claytoncast

 In eighteen days time I'll reach the grand old age of 55. I'm quite looking forward to it. When my friend the young Master Spiegel and I are playing bingo there are some numbers we feel have quite a good ring to them, and I think 55 is just such a number. Rounded, symmetrical, and adding up to a perfect 10. It seems that other people are also aware of my approaching age. These days it's remarkable where our personal data is stored and offers and e-mails based on my approaching birthday have now flooded my junk mailbox. One such invitation delivered by hand by the arcane method of Mr Postie  was an invitation from the NHS to have a health check. Evidently I'm at that age when it's thought to be a good idea. The word that attracted me on the flyer was “free". To avail myself of a health check I could visit one of several local pharmacies or my GP. Now given that our GPs practice has the organisational ability of a plate of jellied eels, several doc...

 I have just completed another day of National Youth Theatre casting auditions for the summer season. Lots of young aspiring talented people trying to find a place in one of the National Youth Theatre's events in this, the Olympic year. I've been doing auditions for the National Youth Theatre since 1984 and with the exception of last year I've managed to do at least one day of auditions every year since then. Over that time I think I managed to get a reputation as being a little fearsome. Demanding. Difficult to please. Whatever. I call it having high standards. I'd like to think that if you audition for me and get a high mark then it means you're almost certainly guaranteed a place during the summer. I have noticed this year after having had a break last spring, I seem to have mellowed a little. I might not be giving any more higher marks than I used to, but I think I'm giving more people the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this is just a result of  getting...

Well it's all over now What has been a total of seven months in the planning and execution ended on Saturday evening and as they would say in Alan Bennett land" it's all over bar the shouting!" It was a great success. Like all good parties it was hard work and tested everyone involved to the nth degree, but it seems to have paid back in spades. For Janet and Jan, as anyone who saw it will know "Green Forms" was a big challenge for just six days rehearsal, but one that they rose to with style. A slightly hairy first night when a couple of pages went astray did not ruin the enjoyment of a packed house and the week just went from strength to strength. Thanks to our fabulous producer ( just a little biased here) we were sold out at every show and had queues for returns most evenings. There is nothing like the feeling of being involved with a big hit and that is exactly what we had here. Our fabulous crew team, all of whom joined us because they wanted...

The strange thing is that this blog is about what happens in my life, and yet the minute something happens in my life, I don't have time to blog. I'm cramming this in while on my daily journey over to West London for "Green Forms" rehearsals. It's not the most pleasant of slogs either way so how better to use this one than to get my blog up to date. Yes- after so many months of planning we are now halfway through rehearsals for our play and we open next week. Last week was very exciting as we watched tickets sales climb and climb, helped no end by some fab adverts placed by the aka team in The Telegraoh and The Times, and also a slow awakening on the part of friends and colleagues that it is actually on and that  they needed to book. I'm the same. A show can be on for months before I decide that I have to see it, and then I can be at least another two months before we have a discussion about when to book for. It's not a dilemma we face often as Rich h...

I am writing this weeks blog on my new I pad. It was a surprise Christmas present from Richard and I love it. It is a gadget that changes your life Rich has had one for a year now and is attached to it by an invisible umbilical cord. I feel now that with this I have grown another set of arms and eyes and ears. It really does change your life. I have just taken it with me on a business trip to Holland. It played a movie to me on the plane. It gave me my book to read at bedtime. It played me music. It allowed me to film the students I was working with and play back the results to them for analysis and feedback. It allowed me to book airfares for a future job. And of course it allows me to keep in touch - face time phone calls to Rich, Skype phone calls to Mum as well as dealing with all my emails. Hard to find something it doesn't do and of course it now means we are both sat on the sofa of an evening, ipads to hand ready to look something up, or tweet our thoughts abo...

So this is my first blog of 2012.  Last night we spent a quiet new year at home. Nice wine, nice food and our own company. For the last two years we've been away. In 2009 we were in New York, and last year we spent the new year in Swanage in a friends cottage.  This year I've been rather busy over the Christmas week driving over 1100 miles to bring mum down from Yorkshire, take us all down to Devon, take mum back to Yorkshire, and then having come back to London, a trip out to see our friend Andy in panto in Cambridge on Fridaywas the last stage of the Christmas marathon. Christmas was quiet too but none the worse for it. We spent it with Richard's parents and grandmother in Devon and I had my mother with me to so it was in every way a family Christmas. Despite the slightly antiquated tradition of family Howle not opening their presents until after lunch, which in this case meant nearly 4:35 PM in the afternoon, all was well and everyone seemed happy with what Santa...

At the moment I'm in Yorkshire. I've driven up here to collect Mum to bring her back down to london so that she can spend Christmas with Rich and myself. This was not our original plan. She had tickets for the train tomorrow, but since her recent illness she has lost the confidence necessary to make the journey, so my Christmas has turned into a bit of a driving marathon. Having driven up here today, tomorrow I'll drive her back to London. If we can get her up. Depression has set in again over the last week and in the mornings all she wants to do is stay in bed. Once she's up she is absolutely fine and enjoys her day but then the next morning we're back to square one. Thanks to her wonderful carers who are my Christmas angels and her friend Pat, she has got up each day by lunchtime but it's proving harder and it raises all sorts of questions for her future care next year - questions I can't and indeed don't really want to answer at the moment. Suffi...