The Amazing World of Si Hart

Charlie

2010-01-09T17:51:00.003Z

Our rabbit, Charlie died this morning.

When he arrived with us almost two years ago, we didn't expect him to be with us all that long. Even then he was an old dwarf rabbit- his brother had died a year before and we really thought we'd only have him with us for six months or more.

But he went on and on!

You couldn't say he was an affectionate pet. He didn't like being held very much, he didn't even much like being stroked, but that was Charlie. We knew that and let him do what he wanted to do, which mostly seemed to be flallop around the garden, sit under the bench next to the pond, eat or glare at us from his litter tray. He was old, and grumpy, but we loved him.

So, today, about 6 months from his 10th birthday, he died with Steve cuddling him. I think I knew it was on the way. He didn't eat very much yesterday which is unusual and when I came out to feed him last night he let me pick him up and cuddle him.

I'll miss him. Miss chasing him round the garden in the morning before I head out to work, miss him clawing at the mesh as we go to feed him or let him out and miss him chasing the Robin (his arch enemy!) out of the garden.

RIP Charlie. xx

A Chance Encounter

2009-08-20T21:08:00.003+01:00

As some of you will probably know, one of the TV shows I adore is Secret Army. It's BBC drama of the 70s at its very best. It's one I've been revisiting recently and I greatly enjoyed watching series 2 while I was unwell the other week. For those that don't know (and really if you haven't seen it, you should try, I promise you won't regret it) it concerns the work of Belgian evasion line trying to get stranded RAF men to safety from under the eyes of the occupying Germans.

Anyway, this afternoon I met a real life WWII evader. He came to Birch Hill Library to do some photocopying. He was a sprightly 88 year old (and he really didn't look that old) who had come in to copy some forms in order to get hold of a disabled badge for his wife who is now wheelchair bound. I gave him a helping hand with the copier and got chatting to him. Anyway, we got chatting and he showed me what it was he was photocopying. A photograph of a rather gaunt, earnest young man. He explained that was him, on discharge from a German Prisoner of War Camp. He was in the RAF. His plane was shot down over France, and he was picked up by the French resistance. They made him false papers, gave him a French name and clothes and were helping him escape back to England, when he was caught by a German patrol. He was captured, as it turned out he couldn't speak French, and taken to the POW camp where he was imprisoned until the end of the war and the camp was liberated. As he;d been in civilian clothing rather than his uniform he was imprisoned as a spy.

One of the documents he was photocopying was the false papers he'd been carrying when he was captured, along with the documents typed by the Germans when he was imprisoned that he;d kept all these years. They were amazing to see.

What got me was how matter of fact he was about it all. It was something that happened to him, but nothing amazing. He was just doing his duty and doing what he could to survive. I found that incredibly moving.

He finished his photocopies and went on his way, but shook my hand and thanked me for all my help. Somehow I felt that it was me who should have been thanking him for all that he did- him and others like him that fought for us in WWII.

So that was one of those chance encounters that happen when you work with the public, but something I shan't forget.

I hope he gets his disabled badge without any fuss.

Clique

2009-08-19T21:24:00.003+01:00

I'm part of a clique apparently. This is something of a first for me, having usually been an outsider, someone who tried hard to fit in and failed miserably for the most part. From the outside though, who can say what is a clique and what isn't it? Personally I just think it's some strong friendships that other people find challenging. My ex-boyfriend had this problem and couldn't accept that I had friends who I liked to talk to and spend time with. He was the one missing out there, anyway, that's not a story for now.

So yes, the old thing about cliques has come up for the umpteenth time this week. I'm so sick of it. Sick of having to justify my place in the world and the places of my friends. It's all so damn tedious. So I said nothing, even though it kind of upset me. I do sometimes think that perhaps I should speak out and say the things I think, but I have this odd thing where I try not because I hate upsetting people, but then I think other people come in and ride roughshod all over people's feelings so why should I worry?

Well I do worry you see. I hate to think that something I'd would hurt someone I think of a friend, but then you see I don't think this friend has an empathy. He doesn't see that what he says might upset someone else- he's been hurt so he lashes out and damns the consequences. I have something in me that makes me think before I do that. Something that makes me stop and think about what the outcome might be of speaking out, because most of the time the things you want to say in the heat of the moment don't need to be said. If you stop, clam down and think about it, then more often than not you can avoid all the nonsense.

But what if I did? What if I posted this blog? What would be the outcome? I mean, I can see exactly what the outcome would be- I'd be knocked down by him all the way across the planet, just for saying things how I see them from my perspective. I got hit by that before, when he made me so made I went round kicking things at work in a way that I never do. I was really hurt about the treatment I got from him- and again he twisted it round in a way that made him the injured party in all of it. That takes a particular kind of egoism.

So this bloody thing with his story wanders on and on and is never, ever going to be forgotten. I'm sick of hearing about it. Sick of the whinging. Sick of the bloody mess. Yes it was my fault for bringing it up and breaking the news in the way it was done, but I misjudged his fragile ego. We've all apologised, we've all done all we could except make the bloody thing, and the funny thing is, the more it's mentioned the less inclined anyone is to want to have anything to do with the thing. It'll never be made now. Too many bridges have been burnt for that to happen.

So there we are. I've said it. Will I press the submit button? I'll have to think about that...

50000 People Singing in a Field- Blur in Hyde Park

2009-07-04T21:24:00.002+01:00

It didn't bode well. The day started overcast; grey clouds hanging in an gloomy sky and compared to the previous few days, there was a slight nip in the air. Were shorts still going to be the best option? Should we pack the waterproofs just in case? After our last experience at a concert in Hyde Park it might have been the prudent thing to do if we looked back at the torrential downpour that ended the Crowded House set a little earlier than planned...

But it all worked out fine. It was still overcast as we set off, but wasn't looking too bad as we met up with Neil and Kate (lovely to finally meet her!) at Green Park and then as we walked in Hyde Park patches of blue were evident in the sky. By the time the first band came on, Deerhoof, the sun was shining and it stayed that way for the rest of the evening! I'm rather glad we weren't there the previous day when the sun was strong and the temps reached 31 degrees- it would have been uncomfortable to say the least. Our afternoon was far more bearable, though I did wear my hat to keep the sun off. I don't do that often!

Anyway, the Hyde Park experience is one we've done before. Simon and Garfunkel pretending to be Old Friends in 2004, REM rocking in 2005 (just after the 7th July bombing) and the afore-mentioned The Feeling/ Crowded House and Peter Gabriel gig in 2007. It's like a mini-festival and there's always been a good atmosphere there before. I have to admit though that none of them have close to the sense of occasion that was palpable yesterday. Seeing Crowded House play again was definitely a magic moment for me, but it wasn't on the scale of yesterday. In fact I don't think I've ever been involved in a concert that's felt as awesome as this one did.

I'm one of the Britpop generation. There's no denying it. I went to uni in September 1993 and by the end of my first year it was all kicking off- Blur's Parklife was the album playing all over the hall of residence I lived in, and I bought it and fell in love with it that summer- sadly a bit too late to see them play the Octagon Centre at the end of the second semester. They became my band for the next few years... everyone else left them behind for the Oasis experience, such as it was, or other bands like the Manics or whatever, but Blur were mine. I loved their music hugely and had a HUGE crush on Damon Albarn! Oh my yes... Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape were the soundtrack for the rest of my time at Sheffield. Their songs continued to have a big impact on me after uni too, with Blur being an instant favourite once I got my head around Beetlebum sounding so different, and 13 being the actual soundtrack to a nasty evening breaking up with Paul... and finally Think Tank being the first CD I bought out shopping with Steve (it was a buy one, get one half price offer... he only paid for the half price CD!).

And then they stopped. They just stopped- no break up, but no new album. Nothing. It seemed like a sad way to go, but there was always the albums to come back to, and a great body it is, but it's not the same... gradually new bands come along and take your affections and I although I never stopped listening to them, I didn't listen to them nearly as often as I used to.

Then, they came back! The shows were announced last December, and having wisely joined their mailing list ages before, we were able to get tickets to the first show of their comeback before they went officially on sale and suddenly they were back! Graham and all!

As is sometimes the way of things, this original first show of their comeback (if it is a comeback... the programme says we should think of it as a pick up after a break or something like that!) now turned out to be the last show in the UK of their reunion, so it was lovely when a little way into the show Damon said thank you to us all for being their and for being the first people to want to see them.

The gig itself was amazing. I've said that about lots of gigs I've been too, mainly because there's something special about hearing live music- the way you get dragged along by the music and all that... but this was on a different scale to anything I've experienced before. Right from the get go- as the first notes of She's So High started the whole of the park seemed to erupt into song and jumping and all that- 50000 people all joining in (well aside from the miserable two in front of us who moved aside pretty quickly) is something quite spectacular. You can't help but be dragged along with them (not that I wouldn't have wanted to anyway!)... needless to say the atmosphere was just fantastic!

I was hoarse by the end of the night from singing along but high on the atmosphere and the joy at hearing so many favourite songs played so well over the couple of hours they played. Parklife got a good showing with 8 of its tracks played, with 5 from Modern Life, 3 from Blur and 1, and two a piece from Leisure and The Great Escape and just Out of Time from Think Tank (sadly) and Popscene. There were some tracks I'd loved to have heard, some I was surprised to hear (Trimm Trabb was never a favourite) but that's walys the way when you've got a band with a huge songbook to delve into.

The concert ended with The Universal and we left Hyde Park somewhat dazed- well I did anyway. What the future holds for them, I don't know, but I hope this isn't the end. I hope there's loads more to come yet. I hope the love for their music that poured out from the audience last night was enough to convince them they're still important to us fans. But if it is the end, what a glorious way to go out.

Now I await the CD to arrive so I can hear them sing properly!

2009-06-26T22:16:00.002+01:00

I kind of do and don't want to comment on Michael Jackson's death. I don't because I've never really been a huge fan and it'd be hypocritical to start saying I was and talk about him like I was some kind of expert, but I do because I've found the reactions to it rather interesting. Anyway, it's probably best left alone. So I'm going to say nothing.

I'm sorry i haven't updated this for ages and ages. It's not that I haven't wanted to, it's just that there's so much going on all the time and I'm just tired and in need of a break. I just need a few days to recharge, but they never seem to come. Lot's of things need doing right now-I've got a script that I'm finding problematical (but that's because I don't want to sit down and plot it properly) and loads of ideas that seem to want to take priority to it. Perhaps now isn't the time for me to write this story? Maybe it needs a bit more time?
I think I just need to stop doing everything for a while and relax and come back to everything refreshed.

Short Circuit: The Radiophonic Workshop live at the Roundhouse

2009-05-18T18:26:00.002+01:00

I have mentioned more than a few times before how much I love the music of the Radiophonic Workshop. It was the soundtrack to much of my childhood, without me really realising at the time and of course being a Doctor Who fan you grow up with a real awareness of their work. How can you not?

Anyway, last summer we were lucky enough to get tickets for the Doctor Who Prom, and very enjoyable it was too. That I thought was that. It was great to hear some Who related music played live, but I never for one moment thought back then that I'd have the chance to hear the stuff I really loved played live. The Radiophonic Workshop in concert... pah! That'd never happen!

And then it did! And we had to go. And so we did. Last night!

I was very excited about it. I'd seen the website promoting the show promising stuff from Doctor Who, Hitch-Hikers and kids TV. That was enough to make me happy and I'd probably been content with just that, but what we got was so much more than that. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First we met up with Ant and Andrew (who it is always good to be able to spend time with) and after a much needed cup of tea, we went to the pre-concert talk with Dick Mills, Peter Howell, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb and Mark Ayres. It was really rather good. They were all really entertaining and had loads of great anecdotes and stories to tell and not just Doctor Who ones either! I was very pleased to have asked them a question too (as did Steve) even if I rather stumbled over my words as I did it (I had a shy moment) but I did it and got some marvellous answers to my question about what pieces of work they were most proud of. They were all really amusing and there was a real sense of their long standing friendship shining through the whole discussion.

After popping out for something to eat, we met up with Stuart in the auditorium and the Andrea Parker set. It was very bleepy. And weird.

Then at around 8.15, they came on stage, dressed in their Radiophonic Workshop lab coats after we'd all been wowed by a simple light display with a mirrorball creating stars all around us that just seemed perfect for the musical accompaniment- a race through space. What followed was a great mix of the familiar and some unfamiliar peices- I didn't really know the Sea Trek (not Star Trek) stuff at all, and very good it was too, and the new piece was very well done indeed.

I liked the way it wasn't them on the vintage synths all night- they had a band playing with them which added depth to the music (and bass- as they said in the talk half the stuff they'd done was heard without the bass coming out of tinny 70s and 80s TV speakers and was mostly hidden behind words and sound effects) so it really was like you'd never heard it before.

I think overall they had an excellent stab at recreating the music. The hours of practice they put in really paid off. The expansion of tracks like Zizwih Zizwih Oo Oo Oo with the band playing along to Delia's track was really good (as was the jazz accompaniment to John Baker's New Worlds) and the frequent places with the remixed tracks heard loud and in surround sound was amazing- truly like you've never heard them before. I liked the tributes paid to some of the members mo longer with us- Desmond Briscoe, John Baker and Delia. Lovely moments.

So the highlights? The Words and Pictures theme made me smile (and a great many other people of a similar age around me!), The Greenwich Chorus was truly wonderful, as was The Astronauts and the wonderfully accurate recreation of the Southend (not Brighton!) Pier sequence from Hitch Hikers.

But, of course, the Doctor Who stuff too was wonderful. Saved until the end of the show, we had the original theme played loud and proud which sent tingles up my spine, followed by a well chosen montage of sound effects and music from 1963-1989... before an unexpected recreation of one piece of music by each of the musicians there that evening... we got several minutes of the end of Logopolis recreated leading up to the regeneration (and it was powerful and spine tingling), Nyssa's theme from Roger Limb and a suite of music from The Five Doctors (it was great when we heard the horn of Rassilon sound in The Roundhouse) and finally the end of Curse of Fenric played heavy. Not content with that, later on we had a recreation of the Peter Howell theme with Peter playing the main melody lines live! Wow! Followed up by a full on rocky-radiophonic new version of the theme, which was superb. Puts Murray Gold to shame!

The encore was lovely. Dick Mills with a tear in his eye welcoming back on stage his old friends to play Radiophonic Rock before Padyy Kingsland got the last words "I've been waiting for months to do this... Thankyou and good night!" and with a bow and a huge round of applause they drifted off stage.

Magnificent.

Sunny days in Sheffield

2009-04-20T12:57:00.002+01:00

Sometimes as life goes on, it becomes far too easy to leave people behind. Friends sometimes come and go and I've lost many along the way as our social circles move on, as we fall out (for many, many reasons) or as new ones arrive and life moves on again. It's too easy to lose contact, to forget to answer people's emails, to never call back... all too easy.

This weekend has been a reminder of some great times and how two very good friends have remained very good friends, despite at various times us falling out of touch with each other. Steve and Neil were two friends I lived with for two out of three of my university years. At times they drove me mad and equally I drove them mad too, but we came away from University good mates and through the years since (13 years since I left Sheffield) we've met up fairly often, but as the years have gone on, these meetings have become fewer and less frequent. The last time the three of us had met up was way back in 2002. This year we decided it was time to rectify that and so we organised a bit of a reunion back in Sheffield.

It wasn't so odd going back. What amazed me was the change in the city. It looks fabulous these days- the city centre especially so. So much has been knocked down, refurbished and rebuilt that in many ways it's not quite the city I remembered. On Saturday we walked round the city for a few hours before meeting with Steve and Neil, with me pointing out all the things that have changed since I was there. The rebuilding has given the city centre a different feel, but it's not bad at all. I think it looks great- all the fountains and glass and attention has been really worthwhile. It still felt like the same city though, which was reassuring!
Broomhill never changes much, which is good. The shops are mostly still there- though what will the students do without Somerfield? And there's a wonderful cafe on the corner that's well worth eating in. The student areas are almost completely different though. When we visited in 2006 the flats at Endcliffe Crescent were still standing, but Earnshaw and Sorby were a pile of rubble and a shell respectively. Now the flats have gone too, replaced by much lovelier new builds forming part of the new student village. Stevo is still reassuringly the same though.
The walk was great, but left us tired, so we headed back to the hotel for a cuppa and a sit down until we met Neil and Steve.

The call came at 4, and we met outside the shell of the old Virgin/ Zavvi. A bit older but still instantly recognisable! And the best thing was that within minutes it was like we'd only seen each other the day before. That's the mark of a good friendship I think. I'm not sure if we reverted back to old roles from back in the day, but it was just great to be spending time with them both again. The conversation didn't stop all night. There was lots of reminiscences and stories for my Steve to hear for the first time, and so many little things I'd forgotten along the way that came flooding back as we chatted. Plus of course, all the stuff we've all been up to since we last met up. It was a bit of a shame that Kate, Neil's girlfriend and Sarah, Steve's fiancee couldn't make it along too, but I'm sure I'll get to meet them both sometime. Maybe at Steve's wedding next year... who knows?

The pubs though seem to have been devastated though! We went in one of the newer bars on West Street which was OK (prices are cheap still, which is good!) and then on a bit of a pub crawl. The West End, next to my department had been gutted and looked rather nice inside, but the beer was cack. The Star and Garter once the pub of choice for SubOrbital was a real dive, with loud R&B music, so we didn't stay. The Springfield Tavern was still fine, well, until they put on Karaoke right in front of us, so we headed up to The Crooked House for another pint and two long games of pool- me and Steve lost! And finally we ended up at the Weatherspoons in town for a last drink before heading off back to our respective hotels.
It had all gone very well and far too quickly and we've made a plan to do it again- more frequently this time! I'll be looking forward to that.

I must mention the other friends we met up with this weekend too. It was very good to catch up with Chris in Derby on Friday night. The few hours we spent there went far too quickly, but it's good to see he's doing OK up there, and to chat about all the music that's come out since we saw him at Christmas.
We went up to Bradford yesterday to see Muz and Nic and to meet Kasim their 10 week old son. He's very cute, and despite being tired and not going to sleep, he seemed really good natured. It was ever good to see them as a family together and to catch up on things since November when we last went up. Hopefully it won't be long before we see them all (and Chris) again.

A truly great and very enjoyable weekend! :)

Weekend Watchmen and Who and Them

2009-03-09T08:29:00.002Z

It's been a good packed weekend.

Saturday morning began with me driving to work on my own for the first time. After a moment or two where it felt very odd not having anyone else next to me to tell me what to do, I found myself feeling quite confident and enjoying it a great deal. OK, I stalled a couple of times, but that I hope was just me getting used to the car.
So I survived. I survived driving last night too. I drove home after a our trip to London- well part of the way anyway. We swapped at Greenford and after a sticky start where I just couldn't get going very well and had a stroppy Mercedes driver beeping my furiously, I drove up the 3 lane A40 to the Slough junction and on to home. I had got the hang of the clutch by the time we got to Slough and so didn't stall again (hooray!) and enjoyed it all a great deal by the time we got home. This is good! At last Steve might have a chance to relax!

We went to see Watchmen on Saturday afternoon. It's been a few years since I read the graphic novel, so the details were rather hazy, but I thought it was a great adaptation overall. It was a very thoughtful and thought provoking movie- not really an action movie- much more than that. It got under the skin of what makes someone put on the hero costume and how they're all disfunctional in one way or another, but are prepared to do the right thing in the end, even if the means by which they do the right thing differs in each case. It was quite gruesome in places (in a far too realistic way at times) and there was some gratuitous sex thrown in, but what was produced was a great film based on the comics. Much more than I expected.

Yesterday we went to Who and Them- a convention celebrating the Barry Letts/ Terrance Dicks team that took us through the Pertwee years. They make a good team, and even 40 years on from when they first met, the friendship between the two of them really shines through. Indeed, one of the most touching moments of the day was when Terrance Dicks was asked about what was the best thing that came out of his time on the show he replied "My friendship with Barry". Aww!
The other guests were almost the equal of them- Katy Manning as bubbly and mad as ever, Stewart Bevan who seemed very pleased and proud to have been associated with the show, Iain Fairbourn, Sheila Fay, Pik Sim Lim and David Simeon who all had various recollections of their experiences on the show and a great panel with three directors- Christopher Barry, Michael Ferguson and Tim Combe who needed so much longer to talk about their time on the show.

It was a reminder though that everyone involved in the show is now reaching old age. Barry Letts seemed old and rather frail, though his mind was still ever so sharp and as he said to me when I was chatting to him while getting his autograph- old age has rather taken him by surprise. These are the people, as Doctor Who fans, we've been used to always having around and it will be sad day that this team is broken up. There were hints that Nick Courtney isn't at all well at the moment either, another reminder that they're not going to be around forever.
That's why events like this are so lovely. It's our chance to say thank you.

Beep Bleep!

2009-03-06T21:36:00.003Z

I'm currently loving the new single from Royksopp- Happy Up Here. It's just the kind of upbeat, poppy, bleepy kind of song I adore. It makes me smile every time I hear it and the video with the live action space invaders is pretty cool too. I'm really looking forward to their new album at the end of the month.

This year is shaping up to be a good one for music by bands I like. We've already had a really fantastic and very strong album from Franz Ferdinand, we've got Royksopp to come and of course new stuff from the Super Furry Animals which is always exciting. Can't wait to hear what they come up- and the first song "The Best of Neil Diamond" is pretty intriguing... I'm sure I;ll be writing more about that soon enough.

It's been a funny old week. There have been a few problems at work to deal with- nothing major, just a few little niggles here and there. Technology based mainly, so out of my direct control. Some sarcastic comments from a particularly difficult customer didn't help much either, but his recent behaviour has been mostly extraordinary and I don't feel very inclined to help him out or indeed talk about that.

So happy matters! I drove the Jazz for the first time this week. My performance on Wednesday night wasn't exemplary it has to be said- I was stressed and nervous about it and I made some classic mistakes because of that. I acquitted myself much better this evening though with a decent drive home and I feel more confident now. Tomorrow morning I'm off out on my own for the first time, which is a little daunting, but more than a little exciting. There's a route I want to try out which I drove on almost all of my driving lessons and it's probably a good one to try out before I go off to Great Hollands in the morning. So avoid the Sandhurst bypass tomorrow morning around 8.30!

We're watching Oranges are not the only Fruit at the moment. It's great. Rather harrowing in places (especially in tonight's episode) but touching and funny too. Great cast and a great adaptation of the novel. It's been a long time since I last saw it and an even longer time since I read the novel, so it feels new and I can't quite remember what happens, so the last episode will be a surprise!

Off to see Watchmen tomorrow. Fingers crossed for a good adaptation of that too... we'll see, eh?

Writing!

2009-03-03T21:39:00.004Z

Over the weekend I put on my Terrance Dicks hat (not literally- I don't really have a Terrance Dicks hat, though if I did it would probably be gween) and had a great time script editing a forthcoming PS script. Jon Masters had written the basis of a great little story, but hadn't quite written enough and with heavy demands on his time was unable to write any more. I read what he'd done and immediately saw several ways to expand his story. There were several obvious things I wanted to do with it that jumped out at me and so I jumped in as soon as I could and volunteered my services.
I'm glad I did, as I enjoyed working on it a great deal. My head was buzzing with ideas- not all of them good or worth doing, but a fair few of them made it through to the finished story. It was just a joy to work on something that someone else had done all the hard work on and just come in and finish it off for them. It's a whole lot easier than starting your own idea and working on that!
I was ever so pleased that Jon liked what I'd done. That was the biggest worry, because you never quite know whether you're doing something that will meet with the author's approval. It wasn't my story and so I was trying to second guess Jon and keep true to his intentions. Thankfully it seems I did.
I can't wait to hear it being recorded now, as I think it's a great little story that will definitely stretch the regular cast.

I should really be writing some of my own stuff too. I've done part one of Massanicassa now, which was fun to do (and working without only a vague idea of where it needed to go too) but I need to sit down and plot the next 3 episodes properly before I go any further with it, so it doesn't stray too far in the wrong direction.
More urgently I need to write Maze of Confusion for the forthcoming CD extras, but I'm just not feeling inspired by it after my initial enthusiasm. I like the opening paragraph, but that's just a cheap crib from somewhere else... ah well, I'll keep thinking about it until I can find a way to make it work.

I also need to work out some questions to ask Paul for the making of stuff we're doing with the next batch of CDs. Fortunately I know Jon's script well now, but I need to get to grips with Martin's as well.

On other matters, I haven't been out driving since I passed yet, but I am insured on the Jazz from tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get out in the next few days. Jay is coming to to do the Xantia tomorrow, so with any luck we'll have that up and running soon too. It's all quite exciting you know.

I've been cycling the last few days. I feel quite unfit. Either that or it;s the last dregs of this four week cold bug thing dragging me down and making me out of breath. I think it's probably the first option though. Looking forward to a good weekend of walking in Wales next weekend though. That should help. Though now I can drive, maybe I'll just end up as unfit as everyone else!

Learner driver no more!

2009-02-23T11:34:00.003Z

You'll have to excuse me, as I'm feeling rather elated this morning, as I have just passed my driving test! I'm quite amazed to be honest a) that I've actually done it and b) that I passed after what wasn't one of my best drives ever (but I suppose who actually drives at their best on their test?). I made a few silly mistakes and knew that I'd get the reverse round the corner, which I've been really weak on recently... but I got through it and here I am, beaming away, feeling really pleased.

