Hi Diddle Ho Hum Diddley!

(Friday) 3.40p.m.  I can't think of a title for this blog post, so came up with the ridiculous effort you find here. Sorry it's so idiotic, but there you are! Do I care? Absolutely not!

Just listening to music on Alexa (by the way is Alexa male or female? Just a thought. It sounds vaguely female, but if you ask 'her' she doesn't seem to know.) As I was idly minding my own business, as one does when you listen to music, there was a 'clunk' as something was thrust through my letter box. I got up to find out what it was, and it turned out to be a copy of 'The Phone Book.' Something I haven't seen in years. Is this what the Telephone Directory has become? This rather thin and nondescript book? Not what I remember the Telephone Directory to be. What happened to Yellow Pages? Or Thompson's Directory. I have a glance inside and it's just advertising. Such businesses as drainage contractors, electrical engineers, plumbers, television aerial installers, advertisements for chair lifts and goodness knows what else. I was somewhat amused by the fact that if you get stuck down a cave you can be rescued if you dial 999. Seems a bit odd, because I can think of no caves to get stuck in and need rescuing from in Milton Keynes or thereabouts, but I suppose if you should need rescuing it's good to know you can call to get rescued. Also, coastguard, similarly, if you ring 999. But I don't know how far Milton Keynes is from the coast, but you'd be hard pressed to find a coastline anywhere in this vicinity. Must be at least 90 if not 100 miles if going east. Not sure if going west. Likewise, mountain rescue. Oh well, it's good to know you can be rescued from these areas if needed. 

I just can't believe that the Telephone Book still exists. I don't honestly think I have missed it or even think I've had any use for it, particularly since if you need a telephone number you just go on Google, if you need a plumber or someone to sort out your central heating boiler or MoT your car. As it is, the current copy which was thrust through my letterbox is likely to end up in the recycling. I just wonder if everyone who lives in Dexter House also got a copy, and if not, why did I get a copy. I do have a landline telephone, but not with BT. You used to get a telephone directory in the days when the only telephone provider was British Telecom or, before it was privatised, it was part of the Post Office and you automatically got a copy when you were a customer. That's a good many years ago. The Yellow Pages and Telephone Directory lived next to the telephone and one or the other probably sat UNDER the telephone, one of those old fashioned Bakelite models, black, with a dial (how many children today have any recollection of this type of telephone? Probably none. It had a cord that connected to a point somewhere nearby and this cord, brown, many-stranded, got twisted, because people used to play with it as they talked. In a separate room, which was cold and crafty. Such are  the memories. With a mobile phone you can call from more or less anywhere, inside or out, and have no end of apps, for Twitter, Facebook etc. Also, the Telephone Book or Telephone Directory used to be inches thick. This pathetic effort is thin and rather weedy. Just not very good somehow or other. Do people have their phone numbers in such directories? I my landline number in this? I'll have to have a look. Also, the Yellow Pages was also fairly substantial. I seem to remember at one time I delivered them around the village where I used to live. A car-load of Yellow Pages took up a lot of space, and they were heavy! Try carrying a load of them around with you and then depositing them at each house as you pass! 

(Saturday) I've just got back from taking Alfie out (10.50a.m.) We had gone out for our fist walk at about 6.10a.m. As we walked around Oldbrook Green, Alfie stopping around every couple of yards to have a good old sniff, I found an object laying in the grass. I had to have a closer inspection and it turned out to be a Casio calculator. I wasn't sure if it was working. Having picked it up (probably not such a good thing to do, on reflection, considering covid-19.) It did work, so I decided to keep it and put it in my jacket pocket. No doubt a student from MK College or Milton Keynes Academy dropped it. Oh well, their loss is my gain. Having got it home in the flat, I have wiped it with alcohol wipe, so it should be safe from any viruses or bacteria. I have wanted a calculator for some while, so here it is. Looking on line to discover it must be worth at least £20.

