A Bad Day For Alfie

We woke this morning to discover it was exceptionally cold and icy outside. Infact, almost cold enough for snow. Alfie insisted on being let out into the garden, but at the exact time I opened the sliding patio door one of next door's cats appeared in the gap in the garden fence. Alfie flew across the garden and ran on top of the remains of the fence which was lying in the gap and would have followed the cat if I hadn't bellowed at him at the top of my voice. He came back, fortunately, with his tail between his legs and looking very crest-fallen. You can always tell when he's unhappy as his ears lay back on his head instead of being upright. He flew into the house and back onto the bed and got near to Carol. I think he was somewhat surprised that I had shouted at him, but it was either that or else he would have followed the cat out onto the Redway behind the house, and landed up goodness knows where. He isn't particularly brave and may well have come back when he realised he wasn't in familiar surroundings, when I recall the incident a few weeks ago when he got out and landed up in the garden shed. We still don't know how he got in there. Presumably there's a hole somewhere at the back which opens through the fence-side.

We haven't been out with the dogs for quite a while so this morning we decided to take them to Rushmere Country Park, where we've been with them on several occasions. No sooner as he gets an idea that we're going out with both our dogs, Alfie becomes really excited and it's quite a job to get him into his harness, his lead on and safely ensconced in the cage in the back of the car. I had removed the cage and it was in one of the spare bedrooms so I had to retrieve it without Alfie seeing and managed to get it into the back of the car.  Poppy was put inside the car and is easy enough as she sits quite happily on the back seat. Alfie, on the other hand, becomes a sort of Tasmanian Devil. Quite amazingly schitzophrenic. I can't believe a little dog who is usually so timid and quiet can become this mad little character who can get into such a froth whenever there's a mention of being taken out for a walk. Goodness knows what our neighbours think when he starts barking and getting over-wrought. We did eventually get him into the cage, but before hand I had to de-ice the car with hot water and we drove out of Milton Keynes and onto the A5 towards Rushmere. We got to the carpark, making sure we had £2 in coins for the exit machine when we left (you get in and out through an entrance which has a barrier which lifts when you enter and you need £2 to put in the machine which lifts the barrier when you exit.) The dogs loved being let off their leads and ran around enjoying their freedom. Quite a lot of other people there and loads with dogs. We strolled through the woods and Carol had bought one of our digital camera with her, the handy Olympus which is great as you can easily put it in your pocket and it's simple to operate. She took several photographs, and a couple with each of us sitting on a couple of seats which are scattered throughout the woods, and Alfie insisted on sitting on my knee for mine! Whenever people were met during our walk both dogs have a habit of running up to them and ingratiating themselves with them. Poppy is the worst, regardless of whether the people want a small dog to stroke and pat. Alfie just rushes up and runs round and round, and there's no fear with him when there's a considerably larger dog in the group. I think his antics are too much for some large dogs such as labradors.

Me sitting on carved chair in Rushmere Country Park with Alfie sitting on my knee.

Alfie insisted in being in this photo with Carol. 

On the way back to the car we had to get the dogs back on their leads. Unfortunately Alfie's nice leather lead got left behind somewhere in the woods, what with dealing with the camera and keeping him under control. A pity as it was a really nice lead, but we decided that both dogs need new leads so it will be a good excuse to buy them new ones. No sooner did Alfie realised we were putting him back on his lead than he started barking and putting him on his lead with somewhat difficult and during this Carol unfortunately dropped the Olympus camera and the glass of the L.E.D. viewfinder got smashed. I don't think it can be repaired. Annoying, to say the least, as it's such a good little camera. We bought it a few years ago in a sale and got it for a really good discount. It looks as if we'll need to replace that, but considering how the technology of these cameras has developed, a new model will probably be an improvement on the old model. So Alfie was in disgrace and was put in the back of the car.  We drove out of the carpark and back home along the A5 back into Milton Keynes. We have two Fuji digital cameras. They have thick shoulder straps which you use to carry them around when you go out. If Alfie sees them he seems to think that they are dog leads and this sets him off yapping, barking and doing his mad act. I think when he saw Carol with the small Olympus camera with it's own carry-strap he thought it was his lead which led to him yapping and barking and then the camera getting dropped and damaged.

Uneventful Christmas

Really not a great deal to report regarding our Christmas this year. We were on our own. Daniel stayed up in Newcastle, where he's completing his degree course. As for Sam, we don't have any address. We know he's somewhere in Wales, but that's all. He does communicate with Daniel but he's not connected via Facebook. He had his birthday on 22nd December.

We went to visit Chloe and Steve when they stayed at Louisa and Richard's in Stony Stratford a few days before Christmas and then went down to Devon to stay with Steve's parents over the holiday period.

On Christmas Eve  (Wednesday) we had to go to Morrison's at Westcroft to pick up the 'Turkey Bomb' we had ordered. This is a meat concoction which we found in the Morrison's Christmas catalogue and it is made of turkey breast, stuffing and bacon. We got to Morrison's far too early (6.30 a.m.) and didn't realise that they wouldn't be closed as, for example, Asda is open 24-hours a day. There were quite a few people waiting outside and we had to sit in the car so as to at least be warm. Eventually the doors were opened and we had to go to the Customer Services desk with our receipt so we could pick up the item we'd come to collect. We were told by the lady on the desk that we'd have to go to the back of the store to collect our 'Bomb.' Staff there were setting up a special table for these orders and one lady was incensed that I was in front of her. She was really quite rude and nasty. I can't think why as her order would have been ready just the same as ours, which came out after a minute or two. They make these items and they have to be ordered. We had quite a few more items to purchase and we managed to use the £25 voucher we had collected over the pervious 6 weeks having shopped each of those weeks leading up to Christmas and got the £25 off our shopping.

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties-Part 14

During my time working in stage management I had to do a wide range of jobs, doing 'The Book' as I've described elsewhere on here, doing 'props', operating various bits of machinery such as working on the fly floor, but also operating the sound for some shows. Generally you would be given the sound effects ready made up on tape and then merely play them back on cue during the performance, but on some shows I had to actually make up the tapes, using gramophone records and transferring the sound effects onto tape. I had to splice in pieces of coloured tape between the cues so that I could run the tape machines and have the next cue lined up so the tape stopped exactly on the head of the machine so when the cue was given the sound effect would start immediately. Also, you had to make sure the sound came out of the correct speaker on the stage, as some of these speakers were set up around the back of the set so that the sound would seem to be coming from a particular place on the stage. There was house music for when the audience was coming into the theatre for the beginning of the play and was played in the auditorium. There would usually be 'curtain up' music, for the opening of the play and usually, if there were scene changes, music to cover these. The plays I worked on had sort of 'theme music' rather like you get at the beginning of a television play or series. Generally the house lights go down and the lights fade on the  house tabs (stage curtains) and this is when the opening music is faded in and as the curtain rises this music plays out and fades so the play can begin. As I said, most of the sound effects would come from gramophone records. The BBC released some excellent sound effect LP's (this was long before digital recording techniques, CD's, computers and so on.) but sometimes we had to record special sound effects which couldn't be found on an LP or from other sources. We did an Alan Ayckbourn play called "Time and Time Again" which required the sound of a cricket match being played off-stage, so we had to record the sound of a ball hitting a bat, people cheering, clapping and so on, and this was done with some of the actors on stage and recorded directly onto tape. For a Shakespeare production of "King Lear" at Ipswich a specially composed electronic score was composed (this before electronic music was more widely used in theatre or television productions) and my own Akai tape recorder was used in the sound department for this production.
I'm not sure whether I mentioned the one blunder I made when I was sound operator on "Roots" at Ipswich Theatre. I had not set up the tape properly for one cue, and I think I wound the tape on to the wrong cue at one point and instead of  music coming out of a record player which the actress Jenny  Quayle is supposed to put on. She got the sound of rain instead of Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite. I was totally embarrassed by the mistake I had made and had to rush down to the stage and apologise profusely. Unfortunately if you don't concentrate hard on what you're doing on something like that it's easy to made that sort of mistake, particularly on a show when there are so many cues coming thick and fast and not keeping an eye on which cue is lined up on which tape machine (there were two on the sound-deck at Ipswich Theatre.)
On rare occasions members of Stage Management had to appear on stage. I was what was called a Technical A.S.M. which meant I was supposed to be wholly a stage management member, but you could be called upon to fill up the stage in some productions.  Acting A.S.M's were so-called because they did stage management duties but could also be expected to take on minor speaking parts. One of the ways someone who wanted to become an actor could get into the business. I hadn't been at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham for very many months before I was called upon to be a walk-on in A Winter's Tale (no doubt one of the many 'Gentleman' or 'Courtiers' that there are in Shakespeare's plays.) During this I had to be costumed in doublet and hose, including very uncomfortable shoes and at one point during he show myself and another A.S.M. had to kneel on really uncomfortable sort of duck boards on stage, which really hurt my knees, I think in such a position that I had one knee in contact with the floor and the other bent ( a one-knee bend? Is that the right term?) and it was very difficult to keep still without moving so as to 'upstage' the other actors. No speaking or noise came from us during this scene, but I think I got a permanent impression on one or other of the knees which came into contact with the floor! Later in the season they did a production of 'Romeo and Juliet' and myself and this other A.S.M. were on stage during the opening scene which had a fight going on between the Montages and the Capulets and we were fighting with staves, which meant actually having to use what were in all intents and purposes sort off broom handles and we were supposed to fight with these staves.

