Category Archives: Pantomime

Residuals and Birthdays. 24th, 25th May

Lemonroyd Marina and Hackney

Another look through my sketches this morning before I sent a link. Time to forget about panto for day or two. Time to think about how we’d be getting back into the marina tomorrow after a night away. Still no-one had returned Micks phone messages, still no-one had replied to an email he’d sent yesterday, still tumbleweed!

I sent a message to Sarah from NB Honky Tonk, well actually right now they live on Dutch Barge Pheonix. Might they be about tomorrow at around 4pm to be able to let us into the marina? She offered us a spare key and came to meet us at the gate. A quick exchange of greetings and thanks before we were off along the towpath to Woodlesford Station.

From here we headed to Leeds, one stop, the dark red widebeam still moored just above Office Lock on the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Out through the barriers to pick up something for lunch, M&S didn’t do too well, but I found a nice chicken salad. Then onto a train bound for London, time to catch up on a bit of knitting as the countryside whizzed by.

London was busy! It usually is, flashing lights and being funneled out of the station, was something happening, or was this just to accommodate football fans heading to Wembley? A long wait for the No 30 then we could sit back and enjoy the ride towards Hackney. That was until the bus decided to change its destination! Oh well we’ll get the Overground one stop. Nope that was closed for the weekend! Back on the bus, finally reaching our destination.

Today, Saturday, is Jac’s birthday. Big hugs all round and Josh had made a surprise visit for the weekend. Cuppas and chats, followed by exchanging presents. Jac got a mattress topper and some olives from us, Mick got an oil filter wrench and a head band to wear in bed which has flat speakers, so he can keep up with the test matches abroad without having ear buds in.

Glad rags on, and face mask off for Jac, the next guests arrived bang on time. Jane and Kevin, who were over from Australia on a celebratory trip for a significant birthday of Janes earlier in the year. We last saw them in 2022, since then they have married, so there was even more to celebrate. Andrew and I grew up with Jane and her sister Emma, so there was lots to catch up on. Their celebratory trip funded by Inspector Morse, Jane was in an episode and her residual payments from one episode tend to be enough for a trip back to the UK and Europe every few years. A friend of Josh’s, Mia, bobbed in on a break from work to wish Jac a happy birthday. The pub where she works was very quiet this evening, so she managed to get the rest of the night off and came back to join us.

**Pip, Mick, Josh, Mia, Jac, Jane, Andrew and Kevin**

A very lovely evening, with very good company, a huge salmon, apple cake and homemade ice cream and maybe just a little bit too much wine!

Sunday morning there was only really enough time for a cuppa in bed with Ziggy and Finn and a brief chat with Andrew and Jac before we headed to catch our train, it was far too early for us to see Josh! Bus and tube, enough time to buy something to eat for brunch on the train then we were hurtling our way back northwards.

Tilly had looked after the boat well, but was understandably seriously bored!

Time to return the key to Sarah and Phil on Pheonix. We were invited inside for a cuppa, it’s always a bit of a shock going inside a wider boat, soooo much room! They bought Pheonix just over a year ago, Phil is tall and NB Honky Tonk was just a little bit too low when they decided to live onboard full time. NB Honky Tonk is moored on the Trent and Mersey currently and used to cruise further south when there is time.

**A rather good clock on the underground**

We’ve followed each other on Instagram for a few years and recently Sarah was added to the Ladies of Finesse group, so it was really nice to finally meet her and Phil. NB Honky Tonk was launched about a year after Oleanna, so we had quite a few things to chat about in common. Their evening meal was just about ready so we did our best not to disturb it too much and headed back to Oleanna to finalise a supermarket delivery and get something to eat ourselves.

**Kings Cross waiting for our platform**

Still no sign of anyone from Aquavista!

**Bridge over Lemonroyd Marina entrance**

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 trains, 3 buses, 1 tube, 7.32 miles, 51 brisk, 1 birthday party, 2 antipodean visitors, 1 surprise son, 1 lovely evening catching up, 2 much wine, 2 M&S lunches, 1 loaned key, 1 good old chat, 2 boats Tonks, 1 load washing, 2 loads drying, £10 added to our account, 0 Aquavista.

https://what3words.com/inherits.places.tropic

The Power Of Kate. 22nd May

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Hang on what was that on the windows? Rain! We’d had rain!! However the towpath was dry. Brrrr! Chilly! I actually lit the stove this morning. I knew that by mid afternoon it would be warm inside, but that would have meant sitting in the cold working for hours. Today I wanted to be productive so being comfortable was more important than saving on coal useage.

