July at the Duckpond

Ooh look I've kept up a monthly post for a second month at least. Bit of a hot month wasn't it? We managed to fit in 3 swims, a bit of gardening, some sewing and excitingly, our first actual show since before COVID. 

• We had an excellent day out to Portishead and Clevedon, visiting the outdoor pool (which is beautiful and you can even smell the sea when you're swimming), feeding the ducks, finding playgrounds and Lily even dipped her feet into Clevedon Marine Lake.

• Good books I've read - The Promise by Lucy Diamond and I also reread One Sweet Moment by Maggie Craig (it's set in Edinburgh - I first read it years ago before I started going there and it mentions lots of street names and places so I wanted to reread it now I know where it's referring to).

• We had a day trip to Barry Island to visit the funfair. We went there in May on the bank holiday Monday and at the time the funfair was far too busy so we promised Lily we'd return when it was less busy. We went on a Thursday and she pretty much had all the rides to herself! She loved it, obviously. 

• Our last show before COVID was Mark Thomas at Frome's Merlin Theatre. Our first show since then was Russell Howard at Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol. We originally had tickets to see him doing a work in progress show at Edinburgh Fringe back in August 2019 but he had to cancel that show. Then we spotted he was doing a gig in Bristol during July 2020 so booked that instead. Obviously it was postponed to 2021. It should have been at the Bristol Hippdrome but they moved it to the outdoors Ashton Gate Stadium so everyone could be sat distanced. It felt a bit weird but was still a really good show. We probably overcompensated because we kept our masks on during the performance anyway even though it was outdoors. We seem to have come through it COVID-free though so that's good. 

• I had my second vaccination on 10th July (exactly 8 weeks after my first) so I'm now double-Pfizer-jabbed! We're still doing everything we were doing before though - avoiding indoor spaces, wearing masks, etc - as we all know the vaccinations aren't failsafe against infections or mild disease. 

• We visited White Row Farm fish and chip shop for mother-in-law's birthday meal. If you're ever heading north or south on the A36 near Frome, White Row Farm shop is an excellent place to stop. Their chip shop is really tasty, they have lots of outdoor seating, 2 playgrounds and farm animals to look at. 

• We had the results from Lily's LAMDA exam and she passed! Her teacher said all the students passed with either a Merit or a Distinction although we don't know Lily's exact score yet.

• We're looking forward to our August holiday and have even booked 3 shows to see at the Fringe! 2 of them are outdoors shows (1 for us, 1 for Lily) and 1 indoors in a very well-ventilated venue. We "treated" ourselves to a load of FFP3 masks so we'll wear them indoors anyway. 

• We're looking forward to Series 3 of Sex Education starting in September and also the new series of Ghosts starting in August. I was also excited to spot they're making a second series of Good Omens!

• Photo an Hour day was on Saturday 17th July - the round-up is here. August's photo an hour day is Saturday 21st - feel free to take part if you like :-)

• I downloaded the 1 Second Everyday app to use after seeing Denise using it on Instagram. I thought I'd give it a go and see how interesting it it (or more accurately, my life is!). I'll put a summary on Instagram at the end of the month. 

• We're looking forward to Carters Steam Fair visiting Bath during August. The last time we were there on the fair was back in October 2019 when me and Andrew were working for them for a day. We haven't told Lily they're coming yet so it'll be a surprise. 

• And we discovered an excellent splash pad play area in Chippenham which was apparently the "best thing EVER!" according to Lily :-) 

How was your July?

 

A Year Without Theatre - My 'Shows I've Seen' Project

So you might have spotted from the photo an hour pictures from last year, I spent a good deal of time sorting, tidying and cleaning. One thing I sorted out was all my theatre programmes, tickets, brochures, leaflets and stuff. 

One of my favourite shows, Kneehigh Theatre's 'Midnight's Pumpkin' at Battersea Arts Centre in December 2012

My mum started taking me to theatre shows when I was quite young. One of the earliest shows I remember was 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Devizes Wharf Theatre, sitting up high near the top of the tiered seating. In reality it probably wasn't that far up, I was probably just quite small! Another show was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Merlin Theatre in Frome. It seemed like we used to go to the Merlin quite often. If I came home from school and my mum told me to choose some nice clothes, then I knew we were more than likely going out to see a show. 

