This Gran Can Too!

Ten years ago my oldest schoolfriend persuaded me to get on a bike for the first time in 30 years. Since then I’d dabbled a bit but never really picked up momentum.

Then a few weeks ago, inspired by the fab ThisGirlCan ads, I signed up for a SkyRide. 

I got out of breath. My bum hurt, my chain snapped (unfixable!).

The group was fab, insisting they’d go nowhere without me. The leader, Jo towed me three-and- a -half miles to prove it.

And I got hooked!

I've been cycling – longer and further -every few days since. I’ve joined Nottingham Girls Cycle and  at 59 I feel I’ve finally found ‘my thing’ - and some fab new friends!

I’ve done my second fund-raising ride and next year that old schoolpal and I celebrate our 60^th birthdays cycling six rides in six counties over six weekends!

The Bitch was back....and as brilliant as ever

I had the treat of my first Elton John gig more than 40 years ago. I loved him then and I love him still. I have been faithful. Oh yes, I have flirted with the music of others over the years... but he is still The One.

And didnt he prove it this week when he was back in Nottingham for the first time in eight years ( I was there for the last one too!) and he Crocodile Rocked the house from the second the familiar notes of Funeral For a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) opened an outstanding set jam-packed with the songs of my life. And those, I suspect, of hundreds of others who packed the Capital FM Arena to court our rockiest national treasure.

It's the 40th anniversary of the release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road this year - my copy of the album is still cherished, still listened to. I had been longing to hear him play Roy Rogers... but it wasnt to be - ah never mind, every song sounded as fresh as ever as he hit us so many favourites from the album - and  others - from Elton John to Captain Fantastic, Madman Across the Water to The Diving Board.
This was a set so jammed with famous favourites Your Song, Are You Ready for Love, I Guess That's Why they Call it The Blues, Sad Songs, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Crocodile Rock, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.... he could have played til dawn and still have just been scratching the surface.

He seemed relaxed, totally at ease in his own skin and, of course  note perfect, his piano playing has never been better and it was clear he was having a good time too.... Davey Johnstone and a white-haired Nigel Olsson still there, still rocking and still clearly having a great time with their mates. It reminded me how bloody good they are musically, performing at  this level, outlasting generations of music's so-called superstars and still deliver a set that had young fans rocking with their mum and dad!

And I felt old enough and free enough to rock away too. I'd earned it - Elton's sung the songs of my life. So  - from the old fan in the 22nd row  (Well Row S so technically I suppose it's only the 19th) who sees you as more than Elton....you're still my hero!

Ooh Mr Bennett!

A lovely, life-long friend invited me to join her and her husband in Leeds at the weekend for a performance of Alan Bennett's Untold Stories at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
It's part of a Bennett season in the home city of one of our most erudite national treasures. And, since Leeds is around the half way point between my home in Nottingham and theirs in my home village of Marske, on the Cleveland coast  I jumped at the chance of a catch up and this affectionate 'home-age'.
It was my Bennett stage 'debut' so I didnt know what to expect - certainly not the nasty fall on the slippery, sodden Leeds pavement I had trying to get from my car to the theatre!! But I was buoyed up by the excitement of seeing no less than Alison Steadman in the ladies (Ooh Mr Bennett!) as I frantically tried to dry off my trousers' dripping, moss-coated rear end  with paper towels before curtain up (more Mr Bean than Mr Bennett).
I was beginning to think the whole day was fated to failure when we took our seats in the lovely bright, modern and yet intimate Courtyard Theatre. A perfect setting for the intimate memories and observations of childhood and the author's parents final years - told in Hymn and Cocktail Sticks.
We were treated to Hymn a half-hour first act of Bennett observations on the childhood violin lessons and the parent-son relationships that were to set the chorus , I suppose, for his life.
 This first act was, if I am honest, a little slow - though I felt churlish and unsophisticated feeling slightly irked by the lack of pace. We guessed it was constructed this way to showcase the accomplished musical performances or a live string quartet.
It took remarkably little make-up and costume to transform the still youthful Reece Dinsdale into a convincing Alan Bennett (the author himself was appearing for An Audience the next day) and his accent, intonation and expression were all delightfully convincing.
But it wasnt until we got to Cocktail Sticks which explores Alan's relationship with his parents during his early and their latter years that the pace and the experience really took off.
Moving, hilarious, affectionate and disparaging, it was a drive-by account of growing up in a long-gone era that we could all associate with.
We explore his mother's doomed social aspirations - her dreams of hosting gatherings with cock-tails  (the emphasis always in the wrong place), her  depression, his father's lack of aspirations, early sexual encounters (or near misses) and he pokes fun mercilessly at himself throughout.
It was a joyous, funny, delightful observation on the love and wonder that lie in the 'ordinary' which showcased some fabulous acting talent - Reece Dinsdale was superb and the supporting cast adept and delightful.
But it's the dialogue (and frequent monologues) that, quite rightly, deserve the accolades. I can't wait to go back for more!

