Oh My Life! - Tales of My Life and Times - Christmas at Chatsworth

Hi!!!

You guys, Christmas is well and truly on its way and I am so excited, not least because it brings so many fun opportunities to spend time with family and friends. This year, one of those things has been visiting Chatsworth at Christmas, and I wanted to share some snaps from the day and tell you what we got up to.

I'd been to Chatsworth once before, which was also a Christmas visit - it was in 2014, and the theme for the decorations was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (one of my favourite stories). That was an amazing visit and so, upon finding out the theme was The Nutcracker, I suggested booking tickets for this year.

I adore the story of The Nutcracker and have been to see the ballet (one of the most wonderful things I've done) and so I was massively excited.

We set off early and made the drive from Birmingham to Derbyshire - Chatsworth is in a town called Bakewell, which I think is such a cute name. Anyway, we got there at about quater to ten and our slot for the house was 10:15am so we took a little early morning dander round the market beforehand.

Every room in the house was decorated beautifully with a different scene from the Nutcracker. The decorations followed the story from Clara's early encounters with her Nutcracker Doll to their journey into the Land of Sweets (aka where I would like to live, please and thanks).

There were also rooms decorated like the stage of the ballet and the dressing rooms of the dancers playing each character.  One of my favourite rooms was the Sugar Plum Fairy's dressing room - it features a Christmas tree made of tutus and a very magical bubble bath.

The staff are all dressed in themed costumes which was another really special touch, and the music from the ballet plays throughout the house.

We spent some time in the afternoon in the gardens exploring, looking round the Christmas market and getting carried away with the cheeses and game meat stalls and drinking hot chocolate, and we even took a short horse and carriage ride (which cost £2 each) which was lovely.

It was such an amazing day and it was a really lovely thing to experience with family, too. 

I'd highly recommend going this year if you can - I think the Christmas market might still be on but I know the decorations and gardens are definitely still there all the way till the big day.

Find out more here.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed seeing what I got up to on this very festive day out.

Have you been to Chatsworth House? Do you like The Nutcracker? Do you have any comments or suggestions for future posts, be sure to leave a comment.
Peace out, sugar plums.

I hope your day is delightful and magical!

GingerSnaps xxx

It's Showtime!!! - Theatre Reviews - The Ambassador Box Experience at The Harold Pinter Theatre.

Hi!!!

As you may well know, I recently went to see Sunny Afternoon at the Harold Pinter theatre. I usually get tickets in the stalls but was treated to the Ambassador Box Experience, which I'll be reviewing for you today (if this was any other blog, this would be sponsored but we all know that isn't the kind of ship I run).

We arrived ten minutes before the start of the show (which was a bit stressful for me, not gonna lie. I don't like to be late to important things) but we had been told that you can access the seats in the experience from half an hour before the show begins, which impressed me because it gives you plenty of time to get settled.
 I'd had seats in the box before but that was for a pantomime when I was very, very young so I can't say that I have anything to compare it to, sorry.
Anyway, we were shown to our seats by a member of staff who was incredibly kind and helpful, as I found all of the staff at the Pinter to be. You get some added extras as part of the experience - savoury snacks, Belgian chocolates and some Cava. I can say for certain that all were enjoyed very much (whoever does the theatre's weekly big shop gets a gold star from me). The seats were super comfortable and there was loads of space. The view from seats in the box takes some getting used to, especially if you normally sit in the stalls, like I do, but I felt like I had a good view of the majority of what was going on onstage, as most of the action is central or on the platform. And you can't really complain because there are seats with a restricted view around the rest of the theatre (I would assume) - at least I had the option of leaning on the little rail, too.

 

So to recap - the staff were very accommodating and helpful, the seats we had were incredibly comfy, I had a relatively good view of everything, the snacks/drinks/extras were of high quality, show was fab and I was really happy with the Ambassador Box Experience. Plus, I had extra room to dance and air guitar at the end.

I would definitely recommend it to you, if you ever get chance. It really is a great experience and you do feel very special. Five stars.

Ta Dah! As always, thanks for reading. After hardly doing any theatre-y content for a year, I'm glad to be back at it.
Have you been to the theatre lately? Have you seen Sunny Afternoon? Have you ever had tickets for seats in the box? If you have any comments or suggestions for future posts then be sure to let me know.
Happy weekend to you and yours.

Have a fantastic day!

 

GingerSnaps xxx