Category Archives: Theatre Design

Amy’s On Her Way. 3rd October

Stoke Lock to Nottingham County Hall Steps

There seem to be so many Egrets on the Trent this year

Mick showed me the old drive plate this morning. It’s not meant to turn, well only if something goes wrong and it’s designed to be the thing that breaks protecting the gear box. Turning it over we could see how much it was moving about sideways too.

With the hope of not getting wet we wanted to be off and away in good time, but as we pushed off it started to spit, this gradually increased to light rain as we headed up stream waving goodbye to Stoke Lock. That’s another lock on the River Trent where we’ve had an incident of some sort, we’re up to three now!

Goodbye Stoke Lock

At the 5km mark Mick radioed ahead to Holme Lock, the volunteer answered very quickly. He’d have the lock ready and waiting for us, ‘Come in on the green’. Walking through Oleanna I popped my waterproof trousers on, no point in getting soggy whilst penning up in the lock!

It was good to be back on the move even if we got wet!

Holme Lock is such a slow riser, but then again it is a big lock. Thankfully all the paddles at the top end work, you’d be there half a life time if they didn’t! More scaffolding was going up on the weir. No moving boats in sight, maybe we’d be the volunteer Lock Keepers only boat today.

A sign on a sunken boat made us both smile. I suspect the owner hasn’t found the situation amusing. You Sank My Battleship. Bankriver, Banksea’s lesser known cousin.

Two cranes were around parts of the new bridge, enclosures created up high and some welding going on. Formers were going together on both banks for concrete, the footings of the bridge soon to be poured. The local news suggested the bridge would be going into position next month sometime.

Trent Bridge

Under Trent Bridge and to County Hall Steps. Here hopefully we’d be far enough away from trees during Storm Amy. There are rings to tie to, which we’d need to keep an eye on if levels rise, these are quite high up on the steps and selecting the right rings for Oleanna’s length proved a little tricksy, but we got there in the end.

Not if they’ve any sense in this weather!

It was now raining pretty heavily. I suggested twenty minutes shore leave to Tilly. She managed to get two steps up the bank and endured twenty seconds before returning for some Dreamies. Rubbish, now I’ve got to use the on board facilities!

Yesterday I’d had a lengthy email from Chippy about the roses we’re aiming to make for panto. Four people had made around 20 in three hours, was this a practical idea? I know I can make at least 4 in an hour, if not 5 or 6 if I really got going. I’d made suggestions to lighten the load from volunteers, cutting the estimated number needing to made from 600 to 250, but we’d need to buy roses to fill the gaps. Jo the General Manager at the theatre had made another 10 at home last night, a bright pink star goes to her. It’s now down to those who hold the purse strings, that’s if they ever reply to emails!

The ducks were having difficulty swimming upstream against the waves and wind. Mick headed out to buy a few things and I walked around the block. This involved crossing Wilford Suspension Bridge. The bridge will be closed for a day next week to remove all the love locks, the owners have been asked to come and remove theirs. Walking along the north bank was quite blustery and I was always aware of the big trees.

I checked Meadow Lane Lock, it was still there, then turned to face the wind, blimey!! Crossing Trent Bridge I tried to keep to the outside edge, the wind pushing me towards the cars, then back along the bank to Oleanna. The wind too strong to have a longer walk today.

The locks

When we’d moored up today, Mick had used one of the new fender hooks, hoping it’s lower profile would mean that the pram cover could be poppered down all the way along, leaving little chance for the wind to catch a loose section. He’d used a buoy fender to keep us away from the bank more in the wind. However the weight of the buoy and the wind had meant the fender hook slipped off from the grabrail, thankfully the buoy floats and the boat behind had stopped it from being blown too far, so we didn’t loose the eye. We’ll try a more standard fender from it when the wind has calmed down, but so far it seems that they might be kind to paint work, but lack enough gripability.

Jacket potatoes went in the fire box, the coals not up to full winter heat yet so the potatoes cooked but didn’t get crispy skins. With them we had a chicken coleslaw using up the last of the roast chicken (from the freezer) and various bits of veg.

1 lock, 5.5 miles, 1 soggy morning, 1 far more soggy afternoon, 6 Egrets in flight, 1 NHS letter to London, 1 storm Amy not here yet, 1 noisy night ahead, 23 brisk minutes, 20 seconds, 1 slippy fender hook, 3 jackets, pair 105 knitted, pair 106 designed, 1 rose coup hopefully averted.

Strop And Crow Bar.2nd October

Stoke Lock

Containers of oil and stuff and things

Mick cleared the engine bay before breakfast, anything that might get in the way was put on the bank. A phone call from Kane with his ETA came at just gone 9am and his satnav was pretty much spot on as he walked up to Oleanna at 10:25, a big crow bar in his hand and other tools and a new drive plate in his rucksack.

Engine held by strop and crowbar

He set to work removing the gear box to gain access to the old drive plate. This all took a while. Before the last bolts were removed he passed a strop around the engine and suspended it all from his crowbar which was positioned on our stern lockers. Inside I could hear just about everything, as the last bolt was removed I could hear the engine slump just a touch into the strop.

A new version

Inside I got on with re drawing the gates for Panto. Once scanned it was sent off to Jamie to see what he made of it. I didn’t hear back from him today. I then turned my attention to a logo that is needed for the show, an adjustment of a very well known brand logo was needed. This was done and shared. Not many little jobs left to do on my to-do list.

Gear box removed

Outside work progressed. The drive plate was removed. Yes it had been the culprit, not that you can see that easily without moving it. Time for a cuppa and for Kane to stretch his legs. His estimate the other day of three hours to remove the drive plate halved. Would putting the new one on be as quick?

