Well, a hectic week of final rehearsals and performances is over, and the MADS production is over for another year. I hadn’t been too keen on doing panto this year, but it seemed to go down very well. We had a bit of a scare on the Tuesday night, at final rehearsal, when it became apparant that one of the team, who played a lead character was unwell and unifit to perform. So, a young lady (17) stepped into the role of Nursie at the last minute, and within 24 hours had learnt sufficient to do the role. She did brilliantly. I had planty of support, with Deb & Carlos and Matt, Jan and Trevor, and Wendy, Rob and Claire all coming to see the panto, as well as Tricia, Nikki, Rob and Ellie. This is me (Horace) and my sidekick, Humphrey.

We played the ‘wicked wobbers’……  And here is a cast photo.

Tomorrow I start rehearsal on ‘Present Laughter’. I did plenty of cycling in the week, and combined with some sensible eating over the last two months, I am now down to 14 and a half stone!  I haven’t been this light for a good few years … the thing is to keep going now and not slip back.

Nikki’s hockey team won 10-0 yesterday, and she got a goal. She was doing hurdles again this morning. Next week is her final week at Watford hospital. Rob and Ellie are back at school tomorrow. Tricia is leading Brownies at a ‘Thinking Day Service’ this afternoon. Ellie is doing a reading.

Saturday was of course the 14th Feb, and Valentines day. Tricia and I don’t normally do too much, we buy each other cards, but we usually refuse to get caught up in the commercialism of it all. Whilst we didn’t plan a day out just because it was Valentine’s Day, as it turned out we were going out with some friends to Corfe for the day. And so we had a nice day out. In June we are going with a number of friends to spend the weekend in Corfe, and Tricia and Pat wanted to meet (have a day out!) with the hotel, to go over some arrangements. Pat and Clive picked us up at about 9:30 am… we were nearly ready. It was me who was last into the car for a change. Pat and Clive are dear friends, we have got to know them over the years in North Marston. Pat is in the acting group with me, and we are also both governors at Waddesdon school. Clive is the church warden, and is the sort of person you can absolutely trust with anything. We made good progress until we got near the New Forest, when traffic slowed us down. It was a beautiful day, the sunshine was very welcome after the recent bad weather, and it seemed to bring out plenty of people. We eventually arrived in Corfe and at the hotel at lunchtime. We sat in the lounge for a while before lunch, comfy seats, and a roaring fire… I could have just stayed there. Lunch was excellent, the waitress service was excellent. We then went for a walk around Corfe, and visited the railway station, which runs a steam engine down to Swanage. I know my father will be green with envy, the station was almost a living musuem, a relic of the past. The backdrop of the Castle to the station, made for a picture postcard view.

Tricia and Pat then got talking to the station staff, who were volunteers, and old railway hands. Hence it looked like they had picked up a couple of blokes! The ticket office were a little surprised when Tricia bought 18 tickets when there were only 4 of us. But Tricia was buying ahead of June when we all go back down, and will take a trip on the train to Swanage.

The older chap looked well into his 70’s, and we reckon his uniform is probably that old as well. We then moved onto Swanage, as Tricia wanted to throw a stone in the sea. Here is a view of the bay at Swanage, with Rene and Edith (Paul and Pat) posing in the background. Amateur actors do such things.

By now the temperature was dropping, and so it was hot chocolate (for the ladies) and coffee (for the blokes) and into the car and the drive home. A splendid day.

Whilst we were out, Ellie was in front of the TV watching the dvd of High School Musical 3. Nikki, who had come home Friday evening after work, sat and watched it with her, before she went to play hockey. Ellie went along to watch but didn’t prove to be a lucky mascot, as they lost 4-2, but Nikki played well, and set up both her teams goals. Robbie had his band over, and so they made plenty of noise… not that I could hear it as I was in Corfe.

This morning Tricia, Ellie, Robbie and me went up to church, where we did the family prayers. After church Tricia and Nikki went training. Nikki had a sore toe after hockey, but managed to do a hurdles session. I cooked lunch,  and one of Robbies mates, who had stayed overnight, also stayed for lunch. I then dashed off to dress rehearsal (oh yes I did).. Babes in the Wood on stage this week. I thrashed Nikki at tennis on the Wii this evening before she went back to Hatfield, watched Lark Rise to C, and all of a sudden the weekend was over.

Whilst on placement at Watford hospital this week, Nikki witnessed a hip operation. Whilst post op physio is not what Nikki intends to do, she is more interested in sports physio, she was clearly quite interested in what the surgeons were doing. The woman who was operated on is one of Nikki’s patients this week. Nikki has two weeks left at Watford hospital, and that is her last placement until October. She should get a long summer break, from May to September, and is hoping she can work full time during that period, to build up her account. She has also got her house sorted out for next year, and its cheaper than where she is this year, which is good.

Tricia had to make a wedding cake last week. I admire Tricia’s patience, spending hours making icing roses, all very intricate.