Who'd have thought it, eh? Me, a driver... it's been a long time talked about and now I am! There was a time a few years back when I sort of reconciled myself to never doing it, but I'm glad I have. It opens up new opportunities and stuff, doesn't it?But I do have a lot of lifts to pay back... better get used to being the designated driver for the next few years I suppose!

So big thanks to my driving instructor Phil for doing a great job and to Steve for giving me the push to get me to do it!

Gay Gordons and all that

2009-02-03T18:41:00.002Z

We danced Scottish dances and ate Scottish food on Saturday night. It was the long awaited party to celebrate Chris and Michelle's engagement and a great time was had by all that were there. We weren't very good at the dancing, but it was lovely to be able to dance with Steve for a change. It's not something we do very often and we're always rather self conscious about it when we're in public, but sometimes you know it does hit you that we're still not really allowed to do these things in public together. Perhaps it's best not to think about it and just get on with it, like we did on Saturday.
We're looking forward to the wedding in August a great deal.

The Haggis was great. It was piped into the hall and in proper Burns Night fashion was ceremonially cut open. It's just a shame that we'd already eaten... later on the two dinners caused me a few problems, but you don't want to know about that.

Sunday afternoon we spent with Steve's family and we had a great meal out in the picturesque village of Sarrat a few miles outside of Croxley. Lovely as always to see everyone.

Monday it snowed. And snowed. 11cms fell on us, which is more than has fallen here for many, many years apparently. It's rather nice. It was so still and quiet yesterday evening, when everyone had got home and was safely indoors. That's the best bit- that lovely calm spell once it's settled and there's no-one around.
I was very glad that my driving lesson was cancelled though. As always down here no-one was really ready for it and so the roads hadn't been gritted and they were snowy and slippery. I don't think I'd have got very far and if I did I wouldn't have got there very fast. With only a few weeks to go until my test it's a shame to miss out a lesson, but it's better that than smash up his car!

I was back at work today. We had a quiet morning while the snow fell once again, but a much busier afternoon when the sun came out and began to melt the snow away. I think it's going to be very icy out tomorrow, so I'll be taking care on the frozen, slippery pavements on my way to Great Hollands.

I admitted I didn't like one of the PS audios today. You could tell there was a sharp intake of breath from at least one person as I dared to voice an opinion on it. It's one of the more popular plays you see. I've always tried to be very positive about them all on the board, because I think we've made some great Doctor Who, and I like to encourage everyone, especially those who've put time and effort into the plays but naturally you can't like all of them. At least I justified myself which is more than most people would do.
In some ways the game we're playing is quite a divisive one, as I'm naturally rather protective of my writing and sometimes it's easy to take votes against it personally. Perhaps I should just be more thick skinned, but hey I'm only human. Don't hold it against me.

Rome

2009-01-29T18:05:00.002Z

Rome is an amazing city. It seemed to me that every corner yielded a new treasure of some sort- be it a massive great catherdral or grand building with pillars, some Roman remains, or just something lovely to look at. I think my favourite bit of the trip was the first day in the sunshine on Palatine Hill, just looking at the remains of the grand houses that once stood there and realising just how clever the Romans really were. There are so many impressive things they achieved that were lost for such a long time after the empire was toppled. Amazing. And thoroughly awe-inspiring.

We seemed to walk and walk too, which was good. My back is somewhat better than it used to be (thanks I'm sure to the exercise we've been doing irregularly since last September) but I still need to sit down and recover every so often. I tried not to complain too much, but there were moments when I was in some pain. I survived though.

I survived all the art too. It's been noted in the past that I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to art, mainly I suppose because I've never really tried really looking at it. We saw a huge amount of it on this trip from the collections in the Vatican musuem (and the wonders of the Sistine Chapel) to more modern stuff at the Picasso musuem and the exhibition of the work of Bruno Munari at the Museo dell' Ara Pacis (which I loved). It's difficult to explain why some works appeal to you more than others...more talented people than I have tried to explain that one, but every so often we saw a painting or whatever that just worked for me. It's good, esepcially as I've been so dismissive of it in the past and confined my appeciation of the arts to books and theatre and TV and film. I think I've probably missed out, but I'm catching up slowly.

Steve has put up some of the many, many great photos we took while we there on his blog, so I won't do the same, but they're worth a look I think.

Some of this week's exciting escapades

2009-01-08T22:09:00.004Z

Things that have happened this week include:

Clearing the loft: It's empty at the moment waiting tomorrow's new insulation. We cleared out some more rubbish at the weekend and threw things away. Aren't we good?

We moved things round at Birch Hill Library. This created a separate children's area and it makes both better use of the space and makes the library look bigger. This is one of the great things about having staff in from elsewhere, as I get a new perspective on everything.

I read A Thousand Splendid Suns and loved it. I wasn't expecting to as it seemed a bit grim (as indeed it was) but it ended up with hope for the remaining characters.

I got cross about Andrew Cartmel's whinging on the Battlefield commentary and I don't even like the story either. Honestly he's the most annoying contributor on the entire DVD range.

I wore a hat on the way to work. Yes it was that cold! On Wednesday I even wore my fleece as well as my coat and I was still cold.

We managed to rescue Charlie before the ice cracked too much on the pond he was scurrying over while we moved his hutch. He escaped with wet paws, but for a moment there was lots of concern.

I started lots of threads on PS and everyone responded making it one of the busiest days for ages. I should do it more often. In fact people should start more threads in general and get us all talking.

I sold a signed photo of Colin Baker for 99p. It was disappointing compared to the £122 Steve got for his ID Anthology box. Ah well!

Christmas, New Year, Rome and the New Doctor Who

2009-01-05T20:22:00.004Z

So that was Christmas. It was a very good one this year and can I say thanks to everyone for some great presents? We're making a good dent in the pile of DVDs of we got bought between us this year- we've even watched a few films, which is very rare. the Highlight for me has been The Muppet Show which remains as great as I remember it being when I was young. It's aged very well.
Though Christmas was generally very busy and tiring as we raced round to see everyone, it was nice to be invited out such a lot with both families. In fact the only thing I regret is that we didn't get down to see Dad and Sue, but there simply wasn't time alas. We'll have to make up for that by going down to see them sometime soon instead. Though I have no idea when, as we're already looking very booked up this month. We've been invited down to see Richard and Mike in Ipswich, but we now, between us haven't got a weekend free until February, can you believe it? Ah well, there's lots to look forward to!

I do wonder why no-one ever invites to their parties for New Year though; do none of our friends have their own parties?! We had a quiet one in together. We watched The Man Who Knew Too Much (which was good), The Muppets, The Adventurer (which is everything we expected and more besides) and started the annual Doctor Who jigsaw. They make Steve quite obsessive you know. I left him to it half the time!

We're off to Rome for a few days in a couple of weeks. It's Steve's 30th birthday and he decided that he'd like to go away and Rome was top destination. It should be good. It's a city I've always wanted to visit and it might be best experiencing it without there being too many other tourists around. If nothing else we'll eat very well, but I'll have to watch out for the cheese. Steve wouldn't like it if I was grumpy after all!

Of course the major news has been the casting of the new Doctor, Matt Smith. Who indeed. I hadn't heard of him before, though I had seen him in The Ruby in the Smoke a couple of Christmas's back. He seems rather likeable really and I'm sure he's a very capable actor having had some tremendous reviews for his stage work. Time will tell, but I'm quite happy with the casting really.
Of course not everyone is and there's been the usual insane opinions posted about him already all over the forums. I'm sure half the people who post these things don't think about what they're writing before they put them down. I just don't understand how you can be so down on something or someone before you've seen them in action (and it's over a year until we do yet). Yes he's younger than any other Doctor, but obviously Steven Moffat sees something in him that makes it worth casting him. Let's not forget we haven't seen his audition, we know very little of what he's capable of. I know I'm always stunningly optimistic about these things, but I trust the production team to make the right choices. they haven't really got it wrong so far.

On Saturday night as I watched the Confidential special I did get a real pang about David Tennant leaving though. He's been a great Doctor and a wonderful ambassador for the show. I'll miss him and his enthusiasm for the show. He's not my Doctor, but he's certainly quite close to the top in my league table of Doctors... I haven't really ever considered where they all come in the league for a long time. It was easy in the old days, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll have to think about that one...

Acceptable In The 80s

2008-12-14T17:45:00.003Z

We went to a very good party last night. A few weeks back when we were busy recording Christmas Spirits, Kathy invited us all over to her place for an 80s party- a sort of sequel to the 60s party she had a few years back (which we'd enjoyed immensely) and so of course, we weren't going to miss this one.

Fancy dress was essential. But where do you start? 10 years is a long time and gives you loads of possibilities, but trying to narrow it down is really tricky. Some are just too difficult to pull off in the time, some are just plain silly and so a lot of time was spent by us waiting for a moment of inspiration.

It came, eventually! As I've noted in the summer, one of things I've really enjoyed this year has been the Grange Hill DVDs (wish there was more on the way) and that ran right through the 80s... so there we go, easy- I made a Grange Hill school uniform. Bits were easy- the white short, tie (from Moss bros who had one just about the same- minus the small stripe, but the right colours), a grey V neck jumper (which I will wear to work as well!) and black trousers. the blazer was a bit trickier- but a trip to Oxfam found me one which was suitbaly short in the arms (as most of mine seemed to be when I was at school) and just the school badge was needed.
Just finding the school badge was difficult enough. The one from the late 80s onwards is easy, but the original one is hard to track down. Still, a bit of googling later, I'd found one, and with the help of T-Shirt Transfer Paper from Sainsburys, and Steve's help, we'd transfered a badge onto the blazer! Hooray! I added some authentic 80s badges and we were ready to go. I think it looked quite good!
The party was great fun. It's always good to see Si, Simon, Jonno, Paul and Jody, and Kathy of course too. It's also been good to get to know Jason and Emma a bit better too, as I seem to have spent quite a lot of time chatting with them the last few times we've met up.

I enjoyed the music more than I thought I would too. I suppose because I grew up with it all, I found I knew just about all the songs that were played, and the words to most of them too! I don't want to hear any of them for a long while now though!!

Great stuff! And despite lots of wine being drunk, I didn't feel too hungover this morning either, which was nice.

Oliver Postage RIP

2008-12-09T20:30:00.003Z

I, like many of my generation probably, have been feeling rather melancholy today, as one of the people who shaped the TV of our childhoods, Oliver Postgate has died. He created Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and The Clangers among others, all of which were staple parts of my childhood.

He had a lovely calm voice that always transports me back to those more innocent times when I almost believed that a saggy old cloth cat could come to life with a yawn, that breadcrumbs and butterbeans could make chocolate biscuits, that an old wooden bookend could be a professor, where Norse myths came alive, where a steam train in Wales had a Dragon living in the firebox and when small knitted creatures could live on the moon. What a brilliant imagination he had, somehow instinctively knowing what would entertain kids of all ages. You only have to look at how his creations have endured in the popular consciousness of my generation to see that. It's a testament to all he got right that you can still buy Bagpusses and Clangers in the shops and that kids are still falling in love with his creations to this day. How the BBC must regret not commissioning anything from him after 1987 when the older shows have shown such longevity.

My favourite of his shows was Noggin the Nog. It tends to get forgotten a bit these day, but its blend of cheap animation and magical, mythical adventure stories had me gripped when i was small. I remember the books with their amazing plates from the adventures and the Noggin being all heroic and fighting dragons in the icy tundra. I'd love to see it again and be taken back to that time.

And best of all, unlike some of our heroes, he seems such an unassuming man in the interviews he gave- aware later in life of all the joy he gave to us kids back in the day, but not at all big headed, just grateful to be appreciated.

So a big hand from me, and I hope he's still telling stories somewhere.

Bagpuss gave a big yawn and settled down to sleep. RIP Mr Postgate.

Belfast

2008-11-30T21:25:00.002Z

The weekend began at 4.45am yesterday morning when the alarm went off. It was cold and dark and foggy, and we stumbled out of bed to head out to Stanstead and then onto a plane all the way to Belfast.

It's Tim's 30th birthday and he invited us to join him in Belfast to celebrate. Having not been, and it being my weekend off work, we agreed, and I'm ever so glad we did, as aside from one smallish hiccup yesterday (and the one to do with the booking of the tickets, which we don't mention) it's been a great weekend.

I don't know what I was expecting Belfast to be like if I'm honest. I've heard lots about it, both from my good friend David (who I managed not to see yesterday alas, due to not being very good at planning and him not turning on his mobile) and of course from the news reports down the years related to the troubles. I suppose I expected a city that was somewhat rundown after all the years of fighting and tension, but what we found was a modern, vibrant, regenerating city- not afraid to face up to its past, but one that seemed to be looking ahead. In fact it seemed far better for that than several other UK cities I've visited.

Of course the Troubles cast a long shadow over the city, and today we took a tour out to some of the infamous sites in Belfast's history- both Protestant and Catholic. It seemed quite odd to reflect that not too long ago we'd hear about The Falls Road and the Shankhill Road as violent places, not really imagining I'd ever take a tour round them. I didn't feel entirely comfortable with it to be honest- no-one else seemed to feel it, but maybe it's because I'm older and so I remember a bit more about it all.

It's not really my place to comment on the rights and wrongs of the past_ I understand very little about it , but seeing the murals on both sides commemorating their "heroes" was a bit odd- a bit of a glorification in the wrong place, as was the memorial to the IRA members who were killed in the troubles- a commemoration of terrorists. It just seemed wrong to me.
And it's not really over in any solid way,as the 30ft high wall between the two areas testifies. I wasn't expecting that and the gated entrances between the areas that are still closed each night really brought it home. The driver said that if they took the wall down there'd be trouble on the first evening. I guess the hatred between the two sides is too deep seated to truly go away quickly. Sad but true.

Anyway, none of that stopped it being a good weekend. Thank goodness! We came to celebrate and celebrate we did. Or at least we just did what we normally do in a different place! Went to the pub, chatted and laughed a lot only in Belfast. Good pubs though- great beer (I particularly liked the Smithwicks in White's Tavern) and some great food too. Luckily we had Tim's cousin Mike,who lives int he city to guide us round. That helped us a great deal. It was a shame though that Steve succumbed to the drink before we went for dinner, as we missed out on the meal, but it did give me an excuse to get a much earlier night than everyone else, which was much needed at that point if I'm honest.

We got a good tour of the city centre earlier on, as we arrived before everyone else. We went up on the wheel in front of the city hall and although it was foggy and I didn't feel comfortable at the top, the views were good. The Christmas Market was also worth a visit, although we didn't buy anything there (except a Wild Board burger which was ever so tasty) as we'd no way to get it home. St George's market was great too, with a massive selection of thing to eat and some stores seeing out of the ordinary stuff. Again it was a shame we couldn't really buy anything there to bring home.

It was very cold though. It didn't really rise much over freezing point yesterday and there was already a penetrating frost when we headed back to the hostel last night at 9.50. It was just as cold today too and my feet are still cold even now. Good thing I bought some new thermal gloves and found my scarf. I really needed them!

Our trip was rounded off today with lunch at The Crown, the oldest pub in Belfast, with it's wonderful snugs. I had the Irish Stew, which was ever so tasty. I love Irish Stew. I think we might be having champ at home sometime soon too.

So happy birthday Tim, and thanks to everyone for a great weekend.

45 Years of the Doctor Who Theme

2008-11-23T17:27:00.003Z

This time 45 years ago an institution was born. I've written at length about how much I love Doctor Who, so I won't go on about that again, well not all of it anyway.

Instead I'd like to celebrate one of the most iconic things about the show: the theme.

There are many TV themes. Some are really memorable, some are annoyingly hummable (I'm looking at you Van De Valk), some are terrible, and then there are the instantly recognisable ones that endure. Doctor Who is lucky enough to have the last of these, a theme you recognise right from the moment it starts. There's the dum-di-dum bass line and the ooo-wee-ooo melody line that combine to form something we all know and love. Great stuff.

But it's the way it was made originally that makes it for me. The original arrangement by Delia Derbyshire is still hard to beat. Even 45 years later it sounds like nothing else ever made, because there are very few other pieces of music assembled in quite the same way. And assembled is the right word, as it was painstakingly pieced together bit by bit by tape loops of recordings of noted generated by wave oscillators, white noise generators and the much loved Radiophonic Workshop wobbulator. The bass line was formed from a plucked string again looped along with a wave oscillation loop. These were all then run round the Radiophonic Workshop, at various speeds to create the right pitch and eventually when all the elements were right they were played together to build the theme up from nothing. There was no multi-track recording available so it really was a series of tapes played at the same to time to create the theme! It all sounds so primitive, but it created something truly timeless. Something that stand up well today and something that was entirely unlike anything heard on TV in 1963.

As I've mentioned before, I recently bought The Radiophonic Workshop retrospective. The first CD starts with some of the earliest work from the workshop, very bleepy, primitive sounding soundscapes and ticking sound checks to go with the BBC clocks. Then, we hit 1963 and the Doctor Who theme is one of the tracks and it's such a huge leap from the others. Light years ahead- taking all the things they've done so far and refining it to such a degree that it stands head and shoulders above the other tracks on the CD, even the much later ones. Not many TV themes do that.

The theme has been rearranged a number of times, with great and not so great success, but it still endures to this day. We all have our opinions on which arrangements have worked better than others, but I think most people agree it's very difficult to better that original arrangement.

So let's raise a toast to Delia Derbyshire and Dick Mills for realising one of the most iconic pieces of music ever heard on British TV.

Happy Anniversary!

8 positive things

2008-11-17T21:27:00.003Z

It's easy to sit here and feel a bit downhearted because it's a miserable day outside and I'm feeling very, very tired. I'm also feeling a bit unwell tonight. I've been overdoing it. Anyway, I'm not going to write a miserable blog. Instead I shall write a list of good things that have happened recently:

1. I went to the cinema today with my Mum. Some people might think that's pretty tragic, but it was good. We both wanted to see a certain film and neither of our partners wanted to see it, so we went together. It was good because with Mum's shifts I don't often get to spend a lot of time with her, so it was nice to see the film, have some lunch and catch off. She's off to Vietnam with Adam in a couple of weeks time and I hope they have a wonderful trip.

2. We went to see Mamma Mia. It was wonderfully entertaining in a pretty awful kind of way. It shouldn't have worked. It shouldn't have been so much fun, considering Pierce Brosnan can't sing (and he had to sing!), that the storyline is pretty lightweight and they have to cram in loads of ABBA songs... but it did. I thoroughly enjoyed it, laughed along with it, loved the Benny and Bjorn cameos and of course adored the music. And Meryl Streep really can sing, thank goodness.

3. The recording was good. The plays seemed a little more talky than other recent ones, so we all had to concentrate a bit more than usual. I was really impressed with Emma and Jason who are new to this and threw themselves into it was loads of enthusiasm. The plays will be a joy to hear when they're done. I'm still chuckling about what a drunk Mrs Thompson whispered in my ear just before they left! Oh my!

4. The Radiophonic Workshop has brought me much joy of late with the magnificent releases of archive material. The stuff on A Retrospective is marvellous, although as the review in Record Collector mentioned it does get less exciting in the late 80s and the 90s. Still the period between 1970 and 1983 is magnificent and wonderful and the stuff I love best. I can't describe what it is that I love most about it or indeed why I love it all so much. I don't suppose anyone else understands. The only person I've ever been able to share this with really was Dan, who set me on this course. I hope he's got it and is loving it too.

5. Many Happy Returns. Although the reaction to it was rather muted I really love it. It's somewhat big headed to champion your own work, but I'm really quite proud of it. It's silly and inconsequential in just about every way, but the fact that it was written in two days, recorded on the third and produced in less than a week and turned out as well as it did, well I'm really rather proud of that. So there!

6. I did a "turn in the road" with no prompting for the first time today. It's been a bit of a stumbling block for me the last few weeks (well since we started doing them really) and so I was feeling very proud of myself this morning. It's funny, people told me that parallel parking or the reverse round the corner were going to be the difficult things, but they seem to have come easily to me. This has been my tricky one.
In other driving related news, I've booked my test. February. Oh my.

7. Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd is a new discovery and I love the 23 minute title track. Rather different to their other output with the rather discordant orchestra playing on it, but I'm loving the epic qualities the track has.

8. I've lost weight since September. The belly is slowly beginning to go. Hooray.

Many Happy Returns (Children in Need Special)

2008-11-14T08:12:00.002Z

In the summer we at Planet Skaro were challenged to make a special audio adventure for Children In Need... we had the perfect story in the can ready (It was made specially for my good friend Si's birthday).

So here it is!

Many Happy Returns

"We thought we'd get a surprise for you."
"And here I am!"
"OH NO!"

Rob and Nick are taking the opportunity in a quiet moment between their adventures to explore the TARDIS. Deep in the corridors lies a dusty old wooden control room, the perfect venue for a little surprise they have planned for the Doctor.

Will they be able to pluck Simon and Garfunkel out of their time stream and pop them down in the TARDIS? How will the Doctor's running repairs to his beloved ship affect their plans? What's
wrong with the Cloister Room? And who is having the perfect cuppa? Rob and Nick grapple with a little time problem, but just what have they brought to the TARDIS...#

You can download it here: http://www.planetskaro.org.uk/creative/audio/happyindex.php

2008-11-10T16:58:00.002Z

It's probably long past the time I should have updated this blog, but life (and Peggle) keep getting in the way.

Things have been busy. We had a great weekend with Muz and Nicola which seems like ages ago now, went to see The Hooisers in Reading, Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf with the Bracknell group, RTD and Ben Cook at the National, had the annual November PS Meet... got tired, bickered about how busy we are... same old stuff!

Russell T Davies was as lovely as he seems on the TV. I was very impressed. The interview was fine and honest, and he was ever so friendly as when we met him and got our books signed on Friday night. I was really impressed that he remembered a friend of ours who'd met him a couple of weeks before; it's quite rare, especially with the amount of fans he must meet. And he eagerly signed a copy of his New Adventure, Damaged Goods for us too- hinting that it might be linked with the Christmas Special- The Next Doctor in some way, which is rather intriguing...

The PS Meet was great fun, as always. Possibly I was a little too drunk to have appreciated as much as I would usually, but the atmosphere was tremendously friendly as always and it really is one of the highlights of the year. It's sort of a shame we don't have longer to spend with everybody, as there's never enough time to catch up and chat to everyone as much as you'd like. We're thinking of perhaps staying over in London next year so that we don't have to rush off to make the last train. That might help.
Highlights include a gossipy chat with Joe Lidster and Simon Guerrier, the cheer when Paul Monk arrived (well he is The Doctor after all!), seeing Andrew Clancy looking so well and having a good chatter about things with him, Me and Steve being encouraged by Jason and Emma to get married so they can come to the party!, finally meeting Brendan Jones after many years of chatting to him online (he's much smaller in real life) and raising over £200 for The Children's Society selling our CDs! Fantastic!
And The Golden Hare beer I was drinking was very tasty indeed!

yesterday was a recovering day. It was nice having Pip around though- hope he wasn't too bored!

Peggle Master

2008-10-13T21:13:00.003+01:00

Something truly shocking has happened. Something I never saw happening to me. You'll never believe it.

I've become addicted to playing a computer game.

Shocking isn't it? Me? Yes, me who's mocked Steve and his friends for this kind of thing for the past 5 and a bit years, I've succumbed! It's the wonderful Peggle that's got me. Basically it's like an updated version of the very old game, Wall, only here you destroy Peggle pegs with a ball, and collect various magical powers as you go which allow various trick shots. It doesn't sound like much, but it's very addictive and great fun. I think it might the wonderfully over the top end to each level as you wait to see where the ball lands and how many points you score, as the fireworks go off and the celebratory music plays that does it. Anyway, it's great fun and I spent the weekend playing it while Steve was off at Joe's place playing computer games! Who'd have thought I would be doing the same, eh?

Well, I didn't spend all weekend playing Peggle. I also Luke for the afternoon on Saturday. That's always fun, and this was no exception. This time round we went out cycling for an hour or so. Back in the day, there used to a BMX track in some of the woods behind Crown Wood shops, and we set out to see if we could find it, if it was still there. Luke was very pleased to find out that it was. Well sort of anyway. It was a bit overgrown and neglected, but still the track that I used to Jonathan to when he was young. Luke spent half an hour tearing round it before going on the swings and the roundabout that was nearby. Funny isn't it, how despite all the great advances in games and things to do, swings and roundabouts still offer so much to kids. Just got to get them out to use them.
We came home and he had a great time playing with all the Doctor Who figures we've got. Lots of great adventures were created on the living room floor, though I'm not sure Terry Nation would approve of Luke's Dalek characterisations! He wanted to know which was the oldest Dalek and spent a while putting them in age order and then we spent a little while on youtube finding the relevant clips of the various monsters and the various Daleks.
He, of course, wanted to watch a Doctor Who DVD and after a while deliberating, her chose The Leisure Hive. Perhaps not the greatest choice, but he enjoyed it, but he did say it wasn't as good as some of the other old Doctor Who's he'd watched before. He laughed at Tom Baker's snoring on the beach, was sad when K9 blew up and was a bit disturbed by the first episode's cliffhanger, but laughed when Tom appeared in pt 2 on the screen and winked! "Arrest the scarf!" got some giggles too. So it wasn't all bad and he seemed to like the Foamasi too.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. We're off to stay with Muz and Nicola in Bradford. It's been mooted for ages, and it's good to know that we're finally going to go. It'll be a long old trip after work on Friday night, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Noises Off

2008-10-07T21:38:00.003+01:00

We had a good weekend. The pub visit on Saturday night was great fun. It's always good to catch up with everyone and have a few pints. I suppose as we all get busier and everyone moves further apart, it gets more difficult to see every time. Chris is busy in Derby, the other Chris is with Michelle and as busy as me and Steve are, Paul and Fran have their climbing, James and Tim are in Bristol, Ian is often on call... it just gets tricky trying to get everyone together. Still, we did fine, staying up until 2am chatting, Steve having secret burgers, Joe having the traditional kebab and me drinking tea.

