Tuesday 28 June 2011

Following a dream

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again and I hope you have time to enjoy this glorious weather. It's lovely down here with the beach in bloom and the sea calm and inviting; waters' still freezing mind.

Now it's with great reluctance that I'm writing this blog as it will be the last one for 6 months for I'm off to pursue my dream.

For years I've dreamt of writing a feature film which excites, thrills, and entertains millions of people. Now the research is done; locations visited; story and characters in place; it's time to write the script. It's a thrilling prospect, but over the forth-coming months there will be tears, tantrums, and despair, but that's fine. What's not fine, is not trying at all, or trying half-heartedly.

I'll miss you, but wish me luck and in 6 months I shall return to this blog, not a millionaire, but content that I gave my dream my very, very best shot.

Thank you for dropping by. Look after yourselves and ta-ra for a while.

Monday 13 June 2011

Military History Day at Shoreham Fort.

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again and I hope you've had a good week despite the weather. It's a shame that the rain has effected so many outdoor events but it's nice to see the lawns revived and smell the flowers again.

Whilst Beach Green was hosting Beach Dreams recently, the Old Fort was hosting the second Military History Day. It was feared that the event would be overshadowed by Beach Dreams, but that proved to be unfounded as hundreds of people headed for the Old Fort when the parades were over. The Friends of Shoreham Fort were delighted with the turn out and over £500 was raised for on-going preservation and restoration works.

Last weekend it was the towns' turn to shine as the Farmers Market, Food and Drink Fair, World Ocean Day and Italian Food Market rolled in. The centre was dotted with jaunty blue and white stalls and food offerings were complimented by Adur Festival events. Sadly we missed the mid-day concert by Brighton and Hove Concert Orchestra because my little charges were more interested in rolling down a grassy bank, but we did get to Sussex Academy of Music's open day arriving just in time for the percussion workshop. A dizzying array of instruments were handed around and we got stuck in. That was fun; noisy but fun.  I'd intended to produce a slideshow to show where we'd been, but what with the rucksack, cycle helmet and little 'uns I was more Norman Wisdom than David Bailey with the camera.

However, I have got a slideshow of the Military History Day. I hope you enjoy it and as before, check your volume control before playing as there is a musical accompaniment.


The Adur Festival continues until next weekend so there's still plenty to see and do. In the meantime, I'd better get back to the coal face so see you next week and thanks for popping by.

Ta-ra

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Beach Dreams 2011; the movie.

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again.

Last week I did a blog flash about the Beach Dreams parades so I thought I'd follow it up with a short film in case you missed it. Be aware that it's got a musical accompaniment so you may want to check your volume button before clicking play.


The Adur Festival is still on so there's plenty of time to dip into the programme and try something new.

Hope you enjoy the film and see you soon.

Ta-ra for now.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Blog Flash : Timing for Beach Dreams Parades

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you.

This is a blog flash to let you know when and where the two Beach Dreams parades will be leaving this Saturday, 4th June.

The first will be leaving from Shoreham Beach Primary School at 11.00am and will be lead by the Beach Bateria. The parade will shimmy south from the school up Shingle Road, around the round-a-bout and along Old Fort Road/ Beach Road then down the hill and across to Beach Green.

The second will be leaving from the Church of the Good Shepherd on Shoreham Beach at 11.20 am and will be lead by Shoreham Academy band. They will parade east along Kings Walk and down to Beach Green.

Both Parades are due to arrive at 11.45am and one of the best vantage points is behind the beach huts at the top of Beach Green. From there you will be able to see both parades as they approach Beach Green.

See you there.

Thursday 26 May 2011

BBC Radio Sussex - 100 Lives

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again and once more I apologise for going AWOL. I promise I've not just been lounging around drinking lattes, I've been busy working on two projects; The Death Dodger : memoirs of a RAMC Medical Orderly 1940-46,  and my feature film. I've even been talking about some of it on BBC Radio Sussex.

That came about because earlier this year Radio Sussex appealed for recruits for a programme called 100 Lives; a show which aims to interview 100 Sussex residents throughout 2011 as they strive to achieve a certain goal. I applied because I wanted to write a feature film and knew a bit of outside pressure would keep me on track.