Lots of crud where the old drive plate used to sit

Tightening things up in a confined space, engine suspended almost where it needed to be caused a little cursing from the engine bay. A few bangs occurred, at least he’d warned us they might happen. He’d had to remove the oil sump pump from the engine, this had failed on Mick at the last engine service. Mick asked if instead of putting the old one back on, could Kane install the new one we’d already got. It maybe took him an extra five minutes to fit, but he didn’t mind.

Guess which one Kane used

After three hours in our engine bay the ignition key was turned on. Oleanna was put into gear, no grinding noise. Then reverse, no grinding noise. Hooray!!!

Brand new Drive plate

Kane said the old drive plate would have lasted a while longer before failing, but best not to find out how long! Mick was given instructions to make sure some bolts were still tight in a week or so’s time with a 17mm spanner. Job done. Kane now headed off into Nottingham to his next job somewhere between Castle Marina and Sainsbury’s.

We had lunch. Should we move on today or stay put? If the river was busy with people looking for moorings we’d have moved, but as we’d only seen a couple of boats so far today and one of them had pulled away from the pontoon mooring this morning we didn’t feel we had to move. Also we were the only boat moored on the visitor moorings and there is space for four. As well as all that, C&RT had given us an overstay approval until 14th October. So we stayed put.

12km from Nottingham

My walk today took me along the road from the lock to Stoke Bardolph. Plenty of anglers and someone being trained in paddle boarding. I then carried on walking along the road on the river bank towards the big bend in the river where I followed the footpath. Here the anglers had set up fences around their vans, I wondered why for a while, but then twigged when I saw a heard of cows. Maybe these cows are known to lick vans like those do to boats at Lechlade on the Thames.

Back along a path that crossed the railway. Was this the crossing where Tilly had been found nearly ten years ago with her siblings? Then into Burton Joyce village. A lovely village hall where the local amateur dramatic society have just put on a show. Several nice looking shops and buildings. I popped into the Co-op for some milk. A heritage trail to follow, maybe next time when it isn’t a five mile round walk. Back in February 2016 my brother gave me a lift to Burton Joyce to a house on the hill here. That was to pick up our little thug Tilly who we adopted from Burton Joyce Cats, they no longer exist.

Lots of jolly pebbles

At the station there is a pebble display to mark the Platinum Jubilee. Lots of local groups and the school contributed to it painting pebbles. I was amazed at the number of cats wearing crowns, then later realised they were actually Corgis! The Beef Eater certainly had very square shoulders.

Back along the road to the boat. Today I’d tracked my journey via the NHS Active 10 app, 87 minutes brisk walking; on my step counter 12110 steps just short of 5 miles; but also with the OS app. The Ordnance Survey app had tracked my route and said it was 5.42 miles. So which do I believe? Have I got my step counter calibrated correctly to my stride? Have I actually been walking further than recorded all year?

Walsall Schnitzel tonight, turkey that needed finishing off from the freezer. We discussed where we should go now and when. There’s a storm coming, so we don’t want to stay at Stoke Lock with all the trees. Would we have enough time to go that way or should we just stay pottering about for a while longer?

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 new drive plate, 3 hours, 1 new gate drawing, 2 logos, 1 rose email, how many? 1 last day of good shore leave for Tilly, 4.95 miles, 0r 5.42 miles, 82 brisk minutes, 1 huge gaggle, 1 mended boat ready to push off.

Where we traveled in September

Ten Going On Fifty Six. 1st October

Stoke Lock

Me

My favourite, Webbox for breakfast!!! It’s rare She gives me Webbox, but today She gave me some whilst She and Tom were still in bed! Result! Apparently it’s because today I am ten. I’ve been warned not to expect Webbox every morning just because I’m ten now. Did I mention that I’m ten, She thinks it’s important, I think I am still a cat.

Feathers!

Have to say the bag She had smelt very good, it smelt very very good indeed, in fact it smelt so good I tried to get into it the wrong way. Inside was a furry, feathery, yummy smelling thing that just had to be licked to death. She said she now regretted getting me something that would be covered in lickingness. But I’m ten today so that doesn’t matter.

Mine!

After some biscuits I headed out to check on the outside. Yes it was all still there, plenty to climb and scratch around in. She says my nails are filthy, but I don’t care, that’s because I’m ten today.

MINE!!

An email to the Production Manager for panto was needed for a catch up, things were feeling a little bit too quiet in panto world. She didn’t reply but within an hour Jamie, the set builder, got in touch saying they were about to start. He has concerns about one piece of the build and would I consider some adjustments to it. He made a suggestion, hmm. Not ideal. I thought some, asked a question with a suggestion back. This then morphed into a hybrid solution which would require some redrawing.

1st of the month, time to annoy the spiders

After lunch with Tilly back on board I’m ten today! it was time to head to the water point. This morning RCR had called saying an engineer would be with us tomorrow morning. If we end up without a working engine at the end of tomorrow we want to be prepared, batteries topped up and a full water tank. However this would mean having to move with part of the engine soon to fail, add into the mix that we are on a river and fairly close to a weir!

Just about ready for the off

I insisted that the anchor was laid out ready for deployment, not on it’s prongs, but there on the locker lid ready should it be needed. Things were moved out of the way. We discussed the plan of action. We untied. Mick pulled us backwards away from the trees at the bow, then gently nudged us away from the mooring, winding to head down stream. All went well and we were soon alongside the high wall of the lock cut. The stern needed aligning with a ladder, which Mick climbed, bow and centre line were tied. Hose passed up, a small adapter required for the tap, then we could fill the water tank. The pressure wasn’t too great so we were there for a while.

