The Dresser: CFT

We were of gallivanting again last night after the three of us had something to eat at our home first. Our friend Anthony was joining us again since he always seems to enjoy a theatre evening, being a leisure time thespian himself with involvement in A Worthing Am-Dram group The Worthing Musical Theatre.

Anthony drove us to Chichester where careful if questionable plans for the departure after the play always takes place, so that we can dart off without a hold up. Where as most people try to park as close to the theatre as they can, we do the opposite but then we are all athletes of course.

It is hard to believe, that with a life time of theatre going, after being weaned on Worthing Repertory Company as a child where my mum was an usherette; that I have never before seen the play we went to last night especially since it is such a well known play. It was the first night of The Dresser, staring Ken Stott and Reese Shearsmith.

There were war time songs playing as we found out seats, well I say found our seats but we have been to the Chichester Festival theatre so many times that we know the seat lay out as well as the ushers, and in fact on this occasion we were in the three seats directly behind the seats we had on our last visit for the BBC Concert Orchestra.

The set for The Dresser was an excellent revolving arrangement, where the cast could walk from the dressing room as it revolved through a corridor in toward the wings of the play’s stage and the stage itself. It worked brilliantly. The whole impression being of one of the London theatres that had seen better days, and was not likely to be restored during the war time bombing.

Reese Shearsmith was perfect as the totally taken for granted, yet heavily depended upon ‘Dresser’ to the grand old Shakespearean actor played superbly by Ken Stott, baggy underwear and all, clinging on for dear life to his reputation.

It is wonder to me that the actors who specialise in playing the Shakespeare great character leads don’t all go the same way with so many whole plays living in theirs heads their entire lives. King Lear is the part that the old star is playing at the time set in this play, a slave to his art and his faithful dresser a slave to his master in his devotion.

A while ago I went to see Frank Langella at the Minerva in Chichester playing that tragic King Lear role. I let my husband off sometimes and don’t always drag him along to everything that I want to see.  

Jeanne d’Arc: The Tunnel and other battles

Steve and I have been watching The Tunnel on TV for a few weeks. We finished season one last week and have started on season two. Although the first episode looked very similar to the start of The Bridge, that we watched a few years ago, where a body was placed exactly across the border point on the bridge between Sweden and Denmark, in The Tunnel you have the same start only this time it is the channel tunnel between England and France. Beyond the initial body discovery the stories go on in quite separate ways. 

Both plots though, involve the police of both countries having to work together with a tiny splash of co-operation and they did not start well when the UK investigating officer refers to his female French officer counterpart as ‘Joan’! That reminded us of some years ago, when we arrived at a hotel in Reims that we used regularly on work trips but on this occasion when there had been an important football match between England and France which had France lost. Steve, who has no interest in the footie at all, casually commiserated on that defeat to the manager who was dealing with our check in. We both laughed our heads off when he responded with “Be careful Monsieur, we have not forgotten Jeanne d’ Arc”.

You would think over the passage of time in our history that two countries as close as England and France could somehow manage to get over it and move on but it is so often not the case.

Mind you, since St Joan famously rose to battle through and recover France from the English I have had a couple of battles with the French myself. During my years in Triathlon Steve and I have driven to France loads of times for races and had a lot of fun doing that. One of the 220 magazine series races was in Ardres, just a day trip hop on the ferry and back afterwards and a great time had by all.

Then we have raced in Nice in the beautiful South of France several times, even better over a longer distance. On one occasion when it was World Championships it was a most interesting race from my point of view. Racing in my age group were twin sisters who did the entire race from the beginning to the finish line working together, one waited for the other to finish her transition before they left on their bikes. When I was placed third, and I was a long way behind them, my team manager came with me to object but they just shrugged as the French do so charmingly and said simply as if it explained why they had so openly broken the rules, “But they are famous in France”. End of that story.

