Clippy's log - page 21

6/8 2:30pm. Elise always puts on a good show. She's very natural and conversational, and includes the audience in her singing whenever possible. This year it's about time signatures - the use of 3/4 time to create various different moods. The more we look into Sullivan's music the more obvious it is that he was a complete genius. And of course Gilbert backed him to the hilt by writing words that scan perfectly - no mean feat.

4pm. Elise needs to check emails so Traal offers his services. A long, fun conversation ensues between emails (and walking).

6:30pm. Elise needs to be at the theatre, she's on duty! The boys go with her, but Midga comes back soon afterwards for dinner and emails.

10pm. Festival club time. Another community sing-through of Iolanthe. It's great fun to be in the midst of such a number of complete GaSbags - a chorus of 50 sounds so much better than a chorus of 8.

11:55pm. Home. Rehearsal tomorrow. Yes, it's tough being involved with a Savoynet show, but it's fun.

7/8 8am. Can you guess?

9:10am. It's getting quite routine. Today is slightly different though, Angie has seconded us to Claire Little's props regiment. We have to pick up a car loadd of stuff from the Paxton and bring it over. I can't do much in that way so I stay with Angie in case of any t-shirt sales.

12:30pm. Uh-oh! In the middle of a blocking session one of the can-can dancers suddenly collapses of the floor, clutching her ankle. The director calls for a packet of frozen peas, and there being none on the premises, Angie asks Midga to take a jog to the shops. By the time he gets back (badly out of breath, it's a while since he was doing paper round) things are basically under control. Angie drives the patient to a hospital for a check-up and rehearsal goes on, with Claire standing in as a placeholder.

2:30pm. Angie returns with news that there's no permanent damage, and that dancing next Wednesday will be fine as long as there's no strain in rehearsal before that.

5pm. The end of another very productive day. Gary is still making positive comments although he's keeping a lid on the mood by reminding the cast that there's only a few more days for blocking before we have to be running. But he finishes with "Everybody raise your right hand. Now put it on your left shoulder. Now pat yourself on the back, you've done very well today."

5:15pm. We have two hours before group photo and dinner. The boys settle down to read emails.

7:55pm. Wakey wakey! You've missed the group photo and it's nearly dinner time! Walk the streets of Buxton looking for a Chinese restaurant - thank goodness for John popping out to navigate us. Good fun conversation as usual.

10:30pm. Festival club - a pot luck Patience. We get there a bit later than usual, and share a table. She doesn't seem to know Patience but likes the boys' singing.

12:30am. Wow, Patience with full dialogue takes a while. Rehearsal tomorrow and it's late. But it was good to hear the authorized version instead of Gasvic's modified one with the Duke's song at the end.

12:40am. Walking home there's a bunch of tipsy young people at the Route 199 bus stop. Midga starts to just walk by but one of them gives him a perfect opening for a joke. Somehow they think all Australians are like Steve "Crikey" Irwin so we hang around to cure them of that notion.

1:20am. Home to bed, at last.

8/8. Usual start to a day. Then Jenna SMS's to say she and Gerry are coming to visit - woohoo!

1pm. Their train is due in so Rosuav goes to the station to navigate them around Buxton. Midga is forging Pfenning-Halfpennig money so he stays to finish the job.

1:50pm. Rosuav, Jenna and Gerry arrive at Trinity so we all go for lunch. Somehow they have managed to visit a chocolatier on the way... mysterious.

6:14pm. We've had a great afternoon out - chatting, riding the miniature train in the Pavilion Gardens, more chatting and more cafes. They can't stay for the show as there isn't a late train to get them home, so we take them to the station with two minutes before the next service. Hope you can make it to a show next time!

Clippy's log - page 20

4/8 8:30pm. Now this is fairly unusual - having been in the show we now go out front to watch the rest of it! Cox & Box and The Zoo are on with Trial, each done by a different group.

