The Kindness of Friends and Family

Craig Hunter ready to race Hawaii Ironman World Championships 

My husband has now been away eight days; he is enjoying his stay in Kona, Hawaii or paradise if you want to be honest. I have been to Hawaii with Steve on at least four other occasions so I know just how heavenly a holiday there can be. He is there with a friend who is racing in the Ironman World Championships tomorrow. The Hawaii race, is the ultimate race for most triathletes, it is the bright light at the end of a long tunnel that in many cases has taken years of dreams and work and preparation to arrive at. It is also very expensive to travel there but worth every penny to take part in the legendary event that every other triathlon is a descendant of.

 

 

I have been fortunate enough to compete there three times and it is an experience that stays in your memory and is forever as bright and clear when you look back on it as it was at the time you first were lucky enough to qualify to take part. I know Steve and Craig Hunter have had fun while they have been there and Craig has done all the prerace testing of the course he planned to. Steve has loved doing the swim course every day including the coffee boat which is an almost silly thing but still puts the widest smile on your face stopping there; a coffee stop in the ocean, it is making me laugh, and I am on the other side of the world just thinking about it.

 

Whilst Steve has been away I have been well looked after by my friends and it has been lovely that so many people have asked, not only how are the boys getting on in Hawaii but also how am I doing left behind, with only an internet connection keeping me in touch. All have offered any assistance I might need. 

Well I have been fine for the most part, although I never sleep so well when Steve is away. I have been continuing with my own training and have also been out more often than I would when my man is home. So not counting the training sessions where I have seen lots of friends, I have been out with the gang for a fish and chip supper on the first night when we also went to watch the local Am-Dram mob in Worthing after the F & C’s.

 

 

 

 

Today my friend Helen came to the house and re-did my hair colour and a little trim and it was shame that I was not going out because it looked smashing when she had finished; I can never get it as straight as she does, it is very curly hair when it’s allowed to grow. Sunday evening I am off out with friends again to the Connaught Theatre in Worthing to see the film of Michael Bublé’s recent tour. It was a good time to get to see this because Steve doesn’t like Michael Bublé, and that is a mystery to me because I cannot see what there is not to like, I certainly cannot hear anything to dislike when he sings. But hey ho, each to their own. Michelle, her mum and I will love it that is for sure and again being spoiled by having Michelle pick me up in her car and see me home, all very kind.

 

Jacqueline and Martin Rackham AAAHHH! 

The other evening I went for dinner and a chat with my daughter Jacqueline and her husband Martin, again a kind gesture because I was on my own. That was a lovely evening and they were not even a tiny bit cross at me turning up way too early because of my poor communication skills. They were still working when I got there, Martin in his office and J in her own little office. The other consideration was that they knew that after the fish and chips with the guys last week, that I had started a strict diet for the duration of Steve’s trip and did not try to tempt me off my plan at all. Martin made me a tall glass of ice water to drink and he cooked a lovely steak and made a delicious but harmless salad. They did not even offer dessert which was nice.

 

 

After dinner, Jakki introduced me to her new friend Thumper! This Thumper has nothing whatsoever to do with Walt Disney and Bambi, this Thumper, is a heavy duty sports massage device and J demonstrated just how effective it was by giving me a thorough thumping, showing me how to get at all the places that she knew I had been trying to keep in order this year.  She is a sport massage therapist herself, as well as an excellent and gifted photographer. So I was happy to listen to her sales pitch about this, she was sold on hers and Martin too.

 

 

Our new friend Thumper at work on those tight muscles

 

I was so impressed that the next morning I ordered my own friend Thumper, who arrived next morning and has already been given a good trial. Excellent for my IT bands that are pretty much always on the tight side as well as the Hammies, Quads and those naughty Glutes that have given me a lot of grief this summer.

