Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in East and Central London and Surrey.

Week 365, Saturday 12^th until Friday 18^th June 2021.

Another week, another trip into the capital.  The reason for this visit, apart from walking around the gardens of Regents Park, a drink in a fave pub was to see an evening performance of Les Miserables: Staged Concert.  This performance has been a long time coming, my friend booked tickets in January this year, which got bumped to March and then moved to last Saturday.  Sadly none of the actors we were originally supposed to see were in the show now.  A staged concert is not the full bells and whistle performance you would normally see with multiple set.  The actors are in full costume and when not performing they tended to be off stage.  The set is striped back and basic, the orchestra was smaller than normal I wondered if some instruments were pre-recorded.

These last 15 months the Arts have suffered terribly, it was so nice to be sat in a theatre watching a live performance.  Though I was glad not to be in the front row because of the litres of spit from a couple of actors singing with full emotion.  Whenever I see a show, I am always in awe of the talent on stage.  In the programme it mentioned what members of this cast had been doing while theatres were dark.  This made me admire them and their performance even more.

After the excitement of the show, we were brought down to earth by London’s public transport system.  Getting home was difficult, train delays, cancellations and engineering works meant that the journey home took twice as long as it should.  This didn’t spoil what had been a lovely day in town with my best friend and a great evening of entertainment in one of world’s most exciting cites**.

** If you know a more exciting city, please do not send me a post card at the usual address.  The mail box has been sealed up.

And Now For Something Completely Different……

We are constantly being told, we need to recycle more and more to help our suffering choking planet.  Like a lot of people, I try to do my bit.  In the back of the car (I know driving is not helping the planet, but I can’t do everything) is a bag full of bottles, jars and other glass that need to be disposed of.  Normally I trot merrily down to the local glass recycling collection point.  But my part of London appears to not be bothered about saving the planet these days as all the usual glass recycling containers have disappeared.  One has been replaced with one that states clearly “Brown” glass only, which I don’t have.  This week I even drove slowly around a couple of huge supermarkets carparks, looking for a recycling area.  Nothing was found.

Recently I have brought the bag which gets fuller every day home 3 times.  If the neighbours have notices I wonder what there thinking (“Doris*, that strange women next door has returned with the same full bag of grass for the third time.  It’s very sad what lockdown has done to some people.  Should we contact Social Services”.  *A made-up neighbour’s name).  I am due to visit my sister (by the time this is published) I might take the bag for a trip round the M25 and see if I can dispose of the glass in her area.  I bet they care about the environment.  I really am trying to do my part in saving our delicate ball of rock that we call home.  I bet David Attenborough or Greta Thunburg don’t have problems like this.

By the way, I know I could have emptied the bag at the local dump a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I stupidly forgot it; lesson learned.

And Finally……

At the end of a call, the woman (because of what I do I find it tough to say customer) I had been speaking to for 10 minutes called me “Kind” and “Very helpful”.  Once I put the phone down, I laughed out loud, she really doesn’t know me.  The last couple of years I have noticed more and more that I am morphing into a colleague I used to work with. They were a nice person, but could be very grumpy.  I am becoming them.

Television quote of the week

Person one “There’s nothing more satisfying than a lovely even flange”.

Person two “If I’m going to have a flange I’d like it to be even”.

It’s not funny, but the word Flange is never not amusing.

My Mid Life Crisis Conts……

This week I have watched:

