Cast:
Kat (aka crinkles)
a teenager (aka crinkly cub the elder)
a smaller child (aka crinkly cub the younger)
Nat (aka fanta)
Greg (a youngster (ie under 25) (OK I exaggerate, he just happnes to look young)
Lindsay'n'Chris (aka birthday girl and Chris)
Mum (Lindsay's mum)
Dad (Lindsay's dad)
Mr Charly (denizen of York, just dropt in)
arabella
Act 1, scene 1. York, assorted locations, mainly the station
arabella arrives at York station and notices a map, thus uses it to work out the shortest route to kat's house.
Writes down route on back of ticket and sets off.
One way system sends mum back to the station.
arabella sets off via a different route, goes wrong and asks for directions. Tourists say no idea but have our now-unwanted map. This doesn't help as arabella doesn't know where she is.
arabella ends up back at the station and wokrs out another route using map
arabella finally makes it to kat's house.
Act 1, scene 2. crinkly den (aka kat's living/dining room) and the street outside
smaller child on laptop, teenager on some other gadget. kat's phone rings.
"It's arabella, er, which number do you live at"
-
arabella arrives.
teenager is behind fringe
smaller child gets sent to bed
arabella and kat chat
teenager goes to get ready to bed
arabella and kat chat
teenager goes to get ready to bed
arabella and kat chat
(you get the idea)
teenager goes to bed
lindsay, chris, mum and dad arrive and introductions are made
those present start to drink coffee and message mr charly, fanta who are in a pub and we message greg who isn't in a pub
mr charly and fanta arrive and more introductions take place
more coffee is drunk. we realise no-one knows the way except greg, who isn't yet here.
greg arrives
there is a final round of introductions and we (=arabella, lindsay, chris, mum, dad and fanta) get dressed for going outdoors. greg just stays as he is as he never took his jacket off in the 1st place.
5 bikes and 1 tandem are extracted from the crinkly den. assorted faffing takes place as some people put on all hallows eve type decor and vestment.
everyone leaves the street. mr charly to chez charly, kat for bed and the rest for a nice bike ride. It is not that cold, really, and not raining either. About what you'd expect in november.
Act 2, scene 1. on the road
cyclists get to the end of the road and turn right
cyclists get to the end of the road and turn left
cyclists get to [CUT!]
cyclists leave York and the roads are nicely empty. the time of day is passed, junctions are negotiated and miles go by. Every now and then all stop and regroup
nature is inspected from time to time; some people faff more than others.
A tale was told wherein on a previous occasion a certain member of the party instead of going in the direction of whitby went on auto pilot towards the home of an aged parent.
There is a longer stop and cheese and marmite flapjacks consumed (yes, really. they taste chees and marmite-y). people drink out of their water bottles, though it's possible that not all water bottles contained best tapwater.
Malton is reached and left behind
the party arrives at Pickering and leaves the route for a covered passageway.
It has started raining
Act 2, scene 2. a covered passsageway in Pickering
lindsay offers round cake CAKE!!!!
bakewell or cocoanut?
faffing happens
greg mentions that it's going to "rain for a couple of hours and then"
stop thinks arabella, oh, that's ok
"chuck it down" continues greg
"for ever" adds fanta (aside - it was still raining on sunday morning. whereas this scene took place in the small hours of saturday)
nonetheless with a certain amount of shared audax history, and mum and dad's desire to keep going, we continue.
there is another stop. this time we are passed by a random bloke with an umbrella and a clinking bag. we reckon he had gone 'round', fallen asleep and then been turfed 'out' to go 'home'
it can be noted that the weather is deteriorating as time passes
Act 3, scene 1. approaching the moors (trees either side)
(sound effects: clank/crunch sound)
dad starts coasting. jerking motions on the chain are visible. dad halts
(to be continued)
(sound effects: wind ruching through trees)
arabella is holding one bike and the tandem
dad is holding the other bike alternatively on the ground and rear end suspended
lindsay is getting oil on her gloves and
chris is handing various pieces
things are going ping! more often than anyone wants at that time of night and in those conditions
it emerges that not one but 2 links are gone, and a further 5 or so need sacrificing to have a join
everyone continues and finally the two halves of the party rejoin
Act 3, scene 2. on the moors (no shelter)
lindsay gets off the tandem and walks, it's become too hard to stay upright
nat and greg are in frong, down in the approaching dip
mum and dad are behind
arabella keeps going, on and then down, not that fast as there are bends and wet road
'I'll just catch up the others' she says (and didn't look back so missed lindsay rolling around laughing at this thought) (OK, that was a joke, lindsay is far too polite to do this except possibly in front of arabella)
we'll hop and skip through this next bit. suffice it to say there is a combination of : wind (head- and either side), rain and sleet (in face), occasional trees for those mumble seconds of respite from the wind (including one with festive decs on it). there's some airfield, some down bits, some up bits, some bits that are too windy to stay upright in, bits with hands and feet colder than ideal and where the shoes are squelchy inside. Down follows up, but there is more up than down. The wind is still gisting, it's still raining/sleeting and always dark.
There's an occasional pause in the rain, with only the chill wind left, pretending to blow out the damp; and lo! there is light in the east and juliet is the sun (or not). Followed soon after by the sight of the BRIGHT LIGHTS of whitby and what must therefore be the SEASIDE (cheers!). There's still the shoulder of the moor to crawl round though (she'll be comoing round the mountain etc.). The wind hasn't abated, not one whit for the approaching by (that's supposed to be a multilingual eng/scandi joke btw).
Last gasp of the moors: blue bank, 20% down (last few days!!!). with the result that arabella walks up the gentlish, sheltered slope out of sleights to stamp some circulation back into her feet. and on to the excitement of a roundabout 'down that way to whitby'. and down it was, all the way to the windy seaside,
Act 4, scene 1. whitby
arabella realises she doean't know where the others are and inspects that marvellous gadget, her stupidphone. It tells her (i) lindsay, chris, mum and dad steamed back to Pickering in 5 mins flat and got a nice hot coffee, mum and dad looked after the coffee while lindsay and chris flew back to Malton and a train to york and (ii) that greg and nat are in the singing kettle
'where's that'
'up this street'
a passerby is rather more helpful - just round that corner over there by oddbins
arabella trundles off, ties up bike orders breakfast (including TEA) and joins nat and greg to compare notes on wetness, dampness, the wind and other such matters. neither politics nor religion got a mention.
the plan is communicated: catch the 8:45 back to york, giving a mere 57 minutes to stuff in the breakfast, gulp down the tea and purchase a ticket "not vaild for darlington" "change at middlesborough for the manchester airport service".
and so it was. apart from kat, aka comms central, pointing out that maybe lindsay and chris might have some deltas (hurrah for kat)
Act 4, scene 2. not whitby
train is filled with slumbering cyclists attempting to dry their feet
arabella gets out and follows signs to $small_village_centre and thence towards chez lindsay'n'chris, or rather the magic van which, having deposited mum and dad is now looking for arabella (YAY! it has blankets. arabella was getting cold, again) showers were taken, hot chocolate drunk and snoozes had
then mum, lindsay and Arabella talk about knitting. as you do
dad and chris reappear and the conversation turns to faffing. as it might.
no-one mentions the weather (I may have magically forgotten), but it is still raining and windy.