 

 

It Never Rains but it Ranchipur’s

 

Scenes from The Rains of Ranchipur

 

 

What a wonderful old film that was, from the novel by Louis Bromfield. It comes fully into the list of old movies that we say, ‘They don’t make films like that anymore’ about. I am old enough to have seen it with my brother years ago, all the stars were at their most glamorous; Lana Turner with her silky blonde hair and Richard Burton was at his most handsome too. We saw the film at the Rivoli cinema in Worthing when we were both young. The Rivoli, was a beautiful old cinema with a marble floored foyer, stylish central tȇte á tȇte couches, handsome crystal chandeliers, rich velvet curtain and double courting seats in the back row with an arm between them!

 

 

The reason I am reminded of all this because I have had a most confusing day, since half the day was wonderful and half was sheer poison. This morning, after finding so many congratulatory messages on my computer in Facebook, and email and texts about my recent good fortune, and having had another lovely run around Arundel Castle park grounds, the day started to go down the tubes as I got in the car and had the first panic stricken phone call from our warehouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For many years after my brother and I saw that lovely film he always said ‘It Never Rains but it Ranchipurs’ every time anything went wrong repeatedly. It went from bad to worse today. Jobs were cancelled at short notice and new ones came up that needed a quote rushed out, I had a client to meet and that did not work quite to the time scale I had allowed either. The bad stuff blew in left right and centre like an unexpected blizzard. I have been fielding problems in my office all day long. Of course this only ever happens when Steve is not around to deal with things, as he always does without getting into a flap at all. I got into an Olympic level flap and have only just finished sorting everything out. It would have taken Steve no time at all because he can rise to the occasion like no other; he thrives on ironing out problems.

 

Anyway now the panic is over I can return to the nice happenings.  This week’s Littlehampton Gazette had gone to town on the story of the towns Sports Awards. They had devoted a whole page to it with a huge photo at the top and half of the article was telling my own story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big issue there was that never before had anybody won the Sports Person of the Year title twice. This in my case, was in 2014 after winning my age group in the ITU Triathlon Championship in Edmonton, Canada. In 2015 I was awarded a special commendation after winning the Worlds again in Chicago.

 

 

This year I was first over the line in all of the events that I competed in the main ones were Windsor in June, Worthing in August which qualified me for The European Championship in Kitzbuhel, Austria for 2017 and the new Brighton and Hove Triathlon, and placed 2^nd in the National Swimathon 5000 metre pool swim. I am guessing that half of the reason this award came my way this year is just for having such grim determination to carry and I have set my cap at the World Championships in Rotterdam in September 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I do like to encourage other people into my sport and am quite tireless at encouraging anybody I can into getting some sort of fitness.  Plus of course my age, I am not 21 any more. Injuries and off days do occur with me as they do with many and they just have to be coped with patiently as I did with a couple of problems this year. Historically I do repeatedly grow to my best in late summer like a crop of corn at harvest time which is also good, since next years main aim, is late in the season.

 

 

I have been more than a little hyper and have slept badly since my exciting evening on Monday; I was all a-buzz this week after winning that award so unexpectedly. It was I found, rather a shame that something so special had happened while my coach Steve was so far away; Murphy’s Law strikes again eh? Last year he had a breakdown in his truck when I won another award last December in Worthing and did not make it to see me pick that one up either because I do truly feel that these trophies are as much his as they are mine since the success would not have happened without his dedication, planning and care for me.

 

 

 

Manta Ray Swimming and Poke

 Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

 

My day started once I realised that the distant noise I was hearing from somewhere far, far away, was in fact my alarm clock. I had not slept well but then I never do when my husband/ hot water bottle/ the ‘there there’ shoulder patter during my odd nightmares. I must have got up five times between first turning the light off for the night and the infernal alarm going off. Then as we all know, when you do finally drop of into a proper sleep, it is a rude awakening when the peepeepeepeep goes off and you are still tired. 

 

 

 

When Steve is at home he hassles me around in the mornings whilst I am moving like a sloth, giving regular announcements of ‘Leaving the house in fifteen minutes, Leaving the house in ten minutes, Leaving the house in Five Four Three……’ During that time as I run up and down the stairs thirty times like a headless chicken trying to find stuff or trying to remember why I went up there; he calmly tidies up a bit. I make the bed and perform a new art work with cushions, soft animals, throws, knee rugs etc. Then I have to do something about my unruly hair and try to improve my facial appearance with pencils and lippy; and that is getting hardy these days, but still, I wouldn’t answer the door to the postman without some attempt made on my face and hair.
 