It’s a busy week ahead on the acting front, with the panto on Thursday, Friday evenings, then a matinee on Saturday and a final evening performance on Saturday evening. During last week I auditioned for a part with an acting group in Winslow. They are putting on a play called ‘Present Laughter’, which is a Noel Coward play. I got a phone call yesterday to say I had got the part of Henry. As I haven’t done anything with this group before, I was quite pleased just to get a part. First rehearsal is Mon 23rd Feb.

A new personal best for 3 darts on the dartboard. The first dart was way off target and hit the 18… the next two, were lovely, and sat perfectly in the treble 20. So, 138 is the new pb. I don’t think however that Phil Taylor will be losing any sleep just yet. The 180 is only a matter of time though.

Ellie has just finished her latest sports course, with the Clifford Hercules (that is his real name by the way folks) sports school. Here she is showing off her gold medal and certificate tonight.

Tricia curled up in front of the tv this evening, and for once the cats joined her… sleeping on her legs.

I went and auditioned with another amdram group last night, hoping for a part in ‘Present Laughter’ which is a Noel Coward play. I will have to wait a few days to find out if I got a part. Meanwhile, next week is the local panto production of Babes in the Wood. I play a ‘wicked robber’, who decides to become good in the end and not kill the Babes. Ho Hum… I think I am becoming an amdram snob, preferring to do Coward plays instead of panto. Oh dear.

I have just given the sky a stern talking to, as it has just been snowing, and it’s not on!

Friday I worked from home, then Friday evening went out to rehearsal. When I got home, I worked on some of the questions for the Quiz I was doing on Saturday evening. I then realised it was way past midnight, so scuttled off to bed. I awoke sometime before 7am thinking about quiz questions (this is a sure sign of middle age)… so down I came and started working on the quiz… I had just about got it all done and dusted by 1pm. I then carted Robbie off to Aylesbury (not by force, he wanted to go), and I then went and fought in the Battle of Tesco. Honestly, we only wanted a few provisions, but it was like a war zone with people stocking up.

I got back about 3:45pm… Nikki had come back home. The boiler in her house had packed up, so there was no heating and no hot water. The landlord was getting it sorted, but she decided the best place for warmth, hot water and food was home. As I came in, Tricia, Nikki and Ellie all disappeared off to Winslow with about 4 battalions of Brownies to watch the panto.

I quickly got all things needed for the quiz together and settled down with a cup of tea to watch the cricket. Pathetic. Dreadful performance all out for next to zip and lost the Test Match. I watched a bit of England make very hard work of beating Italy at Rugby. All very depressing.

Then it was off to the quiz. It was a fund raiser to send one of the neighbours sons to the West Indies on a cricket tour. The quiz went down very well. Tricia scored, Nikki drove the laptop, Ellie collected the answer sheets, I asked the questions and swapped insults / banter with the quizzers. By the time we were home and I had got a cup of tea it was 10:30. I started to watch Match of the Day, but conked out and trudged off to bed knackered.

Sunday, Tricia, Ellie and me slipped and slithered up to church. Out came the choir in the long blue robes… ‘Oh look I said, here come the Blue Klux Klan’… and got into trouble with Tricia for misbehaving. As soon as church was over, I dashed (slipped and slithered, cursing the weather) home and cooked the lunch. I did a rice pudding as well as a roast, knowing that Nikki loved a rice pudding. No sooner had lunch finished, than I had to go to rehearsal. I got there just after 2pm, and we were rehearsing until 5:30pm… When rehearsal had finished, I went up to my mate Bob’s house, along with another mate Peter. We are all West Ham supporters, and we watched the West Ham vs Man Utd game, which had been recorded. West Ham played well, but lost 1-0. I then came home. By now it was 8pm… which on a Sunday means Lark Rise to Candleford. Then it was 9pm… and I had to get ready for work on Monday. Where did the weekend go ?

Nikki is on placement at Watford hospital at the moment, which is handy as I work in Watford. So Nikki and I left about 6:30 am. A slow journey because of the roads. At one point down the A41 we saw a bad accident on the other side of the road. Loads of police cars and ambulances. One of the vehicles was a transit van. The driver ended up in the same ward that Nikki is working on…. She is going to watch some surgery on Thursday, a knee joint replacement. Good luck to her, I think I will stick with computers !

Apparantly more of the white gunge will fall tonight… hopefully there will also be planty of rain to wash it away!

Here I am with yet another blog update. I set out for work this morning, we had only had a light covering overnight… what was all the fuss about I thought. Well I found out by the time I got to Aylesbury, when it started coming down in bucket loads. When I felt the car was no longer entirely under my control on the main A41 dual carriageway, I decided enough was enough and so I have turned around and come back home. It was a little bit hairy at times, and I wondered what on earth I was thinking about coming out in the first place, but 30 minutes earlier it had been ok. Oh well, we are now back to where we started yesterday morning, everything that had been cleared is now full of snow again.

Robbie and Ellie are both at home again, as the schools are closed. These piccies are from the garden this morning. Ninja went out into the snow… and was going mad trying to catch the snowflakes, he didn’t like being snowed on. Tricia was out there in her jimjams playing with the cats…

Last night when eating our evening meal (liver and bacon Tricia style… fantastic), one of the crowns on Tricia’s teeth came apart. So, we had hoped to get her into the dentist today… but that looks as if it is going to be difficult now.