Cold but Clear

A cold morning, but no frost. A very clear sky when Carol left for work. Some stars out and there was the most beautiful blue sky over-head. No sign of the so-called 'Weather Bomb.' I'm not sure whether it missed this area of the country and what effect, if any, it had on other parts of the British Isles. I think the western side of the country as well as parts of the north got hit by winds, rain and very high seas.

Child Killed Crossing Road in Milton Keynes

Dreadfully sad news this morning about the 12-year old girl who was run over and has died as a result of crossing the road near Netherfield, Milton Keynes at around 5.15 last night. I can't understand how this can happen as there are bridges and underpasses so you should never need to cross any of the grid roads around Milton Keynes. People are saying on Facebook that the underpasses are unsafe as there are always crowds of youths hanging around near them and that they are poorly lit. I have read several news items about people being mugged, assaulted, raped etc in and around Milton Keynes. And where are the police who should make some sort of presence so that people can feel safe and secure? Never any when they could prevent this sort of incident. Then, where this girl's parents and how on earth did they let their child out at that time of the evening when the light is failing? I feel sorry for the driver of the car which hit the child. I think parents should take far more responsibility for their children. Or at least teach them some sort of road sense. There's a  40 M.P.H. speed limit along Saxon Street near Eaglestone. But most drivers never obey the limit. It's quite difficult to drive along that stretch of road and keep to the limit as there are always drivers who come up behind you an try to get you to drive faster. But as there's no police around to check this limit is obeyed, it's no wonder drivers go faster than 40.  The irony is that this speed limit was put in place because a child was killed somewhere along that stretch of road who was apparently a pupil at the Milton Keynes Academy. Also, I think because the hospital is in Eaglestone. It's the same as drivers who will insist on using their mobile phones as they drive, even though it is illegal. Very dangerous, in my opinion, as how on earth can you concentrate on the road when you're talking on a phone? I've even heard that people are seen on the M1 driving at around 70 whilst texting!

Wet and Windy

There was howling gale outside and rain dribbling down the windows  and making quite a noise all night. I'm not sure whether the so-called 'Weather Bomb' hit the British Isles last night, but it was very wet. As I write this at 7.41 a.m. I have driven Carol to work and there is some rain but only a slight amount and the wind seems to have dropped, thankfully. I doubt our remaining fence will be standing if there is strong wind as I suspect there will be. There is another section which looks to me to be on the verge of falling over. It is very rotten and won't survive much longer. Still, we wait with baited breath to see whether the landlord actually comes to get the fence replaced, but I doubt it.

We are ready for Christmas. We put our Christmas tree up last weekend. We have had real trees in the past, but we never seem to have a great deal of success keeping them alive after the Christmas season. Although they are watered and fed, they never seem to last long outside. We have had two which came from local garden centres and have come growing in pots, but I don't know what it is you have to do to keep them alive. When I was a child and living in Cardington we had a Christmas tree which lasted for years, planted out in the garden and brought in for the Christmas season and then re-planted. It seemed to thrive quite well and grew considerably. Maybe that is the secret; you have to plant them out in the earth. I think the roots need to be freed from the pot they are planted in. I just don't understand why the trees we've had have never survived. Just such a shame as I prefer a real tree to an artificial one, although the one we have, which we bought last year, isn't too bad. At least an artificial one doesn't shed it's needles. We got a really decent set of lights in Sainsbury's and so we do at least have enough lights on it to make it look really good.

Sunny But Cold

It's a bright and sunny day, but it is actually bitterly cold outside. We have been warned of some really bad weather coming in from the Atlantic, high winds and rain. They have called it a 'Weather Bomb.' Not entirely sure what this expression means, but I think they are just warning people that we can expect a really bad storm to hit the British Isles over the next day or two. So, if we get high winds, that will mean that the remaining part of our garden fence will not survive. What does remain is in such a poor state it can hardly be described as 'fence.' 

I have been a volunteer at the Milton Keynes Christian Centre for the past three months or so as we've been running an Alpha course. The course finished last week, as every Monday it was running. Last night we were all treated to a meal at Nandos. All paid for by M.K.C.C. which was very enjoyable. About 15 of us were there. This restaurant is one of a group in a sort of parade of units recently built near the stadium. There is another similar 'parade' near Kingston Tesco's. Carol and I went there for my birthday in October and we had a meal at Frankie and Benny's.

Hedgehogs and Dogs

Our dogs keep running in in and out of the garden through the patio doors. When it's really cold they go out to do what they have to do (do I have to describe everything? Use your imagination) and generally shoot back in when they've finished. I have a plastic box with doggy treats in, and if I shake it they know that if they come in they'll both get a treat. Poppy can do her standing-on-her- backlegs and-begging trick, looking very cute and so on and so forth. Alfie is a little more crafty and doesn't do tricks to get a treat. Last evening Poppy went out and in the long grass near the shed there was a sort of scuffling. She had found a hedgehog which had wandered into the garden. She was growling at it and tried to pick it up, but hedgehogs won't be beaten by anything and it did the old rolling into  ball trick and I had to get her away from the poor thing and a good deal of shouting at her got her to leave it alone. She came in the house and I went back about five minutes later and the hedgehog had gone, no doubt vanished through one of the holes in the fence and presumably found a safe and warm place to sleep underneath the trees that line the Medway behind the house or one of our neighbours' gardens. I think Poppy got a face full of hedgehog prickles as a result. But I really didn't want her to hurt the poor thing which was only trying to find somewhere to sleep the night.

Boiler Breakdown

It's a cold and frosty morning. The boiler decided to play up first thing. It had a red light flashing on it's front, which usually indicates that the gas has run out. We have a pre-payment meter, meaning we have to 'top-up' using  a card for gas and a key for electricity and buying credit for them at either the local shop in Eaglestone or the shop at Garraways in Coffee Hall. I usually do this at the beginning of each month. I had to go out to the bin cupboard, climb on the step-stool and use a small torch we have to see how much credit is on the meter. The card has to be put in the slot on the meter which you have to stretch your arm inside the cupboard as the meter is put in perhaps the most awkward place. It showed up on the digital read-out that it had well over £40 so it wasn't that which was the problem. We tried the boiler again but it steadfastly refused to start. So, we had the prospect of no hot water for baths and washing-up as well as no heat in the house as the central heating system works from the boiler. If it needed repairing we would need an engineer to look at it, which would mean if we went through our landlord it wasn't likely to be fixed any time soon. As we were promised by the landlord that we would have our fence repaired, and still nothing on that (very nearly six months have passed since we signed the tendency agreement with the landlord and moving away from the rental agency.) So, what to do? Ring round to find an engineer who might be able to fix the boiler ourselves or go through our landlord? Fortunately the thing seems to have sorted it self out and is now working. So, I've been able to do the washing-up from last night and the house is relatively warm again. With my heart condition I cannot afford to get too cold. We presume that the boiler needs to be at the correct water pressure to work and this cold snap as interfered with this water pressure.

Dreary December Day

So we're now into December. Only a couple of weeks until Christmas. We managed to do our  grocery shopping in Morrison's on Friday rather than on Saturday as we usually do. It was strange being in there then rather than our usual time on a Saturday. They have a promotion on which they have done for the past couple of years. You have to spend £40 each week for four weeks and get four vouchers to get £25 off your Christmas shop. We have ordered our Turkey roast which we have to collect on Christmas Eve. The £25 voucher will cover the cost of this roast.

Carol had a hair appointment at 12 noon on Saturday, but we decided to go into the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre and parked in Debenham's multi-storey car park. We walked down through the store and Carol looked at some clothes. It is Black Friday weekend and Debenham's were running a sale so it seemed good excuse to buy something at a greatly reduced price. Carol bought a rather nice Mantray sweater with a sort of wintery design of pine tree on it. We walked through the shopping centre and went into Waterston's and went upstairs to the Costa coffee shop and had lattes and browsed the books. It was very busy.

It's incredibly dull and over-cast this morning. Quite dark, as I write this at 9.20 a.m. It's like early evening.

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 13

Once the play has been rehearsed for the given period, the show will then move into the theatre, particularly if it has been rehearsed elsewhere, although some shows are rehearsed using the stage, and the set mark-out will fit into the standing set of the show which is running currently. It is at this stage that a technical rehearsal will be done, which enables all the technical elements to be tried and tested. Stage management will have worked over the previous weekend, having 'struck' the previous play's set, and constructed the incoming show's set on the stage. All the rigging, flying, lighting etc will have been put in place before the set in built. This used to be done on a Sunday, and we would have worked until around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning removing the set of the outgoing show, sorting out props which have to be returned and doing general housekeeping to allow the new show to be set up.