A couple of emails went back and forth between Chippy and myself, then it was time to get the mood right.

A couple of years ago a friend said how inspirational listening to Kate Bush felt. I have to agree, I’ve listened to her in the past and found to work better. Today I sorted through the CD’s onboard, a limited number. For some reason we rarely listen to music, maybe because on NB Lillyanne we had no means to do so. Cricket, podcasts are the occasional norm, but today I needed the boost that Kate would hopefully bring with her. Maybe it’s because I know all the lyrics, so she doesn’t take up brain power, her quirky songs keeping you on your toes, the atmospheres conjured up. I don’t know, but it seems to work. Today was going to be long, so I added in some Kate Rusby, maybe she’d give a different inspiration.

In Scarborough, the roofers finished by late morning, an invoice landing in our inbox. We now need to get a decorator to call by to finish off the guttering he’d not been able to reach 18 months ago, then we’ll be ready for the next phase of works. Months ago I’d pulled out the paint, put it so I thought in the shed so it would be easy to find. However, No matter how much he looked Mick could not find it. 15 minutes of him going through the tins of paint in the understairs cupboard via Whatsapp, no I’d definitly put them somewhere else. I held off asking if he’d done a boy look in the shed, now I had to ask. Have you looked behind the door in the shed? The answer, NO! There they were!!!

**Finished! Well they want to play golf tomorrow**

Mick bought himself a new electric saw to make use of the old roof battens, chopping them up for kindling, one side of the coal bunker filling up quickly.

***This outside hasn’t changed in years!!!***

Sketches were quickly done, ideas drawn, some erased, others kept. I think Kate was helping lift my mood, far better than listening to depressing podcasts about crime and WW2. There was time to walk to the bins and around the block, not the full number of steps or brisk minutes, but enough to get some air.

A quick stop for some food and a chat with Mick, then back to it. Propelling pencil put down at 10:30pm. A good day, hopefully! I want to see if I come up with any more ideas tomorrow then send them off again and await the verdict.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 round the block, 16 sketches, 2 lists, 10 hours, 0.5 new roof, 1 boy look! 1 very bored cat, 1 toilet roll who’s days are numbered!

What Cake?! 20th May

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The butter had been left out of the fridge overnight, but still wasn’t suitablely soft for baking. I sliced it thinly, put it in a mixing bowl, then moved it out onto the hatch at the stern, here it got suitably soft very quickly as the sun got going. Sugar, eggs, lemon zest then lots of ground almonds added, it was baked, browning a little too quickly but covered in foil it did it’s thing. Lemon juice added once out of the oven, it was left to cool in the tin. The easiest bit of secret baking I’ve done in years, helped enormously that Mick was in Scarborough.

The roofers started to tidy up, moving all the old slates off the roof by hand, their bucket and rope in the van which was still being mended. Later in the day I was sent a photo with fresh new tiles covering part of the roof, there had been three of them today so they were cracking on. Good job as rain is forecast for the weekend.

Here on Oleanna, I waited to hear back from John in Chippy. No news came through all day. Oh well, I decided to do a mock up of the cyc , this is a cloth that hangs up stage, normally covering where we store all the props and bits of scenery by the back wall. Once I’d put things together I realised that my horizon was far too high, I’ll need to add more sky, but at least it will give an idea in the white card model.

Up to Lidl for some asparagus for this evenings birthday barbecue. The roofers having finished for the day around 3pm meant Mick could be on a train back for the evening arriving at 6pm. On my walk back down the hill to the canal there was a lot of stationary traffic. The cause, a Luton van that had got itself squished by the curve of the railway bridge! I really hoped this wouldn’t cause problems with the trains and delay Mick’s return.

More stoppage notices regarding low levels on the canals. The Ripon Canal which is fed by the River Skell will be closing at the top end, this will hopefully help maintain levels at the top and without any rainfall the EA are likely to ask C&RT to stop abstraction from the river, so we suspect the canal will soon be closed from Oxclose Lock. We’d been wanting to head up the River Ouse and onto the Ripon Canal, but that is now likely to be another destination we’re unable to reach this year.

