Millie Week 12: Thu 22 - Sat 24 Nov 1990

That first night is slowly but inexorably getting closer and closer... and nothing will stop it

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Millie Week 12; Mon 19- Wed 21 Nov 1990

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The Monday strip is surprisingly prophetic. Back in 1990 we all knew about cold calling, but the automated junk phone call was unknown. About three months ago I was plagued by them. No I haven't been involved in an accident that wasn't my fault. No I don't want to claim compensation for credit card insurance I never took out. And don't put me on f***ing hold as soon as I pick up the receiver!
If you're plagued by junk calls, may I recommend the telephone preference service - the UK's official opt out list. I joined it for free a couple of months ago and the unwanted phone calls now have dried up completely.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

The other two strips are more examples of direct experience. In the Tuesday one, I am that foot crushing dancer - Richard c'est moi. My apologies to anyone who has had to be my dance partner.

The second is based on the stage at the Royal Victoria Hall, Southborough, a theatre I spent a lot of my youth performing at. Stages are supposed to have a bit of a rake on them so everyone in the stalls can see what's going on - but the Royal Vic is like the north face of the Eiger. Any scenery put on that stage has to be securely wedged and blocked into position or it will start traveling slowly towards the orchestra pit. Anything on wheels is doomed - which is why no-one's ever dared to do Starlight Express there.

So that explains upstage and downstage. Stage left and stage right are more problematic - I have enough difficulty telling my left from my right anyway, so introducing directions that can change depending on the way you're facing is going to lead to disaster. I prefer the terms Prompt-side and off-prompt, or, nowadays in the White Rock, Hastings-end and Bexhill-end.

Pudsey

First of all - mea culpa! I have used the wrong form of 'its' in the last frame. Normally the apostrophe denotes the use of the possessive, except in the case of 'it's' where it is an abbreviated form of 'it is'. Chumley's also using a remarkably Northern turn of phrase as well. 'That's as maybe'. Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs, our kid!

As any of my UK readers will tell you, Pudsey Bear is the mascot of the BBC's annual charity telethon Children in Need. Bank managers will be sitting in bathtubs full of baked beans in windy shopping centres all over the country to show how wacky they can be while raising money for a worthy cause.

You can find out more and maybe even donate at http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/. I'll be watching tonight - at least as far as the traditional Doctor Who mini-episode.

Pudsey's injury is unspecified, but whatever it is, it hasn't healed in thirty years...

Too much information

Maybe I pine for the days when there were only three channels on the TV and four on the radio. The sheer ubiquity and abundance of the media today is somehow numbing - it's hard to find the time to fit it all in while simultaneously living your own life.

iPad

I don't have an iPad yet. In fact, just to be contrary, if I do get a tablet I may get an android one instead. Apple is starting to get a monolithic stranglehold on the distribution of new media and I think buying a competitor may be a small contribution to keeping the ecosystem of e-commerce healthily diverse.

Of course, if I ever get to replace my ageing iMac, I'll be sticking to Apple there. Their stuff just works. Trying to get a Windows machineto do something simple after being used to Apple's OS is like trying to coax a slightly backwards child to do differential calculus

Millie Week 11; Thu 14 - Sat 16 Nov 1990

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Millie Week 11; Mon 12- Wed 14 Nov 1990

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Not much to say about this week's set of cartoons - it's a self contained storyline. However, the hole-in-the- wall tuck shop seen in Wednesday's strip is a direct copy of the one in my old school, Skinners in Tunbridge Wells. I drew a diagram so that Roger could get it perfectly right, intending to use it in a storyline in the new year.

The main thing I remember about that tuck shop was the perfectly round indentations in the brickwork all around it - the results of generations of schoolchildren grinding their coins into the Victorian stonework.