The diaries are light on detail, but I believe I was in Bristol on business Thursday/Friday and Janie spotted an opportunity to combine my presence in Bristol with a family visit.
Janie’s diary shows her only taking morning clients on the Friday and arrangements for taking the train to Bristol that afternoon.
Mine just shows the Thursday and Friday marked out “Bristol” and loads of scribbles about confectionary for some reason – something to do with someone wanting confectionary puns I think – plus “Jane” for the Saturday.
If I recall correctly, I was staying in The Royal, aka The Swallow Hotel on College Green. We might have stayed at Hilary & Chris’s place in their spare room on their Z-bed that time on the Friday night – I think we did that a couple of times before agreeing that we could afford our own privacy when we stayed.
Anyway, this was the first time I met the Boswell branch of Janie’s family; Hilary (big sis), Chris (husband) and kids Paul & Scott. The boys were still little-uns back then.
I think we came back on the Saturday evening and stayed at Sandall Close ahead of DJ’s birthday bash Sunday lunchtime at the Kensington Royal Garden Hotel. Not a huge crowd that time but I know that Kim, Micky, Clifford, Gary and Gary’s dad Harold Davison were there – this was the first time I met Harold and I wrote to him a week or so later.
We returned to that hotel for Sunday lunches several times – they did rather appealing themed Sunday lunches that worked well for groups. A sort of buffet dining that Janie and I have rather comprehensively rejected since, but at that time it wroekd well for that sort of gathering. Large tables, well spaced out and something for everyone…even Kim…on the menu!
My diary shows me playing bridge with Daniel & Marianne on the Friday evening (probably also with Andrea).
Then it shows spending the day on Saturday with Michael Mainelli writing “Zen Things You Wanted To Know About Business”…which was the working title of the subsequent hit book Clean Business Cuisine...
…what do you mean, haven’t read it?
It’s as topical now as it was when it was written…
Anyway, it looks as though Janie worked all day on the Saturday and there is no sign in the diaries of us seeing each other on the Sunday. There are some electronic signs of me working on my canon of NewsRevue material ahead of the Christmas run, that Sunday.
Victor was Kim’s dad who, after being widowed, had remarried, confusingly a woman named Kim. Janie used to refer to Victor’s Kim as:
Kim The Chickidoo
…to distinguish her from “our” Kim.
Not much memory remains of that particular evening. I’m sure Janie will have cooked a super meal and I’m sure that, by then, Janie and I took it for granted that I’d stay.
Janie’s diary says that she went to an SAC (chiropody committee) meeting on the Sunday afternoon. I recall that she was quite frustrated with committee stuff when we first met and that her “being on the committee” days didn’t last long into our relationship.
Nor did Janie’s midweek French lessons, not that they were getting in the wway of anything we wanted to do together…I think Janie felt she wasn’t getting much out of them.
I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Janie, Kim & Micky turned up with a view to surprising me that evening. I’m pretty sure I’d have written more in the diary otherwise. I also do not recall missing out on the writers’ meeting to be with those three, although I do recall us sitting together to watch the show.
The running order from that week is missing, presumed dead, sadly.
But I do, strangely, have the running order and writers’ list from the following week:
I say “strangely” because I wasn’t at the Canal Cafe the following week (Janie and I were in Stratford), nor indeed for the next few weeks, with a mixture of work and Janie commitments. But some kind person saved the running order and writers’ sheet for me.
Why?
Because that late October to early December 1992 run was “peak Harris” in the material use department. Eight of my songs on one show. Too many, frankly.
Whose handwriting is that renaming the show after me?
When Janie, Kim & Micky came to the show, I think there were probably only three or four of mine in the show. I say “only”, I considered three or four pieces to be a good return. I’m guessing:
I especially remember Kim latching on to the Kate Adie one – she still (27 years later) teases me with the opening line of it sometimes.
The irony of the following run, which was “peak Harris” material-wise and also “peak Harris” other commitments-wise is not wasted on me. Looking through my diary, I could only have got to see that run once, in late November, hot-footing it from a works team evening in the City, probably just to see the show.
The Director was Michael Eriera who was clearly not offended by my absence, as he and his team used a lot of my material the next time he directed, in mid 1993. I was a better attendee thee next time around for Michael.
But the $64M questions are:
who was the kind person who saved the 29/30 October 1992 papers for me in my absence?
who was the mischievous person who renamed the show on the writers’ sheet?
My diary is a bit of a confusion for that evening – indeed all that it reads is “Madness”…
…which I’m sure means “The Madness of George III”. But my theatre log is very clear that 17 October was this particular evening with John and Mandy and my diary also shows that “George III” reigned on 30 September for me:
What I think happened was that Bobbie, once again, could not make the planned theatre visit to see Madness of George III on 17 October, but was very keen to see that play. I vaguely recall Bobbie arranging a ticket swap with friends so that she/we could see “Madness” midweek a couple of weeks earlier and her friends got the prized Saturday night tickets that I had procured.
That freed up the evening of 17 October for Janie to meet John and Mandy and for all of us to see Death And The Maiden, which was still one of the hottest tickets in town that year, even though Juliet Stevenson (who had wowed audiences as the lead) had moved on.
Penny Downie played the lead in the cast we saw, which, as super subs go, is pretty darned super. Danny Webb and Hugh Ross played the male parts.
Janie and I are struggling to remember what other arrangements we made with John and Mandy around this evening. I think we might have had Chinese food in Soho with them before or after the theatre. Perhaps Mayflower? Or Joy King Lau in those days?
