Anything Goes!

 Wednesday. 8.35 a.m. A bright, but chilly, morning.

Thursday. 8.35 a.m. It's quite frosty and cold this morning. A good deal colder than yesterday morning. The car windows are frozen over, so I have been to scrape some of the ice off, so I can drive to the Oaktree Centre after 9o'clock for our regular Bible study.

I got the printed bank statement with my address on it in the post yesterday morning from Nationwide. I wasn't expecting it, so it means my D.B.S. can be completed at Bridge Builder on Tuesday.

Friday. 10.15 a.m. It's yet another frosty and cold morning, but it's also foggy. You can't see the central shopping centre from my kitchen window, because the fog is so thick. It doesn't look as if it's going to clear at all today.

I am watching David Tennant in the central role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's  production of 'Hamlet.' Patrick Stewart plays Claudius as well as The Ghost. As they are meant to be brothers, it makes sense. It is on the BBC iPlayer, as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations for the publication of the First Shakespeare Folio. There are quite a few programmes on Shakespeare, a three-part drama/documentary on Shakespeare's life, which is very good, and I have discovered a lot of new stuff, one fact being that one of the Gunpowder plotters was a relative of Shakespeare and was executed because of his involvement. Also, a Simon Shama series about the Bard.

I might have mentioned this before, elsewhere in these blog posts, but I am something of a Shakespeare fanatic. I also 'collect' productions of Hamlet. I can't now remember how many I've seen, over the years, besides being an A.S.M. on a production when I was at Liverpool Playhouse in 1971. Carol and I went to see a National Theatre production of the play, which had Rory Kinnear in the central role. I find it intriguing to see how many ways it can be staged. It never seems to lose its power. They have more recently staged what's called 'gender blind' (not sure if that's the right term though.) with Maxine Peake playing Hamlet, although, in that production, I wasn't sure she was a 'he' or 'she'. Thinking about it, having second thoughts, her version might have been transexual. Thinking further, in Shakespeare's time, the female roles would have been played by male youths, because women were forbidden from appearing on stage. Some of the other roles have been gender-swapped, such as Polonius, becoming Polonia. 

Sunday. 12.30 p.m. It is a particularly unpleasant and wet day. I have just returned from the Oaktree Centre. I was scheduled to do tea and coffee, but an entire family were doing just that, so I had time to chat as it was what is called 'Cafe Church', which means there was no workshop, but a time of fellowship. 

My friends Margaret and Mike had invited me to lunch, so I came home to take Alfie out and as I got to my front door, I discovered a parcel, from Evri. It was difficult to read the label because the print was so tiny, so I had to get my reading glasses, but someone had put the wrong address on it. It was for the flat opposite. 

The Cold(er) Blasts of Wintery Weather

Thursday12.00 p.m. It's a good deal colder this morning. I thought there was ice on my car before I drove off to the Oaktree Centre at around 8.50 a.m. to help set up the playgroup, but it wasn't ice, just moisture, so that was a relief.

Friday. 9.15 a.m. The washing is in the dryer. It will take around 45 minutes before it is dry enough to remove and for me to hang my shirts in the wardrobe and the rest in the drawer unit. Then, with my shopping list in my hand, I will be off to Sainsbury's.

Yet another relatively mild morning. Totally unseasonal.

Saturday. 6.55 a.m. It's dark. Well, that's a surprise? No, well, it is usually at this time of the morning in early December. 

Sunday. 8.10 a.m. My posts on here are getting thinner and thinner. 

The weather is getting considerably colder as the days go by. What do you expect in December?

The World Cup is dominating everything at the moment. I am no fan of football, so it's something to avoid. It's not necessarily the football that I find annoying, but all the waffle they dole out, the constant chatter which is more like padding between the games and the fact that all three main television channels have games on at the same time. You get highly-paid, so-called pundits, such as Gary Lineker, rambling on incessantly, and then they have what I think you call 'vox-pops', where they go out into the streets and ask members of the public for their views. Totally irrelevant and meaningless. Not journalism at all. Crazy. 

12.30 p.m. We had café church at SCF this morning. In fact, I have just got back. The idea is to attract non-church-goers into the Oaktree Centre and there's free cake, coffee, tea and other goodies and games for the children to play and a time to chat with anyone and everyone and make friendships. I have spoken to several people I haven't met or even spoken to before and a good sense of community.

