Boo! Hiss! He's behind you!

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On my last weekend before starting work, I traveled to Geneva with Ben and Kara to see my friend Sarah in a pantomime. She was the female lead in an amateur production of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.

The picture shows (anticlockwise from top left corner):

• Sarah's fans in the foyer
  
• Sarah (Elly) and Ali Baba
  
• The cast
  
• Elly and her prince

Yes - I know the 'prince' is a chick. It is a pantomime tradition that the male lead is played by a chick. Similarly, Elly's mum was played by a man - another tradition.

This particular pantomime followed all of the pantomime traditions. There was an 'animal' - humpy the camel, a sing-a-long (entirely unrelated to the script) and, of course, audience participation. The kiddies loved it.

Who am I kidding? We all loved it.

We hissed and booed the baddie.

We helped Ali Baba find a baddie who was chasing him - 'He's behind you!'

We participated in a dispute between the baddie and the goodie :

Goodie: 'You will tell me where the treasure is.'
Baddie: 'Oh no I won't.'
Goodie: 'Oh yes you will.'
Baddie: 'Oh no I won't.'
Goodie and audience: "Oh yes you will.'

AND we helped Ali Baba remember the magic words to open the cave where the treasure was kept.

Sarah was the star of the show - but the whole thing was very well done.

Did I enjoy it? Oh yes I did!!!!

As Sarah had more performances over the weekend, Ben, Kara and I headed to Lausanne for the remainder of the weekend. It was lovely. Lots of good food - the warm chestnuts were particularly delicious as we roamed the chilly streets.

We went for a 6 km walk along the edge of Lake Geneva to the cute little town of St Sulpice with it's 12th century Romanesque church, tried all the forms of transport Lausanne has to offer (taxi, train, tram, bus, walking), wandered around the Old Town (lovely - but very steep and cobblestoney). (That is something I have really noticed since I have been traveling around - cobblestones may look better - but they are a lot harder to walk on ... and you can forget it once you are in heels.)

Lausanne is also the home of the IOC, but unfortunately, we did not get time to check out the Olympics museum. Will have to do that another time, because you know how I love the Olympics.

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Comments

[Emma]

I think warm chestnuts are delicious too. That would have been great seeing your friend on stage. Ohhh Ned, you're cultured and making me proud xx