The technical rehearsal is so that  every cue, for lighting, sound, scene change, costume change can be tried out. At this point neither the actors or stage management will have been able to work with the set. The actors will also have all the props they need, rather than the 'stand in' ones that they would have had in the rehearsal room. A technical can last all day, into the early hours of the next day, and in some cases they can drag on into the next day with a break in between, but this is rare. It depends on the complexity of the play. Obviously the more cues, of whatever type, the more stopping and starting there will be. At the end the director will give notes to all concerned, in particular stage management will have to deal with such things as doors sticking, wobbly flats, and a whole host of things, before the first dress rehearsal. Sometimes the first dress rehearsal can follow on almost immediately after the technical, and then one final dress rehearsal the afternoon the play opens. This can be incredibly trying and when stage management have been working since the final performance of the previous play on, say, a Saturday (which was how we worked when I was in rep.) and the next show opens on the following Tuesday evening, that's a good four days solid work with very little sleep.

As with any show, the prompt corner is the operation centre who the whole show. Whoever has been 'on the book' during rehearsals will now be in control here. The 'Book' will, by now,  be made up with  all the cues market in. If a line spoken by an actor is the cue for, say, a lighting or sound effect, then the 'book' with have it market in clearly. In most theatres there is a cueing system using lights, rather like traffic lights in the street, but obviously a good deal smaller. You give a warning that a cue is coming up for the operator, usually a red lights, and when the cue comes, you give a green light. At Ipswich theatre there was a three-light system, which had an additional blue light. The idea being that the operator of sound, lighting or whatever, would flash the blue light to indicated to the prompt corner that they were standing by. It was quite a good idea as it allowed you to be sure the operator was ready. On one occasion at Ipswich I was doing the book for one show, I forget which now, and I hadn't got the blue light from he lighting operator. I had given him the standby, but he hadn't indicated that he was actually standing by. It got closer and closer to the actual lighting change, fade or whatever and I began to panic. It just happened that the lighting board was above the prompt corner, and was accessible by a metal ladder. I had to climb up and see where the operator was, and found him asleep! I had to operate the lighting board as he wasn't awake in time to give the cue! A bit of a seat-of-the-pants situation!

If you were put on props for a show you would be expected to go out and find the relevant items listed for the play in rehearsal. I can recall trudging the streets of Cheltenham as a very green student A.S.M. I became a good deal more savvy at going into shops and asking if we could borrow such-and-such item or items, the owner of a particular shop would be very trusting that we weren't going to damage whatever the item was or even sell it. They would be given free tickets for the play, or the next one in the season, and have a credit in the play's programme. At Ipswich Theatre I remember borrowing a white linen tablecloth for a play. Unfortunately it got badly stained with something which would not wash out. We had kept the wrapping in which it would have been carefully folded for display in the store, but when it was returned it was re-folded, so that the stain wouldn't show! Goodness knows what Debenhams would have done when they discovered that the tablecloth was stained when it was opened up. I just imagine that it would have been sold in a sale or probably not put out for sale at all.

Getting Colder and Foggier

It was particularly cold first thing this morning. I had to scrape ice off the windscreen of the car and then there was fog which made things even more difficult. Carol has taken the car to drive to the Academy this morning as I don't need to have it. She was telling me that yesterday they had a lot of problems at the Academy, not least that there was a power serge and the whole electricity supply was down which meant they couldn't use any computers and then there was a burst sewage pipe which doesn't bear thinking about the consequences of that. As so much in that building relies on the computers, for example, registration, it must have been extremely difficult to operate properly. How, for example, would you teach I.T. (Information Technology) if you couldn't use computers? Also, so many of Carol's lessons use Powerpoint or she has documents on computer files such as Word and other software.

I am into week five of the Starting Writing Fiction course from Futurelearn. I must say, all things considered, it is a good deal better than the course I started which was run as an evening class at Milton Keynes Academy. It's a good deal more challenging. I have not completed all of the assignments but this is due to our situation at home, but, being an on-line course and not having any sort of time restraints on handing in work as you might have on a conventional course, you can work at your own pace and go back and re-do bits that you have any difficulties with. I have posted some written work and get feedback from other people as well as have work critiqued.

Having said that the weather has been a good deal colder, yesterday it was quite sunny once the fog had dispersed. It also resulted in some quite spectacular skies over Milton Keynes, some amazing cloud formations and the colours were very striking. I would have taken the digital camera out and photographed some of it but by the time I'd got back into the house it had changed and it wouldn't have been worth the effort so I left it.

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties-Part 12

I've discussed my time working in stage management in earlier posts on here. I have mentioned running 'The Book', where a member of the stage management team was in charge of rehearsals and then the prompt corner when the show eventually reaches performance on stage. We would begin the whole process with a read-through of the play, when the cast will no doubt meet the entire company for the first time, although in 'rep' (repertory) there would be a core team of actors, around 10-12, who would remain with the company for the entire length of the season (around 6-8 months) although guest actors might be cast in specific productions and not for the entire season of plays. The read through of the play would be the first time the stage management team would get to meet the whole cast as well as the director who might also guest direct or in the case of a rep season, the theatre's artistic director would direct or one of a team of assistant directors might take the helm. The show's designer would have made a model of the play's set, a scaled reproduction which would be made of card and in the simplest representation show how any scene changes would be done. Not only helpful to the actors but the stage management who would have to do the scene changes, although in some shows the actors would also help with scene changes, move furniture or carry on props.

When rehearsals began in earnest (and if it was a two, or three-weekly 'rep' season.) there would obviously be a limited time to rehearse the play as there would be another play running in the evening. Stage management would have market out the play's set with chalk or coloured tape on the floor of the stage or if not there, in a separate rehearsal space elsewhere, either within the theatre or in a hall elsewhere in the town. Many theatres have their own rehearsal space, such as at Liverpool Playhouse where there was an excellent rehearsal studio which I believe has since been converted into a theatre space for actual performances.

Wherever I worked in stage management the jobs were given to staff for  1) The Book 2) Props
3) Sound operation and sometimes (depending on which theatre company) 3) Lighting Board operation. There were also other duties including working on the Flyfloor, working 'practical' things like 'live' sound off-stage i.e. doorslams, gunshots, glass crashes as well as dresser, paging such things as microphone leads and looking after animals that were used on stage (i.e. dogs, cats etc.)

I have discussed 'The Book' on an earlier post, whereby whoever does this is responsible for keeping the 'Prompt Copy' of the play's script up to date with the actor's moves given in the early stages of blocking the play in the rehearsal room, so that actors can refer to this if there is any sort of dispute with the director or other actors. Another member of the stage management team will sit in all the early rehearsals and note any props that will be needed. If a play has been produced before elsewhere there is a good chance that the printed script will have a props list at the back and a setting list, which shows in details where the props should be set on the stage and off stage, as well as personal props which the actors themselves will need, such as cigarettes, glasses, umbrellas etc. which they bring on and use themselves. Once the play is at the performance stage whoever is in charge of props (and, if it is a particularly prop-heavy show.) there may be more than one stage management member running props. During rehearsals stage management will probably have to provide 'stand-in' props for the actors to use, such as teasers, kettles, wine bottles, which may well need water in if they are to pour out drinks as well as some stand-in furniture. I say 'stand-in' because at the early stage of rehearsals all the actual props may not have been acquired by stage management. Some props would be very difficult to find and would need to be hired from a prop company. Such things that you would never manage to find in the average antique shop, such as a stuffed bear, which we needed for a show at Liverpool Playhouse called 'What Every Woman Knows.' There again, if it's something like period grocer items which we needed for another show at Liverpool Playhouse called 'June Evening' which had a corner shop on stage and needed grocer items for the period it was set, 1920's-30's we had to contact a company which specialised in period grocery items and gave us a whole shop-load of things from bars of soap to tea packets. It was in that show that we needed a bulls heart which had to be cooked and eaten! So a specific number were ordered from a local butcher and then we had to cook it and have it ready for the actors to use and eat on stage! Not actually as bad as it sounds as it tasted very much like roast beef! In another show at Ipswich Theatre when we did 'Roots' which is one of the Arnold Wesker trilogy plays, the show called for a cake to be made and then cooked on stag so we had to provide a working oven on stage. The cake was never seen to come out of the oven but for one performance the actress who made the cake actually cooked it and we ate it! It wasn't brilliant, but it proved that she had actually made the whole cake during the action of the play, which can't have been that easy, concentrating on her lines as well as getting all the ingredients of the cake and then baking it!