The very sunny afternoon sadly clouded over, but when Mick arrived back at Oleanna we decided to still go ahead with our planned birthday barbecue, the first barbecue of the year. The charcoal was lit and left to get itself ready as the presents came out.

Last week Mick had been so excited at the arrival of a parcel for me at the house that I decided to wrap up the contents and give them to him. Well what would he do with 100 10A scalpel blades, but give them to me! Next followed a familiar shaped present, this was a chocolate orange which has now been gifted at Christmas, Easter and now birthday. The proper presents followed. A Curlew t-shirt from Tilly and a smart new fleece from me, both went down well.

Asparagus for starters, followed by pork steaks and veg/halloumi kebabs, washed down with a couple of glasses of wine each whilst sat out on the towpath, jumpers required but not too chilly thankfully.

Once tidied up we retired indoors for cake and blowing out of candles. This took several attempts from Mick, it must be his great age! We’ve quite a bit left over to keep us going for a few more days.

A later start to his birthday celebrations than normal, but we got there in the end.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 0.3 roof re-tiled, 1000 old tiles carried down ladders, 1000 new tiles carried up, 1 sheet of insulation board to find a use for, 1 cyc, 1 ECG, 3.11 miles walked, 22 minutes briskly, 12 candles, 1 bored cat, 15 spears asparagus, 2 pork steaks, 4 kebabs, 4 glasses wine, 1 Happy Birthday to Mick.

Orange Tips. 19th May

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The roofers arrived this morning and stripped off the other end of the roof. There used to be a couple of windows on this section but we’ve decided that they didn’t really serve any purpose for 99.9% of the time as they were in the roof space rather than the room and we’d rather have a water tight top to the house. Mick got the chance to stick his head through where there was once roof and see if he could see the sea. I think he needed a little bit more height to achieve that.

By mid afternoon the hammering stopped and the world fell silent, the roofers had insulated, membraned, battened up and added a gully where there should have been one between us and our next door neighbours concrete roof tiles. Next job will be to tidy up. Mick has helped them a bit by chopping up some of the old wooden battens and saving them for fire wood.

Here on Oleanna, Tilly came and went whilst I got on with finishing off my sketches for the panto storyboard. These were then scanned, trimmed, put into order, descriptions written, references added and emailed off to John in the afternoon. I could do with a speedy reply and I’m aware that I omitted to add in obligatory crates and barrels into the Market scene. There’s always a market scene! We’ll see what John thinks.

Tilly was gone for quite some time, I went out to check on her, walking straight down to the tree of refuge. As I called there was no reply so I worked my way back towards Oleanna, where opposite the side hatch I could just her a faint meow from deep inside the friendly cover. Friendly cover! That is serious obsticle course, danger deep mud, entanglement! You need a PHD in catness to work your way through that stuff. She managed to work her way through eventually popping out and requiring a good wash before returning for some more outside world.

Today I opted to walk down to Lemonroyd Lock, the path on what feels like the offside of the canal is tarmaced and lined with young oak trees. The sun was warming the world up again. Male Orange Tip Butterflies sat on flowers, one decided I was quite a nice perch too. There is an old gravel works wharf that you have to walk round, here Red Hot Pokers rose from the banks.

On the river side there are two wiers, one just a small drop, the other makes up the depth of Lemonroyd Lock. The new rowing club, that on the CRT notice suggests it’s a years trail, seems to be quite large with getting on for 8 sturdy containers all painted dark green and surrouded by fencing. A group from a local academy school were warming up on the bank before climbing aboard. They certainly give the impression they are here to stay.

Down at the lock todays watch from the local Fire Brigade were having a look at things, presumably should they ever need to rescue anyone. The water point was back in action, a wide beam busy watering thier flower pots and topping up their tank. A lovely walk there and back, sadly still with a hobble.

The afternoon was spent doing some secret wrapping. Tilly helped. Then I had to help her adjust the card she’d got for Mick. Normally we have to hide in the bedroom to do this, but today we had the luxury of using the dinette table. Some secret baking was postponed til the morning as the butter was too hard to cream with sugar. Here’s hoping the morning warms up to help.