3.35 p.m. I have resubscribed to Britbox, the streaming service which is owned by all the major British television providers, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. There is a lot of classic drama on there, Doctor Who, Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers and more and quite a lot of original content. I was interested in watching the new series of 'Staged' the comedy starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, which is set during the pandemic and imagines them staging a play via Zoom. The new series is exclusive to Britbox. At £5.99 a month it seems excellent value and the content is constantly changing, with stuff being taken off and new stuff being added.

6.25 p.m. I'm watching the BBC's 1970s serialization of 'I Claudius' on Britbox. This was one of the BBC's hits in its day. Derek Jacobi was Claudius, with a stammer. It is somewhat stagey by modern standards. No exteriors and definitely studio-bound, but that was the way television drama was made in the mid-1970s. It has stood the test of time remarkably well. They must have spent a lot on sets and costumes. Also made on tape rather than film. It's more like a filmed stage play. Derek Jacobi's makeup is a bit ropey. I don't know what age he was when he played the part of Claudius, but he's made to appear as an old man, who is telling the story. Other actors who appear are Sian Phillips as Claudius's mother, Brian Blessed, (here far more restrained than his usual 'shouty' acting in later programmes and films.) and John Hurt as Caligula. 

Any Old Day Of The WeeK!

Thursday. 8.25 a.m. I have used my Vax steamer on the new kitchen floor. So, it looks clean (well, that's  the general idea, so I hope so!)

3.40 p.m. I've been into the Milton Keynes central shopping centre to get my hair cut at Central Barbers. I had booked and paid via their website on Tuesday and my appointment was at 10.20, but I got there in good time so I didn't have to wait. Its a good idea to book like this because it means you are guaranteed to be seen immediately without waiting. I then went to Lakeland, the shop which is in Middleton Hall and bought a plate rack for my sink drainer. The old one is too big for the drainer and because the new taps make it difficult to push the drainer back sufficiently I thought it would be an idea to replace it and the new one is ideal

Friday. 9.35 a.m. Alfie was more or less asleep when I was about to take him out. 

My washing is almost done. I'm about to go down and check if it's dry in the drier.

I have booked the car in for its MOT on Monday at 11.45 a.m. I rang Bleakhall Motors just after 8 o'clock to book it in.

Saturday. 12.50 p.m. I drove to Kingston because I was attempting to find shampoo. Now, I know that sounds totally crazy, but I have used Elvive dandruff shampoo for men, and it works, and I actually like it. I think I first bought it in Sainsbury's but for some reason, I can't find it again. There are so many versions of Elvive, virtually every permutation on the same product, for women mostly, I presume, but this particular variation seems unavailable. I went into Boots, but no sign of it there, but a whole section in the shampoo shelving, of all the Elvive variations, but not the particular one I would like. I know, you're saying, but just buy any shampoo, they're all the same. But I was determined to get that one. I eventually ended up buying a Tesco dandruff shampoo. Not a particularly good substitute for what I really wanted, but it will do I suppose.

Sunday. 5.55 p.m. I have signed up for Digital Theatre. I've been watching David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing.' A really lively and inventive production, setting the play in Gibraltar in the 1980s. I always wonder about the 'Hero' plot line, which somehow doesn't seem to work. If you know the play, you might know what I mean. It's as if Shakespeare had finished the play, and then found it didn't run long enough, and the subplot with Hero being accused by Don John of not being a maiden (a virgin), seems incredibly contrived and put in to get the play to run longer. For all that, the interplay between David Tennant and Catherine Tate is what makes the whole show work. They are so good. I can see why they would be cast, because of their television work, particularly Tennant as a former 'Doctor Who' and Tate, because of her sketch show.  Just shows that clearly they are capable of a wide range of acting, not just television or film, and can flip from classical to contemporary. The clever set design, which utilizes a revolve, means that the scene changes are smooth and effortless.

Monday. 6.20 a.m. A relatively mild morning. Alfie was fast asleep when I was about to take him out.

10.25 a.m. The temperature, according to my digital thermometer, is 78ºF. That is probably because I have one of the electric fans on full blast.

