Redhill Marina / Scarboreugh
We’d been in touch with Tom last week hoping that we’d be able to take a load of things down to the boat, a hire van was booked and first thing Monday morning Mick headed off on a bus to pick up a hire van. We then spent an hour loading it with definite boaty items that had been sat in the boat cupboard or on our dining room floor awaiting their return.
Unfortunately I had a panto deadline looming so needed to spend the day taking photos of my model box, checking over drawings and making a list of paints I’ll be needing in a few months time. Mick headed off on his own hoping to arrive before Claire the sign writer had finished for the day. His journey down wasn’t too bad and he arrived around lunchtime. Claire was busy giving Oleanna her name back.
Photos came through from Mick whilst I worked away back in Scarborough. Oleanna’s newly painted cream cabin sides had been marked up with tape where her lines and shadows will be, Tom will mask these out and spray them another day. But their positioning was important to get her name in the right place. My emailed instructions to Claire had requested the shadow on the letters to be towards the stern of Oleanna on both sides. Usually the shadow on lettering is either to the left or the right and is a constant side no matter which side of the boat you are on. However, because I’m me, I want the shadows to be constant as if the sun was in front of Oleanna. When originally sign written nobody had passed this information on to Andy Russell who ended up wiping off the paint thankfully before it had dried. Mick checked and the shadows were in the right place today.
Tom was found elsewhere working on hatch doors. These are taken off the boat and popped in a different room for spraying. Colours were checked for the rear sliding hatch. On my original model this had been red, but it had ended up being painted blue in Sheffield. Today the decision was should it be red, blue or cream? Red would only fade in time. Cream would be boring, so back to blue it would go. Only downside is that it will get hot in the sun.
A top shelf was cleared in the paint shed stores so that our possessions could be unloaded. Mick had taken some dust sheets to lay over them as even in a separate room from the paint shed they may well get dusty. By the end of the day Tom sent a photo of everything covered up, all our bedding ready to go back on board. Mick was back in Scarborough at a reasonable time. Our first load of possessions now back close to the boat, but most importantly, not in the house!
Tuesday was a very early start. Mick gave me a lift to catch the 5:44 train to York, model box and technical drawings packed away in my blue Ikea bag. I had time to scour the shelves of Sainsburys at York Station for things I could eat for breakfast/lunch. Some fruit, a nut bar and a quinoa salad.
Next train was direct to Banbury, I was so very glad I had a seat booked all the way, close to the luggage rack and didn’t have to stand like SO many others did. A lift from Helen who worked on props last year over to Chippy where I set up the model, requested a cuppa and was ready for our meeting at 11:30.
Helen (Props), Paul (Technician), John (Artistic Director), Caroline (Director) and Gemma (Production Manager were all in attendance. On Monday Gemma and I had met with Jamie the set builder and talked through the builds, we already knew the design was over budget. The build cost came in from Jamie, we’d need to prune some items and simplify others to get the price down. I never like doing this without the Director present as they may have different ideas as to what is really important, especially when a new section of script hadn’t come my way yet.
A good meeting, a few items cut, some discussed to be simpler and thankfully Caroline had the same opinion as me on other cuts that shouldn’t happen. Stocks of paint were checked. Props and staffing were chatted about, quite a full on few hours.
The theatre was full of small people doing a dress rehearsal for an end of term show. Astronauts, pumpkins, superheros and slices of cake amongst others were rounded up through the narrow corridors of backstage, if you wanted to reach front of house it was far Far simpler to walk around the outside of the building.
A lift back to the station where thankfully I had another reserved seat all the way to York, avoiding having to stand most of the way as so many others had to! Three quarters of an hour wait in York meant I could walk to Scarborough Bridge to count the number of boats on the River Ouse moored at Museum Gardens. The Minster was busy donging, celebrating it being Tuesday, the sixth since Mick and I became Civil Partners. Back to Scarborough for a well earned glass of wine before bed.
Early Wednesday morning we listened to two pixies delivering camp beds to our front door. The rest of the day was spent packing more of our possessions away in the house. The boat cupboard that had almost been emptied on Monday, now became groaningly full. Tilly got totally confused as wardrobes were emptied, spices and herbs packed into boxes, everything rationalised, our existence in the house moved into the room we call the Shed and the boat cupboard. Thursday followed with a visit from our cleaners who made our bedroom look very inviting for our next lodger, Tilly inspected everything before extra covers were added to protect the freshly made bed. Mick and I would now be sleeping in the Shed and my work room. Tilly persevered sitting on our bed overnight, not quite able to relax as for her our move back to Oleanna was imminent, to us it’s still at least a couple of weeks away.
I spent time working on alternative versions for one scene of panto, drawing them up and sending them on to Jamie to price up. A visit to Oleanna was hoped for, but during Friday they would be spraying paint, so it wouldn’t be a good day to visit. Instead we arranged to go down next Monday, hoping we’d be able to catch Claire finishing off the bow. No photos came through from Tom, maybe not much had changed, maybe they were masking things off.
On Saturday and Sunday Scarborough was celebrating Seafest and 400 years of being the first seaside resort. Seafest (an annual event) is normally held on one of the piers, but major works are happening there this year, so celebrations were held at The Spa instead. The community stage was in the Suncourt and the main acts/bands were inside in the Grand Hall. The Ocean Room was taken over with stalls from historical groups and Animated Objects.
A cardboard recreation of the Pump Room had been made, people were invited to colour in paper tiles to help decorate it. Lee gave a very good talk on the history of the spa waters in Scarborough and how their discovery led to the town becoming a tourist destination. Games stickers and a LOT of old work colleagues who turn up to work for Animated Objects at such big events. Lovely to see everyone, hear some of them sing and then enjoy some chilled medication before heading home (well the words on the steps told us we had too!).
Sunday evening Alex, our third lodger arrived. Alex was one of our original lodgers back in 2021 when we first put our names on the theatre digs list, it’s lovely to have her back and we look forward to her performance as Margaret Thatcher in Handbagged at the SJT in a couple of weeks time.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire van filled, 1 visit, 1 boat with her name again, 1 confused cat, 1 full cupboard, 1 empty wardrobe, 1 pantry reduced, 1 Tom at the very top, 1 She squashed in the Shed, 1 Tilly uncertain where to go! 2 days of Seafest, 1 firework display, 6 in Raven, 20 ? Manhattan Voices, 100kg Lego Spa, 2 many old friends to mention, 1 CD required Duncan with the song about traveling to see someone a long way away please!
