Downton, Cogges and me.

December 2015, was a very sad time in our household. Why, what happened, you might ask? Well, 25th December, Christmas day saw the screening of the last ever episode of Downton Abbey. Now if you're not a fan, you'll be thinking, so what! But Downton Abbey has been a big part of my life, for four years and has definitely left a hole.

Not only did it provide me with quality entertainment, it also inspired blogs about embarrassing, as well as exciting encounters and given me a new role as a tour operator. Visitors, from as far afield as Japan, America, Australia and Denmark, are still visiting Cogges to see the site of Yew Tree Farm. This has been an amazing opportunity for Cogges because, not only did we benefit from being paid for allowing the filming to take place, but it's also generated a new source of income, which as a charity has been most welcome.

I've missed the excitement of knowing that they are coming to film and the anticipation of which of the characters will be involved. There'll be no more funny little anecdotes of things that happened during the filming for me to amuse the visitors with when doing a tour. I have it on good authority that there is going to be a film, but have no idea if Yew Tree Farm will feature in it, although I think there's unfinished stories regarding Daisy and Andy and even Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore. But as I'm not Julian Fellowes, I won't have any say in it.

A false dovecot on the toilet block,

one of my anecdotes about filming.

However, I'm very grateful to Downton Abbey as it's helped me to grow and stretch myself as a person. For the past three years I have had great fun talking to interested listeners about two of my passions; Cogges and Downton. It's very gratifying when they laugh in the right places. It's also had its challenges. We've had a group that turned up one and a half hours before they were due and on another occasion, I was on my own with a group of forty four, when a colleague didn't turn up. I was very pleased, if exhausted when they left having enjoyed their visit, without realising that I was being like a swan, calm on the top, but with my feet going like the clappers trying to work out how to handle the situation.

Me, with Charles Edwards.

Then there was the time that I had to work through an interpreter for a group from Denmark. It was definitely a challenge knowing how much to say before stopping to let the interpreter translate. But it was really funny when I told one of my anecdotes about the actor, Charles Edwards, alias Michael Gregson, Marigold's father, taking a selfie of himself when he was filming another period drama here, and sending it to Laura Carmichael, alias Lady Edith, saying, "Guess where I am?". Some of the group did understand English and laughed when I had finished, then the rest of them laughed when they heard the translation. Very gratifying for a frustrated performer like myself. But the best thing of all was when the tour leader told me that the visit to Cogges had been the highlight of their visit. He explained that, although they'd been to Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey, it had just felt like they were visiting any stately home. But he said that Cogges felt authentic, that it was really like being at Yew Tree Farm.

No one knows how long we will benefit from the Downton factor. But I'll always be grateful for the opportunity it has afforded me to add to my skill set. It's also given me more confidence when meeting new people. I even accost visitors at Cogges and ask them if they're here because of Downton and offer to give them a tour. I'd never have done this a couple of years ago. I'm also considering extending my knowledge and becoming a history tour guide at Cogges, but that might have to wait until I finish my degree.

Scene from first filming at Cogges.

I've still got my fingers crossed that Yew Tree Farm will feature in the film which, rumour has it, is due to start filming next Spring. We have had more filming at Cogges this year, but I'm not allowed to say anything about it yet. I can say that it features three well known stars of the big and small screen. You'll just have to watch this space.

I've certainly been challenging myself over the past few years and I'm really glad that I wasn't afraid to try. Now my next adventure is that I'm about to start the last module of my Open University degree. For the next nine months I'm going to be immersing myself in the Roman Empire and to get me in the mood, my hubby and I are off on a cruise which will include a visit to Rome. So I'll finish now as I have some packing to do.

Photo's Isabel's own apart from:-

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1709270949086116&set=gm.1649751095097609&type=3&theater&ifg=1


Isabel Johnstone 2017 ©

Sometimes we feel that we are being held back, but...

"154 people who like, Isabel Johnstone, haven't heard from you in a while. Write a post". This popped up in my notifications feed on Facebook recently. First of all, I'm very flattered that 154 people like my page. But I'm sure that they've not been sitting at home pining away because I haven't posted in a while.

My last blog was about persisting even if, or especially, when something happens to discourage you. I'm still feeling chuffed that my short story was short listed, but I've been too busy working on my Open University degree to get down to any creative writing. But I'm now on my Summer break, so no excuses. If I'm being honest, part of the reason that I've not been blogging much recently is that I felt that I'd lost my direction.