I've just heard the most appalling piece of news, about an 82-year-old woman who lives in sheltered housing in Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham, who decided to have a cup of tea outside with a friend, and some jobsworth (I can think of a worse word here, but I won't.) who had to telephone the police, who turned up at approximately 9.45p.m. The lady was IN BED, to tell her she was BREAKING THE LAW! She was FINED, apparently, which makes this even worse. I trust she gets some sort of apology for such outrageous behaviour.This lady had recently had the vaccine and she and the neighbour were sitting socially distancing outside. What is going on here? It smacks of something out of some dystopian novel or even satire. It hardly sounds real. The person who snitched on her should be ashamed of themselves! Not worthy of the name 'good neighbour.' Why on earth do we have such idiotic legislation which allows this sort of thing? Makes me think it's more like Nazi Germany..We really have a totalitarian regime in power. I would never have believed it if it wasn't real. In fact, if you were to write it into a novel, people would say 'that's not real. It would never happen,' but, unfortunately, it is real. PLEASE don't let this sort of nonsense happen again and PLEASE repeal this crazy legislation IMMEDIATELY! The police had no ID, apparently, and the lady was quite deaf! The whole thing is OUTRAGEOUS! What would have happened if they'd dragged the poor old, deaf lady was clapped in irons, handcuffs, and put in a Black Maria and taken off to be put in the slammer. This whole thing has bought out the absolute worst in people (but more nice and kind, mind you.) I think people have lost the plot. It must be the effect of being confined they way we have been for more than a year. Sounds like something out of some crazy comedy to me or even a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

'It Was 50 Years Ago Today!'

Quoting as I did in my blog post title, to the Beatles album track 'Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' It's something of an anniversary this weekend. It's exactly 50 years ago that I started work, as a very green 18-year-old, when I went to work as a student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. I was taken down to Cheltenham by my mum in the Land Rover because it was snowing heavily and I had lots of luggage, including a bicycle to take. I had to live in the Y.M.C.A. because my mum didn't think I'd be able to manage on my own in a flat. I was eventually to live with a family in Cheltenham as a lodger. Whether I would have managed on my own in a flat is open to doubt. I wasn't given a chance to find out, but I suppose, as I was the first of her five sons to go away from home, she was only doing what she thought was the best for me. 

I was thrown into the deep end because that first Monday I went to work at the Everyman was the technical rehearsal for the latest play, an adaptation of 'Jane Eyre,' which had Angela Richards as Jane and Philip Voss playing Rochester. It would have been quite an eye-opener for me, as generally a technical rehearsal can be a very long and tiring experience, going on all day and probably into the early hours of the next day. The play is virtually taken apart and lighting and sound cues rehearsed, along with scene changes and it will be the first time the actors as well as the stage management, got to see and experience the set. Some of the scene changes could be very complicated, with the set consisting of several wheeled units or 'trucks,' built on platforms which had castors underneath them and could be difficult to manoeuvre over the stage floor which was built at a slight angle or 'rake,' meaning if you weren't careful, they could disappear over the edge of the stage and possibly fall into the audience, so each 'truck' had to be equipped with bolts which could be pushed into drilled holes in the stage floor to prevent them moving once in place. On the following Tuesday there would be a dress rehearsal, that is, if the technical rehearsal went on too long on the Monday. This would be almost like an actual performance, but without an audience, although the director would be making notes throughout and after the dress rehearsal he or she would gather all the actors and stage management to give these notes, for example, could a scene change be done quicker, could doors be prevented from opening or squeaking unnecessarily etc etc, as well as tweeking sound or lighting cues and endless other things that might need rectifying before the first night.

I think I was put on helping during scene changes. There would be a 'curtain drop, which was meant to be very short and you'd have to go on stage and place a prop or take something away. It could be barely a minute so you had to absolutely sure what you were expected to do. It could be quite difficult if you had to set a piece of furniture, probably carrying it on with another member of stage management and make quite sure it was positioned correctly. Coloured tape was put on the stage floor and usually the 'up-stage' legs of, say, a table or chair, would be marked and it could be quite difficult to find these coloured marks, particularly if you had such a short time to find them as well as the fact that there probably wasn't much light to see by, and then exit rapidly before the curtain went up on the next scene of the play. If it was a prop that was vital to the plot, or the piece of furniture was wrongly positioned, it could ruin the performance. Can you think of a prop, such as a vital piece of evidence in a 'whodunnit', if it's missing and the police, who are looking for evidence, suddenly that vital 'prop' is missing? Or the murderer looks in the drawer of a desk to find the weapon to shoot another character, and it's missing? Could be devastating. So, you needed to be on your toes when setting as well as striking props.

