All Together in Isolation (part two)......

Well I had a brief release from isolation when I went into hospital, in Friday and out Saturday and all very hygiene vigilant of course and very limited visitor numbers, however, it's still movement of people so a cause of concern. Which is why I'm not allowing anyone near me for at least a week.... except Hubby of course as he's been with me all the time anyway so if I've got anything he'll already have it too.

It's mother's day and will be a different day for all mothers this year I should think.

Daughter has managed to secure a supermarket delivery slot for Monday evening so asked me what I wanted to add to save us going out to shop.

Son just turned up this morning (Sunday), with a mother's day card, two kitkat and a loo roll (as that's what was in his house already) he went straight round the back into the garden and he brought his own tea in a travel cup. We sat in the sun (very chilly) miles apart and shouted to each other for a little while and then he left. So lovely but so very odd hahaha

And look, my cactus that can never decide if it should be a Christmas cactus or an Easter cactus has decided to flower now. It must know we all need cheerful things.

Having finished the blue jacket, I'm knitting another. Sorted the wool I have and chose two double knit to use together. I love these colours but I'm really hoping I'll not run out of the grey one before it's finished.

Yes we're all making sacrifices, but really, having to cancel having my nails done is a bit drastic hahaha only joking ;)  So to help disguise the regrowth lumps and gaps I gave myself a mad psychedelic manicure. Not bad eh? Shame nobody is going to see them.

Tuesday morning and Daughter arrived with our shopping which she left by the front door then went round into the garden to give the dog a run around. We joined her once the dog was back on her lead and sat miles apart and shouted to each other for a while then she was gone. It's odd but so much better than video calls which are a lot better than whatsapp text......we're all adapting gradually.

Today (Wednesday) Hubby and I both started using the treadmill again. A mile each as a steady walk will hopefully keep us from seizing up altogether. Hubby is naturally a restless person and is out gardening or finding mending/fetching jobs etc but my crafting and all the social Internet contact has me always sitting so I've got to be tougher with myself and "move it or lose it" as they say.

Wednesday night of course is our usual group of friends meet up for a meal and chat, so 7:30pm tonight I started a group chat on messenger with the ladies even though I'd chatted to each of them individually over the last few days. Wonder how many weeks this will be repeated?

Thursday and Daughter's car is booked for a service and MOT. We needed a social distancing plan and as the mechanic actually lives in our street it worked out quite well. 6:30am Daughter brought the car to our drive then walked the dog home after she'd had a good run round our garden (She's been walking her that early every day anyway to avoid people). This gave Hubby plenty of time to change her brake light. Also gave her the opportunity to put her excess black bags in our wheely bin. Her keys are in the car so 8am mechanic walks up and takes her car to work and brings it back at the end of the day putting keys through our letter box. I cleared three machine loads of laundry, how could we have dirtied so many clothes when we haven't been anywhere?

Thursday night at 8pm, as promoted all over facebook and TV programmes even the BBC News, we were all asked to be outside and applaud as a thank you to all key workers especially NHS staff for all the extra hard work and sacrificing needed during this pandemic. Hubby and I hung out of the bedroom window. FriendA came out from next door and we thought we may be the only ones, then we heard it starting in the roads around us, and others came out in our close, clapping, bell ringing, saucepan banging and in the distance fireworks. No words needed.

Today had been quite industrious, too bright and sunny to be sitting around. So after breakfast and we'd both done our treadmill walk (Hubby now partly runs too - show off), we washed the kingsize duvet that had been waiting since December to go to the launderette, of course that won't happen in a lockdown. It won't fit in my machine so it got the bath treatment. A soak, a good pounding then a double rinse. Hubby did most of that but I did help with the wringing out and finding a way of getting it from upstairs bathroom to garden washing line without causing puddles.

FriendA popped round with his own mug of coffee so we sat in the sunshine miles apart and shouted to each other for a while.
I put away all the clean and now dried laundry from yesterday and looked out of the window to see Hubby washing Daughter's car. He'd cleaned out all the inside too.

 And for afternoon tea I'd made a Victoria sponge because we are running out of biscuits.

Hubby keeps searching the supermarkets online and finally found a Sainsbury click and collect slot for early Monday morning. So that's booked in and Daughter has added to it too.

Saturday tomorrow and I'd have been home from the hospital for a whole week showing no symptoms so I'll consider myself clear of virus germs! Phew! We'll not relax being isolated and vigilant but it does mean I'm happy to have Daughter and grandchildren coming here again as they've mixed with no others and neither have we, but still no physical contact. :(

"This is life Jim but not as we know it"
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All Together in Isolation (part one)......

When you're retired not going out sometimes is quite normal, but suddenly being officially told you shouldn't go out is quite different. Up till now (19th March) it's not enforced isolation.

I didn't want to write about the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, there's so much being written/spoken/reported/speculated on that subject already! However everyone's lives  are moving to a totally different rhythm now so I'm just keeping a note of what's happening in my little world.

Positive
Sofa sitting guilt free meant I easily finished the jacket I was knitting.

Negative
My health issues put me in the most vulnerable group, so although Daughter and grandchildren come round they are keeping their distance and no hugs 🙁

Positive
I said "All together in isolation" as Internet with private messaging and social media means a lifeline to the world, sharing the common problem we are all sharing.

Positive
However tragic a situation people will always find humour to lighten the load

Positive and Negative
I get to leave the house tomorrow yaay!
To the hospital for an operation!

The next thrilling instalment will follow when I'm home again.
Stay home people and stay safe xx
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Theatre: Quality Street........

