Friday 07/10/05 - evening

At 6.30pm, mrs B and myself went to An Lanntair, the arts centre, to see the play I was a beautiful day by Iain F MacLeod. On the way there, it's blowing and raining hard, and it's quite a struggle to get into town. Hardly anyone on the streets. Before the play commences, at 8 o'clock, we intend to have supper in the restaurant, which is situated adjacent to the auditorium. We both order monkfish, which is fairly prompt in coming. However, the sweet just does not come, and by 7.50 we really have to start going into the auditorium. So, I cancel the sweets and we head downstairs. Restaurant staff none too happy, because it's of course a slight on their service. Which they themselves admit is slow. Salutory lesson: go there in plenty of time. You have a nice view from the restaurant windows - when it's light. The ferry terminal looks as if they're expecting a boat. The play is billed as 'a deeply moving but hilarious tale of resilience, survival and cartography' (quote from the Traverse Theatre website http://www.traverse.co.uk/. I am afraid I found it a disjointed and confused story that I'm not even going to try to summarise. Didn't like it, full stop. There was an interval around the 9.15 mark. As the theatre was nearly filled to capacity (which is 239), there was not enough time to buy drinks. The plague of all theatres. The performance ended at 10.15. When we went outside, the wind had almost dropped away, and only a light rain was left. This was in sharp contrast to earlier in the day.