Zena Walker

            On Friday morning I went on my Christian’s Translations blog to edit some more of “On n'est pas la pour se faire engueuler" (We Didn't Come Here to be Shouted At) by Boris Vian. But the day before that I tried out the new blogger that they said would be kicking in at the end of June. That was fine for Christian’s Blog but with Christian’s Translations I use "preview" a lot and the new blogger wouldn't even show my draft blog in preview. It just showed the last blog I’d published. So I switched back to the “legacy blogger” so I could edit it properly.

            I worked out most of the chords for the introduction to “Flash Forward" by Serge Gainsbourg.

            Around midday I finished cleaning the top bookshelves in my bedroom and put all the books in place. Next I’ve got to return to cleaning in the kitchen and wash the southern wall.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story was another rewriting of an old script. Andy dates a woman named Gertrude Thompson who is twenty five years younger and they start talking about marriage. She says she thinks he would make a wonderful husband. He decides to propose to her and buys a ring but the night he makes a date to pop the question Andy finds that Gertrude is out and her mother is home alone. Andy thinks that he is asking for the mother’s approval of his marriage to Gertrude but Gertrude has been seeing him because she's been looking for an older man to marry her mother. Andy thinks it's odd when the mother takes the ring from him but he assumes she’s going to give it to Gertrude. The next day it is in all the papers that Andy is engaged to the widow Thompson. To help Andy out Kingfish convinces Mrs Thompson that Andy is a serial killer who puts the bodies of women in trunks. She breaks the engagement but to play it safe Andy decides to leave town. But a detective comes to question him about being a trunk killer. Just then Kingfish comes in and says, “I took the trunk to the station like you asked.”

            It rained so I didn’t take a bike ride but I did go down to Freshco because I was out of fruit. Something new at the entrance was a security person spraying my hands before I went inside.

            I bought three bags of cherries, a bag of grapes, a pint of blueberries, a pack of chicken drumsticks and two cans of peaches.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            I made a video of my practise of my song “Insisting on Angels” from my July 27, 2017 rehearsal and I deleted the rest. I’ve got five more videos to go through. My plan has been to start recording new videos to upload to YouTube after I've cleared out all the old material but I don’t know if I can do it with my current guitar. The Oscar Schmidt that I have has been going out of tune a lot more than it did in 2017. I think the fret board needs to be repaired but it’s really just a starter guitar and any repairs would cost more than the original price of the guitar. It was actually a step down from the Epi that I bought in the mid 90s but I couldn’t afford to repair that either. My hope is to try to upgrade sometime soon if the guitar stores are open and if I have enough money.

            For dinner I had two small potatoes, a carrot and a chicken leg while watching Robin Hood.

            In the first story the son of the Count of Severne is being held for a ransom of five hundred crowns by Count Beaumont because he kissed the betrothed of his son Sir Guy. But Severne is forcing his starving serfs to pay the ransom even though he has plenty of money. When Sir Guy comes to collect the ransom he steals a kiss from Joan the barmaid at the Blue Boar. Robin kidnaps Sir Guy and holds him for the same amount of ransom that has been taken from the serfs. Count Beaumont pays the ransom but immediately goes to the sheriff. The sheriff hopes to catch Robin when he tries to redistribute the money to the poor. The sheriff pursues Robin to the church where Friar Tuck is holding a service. Robin disguises himself as a monk and the money has been placed in the collection plate and passed around with the instruction that each person takes their share. The sheriff’s men are bound by law to leave their weapons with the friar while they are searching for Robin. Tuck places the crossbows under the seats in the back row and whispers for people to kick the weapons forward. And so when Robin leaves through the back way and is spotted, the men have no weapons with which to shoot him as he rides away.

            The second story is more complicated. Princess Avice, the wife of Prince John secretly sends for Robin Hood. It turns out that John is divorcing his Saxon wife and marrying the much younger Isabella of Angoulême. Avice says she is relieved to be rid of John but he cannot be allowed to marry Isabella. If he does so Philip of France will recognize John as King of England and Richard will be deposed. She asks Robin to ride to Dover to meet Isabella after she arrives in England and to persuade her not to go through with the marriage. Robin shows up in Isabella’s room as Sir Guy De Liste, Count of Montaignes, Earl of Gloucestershire and Cornwall and loyal messenger of Prince John. He claims he’s been secretly sent to protect her by John to protect her against a plot to kill her. Five guards burst in, Robin fights them off and then escapes on his horse with Isabella. When they stop in a forest to rest Isabella reveals that she knows Sir Guy very well and that he is a little fat man with a beard. Robin asks why she came with him and she answers that she was curious to learn more of her future husband through his enemies. She calls to her guards who have been following the whole time and Robin is captured. They arrive in London and Robin appeals to Isabella again. He tells her that John is not powerful but she declares that she will make him strong. Robin asks what she would do if Robin Hood broke into the Tower of London, stopped her from signing her marriage contract and stole her dowry. She says that if John is so weak as to prevent such impossible occurrence she will burn the contract but she tells Robin that if it does not happen she will burn him at the stake. Robin is imprisoned but Princess Avice, under the pretence of bringing charity baskets of food for prisoners, frees him. Avice knows of secret passages in the tower that Prince John is unaware of. One of them leads to the Great Hall where the marriage contract is about to be signed. Just as Isabella is about to sign the contract Robin shoots and arrow into it. Prince John immediately hides under the table. Robin fights off several guards, steals Isabella’s diary and then seemingly disappears into a wall behind a curtain. Isabella burns the contract and leaves with Avice.

            But the real Isabella of Angoulême actually did marry John after he became king.

            Isabella was played with a fake but very charming French accent by Zena Walker, who was very successful in theatre and earned a Tony award for her performance on Broadway in "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg". She was a regular cast member of the British TV series “Man at the Top”.

            Princess Avice was played by Helen Cherry, a noted actor in Shakespearian plays, theatre, films and television. She met her husband of 44 years, Trevor Howard while crossdressing in the film, “The Recruiting Officer”. She was arrested in 1961 while protesting against nuclear arms.