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.