Theatre review

Yet again it's around the midnightly hour and I'm perched in front of my laptop pandering to the needs of my most loyal and dedicated blog readers. Only difference is that this time I'm posting in my pyjamas:)

Today I sampled German theatre for the first time in ten years. I don't have any recollection of my first experience of German theatre other than it couldn't have been any of the high brow stuff since the theatre was situated in the redlight district (Reeperbahn) and the show only started after 12am.

Tonight's entertainment was quite interesting as the whole play took place in Platt Deutsch - a variation that is spoken here in the North. I consistently missed the punchline (it was a comedy), but didn't feel too bad because there was no way I was going to understand everything. Platt is supposed to be similar to Dutch and although the words are sometimes similar (they use maand amongst other familiar words) the pronounciation is quite different. The only reason I could semi-figure out what they were saying was that I'd been exposed to this pronounciation when I was further North in the rural area as an Au-Pair. Bernd, the father of the brats I looked after (and incidentally the biggest brat of them all) pronounced words in this way in his every day speech - of course the kids picked up on it and imitated him.

The story wasn't particularly riverting, but maybe it would've helped if I got the punchlines. A certain attachment to the dialect must also account for how packed theatre was. I guess if one's dialect is given credit on such a stage, one can't help but feel proud and be enthusiastic about supporting it. By the third half I was better able to understand what they were saying and I actually laughed at the final punchline. All in all it was a very pleasant experience. Especially since I had the excellent company of my dear friend Peter. Afterwards we went to this very larny hotel along the Alster lake for a glass of wine and warm roasted nuts - I'm a sucker for nuts!

Also walked past my first Christmas market and outdoor ice rink. Can't wait to go iceskating outdoors for the first time in how many years? Yeah, winter in Europe is great - especially if you know you don't have to go through it every year;-) And it's especially great when it's not that cold. We're still experiencing relatively barmy days for this time of the year, but I'm not complaining, I just very grateful that I am able to share in this relatively mild autumn. I just hope the the winter does not deploy its full icy arsenal to freeze us back into submission again.

Finally, I would also like to use this forum to announce that "my vrind" Millicent had her baby Joshua last Monday. It took a week for the news to get to me (what's the use of all this technology when no one uses it) and there are reports that he weighed in at 2.7 kg others that say he weighs 2.8 kg. I haven't have time to phone her and get the scoop, but congrats Millicent and Jerome on a heathly bouncing boy.