Writing, fatshion, me: The Rocky Horror Show in Manchester

On the 19th of May my aunt Caroline and I headed over to Manchester to see the Rocky Horror Show. We were going to see Bruce Springsteen the day after with my mum and her friend Dawn, so my aunt was already up in Yorkshire. So when I saw that Jason Donovan was playing Frank I asked my mum and Caroline if they wanted to go. My mum didn't, but Caroline said she would. So that was good! Jason Donovan was the first Frank n Furter I ever saw, way back in like 1999 when I was fresh faced and fifteen and my mum took me, so I really wanted to see him again.

Caroline arrived at my mum's on Sunday so I invited her to craft club with me on Monday morning. She does paper crafts so she brought some stamps and inks to play with. There weren't many of us there, oddly. But it was nice for her to join me. We got back home and had some lunch, then ran some errands before getting changed into our glad rags for Rocky! Caroline had a pretty good Magenta costume but I just wore my peach polka dot dress and some make up.

We set off just after 3pm because I am always paranoid about traffic going to Manchester. It was actually fine, but we did have to go round a couple of times to get into the car park that we wanted. We parked about twenty to five. I had booked a table at Bundobust which is just next to the theatre, and because I love it. Caroline was happy to go. But we had some time, so we walked up to Central Library to have a look round. There was an exhibition on about HIV and Aids activism in Manchester which was pretty cool. In the sound booths there was a thing about the accents of Manchester and surrounding areas, which was also cool, so I listened to some of that.

We then walked back to Bundobust. It's all vegetarian Indian street food which is always exciting for me. But I think they have reduced the menu quite a lot which is a bit annoying. But I went for chaat, as usual, but then okra fries, and paneer kadai, which was paneer in a rich sauce and which came with a paratha. It was delicious! Caroline got the pickled cucumber salad, paneer tikka, and gobi manchurian (which I've had before and don't like, but she did). I had a cucumber and lime mocktail which was lovely too.

By the time we had finished it was past 6pm so we went to the loo and then walked to the theatre. Caroline was asked to film her arriving for some kind of social media thing, which was very cool! We got our seats and then the show started!

I think I've seen it about ten times in my whole life, but I can't remember exactly. I didn't think Riffraff was as good as the one who has played him for years (who was called Kristian), but Brad and Janet were both very good. Jason Donovan as Frank was good, but maybe a bit lacking in energy. But maybe that's just his age now?! His shoes broke too which was very funny and he had to bounce about a bit before he could go offstage and get some other ones. He also corpsed a couple of times, but it adds to the fun and camp. The stand out person though was the narrator, played by Jackie Clune. She was brilliant.

Caroline and I were back at my house by 11pm which wasn't too bad at all! She then went back to my mum's and I went to bed. I am glad we bothered to go because I did enjoy it, and it was nice to spend the day with my aunt.