Theatre: Oxy and the Morons.....

A Brand New Punk Musical
By Paul Sirett, Mike Peters & Steve Allan Jones 

When a routine check-up leads to a startling diagnosis, Andy decides it’s time to put the band back together, to crank up the amps, and party like its 1978! Why not re-form the legendary Oxy & the Morons, who burned fiercely before exploding in a riot of rivalry, jealousy and bitter betrayal? Andy’s mission involves twisting arms, healing wounds and putting his family and friendships back together. But can that punk spirit of DIY defiance be rekindled over thirty years later? Can you still pogo when your knees go? Will they play their trademark punk take of It’s Not Unusual as an encore?

This brand new musical is fast, furious and very funny. Written by Paul Sirett (Reasons to be Cheerful, Mods and Rox), Mike Peters (The Alarm) and Steve Allan Jones, with a machine gun playlist of original songs, this affectionate look back at the days of teen spirit suggest we could all do with some of that garage band power right now.

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I didn't mind a little bit of punk back-in-the-day but was very unsure how I would manage a whole punk musical. Wow it was amazing! The first half told the current story by the band members 30+ years on and how they had moved on in good and bad ways, punctuated by flashbacks to the young band belting out the lyrics. In the second half the oldies perform their comeback gig punctuated by flashbacks to the young band members and what happened with their relationships with each other good and bad. 

Thoroughly enjoyed it. 

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Have they been there all along?.......

We've lived in this house 34 years and over time we have changed the garden around a bit in some places and a lot in other places and even had a gardener for some of those years. Even though I don't actually do a lot of the gardening I do mostly know what's in the garden and where.

At one far end of the garden where my view of it is restricted by a shed there are bushes against the fence. One of the very spiky bushes had had some sparse little fruit that looked knarled and spotty and I'd assumed they were inedible and mostly forgot they were even there.

This year I happened to be near them with Daughter and we both took a closer look and a good sniff, they smelt lovely, and cutting one in half for Internet identification we were convinced they were quince.

I forgot to take a photo of the few I picked (carefully) off the spiky bush and didn't bother with those that had already fallen under the bush. Below is an Internet photo and mine were all like the little yellow ones and not as many.

First I just placed them in a bowl on the table and they made the dining room smell really nice.

Of course I then Googled for recipes and had a go at quince jelly.

It was really easy to make, didn't take too long, and is delicious even though I tweeked the recipe so I'd get a reasonable quantity from so few fruit and reduced the sugar a lot because I don't like really sweet jam.

Maybe the bush hadn't been there all along, maybe a bird dropped seeds and it grew or maybe I'm just daft enough to have not noticed them in 34 years!
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Crete holiday with family.....

I haven't blogged for ages so went into this to maybe start a new post and to have a little browse at what had gone recently.......when I noticed it, in draft, an unfinished unpublished post, not an unimportant waffle but a lovely holiday memory.

I'm now assuming it was my impending surgery and all that related to that before it that was the priority and distraction from this.

Now more than three months later I can't do it justice with details, nor can I have no record at all of a really lovely holiday for Hubby and me with sisterS and bilK. So as a compromise here are the notes I'd left for myself, added to a bit, followed by some of the photos.

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Thursday 5th October
Dinner out and sleep over here with sisterS and bilK so we get a very early start to the airport in one car to save car park costs. 

Friday 6th
4am start and Hubby is doing all the driving from now till we are home again. Uneventful travel thankfully.

At Gatwick airport we had a Lebanese breakfast because all the main eating places were really crowded and this one was the furthest away and had plenty of vacant seating. We only ordered normal breakfast stuff but it was nicely cooked and very good service so we were more than happy.

Kokkino Chorio was the name of the small village we were staying in. The villa we had rented from a friend of sisterS who also included use of their car. We were told that it's not usually rented out so fully stocked for family use. The owner said to feel free to use anything already there (food, beer, toiletries, etc) but replace them before we leave ready for their next visit.

When we arrived there was no power! We had been warned about Greek electricity supply being a bit irregular and told all about the consumer unit upstairs, unable to get anything to work we had to knock next door where neighbours Margaret and Allen were very helpful.

Made use of their car into the next village Plaka for the supermarket and noticed lots of places there to eat. So back to Plaka in the evening to one of the many taverna's for dinner. We all loved traditional Greek food and it also seems traditional here for the taverna to charge for the bread and oils/dips they bring out first without asking but not to charge at the end when they bring a repeat of your drinks orders and cake or fruit and Raki. I actually don't do well out of this as I don't drink alcohol so only on water and the fruit arrived in Greek yoghurt which I also don't eat but the others made the most of it all.

This is the villa, cloudy when we arrived but that didn't last long. Only two villas within a gated area and sharing the pool.

Beautiful views, so breakfast outside every day. Only got the sunbeds out by the pool once as it was a bit too hot for me to just lie there for long. BilK was the only one to use the pool and he only did that once as the water was freezing.

Saturday 7th
Outside having breakfast that bilK cooked when we heard an enormous crash so Hubby went to investigate and discovered a very large picture had fallen off the wall and glass was all down the marble stair case! Hubby spent ages clearing it all up. Knew it wasn't our fault but still not the best start to the day.

Heading out in the car and unfortunately Hubby caught the back of a delivery lorry which scratched the car badly when it took the door mirror off! The lorry was fine of course and the driver waved us on but we all felt really bad, especially Hubby.

Georgioupoli
Trying to find a picture to replace the one that smashed, but all these were so expensive.

Another taverna in Plaka - more free stuff

Sunday 8th

Hellenistic and Roman ruins and baths and amphitheatre in Aptera

Mishap of the day was Hubby banging his head on a very low ceiling

Lunch in Aptera where we just wanted a small snack. S&K ordered what looked to be starters off the board and Hubby and I asked for small Greek salad and with the complimentary loaf of bread etc filled the table. We were brought complimentary plate of grapes and asked if we wanted Raki, but even K can't do that stuff lunchtime! We thought it was called Tabepna but discovered that was just another word for Taverna.

Our two men in the front using two different satnav and the driving around these roads is always eventful and taking twice as long  as it should because of missed turns and roads too narrow to drive through. Apparently we were only about seven kilometres from home and it took nearly 25 minutes hahaha.
K is walking ahead to see if we can fit through, we couldn't and had to reverse.

Evening meal back into Plaka

Monday 9th

First thing to do today was send a happy birthday message to our son.

We took a drive into Chania and had a good walk around the market. Hubby had said he wanted a day not driving so we bought provisions for lunch for tomorrow, the cheese stall holder gave us lots to taste before we bought.

Lovely lady at a clothes stall pulled me in to say, only in Greek, she had tops in my size and showed me one after another after another until actually there was one I really did like enough to buy.

We walked back to the car to put our purchases in the boot then off in the opposite direction to find the old town and the old Venetian harbour.

It was beautiful and stopped for lunch looking at the posh boats docked there. According to my phone app we've walked nearly 10km.

Tuesday 10th 

Lazy stay at home day

Wednesday 11th

Thursday 12th

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Can't remember much more now unfortunately and couldn't understand why I hadn't done more while we were there, which I would normally do, often writing up the day before while I'm waiting for everyone to get ready in the mornings. But now I remember getting frustrated when I'd typed up loads and the flaky WiFi didn't save it.

As another afterwards note we'd obviously told the owners about the broken car and picture and they were really good about it. No problem about the picture they were just glad we hadn't been hurt by broken glass. They said they would take care of the car when they arrive the day after we leave and let us know the cost as we insisted on paying of course.
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