February 08, 2004

West Side Weekend

I spent most of the weekend on Virgin trains. I went up to Lancaster (in the North of England between Blackpool and the Lakes District) to watch a production of West Side Story. Chris Haughton invited Brian and I up to see his son Nick in the leading role. Nick didn't disappoint. And while Maria also had a fabulous singing voice, she had an entirely operatic voice and it was all wrong for West Side Story.

The Lancaster Theatre has been around since 1782, the oldest operating theatre in London, so said Marion Haughton.

It was a four hour train journey from London Euston train station to Preston, then another 45 minutes on a bus from Preston to Lancaster. Not something I want to do on a regular basis, but it's good to get out of London every once in a while. We saw lots of green fields, sheep and winding canals, as one does whilst traveling through the English countryside. We sprinted the 1/4 mile distance between the car park and the theatre because a big storm hit the area and we were caught in a torrential downpoor. We had a party of 25 that went to a pizzaria after the show. The rain was still hammering down so there was another sprint back to the car. On the way back to Chris' we ran into a sizable tree that had fallen across the road. Marion was driving and quickly put on the breaks so that we were just barely up against the tree. Chris' brother Trevor was following closely behind us in a jeep and skidded into the rear of our car while trying to stop. No damage to the passengers and both cars made it back to Pilling where the Haughtons live.

Chris starts his new position at Lancaster University tomorrow. We will miss him at Videotel.