Is it just me or are many UK markets a bit depressing?

I’m not talking about large popular, specific or occasional ones like Camden (as was,) Riverside, Portobello, Aberystwyth, Totnes; or Farmers markets, but your local or regular Saturday market with random stalls full of plastic toys, uninspiring pictures, shiny clothes, pet food, plastic handbag racks, sad cheap cards and the odd meat van or product seller shouting ever decreasing prices for their wares.

The best seller is usually the fruit and veg stall, which, if you are lucky has good quality produce and lots of offers as the day wears on.

Families mooch around, many trailing dogs or pushing prams, but nobody seems cheerful or happy even on the sunniest of days.

Visitors to Britain expecting a vibrant, colourful market, full of exciting produce, sounds, smells and stalls with traditional preserves, home made breads, pasties and pies, good quality clothes and household goods, wooden toys, old fashioned sweets and pottery will be grimly dissapointed.

Why do we accept so much less than the best? Are we apathetic? Is it because we happily buy junk at inflated prices? Why are our markets laden with crap, and worse, why do we buy it?

I popped out to get something for lunch from a local Tesco Express as I had nothing in. Or so I thought.

The reality is that I had vegetables, frozen veg, cheese, pasta, potatoes, various tins, butter, milk, eggs and all the basics such as oil etc. I had plenty, yet wasted petrol and time to get more.

Obviously I had nothing in that I wanted or could be bothered to cook. I wonder how many trips, in households throughout the country/and other wealthy countries where this also applies. How spoilt we’ve all become, so fast.

A typical week’s ration for 1 person for a week in 1942 thus:-

Bacon and ham: 4oz (100g) Around one shilling and sixpence worth of meat:
Cheese: 2oz(50g) sometimes it went up to 4oz (100g.)
Margarine: 4oz (100g)
Butter: 2oz (50g)
Milk: 3 pints(1800ml) occasionally dropping to 2 pints (1200ml). 1 packet of dried ‘household’ milk per four weeks.
Sugar: 8oz (225g).
Jam: 1lb (450g) every two months.
Tea: 2oz (50g). (half a packet or the equivalent of 15 tea bags)
Eggs: 1 fresh egg a week if available but often only one every two weeks. 1 packet of dried eggs every four weeks.
Sweets: 12oz (350g) every four weeks.

No conclusion here, just the hope that I think twice before concluding that I have no food in the house,  and buying more.

Easter Day and lovely old churches nationwide will have treble or more congregation than they get for the rest of the year apart from Christmas.

Everyone will enjoy traditional Easter hymns and the story of Jesus rising from the tomb. Then they’ll go home to their huge roast and the meaning and the story will be forgotten.

But why do people turn up to church at Easter? If they are atheists, then why would they? If they are not sure then is it to lay some kind of claim on Christianity, just in case it all turns out to be true? If they do believe then are they too lazy to get up more than once or twice a year?

On the other hand, churches are heaving with those who go for the social interraction, to have a role to play, to make themselves feel good and other reasons which have nothing to do with believing the gospel message.

Still, Tesco is closed on Easter Day so maybe that explains the rise in church numbers.

Households are recycling their socks off while factories, businesses and even some schools and colleges have not even started.

Junk mail has not been banned.

The paperless office is a joke. Everything is printed out and filed and businesses have huge stores of archived twaddle.

Stores are finally being encouraged not to use plastic bags, yet food bags, freezer product packages, bin liners, nappy bags and dog poo bags have not been mentioned.

Most bins are made of plastic.

This train of thought was a result of junk mail from a water filter company which came in a clear plastic bag and contained various  stickers which stated:- ‘I’m an environmentally friendly cartridge‘ ‘recycle now,’ ‘better for you, better for the environment.’ Unfortunately these stickers were plastic. Enyaaaaaaaaaargrrrrraha!

The story of a wealthy town family losing the father figure and moving to the country where the railway plays a key part in the children’s lives, and ultimately brings their father home is as popular today as when it was written.

The film is re-run every Christmas and it is wonderful to perform as a play.

The Bexhill production used a projected background for the railway and the family cottage which worked really well.

There is something about stage productions involving alot of children that brings an extra magic.

This particular interpretation had the Perks (railway master’s) children playing a key role in the story so that it was very child centred

The production kept the typically olde English feel and was played to a packed house.

I have not had much time to start writing a pantomime but I have started plotting it.

