It's Snowing, So It Must Be Panto Season

Last weekend I went to see my sister-in-law perform at a school production.  The school is where my niece goes to, where I and both my brothers also went, and was to celebrate the school’s 50^th anniversary.

My sister-in-law has never acted before and had decided to give it a go because it is something she has always fancied trying, and she seemed to be really enjoying herself.

We all had tickets for last Saturday night but to be honest, I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it because of the weather.   I live about 30 miles away from my old home, and normally the journey is a doddle, but I don’t like driving at night and I particularly don’t like driving in bad weather. But it was important to my sister-in-law and I wanted to support her, so I decided to go anyway.

It was raining heavily when I left, even though it was -1^oC, and the spray on the motorway made driving difficult.  Before I had left, my Dad had said it was snowing where they were but I didn’t think it would settle because it was so wet everywhere else.

When I turned off the motorway, it was like driving into a different world. The hedgerows were completely white and the roads full of dirty slush.  The further I got to my parent’s house, the whiter it became and the slippier the roads. It was at that point I was glad I had packed an overnight bag for me and the boys, just in case.  I thought I may have to use it.

We walked round to the school in a snow storm, the pavements and roads were thick with it and the boys had snowball fights all the way. They thought it was brilliant but by the time we arrived we were all looking pretty much like snow monsters ourselves.

The panto, Dorothy and the Wizard who’s Odd, was brilliant.  Full of local humorous references, lots of laugh-out-loud moments, and some singing and dancing.  And as for my sister-in-law’s performance, well I was absolutely blown over.  I thought she might be a bit nervous, but it looked as though she had been acting all her life.   She is one of the nicest people I have ever known, but her part as the wicked witch was utterly convincing and I don’t think I’ll ever view in her in quite the same light again.

Despite the snow I was pleased that I had made it because it was one of those moments in life which I will never forget.  I was so proud of her for getting out there and doing something she has always wanted to do, and for being so good at it too.

The snow was still thick when we left but didn’t seem to be freezing.   Desperate to spend the night in my own bed, I decided to brave the weather and drove home.  It took me a while to get back onto the motorway, but once there the snow simply vanished.  I said to the boys that I felt as though I had come from Narnia back to the wardrobe.  My eldest commented, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, can I be the Lion?’ I replied, ‘And I suppose I’ll have to be the witch.’  There was a silence until my youngest said in a small voice, ‘Why do I have to be the wardrobe?’ And our laughter eased the journey home.

It was certainly a night to remember in more ways than one.