As you like it

Well, it was great fun last night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I concluded you had to ignore the more bizarre parts of the Bard's plot, such as the extended interchanges between Rosalind and Orlando in the forest, when he doesn't recognise her as his heart-throb while she's pretending to be a young man, even though there is no disguise except a hair-cut and a pair of trousers. Or the contradiction between the initial celebration of a sylvan lifestyle, and the (presumed) return of the dispossessed Duke to the joys of court as the injustices were resolved, extremely rapidly, at the end. The acting was very engaging, especially that of Nicolas Tennant as Touchstone the fool. He had one memorable moment of ad-libbing when he engaged in conversation with a member of the audience, Ken, who revealed to much applause that he had been married for 47 years to the lady next to him. A thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining evening.

Today we came back from the launderette via the building nominated as Shakespeare's birthplace which was entirely as you like it, bathed in sunshine and, miraculously, for a few moments without anyone posing in front of it.

Mind you, that meant another wide angle shot to exclude the tourists (the other tourists, I suppose. I guess we're on a tour of some sort).

Returning to Erin Mae we came across this reminder of last year's jamboree.

They celebrate James Roe’s Paralympic gold medal in the rowing mixed coxed fours. We've seen a lot of rowers on the rivers. They go very fast! Erin Mae and ourselves are perfectly content with a 42 hp Isuzi Marine diesel for our propulsion, and 4 mph is just as we like it.