The curse of Macbeth is only supposed to apply in the theatre and to those who are involved in its production but the latest offering from The National Theatre certainly seemed to put a jinx on us. We booked tickets for Tuesday's preview as we couldn't make later dates and, as the show was an evening performance, we decided to take in an exhibition in London as well.
We drove to Stratford in good weather conditions and got the tube to Green Park to go to Charles I "King and Collector at the Royal Academy. It is a fabulous exhibition crammed with magnificent art works collected by Charles including several Titians and many Van Dycks. It took almost ninety minutes to view the exhibition and we could have spent longer but had booked a meal at The Terrace in the National Theatre. We walked from the RA to the south bank and, although there was a bit of ice underfoot, it wasn't too bad.
We were eagerly anticipating Macbeth. With Anne-Marie Duff and Rory Kinnear topping the cast it promised to be an unforgettable night.
It's not etiquette to review a play during the previews but do look out for the reviews - I expect them to be very interesting indeed. Perhaps the ski slope like set should have warned us of what lay ahead for the journey home.
We can't say that we were not forewarned. The news has been filled with nothing but the Beast From The East" for the past week so we packed the car with blankets, food, an overnight bag and a shovel. We texted a neighbour before we left to enquire of conditions (not bad he said) and we checked all the travel news and weather sites. Likely snow between our setting out at 11p.m and arrival home at 1a.m? 33%. I gamble a bit so I reckoned that a 33% chance of snow meant a 66% chance of no snow and we'd take those odds.
And as we reached the outskirts of Ipswich at 12.30 a.m I was pleased with the gamble. The journey had been perfect. Virtually nobody else was on the road and everything was hunky dory. Only half an hour to Framlingham and a warm bed.
Although I said I gamble, I should have added that I'm not a very good gambler and, as we moved onto the A14 and approached the Orwell Bridge, it started to snow. Within seconds we were in a blizzard. The clear dual carriageway disappeared in minutes and we were suddenly driving blind with no visible road markings, no traffic and a terrible sense of doom. We had passed the first turn off after the bridge and had to drive on. Just ahead we saw the signs to the Orwell Crossing Lorry park. For the first time in my life a truck stop looked appealing.
We parked up, took our blankets and went into the closed cafe and asked the security guard for shelter. He kindly pointed us to a couple of leather sofas and we settled down for the night. We didn't get much sleep (the comings and goings of the lorry drivers visiting the showers and toilets took care of that) but we were rested and safe and are now experts in the stacking system at Felixstowe, know that you can't cancel your load without a password and that there's a real camaraderie amongst truckers whatever their nationality.
We reckoned that there was enough traffic moving at seven for us to try and get home. The A14 and A12 were passable but, when we left the A12, the route to Framlingham was a nightmare with just one tyre track to follow. We managed at about ten miles an hour until we reached the garden centre when the car couldn't get up the small hill. With about fifteen cars and lorries stuck behind us we eventually had some volunteers to push us over the rise and arrived back in Framlingham at around 8. There was no way that we were going to get up the hill on Fore St so we drove into the car park at the bottom, abandoned the car and walked home.
I suppose I was stupid to make the journey but we had a great day out in London, saw another play that everyone will be talking about and an adventure to boot. We were well prepared but lucky that the blizzard came at the time it did or I suspect we'd have had a very severe talking to from the traffic police.
Home at last.
In other news, I saw this in the paper this week. If you like stories like this, you should enjoy my novel Mr Prendergast's Fantastic Find. (Links up there one the right of this blog)
Before the "Beast" hit us, we had a bracing walk along the beach at Aldeburgh at the weekend.
We haven't seen tides like this since we moved here.
We added these pebbles to the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout Pebble Homage Art Scheme
Front
Back
We were supposed to be driving to Scotland today and taking my mum for a week in the caravan. After Tuesday's escapade, we've decided to give it a miss.
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