Letter from Iraq

Not Michael Yon’s latest post, which you can read here, but a round robin letter from a family friend. It’s interesting to get a girl’s perspective.

“Only about a third of the women wear head scarves but the dress is very conservative with brightly coloured and very fancy shoes…sequins on tops…she had matching nail polish…”

“Place the oven on 500 degrees for an hour and then open it – that’s what it feels like.”

“The windows are out in the choppers…you must hang on to anything loose or it is gone.”

“I have a personal security detachment that goes everywhere I travel…I do not trust my shooting so all the better as far as I am concerned.”

“Sadam built bat caves here…so they keep them (mosquitoes) in check for the most part.”

“The materials used are beautiful…marble and gold…however the workmanship is very poor quality.”

“I have to keep the drain plugs in the drains as the roaches (palmetto bug size) and scorpions crawl up the drain pipes….so if this is the best it is, wow.”

“I am learning Farsi, Australian and British.” (Carol Note: it takes ages to learn British)

“I am learning to pick out the coalition nations by looking at the uniforms.”

I hope none of that gives the game away. It’s like John Griffith said, a month or two ago, suddenly you get all inhibited because you’re not telling your own story.

A small attempt at humour:

Here are some great verbs that mean the same thing as ameliorate:

21st century thesaurus:

make better, help, lighten, relieve, mitigate, step up, upgrade

Roget:

Uplift, influence, transform, perfect, progress, develop

English synonyms:

Improve, amend, mend, better, elevate, raise, promote

If I were a banner I'd wave

Just received this email:

“As part of the 250th Anniversary celebrations of the Society of Cogers (1755-2005) a debate will be held at St Bride's Institute, St Bride's Lane (off Fleet Street), London EC4on Monday 14th November at 7pm to consider the significant events of the past 250 years.The guest Opener will be the historian, Dr James Corner of Birkbeck College. …you are invited to add your own contributions to the debate.The cost - £5 - includes food but not wine.”

Ok - some of you have said you want to go. This will have a big crowd so not that many newcomers will get a chance to speak. However, you will be able to get a sense of what it's like so let me know and I’ll rsvp.

This chemisty lesson I’m learning

I’m thinking of the snippets of stories that happen in the big city today. All this from a neighbourhood party recently:

Me: “what does your sister think about being described as the sexiest woman alive?”
T: “She was pleased but she doesn’t believe it”
Mrs. P: “she is though”
Me: “she’s a trail blazer for women.”

Me: “I mentioned you in my blog”.
Dr. G – frowning down into her wine glass – “I’m still in love with him. Do you think he’ll come to London?”
Me: “Bound to, everyone does”
Dr. G: “I don’t mind sharing”

LB: “My last husband was a composer. We travelled all around Europe but we’re divorced now.”
Me: “Creative guys are sexy but they’re not for the long term”
LB roared with laughter

Mrs. P: “It’s nice having a weekly column. They send me the letters they receive. I’ve had proposals of marriage.”
Me: “What, a letter arrives saying “I’d like to marry you?”
Mrs. P nods
Me: “What do you say?”
Mrs. P: “I tell them I’m married.”

Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre

The quality of the acting was mind boggling.

One of the joys of London is you get people coming to town to work who are at the top of their game. While there are 6 billion people in the world, very few have the aptitude, training, passion and charisma of the handful of top artists in the world.

This production reminded me that acting is a job for a creative person. What you’re watching is deeply enjoyable when you suspend belief for a moment in time and believe the events are really unfolding like that, right there. Then another song is sung. It’s really quite illogical.

Jane Krakowski (Adelaide) is a shining light of beauty. Her wide smile and twinkling eyes communicated believable, stunning happiness. My God she’s gorgeous and the way she would melt her body into Douglas Hodge (Nathan Detroit), just mold it into every part of his body she’d be facing, was both sexy and loving. It was a cracking way to portray Adelaide. The 14 years as a fiancé made sense, she absolutely adored him. He would melt right back and his face would turn red and that’s not make up.

Jenna Russell was more “stagey” but that’s down to the part (Sarah Brown) and her corney lines. The Havana Club scene was hilarious and “If I were a Bell” was heartrending. I got the feeling she was singing lyrics she was making up on the spot, some teasing, some loving, some bantering and some just to tickle him and make him laugh.

Ewan McGregor was a revelation. He may be a big Hollywood star but he was the most generous actor and foil on the stage. He’d be stage left or stage right, leaning but never moving to draw attention to himself, only intent on letting the others shine. Then he let loose for ‘Luck be a Lady’ and, phew, I am so not going to write what I think. Except to quote a guy I know “Don’t kid yourself, there’s a reason stars become stars.”