A Right Old Pantomime

At this time of year, as the evenings draw in and there’s a chill in the air I like to make plans for, I don’t know… a package holiday - somewhere sunny, or….eating coq au vin in front of the fire, or… staying in and watching quite a lot of telly.  Brian’s thoughts, on the other hand, him being of a more cultural persuasion turn to… The Ballet. For some years it has been a tradition that we go to see a Mathew Bourne Production at Sadlers Wells. It's our Christmas outing. This year The Nutcracker is being performed (again), Brian's favourite and he is keen to book tickets.... 
We settle down in a positive frame of mind and go on the Sadlers Wells website. Then it all comes flooding back to me: choosing a performance, checking Arsenal’s fixture list to make sure they’re not on TV that night, clicking on the red dot, scrolling down the page, debating whereabouts in the theatre we would like to sit – stalls/circle etc, clicking a price, being presented with a seating plan of hundreds of tiny grey squares with a smattering of bright orange ones, consulting the colour-coded key. Grey=Sold. Starting all-over again. I leave Brian to it, go and make coffee, catch up on some paperwork and have a flick through Grazia.

‘Right, quick, there’s three seats here, on a Thursday. Get your credit card. They only hold them for 6 minutes.’

My heart sinks as I’m presented with the dreaded log-in or register here page. I bought tickets last Christmas so they’ll want me to log-in. Then the even more dreaded user-name and password screen pops up. I try my trusted old secret- word. It rejects it. I try a different one. No good. Hmm… Maybe my username is wrong. I know, it’ll be simpler to just register again. Dum dum dum diddle de dum. Click. ‘This email Address is already registered – please proceed to log-in.’ Groan. Oh no! 47 seconds before my session expires….