Sunday we went visiting. First to Jay and then to Vic and then off to see Mum and Adam. It was Adam's birthday, so we went up to give him his presents on behalf of everyone. He's not big on birthdays, for several reasons, and wasn't somewhat quieter than usual, but he seemed to appreciate the effort we'd made, which was nice. He liked the beer too!
I saw Mum again yesterday for lunch. This was after a good driving lesson where I did my first three point turns (not good- I was going too fast and wasn't paying attention to what was going on around me) and reverse parking... that was slightly easier. Anyway, me and Mum had a good lunch at the Golden Retriever and a good chat. There's always lots to catch up on.

We went to the theatre last night. In one of the few perks to come my way for library work, we were offered free tickets to see Noises Off at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. It was absolutely superb. What a great ply- a farce about the making of a farce! Very, very funny and very well played. The cast were uniformly brilliant, with Maggie Steed stealing the show as Dotty. Colin Baker was pretty damn good too. A great night out and if anyone has the chance to catch the rest of the tour I'd definitely recommend it.

Online life and death

2008-10-03T21:44:00.004+01:00

We found out that a member of the forum died today.
It reminds you of what a strange world the online one can be. I didn't even know his name until today. Martin. We knew him as Buglass, and while he wasn't a prolific poster, I'd talked to him on PS quite a bit as he was the other Crowded House/ Finn fan on the forum. None of us knew he was ill. That's the thing, members come and go, some make a big thing out of leaving, making grand gestures, others just fade away, and disappear altogether and you never know what happens to them. That's the nature of the online world- it's easy to lose track of people and then something like this comes to remind you of the relationships you build up with other posters without even meeting them, or indeed knowing their real names even. It just made me stop and think for a moment.

I suppose I've been lucky to make a lot of great friends, and get to know people through the forums. People I've met online have turned into some of the best friends I've ever had. But what of the people I've never met. Are they still friends? It's difficult to say isn't it? I think they are, there are a couple of people on PS who I'd count as a friend despite never having met them- people I've trusted some personal things with and vice versa and who've been supportive at difficult times. Anyway, let's just say I appreciate it. Hopefully there will be the chance to meet a couple of people sometime. That would be nice. Situations like this make you think about it a bit more than usual.

Another night in

2008-10-02T21:52:00.002+01:00

My bad mood didn't last very long, but it was fun all the same to rant for a bit and then forget it! I'm not very good at being in a bad mood. They tend to dissipate as soon as I start thinking them. That's got to be a good thing!

It's a quiet week here. Steve is out at the moment, and he was out yesterday too. I'm here at home pottering around doing what I want! Seems to be working out OK, though it would perhaps have been nice to go out to the Tav tonight and see Jonno. Ah well, it's just too difficult to get into London now I'm not working in Bracknell and am not near a train station. By the time I got into town it really wouldn't be worth it. I've done some writing (finally finished my Star One review for The Vervoid- just need the screen grabs) watched some DVDs and made the most of the time alone. It's not something that happens all the time, so it's best to enjoy it. Hopefully Steve is having a great time at the Tav tonight. I suspect he'll be home very late tonight!

We're getting close to Lisa's maternity leave now and I'm beginning to wonder what's going to happen staffing wise at Birch Hill. There are rumours rumbling that I might get someone for the maternity cover, as all the hours the library is open will shortly need covering. That means for the first time in a very long time I'm probably going to have to do some interviewing. That'll be fun! With any luck an established member of staff (or two) might want some extra hours and go up for it. We'll see. I know I have at least one who'd like to take it on. We'll see in the next month or so. Lisa is beginning to look quite big now, and the baby keeps kicking while she's at work (always around lunchtime!) and it's all very exciting!

Driving me mad

2008-09-29T17:53:00.003+01:00

There are some things that drive me mad. Today, for instance, I've been looking for something. Something rather important that I'm going to need in three weeks time, but I can't find it anywhere. I know it's here somewhere, because it's not the sort of thing that gets thrown away, but I just can't think where I might have put it. I ended up getting cross with myself for not keeping the house tidier, but then I didn't actually do anything about it like tidy everything up or anything, I just sat and read for a while, and now I'm cross for not doing what I should done. Then I felt cross with myself for feeling guilty about not doing anything on my day off.
No way out of that one, so I'll just stop thinking about it.

I still haven't found what it is I'm hunting for. Maddeningly!

Not to worry though, there is plenty of time to track it down.

We had a nice weekend. We didn't do a great deal on Saturday except work our way through the Trial of a Time Lord DVD set (which has been fantastic, great set of extras and lovely 5.1 version of the theme that Steve will complain about me listening to more than a few times) and the usual supermarket trip and a driving lesson (and a rather good one I thought). Time that got swallowed up without doing a great deal.

Sunday we went to the Key to Time event in Chiswick. It was great! A lovely intimate convention. Lots of guests, some of whom hadn't been to a convention before, all of whom seemed to be having as wonderful a time as the fans. Very friendly and enjoyable. I don't like to single anyone out, but I have to say it was a joy to meet Susan Engel, who's performance as Vivean Fay I've always loved (and who I managed to confuse greatly by asking for a back to back photo- she thought I was mad... maybe I am!) and June Hudson, the costume designer who's work I've always admired (and celebrated in my Blake's 7 review for The Vervoid and I got a nice little anecdote from her about one costume I love of Servalan's) . I think we'll be going along to their next event too.

Today as I've said I haven't done much. Steve sounds like he's in a miserable mood, so I suppose I'd better cheer myself up a bit so I can deal with that when he gets in. Still the new Sarah Jane Adventures might be enough to cheer him a bit. I hope so. I don't think I'm in the mood for dealing with it all tonight.

Driving, theatre, planning...

2008-09-24T21:42:00.004+01:00

I booked my theory test on Monday. Monday's lesson was very good. I've got the stage where I'm making less silly mistakes now than I was and I'm actually enjoying it. There's still quite a way to go with the driving yet, but I feel like I'm making headway. Considering I hadn't been out for three weeks when I went out on Monday morning, I thought I did quite well. Phil seemed to think so too, and I'm off out again on Saturday afternoon, so that I don't get behind with it while he's away next week.

There seems to be a lot going on at the moment. Theatre trips, conventions, gigs, visits, TV show recordings... It's all good. Lots to look forward to. We've got a free ticket through the library to see Colin Baker in Noises Off at Woking Theatre a week on Monday, which should be fun. Apparently the theatre wants to promote greater ties with the libraries in the area so they're offering each library in the borough two free tickets for their staff. So I'm up for that! There aren't many perks to the job, so you have to take the few you're offered.

I've just finished Steve's story and the book in which it is published, How the Doctor Changed My Life. I have to say the standard of the stories was really high. Indeed there seemed to be a higher hot rate of ones I enjoyed than most of the other ones I've read, oddly enough! Congratulations to all involved for a very enjoyable read.

Moraira

2008-09-14T18:54:00.005+01:00

We've had a very relaxing holiday. Lots of just sitting in the sun, either on the balcony of the flat or by the pool, reading lots of books, chatting, drinking lots of juice or water, the occasional swim... bliss! Then out for dinner most nights, into Moraira (which is still a lovely little town, especially compared to it's neighbour Calpe)

It's funny really, we tend to people who go and do things and see places, that kind of thing, but I think we both wanted a chance just to stop. Life is generally really busy for us both and there's not much chance to actually just stop, relax and enjoy life when you're scurrying from work to meet people or busy in the evenings or whatever. So this was our time, a complete contrast to our last holiday, but good nonetheless.

It's rather decadent to realise that we've had two holidays this year! Good grief, we're becoming like Jay and Laura!

Anyway, we did have a day out and we went out and explored Valencia. What a lovely city. It was a tiring and hot day, but well worth it. I loved the City of Arts and Sciences. The buildings were absolutely stunning modern architecture- well just like I imagine buildings of the future to look, lots of glass domes:

Wonderful!

The Aquarium was brilliant. We always seem to visit aquariums, but this one was a stand out one simply because the scale put the others to shame. It was huge! There were two glass tunnels you could walk through with the fish, sharks and turtles swimming around you, lagoons above ground with seals and walruses amongst others in them and a massive Dolphinarium, with a spectacular show several times a day. Great stuff!

There was plenty to see around the old city too and we had a good explore before heading back in the dark, up the wrong motorway!

So, as I said, we've come home tanned and relaxed, ready to get back to normal.

Sadly Steve's Gran died while we were away. I only met her once, but I remember her being very smiley and happy that day, surrounded by her family. I'm sure she is going to be very much missed.

Na-na-na-na-nananah!

2008-08-28T21:24:00.002+01:00

Hey Jude!
Sometimes I forget how much I like The Beatles. Just listening to Love, which has stood up to repeated listens in a way I didn't think it would. It just works, and it's done with such care and attention to detail, that half the time, even after all these listens I'm still sat here trying to work out what's been thrown into the mix each time round and marvelling that outrageous things like the start of Octopus's Garden works as well as it does. Great stuff!

Tomorrow we are off to Liverpool. It's my first ever visit, which is kind of odd, as it really is somewhere I should have visited by now. Somehow that particular part of the coast is somewhere I've missed on my various travels round the UK. I'm looking forward to The Beatles Experience, exploring the city, the strange lamb things Gaz saw all over the city...

And, of course, the wedding too. Should be great fun. Well worth the 3.5 hours in the car the AA reckons the trip will take. Hopefully it'll be a good clear run. We'll have plenty of things to listen to though... we're still bickering over The Auton Invasion or the two most recent BFs. Who knows. We'll find out tomorrow.

Then late Monday we're off to Moraira for sun, reading, swimming and good meals (well we had all that last time, there's no reason to think we won't do all that again). It's going to be a relaxing holiday this time, not like the last one. Not that there's any comparison, of course, but there's something to be said for taking time off just to stop, catch up with some good books (and I have got many good books lined up, oh yes!) and enjoy not doing anything much at all. Bliss!

Down and Safe

2008-08-26T21:17:00.003+01:00

Well would you believe it, BBC 7, the archive BBC radio channel of choice spent 3 hours celebrating Blake's 7 yesterday, calling it... Down and Safe. Well I never! What a great title. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though, isn't it? Isn't it?
Just having a quick listen now, as I'd forgotten it was on. Nice tribute from Mitch Benn to begin with, which I thought was going to be all generic, predictable "bad clothes, bad effects, camp, camp, camp" but it wasn't it was rather affectionate. Aww!

I'm still not sure about the new audio series really, mostly because I find it hard to imagine anyone else playing the characters I've come to know and love. I mean, who else could ever be Avon and Servalan except Jacqueline Pearce and Paul Darrow. I'll have to give them a go though for the articles, and maybe I'll find them better then, I don't know. I'm always optimistic.
And as for it coming back to TV, well again I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it, if it ever gets made, of course... who knows. There's certainly still some potential in the idea and there's so many parallels they can make to the current state of the world. It could be great. I hope so.

Of course anyone who wants to read more about my thoughts on Blake's 7 can go to www.thevervoid.com and look up Down and Safe. You'll find all you ever wanted to know about the costuming, if nothing else!

The Bank Holiday Weekend

2008-08-25T20:58:00.002+01:00

It's been a busy few days.

Friday night we were joined by Ant and Ali for the evening, as they recorded their parts for the two forthcoming audios, Curse of Ratanapura and The Crystal Eye. Ant made a great effort to not sound like his previous characters, which was good, and Ali was brilliant in both her roles. Since she admitted she hadn't really done anything like this for a long, long time I think she did really well. It's a lot to ask of anyone really, but we're always pleased to have new people involved. Of course , as with all these get togethers, it gives us a chance to catch up with people we don't see as often as we should and gave me the chance to have a good chat with Ali and Ant, which is always a pleasure.
But did I really camp it with Steven Moffat back in the day? I don't remember. Maybe someone has the photo? Ant is convinced I did.

Saturday began with a quiet morning at work, followed by shopping. We went to Bracknell, I bought some books (including a book of short stories by Rob Shearman, which I'm really looking forward to reading and Leave it to Psmith by PG Wodehouse, which Lissa rates as one of the finest novels ever written, so I'm going to give it a go). We didn't track down the new Doctor Who figures. Or buy a shirt and tie for me for the wedding on Friday.
So we went to Woking on the way to pick up Chris. I found a shirt. And a fabulous silver tie. Very good. There weren't the figures I wanted, but Steve ended up with a box of figures from series 3, which came in a big box- 10 for £20. Bargaintastic. They look quite good by the TV at the mo, but I have a feeling they won't stay there too long. It's an odd thing collecting the figures. Some of them look good and are worth having, but it's difficult to justify them. I have to say that this is really all my fault as I love the look and idea of the forthcoming ones from the original series- they just look fantastic and seem far more exciting then the new series ones, really.
Went to see Hellboy 2 with Chris, Fran and Joe. It was great fun. Very enjoyable, lots of great moments and very different to the other superhero movies this year. I'm glad we made the effort to go and see it. We're not always good at getting to see things at the cinema after all.
Oh and good luck to Chris with the move to Derby. Hope everything goes well up there and we'll definitely try and get up to see you... not sure exactly when, but you never know!

Sunday we woke up decadently late at 10.20! Oh my!
Went to the Manor to meet Ashley and Mike (and Cameron) and had a good few hours chattering to them. It was good. I was pleased to hear Cameron wasn't too bored though. It's sometimes difficult to know what to say to him and get him involved since he's so much younger than the rest of us.
It was a beautiful evening. I cleaned out Charlie's hutch and we had lovely strawberries and ice cream for tea.

Today has been good too. Great driving lesson, where finally I got the hang of clutch control and only stalled twice! Fantastic progress on the last couple I'll tell you.
Went to Watford. Did more shopping can you believe it. Got some new shorts for the holiday, another book and persuaded Steve to buy some CDs! A triumph!
We also popped in to collect the rabbit run from Paul and Lesley and spent a very pleasant couple of hours with them (and Stuart too). Always good to see them. :)

Oh and Si was ever so pleased with the secret Doctor Who adventure I made for him! Hooray- that's my work done for now!

And now here I am, talking to you!

Mulling over Mullion trips and PS audios and that kind of thing

2008-08-21T20:56:00.003+01:00

It's really nice to think that I won't be working a full week for the next few weeks. 4 weeks of various holidays; wonderful!

I'm back from a little visit to Cornwall, down to Mullion to stay with Grandma. It's good to make these visits. I don't like to be negative, but we never know what's round the corner and I'd like to make sure I make the most of the time she has left. Besides which, now Grandad is no longer with us, I think it's very important to make the effort to keep in touch with her and make sure she's OK. She probably wouldn't like us to admit any of that to her face, but you know, it's true. But, the biggest thing to remember is that I go because I want to. I want to spend time with her. My grandparents, particularly on Mum's side have always been a big part of my life, and she will always be.
Hmm. I'm not sure that was actually what I wanted to write or whether it sounds quite right. Oh well.

It was a relaxing time, mostly because the weather wasn't up to much, so neither was I! There wasn't really much opportunity between the showers to get out for the walks I usually enjoy along the coast, and even our now usual bus trip round the county was somewhat unexciting because we didn't know how the weather was going to go. As it was the weather was pretty good in Falmouth on Tuesday, and I enjoyed sitting in the sun with a cup of tea on the seafront, but it simply wasn't easy to plan anything else.
So I relaxed. I read several novels, I listened to Classic FM, watched the Olympics a bit and chatted a great deal and eat a great deal (though the portions seemed smaller than they have been in the past, thank goodness!). Of course I also showed all the photos from the New Zealand trip, which she enjoyed a great deal, and we watched the DVD of the Trans-Alpine train trip, which brought back from nice memories of February. It seems such a long time ago now.
Rather touchingly when I rang Grandma last night to tell her I got home safely, she said she was already missing me. You know what, that makes it all worthwhile.

I missed Steve though, and I still don't quite feel comfortable having to skirt round the whole of our relationship. It was good to come home and see him again. I'll stop now before you're all sick!
Ahem.

Lots going on, as always the next few weeks. Ali and Ant are coming to record some bits and pieces for the next plays tomorrow night, we're off doing things and seeing people and stuff over the weekend, then next Friday it's off to Liverpool for Phil and Emma's wedding and then the following Tuesday off to Spain for a relaxing holiday in the sun where we don't do much except read lots of novels... well that's the plan, anyhow!

I'm also working away at a story idea for a play next year. It's going to be a bit of an epic the way it stands at the moment. Should be fun, if I can make it work OK. At the moment I'm full of ideas about it, full of things I'd really like to do with this story, but I've got to be disciplined and work out what works and what doesn't, and get it into some kind of shape. I think this one needs to be right or people will be disappointed.

The reactions to Heist! were splendid and I was incredibly pleased with the way it was received. The twist, which was the big thing I worried about went down well and surprised just about everyone (even Martin who was in it!) so I suppose I did OK. There are many things I would do differently, production wise if I was going to do it all again (I still worry about characters moving around in a scene and how you adequately portray that) but you know, I'm proud of it. Not sure I want to be in a hurry to do it all over again though!
There is a certain allure to having complete control over a project like this though from script to direction to production...

Oh and I finished the secret project off too. But more on that soon...

The state of things this week

2008-08-06T21:47:00.002+01:00

It's been a funny old week so far. It's rained a lot. A good friend has been very offended by something I said (or at least I think I said it) and I've been feeling guilty about it. I hope he's OK.

I've been extremely tired and a bit out of sorts with the world really. I have lots to do and I haven't felt like doing any of it. *sigh*

What I want is more time. More time to recover, but I seem to spend my life being busy and I'm not so good at that at the moment. I'm really looking forward to my trip to Cornwall to stay with Grandma the week after next, as I might get the time to recover a bit then. I hope so. It feels like ever such a long time since I had some time off work, and with my day off taken up with learning to drive there's not much chance to catch up with anything, let alone myself. I feel shattered.

Work is about to get a great deal more difficult. Lisa is pregnant, Nicola is off on maternity leave and now Pat, who I rely on ever such a lot is off for a hip replacement in 3 weeks time. I don't know how we're going to cope. Staffing, as ever, is incredibly tight and there just isn't the provision for all the hours I'm going to need covered. Pat picks up all the holes in my timetable, when i find I can't be in two places at once and those holes are going to be suddenly uncovered and I have the feeling that everything is going to crumble around me. I have visions of getting it wrong each week, missing hours I need covered out of my requests and the whole thing tumbling down around me.
And it'll probably happen while I'm away. And then things will be bad when I'm back. Or someone will go sick while I'm away and who knows what happens then. Arghh!

I shouldn't worry about these things, but it comes with the job.

On the plus side I have been enjoying seasons 3 and 4 of Grange Hill on DVD. Shame they're probably not going to release any more.
We had a nice lunch at South Hill Park with Pat Taylor yesterday too.

Proms and Exhibitions

2008-07-27T19:39:00.003+01:00

Wow!
What a great day we've had. We took Luke to the Royal Albert Hall today for the Doctor Who Prom. It was wonderful, really wonderful. The orchestra sat with the TARDIS behind and Bad Wolf written on the plinth of the statue of Prince Albert.
There was a great atmosphere, as the RHA was full of families, and there were gasps of amazement as Odd, Cybermen, Judoon, Cybermen, Daleks and most wonderfully of all Davros all turned up at various points to add to the excitement. The Dalek/ Davros cameo were a big highlight (and the music played then was extra wonderful too).

Freema was there to present and was as enthusiastic as ever, and there were huge cheers for Camille Cadouri and Noel Clarke and a really huge (and much deserved) ovation for Catherine Tate who turned up by surprise. Wonderful!

The music was well chosen, especially so the Non-Who bits. They certainly held Luke's attention- Ride of the Valkeryies had him humming along and he liked the jolly Jupiter from the Planets Suite too. The Doctor Who bits were again well chosen- the most iconic incidental music, the big ones, the atmospheric and Song for Ten, which had the whole audience clapping along (which always sounds great at the RHA). The Dalek Suite was a highlight, as was the music from Journey's End when they're towing the Earth with the TARDIS. That came across as really joyful and lovely.

Great stuff but it wasn't half hot in there! My only regret was that I didn't get to say thanks to Murray Gold himself who was sat in the row in front of us. That would have been nice, but I did as I was told and went to sit down. Ah well.

From there we had a quick trip to the Natural History Museum, where Luke refused to eat anything (I'd forgotten how fussy he is with his food) and we had a quick look at the dinosaur gallery, which is as impressive as always. We'll have to go back sometime and have a proper look round I think. It's been a long time.

From there we headed to Earls Court to go the Doctor Who exhibition there. That was great too. Lots to see, some great exhibits (K9 was there. Hooray!) and well laid out, with a busy, overpriced tat store at the end. We got away with just buying Luke a Slitheen/ Space Pig figure, which wasn't too bad really. Could have been far, far worse! I was very impressed, but it was probably a little overpriced really. We probably got some good pictures there though.

Really good day. Luke fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think we all felt really tired- the sun was really strong all day and all the places we visited were really warm. Actually that's an understatement really!

Heist!

2008-07-26T21:19:00.002+01:00

It's out there, at last!

I'm been really pleased with the reception it's got so far. The few people who have posted about it have been really complimentary about the play. Considering I've never made a whole play before I'm incredibly chuffed that people think it stands up OK (depsite some hiss in places).

It's always a bit nerve wracking waiting to hear what people think of your work. I'd put so much into this, from the writing, directing and making of it, that I'd probably have been a bit hurt if no-one had liked it, especially so because I'm really rather proud of it. There are some things I'd do differently if I did it again, for sure (mostly removing too many footsteps) but on the whole I'm happy.

So anyway, if you wish to hear it, you can do so here: http://www.planetskaro.org.uk/creative/audio/heistindex.php

And if you do, please let me know what you think!

Busy days!

2008-07-21T21:40:00.002+01:00

I seem to be perpetually tired at the moment. I don't know why. I suspect we do too much and never quite have enough time to catch up, or else it's the getting up on my days off to have a driving lesson. Though I don't suppose I can use that excuse at the moment as my instructor is on holiday. Oh well. It's all worth it.

We had a lovely weekend with Paul and Jody, Tabby and William. It's good having friends with kids, even though it means for most of the time you're not really chatting with them, just helping to entertain the kids. Fortunately that's something I enjoy (and I'm quite good at- as is Steve) so it wasn't a problem at all. Who'd have thought that pretending to be asleep and then being woken up with a clap would keep them so entertained? I suppose it's often the simplest things that work best.
Paul and Jody are good friends. I'd forgotten, as it's been a while, how Jody likes to find things out when she's drunk. We got questioned at length. I'm not sure that we gave her the answers she wanted though. Never mind. In many ways her curiosity reminds me of Chris who asks us similar things when he's drunk. They could get together and pool their knowledge. That'd cut out the middle man, so to speak. It was good fun nonetheless. And Steve made a good tiger. Hopefully there will be pictures soon.
Oh and I'm definitely not posh. Though I think Jody still suspects that Steve is.

Things are busy at work at the moment. We're coming up to the summer holidays and it's time for this years reading scheme- The Team Read. We've got to up our take up and completion rates by 10% on last years figures, and all the staff are really fired up about it. We're already half way there at Great Hollands and the holidays haven't even officially begun yet. It's good to have working to the same goals. Just imagine what it'd be like if the whole library service was like that... Oh what am I saying? That's just a dream!

The new season of PS audios are going down well so far. We've put Heart of the Haniad up now and Steve has had some splendid reviews for his script. I'm up next, as at long last Heist! goes public from Saturday. I can't wait to see what everyone makes of it. I'm rather proud of it as it goes. We'll see at the weekend.
There is a rather splendid interview with of all us to be found here. Thanks again to everyone who helped collate it.

And at the weekend we're taking Luke to the Albert Hall for the Doctor Who Prom. I'm really looking forward to it. The music should be great, and on this visit to the Albert Hall, we're not sitting up high, so I'm not going to suffer with vertigo like when we saw the Finn Brothers there a while back. Hopefully, we're off to the Earls Court exhibition afterwards too- have to make the most of taking Luke out for the day, after all.

Oh and Jeeves and Wooster is going down well here at the moment! What Ho!

Flippin' 'Eck!

2008-07-16T21:20:00.002+01:00

I've just finished watching one of the many lovely shiny DVDs I got for my birthday. It's shockingly rare that I ever get through anything so quickly and yet this one has had me gripped from the first episode. I've been watching Grange Hill from the start, thanks to my brother and Laura and I've loved it.

Yes, it may be a little creaky now, the filmised picture a little bit smeary and yuck, but the quality of the storylining, characters and acting has been top notch. That's why it stands the test of time OK. It's been a real pleasure to get to know the characters all over again, and I understand why the Tucker years are held in such high regard- the characters are so good, and it must have been really shockingly realistic at the time, compared with the rest of Children's TV. It certainly feels grittier and more down to earth than some of the later years I watched when I was a kid (no arsing around with donkeys for a start) and the characters are great- especially as these were the originals. How many times did they try and work the same characters in in later years- Doyle the bully, Tucker the cheeky chap, Trisha the right on feisty girl? We saw several versions of them all...
My favourite period was probably the Zammo and then the Gonch years, as those were the ones I watched when I was the right age, but these ones were really rather good. Especially, the often forgotten Mr Mitchell, who was played to perfection by Michael Percieval, who was brilliantly convincing as first form tutor (showing my age there, opps!).

