What we did in 2005
2005 has been rather so-so, as years go. We always knew that Richard would disappear again after Holly's Wedding, but it doesn't make it any easier when your only child is as far away as it's possible to be without leaving the planet...
However, we still have the furry foster daughter, who spends about 80% of her time with us, and chooses her other houses carefully. When we were away in August, we told Dorothy and Bill at No 29 (one of her other homes) to get in extra food, but she went round the corner instead! I call this picture "The Boss with adoring admirer". You decide!
We had a lovely weekend at the end of February - Peter and Jackie came to stay, so we could all go and see the Turner, Whistler Monet exhibition at Tate Britain. It was extremely popular, so I could only get tickets for the last session of the day, which meant the guards were hurrying us along somewhat, but it was a wonderful exhibition. Mum would have loved to see the Turners, as he is one of her favourite artists. This is Ed's favourite of his, done in Venice 1843.
Whistler was the one who surprised us, in the exhibition. Peter was thrilled to see the Rocket picture that had caused such a furore when it was first exhibited - it prompted Ruskin to accuse Whistler of throwing a pot of paint at the viewers, for which remark Whistler successfully sued Ruskin, bankrupting himself in the process. My favourite was this one - Nocturne in blue and silver, 1871.
But I think we all still loved the Monets best. It was such a treat to see pictures that had been painted as a series, or set, displayed side by side. This was one of my favourites - one of a series of three of the Seine at Giverny, painted in 1897.
Peter and Jackie's favourite was this one, or rather this series of four, of the Houses of Parliament painted in different lights in 1904.
Ed's cousin Linda had a long awaited baby girl in February. Here is little Grace Elizabeth, being cuddled by her cousin Georgia in April. Two sweeties, aren't they?
Easter came and went early - we didn't go away this year, as Ed had a workshop at Manchester University to attend the long weekend after. Ed was made redundant at the end of March, after 21 years with Mitsubishi. It was not a great shock,as it had been looming for at least a year, which is partly why he enrolled on a Business Studies Masters course, but a blow just the same. It feels like the end of an era, coinciding with our 50th birthdays as it did. Ed's doing OK with his course, and has passed everything so far.
We had a good weekend in Cornwall in May. Having popped in early to vote in the General Election (to little avail; my candidate never gets in...) we set off on the long drive SW. It's always good to see Stonehenge again, but this time it was nowhere near the end of the journey. We thought we might stay overnight at Liskeard, but it seemed about as interesting as Brigg, so we drove on to Looe, which turned out to be an excellent idea. A typical Cornish river mouth seaside fishing village,it was picturesque and busy without being spoiled by tourists.
The purpose of the trip was to see the Eden Project - the claypit turned world garden, with its outdoor and two indoor ecosystems in the "Biomes". Here is the tropical biome, showing the roofing system.
And here it is again, showing how effective the temperature control is!
As well as seeing the Eden Project, which was well worth the trip by itself, we also ticked a couple of other places off our "to do before we die" list. One was the village of Polperro. Another such as Looe, but slightly more picturesque; here is the harbour. My main reason for wanting to visit was receiving a little blue and white badge, with "Polperro" printed on it, from my Uncle Jim, who went there, possibly on his honeymoon, or shortly thereabouts when I was very young. The name seemed exotic to me then, and I've wanted to see it since. Having waited this long (with time to adjust my ideas of what such a place might be like),it didn't disappoint.
Ed fulfilled two wishes - to visit Pendennis Castle, after which his childhood home of Pendennis Crescent was named, and to revisit Tintagel Castle, wishfully associated with the Arthurian legend. Pendennis was hosting American War of Independence re-enactors, which was a bonus to an interesting visit, whilst Tintagel was a riot of bluebells, sea pinks and other Spring blossoms, which gave me the opportunity to take my 2005 Bluebell picture! I liked the idea of Tintagel as a "mere" 12th century vision of Arthur's castle, created by Richard Earl of Cornwall.
I had a bit of excitement, when my copy of "Heritage Quest Magazine" landed on the doormat. You may not have heard of this excellent publication, as it is only sold in America; the reason I received a copy was that they had published some of my material. To be precise, they had lifted, with my permission, information from my History of Wedding Dresses webpage, including a sketch and description, with names, of Mum's dress.
Finally revealed in June - the new look house. Had to wait ages, as you can see from the tree coming into leaf in the meantime, because after they finished ours, next door had theirs done too, so I had to wait for all the scaffolding to come down. However, I have achieved a true "Before and After" effect with the lighting - scruffy old house pictured on a dull day, and improved new look taken in sunshine for best presentation! I'm very pleased with the result.
Talking of houses, this is where Richard was living in 2005, in Fiji.
Grandma, Louise Holmes, nee Squire, died on 17 June two weeks after suffering a stroke at the age of 92. She was buried with Grandad in St. Giles' churchyard in Scartho. She was much loved and will be greatly missed.
Grandma as a young woman, and in 2001.
June was not a great month altogether. Just before Grandma died, Ed came down with mumps, and was very ill for a few days, and not well for a fortnight longer. Then Dad had a really bad cold and sore throat, just as Mum was trying to organise the funeral and Grandma's estate business. By the funeral day, Mum herself had started to come down with the chest virus, caught in hospital, that had killed Grandma and 4 others the same night, and was also unwell. I only had a slight cold, but the inspectors were in school, so the atmosphere at work was extremely fraught. But the inspection, and the month, were eventually over.
Of course on a national level, things had started to look up, when we won the 2012 Olympics, but spirits have been dashed by the London bombings yesterday. We were glued to the TV and phones throughout the lunch break yesterday, until everyone, thankfully had safely located loved ones known to be in central London. Luckily the worst suffered in our personal circles were people trapped in the city by disrupted public transport, wondering how they would get home that night.
As soon as I broke up from school, Mum and Dad came down for a well earned break with us. We had a lovely fortnight with them, although the weather could have been a lot better. The time flew by; we went out and about every day and managed to avoid getting wet.
We nearly saw Peter and Jackie, too - they came down for the "Tango al Fresco" event in Regent's Park, but unfortunately were with friends and had to leave to get the friend to the airport, just before we arrived, not having been able to get in earlier as we were setting the Hash run that morning. Never mind! We really enjoyed watching the dancing - this was the exhibition pair, but the ordinary club dancers were pretty good.
On the Monday we went to the Cabinet War Rooms and Winston Churchill Exhibition. They have an excellent interactive timeline table of Churchill's life, and there was a whole group of middle aged folk, including me and Mum, happily sinking the table under "water" and "lighting" 90 candles, and sending "bouncing bombs" across, along with other enthralling effects, by finding the relevant dates! Not surprisingly, in view of "recent events"as they say, the Hiroshima bomb date had had its rather frightening sound effect turned off.
Dad was specially pleased with our day at Chatham Historic Dockyard. We went on a little 19th century warship, that had sails and steam, and saw the lifeboat collection, and the "real life experience" of building an 18th century wooden warship, as well as the dockyard museum. We thought we might have visited the medieval town of Rochester on the same day, but had to go back on another day to see its Norman castle and cathedral, and interesting High St and museum.
