“All the world's a stage…”

In the post this morning was the information about this years Ludlow Festival. Ludlow is a lovely little town in Shropshire that once a year hosts a festival centred around performances of an open air Shakespeare play.

This year the play is Twelfth Night and as usual will be presented in the castle grounds.

And so it begins…the open air Shakespeare season!!

We do like our open air Shakespeare. We don’t usually travel far, Nottingham, Ludlow and Stokesay Castle have been about the furthest.

But we don’t have to travel far, there are plenty of local performances.

They are great social events. We usually try and drag some friends and family along and of course there is the obligatory picnic. The different venues have their own specific charms especially on warm summer evenings (we’ve been lucky enough to mostly avoid wet weather).

The first open air Shakespeare I went to was back in the early 90’s at Stafford Castle. A group of us went including two of my sisters (in fact it was probably they who dragged me). The castle venues are great, especially when they use it to great effect as a prop! This performance was no different, a great night.

A couple of years past before I went again, this time with my wife. Driving to Lichfield there were signs on the side of the road advertising an open air Shakespeare. Why not we thought We bought tickets and have never looked back.

It was Shakespeare in the Park which is performed every year in the Italian Garden in the grounds of Maple Hayes Hall near Lichfield. It is one of our favourite open air Shakespeare performances. It takes place in a small clearing surrounded by trees where you sit on hay bails and enjoy a thoroughly entertaining Shakespeare play. This year it is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

There is also usually an open air Shakespeare play as part of the Lichfield Festival but we haven’t been to that in a while. We saw a poor performance once and it put us off. Perhaps we will try again this year.

So full circle now and back to Stafford Castle where the performance this year is The Comedy of Errors. Stafford is always good. There are usually some “big” names performing and with the castle grounds to have a pre-play picnic in, things could not be more perfect…well, a clear, warm summer evening always helps.

We do have one restriction. We don’t do tragedies. This means we usually do Stafford every other year as they seem to alternate. Maple Hayes seem to steer away from tragedies for the most part and for the others we just pick and choose.

Can anyone out there recommend any open air Shakespeare?

Let the plays begin!

Cream of the Crop

How I came to be in a conversation with three women on twitter debating the effect cream has on the structural integrity of cake I will never know. You’ve gotta love twitter!!

The idea that when you pour the cream over cake that you end up with cake-soup is clearly ludicrous, but when it is three against one there is only one thing to do…

That’s right, I committed myself to proving my assertion that the cake would remain intact. My word alone was not enough and video evidence was demanded.

Now, I am not known for my baking skills but the pursuit of truth knows no bounds!

With the aid of my beautiful assistant I set about the kitchen to find not only did we have none of the required ingredients but we also did not have any suitable cake tins.

Fast forward 30 minutes, I am in Morrison’s with a shopping list: Flour, sugar, two cake tins, icing sugar, butter, whipping cream, single cream. No vanilla essence (does it really make that much difference?).

Back in the car with the stereo aptly playing the Mission Impossible theme I sped back to the waiting kitchen (and my beautiful assistant).

The instructions were followed to the letter and the ingredients were mixed. The cake came together easily and quickly.

Load the two tins and into the oven. Sorted!

Now, on to the cream….

Here is the cream to go between the two parts of the cake.




Eventually after what seemed like an eternity the cream was whipped enough and the cakes were ready!

And here is my prize, the Cream Cake. Isn’t she lovely? …and so deadly (oops, sorry, slipped into my Vincent Price persona there). *





The cake in all its glory, jammed, creamed and finished off with some icing sugar.

And what about the proof?

That’s a wrap!

Filming ends with half the cake gone and a plate full of cream. It really was a nice cake!

Conclusion

The result of this fun but most unscientific experiment was that clearly and without doubt the structural integrity of the cake remained stable throughout the deluge of cream.

I rest my case.

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No animals were harmed during the baking and consumption of the cake and I was supervised by a responsible adult at all times.

