Adventures

Yesterday had a real adventure. Took the bus from our village into the centre of Carlisle. Not a great feat you might think, but although I use the train and fly to France regularly, its not since university that I've been a bus user. The village has 4 buses a week, just one out and one back on 4 days in the week, so woe betide you if you miss the return trip - you might have to wait for 3 days before you can get home! The route takes in lots of the small villages between here and Carlisle, but the driver only returns via those he's picked people up from on the way out, so the journey took an hour in and only 30 minutes back! But I do wonder what happened to the other 4 people who got off the bus in Carlisle with me - none of them came on the bus back...a black hole in Cumbria?

Compliment?

"I really do admire someone who can wear such blatently unmatching clothes.".....Comment to me from another guest at a Christmas dinner.

Shopping

A morning's shopping in the big city - OK its not big by anyone else's standards, but we are in the sticks!
Very pleasantly affected by the cheerful attitude of everyone I talk to: other shoppers, shop assistants, car park attendant.
Its a family tradition now that I buy Christmas tree presents for everyone who will be in our house on Boxing day evening. This is likely to be 14 or 15, so the strategy is just to buy anything that looks interesting and sort out who to give it to on Christmas Eve. This results in one or two being shoved into the back of my wardrobe until next year. For the girls its invariably knickers. They'd be disappointed if it were any different now, despite their public displays of embarrassment. Dorothy Perkins have a much better selection of knicks this year, and its always 3 for 2 at Christmas. The manageress and I had a pleasant chat as I explained that the variety of sizes I'd bought was not just my incompetence, but because of all the different girls I was buying for. Strange how women seem extremely happy to chat to men about lingerie - or at least men of my age! She thought she'd introduce the same tradition in her house.

Spiderman?

A chum sent me the link to this quiz. But do you recognise me?

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Supergirl 68% Superman 65% The Flash 65% Green Lantern 60% Iron Man 60% Hulk 45% Batman 40% Robin 40% Catwoman 35% Wonder Woman 33%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Christmas Spirit

One of the less pleasant sides of Christmas - going through my card list to send all the cards that Mrs L won't be sending. This includes a number of lady friends from present and past who won't be on the 'family' list. I feel this should be a comforting activity - keeping in touch with old friends, but I feel distressing bouts of jealousy that people I have been very close to, I no longer see, or are no longer that close. Yet there is so much to enjoy about the Christmas period and the very strong family element to mine in particular, that I feel a guilt that I can't just accept the pleasures I have, but still seek more. Is this another sign of wanting to get more and more out of life whilst I've still got the energy?

Perhaps I'm not helping by doing so much Christmas shopping online - lets see whether the day we've planned in Carlisle on Tuesday gets me more fully into a joyful Christmas spirit!

Long time no see

It must be the preparations for Christmas, but its been ages since I managed to make an entry here. Lots has happened! Spent a very pleasant week driving down through France to visit the French house I'm supposed to be renovating, followed by two delicious days in the mildness of the weather in Montpellier - isn't it energising to sit in the sun, by the sea, in shirtsleeves at the beginning of December - and be WARM! The only drawback was the 1200 mile drive back.
Found quite by chance an interesting Lebonese restaurant in Montpellier on the Saturday night. Relatively cheap, serving Lebonese wine (try www.massaya.com) and half way through the introduction of thumping music and a very subtle belly dancer. I guess if she had asked me, as she did some customers, I couldn't have refused to join in.

And then got back to London and stayed with my daughter and new grandson for a couple of days before having to go to Coventry for a training session - online exam marking, seems mundane after Montpellier. And last week, catching up - including finally submitting last year's tax return, and getting some sort of organisation towards Christmas, seems to have occupied all my time. perhaps I might get back to a more regulated life - but then who wants that?

Am I a criminal?

One of the government bodies I occasionally work for has asked me to resubmit my details because I haven't worked for them for some considerable time. OK, I say, this September doesn't seem that long ago to me, but what the hell? I don't mind yet another application form. But then they tell me I need a new CRB check every 3 years, so the one I had done in July 2004 is no longer good enough. Nor is the one I'm in the process of getting for the church Sunday Club. And then - they haven't sent me a form, and you can't get one as an individual. Maybe by the time I've sorted this out it'll be 3 years and ready for another new one!