Hose pipe connecting

Next was the slightly more risky manoeuvre of returning to the mooring. The lock cut wasn’t wide enough for us to wind in, so we needed to reverse out of it. The grinding noise was worse in reverse, but Mick took it gently, then with help from the bow thruster we turned to head up stream and pushed on back to the mooring. No need for the anchor thankfully. Just as well as all day we’d only seen a couple of boats come past who’d have been able to give us a tow back to land.

Sock pair 104 were packed up and then walked to the post box I’d spotted the other day in the village. I’d considered walking further today, but I needed to try to get the adjustment to panto sorted.

Posting socks

The other day I invested in the program I’d used to clean up the print for panto. A one off payment rather than a monthly subscription. I scanned in my drawing and was able quite quickly to adjust the width of the gate curly bits. This printed out at the correct size so I could amend my drawing quickly. Brilliant. I’ll still need the drawing board out to finish things off, but far quicker than doing it all by hand. I just need to keep finding reasons to use the package and learn new uses for it.

Kedgeree this evening, well we had to have something fishy to celebrate Tilly’s 10th birthday, she’s nearly caught me up now as in cat years she’s most probably about 56. Tilly had salmon in gravy! I had requested, frogs legs, clams, tuna steak with a bit of cod’s roe on the side and a fricassee of shrew. She said that with our current engine problems they’d not been able to get to specialist fishy froggy shops and maybe I was better off self catering.

0 locks, 0.1 miles, 0.05 there, 0.05 back, 2 winds, 1 full water tank, 10th Birthday, 56! 1 catnip kicker, 3 shrews, 1 mouse, 1 attempt at a squirrel, 1 boat back on it’s mooring, 1 engineer in the morning, 1 more thing to okay for printers, 200mm lost from gates, 2nd day of waiting.

A Bag Of Surprises. 30th September

Stoke Lock

Tofu had been omitted from our shopping list on Saturday, no rush to buy it, but I decided to see how far it was to the nearest shops. Yesterdays find of paths along the drainage ditches across the fields, meant there might be two routes to the retail park. I headed across the fields to the good track that skirted round more fields. After a while the tarmac vanished, but well worn tracks took over. I’d studied Google maps and not been able to find a definite way into the retail park, so when I heard voices up on the embankment by the lagoons I headed that way to see if someone could help. With directions I could now carry on, arriving at the delivery side of the shops, but from here I could easily get onto the main road and gain access to the front side of the shops. Around 2 miles walk.

Along the drainage ditches

First stop M&S Food Hall. I was after tofu and a cooking apple. They had apples but not tofu. I scanned the shelves for yellow stickers, best done in the mornings at M&S, but very little took my fancy, so I left empty handed there were other supermarkets to try.

Next, Pets at Home. It’s a certain cat’s birthday tomorrow and some treats may be required. I considered boring presents. A new bowl, no point she has bowls in both house and boat. A new collar, that wouldn’t go down at all well. A rainbow bow, or glittery one, they wouldn’t last even a matter of minutes. I scanned the shelves for her favourite treats and picked up a new toy.

A strong Halloween vibe in Morrisons

Across the way to Morrisons for tofu, success and an apple, I had to buy 5! I only wanted one. Oh well there are some blackberries in the freezer, we’ll just HAVE to have a crumble! Never mind!

I found the other route back to the river that the Lock Keeper had mentioned to Mick yesterday. Not a route I’d choose to do near dark, a well worn path, but carved through dense undergrowth. Back at Oleanna a little later than planned I tucked surprises away in a cupboard and had lunch.

Mick called in to see the Lock Keeper to let them know we’d be here for a few more days. A note was made in the book for when the number checker comes round, they are apparently quite hot round here, shame they’re not so effective around Nottingham at the moment.

Trimmed ends

A bit of hunting around for panto again, another blog post caught up on then it was time to finish weaving ends in on a pair of socks. Who decided to use so many colours?! It took forever to weave all the ends in, but at least they are done now and once packaged up they can be on their way.

A request for a hair cut was granted. Stool placed out on the bank and a grade 2 trim was produced without either of us falling in. Mick now looks a lot neater. Lemon Chicken stir fry tonight.

After a quick shower each this evening our water tank is now down to a quarter. Tomorrow we’ll maybe bite the bullet and head for a top up, hoping to make it back to our mooring with a full tank to await RCR’s return.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 sausage day for Tilly, 79 brisk minutes, 5 miles walked, 1 bag of surprises, 1 block of tofu, 5 apples, 4 boats, pair 104 finished, 2 clean boaters (we couldn’t wait any longer), grade 2 hair cut, Day 1 of waiting.

Overstay Approved. 29th September

Stoke Lock

Mick turned Oleanna’s engine on this morning, put her in gear, that same noise, vibration and grinding could still be heard, it was worse in reverse. He called Alastair in Goole, a chap who’s done work on Oleanna over the last few winters and sorted out our water pump a few years ago. He couldn’t hear at first, so Mick sent him a sound file of the engine running. Twenty minutes or so later he called back. From what Alastair could hear it sounded like the gear box or the drive plate was going. Best to get it seen sooner rather than later and the best thing to do would be to call RCR.

RCR were called, our location passed on and symptoms described along with the possible diagnosis. They’d call back when an engineer had been allocated to the job. When they called back the ETA for Kane, the engineer, was 2 hours.

Hiya!