1.25 p.m. I took the Renault to Bleak Hall Motors for its MoT which had been booked for 11.45. They are incredibly busy there, and you could tell this by the number of cars waiting in the yard when I turned up. The car was soon being taken into the workshop, barely minutes after I arrived. Then, around 12.35 I got the result. It had passed! One of the tyres might need replacing, but it was a real relief that it had passed, and I wasn't going to have to pay out for work to get it through the MoT. I will book it in for a full service in November, which should keep it in good running order.

New Lockdown Restrictions???

 (Tuesday) Not actually sure which day of the week it was. Just goes to show the effect being in lockdown has.

There's the possibility of the measures the government has put in place to slow the virus's transmission might be strengthened. Matt Hancock,  Secretary of State for Health has said it may be necessary for face covering to be required by law when we're outside. But this is crazy, because, surely, viruses are dispersed in the open air. Obviously you need to wear one in enclosed spaces, in supermarkets, for example, but not outside. I don't see the point. I'm not really convinced that they make a lot of difference. As for me, breathing in my own hot breath is unpleasant over a long period. I was in Aldi the other day and I had to wait in a queue at the checkout and I was feeling quite uncomfortable. I think I was liable to pass out, not something I want to do in public. It's just not pleasant. Also, because I wear glasses, they steam up. Also, they make speaking really difficult.

I have been into Sainsbury's to collect the Bisoprolol which was ready for collection from Lloyd's Pharmacy. It's a good time to go grocery shopping because there were very few other shoppers in there. I got a few items which were running out, but I shall do a full shop tomorrow after I get paid.

I'm watching something rather special on the BBC iPlayer (it's also broadcast on BBC1.) It's called 'Staged' and has David Tennant and Michael Sheen in it. They are stuck in lockdown (very current.) and attempting to rehearse a play 'Six Characters In Search of an Author,' by Pirendello. It's what you might call 'meta' meaning it is self referential. These brilliant actors play versions of themselves and at times appear as if they're chatting via something like Zoom. It's very funny (but I warn you because the language can be quite strong. Quite a lot of swear words used, but having worked myself with actors, I know some of them can be a bit raw with their language.) But it's very good and well worth watching. I'm watching the first run of episodes and will eventually get to the second run soon. It's such a simple idea and I only wish I'd had the idea. I have mentioned 'Car Share' on my blog and that's a simple idea and something else I enjoy. It just goes to show that you can create a piece of drama in the most basic of manners and still be quite dramatic or funny.

(Wednesday) I've been back to Sainsbury's to do a proper shop. Enough food for several weeks so I shouldn't have to go out again shopping for a while, except probably to get milk.

It's quite mild this morning, although there was a fog over the city centre as we approached Oldbrook Green.

Later. I'm watching, via YouTube, the American Senate debating the Impeachment of Donald Trump. Last Wednesday there was an assault on the Capitol by a mob of  Trump supporters, attempting to disrupt the legislative process to allow the transition of Donald Trumps presidency to Joe Biden. Absolutely horrifying shots of rioters breaking into the building, the  home of U.S. democracy. Trump  did nothing to condemn the rioters. In fact, he seemed to positively encourage the disruption. He will be the only U.S President to be impeached twice. He will be leaving the White House on 20th January, when Biden is inaugurated as President. The motion of the House is that Trump attempted to an 'Incitement of Insurrection.' As a result of all this, Trump has had his Twitter and Facebook accounts suspended and possibly banned for goodness know how long, possibly permanently. The concern now is that, as America awaits the 20th January Inauguration Day, there is likely to be far more riots and disruption caused by Trump supporters. All this because Trump kept on saying that there was 'election fraud,'and that the Election was 'stolen.'when clearly there was no such thing. More than ever it's clear that the man is delusional and positively dangerous.

So, now Donald Trump is the first U.S. President to be impeached twice. Not a particularly brilliant legacy as he leaves the White House, but he has been whipping up unrest and deserves to be dealt with in this way. 

