Experienced: Bird & Blend Advent Calendar Workshop

On a dark and cold Tuesday evening, fresh from a work meeting and running late, I headed from the depths of Sutton all the way to Borough to the loveliest tea shop I know, Bird & Blend Tea.

I have been a few times, having discovered them before the summer on a recommendation from a friend. I bought 5 teas and a cold brew bottle, and spent the summer drinking delicious cold brew teas with names like "Butter Brew", "Birthday Cake", "Eton Mess", "Strawberry Lemonade", and "Cherry Bakewell".

Fast forward to winter, and I was longing after an advent calendar that was fun and not the most expensive thing. I love the look of some of the beauty ones, but they are way out of our budget! So when I came across a tea advent calendar on the Bird and Blend website, it seemed perfect. Plus, you can go and build it custom and do it yourself!

On arrival, we were given a tea cocktail. I had the Salted Caramel Lebekuchken iced tea with brandy and whipped cream, which was so lovely! We also got given a tote bag, which we filled with 24 individually wrapped tea bags from many, many options. It took a while to choose, and I did double up, but not that many  (only my existing favourites).

After that, we were given the advent boxes as nd showed how to fold up my tea bags so that they fit snugly in the spaces. This was an interesting game in that I wanted to have a little bit of order to it (matcha on weekends, doubles separated, and the others randomised) and everyone had a different strategy to working this out.

After that it was time to put the outside on, wick I did need a little help with, and the decorative ribbon. Then the evening was over, except for shopping time (with 10% off because it was an event!). So I picked up a few extra teas which weren't options in the advent calendar: "Bears Like Marmalade", "Birthday Cake", and a coconut oolong which I've forgotten the name of.

It was a fantastic way to spend an evening, and I am so looking forward to having a lovely cup of tea every night until Christmas!

Theatre Trip: Six on Tour

SIX

Rose Theatre, Kingston

Date: 15 November (Friday), 8:30pm

Seats: Upper Circle, A54-55

(Catherine Parr was played by alternate Harriet Watson)

(Seen with Jess!)

Notes: After a long work week, the thing I want the most is to relax, and how do I relax? By going to the theatre, of course! We had booked in 2 cheap tickets to see Six on tour while on it’s stop at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. It was my first time at the Rose, given that usually we see touring productions in Wimbledon, however Six wasn’t going there (I suspect it’s because the Rose is much smaller than the New Wimbledon).

We had many transport dramas on the way, so it is lucky that it is an 8:30 evening show (they also had a 6pm “matinee” that evening) - my journey by bus was 15 minutes delayed and Jess’ was delayed by more than a half hour! So it was lucky we had planned to meet 2 hours before the show... We still had time to eat dinner and get to the theatre with plenty of time.

I’ve not been to the Rose before, and it was really lovely! Small, but the seats were comfy. We only paid 18 pounds for our tickets and it became immeadiately apparent why... We were very side on (not an issue in itself, really), but there were also spotlights rigged up in our way, so at any one time I could only see half the stage, and moved a lot to choose whether to see the top half of the performers or the bottom half while they were dancing. It was definitely the worst 18 pound tickets, especially compared to Wimbledon. Noted for next time, I guess.

Both Jess and I really love this show and we have been trying to get tickets to go back to it on the West End ever since we saw it the first time. However, it’s proving really, really hard to get tickets to! So we thought the Tour would be a good option. None of the Queens from the West End came on the tour, so it was all new cast, however there were a couple of girls from Heathers (Lauren Drewe and Jodie Steele) who we were familiar with. Overall, I felt that the vocals were a bit lacking compared to the West End, but that they played the comedy really hard and that usually worked in their favour. Of course, the music is fantastic and I really felt the lyrical jokes much more live than compared to when I listen to the album. There were a few girls in the row behind us who I had to glare at after key lines because they were joining in when they shouldn’t... But they stopped after I did it the second time!

Catherine of Aragon (Lauren Drewe) was the stand out for me. Having not seen her in a leading role before, and, having only ever experienced people of colour playing this Catherine, I was really wowed by her vocal punch and the quality of her runs. She also was a joy to watch during the rest of the show, showing a great energy and facial expressions throughout the night. Anne Boleyn (Maddison Bulleyment) fell a bit flat vocally for me, but I loved her deadpan sarcastic line deliveries which I felt made up for it. She was just so bitter (and historically, she has a right to be!) Jane Seymour (Lauren Byrne) was also excellent and a close second for me vocally. She really pushed the emotional side of her song and I think it was a better live rendition than the West End version. Shekinah McFarlane played Anne of Cleves, and unfortunately I was underwhelmed by her as well. I just felt that she wasn’t as good vocally as she should have been, although she was hilarious!  Jodie Steele (Katherine Howard) is really great. We knew the most about her going in after seeing her play Heather Chandler multiple times in Heathers and although her voice sounded a little thin (might have just been the sound being directed not directly at us...) she really pulled off the character well. And the alternate we had for Catherine Parr (Harriet Watson), I really felt for her. She didn’t seem to be in tune, or able to do the riffs the way she neeeded to. Basically, it kind of felt like I was watching a rehearsal and her number didn’t sound like a final, polished performance. I found myself wondering if it was her first show...

Six on tour is still a great night out, but I did feel like we were slightly spoilt by the West End version and that the Queens on tour just didn’t quite live up to that expectation. It can’t have been helped that I felt so removed from the action by our restricted view that I found it hard to lose myself like I usually do. Ah well, back to trying to get tickets at the Arts!