For all the other props we would need we had to beg, borrow and very nearly steal, whatever items were needed on stage. Looking back some forty or so years it seems amazing that we would go to the various shops around the towns where the theatres were and ask shopkeepers if they would lend certain items. I had to find a samovar for a show at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, for a show called "The Farmer's Wife." I spent a good two weeks trekking around the antiques shops in the town and almost gave up but then found one in an antique centre and managed to persuade the owner of the shop to lend it. I can't imagine what would have happened if it had been stolen or lost and whether the theatre had all these items covered on some sort of insurance policy. In most cases the shows were produced on extremely tight budgets so I suppose the only way they could be staged was to borrow these items from the good people of the town. Some items which did cause problems were drinks bottles and in particular those for shows which were set in, for example, America, where you needed a specific brand of beer or some obscure bottle of spirit such as vodka or whiskey. We would have to traipse around all the bars, pubs and restaurants and ask the managers and bar personnel if they could keep any empty bottles of whatever drink it was and then we had to create the actual liquid part to go inside the bottle with food colouring, gravy browning or even cold tea! I sometimes wonder, looking back, how any actor could be expected to drink those awful mocked-up drinks, be it whiskey, gin and tonic or whatever, when the colouring in the water we used was so foul to taste! As for food on stage, well, that can cause some problems, particularly when you are on a very tight budget. I mentioned earlier the cake that was made and baked on stage, but when you have to create something that looks edible, and often is eaten by your actors, that can be a different matter. We did an Alan Aykbourne play when I worked at Century Theatre in Keswick in the early 1970's, "How The Other Half Loves". There is a dinner party scene where the hostess produces a fancy casserole. We couldn't use meat as it would be too expensive, and wouldn't be seen as such so the concoction was made using bread, gravy browning and water but it did look quit convincing when it was served up. At Watford Palace Theatre I worked on "The Three Sisters" and we had to produce something to look like caviar and we used blackberry jam which did convince and the dining table was set far enough up stage so the audience couldn't see precisely what the actors were spreading on their toast!

Large Lorry With Fencing On Parked Outside Our House

We really thought we were going to get our long-promised fence. There was a very large truck (H.G.V.) Heavy Goods Vehicle (a large lorry or truck to my overseas readers) parked right opposite our house overnight. It had 'fencing' written all over it and pallets on the back. It wasn't clear when I looked whether it had actual fence panels on it, but by the time I noticed it this morning it had gone. So, no chance that our beloved landlord has purchased and actually had them ready to replace the crumbling wreck of a fence we have surrounding our garden. No such luck. After yesterday's ordeal early with Alfie our Yorkie doing his disappearing act through the hole, it might have solved this particular problem. Never mind. One lives in hope. I have come to the firm conclusion that they have now forgotten all about the fence being repaired.

It's again another overcast day. Grey and gloomy is about all I can describe it as, unfortunately.

Alfie Goes Walkabout Again

It's 5.45 a.m. and I go downstairs to make tea, as I do every morning. Alfie follows me down to the kitchen and goes to the sliding patio doors expecting to be let out. I set up the mugs on the worktop along with filling up the kettle at the sink (now, fortunately, running away smoothly.) Having finished at the worktop I let Alfie out, but as I do so next door's cat is seen disappearing over the fence. Alfie shoots off across the garden, chasing the cat, barking noisily. I call after him, but he ignores me and then he disappears through the hole in the fence. I am not exactly over-pleased, as you can imagine. I chase after him, calling for him and going to the hole in the fence. No sign of small Yorkshire Terrier, as it's pitch black and with the small pocket torch I attempt to shine the rather ineffectual pool of light produced by the torch through the hole into the trees behind the fence and lining the Redway behind the garden. From previous similar escaping dog events from Alfie, I would have expected him to yap when I call his name. I panic as I'm not sure where he is. I return to the house to see whether he has gone back into the bedroom, as he has a habit of hiding either behind the sofa in the lounge or upstairs and under the bed. He will hide in these places if he thinks he has done something wrong. Meanwhile, Carol has come out and is vainly calling for Alfie but still no success in finding him. Our other dog, Poppy, is in the kitchen and barking noisily near the patio door. It's as if she's trying to tell us something. We can hear Alfie's bark from somewhere, but it's not clear where. Then I go out into the garden, having by now changed out of my slippers into my trainers as I went across the wet grass in them and as a result got my feet sopping wet. I go to the clapped-out shed, which has the door hanging off as the hinges have given up and it's been kept up with a variety of oddments to keep it shut. I can hear Alfie inside the shed and have to pull the door open as best I can and there he is inside. I have to pull him out of the shed through the narrow gap in the door by catching hold of his collar and dragging him out. I still have no idea how he manages to get into the shed, but as he's so small he can get through almost any small hole. But I'm just glad to have him back, safe and sound. I know he wouldn't go far as he's not the world's most brave little dog and would not have survived very long when it's cold and wet. Relief all round. I actually get to complete the making of the tea which I had been attempting to make when all the bother over the escaping Alfie began. He doesn't wander far when we go of a walk and he's let off his lead. He will run ahead and keeps within eye contact of use and will run back to use when called so it's odd that he was in the shed and didn't respond by barking when I was calling him. I was just so worried that he might have run off and got on the road and got run over which would be tragic and doesn't bear thinking about.

As I've said on here before, our landlord had promised faithfully to repair the fence and after something like five months we are still waiting for something to be done. The state of the fence has deteriorated considerably since we had the visit when they surveyed the fence and we signed a new tenancy agreement and when we moved away from renting the house through Smartmove rental agency. I can't in all honesty see why it has taken so long to get things fixed. We know it was difficult to get new fence panels after the high winds of earlier this year, when no doubt a lot of fences got blown down in the same way that ours got blown down. We spent some time looking for replacement panels in various garden centres and builder's merchants in and around the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire area, but I can't see why the landlord couldn't have done something to at least fix the fence even if it's on a temporary basis.

Unblocked Sink

Gary has been round and unblocked our kitchen sink. Not quite such an easy job to complete if you're not sure what to do or you don't have the correct tools. It was clogged up with fat and muck so we'll have to be more careful what we let go down the sink. As we've lived here over four years we haven't had this problem before but it so easy to forget what goes down the sink when you wash up.

There was quite a backlog of things needing washing up, which is partly done. Not a pleasant job but still needs to be done. We were running out of clean plates and cutlery and it was annoying that you couldn't run the water when a clean mug or plate was needed to eat off.

Foggy and Grey and Blocked Sink

Another dull and dreary morning with fog and rain. On top of that we've had problems with our kitchen sink for the past few days. The drain won't run away properly, which means the thing must be blocked up. I have tried using two products which you tip down the outflow and is supposed to break up the blockage but neither have worked. This is making washing up near impossible so we now have several day's worth of dirty pots, pans, plates and cutlery which is building up near the sink. Carol attempted to unblock things this morning before we went off to work. I was upstairs in the bathroom when I heard a loud clunk from downstairs and it turned out that she had hit her head when attempting to reassemble the plumbing underneath the sink and there was water all over the floor with the entire contents of the undersink cupboard all over the floor. With the shelf at an angle inside the cupboard. When we came back from church we had another attempt at reassembling the pipes under the sink but it's not an easy job. Unlike the old-fashioned system whereby there would be a 'u' bend sort of arrangement which had a nut you undid with a spanner to release any blockage that might have built up. Also, with all the pipes being made of fairly soft plastic you have to be careful that you don't over-screw the connections as they are liable to get 'crossed.' We went round to our neighbour's and Gary came to have a look and will come back later as he has to help his son in law with delivering something as they have a van booked. Don't ask me what they're using the van for and he wasn't sure what time the van was arriving. Just need to get this fixed so we can get the washing up done and cleared away. 

Thoroughly Wet and Miserable Morning

It has rained almost continuously overnight. We could hear the sound of the rain on the windows when we woke this morning and the dogs were very reluctant to go out into the garden when I let them out. Who can blame them? Alfie stood on the doorstep and poked his nose out, then came back in, but I think he realised that he would need to go out at some point, so rushed out but came in quickly. He manages to stay within the sort of shelter of the house when he goes out.Poppy shot out and then came back almost as quickly. As I write this the rain is still rattling on the windows and there's quite a lot of drops running down the glass. The BBC Breakfast weather forecast says that it's going to clear up as the day progresses. It is actually quite mild out and we've had no further frost to freeze up the car windscreen first thing in the morning. Well, considering we're well into November it's not to much to expect from the weather.

I am continuing with the Futurelearn course, although it has now almost come to the end of week three. I'm still doing work from week two. I don't think it really matters as this is not like a conventional course and you can work at your own pace. Reading other people's comments on the website I don't think I'm the only person on the course who isn't completely up to date. I read on some of the comments that there are some people who are on week six, which is the final week. I have learnt quite a bit from this course and certainly more than the  evening course I started but abandoned at Milton Keynes Academy. There is one problem, though. When you upload any written material onto the Futurelearn site you have no more than 200 words to write your assigment, which, to be honest, isn't enough space. I suppose in some ways it's a good thing as you have to learn to edit your work as you go along in order to get it to fit. My previous post on here was actually a piece that I had written for the course and because it was around 500 words I posted it here and then put a link to it on the Futurelearn site.

