It\u2019s a beautiful morning in Hadleigh.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to say I\u2019ve been up since the crack of dawn but it would be a porkie.\u00a0 I\u2019ve allowed myself the luxury of a lie-in today.\u00a0 Because I\u2019m worth it.<\/p>\n
It has been a very busy time since I got back from Antigua on Monday.\u00a0 In fact, I was going to call this post \u2018Am I on my Arse or my Elbow?\u2019 but thought that might be rude and inappropriate.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve felt as if I\u2019ve been gradually sucked into the vortex of the whirlwind that has been my life over the last few days.<\/p>\n
Monday was spent half comatose as I recovered from jet-lag.\u00a0 Actually, it wasn\u2019t so much jet-lag as just tiredness as I\u2019d had my usual jet-lag-coping-strategy of a couple of hours sleep on arrival home and went to bed fairly early that night.\u00a0 I\u2019d got home later than expected as my phone decided to stop working on arrival at LGW so I had to get someone to look at it and then trying to get out of Tesco\u2019s car park was like being stuck on M25 at the Queen Elizabeth Bridge on a Friday night.\u00a0 It seemed as if the whole of Essex was trying to get out.<\/p>\n
Anyway \u2013 Tuesday was………… THE MOVE!!\u00a0 Now, you have to bear in mind that I\u2019m still full of resentment at not being able to buy Mum\u2019s flat, added to which I\u2019m going to be paying more than \u00a3100 more in rent than I would have been paying mortgage that the bloody banks said I couldn\u2019t afford. (George Osborne, are you reading this???) So I\u2019m not exactly skipping ahead with glee at this prospect, and I\u2019m emotionally all over the place.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said before, selling her flat and seeing someone else living there is as if she\u2019s died all over again.\u00a0 And what with the loss of Jean, I\u2019ve been continually teetering on the brink of tears.\u00a0 Driving along I heard part of MLK\u2019s \u2018I have a Dream\u2019 speech and started to well up.\u00a0 Although I accept that it\u2019s grown-up time now and I have to live somewhere else and that I have to \u2018move on\u2019, to use current jargon.<\/p>\n
The removal company were great, although not the cheapest in the world!\u00a0 Still, good ain\u2019t cheap and cheap ain\u2019t good as a wise man once told me.\u00a0 And by lunchtime I was installed in the flat and \u00a32000 poorer.\u00a0 Once in I realised that the curtains I had weren\u2019t compatible with the poles and hooks installed so on my way to Ladykillers (I was in Tuesday night\u2019s performance) I went to Lakeside and bought new curtains and poles.\u00a0 Only to find at midnight, when I got back from the show and was trying to hang the blessed curtains up (the flat has enormous windows in the living-room and bedroom which overlook the A13, so I was having to creep around in the dark, tripping over bags and banging into boxes to avoid exposing myself to the whole of Hadleigh) that the pole I\u2019d bought was too weak to hold the curtains.\u00a0 And, the curtain rail in the living room was broken and so I couldn\u2019t hang the curtains on it anyway, even if they had been long enough, which they weren\u2019t!<\/p>\n
So, on Wednesday, having been awake since first light as there are no curtains in the bedroom and then having to crawl on my hands and knees from bed to bathroom (I sleep with very little on \u2013 sorry!\u00a0 Too much information, I know!!) I decided to go back to Lakeside to change the curtains and poles before going onto Ladykillers for a matinee and evening performance.\u00a0 So on Wednesday night at midnight I was yet again, hanging curtains, only for the bedroom ones to fall down with a huge clang in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, yesterday, David, who\u2019s a skilled handyman, came round with his B & D and now I have curtains in both living-room and bedroom.\u00a0 Hooray!<\/p>\n
And then came yesterday.\u00a0 What a bittersweet day it was; Jean Hewitt\u2019s funeral.\u00a0 It was, of course, an incredibly sad day.\u00a0 I know that nowadays the trend is to celebrate the person\u2019s life, but I must admit I find that hard to do when engulfed in grief for the loss of someone you love and that you\u2019re never going to see again.\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a lot to be said for funerals in the Middle East when everyone wails.\u00a0 But as sad as it was to say goodbye to Jean, it was such a nostalgic day, too.\u00a0 Very handsome young men and stunningly beautiful young women kept coming up and hugging me and then I\u2019d realise they were the boys and girls I\u2019d taught for years in my drama classes.\u00a0 Some have gone on to do very well in the world of entertainment, and others have become extremely successful in a number of professions from teaching, through banking to the police force.\u00a0 Many of them are now parents, or parents-to-be, themselves.\u00a0 But they\u2019ve all turned into lovely, decent people who it was a pleasure to meet up with and talk to.\u00a0 I was soon swept up on a tide of memories; of all the shows we\u2019d put on; of things that had happened in class.\u00a0 Kylie reminded me how I made her come along (with her hair in rollers!) to dress-rehearsal for the Little Mermaid on the morning of her mum\u2019s wedding!\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t realised I was such a hard task-master!\u00a0 And Kirstie said how she\u2019d loved being a horse that drew Joseph\u2019s chariot.\u00a0 Ah bless!\u00a0 And we talked about Grease and Oliver and Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream and many. Many more as the memories came flooding back.<\/p>\n
On the train up to London (I was in last night\u2019s show and the Daughter was going back home to Surrey) we talked about what a special time it had been for her growing up and \u2018Dancing at Jean\u2019s\u2019 and she said that she and her friends had agreed yesterday that husbands and boyfriends couldn\u2019t understand what a tight bond it was that united them all because they had grown up at Hewitt\u2019s.\u00a0 Another big THANK YOU to Jean for that.<\/p>\n
So, having got home late again last night, I allowed myself the luxury of said lie-in this morning, with a coffee and a teacake and a read in bed.\u00a0 Heaven!\u00a0\u00a0 Then I finally surfaced after ten and have now got the kitchen straight.\u00a0 All the boxes are empty and plates, dishes, pans etc in their new home.\u00a0 I should now make a start on bedroom or living-room, but as you all know, I\u2019m the Queen of Procrastination, so I\u2019m writing this instead!!<\/p>\n
A trip to the bank is on the cards and to a hardware or pound store to buy a bathroom mat and then a visit to the Sister to pick up the final couple of things.\u00a0 I know how to have a good time!\u00a0 Oh and a TV aerial lead.\u00a0 I can\u2019t find the other one anywhere.\u00a0 I think I might have left it behind. Never mind.\u00a0 All I want to do tonight is sit with my feet up watching rubbish.\u00a0 And if it takes me another week to empty all the boxes and put everything in its place \u2013 who cares?\u00a0 There\u2019s nobody here but me!<\/p>\n
And tomorrow \u2013\u00a0 drama classes at Stages Studios and two performances of Ladykillers followed by Spanish teaching on Sunday morning, haircut and production meeting for Singles\u2019 Holiday, the Stage-play.<\/p>\n
Is it any wonder I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m on my arse or my elbow?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s a beautiful morning in Hadleigh.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to say I\u2019ve been up since the crack of dawn but it would be a porkie.\u00a0 I\u2019ve allowed myself the luxury of a lie-in today.\u00a0 Because I\u2019m worth it. It has been … Continue reading