My blog is meant to be about proving that 'Life can still be an adventure', but for the past few months it's felt like anything but. I began to feel that I was a fraud, who'd fallen at the first hurdle, and was letting life drag me down.

When I first started blogging I used to get inspiration from photographs with captions that people shared on Facebook. Just recently I saw one that made me think that perhaps this past few months haven't been a step in the wrong direction after all. It was a photograph of an archer and the caption said something along the lines of, 'Sometimes we feel that we are being held back. But we're actually being pulled back in order to be launched into even greater things.'

I'm not sure about the 'greater things' part, but I believe the point is that sometimes we need to take a step back, be still for a bit and decide what our next target, or goal is. It would be lovely if life was all fun and adventures, but we all know it isn't. But we also know that we need life's challenges to help us to grow, become stronger, so that we can deal with the hard times, which are an inevitable part of life.

Life is full of surprises. In December of last year, we were told that our 17 year-old cat, Chutney, had a type of lung cancer and only had a month or two at the most, left to live. We were devastated. But decided to make the most of the time we had left with him. But 5 months later, he was still with us. We decided to take him for a check up. To cut a long story short, he doesn't have cancer after all. He has chronic bronchitis, but is still enjoying life. In fact, only last week I had to take him to the vet as he'd been fighting and had an abcess on his ear.

We could've got upset and even angry with the vet because of the wrong diagnosis. But actually, we were so relieved and let's face it, we've all made mistakes.  To me, this just goes to show that, there is always hope. You never know what lies ahead.

I'm ready to keep living this adventure called life. I'll hang on in and see what I'm being 'fired into' next. Who knows what that might be?

Girl archer pic, courtesey of: https://pixabay.com/en/girl-sport-bow-arrow-exercise-1909006/

Isabel Johnstone 2017

Taking on the challenge: leap of faith.

Hello people. It's been a while since I've written anything, blog-wise. Life has been a bit of a challenge recently, but I'm not going to go into that. Suffice to say, I'm glad 2016 is over. I've learned a few things about myself and others, but it'll take me some time to fully process what that might mean.

Towards the end of last year I was invited to joint the Niume blogging community. At first I was really flattered and I even earned some money from it. I shared a couple of my old blogs from here and 2 of them were chosen to be featured, which was a great honour. But I soon began to realise that my blog doesn't really fit in. Most of the other blogs seem to be about sharing recipes, photographs or travel features. They have a rule that the blog must contain a minimum of 5 lines and the majority of them stick to the minimum, which makes my blogs appear quite verbose. Well to be fair, I guess they are, but I write as I speak, which is quite a lot.

So I stopped contributing. 

But this picture popped into my Facebook memories this morning and is challenging me. I realised I was scared of what would happen if I continued to contribute when I didn't seem to 'fit in'. Which was crazy really as they invited me to join in the first place, which means that they must have felt that I had something to contribute.

2016 didn't turn out as I expected. I had it all planned out that it would be a year of celebration, when I would be continuing my adventures. I did have some adventures, but a few of them were eithe,r not on my list, or didn't go to plan. I literally have scars to prove it for a couple of them. But instead of embracing the challenge, I let it rob me of my confidence and left me fearful about doing anything in case it goes wrong.

I'm still feeling a bit cautious, but, as of today, I'm choosing to not let it stop me living life and having adventures. I could see the Nuime blog as an opportunity to try something new, or just take the chance that what I write will continue to be well received.

Who knows? But I'm going to take a leap of faith and try not to let the fear of what might happen, stop me from trying to achieve what could.




Isabel Johnstone. 2017 ©

Photographs courtesy of:-

https://pixabay.com/en/achieve-fluent-adventure-barrier-1822503/

http://ow.ly/UhA2308E1JH

Scratch Messiah, the Return.

Being a 'lady of a certain age on a mission to prove that life can still be and adventure', I'm always on the look out for new challenges. I love to sing and I'm a member of a choir. But we tend to sing contemporary songs or songs from musicals.

Last year I decided to challenge myself and signed myself up to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as part of the 'Scratch Messiah.' For anyone who's never heard of it, this is an event which has been put on every year since 1974, by The Really Big Chorus. The idea is that people from all over the world rehearse Handel's Messiah in their own home towns or cities, then on the last Sunday of November, they all come together in the Royal Albert Hall in London, and perform it.

Now choral singing of this sort isn't really something I've ever done before. But I decided that it was an experience too good to miss. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but felt completely under rehearsed, so I decided to go for it again this year. 

I had to do most of my rehearsing at home using a CD and DVD which came with the song book. but I was determined that this year I'd be better prepared. 

