Happy Birthday. Natty Chap!

Yesterday, the 12th, ten of us spent the day in London celebrating Natty Chap's 30th birthday. Two of us went to see "Glengarry Glen Ross", and the remaining eight, including Natty Chap, went to see the Donmar's "Othello" starring Ewan McGregor and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Apparently this is one of the hottest tickets in town with people buying tickets online for huge sums and begging that the whole show be transferred to a much bigger theatre. We got our tickets the legal way as both David P and I are backstage members of the Donmar and so get priority booking. We managed to get eight seats in Row D and were as happy as larks. "Othello" is tremendous and warrants a review post all of its own, which I will try to get reproduced in the Benchpress.

Last week's method of updating the post a little bit during the week in time for the Sunday morning publishing seemed to work really well so I am persevering with it this week.




On Monday I attended the second meeting of the Havant Literary Festival. This is an attempt to devise and organise a Literary Festival dedicated to the written word, and especially poetry, here in Havant. My friend, David Penrose, is now chairman of the inaugural committee and I am Treasurer. My next task is to set up accounts and things with the bank. The Best Beloved and I saw a bank finance adviser last Monday to work out ways of financing some extension work we want on the house. The idea is to knock the kitchen through into the dining room so whoever (but mainly the lady of the house) is working in the kitchen is not too detached from the dinner party guests. The dining room will then be extended some way into the garden as well. This will enable us to put in an en suite bathroom to the main bedroom above. We now have to complete the application forms and sort out the builders' quotes. Also on Monday Best Beloved held her main auditions for "Bronte", the main Bench production in April. She needs four women and two men.



In the meantime I am working on a submission for a production of "Hamlet" in readiness for a meeting of the Bench Artistic Panel on Thursday. When finished, the submission should be available on Bench Hamlet 2008, a link to which should be found on this page to the right. This body should give me the nod to pitch my proposal to the whole company on Thursday 17th January. If the company select the play, I hope to be doing it in July 2008. As part of my submission, I proposed my son-in-law, the Natty Chap, as Hamlet. I am enjoying watching him work as director himself on the current Bench production of "Attempts on her Life" by Martin Crimp. His energy, enthusiasm and creativity are quite remarkable. The text is inanimate on the page but the variety of situations and characters Nathan and the company are creating is very impressive. As Stage Manager I am having to learn how to use a video camera to record rehearsals and how to use the software, "Windows Movie Maker". Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks!




I am intrigued by a Masters of Arts Degree offered by the University of Portsmouth as well. One is Directing and Writing for Performance and the other is Film and television Studies. Each would be a year full time or 24 months part time. I am not sure whether my B.Ed (Hons) second class will qualify for the entry requirements but it might be worth finding out, eh?




I would like to thank Babs Spiegelhalter for her seasonal card sent via the Arts Centre. Yes, I did vote for Nick Clegg. I would like Menzies Campbell to have remained as leader or even Vince Cable who proved himself a useful parliamentarian. However I had to choose between Huhne and Clegg. Why what has he done wrong now, Babs? The Executive Committee meeting on Thursday was interesting especially as there was some discussion of the borough elections coming up in May 2008. I enjoyed the smell of the hustings and am quite excited by my foray into politics.





I read Archimedes blog quite avidly (I hope there is a link on this page) and am enjoying his tussles for supremacy with the Empress Theodora. I also reading of the adventures and thoughts of Herself and Himself. I like the family nickname of "Bob" for Herself, who is definitely one of the most feminine friends of my acquaintance. Reminds me, of course, of the Blackadder when females would play male parts and be given the name "Bob", pronounced only as Rowan Atkinson can. We are meeting up with Himself and Herself in February to discuss some theatrical projects, although how this young couple find the time is beyond me! I am, however, very excited by the idea of working together on "theatrical projects".




The transfer market is alive with rumours thanks to the appetite of the press and the fans. The following are taken from a table in the Portsmouth News on Tuesday, January 8th. Pompey strikers could be (in my order of preference): Eidur Gudjohnsen (unsettled at Barcelona), Nicolai Zigic (out of favour at Valencia), Dani Guiza (Real Mallorca, said to be a £3.5 m bid already), Cho Jae-Jin (South Korea, rumours say move to Pompey is close and he is on trial here at moment). There is talk of Jermain Defoe but he seems reluctant and would cost a lot but if we can, let's get him! My reservations of the other named strikers except Gudjohnsen is their need to adapt to Premiership. Possible right sided midfielders could be: Jonas Gutierrez (big fee?), Razak Boukari (French U21 international, linked with Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea), Andres D'Alessandro (out of favour at Real Zaragoza but did a good job for us once as a playmaker), Aruna Dindane (Ivory Coast livewire but wants away from Lens. Isn't he going to African Cup of Nations?). I see Pompey Youth have signed an 18 year old striker from PC Basel, Switzerland, Danijel Subotic and a 19 year old Danish striker,Adda Djeziri. Lee Hills from Crystal Palace is still being monitored . I don't think these are first team contenders yet but rather once again part of the youth structure being carefully built up by Paul Hart. Apparently we have made a £8.5 million bid for Fred, the Lyon striker, but have been gazumphed by a £11 million bid by Spurs. Lyon have left Fred to make the choice as they have accepted both offers. Fred apparently has "aerial power,technique and vision" but I can't say I've heard of him before. Definitely puts Defoe in the market but will he come to Pompey? Will he come if 'Arry goes to the Toons? If I was 'Arry, being about the same age as him, I would be mightily tempted by the £20 million offer as one last big pay day and one last big chance. It would hurt Pompey in the short term, and would especially if Distin, Muntari and Kranjcar were to follow in short order. Pompey would also have difficulty in recruiting more players in the transfer window without 'Arry's reputation. However Tony adams could steady the ship until the end of the season and could probably hang on to what we have got. After that we would need to find a top quality coach and a virtually overhauled squad - over to you, Mr. Gaydamark!
Natty Chap woke up on his birthday morning to the news that 'Arry had turned down the Toon offer and was staying at Pompey! I think I am pleased as well but would just ask that Pompey stop mucking around now and get on with investing properly and wisely in the transfer market.