Phoebe Throssel lives on Quality Street, the bustling hub of a quaint northern town where she runs a school for unruly children.
Ten years since a tearful goodbye, an old flame returns from fighting Napoleon. But the look of disappointment on Captain Valentine’s face when he greets a more mature, less glamorous Phoebe, spurs our determined heroine to action. She becomes the wild and sparkling Miss Livvy, a younger alter-ego who soon entraps the clueless Captain.

As their romance is rekindled, can she juggle both personas? Or will her deception scandalise the town and wreck any future with the man she loves? J.M. Barrie’s delicious farce, written years before his now much-loved Peter Pan, was so well known in its day that it gave its name to the UK’s most popular chocolates, made in Halifax since 1936.

In Laurie Sansom’s directorial debut for Northern Broadsides, this rare revival also features a commentary from the Quality Street™ factory workers, whose own stories of hapless romance and growing old disgracefully give the show a playful Yorkshire twist.

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Well it's quite difficult to know what to say about this. This is a good story with a clever amusing script but I would never have described it as farce as it was far too slow and wordy. Daughter said "That ball seemed to go on forever". 

The introduction of the factory workers was confusing. Audience that were caught up in the play wasn't funny just annoying. And their having to keep explaining what was obviously going on was totally patronising. 

Mixing the old and new also spilled onto the set design with period furniture covered in crochet and walls of industrial metal poles. To make the connection between the Quality Street drama and the chocolates for the second half they decorated the metal poles with huge shiny flower shapes and dressed all those at the ball in shiny sweet wrappers. 

I also dislike the constant use of the dry smoke and as we were in the pit in row B our heads were level with the stage and breathing it in. 

And the final line by one of the factory workers was "So now you know why the chocolates were called Quality Street", and really they hadn't said why at all. 

Remember when the tin was this big? 

Oh dear that makes the whole thing sound a dreadful evening, but it wasn't. Overall it was a pleasant evening at the theatre and gave the three of us plenty to talk about all the way home.

On another plus note, we sat in the pit of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds and it's a beautiful old Regency theatre with the circle and upper circle as all individual boxes.

And that was over a week ago and the last out-of-the-house social event I'll go to until we get the coronavirus all clear. Stay safe everyone!
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Crowns and Gowns at Ely......

Myself and three friends had a lovely ladies day out. One came here so Hubby took the two of us to the station. Three of us travelled to Ely by train (a novel experience these days) and we met the fourth there. Her partner drove us the short distance into the town centre.

First stop was for tea and a good chat of course. Main topic was definitely the Coronavirus threat. We were all armed with hand sanitiser and washed our hands at every opportunity. I'm not so good on stairs to manage without the handrails so I wore gloves when travelling. Thankfully being a weekday nowhere was crowded.

Next onto Ely Cathedral to see the exhibition that was the reason for choosing this date as it's not there for much longer.

       A piece of Hollywood will come to Ely Cathedral when costumes, jewels and props from award-winning Hollywood movies and TV dramas filmed on site will go on display.

     The Crowns & Gowns exhibition will showcase stunning items that have been a part of Netfllix production The Crown and films such as The King's Speech. 

     These productions bought global award winning actors to the Cathedral including Cate Blanchett, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender, Colin Firth and Matt Smith.

     The unmissable exhibition will feature a fabulous collection of costumes, jewels, props, behind the scenes images and memorabilia from the dramas filmed on location at the cathedral.

     The magnificent 14th century Lady Chapel provides the perfect setting to showcase some of the most iconic gowns and outfits from The Other Boleyn Girl, Macbeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

     In 2015 the landmark stood in for Westminster Abbey in the first episode of the £100million drama The Crown chronicling the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

     Scenes from the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth, featuring Clare Foy, and Prince Philip, Doctor Who's Matt Smith, were filmed at the cathedral in August 2015.

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The cathedral itself is beautiful of course, so we took plenty of time to wander and admire. 

We were all more than ready for a late lunch and then just enough time to visit a few charity shops on our way through the high street to finally catch a bus to the station, quite exciting for me as I've had my bus pass for two years five months and this was the first time I'd used it hahaha. Our train home was on time and Hubby was there to meet us. A lovely day with lovely friends. 

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Theatre: Absurd Person Singular....

Three married couples. Three kitchens. Three Christmas parties.

Sidney Hopcroft, a small-time tradesman, persuades wife Jane to throw a party hoping to find favour with a bank manager and local architect. As celebrations begin, class differences and naked ambition combine to hilarious effect as, one by one, the characters seek refuge in Jane’s kitchen.

Over the next two years, the Jacksons and Brewster-Wrights take turns to host festivities. But Sidney’s star has begun to rise and roles are increasingly reversed as the cracks in the other couples’ marriages begin to show.

Alan Ayckbourn’s comic masterpiece of social climbing in 1970s suburbia fuses a potent mix of farce and black comedy.

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This was laugh-out-loud funny.
I enjoyed each character and they were all so different.
Clever set changes
Hilarious script
Great timing
Good observations of believable relationship issues
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Theatre: The World Turned Upside Down.......

Ipswich 1644. From Mistley to Manningtree. Voices in the Shadows. Accusation of Witchcraft.

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN is a new historical play about the Suffolk Witch Trials and the rise and fall of the self-proclaimed ‘Witch Finder General’, Matthew Hopkins.

A group of young people growing up in Puritan Ipswich begin to question what is happening and challenge the persecution which is turning the world upside down.

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This performance was amazing, and yes I'm saying it because my very talented granddaughter R was in it, however I'm also saying amazing because these amateur teenage youth theatre actors put on a play better than some professionals could have.

So much dialogue all delivered without hesitation, with perfect timing and with so much passion.

There was a musical dance which helped to break the heaviness of the subject but didn't make light of the seriousness. Also a very well rehearsed and wonderfully choreographed whole cast fight scene.

Needless to say they received wonderful local reviews, and R was mentioned by name on a couple of them.
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