We had a bit of a nightmare journey. Due to roadworks it took us three and a half hours to do a ninety minute journey. But we arrived with five minutes to spare, and after a quick visit to the loo, we were in our seats and ready to go.

There's a colour dress code for the choir members. Altos have to wear red, sopranos, blue and the men, black tie. I looked around and one half of the Royal Albert Hall was a sea of blue, right up to the seats near the roof, and the other half, red. The men were sitting on the floor just in front of the orchestra. There was a real sense of anticipation and excitement in the hall. 

Finally, the conductor, Brian Kay, and the 4 soloists took their places on the podium. 

The orchestra begins with the overture, followed by the tenor singing his first solo. Then it's the turn of the chorus. There were over 3,000 of us, with people from 12 countries around the world, from as far away as Canada to Norway. Can you imagine the impact that must have on an audience? This was the first time the young tenor had performed the Messiah and when we started to sing, his mouth fell open in surprise and then he looked around with a huge smile on his face. 

The atmosphere was amazing and the audience sat entranced until the conductor motioned them to stand as we sang the Hallelujah chorus.

After the last Amen, the applause went on for ages. No one wanted the evening to end.

A friend of one of my fellow choir members who was in the audience, a man in his 60's, said that it was , 'Magical. The highlight of his life.'

I have to agree. 

I've done it twice now. But I intend to keep on doing it every year for as long as I can.

Here's a link to a video of the Hallelujah Chorus from a performance a few years ago. Have a listen and see what you think.

Photos Isabel's own or by permission of Diane Iverson Mullinger.

Isabel Johnstone 2016 ©

Nine lives

I'm currently reading Classical Studies with the Open University and have been learning a lot about the Greek and Roman gods. One of the things they seemed to like to do, especially Zeus and his wife, Hera, was to turn humans into animals. Well I'm beginning to wonder if I'm an animal that's been turned into a human. I think that I'm really a cat. Why? Well, cats are reputed to have nine lives and I feel like I might also have nine lives. Let me explain.

My guardian angel

This year I've been celebrating a significant birthday and have been enjoying participating in a number of 'experiences' which I received as birthday gifts. The latest one was an indoor sky diving experience. I was really excited about doing this one. I really wanted to do the real thing and jump out of a plane, but my hubby wasn't too keen on the idea, so this was the compromise. But even that proved to be a bit too dangerous for me. On the morning of the flight day, I was checking Facebook and this picture popped up in my memories. A first sign of what was to come, but at the time I just found it amusing.

We set off in good time and arrived early at the Airkix centre in Milton Keynes. As we made our way into the building I spotted this ambulance drop off point on one of the doors, so I asked my hubby to take a picture of me pointing at it, just for a laugh. Sign two. Undeterred, I made my way to the reception desk and checked in. As we were a bit early we went off to get something to eat. But I was too nervous and ended up wrapping my piece of coffee cake in a napkin and placing it in my bag for later.

Finally it was time to report for duty. After watching a short video, it was time to get kitted out. I'd spotted a Batman flying suit in a glass display case and asked if I could have one of those, but I think they only had them in children's sizes, so I just had to make do with a normal one. Fully kitted out with flying suit, goggles, helmet and ear plugs, I made my way up the stairs, accompanied by the other crew of flight 17.

When we arrived in the tunnel room, we caught the end of the

previous fliers. It looked amazing. Then as we waited for them to leave, a guy on crutches with his foot in one of those rigid boot things, came hobbling out of the room next door. I wondered if he'd sustained the injury in the tunnel, but convinced myself that he was probably just there to watch someone else fly. The third sign.

Then we were off. I was to be the fourth person to go in. The first three fliers seemed to be all over the place and keeping the instructor busy, but they were smiling and enjoying themselves. Then it was my turn. I leaned forward into the tunnel. I adopted the position we'd been told to take and I was off. I couldn't believe the force of the wind on my face as I swooped this way and that, occasionally having to push myself away from the wall or lift my chin to make me go higher if I touched the floor. Usually you're only in the tunnel for a minute at a time, but because we'd paid for extra time, I was to be in it for two minutes. But sometime into the second minute, my back started to hurt and I started to panic. I put my thumbs down to signal that I wanted to exit. What happened next came as a bit of a shock.