We used to go to the local panto each year in Bath too at the Theatre Royal and I loved the plushness of the auditorium. I think theatres have a certain smell - the greasepaint maybe or perhaps it's just the sweat of the crowd and performers - whatever it is, it's fairly magical. I love the fact that what you're seeing is live right there in front of you, no second takes or anything. And I love the fact you can see the same show more than once and it can be different each time or you notice little extra bits in the set, movement or script. If I love a show, I try and see it more than once - the shows that take the record for 'most times seen' are Kneehigh's 'Tristan and Yseult' at 14 times (over 14 years) and the musical, 'Rent' at 17 times (over 15 years). 

I know my mum started taking me to the theatre when I was quite young because around 1994/1995 (about 12/13 years old) I started keeping a list of the shows I'd seen and there were some (like 'Earnest' and 'Dream') that I couldn't remember the exact dates for. At first my list was simply keeping all my theatre tickets in a box and writing things on paper but eventually it morphed into a spreadsheet which I still keep updated now. My definition of "show" is theatre, stand up comedy or music gig and my spreadsheet currently tallies 567 times I've been to one. It's probably slightly higher though as there's some late 80's/early 90's shows I don't remember. 

I should have kept a list of all the bands and artists I'd seen at Glastonbury too but I didn't and now I can't remember all of them. I've worked at every Glastonbury Festival since 2004 so there's quite a few! Some of the best performances were Arcade Fire in 2014, Muse in 2010 and Florence & the Machine in 2009. 

When Lily was born in 2016 I added an extra tab to my spreadsheet to keep track of the shows she'd seen. I don't know if she'll actually be interested when she's older but it doesn't take any effort to note them down, just in case. Interestingly, for someone who only turned 5 this year, she's already seen 73 shows, been to 3 Glastonbury Festivals and to 3 Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. 

Anyway, I miss live theatre. And whilst sorting out all my tickets and stuff, I thought it'd be nice to share these memories and anecdotes with other people. One extra thing I'd done with my spreadsheet is as well as simply writing down what show, where and on what date, I'd also kept a log of what days I'd seen them on. I had this silly idea at university which greatly amused me - I wondered if over the years I could see a show on every day of the year? (or almost every day as it's unlikely I'll ever be able to see a show on 25th Dec). So far, the tally is up to 239 days out of a possible 366 - which works out as 65.3% of the year. 

So I wrote an 8 tweet thread on Twitter (here if anyone wants to read it) explaining what I'd done with my spreadsheet for the last 25 years or so and then started a thread of #ShowsIveSeen tagging in the relevant theatres or venues and performers or companies and adding in any anecdotes or pictures. The idea was to add to the thread on each day I'd seen a show, using the information from my spreadsheet. I started on 7th June 2020 and possibly rather optimistically, wondered if life would be back to some kind of normal by the time the whole year had passed. In the first couple of months of 2020, I managed to see 9 shows and the last one I saw live was Mark Thomas at the Merlin Theatre in Frome on 7th March 2020. Even then, it felt a bit weird sitting with everyone else and I remember waiting in the queue for the toilet and watching people *still* not washing their hands. 

My Twitter thread seems to be being appreciated; lots of venues like my tweets and sometimes performers too. As you can see, I've had a few replies as well which is absolutely lovely. I've done 10 months of tweets now and the thread is rather long. I don't know if anyone else is interested really but it's kept me amused over the last year - I've enjoyed remembering the shows I've been to and sharing my pictures.

Anyway there's not really much point to this post except to a) explain what I've been doing on Twitter in case anyone has spotted my tweets and thought "what on earth is this?" and b) show off the celebrity replies I've had :-) 

 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...


Travelling - to Barry and Barry Island for a mini 'happy 8th wedding anniversary' weekend break with the sole intention of doing our own Gavin and Stacey location tour!

Enjoying - the refurbished Penarth Pier. Last time we visited it was still looking a bit derelict but it looks mighty fine now.

