Taking a little break....

The View on the Street is taking a little break for a while to, as they say, pursue other interests!

I have a number of projects in the pipeline which I have been meaning to do since I started my break from shows after panto. Stuff round the house, health issues and also a few outside interests. Have I done any of them? Hardly any and the main reason is time. Therefore I have decided to take the pressure off for a while and stop blogging for a few months ("Thank the Lord", I hear you say, "at last!") to focus on my other writing projects which have taken a back seat for far too long.

I had thought that once panto was over and I had my evenings to myself, then I'd really crack on with things. But of course what happened was I collapsed in an exhausted heap for several weeks, then got side tracked by the DJ'ing (Do you all listen by the way? You ought to, it's great fun and a very professional little radio station) and a major restructure at work which I was leading. I now want to write more, paint and perhaps be in a show again.

No doubt at some stage in the future, the rant will be back and over the next few weeks I will be scribbling down ideas and radical views to be shared with you all at a future date. In the meantime, thank you to those of you that are regular readers or even occasional 'dippers in' - your comments and views are much appreciated and very welcome.

Watch this space and Facebook, when it's back it will be bigger and better than ever, and no doubt more controversial.

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Today, I’m off to the sun (in fact, by the time you read this, I’m probably there).  

You’ve probably got used to these blogs being a little erratic over the past few weeks due to busyness, laziness, whatever, but they will now be missing entirely for a period of about 10 days whilst I laze in the sun on my Cretan balcony.

I have been accused of being profligate about my holidays, chiefly because I have so many (“What, you’re going on holiday again?” people cry), but I would like to point out that I book my flights on the first day they are released and so get them dirt cheap. I have four holidays booked this year and for the two of us, the flights have cost less than £1,000 all in. We have very little in the way of living expenses when we are away because we eat cheaply and pretty much self cater about half the time with the usual housekeeping plus a little extra, and we don’t spend a fortune on ‘extras’ or excursions.

All in all, we spend about as much on four holidays probably as a family will spend on a fortnight’s package tour each year costing around £800 quid a head half board at the height of summer.

This year, I have booked one flight to Crete, connecting via Thessaloniki, for less than £60. My return ticket in September flying direct was under £100. I phobically check the Easyjet web site when I know the release date is imminent to get in right at the start for the best deal. The Hubby says I am obsessed, and he’s right. But I live for and love my holidays in the sun in the same way that some people can’t go without a skiing holiday or trekking through some insect infested, dangerous forest somewhere, and so I do anything I can to make it affordable.

I can see why many people would think we are lucky and spoiled with our apartment, and that we must be rich. But we’re not; we have chosen to step off the UK property ladder and be content with a low value house on an ex local authority estate and put our money into a place we love and which will serve for our retirement. I don’t see what’s wrong with that. We have chosen to have two mortgages now, when we are earning, to fund a dream for when we are older and in the meantime we have determined to take maximum advantage of or capital asset by using it as much as possible. We may be different or unusual in that respect, but we’re not rich and we’re certainly not spoiled – we’ve worked hard for what we’ve got, so why shouldn’t we enjoy it?

Holidays spread throughout the year are also a chance for some down time together. I’ve always believed that you have to work at a relationship if it is to have any chance of success, and that you have to make time and energy for each other too. During a standard working week we simply don’t have that; in between work, chores, pet care and running after the rest of the family almost every waking minute is taken up and we are exhausted. Going away means we can concentrate on each other, do things we both enjoy with enough time to do them properly and go back to having fun together, which is so important for a couple.

This time we are going to do some DIY (See? Not rich so doing it ourselves!) but even that will be an adventure in a small way, going together to the Greek version of Homebase and then working in the sun with a nice lunch as a reward. That’ll be done in three or four days and then we’ll have a nice relax before coming home, and it won’t be too long until the next time.

Can’t wait. See you all soon!

A Marmite character - you loved her or hated her.

Margaret Thatcher was a strong character (her gender is irrelevant) and like all strong characters, she had a somewhat Marmite effect, in that you either love her or hate her. That divide seems to be in place even now, several years after her last term in office.

Whatever you might think of her politics, I have been genuinely appalled by the vitriolic and inappropriate comments from many people I know, and from many that I don’t, in the 24 hours since her passing.  

Many people did not agree with her views and approach and did not vote for her. Many simply weren’t old enough to do so when she put herself forward for election; younger ones may be thinking “Who was she? What’s all the fuss about?” However many did know her and vote for her, and she was a democratically elected leader for this country three times.