0 locks, 0 miles, 16 sketches, 22 references, 1 email, 1 Designer waiting for 1 Director, 3.78 miles walked, 63 minutes briskly, 4 presents, 1 cat card adjusted, 1 cake on hold, 1 roof prepped ready for new tiles.

Turkey, Or Confused Cat. 18th May

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No that’s not a cockerel. Was it what I thought it was? I pulled up a recording of the bird in question. Yep a turkey gobbling away across the cut somewhere. We’d heard sheep last week, but not this funny noise. It turns out there is a poultry farm just across the way.

It’s boring listening to them all on the tippy tappy screen, so I went out to explore. She says they talked about disapearing messages, pick ‘n’ mix moral boosters and presidential hats. I got on with far more important things, friend hunting.

Tom came out to find me, they wanted to move the outside to find a tap. I was about to olbige when a rude woofer ran at me and was SO loud! So so Rude!!! To get as far away as possible I made use of a tree. The woofer’s She kept on going totally NOT in control of her woofer! Even ruder, doesn’t she know that towpaths are for everyone, including cats!

Tom came and chatted. I shouted back to him, I think he’s a little hard of hearing. He disapeared. My polite She came to chat. We chatted as I got down from the tree, but I felt my buisness wasn’t quite finished for the morning, so I headed along the towpath, only to come across two cyclists. RUN AWAY!!!! That tree was handy again.

She talked to me, I disagreed with her, shouting my replies. She walked away, but where too? Hang on where was Oleanna?! Oleanna wasn’t there!!!

I shouted and shouted and SHOUTED!!!

If only you’d follow me Tilly you’d find Oleanna! I didn’t believe her, She was lying! All the smells pointed to an empty stretch of towpath, She’d stolen Oleanna. I shouted to Toms and Shes that passed. She said I was being embarrasing. NO I wasn’t! Someone had stolen my home!

She arrived with a chair and sat down looking straight at me. Now where had She got the chair from?! We chatted for a little while, then I needed to check the chair was ours, a good sniff was required. Down the tree, mostly forwards, a mistake.

As soon as she got near she was picked up and returned to Oleanna where she’d left it. Lots of head nudges and purring, Tilly had got confused following her own scent back to where we’d been yesterday and got herself into a right tizzy. NO I HADN’T!!!!

We winded and headed for the water point. I realised that the new Thyme plant wasn’t as self sufficient in hot weather as the other plants and was looking like it had dehydrated itself. It got a good soaking in a sink whilst at the tap, here’s hoping it works.

The tap was made the most of, a refresh of Tillys pooh box and a shower for me. All rubbish disposed of too. We winded again, headed to just beyond where we’d been earlier to wind with more space for comfort before pulling back in where we’d been last night, just facing the other way. How to totally confuse your boat cat. Tilly didn’t stray far, infact she was a sleep for most of the afternoon. What do you expect after all that stress you’d put me through! Thought you hadn’t got into a tizzy Tilly!

Time to start work again, those sketches wouldn’t do themselves. Scans, more sketches, I just needed some pritstick now. A walk to Londis didn’t come up trumps, neither did the Co-op, so I’ve had to make do with little dabs of pva.

Mick headed off to catch a train back to Scarborough to see if there would be any roofers tomorrow, and I cracked on with work, only pausing to have something to eat. I finally called it a day at just gone 10pm, still a few bits left to do in the morning.

0 locks, 0.3 miles, 3 winds, 1 a touch too tight, 1 confused cat, 2 many outsides, 5 minutes in a chair, 7.5 hours work, 3 trains, 0 pritstick, 1 turkey, maybe more.

Closing Down. 16th May

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6:45 Oleanna bumped the side, Off Roader was on it’s way. I peeked out the front windows and could see the light at the lock was red, as the big boat came past it turned to green. The bumping continued for about half an hour until calm waters returned. We seem to go bump a while before any boat is seen, either the lock above emptying or the one below filling. I made sure I tightened our ropes this morning, they had stretched a touch since we tied up.

