The House Husband

Talk about polar opposites! After yesterday’s glorious weather, today is a damp squib! BBC Weather had it right – sun up north, rain down here. But not your belting it down, swamping the world type rain. More your miserable type of drizzly rain; the kind that Julius Caesar moaned about so long ago. Which, to some extent and in some small way, disproves climate change.

I was supposed to go to Winchester with Dawn today. She had an interview with her PHD supervisor at the uni and I was going to go with her. We’d planned to have lunch and a wander around Winchester, perhaps stopping at King Alfred for a historic blip. Sadly, it didn’t happen.

Dawn couldn’t get the dog minder and fell back on her parents, which means going in the opposite direction. I could have caught the hour and half bus but it was a lot easier to just re-schedule for next week. So we did.

A day of general housework and spring cleaning then. And a bit of IT help for Mirinda. And a Sainsbury’s order which leads nicely to one of Carmen’s odd foibles.

I do a Sainsbury’s order about every 6 weeks. It’s all the big things that I don’t want to carry home because it would mean about 30 trips back and forth. And so I order online and they deliver when I ask for it. Generally when the driver arrives I’m in the middle of something, so I leave the bags in the hallway until I’ve finished whatever I’m doing. I’ll then put it all away.

It’s generally just dog food (three types of cans, Dentastix and dry food), laundry powder and other chemicals, toilet rolls and, always, beer. So nothing that needs immediate attention. It can wait until I’m ready, I always say to Carmen as I return to whatever I was in the middle of.

Today the driver arrived while I was cleaning the bathroom so I dropped my gloves and went down to collect it all. Naturally the dogs go off but I just shut them in the lounge and they eventually calm down. So I collected the groceries and left them in the hallway while I returned to the bathroom after opening the door to let the girls out.

Now, when I work upstairs, Carmen always lies on the bed – Mirinda calls her Doona dog because of her sleep affair with our bedding – while Day-z generally sits on the window sill in the lounge waiting for Mirinda. Today, however, I came out of the bathroom and looked into the bedroom to make sure Carmen was ok but she wasn’t there. This was very odd. The weather was so bad today that they spent most of it asleep in lieu of traipsing mud throughout the house and Carmen should have been in her usual place. Then I found her.

She was lying in the corridor, guarding my beer. Truly. Not the dog food or the toilet rolls, just the beer. I know, because as I started putting things away, she didn’t move until I picked up the beer. She looked at me and dragged herself to her feet, gave her tail a little shake and went into the lounge to lie on the big lounge (her other favourite place).

Naturally I told her she was a good girl, keeping my precious 6X safe. She is a great dog!

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
An update on Ruby Bentall, my celeb spot from yesterday. I’ve read a Guardian article from January which says she is presently rehearsing for Mike Leigh’s new play at the National. It also states that she is the daughter of actress Janine Duvitski. She played Pippa Trench in One Foot in the Grave alongside Angus Deayton as her husband, Patrick.

I remember her fondly as the awful Mrs Crawley Bute in Vanity Fair. One of my favourite books and TV series. An excellent portrayal from page to screen. Mind you, that’s true of everyone in it.

Interestingly, Janine appeared in Mike Leigh’s famous play, Abigail’s Party, which was created by the cast in workshop. Apparently, Ruby is up for more of the same. Her father, Paul, is also in the play and they all live in Holborn, which explains why I saw her. Actually, Mirinda and I were wondering how cool it would be to live in the back streets we were wandering around, not knowing that The Bentalls probably live in one of the places we were scrutinising.

Last night I went with some weasels to see Hadestown. It was written by the wonderful singer/song writer Anais Mitchell. She has a webpage here, if you’re interested.

Hadestown is a new version of the story of Orpheus in the underworld as he tries to bring back his love, Euridice. Anais has set it in a post-apocalyptic world of depression, where Hades entices people to join his town (Hadestown) and build walls to keep the ‘enemy’ out while keeping them in under his rule. Once you enter Hadestown, you can never leave.

Euridice is tempted in and joins the community but Orpheus decides to try and save her. He enlists the help of Hermes who tells him how to enter the town via the back door. Once in, Orpheus tries to find Euridice. His beautiful songs come to the attention of Hades and his wife, Persephone who convinces her husband to allow Euridice to leave with Orpheus.

