Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

Today we went to an opening performance at Stratford of King Lear. The title role was done by a fellow who appeared in one of Jason Shron's recent videos.

I remember our English teacher, last year at school, strongly recommending that we pass that year as the play the following year would be Lear.  

I wasn't keen on going and do not want to go again.

We're still not sure who all the characters were.

 

King Lear is certainly one of Shakespeare’s more “difficult” plays. Unless it’s in the hands of actors (and a director) of great talent and experience, it can be dire. But for an older actor it’s a plum role (most roles are written for younger actors) and I would venture that of the current (still acting) actors of the right age, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stuart and (possibly) Sir Kenneth Branagh would make the play enthralling. As an older actor (I have acted semi-professionally, off and on, for quite a few years) I would love to perform King Lear - although I’m not sure that I have the talent or memory to do the part justice…
 

Anyway, some years ago I had the very good fortune to see Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stuart with Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup in Waiting for Godot  (which in unskilled hands is quite turgid) - an absolute tour de force from all four actors, with McKellen and Stewart making the play so engrossing that the interval seemed to come only seconds after curtains up (and the next night Mrs iD and I saw Judy Dench in Madame De Sade - another tour de force performance).

 

Definitely British theatre (and acting) at its finest. 

[iL Dottore]

@Tony_S experience of hearing himself “differently” with new hearing aids brought to mind something that happened when the play I was directing (a Christmas Panto) went from rehearsal room “into theatre” (as they say). The “Principal Boy”* - a comely lass with a decent singing voice - was miked up for the first time for her big song. The music starts up, she sings a few bars and promptly bursts into tears. I stop everything and hurry onto the stage to find out the cause of the upset. Through sobs the actress said that she heard herself sing over the PA system and “she sounded horrible”. I reassured her, as did the cast members on stage, that she was singing very well indeed.

 

What had happened was that because she was miked up and her voice came over the PA, her ears heard her voice for the first time as other people heard her. When you speak (or sing or shout…) what you hear is different to what other people hear as your auditory nerves not only receive the sound waves of your voice travelling through the air, but also the associated vibrations of your voice that travel through the bones of your skull. 
 

Once mollified, and used to hearing herself sing as other people did, she went on to give a sterling performance.

 

* for non-Brits: in a traditional British pantomime, the hero is played by an actress (“the principal boy”) and the comic female role (“The Dame”) by a man (e.g. Aladdin [PB] and Widow Twanky [The Dame]). The very best pantos are politically incorrect, full of double-entendres** very, very topical with the jokes/humour and unembarrassed to steal from the very best. Pantomime has nothing to do with mime, but derives from the Commedia dell’Arte.

** one of my favourites comes from a version of Robin Hood, when one of the “innocent country girls” [it’s a long story] espies the Sheriff of Nottingham’s castle and exclaims “ so that’s where he holds his big balls and dances”

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[polybear]

Bear here.....

A bluddy No. 1 call at 03-50 🤬 - and could Bear get back to sleep again....nottachance.  The Bonce had started up with thoughts of things I'd really  wish I'd done** to certain people over the years, from school age and then at various times thru' work, amongst others.  Not even Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire could distract me, so I decided that givin' up and crawling out of the Beary Pit was by far the much better option than fighting a losing battle and getting more and more wound up in the process.  Turdycurses.

(**All of which would've dropped a certain Bear into deep, deep Do-Do).

 

I wonder if wishing rather nasty thoughts will work on those concerned?  Let's hope so.

That may well constitute a Rant, by the way.

 

Oh well, I wanted an early start anyway - but 04-50 was a tad earlier than planned. 

Bear gone.

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Day four of a 4 day long weekend coming about due to ANZAC Day being Tuesday so we all took Monday off too.

We call those pont aka bridge days here if the bank holidays fall on a Thursday or Tuesday.  

 

Anyway I have a heinous crime to report.  One of our hens  has gone Mia.  Just a pile of feathers left behind.  The prime suspect is a stonemartin as only one was taken.  I"'ve been out this morning g reinforcing the bottom of the fence.  The murderer appears to have got in where the poor bird had dug a dirt bath next to the fence. 

 

Anyway we are apparently off garden shopping for plants today.  The Dr came yestetday and increased Beth's steroid dose so we will be calling at the pharmacy. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Finances.. reviewed.