I shaded in my ideas for the front cloth for panto. In past years I’ve hand drawn the basic design on all the sketches, but I think this year I may just scan the design and then stick it onto my sketches. Yes I could do all of this on the computer, but that would actually take me far longer and I’d be more concerned with how to do it than what I’d be using it for, designing panto. So I’ll use it as a short cut my way.

I checked in with Frank after his operation earlier this week. He was on pretty good form this morning, Great British Bake Off Black Forest Gateaux setting his gastric juices going. By the end of the day his mood had changed as he’d had news of his next medical journey. My PA duties will continue for a while. I’m beginnning to think I talk to Frank more now than I did when we worked together at the SJT.

The roofers had said they’d be working all day today, but their van was booked in to be mended so they just turned up to check things were water tight and vanished again! Later on the scaffolders arrived to take the towers down. Mick told them that the roof wasn’t finished, infact it was hardly started! They didn’t believe him so wanted to see for themselves, maybe Mick hadn’t noticed them finishing! Their reaction was as expected, we don’t know who’d told them to take it down, maybe they’d got the wrong site and they should have been dismanteling the scaffoldng where our roofers had actually been working this week!

More scenes of panto were worked through during the day until Mick arrived back. I had a walk up the towpath to stretch my legs and then we tucked into a Sainsbury’s curry with a glass or two of wine. Stocks are pretty low onboard at the moment, so a shopping trip will be required over the weekend.

The dry weather is affecting canal and river levels around the country. Last week there was advance notice from C&RT that the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was likely to be put on restricted hours or even be closed to navigation. Today notice was given that the lock flights between Skipton and the bottom of Wigan will be closing at the end of 22nd May, not quite a weeks time. Then the locks towards Leeds including Bingley will be open between Thursday and Monday with reduced opening hours to help support water conservation. Thankfully we’d not planned on crossing the Pennines this year as all routes will soon be closed. The Caldon Canal has also been closed from Hazelhurst Junction down to Froghall, therefore the water feeding into the canal can still head down to the Trent and Mersey.

**Mum taking her ducklings for a swim in a rare puddle**

Research into our planned main destination for the year, Beverley from the River Hull is bringing up obsticles too. More info on this on another post, but it’s looking like we’ll be postponing our plans to another year sadly.

0 locks, 0 miles, 12 sketches, 2 basic portal designs, 3 scenes still to do, 0 roofing done! 1 set of scaff still erected, 1 Nadia going to win, 1 stern washed down, 2 trains, 1 Mick, 2 beers, 4 glasses of wine.

Where’s Platform TBC? 15th May

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Aire and Calder Navigation and Scarborough

Alarm clock set for early o’clock I was awake well before it. Time to do my stretches, have breakfast and head to Woodlesford Station to catch the 7:14 to Leeds. There I swapped trains, destination Scarborough. It was cold on the Aire and Calder but it would be colder in Scarbados!

Trains are not such a good place to try to do some sketching, but at least I got one idea down on paper before we pulled in.

I arrived at my GP’s ready for a blood test well before I was due, then headed straight for the house, the roofers were actually there and had stripped back one half of it. No insulation found so that would be added as they worked to put a new membrane and battens on. They had finished those jobs by 11:30 and that was it for the day! Mick has reminded them that we need the scaffolding down by a certain date and dates are fixed with new lodgers due! Their reply was it wouldn’t be a problem.

I logged in to a Teams meeting to meet a potential propsmaker. They came across really well and had been the best of the applicants on paper despite their young age. They reminded me of myself at a similar stage in my carreer.

Next I put on my Theatrical Landlady hat and worked my way through a mountain of bed linen. Mick pottered in the garden some more. We’ve a rather good display of yellow poppies this year, the newly slatted garden benches have now been bleached by the sunshine so have lost their honey glow.

In the afternoon I walked to the other side of the valley to my new dentist. Xrays, a scale and polish. She doesn’t want to see me again for 6 to 9 months, so I’ve opted for a date when we should be back in the house which is inbetween.

A walk across Spa Bridge to see the sea, not as good as when Bridget and Storm visited last week! But hey at least I could see the sea this time. Some secret shopping was required in town before climbing back onboard a train to head back to Oleanna.

At Leeds I headed for the second train home. On platform 17a the display said there would be a platform alteration. A Mum and teenage girl looked at the display, Mum looked down at her phone as her daughter asked, ‘Where’s platform TBC?’

