Under A Misapprehension

 We agreed to rendezvous at Gatwick railway station. We'd come in on the train and Jenny and Ian would pick us up in their car and we'd carry on from there. We'd decided this under the misapprehension that Gatwick was an ordinary station- and you could drive up to the entrance to load and unload- but it ain't. It's an airport railway station. It sits at the heart of the sprawling airport complex and if you're coming in by train it's a long trek to the exit (involving lifts and a travelator) and if you're coming in by car you get funneled through gates into one of several multi storey car-parks- and it costs. Next time we'll make other arrangements...

The Dane

 They've dug out the foundations for next door's orangery. I looked out the window first thing and there was a guy standing in the trench holding a plank and two other guys on the level talking to him. It was like the grave diggers scene from Hamlet.

Talking about Hamlet, I showed an interest in something Hamlet-related and now YouTube is sending me lots of clips of wonderful actors doing little bits of the play. I click on all of them because one can never have too much of a good thing. I've been seeing David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott and Cush Jumbo. Scott does "To be or not to be" like he's thinking it out as he speaks and Cush Jumbo has some terrific business with the skull including a jump scare. Hamlet is inexhaustable...

You can fuck up as Lear and you can fuck up as Macbeth but it's very hard to fuck up as Hamlet.  All those other characters are limited and specific, but Hamlet is you, he's me, he's everybody.  You don't act him, you simply walk on stage being yourself experiencing Hamlet's emotions and doing Hamlet's stuff and- provided you have the technique and the stamina- you really can't go wrong.