Lady Cross becomes a critic

I know there's no excuse to leaving my audience of 31 viewers (probably most of them were me) hanging in mid-air just before I got married, so here I am, back on the blog.

I've decided, in my wisdom as a married woman, to have a much more positive blog. Maybe it's the Yoga Hatha I've been doing at the gym, or maybe it's just that I've had a revelation, but all the negative angst about silly customer service must be raising my blood pressure, and that can't be a good thing.

So my new venture for my blog is not to moan, but to critique! I'm not quite sure which is worse, but I will give this a go and see what happens.

I've seen quite a few things for free through this brilliant website called seefilmfirst. You get sent codes to see films and show for free and they have a great range of locations to choose from around the UK.

On Wednesday, we saw Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellan and Matthew Kelly. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much because I didn't want to have high expectations and be disappointed. And believe me, I was not. McKellan is not overbearing, and Kelly is overbearing and a larger than life character - but he's merely playing his role. I've heard bad things about Godot, but I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who can get tickets before its run ends on 4 April. It's on at the Haymarket and after the performances finish in London, it's going on a world tour. Try to catch it before it goes.

That's me for now. Thanks for tuning in, and let me know what you think of my new PMA. I feel relaxed and enlightened already and hope you do too. Here's hoping you can also benefit from free theatre and cinema tickets soon.

It's been birthday week for Little Lu. Lots of lovely presents all round and lots of lovely wishes on Facebook and by snail mail too.

We started with drinks and dinner with my fiancé and six friends at the Smithfield Bar and Grill. The service was excellent, the company fantastic and the food, very good indeed. I had calamari for starters, shared a chateaubriand with Mr Cross for mains, and had a lovely warm chocolate dessert with ice cream, with a candle in the middle with everyone singing Happy Birthday.

The next day, we went to see Fugitive Pieces at the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square. Reminded me a bit of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which is not how I remembered the book.

Yesterday, the fiancé took me to Le Caprice for dinner and then we went on to the opening night of Cosi Fan Tutte at the London Coliseum (ENO). The only disappointment with Le Caprice, was that the bang bang chicken as a starter tasted like a jar of Sun Pat peanut butter had been emptied over it, but otherwise, it was an excellent meal, and the staff were very attentive. Beware of the 12.5% service charge and cover charges which are automatically included.

Cosi Fan Tutte was excellent, although being Mozart, each line is repeated about four times, because of the symmetry of Mozart's music. Ah well, it was nice to see some familiar names in the orchestra from my Royal College of Music days.

I'm now exhausted after three nights out on the trot. Maybe old age is getting to me, who knows, but I love my sleep and was glad that I didn't need to wake up at 7.10am this morning.

Thanks to everyone for a lovely week, particularly to Mr Cross, kiss kiss.

Little Lu countdown

Well, the clock has started to tick. It's ten weeks on Saturday!

Final preparations have begun, including meeting with our wonderful wedding co-ordinator, Laura to run through all the details. She is lovely and makes everything so easy for us. Plus she is super organised which really helps.

We have been fairly sensible budget wise, and so have managed to squeeze in a few optional extras to make our day complete. Lips sealed for now, but I promise a full run-down once I am Mrs Cross... Watch this space.

A girl at work was selling her gym membership, so I am now a proud member of Soho Gyms. So far I've been to three classes: abs training, yoga and body attack. All of them very hard but good. It's a great gym and the instructors are friendly, helpful and demanding, all for our own good of course.

Other than that, the Lu Crew base in Stratford upon Avon has undergone an overhaul, and looks tip top. Three new bathrooms, re-wiring, all new lighting and brand new carpets throughout. Just a few snagging issues as they say in construction, and it's home. Elder sister Lu is due home in a couple of weeks for an inspection. She's had my report and it was glowing.

Other than that, it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm off with a few friends to the Smithfield Bar and Grill. Two for one cocktails in happy hour and then on to a private room for myself and seven guests. Should be a great time. Thursday is a film in Leicester Square and on Friday, Mr Cross is taking me to Le Caprice for dinner and then on to see the English National Opera performing Cosi Fan Tute at the Coliseum. I think I will be feeling like a bit worn out by the weekend.

Over and out, tune in next time.