Walking - the trail that leads from the motorway services on the England side of the M48 across the old Severn Bridge. If you want you can walk across the whole length of it but we weren't that crazy and just did up to where the chains start.

Riding - on the 109 year old Newport Transporter Bridge - a magnificent structure!

Feeding - some squirrels in Barry Island. A lady had a supply of peanuts and was dishing them out to 7 or 8 very tame squirrels and passed the nuts around so we could have a go.

Filling - ourselves up with the all-you-can-eat breakfast from Toby Carvery. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your viewpoint) there was one next door to our Travelodge and their potato and cheese hash is very delicious indeed.

Exploring - Chepstow, somewhere neither of us had visited before and nabbing a few geocaches along the way.

Laughing - at Russell Howard's show in Bath's Theatre Royal on Sunday night. It was a benefit gig for a local boy and featured Russell, Wil Hodgson (who we've seen a few times before), Sean McLoughlin, Steve Hall and James Dowdeswell. When the tickets went on sale I spotted the tweet from the Theatre Royal 26 seconds after it was posted and logged on straight away - meaning that we bagged front row of the dress circle!

Booking - some more tickets, a pair of them for Caro Emerald's show at Bristol's Colston Hall in December (my birthday present!) and some for us, my parents and my brother to see Bill Bailey in May next year who is (for some bizarre reason) playing Trowbridge in Wiltshire - a fairly average sized market town!



What did you get up to at the weekend?
 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...


Collecting - more books from the library. Must stop reserving them; my books have now encroached onto Andrew's library card!

Fitting - security stuff to the side of the house. Andrew's had the burglar alarm fitted for over a year, just never got round to actually fitting the box!

Using - up the last of our Pizza Express voucher codes from Tesco's flash sale the other month. £2.50 in Clubcard vouchers bought two main courses and you know at the bottom of the Pizza Express receipt where it mentions a customer survey? Well make sure you always complete it because they give you a voucher for free dough balls or garlic bread which (unusually) can be used with other offers. So the other week we each had a three course Pizza Express meal totalling £40 - and only paid £15. Saturday night we had a two course meal totalling £32 and paid a rather embarrassing £8.80...

Participating - in this month's Photo an Hour challenge. Round up to follow tomorrow :-)


Cleaning - and tidying and washing and sorting and all the other things which get left when you go on holiday. Almost need another holiday to get over the actual holiday.


Booking - tickets for a few shows. Now's about the time of year when comedians start announcing their autumn tours, the ones that start with a stint in Edinburgh in August. Obviously we try and see heaps of people during the Fringe but if anyone we like is coming nearby then we usually book for the proper show rather than the 1 hour Fringe version. So this week my debit card took hits from Mark Thomas at Bath's Rondo Theatre in July (a Fringe preview), Josh Widdicombe at Weston Super Mare's Playhouse in October, Ed Byrne at Bath's Komedia in October and also (not a comedian) the National Theatre Live screening of the film premiere of London Road at Frome's Merlin Theatre.


What did you get up to at the weekend?
 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

Spying - a glimpse of the solar eclipse on Friday morning. In Bath it was about 82% coverage and I nicked Andrew's welding helmet to take into work so I could view it safely. To begin with it was really cloudy but about 9.15am the clouds started to part and we everyone in my office had quite a good view.

 

 

 

 

Laughing - at comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Suzi Ruffell at a gig at Colston Hall in Bristol on Friday night. We'd seen Romesh briefly before (when he had a bit part in Seann Walsh's Edinburgh show back in 2013 - the one I even got a pic of) but not Suzi (although I had heard of her) - they were both good!

 

 

 

 

Participating - in this month's Photo an Hour challenge. Round up to follow tomorrow J

 

 

 

Repairing - the shower in our en-suite bathroom. The mixer tap went wrong about 18 months ago and then Andrew discovered the base was leaking so he started taking it all apart last weekend. This weekend he splashed out on a new shower and got started installing it. At one point there was rather a lot of expletives coming from our bedroom but by the end of the day it did all seem to work properly.

 

 

 

 

Sorting - lots of clothes from my wardrobe. An ongoing task really.