However they didn't want me at first, then someone dropped out so at 1.40pm last Monday I found myself sitting opposite Sylvie Blackmore telling her that this was the year when I was going to write a feature film.  I couldn't give much away save to say that the film should do for flying what Jaws did for swimming. I was terribly nervous but Sylvie was brilliant; warm, friendly and welcoming. The whole process only took 6 minutes and then I was back out into the sunshine, still quivering like a jelly. That was nothing that couldn't be seen off with a big bag of yoghurt coated banana chips, so off I tottered to Holland and Barrett waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say, "You're that Liz Coward off the radio aren't you?" Didn't happen.

I'm back on air on 20th June when all 100 Lifers will be interviewed in a day. I should be on sometime between 12.00 and 12.30pm so it would be fabulous if you could listen in.

In the meantime, have you noticed that the marquee is up on Beach Green ready for the start of the Beach Dreams Festival? From 28 May to 5th June, it'll be the focus of a variety of community events such as the Family Fun Day on Bank Holiday Monday; the Dance Day on Wednesday and Beach Dreams weekend which will kick off with parades on Saturday 4th June.


But parades, performances and live music won't be the only highlights that day. We'll have the second Cannon Firing and Military History Day at the Old Fort.

The Fort Cumberland Guard, Royal Sussex Living History Group and 23rd Sussex Home Guard will be there to entertain and educate; Gary Baines will be available to provide updates on the on-going restoration work, and at mid-day the Cannon will be fired with great ceremony. Just remember that there will be rolling road closures as the Beach Dreams Parades process towards Beach Green so if you are going to the Military History Day it may be wise to get to the Old Fort early.

I'll be covering the weekends events in another blog but now I'm off to finish my research on Lifeboats, and why they are designed the way they are.

Thanks for popping by, have a great week and see you soon.

Friday 6 May 2011

Our Royal Wedding Street Party.

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again and a special hello to the readers I met recently.

I warn you, this blog will be full of superlatives because I want to tell you about the marvellous street party we held to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last week.

I'd never been involved in something like this before but, with a bit of prompting, hooked up with Diane, an unknown neighbour, and we sketched out a plan of action. 

Beautiful handmade invitations were subsequently delivered to all in the Close and we anxiously awaited a response. After a slow start the idea gathered momentum and by the eve of the party over 90% of those invited were coming and those who couldn't had donated food or furniture.

We planned to hold the event on the Close's green and as the wedding day approached, chased the Council to mow the grass. They turned up at the 11th hour and did a great job but left us with thick rows of grass cuttings; great for grass fights, lousy for parties.

Hence in the evening, Diane, Dave, her patient husband and I strode out with rakes. We were keen, but it was a massive job for three. Luckily we didn't remain a three for long. Ron, in his 70s, was the first out, followed by Tracey and her young children, then more and more neighbours joined in. Some came straight from work or shopping, the elderly sent their children in their place and the infirm sent their green bins. 
In all over 24 people worked together for an hour and a half to clear the green. No-one was asked, they just came with rakes, sacks, goodwill and humour. That night, as more helpers turned up to blow up balloons and assemble place settings, Diane and I acknowledged that we were now just walk-on parts.


The following day was the big one and with over 100 people expected, we began setting up shortly after 8:00 a.m. For the next two hours a steady stream of assorted tables and chairs, gazebos and umbrellas appeared from all corners of the close. Trevor donated his trailer as a bar and b
y 10:00 a.m the street party was in place and we all returned home to watch the Princes drive to the Abbey. 


Shortly after the fly past over Buckingham Palace, we were out again ready to decorate the gazebos and lay the table.  As we worried whether we'd have enough table cloths, Neil appeared out of nowhere and asked if we needed a 25 foot roll of Union Jack catering paper. We could have kissed him.

With the wind getting up, a team was dispatched to gather some pebbles from the beach and the call went out for the food. Trays of sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes, quiche, tortilla, samosas, crisps and biscuits kept coming. There was enough to feed 200, let alone 100, and we realised that whilst we'd been raking, others had been baking.
As the party got going, Diane and I watched contentedly as neighbours became friends, forgetting that we'd been strangers before all this.  
It was a splendid 48 hours and our only regret was that our spirited attempt to lead a sing-a-long became a duet. 


As if by magic, at the end of the party the tables and chairs disappeared, the litter was collected and the rubbish recycled. All that was left were bags of grass cuttings neatly stacked in a corner.