11pm. Festival club. Midga and I get in free, as cast. We sing through chorus bits from Trial (the cast ham it up some, and gender bend at every opportunity) and then there's the usual call "Five minute break, charge your glasses" (which is invariably 20 minutes due to the queues at the bar). Midga decides to go home, he's feeling tired. I should think so too - rehearsals, DR and performance, all without the assistance of an SM's lolly jar! I know I keep going on about humans and food, but sometimes it's a sheer necessity. Midga is dangerously short of sugar, caffeine and lactose, and fairly badly dehydrated too, due to the puny capacity of the water bottles he was able to obtain. Alcohol and singing in a hot hall is the last thing he needs. I go home with him of course - but he walks so slowly I wonder if Rosuav is going to catch up with us after he decides to go home at midnight or so.

11:30pm. Half an hour for an eight minute walk, not bad. Midga has a cup of hot chocolate, washes the rest of the makeup off his face and heads for bed. Wise choice.

5/8 9:10am. There's a rehearsal today - what time? Where? No idea. We turn up at Trinity and a few other people are waiting there too. And we can't see anyone inside either. Eventually someone comes and tells us everyone's upstairs. It's intro speech time, and we get in just in time for Angie to introduce the boys as bookkeepers of the t-shirts. Of course that means I get to play a vital role - like I have done in so many shows back home. Love it.

10:30am. The t-shirt shop has been set up and I have the Little List. Let's ROCK!

1:05pm. Break time was flat out, everyone wants their t-shirts! Back to rehearsing, which means time off for the boys. Angie needs someone to go into town and buy a book of raffle tickets. A perfect opportunity for Midga and I to check out stationery shops. Copy paper costs over £4 a ream! It better be nice stuff...

3:45pm. Rehearsals are going strong. This director is amazing. His CPU speed is enough to rival the boys put together, which sits somewhere between unheard-of and unbelievable. He's easy to get along with because of his irrepressible humour, yet has very high standards. This is going to be a good show! He's very encouraging (he opened with standing and singing as a preparation for blocking, and made a very glowing compliment at the sound), and very clear and precise in his direction. Most of the cast are excellent, way above the standard of the chorus we're used to at home. And of course being all off book at the start of rehearsals makes a huge difference.

4:40pm. The whole opening number (until the chorus exit) has been fully set. Time to run it. Will they remember everything?

4:59pm. They did! A day's rehearsal to do what would take several weeks at home! This cast is great. As a reward they get to go home a minute early.

5:15pm. Home again. After a full day rehearsal the usual course is to hoof it to Flinders Street to get the 5:20 Glen Waverley (which, as everyone knows, connects with only a 16 minute waiting time to the 6:11 bus, getting us home three minutes before the family arrive back from Prayer & Praise), but here we're in walking distance of home.

10:30pm. Midga was going to get some sleep, but Rosuav decided to see what it's like to develop software for Android. Starting with Hello World, then an obvious progression to RosMud Mobile. Wow.

2am. Rehearsal is tomorrow. Midga goes to bed.

6/8 8am. It is writted on dis piece of paper ding ding cuckoo it is writted!

9:10am. Rehearsal starts with vocal warm-ups. They're more complicated than any I've heard at Kew or Camberwell - and with a huge cast they sound Rather Nice.

10:30am. Between selling t-shirts the boys and I can have a good time watching the show. They're doing just as well as they did yesterday - amazing.

2pm. We depart early because we want to see Elise's recital. Angie is very appreciative of our efforts, I guess we haven't made that sort of thing commonplace over here.

Clippy's log - page 19

3/8 12:48pm. The 12:36 train arrives. They can't all be dead on time.

1:20pm. Alighted Deansgate to have a look at the Metrolink works. It looks just like a heavy rail works program.

1:30pm. Back to the station - and here comes a train. It's a Class 142 Railbus, still with bus type seats inside. On good track it's quite tolerable.

1:35pm. We terminate at Manchester Oxford Road. There's no possible reason not to go right through to Piccadilly except for lack of capacity there. No doubt there's some historical reason for having two big stations - all the more reason for having transport planning integrated with town planning and separated from both politics and transport operation. Not as easy in the old world as in the new of course. Incidentally, this trip was from Liverpool - a long trip on a Railbus.

1:46pm. Looking around we see that the whole railway is elevated above street level, on a brick bridge. Obviously done in the days when railways made vast amounts of money. It fits nicely with the character of the city - but the properties in the shadow of the bridge are run-down and undesirable. There may be something in the argument against elevated railways. But the problem seems to be in the narrow gap of no-mans-land between the building and the bridge - so somehow that needs to be filled in.