“BBC Archive: Nationwide: Ian Dury, TX: 10/08/1979”, (Facebook)(10/08/20).  “BBC Archive: Wogan: Rik Mayall: TX: 27/10/1984 , (Facebook)(29/10/20).  “Brian Cox’s Adventures In Space And Time”, (S1, ep 3, 13/06/21).  “Click”, (TX: 12/06/21).  “Colony”, (S2, ep 1 & ep 2).  “Farscape”, (S4, ep 12 & ep 13).  “Fringe”, (S4, ep 1 to ep 7).  “Gardeners World”, (2021: ep 8, TX: 07/05/21).  “ISS Spacewalks“, (NASA TV)(TX: 16/06/21). “Inside No. 9”, (S6, ep 6).  “Intelligence”, (S2, ep 6).  “Intergalactic”, (S1, ep 8).  “Notting Hill”, (1999).  “Paddington 2”, (2017).  “Pandora”, (S2, ep 7).  “Raya And The Last Dragon”, (2021).  “Springwatch 2021”, (ep 12, TX: 11/06/21).  “Star Trek (Original Series)”, (S2, ep 21).  “That’s So…1994”, (TX: 01/04/16).  “The Great British Sewing Bee”, (S1, ep 1, TX: 02/04/13)(ep 2, TX: 09/04/13)(ep3 TX: 16/04/13)(ep 4, TX23/04/13)(Crimbum Special, TX: 19/12/13)(S2, ep 1, 18/02/14)(ep 2, TX: 25/02/14(ep 3, TX: 03/03/14)(ep 4, TX: 11/03/14)(ep 5, TX: 18/03/14)(ep 6, TX: 25/03/14)(S7, ep 10, TX: 16/06/21).  “The Last Leg”, (S22, ep 2, TX: 11/06/21).  “The Sky At Night”, (13/06/21). “Us Again”, (2021).  “Van Helsing”, (S2, ep 6 & ep 7).  “Z Nation”, (S5, ep 6 to ep 8).

Live on stage:

“Les Miserables: Staged Concert”, (Sondhiem Theatre London, 12/06/21).

This week I have listening to:

“Betamax Video Club”, (ep 83, 10/12/20).  “Coronavirus Global Update”, (BBC World Service)(12/06/21(13/06/21(14/06/21(15/06/21)(16/06/21)(17/06/21)(18/06/21).  “Doctor Who”, (The Incomparable/TeeVee)(S10, ep 8, 04/06/17).  “Farscape”, (TeeVee)(16/06/21). “Game Of Thrones”, (TeeVee)(S6,ep 4, 16/05/16).  “Griefcast”, (ep 145, 09/06/21(ep 146, 16/06/21).  “Lazy Doctor Who”, (ep 217 ,13/06/21).  “Makes Art Will Travel”, (ep 4, 17/021)(ep 5, 24/02/21).  “Mystery Hour”, (17/11/21).  “NASA: Gravity Assist”, (18/06/21).  “NASA: Houston We Have A Podcast”, (ep 199, 11/06/21)(ep 200, 18/06/21). “Nick Abbot Whole Show”, (11/06/21) (12/06/21) (13/06/21)(18/06/21).  “Rob Beckett And Josh Widdecombe Lockdown Parenting Hell”, (S2, ep 42 (ep ) 15/06/21).  “Space Boffins”, (14/06/21).  “Space Soliders Podcast – Flash Gordon”, (Chapter Thirteen “Rocketing To Earth”, 05/06/22).  “Space Soliders Podcast – Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars”, (Chapter One, “New Worlds To Conquer”, 12/06/21).  “The Audio Guide To Babylon 5”, (ep 33, 09/08/15).  “The Friendship Onion”, (S1, ep 5, 15/06/21).  “The Nick Abbot Habit”, (14/06/21).  “The Old Doctor Who Show”, (ep 113, 16/06/21).  “Smersh Pod”, (05/01/18).  “The Skewer”, (S4, ep 3, 16/06/21).  “The Space Above Us”, (039, 21/09/17) (040, 05/10/17)(041, 19/010/17)(042, 02/11/17(043, 16/11/17)(Supplemental 5, 09/09/19).  “This Week In Time Travel”, (07/06/17).  “Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels – Happy Times And Places”, (16.4, “The Robots Of Death”, 14/06/21)(17.1, “Dragonfire”, 18/06/21). “WTB”, (S2, ep 17 (ep 41) 18/06/21).  “What’s Your Problem With Nick Abbot And Carol Mcgiffin “, (14/06/21).  “Wolf And Owl”, (S1, ep 28, 16/06/21)(Bonus #17, 18/06/21).

Songs I enjoyed this week, were by:

“Morrissey”, “Bjork”, “Culture Club”, “Elbow”, “Foals”, “Groove Armada”, “Ian Dury And The Blockheads”, “Howard Jones”, “Kylie Minogue”, “Madness”, “Mazzy Star”, “Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds”, “Oaisis”, “Pet Shop Boys”, “Pulp”, “Prince”, Shed Seven”, “Soft Cell”, “Supergrass”, “The Killers”, “The Long Pigs”, “We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!!”, “Wolf Alice”, “Youssou N’Dour, ft Neneh Cherry”.