Happy Days Are Here Again! (Or Are They?)

Thursday. 8.25 a.m. 53 years ago today, I began my theatre career as a student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. I was thrown in at the deep end, as it were because that Monday was the technical rehearsal of a production of 'Jane Eyre.' It had Angela Richards playing Jane in it. I was very 'green' as they say. In those days, 'rep' or 'repertory' theatre, was in full operation. Most large towns throughout the United Kingdom had their own 'rep.' Plays ran throughout the year, except for a break of a fortnight during the summer for maintenance. Each play would run for two-three weeks, with the next play in rehearsal as a play was in performance. It meant that stage management had to search for props for the next play, beg, borrow or steal items to be used in the next play, so we would scour the town for these items. As the budget for each play was tiny, there wasn't money to buy these items. Most items would come from local businesses, and shops, mostly selling antiques in Cheltenham or quite valuable pieces of furniture. It's amazing. looking back, what we had on loan. These businesses who loaned items got a credit in the play's programme and got free tickets for the play as an acknowledgement. The theatre must have had insurance because some items were expensive antiques (at the time I am talking about, Cheltenham had plenty of antique shops, many quite keen to lend pieces of furniture and other items.) Without this sort of borrowing, the shows would never have been staged. 

It was fairly unrelenting work, because, with one show being performed during the evening, and the next play in rehearsals during the day, there was no let-up. I might be doing props for one show and then operating sound on the next, having to make up tapes of music and sound effects. I didn't get to do 'The Book' until I went to Colchester Rep in the following January as a fully-fledged A.S.M. The first 'Book' I did was 'Billy Liar.' It's quite a demanding job, being in rehearsals from the first read-through of the script, logging all the actors' moves and taking notes on such things as props, practical effects (i.e.: off-stage crases, door slams, gunshots.) and running the show when it goes into the theatre during production week, the technical, dress rehearsal and then opening night and then the actual run. Then, giving the actors their calls via the tannoy system, cueing lights, sound effects and so on and keeping a record of the show's timing, interval etc.

3.40 p.m. The day has been mild on the weather front, although it has been quite blustery. Not a lot else has happened. I have had problems with my Amazon Video connection. Attempting to watch the latest season of 'Clarkson's Farm and have reached the final episode, but it won't play. Technology is fine when it works, but when it decides not to work, then it's annoying and somewhat frustrating. I will leave it and have another attempt later.

6.55 p.m. I have at last managed to get the Firestick to work. I did the old trick which everyone does with anything electrical, and usually when there's a problem with a computer or anything vaguely connected with a computer, which a Fire Stick is. I turned the whole system off at the electrical point and after ten seconds, put it back on. This meant the Fire Stick rebooted itself and, hey presto! I managed to watch 'Clarkson's Farm'. 

I know Jeremy Clarkson is not someone to everyone's taste. He has come out with some controversial things, particularly regarding Megan Markle. But, having watched this show, he has at least had the guts to try something which he has actually got no experience of, that is, farming. He has made some stupid mistakes, but you have to admit, he has attempted to do some quite challenging things. It seems that West Oxfordshire District Council have made his life extremely difficult regarding planning permission, and it looks to me as if they are just being awkward and extremely petty in their actions. 

Saturday. 10.30 a.m. I had to buy some things at Sainsbury's, such as milk. So, having made out my obligatory shopping list, which I find is always best, as I don't want to forget anything I need and it saves time. This was my way of shopping during lockdown, particularly as there were so many restrictions, and it just made shopping faster. But when I went to start the car and back out of my parking space, the steering wheel would not turn, and I got a message on the digital screen saying 'power steering fault.' I also got a red light come on which told me to 'stop.,' which was exactly what I did. There was no way I was going to be able to drive it, so I left it in the parking space and walked to Sainsbury's, which is no more than a fifteen-minute walk. But I didn't buy everything on my carefully composed list, as I didn't want to have to carry heavy bags of shopping. Having now returned home and unloaded my shopping, I have been back to check the car and it seems alright and no problems with the steering. I'm not sure what caused the problem in the first place. Just makes me worry now that, if I drive anywhere, it will then decide to play up, making it impossible to drive.

1.55 p.m. No, I have no idea why I chose the title for this post. I sometimes choose song titles, but anyway, this one is actually not very appropriate at the moment, but I quite like it, regardless of it being totally not connected to anything. We just need some optimism at the moment, so leave it at that.

6.10 p.m. I was cooking my evening meal. Steak, chips, tomato, mushroom and a bit of onion. Well, you can't have steak without a bit of onion, I always say. I had the chips cooking in the oven, along with the tomato. It was time to sear the steak in a pan, which I did. But the oil got on the hot ring and produced smoke. I was annoyed as I knew what would happen next, which it did; it set the very sensitive fire alarm off. It is deafening, and Alfie doesn't like it. It continued to make it's noise, regardless of my waving a tea towel under it. No way of turning it off. I just sat in the lounge with the door shut. Then, around fifteen minutes later, I got a knock on the door and two firemen came in. They couldn't stop it, even with a glove held over the alarm. I was going to use the alarm system which each of the flats in Dexter House are equipped with, which can be set off by one of the red pull cords which are in all the rooms (although looking around the lounge where I am sitting and composing this, there isn't one. One of the firemen pressed the alarm button on the unit on the wall to speak to the operator, who knows who I am if I accidentally set off the alarm (which is reassuring if I had a genuine need for assistance, such as a fall or I had a medical need, such as a heart attack.) The fireman said that the mobile member of staff would turn off the alarm (which by now was giving me a headache, it was so loud.) About ten minutes later the alarm stopped, which was such a relief and I was able to complete preparing my meal and sit down and actually eat it!