Tilly had had a very boring day, at least I didn’t stick to the boat though!

Tomorrow it’s back to work proper.

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 trains, 3.5 hours of roofers, 0.25 roof removed, 2 samples, 2 hours ironing, 1 sketch, 1 scale and polish, 3 xrays, 1 thumbs up, 1 sea, 1 parcel, 1 purchase, not £25,000,000 for Kirkham Priory (can be seen from the train),1 bored cat, 1 propsmaker? 6.5 miles hobbled, 59 minutes briskly.

Beastly Brain Ache. 14th May

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The roofers delivered various ladders to the house today. Their van was still not mended, but they promised to arrive early tomorrow. Mick happened to be out buying a visor so that he could trim away the undergrowth that is taking over the garden again. If only the gardener who’d come round in February had actually come good! If only the roofers would get started with the roof!

On Oleanna I got on with trying to sort out just where abouts things should be positioned on stage. Shapes and the overall look of everything put on the back burner for a while until I’d worked out the formula for the hanging plot (which flying bars scenery gets hung on).

As Tilly went out I noticed she walked around the edge of the stern. As she lifted each paw she gave it a flick as she does when things are wet or muddy. Gosh the stern was looking very shiny. Later on I stepped on it myself and I think I managed to lift some of the paint, it sticking to the soles of my shoes! I gave it a good wash down with canal water to stop it being SO sticky. Shade is one thing, not that it does much on the mooring, but we’re going to need a drive through boat wash very soon, otherwise we’ll all be like flies stuck to fly paper!!

My walk today was up to Woodlesford Station, to see how long it would take me to hobble there, the timing factored into tomorrows schedule, an early start required. I didn’t go much further just a look at the pub and the church next door which turned out to look more like a private residence with curtains swagged in the windows and a big gate baring entry.

The afternoon I sketched out some groundplans, translating the hanging plot onto a groundplan is always a brain ache for panto. If you nudge that bit upstage then there will be big holes visible into the wings. But reducing gaps can mean there’s not enough room to get things on and off stage. This is a big problem in such a small theatre as Chippy, the audience sit right up to the proscenium arch, so they can see all the way into the wings, but not see anything on their side of the stage. If you ever go, don’t be tempted by these seats, not unless all you want to do is be seen by the audience!

Then there’s the problem of where to put the musicians! I really preffered it when they were in the auditorium, but for some reason they have to be on stage again this year. They either take up acting area or storage room for scenery and props.

I did get to the point of doing some sketches of how things might look, there’s still plenty more of that to come.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 story hanging plot, 10 ground plans, 15 storyboard blanks, 4 drawn up, 1 sticky stern, 4 flicks of paws, 2nd helping of Yaxni, 2 hours knitting.

370 Pins Later. 13th May

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No need for an alarm clock this morning, Off Roader came past at 6:45, it was going slowly but still the size of it doesn’t half make Oleanna bump about a bit. When I next woke up I turned my phone off airplane mode only for it to ring immediatly! It was Frank asking me to do a bit of his medical PA work. Phone numbers were exchanged only for me to find out the number was incorrect, someone would have to wait a little while longer to hear the news from Frank. The day would be peppered with messages and phone calls on behalf of Frank who yesterday had keyhole surgery and by the end of today was tucking himself up in his own bed at home.

**I couldn’t see a cut on the back of the tyre**

Tilly was given shore leave and vanished for a few hours only to return when I’d just got going on my first Teams meeting with John in Chippy regarding panto. John and I caught up on news and how he felt last years panto had gone. The Chippy audience are a vocal lot and the local crowd had found Cinderella set in Columbia the year before a step too far. So John’s choice of twists to story lines are a little more traditional at the moment. Beauty and the Beast is still set in a foreign country though, closer to home in France in the 1890’s.

The meeting went well, we chatted through all the scenes, what was needed for each along with what wasn’t needed. My 335 photos were appreciated , favourites pulled out and taken note of. Two locations were altered requiring me to do a bit more research after our meeting, my pinterest board now having 370 images pinned to it.

I needed a walk to think things over, so opted to walk towards Leeds in the sunshine. Pacing and thinking is good along with looking at the scenery. Two ladies sped past me as I hobbled along, I suspect they were out doing the same thing but without an injured calf. I did better than I thought I would, just hope I haven’t pushed my calf too much today.

