New Thoughts on Novel

I have had some fresh thoughts on the novel. I have got enough bits and pieces of plots which I'v been developing for the past year or so without starting on new material. I think I will continue to develop those and see how they go rather than getting tangled up with something new and hopefully learn from the Tuesday evening course I started last week. I think he best I can say is I am hoping that I can 'unlock' some of the material and make it work for me rather than playing around with new material. Seems like sense to me somehow. I will have to go through the notes I have in my several notebooks and work from that.

Some while later . . . I have spent some time this morning having a look at some of the material I have written, and one longer piece in particular stands out a good deal more than the rest and that seems the piece that I should concentrate on more.  There is certainly no point in starting on fresh material when what I already have needs work on it.

I think on further reflection I would much rather write a really decent set of short stories than some poor, over-written, badly-plotted novel. I'm more concerned about STORY and the quality of the plot than some half-baked, long-winded piece that will bore the pants off whoever reads it.

First Week of Creative Writing Course

I went to the first session of the creative writing course- Novel Writing For Beginners which was at the Milton Keynes Academy yesterday evening.

As with anything new it can be a bit daunting, especially when you have to get to know not only the course leader bit other members of the group. There were nine of us and it seemed to be a good beginning and some of the exercises we did were good in an attempt to not only 'break the ice' but to also get our creative muscles working and 'get writing.'

I shall be posting more on this 'as and when' so keep a look-out for future wittering on writing on here! Come back soon for an up-date.

More Memories of Television 'Walk-On.'

I've mentioned in earlier posts that I did a lot of work for Anglia Television through an agency called Jaclyn. Those were the days when Anglia was a single company within the 'federated' I.T.V. network and not a very small part of what is now one single company. A great same in my opinion, as I.T.V. seems to have lost a lot of it's originality when it becomes a sort of conglomerate.

I did quite a bit of work on a series called 'Inside Story.' I did watch it when it aired, but I don't remember a great deal about it. It centred around a newspaper and I think the same actor who played Adam Dalgleish played the central character. He was played by Roy Marsden. I did a few 'bits and pieces' in the Anglia adaptations of the P.D. James books, 'Devices and Desires' and 'A Taste of Death.' I think I was a waiter in an episode which was filmed somewhere on the Norfolk Broads and I was supposed to wait on table for Simon Ward and Fiona Fullerton. On another occasion I was sent to the location somewhere in darkest Norfolk, I think it was near the coast but I'm not sure. The agency told me to go to a pub, called probably something like the 'Dog and Duck.' I got to the village where it was supposed to be, and kept going past the only pub in the area which was called, according to the sign, 'The Nelson Arms' or similar. It turned out to be the pub I was looking for, but the production company had changed it for the purposes of the production and so I was looking for a different pub name! Then, when I was used on the set, I was sat next to the bar and when they started filming this particular scene, I was very prominent as the scene began. Usually you get to be in the background, and well out of the way so you can't be seen, which is a shame, but I suppose, on second thoughts, you are there to be in the background and not too prominent. In some ways it can be a good idea to NOT be too prominent because you are unlikely to be used again if your face is too recognisable. You might get a further day or two's work, and, as in the case of my waiter performance on 'Inside Story,' even come back to work for a further day.

This happened again on something that I did for the B.B.C. called, I believe, 'For The Greater Good.' and shot just up the road in Slough near the Mars factory. We started the day as protesters outside a factory (don't ask me why or what for.) We were supposed to stand near the fence and bang the wire and then as cars went in and out of the gate, chant and wave our fists. Then, at lunch time we had to have a change of costume, into police riot gear. The full uniform including riot shields, helmets with visors etc etc. For one scene we were put in the back of a furniture lorry and when it drove up, the back was thrown up, on one of those sliding arrangements. As soon as the back was opened we had to charge out, jump down off the back of the lorry and up a fairly steep incline towards the fence which was actually at the other side of this incline. We were in heavy boots and what with the riot shields and helmets with visors it was quite an effort to run up that incline. You had the added danger that the sliding door of the lorry wasn't going to remain open and slide back down as you got out of the lorry as well as actually being able to see where you were going. After around half-a-dozen takes we began to get extremely tired and on the way home driving was hard work because the muscles of my legs began to get very tired and the pain was considerable. I believe this programme was directed by Danny Boyle, who has gone on to make some very successful films including 'The Beach,' and the Oscar-winning 'Slumdog Millionaire.'

