One Love Lunch

 Thursday 6th August. 5.15 a.m. It seems to be mild and bright, a real relief after the blazing heat of the past few weeks. My infamous digital thermometer currently reads 26ºc. It was so hot at one point, just moving about the flat, I had sweat running down my face and I had to keep using a towel to wipe the sweat off my face. I was driving somewhere the other day when sweat ran down my face and into my eyes, making them sting horribly.

I haven't mentioned One Love Lunch Club. I had never heard of it, until I saw a flyer on the message board near the entrance coming into Dexter House. I didn't have to drive there, as I was collected by minibus and arrived at Wolverton. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, as people began to arrive, many of whom were coming with me in the minibus. I suppose, once everyone had arrived, about 30 people, many with a range of disabilities, some with autism and many with dementia. There is lunch, which we pay for, £5, which is great value, and games for people to play, music, dance and good conversation.

When they had discovered my background, in theatre, television walk-on, puppetry and even my connection with Shakespeare via his wife, Anne Hathaway, I had to give a sort of impromtu talk, covering all my background. It was an experience, and not something I have ever done before.

So, it looks like I have at last got something to replace Camphill in my diary. I didn't go this week, because there weren't enough people on duty who had the relevant qualifications to be there, such as, holding a D.B.S.certificate, probably because those people were on holiday. (D.B.S. stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. Without this check , you cannot work for a range of client-based occupations, such as those people who are vulnerable, learning  disabilities, elderly, and so on.

Wednesday 12th August. 12.20 p.m. I was going to give support during the Holiday Club, which started yesterday, but I don't have a D.B.S. check, which is a vital piece of paper, which you have to have if you are working with a vulnerable group, which is how the children are described in the Holiday Club, and because my D.B.S. is yet to be applied for, I van't be involved.

So, I have been doing more work on my play-writing, which is going very well.One play is a sort of modernisation of the play-within-A-Play of Piramus and Thisbe, from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I a have re-invented the characters, making them relevant to a 21st century audience. Bottom is now Barry Bottomley, a council worker who is so enthusiastic about his part in the play, he seems to think he can play everyone else's parts.

Rainy Days And Mondays

 Friday 15th May. 6.35 a.m. I may have mentioned that I was searching for somewhere to go for a regular swim. Well, at long last, the search is over. I have found the Swimming and Sports Centre in Wolverton. I found it accidentally when I was looking at Google Maps. I know, it's such a good resource, showing such details such as hotels, petrol stations, A.T.Ms and in this case, sports centres. It was only a question of driving there and finding out such things as price and opening times. So, yesterday morning, after we had our Thursday Lifegroup at the O.T.C., I decided to drive there, and, hey-ho! I have been inside and came out with a timetable of opening times as well as price. I could have a membership, but at the moment I'm happy to have a pay-as-you go membership. I have everything ready, a brand new bag, bought from Amazon, my swim shorts, which I dug out from a drawer and everything necessary before I go, which will be sometime over the next week or two, when I receive my pension.

Saturday 23rd May. 9.05 a.m. It's quite warm this morning. I have the electric fan on, in an attempt to cool the place. It was quite difficult to sleep last night, but it's in those times, when I ger my ideas for writing. I have done a few sketches, one which had the Big Bad Wolf doing a stand up routine. I won't tell yolu how it goes, because it's got real potential. Another is Cinderella, again, doing a stand up routine. No, I'm not giving anything away.

I should have mentioned the presentation I went to on Monday morning, at Venture Church, formerly known as Milton Keynes Christian Centre. I think it has been changed, because Milton Keynes was declared a city, about the time of the late queen's jubilee in 2022. The initials for both is M.K.C.C., and it was done to prevent any confusion. But, to me Venture doesn't cut it. The church building is rented out for conferences and the event I went to on Monday morning was bout the East-West railway line which is due to open at some time in the not too distant future. The idea is to allow those living near this new railway line to ask questions and take part in the consultation, so that everyone's views are heard. There was a display of archaeology, because it will have been necessery to do research so that nothing of archaeological value was likely to be destroyed with the work being done to build the railway, similar to what is done when a major building project is undertaken, such as ben done wih the building of HS2, which runs through Buckinghamshire. As part of thsir display, done by MOLA, (Museum of London Archaeology.) they had a 3D headset that you could try out. I have been intrigued by this technology and have been attempting to find an excuse to try one out. I have seen them on display in John Lesis and Currys, but never had any sort of excuse to have  go with one, so this seemed such an opportunity. The young man who was there to explain the technology and how to use it, helped me put the headset on and use the controls, which you nhold in each hand, and have buttons and controls you use to manipulate the image which you see within the headset. I can't describe how amazing it was, the images of a roundhouse, from around a thousand or more years ago. You can see it all in complete three dimensions, so if you turn round you can see the entire structure. Amazing! It would take me quite a while to get rhe best out of the technology, asI think it would take more than one se to really appreciate what the thing can do, but I have to say, it really opened my eyes, and, because I am interested in both history and archaeology, it is even more amazing.

