23.9.69 - first day in Edinburgh

23.9.69 [handwritten]

37 Great King St (around the corner from Dundas and Hanover Sts ˗ near Heriot Row, by George St (and Princes St), down from Canongate ˗ and so on! Obviously from the above you can see that I’m either today (23.9.69) in Dunedin or Edinburgh!! [Many of the street names are identical in the two cities.]

Today’s your big operation day too, isn’t it?? I’m praying for you, and have no doubts that you’ll get over this lot as quickly as the previous one. Look after yourself please and don’t be in too much of a hurry to get back to work.

Edinburgh is a very imposing place , it seems ˗ nearly every building in my part of the city (and also in the really old part ˗ this area is the new old part, (or the old new part, I’m not quite sure)) is made of heavy stone, and consequently several of the streets look much the same because they’re all of this grey granite ˗ (is it?) In fact to live in the old part for long could be a bit boring.

I walked up to the Castle yesterday ˗ that is a sight. And what a site too ˗ as we came into the city by bus yesterday we came along Princes St and on your right is this huge rock mound with a castle on top, and surrounded on all but one side by sheer cliff. Very impressive. The Castle was closing up when I got there unfortunately, but I may get back to it on Wednesday afternoon. I walked round quite a bit of the old old town ˗ and peered in at Greyfriars (Bobby) churchyard, though I couldn’t see much. It’s rather strange to find yourself back in a city where everything closes down about 5.30, and the place takes on a thoroughly deserted air. (London never looks deserted ˗ except about 2.00 am, or on Sunday morning.)

The Howard

I’m in quite a pleasant hotel ˗ fairly well-furnished but with singularly bare walls ˗ it’s the Howard, and is, I think, merely two old houses in a set of terraced ones that have been opened up to form one. [Three Georgian houses these days; possibly in 1969 as well, and probably more upmarket than at that time.]

The view from the Castle is fabulous ˗ Edinburgh is practically on the coast ˗ did you realise that? ˗ and you can see the sea! I found at breakfast this morning that I’m not alone in the Hotel ˗ Sara, the stage manager on the TV thing is also here, and Donna the soprano will be also staying when she arrives. I was sitting with a Yorkshire Forensic Science lecturer at breakfast ˗ he’s here for six months (had to leave his wife and three sons) to do a post-graduate course in teaching (as opposed to lecturing), and had my back to Sara for ages before I noticed her. We’re going to walk round to the Studios ˗ it isn’t far ˗ nothing seems to be in Edinburgh. It’s amazing just how small the city is! Love, Mike.

The letter that follows this one is here.

12.9.69 - more about the job

12.9.69 [handwritten]

Dear Mum, Well, well, the woman who was supposed to have come to take over from me seems to have changed her mind ˗ whether she’ll change it again or not I don’t know ˗ shouldn’t think so, but you never know. Anyway, at the moment, I’m on the full payroll, so they tell me (‘they’ being the Relief Manager who seems to know as much about it as anyone else), and all seems to be right ˗ except that it’s damned hard work! You’d never believe it; I guess it’s the hours. Anyway, I’m getting used to it and seem to be coping. This week I’m earning two whole days of cash I didn’t expect, so!

I’ve asked about the Edinburgh business and even that seems to be no problem. [I’m not sure if this means them letting me have time off to go to Edinburgh.] We’re still losing money ˗ to a variety of amounts, but until they get an adequate system, they can’t really tell who’s fault it is! I did put one pound in the other night as I had a horrid suspicion that I’d given away too much in change but otherwise they take it out of petty cash. Anyway, they’re making a hell of a lot of money ˗ the new film which started yesterday has been bringing twice as many people and we were fairly busy before!! The odd minute or two of it that I’ve seen don’t seem to be any better than those odd minutes in the previous week! [To go to the toilet, as I recall, staff had to go past the open cinema door, so glimpsing the movies wasn't uncommon.]

Berwick St Market, today.
Courtesy of Positive Dialogues

Moneywise I seem to be okay ˗ I actually put some cash in the bank this week. Yesterday I bought myself two ties ˗ equally colourful and bright as the 30/- one, but 27/6 cheaper, each! I got them in the Berwick St market, just round the corner from the cinema ˗ like a miniature Petticoat Lane. I’d better go back to work ˗ it’s my half hour break, and I’m writing this in a little Sandwich Bar down the road.

Later. Actually I seemed still to have some break left so I had an apple and talked to one of the ticket collectors. Remember how I said I had got some food off the ticket collectors ˗ apparently as gifts ˗ well, they asked me for it [the money, presumably], in each case, even though when I’d previously offered they’d refused!! Odd, isn’t it?

We all seem to be getting on well at the flat ˗ now that David has got all his stuff in, it’s really looking lived in. Not that any place I go to doesn’t; put Crowl in a room five minutes and he’ll seem to be at home!