In Scarborough with no roofers due today, Mick opted to get on the bus up to Whitby. This was a very popular route and as it went through places like Goathland it even had a recorded commentary for the passengers. Then onto another bus to bring him back over the moors past Fylingdales where the giant golf balls used to be when I was a kid. He opted to hop off the bus in Thornton le Dale a very pretty village with a stream running through it, and caught a more direct bus back to Scarborough. He had a phone call confirming a booking at a marina we’d been waiting to hear about too. A jolly day out on the North Yorkshire Moors.

**Ready to start sketching in the morning**

I made contact with the costume designer for panto and had a bit of a chat with Paul the Technical Manager, he’s considering purchasing a narrowboat in the next few years, so I suspect there will be lots of boaty conversation when I’m in Chippy. The printer decided to have a wobble, but I got things to print out in the end. Blanks for sketch groundplans and a blank for the storyboard. With these done I decided to give myself the evening off rather than getting only so far into the next phase before bedtime.

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 hours shore leave for 1 cat, 90 minutes for 1 human, 2.94 miles walked, 52 minutes briskly, 7 hours at work, 370 pins, 2 new locations, 0 new flying bars, 0 roofers! 1 Frank at home 2 days earlier than suggested.

Houses In The Woods. 12th May

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A day of work and opening and closing doors and hatches for Tilly to come and go. She wasn’t too bad and with the heat of the day she mostly stayed asleep either on top of the drawing board slot or the bed. I think I should feature in panto this year! What do you think?

First thing was to open as many windows as I could, get some cool air into the boat. I suceeded and ended up having to wear a jumper until lunchtime, but I’m sure it made for a cooler day at the office overall. This mooring isn’t as shaded as the one we tried earlier plus it has the disadvantage of sticky overhanging trees, so it’s a good job I’d not got round to giving Oleanna a good old wash down.

The morning was spent re-reading Act 1 of the script, then looking out for more references. The afternoon was the same for Act 2. All references were put on Pinterest a handy tool, but from past experience if you share your boards with someone you may not end up looking at the same picture as they get jumbled up. So much of the evening was spent thinning them down in number and downloading them into a folder to share with John.

I’ve a few ideas formulating. Last time I did some sketches before our first meeting, then had to redo quite a lot of the work after talking to John, so I’ve held back from that so far, hopefully tomorrows meeting will be a good one and then I can get sketching.

In house news, the roofers arrived, delivered some materials, then went off to finish another job! Later in the day Mick heard their van had broken down so they’d be back with us on Wednesday morning. Mick believes them.

Six boats have been past all day. The first I knew was coming as Oleanna started to move about a LOT. It could only have been Off Roader. I’m kind of glad we moved moorings as she would have just started to pick up speed where we were before, so the wash would have been much bigger.

Two boats pulled out from near our mooring. I strongly suspect one of them has a separating toilet and had off loaded their yellow water bottle very close to Oleanna’s side hatch this morning! I’m hoping the smell doesn’t return tomorrow.

After lunch I went to stretch my legs and walk up the other side of the cut to see what a garden area was all about. Carved Gruffalos, the donkey from Puss in Boots. Further along the path there were houses in amongst the trees. Add to that seed filled snow drifts, it was really quite magical. I managed a few brisk hobbles before I got back to the boat, but nowhere near my usual. My calf just needs to take it easy for a while.

0 locks, 0 miles, 6 boats, 1 big bugger, 327 pins, 300 copied,1 hour of PA conversations, 1 FRIEND, 4 hours shore leave, 1.46 miles, 14 minutes brisk, 1 pile of roofing stuff, 0 roofer, 1 pair of socks hand delivered, 1 cat trying to pose for panto.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna

Category Archives: Pantomime

Residuals and Birthdays. 24th, 25th May

The Power Of Kate. 22nd May

What Cake?! 20th May

Orange Tips. 19th May

Turkey, Or Confused Cat. 18th May

Closing Down. 16th May

Where’s Platform TBC? 15th May

Beastly Brain Ache. 14th May

370 Pins Later. 13th May

Houses In The Woods. 12th May