Hades agrees but only on one condition. Orpheus is to walk out of Hadestown and Euridice will follow as long as Orpheus does not look back. Orpheus is doing really well but then, just before he leaves, doubt takes over and he turns around. Euridice is lost to him forever. Oh, he of little faith!

The performance last night was at the Union Chapel in Islington. Quite an amazing venue, very well suited to the performance. The trouble was, there was also an Arsenal home game on at the same time. This meant that the Tube was full of people in red and white scarves. We were all to meet at The Swan Inn but this was heaving with gooners, so, after texting each other, we met at the venue.

It was oddly ironic that we were going to a performance about and based in hades while we had to walk through, what some would describe as, hell. It was quite marked when it came time to go home. The tube train we were in had a combination of folk music lovers chatting enthusiastically (or not in one case I overheard) about Anais and Hadestown while others stood around in their team colours, grunting and swearing. I’m not just saying that for effect! It WAS the case.

Anyway, the performance started off with Wallis Bird, a fabulous Irish folk singer who is a dab hand at the guitar. She writes and performs everything herself. Very self effacing and very talented. She has a website here. I liked her so much I bought her album Spoons. Mirinda listened to it tonight and loves it too. We are Wallis fans. Seriously!

Having warmed us up, Wallis was replaced with Anais and her group of folk celebs none of whom I’ve ever heard of. The band played behind and the singers sat in front. They would stand up as their turn to sing approached. There was a storyteller who made a few contributions in order to keep the audience on track. It was a very good idea.

Apart from one little thing, it was a fantastic night of very talented people. Another was Thea Gilmore who played Persephone. You can read about her here as well as listen to a track of hers. I am very tempted to list the entire cast…except I don’t know who they were…but I’ll just mention one other. The guy who played Orpheus was wonderful. His name is Jim Moray, and, naturally, he has a website too. It’s here.

I could type on and on and on…however, I’m going to leave it there. It was a great night all round with a long trip home at the end. A big thank you to Dawn for parking at Farnham so I’d have someone to talk to on the train.

There wasn’t really a lot of opportunity for weasel photography given the rush before and after but I did manage a shot of the venue.

Union Chapel, Islington

Arsenal won by the way. And the one thing not so good about the show? We had to sit on pews. Super, typical, bloody uncomfortable pews! Had I known, I’d have bought a big fat cushion. Actually I could have done with a big fat cushion to get over the big fat head sat in front of me all night!

So, it didn’t rain today. The BBC promised grey clouds but the sky has been blue as blue can be. Glorious. I had been concerned that my lunch with Dawn may be rained on. Well, it was, really, just not by the weather. I was bumped!

Today was to be a double Cansfield day – Dawn for lunch, Nicktor for the night – but I have been reduced to one. Dawn bumped me for the kids. They had a half day today. What is the education system thinking? Half day? Humph.

Anyway, I have a Nicktor night tonight, which will go some way towards cheering me up. We’re off to see Aldershot and have a few drinks…the usual. First time for yonks. Really looking forward to it.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The park was so lovely, we took full advantage of it and walked the path right around today. This didn’t stop the inevitable FSI, of which both of them partook. Smelly dogs! And they always complain about the bath afterwards. You’d think they’d learn.

Here they are lording it at a culvert:

Carmen & Day-z on the bridge

And so it rained all day. Nice. I went up to Farnham to do my shopping (slowly returning to some semblance of normality) and it rained on me.

Not all bad, though. The barista at Starbucks remembered my order. When I expressed my amazement, he said it was because I came in all the time. When I told him I hadn’t actually been in for 2 months, he just repeated what he’d already said. The blonde barista asked if I’d been given my January coupons yet. I said no and so she quickly made sure I had some. This entitles me to a further 50p off my coffee. Combined with my Starbucks card, this is brilliant. Such great service.

Shopping was only good because I could do it out of the rain, for everyone looked and acted pretty gloomy, in an homage to the weather, I guess. And then I was rained on walking home. Dawn has asked me whether I’m missing the Australian sun. It would be fair to say I’m not but just a little blue sky would be nice.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
I spent a large swodge of the day scanning some of the polaroids we used to have on our wall at Katoomba (& Claire Street, before that). Shots like this:

Gary and Trace, a few lifetimes ago

And shots like this:

Chris with his training wheels

As well as lots of pictures of people from our theatre days. And when we first met (Mirinda and me, I mean…not the theatre people). Happy times (or so most of the photos seem to indicate). Like this:

Farelli & Gaz at a theatre festival - maybe Wagga

They bring back a lot of memories. Of people long forgotten. Of far distant times. How different we were then. How different I am now!