Bit of muddling completed.. tick

 

Today involves collecting my prescription, then going to Acomb for over 60s cricket. Happy to say that hip has stopped complaining but I forecast it will be doing so tomorrow. 

 

Blue skies scheduled but it is expected to feel like 7 degrees C.. hand warmers have been located and will be deployed. 

 

Mugatea time then.. to Acomb and beyond!!!

 

Baz

Edited April 25, 2023 by Barry O

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Blue sky and sunshine here but frosty as I heard someone scraping ice off a windscreen at 06.00.  It should stay dry with some sunny spells today.  2°C rising to 13°C.

The Hip was OK overnight but has started hurting already. Multiple TCs as Bear might say.

A quick trip to either Asda or Sainsbury's is required in a minute and then we're awaiting the arrival of the new kitchen appliance.  Looking forward to that as I don't like washing up manually!

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by grandadbob

[jjb1970]

15 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Dr. SWMBO is very persuasive in her arguments about emitting less but acknowledges the need to sometimes fly to far-off places.  We have both been keenly aware of the carbon footprint left by our travels between the UK and Australia over the years.  Most of her flights now are for business which, specifically, includes raising awareness of climate change and how this might be mitigated or partially offset through nature.  

 

On a more localised level we have been aware, especially in the past three years or so, of the increasing carbon footprint of the "delivery-van society" where we order stuff from the comfort of our homes, or from our phones where ever we might be, and it turns up in one of those ubiquitous white (usually) vans we often moan about.  

 

We still do most of our shopping online.  We are agreed between us that it may well be a lower-carbon scenario to have one van deliver to 30 homes than to have 30 cars all drive to the shops.   A few of those shopping trips could be made by public transport but for many of us that isn't a realistic option.  As well we have moved a long way on from the daily shop in the High Street of 50 years ago to the weekly supermarket run which was the norm even before Covid appeared.  

 

We own a car largely because it fell our way almost as gift.  We decided having chosen our location that we wouldn't use one.  We had two in Australia out of sheer necessity; neither of us could reach work without one as is commonplace over there.  But we drive only when and where we really need to, plus two or three leisure trips in a year.  My insurer even offers a decent discount for us driving fewer than 3000 miles a year.  

 

We do our bit.  

 

All cynicism aside I'm a tree hugger and do advocate lowering emissions. Putting aside my own considered opinion that anthropological induced climate change is real I argue with sceptics that it is analogous to Pascal's wager. If climate change is real then emitting less is essential, if it is false then we still make less pollution, are not dependent on finite fossil resources, can perhaps gain energy independence and are not at the mercy of other regimes (some of which are not the nicest). So even if people don't buy into climate change the policies to reduce GHG emissions make sense for a number of non-related reasons.

 

For all that, I do find parts of the green movement slightly scary as saving the world is often blended with all sorts of political ideas, some of which I agree with, others not but either way it doesn't help the cause of helping the environment to conflate messaging with divisive political messages which hare not about the environment. It may come as no surprise given the hints I drop that I work with a number of green groups, one of them especially I hold in the highest regard, it is very focused on the science of climate change and engineering solutions. Others are not so knowledgeable but have high integrity and their hearts are in the right place. Others are frankly political ideologues using climate change as a cover for all sorts of ideas and are very much 'ends justify the means' types. 

 

I had an example of the latter this week. A green activist I knew well died recently, I signed the book of remembrance his organization opened and some prize tool when they saw me do it made some snide remarks about why's he signing it, I'm happy to say it was other green people that hit the roof and pointed out we'd known each other well and regardless of any differences were friends. 

 

Another thing which I find either amusing or exasperating is being told to 'listen to the science!' by people who have never studied science and who just parrot whatever message they've been given. I'm not a scientist, I'm an engineer but I studied engine emissions for my MSc and did research on formation of PM and Black Carbon (a species of PM), I've been in meetings where I've said things that green groups disagree with and been told to 'listen to the science' by people who don't even know what Black Carbon is and who are pushing demonstrably false ideas on the subject. That's not because I don't want to lower emissions of Black Carbon (I did a lot of work aimed at doing just that) but I get a bit annoyed by people who don't understand something (regardless of what it might be) trying to weaponize information.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Anyway I have a heinous crime to report.  One of our hens  has gone Mia.  Just a pile of feathers left behind.  The prime suspect is a stonemartin as only one was taken. 