1:53pm. Time to head home. The next service to Piccadilly is a Northern service to the airport, run with a Class 156 Sprinter set. The toilets at Oxford Road station are just like station toilets at home - which is probably why they have nice but pay-for toilets at Piccadilly.

2:06pm. Nearly an hour to the next Buxton train. Time for some Stockport shuttles! BritRailPass rocks!

2:10pm. We get on a Cross Country Class 221 set - like a Virgin Voyager. Must look into the history of that.

2:42pm. Stockport - a Class 323 back to Man Picc. Still love that sound!

3:02pm. ARGH! Miscalculated and missed the Buxton train! Next try, race it to Stockport. Not much chance but worth a shot.

4:53pm. We didn't make it and are now an hour late for rehearsal. That is profoundly embarrassing, it has NEVER happened before.

6pm. Rehearsal is finished. Lots of stuff has been reworked, which doesn't make it any easier. We aren't bothering with the show tonight so there's time to experiment with the Britischerwurst (British pork sausages) Rosuav brought home from Aldi. I don't care for human food but Yes Minister is always worth commemorating.

8pm. Private TBJ rehearsal. Highly necessary. Comes across fairly well.

10:30pm. Time to go to the festival club! We start with a sing-through of some of the chorus bits from Mikado (great fun) and then the St Andrews group give us a cabaret of songs from the less popular shows - Grand Duke, Utopia, Yeomen, Patience and one from Gondoliers. It sounds like the audience don't know Patience very well.

12:05am. Home - tomorrow's a big day.

4/8 8:30am. We're up and ready for rehearsal. No more lateness, not for another five years at least.

9:10am. We're first! That's more normal.

11:30am. Home for lunch. And how about writing some notes for a presentation to Smartpax?

3pm. Dress Rehearsal. Unpleasant surprise - the set isn't according to what we've rehearsed with. Last minute reblocking...

4:50pm. That was one tough DR. At home I'd say the rest of hell week will have it perfect for opening night, but here we don't have that luxury. Midga's looking reasonably unstressed about it though.

6pm. Here we go... make it a good job on the costume and makeup Midga, you're dancing with Elise!! An honour indeed, enough on its own to make this trip worthwhile!

8:15pm. And that was the show... it seems unreal. Just here and gone in half a week. As we leave, one of the stage crew, who had previously ordered Midga away when set was being moved, started ordering Elise around the same way. She wouldn't have any of that sort of thing, of course... but it's totally weird to have that sort of social distinction between cast and crew. At home if there was a spare body on the stage the crew would give it a job.

Clippy's log - page 18

2/8 1:28pm. Finished lunch. I have to endure complains about the artificial sweetener in the soft drinks, even though they don't say "diet". Big deal - if you don't like them don't drink them. Personally I think sugar is just as bad, it gets in all sorts of places and makes my clip rust.

1:59pm. We're back from lunch, where is everyone? I like rehearsals, I get to help by taking notes. I have two envelope backs full already.

3:46pm. Rehearsal's over already. We got through a lot - Trial is a fairly easy show, even for someone with no musical training and not much ability. The stand-in director is gushing about the chorus's acting - I thought it was just the fun kind of hamming people do at Pot-Lucks. Whether we win prizes or not, it's going to be a show worth doing. I wonder if anyone will ever write a show with a clipboard in it...

7pm. Time to go to the show. Charles Court Opera doing Iolanthe. We have very high standards for Iolanthe in our family.

9pm. The boys are at a loss for words. So am I. The show has exceeded our wildest hopes for an Iolanthe! It's not a ballet, which is a minor loss if at all, and musically it could do with a few of our good Gasvic voices, but dramatically it's one of the best shows I've ever seen - comparable to the DVD of Phantom the boys love so much. Every single word is audible and fully believable. Act 2 is coming right up, just keep it going and don't deliberately ruin it and this will be a show to live in song and story.