A Visit To My Uncle

On my way home from school I used to drop in for a visit to my aunt and uncle. I used to bike to and from school, and when I arrived at their house I would lean my bike up against the wall near the back door. They weren’t actually related, but they were always aunt and uncle to us children. Out of respect, I suppose. My aunt was a fussy woman, perpetually cleaning the house, constantly fussing about with a duster and polish, always lugging the ancient Hoover around, making you lift your feet up to vacuum and plumping up the cushions in the sofa and armchairs. She made the most delicious cakes and I could never resist when she offered me a slice of whatever she had been baking, particularly the Victoria sponges which were a favourite, full of strawberry jam and oozing cream which you had to wipe off your chin when you bit in to it. She aways wore an apron with a flowery design on it. I can never remember ever seeing her without it.

My aunt put the two old chipped mugs of tea on the tin tray and sent me outside and through the snow and ice to my uncle’s workshop at the bottom of the garden. It was a freezing cold  February afternoon and it took me all my effort to stay upright instead of slipping and sliding as I walked along the concrete path. It was snug and warm inside his little empire.  He sat by a small paraffin stove, huddled close to keep himself warm. The broken remains of a garden fork clamped into the vice as he was attempting to repair it. His calloused hands gripped the newly-fashioned handle and placed it in the groove of the fork. 

“Good to see you!” he said, patting me on the back. The pipe he smoked was clamped firmly in his mouth, the sweet rich aroma of the tobacco filling the air, the pale smoke curling up and drifted throughout the workshop. That smell brings back so many memories of happy times together. My aunt wouldn’t allow him to smoke the pipe in the house, but in his domain he could do as he pleased, without her interference.

“You’ve timed it well, young man. I needed a break.” I put the tray on the bench, having cleared a space amongst the litter of tools, broken implements, oddments of repaired clocks, chair-backs and other strange and wonderful things.

“You’ve bought the Rich Tea biscuits, I see!” he said, “my favourite!” He took a packet of sugar and shovelled umpteen scoops out into his mug. Too many, I’m sure, but that’s how he liked his tea, strong, sweet and hot.   He stirred it vigorously with the spoon and handed me my mug and we sat while we drank the hot brown liquid. The corners of his mouth creased up more than ever when he smiled.

The above is an assignment done as part of a Futurelearn free creative writing course.

Warren Clarke Dies

I've heard the very sad news of the death of the actor Warren Clarke. He was 67. A brilliant actor who seemed to make a career out of being irascible. With a craggy face and deep Northern voice he made a living out of being tetchy and difficult.  Actually, from what I experienced with working with him , he was nothing of the sort. A really nice man and a great actor, who will be greatly missed. I worked on a couple of shows as a walk-on, one being the show which made his name, Dalziel and Pascoe. I did the very first episode and in it he was his partner Pascoe's best man at his wedding. The actual wedding was filmed at a church in Huntingdon and the crew had set up a rain effect near the church door so when the actors came out they got a drenching with fake rain. This was achieved with a set of hosepipes and a sort of sprinkler arrangement out of camera range and over the head of the actors. A few weeks later we went to shoot what was to be the reception at a hotel on the seafront at Cromer. It was filmed out of sequence because of the failing light, with the guests, myself included, seen to be running after the 'happy couple' as they came out of the hotel to leave for their honeymoon. This was complicated by the fact that we had to run through a revolving door, no mean feat to achieve when the door was revolving. I think we did a few takes to get it right. Meanwhile, inside the hotel they had set up a room with tables set around for the reception. We had to sit at the tables as guests. The crew spent most of the afternoon setting up the effect of rain running down the windows of the room to look like rain (to tie in with the rain seen falling in the earlier 'shoot' in Huntingdon. Warren Clarke was, as I say, supposed to be Pascoe's best man and had a long speech to deliver, but when it took a long time to get the rain effect to work at the windows he did a sort of impromptu 'stand-up' comedy routine which kept all the walk-on's, crew and other actors entertained.

I had earlier done quite a lot of work on 'Lovejoy' which was filmed around East Anglia and this series kept me busy over around five years, and I did a lot of episodes and this is show regularly on the Sky digital television channels. Warren Clarke did some work on one episode called 'Bin Divers' where he was a dustbin man involved in a scam when he and his work colleague find antiques in the rubbish which they collect and Lovejoy the antiques expert gets involved. 

Dull, Damp and Dreary Day

Today starts wet and miserable. Over-cast, and for this early hour of the day, 8.45, it seems incredibly dark. I'm put in mind a poem I remember from school called "November", by Thomas Hood, which describes very well such a day.  Must say quite a lot about my education if I can recall such a poem. Strange how such things stick in your memory. I don't think it had a great deal to do with the teaching, but I suppose poems create strong emotions, create pictures in your head. I can't say I have particularly happy memories of Rushmoor School, quite the opposite. Here it is:




November

NO sun--no moon!

No morn--no noon!

No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--

No sky--no earthly view--

No distance looking blue--

No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--

No end to any Row--

No indications where the Crescents go--

No top to any steeple--

No recognitions of familiar people--

No courtesies for showing 'em--

No knowing 'em!

No traveling at all--no locomotion--

No inkling of the way--no notion--

"No go" by land or ocean--

No mail--no post--

No news from any foreign coast--

No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--

No company--no nobility--

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member--

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--

November!




Thomas Hood

Creative Writing

I didn't continue with the writing course at Milton Keynes Academy. It was really far too basic. I have rung and I'm getting part of the fee refunded. I am now doing an on-line course through something called Futurelearn. I've done a couple of these free courses, one on Shakespeare and another on Hadrian's Wall. I can recommend them highly. I have signed up to do another of their courses, starting in January, on William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet.' Should be interesting as I have a particular fascination with the play and have seen a couple of stage versions as well as the Kenneth Branagh film version which is uncut as well at the B.B.C. Shakespeare television production which has Derek Jacobi in it. I was involved in a production of the play when I was an A.S.M. at Liverpool in 1971. Hamlet was played by John Castle and Ophelia by Joanna David.

Doctor's Surgery Appointments and Weird People

I have had a nurse's appointment booked for today a week or two ago at Ashfield Medical Centre. I went with Carol on the Monday of Half Term and was seen by the doctor who wanted me to have a blood test so I had made this appointment then. Carol needed her own appointment today so we got to the surgery at around 7.45 and queued up. The weather was building up. It had been raining earlier but as we stood and waited it was fortunately dry but the clouds were threatening rain. She was able to get her own appointment fairly quickly. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, there is the option to ring in after 8 a.m. for an appointment but you will never have any sort of guarantee that you will actually get through and then get seen that day.  My nurse's appointment was supposed to be at 8.20, but I didn't actually go into the nurse's room until around 8.35. It gave me plenty of time to observe the people waiting in the surgery and queuing up. A lady with some young children with her was just before us outside in the queue before 8. The little girl with her had a scruffy dolly with her and was running around full of energy. The two older boys seemed to do their best to try and ignore her or to at least appear that they weren't anything to do with them. A bit difficult. I think the little girl must have been quite a handful. Most certainly a very demanding little thing. Once we'd sat down in the waiting area the little girl was causing her mother further grief, running around and demanding attention, but not in an unpleasant way. They went off to the doctor when their name came up on he digital screen. When they came back several minutes later the little girl was wearing her mother's wooly hat and proceeded to slide up and down the shiny floor. The mum told her to get up in a commanding voice which lead to the child screaming loudly. They then sat in the waiting area, supposedly to see a nurse or get the results of a test or something.

A somewhat belligerent man came in. Short, stocky, Scottish accent. Went up to the lady on the reception desk and demanded to get an appointment. All at the top of his voice so everyone could hear. If he'd got to the surgery before 8 as we had done he might have been able to get the appointment he wanted (from what I heard, it was for his son who was at work.) I was very impressed by how the lady on reception handled it. The gentleman left, but I'm not sure whether he got his appointment or not, but he was in a far calmer mood than when he came in.

Another odd person wandered into the surgery while we sat and waited. A woman who looked drugged up to the eyeballs. She was dressed in a fleecy dressing gown, tied tightly around the waste and wearing slippers. It looked as if she had just got out of bed and had wandered outside, got lost and turned up in the doctor's reception area. I don't know whether she went in to see a doctor, whether she signed in (incidentally, the automated signing-in computer which is on the wall beside the reception area, was out of order. You had to sign in with either of the two ladies who were on reception.) but she hung around for a while.  Perhaps she wandered back out when I went in for my appointment with the nurse. Anyway, whatever she was there for, if indeed she was there for anything, perhaps to get out of the rain, she wasn't dressed appropriately. Certainly not for a rainy day. And where do all these odd people come from? At one point she went over to the window near the door and leant against the glass, putting her head on her hands. I couldn't tell whether she was tired, just resting there and waiting, thinking whether to stay where she was, or walk out. Just seemed a very odd sort of pose, but considering her odd attire, it might not have appeared quite so odd. 