Tilly came and went, I got on with some bits for panto. I needed a material to make a giant rose from. Someone had suggested plastizote, a foam that you can get in different thicknesses and colours. I’d looked it up a few weeks ago and having enough to make the rose would cost in the region of £120! Quite a lot on something that is just a nice thing to have, a bit of a tradition for Chippy. I looked round and spotted my yoga mat. If I can make a giant mug from yoga mats then I can make a giant rose from it too. I spent a while finding the cheapest thickest bright pink mats I could. Worked out I’d need just a bit more than one. Oh well at least they’d come in £100 cheaper than the plastizote. I next hunted round for some card to make smaller roses, hopefully I’ve selected two different shades.

Around 2pm Kane arrived. The engine board was lifted, engine put in gear. He checked all the simple things first, the engine mounts, they were okay. Then he started to listen closely, in gear, forwards and reverse, reverse was worse. His diagnosis, gear box or drive plate. He asked how old the engine was, drive plates tend to last about ten years and Oleanna’s engine may be getting close to that.

but not today

The office was called. They didn’t have the right drive plate in stock, it could be one of two. To get to the drive plate he’d need to take the gear box off, the engine would need supporting then whilst he removed the drive plate to see which one it is. This is likely to take around three hours, it would then leave us without a working engine to charge the batteries. It was decided to leave the engine as was, order in both possible drive plates and when they arrive an engineer would return to do the job, 3 hours to remove the drive plate, 3 hours to put a new one on and put the engine back together. Whilst we wait for it to arrive we will still be able to charge our batteries.

Musk Thistle?

Kane checked that we were okay for supplies, our nearest shops maybe a couple of miles away, but we were fine having topped up in Nottingham a couple of days ago. The only thing we might need is water. Fortunately we are pretty close to two water points, unfortunately it would require us to move the boat by using the engine. Kane thought we should be okay to reach the tap in the lock cut, hopefully we’ll make it back too!

There is still a slight chance that the problem might be with the gear box instead.

The village sign

I headed off for a walk, along the access road to the lock towards Stoke Bardolph. It’s 15 minutes to reach the main road from our mooring and a bus stop. I then checked Google maps to see if there was a different way back to Oleanna, there might be, paths not shown on OS maps, but obvious on Google. I found the nearest post box and walked back along the side of drainage ditches on good paths, then kept to the side of a field on a well worn path that brought me back to the river through the wood by the lock.

Is that a stone cat sat up by the weather vane?

Mick went on line to request an overstay, our mooring here is officially 2 days. CRT have a new system where you fill out a form on line, Mick clicked the map for our location as best he could and pretty quickly our overstay request was granted. An email popping into the inbox to confirm it. Here’s hoping we don’t still need to be here in two weeks time, Kane hoped someone would be back with us before the end of the week. Fingers and paws crossed.

Apple of Peru?

6pm arrived. Where was Tilly? She likes it here and must have got busy! I called and called. I walked up and down, thankfully no-one around to hear me this time. I was just about to give up when I could hear her bell approaching. ‘What did I say about coming when called?!!! Yes but that doesn’t count when I’ve found some friends!

Chicken and leek mac cheese tonight.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 grinding engine, 2 engineers, 1 one the phone, 1 in person, 2 drive plates on order, 1 poorly boat, 1 distracted cat, 1 Production Manager catching up, 2 yoga mats, 2 reams card, 2 bus stops, 1 post box, 46 minutes brisk walking, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp … you can’t give it two stamps of approval!

Jelly Webb. 25th September

Trent Junction

Time to look at Saturdays newspaper puzzles with a cuppa in bed. Tilly was given shore leave, after breakfast we had a quick tidy up and sweep through. The boat in front of us had backed up to the water point, would they be coming back to the mooring or heading off afterwards? Mick went to ask, they were heading onwards, so we could pull up to the end mooring, within reach of the tap for our hose. Only thing was that Tilly was out and about and we’re not allowed to move the outside with her in it.

Thankfully she appeared quite quickly when called and obliged by heading inside. We then pulled Oleanna along towards the water point and improving the view of Ratcliffe Power Station in the process. As soon as we were back onboard Tilly hopped off and vanished again, I only just had chance to warn her that the outside had moved by a bit more than a boats length, she most probably wasn’t listening anyway!

A little while later a voice could be heard outside. Jane Elliot Webb had come to visit. Jane was working at the SJT when I started in 1996, I hadn’t realised that we’d only been there for one season together. When the Stephen Joseph Theatre opened in 1996 (in it’s new home the Odeon), it had two auditoria and had required more members of staff and funding. The staff increased, hence me getting a job, but the funding didn’t. It had been decided to not compromise the opening season due to the amount of funding, but it did mean that quite a few members of staff were laid off in the autumn, Jane and myself included.

Pip, Jane, Mick

I went off to paint panto at Watford Palace Theatre, with Lizzie (NB Panda), and Jane went to work at Nottingham Playhouse. I ended up returning to Scarborough, but Jane whilst doing a few other things found herself working at Nottingham in Stage Management. I really thought we’d both been at the SJT together for longer. Plenty to talk about over a cuppa on board, we have quite a few friends in common.

Lunchtime. Time to get Tilly back so we could go out. I called. I walked up and down several times calling. Mad Cat Woman caused people to stop and ask if I was looking for a dog or a cat. I called again. Tilly was given three chances to return to Oleanna over half an hour, I for one was getting very hungry!

Her bed and Escape Pod were put out on the stern hatch, rear doors left open, the ones into the cabin locked. We headed round the corner to the Lock House Tea Room for lunch. We’ve only once left the boat when Tilly’s been out before, we really don’t like doing it, but she was seriously showing us up!

Lunch

Tuna jacket potatoes and a round of sandwiches were accompanied with more cuppas and conversation sat outside the Lock House in the bright sunshine. What a beautiful day, no real need for jumpers in the sunshine. What a lovely time we had catching up, thank you for visiting us Jane and we’ll make sure we let you know when we’re passing again.