For my birthday, Dawn and I went to the British Museum to see the new Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition – the link to the exhibition is here. It was a bit of a snap decision. I heard a glowing review of it on Front Row on BBC radio 4 last Tuesday which convinced me I just had to go. It would appear that a lot of other people had the same idea.

Visitors have to book a time slot and, thinking lunchtime would be a good time to choose, I opted for 1:10pm. My experiences of these things had led me to believe most people would be off eating. I could not have been more wrong. Maybe everyone else had the same idea.

So there was a LOT of people wandering around at the same time as us. Apart from the people who are under the inexplicable allusion that they are made of glass, it wasn’t too bad and we saw and read some wonderful things.

I’m not that knowledgeable about Egypt and thought the Book of the Dead was a sort of bible of the afterlife which adherents would read and use to prepare themselves for death. But this isn’t exactly true. Rather than a book for life, it would be buried with you for your journey and contained spells for all manner of things you would need to know in order to reach the Field of Reeds (Heaven).

The books were written on papyrus and some fine examples have managed to survive – we saw a lot of them. The tiny hieroglyphs and finely inked drawings are amazing. The majority of them were mass produced, leaving the space for the name of the deceased left blank – your relatives would buy it and have your name put in. Of course, if you were wealthy, you would have one specially made for you.

The Egyptians believed that the soul was a spirit called Ba and once your were in your sarcophagus, it would flutter up and out and lead you through the many stages towards the Field of Reeds. There was a spell in the Book of the Dead, for instance, that made the Ba live forever. Clearly a handy one to know. The spells are all numbered (by whom, I do not know) and this one is 191. It reads:

Bring Osiris [deceased's] soul [to him], that it may unite with his body, that his heart may be glad, that his soul may come to his body [and] to his heart. Bring his soul into his body [and] into his heart; provide his soul with his body [and] his heart.

They’re all a bit like that. In the early days, the Egyptians would write out the book on the walls and ceilings of burial chambers. They then started inscribing the spells on the coffins, inside and out. It wasn’t until around 1800 BC that they used papyrus scrolls, buried with the dead.

Here’s a very handy spell for repelling crocodiles (spell 31 from Nakht’s Book):

Get back, you crocodile of the West, who lives on the Unwearying stars! Detestation of you is in my belly, for I have absorbed the power of Osiris, and I am Seth. Get back you crocodile of the West! The nau-snake is in my belly, and I have not given myself to you; your flame will not be on me.

Here’s the spell and image on the papyrus.

Papyrus section from Nakht's Book of the Dead

Of course, visitors to the exhibition aren’t allowed to take photos so this is from the British Museum website, which is why it’s so small, but you can just make out Nakht warding off the crocs.

Afterwards, once we were completely papyrused out, we popped into the shop and the Cansfields bought me the book to accompany the exhibition for my birthday. It is very big and very heavy! Fortunately it just fit in my bag and could be quite handy should I run into any crocodiles.

We were in the exhibition for nearly two hours and were both starving so we decided lunch in the nearest pub was called for. We called, they delivered and we had two delicious burgers and a couple of pints of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord – always a pleasure – before wandering back to Waterloo (via Gordon’s Wine Bar and a few more pubs).

A lovely day which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
We have started a tradition whereby Mirinda cooks me dinner on my birthday and goes to the major effort of making me a cake. This is a tradition I wholeheartedly endorse! I know how much of an effort it is to make me a cake and have to say how much I truly appreciate it. Quite apart from anything else, it’s always delicious.

Dawn has a new man in her life. I met him today. He has taken up residence in the ‘good room’. Nicktor hasn’t said how he feels about the new situation but Dawn assures me he likes Seymour enough to be photographed with him. So I guess it’s cool.

I started the day by steam cleaning the mattress. Not my favourite job in the world, particularly when it comes to untying the electric blanket. Why do they have to have such tiny cords? It doesn’t matter how you tie them, they just get too tight; the only way to release them is to use the biggest needle in the needle-wheel. This took longer than the rest of the job.