Carol went in to the doctor's surgery when her name came up and I remained sitting in the waiting area for mine to come up to see the nurse. Then this weird gentleman came in. He was tall, around sixty five, bald, about 5ft 8in tall,  and slim. He had darting eyes. You really didn't want to give him any sort of eye contact. I didn't hear him talk or make any sort of noise. Just had a strange sort of body language. He had a carrier bag with him and came towards me, and moved the chair next to mine several feet away from me.  Why? What had I done wrong? Did he just not like sitting near other people? More likely other people didn't want to sit near him. He gave me a strange look. He had on a sort of wet-weather jacket, sort of zipped up and with a high neck. Also what looked like a bicycle lock on a chain and worn round his neck, so I assumed he had arrived on a bicycle. He then proceeded to sort out the items in his supermarket carrier bag which included a bunch of pink flowers and one of those folding umbrellas, black and glistening with raindrops. I didn't give him eye contact, but from what I could see from the corner of my eye he kept rearranging the items in the carrier bag. He then went up to the girl on the reception desk and was given another carrier bag or something like one and then went back to his chair and started sorting the items from the supermarket carrier into this new bag. 

My name then came up on the digital display and went into the nurse's room. I'm never sure exactly which room to go to as there is a long corridor with doors with 'Nurse's Room' with numbers on, but the one I wanted was the last one along the corridor. I had my blood taken, laying on the couch as I'm prone to passing out, or have done in the past as I have explained in earlier posts on here. Then I had an E.C.G. which I haven't had for quite a while. All present and correct and then left to wait in the waiting room. By now Carol was back, having seen the doctor and having been given two prescriptions for medication. She had been to the pharmacy next door to have the prescriptions made up but it wasn't open so we will have to go back later.

She told me, when we got into the car, that the 'weird gentleman' was behaving very strangely when I had been with the nurse. Apparently he had sat next to her and had sat on the small table in the corner where I had sat earlier and had tried to sit on her lap. Sounds very odd to me. Where was he from? Some mental unit, such as the Campbell Centre, which is within the grounds of the hospital and not far from where we live. I expect the staff in the medical centre are used to him and are aware of his odd behaviour, or at least I hope so. Could put you off if you were to encounter him. Carol told me he went off on his bicycle and had the bunch of flowers sticking out of his saddle bag, and with his umbrella up. Not sure whether he held it over himself as he rode along, but it would seem a bit difficult to ride a bicyle and hold up an umbrella. Weird. We were just glad to get away from the medical centre and to not be in the centre of some outing from some mental institution.

Later on, around 5.30 or so, I had a telephone call from the surgery to say that the doctor had requested me to come for a routing appointment, which has been made for 25th November. Nothing serious, just to get feedback no doubt from the tests that will supposedly be done by then.

Another Cold and Frosty Morning

The water wasn't warm this morning. I was somewhat annoyed as I have only just put credit on our meter (one of those jobs you have to top up with a key. We usually go to the local shop in Eaglestone.) You then have to get the step-stool and go outside to the bin cupboard, open the door and climb up on the step-stool and stretch your arm in to the back of the cupboard and put the yellow plastic card into the meter. You have to press one of the two buttons and hold it and the meter should make a sort of whirring sound which denotes that the credit is on the meter. In theory at least the digital display should now show the credit. You have to remember to turn off the gas near the boiler in the kitchen. But this morning it didn't work and the little red light on the boiler continued to blink. It was something to do with the water pressure in the boiler which had to be adjusted and the central heating burst into life.  The electric meter is inside the house which isn't so difficult to reach, and you can see the amount left on the digital read-out as you walk upstairs. This meter is actually behind the bin cupboard and i'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to have both meters on the inside of the house and so avoid this sort of situation, having the electric and gas meters side by side. It was something to do with the fact that it was very frosty and cold first thing this morning, a considerable drop in temperature from what it has been over the past week or two. There was frost on the car windscreen and I had to spray de-icer on it before we could drive out of the estate. It may be cold but as I write this it is sunny and another of those days which are deceptive as it looks very warm but once you go outside it's quite chilly.
Later in the day I drove to Oldbrook Boulevarde to go to Lidl's. I parked the car outside the Tesco Express store but walked over to Lidl's which is only a short walk away. I have been noticing the building work going on outside Lidl's and it is now well underway. They had put up a sort of temporary fence a few weeks ago and the work progresses on building what is obviously an extension. One end of the carpark where I generally park when I shop around there is cordoned off and has a sign for construction use only. There was a large crane on the site the other day when I went there but it seems to have gone and there were quite a few workmen in yellow hard hats walking about. The other morning when I went into Lidl's there were several men in suits walking around with one lady amongst them with clipboards and they were looking at the carpark immediately outside the store and I noticed them walking around the store so perhaps they are planning more work both inside and out. Ironic that Tesco's are experiencing problems at the moment, not hitting profit margins they were expecting to together with their share price falling considerably while Lidl and Aldi's fortunes are rising sharply. This might explain why they are extending the store. I don't know whether this is happening to all their stores across the country, but I expect it is.
On the way back home I saw an old lady pushing her shopping trolley along the road. I've seen her several times before, but it does seem to me somewhat dangerous to be pushing a trolley along the road when she could just as easily walk along the Redway and prevent being run into.

Frosty Morning

It's one of those really deceptive sorts of mornings. It looks bright and sunny out but when you get outside there's a distinct nip in the air. It was certainly quite chilly and there was a small amount of ice on the car's windscreen which I had to clear before we could drive over to the Academy this morning. Also, a certain amount of mist along Saxon Street as we came out of the estate. It's that time of year when you can never decide what to wear as the weather is so indecisive. I think we've been spoilt by the recent warm weather and we shouldn't complain as it's now November.

Faulty Technology

I went to Sainsbury's this morning with the intention of buying some clothes as they currently have a 25% sale on of all their branded clothes. I spent some time browsing and choose underwear, socks, shirt and trousers. I had a few other items to purchase so went round the store and put it in my trolley. I then went to pay at the nearest checkout and wanted to use a staffed one rather than a self-service one. There's nothing wrong with these self-service checkouts and I have no problem using them but there comes a time when you really want to see a human face. Not all checkout staff are very conversational and I imagine it must be a boring job, just scanning groceries. Nothing much difficult as everything is automated, including working out the change. Not like in the pre-computer days when every item had a label and staff had to put every item through manually. It does make you wonder, though, whether every item which has a barcode can be accurate and the price you see on the shelf-edge is correct and exactly the same as what you pay. Just me, I'm afraid. Anyway, when it came to scanning the trousers I'd wanted they would not scan and the operator had to call the supervisor. She took me to the customer service desk and said that she'd go round to the clothing section to see if the staff there could sort out the problem. We went back to the customer service desk and eventually another member of staff bought round another similar pair of trousers and scanned the barcode and I was able to pay for my items with my debit card. They even gave me a £5 goodwill service taken off my bill which was great and I've never had that before. Just goes to show that the technology doesn't always work on these labels that these products have.

Difficult Customer

Carol went back to work at Milton Keynes Academy today. We went to the Shell filling station in Grafton Street, which is where we usually go to fill up the car with petrol. I did the filling and then we went into the shop to pay as Carol wanted to buy newspapers for a lesson she is teaching and a sandwich for her lunch. We had to queue up at the till to pay and there were several people in front of us. A man and a youth were at the till when we got there, having chosen Carol's sandwich (which wasn't much of a choice, I have to say.) and she got a coffee from the self-service Costa machine in the shop. We could hear the older man at the till having an argument with the cashier. He had asked for vodka and the youth bought a multi-pack of lager. The older man began to get quite abusive when it came to having to pay 5p for a carrier bag. He was covered in tattoos (I know that shouldn't have any bearing on the incident, but I'm afraid it did underline the sort of cliche of the 'type' of individual he was.) From what I could hear, he sounded somewhat 'tanked up' or drunk, as he had a slurred voice. He continued to hurl abuse at the cashier, who pointed out that the 5p was going towards a charity to fund research into leukaemia. It seems most companies have a similar policy over plastic carrier bags and it's seemed reasonable to me as a way to reduce the use of carrier bags, particularly in supermarkets where you can now buy 'lifetime' bags and take them with you to use when you shop. But this individual was more interested in being abusive. Carol then intervened and said in quite an assertive voice that could he hurry up as there we people waiting who had to get to work, a very reasonable request. The man took a 5p coin from his pocket, or from some place I have no idea where, and threw it very bad temperdly across the shop. A pointless exercise as he might just as well have given it to the cashier and accepted the bag and left. We were somewhat surprised and anxious that this man was driving a vehicle, from what we saw of the vehicles on the forecourt a taxi, so we were concerned that he was going to be drunk in control of a vehicle. It seemed doubtful that he could have been working or at least driving a taxi as the taxi company would not want i's employees driving and drinking. As there are so few police to be seen on the grid-roads of Milton Keynes, the man was going to get away with his behaviour. It's not so much the man's driving that was our concern, it was the fact that his alcoholic state could cause a serious accident and injure or kill innocent people. I also think it's somewhat irresponsible of Shell to sell alcohol in it's petrol stations. I was very impressed by how the cashier handled the situation as it could have got quite nasty. I don't think the two individuals were going too far away to drink their booze. Most likely going to sit in a carpark or lay-by and drink themselves into oblivion. I just hope they didn't go off drinking and then drive around Milton Keynes as the older man must have been several times over the limit and should have been apprehended by the police and charged with drunken behaviour, but I very much doubt that will happen, unfortunately.

