Hap, Hap, Happy Day!?

Tuesday. 5.55 a.m. Alfie and I were out on the grass alongside Strudwick Drive at 5.15 this morning. It was light outside, and I was wide awake, so it seemed a good idea to be up and about. No good lounging about in bed.

I had an email from Sky, regarding my broadband contract, which was about to end at the end of June. My monthly charge was to increase to £45, and I wanted to speak to someone regarding this. I have been a customer of Sky Broadband for nine years. I rang the helpline and the operator spent time searching for a cheaper deal and I have got a reduction, it will now be £29 a month, with exactly the same download speeds as well as the landline phone, which I was prepared to drop, but as it's part of the deal, it will remain. The contract is for 18 months. I was concerned that if I moved to another provider, it would likely cause problems, for example, having to reset passwords and generally learning to negotiate the setting up of a new router etc. As the saying goes, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

6.25 p.m. A hectic but productive day at Camphill today. The day was very different compared to other days I've had there, principally because we had a group of pupils from Shenley Brook End Upper School (which is next door to the Oaktree Centre.) They arrived at around 9.30. Terrie had set up some games to play, which the theatre workshop team knew well.  Some of the pupils were not comfortable with the games they were expected to join. I imagine it was because they were at the age when such games would not interest them or it was embarrassing in front of their peers. They were given a tour of the theatre and after around an hour and a half they left, and we had a late tea break.

It was soon lunch break and then afterwards we got on with finishing off the plot line for our silent film. We discussed locations, and it may be easier, in the long run, to do our time-travelling film within the theatre and construct sets out of cardboard and even use 'blue' or 'green screen' to achieve some of the backgrounds. We then did a tentative rehearsal of what we had. It's not like a play, done live, obviously. Each scene will be filmed separately and editing will create the 'flow' of the piece, so any rehearsal can only give a vague idea of what the whole thing will be like, once it has the intertitles, that's the graphics which will display the various elements that the 'silent' actors speak, set the scene for the audience and other pieces of graphics, including the opening titles and of course 'The End.' 

Wednesday. 10.50 a.m. I need a suit for my part in the silent film we're creating at Camphill in the theatre workshop. I have tried on jackets in the wardrobe department but nothing fit me, so the alternative was to try several charity shops in Stony Stratford. I had the presence of mind to look on Google Maps (such a useful resource) and saw there were several in the High Street, one, Oxfam, and another Red Cross. I drove there this morning and went into the Red Cross shop and found a suit jacket that more or less fits, but no matching trousers which fit. I purchased the jacket, at £6.50, not a lot to pay, and I will have to see if they have trousers in the wardrobe store in the Chrysalis Theatre next time I'm there. Or, I think I may have some black chinos which might do, at a stretch.

Driving to Stony, I got a message coming up on the digital display on the car's dashboard, informing me that the key battery was running low. Without the key, which locks and unlocks the car's doors, there might be a problem further down the line, so on the way back to Dexter House I went to Halfords and got a new batter fitted. No point in leaving it until there is a problem.