At the beginning of a new year

I have been compiling this week's post in bits and pieces through the week in order to have something to publish in what i hope will be my regular Sunday morning slot. I am not sure whether this approach is better than my old splurge method of writing whatever came into my head as I sat the keyboard.


Pompey are driving me nuts at the moment. 'Arry said he was getting into the transfer market as soon as the month opened. I hope he has been true to his word. The team needs a striker and a right sided midfielder. A right winger would be perfect especially at home. He does need to bolster the midfield with one or two more creative players, who can also attack as well as defend. I think the squad is probably strong enough with the African Nations Cup contingent gone if the above additions are brought in. He also ought to rotate Nugent and Benjani. (Nugent score a striker's goal in the 51st minute as substitute at Ipswich yesterday) Kanu is the tactical substitute. Kranjcar should be put in the hole behind the main striker (at least at home) with Mendes expected to rotate with him as legs and tiredness kick in. Hughes should retain his place as the main stopper in front of the defence but we need Sean Davis back as soon as possible to bolster the midfield (perhaps rotating him with Diop). I thought Lauren did a good job at right back recently and perhaps Glen Johnson could be played in front of him in right midfield as a poor alternative to buying in that right winger. I notice that Dean Ashton is reputed to be a target as a striker, but also has Manchester City, Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea in pursuit of him. Regular readers of this blog will note that I recommended him a season ago. He hasn't fully recovered the form before his injury but is certainly a target man like few others.


I am hoping to watch some home games of the Hawks (Havant and Waterlooville FC) as I am feeling starved of live football. ( Wee done the Hawks for holding Swansea to a draw at Vetch Field. Still in the draw for the fourth round. History in the making!) It is a real faff to get to Fratton Park and sit in overpriced not very good seats. I was hoping to make a fresh start as a new season ticket holder in the new stadium. I am not surprised to learn that some nimby has prompted English Heritage to question the new training grounds at Titchfield. I don't know how long the space has been in the hands of English Heritage or they have known of its existence. But now suddenly on the eve of the football club creating a training ground, English Heritage start to worry about what might be buried below the surface. They had their chance and blew it. It is not as if Pompey are going to concrete it over. They are creating training pitches so if English Heritage ever take it into their heads to start an archaeological dig, it will not be impossible. Though I would demand firm evidence rather than a faint hope. One of the things delayed is the Academy. I see that Pompey have made a rejected £1 million bid for a 17 year old player, Lee Hills, from Crystal Palace. I am delighted that Paul Hart is working away at the Youth Team as I believe it is the way forward not just for Pompey but for England football.


Went to see "Tales from the Brothers Grimm" by Creation Theatre at the Spiegeltent in Oxford. I was very impressed by the Spiegeltent which this year is erected in one of the many car parks of the BMW plant in Cowley. The tent allows the theatre company to move to different venues with different shows. The tent, also called the Mirror Tent, is an old German classic and is reputedly where Marlene Dietrich sang "Falling In Love Again" for the first time. It is a cabaret tent with heavy drapes down the sides and a coloured glass dome in the centre. The sides are supported by twisted metal poles in the style of old fashioned lamp posts, which are also adorned with small mirrors. The back of the tent has bench seating with mirrors above like a fancy boudoir or lounge. There is a circle of chairs and tables around the sides called C. Another concentric circle of tables and chairs between sides and the central raised stage in the round is B. Circle of tables and chairs, A, abut straight on to the circumference of the stage. I was really impressed with the tent and the surroundings ( although the chairs, which were upright dining chairs, proved decidedly uncomfortable after a hour).