Back round the corner, we’d been gone for maybe an hour and a half. Would Tilly have come home? Had Tilly got confused with the hire boat that had pulled in behind us earlier, where we’d been moored first thing? That hire boat was just coming back and heading back towards Sawley. I could just make out the shape of two pointy ears through the pram cover. She was home.

Where were you?!?!?

A severe telling off was given to me! HOW Dare you leave me in the outside with no means of getting inside! No one to open the doors for me!!

She got a severe telling off too. Where have you been?! Some self catering obviously has been happening. When I call, I call you for a reason! You really showed us up!!!

Tilly was grounded for the remainder of the day!

New proofs from the printers came through. All correct apart from the Front Cloth. They’d not needed to do anything to the front cloth as I’d already stretched it to the right size, they’d stretched it even more. Pooh! An email was quickly fired off, but most probably arrived as they were heading home for the day.

What a beautiful evening

Time for a walk. I opted to walk up the Erewash, cross over on the footbridge by Mill’s Dockyard then walk through the golf course. Plenty of people in the driving range and I had to pause a couple of times to check if I could cross without getting hit by balls. I then carried on walking towards the B6540. The route along the top of flood banks giving me great views of the power station.

Ratcliffe and the viaduct

Reaching the road I wanted to turn towards Sawley but on my side of the road there wasn’t a pavement. The traffic was very busy heading towards Long Eaton, but thankfully someone spotted me and waved me across. However not too much further along the pavement ran out on that side! I had to cross back over again. This meant an even longer wait until a bus gave me space to cross.

Sawley Locks

Along Sawley cut, past all the moored boats, down to the locks, then across the river with the railway line and back along the river bank. All the time the sun was getting lower in the sky, all the time photos were needing to be taken. What a stunning evening, back to Oleanna for Walsall Schnitzel (Turkey Schnitzel) with tomato spaghetti.

Sunset tastic

0 locks, 0 miles, 29 years ago! 6 months, 1 bottle of red, thank you Jane, 2 jackets, 1 round sandwiches, 3 cuppas, 1 very good chin wag, 1 AWOL cat!, 0 stowaway, 50 brisk minutes walk, 1 lovely sunset.

Aerial Chase, Making Tomorrows Theatre, Day 2. 23rd September

Beeston, Aspley Basin, Huddersfield

Breakfast

An all you can eat breakfast at Aspley, I double checked it wasn’t going to contain any gluten, thankfully their hash browns were okay, bacon a little bit dried out, but it was the thought that counted. Most people were away from the hotel before me, heading to participate in Well Being hour at the theatre before the days work began. Instead I walked up the hill via Sainsburys’ to get myself something for lunch.

Aspley Basin

Many of the same faces as yesterday were about, plus some new ones, some people having travelled from Glasgow, some from Kent. Todays proceedings were hosted by Nicky Priest, an actor, stand up comedian, advocate for autism conditions, oh and wrestler! A short performance by Dark Horse choreographed to music by Loz Kaye mentioning everyone who has worked and taken part on the Making Tomorrows Theatre projects.

Tim Crouch and his dog on the stage

Key note speaker was Tim Crouch, an experimental theatre maker, actor, director. He rejects realism and invites the audience to help create the work he does. With the aid of some photographs and one prop he got his audience to think out of the box, the first image actually being of a cardboard box. What else could that box be? Give it to a child I could become a car, rocket. I’d seen him pick up an orange at breakfast he placed it on the stage. What was it? What could it be? We were all wrong, it was his dog. But what did his dog look like? We were all asked to imagine what it looked like, was it sitting, sleeping scratching some annoying flea. If we’d imagined a Golden Retriever then we were wrong and quite boring! His style of theatre doesn’t require input from designers, as my job is taken over by the audience each creating their own unique surroundings, characters in their heads. I once had an argument with a director about having some part cutaway doors in a theatre in the round, this was so they could be left open and the audience sat next to them would be able to see the play. He wasn’t having it, he needed full double doors, he wasn’t willing to trust that his audience could fill in what I had left out. Tim Crouch wouldn’t have had even the partial doors, the door frame, the room! A very interesting man.

Discussions

Protagonist George Webster followed. George is a BAFTA award winning presenter of CBeebies, he’s an actor, author and public speaker advocating for disability representation, he is also a member of the Separate Doors National Ensemble. He posed questions on how learning disabled and neuro divergent actors could and should become part of the main landscape. How could the industries of theatre, television and film become more inclusive.

Replies to George’s provocations

Panels answered questions, panel members posed questions. A very thought provoking day. The quote Tim Crouch had used ‘No one is free until everyone is free’ is very true whether it be about race, disability, or anything.

As the conference drew to a close, there would be time to chat more to everyone, but also there was a three hour train journey back to Beeston. I checked the times of buses back to Brighouse and the connecting trains, I had 25 minutes, time to say my rushed goodbyes and head off. A shame I wasn’t included in the company photo, but many of the National Ensemble had already left too. What a fantastic two days it had been.

Back in Beeston, Tilly was bored, still! Mick got on with installing the new Victron gear, I’ll let him explain a bit more about this.

Mick here. Technical stuff coming up. If you get bored skip the next four paragraphs.

For some time, in fact for a few years, I’ve been thinking that our 24 volt100 amp domestic alternator isn’t up to the job of fully charging our LiFePO4 batteries. The alternator doesn’t output the 28.4 volts required to get the batteries up to full capacity. It seems to stop short at about 27.5v leaving the batteries liable to “under voltage over charging”. This is where the individual cells can become over charged even though the voltage doesn’t reach the point where the battery management system (BMS) cuts off the charging when the cell is full. I do wonder if this is what caused one of our original LiFePO4 batteries, as supplied by the boat builder, to fail. About 21 months ago we suffered an alternator failure and I did wonder if the replacement from Beta Marine would work better, but it made no difference.

