However, despite the need for comfort food in these inclement times, hibernation tactics should not yet set in! There's a plethora of great things to do on at the moment - some of which I/we are lucky enough to be getting along to.
Tomorrrow night I'm going to Auckland Theatre Company's much-lauded production of A Midsummer Night's Dream - about which I'm terribly excited. Ray Hawthorne's Puck is sure to be delightful.
Midsummers was the first Shakespeare I ever performed in (apart from the balcony scene in my garden) at age 14, and was hugely instructive, at the time, as to the timeless humour and relevance of Shakespeare's work. Our developing Shakespearean actor, Bella, is heading along with her school next week, good preparation for the National Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competition in June. The Auckland Theatre Company's production runs through to May 26, giving plenty of time for you to get absorbed in a story about enchantment, and the mayhem it causes.
Then from Friday afternoon through to Sunday evening, life's a whirl of books and book talk at the Auckland Writers' and Readers' Festival: my key picks are both Eugenides sessions, Emily Perkins talking about her much-discussed The Forrests, and Chandran Nair's Michael King Memorial Lecture. Lane was very much looking forward to the now sadly absent Michael Hastings, but is still predicting the discussions on the Afghan War and Tweeting the Revolution to be outstanding, insightful, and worth a trip out in the rain! The free events also promise to be excellent contributions to a gala atmosphere in the city. I'm looking forward, in particular, to the crowd-sourced digital installation Type Byte, which will roll tweets with the #AWRF2012 hashtag across a screen.
That's quite apart from the truly excellent and diverse International Comedy Festival 2012, currently entertaining Aucklanders left, right and centre. Tonight is the opening of Des Bishop's Likes to Bang, which promises wordplay and drumming! Another hit pick is local funny man James Keatings' GSOH - this opened last night and runs through to Saturday. James' show will apparently improve your love life - or perhaps just taking someone out to any of the great events I've mentioned will? We have lovely friends whose wedding anniversary is May 6th - and they always go to a Comedy Festival show as part of their celebrations. They just made 17 years this year - I'm sure all that laughing together has got something to do with it.
In the spirit of things to do together - one of our favourite date nights is live music, and Tuesday 15th we're heading to The King's Arms to hear one of our current high rotation artists, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls.
LOVE this song:
I still believe in the power of guitars and drums and desperate poetry. How about you?