Time For A Laugh

You know how people who are retired tell you that they don't know how they found time to do everything when they were working as they're run off their feet now? We're finding that it's actually true and there's rarely a spare minute at the moment. The Tesco diet isn't helping as the shopping for and preparation of the meals is taking up a fair chunk of time but it is bringing results and on our first scheduled weigh in (five days into the diet) we've lost six pounds between us. If we carry on at that rate we can pack it in in a few weeks.

Yesterday I went to Stowmarket to continue the business mentoring that I am doing with a small business. We've been working together for six months now and have reached the end of the business's first financial year. I was really pleased to see that the turnover and profit both exceeded targets and we're now working on the budget and targets for the new year. It's good to be able to share some of my experience and I'm looking forward to getting a second business to mentor soon.

Last night was opening night for the latest production from FADS (Framlingham Amateur Dramatic Society) and we headed to the college theatre not quite knowing what to expect. The play Third Week In August was about a week on a caravan site and, having lived on such a site for over six months last year, it was of particular interest to us. The huge crowd was perhaps swollen by the Wednesday night pensioners' concessions as Marion and I were two of the youngest in the stalls. What a night the audience had; I don't know which was funnier - the play or the audience; the woman behind me was in hysterics which I found infectious especially when, every five minutes, she forecast (usually correctly) what was going to happen. If I had a pound for every time she told her neighbour that she'd never seen the theatre so full I could have bought everyone a glass of wine in the interval.

Boring Neville  (Peter Turner) and his strident wife Mary (Claire Harries) have been visiting the same site every August for twenty odd years. Their lives are dull but this year they have company in the shape of Mary's twice divorced sister Liz (Kathy Churchill who jointly runs the excellent Aboutfram weekly e-newsletter). Sue (Alison Podd) has booked a peaceful week in a caravan and plans to spend it writing a play. Her neighbours on the pitch alongside are Tony (Glenn Hurlock) and Jenny (Jane Manning). 

It's an evening of comedy as Neville and Mary (who really don't want to interfere) and the other caravaners find themselves embroiled in the very glamorous Jenny and her not so glamorous partner Tony's relationship problems. Mary tries to offer poor and put upon Liz some sisterly advice. Onlooker Sue gets dragged into the situation as it develops into pure, caravan hopping, farce. There were a few first night nerves but the cast got over them well and provided us with some memorable scenes that brought the house down. It runs until Saturday so, if you're in Framlingham, get down to the Headmaster Porter Theatre. I'm sure that you will laugh.

Today we've been to the gym and then went to a local resident's house and did a bit of pruning for her in her garden. We volunteered for the Framlingham Hour Community whereby you offer your skills (or lack of in my case) for an hour or two to help someone who is unable to do a job themselves. A shoulder injury made pruning difficult so we were happy to help. We're now looking forward to our next assignment.

Meeting Some Of The Locals

Although I am writing this in Rochester, we have had three consecutive days in Framlingham this week and it gave us time to get involved in a little activity locally.

On Wednesday I was invited to give a talk on my metal detecting hobby to the members of the Rotary Club Of High Suffolk at The Old Mill House pub in Saxtead Green. I prepared a power point presentation and took along a wide selection of finds as well as all the equipment. There was a bit of a technical hitch with the projector which meant that I had to give the talk without my notes but I managed to remember most of what I had intended to say and the talk seemed to go down well - plenty of questions were asked and there was a good response to a short competition that I ended the talk with. The pub put on a good meal and, it was an enjoyable evening with a very friendly bunch of people.

Last night we were invited to make up the numbers for a team in a pub quiz. Things didn't go too smoothly when we turned up at The Station instead of The Railway (a forgivable mistake don't you think?). Fortunately as the two pubs are only separated by a few hundred yards we made it to the right venue with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately the couple we were originally teaming up with sent us a message earlier in the day to say that they were unable to come but encouraging us to go anyway. The quiz master put us in with another team and we made a respectable showing although I am not sure that my answer to "who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?" in the "answers beginning with F" round endeared me to my teammates. It turns out it wasn't Fonzie but Pope Francis (although I would contend that Pope Francis begins with P rather than F). Our contribution helped us to third place. The quiz is held every fourth Thursday and it's great fun. We'll be back for the next one which is in October due to refurbishments planned for the pub in September.

I also continued with the business mentoring that I am doing for Suffolk Chamber Of Commerce this week. I have been teamed up with a businesswoman in Newmarket who needed help in interpreting her financial figures. We started in May and I have set up a number of reports and budgets for her and she is now able to financially forecast and plan and fully interpret her balance sheet. Five meetings on and the project has been extended to cover trying to grow the business. It has been good to be able to share some of my experience with her and I hope that my help will make a difference to her success.

Sadly not all of the locals are as friendly as those from the quiz and the Rotary Club and one crept up my trouser leg at some time on Wednesday evening (perhaps it was bored by the talk) and left its mark. I didn't see what bit me but it left these two enormous blood filled lumps on my leg - ouch. I've gone all summer without being bitten once while Marion has been targeted scores of times.

We've got almost a week in Framlingham ahead of us now. We're hoping for some good weather so we can relax and enjoy the town and the garden and maybe even a couple of hours out with the detector or on the bikes.

Man Of Steel? Man Of Noise More Like

We managed a trip to the excellent IMAX screen at Cineworld in Ipswich yesterday. We've missed out on the cinema lately as we've had so much going on but things have calmed down a little now and we've planned a cinema binge with another three outings planned over the next five days.

Like Superman, I'm a bit bionic now with my built in hearing aid. Having been to IMAX before I suppose I should have known to switch it off but I simply set it to minimum and ended up with my head pulsating in a way unexperienced since standing next to the amplifiers at a Strawbs concert in the late sixties. 

We both enjoyed Man Of Steel but that's as far as it  goes. It's all comic book action from start to finish and seeing it on an IMAX screen gave us the very best of the CGI special effects. There's not a lot going on apart from crash bang wallop. But it is superior crash bang wallop. There is a story of sorts - evil baddies from Krypton want to take over the world - and Russell Crowe is Superman's good dad spouting morality and benevolence - but its all just a good excuse to show spectacular spacecraft and a million explosions. Good fun but take your earplugs or leave your hearing aid at home. To sum it up in a word - BANG

Today I'm off to see something a little more sedate - John Sheeran's talk on Chagall at St Michael's rooms here in Framlingham. I've been to four of this series of talks now and I have learnt a lot about Bonnard, Kandisnky, Klee and Matisse. I think that today's is the last of this season's lectures and another starts in the autumn. If you are in Framingham they are well worth attending.

Tomorrow it's a trip to Bury St Edmunds to see a business person who I am mentoring under the Suffolk Chamber Of Commerce's scheme. I've volunteered to help businesses with management accounting and financial advice as it seems a pity to let my forty years of training and experience go to waste. I hope that they find it useful. 

After that it's a trip to Shire Hall to meet the county archaeologist and discuss recording metal detecting finds with him and then to the garage to pay for the new car. I'm looking forward to picking the car up on Monday and hoping to have a bit of comfort when we head up to Scotland next weekend.