Jen's Birthday Weekend: Part I

I flew from Southampton to Leeds last night - the idea of driving a total of 11-12 hours for a weekend, having just come back from the Lake District a couple of weeks ago, was not exactly filling me with joy, so I took the shorter, if slightly more expensive, option - and Jen picked me up from the airport. This morning we went to Rainbows Ceramic Cafe in York and had a great time painting pottery. I chose a shallow bowl and Jen picked a jug, but it took me so long to decide what kind of pattern to paint that Jen had time to do a plate as well as her jug, and still be waiting for me to finish ;). Next time I'll give my design a little more thought beforehand. We'd never done anything like that before and I'm not very artistic at all (see the DS pictures for proof) but we really enjoyed ourselves.


After a spot of lunch at Cafe Concerto (where the walls are papered with sheet music) we met Mum & Dad and did a bit of shopping then went back to Jen's to get changed and go out to the theatre. Actually we didn't go to a theatre: we saw a production of The Railway Children by York Theatre Royal, but the 'stage' was a piece of track at the National Railway Museum and the seats were either side of the track facing each other on Platforms 1 and 2.

Everything about the production was fantastic - the cast, crew, staging, props - it even included an appearance by a steam train. It was amazing how versatile the 'stage' could be. The only downside was that the seats we had were regular chairs, the kind you might get in a marquee at a wedding, and they were pushed so close together that the backs were overlapping, which made it quite a cosy experience - particularly as the lady sitting next to me was massive...