I have already mentioned how I discussed having an extractor fan fitted, when the kitchen was refurbished back in July and how many times I have contacted Mears, the company who are responsible for maintenance at Dexter House. I am almost certain that when the extractor fan is eventually installed in my kitchen, then setting off the fire alarm should, in theory at least, be a thing of the past.

Wild, Wet and Windy

(Tuesday)It's a wild and stormy day here in darkest Milton Keynes. Storm Brendan is battering the United Kingdom from the west and, going out with Alfie as I did early this morning, it took all my time and effort to remain standing upright. I took Alfie out for a second time at 1.30 and the wind was a good deal stronger. It's dustbin-day in this area and people had put their rubbish out for collection and some of it, mostly boxes and bags of rubbish, was being blown into the road. Someone along the road has obviously bought a Hitachi HD television (a smaller version of mine I have reason to suspect, along with a Henry vacuum cleaner, as indicated by the remaining wind-blown packaging. The other day some bright spark had dumped an old television in the side entrance to Dexter House. Could it be the same person who purchased the Hitachi television and dumped. More like, fly-tipped. the carton in the road? I think there may be a connection.)

Walking around Oldbrook Green there is paper and goodness knows what else being blown about by the wind. As the day has gone on, the wind seems to have got a good deal stronger. I took out Alfie again at around 1.30, but I don't think he appreciated the weather and tried his hardest to return home.

I didn't go to Camphill on Tuesday because I didn't feel 100%. A rather shaky feeling when I got up and horrible tingling in my feet.  It was rather like an electric shock, although quite mild. I don't know what's caused this, but probably some side-effect of the medication I'm on. I didn't think I was safe to drive the car, so I stayed in the flat. I need to discuss this with either a doctor, cardiologist or pharmacist.

(Wednesday) It's not so wild and wet outside this morning. The wind has dropped, thank goodness, and the rain has stopped.

I've been to put fuel in the car at the Shell station in Grafton Street. I've done well, because the last time I put in fuel was on Christmas Eve, on my way out of Milton Keynes, driving to Worcester for Christmas. It just shows how economical the Renault Captur is, being able to drive to Worcester and back as well as driving around Milton Keynes. Then I went to Sainsbury's and did a fairly large shop which means I have enough meals for a couple of weeks.

Went out with Alfie as soon as I'd unpacked my shopping and put it away. It was almost spring-like as we walked along Strudwick Drive. I have mentioned the amount of litter which has accumulated around the area, most around Oldbrook Green and, in particular, the litter bins. I did mention that this had been removed but today I again saw a couple of Council employees litter-picking, and one had a wheelbarrow with a black bin bag in for the litter. Why on earth people have to fling their litter on the ground I can't think. It seems it's usually the younger generation who do this, unfortunately. I always assumed that the youth of today were more environmentally aware than, say, my generation, but it would appear that this is not the case.

I went out with Alfie at around 2 o'clock this afternoon and no sooner had we got outside and in Dexter Avenue, walking towards Strudwick Drive, than the sound of a siren could be heard and within a few seconds a fire engine could be seen, moving, at great speed, towards Oldbrook Boulevard. I couldn't walk fast enough to get to the crossing onto Oldbrook Green, but I could see it turn left along Oldbrook Boulevard but by the time we reached the crossing it was well out of sight. No sign of smoke, so it was impossible to know where it was going. It could have been going to a fire, of course, but you have to remember that the fire service can go to other incidents, unrelated to fire.

As I walked along with Alfie, I followed a man in dark clothes carrying what looked like some sort of camera, with a sort of digital screen attached to it, rather like a smart phone. When he got to the green, near where men and boys kick a football into a goal, he put down the back pack he had on and it was clear that the device wasn't a camera, but the radio control of a drone. A few days ago I was again walking towards Oldbrook Green and I heard this high-pitched noise. It would be difficult to describe, but rather like something moving at speed, a bit like a sort of mechanical sound. As we got closer, I saw the small drone the man was operating. It flew up high into the sky and made a sort of insect-like sound, rather like a mosquito. It flew vertically and was quite scary and I don't think Alfie liked it. This afternoon it was being flown again and, as we got to the green, there was a flock of seagulls sitting on the grass and they flew up into the air and were scared off by the drone. We did our usual circuit of the Green, and by the time we got back to the crossing, I heard a sort of clunk sound and I think the drone crashed into the ground. Whether it got broken or not, I wasn't sure, but the speed it was going, up and down and then horizontally, I can assume that if it came down too quickly and the operator mis-judged the height,  and it must have crashed into the ground and therefore got broken.

I'm using my newly-acquired and up-dated Fire TV Stick. It has Alexa voice control built-in and 'she' will work if you press the button on the remote to operate the gadget. You have to wait for the blue line to appear at the top of the screen before 'she' will answer and do your bidding. You can call up apps which you download, such as YouTube, or else, if the thing is set up properly, play music from the Amazon Music store. I used to pay a monthly fee, but I cancelled it and now only have the free service which comes with Amazon Prime. Alexa will also play voice activated games, some based on television gameshows, such as Pointless, Deal Or No Deal or The Chase. But some of these only go so far and you can't complete them unless you pay a fee (which I haven't.), which means they can be a bit frustrating as you don't get to the final (if you manage to answer questions correctly.