11pm. Act 2 was quite in keeping with Act 1. The fairies were like 10-year-olds thoroughly enjoying making the peers act like puppets - what was really touching was the bond between them. These ladies are my beloved sisters - perfect. And the FQ motherly rather than fierce, which worked well with the teamwork between her and the rest of the fairies in Strephon's interest. Timing on the stay of execution of Iolanthe was exquisite, as was the lighting state. We hung around a bit after the show, expecting an adjudication, but apparently CCO count as pros and don't get that.

11:15pm. Festival club time, starting with a sing-through of the chorus bits of Iolanthe. The boys get to open their lungs and memories - great fun, must do it more often. The rest of the cabaret I could take or leave, but the atmosphere is always fun.

12:05am. Home time. How about a Looney Tune or two before bed?

3/8 9am. Luggage arrived - HOORAY!

10:30am. Gunricing time. Hazel Grove today, as we have rehearsal at 4pm. We're on a Super Sprinter set, using one of the tables amidships. Opposite us is a Mactard in uniform - Macbook, white USB modem, iPhone - and he types with two fingers. At about 500ksph. I guess there might be people out there that love macs and use them properly, but then there must be people out there that think Windows is quality software. A few. Maybe.

11:05am. Hazel Grove. Apart from being a junction station with a signal box there's not much different between it and any other station. The wires stop just after the end of the platform - a standard end-of-section arrangement with the wire attached to a pole beside the tracks, but without the next section taking over. The other line seems to be a cross-country to Sheffield, but no trains go there from here, only to Buxton.

11:24am. The Preston train comes in to platform 1. It's the Sprinter set that's been sitting in a siding at the up end of the station. Looks like we have time to go to Preston and back to see why on earth they don't use their EMUs.

12:03pm. Salford Crescent - we're out from under the wires already, they don't go far past Manchester. Considering the number of lines that run through it's surprising there's only two platforms. Now at last the Sprinter gets a chance to stretch its legs - there must be a speed limit on the Buxton line, we haven't seen performance like this before.

12:15pm. Bolton - we're still right on time. Three platforms, I'm sure that could be useful for something.

12:32pm. Alighted Chorley - no point going right to Preston. The last leg was at 75mph - start to stop average speed 53mph! The station itself is quite nice - looked after well including by local art groups. The underpass is quite presentable, and not crime riddled... take note Australia.

Clippy's log - page 17

31/7 5:49pm. We're stopped at a stick again so we do a bit of research on the timetable. The spark ahead of us isn't shown (there's a couple of other lines through Hazel Grove, have to gunzel there one day) but in the meantime we discover some changes since 2007. There aren't any trains from Blackpool North to Buxton any more - only from Salford Crescent (and points beyond but on other lines) which is a few stations past Manchester. Blackpool North trains go to Manchester Victoria (not to Piccadilly at all) and there's a short run from Preston to Hazel Grove. It's actually not all that clear what runs where, although it could be improved by unifying stopping patterns and clockfacing timetables, with attendant explanations. So it's not really a point on our side on the loopy vs through running argument.

6:16pm. We're at Chapel-en-le-Frith, 15 minutes down... we were supposed to arrive Buxton two minutes ago. Ah well, things happen.

6:40pm. Hey we're supposed to be at dinner with Angie and a few other S'netters! Dash home, drop unnecessary gear, go walking. Damn, Midga forgot his @ symbol badge!

10pm. Dinner and chat over. Good fun. Not like the Gondoliers or Pirates cast parties (not enough young people), more like a family Christmas lunch. Now to do a load of washing - these things that have to be done even on holidays. Now, which of the boys will do it... I wonder.

1/8 1:30pm. Jet-lag again? Hey, it's no skin off my nose, to coin a phrase. I'm all for the easy stationary life.

4:30pm. Midga, Traal and I team up and publish a few blog posts, it looks like we're going to stay five pages behind for the foreseeable future.

7:10pm. Hey, we've got tickets for The Sorcerer! And it's the opening night of the Festival, let's go!

7:29pm. We met Elise out the front selling stuff to the audience. On the job again. She must be a Busy Person.

7:30pm. We're up the top of the theatre, our favourite seats because they're cheap and we get a good view. Rosuav finds wifi; Midga looks at the lighting desk. The show soon opens - but I won't review it fully because Ros did a good job already. Suffice it to say that a traditional production it ain't, by any means, and while that makes for a fun show, I don't think Gilbert would approve of Alexis falling in love with Dr Daly, and nor would Sullivan appreciate The Lost Chord being done as a disco. Everything else in the show was great though.

