Sunday's Spotlight - Spring has Sprung!

By guest blogger Pete.

No one seemed to detect my "deliberate" mistake in last week's blog, when I credited Jimmy  Connors with making Gene Kelly look as though he had two left feet.  In actual fact it was Donald O'Connor who had the aforementioned effect on  Gene.  What do you mean "deliberate", I heard you saying - (I've got very good hearing!!!).  Okay, you win.  Put it all down to "crinkly" weaknesses.  At least I nearly got the surname right!

We did see Debbie on Sunday. How's that for name dropping?   "Whose Debbie?" my extraordinary hearing hears you ask.  Well, Debbie Reynolds, of course.  A very entertaining afternoon it was as well.

She is an extremely professional performer. In fact I would say that her one weakness was that she was too professional.  Of course she didn't dance - at 76 years of age  (our local paper said that she was 77, but that's par for the course) -but you can't expect her to give a repeat performance of "Singing in the Rain".  She was a bit unsteady on her pins and the one fear I had was that she'd fall; fortunately that didn't happen.

The poster advertising her performance read "ALIVE and well".  As someone who shall remain nameless but has the initials RB said, " Just as well that she is alive or it wouldn't have been much of a performance!"  in actual fact she joked continuously about her age and closeness of death  so the poster blurb wasn't as wrong as it may have sounded (or read).

She cracked some great gags and turned out to be a very talented impersonator.  She now has a bit of gruffness in  her speaking voice - this enabled her to do a first class impersonation of Jimmy Stewart.  That gruffness, however, disappeared when she sang.

Although she received a standing ovation at the end of her performance it was a pity that she didn;t think an encore worth while.  A few years ago we saw an equally aged Tony Bennett at the Sonoma Jazz Festival.  Of the two I would say that Tony Bennett's performance outshone that of Debbie Reynolds.

Over the early May bank holiday the churches flower festivals in the South Holland district of southern Lincolnshire begin.  As you read this that festival started yesterday and will go on until Monday week.  Pam and I plan to visit Long Sutton tomorrow.  That town has a large church and they draw flower arrangers from all over the midlands.  It's a long drive but worth it.  The photos for this blog are taken from last years South Holland flower festival.

Keep on singing.  If you want to see Debbie Reynolds then she's due to preform at the Leeds Grand Theatre tonight at 7.30 p.m. (UK time).

Sunday's spotlight - Debbie Reynolds

By guest blogger Pete.

In the 1960s we lived in South West Africa - now known as Namibia.  Our home was in the port of Walvis Bay.  Now Walvis Bay is situated in the tropics and such a location is usually associated with fairly continuous hot weather.  Not so Walvis Bay!  An Antarctic current, known as the Benguela Current, reaches the African continent roundabout Walvis Bay.

There are a number of pluses to be gained from this.  The weather is cooler than inland; in fact it was known for me to wear a jumper!  But the big plus was the abundance of fish, particularly pilchards, to be found off the Namibian coast. Fishing off the quay at Swakopmund was more an exercise than a sport!  Walvis Bay was a boom town but that statues was not associated with gold deposits but rather in the richness of the sea.

Photo by FreeCat

Walvis Bay is the only deep sea port in the country so the various fish factories there in the town have a ready means of exportation to markets throughout the world.  If you've ever had a tin of pilchards then the chances are that they originated in Walvis Bay.  When we were there the main export was fish meal.  You've got to live in a small town with nine large fish factories all producing tons of fish meal to know what life is like and how it affects your sense of smell.

This Benguela Current hitting the heat of the tropics produced many foggy, and so, cold days.  Entertainment was a bit sparse and when we arrived the only cinema in town was boasting of a premiere season of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy films.  I kid you not!

You had to travel about 10 miles inland before you began to feel the tropical heat.  In Windhoek, the capital and a few thousand feet above sea level, we used to stagger from cafe to cafe in search of ice cold drinks.  This city boasted a drive in cinema.  There you literally parked your car in front of a huge screen and either sat outside in your own garden chairs to listen to a watch the film or else you clipped  a speaker inside you car  and watched from there.  A friend of ours' came from the U.K. to visit us one Christmas.  Just before she flew home we took her for her one and only visit to a drive in movie.  The film wasn't specially attractive - an early Batman film - but there was only one night when we could take her so off we went.  Seasonal rain didn't improve the experience now did having to watch the adventures of Batman and Robin through windscreen wipers make the film any better.

It was in Windhoek, however, that Pam and I saw one of Debbie Reynolds least well know films, "The Singing Nun".  Sounds awful but, in actual fact, it was very good even if a bit on the yukkie side.  She starred in quite a few films with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.  There was a dancer for you.  Connors made Gene Kelly appear to have two left feet!



But I digress.  (I read recently that you can now begin sentences with "and" and "but" so why not indulge yourselves?  On Sunday Debbie Reynolds is making a one day appearance in Lincoln's Theatre Royal and Pam and I are going to see her.  More of that next week.

In the meantime, keep singing in the rain  -  get it?