Another couple of anniversaries in 2019. It was on 20th July 1969 that the first humans went to the moon and walked on the surface. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface while Michael Collins remained in the Apollo 11 module, piloting the capsule around the moon. I recall watching this historic event unfold on television, in really grainy black and white pictures. I'm not sure I was that interested and the television coverage seemed to go on for a long time, even though the picture quality wasn't particularly brilliant. A D.S.M. at the Everyman insisted on me going to a jewellers shop in Cheltenham to get a model of the Apollo module which was on display in their window. As part of our job, we had to go and beg, steal or borrow items from local business for use as props in the plays we were staging during that season. It took me a while to pluck up courage to go and ask for whatever was required in a particular production, such as a tea set or, in one case, a samovar. If the business lent an item they got a credit mention in the play's programme and also got a couple of free tickets for the play. So, it didn't take me much courage to go and ask in that jeweller's to get that model. I duly came back and presented it to the D.S.M., who would have been more senior to me in the pecking order. Why couldn't he have gone and asked himself? I don't know, looking back, but probably to see if I would obey orders or just because he couldn't do it himself.

The other anniversary would be the fact that I passed my driving test whilst working in Cheltenham. I had been taking lessons before arriving in Cheltenham and had my first test during the break in the season and I'd gone home for the week. Consequently I had failed, and when I had returned to Cheltenham, I resumed taking lessons and then went on to take a second test, which I passed and the my parents bought me my first car, a two-tone green Ford Anglia, which cost the princely sum of £75! It lasted probably two or three years until it finally bit the dust. It had an odd habit. When it rained, you put on the windscreen wipers and if you went fast, they moved slowly, but if you were driving slowly, say, going up a steep hill, they went fast. Can't see how or why, but presumably they were linked to the speed of the engine. Also, you dipped the lights, when you drove at night, by using your foot on the floor, to depress a pedal near the accelerator pedal. It's a pity modern cars don't have this pedal to dip the headlights. Something you don't have to do nowadays when you learn to drive, and that's to use hand signals. Sticking your hand out to show you're intentions to move left or right or slow down seems a rather foolhardy thing to do. Most likely if you were to do it today you'd get some strange looks and possibly get your arm knocked off by a passing vehicle. 

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 13

Once the play has been rehearsed for the given period, the show will then move into the theatre, particularly if it has been rehearsed elsewhere, although some shows are rehearsed using the stage, and the set mark-out will fit into the standing set of the show which is running currently. It is at this stage that a technical rehearsal will be done, which enables all the technical elements to be tried and tested. Stage management will have worked over the previous weekend, having 'struck' the previous play's set, and constructed the incoming show's set on the stage. All the rigging, flying, lighting etc will have been put in place before the set in built. This used to be done on a Sunday, and we would have worked until around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning removing the set of the outgoing show, sorting out props which have to be returned and doing general housekeeping to allow the new show to be set up.

The technical rehearsal is so that  every cue, for lighting, sound, scene change, costume change can be tried out. At this point neither the actors or stage management will have been able to work with the set. The actors will also have all the props they need, rather than the 'stand in' ones that they would have had in the rehearsal room. A technical can last all day, into the early hours of the next day, and in some cases they can drag on into the next day with a break in between, but this is rare. It depends on the complexity of the play. Obviously the more cues, of whatever type, the more stopping and starting there will be. At the end the director will give notes to all concerned, in particular stage management will have to deal with such things as doors sticking, wobbly flats, and a whole host of things, before the first dress rehearsal. Sometimes the first dress rehearsal can follow on almost immediately after the technical, and then one final dress rehearsal the afternoon the play opens. This can be incredibly trying and when stage management have been working since the final performance of the previous play on, say, a Saturday (which was how we worked when I was in rep.) and the next show opens on the following Tuesday evening, that's a good four days solid work with very little sleep.

As with any show, the prompt corner is the operation centre who the whole show. Whoever has been 'on the book' during rehearsals will now be in control here. The 'Book' will, by now,  be made up with  all the cues market in. If a line spoken by an actor is the cue for, say, a lighting or sound effect, then the 'book' with have it market in clearly. In most theatres there is a cueing system using lights, rather like traffic lights in the street, but obviously a good deal smaller. You give a warning that a cue is coming up for the operator, usually a red lights, and when the cue comes, you give a green light. At Ipswich theatre there was a three-light system, which had an additional blue light. The idea being that the operator of sound, lighting or whatever, would flash the blue light to indicated to the prompt corner that they were standing by. It was quite a good idea as it allowed you to be sure the operator was ready. On one occasion at Ipswich I was doing the book for one show, I forget which now, and I hadn't got the blue light from he lighting operator. I had given him the standby, but he hadn't indicated that he was actually standing by. It got closer and closer to the actual lighting change, fade or whatever and I began to panic. It just happened that the lighting board was above the prompt corner, and was accessible by a metal ladder. I had to climb up and see where the operator was, and found him asleep! I had to operate the lighting board as he wasn't awake in time to give the cue! A bit of a seat-of-the-pants situation!