 

Bear once stayed in a Holiday Cottage north of Fort William where Pine Martens were daily visitors to the garden, especially if you put bread n' jam or bread n' peanut butter out for them.  The owner told us a story where a friend unfortunately hit n' killed one whilst driving - it wasn't all mashed up so put it inside his jacket with the idea of stopping it going rigid and started driving to a mate's house who was into Taxidermy.

Unfortunately Paddy the Pine Marten was only stunned and woke up whilst the guy was still driving - at which point it bit n' scratched like crazy in an attempt to escape.  By all accounts the guy pulled over PDQ to bale out of the van - the scratches and bites on his chest were something else, apparently.

 

In other news.....

Bear up, washed, brekkies scoffed, dressed, Beary Pit made, Wickes visited and timber strip wood purchased - home again & mug of Tea No. 2 drunk and all before 8am.  Tick.

Right, time to modify the Bannister hand rail & base rail to prepare it for glass panels instead of wooden spindles - with luck I'll get it done before the newly acquired timber turns into a propeller.

Bear gone.

[Dave Hunt]

A good day beckons. Jill’s ankle is improving, it’s a sunny day, I’m still in bed drinking coffee and opening my birthday cards, we will shortly be going down for a mega hotel brekkies and then I’ll be going to see my loco shed that Tricky has made for me. All in all one of those hard times that you just have to grin and bear.

 

Dave

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

4 hours sleep, long awake trying to find a comfortable position, then a couple of 1 hour bits of sleep.

The work on the guttering meant leaning back and reaching up. It appears to have aggravated my lower back ..

It's at it again changing text to red when it feels like it.

 

My sailing compatriot didn't suffer from gravel rash after his motorbike crash. Sadly leathers don't prevent major injuries from hitting the front of a tractor. He's still off work heading for 4 years.

 

Me, I've always work protective gear on a motorbike, I've had gravel rash bad enough on a bicycle.

 

Still no phone dialling tone this morning.

 

Oh I came across the electricity bill notification for this year's monthly charge.. £115, but that's just electrics and cooking. Heating is LPG, coal , wood, which is expensive enough, there being no economic alternative. Coal being now over £700 a ton round here. We use about a ton and a half over the winter.

 

plans for today,

Some gardening not involving leaning backwards.

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Many happy returns @Dave Hunt

[DaveF]

A lovely sunny morning with the remains of a white frost quickly clearing in the sun.  Breakfast has been eaten and Asda have delivered the shopping, everything is long dated which is always good.  No Substitutes either.

 

The bin men have just emptied the recycling bin, once that is put away all the chores will have been done.

 

I wonder what to do for the rest of the day?

 

Edit:  Happy Birthday Dave.

 

David

Edited April 25, 2023 by DaveF

[jjb1970]

On public holidays, something that struck me as odd was that last Saturday was a public holiday in Singapore to celebrate Eid ul Fitr, other countries move the public holiday to the Friday or Monday if such a date falls on a weekend but in Singapore it seems that the date is the date and that's that. 

 

PS. in case it is relevant, a happy late Eid to any ER people who observed the fasting month.

[jjb1970]

Happy birthday to Dave Hunt!!

[iL Dottore]

@jjb1970 I know exactly what you mean. I have spent most of my career working oncological drug development (and I’m proud to say that I played a key role in the development of two major cancer drugs - one of which is now a “gold standard” of treatment), so I get really annoyed when people bang on about “the evils of big pharma” and they are usually people with an ideological axe to grind. 
 

A particularly pernicious trope is that “big pharma” is not interested in curing disease “because they make money by not curing disease by selling ineffective treatment” Apart from ignoring the realities of - say - cancer biology, they overlook the financial reality that any company that did come up with a cure for - say - triple negative breast cancer, would make a fortune and continue to do so - given the incidence of newly diagnosed cases every year in the population.

The other thing that really angers me is the claim that generic drugs are cheaper because “they don’t have the  added sugar, colours and fancy packaging of branded drugs” WTF? These people really, really don’t know what they are talking about.

