The Giraffe, Birmingham

Tilly has resigned herself to being in Birmingham. This morning she didn’t even stir from her sleep to play pen before we got up. Then she took to her day bed without even a look at the back door, There’s just no point!

At lunchtime I put my designers head on and walked into town for a meeting with a new director. Amy had suggested meeting up at Damascena, she’d arrived before me and secured a table in the back room. Just as well as the place got very full. Serving Middle Eastern food, hummus, falafels, flat breads etc, it all looked very tasty.

We quickly ordered, Amy a falafal wrap with haloumi, myself crispy falafels with gluten free flatbreads and avocado hummus. All very tasty, I just wished I’d eaten my flat breads a bit quicker as they soon became brittle, but that tends to be the nature of such things.

Amy is the Artistic Lead at Dark Horse Theatre Company in Huddersfield. A few years ago they started to run AcT a course for people with learning disabilities to train to become professional actors. This summer the first of their students will graduate by putting on a performance at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and I have been asked to be their designer.

Work has already started on the piece with much of the physical movement already having been blocked. Set in a garden, based on a poem we will need to work our way through the seasons. We talked practicalities and then moved on to more arty stuff. Captioning of the script on the set and wheelchair access along with giving the audience the best sight lines will take a bit of working out.

We chatted away for a couple of hours, worked out a time scale for the design deadlines. Working with Dark Horse means everything needs to be ready far earlier so that the actors can rehearse with the set and props for as long as possible. A very good first meeting with lots to think about.

A walk down to the Bullring Markets to see what took my fancy for our evening meal. Plenty on offer, maybe the fish with red dots? But nothing really took my fancy, so in the end I opted for a stir fry from M&S.

Back at Oleanna Tilly had ventured out and Mick had had the opportunity to chat to a man setting bait in rat boxes. These have always worried us as Tilly so likes to stick her arm down holes. But the man assured Mick that they were safe as she wouldn’t be able to reach the poison and was too big to get inside to where it lurks.

The first pair of new year socks are coming along nicely. I’ve started off with the Kingfisher yarn and a matching colour for the toes and heel. It’s knitting up quite stripy as you can see. By the end of the evening I’d turned the heel and was working up the leg. I hope I can find the right place in the yarn to start knitting the second sock so that the orange meets with the heel like it has done with the first one.

0 locks, 0 miles, 6 crispy falafel, 1 brand new director, 8 actors, 1 wheel chair, 4 seasons, 9 foot head height, 0 fish, 40 minutes shore leave, 1 old friend found again, 1 underwhelming video, 0.75 of a sock, 8pm you should stop your engine matey across the way!!!