He's behind you!! Pantos - Mother Goose at the Salisbury Playhouse

The stage was set for Mother Goose Panto at Salisbury and I was completely entranced the entire time.

For those who have never seen or heard of a panto, let me share a few insights and historical facts with you.

Its a purely British institution performed around Christmas time. Though often there are celebrities as the star act, it is not a must. Based on the Italian comedia dell'arte, its slapstick and physical comedy rolled up with bawdy banter, songs and dance, often with a local twist and often referencing television or cultural events from the year. 

What really sets it apart from 'normal' styles of theatre is the audience participation; something that I doubt would work or occur anywhere else in the world. Most characters have a key action or word that they illicit a response from the audience with.  Everyone knows that when the baddy comes in everyone boos and hisses. When a character begins an argument with "Oh no I don't", the audience yells "Oh yes you do". Other instances include characters hiding and only the audience can see them, yelling " They are behind you!" and sighing and sympathising when a character is poor or is having a bad time with "Awwwww".

Pantomimes run along a set storyline with a dame, who is normally very poor (and played by a man) with a young man ( played by a woman) who has a love interest. There is a battle of good against evil, with a moralistic message, culminating in temptation and good finally triumphing, ending with a wedding or a party.  Other ingredients include a 'messy' scene where two or more characters get extremely wet or messy with gags on the audience of fake buckets of water.

Pantomimes are normally written with risque lines so that the adults in the audience have a good giggle and the kids are none the wiser.

Reflective of the Greek and Italian Comedia Dell'arte performances, the 'good' characters enter the stage on the right ( symbolising Heaven) and the 'baddies' entering from the left ( symbolising Hell).

I particularly enjoyed the slapstick humour and the nod to the Laurel and Hardy skit of the wallpaper glue. 

Character performances were strong, comedic timing was smooth and practiced and best of all, the actors looked like they were enjoying themselves, rather than running on automatic. 

A huge thank you to Sally who surprised us with this kind gift of tickets to see this wonderful performance and introduction into a very special British institution.

Blustery Blowing Glastonbury

Back again at one of my favourite spaces in the world... Glastonbury; and in particular, the Tor.  Thought its a blustery, chilly day, I couldn't pass the chance to walk up it again and breathe in the calming energy of the place. 

After being in the highlands of Scotland, its incredible how mild the winter is here down south, still is. I also cannot get over how green everything is - still. It will be a big shock to go back to Aus and experience a cold winter there - where everything dies and its all brown and yuck. 

We climbed the Tor and nearly got blown off the top! The pictures below are of the kids running in the wind and leaning into it -being blown around alot.

Magical or no.. its a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Christmas Markets in Bruge

We had a brief - but fantastic nights stay in Bruge - especially to visit the famous Christmas Markets.

To add that extra special Northern Hemisphere Christmas atmosphere, there is an ice rink in the middle of the square. There are beautiful fairy lights encrusting the trees, making them glisten and shine.

The markets are relatively small, with perhaps 50 stalls in all. Most of them are food stalls, each I suspect, pumps out its sweet or savoury smells to entice passerpbys. 

We indulged in hot chocolates and then a special marshmallow chocolate dome sweet; followed by the most enormous hot dog in history. 

We ogled the hand crafted toys and beautiful  Christmas ornaments, which were showcased with twinkling lights and mirrors. It truly felt like we were transported into a fairy land. 

We really splashed out ( ha ha not really) and bought two tiny wooden carved tree ornaments.

Perhaps it was a long way to come and drink hot chocolate and get a wooden tree ornament, but the experience will stay with us, and as I say to others - we don't have things like this in Australia.. so its important to grab the opportunity to se and experience them first hand when we can.

I've been to Bruges before and spent time wandering its tiny streets in the summertime. Its unique ancient medieval Flemish city where much of the architecture has been preserved with the streets traffic free making it very easy to explore on foot. Oh - and Bruges is also a chocolate lover's paradise! mmmmmmm..

It was also heartening to know that the "camino kids have still got it!"  Our room ( gorgeous by the way) was a little way from the city centre. Our host pointed us up the street and said "keep walking straight, you'l run into it".. we hadn't imagined that we needed to walk 4 kms.. but we did easily.  Though it was chilly, we had our fluffy coats and gloves and our normal silly banter kept us going. It was great to know we could walk 8 km in an afternoon and not really worry about it.