Peter Capaldi Leaves 'Doctor Who'

So, Peter Capaldi is to leave 'Doctor Who.' I'm not actually very surprised. I reckon he had to endure some of the worst scripts ever during his tenure. And it all down to the show runner, Stephen Moffat. I have been a fan of Doctor Who since the very first episode was aired in 1963. I would imagine that I was the right age to fit the demographic of the audience they were attempting to attract when it was originally broadcast. I was about 13. I loved it from the very first. I recall distinctly the first appearance of the Daleks. They were mysterious. We gradually got to know them over many later stories. Infact, in some ways, they were used far too much, probably because the BBC knew that with them in an episode they could help boost the ratings. What made 'Doctor Who' so distinctive was the fact that it was made up of so many episodes, and around every four to six weeks, when the Doctor and his companions got in the Tardis and took off at the end of a serial, you never knew exactly where they would land in the next episode, the doors of the Tardis would open and you would be in a completely different world, or time, be it past or future, a historic story, say, set in ancient Rome, Ghengis Khan, or to a future with robots, megalomaniac semi-human robots such as the Cybermen or Daleks, the Sea Devils or whatever. Infact, some of the best stories I remember were those during the tenure of Jon Pertwee, when the Doctor was forced to remain on Earth and deal with aliens during the 20th Century. The fact that the Doctor could be regenerated every couple of years was a stroke of genius, a device cleverly introduced when the original Doctor, William Hartnell, decided to leave the series. As a result, every time a new Doctor is introduced, the show could be reinvented, given a make over. This is how the show has managed to survive for more than 50 years. In 1989 the BBC cancelled 'Doctor Who.' It was no surprise, really. It seemed they didn't want it to survive, giving it a really poor place in the schedules, shown twice mid-week, and opposite ITV's soap 'Coronation Street.' Also, not helped by two actors taking over the lead who were, frankly, totally mis-cast, Colin Baker and then Sylvester McCoy. No fault of theirs, they were just not provided with very good storylines or scripts and the budget for those episodes most likely got reduced as the special effects were very poor, to say the least and the sets generally of a very poor standard unfortunately. It is no wonder the ratings plummeted. Why show the programme mid-week, and opposite such a ratings juggernaut as 'Coronation Street'? There was always talk that 'Doctor Who' would be rebooted. There was even a one-off film with Paul McGann in the lead role. I never saw it. I didn't want to. By then I'd lost interest in the who 'Who' thing. But then, in 2005, the BBC decided it was time to revive the series. It was given a complete make-over, the show had what was termed a 'Showrunner' a job which came from American television. This time Russell T. Davies was in charge, writing many of the episodes and the actor who was cast as The Doctor was Christopher Eccleston. The show was given a new format, each story running for 45-50 minutes. I think this was the first mistake they made. The original 30-minute running time is far better, with stories running over 4-6 weekly instalments. In it's original form, Doctor Who ran more or less continuously throughout the year. In it's rebooted form  it ran for 13 weeks. Also, they began it in May, which means that the evenings are getting lighter (by then the clocks have moved back to Summertime.) It was still scheduled on a Saturday, as the original show was scheduled. By now it wasn't really a children's show as originally intended, but more what you'd class a 'family' show, meaning they could make the stories and characters far more scary. But did they heck! No, it became far more aimed at an older audience, and many of the stories became far too frightening for a younger audience and as a result the good old BBC decided in it's infinite wisdom to put it out later and later on a Saturday evening. In the old days Doctor Who would be on at around 5-6 p.m. on a Saturday, after such things as Grandstand were finished (the long-defunct sports magazine.) The 30-minute format was far better than telling a story in a 45-minute slot because you had cliff-hangers at the end of each episode and so built up the excitement of what was going to happen next in the following week's episode. You can hardly do any such thing in a one-episode story, although they have done the occasional two-episode story. But even then the 45-minute stories do seem incredibly rushed, there's hardly time to develop a story sufficiently to make it an engaging  or worthwhile viewing experience. They may have had more money to spend on these episodes compared to the classic episodes, but even then it was all crash, bang, wallop, big and brash, lots of running around, chasing monsters as usual, but it became very jokey and a lot of the time hardly any character development or subtleties that would make a story interesting. Too clever and pretentious for a children's audience or even an adult audience. It was made for an hour slot, following the American model, with the idea that it would sell overseas. If it's made for a 45-50 minute running time, the hour is made up on a commercial channel with around 10-15 minutes of commercials.  A lot of C.G.I. was used, but my one complaint is that that is cheating. The best monsters are those that are 'in the flesh,' are real in the sense they are there in the studio or on location. The C.G.I. monsters did tend to look as if they'd be sort of Photoshopped on during the editing process. Almost as if they'd been cut out and stuck on afterwards. One of my big complaints was what they did to the Daleks. They had always had the problem of not being able to go up stairs. Probably because they were designed to run on castors, a sort of built-in problem probably due to budget restraints. You came to accept that the Daleks couldn't go up stairs, but in the new Doctor Who, when they appeared in the newly-rebooted show, suddenly they could fly. It just looked absolutely ridiculous. And done by C.G.I.! As  result, the Daleks are little more than a laughing stock and as a result don't seem anywhere as menacing as they did when I remember them as a boy of about 15. And in one episode at about the time of the 2010 Election they even had to make some of the Daleks have what would appear to be the colours of the major political parties. In one episode they came across as being, well, frankly, camp, the way they moved and spoke. More like dancers in the chorus of a really awful musical! Well, definitely not menacing.