Then at another French based World Championships this time in Lorient, at the awards, even though I was the only woman in my age group, my name was not called to take a place on the podium. My team manager went to tell them of their mistake and they said that a Danish woman had been placed first. They would not have it that there was no such woman in the race. That did get my goat and afterwards looking at the race photos I searched for that woman’s number and in all the photo’s the person wearing that number in the race was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties.

I pointed that out to the race directors and they still would not have it that they had re-used that number. Next I rang the Danish Federation and the man I spoke to said that the woman in question although qualified had not gone. He said he would check to make sure. He rang back quite quickly and confirmed that the woman had not even gone to that event. 

Letters flowed and in the end the French Federation said that they had the medal in the office and that I could come and get it during office hours if I wanted it. The offices at that time were in St. Ouen in the north of Paris. They refused to post it. However, we do go to St. Ouen in the course of our work now and then when clients buy in the Marche au Puce nearby. That was when we went to collect it. They were not pleased. They had the last word though or at least withheld the last word because my name still does not appear in the results of either of these events, or at least did not when I last checked. The medals however are hanging on our wall.

Steve and I still love to explore France and have many hero’s among the French sporting world. Umpteen star figure skaters and since we love that we have been a number of times to watch ice competitions. Then of course there is the remarkable Martin Fourcade who is winning so many biathlons this season. I could not begin to count how many times we have visited France for work holidays, racing or outings some things will never be forgotten.

Jeanne d’ Arc or Saint Joan to us, the Maid of Orleans was burned at the stake in 1431 At the age of 19.

Turbo and Bike Spring Cleaning.

                                               Julie and I in Edmonton summer 2014

Oh what a beautiful morning, but still very cold. Never the less, after a quite hard turbo session this morning and the usual business office work for a while, Steve set about cleaning my best racing bike. That would be Alice, who I still think of as new but she is already nearly two years old. I have just checked on a few photos and I definitely rode Alice at the World Championships in Chicago in the summer of 2015 though at the Edmonton Worlds in 2014 I was still riding Julie who was then demoted to a training bike. This morning Steve has polished Alice up and charged up the electronic gear changing system. So should a sudden burst of spring come along unexpectedly I am all set to go.

 My very old bike Paula

The bike I do turbo training on is permanently set up upstairs, in what we refer to as The Turbo Room. Actually it was once our bedroom. We have had a lot of moves in recent years but it’s pretty settled now. Julie is locked up in a shed that is locked up in the totally enclosed little back garden. Keeping Julie company in the shed (not the quality of company that she was used to) is a communal fairly old mountain bike.

Both of our best racing bikes live indoors in our bedroom showing just how highly we value our best babes. Our bikes are very close to our hearts. Even when we have company the bikes stay where they are. This may be seen as a sign of madness by non- triathletes but everybody else in our circle will understand.

Riding Alice in the World Championships in Chicago 2015

We think that people who go out and drink alcohol each and every weekend and any other time they can afford to, are a little loose in the head but there you go, it is a personal choice. Most nights we go to bed early and get up early to train and that is a big part of our lives but we do go out and enjoy ourselves but our idea of enjoying an evening out, is time spent at the movies or a theatre or dinner with friends. Going out with the intention of getting totally smashed is not an idea we understand at all.  There was a line in an old Dusty Springfield song 'Spend your days instead of counting the years'. We certainly spent our days and because there is no heavy drinking involved we can remember every moment of our fun times and that is how we like to live our lives.

The day I spent sneezing and sniffling yesterday ended when I fell asleep having spent the entire evening with a bunch of hankies sprinkled with Olbas oil up to my nose. I eventually stopped the violent sneezing but today my upper back was aching from one side to the other. Thank heavens that the brain blasting sneezing has ended. Nightmare.

Here is an old shot of Steve and I outside our business premises, Stephen Belt Antiques and Shipping with me there holding on to Julie and Steve has charge of Paula. 

Poor old bikes get to do a lot of service to their loving owners.

