you look good in blue

the last two saturdays have been music-centric in very different ways. Last week was High Voltage in Viccy Park (10 mins walk from my flat, the old lady in me was really chuffed by that); and yesterday it was Horrible Histories live at The Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. I was disgustingly hungover but it was free and we had box seats so we were on to a winner. I have to say it was so much better than I had imagined!

They performed familiar songs from the show; Charles II rap, Cleopatra Lady Gaga style and the Vikings as stadium band singing a rock ballad were my personal favourites - no Dick Turpin song, booo, they misjudged that because a few people had come dressed as dandy highwaymen.

The actors were backed by a 30 piece orchestra and choir, and the songs from the show were seamlessley woven in with pieces of music from various eras so you learnt about music, composers and instruments at the same time. And the music was fantastic! They played an excerpt from Danse macabre, one of my favourite pieces of music, and other atmospheric, goth named pieces such as 'March to the scaffold from 'Symphonie fantastique' (Berlioz, 1830). I also loved the orchestral version of Greensleeves (another great piece of music), and they played the wedding march and I did a bit of learning when they said that it comes from the music composed for A Midsummer Night's Dream by German composer Felix Mendelssohn, and Queen Victoria's eldest daughter chose this piece of music for her wedding, and since then it has become the standard walk down the aisle music for Bristish couples. Queen Victoria also made the white wedding dress so popular that after the 1850s it started to become the desirable norm that we still see today. Before her, metallic dresses in gold and silver were very popular among the wealthy classes, which sounds awesome to me. If you bear in mind that a few of our Christmas traditions also come from Victoria's husband Albert, it is funny that a number of what feel like staple, British traditions, are actually German in origin and have only been around since Victorian times, so just do whatever the eff you want.

After learning and laughing and singing we strolled around Chelsea and Kensington where the other 'arf lives, checking out all the amazing massive houses with huge windows and gates and cars and felt thoroughly mizo about my financial situation. But thesun was shining and I got to wear this skirt that I got from a charity shop in Reading a few months back:


It is vintage M&S, couldn't guess a date on it but it is a large kids size. It may not be the most flattering shape on someone of my figure but the swathes of cotton swish around when you wear it and it feels AMAZING. I accessorised with this navy bag, again charity shopped, glasses from the Next sale and Primark espadrilles that are blue with white straps - WILD!