Christopher Eccleston only lasted one series as The Doctor and then was replaced by David Tennant. A totally different interpretation. That's what makes Doctor Who so different to other drama series. If you re-cast your central character you'd expect them to be the same sort of age, height, etc and they'd be played in more or less the same sort of way. Even down to their costume, hair etc. Not with The Doctor. He can be played by an older actor as with William Hartnell, who played him as a doddery old gent with a Grand Daughter. Or, he can then be played as a sort of space hobo, which is how Patrick Troughton played him, or as a rather cheeky comic character, which is how Tom Baker played him. From Tennant we had Matt Smith, who played him as a combination of Tom Baker's Doctor and Patrick Troughton's version. Then, when Matt Smith took over we got Peter Capaldi, who was the same sort of age as William Hartnell when he first played the part. He certainly gave the part a sort of gravitas, but, unfortunately, the scripts just didn't cut the mustard in my view. Stephen Moffat took over at the time Russell T. Davis left as show runner and things just went from bad to worse. He made the stories very 'clever-clever.' The Christmas episodes became more and more predictable and not up to much. I didn't watch many of the later episodes. I haven't see the 2016 Christmas episode nor many of the last series in 2015. The 2016 episodes got scheduled later and later, probably because some of them were deemed to frightening for younger audiences. It seems it has lost it's way and, to be frank, it would be better if they killed the show off completely, although I can't imagine the BBC doing that because it's quite a good earner and is shown all over the world, as well as generating a good income for them through their commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, what with merchandising deals with such companies as Lego.

Wild and Windy Weather

The past few days it's been very wild and windy. Some rain, but not as much as we had around a year ago which caused so much flooding in other parts of the country. I think we seemed to escape lightly compared with, for example, Somerset. I was somewhat concerned that the wind would rip down the rest of the fence. There is a further section which is showing signs of giving up. Still no indication that our beloved landlord intends to actually do something about repairing said fence. It's well over six months ago since we had him here with his mother and the workman who was supposed to do the work on the fence. It would have been nice to be given some idea what is going on. But, it seems, nothing is being done. We will have to do some sort of temporary 'fix' before the whole fence disintegrates.

I've been out in the car this morning. When I came back home I noticed that there are several properties on the estate which have their fences blown over by the wind. I also see that the section of fence in our garden next to the section which has totally blown over is beginning to fall over. Considering the precarious state of the remaining fence, which has slats in it which are very rotten, to the point where merely touching them will make the crumble to a pile of sawdust, it won't be 'fit for purpose' for very much longer. Probably a very violent storm will finish it completely.

We've been watching the television series 'Broadchurch.' This seems to have become  something of a hit, winning three BAFTA awards, for Best Drama, Olivia Colman for Best Actress and David Bradley for Best Supporting Actor at the 2013 Awards. We didn't watch it when it was originally broadcast but have now seen it on catch-up.  I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and was totally taken by it, swept along by the story, and the cliff-hanging at the end of each episode certainly gave it a definite 'can't wait to see the next episode' element to it. Well, at least it you watch it like that you don't have to endure endless adverts every ten minutes or so. We have seen the original eight episodes and have now seen the first of the new series. Not what we were expecting at all. One of the best bits of drama of recent years and the new series has taken things in a direction we were not expecting at all. Yes, I can't wait to see the next episode to see how things develop. David Tennant has certainly made his mark with this, and put his stint in Doctor Who well and truly behind him.