Long week. Lots going on. Actually, there's so much to do at the moment that every week's a long week...

House: still inching towards completion. Our back garden is no longer a desolate wasteland covered in no-longer-required scaffolding and insulation. No; now it's a desolate wasteland _not_ covered in scaffolding and insulation. We really need to find a gardener sometime soon. The carcass for the shelving in the new library is now in place, and we're waiting on some 3mm shelf supports. (On the Continent they tend to use 3mm supports, over here all you can get is 5mm supports. Maybe our books are heavier, or something.)

Stage shows: three in one week? Unheard of.

First there was the I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue stage show last Friday in Reading. It was very fine; they'd recruited Jeremy Hardy as the fourth team member for the tour, singing talents and all. Some of it was rather "greatest hits", but it was all good (okay, possibly not the "letter-writing" round, of which I've never been a fan). There were kazoos. There was Mornington Crescent. There was One Song To The Tune Of Another. And to top it all off there was Humphrey Lyttleton on his trumpet -- still so damn good. To follow all this there was an unexpectedly pleasant Italian meal -- the "pleasant" part wasn't the unexpected bit, the fact that the car park was open all night and thus we didn't have to worry about sitting down for dinner at about 2215 was the unexpected bit!

Then, on Monday, there was Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart. A lot of people have raved about this production, and I'll add my voice to those. It's a Forties-themed production, with strong overtones of Stalinist purges and the like. Very imaginative lighting/sound. Stewart was, of course, tremendous, ably supported by a very fine cast; Lady Macbeth (Kate Fleetwood) disintegrates wonderfully, and Macduff (Michael Feast) also stood out. Really glad to have had the chance to catch this on its fairly limited run (even gladder, though, that I wasn't paying for the tickets; arm and leg, anyone?)

Finally, last night, I journeyed to High Wycombe to catch one of the leading lights of the UK's freeform community playing the Count de Magpyr in Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum. A little less shinily-produced than Macbeth ;) Very enjoyable, and the Count was obviously having a lot of fun being a vampiric consultant-type. (Can't imagine where he was drawing the inspiration for that.)

Photography: The OU course is fun, and is definitely encouraging me to take more photos (as if I needed it). This week's assignment has caused me to break out almost every photographic accessory I possess, plus various less-usual items (stepladder, anyone?) j4, which half of the course are you in -- green or blue?

Right. Time for the gym, she said with barely-concealed enthusiasm. Still, tomorrow there will be beer, there will be more photography (weather permitting), there will be curry and there will be rugby...