Life has become a Little to Quiet

Welcome back, sorry but life has been busy, but not the sort of things that are worth recording for you to read since Italy.

Apart from the fact I was asked to open a a local version of "Kiss Me Kate" the musical, that is they wanted me to come on stage to sweep it whilst singing "the opening song " well I explained I am well qualified to sweep the stage i have swept stages in all sorts of interesting places like, Sharston Secondary School, The Broadway night club in Manchester, various bingo clubs in Birmingham, so if anything I am over qualified for the job, but so far have resisted the temptation of singing or acting on stage, for the benefit of the audience.

Sorry I tell a lie, when doing stage work in Birmingham many years ago, I was involved in a production of a play called "Our Town" in which the stage is set & cleared with the curtains open as part of the show, I had to carry step ladders & chairs on & off, the stage, I feel under the circumstances, walking on "live" was really stressful, but I made no mistakes in my role, or at least none that were commented on.

Unfortunately, singing or dancing I do not do, operating sound & lighting equipment I have done, including the old sound desk from Strawberry Studios (used for Jonathan King's session singers such as 10cc)back in my youth, with the likes of the Drifters, Stan Kentons Band, Gene Pitney, The Coasters (sorry all you young readers it was in the 70s after all)

It has always fascinated me that give people a microphone & they have to either sing , often out of tune or say "testing 1, 2, 3" neither of which did I ever do.

In the same way that if they walk past a drum kit they have a need to hit it usually quite hard causing chaos for the poor drummer on their return.

Well I kindly saved the local population, by my act of kindness, hopefully the show was a success.

This week, I went for a hearing test as us Toggs do, only to be told that my hearing was no worse than 2 years ago, so in discussion with the technician, we eventually agreed that local background noise was increasing, as was my tinnitus.

Balanced against that someone at work actually was suprised to find I was age 60, not sure if they thought I was older or younger, so accepted the statement in the hope it was the latter.

I have been reading that Melanies, blog about her trip to America, part 3, dont they make you jealous, going off on these adventures, meeting all these interesting people & places, having said that please have a read of her blog, it gives a very different insite into the people she has met as well as the places she has been.

If you are reading this & want to help my blog become more interesting I am quite willing to travel & describe in facinating detail where I have been & who I have met along the way.

A trip to Italy by a Togg

Well at long last my last holiday this year to a place with such a strange name Malcesine (pronounced malchesney I am told) which is on the banks of Lake Garda in Italy, with the mountains behind & the lake in front.

It is a pretty little town, but sadly full of tourists like me, with little cafes & shops & a local ferry to other picturesque towns also on the lake.

The accomodation was good(if you are interested go to Tripadvisor for my comments in the next few days) with a terrace overlooking the lake views & beautiful views of the mountains at the rear.

One of the places to go to had to be Venice & the decision was go for a tour because it was so complex to use public transport for the trip.

Going for the afternoon trip seemed a good idea because it would mean a later rise & hopefully within a short time most of the tourists would of departed, plus there would be the opportunity to take photos of Venice by night.

On the day the trip was quite boring, mostly by motoway, although it was interesting to see their fast food at the service area. But when the coach finally arrived it was a trip across the bay to the main landing stage by ferry, then off to look at the sights.

First to St Marks Square making sure not to sit down, eat or drink, remembering how much it would cost, took a few photos & could not believe how many people there were there, then off to the Doges Palace for the next few hours to look round.

Sadly could not take photos of beautiful rooms & paintings inside but was facinating to see, also there were plenty of seats to rest which were definatly needed with all the stairs & corridors, the ticket enabled vists to other museums, but already was flagging after the first, so decided to have a wander round.

Walked to Rialto bridge through the streets packed with both locals & tourists, there seemed much more posh shops than on previous trip there some years ago. On the way took more photos of the streets & canals, then back to the landing stage on oner of the local water buses.

Met up with the rest of the coach party then off for a meal which was quite pleasant, then a short time to take a few night time photos, sadly no sunsets, that had happened whilst in the restaurant, then back to the coach & off to the resort, finally arrived back at 1am in the morning.

The following morning went down for breakfast then back to bed for the rest of the day totally exausted so much for thinking I was this new fit healthy person.

Also went on a trip to Riva on another day it was a nice little town & very picturesque but it seemed to be undecided in relation to the weather.

The other big trip was by local transport to Verona, unfortunatly the bus was full so I stood for over half the trip before finally getting a seat.

On arrival it was another busy resort (see other blog re fast food), went to see amphitheatre but because there was concert on that night there was a huge stage & modern seating covering the old stone steps.

What a climb to the top of the steps & what a long way down, it must hold an awful lot of people when its full, plus what a depessing place the area down below was.

Next a trip round the local gardens whilst listening to a couple of musicians playing, it was very relaxing, before going off to see the famous balcony where Juliet was supposed to of been, a little difficult because she never existed, it was nice that so many people were romatic enough to make the trip & to pose with the statue of Juliet, not sure what had happened to Romeo.

Then off to the castle but ran out of time so did not have time to explore inside, then back to the bus, luckily got seat on trip back but slept most of the way.

At the hotel met a lovely couple he had been in the police force & was facinating to listen to about the past when he worked in Manchester & his wife had gone to school just down the road from me, I hope one day he puts this to paper recording this information that soon will be lost.

There were good days and bad in relation to the weather on the last day it was again overcast, I had thought of going up in the cable car, but again it was overcast so only went to the base station which was in a beautiful setting, would i go back again not sure was a little bit to busy for me.