"Tales from the Brothers Grimm" was an adaptation by Gari Jones, the director, and not the Carol Ann Duffy/Tim Supple version I know pretty well by now. The first half was a wonderfully paced and funny version of overlapping stories built mainly around the device of Hansel and Gretel who told each other stories to keep up their spirits. The company of three men and three women played a range and variety of parts. Some parts they sustained or reprised and some were quick cameos. The girls were attractive and costumes were an eclectic mixture of styles that added to the quirkiness of the tales rather than detracted. Eilidh McCormick was a jaunty Little red Riding Hood in the first half and an evil stepmother in Snow White in the second half. The men were versatile. Alex Beckett was interesting (and seemed to take a particular shine to my Kitten) and looked and sounded pure Brothers Grimm. Richard Kidd was the dancer and comic, who made everyone laugh at his drollness. In the second half, after delicious crepes from the creperie in the foyer, the stories concentrated on the story of Snow White, and, although this wasn't the Disney version, the seven dwarves made amusing contributions to the story. The circular staging with access underneath and two circular trapdoors was used to excellent effect. Like all theatre in the round it relied on very little furniture and dressing but mainly on the actors. There were some magical effects used and in the main these were effective. However, if I was to complain, it would be that there were not enough magic effects used. The theatre can make the audience of young and old alike gasp at magic. These "Tales of the Brothers Grimm" were a sterling piece of work and certainly made me want to see the company again, but fell a little short of the magic expected for the festive season.


Over the last few months I have thought very little about school and indeed my memory of the place where I spent 21 years of my professional life has begun to fade. I have kept in touch with Liz, Babs and Jools. Liz provides me with amusing emails and Babs visits the shows I am in. Both though were very tight lipped about the outcome of an Ofsted inspection the school received this last term. Finally I got to read the inspection report as published on the Ofsted website. The reason for the tight lips. and indeed pursed lips, became abundantly clear. The school requires special measures. This is particularly hard because during my time there we went into special measures and fought our way out again. It is disheartening to hear that the school has regressed again. It is particularly hard to know that I am one of the reasons behind that situation. I know people will say it has nothing to do with me because I have retired. To which I would counter that my retirement means I can have nothing to do with the needed recovery but the timing of the inspection and my retirement are so close that some of the fault lies with me as a senior manager. It means I can't look back on a distinguished career in education thinking I did well. (I certainly tried my best and hardest. I will have to return to this subject in other posts.) However my sympathy goes out to Liz and Babs and other ex-colleagues at the school, who now have to go through the gruelling procedure of getting out of special measures. The ridiculous aspect of which is that staff will probably be reduced because the numbers of pupils will fall and redundancies will be in the air. It is daft in my opinion as I think the Governement response should be to double the staff there so that the children work in smaller tuition groups and concentrate on literacy and numeracy. This would improve the chances of the children immediately, which must be the major aim of all concerned. I would also like to point out that the County inspectorate has already been heavily involved with the school before and after my retirement, so couldn't this situation have been foreseen and remedied before the Ofsted verdict. Final comment for this post, I remember the last time we went into special measures, the Ofsted inspectors gave the school management, including myself, forty days in which to prepare an action plan to get ourselves out of special measures. I exploded and wasted several days of those forty being scraped down from the ceiling. If I could have come up with a plan to get us out of special measures in forty days, we wouldn't have been in special measures in the first place! This is the equivalent of digging a deep hole, dropping the senior teachers in it armed with shovels, and the inspectors from the safety of the surface yelling "Keep digging!" Bastards!

Attending my first rehearsal of "Attempts On Her Life" today as Stage Manager.

Have accepted post of Treasurer for the embryonic Havant Literary Festival though as DP says we know "bugger all about the venture". He is thinking of standing, somewhat reluctantly, as Chairman on this project offering a very steep learning curve.

I will have to prepare a written submission to the Bench Artistic Panel for Thursday night if I am going to offer "Hamlet" (I have the LibDem Executive Committee meeting that night as well). 2008 seems to be the year of "Hamlet"; David Tennant is performing the role for the RSC, Jude Law is doing it in a production directed by Kenneth Branagh and the Southsea Shakespeare Actors are planning it for November. The Bench could get in first by doing it in July and of course under my magisterial directing could produce the best "Hamlet" of 2008!