I’m still going with The Emperor’s New Clothes even though it may take a little longer to find a lead actor. This would be easier for a professional company but I’m not sure if I can think of any men in our company, willing to spend a good part of a performance night in lary boxers.

We do advertise the auditions, so it may bring some more talent into the company.

I may write it and find that the group don’t vote to put it on this year. We are very democratic and have a pitching night where anyone in the company can come to pitch plays for the group to vote on. However I’m sure we’ll put it on within the next couple of years.

Anyway, the basic plot is the good hearted Emperor with a major fault, vanity. He has an evil brother who wants to discredit him and become Emperor in his place. He hatches a plot with two rogues who pose as weavers and weave the magical and invisible cloth. They put the two current weavers/seamstresses ‘widow’ and ‘woe’s’ noses out of joint by taking their place in weaving the latest suit for the latest parade. The emperor is widowed but has a daughter, and she is the only one who admits that she cannot see the cloth. A visiting artist, due to paint the emperor in all his glory is her love interest, but they fall out because he pretends (like all the rest) that he can see it. The ending will be that the Emperor looks a fool on the parade, but the people love him and so forgive him, something his evil brother did not count on. The evil brother is banished - with his love interest and the emperor also finds love and happiness as does his daughter. There will be a fair bit of comedy including a character called ‘Special FX’ as its only a small theatre with a tiny budget so we’ll have to be quite creative with or special effects.

Watch this space for more as I firm up the plot and post excerpts from the panto…if I get it done that is!!

Part of the joy of pets is the fact that they play. In fact cats and dogs play but I don’t think hamsters do, unless you count their treadmill. I’ve never seen a rabbit do much more than munch or sleep but to be fair I have never kept one. As for fish, maybe they play chase.

I had a friend that kept white rats. Apparently they do play but the thought of being close enough to find out gives me the willies. Ferrets also play apparently as well as running up trouser legs.

There are some free range pigs not far from here and while the adults sleep the piglets roll around and chase each other through the mud as well as fighting over food.

I’m not keen on caged birds but was left two elderly budgies when their owner died. I tried to give them some freedom by letting them out of the cage for a fly around (indoors) but they were agoraphobic. Budgies do play though. They like bells, mirrors, ladders and swings and will wind each other up like children.

Wild animals romp around and play and it’s not just confined to the young. Most adult animals continue to play, but some humans find it harder. I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this but maybe it doesn’t need a resolution anymore than play does.

It is 10am, the sun is shining and I’ve just taken the Heek for a walk wearing a tee-shirt because it is so mild, despite the cold and frosty night.

I walked through the church yard and over a little wooden plank bridge to a meadow and round, back to the far side of the castle. Along the way we were serenaded by birds singing their hearts out in the bushes and trees. A sparrow was collecting bits of dry grass and a blackbird carried twigs in his beak.

I saw snowdrops in whispering clusters under the yew trees, while random bunches of daffodils sprout everywhere, adding their cheerful yellow trumpets to the increasingly colourful graveyard.

It is half-term and children are out on bikes, playing in the grounds of the castle, their chirrupping voices similar to bird song and they too are wearing tee-shirts.

I wonder if summer will arrive in April?

Cards, cheesy presents, underwear, bouquets, chocolates and red hearts everywhere. It’s supposed to generate love and romance but actually generates far more in profit.

True romantic gestures can’t be purchased because they are either impulsive gestures straight from the heart, or carefully thought out plans that take time and effort – a surprise candlelit meal, a handful of wildflowers, a proposal in moonlight, a man’s coat draped over his partners chilly shoulders, fish and chips on the beach in the rain.

This video takes a while to load but has all you could want to know about the history of Valentines Day.

I’ve just watched some innovative, funny creative television that is NOT reality TV, a talent show or stars competing in a skill that they have no training for, such as ice skating or singing.

‘Thank God You’re Here’ relies on actors and comedians to think on their feet and react to whatever situation is thrown at them. Its concept is slightly similar to old favourite ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway,’ I can honestly say it is the first programme I have really enjoyed for a long time.

We have humour, creative actors and comedians, great writers and a culture that lends itself to comedy so why we have so much crap TV is a mystery.

Let’s hope that the tide is turning, the wicked witch of reality and sub standard TV is dead and novel, exciting, interesting entertaining programmes will herald television Spring.