Let the festivities commence!

All is decided. Three plays in three days! It's a nice mix. We have one 70s musical, one 1890s play, and one contemporary new musical. Now I'm running around the house singing "Don't cry for me Smarmytiiiiinaaaaa!"

Friday 8 PM

As ambitious as she is charismatic, Eva Duarte rises from poverty in rural Argentina to become first the mistress and then the wildly popular wife of President Juan Perón. Blending the personal with the political, this landmark of the modern musical theatre paints a dazzling portrait of a woman who helped shape history.

"Make no mistake, this Evita is a bold and brilliant production, one you must see." - Toronto Star

"Musical director Rick Fox takes an aggressive approach to the score, creating an exciting, edgy sound." - Globe and Mail

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Saturday 8 PM

In An Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde, fate catches up to Government Minister Sir Robert Chiltern when a mysterious woman produces a letter which reveals a past misdeed and a choice must be made between public scandal and the private shame of his wife. This Oscar Wilde work is a perfect mix of Wilde wit and intrigue.

"a superbly accomplished, highly entertaining and intellectually rewarding evening at the theatre." Toronto Star

"In a certain sense Mr. Wilde is to me our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre." - from George Bernard Shaw's review of the play

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Sunday 2 PM

2009 Tony Award® nomination for
Best Book of a Musical

A hilarious new musical comedy that follows two musical theatre writers on a quest to write a musical for the New York Musical Theatre Festival in just 3 weeks. With nothing to lose, Jeff and Hunter decide to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi and Larry on the eighty-eights. With the cast in place, Jeff and Hunter begin a conversation about what to write about. Eventually, Jeff suggests they write a show about writing a show. They make a pact to write up until the festival’s deadline and dream about the show changing their lives.

“Delectable entertainment!” –The New York Times

"Besides giving the audience a hysterical behind-the-curtain view of the creative (or at times, not so creative) process, [title of show] is a prefect musical for aficionados of musical theater and lovers of big old-school Broadway plays." - Planeteye Traveler

A new meaning to Spamalot

Every time I need some info from Gilby, re. Gilmabelfest, I spam his facebook page. Here are some samples of my spam, in facebook's usual order (that is, oldest at the bottom, newest at top)... [And yes, being friends with me does require patience and a sense of humour.]

SPAM #4 - Tonight's musical spam

SPAM #3 - After an email with these options met with no reply

SPAM #2 - After which he wrote me to suggest Evita and Peter Pan

SPAM 1 - After which he called me

je t'attends je t'attends je t'attends

I'm waiting for Gilby to choose from some play options I sent him. He chose Evita and Peter Pan as two options, playing at Stratford, but we can't see them both AND An Ideal Husband. So I sent him 5 different other possible combos of Ideal, Evita or Pan, and something else.

But I'm waiting waiting waiting. What, does this guy have a high powered career and a love life and active friend life plus sports and games and such that he can't get back to me?? Oh wait. He does. Fine fine fine. I'll be that girl, waiting by the phone Friday night, wondering which two other plays she's going to see.

However I bought the tickets to Ideal Husband tonight, so I at least don't get bad seats for that one.

...Time to find a vacation countdown clock. And then go to bed.

My Hotel Quest in 4 Thrilling Chapters

The Hotel Quest:

Chapter 1 - Who are these sociable people staying in B&Bs?? (My dad, for one.)

Alright bebbies... I've got 5 hotels near the airport that I'm going to choose from because they're in my price range. I've looked at some B&Bs but... no, not for me. I want anonymity. Plus I'll be staying up til 5 AM, watching TV, maybe talking with my brother... how does that work when you're in someone's house? What if I'm coming back from my mum's at 1 AM?

It's too weird. I feel like if I sleep in til 2 in the afternoon I'll then be subject to Old People Making Jokes About Me.
(I've only met one person, over 60, in my life who understood sleeping in. He's my grandfather's cousin, and when he went to bed he'd say: See you at the crack of noon!) No, I'm not a B&B gal. And the prices are in the same range as the hotels.

Chapter 2 - Mabel considers her choices
When I chose the hotel for Stratford, last year, I relied on the TripAdvisor site, and it worked out. Lots of people post detailed reviews that tend to answer all my questions. And I can see if the hotel manager replies to the comments. For example, someone in 2009 will complain about holes in the blankets, and then the manager will post a note saying all new blankets have been purchased, and then you see only good reviews in 2010. Gilby and I both enjoyed the place where we ended up staying.


Ideally I'm looking for:
- internet included (doesn't have to be wireless)
- a mini fridge so I can have a little food in the room
- a microwave
- clean
- cable tv
- and maybe some nearby places to walk to, like shopping or something

I'm off to compare The Five and will report back...

Chapter 3 - The results revealed!
* Comfort Inn Van Airport
* Executive Inn Express
* Quality Hotel Airport South
* Ramada Limited Van Airport
* Travelodge Hotel Van Airport

...I'm back. It's funny some of the things listed as amenities. Like smoke alarms. Or a touch tone phone. When is the last time you saw a rotary dialer phone? In this day and age that would be the amenity! "A retro touch with our classic rotary phones!"

Okay, now I'm going to read the reviews...

Well, it looks like the Ramada's the clear winner. Let me go double check the transportation to Mother's, though anything near the airport will be very short for her to pick me up.

...Well I have to transfer once, which seems a bit foolish. But driving is 7 minutes.

Chapter 4 - Mabel reveals all, and asks you a question
The Ramada has all the right features, and there are some balconies, and an in-room safe which would be nice for the laptoppy.

It's next to a park.

and a mall. (I'm not a mall monkey, but it's often on vacation that I catch up on shopping.)

