Getting to Oxford from London – The Oxford “Tube” Coach

You want to go to Oxford from London. You can drive, quickest, quite easy. Lovely.

Or you can get a train. Nice, bug can be expensive if you haven’t booked early. On the day I checked, it was… (check, maybe £20-30 ). If you can book early, and get a £10 return train, then this is a great way to travel.

And then you have a coach. The Oxford tube or Oxford Express, the price is the chief advantage of these, £15 for a day return.

The Oxford Tube Coach had 8 seats down stairs facing each other with a table between. I think these would be the best seats for use with a laptop.

Upstairs is all normal coach seating. Nice airconditioning. A toilet is also available on board. The Sunday morning 9am trip was only about half full. Which meant I was ale to have 2 seats to myself. A blessing for a good journey.

The journey by car, takes about 45minutes, but coach, that time is doubled, to 90. 

Tooting Snow, London, April 2008

Snow in April!!! more here: http://picasaweb.google.com/akendrick451/TootingSnowApil0802

Ash, Madeliene, Margaret, Joe and Me. Sutties and Emerys

On our way to seeing The Importance of Being Ernest with Penelope Keith. Great show. The author, Oscar Wilde, was quite a literary genius.

This is one of the chief joys of london, seeing a great theatre show any night of the week at a lovely theatre.

This show was at the Vaudeville theatre, on the Strand. We took the opportunity to have a small drink before hand at the Coal Hole, a pub across the road.

Othello

Fantastic Performance by Tim McInnery as Iago

And from Sam Crane as Roderigo – most enjoyable of all performers i’ve seen at the globe!

From Peter Brown, http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/peterbrown/reviews/othello07globe.htm

“Best known perhaps for his long-running appearances in the hit TV show 'Black Adder', Tim McInnnerny presents a more swashbuckling Iago than the customary definition of a scheming, political conniver”

and

“Though this version of Othello doesn't scream novelty, or provide much in the way of new insights, it continues the development of serious and polished Shakespearian work at the Globe since Dominic Dromgoole took over as artistic director there last year. Hopefully though, the best is yet to come.”

Another reviewer, Rob Marshall, http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/2746

“This Iago plays the Globe's interactive audience well (a hot, balmy night produced the usual pick and mix audience selection which only adds to a Globe visit. You feel as if you have been to the theatre with people you never met ,but got to know, just for this.)”

by William Shakespeare

• Director: Wilson Milam
• Designer: Dick Bird
• Composer: Stephen Warbeck

The republic of Venice employs Othello, a self-made man and a Moor, to defend its overseas territories against the Turks. But for all his military success, Othello remains an outsider in the city, an object of racism, envy and mistrust. As the Turkish threat gathers and Venetian forces are despatched to Cyprus, Iago, a junior officer secretly enraged by his lack of promotion, exploits Othello's ambiguous position and ingenuous nature, driving him into a passionate and uncontrollable jealousy.

Performed for the first time at the Globe, Othello, with its racing concentrated plot and intense dramatic details, is one of Shakespeare's most exciting, atmospheric and heartbreaking plays. By introducing to early 17th-century England a black character as complex as Othello, it is also one of his most extraordinary imaginative achievements.

Cast

• Bianca: Zawe Ashton
• Cassio: Nick Barber
• Emilia: Lorraine Burroughs
• Roderigo: Sam Crane
• Montano: Nigel Hastings
• Iago: Tim McInnerny
• Duke of Venice: Jonathan Newth
• Gratiano: Michael O'Hagan
• Desdemona: Zoe Tapper
• Brabantio: John Stahl
• Othello: Eamonn Walker