Noisy, Aimless Pigeons!

Friday 17th July. 10.25 a.m. It's another mild and relatively sunny, but the heat has finished, for the moment. I just hope it doesn't come back as roastingly hot. I don't mind the sun- infact, I love it, but when it's so hot, I can't cope with it. When it's cold, at least you can put anothr layer on, a jumper, fleece, puton the heating, turn up the heating a couple of notches, but when it's so hot, it's difficult to get away from it, apart from sitting in a pool of water, drinking plenty of fluids, have a shower or whatever, but there's never any relief from it.

Currenly, the digital thermometer reads 27ºc.

My fridge/freezer needs cleaning out. One job that I don't exactly enjoy, but must be done. I found two packs of tomatoes, so I decided to make them into soup and use the soup maker. I chopped the tomatoes, along with onions, put them in a glass dish, sprinkled balsamic vinegar and olive oil all over them and put them into the oven to roast for half an hour and then, once they were tender and soft, put them into the soup maker and switched it on and barely 20 minutes ir was done. I'm amazed at how good it tasted, and it's far better than Heinz or any other bought, tinned soup. And there's enough for around 6 bowls or mugs, as I prefer to use a mug to consume it. Actually the best soup I've managed to make in it since I got it.

Saturday 18th July. 4.40 p.m. I should, of course, mentioned the noisy aimless pigeons, who gave me inspiration for the title of this post. Well, they are always outside my window, making that awful repetitive noise they make, you know, cooing aimlseely, possibly the most boring bird sound on the planet. They should at least change it once in a while. Then, when you see them on the ground they move around, nodding their heads. If I was to spend all day nodding, I would get a severe headache. I have to say, they aren't exactly the most intelligent birds on this planet.

Sunday 26th July. 5.15 a.m. Here we go again! Wide awake and unable to get back to sleep, I'm here on my laptop.

I mentioned about the sound system I had ordered from Amazon, which had a Bluetooth-connected microphone? Well, if I didn't, let me just say, the wretched thing lasted all of two weeks or maybe less, when it packed up completely and  it wouldn't do a thing. I knew it would have to be returned and that would be difficult, as I had thrown out the packaging it came in. I scrambled about my flat, searching for any suitable cardboard box into which the sound system would fit and found one, chopped it down with scissors and, after a bit of improvisation, parcel tape and ingenuity, I got it wrapped up. But, parcel tape is useful, but trying to find a loose end, which keeps on re-sticking itself to the roll is really frustrating. 

Having got the parcel wrapped, I had to find the business who would take it and get it returned to Amazon. It turned out to be Parcel Force and I got  tet message telling me someone would collect it on Thursday, between 10.25 and 2.25. All very well giving me a window, but nothing closer to the actual time of collection, so I didn't go to my usual Thrsday life group ar the OTC.

The window for collection closed and I was thinking, have I been forgotten? Did I get the times wrong or something? Then the intercom thing buzzed and a voice spoke and the Parcel Force employee arrived on my doorstep. I didn't even have to print a label for the parcel, all now done with barcodes and a barcode reader (just don't ask me how it works.) and the parcel was whisked away. So, I decided to choose the replacement sound system and next day, the refund was in my Amazon account, so I ordered the replacement and that arrived next morning. So, the packing, sending and collecting of the parcel was relatively stress-free and I now got the new system working.

Hotter Than Ever!

 Friday 10th July. 3.35 a.m. It's so hot, I just can't sleep. Even now, the digital thermometer reads 31ºc.If it's that hot now, with my little air conditioner on and the window open, which  itis has been all night, what temperature is it likely to be as the day progresses?

I went to the Milton Keynes Theatre yesterday afternoon, to see "The Carman," the ballet by New Adventures. This company is directed by Sir Matthew Bourne's company. This production is set in 1960s America and uses a specially arranged score based on Bizet's "Carmen" and is quite violent in places (there are a couple of murders in it.) I didn't drive, thinking it would not only be good exercise, and I wore my new earbuds for something to listen to as I walked, but it seemed a bit unnecessary to go in the car and have to pay for the privilege of parking. It was extremely hot, but I didn't experience any ill-effects, apart from my mouth becoming extremely dry, as a result of the extreme heat. Fortunately, the theatre was cool, no doubt due to having air conditioning, which you would expect in a modern theatre in the early years of the 21st century.

