A night out: Opera in the Park

Prologue: Ooh look what I found..... some pictures and videos from a night out that I had a couple of weeks ago when I was up in Leeds visiting my friend Sarah. Here comes the blog post to match........
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It was Saturday lunchtime in Leeds. Sarah and I were sitting on her sofa nursing god almighty hangovers after a night out with a pack of teachers celebrating the end of the school year.  

"I'm really ill," I groaned, "I think I might need to be admitted to Intensive Care."

"You've got a hangover," said Sarah.

"You're kidding me," I replied, "I've definitely got a serious underlying illness as well."

"No you haven't," Sarah sighed, "and anyway, we need to get a move on. We're going out tonight, and we need to start preparations."

"You're having a laugh aren't you? Where are we going and what preparations do we have do?" I asked, incredulous that responsibility was being laden upon me whilst in such a delicate state.

Then it all came back to me: At 4pm, we were meeting twelve of Sarah's friends at an open-air concert called 'Opera in the Park'. Oh yeh, we're cultured we are. People often see us coming from afar, and I hear them whisper; "see them, they're well cultured they are, especially the taller one on the left with brown hair." 

"We are making the sandwiches for the picnic," Sarah said with despair. Yes, despair! I ask you?

"Hang on a minute," I protested, "sandwiches are the main bulk of a picnic, how come we ended up with the short straw?"

"I volunteered," Sarah said, prodding my legs with an umbrella in an attempt to move me from the sofa.

"Bloody hell, are you a do-gooder or what?" I asked, getting up wearily. "How many sandwiches do we have to make anyway?"

"Twenty four," Sarah replied.

"TWENTY FOUR? We have to make twenty four sandwiches whilst everyone else brings the odd nibble?"

"Yep that's right, let's get started," she said matter-of-factedly.

Needless to say, by the time we set off to catch the bus to the concert, I had developed RSI from buttering bread rolls (in addition to my serious underlying medical condition). I had also been reprimanded for trying to make the sandwiches 'too exotic' by adding salad. I was in Yorkshire after all.

Opera in the Park was held in the grounds of a stately home called Temple Newsam, on the outskirts of the city. Once we had arrived, it wasn't long before we found Sarah's friends and set up our camping chairs.

Pic.No.1 Gary the teacher doing a 'Blue Steel' pose. That means chin down (hides any unsightly folds of skin), pouty mouth (accentuates cheekbones), and upward tilted gaze (adds an element of flirtation)

With an hour to go before the concert started, we decided to have the picnic, and everyone spread out their offerings on a large rug.

"Can people please admire my sandwiches a bit more?" I asked once the booty was out.

"Have they got salad on 'em?" someone piped up, adding "That's a bit exotic."

Sarah smiled at me knowingly as I rolled my eyes. Bloody northerners. 

Pic.No.2. Our picnic. See that big pile of sandwiches on the left hand side? I begrudingly made all twenty four of the suckers and most of them were squashed flat by the time they were unpacked

Pic.No.3. That's Pedro looking shifty. He's had his eye on my Scotch Egg. So I ate it in one go to stop him from stealing it and then I couldn't talk for three minutes

So, we were all settled; we had chairs, we had food, we had beer ...... what other mandatory feature was missing from an open-air concert in the UK? Yep, you got it. Rain. Within seconds of the first drop falling, everyone was huddling under a sea of umbrellas. Except me that is. I had forgotten to bring one. And I had forgotten to bring a coat.

"I'm getting wet!" I said to Sarah, with a raindrop hanging off the end of my nose.

"I despair. You should have brought a coat," Sarah retorted from under her umbrella.

"That's the second time you have despaired at me today," I replied with a hurt expression.

"It's you. You have that effect on people," she said, shaking her head.

Luckily enough, the rain stopped after half an hour by which time the concert was well under way, and night was beginning to fall. And because I am a saintly type of person, I took the following photos and videos so that you could get a feel for it all.

Pic.No.4. Don't you just love England? Hardly a balmy midsummers day

Video No.1 Some operatic bloke singing a tune

 Pic.No.5. The rain stops and night falls. The stage is lit up and that's the back of Louise's head

 Pic.No.6. Look it's me! I am all soggy and bedraggled from the rain

Video No. 2. This is a video of Louise and Gary talking to me about some unidentified objects flying above. No, I can't tell what they are saying either, but I did get the flying objects on video

So all in all, the concert was great fun; All the singers had a right pair of lungs on 'em, and every time a song came on, I got everyone to guess which advert it was from. I'm cultured like that. The only deal breaker was the fact that the toilets didn't have any toilet roll in them. But as Sarah pointed out, the concert was free, so I couldn't whinge that much.

Actually, there was a second deal breaker; we had to get a bus home. Yes you read right. I did get on public transport, and Sarah despaired again when I asked the driver if I could upgrade to business class. I didn't know any different did I?