And that's another year over

I must apologise that after a fairly good run of blogs I have fizzled out towards the end of the year. Here we are on the last day of 2009, and one of my resolutions is that I will try harder next year to keep my blog going. The reason for the lapse, and this not an excuse but an explanation, is that after I finished with Peter Pan, the pantomime, I have been filling up the available hours working on Peter Pan, 'the novel'. When I have already spent large parts of the day sitting in front of the computer typing, the last thing I want to do is spend another block of time blogging. The good news though is that the book is coming on, and more importantly we are both enjoying the process. Sheila is writing some cracking descriptive and action pieces, while I am concentrating more on dialogue. I think the answer might be to do a quick blog every morning before I start work on the bigger project.
Richard and I have just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We had a lovely meal at the local 'Bistro' as travelling any further than the village centre is out of the question at the moment with as much snow as we have. The temperature today is not too bad a 0.3 degrees, but that is the first time it has been above freezing for at least a week. Two days ago it never got above -14 degrees all day and at one point it was -17.5. The air going into your lungs was unbelievably cold, and my cheeks and teeth were aching with the cold after a five minute walk. There has been fresh snow every night and it must be 12 inches deep in our garden. The village is beautiful though and the view of the mountains from my living room is picture postcard stuff.
Thank goodness for shopping online. We weren't travelling to USA this year but at least I could send some gifts to Debbie and Marty and my grandchildren and know that they would get there in time. It was necessary, this year, because of the weather to also use online shopping for Richard, and he for me. I ordered a metal detector at 3pm on 23rd December, and it arrived at 11am on the 24th! Amazing! Richard ordered a sewing machine for me at the same time....still waiting though. It was lovely to see Claire and Yngvar the week before Christmas...popping over for a weekend from Norway is somewhat easier than Dubai....and they were able to deliver and pick up their pressies.
We went carol singing in the local hotels, for charity, on Christmas Eve and raised £220 to be shared between Erskine and Starlight. Christmas day was quiet but very enjoyable, Allan and May and Mr and Mrs Oakley came on Boxing day and stayed until Sunday, we had drinks and nibbles at a cocktail party on Monday, Tuesday was our anniversary dinner, last night was a much needed night in (Richard has a touch of man flu)and tonight, being Hogmanay, anything could happen! Castleton Dancers are performing tonight in the Fife Arms between 9.00 and 10.00, and after that, if we feel like it we may pop up to the Moorfield to see the New Year in. What we won't be doing is going to the Village Hall Ceilidh. When we first came here 5 years ago, that wee Ceilidh was great, good music and good company - mostly locals of all ages. Then 3 years ago and every year since it has been inundated with folk just looking to get legless and the hall committee has done nothing to change that. They say they are selling up to 250 tickets at the door. That hall comfortably holds 70 - 80 for a ceilidh, 100 makes it full. You can imagine the wall to wall bodies if there are 250 in there! It is such a shame. There is possibly a need to offer an alternative venue next year...a private 'tickets in advance' Ceilidh in Castleton Hall maybe. Trouble is nobody wants to split the village. Ah well, next year, we shall see.
Hope all my blog readers had a great Christmas, and I wish you all the best for 2010.

Sorry for my neglect of this blog

Sorry blog followers, I have spent every spare minute since the pantomime writing my share of the new PP. It will all be worth it in the end, I am sure, but right now I have no writing energy left to do my blog. I will try to bring you up to date soon as there is lots to say.
Goodnight for now.

Opening Night

I have just had a G&T to celebrate a successful opening night. Small audience but more than expected and definitely adequate. And all 5 flew! John managed to adjust a harness so that Findlay could fly with the rest of us. There was applause as we took to the air so it must have looked convincing. There were no major problems or mistakes, all ran to time, and we had fun. So that's one down and only 6 more to go. I am glad that we do it more than once, though I am not sure if I really want to do it 7 times.....
We are looking forward to having friends and family in future audiences- Irene and Lew on Friday night, Claire and Yngvar on Saturday night, May and Allan and May's parents on Boxing Day night....so hopefully some honest feedback!
Busy few days ahead so may not blog again until Sunday.
Break a leg!

Tinkerbell flies.

After much talk and speculation about whether it would ever eventually happen...it did! Tinkerbell flew along with Peter Pan and the 3 Darling children...yes all 5 at once. Well actually, to be completely honest, only 4 tonight as the harness for Findlay, who plays Michael, the youngest just isn't fitting confortably so John, the director is going back to the drawing board on that one. But the rest of us did fly. Last week we tried one by one with the only winch that we had, to be elevated into a comfortable position. Wearing abseiling harnesses on backwards is not the perfect solution but that was what we had. After various adjustments we got reasonable comfort combined with a few feet of elevation. That was relatively easy. Since then John and his team have created 4 more holes in the ceiling for 4 more winches to come down, and in the blackout, to be attached to harnesses we are wearing under our costumes...not easy for Tinks whose costume is little more than a tutu. Peter Pan, flies out further and higher and stays up longer(3 songs)than the rest of us but then again she is 19, and some of us are old enough to be her Grandma. Once airborne it is fun and not too uncomfortable, but getting up and down again are the difficult bits to make look convincing to the audience. I guess it is just practice, and we have 3 more chances before opening night!
Our novel of PP in the 21st century is making progress although I have not added anything now for 48 hours. Must try to write some tomorrow.
I said I would let you know about the WRI monthly competition. You may be pleased to hear that my wreath made of plastic bags came first in the serious competition! That is 3 firsts in a row. I should mention that all competitions are entered anonymously and the judges are completely different every month. My decoration from a cone was not placed!!! Ah well you cannot win them all. Next month is designing a birthday card as it is the 85th birthday of Braemar's WRI. All suggestions gratefully received. More soon.