 

 

When I got home from the early swim session that I did make on time even without himself around, I sent Steve a What’s App message to say ‘I’m home dear’ and he was calling back in no time because he knew that my next appointment was a Sports Massage with Vicky Vickary in Arundel so not a lot of spare time. The general gist of his call, remembering that I have been cruelly been left behind whilst he flitted off to blinkin’ Hawaii if you please, with his Ironman athlete who he has been helping, was to tell me that they had just got back from Swimming with the Manta Rays!?!?!?!?

Craig Hunter looking lean and mean and ready to race.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s me, slogging away at training, then slaving over a hot computer and doing all sorts of other jobs concerned with the business, putting out the bins before the collection misses me, and they are living the life of Riley, whoever he was. Steve was so excited to tell me how wonderful it was and how they went out on the boat and then huge lights were played into the water, which attracted the Plankton and then the Manta rays float in, astonishingly 12’ wide, or square I would think. What a lovely time they had. MMMM! ‘Wish you were here’ was missed out entirely!   

 

 

I reminded him that I had stuff to do and that my diet was going well and that I was not missing the wine that I had dropped out of my eating regime but was having trouble with my big cut down on my beloved coffee with creamer and Manuka honey and that cutting down to just two cups a day was, after a week torture for me now. I so what a lot of cups more.

 

(As you can see here it is worse than torture for Craig to stand still for Steve to take an Ironman Hawaii photo.

Mr Modesty himself, I bet he has never taken a selfie!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve's response was that he had also been eating healthily as he told me yesterday and was having Poke Ahi (Raw Tuna probably Yellow Fin) with salad at home in his little apartment. He said he had been having the Poke for every meal, which I though even for your very favourite food was a little excessive.

 

 

 

 

After the swim this morning on the stroll out to the car park, I related the Poke Ahi story to our friend Kevin Pearson and we had the following conversation:-

 

Me: Steve is eating nothing but Poke Ahi and salad. I had to explain what the Hawaiian dish was. 

Kevin: He’ll smell like a …....tuna when he gets back. 

Me: Yes but he should be swimming faster! 

Kevin: Yes but he will be breathing out of holes on the side of his head Daf.

 

 

 

 

Littlehampton Sports Awards 2016

 

Littlehampton Sports Person of the Year 2016 

There is a system in place whereby an athlete is automatically nominated for the Sports Person of the Year Awards if you have made a successful application for financial award based on you previous successes and the events you plan to enter the next year. so Based on my having won my age group in the World Triathlon Championships in Edmonton, Canada in 2014 and in Chicago in 2015 I was given some financial aid toward the expense in competing in expensive races. 

My husband would have liked to have been with me for the Awards evening last night but he is away from home right now on a trip that was planned before the invitation came. So I did my best impression of a cat and groomed myself far beyond my usual sporting standards, washing and blow drying my normally unruly hair and lightly applying a little make up. Whilst I was in the final stages of glamorisation I was put in mind of a line from The Prince and the Showgirl Movie with Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe years ago when the Mother if the prince claimed that “When a woman is young she should wear lots of mascara and when one is old one should wear even more.” I held it down to two light coats.

Littlehampton has an ideal venue for occasions such as these awards and that is the New Millennium Chamber, in the Manor House in the town centre. It is a smart and grand as it sounds, the town Mayor, Ian Buckland did a sterling job of talking to everybody in a jolly and friendly fashion. The dining tables were well spread with wine and appetisers and more food was served in the interval. The hugely successful GB swimmer Sharon Davies was there to present the awards and half way through the evening spoke extremely well, giving her personal potted history, she was most interesting and very funny and entertaining. She also threw herself open to questions and answers and responded with dignity and humour.

