All that glitters...

Clive & I spent a lovely evening at the Oxford Castle this week. We had had a gorgeous tapas meal sitting outside in the sunshine. Afterwards we went to see an outdoor production of 'The Merchant of Venice'. The Creation Theatre company have taken over the old exercise yard, and built a stage at the back of the yard so that the audience faces the tower (point of view as in the photo). The violent stormy weather that we had previously in the week had blown over, and we spent a warm summers evening watching the sun go down and the stars come out over the scene. There was a white marquee drinks tent pitched on the grass and we all sat on green fabric directors chairs sipping chilled wine. The actors were having great fun with the modern adaption (break-dancing, graffiti and the grls were dressed like Beyonce) and the chap who played Gratiano was having a ball getting the big laughs. The same company are also performing 'Robin Hood' & 'Macbeth' up at Headington Hill Park. Unfortunately we haven't had time to visit 'krispy kreme's' doughnut shop yet which has an outlet at the castle. Apparently the dougnuts are fantastic and so sweet that nobody can eat more than one!

www.oxfordcastle.com

Lovely to see you G & G this week, sorry its all a bit of a stressful search at the moment for you both but am sure a suitable place is out there for you. Glad that you saw Will too before the holiday. Clive & I are busy trying to fill our respective ipods so we have lots of music (of all genres!) to take with us. You'll have to put 'Constant Gardener' on your amazon dvd rental list so you can see it again.

love Gem