Post by postscript on Aug 4, 2010 9:46:19 GMT
Hello everyone.
Although it is the wrong city (Alice is an Oxford girl!) I have decided I will start at the end and go on until I get to the beginning!
Tuesday was a pleasant day and I had allowed myself until 4:00pm to wander around. My first impressions of Nottingham when I arrived on Monday were the trams, which end (or start) at the station. On Tuesday I belted to the far end of the line and they are both remarkably speedy where they run parallel to the railway and climb the sometimes quite steep hills extraordinarily easily.
However, they only cover half the interesting part of the city. I had remarked on the Monday on lost opportunities, due to seeming lack of vision from the city council, as much modern building was haphazardly idiosyncratic. However, there are many pleasant areas. Around the castle is one of them, into which I did not go as it seemed more theme park than true castle. The pedestrianisation of the main shopping centre made it seem a bustling activity of positive community life, despite being midweek.
Community is an aspect that came strongly to my senses. I noticed this in the provision in the Old Market Square of a "beach" for children and fair ground amusements sitting beside a superbly designed formal water pool but with provision for the kids to spray themselves with the water jets. All this, outside the steps of city hall. The provision was at the cost of a commercial sponsor but the council's acceptance of this showed true community spirit, as did riding on the trams show me the value this transport provides for the wheelchair bound, the stations being carefully modelled to allow a self-propelled electric chair to traverse different levels easily.
Sitting outside an Italian restaurant for lunch, I fell to thinking on what a superb summer we have been having generally and of Hayley's tweet that she remembered more of dressing rooms than the actual theatres. I thought, why does she not take time out to see the places she visits? The Old Market Square was three minutes walk from the theatre? My business mind immediately provided the answer. If she were to take time out, half the transport costs of her chauffeured limousine would be charged to her personally, for tax reasons. She can't afford it.
Thinking on this and the way I for one treat visiting Hayley away as a holiday, her life in reality isn't the glamour it is so easy to imagine. She doesn't see the entrances, or grand staircases we do. She sees only industrial premises with restricted access for reasons of health and safety and security. She spends her life, boxed in. Even for the theatre, she sees only the auditorium for an hour or so of rehearsal to do her bits, then she is confined to her dressing-room. Where else has she to go? Anywhere else is industrial premises, a working area for those needed at a particular time. Performers are shepherded around. Her security classification may be "access to all areas" but that doesn't mean to say she is free to wander, except perhaps to sit in the auditorium and listen to other aspects of the rehearsal, or just to feel there is space around her.
Subsequently, of course, as I come on to offer my contribution and read how mine might fit in to other's offerings, I learn she is packing for Italy. So, yesterday she would not have had the time to stay over in Nottingham. As for Rome? She may have been able to grab a half-day, dependent upon flight times but the same tax principles apply. She is there for business reasons and her costs are allowable business expenses. Take some pleasure and the scale of costs to her personally suddenly becomes enormous, as well as administratively very messy. Taking time out is simply a nightmare.
Just some thoughts over a Skol and spaghetti bolognaise in a Shakespearian England's summer sun.
Part 2 follows.
Peter S.
Although it is the wrong city (Alice is an Oxford girl!) I have decided I will start at the end and go on until I get to the beginning!
Tuesday was a pleasant day and I had allowed myself until 4:00pm to wander around. My first impressions of Nottingham when I arrived on Monday were the trams, which end (or start) at the station. On Tuesday I belted to the far end of the line and they are both remarkably speedy where they run parallel to the railway and climb the sometimes quite steep hills extraordinarily easily.
However, they only cover half the interesting part of the city. I had remarked on the Monday on lost opportunities, due to seeming lack of vision from the city council, as much modern building was haphazardly idiosyncratic. However, there are many pleasant areas. Around the castle is one of them, into which I did not go as it seemed more theme park than true castle. The pedestrianisation of the main shopping centre made it seem a bustling activity of positive community life, despite being midweek.
Community is an aspect that came strongly to my senses. I noticed this in the provision in the Old Market Square of a "beach" for children and fair ground amusements sitting beside a superbly designed formal water pool but with provision for the kids to spray themselves with the water jets. All this, outside the steps of city hall. The provision was at the cost of a commercial sponsor but the council's acceptance of this showed true community spirit, as did riding on the trams show me the value this transport provides for the wheelchair bound, the stations being carefully modelled to allow a self-propelled electric chair to traverse different levels easily.
Sitting outside an Italian restaurant for lunch, I fell to thinking on what a superb summer we have been having generally and of Hayley's tweet that she remembered more of dressing rooms than the actual theatres. I thought, why does she not take time out to see the places she visits? The Old Market Square was three minutes walk from the theatre? My business mind immediately provided the answer. If she were to take time out, half the transport costs of her chauffeured limousine would be charged to her personally, for tax reasons. She can't afford it.
Thinking on this and the way I for one treat visiting Hayley away as a holiday, her life in reality isn't the glamour it is so easy to imagine. She doesn't see the entrances, or grand staircases we do. She sees only industrial premises with restricted access for reasons of health and safety and security. She spends her life, boxed in. Even for the theatre, she sees only the auditorium for an hour or so of rehearsal to do her bits, then she is confined to her dressing-room. Where else has she to go? Anywhere else is industrial premises, a working area for those needed at a particular time. Performers are shepherded around. Her security classification may be "access to all areas" but that doesn't mean to say she is free to wander, except perhaps to sit in the auditorium and listen to other aspects of the rehearsal, or just to feel there is space around her.
Subsequently, of course, as I come on to offer my contribution and read how mine might fit in to other's offerings, I learn she is packing for Italy. So, yesterday she would not have had the time to stay over in Nottingham. As for Rome? She may have been able to grab a half-day, dependent upon flight times but the same tax principles apply. She is there for business reasons and her costs are allowable business expenses. Take some pleasure and the scale of costs to her personally suddenly becomes enormous, as well as administratively very messy. Taking time out is simply a nightmare.
Just some thoughts over a Skol and spaghetti bolognaise in a Shakespearian England's summer sun.
Part 2 follows.
Peter S.
, example, Throw an optic, means LOOK,
I love it, it is Soooo KOOL. and when she says its heaps kool, she is excited on the inside but dosen't want to show it on the outside, and if something is awesome then its really good 
