shewhomust | A silly weekend

Sometimes you find yourself doing things that are, on the face of it, just plain silly; and sometimes you don't regret it.

So last night we accompanied J. to a singalong showing of Mamma Mia at her church, in aid of a charity they support. We would probably not have dressed up in eaighties summer fashions even if we had possessed such things, even if the weather had not been so dark and damply February, but some of the audience were doing the full satin and frills catsuit deal. I was more impressed by the number of people who had made the gesture of finding a cheap and garish feather boa; this seemed appropriate to the spirit of the evening. I had never seen Mamma Mia - and now I have, and don't need to see it again. I didn't hate it, it was too silly for that (though when

durham_rambler and I compared notes afterwards, we discovered that what we had both been thinking was "Sunshine on Leith does this better."

Today we made an unexpected visit to Gateshead. We wanted to change some tickets for a concert at the Sage (so that we could add tickets for

valydiarosada and D., who will accompany us, hooray!) and although the change could be agreed over the phone, we had to go in and swap the tickets within the next couple of hours. Which seemed silly, but it was a bright sunny day (I do understand why the weather forecast is preoccupied with doom, gloom, hell and high water at the moment, but the result for our part of the country is that we don't actually get a functional forecast), and when our errand was complete we went for a stroll in Saltwell Park.

It's a classic Victorian city park, with play areas and a lake and bowling greens and a tiny pet zoo - and at the heart of it is Saltwell Towers:

which was designed and built in 1859 by William Wailes, who was a leading stained glass master craftsman and manufacturer, as a family home - and is now the visitor centre for the park, with a café downstairs, and a gallery upstairs, all glass panels and golden woodwork, which would be quite delightful if there was anything in it. That's not quite fair: there's a cabinet containing ornate silver trophies, there's a display of leaflets about the Friends of the Park and there's a tall case containing the jawbone of a whale.

There were snowdrops in bloom in the park - not many, but it's a good sign.