Oh and who could ever forget the iconic theme and titles? Flying sausage! Hooray! Brilliant stuff!

Now just Jeeves and Wooster, Mr Benn (at last), Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Kenny Everett's Naughty Bits, Fawlty Towers, A Hard Day's Night, A Cup O' Tea and a Slice o' Cake to go... well we've got time now there's no Doctor Who on!

The Stolen Earth: some over the top thoughts!

2008-06-28T21:47:00.002+01:00

There are times when I just love Doctor Who. When it still has the capacity to make me feel like an excited kid again. Tonight was one of those episodes!

It was just an adrenaline rush from start to finish! Brilliantly entertaining, really thrilling and despite packing in loads of old characters and old enemies, it seemed to work. It just upped the ante having the few remaining Torchwood members there (though the Tosh line made us laugh unintentionally I'm sure) and Sarah, Luke and Mr Smith (I need you!) (But no K9 :( ) too, as well as the Nobles and Martha and her Mum as well and the still ever so wonderful Harriet Jones (Ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, there to do good again)... it should have been too much, but it wasn't! It was just a great big fanboy rush!

The new Davros was brilliant! Chillingly like Michael Wisher in Genesis of the Daleks, but with some great Molloy elements too. I think the mask/ chair look great, especially the wonderful retro clunky switches, and was made all the better when Sarah recognised his voice... great recation (and a nice little musical cue that hinted back to his first reveal in Genesis of the Daleks too) . The mad Dalek Caan was really well performed too. Good old Nick Briggs! he got loads to do this week, with the Judoon back as well!

Great to see some TARDIS spinning in space shots too. Always good.

So, the cliffhanger- nice to see everyone (Martha aside) in danger. Sarah in the car! Torchwood's Hub with Daleks, The Doctor... gasp... regenerating! Or is he? I don't think this is the end of the Tenth Doctor... I think the hand will save him somehow. We had a very obvious reminder that it was there bubbling away by the console at one point. We'll see.
Also is the heartbeat Donna hears related to Davros's heartbeat? I have a feeling it might be...

I can't wait for next week! It's like all those great cliffhangers from when i was young, where you'd be thinking about it all week, trying to work out what was going to happen. Very exciting!!

Food

2008-06-22T20:44:00.002+01:00

It's been a funny few days.
We had a lovely evening on Friday. For the first time, we went out en masse with Mum and Adam, as it's Mum's birthday tomorrow. We went to the new pub/ restaurant, Peacock Farm, on the other side of Bracknell and had a really good time. Everyone was in a good mood and there was lots of chatter and banter between us all. Even Adam didn't seem too daunted by us all, which was good to see, as we can be a bit much when we're all together.
The food was good. Unfortunately just after we'd had the cup of tea at the end, I felt really odd. All hot and bloated. I went off to the loo and threw up everywhere. It was horrible. I don't know if I'd just eaten too much (we had had three courses and there were lots of ribs) but I really wasn't well, and I felt a bit grim all day Saturday.

Which wasn't too good really as we'd invited Richard and Mike over. Still, despite not feeling quite myself, we had a good time with the tow of them. We made a great dinner and dessert- Steve made a Thai style mushroom stroganoff, which was a bit runny (not helped by me only one can of coconut milk) and a lime cheesecake, which hadn't set properly. It ended up over most of the kitchen worktops and in a heap on the plate I'd put by to stand it nicely on. Arghh! Still it tasted nice, that was the main thing! Fortunately they'd both had some wine and could see the funny side of it!
We spent the evening playing Mario Cart on the Wii. It was good fun. Yes I know I don't like that kind of thing usually, but I have to say the Wii is an excellent console. Mostly because I can play the games fairly competently I suppose!

Good Doctor Who too. It was quite fun to see the flipside, of what might happen if he wasn't there to sort the monsters. Catherine Tate was as excellent as usual. She's been so good this year.

Today has been lovely too. Nice chat with Richard and Mike before they left, a trip to the garden centre to see the fish (Mike keeps tropical fish) and then we came home and went on a nice bike ride round Bracknell in the sunshine. I was quite tired, but we managed half and hour or so today, whcih was very good. I like the fact we just go randomly round the town, nothing set rtoo set. I know my way around quite well really (even if we did get a bit lost a few weeks back) so it's not too bad if we set out and just head in any old direction... we eventually get home again.

I've been doing some more writing this afternoon. I think it's ok. I just need to get it down really and then let Paul edit it.

Another driving lesson tomorrow. Yes, I'm actually doing it! Really! This week I was told I had really good clutch control, we did some roundabouts and I got up to third gear! Oh my! I know that doesn't sound much, but I was quite proud of how I'm doing really. This time I'm determined to see it through. However long it takes!

Simon has the flag

2008-06-08T21:37:00.002+01:00

Myself and Steve had decided we'd take the centre path and ran into the woodland, guns at the ready. We came to a stop at a conveniently placed barricade and bunkered down as the crossfire from the opposing team started. Our aims were pretty good (or the volume of firepower perhaps) and we'd taken out the snipers. Steve headed off forwards up the hill, veering off the left, and I found myself on my own.
This turned out to be a good thing. There didn't seem to be any shooting at me (for a change) so I decided to take a tentative walk. Still no shooting, so I began to run up the hill, ducking for cover every so often, just in case... but nothing. All good I thought.
Suddenly I found myself at the top of the hill. Still no gunshots at me. The red and white striped tape marked the boundary of the course and I thought, I must be close to the pink team base. Looking to my right I found I was, and there was the goal, the rather grey and tattered flag. Oh what the hell I thought, I should go and get it. I'm bound to be shot, but what the hell. I pelted to the base, gun ready, just in case...
I grabbed the flag from the top of the tape and ran as fast I could away from the base. Still all clear of pink team members. I couldn't quite believe it- I'd got it. Expecting to be shot down any minute I began to retrace my steps and found I was running as fast as I could down the hill. The sweat was pouring off me by now and I still expected to be taken out any moment.
Coming down the hill I could see the first person I'd spotted for minutes. Pink band on the arm... oh no! But, my luck was in! She had her back to me. I took a couple of cheeky shots and took her out and ran off before she even realised I'd been there. I ran and ran, and eventually our base was in sight. Other orange team members were around now, and ran with me as I made it to the base with the flag.
Triumphantly, with our referee behind me I ran in and threw it over the stripy tape that marked our base out among the trees. The ref bellowed "Game over" and singlehandedly I'd won the round for the team! Me! Wow!
It felt really good!

Yes, we've been out in the sunshine paintballing today. It was great fun, despite me not really knowing anyone there very well. Hot and sweaty but there's something really fun about running round the woods firing paint at people. I wouldn't have thought it was something I'd enjoy but I did at Jay's stag do last year and I did again today.
We lost overall, but it didn't matter. I enjoyed being part of the team and being someone who managed to help make sure the orange team lost by a lesser margin!

We didn't get to play on the course with the Police Box though, sadly. Ah well!

Just you wait Mr Bradley, just you wait!

2008-06-04T21:42:00.003+01:00

Heist! is completed!
I can't wait for it to go online now, because I really want to hear what people think of it. It's been hard work, not all of it enjoyable I have to say, but ultimately I think it's been a satisfying experience having complete control over my work. It hasn't come out quite how I imagined (mostly because I didn't exactly use all the incidental music I planned I think!) but I'm really pleased with it. Considering it's my first full length story that I've made, I think I've done really well, even if I do say so myself.
I've listened to it loads of times now and I'm still not sick of it. I don't quite know how that's happened. Maybe it's because it's mine, I don't know! I know it almost off by heart and still I'd be happy to have it on now (although I think I need to have a break from it really for my own sanity!)
Overall my favourite scenes are 6 and the last one, which sound great. The one I had most trouble with was Jann on the phone, because getting the right ring tone was the toughest thing to find and my favourite use of music is the Gershwin in scene 6, which fits really well, considering it was a piece chopped out at random.

That's taken up lots of time, but it's been worth it. I just don't want to do another one in a hurry. But should I ever write another script I think I'd like to produce it again.

In between doing that we've been doing a spot of shopping on eBay recently. One of my great passions is the music of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (as everyone knows) and int he last few weeks I've treated myself to a couple of the old albums. I'm sure there are very few people out there who'd love it, but I find it all really rather wonderful. The way the composers are grasping what was then new and exciting technology, and making it do things they didn't expect is wonderful.
Fourth Dimension is an album from 1973 by Paddy Kingsland who'd go on to write the Hitch Hikers music and Doctor Who scores. It's funky synth stuff, very 70s groovy and really quite likeable. The Soundhouse album from 10 years later is rather more diverse, but not quite as exciting, although the inclusion of the The Whale from the Hitch Hikers TV series scores lots of points from me. Somehow the later music doesn't seem quite so inventive- certainly it doesn't equal the stuff on the 1968 Pink album, BBC Radiophonic Music, but then it's not trying to. By 1983 the synth had made the musicians slightly less unique I suppose, because they weren't manipulating bits of tape to make sounds that were different to everything else anymore. And by the time we get to the stuff on the CD we bought from 1994 of library music, there's nothing really that couldn't be done by anyone else.
There's still some albums to collect, and I'm sure they're things that few others could get excited about, but I do!

The other things have been a few of the Myth Makers DVDs. They're really good, considering they're just interviews with Doctor Who stars and creative staff. I was always a bit dubious about the tribute tapes, but the two we've seen so far, Patrick Troughton and Jacqueline Hill have been really wonderful- they've included rare interviews with the two of them (both rarely interviewed- indeed I'd never seen any footage of Jackie interviewed before) and they come across to warm tributes to the actors. Indeed having Jackie's husband Alvin Rakoff on her disc made it, because we get an insight into her life that we've never had before. Great stuff and I'd really like to get hold of some more of them!

Change my dear...

2008-05-21T21:25:00.004+01:00

It's a funny old world Doctor Who fandom. Things go in a cycle, as the appointment of Steven Moffat as the new Executive Producer has shown. There's been an gush of love for him this week and he's being viewed very much as a saviour coming to save the show from the mess RTD has made of it, well, sort of anyway. It's similar to the gushing that happened when RTD was first appointed to resurrect the show.

There's always going to be a significant number of fans who just don't like new Doctor Who whatever it's like. We've seen it so many times before, The Hinchcliffe years were universally dispised for damaging the continuity of the show for downgrading the Time Lords to corrupt old men and not following the history of the Daleks set out in The Daleks, but now they're held up as the pinnacle of the original series. The Williams years were universally derided for not being as adult as The Pertwee era (Ha!) and the JNT years were generally not held to be as great as the Hinchcliffe years... and now of course the RTD era just isn't what they want either. As Steve said, most fans just want a gothic horror series, like that's the be all and end all of the series' potential. There's so much more to it than that.
Like it or not what RTD has seceded in doing is make the show in the way he wants, and fortunately it's been a great success. Yes, it probably is time for a change of personnel at the top, but personally I've thoroughly enjoyed all four series and there's been more successes than there has been weak stories, and more that's pushed the boundaries of the show than ever before. But there are other ways of doing the show, and we're hopefully going to find that they'll work just as well.

I have my reservations of course. I'm not a huge fan of Steven Moffatt (me being one of the very, very few people who just thought Blink was dull and I didn't buy into the central relationship of The Girl in the Fireplace either, but others seem to just love it). There's no doubt that he's a brilliant writer, but I feel indifferent about much of his Doctor Who. I have no idea what his Doctor Who is going to be like, in much the same way I had no idea about what RTD's Doctor Who was going to be like. Some seem to think it's going to be a return to gothic horror (though quite how anyone has come to that conclusion is beyond my thought processes) some think it will be more of the same... it will be interesting to see in 2010.

I haven't been writing for a while. I've been busy producing my audio adventure, Heist! I'm thoroughly enjoying the control of making it myself, but some of the processes involved have been a bit tedious and/or stressful. I think it sounds really good though and I'm looking forward to unleashing it on PS in July. It's very different to the other stories in our little season, which I suppose is the main thing. I think many will prefer Martin's story although from what I've heard I don't think it's quite as good as Heist! (I wrote Heist!, I'm allowed to be biased!!) but we're both doing different things, and taking Doctor Who in different ways. I probably just like to think I'm a better writer than everyone else. Ego, you know! But it's not true!
One thing I seem to have learnt is how to write concisely for these audios. With just a few minor trims the first episode came in at 25 minutes, which was pleasing. I also think I've got better at writing for audio. There weren't too many things that seemed unclear as I worked on it. It hangs together pretty well really. Well I think so anyway.
Despite aiming to step down from writing for a while I've somehow agreed to help Paul with his forthcoming adventure. I think after that I need a bit of a break to gather some ideas. There's good stuff to come I think, but it's dangerous to have too much control! I just like to gently guide things!

Feed the world with your word power!

2008-05-12T17:23:00.001+01:00

How good are you with words and their meanings?Now you can test your vocabularly and help to feed the world by playing Free Rice For every word you correctly define, 20 grains of rice are donated to the cause on your behalf, courtesy of some generous sponsers. I know it's not a great deal, but for giving 5 minutes of your time to play a game, it's not bad is it?Currently my Vocab level is 38 and I've donated 3000 grains! How well can you do?

Things from March

2008-03-31T21:39:00.003+01:00

Here's some things that have been happening:

We had drinks with Chris and James. It was a great night out, with two people I always feelI should talk to more. I'm sure we all bored James with our appreciation of Flight of the Conchords.

We had a lovely afternoon with Mum and Adam at Easter. It's wonderful to see Mum looking so happy now and it's wonderful after all the concern this relationship caused us all last year to have things settled and happy again. It's nice to see both of my parents in good, solid new relationships after all the hurt and heartbreak of the last few years. We had a great meal with them at Strada in Reading. The seafood Linguine was very good indeed.

New albums have arrived. The Feeling is my favourite album of the year so far. The new Supergrass is OK, but they seem to have lost their sense of fun, which really defined their first few albums. The album by Neon, Neon really reinforces how hard working Gruff Rhys of the SFA is (this is his third album in just over a year) and how incredibly talented he is too- very good and will be a grower I reckon. The new REM one plopped through the letterbox today. On one listen it's difficult to say if this is the much vaunted return to form we were promised, but it sounded OK to me.

My reading group are doing a Terry Pratchett next month- Going Postal. I wonder what they'll make it. Come to think of it, I wonder what I will make of it. It's been a long, long time since I gave any Pratchett a go.

We've been decorating the hall, stairs and landing. It looks so much brighter now. The green was dark and dreary, the Ivory Cream looks so bright and lovely. I did some of the woodwork today. I don't like glossing, but it has to be done. Now the house smells of almost dry gloss paint, and will do as we slowly get round to doing the rest of it.

Doctor Who is back on Saturday. YAY!

I survived last weekend's computer games fest at our house by writing for The Vervoid. Got a couple of things done, which is good and I'm 3/4 of the way through reviewing the B7 episode Countdown. I always thought season 2 was the best season, but there's been a real slump in quality over the last few episodes.

We've been watching the third series of Robin of Sherwood. Jason Connery gets far too much stick- he's not nearly as bad as he's made out to be. The series remains the definitive retelling of the myth for me and really puts the recent BBC series to shame in every way. RoS is imaginative, fast moving, beautifully shot and stands up well today I think. A big favourite series of mine.

Getting a migraine in the middle of the shopping in Morrisons isn't ideal for Steve, especially when he has to drive us home.

I'm going to start learning to drive next month. Oh my.

The next few weekends see us visiting lots of good friends- Richard and Mike in Ipswich, Si and Simon and everyone for the next recordings in Sawbridgeworth the week after and then a weekend in Nottingham with Wayne and Co. Should be great fun!

That is all.

10 Wonderful Things from our NZ Trip

2008-03-10T18:09:00.002Z

Here are ten of the best things from our trip Down Under:

1. Hostels
They won't suit everyone, but what a great way to spend the holiday. I was really impressed with the quality of the hostels we stayed in (although the one at Lake Taupo wasn't great) and having never considered staying in one before I was pleased to find that I enjoyed it a great deal. There's the chance to meet other travellers and share your experiences which was pretty good in most cases. I was also highly pleased with the facilities provided in most of them- and in the ones like Glow Worm Cottages in Franz Josef and Kiwi Paha at Rotorua, the facilities put many of the hotels I've stayed in to shame.
And they're incredibly cheap, considering!

2. Towns and cities
One of the things that made the holiday was that everywhere we visited was different to what we'd seen before. Every town we went to seemed to have its own identity. It just made me realise that UK towns are incredibly samey- from the shops you expect to see, to that way they're designed. Every town was an event, because you never knew what you'd find.

3. Friendliness
We'd been told that NZ was a very friendly country and it was all true. People chatted to us in shops and seemed genuinely interested in what we thought of their country. In fact people seemed to go out of their way to explain things, to chat in shops and be really helpful. My special thanks goes to the woman in the Britomart in Auckland who was really helpful in getting us on the trains for the trip. She went out of her way to make it easy for us!

4. Food
Aside from the issue of them putting cheese in every meal they could (and making me miserable with it!) the food was really good. We ate out most nights because the food in the restaurants was cheap and incredibly decent. they know how to cook their meat over there, which is good, and the fish is wonderful. I tried some new things and can highly recommend Red Snapper fish.
Oh and they make great cakes. The Carrot Cake in Raglan was wonderful!

5. Bush Walks
We went on some amazing walks through the bush (forest) and around the Kaikoura peninsula among others. What made these great was that despite it being the end of the summer and there being lots of tourists around, much of the time we seemed to be the only people doing these wonderful walks, which again contrats with home, where they are always people around. It was marvellous in some ways, but also kind of disappointing that there weren't more people around enjoying them. Although if there had been more people arounf we'd never have encoutered the deer in the middle of the forest in Franz Josef, or been able to stand quietly and watch the birds flying around in front of us outside Rotorua or on the walk to Cathederal Cove. Wonderful!

6. Not Falling Out
I was very pleased that despite spending a month together, me and Steve managed not to fall out at all! Even on the day I was miserable because my pasta had cheese in it and even after some of the nights where other people had kept us awake outside our dorms! We had a really good laugh throughout the trip and there were lots of memorable times together and silly things for the two of us to laught about. I would mention them, but I don't think anyone else would find them funny.

7. Kaikoura
Quite possibly my favourite town we saw. It was just magnificent- a spectacular sweeping sandy bay with clear blue sea washing against it, with snow topped mountains dominating the horizon. Breathtaking views in a wonderfully laid back town. Good places to eat there too, and the whale watch trip was one of the best excursions we did, seeing 2 Sperm Whales and a pod of 5-600 dolphins was incredible.

8. Ice
The glacier was cool (obviously!), and one of the oddest places I've ever been to. We did the 3/4 excursion up the Franz Josef glacier and it was magnificent. The ice was so blue, and despite there being nothing living on the ice, it seemed alive as there was the constant sound water running across it as the ice at the top melts and the sound as it cracks and splits. It's very difficult to describe it in any way that does it justice- one of the greatest and most beautiful landscapes I've seen in my life.

9. Thermal areas
In contrast to the ice, the thermal areas around Rotorua were spectacular in their own way. The smell wasn't so great, but we soon adapted to that, but the thermal pools were a sight worth seeing. I was quite bizarre to think that anywhere in the city, a pool could break out, as we saw when we went round the city gardens where many areas had been fenced off as a new crater of boiling mud had been formed.
The thermal parks were marvellous- especially as they were all so varied and especially at Wai-o-Tapu, where the pools were vivid colours.

10. Driving Creek Railway
The Driving Creek Railway in the Coromandel was a real highlight. Built singlehandly by reclusive potter Barry Brickell to bring clay down from the top of the hill, it's become a great place to visit- an hour long trip up the hill to the Eyefull Tower, through the forest with sculptures to see along the way, embankments made of wine bottles and the viaduct that doubles back on itself and you travle across the bottom, then across the top to get up to the tower. Great!

Best Holiday Ever!

Charlie Takes a Trip

2008-02-09T22:18:00.000Z

Should we be packed? We're not yet!

We took Charlie off to Croxley this afternoon. I felt really mean when we put him in the box and a moment or two after we'd taped the lid up to stop him jumping out in the car, the box started to shake and he was clearly agitated about being in there. But what can you do? He had to go in there and he had to make the journey. Fortunately for us all, he had made it one piece and seemed ok after a few mionutes back in his hutch.
So now he's settled in the greenhouse at the back of Steve's parents' garden. I'm sure he's going to be well looked after- spoiled probably! And quite right too: he deserves a holiday too. He'll be just fine.

Just a day to go now. Well, less than a day really, since we'll be on the plane this time tomorrow. For along time. A very long time. But it'll all be worth it!

Trip of a Lifetime!

2008-02-08T21:42:00.001Z

Just two days to go now. It's starting to hit me that we're actually going. For a long time it's seemed like it was a long way in the future; something we were looking forward to, but far in the future. Now it's here, we're not really packed and ready but I'm starting to get really excited!

Of course, us being us, we're not packed yet. There's a pile of my clothes in the spare room, sorted and ready to pack, but not yet in the back pack I got out of the cupboard earlier this evening. There's clothes around the house drying (although since they've been hanging up since Monday I'm hoping they're dry now!) that need to be sorted out too, but I'm still not sure what to take. What jumper to shirt ratio? How many jumpers? Which jacket? I've never been away on holiday for this long before, so I'm no expert... I hope it get right!

Of course there's a pile of books behind me too. Books are important on holiday. I usually get through a few. last time we went away for 10 days, I got through 8 or 9. The problem this time is that they're heavy and space/ weight is tight, so we've got to be practical. The good news is we've bought them all second hand and there are book exchanges in all the hostels we're vsiitng, so we can swap them as we go. That helps! Hope they have some things I want to read.
Got my journal to keep too. I've got out of the habit of keeping it on paper, and this is a chance to restart that. I'm rather looking forward to that!

So we're not ready yet, but we're getting there. We will be! And then we'll be off for our very own trip of a lifetime!

Weekend in Derby

2008-01-27T21:00:00.000Z

I haven't been to Derby for a few years, and I didn't think much of it the times I was there in the past, so this was chance to redress that a little. We had a great time. It's a lot nicer than I remember it being, although the ring road is as confusing as ever it was! Still, we managed to find the hotel without too much bother. It wasn't too bad either, despite being a bit too warm inside and there being a problem with the key cards into the rooms. It was quite close to the city centre, so going to meet Chris wasn't a problem.

We met by the concrete ram in the city centre. It was great to see Chris again. We haven't seen him since he left back in September. Unfortunately he was unwell at New Year, so didn't make it to the party, so this was a good chance to catch up with him and find out how things are going. It' s really good to find out that despite the bout of illness, everything is going really well for him. It was good to see some examples of the work he's been doing, especially as I haven't really seen much of his work before. I have to say I thought they were excellent. I see a lot of picture books at work, and the pictures he'd done for his project stand up really well against much of the work that has been published and put many of them to shame. I was really impressed with the level of detail he put into the illustrations, and he deserves to score well for that project if you ask me!

It was a great night in general. There was just four of us; me and Steve, Chris and Tim, and it was nice to have the chance to just have a good chat between us. Often when there's a bigger group I tend to get a bit lost in the computer game chatter (which is just one of those things I expect) but last night we had a chance to chat more generally about things and all three of them are thoroughly good company. That goes without saying too often, so I'm saying it now for the record! It's always a joy to chat to Chris about music, as I don't know anyone else who has as extensive tastes as he has, and I have enormous respect for his opinions and despite my taste being somewhat more mainstream than his is, there's still a pretty broad crossover which gives us plenty to chat about.
And I have several novels to try out on his recommendation too! And on Tim's we have to see Sweeney Todd, which he'd enjoyed earlier that afternoon.

So it was an evening of chatter, real ale (some great pints were drank in The Olde Dolphin) and a Yorkshire pudding full of steak and onions. I got hiccups later on, and nearly ended up bringing the whole lot up, but that was just about avoided, thank goodness.
I think Steve desires a Korg after having a go on Chris's one last night!

Today we took Chris up to Homebase to buy a rug for his floor, dropped Tim off at the station and went down the A6 to see Gaz and Sarah. Twice in four months- that's something of a record I think! Depsite them both being under the weather, we had an enjoyable couple of hours with them and it's nice to be told we cheered Gaz up immensely. Makes it all worthwhile (well that and the chance to stock up on some more jams and chutneys too!).

It was a long trip home, but as always, it's worth making the effort to go and see our friends.

Two weeks time, we'll be on our way to New Zealand... oh my!

Backwards

2008-01-13T20:12:00.001Z

For reasons that will never be clear to anyone else, ever, Steve and I decided almost 5 years ago to watch Doctor Who in story order, only backwards.It made a kind of sense to us back then and seemed like something that no-one would attempt to do and so it became our thing. Tonight we finished, with part 3 of Delta and the Bannermen. That might seem like an odd choice (as surely it ought to be An Unearthly Child or the pilot version), but Steve had always had this thing about the last Doctor Who from the classic series he saw would be the last two episodes of this story as he missed them at the time. I think he was a little disappointed, but with this hanging over him unwatched for just over 20 years, I suppose it was always going to be a little unsatisfactory really.
And I watched The Dominators for the first time in 17 years, after swearing that I would never do it. I've been called a traitor by my co-Dominators hater, Si Hunt, but you know I don't regret it. I watched it, enjoyed it and decided that are stories out there that are far, far worse. In fact I shall make it my mission in life not to watch Planet of Evil for 17 years. Sadly I don't think I'll enjoy it even after a long wait.

