Anita Dobson

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “S'il pleauvait des larmes” (If it Would Rain Tears) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Litanie en Lituanie” (Litany in Lithuania) by Serge Gainsbourg. I revised my translation based on a better understanding of the rhythm. 

            I weighed 89.15 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since June 16. 

            In the late morning I took an early bike ride because I wanted to stop at Steve’s music on the way back to buy or order the Boss FV-50H volume pedal. As I was riding west on Richmond someone called my name. He was sitting across the street with a couple of other people. I stopped and looked at him without recognition yet but he spoke to me again about knowing me and so I crossed over. As I approached I still didn’t recognize him but I did recognize one of the other guys, who was my next building neighbour Taro. When the guy reminded me that we were in Children’s Literature class a few years ago I remembered Brian McAffey. I’d also heard him sing Irish songs at the Tranzac open stage around that time. He asked about U of T and I told him that I graduated on Tuesday after sixteen years of going part time. He remembered that I didn’t pay for my courses and he said, “That’s class!” He’s working as a bike courier and I guess that’s how he knew Taro. He said he plans on moving to Ireland because he’s done with Canada. He says Ireland knows how to honour culture. I think Ireland is far less diverse than Canada and so it’s easier to honour a singular culture. He said if you’re Irish they’ll pay you to live in the western part of the country. When I looked this up I saw that Ireland will give grants of up to $92000 to people willing to move to the remote islands that are suffering from an aging population and a diminishing young population. It says nothing about having to be Irish though. He said he wrote a Celtic children’s book based on Frankenstein and inspired by our Children’s Literature course. 

            I stopped at Steve’s Music and bought the Boss FV-50H volume pedal. It was new but I guess it had been there for so long the guy behind the counter had to dust and clean it off. It cost $158.19 after tax but that’s cheaper than the $171.44 I paid Amazon for the one they lost and had to refund.

            I weighed 88.35 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar lemon iced tea. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos at 16:30.

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:30. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “The Wooden Leg” and “La jambe de bois” from August 4 to 9 of last year. On August 4 and 8 I played “The Wooden Leg” on my Kramer electric guitar. On August 4 there was some lyric fumbling and traffic noise. On August 8 it was okay but the light was not good. On August 5 and 9 I played “La jambe de bois” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On August 5 it was okay but the video went a bit out of focus at one point. On August 9 the take at 1:45 in part B was not bad and it looked good. On August 7 I played it on the Kramer but it didn’t sound great and the camera was out of focus. So far the take of “La jambe de bois” on August 9 is the best and there are no good takes of “The Wooden Leg”. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “The Next State of Grace” I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio for my line “I’ve got no ambition and that’s a disgrace”. Then I shaved a bit out of the concert video so it would line up with the audio when I sing, “Guess I’ll sit here and wait for the next state of grace”. I was successful but at this point the camera had moved back to show both myself and Brian Haddon and so it’s harder to see what I’m singing. I decided I will go back to the recent videos I made on the street. I isolated the three times when I sing “Guess I’ll sit here and wait for the next state of grace”. Tomorrow I’ll decide which one I’ll use. 

            The recording I made yesterday from cassette to MP3 was successful. The tape from 1997 contains an interview with me on the Howl radio show, a rehearsal with Brian Haddon of my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” and a bit of a song by Donna Bartkiw. I copied it to my main hard drive and renamed it. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sourdough bread with Basilica sauce, two sliced chicken kebabs and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the 14th season finale of Doctor Who. 

            We left off last time with Susan Twist revealed to be an avatar of Suteck the god of death. She has already turned one person to dust and now she is reaching for the Doctor when Mel pulls him away from her. Susan blows on her hand and sends a dust storm around the TV studio that begins turning everyone to dust. The Doctor and Mel escape and he rides the back of her scooter to unit. At unit another avatar blows the same dust and everyone there also crumbles. The dust storm rolls through London with Mel’s scooter just ahead. 