As I said, the weather generally wasn't kind to us, but we watched the forecasts and picked the only truly warm and sunny day of the fortnight to visit the RHS gardens at Wisley, Mum's idea of Heaven. The borders and greenhouses were stupendous - we walked our feet off the whole day and had to leave out the Rock Garden when we realised a) we hadn't seen it, and b) we couldn't walk another yard out of our route back to the carpark. The only cloud on the day was that the garden centre was surprisingly lacking in any of the lovely shrubs we'd made notes on as we went round, so we had to come away almost empty handed. Dad bought me a nice fern and himself a nice hosta, but I'm not sure if that was the same day, or at Syon House...The hosta wasn't an entirely wise choice - having polished off my own hosta, the resident slugs and snails in my garden had a good nibble at Dad's before he took it home.
We revisited several of our recent favourite places, to show them to Mum and Dad - Syon; Titsey Place and Belmont House, with its clock museum. They are all lovely houses - Syon in a different style to the other two, which had more in common, being 18th century manor houses as opposed to a ducal residence, but all lovely and with gardens to add to the attraction. I think the long gallery at Syon - Tudor built with Robert Adam decoration, is one of my favourite rooms ever, but the chintzy comfort of Titsey, embellished with great paintings, has a particular charm. Of course, Ed loves Belmont for its clock collection - we are are booked in to do another specialist clock tour in September.
We visited Faversham on the way to Belmont. It's another medieval market town, not as large as Rochester, but it had an old warf, and we were treated to the sight of a very well preserved sailing barge. Dad informs us it's ketch rigged.
We also went back to the Horniman Museum with Mum and Dad. The gardens were still lovely. We combined it with a trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, a small collection with some good pictures.
Same flowers again, in front of the glasshouse. I think they were a white hydrangea. All around the glasshouse were different sundials.
The formal beds are rather Victorian, and the gardener doesn't go for subtlty in his colour schemes - in your face vivid is what he likes!
We had a couple more days in central London. We went to the "Picture of Britain" exhibition at the Tate, which was surprisingly good, compared to David Dimbleby's "Host of Golden Platitudes" TV series, that it illustrated. We also did the BP portrait competition at the NPG and all disagreed about which was the best - but we all agreed it wasn't the one which won, brilliantly executed as it was! On a different day we went to the Mueum of London, another old fave, and the Guildhall. We had meant to see the picture gallery there, but got delayed in the Guildhall itself, then the clock museum - or more precisely the Guild of Clockmakers' Museum - and library, where Ed was trying to do a quick research into the maker of Mum's long case clock - Lamb of Sleaford.
We revisited Polesden Lacey, that shrine to Edwardian wealth, and Standen, shrine to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, with a side visit to the British Wildlife Centre, where we were introduced to foxes (yes I know they come in the garden anyway) badgers, red squirrels, rats, mice, polecats and deer, and less fluffy natives like snakes and toads and the like. All very interesting. This is the grass snake - really a lizard in disguise, and a beaver.
We had our usual Fringe Binge in Edinburgh this year. Here is my Edinburgh Diary:
Thur 22 Aug:
Our train didn't leave King's Cross until 13:30, but we couldn't resist going in to London as soon as we were packed and ready. We dropped our case off at left luggage - they scan it first now, and charge arms and legs for the privilege - and went to see what was on at the British Library. We were in luck - it was a very good exhibition on the life of Hans Christian Anderson, whose birth bicentenary is this year. There was a performance of some of the stories while we were there, by a trio using music and extremely clever puppets made of rag paper, many of which unfolded from the pages of "books".
The train journey was uneventful, enlivened by the views of the Northumberland coast when we got to that section, up to and beyond Berwick. We arrived at Edinburgh several minutes early (!) and decided to walk up to Norma's. It was lovely to see Norma again, looking the same as ever. Our first show was not until 9pm, as we had allowed a bit of time to catch up on news before foraying straight out onto the town, but when it was time for her to set out to her concert we had a wander to the Royal Mile to pick up our wad of tickets from the Box Office and soak up the Festival atmosphere again. It felt great to be back, and so exciting to be at the beginning. The High St and Lawnmarket were humming, with no apparent diminution of numbers from previous years. The usual greyheads were de-bussing for the Tattoo at the Castle and shoals of be-costumed youngsters were touting flyers for their shows amongst the throngs of visitors of all nationalities wandering aimlessly or gathered around street performers presenting excerpts from shows, or busking, or eating fire.
We found our venue - "Medina", a new one on us - between two cafes, so ate in one of them before heading down the stairs to the performance. Slightly surprised to see the seating was mostly cushions scattered around the floor. Luckily we found a spot on a low couch, leaning against a cushion against the wall. Others following us in all did the same startled double take as us! The performance was "Amateur Transplant" - hit songs with new words by two musical medics (Adam Kay & Suman Biswas) with a macabre sense of humour. They were very funny. My favourite song was "Yellow" reinvented as a song about liver cancer."He thought it was just flu, but I knew that wasn't true - he wouldn't be so yellow" - it's not quite the same without the tune. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and we went home well satisfied by the first day.
Fri 22 Aug:
Up betimes as we were as has become traditional, due at C in Chamber St at 10:00 for "Shakespeare for Breakfast". This year's offering was "I'm Julius Caesar, Get Me Out of Here" a send up of the current TV celebrity survival contest shows, featuring amongst others, a Glaswegian Romeo, blonde bimbo Juliet, a very hammy Hamlet, Lady MacBeth in her Marigolds and the show hosts, Mark "Ant"ony and Marcus "Dec"ius Brutus. It was hilarious mayhem and they all ended up dead - not great theatre, but a lively start to the day, and included free coffee and croissant, so you can't knock it.
A bit of a break and time to grab a bite of lunch on our way to the Pleasance Courtyard for the next show at 13:30 "Aisle16 Poetry Boy Band". I'm not quite sure what we'd been expecting when I booked this and I'm not quite sure what we got! I'd thought it would be a send up, but it was more biting than that. The poems themselves were very good, and their performance backed up by excellent visuals.
A quick run back to C, for 14:45 and "Halo Boy and the Village of Death" by Westminster School drama club. Written by members of the cast, this original fairytale of the triumph of evil over good was lyrical, both stylised and stylish, and truly macabre. A cult priest holds evil sway over a village of child abusers - will the Halo Boy bring redemption? Depends on what you think of as redemption! We loved it - one of the highlights of our Fringe this year.
16:00 On again to a play with an established star in it - Timothy West in "National Hero". About a superannuated bomb disposal expert, his failed but enduring marriage, his mistress and her husband. Definitely not a farce, but an interesting set of ideas and situations. Not on our 5 star list either, possibly because none of the characters were very likeable, except perhaps the mistress, who was a bit wet.