Back on that series 'Inside Story,' I did some work on that during a very cold December/January and we had been taken to the location by minibus from the Anglia studios in Norwich. Quite a long drive in snow and ice and we ended up at Holkham Hall, right on the Norfolk coast. It was early morning and we stood about in freezing conditions and eating breakfast (always worth going on location, just to get a free meal! I bet a lot of out-of-work actors and Equity members do or did walk-on work because they knew they'd always get a very good hot meal. Breakfast, lunch, lots of sandwiches and bits to eat, cakes and hot running tea and coffee all day! Can't be bad!) I was a waiter again on this show (I always seemed to be either an army officer, soldier of some sort, or a waiter, can't think why, thinking about it now.) Anyway, on this particular day Holkham Hall was standing in for a sort of gentleman's club in London, and there was a restaurant scene in which I was to be a waiter. I had one scene where I'm supposed to come in carrying a tray with bread rolls on it and Robert Lange, which is  playing one of the central characters comes in and runs into me and the rolls get knocked all over the floor!

At the end of the day's shooting they decided that they needed me for a further day's shooting and that I would then be a gentleman sitting and eating at one of the restaurant tables. So, I would be in the same scene TWICE, as a waiter at the beginning and then later on as a customer! I've heard of saving money, but that seems ridiculous! They must have shot it so you couldn't see my face. Well, I do hope so.

It was either on 'Inside Story' or another Anglia drama series called 'The Chief' that myself and a lot of other Walk-On's' were supposed to be police, so we were put in costume and driven quite a way up to the Norfolk coast, somewhere near Sheringham or Wells-Next-The-Sea. They spent a lot of time getting us looking authentic, including giving us Doc Marten's to wear. As a result I found them to be incredibly comfortable and would have liked to have been able to keep them. I even went out a purchased a pair for myself after doing this day's work and have always found them to be the most comfortable shoes you can wear because of the special soles. Anyway, we were supposed to be going in to remove protestors outside a piece of land which was earmarked to be built on for a theme park or something, being part of the plot of this series. They had set the scene up with other Walk-Ons who were instructed to be as difficult as possible, to sit down and not move, so when the 'action' was called and the cameras ran, we were supposed to go in and remove them, but we didn't know which ones were going to be uncooperative. They used hand-held cameras, to give a more authentic feel, rather like an actual protest and it would look like footage from a genuine television news item. We had to do several takes and after around three or four takes, very similar to the day I had on the show mentioned at the beginning of this post, it became very exhausting, what with running about and having to attempt to lift the protestors, or at least try and get them to move!

Indian Summer

A particularly warm and sunny day today. What they term an 'Indian Summer.' But don't ask me why, as I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps I'll Google it and see what comes up.

So, after a search this is what I have discovered:

 'As well as being warm, the atmosphere during an Indian summer is hazy or smoky, there is no wind, the barometer is standing high, and the nights are clear and chilly.'

'A moving, cool shallow polar air mass converting into a deep, warm, stagnant anticyclone (high pressure) system, which has the effect of causing the haze and large swing in temperature between day and night.'

'The time of occurrence is important: The warm days must follow a spell of cold weather or a good hard frost.'

The conditions described above must occur between St. Martin's Day (November 11th) and November 20th. For over 200 years, 'The Old Farmer's Almanac' has adhered to the saying, "If All Saints' (November 1st) brings winter, St. Martin's brings out Indian Summer."

Why is Indian Summer called Indian Summer? There are many theories. Some say it comes from the early Algonquian Native Americans, who believed that the condition was caused by a warm wind sent from their southwestern god, Cautantowwit.'

'The most probable origin of the term, in our view, goes back to the very early settlers in New England. Each year they would welcome the arrival of a cold wintry wether in late October when they could leave their stockades unarmed. But then came a time when it would suddenly turn warm again, and the Native Americans would decide to have one more go at the settlers. "Indian Summer," the settlers called it.'

So, having read that, it would seem it's not actually an 'Indian Summer' at all as it's around a month and a half too early.

Regardless of what it's called, it's still warm for the time of year. It can be quite chilly at night, although we have had the windows open at night. Which doesn't help matters regarding getting to sleep, because both our dogs can hear things going on outside, but probably at a different frequency to our hearing range and then they start barking.

I have managed to pick several pounds of blackberries over the past couple of weeks. They are now frozen and in the freezer. We have discovered what are called 'Pour and Store' freezer bags in Sainsbury's which are ideal for freezing blackberries. They can be reused, have a 'press-together' closure (which are becoming far more popular by manufacturers on such things a packets of cheese. As well as  washing detergent gel tablet packets and dog food.) This means you can open and close the packets after use and so keep the product inside fresh. These bags come in packs of half a dozen and can be used for homemade soups and have a base which means they will stand on the work surface making it far easier to ladle in the contents.