Steaming done, I went up to Farnham for the shopping then back to take the poodles up to the castle. Carmen decided she needed a bath and took great pains to find the biggest FSI she could.

I then jumped on a number 19 bus to Haslemere to meet Dawn at The Mill. The trip takes an age usually but Garp saw it over much quicker.

I arrived at The Mill to find the normal entrance blocked with drop cloths and paint pots; a couple of chaps were busy cementing a bunch of bricks together in the door frame. I wandered round the front and walked into the bar.

I ordered a pint of TEA and read while I waited for Dawn and listened to quite a few people being told there was no food today because the kitchen wasn’t finished as it should have been. A lot of disappointed lunchtime visitors at The Mill today!

At Chez Cansfield I was surprised at not being snapped at by Polly. In fact, she let me pat her and didn’t even bark. After I was introduced to Seymour, we had a lovely salmon and salad lunch and a good natter before heading out to take the Westies for a walk.

It was a lovely lunch (I haven’t seen Dawn for ages) but it was all too soon over and I headed home. After a suspicious welcome from Carmen (I assume she could smell Basil) I headed out to mow the lawn and burn the rubbish.

Yet another busy day.

Dawn stares lovingly at Seymour, her new man

I read with interest today (in The Times) that the inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder died on Monday. He really had to work hard to get anyone to buy into the idea but he really believed it was the way forward. A way to record, not just the state of a planes instruments but also a record of the talk in and between the cockpit and the ground.

His wasn’t the first invented, though. In 1939 two French chaps made one that used photography. While their device was tested in France for 30 years, it was never used in commercial flights and it didn’t record any voices.

David Warren (his full name was David Ronald de Mey Warren) was an Australian. He was the first child of European descent to be born on the island of Groote Eylandt, off Arnhem Land. From here he went to Tasmania then Sydney and ended up in Melbourne where he became established as an electronics expert.

Although Warren’s device was first created as a prototype in 1957 it wasn’t introduced into commercial planes until 1960 following a crash in Mackay.

It was originally called the Red Egg (because it looked like one) but, for some reason not known, it became the Black Box.

He lived a long and rewarding life, dying at the age of 85. I bet he was very pleased when, in 2008, Qantas named one of their Airbus A380s after him.

The reason I took to his story is the fact that he perceived how important his device could be and didn’t give up even though most people in the industry were not interested. A very important man who was awarded the Order of Australia in 2002.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
As well as reading The Times, I had lunch with Dawn today. We had a jolly good natter while Polly nattered to the garden fence and Basil relaxed on the lawn. Once the rain had fled, the day was sparkling and lovely.

Ages ago, Dawn suggested we all go and see a one woman play called Nun the Wiser. Last night we went and saw it. It was in Chichester so we decided to all travel down together from Dawn & Nicktor’s place. This grew into having dinner at theirs beforehand.

Nicktor cooked up a storm…actually, he heated up a storm and cooked one of the dishes. Very nice it was too. All very Indian. And lots of beer. Mirinda duly wandered around and looked at all the changes to the house and garden since last she visited. They appear to have the biggest apple mint leaves in the world. A herb suffering from gigantism.

The play, while being very funny in parts, was not really the sort of thing I enjoy. It is a rare one-person show that keeps my attention. I missed a fair bit of this one as I was asleep. According to the others, it was very good.

For reasons that I didn’t quite get, this woman became a nun and the play is about her life during that time. I think she lasted a year then stopped being a nun. That was it, really.

It was performed in the Bishop’s Kitchen, behind Chichester Cathedral. Outside is a lovely green where we had pre-show and interval drinks. We then had a long drive back.

So, today, Dawn and I attended a day course in forensic archaeology, ostensibly about Egyptian archaeology. I think I’ve been spoilt by university. The debates, the cut and thrust of opinion, agreeing and disagreeing with the lecturer. This wasn’t like that. Our lecturer (and I use the term loosely) was an ex-teacher of primary school children. And you could tell.

Her experience was excellent. Her slides were of actual Egyptian burials and her anecdotes were about digs in Egypt. All very interesting. The group of attendees was varied but generally not particularly scholarly. I’m sure they all had a lot more from the day than I did and, to be completely honest, I would have been just as happy had I not attended. I was tempted to not go back after lunch but Dawn was getting a lot more from it so I put up with the second half. Actually I struggled to stay awake because of the windows.