Dave, the Trinidaddy doorman, here, has nothing to do but stand all night ˗ and he sez he doesn’t get bored, but spends the time sorting out his problems, and just looking at the passersby. Admittedly it is interesting, though I still like to have something to do. The variety of customers we get in here is quite surprising ˗ they’re not in the least all of a ‘type’. You’ll never be able to read this, I think! Love, Mike

P.S. Tonight, we tried a new system and tonight we balanced!

Sept 1969 - filming for TV in Edinburgh

30.9.69

Dear Mum, just got your letter in which you mention your many history-making exploits. I hope while you’re concentrating on making history that you’re also concentrating on getting well. I don’t know if you will still be in there when you get this ˗ I’ll send it to the hospital anyway, and put a wee note on it where to send it if you’ve gone home by this time. Glad to hear however that as usual you’re enjoying yourself thoroughly, though I do think it’s about time they found someone else to pick on for their experiments ˗ they always seem to find you such an interesting case, don’t they? Wonder why you’ve been given so many little peculiarities? Glad to see also that everyone is looking after you so well; funny, isn’t it, how both you and I seem to be considered quite helpless and everyone seems to rush to help. I often have dear old ladies helping me to buy things in shops, and others seem to find a good old sounding board in me for all their troubles. I know more about complete strangers’ troubles than anybody else’s! It’s nice also that you’re in hospital in the Spring;  you’ll be able to see all the trees and flowers coming out into bloom from your own private window.

We’ve had our first touch of Winter today; I was staying overnight at Mike’s (it was his birthday yesterday, and he invited me around for a meal ˗ and very nice it was too, and we just spent a very quiet evening sounding like two under-under-graduates according to Lindsay!) and when I went last night it was quite pleasant and mild, and I only had a jacket on over my shirt. This morning however there was a distinct chill in the air ˗ even though the sun is still shining quite pleasantly, and it looks very pleasant as long as you’re indoors, but I was feeling a little like a slightly refrigerated person by the time I got home.

I don’t think I told you any more about Edinburgh, did it? (I’ve written to Hazel who is away at the moment, and I think it was her that I told the rest of the story to.) Anyway on Wednesday morning when we were supposed to work solidly for about three and a half hours we arrived and rehearsed (after about half an hour’s wait) with the cameras, and then went and sat about and then were made up and then sat about, and then filmed it quite casually in about ten minutes! And it was apparently so right (a piece of commentary had to be fitted over the last part of our performance and it was so well timed that it ended exactly as we did!) that we didn’t even have to do it again, which they’d expected to. I think they felt they wouldn’t get it right again if they did do it.

So we finished quite early in the day, and after we had a huge salad each in a place that Ande Anderson (the producer) knows, we went our separate ways, and I wandered off to see some more of the place that I hadn’t yet taken in. I wandered around the East end of the town, I think, and this brought me to Holyrood House [Palace] eventually, which I investigated. Unfortunately they didn’t really show very much of it to us ˗ only about one floor, out of three or four, and not all of that I suspect. Still it was interesting, though like many other things it no longer exists as it did when it was first built, and only parts of rooms are as old as the entire establishment. A ceiling here, a or a door here, or a staircase here. Still the room where Mary Queen of Scots was having dinner with a couple of friends the night her secretary Rizzio was murdered about two rooms away is there, and the spot where he was left dying ˗ though the little private dining room (about as big as our kitchen!) has a telephone in it these days! And the bed her husband slept in is still sitting in his room, made up, as though he were just away in England for the day.

There are lots of fascinating little curiosities, and even more that we couldn’t see, I think ˗ you seem to have to go around with one of the guides who only shows you what they think is necessary. Though they are fairly knowledgeable about the place, and conversation with them is rather more fascinating than actually listening to the talk, which leaves dozens of little details out.

The setting for the House (like that of the Castle, which had about the magnificent setting possible on top of a sheer rock) is fabulous. It’s at the other end of the Royal Mile ˗ walk straight up the road and you eventually come to the Castle gates ˗ and is sort of the end of the world; all at the back of it is a great roll of hills, with a huge scar down the side of the closest. I first saw the House from above, in the sort of park area (Calton Hill ˗ correct spelling incidentally) which is full of overpowering monuments to long forgotten leaders of the town, and up there you can really see the setting. Everything is heavily built in Edinburgh; one imagines it would take an atom bomb just to shake the foundations let alone knock it down.

Since I got back I’ve had to work all the four remaining days of the week; Thursday through to Sunday, morning noon and night. I was nearly up the wall at the end of it. Fortunately I’ve had two full days off to compensate. Still, as employers they’re fairly good, in that I only seem to need to ask for a certain time off and they say, Oh, I think that can be arranged!

Lots of love and keep progressing!