The play's in progress

Never direct and act in the same play! I've much more admiration for the feats of Clint Eastwood et al now that I've been trying to do just that in the impending production. Not that 3 nights in the town arts centre, and then 3 nights touring local village halls is quite a Hollywood blockbuster. Thusrday is the first night, no major mishaps, although ticket sales of only 42, are a little disappointing. Friday and Saturday might be a little better, but one wonders what can persuade people out of their homes, if a rollicking farce like Feydeau can't attract them.
And - never give yourself the role that has all the props to deal with - a suitcase that carries my stage wife's nightdress, hair brush, bed jacket, bag, my slippers, and a medicine chest (in the suitcase) containing water carafe, linseed, bandage, medicine glass, and pretend laudenum. So, as well as ensuring that all the cast are OK, everyone elses props are there, the stage is set correctly, the lighting operator is happy and the front of house is staffed, I have to have to get myself sorted.
And then, of course, I have to get the egg ready for the last act. One character, played by Nick, is supposed to drink a raw egg. So, because he refused to do this (a lack of dramatic zeal I feel), I've been blowing an egg and filling it with cold custard, which when cracked gives a reasonably realistic appearance. Its given Nick quite a reputation as an egg drinker! Perhaps we can leave it as a real one for the last performance?

Memory fails

The trouble with working for yourself is that when there is work available you want to do everything that's offered, but when there isn't any you fret that you're not working. So the fact that I haven't really done anything that will bring in the bucks over the past 4 weeks starts to be disturbing. However, I'm sure I'll get back to the late nights and weekend traumas that were plaguing me in June and July!
Mrs L has been away for the week, looking after daughter and grandchild. She returned yesterday afternoon. So I've had a week of batchelorhood; and I'll get another at the end of the month when she's off with the local twinning visit to France. Because of play rehearsals, I won't be able to do that until the end of November, but I'm already looking forward to it and planning where to stay (that is, which hotels will give me the comfort that I like to indulge in!) But before that we've still got the play to get through and I've got to learn the lines I've given myself. It used to be so easy - and enjoyable. Learning Thomas Moore in A Man For All Seasons seemed a doddle a few years ago. Now a few pages is hard graft and painful. if necessary we'll just have to wing it - as long as I get the cue lines out!

Play time

The trouble with directing a play is that it takes over your life. And giving oneself a part in it, however small, just makes things more complicated. I guess Clint Eastwood gets lots of help though, and at present I feel distinctly unhelped! Apart from having one character who has been cast 3 times, to have the actress withdraw days or a day later - and still not know who is exactly going to play it, we have a minor role which needs to be played by a young man, and the youth who was cast for that appears to be pleasant but very unreliable. I suppose when I chose a play requiring a cast of 16 I knew I was in for trouble.
The optimist in me says that the other members of the team are an excellent collection of experienced amateur actors who will do a wonderful job, and rehearsals are still producing more and more laughs (it is a farce). And not all my options have been exhausted, although I'm beginning to yearn for a little security. Perhaps tonight is the night on which I will finally feel we've got everything in place?

Dreary Sunday

The weather has been absolutely lousy today - and then, around 4.30pm its cheered up. Blue sky and the birds are out again - still a few swallows about. So done little today apart from go to church (and worry about about I'm actually confessing to), watch the grand prix and play on the laptop.
Mrs L is going through CD tracks that a friend is going to prepare as a 'Desert Island Discs' for her birthday party. Which means that with her love of choral music, the room is filled with a selection of some of the most atmospheric singing that has ever been written. Could be worse!

New Laptop

Well - I thought that since I'd spent a good few hours today unpacking and installing software on the new laptop that arrived this morning, it was a good time to start blogging. Plus the fact that one of my chums has just gone off on holiday for a week, so that's one less person to gossip with. The vagueries of the rehearsal schedule I've produced for The Feydeau farce I'm directing mean that I'm free until Monday evening (and then only have Thursday free for the rest of the week!) So I need to do a bit of caring for Mrs L to make up for the evenings I'll be out after this.
Colder today, obviously - the cat has spent more of the day indoors and has just landed for the evening, a good 5 hours before he usually does.