 

Swim Sneeze Sniff

After a diabolical nights sleep I still managed to crawl out of bed when the alarm went off. It was tough though because I had read 10% of my new book in the middle of the night since sleep was not an option because I had a bad case of the wide awakes.

The night before I had finished the last couple of chapters of The Fear Index by Thomas Harris that even though it had lots and lots of high finance gobble-de-gook, was such a good story that I coped with that aspect that was indeed vital to the plot. The new book is Sister Sister by Sue Fortin that is a psychological thriller but after 10% it has only just started to get interesting and I am still waiting for the thrilling bit.

The swim set today for me was:

Warm up

15 x 100 at 2.40

Steve was kind to me because I had such a lousy night that he thought I did not need a hard session. I finished the 15 x 100 and added another four of them to make a 1900 swim since Steve’s lane had not finished and I was feeling fine, I did just 100 back stroke as a swim down.

We went to Costa Coffee for a cortado then came home to do a bit of office work since I was sneezing fit to blow the top of my head off. This quite often happens on a Monday though at the pool swear that they don’t do anything different to cause it. At the weekend they have lots of kids in and I understand the chemicals are balanced automatically!!!!!?????

I tried my best to calm my poor nose down because we had a lunch date with client friends Ben and Ross from Raleigh NC USA. I was still sniffling and sneezing and they had to poke up with me looking like Rudolph over a light lunch at the George in Burpham that we all enjoyed very much, nice and relaxing.

This afternoon the violent sneezing starts again every time I move around and calms a little if I sit still.

The lane 1 schedule was the same as last Monday.

Lane 1
Dist.	Clock	Swim Rest
100	60	1.55
100	55	1.55
100	50	1.55
100	45	1.55
100	40	1.55
100	35	1.55
100	30	1.55
100	25	1.55
100	20	1.55
100	15	1.55
100	10	1.55
100	05	1.55
100	60	1.55
100	55	1.55
100	50	1.55
100	45	1.55
100	40	1.55
100	35	1.55
100	30	1.55
100	25	1.55
100	20	1.55
2100

 

Waltz King

What have you done Johann?

What have you done?

Setting the ballroom on fire

Filling young hearts with desire

You saw all the beauty

The uniforms of duty.

What was it like Johann?

What was it like?

When you were a pop star

They came from near or far

With baton then you posed

The music you composed.

What did they say Johann?

What did they say?

The European royalty

Did they show you loyalty

As they danced away

To the sweet waltz you play.

Would you go back, Johann?

Would you go back?

Leading the way

Being star of the day

A Prince showing your art

Did you steal a young heart?

What would you say Johann?

What would you say?

If you were here now

And could take one more bow

What would you say,

When you look at today?

 

Fly Tipping in Angmering Park

Email to Lewis Mason of the Littlehampton Gazette

Lewis.mason@jpress.co.uk

Hello Lewis,

Wondered if you could do anything in the Littlehampton Gazette based on my experience from this mornings Sunday run discoveries.

For our Sunday Run we take the A27 from Arundel heading east and turn off quickly at the road that goes into the woods opposite the Poling Street village. We park where that road meets the path that joins and becomes The Monarchs Way. Having turned off the A27 this morning, about a quarter of a mile down that lane there is a pile of corrugated asbestos roofing broken up that has been left there by pig ignorant fly tippers.

Apart from being dismayed at the horrible way of treating our marvelous country side, it is appalling that anybody would tip asbestos like that so dangerously.

I am loathed to complain about the council, since the Sports Forum awarded me a grant towards my race travel this year. However, it is difficult not to link this outbreak to the community tip closing two days a week.

I spoke to a group of cyclists who saw both this and the further along tipped group of household goods at the cross roads where we park up. They thought it was commercial goods but it looked to me as though somebody was disposing of the home of and elderly departed relative, since it was a cooker and old rather sad looking armchairs.