 

 

I was seated on a most successful table, sitting next to me was Christine Merrington-Trice of Littlehampton Croquet Club and we never stopped talking until the ceremony began, I did enjoy her company and might even take her up on her invitation to go to one of their club meetings.  I was completely thunderstruck when I was announced as Sport person of the year again. I had not given it a thought that it was even possible to win twice but there my name was on two of the little shields around the smart oak shields. Christine won Coach of the Year and was equally astonished. Sharon Davies here with the adorable little junior Arruner, Mikey Hodgson, who loved every moment.

 

 

 

 

At the risk of being boring I have already begun my training for my intended main goal for next season, the World Championships in Rotterdam, Holland in September 2017 and have entered two qualifying events along with my husband, who is hopeful of gaining a place on the GBR team as he has so many times before. How serious we both are is reflected in our display of very forward planning. If I could manage another age group win, it would be my 10^th Age Group World Championship and that is what my main focus is fixed upon.

 

 

By winning my Age Group at Worthing Triathlon in August I am also qualified for the European Triathlon Championships in Kitzbuhel, Austria next year. We all have our disappointments when an injury pops up or a nasty bug strikes and prevents us from doing all that we had planned. I suffered a bug that I could not shake off mid season this year that even though I had travelled to Poland to compete, on the day it was clear that I was not up to it and rather than bring myself down further the decision was made to drop out of that race. It was a bitter blow but better to safe yourself for another day if you have any sense.

 

The challenge I had in mind was to try to become the oldest athlete to complete an Ironman 70.3 race, probably better known as a half Ironman. In the past I have competed in eighteen full Ironman races and feel that I have no case to answer to as to why I do not feel the need to enter any more or that gruelling distance. Yesterday I mentioned Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and one of the quotes from that book was that there is no shame in trying and failing, the only failing is to stop trying to achieve your aim. My husband also thinks that I should give the half distance another shot. We have both looked at Elsinore, Denmark. The mind instantly connects that to Shakespeare’s Hamlet of course.   

Below is the full list of results for the awards, kindly sent to me by the ever helpful and kind Becky Holloway who is the Events & publicity manager.

 

Littlehampton Sports Forum Sports Awards

Held at the New Millennium Chamber, Manor House, Littlehampton. Hosted by Chair of the Sports Forum Cllr Billy Blanchard-Cooper. Guest speaker, former Olympic & Commonwealth medalist - Sharron Davies MBE 

Littlehampton Sports Forum, Sports Awards Winners  

Coach of the Year – Sponsored by C&M Trophies

Christine Merrington-Trice of Littlehampton Croquet Club

Administrator of the Year – Sponsored by Going Spare

Alan Pyant & Chris Staight of Littlehampton Cricket Club

Contribution to Disabled Sport – Sponsored by FA Holland & Son

Sandy Fell – works with all of the Littlehampton Schools to create sporting opportunities for children with special educational needs and physical disabilities.

Contribution to Youth Sport – Sponsored by Dizzy: Support for Diabetes

Kaminari Kickboxing for their work with young people in Littlehampton

Young Sportsperson of the year – Sponsored by Littlehampton Traders partnership

Jessica Baker – Former Dance Industry student, who has been accepted to the Doreen Bird College of Dance. (Award accepted by her parents)

*Certificate of commendation to Madison Walker – Littlehampton Swimming Club

Sports Team of the Year – Sponsored by Mewsbrook Park Café

Littlehampton Badminton Club men’s Combi team

* Certificate of commendation to Arunners

Youth Sports Team of the year – Sponsored by Bah Humbug Sweets

Arunners Jrs (Including Mikey Hodgson)

Unsung Hero Award – Sponsored by Mewsbrook Park Café

Ben Horley – Littlehampton Sports field Groundsman

Sports person of the Year Award – Sponsored by the Coco Lounge

Daphne Belt – 9 times world champion triathlete for her age group. Also won the award in 2014

Mayor’s Award for Lifetime Contribution to Sport in Littlehampton

John Shepherd – Littlehampton Badminton and Squash Club for his years of hard work and dedication to make the club the success it is today.

