Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!

Sunday. 5.25 p.m. Did you notice that many of the titles for my posts are taken from those of songs in musicals? This one comes from the opening number of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show, 'Oklahoma!' 

I bought The Sunday Times this morning. I went to Tesco Metro in Oldbrook Boulevard. I haven't had any Sunday papers for I don't know how long, well, at least in the traditional, print form. I have a digital subscription to The Daily Telegraph, so I can read it on their website and on the app on my iPad. I was shocked that The Sunday Times now costs £3.50, which shows how long ago I had it when it was probably less than £1, but maybe £2. 

There's an article which interested me, about the boom in television and filmmaking in the United Kingdom, and how there is a desperate need for more studio space because most of what's available, at, say Pinewood or Shepperton, is already booked solid by the likes of Disney and Netflix. The Hollywood studios seem to prefer to make their blockbusters, such as 'Star Wars' and 'Mission Impossible' in this country because we have some of the best facilities as well as the personnel to make them and also companies based here who create the special effects, provide the costumes, set-building, makeup and a whole host of associated creative material.

The Edinburgh Festival has just started. I am totally amazed that theatre companies, who appear there, now have to give a warning about anything that might offend audiences. How crazy is that? Are people so pathetic that they have to be warned if there's any mention of anything sexual, outrageous political matters, anything about gender, Britain's past, such as our empire, slavery, nationality or whatever? It seems people can become 'outrage about more or less anything. Also, there's an article in the 'Culture' section of The Sunday Times about Terry Gilliam, who happens to be one of my favourite film directors. He was the animator, as part of the 'Monty Python' comedy group.  I love the films he has directed, such as 'The Time Bandits', 'Brazil' and 'Baron Munchausen.' He was scheduled to direct a production of Stephen Sondheim's musical 'Into The Woods' at the Old Vic, but, due to his views on transgender and the     #met oo campaign, staff didn't want to work with him, so he has been 'cancelled.' It seems you can't have an opinion about anything unless it's someone else's opinion. He has taken the entire production to a theatre in Bath, where it is about to open. I am so hoping that this production might go on tour and come close to Milton Keynes, probably not to Milton Keynes Theatre, but possibly to the Royal Theatre in Northampton or the Oxford Playhouse.

Monday. 2.10 p.m. I have been experimenting with the animation app I bought from the Apple app store. I have spent around an hour this morning playing around with the set-up, using the piece of card I got in Hobbycraft the other morning and using the Rode device to clamp my iPhone to because you need to have your camera or phone steady before you can even think of any form of animation. I have now done a very short piece which runs for a mere 19 seconds, of a group of bits of Plasticine, and I'm rather pleased with the result. Now I will have to devise something a bit more imaginative and give that a go.

The Excitement Continues

(Sunday) Do you sense a somewhat sarcastic tone to my title for this blog post? Probably, you say. Well, you would be right in some respects.

My Fitbit has ceased to function. It is an ex Fitbit, it has ceased to be, to quote the famous Monty Python 'Parrot' sketch. I had it charging on it's charging station (for want of a better term to describe it.) It isn't always clear whether it charges and it should vibrate when it's inserted properly and apparently you should get a smiling face appear on it's face/screen (or whatever it's called.) But none of this happened. I repeated all this over several days and then decided, this afternoon, to visit the Fitbit website and used the 'chat' system to describe to one of the agents what the problem was.

(Wednesday) Yesterday I got my printer to work! Which was a relief, considering the amount of effort it has taken to get it to work. I can't think what prevented it functioning. I printed off the plot line which was written long before Carol was diagnosed and I haven't managed to do any work on it since then and continues the plot of the spine plot of the writing project which runs to over 80 pages, which came as a surprise when I printed it out yesterday. It needs a great deal of editing, but, considering it's a first draft, it's not surprising. A lot of spelling mistakes for example and general glitches, grammatical and so on.

The replacement Fitbit arrived during the morning. I went to pick up the old one to find it working! So I have two Fitbits, although the one which came in the post doesn't have a strap, which I might buy in John Lewis and keep it as a spare. How perverse are these gadgets? Take ages to fathom out and set up as well as charge and then you never know whether it's going to work or not.

(Thursday) A somewhat overcast morning. Not sure what the day has in store.

1.15 approximately. I have just been out with Alfie and I'm shocked to see no less than five large caravans parked on Oldbrook Green. A car was driving off and over the kerb as I got to the crossing point. There are certainly not supposed to be on there. The weight of the caravans and the vehicles which tow them will break up the surface of the green. Fortunately it is dry at the moment but when it's wet there is often water standing on the surface and it can be like walking on wet carpet or more like a marsh and if it's like that the surface will be damaged beyond repair. I got home and went on the Next-door site and see that several people have already seen the caravans and the local authority have been informed.

(Friday) The caravans parked on Oldbrook Green have gone, thank goodness. I imagine some official from the Council have dealt with the matter. A few tyre marks are visible on the grass, but apart from that there is really no sign of the caravans ever being there.

(Monday) I'm seriously finding it increasingly more and more difficult to find anything worth writing about on this blog. Which is why you won't find me posting as often as in the past. It does get somewhat monotonous, which is a good enough excuse to not bother posting. Although there are many writers who can whittle on about next to nothing and manage quite nicely and probably get paid into the bargain. Probably paid by the word or number of words. Think of the pages and pages of description in many of Dickens novels. I expect, because they were written in instalments, be had so many words he had to write in order to fullfill the number required for an instalment. hence the sometimes tedious rambling on relentlessly.