Another lady stopped and took photos of the Asbestos at the same time as me, equally appalled and said she would put the photos on Facebook on the 'Things for sale in Littlehampton' page. I will definitely be putting the photos and a few more words on my 'Daf's Diary' blog later today. www.dafbelt.blogspot.co.uk

Our run starts at the water Station, passes Jack Upperton's Gibbet, continues along Monarchs Way, turning left off on to the path that passes above Barpham Saxon Village.

It then turns up to the trig point and down to run the last couple of kilometres beside the gallops the come back to the Monarchs Way and then cross road parking spot. 10km

Attached are the Fly Tipping photos. Last photo is a Robin who was equally dismayed.

Should you be the slightest bit interested in this disgraceful behaviour of the townsfolk?

07990803274

Daphne Belt

Littlehampton Sports Forum Sports Person of the Year 2014 and 2016

2014 and 2015 World Triathlon Champion age group 75-79

Arun Trinity Triathlon Club

Footnote: The run today was quite stunning on such a bitter cold morning. As we left home the weather lady on TV had said that it would be cold in the South East, as low as minus 6 or 7. Our little old banger Marcus said it was minus 5. I had taken the advice from the TV and put on a thermal base layer, then my warmest running coat that is a bit Gortexy and topped those off with my favourite lightweight running coat. I pulled on a warm hat and a pair of gloves. I was of course wearing running tights. Still, what that expression that is used about brass monkeys could have been put to the test this morning. It was wonderfully crunchy underfoot, like running over a trail of salt and vinegar crisps. There was a light freezing fog but it was still a beautiful day in our spectacular West Sussex scenery apart from the start and finish scene ruined as it was by this illegal fly tipping scourge.

Knuckling down to the job in hand

Steve is working in London again today at the Decorative Fair in Battersea. He has been in charge of the transport for a neighbour dealer called La Place, at the Vinery which is where our business is located on The A27 at Poling near Arundel here in West Sussex, all shoulders to the wheel. It is all quite a palaver setting up a large stand there and certainly not easy since there are a group of jobsworths controlling  where the park and access etc. The stand has to be completely built, flooring put down and making partition walls ready for hanging wall lights as well as a complete paint job before the furniture and small items can be laid out. I am not expecting him to get home any earlier than he did last night because once the work is finished there is a traffic filled journey home from London in the truck after setting off very early this morning; even earlier than we do when we got for our swim sessions. The show is on for a week until 29^th January. The dismantling of the stand next weekend is not quite as bad as the set up programme.

This does not mean that I have had a nice restful couple of days to myself because when ever Steve is away it means that there is more that I get left to do mostly running around jobs, like just having got back from picking up the two guys who had to return the extra hire truck that was needed for such a big job and taking them back to the Vinery. When we got there our driver Nigel got out and told me that my tyre was pretty flat and he was kind enough to get the compressor out and pump it up for me knowing that Steve was otherwise occupied and I admit to being useless at such things.

There was a small delivery job for me to do and the job that is usually spared me…. To get something in for dinner, whereas Steve usually does food shopping because food and the kitchen are his domain normally. Having said that, I did make dinner last night which is a rarity although Steve did phone me with some cooking preferences even though I DO KNOW HOW TO COOK but he likes to do that so I am normally just an assistant and bus boy and washer-upper.

The club swim session tonight will also be down to me to take care of and then it will be home to light the fire to make it welcoming for my man’s return to our little nest. Again I will take care of dinner.

In a way all the extra things have spared me from the thousand and one repeats of the highlights from Donald Trump and the whole of the USA’s big day yesterday. I am not even going to start on that since our own home political situation is about as La-La land as it is in America. I just hope that the nice 45th President will let me in on my next journey to the USA, a country that I love to bits and that I have nowhere near concluded my adventures in. Still loads I want to see and places I want to visit on my bucket list. Driving on all the nice new roads that the President says will be built. We will have to wait and see will we not and meanwhile crossing our fingers for the future of both our great countries. 