There were many highlights and low lights in our backwards run, possibly many things that no-one else will appreciate. The Deadly Assassin pt 4 being the funniest episode we watched for instance. We still laugh about that one. We found some stories didn't deserve their reputations and became big fans of Colony in Space (watched the day Annabel was born when we almost picked the keys up for the house) but didn't enjoy The Daemons, I came away with new respect for Pertwee too, which was unexpected and we found season 5 and season 15 really difficult to get through . Season 18 was class of course. We took a year to do Tom and another year to watch Pertwee and then over 2 years to do Hartnell and Troughton- McCoy, Colin and Davison were done in less than a year. We were more dedicated at the start!
And the reviews were fun too! We laughed a lot while we wrote them and hopefully we entertained everyone on PS with them over the years. I think, judging from the comments we got that people think we are mad!

It'll be odd not having it there to do. Sometimes it's been a chore and not much fun, but overall I think it's been a worthwhile use of our time. Lets face it, no-one else would do anything so silly, so that about sums us up.

Itinerary

2008-01-10T21:31:00.000Z

Last night we finally took the plunge and started doing some major planning for the New Zealand trip. Yes, finally we could put it off no longer and we've sorted of worked out what we're going to do and when. For now anyway.
It wasn't easy and there was a lot of bickering involved as we sorted it out. It's the travelling around that makes this trip quite tricky. Obviously we want to make the most of our time over there and see as much as we can,but the distances make this quite tricky. Another problem is that Steve wants to make the most of the chance for some sight seeing too and I can't really expect him to drive solidly for four weeks, so we're going to do some travelling by train and coach. Unfortunately, the next problem is that many of the places we want to visit aren't served by public transport, so it's been quite a logistical problem trying to sort it. Then when you add in some confusion about what's on which island, and well, we bickered. A bit. But after a couple of hours we came up with a plan that's workable.

So we're in Auckland for three nights to recover from the flight, sight see and sort a few things out... then it's 12 hour train trip down the North Island to Wellington, across the sea on the inter-island ferry to Kaikoura on the coast for whale and dolphin spotting... then on to Christchurch and across the Abel- Tasman national park to Greymouth and off to the Franz Josef glacier. That's the first week and a bit. Then we're going back up to the North Island to visit Uncle Phil and Co, hot springs, rack railways, and the hometown of Crowded House genius Neil Finn. Well it has to be done!
It's going to be amazing.

I, Claudius

2008-01-08T08:25:00.000Z

Since Christmas, much of our time has been taken up watching I, Claudius. For those not in the know, this was the Roman epic the BBC broadcast in 1976 to celebrate their 40th anniversary of the start of BBC TV. A highly prestigious production, it tells the story of the Emperor Augustus and his family from the point of view of the Claudius (played by the wonderful Derek Jacobi) the boy who is presented as a fool, but turns out to be shrewder than anyone ever thought.

It's absolutely gripping! I know that I'm a fan of this kind of TV, but it really does go to show that if you have a strong story and some decent actors you can tell a story that touches on the epic without having to show the wider world. The recreation of Rome is quite amazing considering that all we have is some sets in TV Centre and no location filming, and yet somehow it feels real, because of the efforts of the actors involved to make it a real place. I didn't watch very much of the recent "Rome", which I know is highly regarded, so I can't compare it, but it'd have to be really brilliant to beat this.

It's difficult to say who steals the show. There's Livia,played by Sian Phillips who steals every scene she's in, especially when she gets old and even more manipulative of her son, there's John Hurt as Caligula, who's quite simply insane, but in a very frightening way (we've just watched the episode where he eats his own child plucked from the womb of his sister/ wife). Of course there's also Derek Jacobi as Claudius. He's quite wonderful, bringing to life the various tics Claudius has- his stammer, the facial twitch and the limp... and of course he plays him at all the stages of his life from his 20s to old age. His performance holds the whole thing together, linking the various times, as he somehow, against all the odds manages to stay alive.
Oh and Brian Blessed's shouting and bluster is very entertaining too... "Is there anyone is Rome who HASN'T slept with my daughter!"

So yes, 33 years after it's first broadcast this show stands up as one of the all time greats from the BBC.
Apparently it was the inspiration for the 80s show "Dynasty". It shows.

Old friends

2008-01-06T20:53:00.000Z

It's amazing how soon things get back to normal after Christmas isn't it? We were both back at work on Wednesday and by the end of the day it felt like there hadn't been a break at all. It was a somewhat complicated half week at work, with lots of cover needed for members of staff off sick or who had hospital appointments. There was all the end of December accounting to be done very quickly in both branches too, to meet central dealines, so it felt like I didn't have a chance to draw breath properly until the evening shift on Friday night (which was even quieter than usual)... I shouldn't complain though. Being busy is good for the stats and it's only a few weeks until we go away now.

This has been followed by a really busy but thoroughly enjoyable weekend where we've had a chance to catch up with some of our lesser seen friends. Saturday evening, after the car windscreen had been replaced, we drove up to West Hampstead to Phil and Emma's flat (or Steve's old flat) to see them and Steve's old school friends Razza and Muz (and his wife Nicola). It was a great evening. Despite only having met Muz, Nicola and Razza a couple of times, I felt very at ease with them all and it was great to catch up with them all. We really need to make the effort to go up and stay with Muz and Nicola in Bradford (Ok, they're another couple of people on the long list of people we really need to go and see) and I'll try and keep on at Steve to arrange it for later in the year.
So anyway, we went to Nando's for dinner (we had the chicken, surprisingly) which was pretty good, as always and then spent a happy couple of hours chatting away back at the flat (which, incidentally is looking really great now). Steve even managed to get his scarf back, which he;d left behind when he left. That was pleasing, after the effort i went to buy it in the first place!

Today we went back into London to see David "Irishboy" Arnott and his boyfriend Paul. It was really good to ctach with him and to finally meet Paul, who I'd heard lots about. He was lovely, and they seem very happy together, which can't be a bad thing. We don't see him very often (him being in Belfast) and so it's always a delight to have the chance. We don't really keep in touch the way we used to, but it's reassuring to know that he still counts me as a good friend and someone worth meeting up with. I seem to inspire this kind of friendship. It's a bloody good thing.

After we'd said goodbye, we went round the shops for a bit and picked up a few nice things. I'm currently enjoying a bit of Elliott Smith- the album Either/ Or. As I've possibly explained before I'm rationing buying the albums I haven't got by him, because I know there's only a finite amount of material to hear now. It still gives me something to look forward hearing. Sadly there's only two more to buy now, but I shall eek them out for as long as possible.

Christmas, New Year and all of that

2008-01-01T20:28:00.000Z

So, here we are then, 2008. Hooray! It's off to a great start so far!

I have to start off by apologising for the lack of updates. December was incredibly busy, and I'm sorry to say that tales of the three Christmas do's I went to this year will go by unrecorded, but suffice to say I enjoyed them all for various different reasons and much fun was had at them all. I was especially pleased to be invited and attend Steve's Hyder do this year, and be able to put some faces to all the names I've heard so much about in the past. It's really good to be able to do these things as partners you know- it's not something we can always take for granted sadly.

Anyway, Christmas was a logistical nightmare this year. Attempting to see everyone was a very tricky piece of organisation, especially as it's impossible now to see Mum and Dad together, and everyone is busy with their various families and new partners and of course trying to see each other too. Somehow we did, but not after a lot of plans tooing and froing, and I think we managed to keep everyone happy at the end of it, which was pretty damn good going to be honest!

Christmas itself was lovely. It began with lunch out with Vic and family, plus Laura and Emiliy and Kevin, which was great, then Wilgilia which passed by in a blur of noise, great food and far too much vodka... not that I'm complaining, as I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Christmas Day begun with our presents at home, and they all went down very well indeed, pleasingly. After this we made the obligatory visit to Vic on the way to Croxley. It was great to see them all, plus Dad and Sue. They all seemed pleased with their presents, and there was a quieter than usual Luke tucked up in the corner with his new Nintendo DS, which seemed to be the most popular present he got for Christmas. Annabel was adorably more animated and excitable, with all her new Ora...sorry... Dora The Explorer toys. Loud and excitable; she's very much like her mum was at the same age!
We left them and headed up to Croxley for Christmas with Steve's family. I have to say a big thank you, once again for making me welcome and part of their family- it's always a pleasure to visit them and they even forgave me for breaking one of the cheap Marks and Spencer glasses into the bread sauce! We helped the rest of the family keep Steve's Gran and Aunty Betty entertained while we opened the presents all afternoon, and settled down for Doctor Who once they'd returned home. It was very enjoyable too- probably the best of the Christmas Specials so far, and we rushed out afterwards to Steve's cousin's place for the evening, most of which was taken up with a game of Monopoly. It almost, but didn't quite end in tears!

Boxing day, I was beginning to feel a bit under the weather, so we had a quiet trip to the sales, where I was pleased to pick up the whole of One Foot In the Grave on DVD for £30. Bargain! We headed back home late afternoon with our pile of presents to sort out and find new homes for. There were plans to put up some shelves and stuff, but that didn't quite work out, as the next day we both came down with the nasty stomach bug that is doing the rounds. Not good. I managed to go into work for the day, but only just made it back home in time... not good. An unpleasant evening was spent at home, with the two of us suffering at the same time, and the next day was quiet and not much fun. Ah well, maybe one Christmas we'll get through without being unwell, but at least it wasn't anywhere near as bad as last year's flu...

It was only really yesterday that we both got back to normal, just in time to see in the new year. Sadly some of the friends we'd invited couldn't make it along, but a good time was had by all who was there. It was rather different to the last new year's party we had, as there were less people, more games and it was one of those parties where everyone got on as a group and didn't split off into the separate kitchen party (or upstairs bedroom party!) as has happened in the past. Great!
And best of all, because I wasn't drinking I stayed up to 3am, and woke up this morning without feeling wretched! And I finally tried out Paul's Wii this morning and found myself having a good time too, which was most unexpected. Everyone threw themselves into using it, some of them literally in Jonno's case!

So now we have a clean house, we've rewatched Voyage of the Damned and I've had the time to do an update. Now we look forward to Steve's birthday and of course the not-very-far-away-at-all trip to New Zealand, next month... perhaps we'd better do some planning....

Happy New Year everyone.

Live On Earth: Crowded House

2007-12-10T10:00:00.000Z

When bands reform, you never quite know what you're going to get. Will they be able to recapture the magic that attracted you to them in the first place? Will any new material stand up against the old that you know so well? Will they be any good?

I know I often say Crowded House are my favourite band (which indeed they are) but last night proved why. They're just not an ordinary band in my eyes. They're the only band I've ever seen live that make their gigs feel intimate and special no matter how large the venue is. They just seem to have the magic touch when it comes to banter within the band and with the audience, which makes every person in the audience feel that they're involved. They've got great senses of humour too and they're just a joy to watch. It was Nick Seymour's birthday yesterday (same day as Gaz's!) and they had a birthday cake and the whole audience sang Happy Birthday and watched him unwrap his presents. I can't imagine that happening with any other band!

Music wise they were spot on. Even better than in June! Matt Sherrod seem to have really settled into the band and his drumming was terrific- very powerful and strong. I wasn't sure how the songs from Time on Earth would come across since many of them are rather melancholy and a little bit fragile, but being played live seem to bring out the best in them, particularly Walked Her Down, which I'd not rated too highly before, but sounded fantastic last night; Nobody Wants To was beautiful and Pour Le Monde became an angry protest! Fantastic.

And the old songs sounded fabulous too. Of course there will always be ones that don't get played that I'd really like to hear- I Feel Possessed being one I suppose, but it's churlish to complain about that kind of thing, when we got a set that lasted right up to the curfew time and their second encore saw them play some songs that I never guessed we'd hear, the highlight of which was the fragile and beautiful She Goes On, which really got me. It was just wonderful to see them all up on stage having such a great time that they didn't want to stop playing for us. You cannot ask for more from your heroes!

So yes, that's another greatest gig ever. Funny how they keep stacking them up- in Sheffield June 94, The Finn Brothers at the Albert Hall, now this one. I'm so glad they're back. My favourite band ever, and with good reason.

Oh and Distant Sun was bloody fantastic too! :D

Set list (thanks to Finner 79 on the Frenz forum):

Private Universe, Don't Stop Now, It's Only Natural, Fall At Your Feet,
Nobody Wants To, She Walked Her Way Down, Walking On The Spot, When You Come,
In My Command, Silent House, Don't Dream It's Over, Say That Again, Pour Le Monde,
Mean To Me, Distant Sun.

Weather With You, Pineapple Head / Those Were The Days, Something So Strong

Happy Birthday Nick, Fingers Of Love,
Mark's Song (We Are Not The Jet Set), She Goes On,Throw Your ArmsAround Me, Black And White Boy, Four Seasons In One Day, I'm Only Sleeping, Better Be Home Soon

The inevitable outcome

2007-11-29T08:07:00.000Z

The inevitable happened on Monday night.
It's strange that even though I was expecting it, and I knew what the phone call was going to be before I picked it up (I thought that Dad would be the only person to call at 11.15pm) it hasn't made it any easier to deal with. I was a stunned by the news- it made me feel numb, not ready to cry straight away or anything. That did come a bit later and I had a strange day Tuesday where I was only really half with it all day. I was tempted to stay off work, but decided to try and have a normal day so that I didn't sit and dwell on the news all day.
Now we have the funeral to come, which is currently set for next Friday, but which might be postponed if the Doctor's notes aren't accepted and they have to do a post mortem. Then we're apparently having a memorial service at some point when her ashes are buried next to Grandad Norman's in Amesbury. It won't be easy because these things never are, but we'll get through it and out the other side.

Tuesday was actually a frankly bizarre day really. Aside from Steve unusually staying out for lots of drinks with work and not getting home until 12.30am, I also had a series of messages on Facebook from my old friend James Wren.
For those who don't know, James was my best friend for a while at school. It was the first of those really intense friendships I seem to attract, and we had a lot of fun for a couple of years, cycling, being silly and talking... lots of talking. Anyway, our friendship came to an end after the two of us arranged a party while my parents were on holiday that ended up pretty much trashing my parents place (yes I did that!) and when the crunch came he didn't feel able to take the blame for inviting people from Reading College along. Harsh, but true. So that was that- there was a really acrimonious accidental meeting later that summer which ended everything really, and that was that until 2000, when I saw him sat on one of the PCs in Bracknell Library. We chatted, we had a lengthy phone call and there's been a few sporadic emails since then which have been nice.
On Tuesday morning I got an apology for it all, 18 years late, but finally! I was rather choked up by that and his acknowledgment of how important our friendship was to him back then and now I deserved better. I was really touched by it all. It sounds silly, but I think we all like to be paid a compliment like that, especially as this was silly, not very confident, very geeky 15year old self that was being complimented. And you know, we did have lots of fun back then.
I haven't replied to him yet, as things have been a bit odd this week, but it is nice to know that you're appreciated. I will send him a message though. It's important.

On a similar note I just want to say thanks to everyone on Planet Skaro who sent me such lovely messages this week, and especially to Si and Mike who made me smile when I felt really low. I'm very lucky to have such a great group of friends.

Difficult Things

2007-11-22T21:20:00.000Z

Funny thing, I don't know what to write at the moment. I should really in some way to commemorate the great Planet Skaro meet on Saturday, which was incredibly enjoyable and one of the finest meets we've ever had. Drank lots, chatted even more and I had a thoroughly wonderful time. I should write about taking Luke to his first Doctor Who signing and how lovely it was to see him chasing Daleks and shouting at them, and being wonderfully surprised to see K9 trundling up and down the shopping centre and having his face painted to look an Ood and the way he wasn't at all flustered about meeting people from the show... or even perhaps the conspiracy that's going on to close down one of my libraries (possibly)...

But it's all somewhat overshadowed by Nan at the moment. She had a couple of strokes a week or so back and was taken into hospital and given a blood transfusion which perked her up a bit and so the immediate threat was limited a little. But then she suffered a massive stroke this week, which has left her unable to do anything, not even talk now, and really, it's just a matter time before the inevitable happens. Not long after her 90th birthday... it's not a bad innings really.
I've been feeling guilty though. And this is a tough thing to admit, but although I'm sad about it, I can't help thinking that if it was my other Grandma dying, I'd be absolutely distraught. I feel bad for thinking that because I should love them equally, or at least that's the theory. Dad's family and his and our relationship with them is such a complex thing. I just can't ever get over that feeling that for much of our childhood, certainly until Jonathan was born at the very least that me and Vic were treated very differently to the others, especially to Dean and Kim. I will never forget the Christmas we spent with them at Bradford Abbas, where there was the box of presents that they handed out one by one and they all seemed to be for the others and not for us.
I can remember not really understanding why that was, and as we got older the discrepancies in the relationship only became clearer. It still hurts a bit, especially so because that never happened with Mum's family, were everyone was treated roughly the same (and still are, even now) and i just don't understand why that was. Maybe it stems from the way that Dad was treated when he was a kid, or maybe they just didn't want to make the effort. Who knows? I don't think I will now.
So I'm finding it very difficult to feel more than sad about this, hard as it is to admit. Maybe it will hit me more when she actually passes away, but really it doesn't feel anything like as painful as when Grandad died a couple of years back.
And the worst thing is I don't want Dad to know that I feel this way, because it'll really hurt him. I think there's enough hurt and pain in his relationship with his Mum as it is, without adding the guilt of our relationships with her to that. I don't think I'll ever get to the nub of the problems in Dad's family... I don't think that now Dad will either, because he'll never get the explanations now from Nan that that requires. Like everything else, it's finally going to be left unsaid and hanging without a resolution.

So I feel guilty for thinking these things, for not feeling as bad as I think I should, and what can I do? I can't make things up. I can't pretend. I'm not proud of that, but I've got to be true to myself, or else this becomes yet another thing in the Hart family that isn't quite real.

This has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to write. But at least I've been honest and now it's been written I can probably deal with it.

Not Out, In

2007-11-09T20:50:00.000Z

By rights we shouldn't be in tonight. We should be out for dinner with Mum and Adam. However, since they've just returned from a holiday this afternoon, that's been postponed for now and hopefully we'll go sometime this weekend instead.
The time has come to take the plunge and do it. It can't really be put off any longer, and I have to admit I'm more curious now than angry and I want to see what he's like. He certainly seems to be making Mum very happy, and I'd like to make her happy by meeting him.

It still feels very odd though. I never really expected to be in this situation really. I don't suppose you ever do. It should be the other way round- the parents meeting their children's partners- you don't expect to be doing it this way round. Maybe I've just had a very sheltered life or something, because I'm sure plenty of other people have gone through this. Anyway, the time has come when it feels right to do so, and so this weekend is the time. I'll report back on that after this happens.

This week has been quite draining and I'm feeling quite tired at the end of it. However, we do seem to have got lots done both at home and at work. I wrote some pieces for The Vervoid, including a whole new column which I shall develop over the next few months, did a little work on Consequences (and I really need to get going on the documentary too...) and listened to Steve's work in progress on The Christmas Gnomes(which sounds great). At work I had the first set up meeting for my new reading group. I wasn't sure about setting one up really, but they all seemed so enthusiastic about it, that I've been won over. So we're starting off with something easy to begin with, The Christmas Thief by Mary and Carol Higgins Clarke, which sounds like a bit of fun, and then we'll see where we go from there at the first meeting in December.
Next week I'm on a course for two days- IOSH... health and safety, yuck. Not good, but I get great dinners at Easthampstead Park which is a plus.

Signing Misery.

2007-11-05T18:03:00.001Z

It's been a bit of a disappointing day today. I got up extra early to go off with Steve into London for the David Tennant and Freema Aygeman signing today. We weren't nearly determined enough to be one of the 300. We arrived to find that they'd already allocated the 300 wristbands to those who'd arrived earlier and so there was no way we were going to get in. I'd just underestimated the profile of the show and the determination some fans have to get in! It is just one of those things I suppose. There certainly seemed to be a great deal of hype about the event when I popped in a bit later on- and David and Freema seemed to be enjoying meeting the fans which is great to see.
However, I made the mistake of tagging along with Ali and co and went to The Stamp Centre where Peter Davison and Tom Baker were doing a signing. Ali and her friends were great company, but the event itself sucked for the most part. The guests seemed uninterested in the people that were there and carried on their conversation paying us very little attention at all, the prices were outrageous for the things you had to buy to go in and the queue was out in the cold for over an hour. I remembered why I stopped going. Today has left me rather tired and jaded about the whole thing, which is a shame after the success of the Lis Sladen signing in Borders a week or two back. I was lulled into a false sense of security; things haven't really changed a great deal after all.
On the plus side, I did get to tell the Target book artist Jeff Cummins how great I thought his covers were. That's a good thing!

Good thing I had a nice weekend then! It was a real pleasure to go to Gaz's second annual fireworks party. There was really good company, really good fireworks, great soup and a chance to ctach up with ex-presidents of SubOrbital (The Sheffield University Sci-Fi and Fantasy Society). It was wonderful to see Paul again after what must be 10 years or so. He's still a nice guy, and his girlfriend, Sharon was very nice too.
Of course it was great to see Gaz and Sarah (that goes without saying) twice in one week, and to walk in and start chatting like we saw each other yesterday. I really wish we were able to see them more often, but at least we're all realistic and know that our busy lives work against that more often than not. Still, hopefully we'll see them sometime around Christmas as they're down in Bovingdon and we're up in Watford, so that shouldn't be too tricky to organise. Let's hope so, eh?

Last week was packed full of stuff! Tuesday, Mum took me out for lunch and we had a good chat and a good lunch together. That evening I went out for a curry for Jo and Janet's leaving do and enjoyed singing along to the rather good Lennon and McCartney tribute band that were playing there. Wednesday we had Gaz and Sarah over and went out to The Yorkshire Rose for a wonderful meal (they do a good Liver and Bacon there) and had a great time catching up. Thursday went to Camberley Theatre to see In The Cage, a Genesis tribute band, with Ant and Teresa. Good company, but the band were just ok really- not nearly as great as Re-Genesis were, but they did play One for the Vine, which is a good thing to do. We saw Dad and Sue again too, which was good. It's really good to see him so happy.
It's no wonder I'm tired!

Unapreciated and Unimportant- Ranting!

2007-10-25T20:45:00.000+01:00

I'm home alone again, but I'm not setting traps for any unwary burglars, which is probably a good thing. Steve has gone out for dinner tonight with SFL and it simply isn't possible for me to get into London in time to go with them any more, because of where I am. It's a shame, as the one time I was able to go I had a great time. Ah well. Tomorrow I'm home alone again as he's off to see a Jimi Hendrix tribute with Paul and Lesley and again my late night means I can't go to that either. Hey ho, just one of those things. It still feels like he's barely been here for the past couple of weeks though. Awww!

I get my own back next week though as I'm off out for a curry next Tuesday night with various people from work for Janet and Jo's leaving do. That should be good, especially as they have a Lennon and McCartney theme night going on. Part of the insane week we've got- what with Gaz coming to stay and a trip to see In The Cage on Thursday with Ant and then a trip to Gaz's for the weekend too. I'm really looking forward to that, because, as ever, we've left it far too long between visits (almost a year!) and you know as well as I do, that that is far too long!

It's been a pretty ordinary week really. We had a community day at Great Hollands yesterday and successfully promoted the library all morning in the cold, well Pat did anyway. Heard the rumour that our director wants to shut down the three small libraries in the Borough- IE my two and Harmans Water, which won't be popular at all (certainly not with the Deputy Mayor who says she is fighting the plans every step of the way!) and makes me wonder what makes these people tick... still in many ways we're a very lucky authority, being one of the few not to have had any public libraries closed at all, and long may it remain so.

It's very difficult to quantify what we do, as much of our service passes under the radar- how to quantify the conversations you have with borrowers about the books they've read, the time you spend with kids helping them find information, the time you talk to the older people who come in and hear about their families and stuff? These are all important parts of my job and yet they pass unnoticed and don't seem to be important, and yet they form the basis of community engagement and interaction which is at the core of public library services I reckon. Sometimes I feel the core of what we do isn't appreciated at all, when all that seems to be deemed important is numbers of issues, number of issues and numbers in general. Sometimes, if I stop and think about it, it gets me down because it shouldn't be like this, but our customers never seem to be the focus of anything that comes down from above. I do know that they are the central part of my working life and that's why I'll try and do what I can to keep them happy and keep them coming back. Unappreciated we may be, but I never want my borrowers to feel that they are unappreciated or unimportant in my libraries.

God I'm tired! Rant over!

He's Home!

2007-10-21T19:36:00.000+01:00

It's good to have Steve home. I only really realised how much I'd missed him being around when he walked through the door yesterday and he was back home, more than a bit tired maybe, but home! Wrapped up in a big hug and then made a cup of tea while he sorted himself out- I hope it was a good welcome home.

We didn't do very much yesterday, but it was lovely all the same. We continued the long task of putting things onto DVD, enjoying lots of music from various different Glastonbury festivals (we're up to disc 3 of random music now) and the whole of series one of The Harry Hill Show... aside from the very first episode which has somehow gone astray during the great VHS Purge of 2004. It was very good too- we were silly, we enjoyed all the great Harry Hill jokes (what a great, great series that was- all 3 seasons) and it was just one of those inconsequential days that you pass together, drinking tea and doing nothing of huge importance. Wonderful.

