I'm just mad about...

.... saffron!

We throroughly enjoyed Mr Turner last night. A blistering, snorting, hurumphing performance from Timothy Spall, strongly supported and beautifully shot. We'd have liked a bit more about the art- what drove him, what he saw etc but it had lots to say and left you with lots to consider. A strange thing though. As we watched the opening credits a name jumped out at me - Joshua McGuire - and I had a weird feeling I knew who this was. As soon as I saw him, (he was playing Ruskin - rather well) I was convinced I was right. I used to babysit him sometimes. His parents were friends, not particularly close, but we knew each other well enough to do a spot of socalising and babysit each others children. I remember him as a tiny, curly haired bundle of fun and energy. I next met him when he was 13. I was tutoring/chaperoning at the Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford and I had to look after him for a week when he was appearing in King John. He played Prince Arthur - a pretty grim part as he has his eyes put out and then is pushed from the ramparts and killed. As chaperone you have to make sure your charge is where he should be at the right moment, and you're responible for his props too. One of his stage directions were 'collect vomit' . He duly collected a nasty porridge like concoction which he hid about his person until required to vomit it up as his eyes were being put out. This was not the worst though. Falling off the ramparts was just that. Both of us heavily cloaked in black, I had to take him up to the very top of the Swan Theatre, put him into a harness, attach the harness to a device then hold onto him until he dropped - literally from the top of the theatre to the very bottom. While he was dropping I had to rush down about 4 storeys to collect him, dust him in talc and then take him back up to the stage where he re-appeared pretty sharpish as a ghost. In between all this he did his homework while I fretted about getting the harness right! He was a lovely young man - look out for him if you go.

A beautiful day here, sunny and still. I had a wander around the circuit and visited the pier. Some interesting reflections to be had.

Mellow yellow - 1966 - hands up who can still remember the words!