All I could think about was getting out of the tunnel. When I reached the doorway I launched myself through. What I should have done was grab hold of the door frame and wait for the instructor to place my feet on the ground. Instead I fell flat on the ground, hitting my chin as I landed. There was blood all over the floor in front of me. As I exited the other fliers had started to clap, but stopped very quickly when they realised what had happened. I lay there for a few minutes too winded to move, then I was helped up and into a room next door. The others started clapping again. Apparently my flying technique had been very impressive.

To begin with, my hubby didn't realise what had happened and kept on filming, even as I lay on the ground. But eventually it clicked that all was not right and he appeared in time to help me up. The first aider arrived and helped cleaned me up. I'd cut my chin and she recommended that I get it checked out at A&E. Then the guy on the crutches appeared. It appeared that he was one of the instructors. By this time the others had finished flying and as they passed me they expressed their concern and once again commented on how well I'd been doing up to that point, even the instructor said how impressed he'd been. I joked that I told him that he should've let me have the Batman flying suit.

The doctor at A&E couldn't help smiling when I told him what I'd done. It just needed a bit of glue and a few steri strips put in place to hold it together while it heals. The instructor on crutches told them to give me a voucher to go back at a later date. At this point I'm not sure if I will. I don't think my hubby or my Guardian angel would be too happy if I did. But I did enjoy the experience and have a great video record of it, including the fall.

After my previous incident when I was bitten by a cat, Story of my cat bite. you can see why I'm feeling like I must have nine lives. I have one more experience present left, but it's for a spa day. That should be safe enough, shouldn't it?

Photos and videos my own, apart from sleeping angel.

My video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fy9zQczb90

Isabel Johnstone 2016 ©

Popstar granny.

The photo I'd use for my album! Lol.

I'm going to make a confession here. I was that little girl who stood in front of the mirror, hairbrush in hand, using it as a microphone, while I sang along to my latest record, dreaming of one day being a pop star. Well guess what? My dream has come true, thanks to my youngest son, who bought me a popstar experience for my birthday.

My friends on Facebook will already know that the first attempt was cancelled the day before I was due to go up to London, as the videographer had a family emergency. Then I received an email just as I was about to leave the house on the day of the second attempt informing me that they were having to cancel it again as the mixing desk in the studio had blown. Then, in August 2016,  I received an email confirming a new booking for a date in July 2016. I had to inform them that, as I didn't possess a time machine, I would be unable to attend. Finally, I was given a date in September.

The day we recorded 'Diggy, diggy hole'.

In the past I've had to keep 'mum' about a flashmob that Woapa were taking part in and also a recording of a video to be given to Oxfam. I thought that was hard enough, but having had two failed attempts at my popstar experience, I decided not to say anything about the third date I'd been given, just in case it got cancelled again. I'm not really a superstitious person, but I was beginning to feel like this was jinxed and was never going to happen. But I'm happy to say that I've been and gone and done it, and it has got to be up there as one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far.

When the second attempt was cancelled, they offered me an extra hours recording time free of charge. They also said that instead of having to go up to London, they would arrange for me to do it in a studio in Oxford. So on Saturday 3rd September 2016, my hubby and I arrived at a little studio called Safehouse, situated in Cave Street, Oxford.

We arrived far too early as we wanted to make sure that we left enough time to find it. The technical guys were in the process of setting up the equipment, so I waited outside in the car until the appointed time. It was at this point, when I realised that it was actually going to happen, that the nerves kicked in and I told my hubby that I wanted to go home. But I didn't, and the rest, as they say, is history.
.

Kit giving me my briefing.

There were three young men, Kit and Mike, who were the technical guys, and a young guy called Logan, who was there to video the experience. I found out during a break in recording, that I was his first popstar experience. He usually worked with his dad videoing weddings.

I was given a quick tour of the studio, it was so small it took about five minutes, and then Kit talked me through what was going to happen. Then I was in the recording booth, with headphones on, as Mike explained that to begin with we would run through the song a couple of times to get the levels right and then we would go for a take. The run throughs went without a hitch, but as I was launching into the chorus for the first time, everything went dark and silent. The computer had crashed! But Mike very quickly had it up and running again. I found it really amusing that this had happened, but it helped me to relax. I realised that I'd been waiting for something to go wrong, and now it had, but at least it was something that could be easily fixed. After another couple of takes, I sat back as Mike then worked his magic, cutting and pasting the best bits from each recording, to produce the best track possible.

Me, listening to my first take.

Although I'd been offered an extra hour, it hadn't been confirmed and therefore I'd only sent them one song choice. After Mike had finished working on the first song, we still had an hour left. Kit had been trying to get hold of the sound track for another song, but was unsuccessful. Undaunted, Mike found a way to download one and I had half an hour to record another song and for Mike to work on it. By this time I was exhausted and I could tell my voice was getting tired. But I'm absolutely thrilled with the end result.