The system we had, as installed by the boat builder, was such that the alternator charged the LiFePO4 batteries directly and the 24v lead acid bow thruster bank was wired in parallel with them via a voltage sensitive relay (VSR). I had considered getting a Mastervolt Alpha Pro alternator charge regulator and indeed I had contacted the boat electrician Ed Shiers to get him to come and fit one. But we never seemed able to find somewhere suitable for him to come and visit us at a suitable time for both of us. I had considered fitting one myself but it involved taking apart the alternator and I wasn’t confident of doing this. Then last winter a new product was launched by Victron: a battery to battery charger (B2B) that was capable of taking a 24v DC input and providing a regulated 50 amp 24 volt DC output. This was capable of being programmed with a LiFePO4 profile specifically to charge our batteries properly. It was cheaper that the Mastervolt and as no tinkering with the alternator was required I could do the job myself.

So while we were at the house last winter I ordered a Victron Orion XS 1400 from 12 Volt Planet. I have bought stuff from them before and they have always been quick and reliable and apparently have good technical support, although I’ve never needed their advice. While Pip was away for 2 days I decided to install the B2B. I ran in the necessary cables on day one. In my career as a telecom / IT technician I only ever had to deal with thin wires (just lots of them!) and big thick chunky copper cables are not my idea of fun. But I got the cables in and terminated them with the required lugs at each end. I mounted the B2B in the electrics cupboard with the thinking that it would be cooler in there than the engine bay. The next day I connected everything up. So now the alternator is connected directly to the lead acid bow thruster bank and the B2B sits in between the alternator and the LiFePO4 bank via a fuse. I programmed the B2B with the LiFePO4 profile and changed the settings in the BMS so they would match the B2B. All the correct lights came on on the B2B and I started the engine. After the programmed 60 second delay the B2B went into “bulk”charging mode and the batteries started charging properly.

It all seems to be working well with the batteries charging quicker than they used to. I have still to connect the B2B up to our Victron Venus GX monitoring system. I need to shift the GX to the left because the USB socket is too close to the wall of the electric cupboard and I can’t plug the plug in. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

At some point in the afternoon, someone on an electric bicycle came whizzing along the towpath, Mick thought they may have been doing 30 to 40 mph. They wore a balaclava hat and hood. What had they done? Up above them they were being followed by a Police helicopter! I wonder if they caught them? Or was the bike too nimble for the police on the ground to be able to catch them?

Front seat on the bus back to Brighouse

My train journey back to Beeston went with only slight delays which were helped by delays to the connecting trains. Then a walk back to Oleanna in the dark to be greeted with the smell of dhal being warmed up for our meal tonight. It may take me sometime to download my photos, I really hope I’ve something that will be useful for illustrations.

Some of the Separate Doors team

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 more trains, 1 bus, 9 ensemble, 2 panels, 5 provocations, 76 replies, 1 orange/dog, 1 high speed aerial chase, 1 Victron Orion XS 1400 installed, 1 afternoon of regretting that chicken last night, 1 cosy boat with a cat on my lap.

100.8% 20th September

Trent Junction

Our morning view

Recently we’ve had a couple of people who subscribe to the blog via email, say that they’ve not been getting our posts. In one case they have stopped altogether, in another they receive all of them once a week! The Oleanna IT department doesn’t understand. We unsubscribe them, then resubscribe them again, which seems to work. Whilst doing this we can see how many posts have reportedly been sent to each subscriber and the percentage of posts that are opened by the recipient. In one case they have received over 300 posts, their read rate is 100.8%! Incredible for what should be a totally new subscriber. Another person who we know reads the blog regularly has a read rate of 96.7%, not bad Ade! We don’t necessarily believe these stats, and don’t worry, we’re not keeping an eye on you. But you know me and numbers!

Tilly was granted shore leave whilst we had breakfast, then was called in so that we could go out. Luckily she was only in the sideways trees by the boat, so this only took a matter of seconds for her to return for a morning cat nap. Mick headed off to buy a newspaper and I strode off along Cranfleet cut for my walk.

Someone was keeping an eye on me

Two volunteers were waiting for boats, chatting about weather warnings. Bunting hung from everything around the lock, there is a beer and cider festival at the boat club this weekend. A burger van was serving up bacon and sausage butties and a nearby field was filled with motorhomes all come to drink and enjoy the music.

That’s why we had some boats moving long after dark last night

I followed the river path round a big meander in the river. The occasional glimpse of the river below, but never a good view. I tried to see if I could spot the boat we’d rescued a month or so ago, see if they’d got themselves out from behind the sign on the offside, but the view was obscured, we’ll see when we come past tomorrow.

The airfield

Model aeroplanes were doing tricks over the river, a silver arrow shaped plane diving towards the ground then spinning back up to the sky. A wind sock wafted in the breeze and a crowd watched as planes came in to land. It was all happening on the opposite bank, so sadly I couldn’t get close.

I then walked over a bridge crossing one of the many lakes alongside the river. Crossed the railway, one of many lines in this area, HS2 would have added another line, but this stretch has been cancelled. Into an industrial area of Long Eaton, then a housing estate, under, across more railway, more uninteresting housing. I’d hoped there might have been an interesting factory, or stretch of houses for which I could look the history up, but no.

There it is!