 

The scariest thing about the recent pandemic wasn’t the virus itself (which pretty much developed as I predicted it would back at the beginning of 2020), but how it exposed the sheer medical, biological and scientific ignorance of a huge part of the population – including those people who really should know better!

Edited April 25, 2023 by iL Dottore
Typo

[grandadbob]

Happy Birthday Dave, hope you have a great and relaxing day!  🎂🍾

[grandadbob]

Hip was hurting like hell when I returned from Asda so I took some soluble Solpadeine I found lurking in the medical chest and it seems to be working already and the pain has already eased.  Makes up for the pain I've just had looking at the credit card statement which has gone up a bit lot in the last week.  Looks like I'll have to raid the muddling token fund, either that or send The Boss out to work!  🤪

Edited April 25, 2023 by grandadbob

[tigerburnie]

38 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

A good day beckons. Jill’s ankle is improving, it’s a sunny day, I’m still in bed drinking coffee and opening my birthday cards, we will shortly be going down for a mega hotel brekkies and then I’ll be going to see my loco shed that Tricky has made for me. All in all one of those hard times that you just have to grin and bear.

 

Dave

Happy Birthday "Tiger"

[Tony_S]

Happy Birthday Dave.

I hope it is as bright and sunny in Tunbridge Wells as it is here today. We used to go quite frequently to Knole House but perhaps Jill’s ankle would prevent such a visit.
Tony

Edited April 25, 2023 by Tony_S

[iL Dottore]

A Happy Birthday to @Dave Hunt and many more of them.

 

However, his - and others' - recent birthdays have made me think: shouldn't we have an age limit on ER?  As in "no-one admitted under the age of 55"??? 😁🤣😉

Edited April 25, 2023 by iL Dottore

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis/sciatica was going hammer and tongs this morning and the Nurofen is just kicking in. A few sniffles from the hay fever as well but I'm staying in today anyway.

 

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

A Happy Birthday to @Dave Hunt and many more of them.

 

However, his - and others' - recent birthdays have made me think: shouldn't we have an age limit on ER?  As in "no-one admitted under the age of 55"???

Wouldn't that exclude some of our regulars such as @andyram and @NGT6 1315?

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a rock with some sunshine but not blazingly so.  11c.

 

HB to Dave, and happy new shed. Photos please....elsewhere of course!

 

A lot of running about to do today, BnQ, garden places, opticians to order new specs, etc etc - however it is chippy tea night so not all bad!

[iL Dottore]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Wouldn't that exclude some of our regulars such as @andyram and @NGT6 1315?

Are they under 55?

 

They post so much older.....

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

@Tony_S experience of hearing himself “differently” with new hearing aids brought to mind something that happened when the play I was directing (a Christmas Panto) went from rehearsal room “into theatre” (as they say). The “Principal Boy”* - a comely lass with a decent singing voice - was miked up for the first time for her big song. The music starts up, she sings a few bars and promptly bursts into tears. I stop everything and hurry onto the stage to find out the cause of the upset. Through sobs the actress said that she heard herself sing over the PA system and “she sounded horrible”. I reassured her, as did the cast members on stage, that she was singing very well indeed.

 

What had happened was that because she was miked up and her voice came over the PA, her ears heard her voice for the first time as other people heard her. When you speak (or sing or shout…) what you hear is different to what other people hear as your auditory nerves not only receive the sound waves of your voice travelling through the air, but also the associated vibrations of your voice that travel through the bones of your skull. 
 

Once mollified, and used to hearing herself sing as other people did, she went on to give a sterling performance.

 

* for non-Brits: in a traditional British pantomime, the hero is played by an actress (“the principal boy”) and the comic female role (“The Dame”) by a man (e.g. Aladdin [PB] and Widow Twanky [The Dame]). The very best pantos are politically incorrect, full of double-entendres** very, very topical with the jokes/humour and unembarrassed to steal from the very best. Pantomime has nothing to do with mime, but derives from the Commedia dell’Arte.

** one of my favourites comes from a version of Robin Hood, when one of the “innocent country girls” [it’s a long story] espies the Sheriff of Nottingham’s castle and exclaims “ so that’s where he holds his big balls and dances”

 

I have an idea for a panto, not for Christmas but for Halloween. The characters are based on those from various horror films and some from Shakespeare and I even have ideas about incorporating Guy Fawkes.