09 February 2009

A good if expensive weekend

I had a nice weekend, although my wallet appears to be several hundred pounds lighter because of it. On Friday night we went to the theatre to see Blues Brothers Party - a musical show composed of songs from the Blues Brothers film (don't worry, that didn't cost several hundred pounds). It was quite good, lots of Motown-type songs and a couple of Country and Western ones, performed by two hyperactive men in Blues Brothers outfits and four excellent girls called the Sisters Of Soul whom I actually enjoyed a lot more than the the boys. It was entertaining enough to watch, but as it was just song after song for two hours with no story or plot or anything, I was left feeling that it was good but... what was the point? It probably didn't help that I've never seen the Blues Brothers film - I imagine if you have and if you're a fan then it would make more sense as a show. But anyway, it was fun and it was something different to do.

Our plan for Saturday morning was to nip up to Majestic to refill our wine rack, and then go on to the supermarket to do our shopping, then come home in time for lunch. That all went fine until we walked into Sainsbury's and the first thing we saw was their special offer, bargain price 32" flat screen TV with glass TV stand and home theatre system (i.e. speakers and an amp thing). Now we had sort of wanted a bigger telly ever since we bought a new one last year, got it home, and found that it was actually quite a bit smaller than it had looked in the shop. And this package was a very, very good price, and it was a nice colour (black and silver). So we decided to go round the supermarket and think about it on the way. Unfortunately my notorious inability to make decisions wasn't satisfied with that, so after we had done all our shopping we then had to sit in the car for half an hour going "do we want it? yes we do, but do we need it? well no, but when do you actually need anything. and it is a good price. but will it fit in the living room? and aren't we trying to save up to buy a house? how are you ever going to buy a house if you can't decide to buy a telly? there are frozen things in the back of the car you know. yes I know, I'm terribly indecisive aren't I..."

So anyway, this went on for quite a while, until we resolved not to buy it, then felt disappointed, then went and bought it. The shop assistant girl was lovely, and helped us successfully cram it all into our very small car alongside four bags of shopping and half a dozen bottles of wine.

And then Saturday afternoon was a labour-intensive exercise in lugging heavy things up stairs, unpacking, disconnecting, assembling, reconnecting, furniture rearranging, and hoovering in order to be ready in time for our friend coming round at 7 for drinks and clubbing. I was so exhausted by the evening!

Anyway, the TV looks very nice, it's about twice the size of the old one, and I suspect the speakers would go up loud enough to burst your ear drums if I ever dared push them above 15% of their capacity.

Then we went clubbing on Saturday night, which was fun, and I was careful not to overdo it for once, and Sunday was spent watching our massive new TV and playing Playstation on it.

So I'm now marginally worse off financially, but I do like the telly, and fingers crossed it is all working properly so far. We're not generally that lucky with electicals, everything seems to break and has to go back to the shop within a month, and it takes at least one returning of it before we get a properly functioning one. I hoping this won't be the case this time - it's rather too big and annoying to take back anywhere.

And now it's Monday, back to work, and no snow for a temporary reprieve this week. Ah well. At least now I can watch Masterchef tonight and enjoy John Torode's fat flabby face being a full 40cm wide.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dude - you've never seen The Blues Brothers?? It's a bloody great film, one of my all times favourites. I can see how the stage show wouldn't make as much sense without the film. I've seen the show 3 times I think and love it but that's because I love the film and pick up on all the little extra jokes and references they throw in. Happy to lend it to you if you feel the need to see it.
Helenx