Pizza for dinner at an Italian on Leith Walk then 19:30 on to Scotland's Theatre Gateway for David Leddy's "Through the Night". This got mixed reviews in general, and from this duo of viewers too. Ed found it pretentious and incomprehensible, but I liked it. Leddy was imposing in cinnamon and began by making a puja to Buddha, with deliberate gesture which then re-occurred throughout, as did certain phrases and songs, spoken by different characters in his retelling, using characterisation, music and mime, of a modern day Cinderella story of Stella and the media. Comic, ironic and touching, if a little pretentious!
21.20 and time for our final show of the day, Ben Willbond, back at Pleasance courtyard. Now I think this young man is worth watching purely because he's a very handsome young man and I can ogle a Tom Cruise type twinkle and smile any time ... but he's a very good comic actor too. His painter & decorator turned hitman was absolutely hilarious, as was Peter, the client, a middle aged middle class husband and dad (with a lovely twinkly smile); my two fave characters. As usual, the characters all come together eventually in a plot that has "The Fox" offering to do a bit of plaster skimming instead of the hit.
Then it was back across the Meadows to share a bottle of wine and our impressions from the day with Norma, who is equally busy during the festival, but tends to do the International events rather than the Fringe, seeing classical concerts, ballet and the various exhibitions going on. So we have lots to discuss and mull over.
Sat 20 Aug:
We try to get variety into our festival viewing, booking theatre, poetry, dance, music, children's shows, comedy and "events". 10:30 We started this day with our only "event" this year, but it turned out to be a 5 star one - a lecture by Prof. Hamish Swanton on the later life of Michelangelo "Michelangelo and the Pieta". Only lightly illustrated with a few colour photocopied handouts, this was fascinating and rivetting. Or, to steal an adjective from the Professor, wondrous. We thought we'd seen all the Pietas on our travels, being great Michelangelo fans, but we've not been to Milan, so have missed the last and the Professor's favourite, where Jesus' right arm is completely severed from his body, which merges into that of Mary. See above and here. It's always a treat to hear an expert on a favourite topic.
Saturday's programme did not run entirely to plan. We had originally thought to see "Subverse" this evening, but when the tickets were printed out, I'd got the wrong date and they were for Monday. Luckily we were able to go then, but had to re book other things for Saturday. So we booked 2 things on at the Gateway Theatre, instead. More of that later. At 13:10 we arrived at St. Mary's episcopal cathedral (one of George Gilbert Scott's early 20th century Gothic jobbies) expecting an organ recital. What we were given was a concert by the Wrekin Brass. My mistake. Very good they were too, playing a varied set including medieval church music, jazz, swing and their own version of "Yes, We Have No Bananas". Most enjoyable - we were sorry to have had to run out at the end and miss a possible encore, as we had to get to another church St. George's in Shandwick Place, to catch "Tumbuka" at 14:00. A lively and energetic dance troup from Zimbabwe, interpreting African themes through modern dance. I really liked the pieces danced to African music, but thought the Soul music pieces less interesting.
But we were in for another treat with the next show at 16:00 - Khalil Ashanti's stunning "Basic Training". A one man autobiographical piece, he played 23 characters from his life, during the time he did basic training in the USAF and became part of their concert party. Often hilarious, the crucial scene where he met his real father for the first time had me in tears. And the technique of showing two men talking to each other and perfectly delineating each one with a mere alteration in position of the left arm and facial expression, was brilliant.
Off to Leith Walk again for our evening at the Gateway. We had lots of time, so indulged in a buffet meal at China China restaurant. I had all the vegetable dishes, with fresh fruit to follow, to make up for Friday's stodge-fest. It was delicious. But on the way to the theatre, I got out the tickets, and saw to my horror that "Lost Ones" was showing at the Pleasance Courtyard, over a mile away, with no time to spare. Not entirely my mistake - the show was originally at the Gateway, but the venue was changed after the programme was printed, and nobody told us when we collected the tickets. 19:30 Too late to reach Pleasance - we hastily bought tickets for the alternative show at Gateway "China Dolls" instead. An amusing satire on Living the American Dream, with clever use of puppets and interchanging of characters by a talented young cast - we enjoyed it.
21:30 The last play had a very different feel. A two hander called "Waiting Room" was an exploration of survival of the soul after a civil war based on faith and/or nationality. The background was never fully explained and the personal stories of the two women emerged only gradually, which I liked, but Ed didn't. Powerful stuff.
[ Ed asks am I writing a novel here? But surely, What I Did Last Week is autobiography? Feel free to skip the rest if you too find this tooo long to bother with!]
Still with me?
Sun 21 Aug
11:00 The starts are getting later, to accommodate the late nights spent chatting with Norma. First on Sunday to C, for Philip Pullman's "I Was a Rat". A version Pullman was apparently pleased by. We liked it too, but it didn't get 5 stars in my book.
We got another pause - time for a leisurely lunch then. We went to a french sandwich bar cafe on Grassmarket and sat in the sun. Until the people occupying the shade vacated their seats, when we moved across to shelter. Another couple took our table - until the ones on the other shady table left, and they moved in to it. Another party arrived and took the sunny table. "We'll be going soon" we reassured them. "We like the sun" they said. I glanced back when we'd crossed the road, to see them shifting to our shade.
14:00 and we were in the Apex Hotel for "A Boat's Yer Whole World" a one woman dramatised retelling of the life of a canal woman on the cuts in the first half of the 20th century, based on the book "Ramlin Rose" by Sheila Stewart. We'd read and enjoyed the book when Yvonne was working on a narrow boat, and this was a touching and pleasant session. I enjoyed re-hearing how the illiterate Rose realised, after many years of marriage, that her husband "Syer" was really "Jo-siah".
15:00 A quick hike round to Cowgate and St. Cecilia's Hall, for a harpsichord recital. An interesting accompanied lecture on the composer Clementi, and how his work inspired later and better men, like Beethoven. Lovely music, beautifully played, but I confess I preferred last year's concert when pieces were played on different historic harpsichords, so we got to compare the tone of the different instruments as well as the progression of composition.
Trying to make up for Saturday's lapse, we rushed out and grabbed a taxi (we ALWAYS walk from venue to venue!) back to St. Mary's, to catch as much as possible of the organ recital, which began 15 minutes before the harpsichords finished, at 16:30. Unfortunately we missed the Mendelsohn, but heard the last 30 minutes of Duncan Ferguson's recital.
We went back to Bristo Square, and ate in the cafe the other side of "Medina" this time. A delicious plate of chili beef tacos! Then on to the highlight of Sunday, and one of our overall festival highlights 19:10 "Playing Burton" at Pleasance Dome. Starting with a broadcast of the media announcement of Burton's death, with obituary, "Richard Burton" then appeared, announcing he wasn't ready to go yet, and settling down to mull over his life. Full of quotation from parts he'd played, including our faves Shakespeare and Thomas, of course, the two main themes were that he'd "played" Richard Burton, an acquired persona, and that he'd sold his soul, personally and artistically, for love of Liz Taylor. Full of bravura - it won our 5 stars.
20:45 A touch of anti-climax at Roman Eagle Lodge, for "Flowers of Red" a tale of two teenage girls, a Palestinian and an American Peace fighter, meeting in Gaza. Their mixed up simplistic views came over well, but the end was far too obvious.