People say that community spirit is dead and before our party there was a clear divide between the two ends of the close marked by the concrete path. Yet this division evaporated like a summer mist when we had a goal in common and the community spirit flourished. It took just the tiniest bit of encouragement, so perhaps it isn't dead at all, it's just gone to ground and needs a focus to bring it to life. When it does, boy, it grows like wildfire.

Take care and see you next week when I promise I'll talk about the history of the Lifeboats.

Ta-ra for now. 

Photos courtesy of Ron, and Steve Coward. 

Friday 15 April 2011

Hello and welcome to my blog. Its been an obscenely long time since I last wrote, so a thousand apologies. I've been de-cluttering the house and revamping the garden so when I say it's lovely to see you, I really do mean it.

This week I'm breaking away from the RNLI series to mention some other local issues.

In my mind, there's only really one - roadworks. Shoreham is besieged at the moment. Some of us can attempt to by-pass them by nipping across the Saltings roundabout and driving through the airport, but I feel for those who can't. I know the town will be improved once they're completed, but I can't help wondering if they'd be finished sooner if HMS Shoreham's crew hung around menacingly with bayonets fixed.

Unfortunately, I missed HMS Shoreham being granted the freedom of the town as I was off to a 50th Birthday party but there is a nice account on another blog.

On April Fool's Day, the South Downs officially became a National Park. It makes one feel proud and rather spoilt for choice on a sunny day; do we visit the airport, cycle to the Port or yomp up the South Downs? A personal favourite is parking near the Shepherd and Dog pub in Fulking, staggering up the Fulking Escarpment to the Devil's Dyke pub for a quick lemonade before breezing back down. Incidentally, don't suggest that walk to anyone with a heart condition even if they think they've done it before. Chances are they can remember it being half the height and a third the distance.

It you wanted, you could time your trip for late May or early June and combine it with a visit to Shoreham Beach for the Beach Dreams Festival. It's a time when local residents get into party mood and celebrate our community with music, entertainment, food and parades. It runs from 28th May-5th June, building up to the big festival weekend on 4th-5th June. Alternatively if military history, rather than parades, gets you fired up head off to the Second Military History Day at the Old Fort on 4th June for the cannon firing, historical reenactments, stalls and an update on the current restoration work.

I've got to dash now as I can sense that someone is re-cluttering the house, so ta-ra and see you next week when I'll return with the next in the series of features on the RNLI.

Have a good week.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Shoreham RNLI: Rescues at Sea

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again.

It's great down here at the moment. We've got calm, warm sunny days; the daffodils are showing off and the trees are dressing up in blossom. What an ideal time to cycle down and see us. Just remember that Shoreham Beach ends at the Harbour entrance so, unless you're related to the Big G, you'll have to go back the way you came. Personally I would like to change that, but that's a whole new blog and a whole load of letters to the Beach News. Oh hang it, come here, I'll whisper, "how about a broadwalk from the shops down to the Old Fort so the beach can be accessible to all?"  Whilst the dust settles on that, I'll move onto the second feature on Shoreham RNLI.

Just to re-cap, Dave Cassan's been a volunteer with the organisation for over 17 years and spent 15 of those as lifeboat crew. He's now the station Spokesman and here he talks about some of their rescues.
Dave Cassan



"The ships officers know about the call roughly 2 minutes in advance of the rest of the crew. Then our pagers go off and we all come charging down here. By that time the Coxswain knows what the shout is, so when the crews arrive things either heat up or calm down. So it could be "calm down - tow job," because a guy's gone out in his fishing boat the previous night, gone to start his engine in the morning and the battery's dead, or it could be "launch both boats."

Launch both boats normally makes your heart drop because it quite often means that there is somebody in the water missing.  Around here, that will quite often be a diver who has got separated from the rest of his group. Now a diver's head is all that shows above water and it's the size of a football. So all you need is a wave slightly bigger than that and you can't see him. So if you've got a diver missing at sea we will tend to get more crew on board; the more eyes on deck, the more chance we have of seeing him.

Fires at sea are particularly nasty and you do wonder what you'll find when you get there. The problem is that everyone tries to get away from what's on fire. The only place they've got is the briny and you can get alot of people leaping off board if they haven't got a life raft.

