Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

Down South again - part one

We recently went on a trip to the south of England.

The travelling seemed to involve an awful lot of waiting, plus a passport, even though we weren't technically going "abroad". And it won't be so unless Scotland becomes independent - but who knows how that will turn out? I think Alice is going to vote Yes even though she's actually English by birth. But that's food for another sort of discussion.

The waiting itself seemed to require a lot of snacking. No complaints about that!

Eventually we got on board. I hoped she was paying attention to these instructions, 'cause I wouldn't get saved if she wasn't!

I just love taking off and feeling that great Whoosh of power from the engines, then seeing the land becoming gradually smaller beneath us.

We had a super view of the Forth Bridges before everything disappeared beneath the cloud. Right click on the image to open in a new tab, and see it even bigger, folks. (And any others here, too)

The main reason for the journey was that Alice was taking part in an unofficial mini-reunion with three old friends (I won't say just how old) from her University days.

It would be the first time all four of them had met together for quite a few years, and they intended to revisit their student haunts as well as do a lot of talking. And eating.

They started with a sumptuous Thai Fusion meal the evening before their visit to Southampton University. And talked.

The nostalgia trip began with a visit to the Stile pub, where they sometimes used to have lunch. Alice recalled often having a Ploughman's [a truely super link here!] and a half of Newcastle Brown [and do try that one too] before going to the Library to write an essay - and then falling asleep there.

But times have changed and you can't get Ploughman's at the Stile any more, so they just stopped for a coffee.

They went for a look round the Library after that, but it had been so much modernised inside that it was almost unrecognisable - though the books were much the same as far as I could see.

Alice paused just here, because she has a great fondness for Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. She even wrote a dissertation on The Use of Blood in Some Jacobean Tragedies for her M.A. in Drama and Theatre Arts.

She was inspired by the startling stage direction "Enter Giovanni with Annabella's heart upon his dagger" in John Ford's Tis Pity She's a Whore. Well, it takes all sorts, I suppose.

This wonderfully gory photo, by Teresa Olson, is of Andrew Krug in a 2009 production by the New York Toy Box Theatre Company. They have even more like it.

If you want something really intellectual on the play in question, try the article on Courses in Drama.

But back to the tour. Still on the theatrical theme, however, because all four of our alumni (what a pompous Latinate word that is!) had been variously involved with the University Theatre Group, either acting or working behind the scenes.

They'd managed to arrange a back-stage tour of the Nuffield Theatre - which was opened during their time at Southampton. This revived lots of memories. But I won't go into all of them, or we'll be up until dawn typing away.

Here I am on the edge of the apron stage: a good place for soliloquies. Alice once stood here and did a crazy speech to the audience as Mary the Maid in Ionesco's The Bald Prima Donna for a Theatre Group contribution to Freshers' Week. It was her first taste of the thrill of holding an audience's attention. I'm tempted to say she's never been the same since. Oops. So, of course, I have said it now...

John Nettles did To be or not to be here in 1964! But we've mentioned him before.

This is the very dressing room where Judi Dench got ready for Three Sisters with the Oxford Playhouse, back in the 60s. Alice was an extra for them, and one of the others was delighted to lay out Miss Dench's costumes for her.

After lunch in the Nuffield cafe, there was a walk through the campus to the Hall of Residence where the four first met years ago. They took photos of each other here, but I didn't feature in any of those. I was getting a bit tired of it all by then, anyway, though they just kept on talking away and reminiscing.

The final port of call was to a house which used to belong to a fellow (yet much older) student, where there were often great parties in the old days, or a spare room for anyone staying out of term.

He had only very recently died, and the current residents were busy trying to clear the place up. So I got to meet his very elderly bear, who might even be an antique in his own right.

We then repaired to the home of one of the group who lives in the area, for a real feast with a special cake and lots more talking. What a busy few days... And there's still more of our trip to come in part two.