Panto week

 Jack (of Jack and Jill fame) chills before his first night.

 

Across the divide (a rail of clothes) in the ladies' dressing room/area, the female cast members rehearse a song and the dance moves. 

Me 'n Dame Hood. 

My friend Monica who is playing Billy the woodcutter's son and love interest to Red Riding Hood. Billy and Red are hilarious as 2 women in their 50s playing a young couple in love!!

The boys just aren't as diligent about their warm up as the girls ..

I of course take it all very seriously....

Red and a villager...I think we've all worn one of those skirts at one point or another...

I'm missing the third piggie, she must have been in make up...

Our first night went very well. We had a great audience who seemed to really enjoy it. The 2 little girls in the front row who laughed and joked and  screammmed "behind you" we're particularly brilliant. The village must have missed us as where usually we have 40-50 for the Wednesday and treat it like a glorified dress, last night we had 90! Loved it 

4 more shows to go and clean up on Sunday and then it's all over for another year. Food and drink are "freeform" but it is very strenuous too. Life is much fun at the mo. 

Patterns

True to one pattern, I re-started blogging strongly but then tailed off.  However, I'm not letting it go this time, even if I might not post daily as I did at the start.  

The same is true of my re-started diet.  Yet another pattern re-emerges.  I do well for several days - exercising and eating sensibly - then have a bad/great weekend and pile a few lbs back on before starting back at the beginning the following week.

So, scores on the doors?  I managed an actual whole lb off last week before the latest big weekend and now I'm clawing that off and hoping to drop another one this week.  Baby steps eh?

This last weekend was fun.  We went to the Wednesday match away at Doncaster on Saturday afternoon.  Donny's ground is in the middle of a retail and industrial park on the outskirts of the town so there are no decent pubs around.  The Beefeater pub was rammed and had no tables for food so we ended up in Pizza Hut!  I haven't been to a Pizza Hut for 10 years or more!  We were absolutely stuffed although I suppose we didn't have any beer calories so that is a sliver of a silver lining....

After the footie - which was a very satisfying 3-1 win - we dashed over to Lincoln for my father's 90th birthday celebration.  He's not ready for going out too much but we managed to persuade him that a family meal in his local pub would be fine.  And it was.  A cracking meal, great chat and laughs and 4 generations of our family all having fun together.  Priceless.  It was just lovely to see my dad cuddling my niece's daughter Evie - 2 souls 90 years less 10 weeks apart.  

Then it was straight home as our panto is starting.  Sunday was the technical rehearsal which was dreadful as usual and went on and on and last night was the dress rehearsal which, thankfully, was much better!  We're doing Little Red Riding Hood and I'm playing the Big Bad Wolf.  It is great fun to be back panto-ing, especially after a wait of 2 years.  We have been very nervous that the performances might have to be cancelled due to covid but now we are here, on the eve of the run, and all is set fair (fingers crossed).

We have a night off today so it is the calm before the storm.  I took advantage and went swimming this morning.  I should have been on Monday and Friday but the pool was closed both days due to first high winds and then local flooding.  It was very chilly this morning but we soon warmed up and I managed a respectable 40 lengths in 30 minutes so I'm set up nicely for the day.

Below are some wet and chilly pics from a walk last week down Tideswell Dale and Cressbrook Dale.  It is a beautiful area and Gary can rave madly through the stream and woods as there are no sheep and, at the moment, no ground nesting birds.  Pure heaven for woman and dog alike.

A lot of ash trees have sadly been felled in the dale die to Ash Dieback.  What a wretched disease!

The Mill at Cressbrook, now posh flats of course.

 

The sun peeked through for a brief time so I headed up Bellamy's Bank towards to Ravenstor.  Bellamy Bank is named after the magnificent David Bellamy, who had a picnic there when he was a child and was inspired by the wildflowers to become the great biologist and naturalist that he became.

The detour meant that we didn't get back to the car before the sun disappeared and rain re-appeared!  A very typical Derbyshire walk.

 

Getting stuck in

This last few weeks have been the 'phony war'. I have been talking about buckling down and dieting but in reality, beyond stopping the rot and stopping gaining, very little has changed. My health has improved hugely now, I'm almost cough free and not wheezing at all so now it is time for a proper push!

We are going away in the last week of March to Turkey. It is with a large group of people and was originally booked to celebrate our friend Joris's 50th. He had a terminal illness so wanted a big blow out with his mates before he deteriorated too much. Sadly, the morning after we all paid our deposits, he had a heart attack and died a couple of days later. 

It was devastating - he was a gentle giant with a booming laugh and such a lover of life and people. His funeral, in the middle of lockdown, was a fitting tribute to him. 30 people in the church but hundreds lining the streets in the village of Hope and closing the main road through the valley as we walked behind him to the church and then the graveyard. 

Of the 24 who were going to Turkey, 16 of us are still going including his widow, some of his family and in-laws. Hopefully we will have a cracking holiday and say goodbye to our friend properly. 

Now to the shallow stuff.  It is a mixed group but the majority are golfers so all the blokes and 2 of the women are playing golf 4 days. This then leaves a couple of days hanging by the pool. I will definitely be the fattest woman there and am resigned to that but could really do with not being at MY fattest. 

I have 6 weeks until we go and am going to give it a real push to drop a stone or more. This will make the golf easier, fitting into summer clothes less fraught and being poolside marginally less self conscious!

I have my starting weight (18.7!) and am logging food and exercise. I will be checking in here and panto is not going to derail me!!

Right, I had better start work.  Below are some pics from a gorgeous walk last Sunday. I had no plan so just parked in great Hucklow and walked up an old mining rake right up to the mast at the top then back. It was deserted and stunning, my own private corner of the Peaks.  I did do a whole post about it but then somehow deleted it hence the hiatus in my posts... The pics are too good to waste though (although I say so myself...)

My first snowdrops of the year.

The fearless hens of Great Hucklow. . Although they have a palatial coop with a view they spend most of their time hanging around on the road leading into the village.

It was a vapour trail sort of morning, all those planes coming in and out of Manchester airport!

The remains of old mine workings. The main buildings were demolished in the 1960s and the stone used to build local Council houses.

The White Peak in all its glory.

Bradda Edge on the right and Win Hill in the distance.

I haven't been on this section before. The undulations of the former mine working gave Gary and me a great workout. 

Made it to the top!