Living (a little late) Below the Line

For the last five days I have been Living Below the Line - surviving on a daily food and drink budget of just £1 a day, to raise funds for Childhope UK, an international children's charity supporting street and working children
You can sponsor my efforts at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/tapper
My shopping haul for the week - see below- was carb heavy, I opted for porridge and pasta as my main tummy fillers... with just a single onion and carrot from the fresh veg aisles... and I simply couldnt stretch to coffee, which has been the biggest sacrifice by far.
Porridge has been the key to filling me up, basics blackcurrent cordial with hot water has been my coffee substitute. I found myself with a pound change to play with and was mortified to find that, after buying a large tin of garden peas I could only afford a single apple... which I halved and enjoyed over two days.
It's been incredibly boring... little joy in food, the main aim was to feel full enough to forget about it and have an early night.  But the irony of agonising over every choice out of my five pound food and drink budget was to then spend five or six times as much for fuel to put in my car (I still had to work).
I have raised, to date, £115... a little less than the target we were set and have been a little frustrated at so many people's resistance to pledge just a quid in support...  but there, I suppose, is the challenge for every charity today. I am still trying.  I started my challenge later than everyone else... and today is my final day. I can honestly say its the only day I have actually felt hungry. I've had to be a little ingenious and I think by and large it has worked... my pint of milk for porridge was stretched nicely by doubling it up with water, and the little bits of veg I had were used sparingly to add a little interest to the pasta.
I am really conscious of how very lucky I am that tomorrow I can enjoy a lovely salad, fresh veg , treats and some fruit, which I am craving. And my coffee.... I hadnt thought of it as a luxury before but it is.
I am grateful to the people who have supported me.... heaven knows we can do a hell of a lot of good with a hell of a small sacrifice.
Dont forget:
You can sponsor my efforts at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/tapper

Spirited performance from a living legend

Yesterday I had the great good fortune to enjoy a fabulous day out in London with two lovely friends. We travelled by train from Nottingham, enjoyed a lovely meal and had a stunning but all-too-short introductory visit to the British Museum.
Note to self, book a week off to return there, I could happily get lost in that rich expanse of history and culture for days.... miles of art, creativity and history and yet you can stop almost anywhere to examine the minutiae of detailed, intricate craftsmanship from thousands of years ago.
We travelled forward a few hundred years - and hurried along Shaftesbury Avenue for a date with a living legend.... Dame Angela Lansbury no less, appearing in Blithe Spirit at the Gielgud Theatre.
The approach to this still hilarious Noel Coward classic was very traditional - curtain down for each scene, a (seemingly) simple single set, fabulously evocative costumes and slick, convincing performances from a word perfect, brilliantly relaxed cast.  But of course the main attraction was Dame Angela Lansbury, and it was only right that she be applauded on her first appearance, every exit and of course a standing ovation at the end of a fabulously funny and fun experience - time whisked by all too quickly, we wanted more!
Funny, convincing and incredibly physical - her trances were hilarious - she was simply the best thing I've seen on the stage in a while. And that's not to take away from her fellow performers, who were fab in their own right - particularly Jemima Rooper's Elvira  playing a ghostly punchbag for an invisible attacker in a brilliantly choreographed and magical few moments.
I couldnt help but think wow, this woman has acted with Spencer Tracy, with Gene Kelly and a score of other legends, she is still entertaining us as the gifted heroine of Cabot Cove in Murder She... you know the rest - and here she is at 88 scene stealing in the West End! Long may it continue!

Are living rooms the new stadia?

This must feel like a strange era for successful musicians. Just when the explosion of social media opens one door by creating the most amazing oppotunities to build your fanbase, the recession slams another one shut by making it so much tougher to get an album made!

So it seems groups are doing a bit of lateral thinking... and it's getting quite exciting.

That's what I discovered at the weekend when I went up north to a friend's with my daughter for a 'gig in a living room' in North Yorkshire with Lost Alone.

Hands up, I had not really heard of them before though my daughter and her friend had been to a gig. It didnt seem like my old-fogey-mum kind of music.

But the acoustic set they performed in my friend's living room at the weekend was a brand new opportunity to listen and to like! The lads... really friendly, down to earth and well really just very nice!.... explained that these days music labels just dont have the cash to sink into developing new albums. And so they are going down a different road.

As well as touring all over the world (and loving it, from what they were saying) they have lined up 10 of these intimate gigs - sold to fans, or the friends and parents of fans, to provide a unique experience at home, in the local pub etc.  The money generated will then give the guys the freedom to get on with the creative side of things and record a new album.

It also means their fans can get a really up close and personal musical experience. I dont know their music so it woulnt be fair to attempt to review it, other than to say the harmonies were fantastic and I suspect the enforced acoustic approach highlights better just how tight they are musically.

The lads admitted to being more nervous at this performance than some of their stadia gigs... and you could see they werent lying! But this intimate and personal set was fab, they pulled out all the stops  and couldnt have been nicer, more accommodating or friendly... what a treat!

Cheesecake,cycle chains...and calculations

I am no Einstein but today I developed a new theory of relativity.

Sunshine + riverside restaurant + tempting cheescake = sum total of another 4lb straight on the hips

So when I got home I decided to try to balance the figure.

I hoiked the bike out of the garage and set off with every intention of a 7.5mile round trip round the watercourse at the national watersports centre, nearby at Holme Pierrepont. I actually did it a few days ago - not bad for a wobbly (in every sense of the word) granny still rusty from so many desk-bound years.

That would surely soon subtract the 3,000 calories I must have consumed in the course of a lovely indulgent lunch.


I set out - still full. It was hard work. It was windy It was ruddy hard work.

And would you believe... The watersports centre was in full use for some kind of event (how dare they?) --- all the people spilling in and out of there were young, svelte, sporty and dressed in the proper gear.

And they were charging £5 to get in!!

I was hot, it was hurting, I was huffing and puffing. So I took my ruddy red cheeks and rusty old cycle spokes on up the road - did a U-turn and cycled home again - total covered about four sorry miles.

Relatively successful then...