Mon 22 Aug:
An epic day! 11:20 We started with "Snow White" at C. The same company that performed Shakespeare for Breakfast, but this time in a dark fairy tale, where the stepmother is a Bride of Dracula,and the Vampire himself hides in the mirror. The 7 dwarfs appear as a 7 headed troll. Very enjoyable.
12:40 at the Assembly Rooms in George St, for another of our Festival High points "Booth Variations". This powerful show cleverly combined audio and video media, whose controller also read minor characters, to great effect in supporting what was really a one man virtuoso performance by Todd Cerveris as Edwin Booth, a fine actor overshadowed by the spirit of his famous father and then his infamous brother, Lincoln's assassin. A tremendous experience - we were stunned, and loved it.
A cheap and tasty take away sandwich followed by an expensive but delicious eat in cake for lunch, and on to Club West at 15:00 for As Is Acapella. A quintet of ladies from Dunedin New Zealand, their singing was exquisite, and I'm afraid when they sang a beautiful song about the death of a Grandmother, I cried. At the end of a lovely set, they handed out gifts of small pieces of Pau shell, so I got my festival souvenir to put in my objets trouves basket.
17:10 More music at Pleasance Courtyard, with "Venezuela Viva" a Flamenco dance extravaganza portraying the history of the country. With video backdrops, live band accompaniment and superb costumes, it was a treat. My only quibble was that all 12 dancers were women - a few men could have added an extra dimension and tension. But an excellent show.
18:40 A complete change of tone after a mad dash to get to Cowgate in time, for Joanna Neary is Pan's Person. This was our second excursion into the comedy category, but still not exactly stand-up - Joanna played 6 different comic characters. We thought she was a bit patchy, but really enjoyed the "Metaphor" song and LOVED Lee the adolescent deer -"We aren't going to frighten each other, are we? If neither of us make a sudden move, we won't run away, OK?" He was a sweetie. I've just found Joanna's Website, which is even more entertaining than her show.
20:30 We went to the Royal Oak pub for a folk night. It turned out to be a tiny little place, and we thought we'd gone wrong, but yes, it was there - downstairs in the even tinier cellar. We squeezed in beside a nice bloke who hitched over to make space. The entertainment was a Tasmanian duo - he playing piano accordian, she playing fiddle - whose repetoire was drawn from Eastern Europe with lots of other influences thrown in. We thoroughly enjoyed it, but slipped away at the end of the first set at 22:00 to go to C where we saw the show we meant to watch on Saturday, Subverse. This was show B of two alternating evenings of different satirical sketches. Don't know what A was like, but this was very good, if confusing in parts. I still haven't worked out what the recruitment sketch was about and I think I voted for Donald Rumsfeld by mistake in "Ready Steady Liberate"!
23:30 Last show of the night - or, as it ran half an hour late, the first show of Tuesday, and it was a barnstormer. We were annoyed not to get seats because they let standing room customers in before we got through the door, but we were standing in the best place to see everything, and we're tall, so it worked out OK. Ed calls this circus, I call it cabaret, the review called it burlesque but it was stylish fun whatever. There were the Caesar twins - Polish acrobats; a female impersonator who sang; Miss Behave, the comedienne/sword swallower; a trapeze artiste/contortionist; an acrobat of the parallel hoops, who added spraying bathwater over everyone to his act - you had to be there. There was Ursula Martinez the hide the red hanky stripper - yes, she did - and the couple on roller skates, not to mention the Chinese pianist and the female singer and the male belly dancer. You get the idea - it was amazing. We crawled home at 02:00.
Tues 23 Aug
Oh no! Not our last day! Final breakfast with Norma - strawberries on my muesli today, what a treat. Said our goodbyes after, as she was going to be out when we came back for our bags. Hope we see her again soon. Next time she's in London?
10:30 Last trip to C for a second helping of Westminster School Drama club, with their performance of "Cry in the Dark" an adaptation of the children's book about a modern boy and his Victorian ghosts next door. Same cast as "Halo Boy" but a completely different style and tone. Very enjoyable. The two Edds playing in this case the main character and his stepdad, were particularly strong.
To George Square, where the Spiegeltent looked all forlorn in the rain. We had a bite to eat there and went on to the George Theatre for "Cossack Passion" which was exactly what it said on the tin - a large troupe of singers, dancers acrobats and musicians, who provided a spectacular whirl of sound and colour. The best dance show we'd seen - it had all the ingredients of costume, variety and talent - excellent.
And something completely different to finish. The previous evening, waiting to go in to see Subverse, we had been recommended to see this - "The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa in His Garden" after Lorca, in Spanish with surtitles. It was another stylised fable, enhanced with dance and song, squeezed into a minute space, so you thought a flamenco dancer would end up in your lap at any moment. I wished my Spanish were better, so I didn't need an extra eye for the surtitles, but this was a very good end of our Fringe.
17:00 We went home. Well, we saw a train on our platform and got on, and very nearly went to Inverness by mistake. Luckily someone was sitting in our seats, and had been there since coming from London...
We had another good, Bank Holiday weekend when Jenny, Marion & Vince and the sprogs came down to celebrate Jake's 4th birthday with us. Apparently he had expressed a wish to have a ride on the "London Eyeball" and who were we to say no? I think they were maybe expecting it to travel a bit faster, more like a ferris wheel, but they seemed to enjoy it. We also went to see where the Queen lives (she wasn't in) and the changing of the Horse Guards (not very impressed by that) and then on to South Kensington to see some dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum (Jake really loved that) and to play in the hands on sections at the Science museum (we all enjoyed that bit - we didn't leave until closing time.)
The next day we went to the Aquarium and saw a lovely Lion Fish and a Manta Ray amongst others - who needs to live in Fiji, I ask myself (as usual, Uncle Ed enjoyed this the best of all.) The children had their faces painted. Here's Jake the aquarium.
and Georgia the Mermaid.
We walked along the South Bank and enjoyed the buskers and jugglers (Georgia thought the statues were poor value for money) and fire eaters,and we had a GREAT time on the "Golden Hinde", the replica of Drake's ship, playing at pirates. Jake brandished a plastic flintlock pistol as Captain Jake - luckily a small sword wielding boy only wanted to be Pirate Oliver (but there were a few sticky moments when Captain Joshua stepped on board, until the Bad Guys were spotted in the nick of time, hauling to on the starboard side and Captain Jake went off to repel boarders).
A quick zip around Tate Modern left Georgia slightly bemused by the pictures and Jake impressed by the length of the escalators.
On Monday we went to the British Wildlife Centre again, and had another look at the foxes, otters, et al, before rounding off the weekend with lunch at "The Fox" - very apt, even more so, but not much appreciated, when Jake stepped in fox poo in the garden back home - before they set off North again.
In September I started a new job - same school, but now a class teacher in the nursery. It's been very hard work, but I really get on with my colleagues, especially the nursery co-ordinator, Irene, and we have a lot of fun. We were very pleased with the way our first term went - we got good results in our OFSTED inspection - even scarier than the one in June - and the children have settled in and shown progress nicely.