Manchester by the Sea: Casey Affleck

Yesterday Steve and I bunked off to Chichester for an afternoon performance of Manchester by the sea. We prefer an early show when we can in winter, maybe we were bears or something in another life, because we do like to snuggle down and hibernate in front of a cosy fire on dark winter evenings, and we are early to bed and early to rise people anyway.

We were drawn to the film having seen the trailer that didn’t tell you very much apart from that the man who appeared to be barely scratching a living in a group of ancient Boston apartments as the handy man, cleaner, unqualified plumber/electrician and snow clearer who was heavily put upon and not dealing with the abuse well.

Lee Chandler is played agonisingly by Casey Affleck who gets called to his home town where his brother has had some sort of heart failure whilst working on the family boat. When he gets there he is just too late to be with his brother when he died and discovers that he's been named guardian to his 16-year-old nephew. 

Director Kenneth Lonergan so perfectly lets to audience slowly grasp the horrendous tragedy that has caused the lead character to slip downward irretrievably into blame and aggressive self punishment for what has befallen his family, something that is so ghastly as to be totally unspeakable. 

There is no way back to any normal life and having to return to his family home town is the most painful thing for him to face. He is further agonized by having to try to care for his typical teenage nephew, who though by no means a bad kid, has no grasp of the problems being faced and who has not even passed his grade one sensitivity test.

Michelle Williams as his ex wife has one heartbreaking scene in particular as she tries to approach the chasm of misery that lies immovably between them. Kyle Chandler, who was so brilliant in ‘Bloodline’ on TV, plays the dead brother and father of the teenager in a series of flashbacks.

There are light moments that allow a few moments recovery from the totally shattering story that is beautifully acted by the entire cast but with Casey Affleck doing a first class job in this tragic tale of grief and unthinkable family loss. I would imagine a mantle shelf of awards coming his way. 

On the way home we stopped in at Prezzo in Arundel where there is always a good deal on offer at the off peak times that we like to eat there. Yesterday they had two for one on ‘Mains’. Still being very careful with our eating we had not had a bit to eat all day. We both ordered the house VIP steak and rocket pizza. It probably raises and eyebrow or to imagine that this is a healthy eating dish bit it is the thinnest tastiest pizza crust you could imagine, barely coloured with tomato base but with fresh tomato and a lawn of rocket beneath the thinly shaven steak slices. Delicious, and with excellent service. We only had sparkling mineral water each with it.

 I have stuck strictly to the ‘No eating in the day time’ rule on our five days per week diet, though I suspect that Steve grabs a sandwich when he is stuck in a hard day of lifting heavy furniture to load or unload one of the trucks. Today all hands are going to London’s Battersea, to deliver for a client exhibiting at the Decorative Show there for a week. Setting the stand out is a nightmare.

This morning swim sets made me smile at my friend Bekka who has not quite grasped the swim rest idea yet or managed to do a warm up or swim down so far. We are both just smiling fondly as she does what she wants to of the so thoughtfully worked out schedule especially for her although it truth it suits me just fine too. With a 6.30am start (and missing the warm up as mentioned) she left to catch a train at 7.05am. After she left I did one more set of the same schedule that was repeated twice (and not quite completed) for her while I did three reps of it before going home to tidy up before my annual eye test at Boots Opticians.

Bekka	10 Mins	WU
distance	clock	swim rest
200	60	5.10
200	10	5.10
200	20	5.10
50	30	1.30
50	60	1.30
200	30	5.10
200	40	5.10
200	50	5.10
50	60	1.30
50	30	1.30
swim	down
1400	mtrs	total

Lane 1	10 Mins	Warm up
Distance	Clock	Swim rest
300	60	5.00
200	60	3.30
50	30	1.20
200	50	3.20
300	10	4.50
50	60	1.20
300	20	4.45
200	05	3.30
50	35	1.20
200	55	3.15
300	10	5.00
50	10	1.20
Swim	down
2200