After waiting a year and three months to go due to the pandemic, I finally went to see 9 to 5 the musical and it definitely did not disappoint.
As the show was at The Mayflower in Southampton, we headed over by train and went to a few shops and had some food and drinks before going to the event.
For lunch, we went to Zizzi in West Quay and I had the chorizo carbonara, so nice would definitely recommend! The burrata salad starter was so nice too. I also had the passion fruitini cocktail.
The show started at 2pm so we walked over to The Mayflower after lunch and getting in was super easy there weren't really any queues. There were no empty seats though as so many people must have been waiting to go since 2020 like us.
I had seen 9 to 5 the movie with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin which I loved, but this was my first time seeing it as a musical on stage and it was amazing!
It was a really clever adaptation of the film and it was so funny too, at one point I think tears were coming out because I was laughing so much.
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The characters were fab too. Franklin Hart Jr, the misogynistic CEO of the company is definitely more exaggerated in the musical than in the film which really helped to get the point across of how women have been treated in the office compared to how men have been treated.
I'd like to think the way women are treated in the workplace has improved since the 1980s but there are still some improvements that need to be made in certain workplaces I would say.
The three women main characters are so empowering and it's great to watch their journey and see a happy ending for each of them.
There was a great balance between comedy, and also keeping focused on the serious themes of misogyny throughout. Every so often, Franklin Hart Jr would make sexist jokes about women to one of his male coworkers, Bob. At the end of the show, Bob then hit him back with my favourite line: "What do you call a female CEO? A CEO."
I definitely need to see more musicals, I always love them! So far, I have only seen 9 to 5, Mamma Mia, The Rocky Horror Show and Shrek The Musical - all of which were so good.
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Are you a fan of musicals, which is your favourite?
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, I spent the Saturday and Sunday at Bournemouth 7s Festival. I had my ticket booked so long ago and was due to go in May 2020, so I felt like writing about my experience there.
If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that in lockdown last year, I tried recreating Bournemouth 7s Festival in my back garden.
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Luckily I was able to stay at a friend's house so I didn't have to do any camping. I'm so glad, it was such a tiring weekend so I needed the proper sleep in a bed.
Day 1
For day 1 my friends and I went out for breakfast so we could line our stomachs and started drinking pre-lunch time. No judgment here it was a big weekend! We had some more pre-drinks at the house before heading to the festival at around 2pm.
The queue for day 1 was pretty long as we had to show covid passes or test results, tickets, ID, and our bags all in different places.
When we arrived we tried out all of the different music tents and got the drinks in. The sponsored drink this year was White Claw, which I really think helped me out. Because it's a hard seltzer which is quite watery, it was so easy to drink all day and was quite hydrating. They were also not too strong so I didn't overdo it too early. Incidentally, water was £3 and these cans were £4!
The headlining act on day 1 was Ella Eyre. She was good but the main tent was so full and we were so far back that we couldn't really see that well and it was getting a bit crowded, so we ended up just going to an RnB tent which was so good.
Day 2
Again, we had a couple of drinks before leaving for 7s, some of us were more hungover than others (I am smug because it's usually me but I felt amazing - thank you White Claws). We left for 7s earlier and there was no queue as we all had wristbands by that point so got in a lot quicker.
We did actually watch about 5 minutes of rugby on Sunday, I know it's mainly for sports but I much prefer just dancing and listening to music to watching the sports (sorry!)
After that we did a bit of the Bingo Lingo which was good, my feet were killing from the day before and there was still so much walking be done so I was just grateful for sitting down really.
As for the rest of the day, it was pretty much the same as the day before, just going between tents and dancing listening to the different music.
We didn't end up seeing the headlining act, but I can't remember who it was anyway and the other tents had such good music anyway that it didn't really matter.
It feels quite weird now because that was the last event in Bournemouth that I'll probably go to for a while because I've finished uni there now. But I'm looking forward to more events in the future.
Have you been to any festivals this year?
This year is the year of the staycation. As annoying as it is that we can’t go abroad, it’s much better for the planet and it reduces your carbon footprint. Did you know that a flight from London to Rome produces 234kg of CO2? That is the same amount that the average person in Sierra Leone produces in a year! A flight from London to New York is 986kg of CO2, which is more than the average person in 56 countries use per year, including Paraguay. (figures from The Guardian)This is a guest post by Caroline from Enviroline Blog.
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