My first song, 'Can't take my eyes off of you', has been added to the Songmaker official chart, I'd really appreciate it if anyone reading this would be kind enough to go on the website and vote for me. How cool would it be for this 'mature student' and grandmother to top the chart? Here is the link. http://www.theofficialchart.co.uk/search.php type in the name Issi, and it should come up.

Here also are the links.

Update made it to no.1  http://www.theofficialchart.co.uk/view_archive_day.php?day=2016-9-19http://www.theofficialchart.co.uk/view_archive_day.php?day=2016-10-3

Songmaker chart and have been there for 3 weeks.

Can't take my eyes... video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwueJsRVVJBUTi1JWlBEU3dhWlk/view?usp=sharing

Close to you video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwueJsRVVJBUYUxrbWljYkYwZEU/view?usp=sharing

Isabel Johnstone 2016 ©

Life goes on.

Our garden, but the grassy area isn't ours.

This year has been a bit of a challenge at times, (understatement). We've decided to eliminate some of the stress by taking our house off the market. I'm actually very happy with this decision as I had mixed feelings about moving in the first place. Our new neighbours are delighted as they didn't want us to move. But it has been really upsetting that the reason our house isn't selling is because of our garden situation. For those who don't know, we found out a year after we moved in that the bottom part of our garden doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the owners of a small industrial estate located at the bottom of the garden. We had to sign a lease which states that we can use the land indefinitely. It's been like this for over 30 years, but we weren't told about it when we bought the house. It seems unfair that we are being penalised for something we knew nothing about. Still, life is unfair at times.

A photo of me on a school trip to Hadrian's wall, shared by a school friend.

Still, it hasn't been all bad. At the end of July I was able to return to Scotland to attend a reunion of the Musselburgh Grammar Class of 1968. We were all turning 60 this year and a couple of my old schoolmates had decided to celebrate by organising the reunion. Roughly half of those eligible attended. A few were not able to attend as sadly they are no longer with us.

Friends who were at the same primary school as me.

I had a lovely time catching up with old friends and finding out what everyone had been up to. I've become friends on Facebook with some of them and there is talk of having another one in two years time, which will be fifty years since we all started at the Grammar School. The sad fact is that leaving it for another ten years at our age, could result in a few more not being able to make it. I even got to meet, 'the one that got away', and realised that it was probably for the best. The reunion was followed by a lovely weekend of catching up with family and other non-school friends.

August has also been a great month as we had our annual WOAPA DAY, which I always thoroughly enjoy. This year was no exception. For anyone new to my blog, I'm part of the WOAPA Adult Singing Group, which meets every Wednesday evening, during term time only. Every August, to give us our WOAPA fix, Brian and Lou, organise a day, usually a Sunday, when we meet and learn some songs on a theme, which we then perform in the evening for family and friends. This year's theme was Best of Broadway musicals. It is also an opportunity for those of us aspiring Diva's, (ME) to sing as part of a duet, or larger group, something we don't usually get to do with WOAPA. This year I performed a duet with Gail, the girl I sang with last year. We performed Carole King's, 'You've Got a Friend', from the musical, Beautiful, which is about her life and work. There was also a very special performance from a pair of sisters, one of whom is normally very shy and reserved, and it was very emotional seeing her being so brave.

WOAPA day wouldn't be the same without a surprise guest. Who can forget last year's special performance by Shirley Bassey, alias Louis Raschke. This time it was the turn of Dolly Parton, singing the iconic '9 to 5'. I was very jealous of her/his, legs, but I wouldn't have been able to walk in those high heels she/he wore.

I also managed to get a little bit of writing done. At Cogges, we sell a book about the places used as locations in Downton Abbey. But this book was published before they began filming at Cogges. I was asked to produce a double-sided leaflet about the filming of Downton Abbey at Coggges, to be inserted into the book and it is now part of the book. That cheered me up.

So, all in all, this year isn't turning out too badly. It's had its lows, but also some memorable highs, and hopefully, there's still more to come as i still have my Popstar experience and my simulated skydive to come.

That's all for now, I wonder what the topic of my next blog will be? Meanwhile I hope you'll enjoy watching this video of Gail and I singing our duet.

Photographs Isabel's own or shared by permission of Diane Iverson Mullinger.

Video, courtesy of Diane Iverson Mullinger.