Phantom Tree-Cutting

I have been hearing some really strange noises outside on the estate over the past week or two. The noises were loud mechanical and sort of high-pitched. I couldn't work out what it was and where it was coming from as it was quite difficult to ascertain from which direction it was coming from. A bit like when you're driving along on a road somewhere and you hear a siren, probably a police car, ambulance or fire engine but it's hard to know where it is, whether it's behind you, coming towards you or from left or right. You don't know whether to pull over to the side or the road or just slow down, but then you see whatever it is in your rear-view mirror. All was revealed the other morning when I was quietly sitting in the lounge and I could hear this sound outside. Then something began moving along the Redway, which runs along the back of our garden.  The phantom machine! I could see a yellow machine, or SOMETHING, slowly moving past, something which must have been on the back of a tractor or similar machine, with what must have been a sort of hydraulic arm with some sort of cutting attachment on it like a mower which moved up and down and was cutting some of the branches of the tree which grow along the edge of the Redway. I became somewhat concerned that it would break through into our garden. A section of our fence has been blown over and is virtually vertical and awaits repair by our landlord (it's at least four months since they came out to look and told us that it would all be replaced, but as we've heard nothing further we're beginning to wonder whether all that was just to get us to sign a new tenancy agreement.) and I from where I was sitting indoors, really imagined that this beast of a machine was going to break through into the garden. It was moving along and making a lot of noise, not just the machine, engine, noise, but the breaking of branches as it cut them as it moved along. When I went out onto the Redway later when I walked over to Milton Keynes Academy to meet Carol from work I could see where this machine had been. It looked as it it hasn't actually cut the branches but merely broken them off and left a really ragged edge. Also, all along the verge they had cut the bracken and brambles and it looked quite clean and tidy, but there was still a lot of litter and rubbish left which should have been removed. When we went for a walk with the dogs along the Redway a few weeks ago we noticed a similar thing with trees and bushes. It looked as if some sort of large creature had been past and broken off the branches. I think it was the untidy finish which was such a shock, not a clean cut to them. Perhaps it's to encourage new growth or something, but it was the fact that it looked so untidy which was what surprised us.

Its been a very over-cast sort of day today. Generally, the weather has got worse over the past week or so. We've been spoilt with the so-called 'Indian Summer' and then the tail-end of the hurricane which was spinning towards the British Isles across the Atlantic Ocean and the wet and windy weather which we had here (but actually, not too bad in Milton Keynes, fortunately.) It's undecided as regards rain and it's been mostly dry with occasional rain today. Carol is on Half Term next week. She has a day today doing teacher training, which she tells me is generally very boring, just listening to people rabbiting on. I can identify with this, as I've had to endure some really dull training days with the jobs I've had, particularly in care, where you have to do the compulsory stuff like manual handling and food preparation, which can become so DULL you want to scream, but it would be no good if you did and just have to put up with it, unfortunately.

Worsening Weather and Traumatised Dogs

Apparently we're in for some really bad weather. We're supposed to get the tail-end of a hurricane, which is currently crossing the Atlantic from America.  Called Hurricane Gonzalo. Where do they get these names from? Why are they sometimes women's names but then men's names? Is there anything in the fact that they are either male or female names?  A fortnight's-worth of rain is expected to fall within the space of eight hours, while gusts of wind of up to 80 m.p.h. (128 k.p.m.) are expected to be recorded in parts of northern Scotland. So, can the B.B.C. please not send their television reporters to cover these weather conditions, particularly not to the edge of some harbour, with waves lashing and boats being tossed by the waves? Similarly, when there were floods a years or two ago, they had to rush a television crew together with reporter, to some far-distant village which was cut off by rising water, several feet of it filling some street and then putting their reporter in the midst of it all in Wellington boots, wind cheater, oilskins, or whatever, just so the person had stand and chat to camera. It's laughable when they are telling people to keep away from such places and then put their own reporters in danger, together with crew. Do they expect to be rescued when there is a real problem, putting the lives of the rescue service at risk? No sense really.

As I write this the wind is increasing. It is actually quite sunny and bright here in Milton Keynes as I can see out of our lounge window into our garden, but the wind is most definitely getting stronger and the leaves are falling from the trees. 

It's also that time of the year which both our dogs dislike. It's around Hallow'en and Guy Fawkes Night (November 5th) when we get all those fireworks let off and so scaring the dogs. Poppy in particular, but Alfie doesn't like it when there is an unexpected explosion which sets him off barking. We'll be glad when it's over and done with for another year. I think it's fine when Guy Fawkes Night is over and done with over a few nights, but it's made worse when some idiot decides to set of fireworks randomly which causes the problems. I don't imagine it's just our dogs which get upset. Poppy goes and hides under the nearest piece of furniture whilst Alfie barks. It won't just be dogs. I would think cats would be traumatised by the noise as well as any other pets people would have.

Wild, Wet and Windy Weather

The past couple of days the weather has been wet and windy. A section of garden fence is now almost vertical. As I sit and write this post I can see through into the area that borders the Redway behind our house. The other day I couldn't find our Yorkie, Alfie. He had gone through the gap and did manage to get back through into the garden, but he has a habit of wondering off through any gaps in the fence as he's a very inquisitive little dog. He went through into our neighbour's garden as I reported on here a couple of weeks ago, and he did come back through. We have to keep and eye on both dogs whenever they go into the garden, because the the possibility of them getting through the fence. The landlord had promised to replace the fence a couple of months ago, but, as yet, there seems to be no chance of this work being undertaken. There isn't much left of that section of 'fence' (for want of a better word) as it is so rotten it will not stand up to much more being done to it such as having nails driven into it.

Great British Bake Off

It's surprising how addictive the television show "The Great British Bake Off" can be. I suppose you could ask, doesn't it fall into the category of 'reality' television, competition, gameshow or reality, because it has real people put into a situation that they wouldn't otherwise be put in, or perhaps it's got a combination of all these.  I'm not a great reality television fan. In fact, I detest it. I cannot see what the attraction of 'Big Brother' can possibly be. Merely watching a group of non entities living in a house and having their every move poured over by the media, Facebook, Twitter, the Red Tops and so on, just doesn't make very interesting television I'd rather watch the testcard (if they use one still, which I very much doubt). For a start, I hate the term 'reality television' because everything you see on television is fake. The very picture you watch is an illusion. Made up of 625 lines and flickering at a rate of something like 250 frames a second. The image you watch has been edited carefully. Put a camera in front of anyone who isn't trained as an actor or other performer and they will react differently. Some people clam up, whilst others 'play' to the camera. Then the images you see are carefully edited as I say. This particularly for something like 'Bake-Off' because the time scale of each episode has been condensed. The contestants have, say, two hours to bake a cake or whatever and it is filmed and edited to take perhaps 15 minutes on screen. The director and editor will edit out the extraneous matter, the un-interesting bits and keep only the most interesting bits. How do we know what bits have been re-shot, with the camera in just the right place to get the most interesting view of something? We can never be sure. Do Sue and Mel spend a long time composing what we imagine are off-the-cuff remarks? Does the director make sure that they are put in just the right place so that they can come out with these remarks? And the double entendres, those little gems such as 'soggy bottom' etc etc, put in to get a cheap laugh?

After all that, I think I like it because the contestants are interesting. They're not celebrities. They have interesting lives. We can, as the viewer, identify with them all, or most of them. There's the builder the grandmother, the former practice manager of a doctor's surgery. Nobody is generally nasty to one another. There is no viewers' vote. It doesn't get spun out for ages and ages before we learn who has been voted off at the end of each week's programme. No baying audience as there is on 'Strictly Come Dancing' who clap and cheer at every little thing the dancers do. And the setting is somewhat different to most other similar shows. A tent in a country house garden where the weather seems to interfere on a regular basis. How the production company manages to keep the rain out whenever there's a downpour is a mystery to me. Have you ever been in a similar tent when there's a rain storm? You can't seem to avoid the drips. Not every tent in one hundred percent waterproof. And the biggest mystery to me is, how do they manage to keep secret each week's vote-off and most importantly, the over-all winner when it is filmed so many months in advance?

Side-Effects of Flu Jab and Strictly Saturdays

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, Carol had her 'flu jab in Sainsbury's on Thursday evening. Mine was yesterday morning at Ashfield Medical Centre. I was beginning to think that I was getting a slight reaction to the jab with some muscle and joint pain as we sat down to eat our evening meal whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing. (I'll mention that a little later in this blog.) Carol, though, has had quite a bad reaction this morning (Sunday) and as a result we didn't go to church. I went to Lidl on Oldbrook Boulevard. I was really surprised by how busy it was in there. The first Christmas products are beginning to appear on the shelves and as a result you can't always find exactly what you want. In this case, stuffing to go with this evening's roast chicken. I then went into the Tesco just over the road, one of those 'mini' or 'convenience' branches. I was surprised how few people were in there. I'm not surprised as Lidl is so much cheaper and I could not find any Paxo (stuffing) for the chicken. I looked up and down the aisles but not a single packet could I see. I purchased a Sunday Times, using a self-service till and then walked out. I drove to the shop in Eaglestone, and sure enough, I found a packet of Paxo immediately. This must say quite a lot about the current retail situation in Britain, with Tesco once upon a time being the strongest supermarket chain, and since the financial crash of 2008 such 'discounters' as Aldi and Lidl have changed the way most people shop for groceries, being around 15% cheaper than the four major supermarkets, Asda, Morrison, Sainsbury and Tesco.

