John Owen Smith’s log for 2024

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22nd December 2024 We travelled back from Corsham in the morning for the annual get-together with Sarah & Emma & co, this year at The Dragon in Colgate near Horsham. A happy occasion, and the food was superb also.

14th December 2024 Dil organised the annual 'Yuletide in Headley' in the village hall. As well as being MC for the evening I also played bass in the guitar group we'd started back in June and we performed our two Christmas numbers: Silent Night (in 3 languages!) and Jingle, Bells.

30th November 2024 We held the annual Christmas Fair in the village hall today, and were blessed with mild, dry weather which seemed to bring the customers out. For the first time that I can remember this allowed us to keep the front doors wide open, which seemed to draw people in.

31st October 2024

I played a dead (or was I?) body in Death by Design. Difficult to keep still on stage when you've the makings of a cold, want to sneeze and, worse, have a runny nose! But the two performances were judged a success.
Now pantomime rehearsals have started (oh yes they have!). This year it's our Cinderella which we last directed in 2002 – and two of the cast are reprising their previous parts!

14th October 2024

We visited Cherbourg as part of a mini-cruise on the Queen Anne, and met our French friends who live there.

3rd October 2024

For a birthday treat I was taken to see ABBA Voyage in London. An interesting experience, though the sound quality wasn't the best, and we did wonder a bit at the audience applauding the avatars! However the live band there was well worth applauding.

14th September 2024 I organised another "Here's Headley" event in which local organisations are invited to put up a stall on the Village Green to show people what they do, and perhaps gain new members this way. There were 25 stalls in all, the weather was perfect, and the event was judged to be a success. During the day we also demonstrated Indoor Kurling in the Village Hall (see right, where our friends Caroline and Jonathan are having a go).

7th September 2024

Eight of us had a very pleasant stay in a National Trust property called Egryn near Barmouth in west Wales. Here are some moments …

26th August 2024

About two dozen of us gathered at Pru's for the Theatre Club Picnic, with live music. See photos.

18th August 2024 We went to London yesterday (paying £25 ULEZ for the privilege!) to see Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre just next to Tower Bridge. The show was excellent and performed 'in the round' with a set where rectangular 'stages' (marked with white edges, see pic) rose from the ground when needed, and 'policemen' made sure the audience weren't standing where they shouldn't be at the time!. As a bonus, Tower Bridge was due to open for a paddle steamer to go through at 10.30pm, and we were out of the theatre just in time to see it lift (see other pic) all lit up.

12th August 2024

This weekend we were on the trail of Flora Thompson once more. Someone had sent me a message to say that he'd found the grave of a one-time boyfriend of hers, and from that I realised that the house this boyfriend of hers had retired to was just acoss the road from the Two Sawyers pub in Pett where we'd all gathered for a family meal last year – small world! – and I managed to get an invitation to visit the house and its amazing garden, and had a fascinasting chat with the predent owner.
Meanwhile, I've published Flora's only known novel, Gates of Eden, which was rejected by her publisher when offered soon after her death. However, for some reason KDP/Amazon won't put it up for sale on their UK site, only on their non-European sites – go figure, because I can't, and they're not telling me why in any way that I can understand.

29th July 2024

I am now the proud owner of a Meccano set once more, or at least one piece of it. Dil was at a car boot sale and bought me a box containing an unused kit to make a cement mixer!
The question now is, do I construct it and lose its pristine value, or do I leave it untouched in the box? And in either case, where on earth am I going to store it? All these first-world problems!

22nd July 2024 We helped organise and run 'Headfest 24' this weekend. Billed as 'A Summer Evening of Folk and Acoustic Music' it was a great success, despite two of the eight acts having to pull out due to illness. But it was hard work for us! On the right is the original poster showing all 8 acts, and a photo of me (still with my Sir Robert beard from the previous weekend) and Barbara acting as MCs for the evening. I wore my 'Hairy Tongue' T-shirt thinking it might make a good talking point – but nobody asked!

15th July 2024

Once more into the breach, dear friends! We performed another Dramatic Hindhead Walk yesterday. This time we were 'bumped' from our normal changing room area, but in fact it turned out better as it was right by the café and the loos. There are some photos here. Quite a tiring day mentally, coping with cast members who suddenly became unavailable and getting others to double up to cover, and physically humping all the costumes, tables and a gazebo up the road – but in the end the weather was kind and it all went well – and we had around 20 walkers to entertain which felt like a good number. Afterwards we flopped down at home to watch England lose to Spain in the Euros final!

4th Jul 2024

General Election: Labour got in with a large majority of seats, but not such a large majority of votes. It was rather because the Conservative vote faded away. Here, the Conservative candidate won, but probably only because the 'protest' vote was split between Liberals, Greens and the new reform party.

24th June 2024 On Saturday we had a 'Green Room' in the Village Hall to mark Dil's 25 years as Chairman of Headley Theatre Club. See here for photos and the programme.

10th June 2024 Spent a lot of time in the garden, hacking down growth and digging up unwanted intruders. We dug up a lot of strange-looking bulbs (see photo) which we hadn't remembered planting and have no idea what they are. Does anyone regognise it?

All the commemorations of D-Day this week inspired me to lead a walk to the Atlantic Wall on Hankley Common yesterday. This was built during WW2 to replicate the defences in Normandy so that tank crews could train on how to overcome them. Here we are at the remains of the wall.

20th May 2024

Back from a Twinning weekend in France.

2nd May 2024

Just back from a 2-week cruise round Scandinavia – it was very successful – here are some photos:—

15th April 2024

We ran another three episodes of my 'radio sketches' in the Jobsworth series on stage over the weekend – see pictures here.

1st April 2024

I went to the dentist for a check up last week and found there was a tooth which needed crowning – and to my surprise I was offered treatment the vey next day (but note, this wasn't the NHS!). It was only a temporary fix while the new crown is prepared – that joy is yet to come. [It came, just before I was due to go away on a cruise, and so far no problems!]

18th March 2024 We made our way by circuitous routes to the Three Horeshoes at East Worldham for Sunday lunch – avoiding the road closures which seem to be encroaching on us from all directions! The lunch was good. Then today, Monday, we took a stroll along the new boardwalks which are built across the bogs on Thursley Common. It's called a 'Dragonfly Trail' (see right), but there were none in evidence at this time of year. We must return when they're about.

4th March 2024

The pacemaker wound has healed and I'm now fit for anything!
We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a night away at the local Frensham Pond Hotel. Although it's just down the road we knew very little about what it was like as a hotel – and now we do; we were not overwhelmed with the experience. Shall we say it was 'adequate'.

12th February 2024

I've been keeping relatively quiet since the pacemeker replacement, waiting for the wound to heal, and leaving Dil to do the driving – but it hasn't stopped me from going for walks when the weather permits.

29th January 2024

Je suis rebranché! I went in for my 10-year pacemaker 'box change' today as the battery was running low – basically they lie you down, slice you open, unscrew the old pacemaker and fix a new one in. All went well and I'm now taking it easy for a few days.

15th January 2024 The first weekend of the pantomime (Treasure Island) went successfully. We're not doing Fridays this year, which seems a bit weird after all these years, but audience numbers were up over the weekend, so it obviously didn't affect our takings. Here are pictures of me and Dil in our character parts ('Ben Gunn' and 'Polly the Parrot') – see other pics of the show.

7th January 2024

We had a 'Twelfth Night' evening with friends round here for a meal on Friday, finishing off the Christmas season – and today I led the first Sunday walk of the year, in sunshine,.
Now it's back to the business of getting this year's pantomime (Treasure Island) up and running.

Continued …

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