I also realise that my diaries at that time are littered with clues that John and Mandy must have recently moved house around that time:
Guessing that John and Mandy moved to Dangan Road that August, hence the address and phone number scrawled on 12 August……did I really escape the carnival 30 August to join John and Mandy in the George at Wanstead 30 August? Guessing that “birthday thing” 28 August would have been with my parents, but I’m not entirely sure about events of that weekend other than the 29 August hot date with Janie.
Anyway, on the day I am writing this up (29 August 2017), we shall be seeing John and Mandy later in the day, so I’ll pick their brains on these matters this evening and update this piece accordingly.
The play is set in an unspecified nation emerging into democracy from brutal dictatorship. Ariel Dorfman was a Chilean exile during the Pinochet years and the brutal regime is clearly based on that one. It is one of those hugely affecting plays about torture and the abuse of power. It brings to mind also One For The Road by Harold Pinter and Fermin Cabal’s Tejas Verdes.
I’m sure we did something after the play – perhaps we did eat afterwards. For sure we’d have needed a drink. For sure we found a way to discuss and decompress together for a while.
I remember being very pleased that John, Mandy and Janie all seemed to get along so well; in that regard alone the evening was a tremendous success (to use John’s favourite adjective). But it was also an excellent evening of theatre and I’m sure we must have eaten and drunk well…if only Janie and I could remember those details too.
Postscript: A strange coda to this story. Both Janie’s and my diairy say “The Madras House” for this evening, not “Death And The Maiden”. But my log says Death And The Maiden and I have no recollection of going to the Lyric with John and Mandy to see The Madras House – Janie and I saw that play at The Orange Tree many years later. Did we make a late switch of play choice or have the memories and documentary records got into a terrible muddle? I think probably the former.
Another of those early dates when the weekends were someowhat otherwise committed but Janie and I ended up doing somthing together.
My diary says “Annalisa?”for the Friday evening. Janie’s says Questor’s Theatre (with her mum) on the Saturday.
But we both went to Cathy’s party on the Sunday. I’m pretty sure this is Cathy Dyson’s party. I’m pretty sure we’re taking Stoke Newington and I’m pretty sure Cathy and Bruce Martin were an item by then.
The details of the events of the party are lost in the mists of time…
Not too sure what we got up to this day. In the early days of our relatioship, we had other commitments already pre-arranged. This particular weekend, Janie had her twin Phillie for the weekend, but was expecting to be clear for lunch at Kim’s on the Sunday.
I saw Caroline on the Saturday evening – almost certainly a dinner in a quite fancy but not OTT place) and had another of those “Bridge?” things in my diary for the Sunday. I’m pretty sure that means it fell through.
I have also written:
…not Kim…2.00…Jane
…so I’m guessing the Kim lunch idea fell through and that this was one of the first occasions that Janie and I had a late lunch and spent the latter part of a Sunday together.
Janie and I don’t remember enough about this evening.
I had played bridge at Andrea’s place with the gang (probably Daniel and Maz back then) the night before.
Janie had taken patients on the Saturday morning, as she did in those days.
I know it was the first time I met Anthea. I know we went out to Bethnal Green – down Anthea’s way. I wrote down Anthea’s address for the purpose.
We went to an ethnic restaurant quite near to Anthea’s place in Bethnal Green.
Janie and I both think there were other people there that evening; not just we three, but for the life of us we cannot figure it out. Anthea just might.
We ended up back at Janie’s place that night; that much Janie and I both certainly remember.
We’re not sure how long I stayed, but I do have an electronic record of lyrics written onthe Sunday time stamped bbetween 17:00 and 18:00. So I’ll guess I stayed for some brunch.
So the invitation to Kim’s the following Friday must have come hot on the heels of a positive report from Janie on the Street of Crocodiles date…
…or at least not a negative report.
Intriguingly, there is also a note in Janie’s diary that she had a new bed delivered on Tuesday 1 September. Janie claims that the timing of the bed purchase must be pure coincidence. I am tempted to believe her and I am sure that all you sweet Ogblog readers are similarly convinced by the “must be” argument.
Anyway, for Friday 4 September, the suggestion was that we gather for some early evening tennis in the Square and then eat5 at Kim & Micky’s place afterwards.
I think the pre-refurbishment look of the courts in 1992 can just be seen on the second court at the back of this picture.
Anyway, we were returning to the scene of the 8 August crime (as it were), with Kim, Micky and their dogs Charlie and Jumper in tow. In truth, even though I was no doubt sober on arrival, tennis peppered with dogs wanting to chase the balls all the time is not exactly great tennis.
But it was great company, of course. In any case, the wine would soon start to take effect making the tennis seem less important and the idea of sloping back to Kim & Micky’s place for more wine plus food increasingly appealing…
…so that’s what we did.
Janie recalls we did this more than once, but the evenings were drawing in and soon tennis was off the agenda for Friday evenings even though gathering after work on a Friday was something we did quite regularly (i.e. once every few weeks) in this early months/years.
Sunday 20 September shows Kim & Micky tennis in Janie’s diary, whereas it says “Bridge?” in mine. I don’t think the bridge happened. Janie had been to the Questors Theatre with her mum the night before. More on the Questors anon. Anyway, I do think we spent that Sunday afternoon with Kim & Micky, plus Charlie and Jumper making tennis havoc.
