It’s Behiiiiiinnnnnnd Yooouuuuuu!!!!

What a super Sunday! What a top day trifecta!

First…sunshine! SUN-SHINE!!!

Second…another superb Sunday lunch

Third…a rollicking good time at a Christmas panto!

A crisp, clear, sunny winter’s day was the perfect day for some roaming under a brilliant blue sky. Just superb. We strolled around the lovely city of Lincoln, along the cobbled streets, up the famous Steep Hill and through the Cathedral Quarter.

We managed to see some parts of the city that we hadn’t been able to get to last time when we were on the bikes, and we even managed to go up Steep Hill, which we were only game enough to ride down last time. Having seen the outside of the Cathedral a few months ago, today we were free to have a look inside too and what a beautiful building it was. A service was in progress, so we sat and listened to the singing for a while and then quietly strolled through, looking at the stunning architecture, before returning to the beautiful sunny day outside.

With some enjoyable roaming in the bag, we sought some lunch and hit the jackpot again with some sensationally tasty pickings. I had the vegetable casserole which was delicious, Steve tucked into a sweet potato and cashew curry and then, being Sunday and our treat day, we both ended the feast of scrumptiousness with an apple and fruit mince crumble and custard. Another sensational vegan feast was sitting happily in our bellies. It was fab and brill!

Having missed out on going to a village fair during the summer and being disappointed at not attending a village cricket match on a summer’s day, my winter wish was to see a panto. That’s what we did next. It’s pantomime season over here, with pantos on in theatres all around the country, so after lunch we headed to Lincoln’s Royal Theatre to see Sleeping Beauty. What fun! Malicious the wicked fairy was played by Vicki Michelle, who was Yvette in ‘Allo ‘Allo and she put the curse on Princess Beauty, who was helped by Fairy So Good. The court jester, Muddles, entertained us and the story and whole show was just a bundle of fun.

“Booooooooo” we shouted each time Malicious walked on stage.

“Ha ha ha ha,” she cackled when Princess Beauty pricked her finger on the spindle. “Now she’s dead!”

“No she’s not!” we all shouted.

“Oh yes she is!” demanded mean fairy Malicious.

“OH NO SHE’S NOT!!” we shouted again…and on it went.

When King Nicholas, Muddles, Nurse Nora and Prince Valour were searching for Princess Beauty in Malicious’ lair, they instructed us to let them know if we saw any ghosts or ghouls or scary things, so we did just that.

“It’s behind you!!!” we shouted, when the skeleton appeared.

“Where?” they asked, looking in all the wrong directions.

“Behind you! BEHIND YOU!!!” we all shouted.

It was classic panto. We laughed, we sang, we clapped, we shouted…a riotous time was had by all. It was a mixture of pantomime and vaudeville with a twist of Royal Variety Performance and it was fantastic! Muddles entertained us with magic tricks and the script had us laughing and groaning at the cheesy, politically incorrect jokes that I think must have been resurrected from the estate of Benny Hill.

The man sitting in front of me was as entertaining as the show itself. He looked like a retired brigadier, with his grey, ‘short back and sides’ hair, clipped grey moustache and horn rimmed glasses.

“BOOOOOOO” he shouted at every appearance of Malicious.

“ROOBISH!” he shouted at every cheesy magic trick.

His mouth was open in silent laughter most of the time, leaning over to his family, eyes sparkling, mouth open and beaming with fun and laughter. He was a joy to watch.

The panto was super fun. We felt a bit self conscious to begin with, when we sat down and were surrounded by families and kids and I was beginning to regret not borrowing a six year old to take along with us, to justify our attendance. We were soon reassured though, when we saw a number of other young-at-heart adults walk in, unaccompanied by a token tot or tween, just there, as we were, grown ups out to have a jolly good time and a laugh, and we certainly did!

The walk back from the theatre, in the dark, just capped off the day perfectly. It was raining, but that just made the streets shimmer and the lights were jolly and lovely and it was just wonderful.

Super Sunday! Super moments. Another tip-top day and it was all ours!

Did we have a great day?

“OH YES WE DID!!!”

I say, did we have a great day?

“OH YES WE DID!!!”

Another day of fantastic moments and memories “IS BEHIND US!!…IT’S BEHIND US!!!…”

But that’s OK, because there’s more to come…”OH YES THERE IS!!!…”