Ann Stephens

            On Monday morning I had all but the last verse of “La ballade de Johnny Jane” by Serge Gainsbourg memorized.

            I’m pretty sure there is a manufacturing flaw in the machine  head of my B string. I’m going to have to take the guitar back to Remenyi to get it fixed under the warranty.

            Around midday I returned to sanding the old exit door in my bedroom. There is a lot of plaster to sand around the bottom and it’s going to take a long time to smooth it down. I managed to get rid of the rest of the stickers and most of the markings on the body of the door.

            I brought the vacuum cleaner in to suck up the plaster dust that didn’t fall on the drop sheet (which was most of it). The plaster dust is so fine that it clogs the filter and I lose suction but I managed to vacuum most of it before suddenly my vacuum cleaner died. I assumed that the fine powder had made it into the motor and clogged it and since I can’t sand plaster without a vacuum cleaner I decided that on Wednesday I would go to Walmart to get another one. But upon writing this on Tuesday morning I thought I'd plug the machine in to double check and it worked. I guess it had previously overheated though it would be the first time so it definitely must be getting old and not long for this world. I guess I should try to sweep most of the plaster dust and only use the vacuum for the excess.

            I had a sausage and lettuce salad for lunch with mayonnaise and ketchup dressing.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Andy meets and starts dating a woman named Theresa Wilson but after a while she suddenly eloped with someone else. Andy is so broken up about it that finally Kingfish suggests that he go and see the psychiatrist named Dr Melville Tomkins whose just set up offices in the neighbourhood. He could tell him all the intimate details of his relationship with Theresa and get it off his chest. But what they don’t know is that Melville is the man that Theresa eloped with. He is a former football player and he is very jealous. Kingfish learns this after Andy has started his appointment and so he has to find a subtle way to warn Andy without arousing the doctor’s suspicions. Kingfish grabs a guitar he’d had in storage and goes to pretend to be a street musician playing under Tomkins’s office window. Andy is about to tell the doctor the name of the girl when suddenly Kingfish sings, “There’s a doctor in this town, with his girl you messin round”. Andy says there’s something familiar about that voice. Then Kingfish sings, “Oh the doctor has a wife, high ho the marry-oh Theresa is his wife”. Suddenly Andy knows what’s going on and the doctor is catching up. He says, “I thought I heard that street singer mention Theresa!” Andy says, “Yeah I thought I heard him mention that name that don’t mean nothing to me too.” Kingfish sings, “Oh float off that couch with the greatest of ease. Don’t tell him about his wife in the balcony please.” The doctor says, “That man’s trying to give you some sort of signal and he definitely mentioned Theresa. That’s my wife!” “You mean Theresa Wilson?” “Yes I mean Theresa Wilson!” “Never heard of her.” Andy tries to explain but then Kingfish sings again, “Oh he used to play for old Notre Dame. If he hits the line you won’t be the same. Out the window down the street, now’s the time to use your feet.” Andy crashes through the window. Not long after this Andy dates a girl named Janet Sanders and she invites him to meet her family. But when she introduces Andy to her uncle he turns out to be Melville Tomkins.

            I took a bike ride and saw that they’ve taken the temporary posts away from the middle of Bloor Street so the motorists aren’t crowding the bike lane so much.

            For dinner I had a potato, two chicken drumsticks and some gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. I had to watch them on YouTube because the torrents I already downloaded and watched hadn’t uploaded enough for me to delete and make room for more.

            In the first story a fisherman comes to King Arthur with reports of a sea monster with two heads and many legs that is taking the men of the village out to sea and they are never heard from again. Sir Lancelot and Bryan investigate and discover that the monster is really a Viking boat with dragon heads carved at either end. They and several other villagers are captured and forced to work as galley slaves rowing the boat as they travel north. They must be at sea for a few days since Lancelot has a beard by the time they get there. The Viking slaver is named Horg and when they reach their village the slaves are displayed for sale in the market. One landowner named Eck bids only for Lancelot but Horg is surprised because he usually buys them all. Eck explains that he is in financial difficulty because several slaves have died. Horg wants to marry Eck’s daughter Sella and so he offers to trade him all of the slaves for her hand. Later when one of Eck’s men is abusing Brian, Lancelot tries to stop him. Sella intervenes and sends the guard away to talk with Lancelot. She says he looks very much like Prince Leif who she met in the north when she visited her grandmother there. Sella says she wants to free the slaves and so Lancelot offers her a plan for that to happen. He is shaved and dressed in the finest men’s clothing she can find and he arrives as Prince Leif the night before Sella’s wedding to Horg to ask Sella’s hand in marriage. Horg challenges Leif and while they are fighting Lancelot calls to Brian the signal for the slaves to escape. Lancelot is discovered but he fights off several men and duels with Horg, who he ultimately kills. He offers to take Sella with him but this is her home and so he joins Brian and the other escapees and they sail back to Britain.

            Sella was played by Ann Stephens, who was a British child film and singing star, famous for the songs “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” and “Buckingham Palace” sung when she was nine and ten.

            In the second story the squire of Prince Damien comes to tell King Arthur that the prince has been imprisoned by his own father King Rolf for treason. On the advice of his new advisor Eunice, Rolf has put aside his peaceful ways and has begun preparing for war against an enemy that only Eunice has seen and then only in a vision. Damien spoke out against his father’s new policies and was arrested for it. Since Rolf is an old friend of Lancelot he and Brian go to see him. When they arrive they are met by Eunice who tells them that Damien is to be executed. Rolf tells Lancelot that he trusts Eunice because she warned him not to go hunting in the forest because she foresaw danger. That day the forest was destroyed by fire and since then she has been his trusted advisor. When Eunice is alone with Brian she hypnotizes him and gets him to tell all he knows about Lancelot. Lancelot tries to persuade Rolf to give up his thoughts of war and he is almost swayed but must ask Eunice. Eunice pretends to go into a trance and channel Lancelot’s mother, speaking of all of his childhood weaknesses that he had previously recounted to Brian. Rolf is back in Eunice’s power. Before leaving, since Rolf has hired a master armourer Lancelot asks to buy a suit from him. Then Lancelot breaks Damien out of his cell, puts him in the suit and rides away with it unsuspected. Back in Camelot Merlin proposes that Arthur invite Rolf and Eunice to come to discuss Damien’s release. When Eunice arrives Merlin invites her to visit his laboratory he pretends to be a bumbling old parlour magician and in her contempt she lets her guard down. As he does the trick of pulling endless strands of cloth he walks around her chair and before she knows it she is tied up. He then pretends to accidentally spill something that releases what he says are toxic fumes. He takes  a cloth and breathes the antidote and says he will give it to her if she confesses. As Arthur and Rolf enter the room she admits that there is no threat of war and that she had the forest set on fire. Eunice is banished and Merlin gets to keep her hypnotism device and ends up hypnotizing himself.

            Eunice was played by Maxine Audley, who was known for her acting range on the stage, in radio, in film and on television. She worked with the Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company many times. Her best known film role is that of Mrs Stephens in Peeping Tom.