11pm. Festival Club - the thing that sets the Festival apart from every other show. Pot-Luck Princess Ida tonight - and Pot-Lucks remain the very best fun anyone can have without being strapped into one of Martin-Baker's finest inside the cockpit of an F-15E! There's a vacancy for Cyril but Midga doesn't know it well enough so he chickens out. Blanche is also vacant so Elise does her as well as Psyche. Fun.

11:30pm. Nobody wants to be Sacharissa so Midga does his best falsetto on "I meant no harm, they're only men of wood!" - and gets the thumbs up from several people in the room. That is the stuff pot-lucks are made of.

12:30am. End of Act 3. Applaud the cast, MD and pianist. Randomly chat on the way out. Time for bed.

2/8 7am. Ding ding cuckoo! Rehearsal for the WA group's TBJ is in three hours. Sunday morning rehearsals again, grumble.

9:30am. Everything's ready, let's go.

1pm. That was a morning's rehearsal. Judging by the notes he took, Midga's either having a difficult time or taking the show seriously - or (most likely) both. His pleas for the loan of a spare score are answered by Elise - very nice of her. And not atypical.

Clippy's log - page 16

30/7 12:10pm. We're on the Manchester train. It's a Pendolino and under different circumstances the boys would have been filled with excitement. There's an express service every 20min, on a journey taking two hours! I guess $120 for a 200km/h TUAG service to Albury/Wodonga would be fairly marketable... especially if petrol cost $2.50 a litre.

2:41pm. It's been quite amusing watching the boys drift in and out of consciousness. They didn't even think to get off at Stockport for the Buxton train instead of going right in to Manchester Piccadilly. We're on board now, waiting for departure time. Sprinters are just as we remember!

3:05pm. The chimney saying "hat museum" is still there in the middle of Stockport. And it still cracks us all up.

3:25pm. Rosuav is directly under an open window and a stray bit of rain blows right onto his face. Still he doesn't wake.

4:03pm. Arrived! The people at Derby Uni are as helpful as ever. Dump stuff, stretch and it's time to make a list of jobs.

8:55pm. Been shopping, got cash, cooked dinner, rehearsed Trial by Jury, planned tomorrow. Time to think of Nothing Atoll.

31/7 1:35pm. Midga, it seems, is now over his jetlag and is ready to go to Manchester to sort out phones - after which he will talk to the baggage people.

1:45pm. We get to the station. Argh, just missed a train. Next one is at 2:30. Ah well.

2:10pm. Back to the station after shopping for water bottles and breakfast. I was going to join in because it looked like a really nice mix of wood pulp and PVC glue, perfect for helping little clipboards grow big and strong, but it turns out to be human food after all. Our train is a six car Sprinter set - I don't remember seeing any that long before.

2:34pm. We depart 4 down, but we can easily catch that up later. It's good to see the countryside bordering the line again - so familiar from last trip yet completely forgotten in the meantime. On that note, the whole town of Buxton seems pretty much as it was before. A few places are undergoing renovation and a few (ominously) are empty with "to let" signs up. We haven't been past the old Woollies store yet but we know that one will be gone too. The blackberries around Aldi are still there, and haven't even taken over the garden bed let alone smashed down the wall and threatened the foundations of the store itself. Uncanny.

4:41pm. The Metrolink is down but we know vaguely where we're going so we just walk down the tram tracks. After going the wrong way and clocking up a few kilometers (thank goodness for tourist maps) we find the T-Mobile shop and buy some sims. You want £20 on each? That'll be £40 thanks. Perfectly painless. Research in advance is good. Unfortunately getting 3G internet on a foreign phone is a tricky business. Still, the assistant manager is generous with her time and pulls out all stops in an attempt to make it happen. Ah well - hope for wifi.