As for Strictly Come Dancing . . .  as far as I'm concerned the novelty of seeing celebrities making fools of themselves on the dance floor is beginning to wear a bit thin. The show is over-hyped and it's all over the tabloids and Facebook. You can't seem to get away from it from early September until Christmas. There's nothing at all wrong with the dancing, it's the over-heated audience that gets me. They cheer and clap at the slightest thing, cheering and making stupid noises. And why do they insist on putting people in the front row of the audience who you can see clearly behind the presenters when they are talking, a woman was on there last night who was dreadfully over made-up and kept staring at the camera. A real distraction.  Can they not just fade them into the background? Do we really need to see these non-entities so clearly? Bruce Forsyte, who didn't actually do a great deal when he was on, is sorely missed. I don't know what it is but he did add a certain élan to the proceedings, even though his jokes were somewhat tired.  Those two women, Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly really don't add a great deal. Never have, since this show began. How did the B.B.C. think that Tess Daly was a replacement for good old Sir Bruce Forsythe I can't think. She has all the talent of a shopping trolley. Though, in all honesty, there wasnt a lot for Brucie to get his teeth into in the first place, nothing to be 'hands on' as he would have been in the 'Generation Game' or 'Play Your Cards Right.' Lets be honest, an hour and a half of this is really far too much and Craig Revel-Horwood's miserable face is enough to put you off your rice pudding. Can he never say anything nice to anyone? I know he's been cast as the pantomime villain but it is wearing a bit thin by now.

The lighting and set design are really brilliant. When you compare it to the travesty of the revived Sunday Night At The Palladium, which has been done on the cheap and has all the atmosphere of a Sunday night at the local village hall, no expense has been spared. The way they can transform the set for each couple who dance is amazing. All done with lighting and digital effects. The moving digital  lighting which is used around the staircases is spectacular.

Greg Wallace got booted off the show. He deserved it. His dancing was like a flat-footed Teletubby. Judy Murray was not much better.  It must be very difficult when you are, in effect, in the shadow of a far more famous son or daughter, as she is. You can forgive her nerves, as most of the rest of the celebs should be used to the cameras, the audience and so on. But she wasn't much better. At least Tim Wonnacott made a brave stab at it, even though he wasn't a particularly brilliant. I don't expect he'll last much longer. Just have to wait and see.

Weather Changes and Flu Jabs

I had to be at Ashfield Medical Centre at 8 this morning as I had to have my annual flu jab. Because of having had a heart attack I am one of the 'at risk' groups who automatically get a flu jab before winter starts and there is a likelihood of being infected. It can be quite life-threatening if you have flu whilst having a heart condition, apparently. I arrived with around 15 minutes to spare and got the car parked and then stood in the queue which had already started to build up, with around 20 people standing on the steps outside the surgery door. It was all good natured and the rain clouds were building up as we waited and hence there was a possibility we might get wet. I did feel what might have been a raindrop, but I'm not sure. We got inside once the doors were open and then there was a wait of a few minutes before I got to the lady on the reception. She put my name in the computer database and registered me and I had to wait a further ten minutes or so before being called into the doctor's surgery. The actual jab was totally painless and I was out again within two minutes and driving home. Fortunately there was virtually no traffic as I drove back to Eaglestone.


The television forecast has been correct: it is now very much colder and wetter today than it has been for the past few weeks. The Indian Summer is now over. It's been raining, not particularly hard, but it's been raining nonetheless. We went to Staples to buy some computer printer ink cartridges and other items and it was reasonably dry and we went out, but on getting back home, having been to Waitrose, which is a mile and a half further down Chaffron Way from home, it was raining quite hard.

Funny Alfie!

Our Yorkshire terrier, Alfie, is a real character. He has lots of toys which not only keep us amused, but he gets a great deal of amusement himself from them. He has a typical Yorkie habit, no doubt how he would kill a rat (which is what they were originally bred for) by picking it up and shaking it vigorously and growling noisily. We witnessed his ability to kill a rat when we had them running around our former home in Cownhill. One morning he managed to corner a huge rat in the kitchen and he dispatched it by shaking it. This is mentioned in more detail in an earlier post on here. He has a basket of his toys (shared, I hasten to add, with our other dog, Poppy.) He can be most protective of these toys which we have managed to purchase over a number of years from supermarkets and pet shops in and around Milton Keynes. This evening he was playing with one such toy, which is a sort of monkey creature. He shook it so hard it flew across the room and behind the television set. I could only reach it by using a broom handle. He then shook the toy and it again flew across the room. He darted round behind the sofa, came out the other side and bounced- or appeared to bounce- from one side of the sofa to the other. Really amusing. He has a Comic Relief ball, which is bright red and with a silly face embroidered on it. When you drop it on the floor, an electronic chip inside is activated, and it has the sound of a rather over-acted giggle and laugh, which sets off Alfie barking. It is quite amusing when he throws his head back and howls at it. He even knows that if he prods it or drops it it will start making it's giggling sound. This ball is kept on the bookshelf in the lounge and he knows exactly where it is kept, and when he wants to play with it he will go to the shelf and stand with his front paws on the top of the first shelf and stare at it until you take the ball down from it's place and drop it on the floor.We don't allow this much more than once a day as his bowing can begin to get a bit annoying and may upset our neighbours.

550th blog post: Sunny Start to October

This, for those who are interested, this is the 550th post I've written on this blog. Just thought I'd mention it. Not only that but I've been writing these posts for 6 years, beginning on 27th September 2009. It seems amazing to me that I have managed to keep these musings going, although I'm not so sure they are all particularly interesting. And it's been seen, or at least, according to Google's statistics, had 23, 430 page views.

It's the 1st October and it's as sunny and warm as it was in August. There's something definitely odd about it being this warm. On B.B.C. Breakfast early this morning the forecast said that this warm weather had something to do with the Gulf Stream and that it has moved north or something, but that the weather was going to break and we were going to have rain and high winds in the next couple of days.  

I'm busy currently ringing round trying to get a quote to have our car serviced. We went out in it the other Sunday, and as we went down the A5, just before we got to the roundabout for  Fenny Stratford and Dobbie's garden centre, we could see smoke pouring out of the exhaust. Other drivers in cars which were following us were keeping a wide berth and some were apparently signalling. I wasn't driving so I couldn't see, but, looking in the rear-view mirror I could see a could of blue smoke which appeared to be following us and most definitely was coming out of the exhaust pipe at the rear of the car. We got to the roundabout and pulled in near the garage next to the new McDonald's and looked at the rear of the car. The smoke had stopped even when we put our foot down on the accelerator pedal. The smoke seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared. We drove back through Fenny Stratford and Simpson because Carol didn't want the embarrassment of driving with any more smoke coming out of the exhaust. We had intended driving through Woburn deer park as it was such a sunny morning, but the smoke from the car put an end to that. As a result I am looking for the cheapest quote from garages to have the car serviced, with oil change, filters etc etc. We also have a problem with the windscreen wipers as none are working at the moment. Anyway, the most expensive quote was £200 and the cheapest £85. 

Not going out at the moment because we have a grocery delivery coming from out on-line shop from Sainsbury's and it's booked to arrive between 11-12 this morning. They usually come quite promptly so there's not a lot to do apart from me writing this post.

A little while later . . .

I could have started a fresh post, but I didn't see the point. The Sainsbury's delivery arrived at around 11.30. As I was taking the delivery in and about to put it away, the telephone rang and I went to answer. It was Sainsbury's pharmacy. It seemed a bit of a coincidence that I was dealing with the Sainsbury's delivery, but never mind. Both Carol and I have our repeat prescriptions made up by Sainsbury's. You ring about a week in advance and they deal directly with the surgery at Beanhill. Then around a week later you go in and collect the ordered medications. It has gone very well for the last year or so. You have to remember to order so that you have enough medication to allow for them to make up the order. It seems something went wrong with Carol's prescription which I had telephoned in well over a week ago. The Sainsbury's driver had presumably gone to the surgery to pick it up and it wasn't ready. So I had to drive to Beanhill to get the printed prescription (which, according to the lady on reception, had only just been prepared.) then drive to Sainsbury's to get the order made up. I was surprised how busy it was as it seemed to be crawling with office staff who must have been on their lunch breaks. I bought a sandwich because I would have made something to eat after I had put the grocery delivery away. It just goes to show that it only needs one element of the system with the repeat prescription to go slightly wrong to cause a lot of other problems.