And a hospital for physical emergencies, and a library for intellectual emergencies.

12 minutes by bus from my bento boxes.

There's three different king bed rooms available. I'm going to sleep with my arms completely outstretched every night.

For $7 I can get a balcony, but it would only be worth it if warm enough. Early Sep is nice and sunny and warm and when I stay at my mum's I often sit in the back doorway in the sun, reading and drinking tea when I first get up.

But is October too cold? ...I just checked Weather Canada -- it's usually not too rainy, highs between 13-17 degrees. What do you guys think? Is that balconyable? I can pass on the jet-tub for $15 more. But. I think... I think I might NEED a balcony. ...Balcony?

a spot of art

Story of Me in Hair & Glasses

Sometime when I was in school I lost my glasses, went without them for a year or two. I need them to see far away, but since I don't drive, and they were triggering my headaches, I wore them less and less. Anyway, one day I finally found them, and I was sooo excited, because I really liked them.

And then lost them only a few months later! I think I left them at the church basement where I had First Aid training, but without a car I could never be bothered to go all the way back to check. :-( So I went back to getting used to being without them.

Truth is, though my headaches are better with the meds, I still wasn't able to wear my glasses all the time. I still have enough on-the-edge days, like right now, where glasses/headphones/hats etc would definitely give me a full headache. But I would like to have glasses this year for Gilmabelfest. And Fernando needs glasses too. So must make the grand effort to get us off to New Look, get our eyes checked, get some eyewear.

It's just sooooo long to pick out glasses. I know exactly what suits me, but you have to try on so many pairs before you find the right size. Good heavens.

In other Appearance News, I've decided to grow out my bleach. I've continued to dye or bleach my hair all these years because it dries out my normally greasy hair, and therefore makes it easier to deal with. But I'm so lazy about doing my roots, I've finally hit my limit. And a few years back I stopped using dye because of animal testing, and switched to bleach. But bleach is much harder to control that dye. It's hard to get the colour even (and I'm too lazy to really try), and the colour doesn't really suit me, it's too blonde.

So. I'll grow it out. Check out how my white hairs are coming along. And if I get sick of my natural hair, I'll just go back to bleach. (There's one brand of dye that doesn't test on animals, but it's not yet stocked somewhere close to where I live and shop regularly.)

I was trying on a black turtle neck today, and it looked so good against my bleached hair, it was my first moment of almost-changing-my-mind. Against my washed-out-brown hair it won't have the same exciting effect! ;-) But I'm tired of the blonde. I don't like having the same hair all the time. And I never mind experimenting, cause it grows out fast. (I have no scientific proof that my hair and nails grow faster-than-average, yet I'm convinced of it. They're weeds, I tell you. Weeds!)

Childhood blondiness (you can see my eyebrows were light too)

Grade 3 or 4, you can see it got darker

1990

A few years later, and you can see it's even darker. I suspect this is the colour we'll be returning to, but with gray.

1998, not long after I started dying it blond.

This was the colour I got when home-dying it. It's closer to my eyebrow colour, so more natural looking. But a few years ago I fiiiiinally stopped being able to Live With Myself in terms of buying a non-necessary item that was animal tested, so I had to stop buying it. And those are the glasses I lost.

Haley eating my dyed hair.

When I first bleached it, I went for as white as I could. This took a LONG time. And turned my hair to the consistency of straw. It took a LOT of conditioner just to make it look un-insane.

And then I added the red.

But bright dyes wash out really fast. (That's why you see girls going around with vaguely green hair, which looks terrible.) And even re-dying it, I couldn't get it back that vibrant shade. Which is why I didn't continue to dye bright colours--too much work, not very satisfying.

Here you see the colour layer has become yellow.

These days I leave the bleach in less long, so that my hair isn't so dry, and so the colour isn't so white. But it's still an unattractive yellow colour. I've never been happy with it.

So this is what we're going back to baby!

Maybe I should just make splotches of blond, and become a calico like my cats. Anyway, so my hair is going to look terrible for the next month while I grow it out. Luckily I'll be on vacation much of the time. Once it's grown out enough I'll chop off the ends, and then decide what I think.

tv land

So, like many people, I found it impossible to keep watching Robin Hood after Marian died saving King Richard's life. They had so successfully built her romance up with Robin, over two seasons, that her death scene was soooo saaaaad. Like most fellow fans, I cried like a colicky baby. It was hard to imagine enjoying the show without that relationship.



I've only just now watched the premiere of season 3, though it's been on tv before. They've finally introduced Friar Tuck. The ending of the episode was great. Every season they up the ante in terms of how nasty the Sheriff is--this time Prince John has demanded more taxes from him, so things are getting supa ugly. So then they have to up the ante on how heroic Robin and his peeps are, and they managed it.


And Guy finally stood up to the Sheriff! One of the funniest things on the show is how sad and pathetic Guy is, and how the Sheriff makes fun of him all the time. This time Guy finally told him off. Probably one of the best ways to keep this show going will be an interesting character arc with Guy--there's a lot of depth possibility there. And it looks like season 3 was the last season, so at least there'll be an ending.


In other TV news, I'm starting season 3 of Nos Etés. It's my Quebec Saga Show that I watch with French sub-titles to practice my French. But I don't remember all the details of the previous seasons! I watched them when I was doing my BA.




And I borrowed Sports Night from a coworker--the Aaron Sorkin show that came before West Wing. I love Sorkin's writing, I just wish he'd managed to un-crapify Studio 60 in time to save it, cause it was juuuust getting good when it was canceled. He's back to writing movies now, which is a bit disappointing. (American President was good, but it was no West Wing.)