vivdunstan

Got me some art supplies in (the pencil case is full of a good range of grades of graphite pencils etc.). I used to love drawing as a teenager. Especially in O'Grade Art and Design, when being sent out into Wilton Lodge Park on our own to draw the landscape and wildlife was just the best thing ever! I'd like to return to drawing, though I won't be able to get out much. Considered using my iPad, but for me, I think, analogue would be better. Wish me luck!

Me just now: “I wonder what my 3rd favourite computing book would be?” I rediscovered my 2nd favourite today, complete with school prize bookplate in there. I had form for spending school prizes on computing books! Even a 5th year French prize on a Pascal programming book 😜 Will ponder. Then probably blog about it. So far we’re talking 1980s though.

Down to just 1 thing left on my todo list of IFComp game fixes. That was 107 items long, including some tricky or major changes. I will be signing up to enter IFComp at the start of July, with final game submission due in late August. The competition and judging runs through September and early October - a month earlier than in the past. And yes, I really need to sort out some cover art. I have a design in mind, and have been experimenting with ideas re drawings on my iPad. That O'Grade in Art and Design has to come in useful somewhere 😜

More British Newspaper Archive viewing, with the Southern Reporter issues from the 1980s and some 1990s now online. I've just been pulling up lots of reports and adverts for Borders Schools Orchestra concerts. I think the attached one, from May 1984, is the first BSO concert I played in. Certainly "Land of the Mountain and the Flood" was the first piece I learned for the orchestra. I was in Primary 7 then at Wilton. I remained in the orchestra through to leaving school. Playing the violin. Which I am now very very lapsed on! But still have somewhere ... We used to play some fantastic tunes. It was also a really good experience to play in an orchestra.

Although I struggle hugely with print now I can still generally read plays in that format. And rarely read them in ebook. But I did this time, to reread Macbeth, which I probably last read 35 or so years ago in school. I've also more recently seen other televised or movie versions. So do remember much of the plot.

Reading a play script book is often rather strange. This time I decided to ignore the lengthy analytical introduction, which to be honest was better read after I'd finished. And dived straight in. Much of the play has a very minimal cast, but there's backstory and wider things early on that can get confusing. The scenes focusing on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are best. And why does Banquo talk in such a flowery long-winded way?!

Reading an ebook version of a play text had the advantage that it allowed lots of useful jumping about easily to footnotes. And this Penguin edition was well footnoted. Usually to explain specific words rather than lengthy academic history paper type digressions! For example I was thrown by the word "sewer", thinking it literally meant that place. But no, it was a servant. Thank goodness for footnotes.

I am amazed just how many key quotes there are in this particular Shakespeare play. Many of which I remembered from long ago, but others surprised me by popping up here. It's remarkably packed full of stuff.

And action packed. Oh yes, action packed. Staging it must also involve a lot of fake blood ...

As a Scottish historian it's also fascinating to see this depiction of Scottish history, through a 17th century English lens, with the complex situation of James VI and I not long on the throne in London.

I plan to watch the Ian McKellen and Judi Dench 1970s stage version soon. Meanwhile yes, that was a good read.

Dropping off back to much needed sleep, and of course my brain chooses now to torment me with questions about the tuck shop I helped run at Hawick High School in the mid 1980s. It was run out of a small store room / cupboard along the sciences corridor. And my brain now wants to remember if we jammed a table across inside the door to sell from, with the boxes of goods and money behind. And what was the money box like - I do have a memory of that one. But honestly, brain go away 😜

I shared this on Facebook too, so if any of my school friends can remember more about the tuck shop than me who was running it I might fill in some gaps! It was a great way to build up mental arithmetic skills ...