The Sword in the Stone

In a random sort of life where there generally isn't a plan, it's still amazing how well things can go. Then you can say it was all your idea and "all went to plan".

On Saturdays we generally catch up on sleep. Shirley, Dan's carer, arrives at 11.00 to find us all still unashamedly in pyjamas. We get organised, we have snacks, we hoover, mop the floors, do laundry, load the dishwasher and then someone says, "What shall we do today?" Of course, it's lunchtime by now, so we have lunch and then someone says, "What shall we do this afternoon?"

Today was like all the other Saturdays, except that, at the crack of dawn (OK, 9 a.m.) I looked at the Visit Cambridge website and discovered that the Cambridge Touring Theatre Company was putting on an evening performance of "The Sword in the Stone" in the village of Houghton, just down the river from us. The precise venue was almost in the swollen river, by photogenic Houghton Mill, which is an historic building owned by the National Trust.

We were all keen on the idea of a picnic, but we hummed and hawed a bit because it had rained a lot and looked like raining some more. It was a windy day and the river was in flood from a week of storms. Anyway, Hanna got on line and sorted the tickets by lunchtime.

The idea was to take an evening picnic and some chairs and sit on the riverbank among the willows to watch the show; so that's what we did. Hanna packed a banquet fit for royalty and we took waterproofs and blankets expecting the worst but, although the sky remained cloudy, we stayed dry. However, the sound of the wind in the trees and the white noise of rushing water made it a bit hard to hear all of the actors' lines; but it didn't really matter. It was a silly, slapstick show that Dan probably appreciated more than anyone else. The cast realised that he was keen and made a fuss of him and he behaved impeccably. So we had a good time too. I'm up for more of this sort of thing; perhaps Glastonbury?