The blackberries are growing along the hedges which line the Redways behind our house. It looks as if there are plenty more ripening so I will have to continue to go out every day to pick them.

I have mown the lawn at the back of the house. I did half of it two days ago and complete it yesterday, although there were a few tufty bits of grass still to cut along with the edges which are far more difficult to get cut. But it's done and hopefully that will be the final mowing session before the winter sets in. We are still waiting for our landlord to send the workmen out to replace the fence which is now looking in a very sorry state. We were promised that it would be done soon, but that was around a month ago and still nothing happening. We wait in hope.

Trip to London for recording of "Palladium" TV show

As I've already mentioned in an earlier post, we'd got free tickets for a recording of "Sunday Night At The Palladium." We weren't due to pick up the tickets from the theatre until 4.30 so we really didn't need to be in London too early, but knowing our propensity to get to places far too early, we caught a train at around 10.00 a.m. We decided to drive to the station and park. Being a Sunday, it seemed the easier option. When we last went into London, around a month ago (see earlier blog post.) we went in by  bus, and then found, on returning to Milton Keynes, that the busses back towards Eaglestone were somewhat erratic and we'd have to wait far too long, so we got a taxi. When we got to the carpark near the station we were shocked at how much it was going to park all day, around £8, and looked around and managed to park further into the city centre. You pay up until 6 p.m, which is during the week, but it seems Sunday parking is no longer free. We then had to walk a fair distance to the station. We'd  booked tickets on-line, which means we had to go to the machine at Milton Keynes Central station to get them printed out. Not too difficult. You get a password which you get when you register on-line and use the Debit or Credit card you made the payment with and the machine produces the tickets, printed out and they appear out of the machine. No real problem.

The train we eventual caught was virtually empty, which means we were able to sit down for the entire journey. Unlike the previous trip into London, when we had to stand for the entire journey. On arrival in London we went straight down to Oxford Circus Underground station which is only a two-minute walk from the Palladium. We just needed to know where we had to go later, even tough we had hours to fill before we could actually collect the tickets. As with any of these free tickets for television shows, you don't actually have the tickets until you turn up, as I think so many people order them and don't show up, so they have to over-extimate how many will be needed and you have to get to the studio in good time in order to get in for the recording. We decided to go off and find something to fill in the time. We went into Liberty's, which is within a stone's throw of the Palladium. Carol has never been in this iconic store before and we were really amazed by how amazing most of their products on sale are, particularly the Christmas store at the top of the building. Seemed to be far too early for Christmas, as it's only the beginning of September, but the range of items to decorate your home was incredible. If you've never visited this store, I can recommend it highly.

We went to a McDonald's and had a burger each. Not being a complete fan of Mcdonald's, I have to say it was passable, and it did mean we could use the toilets. The place was absolutely heaving, as their restaurants are generally in the centre of London. Just great to be able to sit down for a brief time before going off somewhere else.

As I say, we didn't have much idea where to go to fill in the time, but eventually decided to go to Regent's Park and laze in the sun there for a couple of hours. Totally amazed how beautiful it was, with long walks lined with flowers and the paths dotted with fountains. For an early-September afternoon it was amazingly warm and pleasant. Only a single stop on the Underground. Also amazed how busy the traffic was for a Sunday.  By now it was past 3 o'clock and we got back on the Underground and went back to Oxford Circus. We walked down towards Langham Place,  where Broadcasting House is located. We went into a Starbucks and had a couple of their cold frappe drinks and then went towards the iconic B.B.C. headquarters. I was interested in seeing how they'd redeveloped Broadcasting House and we looked into the windows of the studio where the television programme "The One Show" is made. If you ever see this early evening show you will know that you can see members of the public passing by the windows, which is exactly what we did and were surprised at how small it was. I think the cameras and lenses seem to make things look wider and a good deal bigger which was the case here. We then looked in another window and saw a mock-up of a news studio and some people being taken on a tour of the place and two you men were doing their own news bulletin complete with weather forecast, using auto cues and all the additional equipment.

By now time was moving on. It was near enough time to head back to The Palladium and queue up to get inside and, hopefully, take our seats in the Stalls. Just as well we did queue when we did and get our tickets, because when we walked past the queue stretched round the block and into the next street! We decided walk on as we didn't actually need to be back until gone 6 o'clock when we were supposed to be allowed in. The doors were opened at 6 and there was a huge crush to get in. As we were in the Stalls we had to go in through another door from the rest of the audience. But when we got inside the theatre we couldn't get into the auditorium and had to wait in the rooms leading into the main body of the theatre. For whatever reason we were never told. It was extremely crowded, a great crush of people, moving forward very slowly. It was getting very hot and sticky so we found somewhere to sit and wait until the Stalls doors were opened up. We fortunately didn't have to wait long. By now we were both feeling very exhausted, which was a pity as we had been looking forward to this for quite some time.