The Sports Forum meets four times a year and is open to all Littlehampton Sports clubs and teams, The next meeting is on Monday 7^th November.

Contact: ltc@littlehampton-tc.gov.uk for information.

 

We Need to Talk about Seagulls

 

A lovely study of a Seagull caught by my photographer daughter Jacqueline Rackham 

Almost my entire life I have been blessed I feel, to live by the sea. I was conceived by the seaside in Worthing where my Mum and Dad met, fell in love, married and settled down. The beach and sea was just a five minute walk away. I was born in Brighton as was my mother, Brighton is shining example of a seaside resort. Apart from a few years, when my dad had to go into the Army during the war, I have always lived by the sea and have loved the seaside. I was born just three weeks before war broke out in 1939 and my mother beetled of up North for fear of invasion. She took me and my brother Peter to stay with dad’s relatives in Yorkshire, although I would think that if Adolf got as far as Worthing beach he could have found his way to Yorkshire easily enough. The Romans did didn’t they?

 

At the end of the war we came back to live in Worthing in time for me to start School. I had a key put round my neck so that I could let myself in, because both parents had to go out to work and my brother spent a lot of time down in the park at the bottom of our road. There was no law in those days, concerning any idea of folly at leaving children on their own, and I have to say, that I was so well drilled in what I could and could not do, that I did not come to much harm. School finished at 4pm and my brother knew it was best to get home just before our parents got in around 5.30- 6pm since he was supposed to be looking after me. I was also drilled by my brother who was five years older to get the story right.

 

 

During the holidays it was heaven being by the sea and our parents not home to tell us to be careful all the time. I went to the beach with my cousins and or my twin friends Mary and Billy who lived around the corner. We spent all day everyday on the beach and I fortunately learned to swim soon after my cousin John pushed me in the water off the breakwaters that we were playing on at high tide. He said he thought I could swim and just stood and shouted at me to kick my legs and paddle my arms.

 

When my daughter Jacqueline was young I bought the delightful book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and thought how wonderful it was, so motivating for anybody who sees something beyond where their life is at the time. It was a super little bit of stressing of the point that you must try and try again, at anything you thought you could do, that there is nothing to be ashamed of if you try and fail and that only not trying, was the mistake that so many young people, or older for that matter, make. You want to be better, faster, or be a leader in your field, then go for it and keep trying until you reach the position you dream of being in. Good message.

 

 

Johnny and I took bread and jam sandwiches with us to eat when we got hungry and we NEVER fed the seagulls. They could get their own dinner as far as we cared and they did, they fished and picked at crabs and rock pool life at low tide. I don’t remember the Seagulls ever being the pests they are today and I put that down to their change of diet. When we were young we didn’t have enough food anyway and certainly not enough to even think about wasting it feeding seagulls.

 

 

Any visitor to the seaside for their summer holidays in this modern age will have had a sandwich torn out of their hands at some time or another, runners will have had their cap or head pecked, toddler’s will have wondered where the slice of pizza they were eating suddenly disappeared to. Seagulls have developed a taste to all the food that is wasted these days, they have a diet of chips and pizza and any sandwich they can steal from the unwary holiday maker. 

 

When Alfred Hitchcock made his superb film The Birds, he had obviously had a vision of things to come. Seagulls should be working for their food and not taking turns at raiding the waste bins for easy pickings. I am sure that they are growing larger as well and I don’t think that is just the work of an imaginative old lady’s addled mind.

 

An ugly photo here of an ugly Gannet-Git of a creature. When I went to the swimming pool early this morning whilst it was still dark, some of the streets in town on my two mile route to the pool were a ghastly, unsightly mess because it was evidently bin collection day and as it becoming the habit in areas where the refuse collection truck arrives early, for people put the bins our late at night. I would like to politely suggest that if you are not around when you know the bin men are coming, that you do not put plastic bags that contain food outside in the street knowing that the bags will be torn to shreds but the seagulls. I think the most aptly named of them is the Gannet! This is an expression we use to refer to people who have not been taught manners and eat as though they were animals. The Seagull, as far as my opinion goes are all Gannets, or Gits that is another suitable ugly name for them and their antics. My friend over the road had a summer party in the garden and their little girl, of rising two years old, was reduced to tears by a seagull stealing her pizza. 
 

