Lockdown Week 9 - 19th - 25th May

Well, this was the most up-and-down week so far!


I started the week in a positive mood but Wednesday was gloriously sunny - so much so that I sat outside for lunch, then inside but by the window in the afternoon, and got too much sun. As a result, I spent Thursday feeling 'off' and dizzy, and then that night my sleep was disrupted by rain (very welcome), foxes arguing in the street, and then husband's snoring. Argh. I'd just about got back to my normal self when Dominic Cummings' antics took over the media. Seeing people talking online about how they'd stayed home instead of dashing to the sides of their loved ones who were lonely, ill, even dying, while a government adviser did whatever he liked was heartbreaking. I wasn't ever a government supporter but if they could have dropped further in my opinion they just did. I don't suppose they care much though.

Fortunately there were good things this week too.

On Wednesday, I caught a re-working of Ibsen's A Doll's House, from The Lyric  Theatre, Hammersmith with the setting moved to late 1870s Calcutta. Torvald (now Tom) and Dr Rank being British officials, Nora (Niru) and the other characters being Indians. First performed last year, the film had been made solely for the archives, its production values weren't as good as those of specially recorded plays but maybe it was nearer to the actual experience I'd get in a slightly cheaper seat in a real-life theatre.
And Friday night I saw this week's National Theatre Live's offering A Streetcar Named Desire performed at the Young Vic, and starring Gillian Anderson as Blanche. I thought it was brilliant; my husband complained about the rotating set.

This week also saw the start of HayDigital - a way to bring some of the events scheduled for this year's Hay Festival to us all at home. So far I've dropped in to hear Maggie O'Farrell talk about Shakespeare, plague and grief, the inspirations for her latest novel Hamnet, and I've signed up for more later this week.

Monday brought a good ending to the week (despite political goings-on) with a second Folk on Foot Frontroom Festival. I turned in to see Frank Turner and his wife perform but found a lot of new music to delight me - The Unthanks, Kate Rusby,  Johnny Flynn, Richard Thompson, and Eliza Carthy. An excellent way to spend a Bank Holiday (better than crowding a beach somewhere) and round off the week.