If you were put on props for a show you would be expected to go out and find the relevant items listed for the play in rehearsal. I can recall trudging the streets of Cheltenham as a very green student A.S.M. I became a good deal more savvy at going into shops and asking if we could borrow such-and-such item or items, the owner of a particular shop would be very trusting that we weren't going to damage whatever the item was or even sell it. They would be given free tickets for the play, or the next one in the season, and have a credit in the play's programme. At Ipswich Theatre I remember borrowing a white linen tablecloth for a play. Unfortunately it got badly stained with something which would not wash out. We had kept the wrapping in which it would have been carefully folded for display in the store, but when it was returned it was re-folded, so that the stain wouldn't show! Goodness knows what Debenhams would have done when they discovered that the tablecloth was stained when it was opened up. I just imagine that it would have been sold in a sale or probably not put out for sale at all.

My Mum and Dad- Part 2

My father was a good engineer. I think he had to become a farmer because he was an only child, and a son, and his father had been a farmer. I don't remember my paternal grandfather. He died sometime in the early 1950's when I would have been far too young to remember him. The same for my maternal grandmother. My dad was forever working on something or other for the farm in his workshop. He was good with anything mechanical, car engines, boat engines, constructing the most peculiar gadgets in order to lift grain in one of the sheds during harvest-time. He constructed a sort of four-wheeled bicycle (if that makes sense. It doesn't, I know, but just let me explain.) It was for us four youngest brothers to ride and pedal, a sort of four-wheeled car with proper steering and with a sort of framework. Quite difficult to steer for what I remember. It was a bit like a tandem but with four wheels. I don't remember it being much of a success. I think it went out on the road around Cardington and then landed up in a ditch or something and then spent a couple of decades in the back of the garage and never went out again because it was damaged. I don't know what became of it or whether it was broken up for scrap but it must have taken a great deal of time and effort to build. He was extremely good at welding and finding ways to solve problems mechanically. If you had a way of solving a problem with your car he always knew how to fix it. If you were going to buy a car he was the best person to take with you when you were looking at what to buy and could always haggle and get a good bargain, not just with cars, but virtually anything. I don't think he ever bought anything without managing to get something off the price.

He was somewhat accident-prone. He would fiddle about with machinery on the farm, particularly during harvest when some machine or other would break down. He managed to get a finger cut quite seriously on the sharp knives in the bailer.  I think today he would have got into trouble with the Health and Safety Executive, but this would have been long before all the business you hear today about 'Health and Safety.' I reckon he would have had the book thrown at him, the number of  accidents he was involved in on the farm. On another occasion he was working on the horse box out in the yard somewhere. I think it was near enough Sunday lunch-time. He had to repair one of the tyres or a wheel on this horse-box and had the wheel off and the whole thing sitting on a few bricks or blocks of wood. The thing collapsed and so injured one of his fingers he had to have it amputated and always ever-after had one or two joints on this finger missing. He was profoundly deaf. This was caused during a time, most likely during the winter months when they used gas-guns on the farm to scare off pigeons from the crops. He would go to a field and take the entire gas-gun away in the back of the Land Rover and on this occasion presumably he hadn't put the safety catch on the timer and the thing exploded in the back of the Land Rover and the explosion damaged his inner-ear. He never recovered from this and was really deaf for the rest of his life. It must have completely damaged his inner-ear. He did wear a hearing aid, when he could remember to wear it, which was not very often, but he had real problems setting the thing so it wouldn't pick up extraneous sounds, such as background noise.

My mother was an excellent cook. Her shortbread was the best ever. I believe she had the recipe passed on by an elderly aunt on my father's side of the family. Scottish, of course. My own cooking abilities are due to her teaching and I think I can produce a good roast dinner, thanks mainly to my mother. In particular, the making of Yorkshire pudding. Her teas at around 4-5 every day were a real feature and people would drop in to sample her Victoria sponges, shortbread and a wide range of other cakes and pies. She was passionate about horses and was an excellent rider. In her later years she was involved with Riding For The Disabled and was very much instrumental in establishing this organisation in Bedfordshire. We had various horses and ponies around the farm from quite a young age. My brothers went to local gymkhanas and show jumping events and also, when my parents had mares from which they bred foals, these mares and foals were shown at local agricultural shows, such as the East of England Show in Peterborough over most years. She took a great deal of interest in all her children and went with me on several occasions when I had interviews when I was starting off in theatre. She went with me to the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham for example, when I had my very first interview for a job in 1969 and she would never need much encouraging to go with me to the theatre or to see a film that was on in the cinema locally.

