Heart attack

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Snow. . . More (or less)

Well, perhaps the weather forecasters got things right. It is snowing this morning, as I let Alfie out into the garden at 6.45 this morning. It's not exactly the thick, fluffy feather-like snow we had a couple of weeks ago, but nevertheless, it is snow. We'll just have to wait and see whether it settles.

At the moment (11.45 a.m) it is snowing. It's looking a bit like lots of flying insects. I know that might sound odd, but if you can imagine mosquitoes or those insects you get in the summer, when it's hot. But I doubt this will settle. There's a sort of powdering over things outside, a sort of icing sugar layer. A sprinkling all over the car.

It must say something about the state of television at the moment if the programmes which are old repeats of 40-year-old stuff like 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Good Life' and 'The Two Ronnies' (which we watched early this morning on GOLD), and are far better than what's on the main channels (BBC1, ITV etc.) They still stand up remarkably well, considering their ages. Not particularly affected by the prevailing P.C. brigade, either. I don't imagine a lot of that old stuff would be produced today because of the somewhat racist material that they have in their scripts, none of it really offensive, but I imagine by today's standards not suitable to be used. 20-year-old 'Dinnerladies' which is being shown as well as a three-part  behind-the-scenes documentary is as funny as I ever remember it being when I first saw it. Written by the brilliant Victoria Wood, who was one of my favourite comedians and now sadly missed. She died far too young. I worked with one of the actresses in it, Thelma Barlow, when I worked as a very young A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970's. She's probably best known as playing Mavis Wilton in 'Coronation Street.' A very talented actress who was Shelia in a production of 'Relatively Speaking,'  which I did the book for, alongside Ian McDiarmid, who went on to play the emperor in Star Wars and to running the Alameida Theatre in London. Another play in that season was 'What Every Woman Knows,' in which Thelma Barlow played the central role of Maggie, in a really lovely play written by J.M. Barrie. His plays are rarely performed nowadays, probably because they're not fashionable, and probably because he's best known for 'Peter Pan,' which is a shame because his stuff is so well written. Much in the same way that all the plays of A.A.Milne are never produced today, because he's best known as the author of the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' books. Though, saying that, probably because the plays he wrote just don't appeal to a 21st-century audience.

3.30 p.m. It's become quite windy. The trees beyond our garden fence, which runs along the Redway, are really swaying in the wind.

A little later there was quite a heavy fall of snow. Much larger flakes, but it didn't seem to settle.

I've noticed some strange little things running along the Redway close to Saxon Street when I've driven into Milton Keynes centre on a few occasions. They look a bit like those small fridges you can get to store your cans of beer, but on wheels, with a sort of radio ariel on the back with a little triangular flag on it. I now learn that they are robotic and are intended to help deliver food or other items which you might order on line. I'm not certain how they cope with crossing the road, whether they use the Redways around the town. Do they use G.P.S. or other navigation software to find the delivery address? How reliable are they? I know we're supposed to be getting driverless cars around MK, but hadn't heard a thing about these little things. Not sure Carol would think I was slightly nuts if I told her about them, but she has now seen one so that's O.K. Not been drinking or dreaming. Though, one never knows . . . would be interested to try one out and see how efficient it is at delivering parcels or take-away food. We buy quite a lot from Amazon, so I wonder if they will use them.

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