We do have fire fighting equipment and we are trained and experienced in fire fighting, but we don't have some of the equipment that the fire officers have. There was a situation about 4 years ago where a cruise liner, the Calypso, caught fire in the Channel. Seven lifeboats responded to that and one of the things that was happening was the transfer of fire teams and medics by helicopter to the liner but also onto one of the lifeboats so they could supervise the fire fighting.

While we were fighting the fire, (the first one), underneath the West Pier, we had 2 fire officers on our lifeboat with thermal imagining equipment. They knew where the firemen were fighting the fire and were looking for hot spots underneath them. So they would direct us, "That piece of metal is far too hot. Cool it down. There's something happening on the other side."

In all honesty the worse shout you can actually come across is when you hear there's a fire at sea and there are children involved. The crews all tend to have children and grand-children so they share alot of empathy for people when a child is involved.

There are times when it's a horrible night and you're curled up in bed and you know what's going to happen. There are times when you've had a sharp intake of breath when you've launched and you've said to yourself, "this is going to be painful. I'm going to be hurting for the next three days after this one." But there have never been any occasions when we've refused to go out and I can't recall an incident where we've abandoned a vessel that could have been saved.

The partners, wives and families do get worried about their men and before the boathouse was re-built they used to gather there in dribs and drabs waiting for their return. It happens less now."

Next week, they'll be a brief intermission when I talk about something other than the RNLI, but after that I'll be returning with a feature on what makes the lifeboats, "the finest vessels in the world."

Thanks for popping by and see you next week.

Ta-ra.

Saturday 12 March 2011

RNLI: The Lifeboat Crews


Hello and welcome to my blog. It's wonderful to see you again and I hope you've had a good week. I'm very excited about the next series of blogs so I'm going to dive straight in.

The RNLI is recognised as being “just about the ultimate lifeboat service” and over the next few weeks I'm going to look at various aspects of the organisation through the eyes of Dave Cassan, Shoreham RNLI's Press Officer, a lifeboat mechanic and some of the crews' wives and families.


Dave Cassan has been volunteering at Shoreham RNLI for the last 17 years. He spent 10 years crewing both the Inshore (ILB) and All Weather Lifeboat (ALB), followed by a further 5 years just on the ALB. He retired from the crews 2 years ago so he could devote more time to management roles at the lifeboat station. 

In this blog he talks about the lifeboat men.

“The vast majority of crews are between about 20 years old and mid 50s. If someone wants to join, they’ve got to live within one and a half miles of the station because you've got eleven minutes from the pager going off in your pocket to the big boat (ALB) hitting the water. 

If it’s a life saving shout then all Hells let loose at the lifeboat station. We get that boat out as quickly as we can and go with the minimum amount of crew as long as we have a qualified coxswain, qualified navigator and qualified mechanic on board.  When she goes you’ll find that nobody goes anywhere forward of the tail end of the stern. You’ve got 30 tonnes of lifeboat travelling at 30 mph down a slipway and you just don’t want to get caught out.

There is an adrenaline rush when the pager goes off but by the time the boat’s launched you’ve had 10-12 minutes and you have calmed down. Then you’re completely focused on what you’re going to do.

The coxswain is in charge the moment the lifeboat hits the water and one of his main jobs is to make sure the crews are capable of doing their job when they get there. It’s no good getting to the casualty in 25 minutes if your crew can hardly move when they arrive. On the ILB if it’s hurting you slow down a bit, Enid Collett has hydraulic seats so it’ll be more comfortable at speed but you won’t be able to tell how much of a pounding you’re taking.

Our coxswain is Peter Huxtable and he’s the boss. Without trying to sound soppy or anything, the respect the crews have for him is unbounded, it’s incredible. If you look out and it’s breakers and you think, “Oh,” but Peter says, “Get on board,” you get on board because if Peter goes to sea, the crews know they will come back and the casualties will come back. 

There’s a bonding between the crews, and while I don’t want you to think that we put ourselves in as much danger as, for instance, the armed forces, they always talk about a bonding between a platoon and I think you get that at every lifeboat station. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it’s never going to manifest itself, but there are people here that you wouldn’t mix with socially but they’d lay down their life for you and you’d do the same for them. 