            Mrs. Flood is at Ruby’s house having been asked to look after Ruby’s adopted grandmother Cherry. But then she says to Cherry, “Tell your maker I will come to storm down his gates of gold and seize his kingdom in my true name”. But then the dust comes and they too die. The Doctor and Mel arrive with the Tardis to pick up Rose in the time window at Unit. The remembered Tardis is still there and the Doctor enters to see that Tardis is much smaller on the inside and cluttered like a storage shed with objects from previous adventures. The Doctor grabs the TV screen that has been playing the VHS tape of the day of Ruby’s birth. He tells Ruby that the Tardis remembered is feeding off her and so she must remember harder because memory is a time machine. Meanwhile Suteck and one of his avatars has control of the other Tardis. The Doctor says that he had previously sent Suteck to his own death in the time vortex. But Suteck explains that he clung to the Tardis and so for all these years he has been the Doctor’s invisible companion. He says now the Tardis will be his altar and the temple of his empire. Every place the Tardis visited Suteck planted the seeds of death in the form of versions of Susan Twist.. The Doctor, Mel and Ruby enter the remembered Tardis and it works. They fly above the Earth where one can see the dust of death sweeping across the planet. The Doctor runs a cable from the control panel of the Tardis. He says it’s a molecular bond and an intelligent rope. He says the TV screen is holding the Tardis together. The Tardis casts a field around itself of 68.7 meters. That explains why in the earlier story Ruby’s older self was always exactly that distance away. The whole of time and space is dying.

            Meanwhile Suteck is tortured by the mystery of Ruby Sunday. 

            The Doctor finds one of the last living people and asks for a piece of metal. She gives him a spoon before turning to dust. He plugs the spoon into the TV screen that is powering the remembered Tardis to create real energy. Suteck only looks Egyptian because of cultural appropriation. Ruby asks why Suteck appeared on Ruby Road and when she asks the question Suteck appears on the TV screen. The Doctor observes that the time window is still connected to Ruby’s memories. When Suteck landed with Tardis that night in 2004 he saw the one thing beyond his comprehension, Ruby’s mother. Meanwhile Suteck speaks in Melanie’s mind and turns her into one of his avatars. 

            Another memory appears on the screen. That of Roger Ap Gwilliam the most dangerous prime minister in history. But Rose doesn’t know how she remembers him since that reality was erased. The Doctor remembers that Gwilliam brought in DNA testing throughout the UK. That means that in 2046 they can find Ruby’s mother. They arrive at the Department of Health. The Doctor extracts some of Ruby’s DNA and feeds it into the system. It begins to snow in the office. Mel has been taken over by Suteck and demands the name of Ruby’s mother. They are teleported before Suteck. Suteck starts killing the Doctor but Ruby says she will give him the name if he lets the Doctor go. She holds the screen out and walks towards Suteck. She extends the screen towards him and then deliberately lets it fall to smash on the floor. While Suteck is in shock Ruby hooks one end of the intelligent rope onto him. The Doctor blows a whistle that pulls switches inside the Tardis. It shoots away from Suteck’s grasp and the Doctor and Ruby go inside with the other end of the rope. They hook it to the underside of the Tardis’s control panel and then take off into the vortex pulling Suteck through time and space. Since all of the places that Suteck visited are now dead, the Doctor now takes Suteck to all of them. In bringing death to death he brings life. The dust reverses itself and everything comes back to life. The Doctor cuts the cord and sends Suteck into the vortex where he burns up and dies. 

            Kate Lethbridge-Stewart gives Susan Twist a job at UNIT. 

            Ruby’s mother is revealed and her name is Louise Miller. She was 15 at the time of Ruby’s birth and so was the father. She’s now a nurse and very ordinary. She was important because we thought she was important just like all historical figures. When she pointed in the video she wasn’t pointing at the Doctor but at the sign post that said “Ruby Road”. She was naming her daughter. 

            The Doctor takes Ruby to a café where her mother is having coffee. He advises her not to make contact but Ruby steps in and reveals herself. They have a tearful reunion. Louise comes to visit Ruby’s home and connects with Carla and Cherry. Ruby then makes contact with her father. She has too many things to catch up with and can no longer travel with the Doctor. 

            At the end we see Mrs. Flood in the snow on the roof of Ruby’s home, dressed in white fur with a white hood and holding a white umbrella. She carries a suitcase as she addresses the fourth wall and says, “And that’s how the story of the church on Ruby Road comes to an end with a very happy ending for little Ruby Sunday. But life goes on doesn’t it? Ruthlessly. And what happens you might wonder to that mysterious traveller in time and space known as the Doctor? I’m sorry to say his story ends in absolute terror.” Then she smiles and says, “Night night!” 

            Mrs. Flood was played by Anita Dobson, who left school at 16. She modeled and taught singing and tap dancing. She joined an amateur drama troupe. She went to drama school and then toured with repertory companies for several years, with the occasional job on TV. She played Angie Watts on Eastenders from 1985 to 1988. She has been married to Brian May of the band Queen for more than 35 years. She is also a singer and in 1986 she was in the UK top five with the song Anyone Can Fall in Love. She starred in the sitcom Split Ends. She co-starred in the film London Road.