There was a table covered in all manner of archaeological finds, probably dug up at various sites, but I'm not sure whether any of them had come from digs connected to the East-West railway line. One item struck me, and I had to pick it up. It was a fairly large piece of flint, which had obviously been knapped, that is, it had been struck very carefully to turn it from a mere piece of flint into a workable tool. I've known about this process, having watched virtually all the Time Team episodes and the more recent episodes which have been funded by crowdsourcing and is on YouTube. I find it really hard to believe that something like that, a tangible item, which has probabl;y lain hidden for, probably, several thousand years, and can be held in my hand. Truly remarkable. This is when archaeology and history become some stunning. Not taught in some dingy classroom, but right in front of you, and you can touch it and almost see the marks where someone, thousands of years ago, spent time and effort to create something which could be used to cut up a carcass of a dead animal, skin it, to use the pelt for a cloak or other type of garment, used in the processing of meat for a meal, the skin also used probably to be part of the roof of a structure.

The Sun Has Got His Hat On!

 Monday 9th March. 3.55 p.m. It has been a rather murky sort of day. No rain or sunshine, but earlier there was a slight fog, if you can really call it that. As I write, it has cleared.

Currently, the digital thermometer reads 22ºc.

I have been to the Monday Club as the Oaktree Centre. More tea, cakes and quizzes.

Tuesday March 10th. 7.25 a.m. Hurrah! The sun is shining. Put out the flags!

The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Sunday 15th March.  8.20 a.m. The sun is shining and I'm planning to go out with the Pocket 3 camera to do some filming. I haven't decided where yet, but it's too good to waste. I've been waiting for some decent weather for ages.

The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Thursday 19th March. 8.15 a.m. It's been bright and sunny for the past few days. Spring has more than definitely arrived!

The digital thermometer currently reads 21ºc.

Sunday 22nd March 9.05 a.m. I'm slipping a bit. I haven't posted anything for the last couple of days. I'll attempt to make up for this lapse.

It's foggy out this morning. It has been like this for the past few days, but as the day progresses, the sun has shone, and the temperature rises.

As I write, the digital thermometer reads 22ºc, although it hit 25ºc at one point yesterday.

Wednesday 25th March. 9.50 a.m. The temperature has dropped considerably. The sun is going in and out, but there are dark clouds looming and there is a definite chill in the air.

The digital thermometer currently reads 21ºc.

I am currently attempting to find a decent swimming pool to use, somewhere within Milton Keynes. I think I have found somewhere suitable. It's in Wolverton and I was going to look for it this morning. Unfortunately, the road which leads to it was blocked off, which seems to be a recurring situation around Milton Keynes. They are resurfacing the roads around here and I know it's often necessary to close of roads, but there was no advance warning that there was a closure, so I ended up driving all that way and not finding the swimming pool. Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men, as someone said.. It was Robert Burns, and it was originally in a Gaelic accent (is that right, or more likely, Scottish.) Never mind. I know what I meant, and as I'm half Scottish, I suppose I should mention him. Just don't ask which half!

Our House-Guests Move Out

Brian and Talia (not sure her name is spelt right.) have now moved out. They managed to find new accommodation in Wolverton and last night they were packing up their belongings into their cars and drove away. We hardly saw them, they made virtually no noise. Both dogs took a while to get used to having them around, particularly Alfie who gets himself really worked up when anything that isn't part of his routine is changed. He goes bonkers when we go for a walk and runs up to everyone he meets, human or dog and seems to have no fear, but whenever it's someone new who comes into the house he gets really silly. He yaps and barks and sometimes hides. Brian bought Carol a lovely bunch of flowers as a 'thank you' which was nice. Talia has a job in a school on Beaconsfield. I'm not exactly sure what her job was, whether she was a teacher or a teaching assistant there, but it seemed to be quite a long way to drive, there and back each day. She used to leave around 6.00-6.30 each morning and get back by around 4.30, at about the time I was going out to fetch Carol home from Milton Keynes Academy. Supposedly takes around an hour, but I imagine it might take considerably longer with traffic conditions not exactly free-flowing. I used to drive regularly between Bedford and Thorpe Park and that could take around 1 to 2 hours, but considering that was a little over 30 years ago and before the M25 and really good roads were opened. It could get really blocked up on some stretches of of the journey with bottlenecks holding you up for 20 minutes or so.