Christmas excitement over and a day to soak up with my girl, I had a bit of a problem.The usual swimming, toy store, pizza, and park routine was just not an inspiring prospect.
I'm going to be away for almost 3 weeks and I just hated the idea of fighting the boxing day crowds and trailing an increasingly irritable 6 year old around.
Kind of a last memory issue , but to really young kiddies ( and older ones) 3 weeks is a long time.
Leave em with a good thought and they welcome your return!
I can just hear the wheels turning from here!
Chill anyone who's annoyed.
Swimming is always fun , but our regular pool was shut and I couldn't come up with the goods at short notice.
Pizza?
Ya we did pizza.
Coming to my rescue was the great tradition of British pantomime. Every holiday season, theaters across the breadth of the land put on a show for two weeks.
There's a long history of B list TV celebs doing these shows as an anchor to bring in the housewives with their kiddies, (or in my case the weekend "McDonald's dads").
Wimbledon Theater has saved me twice before (the last two X-mas') and to my shame, its the only time I've gone inside. It's a beautifully restored and hearkens back to another time.
On any other occaision this would be the cue to retch.
This year, Peter Pan featured the thespian styling of...........
THE FONZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow!
He was good.
I mean that.
At one point, he even did a credible Brit accent which is something most Septics fail (cringingly) at .
He DIDN'T try to sing, but "talked" his words in cadence and had a huge sense of "Happy Days allusions", humor.
There was a definite nod to the Fonz without resorting to an obvious "HEYYYYYY"
The whole "panto" thing is all about getting the kids to participate and call out to the actors things like:
"Watch out behind you!!!!"
There are all sorts of little asides with completely unrelated vignettes whereby the audience sings along, or jumps up and down, or claps.
My six year old was bouncing, singing and jumping and dancing..... Fast asleep in the back of the car before we got out of the parking lot.
Mission accomplished
Henry,
I'm now a FAN!!!!!!
I was late at booking and so had to take expensive (ish) tickets.
They were all of £24 each.
The theater is small.
The Fonz can't be making much doing these two a day gigs.
I'm glad he's doing em.
Finally, my little girl is developing a bit of a "Robinson" attitude.
Recognise the smirk?
Time will tell if it serves her well. The jury is out on how its worked for yours truly.........
Nawwww,
Keep it up J, you're daddy's kid through and through.
Next post
Miami
T
1 comment:
Glad to finally have a post that doesn't make you feel all teary - the past few posts of abortive attempts to see daughter and family over the festive season have been quite emotive.
Panto? My idea of hell, hated them as a kid, and still do - however when my daughter is age six I will make the ultimate sacrifice and sit through one. Luckily have quite a few years to prepare myself for the inevitable!
Post a Comment