(no subject)

Went to see the Lee Players perform Amanda Whittington's Ladies' Day last night. I'd seen a previous play of hers, Be My Baby, in the West End a few years ago and thought it was very good, augmented by a superb performance by Lucy Speed. Though of course there was no Lucy here, I was thoroughly looking forward to this and wasn't disappointed. The holding of Royal Ascot at York in 2005 enabled Ms Whittington to create a hilarious and moving story with plenty of ballsy Northern female humour - and a John McCririck-esque TV racing presenter also made an appearance. My old pal Amanda wasn't in this one as she's currently concentrating on an acting course at Chichester Festival Theatre, but she was in the audience so I got a chat with her over the complimentary interval glass of red wine. Also there were the Mayors of Fareham and Gosport; at the beginning I said hello to Ruth hoping she'd remember me from the sailing club twinning and briefly talked to Diane and Ken. Ruth won the first prize in the raffle, but this time nobody shouted 'fix'.

Demelza had intended to bring a 70s costume and hippy medallion for me to wear for Children in Need today, but despite a diligent search last night she never found it, so I had to make do with Sharon #2's Afro wig - the ladies debated who I looked like in it for a while before settling on Jamie from X Factor - and a pink fabric lei. Together with Demelza in her nurse's uniform and Norman dressed up as a woman in a slinky black dress, complete with fake boobs, we wandered around the offices rattling collecting tins and did rather well, except in one section where the Purple Pudsey Gang had been round yesterday and cleaned them out of loose change...