Outing to The Cotswolds and Rollrights Stones

Yesterday morning we didn't get up until quite late. It was a reasonably good evening on television, with "Strictly Come Dancing", the finale to the current series of  "Doctor Who", followed by the first in a new series of "Merlin."  We didn't get to bed until fairly late.
The last week or so has been very warm, temperatures reaching heights not normally reached in late September/Early October. We decided to make the most of the sunshine and have an afternoon out. Carol has wanted to visit the Rollright Stones out the other side of Oxford, near Chipping Norton, so we made a sort of picnic up and took the cameras and set out. I have to say that the Cotswolds are my favourite places to visit in this country. Having worked in Cheltenham in the late '60's as a Student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre, I know the area well. My mother had relatives around the Cotswolds, and visiting them was always a pleasure. We would have taken the dogs, but it would have meant them spending a lot of time in the car, and Alfie, in particular, doesn't travel well, and he is very susceptible to heat. We went to the Shell petrol station along Grafton Street and then towards the A5 and out towards Towcester. It was a real joy to be getting out of the house and to be out in the countryside. We have found, when travelling west from Milton Keynes, there is (or was) a problem with the M40. It seems to get in the way. It is difficult to cross. This may sound odd, but you try it. We have more recently discovered that you need to go through the village of Aynho and find a bridge that goes UNDER the motorway. We were trying to get to a National Trust property (Hidcote) and spent around 2 hours trying to avoid the motorway and get through Banbury. We have found this route thrrough Aynho and it makes the westerly journey so much easier. Anyway, we had to go through Banbury to get to Chipping Norton and then find the Rollrights Stones (having looked on Google Maps and a print driving atlas we have.) Attempting to get through Banbury and finding the correct road was something of a problem and this happened on the way home. Why can't local authorities do something about signage? It wasn't very good. Neither was signage approaching the Rollright Stones, you had to really concentrate to see where the turning was to get there and then there was a tiny parking space near the stones.There is definitely something mysterious about this place. It has a strange atmosphere, somehow, very similar to that at Stonehenge, which we have also visited. Together with the spectacular scenery, it makes an interesting afternoon. We visited the single stone which is set within it's own field over the road from the ring of stones. We sat on the rocks and ate our picnic. We had to get something to drink when we stopped for petrol at the Shell service station. The heat made us very thirsty. I took photographs of the scenery (and hope to upload them onto this blog later this week after I have sorted out the iMac which has no further space on it's hard-drive, due mainly to having around 12,500 digital photographs on it. We have an external hard drive ordered from Amazon and should arrive by Wednesday.)

Rollright Stone Circle

There are three areas to visit at the Rollright Stones. The first area we went to was opposite the main area of the 'complex' (as you are supposed to term it, apparently, having read the little handbook we later purchased at the near-by garden centre.)  This is called the 'King Stone' and stands within a fenced area. This is, apparently, to disuade people from chipping of chunks of it, as it's supposed to be lucky this stone.) It has all the appearance, from a distance, of a stooping figure, probably covered in material or something. As the legend which surrounds these stones is that a witch turned a king and his nights to stone. That figures.  It really does look like a person. This is where we sat and ate our picnic. Then we walked over the road to the main site, where we came across the ring of stone, 'some 40 strides across' as it says in the handbook.) A legend states that if you count the stones, on each following attempt, the number of the stones will change! We did not immediately take up the challenge, but as we were taking photographs, two couples appeared and one of them began to count the stones. The second couple had a go. Both came up with different totals. Then we had a go. We made the total 81. Who knows the correct number? To the east, at the far edge of a field, are the ruins of a so-called 'Portal-dolemen' called the Whispering Knights. We didn't attempt to walk to this site, as it was some distance from the main site. Having taken enough photographs, we decided to leave. We knew, from reading a sign near the lay-by where we parked the car, that there was a garden centre nearby which sold the handbook and other Rollright-Stone related items, and where we could get a cup of tea. So we left and made for this garden centre. Having had our cup of tea we left, making our way home back through Banbury towards Towcester and onto the A5 and home to Milton Keynes.

I have since learned that the Rollright Stones were used as a location for the filming of a "Doctor Who" story in the '70's, which makes our trip there all the more interesting. The story was called "The Stones Of Blood" and it was quite a good story. Being a "Doctor Who" fan I am more than interested. I do remember the story quite clearly. It was a Tom Baker story, and apparently the 100th serial.