Paranormal activity!

I am going to report on something that happened a few minutes ago and leave you to come up with an explanation. I was clearing the table after breakfast and was standing in the kitchen with my back to the door that enters onto the hallway. The door was open, as was the directly opposite door that opens on to the dining room. One of Coolie's bouncy balls came from behind me and I turned as I heard it. It bounced past me through the kitchen and out the door into the dining room, past Richard who was sitting at the table watching the news and came to rest by the book case. My first thought was that Coolie must have started it moving from the hallway but discovered he was lying in the middle of the living room whining about another ball that was under a chair. Richard had him in his view all the time and assures me he was nowhere near the hallway. Who threw that ball?

Hello again my readers after a long absence. This week seems to have been fully occupied from beginning to end and I regret not taking just a few minutes each day to record a mini blog. That would have been easier than trying now to remember all the stuff I wanted to write about last week. Forgive me if this reads more like a list than a blog.
Let me start with my night away in the big city last weekend. Using my bus pass for the first time I set off early on Saturday morning for a day's shopping, a night at the theatre and Bed and Breakfast in a luxury hotel. I used the bus journey to do some long overdue reading, researching, thinking and note making about our novel of
21st century Peter Pan. It is amazing what you can do in two hours when you can't get up and wander around, make a cup of tea, check emails, or watch a programme on TV. I must take more bus journeys in future. But I digress. Immediately after stepping off the bus I was in Aberdeen's newest and grandest shopping mall.If we weren't being constantly told the country is in a recession I wouldn't be aware that it was happening. A very classy mall, with very classy shops full of ordinary people with bulging shopping bags. Recession? My friend Irene had travelled up from Arbroath by train and the fantastic thing about this mall is that the door from the railway station enters on one side and the door from the bus station on the other. So we met up in minutes without even having to brave the elements! Not only that but our brand new, only opened in September, classy Jurys Inn hotel was an escalator ride away. Check in wasn't until 2pm but the friendly staff were more than happy to take our bags and store them safely until then. A cup of coffee, then off to fetch the stuff on my to-buy-for-Panto list that I had to get from the 'Fancy Dress' shops a bit further into Aberdeen centre.
We had tickets for the professional Pantomime in Aberdeen, Cinderella, starring Elaine C Smith. It was very enjoyable, up to the minute jokes, excellent special effects, good singing and dancing....and it was full. Tickets at £18.00! Recession?
No sign of it there!
Monday saw me travelling back to Ballater for a day's teaching. The morning started out rather icy with a dusting of snow and I agreed to let Richard drive me. I am so glad I did as the roads had not been gritted and were quite treacherous in places. Several cars lost control and skidded off the road including our friend Doug in a four wheel drive. The forecast was for worse conditions on Tuesday, so I told Jenny in the office at Ballater that I would prefer not to come back the next day if she could get somebody local. Luckily they were able to do a swap with a teacher who was supposed to come from Lumphanan to Braemar, so I got a day in Braemar with the Primary 5 - 7s, while she taught the Ballater class. I had a lovely time, especially because I knew all the children very well, but also their topic is the Highland Clearances and the task for the morning was to write a story about it. They also had the art teacher and a rehearsal for the Christmas production that day so it was an easy one for me.
Wednesday - Friday were spent at home but with lots of admin. jobs for SWRI to do, as well as normal cooking and cleaning. I did manage I am happy to say, to spend quite a bit of time with PP and I think Sheila and I can both see where we are going now. But we still have to get there and there's still a lot of writing to be done, after which there will be editing and proofreading...and that will also take a fair bit of time. If we are going to be ready for the end of February we must push on. Actually Sheila is going off to India in early February and I have agreed to finish all the setting the print, typing, posting jobs etc but we must get the story finished by the end of January, about 7 weeks away, That sounds like a lot of time but when you put Christmas and New Year into the mix it won't be.
Last night, Saturday, we, the Dinner Theatre Group, presented the Murder Mystery of 'Who Sleighed Santa?' to an appreciative audience of 30. Despite all the personality clash hiccups we had during the run up to this performance, it went really well, and everybody got on famously together. Some acted like I had never seen before...amazing what a live audience can do. That is one more project we can tick off the list. However, it doesn't give us any more time in the week as Panto rehearsals are now about to be stepped up. Today's rehearsal started at 2pm but since they were to be practising songs, and Tinkerbell doesn't sing, I managed to wangle an afternoon off. But looking ahead to the week there is a rehearsal every night except Thursday, and Thursday is the WRI Christmas night out. The competitions this month are a table centre decoration and a tree decoration made from a cone. I shall let you know in due course if a get any points this month.
Looking forward to the week ahead...writing Christmas cards, buying pressies, planning meals, but more important than all of that, two very important events coming up both on the same day! December 8th is the birthday of Debbie, and I can remember the day she was born as if it were yesterday. (How come I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday?) Happy Birthday Debbie. Talk to you soon. And December 8th is the day that Claire (and her little lives) will begin her new life in Norway, after spending over 9 years in the Arabian Gulf. Safe journey and good luck Claire. See you soon.