* For those who don’t get the reference follow this link:
Alice Cooper And Vincent Price - The Black Widow

Sunshine on a Rainy Day (The Fradley 10K)

It was a dark and stormy morning….

Well actually, not dark and not stormy, but it was raining.

Anyway, it was not looking like a good start to the day.

Luckily the BBC were wrong about the strength of the rain, or perhaps the fact that our forecast is actually taken from about 15 miles away accounted for this because the rain was quite light.

It had been raining on a couple of our training runs but we had avoided rain for an actual race event. My optimistic side was telling me it would clear up but my eyes were still seeing rain drops falling from the heavens.

Getting There

Fradley is about 10 miles from here so no need to rush things. The race was starting at 10:30 so a quick stop to pick up Julie (and son) and then we were all parked up by about 10am.

The car parking facilities at Fradley really are well organised. They use a field close to the start and there are plenty of event staff to guide you round. Due to rain the entrance to the field was a bit muddy causing cars to slip and slide but for the most part it worked well despite the wet conditions.

Our father had arrived around the same time and parked close by so we were all set.

Support Team

We’re pretty lucky that for all the runs we’ve done we have had family there to support us. They can not only cheer us along the way but they can also carry clothes and bags etc for us and take action photos. For this run we had our father, my wife and Julie’s son as our Support Team.

The start of the run is pretty informal therefore we able to hand over coats, hats and gloves at the last minute.

The Course

Fradley is one of those runs that does 2 laps of the same route. These types of run can be psychologically hard as you see all the bits you’re going to have to do again! Luckily for us the Fradley route is relatively flat, but still, seeing the 6km sign around the same time as the 1km sign does dampen the spirits a little.

Timing Chips

Nearly all runs these days have timing “chips” (little RFID tags). These little things signal you crossing the start and finish lines and provide a more accurate time (the time does not include the slow shuffle to the start line).

In the past these have been little tags that you attach to your ankle or through your shoe laces, but for this run they were attached to the back of the race number and they didn’t want them back.

Hopefully this new system will be employed elsewhere because it makes the whole process much simpler to work with.

Let the Run Begin

The rain had mercifully stopped.

We had planted ourselves towards the back of the group of runners. There is nothing more demoralising than having loads of people overtaking you at the start of the race.

This is us looking fed up because the start of the race has been delayed for some reason. Luckily there is a woman in front of me saving everyone from a view of my bare legs (not a sight for the weak of heart).



The run started about 15 minutes late, no idea why, but the hooter sounded at about 10:45 and we were off!
We started the slow shuffle over the start line and as the field cleared we started running.

I had intended to keep Julie company through the race. Both of us had not really done nearly enough training so I was aiming to take it easy, but as always seems to happen on these races I ended up leaving Julie behind. I am sure she did not mind.

The rain held off, the clouds cleared to allow the sun to shine and with no wind to speak of they really were ideal running conditions.

Being a two lap run the inevitable being lapped by the elite runners happened. The lead car with the clock on the roof beeped past us with the eventual winner of the run following not far behind.

But, there were plenty of runners running at my pace so I had plenty of company and pacemakers so despite the lack of training the run went remarkably well.

The Finish

You can see me in this picture in the orange top coming down the final straight. The gentleman in foreground is guiding us through to the finish which is a left turn off the road. My wife and Julie’s son where there just to his right to cheer me through. My father had been further back near that roundabout taking some photos.



So, over the finish line (and time sensor) and join the queue to pick up the goody bag. This time containing just a small carton of fruit (courtesy of the sponsors Florette) and the medal. A useful bag, nice fruit and it’s always good to get a medal!

So here we are at finish with our medals (and wild hair)!!!

Final Thoughts

I did this run last year and surprisingly despite the poor training it felt better, although my time was slightly better last year.

I do find two lap runs to be more challenging but the Fradley 10K is a nice run to ease us into the new year of running.

Will I be running this next year? Of course I will!

Will I be doing more training? I really hope so!

Finally a huge thank you to our Support Team and also to the organiser of the run who have once again done a great job.