Thursday, October 26, 2006

It's been several weeks now since I posted anything. It's laziness I'm afraid and illustrates why I've never successfully kept a diary in the past for any significant length of time.

Must do better, just for my own satisfaction. Like the box of Kitwe Little Theatre memorabilia that I stuck in the loft the other day I'll gain enormous pleasure from browsing through it at some distant future date.

Yes this flat has a loft. That was one of it's strong points in my eyes and I've laid down some flooring and put a dozen boxes of not wanted on voyage material up there already. Most of the boxes are fresh from spending seven years in the loft at Mountcastle. That's despite the enormous clear out I had last winter when I sold the house. I have plans for some of the stuff, like digitizing my slides for example but I fear some may spend many more years in oblivion before finally being put to good use in fuelling my funeral pyre.

Another strong point about this flat is access to the rest of the city. Buses run up and down Leith Walk heading for all parts at satisfactorily frequent intervals. How different from anxiously keeping an eye out for the number 5, missing one and cursing the service interval. Now I generally get where I'm going earlier than I need to. Lethargy as well as laziness is another of my sins. I could have been in a convenient location like this twenty years ago.

I've spent a lot of time looking at furniture and yesterday the first new piece arrived. It's a table so henceforth no eating on my knees or bending down to an old coffee table or picnicking on the carpet. The carpet is still there. I've deferred change in that department for the moment but all three of my oriental rugs have been deployed so the floors look a bit different. Seating is on order. Part of a shelving arrangement arrived yesterday. Because the seller's computer system can't cope with a slash in a house number field it went to the wrong flat but I recovered the two boxes when the occupier came home in the evening. The third box missed its bus somewhere around Watford but is now in Edinburgh winging its way towards me, or perhaps towards my neighbour again. I hope that by Christmas I'll have everything organised.

I've been out and about a bit enjoying some of Edinburgh's cultural offerings and a few of its pubs. I've bumped into at least three old acquaintances in the street and am looking forward to catching up with more. I'm making new acquaintances at the Italian class with which I start the week on a Monday morning. Of course rehearsing Caucasian Chalk Circle is taking up a lot of my time. I'm enjoying it but rehearsals would be even more fun and the quality of the work being done would certainly be greater if we could rely on all the actors turning up. It's going to be one of those shows where the first time the entire cast put in an appearance is on opening night or, if we are really lucky, at the dress rehearsal. See the director's blog for more.