Saturday 11th July. 4.00 p.m. This morning we had our monthly men's breakfast at The Oaktree Centre. We had our usual cooked breakfast (well, it could hardly be called a men's breakfast if it didn't have that element. I had written a piece, because the whole idea is to have some element of Bible teaching or a talk with a Christian element to it. It was called "The Power of Parables and The Creative Gift of Words.' I thought it quite appropriate to do something related to story-telling, which obviously Parables are and my interest in writing and using words in my writing. I think it went well, and then there was a question-and-answer session afterwards. So, that's another thing ticked off my list!

I have written another two plays, so my current total of plays to date is around 6. Not bad, considering I have never written a play before last September, so it will be one year since I began playwrighting next month. So, I think I can now safely put the term 'playwright' on my CV!

Sunday 12th July. 2.20 a.m. Here I am, sitting here at this ungodly hour, couldn't sleep, the same old business of having to get up from bed to use the loo and doing a bit of work on one of my plays on my Macbook. Then, for no apparent reason, the fire alarm goes off. Why? Who has left their oven off, let the bread burn in the toaster? So, I suppose I will have to wait until the fire service arrives, to turn the wretched thing off. The door from the lounge into the central hallway is currently closed, which reduces the sound of the alarm to some extent, but it's still annoying. 

8.40 p.m. You will not believe this (although you might just believe it.) but the horrible fire alarm is going off as I write this. It is becoming something of a joke. Just the fact that someone has no ability to set the awful thing off, by forgetting that they have something cooking in their oven, or let their toast burn, or even let something burn on the top of the oven, the hob. Please, oh please, don'ts let this go on for another two hours, which is what happened at 2.20 this morning.

Saturday Night, If It's Alright!

Saturday 27th June. 7.00 a.m. The heat has gone down considerably, but it's still unbearably hot. Currently, the digital thermometer reads 29º c, so a good deal hotter than usual, whatever usual is these days.

I have completed another play and I'm making little tweeks to make sure it runs for around 120 minutes and it has some sort of authinticity as it's set in Norfolk, so some of the characters would speak in the very distinct dialect.

Saturday 4th July. 9.20 a.m. Another warm day. We have had a few cooler days, but the weather forecast is coming in very hort again. I have to say, it is not something I enjoy because it can increase my blood pressure, and, since I have a heart condition, not something I am keen to experience.

Tuesday 7th July. 3.10p.m. It's not as hot as it was about a week ago. Currently the digital thermometer reads 31 c. 

I have written a couple more plays, this time in the style of Alan Ayckbourn. If you are not aware of his plays, where have you been for the last 50 or more years? He has written somewhere in the region of 90 plays, which has to be some kind of record. They are usually about very ordinary people doing very ordinary things. His first big success was 'Relatively Speaking' which I did the book for when I was an A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970s. Then, we did 'How The Others Half Love' at Century Theatre in Keswick, and then I did the book for another of his plays, at Ipswich Theatre in the mid 1970s, 'Time nd Time Again.' His work is usually premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and often gets a West End production.

I am using his blueprint as the basis for several of my own plays, which are comic but can then have a certain melancholic feel to them, which makes for great theatre and have more depth to them than merely being funny. I think, having beeen involved with the production of some of his plays, I have a good idea ho they work, how, although at first sight they may seem simple, there is far more to them than you might imagine.

The central character in"Time and Time Again" was played by an actor called Chris Godwin, who created the character when the play was premiered at Scarborough, so he knew how to play Leonard. Alan Ayckhourned himself came to Ipswich to see our production and made the comment that OUR production was far better than the West End version, quite an accolade for out little production.