When we first arrived, I was amazed at how airy and cool the room was. Perfect for a lecture, I thought. Big windows around the ceiling were wide open and a lovely breeze ensured that the air was fresh. A good chance to stay awake, I thought. About five minutes into the talk and a fussy woman in front of us started coughing. The lecturer, full of motherly concern, asked the woman if she’d like some water.

This wasn’t the only interruption. The first hour was dotted with silly little technical problems which involved changing overhead projectors, shuffling the skeleton around and wrestling with a portable white screen. Had it not been a serious lecture, it would have been hilarious. Actually, it was hilarious without meaning to be.

The thing about this day course was that last time it ran it was oversubscribed and proved very popular. I’m not really sure why. But, anyway, the organisers decided it was so popular they would run it again. And that’s the one we were on.

Anyway, the coughing woman replied to the offer of water with the comment that it was because the windows were open. There was then a mad rush to shut them all. This more or less guaranteed I’d be asleep in the afternoon. Clearly the woman was allergic to air. I purposely had a minor coughing fit about half an hour later, waiting to be asked if I was ok, so I could say I needed the windows open. Sadly, she didn’t care about my well being and I remain unasked.

Lunch was great. We wandered down to a pub that, while it served 6X, did not do food on a Saturday and ended up at the next corner in an Italian place which did an excellent Fiorentina pizza and Peroni. So far, this was the highlight of the day.

It was also Ladies Day at Ascot today. So arriving at Waterloo was like Friday night rush hour except everyone was dressed to the nines. It was ridiculously crowded and strange at the same time.

The afternoon at the lecture was pretty dire. We had a big quiz thing where we had to look at a very large collection of objects and write about them. At the end of the day we were asked what we thought of each of them. This sounds like it should have been quite interesting but it was bit ‘Show and Tell’ if you ask me.

When it finished, I was quite glad to get out. The tutting of the self confessed vegan sitting in front of us, activated whenever I whispered to Dawn (not often and only where relevant) helped. We went to the pub that served 6X and had a grand time drinking and chatting about the stupid lecture, the Weasels, Nicktor and trying to remember the name of the woman who measured the bones of the Korean War dead for her PHd. We didn’t and it was Trotter.

We sat on a lovely high padded backed bench which, like a bench in a church yard, had a dedication plaque on it to a chap who used to like to drink in the pub. A lovely spot. After a while we realised it was getting pretty late so we wandered to the bus stop and left for Waterloo and home.

Though, somehow, we ended up sitting on a train for about half an hour, thinking it was leaving for Portsmouth Harbour in five minutes. It turned out to be going to Weymouth. Fortunately we found out before it left and switched trains.

To sum the day up, the company was delightful, the lecture was a bit dull. And here’s a photo of Dawn drinking a pint and a half of 6X.

I am not going to talk about the football except to say it’s the most dismal performance by a team of supposed international class footballers I think I’ve ever seen. I am stunned. They wouldn’t have beaten France the way they played tonight.

So, today was my induction into the Art Project at work. Though Nick worried me when I turned up and he said there was good and bad news. The bad news was that I hadn’t actually finished the Location Project because he’d found another load of records. The good news was that there were only 108 of them.

We had tea and stickies at 11am but I felt a sham. I hadn’t finished. Actually we had a jolly time just chatting, something I don’t get to do seeing as I only come in on Fridays. ‘Tea and stickies’ is lots of cakes with something wet to wash them down with.

Anyway, I’d completely finished the Location Project by lunch time. Since I started work at the museum (May 7), I have updated and entered 1,377 records. Yay.

After my usual lunch surrounded by hordes of school children eagerly screaming while stuffing food into their conveniently open mouths, I sat with Nick for the rest of the afternoon while he explained the Art Project. This is going to take some time. This project. I’m pretty sure it will not finish within my lifetime.

Essentially, I will be transferring information from a 1,000 page Word document, which represents the old database, and putting it in MIMSY, the newer database. But it’s not just a simple copy and paste. Oh no.

The information has to be disseminated throughout the proper fields and joined up with Places and People and Things. And if the information isn’t there, I have to research and enter it myself. Way cool! I’m really looking forward to starting next Friday!

I’m off to a lecture on Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt with Dawn tomorrow, which should be fun.

Did I say how bad the English played tonight? No, REALLY, they were awful.