15.7.69 Changing flats

15.7.69

Well, well, and hullo. (15th July). Hope you are still recovering properly like a good wee girl. I’ve had Fred’s alter ego in here twice just lately ˗ a cat that is growing up to look like Fred. At least as I remember her. (Do you know in this day and age of photos I don’t possess a single one of you! And I’ve got three of Francisco, whom I’ve never seen.[This was a Korean orphan boy I sponsored for a few years.] Send me one, will you? Even if you have to have it especially taken with all the rest of the Hannagan clan.) This cat is terribly cheeky and walks in whenever I have the back door open and food cooking. I was in the middle of a Sunday meal one weekend, and suddenly felt something rub across my leg ˗ only on this occasion the door wasn’t even open. What a fright. She’d come in an open window! But she’s very like Fred, and I enjoy her company.

Well, several things have happened of interest. To go backwards, today, Hazel and I received a summons to go and see Mr Kentish after one of the rehearsals. Well, remember that TV business that we had going on at the Centre a while back? And how I was shot sitting doing absolutely nothing? Well, they want the people who appeared in that scene to go to Edinburgh in September to shoot a scene up there as a follow-up and they pay! Everything. Great great great.

On Sunday night I went up to town and after going to Church in the evening at six at my little French church off Leicester Square (Mass in French ˗ and sermon!) (it’s a beautiful church actually built with the same sort of material as in Moran Chapel, but about six times as big, right next to a cinema currently showing a hit film on Lesbians.) [Moran Chapel is/was in the centre of Dunedin, in the Octagon: a tiny place that might hold twenty people.] (I’ll have to get a new ribbon.) (Hold on...) [I changed the fading ribbon to an equally faded red one; almost impossible to read.]

As I was saying, I met up with David and Hazel and Dave’s flatmate John, and a friend of Hazel’s called Kathy Bird. And it turned out that Kathy had found a flat which she wanted to move into but found that she wasn’t going to have enough people ˗ again someone had opted out at the last minute. I said that if David agreed (Syrus, that is ˗ the one I was to share a flat with) it might be suitable for us to come in on. It’s a place with room for five people and six if wanted. So anyway last night David and I went out to look at it (after David had said he liked the idea ˗ I’ll still be going down to Hastings though, I think; I don’t see any reason not to see a bit more of the place) and it’s massive ˗ five bedrooms, a large lounge, a kitchen, bathroom, and lots of funny little off rooms, that don’t seem to have any purpose in life, and a private garden which at the moment looks fabulous. It’s on the ground floor of an old three-storeyed house, and the place has so many doors ˗ most of the rooms have two (?) that it looks like the set of a French farce! It’s not actually ours yet, but Kathy and I are going in tomorrow to look at it, so I’ll not finish this until it’s definite and then if it is you can start addressing mail there. [A woman lived upstairs on her own, as I recall, which meant she must have had an enormous amount of space. As for most of the rooms having two doors; I think this is nonsense. Mine did, but not the rest, as I recall. ]

Tomorrow night I go to NZ House near Piccadilly to a reception being held by the High Commissioner for NZ for James Robertson and Kiri [te Kanawa] before they go to NZ for Carmen. [A recording of this production is available on You Tube, though for video there are only still shots.]

Last night before going to see the flat David and I had tea at Alistair’s house (which he’s renting prior to getting married); actually Dave lives there too at the moment; and very nice place it is. An old three-storey place too, semi-detached, which means that you go up and down all the time to get anywhere, and that it’s rather narrow, but it’s also very cosy and comfy. And the sort of place that anyone would be happy in let alone newlyweds.

I’ll leave the rest of this till tomorrow.

Tomorrow is now here and this morning we went up to the agents near Oxford Circus and filled out an application for the flat. Now they’ve got to send away for three references from each of us, which will take about a week. I only hope that if they do accept us they don’t take too long about it, because the date they seem to think we should go in is about three days after I’m supposed to have left here!

This evening I went up to NZ House (after spending the entire day mucking around doing nothing at all in London ˗ it has been so hot that it’s impossible to do anything; a real muggy sort of heat, which is killing the English. I sat in St James Park this arvo doing absolutely nothing except watching the people go by for about two hours ˗ even went to the all cartoon show to fill in time for an hour ˗ it was cooler, and anyway they had a Laurel and Hardy, as well as part twelve of one of those old serials) for this reception for Robertson and Kiri, and it was pretty deadly and I didn’t really meet anyone new.

Our production of Il Tabarro promises to be really something. James conducted it while I played for a rehearsal the other day, and didn’t even complain about my playing in any way. A change. But as a show it should be fabulous ˗ and will knock the audience for six.  Ande Anderson, who is producing, is putting rather more into it than perhaps he would normally, because the situation rather parallels a marital situation he’s been involved in (he hasn’t said so, but it’s obvious from the knowledgeable way he speaks about the feelings of the characters involved.) [I suspect someone amongst the students suggested this and it became a reality.] I’ll be playing the celesta in the actual performances, which doesn’t mean much, as neither Schicchi nor Tabarro have much for the instrument. [Handwritten] That’s all for now. See ya, love Mike.