HOW easy it is to be taken in by glossy advertisements where everything looks so idyllic.

I happened to me a few of weeks ago when I became entranced by a picture of the Minack open -air theatre poised on the cliffs a couple of miles from Land's End.

As we were visiting friends in Cornwall and as my wife loves Shakespeare, a booking to see Two Gentlemen of Verona looked an ideal evening out after all I could always doze and watch the sea during the more boring passages.

"Come early as seats are not reserved," said the advert, so at 6.30pm we were camped out with our picnic on the somewhat hard and unyielding granite seats of the amphitheatre with the start of the play still 90 minutes away.

Far out across the sunlit sea was a slight haze, which as it moved slowly closer was gradually revealed as a rainstorm.

It was a toss up which would reach us first, the rain, or the grand entrance of the actors.

The rain won by about half-an-hour, so by the time the play opened we were already soaked to the skin and regretting that our dinghy-sailing wet suits were locked in the car half-a-mile away.

Worse was to follow, for the production turned out to be one of my pet hates Shakespeare in modern dress.

The 400-year-old words jarred uneasily with the 1930s lounge settings chosen by the director.

By now the rain was lashing down so hard on the 300 huddled theatregoers that concentration was impossible.

Fairly quickly the only points of interest for male members of the audience was now much more of the leading lady would become visible through her sodden, white cocktail dress before the interval came to her rescue.

When it came, an announcer said the interval would be shortened to a five-minute comfort break.

We had already decided to slip surreptitiously away, but there was no need as around 60 per cent of the audience streamed soggily out of the gate with us.

It is often said that people are prepared to suffer for their art but obviously not that much.

SPELLING HELL...

TICKETS from the Marks and Spencer car park in Library Road advise the purchaser that they are parking in Kendall. Must be a case of "I'm not going to pay that much again to park in the town centre to 'LL with it, I'll go to an out of town supermarket where parking is free."

COINCIDENCE?...

TYPE failure' into the search bar of the Google website and press the I feel lucky' button instead of search.

It takes you straight to the White House website and the biography of George Bush.

Is that a freak connection or are the folks at Google having a little joke at the president's expense?