On arriving in the Stalls and finding our seats in row '0' we then found that there were already people sitting there. We carefully checked that we had the numbers and rows correct. Yes, clearly printed on our tickets. But the people were adamant that was where they were sitting. We had to go and check with a member of the theatre staff and he came down to the seats and looked at the people who were sitting in our seats and discovered that their tickets were for row 'Q'. I suppose it was quite easy to see that a 'Q' was very like an 'O' on the tickets. So the problem was resolved and they went to sit in the correct row and seats.

We had to sit and wait for a considerable length of time before the recording started. You  have to remember when you go to a television recording as a member of the audience that it's not like live theatre where it's all run straight through, apart from intervals, scene changes and so on.  They do tend to stop and stet the recording, due to technical issues or someone forgetting lines etc etc. There was a warm-up comedian (I don't know his name. He wasn't familiar from television or elsewhere. A warm-up man is there to get the audience in the mood, to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. The the host for the evening came on, Stephen Mangan. The opening of the show was done, then they did a second version, which had a slight variation. Then the recording stopped. When it began again the first act came on. Bryan Adams, who is one of Carol's favourite musicians. A surprise. And the evening went on like that, stopping and starting. When edited it will appear to be 'live.' The other acts were a music act called Little Mix, which I've never heard of, Alan Davies, Alfie Boe and two novelty acts, a 'towel' act, called Les Beaux Freres which I won't describe on here, but I'm surprised as it was quite 'adult.' I have a feeling that this won't make the edit, as there are too many people 'out there' who are only too willing to complain at the least provocation. Then a somewhat naff 'magic' or illusion act. The 'game' element is called 'Top Of The Bill.' I do recall the original gameshow element which was in the original 'Palladium' shows when it was hosted by Bruce Forsyte, but to be quite honest this part of the show was a bit lame, but never mind. Bryan Adams came on for the final number and there was another disappointment when they didn't have the famous finale with all the cast members going round on the famous Palladium revolve. A really iconic part of the original show. Never mind. It's just great that there's going to be proper variety back on television as opposed to talent and reality shows.

The recording ended at around 9.30. We managed to get out of the theatre in the crush and walk the short way to Oxford Circus Underground station. It was only two stops on the train to Euston and we managed to get a train from platform 8 fairly rapidly without having to wait. By now we were both flagging and almost fell asleep on the journey home. The train was very slow and stopped at virtually every station on the line and we got into Milton Keynes Central at around 11.45. We're now looking forward to next Sunday and watching the complete show all over again on I.T.V.

Dog-Walking at Rushmere and TV Location for Sky TV Gameshow 'Wild Thing"

We went swimming at D.W. Fitness early this morning, getting there a little after they opened at 8 a.m. The place was virtually empty which means we had the pool fairly free which was great. Only problem was it was exceptionally cold which didn't help as one of my arms ached and so I didn't do that many lengths of the pool. We spent most of the time in the jacuzzi and I went into the hot room which seemed to relieve the pain in my arm. 

It is beginning to become quite cold early-morning. Fairly misty as we left the house but it soon warmed up as the morning progressed and so much so that by the time we left D.W. the sun was almost out. We drove to Morrison's at Westcroft to do some shopping. Really tired when we got home. We had something to eat and had a rest and then Carol suggested taking the dogs out as it seemed a waste to let such a pleasant day go without going out somewhere and the two dogs deserved an outing of some sort. It took some considerable effort and subterfuge to get Alfie's cage out of the house and into the back of the car, and then get both dogs into their harnesses. As I've mentioned on several occasions on here this can be quite a trial as Alfie becomes like the Tasmanian Devil whenever he gets even the slightest hint that we're going out. But eventually they were both harnessed and Alfie jumped into the back of the car and settled into the cage  like a good little dog. He now seems to accept it  quite happily as he knows he is going out for a walk.

As we went down the A5 (we were on our way toe Rushmere Country Park.) we saw signs up which showed 'WT VOC' which suggested to me that there must be a filming location somewhere nearby. From experience of doing walk-on work for television (as mentioned in earlier posts, on such things as 'Lovejoy', 'Middlemarch,' ''Allo, 'Allo' etc etc.) I am used to having to find locations and following these signs which are usually disguised by using cryptic codes such as this 'WT VOC'which ae often used to deter members of the public and press discovering the locations.

