I have always been a fan of Tina Turner, by the way died at the age of 83 on May the 24th 2023. This was a musical of her life at the Hippodrome here in Bristol and it told the story at length of her upbringing in the evangelical south of the USA,  her meeting with her to be husband Ike and their stormy 16 year relationship followed by her heroically overcoming struggles and emerging as the successful artist she was.

I cannot find the words to praise this production enough. There were so many clever techniques used to change the scenery from an office to a dance hall to a bedroom to a recording studio and the use of lighting was ahead of anything I had seen before.

The whole production lasted over three hours and this was a 2.30PM performance today Thursday 24th April. The Theatre was completely full; I estimate the average age of the people there was probably about 55. We attended a matinee because it is too difficult to get back to Midsomer Norton after about 10:30 pm when an evening performance would have finished.

There are only a couple more performances to go but if anyone has the time and the inclination then why not go and see it. It ends 26th April.

Children’s school holidays are continuing this week and this was abundantly clear and when we went to visit Zaza which is the industrial size buffet restaurant on the Harbourside in Bristol. There is Indian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, a choice of salads, plus a sweet counter which has little squares of chocolate cake or cream cake.  For the following reasons we’ve decided that enough is enough at least for the time being:

# They always have high levels of music. Requests in the past to turn down music have failed. As a result when you speak to someone it has to be in short bursts and almost shouting.  Definitely not the place for a first date.

# Secondly although there is a variety of food it is not always of the best quality but you can expect to leave the place with enough food in your belly to avoid hunger.

# I’m not sure if it’s very good for their digestion to get up and down every five minutes do a 5-minute walk to where you want to get the next lot of food from and feel your plate.

# The place was crowded mostly with families,  some behaving in a less than polite manner with screaming children running around the place. We noticed that a lot of food was simply left on the plates and discarded. A woman was feeding her two young children and when she left, the floor was covered with bits of food which presumably someone had to clear up.

# The quality of the food is just one characteristic, it’s the atmosphere or lack of it which is too much like eating on a platform on a train station for us to be able to relax and enjoy ourselves.

I think if you’re going to have an occasional family outing or boys group and don’t mind a rough and tumble atmosphere than it is okay but somehow for us the phase has passed. The cost was £13.99

Over the harbor we had seen an Indian restaurants which offers all you can eat for £14.99 so next time we’re going to try that.