Bentwater Roads: Game Of Arrows, Anyone?

A little late on the rise this morning meant Ivan (my landlord) had been already waiting for an hour to go for a jog together. We did our exercises in the secluded safety of the hedged front car park, worried that passers-by would find our stretches comical. We chatted as we ran and since we were mid conversation after the first lap of Christchurch Ivan kept running. When we parted company before my third lap Ivan had already run 6.6km (very impressive for a man of 77) I pushed on through to finish my 3rd lap and I estimate I had done 10km by the time I got back to my digs.

It took me awhile to write my blog yesterday but I got there (I'm always writing the blogs for the previous day the next morning). A call home to Trina and a walk into town to have a second breakfast at the Summer House in the centre of Ipswich and I sat munching on my food in the sunlight that fills this open plan, window covered pub.

Dan and I arrived extra early at the Theatre which was nice as I had a talk with Karen and booked tickets for my agent for Friday night's show. Steve (production manager) was filling the back of his peugeot station wagon with refuse for the Eastern Angles skip. Steve and I had a nice chat about his duties as a production manager and the various roles he has taken on for Eastern Angles over the years and how he's found himself in a management position. He very cleverly said ‘I haven't appeared in your blogs yet but with my job I only seem to be noticed when things go wrong'. He is the production manager and has kept the whole production flowing like clockwork, unless things are going awry he aptly he manages the job with such fluidity that we forget he's doing it, which is the ultimate confirmation that he's good at his job, he's also been a lighting designer, operator, you name it. Steve's also a fellow boat dweller and he is currently moored at Martlesham.

When Alice, James and Cherilyn headed out early for the Hush House I took the chance to join them. It turned out to be a clever decision because when we arrived Max (lighting operator) had attached an old black tube to the side of the tunnel that shoots out the back of the Hush House - this was a cleverly designed basketball hoop. James, Cherilyn, Max and I threw ourselves into a fast and furious game of Basketball until we all felt we were about to collapse. After a short breather we were back at it - only being finally pulled away from the funky basketball hoop by Roger and his archery set.

After being embarrassed at clay pigeon shooting on my 30th birthday when Trina got all 50 targets and I hit about 22 of them I was a little nervous about trying another aim based task - to add to it, as soon as the bow was in my hand and I was struggling to come to terms with how it worked more people were gathering around to have a gander.

The first bolt just hit the edge of the target (a picture of Bambi in the forest stuck to a board made of straw matting) by the third bolt I was in the forest and one of my first six shots finally hit it in the ass. Picking up the bolts I petulantly asked for another go at it - for some crazy reason I stepped a whole lot further back - bolt one in the rump, bolt two in the tree behind, bolt four in the guts, bolt five in the front haunches, bolt six in the straw matting.

The very sporty James stepped up to have a go and I felt my ego begin to sink as I was sure he'd hit the target each and every time. No such thing - in culmination the boys between them hit the deer twice, precious ego saved. We boys/men really are silly with a competitive spirit.

‘It's the half, Can I have you all in Costume' the don't mess with me voice of Silki usually peels this out before each show - the half is oddly 35 minutes before the show begins, this is because the last 5 minutes are classed as a standby for the start. Today it wasn't Silki but Max who asked us all to get ready, with a slightly different tact he asked so politely that we would have really felt like pillocks not to oblidge.

The show sizzled all the way through. Everything seemed to be flying, cues hit perfectly, nice ebbs and flow of pace and people settling even further into their characters. I even had a heroic moment or two - heroic moment number one was Dan coming off stage for a quick change and me launching in to help him when the others were busy dealing with a very important issue and number two was flying out of the wooden cage with my Ram's Horn in tow (this is for the massive Pagan ritual) the mouthpiece went flying off the horn and slid across the stage, a slipped to my knees and slipped the mouthpiece straight back on as I raised it up to my mouth and blew for dear life, almost fainting from the colossal use of Oxygen.

Not such a proud moment was when I got speed wobbles on my big speech as the pilot, I recovered but it was a little upsetting to slip about for awhile on what is such an amazing bit of writing. Overall a great success which was good as it was the Gala night and among the dignitaries was the Mayor of Woodbridge, spying from a distant after the show it looked like they had all had a great time and I heard many of them congratulating Ivan (Director and Artistic Director of Eastern Angles - not my landlord) on a spectacular show.

We all had a few quiet beers and a few nibbles, thanks to Jon (front of house manager) who is doing an amazing job at getting the audience in and seated on time and creating an exciting atmosphere outside the hush house with a bar and a big outdoor grill. Then we headed back to Ipswich. Penny and I chatting about how we had both ended up in the theatre, what our parents had done and our boats - Penny lives at Martlesham as well.

Pam (playing Josephine, Charlie's mother) put out an invite for a cast and crew lunch tomorrow at the farm where she is staying, very exciting, naughtily she isn't let us know what to bring along either. 

Thank you Pam, such a lovely gesture.

Getting in I picked up my phone and called Trina and then with International phone card in hand I called home, talking to my Pa in Italian for a good hour before talking to my mum, who has also found my blogs. Hey there Mum. x