Yes, she got things wrong (the poll tax is a key example), but she also got much right. She had more balls than all of her Cabinet put together and more than most people I know when it comes to making difficult but necessary decisions. She successfully defended our overseas territory against a violent invasion from a dictatorship which is still, even now, sabre rattling about it when most men would have given in and tried talking about it interminably and to no effect until it was too late.

She may have lost it and become slightly imperious towards the end (the famous “we are a grandmother” speech), but that shouldn’t detract from the rest of her time in office when she stood by her principles and did what she felt was right or truly believed in. Oh, that our politicians now were so principled!

Let’s not forget that before their back was broken (again, whether you agree with how it was done or not is another issue) the unions held this country to ransom and we had blackouts and many other inconveniences that stopped us living our daily lives. Rubbish piled up in the streets and old people got cold. Since her time, home ownership and a pride in your area and property has radically changed for the better (and it hasn’t led to a shortage of social housing, since the same people were occupying the properties just with a different tenure and it’s local authorities that have stopped building due to cost causing the shortage) and we have become a wealthier nation. Yes, we still have people on benefits and minimum wage, but by and large we are better off one way or another.

But whether you agree with me on all of that or not, let’s not forget that she was a human being who contributed towards making Britain a real player on the world stage as well as being a mother, grandmother and friend to many people who will genuinely mourn her passing. Anecdotal evidence of her private face is that she was a compassionate person who really cared about those around her. Comments such as “tip her down a coal mine” (I paraphrase) which I saw on a recent Facebook post are not only disrespectful but vicious and unnecessary. Those who make them, even in jest so soon after her passing, should be ashamed of themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with an objective analysis of her achievements and also with putting forward an alternative view. That’s what politics and the right to free speech is all about. But don’t cheapen it by vicious, spiteful and pathetic, childish remarks about the woman before she is even cold.

It’s not clever and it’s not funny. And you can almost hear her saying that.

Video didn't kill the radio star....

I have just had great fun choosing my playlists for my Friday and Saturday shows this weekend on Ridge Radio (www.ridgeradio.co.uk)

Tune in on Friday at 5pm for the Friday Footlights show when I’ll have Flo O’Mahoney and Libby Bliss as my guests talking about their Young Oxted Players production of ‘The Herd’ which premiered at the Southern Counties Drama Festival a few weeks ago to critical acclaim, and which is showing again at the Barn Theatre, Oxted on 27^th April.

If you can’t manage that, why not listen to the Saturday Morning Breakfast show from 7am to 9am this coming Saturday for news, views, the best in popular music and classic golden oldies as well as a chart run down and information about what’s on locally.

I must say this radio lark is great fun. I get to choose my own music and talk without anyone telling me to shut up for two hours on the trot, which is a real treat. The pleasurable hour spent in front of the computer picking out the music for the week is even more fun. I’ve rediscovered songs and artists I had totally forgotten about and the lists I’ve put together have certainly been eclectic if nothing else.

The downside is that I’ve spent a fortune on i-tunes, which I have decided is a wonderful resource. Thank goodness we bought a new computer just after Christmas so I have plenty of memory left to download stuff. I’ve also made good use of Wikipedia to get background information on shows I know very little about, or on singers and songwriters. Wikipedia gets a bad press due to its inaccuracies, but for my purposes it’s great.

It’s just a shame that I can’t make my living doing the DJ thing. Maybe someone from Radio 2 would like to retire and the Beeb would consider me instead? Apparently, according to the radio station trainer, I’ve taken to it like a duck to water. I don’t know why, I’ve never done it before. Must be the performer in me!

Amazingly, I’d never heard of Ridge Radio before I started doing this and that says something about their PR. They are an incredible little local station, broadcasting for 18 hours a day, seven days a week when most community stations manage just two or three hours a day only. Run solely by volunteers, it’s a small but quite professional set up which deserves to be successful, but is apparently always in a perilous financial state as it depends entirely on fundraising. Being a radio station, it is not eligible to register as a charity. They really need to improve their own publicity; more people need to know about them.

However I am determined not to get involved in the running of the thing because if there’s one thing my involvement in am-dram has taught me, it’s that if you get caught up in the running or the administration of something it ceases to become a pleasure and becomes a chore. I’m just going to go along and do the bit I enjoy and maybe participate in a bit of fundraising from time to time (such as bag packing in Morrisons), but I’m not organising anything and no way am I doing anything official. I’d love the place to carry on for years, but if that means I have to become an organiser then it will have to go to the wall. Let someone else do that for a change.  

But in the meantime, tune in and support. With increased listeners comes improved reputation and hopefully more funding as advertisers begin to feel it’s worthwhile spending their cash. And you get to listen to my dulcet tones for four hours each week! What more could you want?