I think it's very important that in any relationship you do some things on your own separate from your partner. Doesn't matter what it is, but really you do need to make sure you keep your own interests and perhaps make sure that you have some time to yourself sometimes. That's the only way that you can truly appreciate what you've got together. And we've got a good thing going!

First Days of Winter

2007-10-19T21:02:00.000+01:00

It has suddenly turned cold. This morning it was joy to walk to work in the freezing air, big winter coat on for the first time in months and you know, a crisp, sunny winter's morning is a thing of wonder. At least when it's the first one anyway.

I think it might come as a bit to a shock to Steve though, when he returns. Coming back from 36 degrees to this will be a bit of a downer really!
I have missed him you know. I've had a busy week, which has been great and all, but I miss him not being there to cuddle up to at the end of the day and I miss our silly, inconsequential conversations and just having him around really. I hope he's had a great time.

I'm getting on with the long task of putting videos onto DVD tonight. I'm concentrating on music for a change, which in many ways is something of an even more arduous task than others, because it's best to get each track as a separate chapter for ease. That and the fact that all the miscellaneous music tracks are spread over many, many different vidoes doesn't help much. Still never mind. Glastonbury 98 has provided many good songs and I've just found some nice stuff from Later... With Jools Holland, including The Bluetones, which'll please Steve.

Otherwise, there's not a great deal else to say. I'm planning a trip to meet Lis Sladen next weekend and hopefully to go and meet David Tennant and Freema Aygeman on Monday 5th November. Both are pretty exciting! Lets hope I can make it, eh?

Uncommon Days

2007-10-18T08:08:00.000+01:00

You know, I simply haven't been given a chance to miss Steve this week. I don't know if people are taking pity on me, or what, but I've had more invites out for dinner this week than I've had for ages! I was at Vic and Mark's for dinner on Tuesday (and was reading Luke a bedtime story when Steve phoned) and last night Dad invited me over. I'm not complaining, but it does mean that all the Blake's 7 reviews I'd promised myself I'd simply aren't going to get done now. Ah well. It's only a small problem.

I had a lovely day on Monday. I travelled down to Bournemouth for the day to see my good friend Stephen Oakes. I'd been promising we'd come down and see him for over a year, but as usual, hadn't quite got round to doing it, so I thought it was long past time I did. I had a really nice day too, which makes it all the better. His family were really welcoming in, and I chatted away to his Mum, and later his Dad. His family might be one of the few that discuss the relative acting merits of various Doctor Who companions down the years over dinner! That was unexpected I can tell you!
Anyway, we drank a great deal of tea, talked about Doctor Who a great deal (he doesn't get the chance to talk to anyone else about it very often) and had a nice walk in the afternoon. I know it doesn't sound too exciting really, but I just enjoyed his company and the chance to get to know him a bit better, as most of our contact has been through MSN Messenger really.

The train trip down there gave me the chance to get some reading done. I've just read The Raw Shark Texts, which was a brilliant novel. I love the way it twisted reality and was an action adventure set in a world of words and monsters that made of text. So imaginative, with a little twist at the end that was quite poignant. A really good novel!
I also managed to read Alan Bennett's new novella, An Uncommon Reader, which was highly enjoyable. It was all about the Queen developing a love of reading and how it changes her life. What I liked about it was that it emphasised all the great things about reading, the way that it can inform your view of the world and the way that a good novel can make you forget all the other things that are going on in your life and provide a bit of escape. And how addictive it can become if you let it! Great stuff, with a twist at the end that made me smile!

Sunday Morning Thoughts

2007-10-14T10:01:00.000+01:00

Fortunately the much mooted car boot sale has been postponed for yet another week until next Sunday, so i got to stay in bed this morning. It was much needed. So here I am at the PC listening to Shirley Bassey (oh my! How gay!) in my dressing gown waiting for the water to heat up so I can have a bath.

I'm going to have a lot of time to myself this week, as after this weekend of Steve playing computer games, he'll be flying out to Abu Dhabi tomorrow lunchtime. It'll feel very odd without him here, but I'm sure I'll soon settle into it! No, I will miss him I'm sure, after all, I'll have to get up int he morning and make my own cup of tea and sandwiches! I think he'll have a great time and it'll be a great trip- standing out in the desert looking at a new motorway... and being paid for it too!

He's been a bit stressed the last few days and seems to have gone round upsetting people all over the place, or at least he thinks he has anyway. The stuff over the production of his story was a bit silly really, and I don't really think I was very supportive. I just left him to it and hoped for the best. Of course, the best probably came out of it last night once he'd calmed down a bit!

Thursday

2007-10-11T20:59:00.000+01:00

"I never could get the hang of Thursdays"
Thursdays are odd days. It's possibly our quietest day at Birch Hill, and even this morning's sunshine (after the thick early morning fog) didn't bring them out today. Ah well. It wasn't really for the best today, as my poor member of staff (not naming names) needed some distraction. In what's turning into one of those weeks, she came in this morning and after I'd asked her if everything was OK after her husband crashed the car, she burst into tears. Turns out the crashed car brought several things to a head and her husband is leaving her. Oh my! They always seemed so well suited and so happy too, so it really did come out of nowhere. I gave her a hug and suddenly people were ringing the bell because we were a minute or two late opening up. You don't get a moment's grace when it comes to opening up.

So she looked distracted all morning, as you would do really. She put up a new display, which took her most of the morning, and I tried to keep her as occupied as possible. It's difficult to know what to do for the best in these situations- but hopefully I did OK. As her manager I assured her, I'd do all I could to help her and as a friend, I promised her if she needed someone to talk to, I was there. What more can you do.

There's been a children's survey this week. It's going well I think, we're certainly hitting most of the quota, which is good. I think we're getting good feedback too, which is always good. Latest issue stats show we're improving month on month at Great Hollands, and the Birch Hill stats are variable, but high in general. Hooray! Something good on Thursday.

Positive thinking

2007-10-09T19:34:00.000+01:00

It's been a somewhat odd day really and I suppose in many ways I've been rather distracted by Andrew's news. It's one of those things you don't quite expect- Andrew is a couple of years older than I am, and he's just been diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. I, like many others I suspect, never think that cancer happens to people my age. But it does, of course it does.
He was with us at the weekend, and really we had no idea. He was as upbeat and cheerful as usual and really good company. And he didn't want to tell us either because he was having such a lovely time. He's so positive about beating it though, which is fantastic. He's got the right attitude and I really hope he comes through it. I've not known him for all that long, so I'd like to have the chance to get to know him better if I can. Fingers crossed eh?

As I said earlier in the year when Uncle Dave was diagnosed, it's not easy to know what to say, so I again I just sent all my very best wishes and said I'd go and watch Doctor Who with him while he's recovering. Perhaps it's enough to know he has loads of friends looking out for him. I hope so.
This is another example of why PS is somewhat unique in forums- the place has been full of well wishers all day and I noticed lots of private messages going his way all day. That's good. Really good.

The news did sort of distract me most of the day. I left the library keys at home this morning, which caused all sorts of logistical problems for everyone, as did the rain, but we got through them OK. It was good to have Pat back though.
Steve could off to Abu Dhabi in the next week. We're not quite sure when though. I'll miss him- I'll have to make my own lunches and cups of tea while he's away!

Christmas comes early!

2007-10-08T21:15:00.000+01:00

I'm feeling knackered today after another fun weekend. We had a houseful of people to record Steve's play, Doctor Who and the Christmas Gnomes. Great fun was had by all, which is nice. We didn't get started on the recording until rather late in the day, which meant a late dinner and a late start to the drinking on Saturday night, but that didn't seem to stop us going for that with customary gusto. Much wine and beer was consumed, if the trip to the bottle bank yesterday afternoon is anything to go by! We played a few rounds of Jonno's drinking game, which is enough to slaughter anyone- and certainly did poor old Ant Cox in, not that I think he really minded. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and as I went to bed at 2.45am, they were just starting to watch 1999's Doctor Who night... even I wasn't really up for that!

The recording seemed to go well. I think Steve really enjoyed being in charge and getting things done his way! He's not quite as laid back as Si is in the directing stakes, but they both get the best from their actors. I had a blocked noce and a rather fragile voice, so my part sounds rather husky this time, but it's still recognisably Vera-esque I think. Some of the other performances are quite wonderfully insane, which is probably just what this script needs.

So it was lovely to welcome to our place. It was a shame Andrew and Ant had to rush off on Saturday night, and as always there's never enough time to chat to everyone properly- I never seem to get time to have a decent chat with Si these days! But there was the chance to talk to Dave Tudor on Sunday when everyone else had headed home and to Pip and Tim before everyone else arrived on Saturday (and we're having Pip to stay for the PS meet, which'll be nice) but I'm sure it won't be long until we see everyone again, anyway. It never is and that's a good thing!

Paul and Jody came up on Sunday with Tabby and William. It was their first visit to our place and it was really good to finally welcome them! Tabby and William of course stole all the attention whenever they could, and it's quite clear that our house really isn't set up for children! If I'd had more time and been less hungover we could have sorted that out a bit more than we did. Ah well. It didn't matter though. I can't believe how much they've grown up in the few months since we last saw them. I suppose because I see Luke and Annabel all the time I don't really notice how much they're changing all the time.
Anyway they seemed to enjoy Steve's cake and the trip to the playground over the road was fun too. William got thoroughly covered in mud, which is how it should be. I'm not sure Charlie enjoyed all the attention he got, especially as both William and Tabby were quite excited to see him running around, but I'm sure he's recovered now.
It was just a shame I was a bit hungover and that meant I wasn't as chatty as I should have been. Hey ho.

Today I've had a quiet day. A bit of DVDing stuff, a bit of watching and two wonderful episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, which I'm not ashamed to say I'm enjoying immensely!

All Bunged Up.

2007-10-02T08:34:00.000+01:00

I feel like I could sleep forever right now. This is not good, as I really ought to go to work today. I'm full of cold and didn't sleep too well last night as I spent much of the night coughing. Steve got so irritated by it, that he came down and slept on the sofa, which then made me feel ever so guilty (until I fell asleep again). At the moment I can't tell whether it's lack of sleep or whether I'm just so full of cold that I feel so rubbish today. It's probably some of both. Ah well, I'll does myself up and go to work and come hope and flop down on the sofa. I can do that.

We had a great weekend. We went to stay with Richard and Mike in Ipswich. It's a long old trip, but it's worth it, because we had a great time. It's very good getting to know Mike a bit better and it's really wonderful after all this time to see Richard looking happy and settled. They seem very good for each other. We didn't do a great deal on Saturday night, but that didn't matter really, we drank some wine, ate some great food and had a good chat all evening. That seemed to work just fine really!
Sunday was good. We went up to where Mike works and borrowed some bikes and cycled round the farm and up some country lanes; very different to where we usually cycle! It was good. The sun was out and since we're all about as fit as each other, no one was out ahead all the time! Richard and Steve enjoyed seeing the cows in the fields too!

On the way home, we popped in to see Steve's Gran and Auntie Betty. That was good. They always make me laugh, especially Auntie Betty and her rather downbeat outlook on things (she asked me if I thought Charlie would have drowned if I hadn't been there to rescue him from the pond!). It's always worthwhile. :)

History Tours and Birthdays

2007-09-23T17:17:00.000+01:00

Magical History Tour is out there!
I've been really pleased with the response to it so far. There's been lots of lovely positive comments about the first episode, on all fronts really from the writing to the acting and the production itself. I've listened to the episode a few times now and I'm quite amazed at how far we've come from Echoes of the Protii. There's still a few microphone pops alas, which is something we really need to work on avoiding, but otherwise it is without doubt Planet Skaro's finest first episode yet! I can't wait to hear how the storyline ends.
I don't know if it';s because this story is our first big one actually written specifically for audio (and indeed the first one directly written for our team in the first place, the others being adaptations of existing novellas) that makes it better than the others, or just that we're all more confident on all levels now that we've done a few. It's probably a mixture of things. Certainly I have to say I'm rather proud of both my writing in this one (which listening to it back is really naturalistic, which is pleasing) and my acting too. I don't sound anything like Brian actually did, but I think I've caught the nervousness of him quite well. Certainly I've had a few nice comments, which made me smile.
I just hope the interest is maintained. I have no idea how many people have downloaded it or anything, but there certainly seems to have been more said on this one than the last download adventure, and I think the weekly episodes is a good idea, to maintain discussion of the story on Planet Skaro.

It's been a good weekend. Steve has been away, which usually makes me a bit of a misery, but there's been lots going on to distract me! I went off to work yesterday morning, which was fine, and then came home and waited for Jay to pick me up and take me over to Vic and Mark's.
It was Annabel's second birthday yesterday you see, and so we went over to celebrate. She seemed really happy, but more than a bit overwhelmed by it all. She got lots of pink presents, mostly clothes featuring Dora the Explorer, which is her favourite cartoon it seems. Her baby doll which gurgles and cries and sucks its dummy was a bit of a winner really, and as usual we had a good time bouncing on the trampoline together and doing lots of tickling! The joys of being an uncle!
We had a spooky moment where Luke reminded all of us of my brother when he was young! The strop he threw and the way he turned round and shouted at Jay after he'd been hit by a football in the face, was quite uncanny!
The new house is coming on really well. It's got a roof and everything now, which is huge progress since we last saw it. I'm just pleased that after all this time it's actually happening for them. They deserve something good after everything they've been through.
Me and Jay attempted to go to the cinema last night, but there wasn't anything good on, so we didn't in the end. We did have the chance to have a good chat though, which is rare and a lovely thing. We just don't the chance often enough to do that properly.

Wet Rabbit

2007-09-20T18:15:00.000+01:00

There was a bit of drama this evening while Neighbours was on. Charlie the rabbit fell in the pond. Fortunately I was watching him at the time or else we could have a poor drowned rabbit. I have no idea if rabbits can swim ( I suspect not since he was panicking trying to get himself out) so I've tried very hard to make sure he hasn't gone too near the edge. However, he's an inquisitive little rabbit and he's been tentatively sniffing the waterlilies and earlier on he did a miraculous jump over the width of the pond. He just wasn't so lucky on the way back.

So I fished out a rather damp rabbit, who promptly weed all over me. That's gratitude for you! Still the main thing is he's ok, and is still hopping around the garden (though nowhere near the pond) and just has a bit of damp bottom. Honestly it's like having children, you always have to one eye on them just in case of accidents! Hmm, better put back in the hutch as it looks like rain.

I had strange dreams last night. Actually I pretty uneasy night's sleep really. My feet were too hot. It's an odd thing but the moment my feet get too hot I can't sleep. I really should have got up and washed them in cold water, but there's always the hope that I might just be lucky and fall asleep again. It wasn't quite like that last night. I was very conscious of not waking Steve who had to be up early this morning to go and do some traffic surveying, so i just lay there thinking of nice colours trying to clam my brain down. It didn't work very well.
Anyway, after Steve got up and I fell asleep again I had a very intense dream that seemed to have me involved in some kind of early 80s BBC sitcom. It wasn't a very good one though. Then it sort of became "I've let everyone down" affair, because I kept forgetting to do important things for members of my family, and finally we drove somewhere and I accidentally ended up in a school reunion. That was horrible, everyone seemed to have done very for themselves and were as snooty as they always were- yes you Catriona and you Philip Herrington and they all looked down on me for being a lowly librarian. Weirdest of all was the thought of Andrew Fruin being a top record producer. Last time I saw him he had several screaming kids trailing behind him, not lots of adoring fans. I woke up and felt miserable. I don't think I'd ever want to go back and meet them.
This is the strange Facebook thing. I was recently contacted by a couple of people who were in my form at Ranelagh. I didn't really know if it was best to refuse their attempts to get in touch especially Toby who took great delight in taunting me for years. I don't really want to be reminded of that. I'm very happy with the life I have, and being reminded of a time when I wasn't very confident about anything and when because I was different I was made fun of isn't my idea of fun. But I still let them add me, because they'd made that little tiny bit of effort. silly, huh.

I still think Facebook is pretty damn wonderful though. I usually avoid these things, but I think this might be the one that lasts because its as interactive as you want it to be and much easier to use than any of the other sites I've seen. I just like being able to keep on touch with people so easily and organising get togethers is really easy too. That has to be a good thing!

In the bath

2007-09-16T20:33:00.000+01:00

I love a nice relaxing bath. 3/4 of an hour just lying there with some music, just thinking and relaxing. It's perfect and one of the few chances there is just to stop for a bit. Wonderful.

So, as you might guess, that's where I've been. In the bath for a bit. I was pondering lots of things in there, and feeling creative. I've got a play to rewrite over the next few months, as Heist! is having a change of companion, which normally would be a bit of a hassle. It actually fits better having just one companion (and a new one at that), as I wasn't really sure there was enough material for 2 companions, so I'm pleased. I've just got to do the little tweaks now to make it work.
The other thing I want to do is write a little short story set directly after Magical History Tour. There's just a little loose end I want to tie up before we send them all off on new adventures, as I think there needs to be a bit of a reconciliation between the Doctor and Nick. I thought a little short story would be the perfect way to explore that, and resolve it before we get on to the business with the Christmas Gnomes. I won't say much more for fear of giving away spoilers, but it's something I'll enjoy writing over the next few weeks.

It's been a nice quiet weekend. Lots of relaxing and not much incident. A good episode of Inspector Morse on Saturday night, suburban stuff today- washing my bike and Steve's car, chasing Charlie round the garden, cleaning the house... not exciting, but vital things. I think Steve needed a chance to stop for a bit. Actually I know we both needed that really. The best thing is, I get another chance to do that tomorrow! Hooray!

Bad Girls and refurbs

2007-09-13T20:38:00.000+01:00

Bad Girls-The Musical was exactly what you would expect, camp and silly with some serious moments. I loved it! The songs were catchy and fun, which helped a great deal (well it was a musical after all) with some memorably clever lyrics at times. I thought the recasting of the parts was done really well and there a couple of moments when I had to do a double take because they seemed so like their TV counterparts. The star though was Helen Fraser as Sylvia "Bodybag" Hollenby. She stole the show from everyone else, especially in her song and dance numbers, wrapped in a red feather boa and sparkly top. She rightfully got the biggest cheer at the curtain call. So great fun and a wonderful birthday present from Steve. He knew!

Things are pretty good at the moment. I just really haven't been in the mood for doing much blogging though. I think sometimes a little break is needed from these things, but I always end up regretting not writing about the things I forgot to write about!

There was a little good news at work today, as it seems the improvements that have been suggested for both my libraries recently have been agreed. This is good as they both are in desperate need of some attention, especially in the back office areas. Great Hollands in particular is quite grim really, especially as the only running water in the building is in the hand basin in the toilet. Not ideal. So finally we might be able to have a back office where both me and Pat can work at the same time, and at Birch Hill we might finally get some decent storage space and a back office space that is slightly more practical... well when it's done of course... it could turn out like Gaz's nightmare office refurb... let's hope not, eh?

Don't Stop Now

2007-09-06T08:19:00.000+01:00

Sometimes although there's a great deal going on, there isn't always much to say about it. I can't quite believe it's been 3 weeks since I last wrote on here, but there we go. You'll probably know what's been going on, as you'll have read Steve's blog in the meantime, so I won't bore you with a huge recap. The spare room does look good though, I've enjoyed going on a couple of bike rides with Steve and things are trundling on quite nicely really.

We've had some drama at work though. Last Wednesday there was a bit of an incident at Great Hollands involving four rather high teenage boys, the stuffed owl from the children's library and an on target throw... at the time it seemed rather harmless, but it's escalated as the customer involved has reported it as an assault to the police, looking back at the CCTV log it turns out one of the boys was snorting something while he was in the library and so I've ended up reporting the whole incident to the police. I just hope there aren't any reprisals- this is what I fear, but that doesn't really change the fact that I've done the right thing. We'll see how this one pans out.
On the plus side at work a customer at Birch Hill baked me a lovely lemon cake this week for all the help I gave her with a rather tricky library book problem. That makes it all worthwhile!

Work on the next play seems to be coming on well from the sounds of it. We had such a laugh the other night recording some interview material for the making of doc! We shouldn't laugh at our own jokes, but we just kept getting the giggles and getting sillier and sillier. I don't know how much of it is actually usable, or actually entertaining, but I hope Pip can find a use for it.
It sounds like Si is doing another wonderful job with the post production. I hope he does OK editing part 2. Part 2 is a bit of a tricky one really- I like the stuff with Nick and Brian, and the scene where Rob and Nick meet again is really important, but I'm not really too sure about some of the rest of it. I have to be honest and say I wasn't really a big fan of the Freddie cameo in the first place, and I don't think I wrote that bit very well either and so I'd quite happily see that edited out. I probably have an entirely different outlook on the play than Si does, having not heard many of the actual scenes assembled or even being recorded. It takes on a different life then. I do wonder if people will be able to guess which episodes were written by whom? We'll see.

Looking forward to seeing Richard, Si and Simon at the weekend for Bad Girls- The Musical. That should be a fun show.

The cesspits of Doctor Who fandom.

2007-08-16T08:12:00.000+01:00

Sometimes in our cosy and nice little corner of the Internet, it's easy to forget that there are Doctor Who fans out there that give us all a bad name. The fans who are never satisfied with any of the stuff that's created in the name of Doctor Who, fans who are unwilling to see any other point of view but their own, fans who cry out vendetta when other people argue with them... fans who think it's 1989 all over again, when fandom fought among itself. It didn't do any good then and sometimes it feels as if some fans haven't learnt a thing in all those years where everyone generally got along, united in the fact that the show was dead on TV.

Well we got reminded of that this week. Oh yes. A poster cried out that there'd been a "two year vendetta" aimed at him by Si, after Si laughed (quite naturally) at the suggestion they should make the BF mini-series Dalek Empire for TV. Funny how through the proceeding two years he'd never thought to mention this vendetta to anyone at all. He used to easy length reviews of stories and then get cross if no-one bothered to read them, but if they actually did, but disagreed with him, he wouldn't actually argue his point- he was more likely to slink off quietly or tell people they were wrong... anyway, he had his strop and was ever so nasty about Si. I stepped in and moderated it and probably didn't help a great deal, as I didn't really help Si out very much and we all read his frankly bizarre list of complaints. We'd heard it all before... cliques, nastiness... nothing new there. He came on ranted, ranted in a private message to me and then pissed off elsewhere to rant and rave some more.
Reading the ranting on The Anorak Zone was an eye opener. That forum seems to exist to complain about RTD's Doctor Who for all the things (in the eyes of its posters) isn't: adult drama, gritty, serious... oh you know, all the usual things people think Doctor Who should be, but isn't. It's a grim and nasty place, more so because that's where they go to complain about us! Well a couple of us anyway. Poor old Si seems to attract personal attacks, with several posters over there bearing a grudge against him... more perplexing was the mention of a certain member of our mod team and his wife, who'd been singled out for similar treatment. Quite honestly, he's one of the nicest people you could ever meet (not that I actually have, but I have a good idea he's as lovely in real life as he is online) (and actually, so is Si, one of my favourite people in the whole world) so the attack was jaw droppingly shocking! I was flabbergasted!
Steve would like to take the fight to them, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. Let them fester in the cesspool of a forum together and grow old and (even more) bitter. They deserve Tom, he'll fit in perfectly.

In much nicer stuff, I survived last weekend's fest mostly by reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and playing with Charlie and doing the barbeque. Charlie is lovely, despite weeing on the living room carpet the other night. It's good to be able to give him some attention, as I think he's been rather neglected the last few years. After a tentative start last week, he's now happy to run around the garden and be picked up (except when he's running around the garden!) and he's just ever so adorable!

Audited and Appraised

2007-08-09T08:36:00.000+01:00

It's one of those weeks at work where it's all happening. Funerals, sickness, events, audits and appraisals. I don't get weeks like that very often I'm pleased to say!
Firstly our little event at Birch Hill was a great success. Chrissy and Sheila came up from Bracknell to make animal masks with the kids. They all seemed to have a really enjoyable time (especially Chrissy and Sheila!) and the masks looked fab. The library was really buzzing all afternoon and despite a few tuts from some of our older users, I think it was a really good afternoon. We did seem to be descended by more staff than you usually see in my little library though! Lisa was off sick, so Maggie had come up to help out on the counter for the afternoon, then of course Chrissy and Sheila arrived, followed by Philippa who was coming to see how to run the event as she's doing one on Friday afternoon. Then Richard popped in to use the loo and finally Doreen came along to... well, I'm not really sure what she was there for really!

The audit has been a bit odd really. As I've only been in the job a few months I found some of the questions a bit difficult to answer really, and I felt like I was being interrogated at times about why things happen. To be fair, many of the processes we use are somewhat antediluvian, and I think the auditor was taken by surprise that we're not even at late 20th century levels of money control... Hmm, well maybe her report will finally mean we get to have a till in each library. I hope so.