4:53pm. Finished gunzelling the Metrolink works - looks like they're doing the lot, rail replacement, new vehicles and either extensions or new lines. OK, it's getting late, time to head home. Next train is - argh, 4:51! Ah well, after that is a 5:23 which runs express. Just as Midga puts the timetable back in his pocket a young lady with two kids in tow comes up and asks him how to get to the station! Now that sort of thing happens all the time at home, but for a local to ask a tourist for directions - well, it has to be logged, that's all. So he tells her "Follow the tram tracks and you can't go wrong, that's all I know" which is simple and tells her what she needs to know.

5:29pm. The 5:23 arrives and we get aboard. It's not exactly peak time crush loaded like a V/Line service would be but there are a few standees.

5:43pm. The driver announces that we don't stop at Davenport... we're only stopping there for a red signal. The spark ahead of us must be late too. Why aren't we using the through lines? Once Smartpax finishes with Melbourne, Northern Rail need a 2020 timetable done up.

Clippy's log - page 15

29/7 4pm. The train takes off, and we can see forward! We can see backward too, and there's not a uniformed person in sight. The train is completely driverless!! There's plenty of PA warnings about doors closing and I guess people must just obey them. The whole right-of-way is either elevated or very well fenced, so obstacles on the track won't be much of an issue. The driving style is careful and gentle, with just a small jerk on stopping. The infrastructure is well maintained giving a smooth ride. What's funny is that there's signage about speed limits on curves and turnouts, and signalling - maybe the line used to have drivers, or maybe they wanted to hedge their bets in case driverless didn't work.

4:23pm. We get to International Departures and Aer Lingus have a self-serve baggage check-in! Really it's just a self-serve boarding pass, and the bags get weighed and tagged afterwards. A lady helps us work out the system so Aer Lingus gets the Midga Customer Service Seal of Approval. Quite an honour. After the bags are done we have to take them to the next stage ourselves - which is strange, what if people add more weight after weighing? Oh well.

5pm. Rosuav is getting used to removing ALL bits of metal for the x-rays now so we don't have any delays. Traal and I are quite resigned to the brief hits of electromagnetic radiation, it's no big deal. The gate is right here so all we can do is wait.

5:50pm. Push-back and taxi. There's a whole bunch of planes ahead of us.

6:15pm. Takeoff, at last!

11:10pm. It's a flight, what is there to say? We're on an A330, don't rub it in.

12:15am. Landed Dublin. It's 5:15am local time and dawn over the Atlantic is quite beautiful.

1:27am. After a few dramas involving a passport being lost (Midga can't handle red-eye flights) we're on the road to London. Good engines quick, come let's be gone! And it's time for a timezone reset.

6:30am. My pal the phone knows all about timezones, I have nothing to worry about.

6:44am. Takeoff. So far two of our two Airbus flights have taken ages to get off the ground. Buy some 737s mmmkay?

6:47am. The Emerald Isle looks rather beautiful from above. Come to think of it the accents of all the staff are nice too. This is how we travel through a country - talk to airport staff and judge the country from them. Recruitment people, be very very afraid.

7:40am. First UK train sighting!!! From altitude we see something long and thin, mostly white with red ends and middle. A double Virgin Voyager set if I'm not mistaken. Very soon that will be us!

7:56am. Landed. We came in over the railway - it looks ubercool.

8:50am. No sign of our luggage so we register an "enquiry" and they promise to courier it to Buxton when it arrives. Sighs. Still, they couldn't have been better in getting the problem on its way to being solved.

9:20am. We're on the Gatwick Express to London Victoria. It's a Class 460 EMU, very new. The interior is the standard intercity stuff we remember from 2007. Motors are quiet. Door alarm is not! Ride is very smooth, even at speed. The service runs every 15 minutes and takes half an hour to get to Victoria. There's also stopping trains from Gatwick to various places.

9:45am. We've just passed Clapham Junction (and no, I don't need to have that checked out later) and a steam special passes! It's way too fast to see any details but the beat is unmistakeable.

10am. Victoria station, time for breakfast. The old stone and brick shell of the station is still intact, and a modern convenience arcade has been built inside. Not quite as good as Adelaide but better than Southern Cross. There's obviously lots of work still happening but it should be good when it's finished.

11:55am. Big dramas - again. Rosuav is dead on his feet after the red-eye flight and has lost his BritRailPass! We've made our way to Euston station and are waiting to buy a normal ticket to Buxton. £60 - ouch.