, not least thanks to my horrendous train journeys recently. Time to sum up the last week or so.

Bad
The re-election of That Man
The death of the Emperor John Peel
Getting a cold (cough, cough)
Commuting
Intercity train journeys

Good
Blackheath fireworks
New job
The Guardian and Observer cryptic crosswords
Savoury pancakes

Also good was the performance of The Phantom of the Opera I saw at the weekend in the West End. Only my third trip to a musical but well worth it. The staging was fantastic: inventive, stylistic and technically accomplished. The performances were uniformly top notch and the songs and score were as good as their reputation suggests. I was slightly disappointed that the ending was a little more upbeat than, say, the Lon Chaney film, but that barely detracted from the overall production.

Possibly related posts:

1. How are Southern doing?
2. “I’m not sure if it’s Marxism in action or a West End musical”
3. The best musical meme of 2009
4. A better adaptation – that’s all I ask of you