South Harrow

My Urban Scrawl play is being performed at The Blakehay over the next two nights as part of an evening called “Food for Thought” which includes another Deckchairs play and Alan Bennett’s A Chip in the Sugar. I had no part in getting my play on stage which is probably a good thing, it certainly helps me to see it “from the outside” like this … although written for internet performance it has converted well to a staged piece – thanks to all involved!

Pier Progress

Look at that! The walls are starting to go onto the new pavilion at the end of the pier, in fact this was a few days ago and I have seen it recently with most of the side wall on and the rear towers in place – very impressive. WsM continues to look like a building site as work on the promenade also progresses at one heck of a lick … really looking forward to seeing it all done though the council (yep, them again) now plans to start redeveloping Pier Square in Feb – an 8 month project right over holiday season, such timing!

Weston Winter

Autumn is here, winter not so far away and the Westin Wheel is coming down. I’d secretly hoped it might become permanent but there you go – we rode it twice and enjoyed it – and loved seeing it lit up at night but now it will be no more.

Something else that will go from the square in front of the pier is the bloomin’ clock – thank goodness! Gosh that green clock on a pylon was so ugly. Apparently it used to sit on the front of the Bus Station in the square and was moved there when it closed – now that area is being done up big time the clock goes into storage!

Much of the front is now ripped up as the flood defences and improvements really get into a high gear, next year that whole area will look very different – wonderful.

The pier now has two barge cranes working on it as they start getting it all rebuilt.

Looks like the Tropicana may eventually be simply demolished though it’s likely to have one last lease of life as an open air venue next year. Who knows if the Henry Boot plans will ever really appear ….

Murdering theatre

Now I never expect much when I go and see a Bruce James production, but this one, “The Game of Murder” didn’t have Damien in so I thought I might be safe – anyway, nothing much else to do and we needed to get out of the house so off we trotted to the Weston-super-Mare Playhouse and paid for our tickets.

Let me not mince my words here, I have seen some trully dire theatre in my life but this takes the biscuit. If it had been entered in an amateur drama festival it would have come last and the adjudicator would have struggled to find anything positive to say …

Script – weak to the point on nonsense. Direction – phoned in at best. Design inappropriate and acting lacking any conviction. I felt like Kenny and Stan in South Park when they watched “The Passion of Christ” and set off on a mission to get the price of their cinema tickets back because the film was rubbish. Someone owes me that’s for sure!

What really saddens me was the half full house – I felt exploited and I wonder how many others there did …. Could do better? I would say that any paying audience deserves much better, many an amateur club would (a) not chose a script like that and (b) hang it’s head in shame if that was the best it could do.

If you’re in the WsM area and want real theatre try The Blakehay; an area free of tribute bands, blue comedians and Bruce James …

Weston in the sun and rain

It has been a really mixed week weather wise, why not, my Mum is here to enjoy some time relaxing in the garden and on the sea front so the weather has conspired to prevent her!

Undeterred, well almost, we have been out to see what is happening anyway. The Sand Sculptures are fab, the theme thius year is “Underwater” so there’s lots of fish, whales, sharks, swimmers and fun – look out for the coin meter on the scuba diver and the toxic waste! £3 – it has to be a bargain!

The new Bar VII grill is very nice, I had a lovely steak, Fran had Sea Bass and Mum had salmon – all were excellent.

Finally we got on the Weston Wheel too. Not the best day, visability wise, but still a great experience. We didn’t have to queue and got quite a few trips round – Weston sure does look different from out there.

This weekend the Sealed Knot are fighting the siege of Weston on the beach, should be fun, hope the weather holds out for them!

did someone piss off St Swithin?

Still raining, hence the lack of posts – whilst it rains I might as well work, work is not interesting for blogging purposes!

But some stuff has happened …

We tried the new Bar VII Grill in W-s-M and very nice it was too, so quiet at Sunday lunch but largely because they don’t have a lunchtime menu – they even had to send round the corner for a chef when we ordered a starter and cheeseboard! But nice place, hope it survives …

Meanwhile, round the corner, Sands appears to have moved from nightclub to amusement arcade and cafe but they had a lovely looking pig-in-a-bun stall outside … very tempting.

I think that the steam fair is moving back in and the sand sculptures are now open … if only the sun would shine it’d be fantastic!

At home we have pretty well finished the garden and the new lawn is fab but we have yet to enjoy it as it is far too wet out there ;-(

HP6

Went to see Harry Potter 6 (The Half Blood Prince)  last night here in jolly old WsM … loved the film but the cinema was packed – quite literally. Everytime I go to the cinema I get wound up by people who simply have no idea how to behave. The main problem is their incessant need to carry on conversations, either about the film and the plot or about their social lives – frankly I am not interested in their opinions on the the film nor do I care who they are shagging … I paid to watch the film just like they did and deserve to be allowed to – fortunately the main culprits last night left after an hour. The other annoyance is people with mobile phones – oh, they all switch them to silent but they are actually incapable of going for a whole film without sending and receiving texts … yes, this is annoying to other people, the culprits may not realise it, being stupid, but having areas of the auditorium continually lighting up with their bright screens is very distracting, particularly when they are just in front of you or beside you.

This lack of social awareness, an inability to conform to good manners and an insistance that you have the right to disturb and disrupt others for any trivial reason really winds me up … it is part of the hateful “You’re worth it” mentality … actually you are not “worth it” unless you make yourself so! If they cannot put the needs of others, perhaps hundreds of them, before your own needs even in a cinema then there is little chance for society in the future …

New Lawn …

Keeping up the recent “new stuff” theme we got our new lawn today. Took the guy less than half a day and cost us less than £250!

He came a couple of weeks ago and sprayed our existing excuse for a lawn with herbicide which had done its job by the end of last week. Then  he came in today, rotavated the lot, levelled it all up and laid a beautiful new turf on top.

Now all we have to do is keep it watered and not walked on for the next 10 days or so and all will be splendid! It really is a good job that he’s done and the rain is helping with the watering ….

Next project …

Having got the kitchen done we’re now setting about the garden …

Prior to doing the kitchen we had no windows downstairs that looked over the garden, so it tended to get forgotten .. now we have a big picture window and so can see the “big picture” and realise that our garden ain’t pretty ;-(

We also have the problem that raising the kitchen floors has meant a 50cm drop from the door to the ground – too much for us, unsafe for my mother and a real bind for the cats!

And so … decking is in order, lots of it! We are going to deck all down the side of the house and round to under the kitchen window and out as far as the lawn. We’ve already started stripping all the plants from the garden and so next monday we have

a) all the decking stuff arriving in “kit” form … I am putting together two “raised decking kits” to make the space we need

b) getting a landscpaer in to kill the lawn prior to laying a new one

Knock on jobs will include painting the outside … oh yes, and today the council took away all the dead white-goods and tv that we had in the garden … and Mum has bought us some really beautiful roses for the new area.

Keep an eye out for project photos!

WsM Burns …

The Royal Pier Hotel (third floor) is on fire tonight – can’t see it from here so can’t report much I’m afraid. I believe the place was empty awaiting a major refurbishment …. now no doubt delayed or perhaps abandoned … WsM where nothing promised happens …

The water park is now delayed as the money wasn’t actually there, Birnbeck Pier had some great designs done, but is still a rusting heap, The Tropicana (well, let’s not even try to follow that sad saga), yawn … at least the Grand Pier seems to be back on track after some posturing from both sides.

Shame … such a nice place, was walking by the sea in the sunshine today, this place could have been lovely – was lovely – but for decades of ignorant planning controls and architects ….

Fire report … http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8084152.stm