We all have our own reasons for why we do it. There are guys here who don’t want to leave Shoreham in case there’s a shout. A lot of them are self-employed, yet they turn up every time and go to sea every time and they lose money hand over fist because of it.

Shoreham lifeboat is full of consummate lifeboat men. That’s one of the reasons that the RNLI is so effective; the lifeboats are crewed by men who want to do it. It’s not a job, it’s a vocation.”



Next week I’ll be dealing with some of the types of incidents in which Shoreham RNLI have been involved.

See you next week. Ta-ra.

Friday 4 March 2011

Shoreham Harbour Lifeboat Station

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again.

We've had some sunshine these past few days, but no chance of getting too excited as it's been paired with bitterly cold winds; Mother Nature being a bit of a tease there. It didn't bother me too much as I've been holed up transcribing a detailed interview I had with Dave Cassan, Press Officer at Shoreham RNLI, last December.  I'll be sharing some of his fascinating insights with you over the next few weeks, but in the meantime thought I'd tell you why it's caught my imagination.


Over the last few years, we’ve seen the demolition of the old lifeboat station and completion of its’ replacement. 

It’s likely to be the RNLI’s last major refurbishment on the South Coast, and was built to house our new Tamar class lifeboat, Enid Collett.

Known as “the jewel in the fleet,” the Tamar class is the RNLI’s latest design in lifeboats and is gradually replacing the slower, smaller and lighter Tyne class, like our old lifeboat, Hermione Lady Colwyn.

The RNLI chose to replace Shoreham’s lifeboat because it is a key lifeboat station what with its’ Port, fishing fleet and extended area of operation. Indeed Shoreham crews have attended shouts from the Solent to Dungeness. However, when it came to rebuilding the lifeboat station, the RNLI were concerned about rebuilding on the same site.

Slipway launched lifeboats, like ours, are not popular with the RNLI. They prefer the safer and less expensive “afloat boats,” like those at Brighton or Littlehampton.  Thus they spent 18 months exploring the option of a lifeboat station on stilts at Southwick Locks, before resorting back to a slipway launched boat on the current site.

A frustrating 14-month delay followed as planning problems were dealt with, but this was tempered when Shoreham learnt that they were to benefit from a large legacy left by a lady called Enid Collett. Enid Collett came from Cambridgeshire and was involved in the theatre for most of her life.  She died leaving 50% of her estate to the RNLI which covered half the £2.7million purchase price of the new Tamar.

On 10th December 2010, the Newhaven, Brighton and Littlehampton lifeboats escorted Enid Collett to our new lifeboat station. "It was a truly historic occasion for us,” said Dave Cassan, RNLI Press Officer, “The last time this happened was in 1933 when we got a new boathouse and boat so what happened on Friday will be the first and last time that any crewmember at Shoreham will see that.”  Two days later, Enid Collett was called out on her first shout from the new station.

The official naming and dedication ceremony for both the lifeboat and the station will be held in mid-June.  However, the station is already open to the public from Mondays to Fridays, 10.00am – 2.00pm and weekends from 10.00am – 4.00pm. Group visits can be arranged outside those hours. 

If you can't get there, here's a virtual tour I made earlier. 


If you would like to know more about our station or make a donation to the on-going appeal please visit the Shoreham RNLI website. 

Thanks for popping by and see you next week when I'll take a closer look at the lifeboat crews.

Ta-ra.

Friday 18 February 2011

In praise of the American Dream

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you and I'm sorry it's been so long since my last posting. However it's not been all sun bathing in Florida, I've completed the first draft of my stage play, pitched for a TV documentary and made a lunar module.

If you've never been to Orlando, I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. There is so much to do. Just think there's Disney, Sea World, Fantasy of Flight, Kennedy Space Station, Wonderworks, Arabian Nights and the Outta Control Magic Show. Then there's the food. There's plenty of it, especially if you like fast food and meat and the meat is superb. However, the fast food is hardly going to feed the American dream, and that's a shame because it is everywhere. They sing about it at Disney; the Whales, Dolphins and Sea Lions are in on it at Sea World; the reality of its at Fantasy of Flight and at Kennedy Space Station, it's in 3D.

The message is simple, seductive and inspirational. Dream about what you would like to achieve without fear, compromise, or self-doubt. Pursue it with all the passion, courage and determination you can muster. Do not succumb to self-doubt, learn from mistakes and face the reality that you may have to go it alone. Keep going and when you succeed, enjoy it. Everyone's invited to join in, no ifs, no buts, everyone. All you have to do is find your dream.

