There's luck, and then there's luck

It's been pretty busy the past two days, at work actually, but also in the evenings. I've had a bit of a theatre week, which has been fantastic. I wrote in an earlier entry that I had bought tickets for Whistle Down the Wind for 6 pounds a ticket. Jo and I went to see that last night after catching up over dinner, and while the musical is not one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's best works, it was still a great show. I have never seen the old black and white movie with Hallie Mills, but I'm told it's very different, just from the fact that the musical is set in the American bible-belt south, but the movie was set in England. The music was somewhat typical ALW, with hints of Phantom here and there, and with big rock crescendos. There were probably 30 kids in the show, who were absolutely adorable. It was a bit disconcerting how evidently everyone was supposed to be speaking with an "American" accent, but some of them just kept slipping back into more of a British accent, and some of them were speaking with what they must have thought was a good American accent but just was off somehow. One of the characters' names was Amos, and the cast had evidently all been directed to say it with the pronunciation of "a-MOSS" heavy accent on the second syllable. I know I'm picking things apart at the moment, but it was still an enjoyable show.

The previous night, Wednesday, I went to see Arthur Miller's The Crucible after receiving an email that morning that tickets were available for 5 pounds for that night's show. My roommate Nicole decided to join me at the end of the day, so we went home for a quick dinner and then off to the West End. Again there was a bit of a problem with the accents, but overall, it was a gripping performance. It's an excellent show, not that I expected any less from an Arthur Miller play. You really understand how it is that hysteria may have spread, and people were actually accused by young girls, tried and hung for being witches on "solid evidence." It's pretty scary actually, given repeats throughout our history, such as Joe McCarthy's communism witch hunt. Nicole didn't realize it was a play rather than a musical until we were on our way and I was telling her a bit about the Salem witch trials, at which point she laughed and said she'd probably fall asleep since it wasn't a musical. However, I'm happy to report she was as wrapped up in the show as the rest of the audience.

Wednesday afternoon we had our OT basic grades meeting...all the basic grades go out to lunch together and then spend the rest of the afternoon in continuing development topics of our own choice. This week we went over to wheelchair services where Nicole has been on rotation, and had a look at all different kinds of wheelchairs, had a bit of a wheelchair race ourselves, and then learned how to properly assess for a standard wheelchair. Fortuitous timing since yesterday afternoon one of the physios came to me and asked me to assess one of his patients for a wheelchair. Having just completed the training, I'm confident I can take good measurements.

As to luck, I'm thinking I'm going to have a really good weekend and week next week. And I'm not talking about having today off from work. I met Jo last night on Tottenham Court Road and took off my backpack to grab my wallet. I discovered that not only had I been lucky enough to have a bird poop on me (they say it's lucky, though I can't remember who they is), but I was also lucky enough to have it poop on my backpack rather than actually on me. So I think that's doubly lucky, don't you? ;)