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.