We were more than surprised when we found that this location was actually where we were going at Rushmere and on arrival at the carpark we saw the bandwagon that was set up for the television crew and posters put up which mentioned that the county park was being used for filming a Sky TV gameshow called "Wild Thing." We then discovered that we couldn't let the dogs off their leads and that some of the woodland paths which we usually use when we visit Rushmere were closed off, presumably because the production company making this programmed did not want members of the public getting too close to the set.  There appeared to be no shooting that we could see when we were there, as presumably they don't shoot over the weekend.

Blackberry Picking and Autumnal Mists

It's a typical autumn's day. Misty first thing in the morning and the sun comes out later. It's beginning to get chilly but then it warms up considerably. A bit difficult to know what to wear, since you can never be sure that it's not going to rain. Particularly difficult as the windscreen wipers on the car aren't working. Must get them seen too soon as it can make long journeys difficult.

I've been out this morning and picked around a pound's worth of blackberries.  I went along the Redway behind the house and got most along the area immediately behind the hospital. There is a sort of clear space, a sort of path with lots of over-hanging brambles and really overloaded with berries. It seems amazing to me that people never seem to bother to go out and pick them. They are free and make good pies, jam and fruity sauces. I suppose I'm used to this sort of foraging as I lived in the countryside and we were always picking blackberries as well as finding mushrooms in the meadows behind Malting Farm where I used to live in Cardington village in Bedfordshire. You would think, with there being a so-called 'financial crisis' people would be falling over themselves to get something which is free, and ply yards from their front doors. But I hardly ever see other people picking blackberries and there are certainly plenty to go round. We still have quite a few bags left over from last year. We made some into a sort of sauce to have with ice-cream and pie. We got some really good bags in Sainsbury's, which can be re-used. They have a sort of fastener of them which are easy to open and made of fairly substantial plastic. Better than conventional plastic bags which are never worth re-using and can only be closed by knotting the neck. I think these are made to freeze homemade soup and stand up on their on when placed on the work-surface and make filling easy. 

I attempted to get Carol a doctor's appointment this morning. The surgery doesn't open until 8 a.m. and then you are lucky if you can actually get through. Just an engaged tone. Our old surgery used to have what they call 'ring-back' which means you press the '5' button on your telephone's keypad, and they ring back when the line is free. Then, after about half a dozen attempts, I got through to a human and was told that all appointments are booked for today, please ring again on Monday. Just annoying that you have to go to all that trouble and stress when they could surely allow you to book appointments a day or two in advance.

Last Day of School Holiday

Monday was Carol's final day of the summer holidays. She has two day's teacher training. Not her favourite two days as a lot of it is incredibly boring. I know how boring this can be as when I did care work you had to do the mandatory training, lifting and handling, food handling, infection control, child protection etc etc. Basically ticking boxes and making sure you're up to date with the latest legislation. We went over to the Academy at around 9 o'clock to prepare so stuff, sticking labels on boxes and sorting thing out. Only a couple of other teachers in her department turned up so it shows who id dedicated to their job. We then went to Asda to get some food for lunch and our evening meal. We had done a large order on-line from Sainsbury's on Saturday and that should arrive today (Tuesday). It tuned out our Asda visit might not have been such a good idea as it was very crowded and most of those in there were children with parents. In the clothes section many parents were buying school uniforms for their offspring and it looked like bees round a honey-pot. I think they will have bought out the entire stock. We had a look at the clothing section but Carol couldn't see anything she liked. By the time we'd done the rest of our shopping and got to the checkout there were very fraught parents with screaming children. On child in particular was screaming fit to bust, clamped into seat in shopping trolley while it's father was packing groceries as it came off the checkout conveyor belt. Why let a child get away with such ear-piercing noise? It was awful.

I have to say I think I know why the children were being so noisy and over-bearing. They had very loud music on in Asda. Also, whenever they use the Tannoy, to communicate with other members of staff or to give customer information, it is far too loud. It's a very large space, the building is huge. If I have a problem with shopping there it is that it so large you seem to spend a lot of your time walking up and down and it can be very exhausting. So, with loud music, someone shouting over a Tannoy system, you can see why those children would get upset, which then leads to stressed parents and other adult shoppers. It really is about time someone in Asda realised the music and Tannoy announcements need to be quieter. Sometimes they have Tannoy messages which are so distorted and loud you cannot really hear what is being said, so it defeats the object of having a Tannoy system.