Thursday, 30 July 2020

Closing the Door on the Door




            On Wednesday morning I finished looking for the chords for Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg. I’d tracked down four sets of chords and then I started working out which one fit the best. I found that the first set, in the key of F worked best, but with some variations. I worked out the chords for the first two lines.
            Around midday I looked for and found right away the sanding block that my landlord gave me more than ten years ago and I started sanding the closed off door in the bedroom. I made a lot of progress and although I had previously guessed that it would take me all summer, I now think that it might be finished by the middle of August.
            I had cheese, lettuce and cucumber with ranch dressing on a toasted croissant for lunch.
            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Sapphire has just graduated from business school and she’s gotten a job as a buyer for a department store. Upon learning that company policy does not allow for the hiring of married women, Sapphire tells her boss that she’s single but she doesn’t tell her husband. After Kingfish comes to bring Sapphire a sandwich at work she tells her boss that he’s her brother. The boss has fallen in love with Sapphire and goes to Kingfish to ask for her hand in marriage.
            I took a bike ride. There were a lot of cyclists out riding and I had to pass a long line in the Annex. Because I was racing a young woman most of the way, although I left later than usual I got home sooner. It’s strange that I didn’t pass myself on the way.
            I had an egg and a loaf of warmed up naan for dinner with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
            In the first story Little John tries to rob a sweet talking peddler who instead sells him a set of dice that he calls “Pharaoh Stones”. He convinces Little John that the stones can predict the future and the first few times they seem to be right. Little John rolls them to find out about his friends and when the serpents come up they are supposed to indicate danger. Little John finds Will and Edgar attacked by three of the sheriff’s men and he thinks the stones predicted it with three serpents. Little John, believing that the stones are protecting him, single handedly attacks the three soldiers and defeats them. Later Marian is visiting the camp but after she leaves and Robin escorts her to the edge of the forest Little John rolls the stones and believes Marian will be in danger at the bridge. He rushes to warn her and just as she stops and turns a tree falls to where she would have been if she’d kept walking. It’s tax time and Robin wants to intercept the sheriff’s tax collectors with several coordinated raids, but Little John rolls the stones and declares that no one should go. Since the stones have been right twice in a row, every man but Robin and Will agree that they must not disobey the stones. Robin decides that a stop must be put to these Pharaoh stones and so he forms a plan which he implements with the help of Marian and Will. Later Will arrives out of breath at the camp announcing that Marian has been captured by the sheriff’s men at the old barn by the bridge. Little John says they must rescue her but Robin says they must roll the Pharaoh stones first. He deliberately has them turn up with all serpents. Robin says they can't go but, as Robin hoped, Little John breaks free of the stones’ influence and heads off to rescue Marian. Shortly after that Marian returns to the camp and tells Robin that there are soldiers occupying the old barn. Realizing that Little John will be captured Robin and his men head for the barn. Little John is indeed captured and bound in the barn where the tax collectors are counting everything they took from the poor people of Nottingham. Robin shoots out the lamps and before the soldiers can shut the doors and windows Robin and the men are inside. The ledger reads, "Sheriff's tax 1200 marks" but Robin adds, "Robin Hood's tax, 600 marks". Little John gives the stones to Will but Robin takes them and throws them into the forest.
            In the second story Robin and Will are in Nottingham being pursued by the sheriff’s men. They decide to split up and Robin enters a house where he is greeted by a handmaiden named Ann who acts like she was expecting him. She leads him into the house but at the stairs he is confronted by the master of the house, Bligh Denton the merchant. Denton thinks that Robin is Sir Peter Marston, who has been secretly courting his daughter Judith. Denton has called for priest and plans to put a stop to the sneaking around by forcing Sir Peter to marry Judith that night. Of course when Judith sees Robin she knows that he is not Peter but Robin convinces her not to reveal to her father that he is not whom he thinks he is. The priest comes down the street and he turns out to be Friar Tuck. But before Tuck gets to the door of the Denton house he sees Sir Peter trying to enter just as the sheriff’s men grab him and take him to the deputy sheriff. After learning of the complex circumstances from Robin, Tuck performs a marriage ceremony. Meanwhile Sir Peter is trying to convince the deputy that he is not an outlaw. The deputy finally agrees to take Sir Peter to the Denton house if only to prove that he is lying. When the sheriff’s men come to the door Robin takes Denton into another room. Then Robin emerges disguised as Denton, somehow having acquired a fake beard, and welcomes the deputy. Judith's embrace of Peter proves that he has been telling the truth. The deputy leaves but Peter is initially upset that Judith has married another man. Tuck explains that he married Judith to Peter Marston and so it was a marriage by proxy. All that he and Judith have to do is join hands and declare their marriage as valid and so they do. Despite having been tied up in the other room Denton is happy to have a knight for a son in law and the prospects it will have for his business.

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