Georgia's page
Jake's page
Thomas's page 
Read my 2004 news here.
However, we still have the furry foster daughter, who spends about 80% of her time with us, and chooses her other houses carefully. When we were away in August, we told Dorothy and Bill at No 29 (one of her other homes) to get in extra food, but she went round the corner instead! I call this picture "The Boss with adoring admirer". You decide!
We had a lovely weekend at the end of February - Peter and Jackie came to stay, so we could all go and see the Turner, Whistler Monet exhibition at Tate Britain. It was extremely popular, so I could only get tickets for the last session of the day, which meant the guards were hurrying us along somewhat, but it was a wonderful exhibition. Mum would have loved to see the Turners, as he is one of her favourite artists. This is Ed's favourite of his, done in Venice 1843.
Whistler was the one who surprised us, in the exhibition. Peter was thrilled to see the Rocket picture that had caused such a furore when it was first exhibited - it prompted Ruskin to accuse Whistler of throwing a pot of paint at the viewers, for which remark Whistler successfully sued Ruskin, bankrupting himself in the process. My favourite was this one - Nocturne in blue and silver, 1871.
But I think we all still loved the Monets best. It was such a treat to see pictures that had been painted as a series, or set, displayed side by side. This was one of my favourites - one of a series of three of the Seine at Giverny, painted in 1897.
Peter and Jackie's favourite was this one, or rather this series of four, of the Houses of Parliament painted in different lights in 1904.
Ed's cousin Linda had a long awaited baby girl in February. Here is little Grace Elizabeth, being cuddled by her cousin Georgia in April. Two sweeties, aren't they?
Easter came and went early - we didn't go away this year, as Ed had a workshop at Manchester University to attend the long weekend after. Ed was made redundant at the end of March, after 21 years with Mitsubishi. It was not a great shock,as it had been looming for at least a year, which is partly why he enrolled on a Business Studies Masters course, but a blow just the same. It feels like the end of an era, coinciding with our 50th birthdays as it did. Ed's doing OK with his course, and has passed everything so far.
We had a good weekend in Cornwall in May. Having popped in early to vote in the General Election (to little avail; my candidate never gets in...) we set off on the long drive SW. It's always good to see Stonehenge again, but this time it was nowhere near the end of the journey. We thought we might stay overnight at Liskeard, but it seemed about as interesting as Brigg, so we drove on to Looe, which turned out to be an excellent idea. A typical Cornish river mouth seaside fishing village,it was picturesque and busy without being spoiled by tourists.
The purpose of the trip was to see the Eden Project - the claypit turned world garden, with its outdoor and two indoor ecosystems in the "Biomes". Here is the tropical biome, showing the roofing system.
And here it is again, showing how effective the temperature control is!
As well as seeing the Eden Project, which was well worth the trip by itself, we also ticked a couple of other places off our "to do before we die" list. One was the village of Polperro. Another such as Looe, but slightly more picturesque; here is the harbour. My main reason for wanting to visit was receiving a little blue and white badge, with "Polperro" printed on it, from my Uncle Jim, who went there, possibly on his honeymoon, or shortly thereabouts when I was very young. The name seemed exotic to me then, and I've wanted to see it since. Having waited this long (with time to adjust my ideas of what such a place might be like),it didn't disappoint.
Ed fulfilled two wishes - to visit Pendennis Castle, after which his childhood home of Pendennis Crescent was named, and to revisit Tintagel Castle, wishfully associated with the Arthurian legend. Pendennis was hosting American War of Independence re-enactors, which was a bonus to an interesting visit, whilst Tintagel was a riot of bluebells, sea pinks and other Spring blossoms, which gave me the opportunity to take my 2005 Bluebell picture! I liked the idea of Tintagel as a "mere" 12th century vision of Arthur's castle, created by Richard Earl of Cornwall.
I had a bit of excitement, when my copy of "Heritage Quest Magazine" landed on the doormat. You may not have heard of this excellent publication, as it is only sold in America; the reason I received a copy was that they had published some of my material. To be precise, they had lifted, with my permission, information from my History of Wedding Dresses webpage, including a sketch and description, with names, of Mum's dress.
Finally revealed in June - the new look house. Had to wait ages, as you can see from the tree coming into leaf in the meantime, because after they finished ours, next door had theirs done too, so I had to wait for all the scaffolding to come down. However, I have achieved a true "Before and After" effect with the lighting - scruffy old house pictured on a dull day, and improved new look taken in sunshine for best presentation! I'm very pleased with the result.
Talking of houses, this is where Richard was living in 2005, in Fiji.
Grandma, Louise Holmes, nee Squire, died on 17 June two weeks after suffering a stroke at the age of 92. She was buried with Grandad in St. Giles' churchyard in Scartho. She was much loved and will be greatly missed.
Grandma as a young woman, and in 2001.
June was not a great month altogether. Just before Grandma died, Ed came down with mumps, and was very ill for a few days, and not well for a fortnight longer. Then Dad had a really bad cold and sore throat, just as Mum was trying to organise the funeral and Grandma's estate business. By the funeral day, Mum herself had started to come down with the chest virus, caught in hospital, that had killed Grandma and 4 others the same night, and was also unwell. I only had a slight cold, but the inspectors were in school, so the atmosphere at work was extremely fraught. But the inspection, and the month, were eventually over.
Of course on a national level, things had started to look up, when we won the 2012 Olympics, but spirits have been dashed by the London bombings yesterday. We were glued to the TV and phones throughout the lunch break yesterday, until everyone, thankfully had safely located loved ones known to be in central London. Luckily the worst suffered in our personal circles were people trapped in the city by disrupted public transport, wondering how they would get home that night.
As soon as I broke up from school, Mum and Dad came down for a well earned break with us. We had a lovely fortnight with them, although the weather could have been a lot better. The time flew by; we went out and about every day and managed to avoid getting wet.
We nearly saw Peter and Jackie, too - they came down for the "Tango al Fresco" event in Regent's Park, but unfortunately were with friends and had to leave to get the friend to the airport, just before we arrived, not having been able to get in earlier as we were setting the Hash run that morning. Never mind! We really enjoyed watching the dancing - this was the exhibition pair, but the ordinary club dancers were pretty good.
On the Monday we went to the Cabinet War Rooms and Winston Churchill Exhibition. They have an excellent interactive timeline table of Churchill's life, and there was a whole group of middle aged folk, including me and Mum, happily sinking the table under "water" and "lighting" 90 candles, and sending "bouncing bombs" across, along with other enthralling effects, by finding the relevant dates! Not surprisingly, in view of "recent events"as they say, the Hiroshima bomb date had had its rather frightening sound effect turned off.
Dad was specially pleased with our day at Chatham Historic Dockyard. We went on a little 19th century warship, that had sails and steam, and saw the lifeboat collection, and the "real life experience" of building an 18th century wooden warship, as well as the dockyard museum. We thought we might have visited the medieval town of Rochester on the same day, but had to go back on another day to see its Norman castle and cathedral, and interesting High St and museum.