For the most part I do not leave any bags outside at the bottom of the driveway unless I know that the bin men are just coming up the street and making enough commotion to deter the greedy gannets. I double wrap my bags and take them to the tip myself, thus sparing me and my neighbours of the disgusting task of cleaning up after the Gits have done their darndest. It no good complaining that these menaces make such a mess because we have to take responsibility of keeping our street clean and tidy ourselves. We have to stop leaving bags containing food outside where the Git-Gannet Seagull and foxes for that matter make such a mess. If we do not come to terms with this problem ourselves, then RATS will be the next thing taking pizza from our babies. 

My son in law Martin, probably has a woolly scarf that praises the Seagulls but that is because he is a supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion football team bless him! Below Is the Seagulls posh nest.

 

 

Sunday Satisfaction

 

Even without my Husband/Coach/Bestie I managed to get up on time this morning. I am not noticing any sign of withdrawal symptoms after a only few days of cutting my coffee intake down to two cups per day instead of what was probably something like start with two cups and then one every hour until about 4pm usually. I have also hit the wine on the head too, but that is not such a big deal as the coffee because I am a bit of a lightweight by some drinkers standards. I enjoy the first glass which is taken with dinner and would quite often have a second upon settling into the armchair for a couple of episodes of some box set or other before bedtime. That would be it though a third glass would get left even if it was poured. I used to only have a couple of glasses at the weekend or if we were out with family or friends. Alas along with current trends, that intake had grown to a glass most evenings. Apart from having a mug of fancy tea to pick up instead of a dainty glass, I am not feeling any different but I think the wine certainly adds to the calorie count, so it is off limits for a while. The idea is that once I have lost the weight that I am fighting; a weekend glass can be restored but not a nightly glass. Returning to the fact of my being a lightweight, in drinking terms anyway, I think it is a good move. It will not be opposed by Steve with the anti social argument because he doesn’t drink alcohol at all.

 

The major treat of my Sunday, occurred when I turned off the A24 at the sign for Blakehurst, where our run starts about a mile along that lane. This morning, just after the turn I had to slow down because there was an unusual display on the wildlife front. It is not uncommon to see a little deer of two crossing that lane through the woods both sides of the road, but today there was a herd of dear little deer. They were everywhere and so I just sat in the car to allow them to continue on whichever path the leaders decided upon.

As they slowly popped of so prettily into the woodland, I moved forward and had to stop again, because there were more of them a little further along.

 When they eventually disappeared through the trees I resumed my drive toward the place just off the road where I park. Yet another nature holdup was in progress about half a mile further where there were dozens, maybe a hundred, pheasants flapping this way and that in their usual headless chicken antics, apparently brainlessly rushing around and at first I couldn’t make it out until I saw the Fox! At about this time of year the gamekeepers release thousands of pheasants, and I mean thousands, and many thousands at that, ready for the winter shoots for which the wealthy folk pay a lot of money for what they find a pleasurable way to spend the weekend; shooting game birds that have been driven toward them by a group of beaters. The cost of the day is high, but they can afford it and only get to take a brace home with them.

 

A fox can go hungry when there are so many birds running about making such an inviting racket, purely because they (the fox that is) don’t know which one to chase because it is all so much fun, they kill for fun as well as food. The fox this morning did get his breakfast, and got it for free, after it had been so carefully raised in captivity, to be shot.

 

Gamekeepers cottages in the woods

 

I was late for the start of my run today because of the holdups. However, it was not the last piece of wildlife antics I was to witness today, since when I got to my normal parking place I reversed the car up next to a larger vehicle in which a young couple were making love; the car was running the heater, presumably because it was quite a chilly morning to be experimenting with what exactly can be done on the back seat of the car, without actually freezing to death. Although I made a poor pretence of not noticing their antics; it is actually quite difficult, (I was going to say hard but chose another word) when a car is rocking so violently. It was broad daylight and at a point where three lanes and a footpath meet. There are so many secluded paths around that spot where they would not have been seen at all, Lovers Lanes galore.