 

 

 

 

Watching - Houdini, a programme that was screened last September and we've only now got round to watching it. It was actually really good, I mean I know it's not all fact and a lot of the story was embellished but still, great music and very good performances.

 

 

 

What did you get up to at the weekend?

That Was The Year Duck...

So in the age-old tradition (you know, the one I started on 'ere last year) of rounding up the previous year, 2014 was the year Duck...

 

 

January

 

...shared the blog love with some excellent ones to watch in 2014

...met up with Lily and SJ for a blogger beauty-themed day out in Bristol

...managed to stay afloat amidst all the Somerset flooding

...jumped on the ubiquitous 100 Happy Days bandwagon

...bought far too many dresses from Joe Browns

 

 

February

...spent most of the month travelling to and from Bristol Royal Infirmary to visit Andrew's dad who ruptured his oesophagus in January

...shared an A-Z of Books

...dug out her school leaving book from 1999 to see what people thought of her

...looked back at 1998 and compared it to 2014

...met some ducks down at Poole Park



March

...defended Spam to the world
...raised awareness of Down's Syndrome Awareness Week
...felt very old having a day out at a garden centre
...celebrated her first blog birthday by listing why she's a bad blogger
...revealed that her first round of IVF treatment wasn't successful and shared what it was like to go through it



April

...told everyone which comedians they should go and see
...did a photo an hour challenge on Easter Saturday
...visited Cob Records in Porthmadog in celebration of Record Store Day
...defended the humble breadmaker
...completed the 100 Happy Days challenge (and discovered that happiness mostly revolves around food)



May

...shared what she'd do if she won the lottery
...did her first room tour (around the kitchen)
...explained why Andrew was wearing face paint the first night she met him
...told a tale of a small girl in a big city
...completed Rosalilium's Blog Every Day in May challenge for 2014



June

...started an A-Z of Me series
...met lots of lovely girlies at the South West Blog Social in Exeter
...got 4 and half hours sleep over one weekend working at Glastonbury Festival
...met the awesome lady that is Katie (from Hook Line and Sink Her) on a photo an hour challenge day
...shared the news that her second round of IVF treatment didn't succeed and started an Up Adventure Book



July

...pulled off a surprise 70th birthday party for her mother-in-law
...had an excellent day in the sun in Weymouth
...spent the day playing an 1896 fairground organ on a photo an hour challenge day
...visited the Dig for Victory show
...signed up to be an organ donor during National Transplant Week



August

...saw heaps and heaps of shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
...got sand in her eyes at Weston Super Mare Sand Sculpture Festival
...wandered round the Mid Somerset Show spotting lots of sheep, ducks and cheese
...stomped through lots of mud at Great Dorset Steam Fair
...watched Andrew help fix vehicles and rides at Carter's Steam Fair



September

...fell in love with Kneehigh Theatre's latest show
...spent a sunny weekend in Cornwall
...pulled off a mystery tour for father-in-law's 74th birthday on a photo an hour challenge day
...visited some trains and ate some cake at Didcot Railway Centre
...fell off her doorstep and broke her ankle in spectacular fashion resulting in two broken bones, dislocation, four days in hospital, a operation, 3 and half months off work, three screws and a metal plate.



October

...judged a Carnival procession whilst her ankle was in plaster
...learnt to knit by making some decorations for her crutches
...knitted a scarf
...visited the West Somerset Railway in her wheelchair and discovered the most amazing hot chocolate
...had her plaster cast removed and made a start towards learning to walk again



November

...celebrated a fairground wedding with Paul Daniels as the evening entertainment
...met David Mitchell
...had an epic road trip to Maidenhead, Bristol and Weston Super Mare
...reminisced over the 1990s
...explained the difference between carousels and gallopers



December

...knitted herself an advent calendar
...celebrated her in-law's 50th wedding anniversary
...turned 32 with a trip to London
...revisited her 32 Before 32 list and realised she hadn't done too badly after all
...and finally, got rid of her crutches and went back to just her own two flippers!



Here's to a slightly less eventful 2015, a year which hopefully won't feature hospitals quite so much - at least, not in any bad way!