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Showing posts from August, 2017

Three days in Budapest

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A three day weekend seemed plenty of time to see Budapest. We arrived in Budapest at midday on a Saturday and left the city early evening on the following Monday feeling we were comfortably relaxed yet having gone around the city. As most of you know, Budapest is actually two cities. Buda is hilly and green with a castle, a citadel, nice viewpoints and a statue. Pest is the hustling bustling city. We stayed in Pest close to the parliament. As I said, we arrived at midday so we headed almost directly (thanks to our flight delay of an hour) to a free walking tour of the city. There were easily over a hundred people at the meeting point looking for the tour. I'd never seen so many people on a walking tour. K who has been Budapest in 2010 claims he couldn't even find a tour company that offers this and instead found a history professor who agreed to take five of them around. Thankfully though, the tour group was split five ways but we were still about 30 so it was still to

Barbershop Chronicles

I watched the Barbershop Chronicles at the Dorfman theatre and give it a 5/5 rating. I'm no expert on the communities and cultures of the Africans but from what I know, hair is essential bonding. Black hair needs to be taken care of regularly and by a professional so both men and women n need to go to a parlour or a barbershop regularly and the community builds. Although Chimamanda Ngoze Adiche writes that the men's section is always more cheerful as they share their ideas of politics and society while the women's section speaks of unachievable dreams of the straight hair. The barbershops in this play indeed showcase the community and men sit around discussing politics as well as personal issues. The play switches between barbershops in Harare, Lagos, Kampala, Accra as well as London where are the various countries meet. And they are all ordinary barbershops with ordinary people. Be it that a young man "steals" a cut but comes back to pay or a young man who misu

Ink

I watched Ink at the Almeida Theatre and rate it 5/5. It was fantastic and no wonder it got a West End transfer which means you can still watch it. The play is about 3 hours long (incl interval) and hence I was a bit sceptical whether it would hold my attention for that long. I need not have worried. You jump right into it. The play starts off with Rupert Murdoch making an offer to Larry Lamb which seems like a stupid move or a really bold move and we all know it's the latter because they succeeded. I didn't know the story of The Sun, neither did I know that The Mirror was once upon a time well regarded. I must buy one of each one of these days. I'm guessing most of you know the story and it's simple. Murdoch buys a dying newspaper gives it to Lamb and pushes him to push boundaries and beat the most circulated paper of that time within a year. Lamb goes on to push rather too many boundaries including the detailed reporting of the kidnapping of a colleague's wife