As I said, the weather generally wasn't kind to us, but we watched the forecasts and picked the only truly warm and sunny day of the fortnight to visit the RHS gardens at Wisley, Mum's idea of Heaven. The borders and greenhouses were stupendous - we walked our feet off the whole day and had to leave out the Rock Garden when we realised a) we hadn't seen it, and b) we couldn't walk another yard out of our route back to the carpark. The only cloud on the day was that the garden centre was surprisingly lacking in any of the lovely shrubs we'd made notes on as we went round, so we had to come away almost empty handed. Dad bought me a nice fern and himself a nice hosta, but I'm not sure if that was the same day, or at Syon House...The hosta wasn't an entirely wise choice - having polished off my own hosta, the resident slugs and snails in my garden had a good nibble at Dad's before he took it home.
We revisited several of our recent favourite places, to show them to Mum and Dad - Syon; Titsey Place and Belmont House, with its clock museum. They are all lovely houses - Syon in a different style to the other two, which had more in common, being 18th century manor houses as opposed to a ducal residence, but all lovely and with gardens to add to the attraction. I think the long gallery at Syon - Tudor built with Robert Adam decoration, is one of my favourite rooms ever, but the chintzy comfort of Titsey, embellished with great paintings, has a particular charm. Of course, Ed loves Belmont for its clock collection - we are are booked in to do another specialist clock tour in September.
We visited Faversham on the way to Belmont. It's another medieval market town, not as large as Rochester, but it had an old warf, and we were treated to the sight of a very well preserved sailing barge. Dad informs us it's ketch rigged.
We also went back to the Horniman Museum with Mum and Dad. The gardens were still lovely. We combined it with a trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, a small collection with some good pictures.
Same flowers again, in front of the glasshouse. I think they were a white hydrangea. All around the glasshouse were different sundials.
The formal beds are rather Victorian, and the gardener doesn't go for subtlty in his colour schemes - in your face vivid is what he likes!
We had a couple more days in central London. We went to the "Picture of Britain" exhibition at the Tate, which was surprisingly good, compared to David Dimbleby's "Host of Golden Platitudes" TV series, that it illustrated. We also did the BP portrait competition at the NPG and all disagreed about which was the best - but we all agreed it wasn't the one which won, brilliantly executed as it was! On a different day we went to the Mueum of London, another old fave, and the Guildhall. We had meant to see the picture gallery there, but got delayed in the Guildhall itself, then the clock museum - or more precisely the Guild of Clockmakers' Museum - and library, where Ed was trying to do a quick research into the maker of Mum's long case clock - Lamb of Sleaford.
We revisited Polesden Lacey, that shrine to Edwardian wealth, and Standen, shrine to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, with a side visit to the British Wildlife Centre, where we were introduced to foxes (yes I know they come in the garden anyway) badgers, red squirrels, rats, mice, polecats and deer, and less fluffy natives like snakes and toads and the like. All very interesting. This is the grass snake - really a lizard in disguise, and a beaver.
We had our usual Fringe Binge in Edinburgh this year. Here is my Edinburgh Diary:
Thur 22 Aug:
Our train didn't leave King's Cross until 13:30, but we couldn't resist going in to London as soon as we were packed and ready. We dropped our case off at left luggage - they scan it first now, and charge arms and legs for the privilege - and went to see what was on at the British Library. We were in luck - it was a very good exhibition on the life of Hans Christian Anderson, whose birth bicentenary is this year. There was a performance of some of the stories while we were there, by a trio using music and extremely clever puppets made of rag paper, many of which unfolded from the pages of "books".
The train journey was uneventful, enlivened by the views of the Northumberland coast when we got to that section, up to and beyond Berwick. We arrived at Edinburgh several minutes early (!) and decided to walk up to Norma's. It was lovely to see Norma again, looking the same as ever. Our first show was not until 9pm, as we had allowed a bit of time to catch up on news before foraying straight out onto the town, but when it was time for her to set out to her concert we had a wander to the Royal Mile to pick up our wad of tickets from the Box Office and soak up the Festival atmosphere again. It felt great to be back, and so exciting to be at the beginning. The High St and Lawnmarket were humming, with no apparent diminution of numbers from previous years. The usual greyheads were de-bussing for the Tattoo at the Castle and shoals of be-costumed youngsters were touting flyers for their shows amongst the throngs of visitors of all nationalities wandering aimlessly or gathered around street performers presenting excerpts from shows, or busking, or eating fire.
We found our venue - "Medina", a new one on us - between two cafes, so ate in one of them before heading down the stairs to the performance. Slightly surprised to see the seating was mostly cushions scattered around the floor. Luckily we found a spot on a low couch, leaning against a cushion against the wall. Others following us in all did the same startled double take as us! The performance was "Amateur Transplant" - hit songs with new words by two musical medics (Adam Kay & Suman Biswas) with a macabre sense of humour. They were very funny. My favourite song was "Yellow" reinvented as a song about liver cancer."He thought it was just flu, but I knew that wasn't true - he wouldn't be so yellow" - it's not quite the same without the tune. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and we went home well satisfied by the first day.
Fri 22 Aug:
Up betimes as we were as has become traditional, due at C in Chamber St at 10:00 for "Shakespeare for Breakfast". This year's offering was "I'm Julius Caesar, Get Me Out of Here" a send up of the current TV celebrity survival contest shows, featuring amongst others, a Glaswegian Romeo, blonde bimbo Juliet, a very hammy Hamlet, Lady MacBeth in her Marigolds and the show hosts, Mark "Ant"ony and Marcus "Dec"ius Brutus. It was hilarious mayhem and they all ended up dead - not great theatre, but a lively start to the day, and included free coffee and croissant, so you can't knock it.
A bit of a break and time to grab a bite of lunch on our way to the Pleasance Courtyard for the next show at 13:30 "Aisle16 Poetry Boy Band". I'm not quite sure what we'd been expecting when I booked this and I'm not quite sure what we got! I'd thought it would be a send up, but it was more biting than that. The poems themselves were very good, and their performance backed up by excellent visuals.
A quick run back to C, for 14:45 and "Halo Boy and the Village of Death" by Westminster School drama club. Written by members of the cast, this original fairytale of the triumph of evil over good was lyrical, both stylised and stylish, and truly macabre. A cult priest holds evil sway over a village of child abusers - will the Halo Boy bring redemption? Depends on what you think of as redemption! We loved it - one of the highlights of our Fringe this year.
16:00 On again to a play with an established star in it - Timothy West in "National Hero". About a superannuated bomb disposal expert, his failed but enduring marriage, his mistress and her husband. Definitely not a farce, but an interesting set of ideas and situations. Not on our 5 star list either, possibly because none of the characters were very likeable, except perhaps the mistress, who was a bit wet.
Pizza for dinner at an Italian on Leith Walk then 19:30 on to Scotland's Theatre Gateway for David Leddy's "Through the Night". This got mixed reviews in general, and from this duo of viewers too. Ed found it pretentious and incomprehensible, but I liked it. Leddy was imposing in cinnamon and began by making a puja to Buddha, with deliberate gesture which then re-occurred throughout, as did certain phrases and songs, spoken by different characters in his retelling, using characterisation, music and mime, of a modern day Cinderella story of Stella and the media. Comic, ironic and touching, if a little pretentious!