Drizzle started to fall as I zigzagged my way past 80’s houses. I had been going to join the canal at Fields Farm Road Bridge, but opted to cut a corner, under a railway bridge where I sheltered for a few minutes hoping the now heavier rain might ease.

Then to the canal. Here I spotted that tomorrow there will be a Heritage Open Day at Mills Dockyard. We’ll maybe come and have a look as we’ve not been into tracking down places to visit recently.

Not the healthiest of snacks

I paused to see what was on the menu at the Lock Cafe, some tasty morsels no doubt, but I didn’t fancy the dripping toast. Back to Oleanna for lunch. Today the temperature had dropped considerably, the stove was lit.

Trent Lock

Lists of panto questions were typed out and distributed in three directions, I don’t expect to get any answers over the weekend but I’ll be otherwise occupied at the beginning of next week so I wanted to get it out of the way. Then the big pan came out to make up the sweet potato dhal I’d been going to make last night, plenty left over for another meal next week.

0 locks, 0 miles, 100.8%, 1 weeks worth of blog in one? 87 brisk minutes, 4.69 miles walked, 1 Saturday newspaper, 1 slightly damp day, 3 questioning emails, 250grams lentils, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 chilli, 1 lost weather station outside sensor.

Strauss Is Taking Credit For All My S**t. 19th September

Derwent Mouth Lock to Cranfleet Cut

Conkertastic

Late last night a new annotated props list landed in my inbox. This morning it was time to arrange a meeting with Min the Props Maker and find out what the props budget is. This done, breakfast consumed and Tilly back on board we pushed off to drop down Derwent Mouth Lock. The Chestnut tree here producing some serious conkers, all glowing brown fresh from their shells, things of beauty. I picked up a few to enjoy for a while until they grow dull as they dry out. Long gone are the days when kids would be seen throwing sticks up into trees to bring down what might turn out to be a truly legendary conker.

M1 ahead

Now to cross where the Derwent meets the River Trent. I’d checked the level board this morning, the level had dropped by at least a bricks worth since yesterday, yet the push of the current coming down stream had us skidding to keep going straight ahead to Sawley.

Sawley

Through the flood lock, past all the moorings, space for visitors, but we didn’t want to stop. Volunteers were keen to help at the locks down onto the river, but we wanted to offload some of our rubbish as it was starting to take over the stern of Oleanna.

We managed to place some of it in the bins which were already quite full. According to the volunteer, they have problems with bin collections here at the moment. Between Sawley and Fradley there is now only Willington where there are bins, since we last did this stretch two bin sites have gone, no wonder these bins are getting overwhelmed. We kept some back to add to the next bins.

Down the lock and back on the river, no space on the pontoon today, but we weren’t wanting to stop there anyway, our second mate would complain about the lack of friendly cover and trees close by. Down to the junction of the Erewash, Trent, Cranfleet cut and the River Soar, we headed right, south, a kingfisher darting along in front of us and an Egret watching on.

Coming in to moor

Through the flood lock at Red Hill, named as the sandy bank behind the houses on stilts is very red. Then we looked for a space to pull in, just enough room for us. A lorry arrived with a narrowboat sat on its trailer, what looked like a fresh coat of paint above the gunnels, but old blacking below. The lorry nudged back and forth on the slipway getting into position for the boat to be lifted off.

We walked round and found the office. Mandy welcomed us in, we’d said we’d be calling in for a chat. Oleanna is booked in with Tom at Gibson and Kentwright for a repaint early next year and we wanted to sus out about coming out of the water early to wait for our slot on the hard, which will save us money on our CRT licence.

Lorry lining up for the boat to be lifted off

Mandy was very straight with us about the marina and their rules. It is a very busy boat yard, with boats moving around on the hard most days. Several builders and painters on site, so it’s not a place that suits everyone. No dogs or kids allowed, too dangerous to have them running around. They would need to know if we wanted to do any work on Oleanna whilst she’s out of the water so she’s blocked up appropriately. Would we want power? We’d need a long lead as the meter may not be next to the boat. Don’t expect them to drop everything should you want something moved as they are very busy. They also charge 6 months land storage when you arrive, then if there are any months unused when you leave you get them refunded. Our quote from Tom includes three moves, so we’d be adding another one. Coming out of the water, laying up and six months storage would come to just under £2000, all payable the day we arrive! Gulp!!

We chatted about dates, all possible. We chatted about being still on the water whilst we move off, then being lifted out, less stress for Tilly, also all possible. We left with a mooring contract to fill in and her quote.

Back we go

The boat on the lorry was now being lifted by the big crane, just high enough to get the lorry out, then it was lowered, ropes handed down to chaps waiting so that when the boat is back in the water they can move her about. We wanted to go back the way we’d come. Where to wind? Ahead not really enough room and with a narrowboat about to be launched we’d be in the way! A winding hole back through the flood lock, Mick reversed us back then did his best to wind in between the banks of pennywort.

Back to Trent Lock where we pulled in to try out the new mooring rings that have recently been added, much better spacing than of old and not too big a step off Oleanna. Tilly was given the rules and off she went to explore whatever lies behind the hedge. CRT notices came in regarding the South Oxford, Coventry and Grand Union Canals, these will not be opening yet, but they hope to open them for a window of two weeks at the end of October for boaters to return to their moorings. If we positioned ourselves well we’d be able to make it to Oxford or Banbury for me to commute from the boat to work on Panto. But then we might find ourselves getting stuck at the wrong end of the country and miss our paint slot. The CRT notice just reinforced the decision we’d made a couple of weeks ago, to keep the boat north and if possible I’ll have a long weekend back home, if not Mick might come to Chippy or London for a weekend instead.