It would seem that the snow that fell last night was not your slushy wishy washy stuff, but good solid stuff. The sort that stops everybody schooling / working etc. Piccies from today.

First off, Snowman that Tricia, Robbie and Ellie built, and a snowcat.

This is the main road through the village, and an attempt at an igloo by Ellie and her friends.

This is a snow sculpture of a man on a bench – done by Robbie and his mates – very clever stuff. And then an igloo Robbie and his mates made.

Whilst all this creative snow art went on… I was inside, and being a slave to my laptop.

Continuing on a theme from the other day, regarding snow stopping the underground, my Father now informs me that ‘when they built the underground sections of the underground railway system, the hardest and most tedious part of the work was the carting of bucket loads of darkness into the tunnels. Must have made a good job of it ’cause its all still down there. Not a lot of people know that.’ You see when you become retired you have time to consider how they got the darkness down into the underground…

He also informs that he hasn’t quite convinced my Mum into joining him in making angels in the snow on the back lawn. At least my Mum seems to be holding onto her sanity!

Well another load has been dumped overnight. About 4″ has settled in the garden. The schools for both Robbie and Ellie have been closed for the day, and I haven’t ventured out to work yet. I am going to let others clear the snow away first. I will probably go in later, there is some rain forecast so hopefully it will clear it away.

Tricia, Ellie and me went to see the show at Robbie’s school last night. It was called the 80’s show, and was about a man looking back to his High School days, which were in the 80’s. It was a very good show, and the standard of singing was very good. Robbie did really well, and it seems all those drumming lessons he has had had over the last few years paid off. He has two more nights to do. He was feeling quite tired last night, but no school today so he can rest up…. well that’s what I thought but he is out in the snow with his mate Alex already and it is only 8am.

First picture is of Lily in the garden on Monday, the other two were taken this morning.

It has been pointed out to me by the editor of a weekly newspaper (retired), that in fact the underground does also go overground, and this was probably contributory to the snow stopping the underground. This was backed up by documented evidence of certain lines, where the aforementioned editor (retired) once worked.

I did know this, I don’t dispute it, and had considered this. However the news item I heard was that the underground had been stopped by snow. Removing all the technical explanations about underground, overground, (wombling free…) the idea that snow stopped the underground is funny, and typically British.

The snow has now nearly all gone…(hoorah). But apparantly there may be some more tonight. Hopefully in the north of the country where they are used to it, and perhaps it might reach Scotland, so that certain spotty dogs can play in the snow instead of the mud

I can proudly say I have now lost precisely 7lbs, otherwise known as a half stone, in weight since Christmas. Just got to keep it off now.

Robbie had a good first night in his 80’s show. We are all off to see him perform tonight. A full report will be issued tomorrow.

It snowed. Lots. You would think we could cope with it once a year or so, but it seems everybody uses it as an excuse to stop. I got to work, not many did (or bothered trying). We don’t get as much as I seem to remember from 20-30 years ago. And I don’t recall my Dad not going to work or being out on the road. Oh well, hopefully it will be gone soon.

The one thing that made me laugh, is that some services on the Underground… yes, the ‘Underground’ were stopped due to snow. The mind boggles. Lots.

It seems everybody I speak to is excited at the forecast for snow. Why I ask… it means cold, it means slush, it means unsafe driving, it means very long journeys. I am not such a complete curmudgeon that I cannot appreciate a fine snowy landscape. But, not while I have to work and travel in it. Roll on the spring quickly.

We (Tricia, Robbie, Ellie and myself) went to see Matt (godson) perform in his panto on Saturday. Matt has been in youth theatre for many years, and his role as the panto dame in Dick Whittington is certainly his finest hour on stage so far. Excellent… good comic timing, and he lived the part. Well done Matt. Having only been out on the bike once this week, in a mad moment I decided I would cycle the 45 miles to go and see the show, then put the bike in the back of the car and travel back with Tricia etc. Whilst it was cold (until the blood had started moving and warming me up), and a little blustery (why does wind always blow directly at you when going up hills, and blow behind you when coming down a hill), the conditions were otherwise fine. Cycling to Northampton was fine. Through Northampton wasn’t too bad, a bit stop start with traffic lights. Then going from Northampton to Market Harborough I discovered a few mountains I hadn’t ever noticed when in the car. Well, I exaggerate… but the hills slowed me down, but I did get up them. I slept well last night.

Tricia has been on county coaching day today. Robbie has been rehearsing all day for the show he is in next week, and what with Nikki being at Uni, it was just me and Ellie at home for most of the day. We went to church as she was reading. I was then asked to play Monopoly. I didn’t really fancy it, but felt I couldn’t say no. She proceeded to thrash me. I can’t even say I was being generous to her. I seemed to spend most time in jail, much to her amusement, as she cleaned up in the property, and then cleaned me up. Ruthless at 9.

A quick mention for my football team. West Ham. Unbeaten in a few months now, playing good football, and 8th in the Premier League. Pinch me somebody….