Thursday 27 December 2007

The Midlands

We do a five mile Xmas Walk over in Derby today, crossing numbers off a bingo card as we go. If you cross all your numbers off you win a prize. I never do. The walk is the one event, apart from skiing, that gets all of us together at the same time. I'm not quite sure why this is the case but I'm not complaining. Daughter is a winner this year; naturally I'm not. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Afterwards I have a couple of pints, Pedigree and Rosey Nosey in the pub. I’m humming tracks from Aha Shake Heartbreak by the Kings Of Leon, I think it's something to do with Son’s impressive long hair and goatee beard look.

I top my cholesterol up with steak and stilton but then I try and work off it all off by cycling home, having left my bike over in Derby yesterday.

Back home we take advantage of the fact that the council have opened the leisure centres this year. I swim and L does the gym. There are five or so of us in the pool, nice and quiet and no psychos. The council will probably say it wasn’t worth opening but I’ve seen nights this quiet on a normal week.

In the evening we watch some TV. More Judi Dench in Mrs Henderson Presents and we finish the eggnog for another year. There's just two glasses each left.

The movie concerns the founding of the Windmill Theatre by Mrs Henderson played by Judi Dench. She hires Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to run it. They put on a non-stop revue and it is very successful until other theatres start to copy them and steal their trade.

They then make a big decision to have naked girls in the show. The Lord Chamberlain only reluctantly agrees if the girls do not move, like a nude art portrait. Even so the Lord Chamberlain was worried about the girls 'foliage' or as he preferred to call the disputed area 'the midlands'.

'Oh dear, you men do get into such a state about the midlands, don't you?' Mrs Henderson tells him.



This new format and the fact that World War Two closed all the other theatres, the Windmill was below ground level and therefore practically bomb proof, saved the theatre.

Quite a good movie.

I snuggle up with the midlands in bed.

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