21.20 and time for our final show of the day, Ben Willbond, back at Pleasance courtyard. Now I think this young man is worth watching purely because he's a very handsome young man and I can ogle a Tom Cruise type twinkle and smile any time ... but he's a very good comic actor too. His painter & decorator turned hitman was absolutely hilarious, as was Peter, the client, a middle aged middle class husband and dad (with a lovely twinkly smile); my two fave characters. As usual, the characters all come together eventually in a plot that has "The Fox" offering to do a bit of plaster skimming instead of the hit.
Then it was back across the Meadows to share a bottle of wine and our impressions from the day with Norma, who is equally busy during the festival, but tends to do the International events rather than the Fringe, seeing classical concerts, ballet and the various exhibitions going on. So we have lots to discuss and mull over.
Sat 20 Aug:
We try to get variety into our festival viewing, booking theatre, poetry, dance, music, children's shows, comedy and "events". 10:30 We started this day with our only "event" this year, but it turned out to be a 5 star one - a lecture by Prof. Hamish Swanton on the later life of Michelangelo "Michelangelo and the Pieta". Only lightly illustrated with a few colour photocopied handouts, this was fascinating and rivetting. Or, to steal an adjective from the Professor, wondrous. We thought we'd seen all the Pietas on our travels, being great Michelangelo fans, but we've not been to Milan, so have missed the last and the Professor's favourite, where Jesus' right arm is completely severed from his body, which merges into that of Mary. See above and here. It's always a treat to hear an expert on a favourite topic.
Saturday's programme did not run entirely to plan. We had originally thought to see "Subverse" this evening, but when the tickets were printed out, I'd got the wrong date and they were for Monday. Luckily we were able to go then, but had to re book other things for Saturday. So we booked 2 things on at the Gateway Theatre, instead. More of that later. At 13:10 we arrived at St. Mary's episcopal cathedral (one of George Gilbert Scott's early 20th century Gothic jobbies) expecting an organ recital. What we were given was a concert by the Wrekin Brass. My mistake. Very good they were too, playing a varied set including medieval church music, jazz, swing and their own version of "Yes, We Have No Bananas". Most enjoyable - we were sorry to have had to run out at the end and miss a possible encore, as we had to get to another church St. George's in Shandwick Place, to catch "Tumbuka" at 14:00. A lively and energetic dance troup from Zimbabwe, interpreting African themes through modern dance. I really liked the pieces danced to African music, but thought the Soul music pieces less interesting.
But we were in for another treat with the next show at 16:00 - Khalil Ashanti's stunning "Basic Training". A one man autobiographical piece, he played 23 characters from his life, during the time he did basic training in the USAF and became part of their concert party. Often hilarious, the crucial scene where he met his real father for the first time had me in tears. And the technique of showing two men talking to each other and perfectly delineating each one with a mere alteration in position of the left arm and facial expression, was brilliant.
Off to Leith Walk again for our evening at the Gateway. We had lots of time, so indulged in a buffet meal at China China restaurant. I had all the vegetable dishes, with fresh fruit to follow, to make up for Friday's stodge-fest. It was delicious. But on the way to the theatre, I got out the tickets, and saw to my horror that "Lost Ones" was showing at the Pleasance Courtyard, over a mile away, with no time to spare. Not entirely my mistake - the show was originally at the Gateway, but the venue was changed after the programme was printed, and nobody told us when we collected the tickets. 19:30 Too late to reach Pleasance - we hastily bought tickets for the alternative show at Gateway "China Dolls" instead. An amusing satire on Living the American Dream, with clever use of puppets and interchanging of characters by a talented young cast - we enjoyed it.
21:30 The last play had a very different feel. A two hander called "Waiting Room" was an exploration of survival of the soul after a civil war based on faith and/or nationality. The background was never fully explained and the personal stories of the two women emerged only gradually, which I liked, but Ed didn't. Powerful stuff.
[ Ed asks am I writing a novel here? But surely, What I Did Last Week is autobiography? Feel free to skip the rest if you too find this tooo long to bother with!]
Still with me?
Sun 21 Aug
11:00 The starts are getting later, to accommodate the late nights spent chatting with Norma. First on Sunday to C, for Philip Pullman's "I Was a Rat". A version Pullman was apparently pleased by. We liked it too, but it didn't get 5 stars in my book.
We got another pause - time for a leisurely lunch then. We went to a french sandwich bar cafe on Grassmarket and sat in the sun. Until the people occupying the shade vacated their seats, when we moved across to shelter. Another couple took our table - until the ones on the other shady table left, and they moved in to it. Another party arrived and took the sunny table. "We'll be going soon" we reassured them. "We like the sun" they said. I glanced back when we'd crossed the road, to see them shifting to our shade.
14:00 and we were in the Apex Hotel for "A Boat's Yer Whole World" a one woman dramatised retelling of the life of a canal woman on the cuts in the first half of the 20th century, based on the book "Ramlin Rose" by Sheila Stewart. We'd read and enjoyed the book when Yvonne was working on a narrow boat, and this was a touching and pleasant session. I enjoyed re-hearing how the illiterate Rose realised, after many years of marriage, that her husband "Syer" was really "Jo-siah".
15:00 A quick hike round to Cowgate and St. Cecilia's Hall, for a harpsichord recital. An interesting accompanied lecture on the composer Clementi, and how his work inspired later and better men, like Beethoven. Lovely music, beautifully played, but I confess I preferred last year's concert when pieces were played on different historic harpsichords, so we got to compare the tone of the different instruments as well as the progression of composition.
Trying to make up for Saturday's lapse, we rushed out and grabbed a taxi (we ALWAYS walk from venue to venue!) back to St. Mary's, to catch as much as possible of the organ recital, which began 15 minutes before the harpsichords finished, at 16:30. Unfortunately we missed the Mendelsohn, but heard the last 30 minutes of Duncan Ferguson's recital.
We went back to Bristo Square, and ate in the cafe the other side of "Medina" this time. A delicious plate of chili beef tacos! Then on to the highlight of Sunday, and one of our overall festival highlights 19:10 "Playing Burton" at Pleasance Dome. Starting with a broadcast of the media announcement of Burton's death, with obituary, "Richard Burton" then appeared, announcing he wasn't ready to go yet, and settling down to mull over his life. Full of quotation from parts he'd played, including our faves Shakespeare and Thomas, of course, the two main themes were that he'd "played" Richard Burton, an acquired persona, and that he'd sold his soul, personally and artistically, for love of Liz Taylor. Full of bravura - it won our 5 stars.
20:45 A touch of anti-climax at Roman Eagle Lodge, for "Flowers of Red" a tale of two teenage girls, a Palestinian and an American Peace fighter, meeting in Gaza. Their mixed up simplistic views came over well, but the end was far too obvious.