As for the appraisal, well, I was surprised at how lightly I got off. I suppose because it's still early days in this job for me, there's every chance I've got it a bit easy this year! I'm not complaining though, as with two libraries I've got enough to do every day as it is. So I have to set up a reading group in both libraries (which I'd been considering anyway), have fortnightly events of some kind (which we do anyway, but with reminiscence sessions coming to Great Hollands in the autumn we'll be more than fulfilling) change displays more often (which I can happily delegate to Lynn and Lisa) and boost the figures (which has already started)... so easy!
I was really pleased to get some feedback on how I'm doing as well. It seems I'm highly thought of and doing very well in both places. I'm considered a safe pair of hands and in general I'm doing a great job at brightening up both libraries and especially at turning Great Hollands around. It's a good start, isn't it?
I feel there are some things I have to work on to get myself up to speed on the job; there's still lots I need to learn how to do to and even though I'm better than I used to be, I need to make sure I'm really well organised- sometimes I really feel like I'm winging it (but apparently it doesn't show, which is good!) but I'm feeling very positive about it all at the moment. In the moments where Great Hollands is full of people and there's a happy buzz I feel like I'm winning. I think I might be cut out for this job after all!

Tales of Tales of the City

2007-08-07T21:27:00.000+01:00

I've been reading Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin the last few days.

The Tales of the City series was one of the many things I read in my holidays during my time at Sheffield, and along with The Crow Road would probably be some of the novels I love the most. There was just something joyful in my discovery at them at just the right time in my life: when I was ready to expand my horizons a little, find out about some other lifestyles I didn't know anything about (I was incredibly innocent and naive at the time) and enjoy reading for the sake of reading for the first time since I was a kid. I just wanted to read novels like I'd never done before!

What I loved about the series at the time was the ease of the style. The original books were compiled from newspaper columns originally published in the San Fransisco Chronicle in the 70s and in many ways this was part of the appeal. The short chapters read like scenes in a soap opera and it was really easy to feel part of the characters' lives very quickly. They weren't all sympathetic, but like friends, the more you got to know them, the more you were able to accept them for all their faults.
Aside from the wonderfully eccentric Anna, the one I liked best was Mouse, Michael Tolliver. He struggled to find love, and often had it cruelly taken away from him. He had parents he felt didn't know him and wouldn't accept his sexuality and he was flawed, but funny and genuine. It seems right that of all the characters in the series that this final novel should be written from his point of view.

I still approached the novel with some trepidation though. After all this time would it feel the same? Would the characters still be recognisable?
The good news is that yes it did feel part of the same series and the continuation of the characters felt right and above all it was joy to find out what had happened to them since Sure of You.
There's tragedy, laughs and families and survival and death. Death hangs over the book the same way that it hangs over Michael. His survival seems to be against all the odds, and yet he's still hanging on, smiling and in love. What a wonderful thing that is to read.
For those who haven't read it and want to, I won't reveal the end, but it made me cry. I just found being back with them all so moving... it sounds silly, but I came to care for the characters a long time ago and sharing a little more of their lives was a wonderful thing.

Highly recommended!

More things and stuff that has been going on

2007-07-30T19:02:00.000+01:00

Good grief! I'm here again. It's been a while, hasn't it?

In my defence I've been busy. I've been to sunny Cornwall and had a lovely few days with my Grandma. She seemed in good spirits, but I do worry that she's actually a bit lonely without Grandad. She'd never say, of course, but there's just that little sense. That's why I think it's well worth making the effort to go down for days and spend some time with her, other than the obvious reason that it's great to spend some time with her.
We had a lovely time. I sorted out a few things on her PC and began to make some sense of Grandad's rather random photos (which took some doing- everything was on there about 3 times!) and she in turn helped plan next year's big trip to New Zealand, which she was ever so excited about on our behalf. We even had a day out and took the bus to Falmouth and went on a river trip up the river Fal to Smugglers Cottage where we had a lovely lunch and sat in the sun until there was a thunder storm! It was interesting to learn that General Eisenhower did his planning for D-Day there, and they did all the preparation for the operation around Falmouth. I had no idea.
So it was a lovely few days, and I relaxed and was well looked after. That makes it all worthwhile!

Came home, pottered around, didn't do much, which was exactly the right thing to do with my time off (although I did help Mum shift a couple of car loads of stuff down to the tip one afternoon) and read some good books.

At the weekend we went to Si and Simon's (via Ikea- always worth a trip... 9.45 on a Saturday morning is the quietest time I've been there. I'll remember that!) . The recording of the next audio adventure- Magical History Tour was the reason this time, and we did a really good job on that. We also recorded a little play that Steve wrote, which was good fun and it got a good performance out of Paul! I'm really pleased these are going well- we've done 4 this year so far and they've all been good fun to do. Isn't that the point? I think so. I really enjoy the writing and performing and I think, dare I say it, I'm actually not as bad as I thought I might be at the acting. I've played a bigger variety of characters than anyone else so far and I reckon I've done a good job with them all. Si was very complimentary about me, which was really pleasing to hear, especially as no-one really commented on my performance in Soap.
We took photos, we ate sandwiches, watched some treats and Si got drunk and accused the group upstairs of stealing Martin Penny, which was amusing! Oh and Debbie Harry is an icon. That was obvious.... everyone fancied her in the Blondie vids we watched!

Yesterday we went to see Transformers. Against all the odds it was a really enjoyable film. I thought I'd hate it, but I really enjoyed it. It was very exciting, rather funny in places and the plot just about hung together. And the robots were shiny. Hooray! Who'd have thought it, eh?

Interview Time

2007-07-12T21:11:00.000+01:00

Gareth challenged me- and in the interests of keeping this thing going , I have agreed to be interviewed... so here are my answers to Gaz's tricky questions!

1. What is your favourite cake/tea time treat, and why?
Battenburg Cake is still my all time favourite kind of cake. It's the mix of the vibrant colours, the ultra-sweetness and the marzipan that make it a winner. I haven't had any for ages though, and you know what I didn't even get a birthday cake this year either... hint, hint!

2. Trapped in a lift at a convention with Colin Baker or Nicholas Courtney? Why?
It would be easy to say Nick Courtney because there would be more room, but that would mean. I'm going to go for Colin, because he's a really lovely person, and a great raconteur. he could tell me some stories while we wait to be rescued and I'd be happy to chat away to him.

3. Rank in order of preference The Face of Boe, Vervoids, Sontarans & the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe; and explain.

Sontarans, Boe, Vervoids, Max.
Sontarans win because although the idea of a race living for war is quite a cliche, the idea of them being cloned was quite novel at the time. They looked good (well the first couple of stories anyway) too- a nice design.
Boe second because he's just so cool- especially when he teleports away at the end of New Earth.
The Vervoids third because although they looked rubbish, they had a pretty good motivation.
Max comes last because he was just a blob on the ceiling and they should have just let Simon Pegg be the villain in The Long Game.

4. What's the 2nd worst job you've had, and more importantly - why wasn't it the worst!
The second worst job I ever had was my holiday job at Tawny Transport. I was the boss's son and no-one really wanted to work with me. The only person who did was a guy called Kevin, who was ever so nice to me (and one of my Dad's few friends) and he sadly died a couple of weeks back.
The worst job I ever had was cleaning up after Ascot Races. It was hot, smelly, and poorly paid. I worked hard, got patronised by all the toffs at the racecourse and had a thoroughly miserable time of it for 5 days. On the last night I went and the decided it wasn't worth being there so cycled home again.

5. Top three favourite writers (screen/book/play whatever) - rank and explain!

1. Iain Banks: he's just awesome. As people might know I read The Crow Road one summer, and I was hooked. It made a huge impression on me at the time and remains my favourite ever novel. I've thoroughly enjoyed all his work (well I haven't actually read much of his SF stuff, but I keep meaning too) and it;'s incredibly exciting whenever he has a new novel out.

2. Terrance Dicks: I'll nominate Uncle Terrance because it was his books that made me want to learn to read in the firt place. I wanted to read his Target books on my own and indeed I quite quickly got up to the stage where I was able to. He was major influence on my childhood, not even just his Doctor Who books, I'd read anything he wrote! He also wrote some crackiong Doctor Who stories of course too!

3. Thomas Hardy: My favourite classic novelist. I just love the way his books are so doomy. There's more misfortune in the lives of his characters than most novelists would even attempt, and yet they're not really depressing. They're quite captivating tragedies. He was the first author I sought out when my English Lit teachers at school encouraged me to read more widely and I suppose I have a fondness for him for that reason.

So who wants to be interviewed?
01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
03. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The events of recent days

2007-07-12T08:16:00.000+01:00

I had a lovely birthday. We were up early to take advantage of a rare full day of sunshine and experience the thrills of Thorpe Park. Over the last couple of years we've talked about making the trip to Alton Towers, but that's just too far away for a day trip, so we settled on one of the local theme parks.
Legendarily, Chessington World of Adventures was the better of the two, having the better rides and the lovelier setting and animals and all, but over the last couple of years they've made an effort to put some better rides in at Thorpe Park, and so it won the honour of hosting my birthday trip!
It was great! In some ways I've lost some of my fear of rides. I used to be a big wuss and wouldn't try anything that turned you upside down or went too high or whatever excuse I could find. However this time I was willing to give anything a go, except Stealth. Stealth is a beast of a ride, rising 205 feet in the air and reaching 88mph. No way. Far too high! I got vertigo just looking up at it!
But the other rides were great fun. Colossus and Nemesis Inferno being highlights. The Tidal Wave was pretty good too, if only because on a hot day like Saturday getting drenched by gallons of water was a joy. There's a wonderful moment on that ride where you're at the epicentre of the explosion of water and it all just seems to be hanging in the air around you... before it all pours down on you. That was good!
After an exhausting day of queuing in the sunshine we went back to Chris's place for a barbeque. I ended up doing the cooking, but I'm not going to complain about that because it all turned out rather well. Even the chicken, which isn't the easiest thing to get right on the bbq!

I got some great presents and want to say a big thank you to everyone who joined us at Thorpe Park and all my wonderful friends who sent cards and texts during the day. It always makes me feel special you know.

Sunday was our uncool day, as we took Mum and Dad to see Genesis with us. To be honest, these days I'm beyond caring about what's cool and what isn't and I'm happy to like things just because I like them! So yes I rather like Genesis! Growing up with them, how could I not, really?
The show was pretty awesome really. The set list was designed to appeal to fans of all their many periods, which worked well. In fact I probably enjoyed this more than any other time I've seen them, because the set list was so good. There was stuff played yesterday evening that I never thought I'd hear them play live- The Cage Medley which was simply awesome, Ripples which was a huge surprise and starting with Behind the Lines (without the singing anyway) which was a brilliant barnstorming opener.
The songs were really well chosen, as they played a set that would keep fans of all their periods happy. The songs from the mid 80s stand up so much better live too!I was sad they didn't do That's All, and there were several other more unlikely songs I'd have loved them to do, but they were always the really unlikely ones! The only one I'd rather they hadn't done was Hold On My Heart, which is a bit dreary...They can certainly put on a show. Phil may not be cool, but he can work a crowd wonderfully. It's always good to see the tambourine theatrics again!So good stuff, and the second best comeback of the year!

And then a pretty ordinary week at work. I'm feeling pretty knackered after the weekend though, so I'm pleased that I'm off work and going down to Cornwall to stay with Grandma next week. Actually I'm really looking forward to that trip- it'll be restful and I'll be well looked after I know! I think it's important to make the effort to get down and see her, firstly because I love her to bits and secondly because these days I'm ever more aware that you never know how much time your older relatives have got left and I'd kick myself later if I didn't make the most of the opportunities to go and spend time with her before the inevitable. I've been more aware of that since Grandad died a couple of years back.

We went to see Dad's new place this week too. It's compact but rather nice really. It's a little flat above a garage, and is a whole lot nicer than i expected. I think he'll be very happy there- in fact he already seems to be happier! I couldn't live there because of the pitched ceilings which slope to heights that would make things difficult for me! I'm pleased to see him getting sorted. I was sure for a while he wasn't going to!

Being there.

2007-07-02T21:24:00.001+01:00

Sometimes it's very difficult to know how to react. Last week, one of my Dad's few friends died. He was a guy called Kevin and he was a really great guy. He was one of the few people I worked with when I was a holiday stand in at Tawny Transport during my university holidays that treated me without contempt and actually made me feel it was worth my time being there. I never got to know him too well, but he was always friendly and there to help if he could when needed, and he helped me out when I moved from Croxley Green all those years ago. It's his funeral tomorrow and I'm going with Dad.
I don't quite know how I feel, about funerals. I've only been to one, Grandad's, and that was really harrowing. This one will be different, and harrowing for other people, but it's still sad, isn't it?

This evening I learnt that my Uncle Dave has prostate cancer. How are you supposed to react to that? It's very difficult to know what to think and say. It's quite advanced and because of his ongoing stomach problems he can't have Radiotherapy or chemo, so I'm not quite sure what else they can do to stop it. I suppose he'll find out tomorrow in hospital in Bristol. The good thing is that this type of cancer has a good survival rate, even in the fairly advanced stage his is in, so hopefully they'll be able to do something to stop it spreading further.
But how do you react to that? He's not an uncle I'm really close to, but that doesn't change the fact that he's family and I have to be there for him, if needs be. Not that I can do much to help really I suppose. Just keep Dad positive. Prhaps for now, that's enough.

A good weekend/ some Bad planning

2007-06-26T21:36:00.000+01:00

The rest of the weekend was really good too. As mentioned in the last entry, we had Dave Tudor down to stay with us for the weekend. It's been really good to spend some time with him and get to know him a whole lot better. It's all very well meeting people at the Planet Skaro meets a couple of times a year, but you never really have a chance to have a good long chat with people and really have time to get to know them well, so it was great to finally have an opportunity to chat with him... and we did lot of that!
He was really good company all weekend, very easy going, no trouble at all- just what you want from a house guest! I hope we helped a little with his new job dilemma and that he wasn't too bored having to go round Sainsburys with us on Sunday afternoon (though it was only a little trip, so it was probably OK). We took him to meet the local group at a hastily arranged meet on Sunday afternoon, he survived a visit from my sister and her family on Sunday afternoon and was still laughing when we walked to the station in the rain on Monday morning (it was somehow appropriate!)

We managed to get all his scenes in the can for the forthcoming Magical History Tour play too! That was a bit of a laugh. We'd both had a couple of pints with lunch, so we were nice and relaxed and we had great fun! There's a few outtakes, a few ad libs and one stunning moment that won't make it into the play, but might make people laugh... but I won't spoil the surprise. there was even a scene that was really emotional charged and I think the two of us played it really well and it's going to be really moving in the finished piece. I hope so anyway.

Making arrangements for Saturday has been very awkward and stressful tonight. Sometimes being obligated to do family things is a bit of a downer. I'm not sure I really want to go, but it is important that I'm there to celebrate my Mum's birthday, isn't it? Oh I don't know. I felt caught between two worlds tonight. Still, we'll have everyone over for a barbeque or something in August or sometime to make up for it or something. I feel bad though, as Steve had only sent the invites out a few hours before. Bad timing.

Wet in Hyde Park

2007-06-25T21:31:00.000+01:00

I suppose after two great, hot and sunny concerts in Hyde Park over the last few years we were due a wet one. And we certainly got one. There we were, thinking we'd got away with it, when suddenly, without much warning there was a clap of thunder and an absolutely torrential downpour for 20 minutes, from the end of Crowded House and just before Peter Gabriel. Even the large blue plastic sheet some enterprising person in front of us managed to set up as impromptu rain shelter wasn't quite enough to keep us dry. Still, it was all worth it. Oh yes!

The concert day began with a search for a Crowded House T-shirt. Unfortunately the one I really wanted had sold out, but the one I got is really lovely so I'm happy with that. I couldn't afford one last time I saw them, in June 1994 at the end of my first year in Sheffield, so it was great to be able to this time.
The Ghosts were the first band we saw. They were average. The singer's voice seemed lost against the music, which was pretty but uninspired. There was a speedy stage change, and burgers, and half hour later The Feeling were up on stage. The sun came out with them too! They were really good. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from them, but I was really pleased with what we did get. They've got mammoth stage presence, looked like they were enjoying themselves and got the crowd in their hands by playing a cover of Video Killed The Radio Star, and doing it brilliantly. Very good, and a band I'd like to see on their own, because a full set would be wonderful to see.
Peter Gabriel, who was on last, was of course a star. In one of his more obscure moods, he left the set list up to the fans and so we got treated to some of the more obscure tracks that you wouldn't expect to hear. Poor Dave didn't recognise many of them! In the midst of the unknown, we did get some favourites: a stirring up-tempo Solsbury Hill; an encore of Sledgehammer, which the audience were singing before it started; a brilliant rousing Steam and a really lovely Blood of Eden, which is one of my favourites. It was great to see him enjoying himself so much (and only a few feet away from us, as he came down the ego ramp with his bassist and lead guitarist) and it's nice to be able to knock another legend off my list of people I've always wanted to see live.

The best though, were Crowded House. I was always against the idea of them reforming, just in case they ruined all the magic by not being quite as good as they used to be. It might have tarnished them. I should have known better and trusted Neil Finn not to put a foot wrong. They were magnificent. On form? At their best! They seemed to be enjoying themselves so much- Neil Finn with his new Rod Stewart hairdo, Nick Seymour smiling away as he played, Mark Hart as cool as ever and the new guys Matt Sherrod doing well on the drums and Liam Finn on guitar and backing vocals...
It was simply amazing for me to be there hearing them play some of the songs I never thought I'd ever hear live again. They started with an energetic Locked Out (which Steve had only said a few hours before he'd like to hear live!) before playing a mix of old favourites- we got to do crowd versions of Weather with You and Four Seasons in One Day (for Paul, touchingly).The new songs came over really well, which makes me look forward to the new album next week, particularly the new single Don't Stop Now and the very atmospheric Silent House.
Then in the middle they played Fall at Your Feet. Oh my! It sounded so gorgeous. It hit me then that I was really seeing them and I felt myself welling up a bit. Then, after that they went into Distant Sun, and I cried. I was really overwhelmed. It's never happened at a gig before, but this was something really special for me. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I was there.

The rest of the weekend was great too, but that's a story for another time!

Grumble, Grumble

2007-06-20T21:16:00.000+01:00

We're not swimming. It's a standing joke that one of us will find an excuse. We couldn't go on Monday because we needed to buy food (and I was in a really grumpy mood too) and tonight we can't go because Steve's foot is sore and he's tired and a bit grumpy too.

It's pretty much been that kind of week- all hassles and grumbles. Mum and Dad are behaving like kids at the moment, bickering over all the small details as the time gets closer to them going their separate ways. There's just little digs at each other that they make to all of us, as well as the more selfish and spiteful things. Mum's birthday is a case in point. It's her 50th on Saturday (just don't do the maths) and we wanted to take her out for a meal. We left this Saturday so that Adam could do something with her (not that we're really interested in that, but Jay is away, so we'll let them have this one) and decided on next Saturday instead. The plan changed a number of times. It was happening, it wasn't... Steve invited people round when I thought it wasn't happening. Now, it is happening, apparently. Well, Steve says we're not going. Everyone else says I have to. *sigh* Then Dad refused to babysit for Vic, so Mark might have to stay at home, and there's the general feeling that Mum doesn't actually care if we do it or not.
So I've suggested meeting for lunch on the Saturday instead. It might work as a compromise. I'm just trying to keep everyone happy, but I feel in a really awkward situation right now and I'm really fed up of it all.

Actually I'm pretty fed up in general of people telling me what I should do with my time. I'm perfectly capable of deciding that for myself, but you wouldn't know it. Yes, I haven't sorted my driving licence out, but I'm perfectly capable of doing that when I want to do that thank you very much. I'm far more likely to do it if people just leave me to it. I'm really been getting to me this week, as you can probably tell.

Still on the plus side I have plotted a potential audio adventure.I rather like it. It;s the bare bones of an outline and it needs some tweaking, but I think it works. I don't like plotting much, I much prefer the actual writing, but it's a good exercise to try it out and see if you can make it work. I need to do it more often, to practice. I'm sure the more you do it, the easier it'll become. I'm good on the initial idea, but the mechanics of the plot often let me down.
Oh and well done Steve, who's story came runner up in the BF story competition. He's very good you know and I'm ever so proud.

On The Up!

2007-06-13T21:47:00.000+01:00

I'm feeling much more cheerful today. Yesterday's problems got sorted out with a a message or two between us, and everyone is playing nicely today. Hooray!

I had a good day at work. I've spoken a little in the past about the tensions between me and Glynis when I first started, and I'm pleased to say that we really have turned the corner. She seemed genuinely pleased to see me back today and was chatty and very friendly. I'm pleased about that, because I don't like to feel that I'm making anyone feel uncomfortable, particularly when we have to spend several hours together in a small library! Lynn was pleased to see me back too, but then she always is, which is nice!

That's it really. We has a nice bowl of raspberries after dinner. I love raspberries.

Overreactions

2007-06-12T18:10:00.000+01:00

What a strange old day it's been on Planet Skaro. In some ways I suppose it's all my fault, at least from the point of view of starting the whole thing off. Pip didn't take my actions well. Actually that's quite possibly an understatement, but I think if you're going to be a member of the admin team of a forum then you have to set an example to the rest of the forum and be beyond reproach.
As it is, what he actually did was quite a minor thing, just a sarky comment about a new thread (a thread that was pretty ropey to be honest, but hey, at least the guy was starting a new thread) that had been posted. What got me was that Pip does this kind of thing all the time. He makes comments that are downright rude or nasty and passes them off as "cheeky banter" by putting an emoticon after them, and I know that he's upset one or two people in the past with them. So anyway, I waded in and closed the thread before it got out of hand (because there was an argument brewing, which began shortly afterwards when the poster found the comment). This was apparently knee jerk reaction. Well yes it was, because that's what all moderation is about. Anyway I sent a message to Pip saying that I felt he was out of order, and later I sent another one to him explaining my actions because I got cross about the knee jerk reaction comment. if you want to challenge another mods actions you shouldn't do it in front of everyone else.
I didn't get a reply.
Anyway, there was another thread that somehow turned into an argument and I feel like it's all my fault for daring to do what I felt was right in the circumstances. *sigh* Perhaps I shouldn't bother in future.

Anyway, enough of that. It's taken up too much of my thoughts today. Perhaps I should talk about how in the midst of this I had my images of a happy childhood shattered. No I don't feel like mentioning that either.
Good news. My ultrasound scan and blood tests have shown nothing abnormal, so I'm officially well. Hooray. That's something.

I'm back, and to prove it I'm here!

2007-06-08T21:51:00.000+01:00

I'm back!

The good news is that I'm feeling a whole lot better than I did a fortnight ago. I still don't know exactly what was wrong with me. The abdominal pains weren't caused by a kidney infection, which was my doctor's first thought, which is probably a good thing. I don't fancy having kidney problems. I've had a blood test this week and I'm going for an ultrasound scan on Monday morning (no tea and breakfast for me on Monday) so maybe they'll turn something up. Of course, it's probably just some strange virus that's shaken me up and we may not ever find out what it is, but we can at least try.

I'll have to go back to work next week now. Good thing I've got a week off the following week isn't it? I hope they've missed me. I haven't really heard much, for which I'm very grateful. I've had a good rest.

So I haven't really been up to very much. I've watched one or 5 Doctor Who stories, caught up with some DVDs that needed watching (including The Queen, which was superb) and read some novels (two in two days, which was fun!) but not much else. Quite right too!

Elliott's New Moon.

2007-05-17T08:24:00.000+01:00

There was a "new" album by Elliott Smith released last week, New Moon, and it finally arrived here yesterday. Of course, being dead, it's not a "new " album in the sense of being new material, but instead it's an album of demos, unreleased material and some live radio spots. The fragile nature of the songs- just him and his guitar most of the time is rather affecting and moving. The songs I've always liked best by him are the little acoustic ones where he seems to be bearing his soul to the world because he's not hidden under away behind the arrangement. He can't hide in the strings!
What's always been special about him for me, is that for years he was mine. I didn't know of anyone else that had heard him or indeed anyone else that liked his work. The few people I'd introduced to his songs weren't very enthusiastic about him, so he was someone that I could appreciate and keep to myself. Sometimes we all need to have something that only we appreciate I think. And Elliott was mine. Of course, now I see that he has a huge and dedicated fanbase online, and they all feel the same way. I don't want to be involved in that- I want to keep my appreciation to myself.
Even all these years after he rather graphically committed suicide, I still haven't bought all his albums. It's an odd thing really I suppose, because I love his work and the albums I have by him are some of my most played CDs, especially the wonderful Figure 8. Yet I haven't made the effort to buy them. I think the reason is that I know there's a limit to what "new" material there's going to be from him in the future, and if I don't buy all his albums all at once, then there's always going to be something new from him for me to find. Silly huh? It makes a kind of sense to me though.

I was rather overwhelmed by new music last night really, as I also heard the new Crowded House single too. It's being streamed from their official website, and I couldn't resist a listen. I was pleased to find that it's really rather good. A grower I think, but I'm sure I'll be giving it the chance to really win me over!
It's always a risk getting a band back together, and I always said I'd rather they didn't do it because there's a huge chance they'll never regain their past form. Especially since they're my favourite band ever. Yet, on hearing the news, I was elated and pleased, and having heard some of the new material recently, I don't feel that elation was misplaced.
It's only a few weeks until we go and see them now, and it's rather exciting. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Having musical heroes is a risk because they can so easily let you down. I'm so pleased and lucky that my biggest ones never have.

