The week that wasn't

 So this has been the week my luck in swerving the thin red flow-test line ran out, leaving me dutifully isolating amid a litter of cancellations, with only Boris' Partygate debacle and jigsaws for entertainment. So here are the excitements that would otherwise be filling this week's bulletin: 

In pride of place, press night at Bristol Old Vic for Dr Semmelweis, developed from an idea by, and starring, marvellous Mark Rylance. No-one who saw this actor in Jerusalem will ever forget his powerful stage presence, and the theme of a doctor struggling to save lives - albeit in a very different situation from our present one - is bound to chime. This is one cancellation I will definitely replace as soon as it's safe and legal to do so.

Also an immense disappointment was sacrificing my ticket to view BELFAST at the Westway in Frome - Kenneth Brannagh's memory of the Troubles of the late 1960s and early 70s in Northern Ireland. These disturbances are the theme and backdrop to my last novel The Price of Bread, based on my own experience of those fearful and violent days - if the movie stirs you up and you want another angle, you can get my story from Hunting Raven Books or me...      Meantime, that movie is going right back on my to-do list!

Sadly not replaceable is my planned trip to see the Red Dress in Somerton, as it will be en route to its next show-place next week. There's a film here about this impressive project, started in 2009, which has involved hundreds of women decorating the dress with emblems of their culture and their stories. It looks wonderful from the glimpses online - here's one small section of this full-length, voluminous, vivid, luxuriant dress textured with stories of women all around the world. 

Also struck from my diary: the opening night of a new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth on Friday night: Ida Applbroog, a feminist pioneer now in her nineties - the work looks fascinating & I had tickets to be there at the party....You can see the whole tour on this link - but at least this event is on for a while...

Also deleted: meetings with friends, my writers' group, a precious lunch date with my son and his family, a party, and a Burns Night event, with vegan haggis, bashed neeps and tatties followed by cranachan - portions kindly carried over to my house by hostess Emily, but I missed the poetry readings, including our annual favourite:  Tay Bridge Disaster by William McGonagall.  

Still, all in all, what with arrivals of flowers, food, chocolate, wine, jigsaws, offers of provisions and messages of condolence, being incarcerated in Frome isn't a bad experience. If only it were so mild for everyone...