Man down

Word had reached me that ayearinthelife’s sniffles had gone full blown.

Based on his age and personality I naturally assumed that he wouldn’t pull through and so purchased a bunch of roses to leave at what I thought would be some rudimentary, hastily erected stage-adjacent stone monolith.

However, the thought of him not being present on stage for me to heckle increasingly became too much. Well, up with this I would not put. Not on my watch! Grabbing the punch of posies, I swiftly bound some max strength cold n flu pills to them with sellotape (extra) and with the concerned children in tow (they had already started penning a tribute song) set off to the Panto.

I arrived just in time to give him my package, which was received with thanks, but before I could stop him, he swallowed all sixteen tablets (washing them down with his ever present bottle of Talisker), bit the head off the roses before rising like Lazarus (nearly laddering his tights) and tearing his tunic asunder, from his manly bare chest came a roar from his very soul: “BRING ME MY STAGE….oh, and a lozenge, please.”

The performance that followed - hunch back and all - will go down in history as one of his finest, easily eclipsing Pacino’s portrayal of that other famous hunchback; Richard III. A single tear fell from my eye as the curtains closed and - in my head - the crowd continued to cheer and applaud ayearinthelife's Herculean efforts. I felt thankful that in the years to come, I would be able to tell people that I was there that day. I was there.*   

As you can probably tell, we had a great afternoon seeing the BATS gang and it was not without some envy that I watched them have a blast on the stage! 

Great way to end a fab weekend! 


*Please don’t tell anyone I took this photo as it will almost certainly result in a lifetime ban.