ELWOOD AND ELWOOD

Well, last night was the long awaited "Jake and Elwood" show at the Darlo Civic. The audience was  invited to join in. We had been lucky enough to pick up some great hats and faux raybans from a stall in the Brighton Lanes while we were visiting that way a couple of months ago. D had the advantage of owning a man's suit which was pretty near perfect for the occasion and I made do fairly well with a pair of black trousers and a not quite matching black jacket.

We practised a bit in the kitchen before we left. We both forgot the mantra..."Never take off the shades"! so we only look slightly the part here. Mind you, I think the actions are getting close to the Belushi cartwheel, well nearly, sort of.

Yes!!! after many rehearsals we started to get the look right and feel the part. That was the problem. Neither of us wanted to be Jake...the short fat one. Both of us claimed two much elevation to be Jake, "fat" was not an issue and Elwood was the younger one. Oh! so who cares.

Finding an old Ohio State Trooper car was tricky to say the least and D was not keen on having his car doors painted white and having a stick-on, mock, police decal. So instead of pulling up at the last minute, with smoking tyres and parking on the double yellow lines outside....we went early to the car park.

I like to go early. You get to park right across the road. You don't pay after 6pm. You don't have to worry about the weather and also...I sort of pictured a load of us "all dressed up" and getting out of our cars together and forming a long line of Blues Brothers as we headed across the road and up the sweeping stairs to the bar for a pre-show drink.. 

One car did stop us and the women said that they wished they had dressed up too!!!!!. The same people approached us for a photo and a chat at interval. Others smiled admiringly as we promenaded. BUT many more said that if it had been "Rocky Horror Show" they would have come in fish-nets, for sure. All the people who said that were men. What does that say?

Here's cheers to the other dozen who had a go at dressing up.

And here's the best dressed up of the evening.

And here's a small one.

It was a fantastic night. Jake and Elwood at http://www.jakeandelwood.co.uk/ will give you a chance to see if it is in your area if you care. It's a shortish show but so energetic that it must exhaust them. There is no support act and they spend all their time on stage. The audience also spends a large part of the show on their feet and singing along.

We were exhausted and exhilarated by it all and the only way to cope with that today was to go on a long walk. It was gorgeous weather and we walked 6 miles around Cockfield Fell  with many of the usual group. When we returned, it was to find that the window cleaner and his mate (a painter and decorator) had  eventually turned up and painted all the window sills, lintels, steps and bollards and the house looks lovely and fresh.

A great weekend!

Hope you have all had a good time too.

Cheers Gillian