 

 

 

I started off in on my run about five minutes late and that meant that my friend who starts her run later since she is faster, caught me sooner than she normally does. We spoke about the car park couple and my friend asked me why I thought they had the car running and when I gave my ‘chilly morning’ response, she remarked that they were then, not being enthusiastic enough about their activities.

 

 

 

 

 

Once my friend had passed me by, I worked hard not to be left too far behind her, otherwise she would have a long wait for me at the end before we could carry on for a chat at the tea shop afterwards. My run time was very pleasing for me since I ran the same time as Steve and I together have been doing, even with the fact that ‘While the Cats Away’ I stopped to take twenty three photos altogether (Not of the young couple of course). Once I reached the highest point I ran faster than usual on the downhill and caught up with her where she normally stops to put her shoes back on….. Yes, she runs barefoot, winter and summer, on all of the off road sections, which is about two thirds of the run route. Maybe it’s the way the mud squelches up between her toes.

 

 

I conclude with this thought: Lovers on a hillside, are they romantically inclined?

 

 

 

 

While the Cats Away .... Again!

Having survived the last minute rush of things to get done before Steve set off for a trip that would take him to the other side of the Planet Earth. I had hoped for a quiet afternoon once he had left the house to drive to Heathrow airport. That was not to be as it turned out and there were a number of minor problems that fell to me to sort out. These all involved slaving over a hot computer and gradually things were ironed out. Steve rang me on his long walk to the departure lounge and a few more exchanges took us up to the boarding time of his flight to Washington. 

 

I then had just about enough time to get myself ready to go out for the evening with a group of friends from our swimming sessions. We had a traditional fish and chip dinner in Harry Ramsden’s and yes, don’t we just really know how to live it up. That choice was made because it is directly opposite Worthing’s Pier Pavilion where we were going to see Worthing Musical Theatre production of 9 2 5 in which our friend Anthony was performing. Here is Anthony Towers with me on a holiday last year.

  

 

 It’s always fun watching a local amateur show, because the atmosphere is so great since a large number of the audience are there supporting their family and friends. The performers cannot do anything wrong. The only thing we though Anthony had done wrong was not to get a bigger part in the show, such a shame since he has an excellent speaking voice with great projection and also sings very well. On this occasion that was difficult I suppose because there was only one real male lead part and the star parts were all female. Good music though and we of course have Dolly Parton to thanks for that.

 

I was lucky enough to have been picked up from home by my friend Michelle and duly dropped home again whilst it was still quite early. With Steve not home to shepherd me into bed early, I stayed up and watched The Graham Norton Show once I saw who were his guests were for that show. Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick promoting their new animated film Trolls. They do both have great voices but its not on my list of must sees.

 

 

 

 

 However, Daniel Radcliffe was also a guest of the show talking about his two new films; the first one he spoke of is Imperium, in which he plays an agent who infiltrates a white supremacist organisation. That looks very intense and a truly nasty subject. Radcliffe looks horrible with the shaved head required for that part.

 

 

The second film, Swiss Army Man, is a really quirky tragic comedy about I guy stranded on a dessert island, Paul Dano, who finds the body of a young man washed up on the beach and proceeds to use him for all sorts of weird stuff includes finding multi uses for his gassy flatulence. Ok it looks sort of art house dark comedy, yet it looks as though it lifts as much as it sinks to the depths.

 

I have it firmly on my list and I have to add I think Daniel Radcliffe is a quality actor who is so much more than just Harry Potter who brought him fame and rightly so. Big Potter fan here, how do you expect to converse with children if you know nothing of the little wizard. Photo below is Radcliffe with Dead Daniel. 

 

 

 

 

 Last to appear on the show was Robbie Williams who sang very well as we would expect, a great track from his new album, after telling such a rude story (Oh, so rude) about his younger self.

 

 I think the track he sang was called Party Like a Russian