Mon 22 Aug:
An epic day! 11:20 We started with "Snow White" at C. The same company that performed Shakespeare for Breakfast, but this time in a dark fairy tale, where the stepmother is a Bride of Dracula,and the Vampire himself hides in the mirror. The 7 dwarfs appear as a 7 headed troll. Very enjoyable.
12:40 at the Assembly Rooms in George St, for another of our Festival High points "Booth Variations". This powerful show cleverly combined audio and video media, whose controller also read minor characters, to great effect in supporting what was really a one man virtuoso performance by Todd Cerveris as Edwin Booth, a fine actor overshadowed by the spirit of his famous father and then his infamous brother, Lincoln's assassin. A tremendous experience - we were stunned, and loved it.
A cheap and tasty take away sandwich followed by an expensive but delicious eat in cake for lunch, and on to Club West at 15:00 for As Is Acapella. A quintet of ladies from Dunedin New Zealand, their singing was exquisite, and I'm afraid when they sang a beautiful song about the death of a Grandmother, I cried. At the end of a lovely set, they handed out gifts of small pieces of Pau shell, so I got my festival souvenir to put in my objets trouves basket.
17:10 More music at Pleasance Courtyard, with "Venezuela Viva" a Flamenco dance extravaganza portraying the history of the country. With video backdrops, live band accompaniment and superb costumes, it was a treat. My only quibble was that all 12 dancers were women - a few men could have added an extra dimension and tension. But an excellent show.
18:40 A complete change of tone after a mad dash to get to Cowgate in time, for Joanna Neary is Pan's Person. This was our second excursion into the comedy category, but still not exactly stand-up - Joanna played 6 different comic characters. We thought she was a bit patchy, but really enjoyed the "Metaphor" song and LOVED Lee the adolescent deer -"We aren't going to frighten each other, are we? If neither of us make a sudden move, we won't run away, OK?" He was a sweetie. I've just found Joanna's Website, which is even more entertaining than her show.
20:30 We went to the Royal Oak pub for a folk night. It turned out to be a tiny little place, and we thought we'd gone wrong, but yes, it was there - downstairs in the even tinier cellar. We squeezed in beside a nice bloke who hitched over to make space. The entertainment was a Tasmanian duo - he playing piano accordian, she playing fiddle - whose repetoire was drawn from Eastern Europe with lots of other influences thrown in. We thoroughly enjoyed it, but slipped away at the end of the first set at 22:00 to go to C where we saw the show we meant to watch on Saturday, Subverse. This was show B of two alternating evenings of different satirical sketches. Don't know what A was like, but this was very good, if confusing in parts. I still haven't worked out what the recruitment sketch was about and I think I voted for Donald Rumsfeld by mistake in "Ready Steady Liberate"!
23:30 Last show of the night - or, as it ran half an hour late, the first show of Tuesday, and it was a barnstormer. We were annoyed not to get seats because they let standing room customers in before we got through the door, but we were standing in the best place to see everything, and we're tall, so it worked out OK. Ed calls this circus, I call it cabaret, the review called it burlesque but it was stylish fun whatever. There were the Caesar twins - Polish acrobats; a female impersonator who sang; Miss Behave, the comedienne/sword swallower; a trapeze artiste/contortionist; an acrobat of the parallel hoops, who added spraying bathwater over everyone to his act - you had to be there. There was Ursula Martinez the hide the red hanky stripper - yes, she did - and the couple on roller skates, not to mention the Chinese pianist and the female singer and the male belly dancer. You get the idea - it was amazing. We crawled home at 02:00.
Tues 23 Aug
Oh no! Not our last day! Final breakfast with Norma - strawberries on my muesli today, what a treat. Said our goodbyes after, as she was going to be out when we came back for our bags. Hope we see her again soon. Next time she's in London?
10:30 Last trip to C for a second helping of Westminster School Drama club, with their performance of "Cry in the Dark" an adaptation of the children's book about a modern boy and his Victorian ghosts next door. Same cast as "Halo Boy" but a completely different style and tone. Very enjoyable. The two Edds playing in this case the main character and his stepdad, were particularly strong.
To George Square, where the Spiegeltent looked all forlorn in the rain. We had a bite to eat there and went on to the George Theatre for "Cossack Passion" which was exactly what it said on the tin - a large troupe of singers, dancers acrobats and musicians, who provided a spectacular whirl of sound and colour. The best dance show we'd seen - it had all the ingredients of costume, variety and talent - excellent.
And something completely different to finish. The previous evening, waiting to go in to see Subverse, we had been recommended to see this - "The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa in His Garden" after Lorca, in Spanish with surtitles. It was another stylised fable, enhanced with dance and song, squeezed into a minute space, so you thought a flamenco dancer would end up in your lap at any moment. I wished my Spanish were better, so I didn't need an extra eye for the surtitles, but this was a very good end of our Fringe.
17:00 We went home. Well, we saw a train on our platform and got on, and very nearly went to Inverness by mistake. Luckily someone was sitting in our seats, and had been there since coming from London...
We had another good, Bank Holiday weekend when Jenny, Marion & Vince and the sprogs came down to celebrate Jake's 4th birthday with us. Apparently he had expressed a wish to have a ride on the "London Eyeball" and who were we to say no? I think they were maybe expecting it to travel a bit faster, more like a ferris wheel, but they seemed to enjoy it. We also went to see where the Queen lives (she wasn't in) and the changing of the Horse Guards (not very impressed by that) and then on to South Kensington to see some dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum (Jake really loved that) and to play in the hands on sections at the Science museum (we all enjoyed that bit - we didn't leave until closing time.)
The next day we went to the Aquarium and saw a lovely Lion Fish and a Manta Ray amongst others - who needs to live in Fiji, I ask myself (as usual, Uncle Ed enjoyed this the best of all.) The children had their faces painted. Here's Jake the aquarium.
and Georgia the Mermaid.
We walked along the South Bank and enjoyed the buskers and jugglers (Georgia thought the statues were poor value for money) and fire eaters,and we had a GREAT time on the "Golden Hinde", the replica of Drake's ship, playing at pirates. Jake brandished a plastic flintlock pistol as Captain Jake - luckily a small sword wielding boy only wanted to be Pirate Oliver (but there were a few sticky moments when Captain Joshua stepped on board, until the Bad Guys were spotted in the nick of time, hauling to on the starboard side and Captain Jake went off to repel boarders).
A quick zip around Tate Modern left Georgia slightly bemused by the pictures and Jake impressed by the length of the escalators.
On Monday we went to the British Wildlife Centre again, and had another look at the foxes, otters, et al, before rounding off the weekend with lunch at "The Fox" - very apt, even more so, but not much appreciated, when Jake stepped in fox poo in the garden back home - before they set off North again.
In September I started a new job - same school, but now a class teacher in the nursery. It's been very hard work, but I really get on with my colleagues, especially the nursery co-ordinator, Irene, and we have a lot of fun. We were very pleased with the way our first term went - we got good results in our OFSTED inspection - even scarier than the one in June - and the children have settled in and shown progress nicely.
Georgia's page
Jake's page
Thomas's page
Read my 2004 news here.