Dazzling history

1 Ah, our own dear Kidd's Hill. How simple, how gentle. How, in those early years , I felt that it was the complete test. How weak I felt, how strong I felt, when I rose to the open spaces of our own Ashdown Forest. And now, years on, I return to it with the memory of the wind-driven, rain-washed, sand-blasted climbs and descents of the faraway island, and I smile at my innocence. I smile.

1.1. It may have been Madeira or perhaps the Canary Island (or maybe Ascension Island) on which Roy Woods completed his Iron Man triathlon.

2 It was Herman which was damaged. It was the first time that Herman has had to withdraw from a ride. However, the bike is being attended to. Tomorrow, or sometime next week, I will recover the familiar red rover and return it to its place with the others. And the slow puncture on the other one. Yes, it waits to be attended to. So too does the grass. And the trees. Meanwhile, I have a head full of cold. My eyes, my ears, my nose - they combine to give out the unambiguous message: turn aside from this man.

3 However, the day's full programme was completed yesterday. The familiar old fellows assembled in the upper room for the first of the daytime RBL branch meetings. The familiar matters, the familiar contributions (including none), the familiar outcomes.

4 And a following familiar meeting in the RA with another old fellow. As the Cranach and the From Russia exhibitions are being held simultaneously, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see the queue which extended halfway from the steps to the path. We recognised each other. We gave ourselves another 30 minutes of more to look at some of the pictures from Russia. Once again I looked at the 1905 Revolution, at the man who was ecstatic, at the common joy, at the man, the only one, who face was without emotion. I also looked at A Gust of Wind, at The Marne near ....., and at the pond round which the three people appear when one looks closely. Closely.

5 At the box office, the man asked 'Are you seniors?'. 'Thank you for asking', I replied. The boys, Hector, Mr Irwin, the Headmaster, and Dorothy, the changing sets - we sought to follow it all. I had a sense of a moving spotlight, now illuminating this aspect, these persons, now moving to others. But not moving from right to left and back again. No, the effect of the scene changes was to produce the effect of a revolving stage, so the light shone from the side as well as from the front, and, for that matter, it may have shone from above. There was a narrative thread, there was a home tune, but there were embellishments, developments, along the way. What's left? Well, certainly a sense of theatrical deftness, a text, whatever it contains, which admitted to a dazzling presentation of stage. And the text itself? It should be read.

5.1 And so - what was going on? Ah, needs thinking about. Different purposes of teaching, different styles, a parody of a headmaster (but one who suited whatever was going on), the role of Dorothy, the one woman (there was another woman on stage, briefly, who did not speak), sexual activity (practiced and imagined) and its expression and accommodation. And, let it be missed, the context, a class of 18-year-young boys.

6 And so to Wivelsfield and a Board meeting of the Central Sussex credit union. Good hearts, committed hearts notwithstanding, the meeting could have been filmed and then used to demonstrate some features about meetings which it is in the interests of all to think about. After nine years, nine years.

Time for Open House and visits.

Stayathome.