Friday Five: The Best of the Advent Beers

Now that advent has been and gone and we have drunk our 24 festive beers, I can state my favourites (in no particular order). Full details to follow.

5 Best Beers from the Blackhurst Advent Calendar:

1. 8 Wired Brewing co. 2012 Chardonnay Barrel-Aged Saison (7%) - I know I said 'in no particular order', but this is my beer of the year. 
2. Brouwerij Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne Flanders Red (6.2%) - Belgian beer at its best.
3. Birra del Borgo Seven Hops IPA (7%) - A fine Italian example of a British IPA. Who says Europe can't co-operate?
4. 8 Wired Brewing Co. 2011 Barrel-Aged Smoked Imperial Porter (11%) - Yep, 8 Wired, again. This Kiwi brewery is making some excellent beers.
5. Nomad Jet Lag IPA (6%) - the new kid on the (Sydney North Shore) block is delivering the goods. I loved this at the Beer Day Out, and I loved it again in the advent calendar. I'm nothing if not consistent. Don't say it.

Friday Five: CAT Awards

Not that I want to bang on about Blithe Spirit (okay, so I do), but it has taken up a huge amount of my time and thoughts over the past few months. And we have been nominated for five CAT (Canberra Area Theatre Awards), which is nice.

5 Award Nominations for Blithe Spirit:

1. Best Designer for a play (Andrew Kay)
2. Best Costume Designer for a play (Anna Senior)
3. Technical Achievement (Russell Brown, "ghostly manifestations")
4. Best Actress in a leading role in a play (Emma Wood: Ruth Condomine)
5. Best Production of a play (Canberra Repertory Theatre)

Friday Five: The Name Game

Liz de Totth, Front of House and Paddington Bear

On the day after final night of Blithe Spirit, we hosted a get-together for all cast and crew involved in the production. It was relaxed and casual. I made martinis, tzatziki rolls, and citrus-chicken skewers. We ate, drank, talked, laughed, and played animal charades and the name game, as I know it, or 'celebrity heads' as I also heard it called. Here are some of the people who showed up:

5 Celebrity Heads:

1. Paddington Bear
2. Richard Dawkins
3. Christopher Marlowe
4. Genghis Khan
5. Xena Warrior Princess

Andrew Kay, Set Design and Construction, and Xena Warrior Princess

Friday Five: Festive Salads

Brussels sprouts salad with crispy bacon

In the lead-up to Christmas, I have been trying out some festive food to make for 'the big day'. In the heat of Australia (with temperatures of thirty degrees for the Christmas week), this means salads, or other light meals, and festive means red and green. So this is what I have been cooking:

5 Festive-looking dishes from our kitchen:

1. Brussels sprouts salad with crispy bacon
2. Sticky barbecued prawn salad (with banana prawns, green chilies, avocados, fresh basil and cherry tomatoes)
3. Couscous, chorizo and courgette salad
4. Roast rack of lamb with mint, bean and feta salad
5. Spinach and tomato bake

Spinach and tomato bake

Advent Beer Calendar

Our Christmas present to each other this year is an advent beer calendar. I bought twelve bottles and Him Outdoors bought another twelve. We wrapped them up in tissue paper and ribbon, numbered them with place cards left over from our wedding (I told you they would come in handy!) and popped them into our champagne riddling rack. We now have twenty-four days of festive drinking. Cheers!

Friday Five: Procrastination

I am meant to be doing some work. It's not that I don't want to be doing it - I do; it's quite interesting - but I am a serial procrastinator and have discovered that just the word 'work' is enough to send me running for the hoover - well, not quite, but I have hung the washing out.

This has been an issue with me ever since I was kid. When I was meant to be revising for exams I often went for long bike rides instead and then took even longer baths. That probably explains a lot. I have always had a creative talent for doing stuff other than the stuff I should be doing, and that was before the internet came along.

5 Ways I procrastinate:

1. Reading old newspapers. When I say 'old', I mean by about two years, which means that the 'news' no longer meets its own definition.
2. Washing up - the kitchen is sparkling; I've even scrubbed the baking trays.
3. Baking - if you ever visit my house and there are home-made biscuits on offer, you can guarantee that there is something relatively important left undone.
4. Rearranging my books/ records/ clothes/ pens/ towels - there is always something that could benefit from being reorganised according to colour, size, or pure whimsy.
5. Writing my diary/ blog posts. Q.E.D.

Friday Five: Opening Night

Edith (Yanina Clifton) and Elvira (Anita Davenport) on our beautiful Blithe Spirit set (Andrew Kay)

Tonight is opening night of Blithe Spirit and there are so many people to thank for helping me bring this fantastic show to the stage. Naturally I am thrilled that Noel Coward wrote this play in the first place, and that Canberra Repertory accepted my submission to direct it. When the curtains open tonight, I'll be thinking of all these folk:

5 things that make our Blithe Spirit great:

1. The set - the team who designed and built this set are phenomenal. What we do looks great on it; and then we wreck it every night and do it all over again the next. Special thanks to Andrew Kay, Russell Brown and everyone involved.
2. The costumes - Anna Senior has designed a range of sublime and ridiculous outfits to bring our characters to life (or death, as it were), more than ably assisted by a team including Jeanette Brown, Anne Kay and a whole band of others. As someone who can barely sew a button back onto a shirt, I am enormously grateful.
3. The technical crew - Jon Pearson on sound and Stephen Still on lights have been brilliant to work with. I said 'Can I have this?' and they said 'How loud/bright do you want it?'. Their designs are subtle and superb, allowing a perfect background to the action without ever threatening to overwhelm it.
4. The stage crew - they're very busy; they have a lot to do, and they do it efficiently, quietly and seamlessly. From putting books in and out of bookcases to making cucumber sandwiches, they do jobs every night, which make the front of stage look as good as it does. And they are overseen by our stage manager Dot Russell, who is one of the calmest, most thorough and delightful people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
5. The actors - The best part of being a director is dealing with this wonderful production without ever having to learn the words. The worst is never being able to perform the play myself. I am honoured to have such fabulous people to do it instead, that I don't regret not being up there for an instant. We have all worked so hard to bring this vision to the stage and I know these actors will ensure it is executed exactly as we wanted.