After lunch Mick headed off into Long Eaton to pick up his prescription and I got myself ready for my meeting with Min. At 4pm the meeting started. Getting to know each other, how we both work, when things will be needed for rehearsals was one side of the meeting. Then there was the nitty gritty of each item, a long long list for a pantomime.

More panto lists

Mick arrived back a little after 5, we’d not got half way through Act 1. We jumped about a little, some props having things in common with items later in the show. 6pm, we’d not reached the interval. Tilly came home wanting food, Mick fed her. We could break the meeting and carry on some other time, maybe over the weekend. 7pm, Mick was happy to wait for food, he had a shower. Four hours after we’d started Min and I reached the end of the list, both of us with lists of questions for other people, but a very good thorough meeting. Thank you Min.

What to do for food? Emergency tuna pasta or see if one of the pubs was still serving food, it was possible it being a Friday night. We tried The Steamboat Inn first, no-one at the bar, a few people sat drinking, no signs of any food being served, we turned round and walked on to The Trent Lock.

Tonights naughty meal

Yes they were serving food, quite a few tables occupied, we picked up menus and ordered. A glass of wine to accompany a bacon chop, egg and chips, just a different name for Gammon really, but it was very nice and saved cooking late, just that bit more expensive than the dhal I had been going to make this evening!

Back on Oleanna we had another glass of wine and ended up as we quite often do on a Friday watching old music programs. Tonight there was one about great guitarists. Jimi Hendrix was playing something that sounded remarkably like Smoke on The Water. Had he written it? Or was it Deep Purple? Jimi died in 1970, Deep Purple recorded it around 1971. Mick checked on line and came across a forum, this had started a spat.

Jimi wrote the song and then the singer from deep purple found a tape laying on the ground, played it, and it was the song. so they learned it and gave themselves credit.

The “tape” as he specified was not considered an ideal medium to record music because it was too primitive be used for anything that requires detail. The cassette tape was primarily used for diction. It was not until ’71 that companies began to modify and tinker with the technology to make it suitable for different applications i.e. music recording.

Don’t try to bring logic and facts to this thread, Jimi Hendrix wrote Smoke on the Water, PERIOD.

No, I wrote Smoke on the Water. PERIOD. He stole that song from me, just as The Beatles took my idea for Sgt. Peppers, The Rolling Stones took my “Satisfaction”, and that prick Beethoven stole my Ninth. And don’t get me started on those bastards, Mozart and Bach. The Vienna Waltz? That was mine too. I dropped my USB key in Autstria, and the next thing I know, Strauss is taking credit for all my sh*t.

2 locks, 3 flood locks, 3.6 miles, 2 rights, 1 wind, £2k, 4 hours props meeting, 2 A4 sheets of notes, 2 late to make dhal, 5 minutes brisk walking! 2 bacon chops, 2 glasses of wine, 1970, 1971, 1972? 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval.

https://what3words.com/crazy.rides.rigid

No Running! 18th September

The Wharf, Shardlow to above Derwent Mouth Lock

A damp morning, the precipitation managed to increase just as the Sainsburys van arrived with our shopping, meaning Mick and the driver got slightly soggy along with our shopping. Despite this it was a good place for a delivery as the van could park right alongside us.

Pushing off

Once things had dried up a touch we pushed off and headed to moor above Derwent Mouth Lock to give Tilly some shore leave. I walked and Mick brought Oleanna, there’s not much further for me to walk as we’ll be back on the rivers soon.

Tilly was granted shore leave for the remainder of the day. It’s okay here I suppose!

After lunch I headed out for a walk. A quick check of the river level, under the green marker so we should be okay for a while longer. Then across the top of the lock joining a footpath that follows the bywash then cuts across a field to the banks of the River Derwent.

I seemed to have caused a mass exodus, all the sheep walking in line to the next field. One stopped to look at me, ‘You go on ahead, I’ll follow you’ I said. I waited for them all to pass before cutting across the field.

The River Derwent

The flow down the river was pretty good, it should aid us heading down stream tomorrow. Across more fields, flood banks marking the edges. Horses came for a nosy. A glimpse of Shardlow Hall, now an old peoples residence. I made sure I didn’t run anywhere, although there weren’t any cows in the field. Down a snicket back to the main road through Shardlow.

I then chose to walk round the rest of The Wharf, passing some lovely houses, a few conversions and some modern. Shardlow is a very pretty place, one that was once a major trans-shipment river port, with goods moving from river to canal in the 18th Century.

House to the left. House to the right.

We pottered away the rest of the day. Me waiting for an approved props list from John for panto. A few emails were sent regarding boating plans and phone calls were made too.

Pretty cars too

I then had a hunt for the scans of my Dad’s diary from 1943 to 1946. I wanted to see if he’d ever been posted to King’s Newton. The nearest he’d been was a camp on Bowbridge Road in Newark. I looked to see where he’d been on the 18th September 1945. Sailing through the Bay of Biscay headed for India, it was a very rough journey, his description of the way the ship was rolling in the swell makes me even more wary of lumpy waters. He did however manage to down two servings of afternoon tea, a cuppa and a bun, then his evening meal. He and the other officers were travelling in the first class accommodation and he was enjoying the food, well, when he wasn’t seasick!

September 18th 1945

Tonight we had salmon crumble, this should have been a fish crumble but Sainsburys didn’t have the fish pie mix so we got salmon steaks instead.

0 locks, 0.6 miles, 3 boxes wine, 2 salmon steaks, 1 squash, 0 new toothbrush! 0 neighbours, 69 brisk minutes, 0 cows, 39 sheep, 0 running, 1 props list at 10pm, 13 years without my Dad.

https://what3words.com/label.freely.palm