Drowsy

2007-05-15T21:09:00.000+01:00

I'm feeling absolutely drained of energy at the moment. A combination of too much going on and not enough sleep I think. I slept really well last night, and there was a bonus lie in until a very late 7.45 this morning too, but it's left me curiously unrefreshed. today. Indeed I'm feeling all drowsy again now. Maybe I should just give in and sleep again. It's obviously what my body is trying to tell me.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Why? Because we're not doing anything! There's nothing planned, other than our regular trip to the pub on Friday evening to meet the Doctor Who group! This is the first in recent memory. I can't wait to just chill out at home, clean the house (and my goodness does that need doing) and not worry about how we're going to fit everything into a busy weekend. We might even get to the cinema to see Spidey 3 or 28 Weeks Later (which might be too frightening for me though...) but of we don't, then, we don't. It'll just be nice not to have to worry about being sociable if we don't want to be.

Today I recommend the new Rufus Wainwright album. It's just great and perfect for my tired and melancholy mood. Gorgeous and dense and clever and lovely.

The Wedding!

2007-05-08T08:02:00.000+01:00

What a day Saturday was! Exhausting, exhilarating and emotional- the way all weddings should be!

The day began quietly at home. I had my instructions, where I had to be and at what time, and then Vicki phoned with some extra ones to help me along. That was fine. I like to know where I've got to be and at what time, and once that's settled, I'll be there. And so we were. At 10.30, we arrived at the church to leave the car before getting a lift over to Jay's house from Dad.

Things were calm there. No really. Jay didn't seem very nervous at all, which is I suppose a good sign that he's doing the right thing (not that I'd doubted that- they're a great couple). There was lots to do. Jay rushed off with Laura's brother to get his hair done. Mark and Mike polished the cars and me and Steve sat watching the TV... there wasn't much for us to do at that time. We had some lunch, Jay returned and suddenly it was time to get ready... smart suits on, last minute details, a quick photo and off... to the pub for one last pint at The Stag in Ascot.

Don't we look smart? So anyway, we arrived at the church possibly a little later than we should have done, and got down to some serious ushering. Within 10 minutes we had everyone sat in the church (aside from a large portion of my family who turned up only moments before the bride!) and were ready to go. Laura soon arrived too and looked absolutely stunning. She's very, very pretty anyway, but as with all brides, she looked amazing. She grinned all the way down the aisle and just looked so pleased to be there- as did Jay when he saw her! And quite right too!

The service was good. We sang the hymns loudly, watched them make their vows and suddenly it was time for my reading. I'd practiced alot during the week, to make sure that i didn't read too fast this time round, and I think I suceeded too. It went really well and I didn't trip over my words. I was really pleased and I got a huge beam from Laura and Jay at the end, which made it worthwhile. Before long they'd exchanged their rings, and we ushers had followed them round to the lady chapel as they signed the register, and then we followed them out for procession and the photos!

Don't they all look happy? There were lots at the church, but it didn't feel excessive, mostly because the phtographer was so much fun- always laughing and enthusiastic and getting the best from everyone there. That's what you want. This was also the time for ctaching up with everyone inbetween photos, as there were so many people I hadn't seen for ages. The main problem with a big family wedding is that there's never enough time to ctach up with everyone properly. There were people I wanted to chat too more, but simply didn't get the oppotunity to do so, which was a shame. Being an usher and a brother too, I did have to be in lots of photos, which meant Steve was pretty much left on his own for quite some time too. I think he coped OK, but my family is large and overwhelming, and it left him in a bit of a state at the end of the day, after everyone had come up to him and said hello. I forget what it's like, because I've grown up with them!

The happy couple left for the reception and we soon followed them. Great Fosters was quite a venue I have to say. Immense and beautiful gardens, a lake, gooses, a maze... wonderful setting and the staff worked hard throughout the day to ensure the day ran smoothly. It was a couple of hours until the meal, so there were more photos to be taken, more socialising to do, more time to watch Luke, Lily and Annabel run around! The sun came out for this part of the day too, which made it all the more special as it had been overcast and a bit cold all morning, so there was lots to enjoy.

The tithe barn was quite a setting for dinner too. The photo doesn't really do it justice I'm afraid, as it looked really stunning. The flowers on the tables were beautiful, as was the cake...

The meal was good too, though no-one was particularly fond of the starter it seemed. The beef was brilliant though, as was the pudding. Inbetween courses we had a limerick about Jay and Laura to write and Mike and myself went round the tables to make sure everyone was ok and having a good time. Some tables were easier to talk to than others, but it was well worth making the effort.

Then the speeches. They were superb. Brian was great, sharing some lovely stories about Laura and Jay, while Jonathan managed to reduce just about everyone to tears. It's easy to forget that underneath all his cool exterior, he's actually a great big softie really, and his speech left all the softness exposed, just as it should! We have had our problems over the years, but I wouldn't ask for anyone else to be my brother really... we've had so many fun time together in the past, and there are many more to come too I'm sure. Anyway, Mark was able to share some of those stories from the past in his speech. It was just lucky that Jay had had such a silly childhood really, imaginary friends the whole lot! I was pleased to see his bear, Sammy made it along too- it wouldn't have been right if he wasn't there too! So lots of laughs and tears and then I read the limericks out, which got some more laughs too, even if I stumbled over the words a little because the light was bad and I couldn't read them very well, but no-one seemed to care too much!

The evening was more of the same-more chatting, some dancing, tea and cake! By midnight, Steve was completely overwhelmed and needed to go to bed... I understood, but I'm not sure I'm not sure I was as understanding as I could have been at the time. He coped really well with it all I have to say, as we're often in an awkward position at events like this, as we can't really be too coupley, for obvious reasons. There were times throughout the day i wish i could have hugged him and shown him off for the wonderful and special star he is... but I couldn't, sadly.

Anyway, this has been long enough... but there will be a few more stories from the weekend to come I'm sure. :)

Build up

2007-05-03T08:37:00.000+01:00

Wedding build up continues! I've practised my reading several times- though I don't think either the Thesp version or Vera's reading of it will be the style I go with somehow, as amusing as it'd be for me! I've just got to remember not to read it as fast as I read the Shakespearean sonnet at my sister and Mark's wedding. I think I'm a bit more confident about public speaking and the like now than I was then.
Jay popped in last night, and he seemed really unfazed by it all. That's good. I think all the organisation is about done and he can just get excited about it now, which is exactly the way it should be. I still can't quite believe my little brother is getting married though!

It's been a funny old week. I've been very tired and a bit grumpy at work and spent another morning bickering at Great Hollands yesterday. Oh well, it happens and it's not worth getting upset about really. So I won't.

I had fun cutting up songs for use in the next play, where music is going to be quite important. I think there's a few bits that will be of use to Si as incidental music as well as background music in the scenes to make 1967 come alive! Everyone is up for the recording, which again will be spread over two days because of Dave Tudor's availability, but I'm sure we can make it work. At least most of his scenes will be with me, making it easier than it might have been otherwise.

I've also watched almost all of Trial of a Time Lord this week. I'm not going to apologise for that or for the revelation that I enjoyed it more than I ever have done before- even the atrociously written Vervoids section was fun to watch-mostly because of the actors and the little things from that story that have become iconic among my friends. The Sil section was the best one though, as I finally feel I've got a good idea about what's actually going on there and it's very funny too. Honest!

A +3 Weekend

2007-04-30T19:31:00.000+01:00

It was a good weekend. Friday night's meet in The Manor was good- even with one of the bar staff shattering a galss all across our table. It certainly inspired a fair few puns for the rest of the evening (and indeed on our thread on PS!)

After work on Saturday we went up to see Jonno in Walthamstow. Honestly, Jonno is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He's always very welcoming and great company too and it's good to see him now that he's found himself a job, as he was quite different to when we saw him around this time last year, when you could tell that the lack of employment was really beginning to get to him. So it' good that his circumstances are better and he very kinly shouted us breakfast in the greasy spoon up the road from his place. Lovely! we even got to play Talisman, which I haven't had the oppotunity to play for a few years now- last time of course being with Gaz, who introduced me to the game way back in Sheffield. It looks like we're going to buy a copy from eBay- well if we can get one without being outbid anyway!

We popped in to see Paul and Lesley on the way home, after a spot of shopping in Watford. It's always nice to see them, as they're always make me feel very welcome, which is very nice! I was a bit quiet though, as I'm feeling very tired at the moment.

This week is the build up to the wedding of the year on Saturday. Everyone seems very stressed at the moment, so I'm glad that I'm on the periphery of it all. I'll turn up on Saturday, do my bit and enjoy the day. I think it'll be a great day- if it's as good as Vic and Mark's wedding was, then it'll be superb. I've got to practice my reading though, and get some early nights so that I'm not too knackered to enjoy the day.

Lack of Power

2007-04-27T08:14:00.000+01:00

I'm absolutely exhausted this week. I think, finally everything is catching up with me. With just over a week until Jay and Laura's wedding, this isn't ideal and I'm going to ahve to make an effort to get a couple of early nights next week to catch up a bit.

It hasn't been a good week really. Wednesday was a very draining day. Just after i got up, we started to have a bit of a problem at home. All the lights started flashing and some of the plug sockets started to fizz in a rather nasty way. We raced round turning everything that was non-essential off, but the problem still persisted. Just after 8am all the power went off. Not good. Steve was quite calm about it, but there was a nagging doubt in me that was telling me it was something pretty big. I'm usually so optimistic too!
Anyway, I had to go to work and leave it. I was on a course (that was as good as sabotaged by some of the other people on it- or else I simply wasn't in the mood for other people fooling around) but it was niggling away at me all day. Anyway, we got home and there was still nothing. Dad had a look over it and didn't spot anything obvious, so there were few very tense calls to the insurance company and Southern Electric.
At 9.15 an engineer came out and had a look. It turns out, fortunately, that it wasn't a problem in the house, but rather with the connection from the main supply going into the house. That was a huge relief, as it means we're not liable for a huge repair bill. Thank goodness! At 10.30ish, a second set of engineers came out and connected us from next doors supply (though that's not as good as it sounds, they're not supplying our power alas!) and we're waiting for them to come out and dig up the road and reconnect us properly.
I don't mind telling you that for a while I was very worried about it being a huge problem. Still we did have a lovely evening without any TV, music or PCs when we just sat and chatted and had a bit of a laugh together. That was good. It's easy to get stuck in a rut and nice to have the oppotunity to do something a little different, even under those kind of stressful circumstances.

In othr matters, I've finished the first drafts of my episodes of our new story Magical History Tour and I think they're very good. They have a different feel to the other stories we've done so far and that's a good thing. Now I've just got to go through Si's episodes (they're very enjoyable too) and give them my input.

One month in...

2007-04-19T21:05:00.000+01:00

I picked a lovely day to have the afternoon off work as my time off in lieu of Monday's supervisor's meeting. The sun was shining and it was rather warm and I took the chance to do rather less than I'd planned- so no Blake's 7 review, no haircut, but a pleasant trip into town, where I bought some books and a present for Pat Taylor (who retires tomorrow).

I also took the opportunity to pop in and visit everyone at Bracknell. I do miss them. I sent so long working with them all that it still feels a bit odd not seeing everyone everyday. My new staff are lovely for the most part and I've not really got any complaints about most of them, it's just not quite the same as all those years of familiarity we'd built up in my time in Bracknell. Still that comes in time, doesn't it?

As I mentioned, it's Pat's last day tomorrow and I'm going to miss her a great deal. I couldn't ask for a more level headed and lovely person as a mentor for the past few weeks. Some of the other supervisors, lovely as they are, lack a sense of perspective about things. Pat in contrast has always been one of the more sensible ones! She's shown me the basics of the job, eased me into my new role and left me a very good library to work in at Birch Hill. She's said a lot of nice things about me both to other staff and to the customers I'm inheriting and I think that has really helped smooth the path until I take over properly. She's very graciously promised not to come and visit for a couple of weeks to give me time to get settles and start to change the things I want to change. You can't ask for more, really.

Seaside Stags

2007-04-17T18:20:00.000+01:00

Brighton! Jay's stag do. In one of those massive coincidences, we ended up staying just across the road from where I stayed the only other time I've spent some time in Brighton, on Paul's stag do a few years back. The facilities weren't quite as basic as the previous time, but the Quality Home wasn't one of the best places I've ever stayed. I can't recommend staying in a smoking room, even as an ex-smoker, it's pretty grim. Ah well.

Brighton is a pretty cool place, even though I've still not really had much chance to explore it properly. It's a shame that it's so difficult to get into by car, because sitting in a queue of cars for over an hour every time you want to come back in is a huge problem, especially when it's as warm as the past weekend was. I like being by the sea, though I think Jay was a bit surprised to find out that Brighton has a pebbly beach. How could he not know? I thought everyone knew that!

Fortunately the weekend was pretty good overall. I have to admit I wasn't particularly looking forward to it because knowing all about the wrangling between Mark and Jay that went into organising it, I wasn't sure that we'd have an enjoyable weekend, because there were obvious issues arising there, but it's to their credit that none of that showed over the weekend. In fact everyone got on pretty well really and there wasn't any problems between us all. You never quite know how these things will work out when there are a disparate group of people meeting up for the first time. I think I was pretty quiet alot of the weekend, possibly because I was worrying that Steve wasn't having a good time (he looked really miserable on Friday night) and worrying what they all thought of me. It's sometimes pretty uncomfortable being a gay man in the company of straight men- especially the kind of friends my brother has, and I was worried that they had a problem with us. It's probably irrational but it's done now, and I was quiet a lot more than i should have been. Sometimes I still have these moments where I feel shy and not very confident, even after all these years. *sigh*

Anyway, I very much enjoyed Friday's fishing trip, especially as I managed to beat Jonathan to catching the first fish. Just like all those years ago in Cornwall, except he didn't sulk as much as the last time! The evening out was OK. Harry Ramsden's fish and chips were a big disappointment. They're a long way from being the best in the country, let me tell you! We went to some bars, which were noisy and busy- I feel so old sometimes cos I like bars where you can have a nice chat and hear yourself speak... ah well. The Font was pretty cool though!

Saturday was paint balling. That was cool. I've never tried it before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I was any good at it, because I did send to spend a significant proportion of the time waiting to be resurrected! People kept shooting my goggles, which made shows how obvious I was! Anyway the best part of the day was the stag run, where Jay and Mark had to run the gauntlet while the rest of us shot at them! Great fun and just about the only humiliation my brother got. He was lucky!

We went out for a Mexican meal that evening. They put cheese on the chili, which wasn't a good idea if you ask me. However, I laughed it off having had a shot of tequila, a flaming sambuca and a couple of cocktails. We got into the club despite my lack of ID, unlike Mark who didn't and ended up in a bit of trouble for trying to use someone else's... not very clever. i enjoyed the club. It was a shame that the cheese room was so damn hot, because the music was much more fun in there. We stayed until 1ish, then went and cooled off on the beach, which was still busy at that time.

Sunday everyone looked far too fresh at breakfast! A long trip home and we were were ready to watch the return of the Macra in Doctor Who. That was a Wooo! moment.

Decorating!

2007-04-12T21:09:00.000+01:00

It's been a really busy week!
We've decorated the living room! After eighteen months of putting it off, having valid (and not so valid) excuses, we knuckled down and did it. It looks wonderful. In fact I think we should feel really proud of ourselves because we've done a really good job of it, for novices! It just looks so clean and bright and fresh, which is lovely.
The biggest job was clearing everything out of the room. We've got a lot of stuff and alot of the stuff we've got lives in the living room. So Sunday was devoted to clearing, sorting, moving and shifting before we were ready to actually do anything. It's amazing how big the room looks when there's very little in it! We then washed down the walls with sugar soap (see doing things properly!) and sanded down the skirting boards and the door frames.
Monday we gave the ceiling a once over (after a lovely visit to see Steve's family and a huge lunch and Steve's fantastic simnel cake) but the light was bad, so we gave up quickly and left it until Tuesday.
Tuesday was a great day! We painted the ceiling, twice- a second coat to make sure we did the bits that we missed, then we painted the walls. Dad popped round and had great fun watching us paint while he sat on the sofa in the sunshine! We got two coats of the wall done- and got ourselves splattered with paint, but it was worth it.
Wednesday we gave one of the walls another once over, as it looked a bit patchy and then did the horrible glossing. I didn't enjoy that so much. It was fiddly and awkward and the paint smells horrible, but it looks nice and shiny now.
Today we've put everything back- well a few things back anyway, sorted out some books to take to the charity shop and almost got things straight here again...
But there has been a distraction. Recently, my 10 year savings account matured and I got a nice cheque from it. Most of it will go towards paying off my various student debts, but I thought there was an opportunity for a little treat too, so I bought a new Cambridge Audio Amp and a 5.1 speaker kit. We got it all connected up last night and I have to say it's pretty damn awesome. We've been testing it out with a few DVDs today and it just sounds fantastic! A really good investment I reckon!

Coming up this weekend is my brother's stag do. I wonder if it'll be more fun than all the organising would suggest? I'll let you know!

Praise

2007-04-05T08:05:00.000+01:00

Fiona came out to see me at Great Hollands yesterday afternoon. We decided that it might be for the best for her not to have a chat with Glynis, as she seems to have settled down a little bit now, only a bit mind you, but it's not worth upsetting her any further. It might make things worse after all.
She seemed really impressed with all the hard work that I've put in over there though. It's nice to see it appreciated. She said it looked tidier, bigger and more friendly which, at least, were what I promised I could deliver in my interview. She agreed with Lynn's ideas for promoting the library using the windows that permanently have the blinds closed, and she also agreed that we can have some new furniture for the children's library and a new book display unit to replace the rubbish old mismatched cardboard ones we're currently using. I just want to smarten the library up, show that we're taking some care of it and that the slapdash ways things have been done before won't be acceptable anymore. Perhaps I will be good at this job after all.

That's about it for the moment. I've got a couple of potentially quiet days coming up. Steve is going off to fest for a couple of days and I'll be at home and have a chance to get some writing done and might have a day with Luke tomorrow if we can get it arranged. That'd be nice!

A few thoughts

2007-04-03T18:59:00.000+01:00

I couldn't sleep last night. My back ached really badly, which is very unusual. In the end it got to 1.45 and I couldn't take any more and had to rake some painkillers to be able to get some sleep. As such I've been knackered all day. I wonder if it's the fact that my new job involves me being on my feet a lot more than the old one did, or whether it's simply one of those things.

We've got tadpoles in the pond! This is a new and exciting thing! I know it sounds silly, but I go and have a little look every day to see what's happening with them. Soon enough we'll have plenty of frogs around, which is nice. Shame we've only got one fish left now though.

I read the first script for our audio plays not written by me and Si today. It was ever so good. Our regulars were well characterised and there were a couple of really good moments- especially the bit with the Doctor getting really angry about the tea. I liked that!
Steve's plotted a Christmas adventure that's loads of fun. I won't have to get thew red pen out now, it seems. Not until we start scripting it at least... It's great that there's so much enthusiasm for these things! What have we started?

Oh and I remembered a CD that Gaz bought me years ago that has the perfect music for the score of Magical History Tour! Fab! Just the right kind of melancholy Beatles stuff we need. Groovy!

I just watched School Reunion. i didn't intend to, but if UK Gold will persist on putting Doctor Who on just after Neighbours has finished in the evening, how can I resist. School Reunion remains my favourite of all the new series episodes so far. Not the best episode, but it's the one I love the most. Poor K9!

New Doctor Who

2007-04-02T21:54:00.000+01:00

Two Doctor Who premieres in one weekend is most irregular.

Smith and Jones was very good. A nice solid opener to the new series and a nice solid introduction for Martha Jones too. After months of reading all the "Freema isn't very good" rumour mongering on the Internet, it was lovely to watch her give a good performance. Martha is just about different enough from Rose for the character to work and I'm looking forward to getting to know her better as we go through the series.
The story itself was very entertaining, and it was good to see that The Judoon were more than the Sontaran clones (sorry!) that their appearance initially suggested. They were brilliantly designed and played with their gruff voices. I also very much enjoyed Ann Reid as the Plasmavore. Her last line was great! It's about time new Doctor Who had a great old hag villainess!
A nice 8/10 effort I reckons.

The other was, of course, Soap of Fatal Death. That too was pretty damn good! We've learnt a lot from making Protii and the production seemed a real step up from last year's story. We've still got to really make sure that everyone keeps their distance from the microphone to reduce the popping, but otherwise the production was very good. Si does a great job of the sound design considering it's not something he specialises in, and the music and sound effects fitted very well.
Of course, I really like the story (but then I would!) and I'm pleased to say that all our cast gave their all and really got into it and made it very special. It's so good to hear it all come alive! I especially enjoyed the Clear Waters scenes which in the novella were dying to be heard at the very least to make them work. Here they were worked marvellously, with the "actors" missing their cues, talking over each other and giving larger than life performances. I couldn't have asked for more!
Our regulars seem more at ease this time round, Paul especially really seems to have got a handle on his Doctor, and he gave an understated but very convincing performance this time round. Steve makes Rob really unique and very entertaining to listen to and Dave is a good foil for them and give another really good performance.
Favourite bits? Well, my favourite scripted seen with The Doctor and Roddy Stevens at the awards came over really well, as did the wonderful episode 3 cliffhanger and the ending was really good too. Steve got the line just right! I just enjoyed heraing everyone laugh at the jokes and the surprise cameo, which was wonderful. I had no idea!
I did miss the Doctor's line about the human lives being better than any scripted travesty of a soap opera in part 4, which I thought was perhaps the most important thing to stress, but otherwise I have no complaints!

Now I'd better get on with writing the next one!

Balance of Power

2007-03-26T11:23:00.000+01:00

It didn't take long for there to be a clash in the balance of power at Great Hollands between me and Glynis. Friday was a pretty dire day at work. Five days in I was feeling pretty exhausted, the pedal came off my bike half way to work, and there were certain logistical problems that needed to be worked out, and that caused a little bit of upset with Pat Almond, my librarian aide, as she and I both had interrupted lunch hours to ensure that both libraries opened up OK.
Worse than that was the problem with Glynis. I get the feeling that she's trying her best to undermine me already- she's helpfully offering to open up for me on Wednesdays and got the only full set of keys for the place (which meant that Pat was unable to get to the money on Friday afternoon) and generally saying that she'll or we'll be doing certain things... not unexpected. Her reaction, however, when she found out that Val was coming out to teach me how to do the banking and the money side of things was rather vicious. Yes, I can see that she would be hurt that not all her "expertise" was required to teach me my job, but to get angry and fire off emails about it won't do her any good at all. I tried to explain that it was part of the standard training programme, but that just provoked her. So Paula ended up coming out and having a word with her. I hope it's done the trick...
It is a difficult situation because she has been looking after the branch for six months and will have to step back now, but, and this is a huge but, she's done bugger all with it. It's exactly the same as it was when Blanche left- it's drifted along for the last few months and she's not been at all active in doing anything to make it better. She's come in, opened the doors (most days) and served the few people that have come in. She's resisted any change, she's been deliberately sabotaging any changes that have been made and to be honest it can't go on.
So it won't. There are several things that can be done- ranging from a little one to one between us to establish who's in charge, through to moving her to Bracknell for a few weeks while I establish myself...

I've got a meeting with Fiona tomorrow and I'll be bringing up all this issue, though Fiona may well bring it up first after all the emails she's getting.

But otherwise it wasn't too bad a first week really!

We had a lovely night on Saturday for my leaving do. Despite the food being pretty rubbish, it was lovely to see everyone there to see me off and I got a magnificent Essential Branch Supervisor Kit from Gill. It took forever to unwrap as there was so many essential items for each branch to open! Items such as sweets, biscuits, lovely teas and a bag of marbles for when I lose mine... it might not too long before I need them!

The challenge of the new

2007-03-22T20:48:00.000Z

My head is swimming with new information. I've been overloaded with it this week. the problem is, it's all potentially vital to my new job and I need to make sure that I remember it all. As the first new supervisor in living memory to actually have a handover period with a departing supervisor, I feel like I need to make the most of my time with Pat at Birch Hill before she retires and glean what I can from her. A lot of the job is an extension of what I've done at Bracknell, and I know I can do that, it's the rest of it that's the problem! Still the others have managed that in the past, so there's no reason why I can't...

Except, I'm very quickly learning that running two branches is a logistical nightmare, and I'm only four days in. Just trying to work out who's where and who will open up and close up if I'm not there to do it is a huge job at the moment. We've already discovered that on this particular week of my rota I'm supposed to be in Birch Hill and Great Hollands on Saturday morning. Since they've yet to work out how to clone me, that's just not possible. Of course, my line manager is on a course all week, and so hasn't been available to help me sort this out, so I've done it! Luckily Glynis, who has been acting supervisor at Great Hollands for the last 6 months was happy to come in and work on Saturday- but that means adding to her extensive amount of time off in lieu she's owed- but it was the only way. This is a small glimpse of what's to come. In a few weeks Pat, my librarian, will be on holiday for a fortnight and my support then will be next to nothing, and somehow I've got to keep both libraries open with the staff I've got... ha! No-one said it would be easy!

I think once I've got my head around it all I will enjoy the job a great deal. We've already made a start at improving things at Great Hollands now, just by shifting one small shelf unit out of the way of the window and taking down the posters on the same windows. It's brightened it up no end and hopefully if people can see in they're a little bit more likely to actually want to come in... well that's the theory anyway. Luckily Lyn is enthusiastic about making changes, and I'm hoping that I'll win Glynis round too. I've warned her that things will be changing over the coming weeks, because, not to put too fine a point on it, it's been shoddily run and neglected over the last few years. It's the one the powers that be will be watching and so I have to turn things round as quickly as I can. And I can!

So it's going well so far. For now at least...