Park Life Part 1

Wasp on blackberries

During a brief cessation in the day’s steady precipitation, I took a walk down to Roger’s gate and back. A solitary wasp fed on blackberries in the hedgerow.

Following my post on Robin Hood Theatre, Becky and I couldn’t quite remember whether NITS had performed there. ( Louisa has subsequently told me they did). We did both, however remember an open air performance staged around a bench in the grounds of Newark Castle on 20th July 1996.

I photographed the event, and, today, scanned 20 photographic prints which depict the first part of the story. Entitled ‘Park Life’, two years after Blur’s eponymous hit record, NITS put on an excellent mime enjoyed by many local people.

In presenting these images, I will leave readers to provide their own text:

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Louisa is behind this mask.

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Josie King, in the red dress, who stands by her daughter, was the manager of the Robin Hood Theatre at that time. We bought Lindum House from her and her husband, Norman.

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Among the spectators were our friends Pat and Pete Jones, whose son Tom appears in the next scene with which I will continue tomorrow. Anyone who finds Pete familiar will have seen him in the corner of their TV screens when watching Channel Four News, or on stage interpreting Shakespeare for audiences. He was signing for deaf people.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s classic chicken jalfrezi, pilau rice, onion bhajis, and samosas. My choices of the available desserts were egg custard and cheesecake, and of beverages, Cimarosa reserva cabernet sauvignon 2013.