When I learnt that the school were having a Space Day and it was fancy dress, I was still imbued with this idea and decided that our little one could go as Apollo 11.  Ignoring the fact that I could not sew, I popped along to C & H Fabrics for a metre of gold material and some iron on stickers. Armed with a dream of creating something stunning, the night before Space Day, I set to.

Unfortunately it did not go according to plan.  At midnight, I realised that the costume bore an uncanny resemblance a Wise Men. I raided the kitchen cupboards and learnt my second lesson;  don't scrunch up tin foil before sewing it onto a costume. At 6.00am, I learnt my third lesson, get the shape right first, and the fourth and final lesson at 7.30am;  double sided sticky tape works just as well as stitches. Well, Tom did go to school in the costume so the American Dream gets my vote.  So what's your dream?

See you next time with a feature on the RNLI. Have a great week.

Ta-ra.

Saturday 15 January 2011

Shoreham's new Lifeboat Station

Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you've had a wonderful week and the rain has not damped your spirits.

I'm afraid this blog is shorter than normal because the stage play is gobbling up all my time. However, as you've taken the trouble to pop by, the least I can do is offer you a cup of something so here's a YouTube video I made over Christmas.



The Station opened to the public on 8th January so pop by if you've time as they'd love to show it off.

Normal service will be resumed shortly, but in the meantime have a fruitful week and see you soon.

Ta-ra

Saturday 8 January 2011

What a load of twaddle!

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's always nice to see you and I hope the spirit of Christmas has seeped into the New Year.

Now that the decorations are down my thoughts have turned to goals and dreams for 2011. Some, like winning the Verity Bargate Award for best new play by an emerging writer, may be tougher than others, but it's only 7th January so I'm still hopeful.

Indeed, as I dreamt of life as a successful dramatist, I was reminded of a conversation I overheard late last year. It took place in a cafe as I was beavering away on a stage play. A threesome of middle-aged folk took the table next to me and commenced a long and earnest conversation about Creatives, Non-Creatives and Teachers, who are apparently, a sub-section thereof. As I battled the urge to join in, I learnt that we're not men, women, or in betweeners anymore, we're all either Creatives, Non-Creatives or sub-sections thereof. Moreover there are brain scans to prove that these groups think and communicate differently and if further evidence was needed, when one of them tried to explain this theory to a room of advertising Creatives, he was shown the door.  As they debated why, I was itching to offer a helpful explanation, but decided to keep my own counsel, until today that is.

I reckon the advertising Creatives did not want to speak to the theorist because he was talking a load of twaddle. Everyone can be creative, non-creative or a sub-section thereof depending on the circumstances. Why? Because we've got a 5 year old who demonstrates all three with great alacrity.

Thus when it comes to scrapping his leftovers into the bin and putting his plate in the dishwasher, he becomes a Creative. Hence he will slide off his chair with a flourish, flop onto the floor and explain that he's lost the use of his legs thus making it impossible to walk to the bin, let alone scrap his plate. With much heaving and straining, he'll then drag himself into the sitting room from whence he'll meekly call for help to get on the sofa as he's now also lost the use of this arms.

When it comes to cleaning his teeth properly, he becomes a Non-Creative for when I ask him to demonstrate to Teddy the correct way for Teddy to clean his teeth, he'll look at me indulgently and say, "Teddy doesn't have a mouth, Mummy," and proceed to clean his teeth without touching the sides.

When it comes to the sub-section thereof, well, that's a blog in itself.

"Ah, yes" you may say, "but he's a child whose not yet shown his true colours." Perhaps, but if I whispered, "Space, warp factor, Captain, and Klingon attack," in your ear and made you sit quietly for 5 minutes, I reckon you'd struggle NOT to create a story. In fact I'd put money on you saying, "Make it so," before the day was out.

So yes, based on my unscientific survey of one, I don't believe we are either Creatives, Non-Creatives or sub-sections thereof. I think we're all three from the moment we're born, it's just that some people are better at it than others which reminds me that to stand any chance of winning the Verity Bargate Award, I need to put on my creative hat and get back to work.

Thanks for dropping by and see you next week.

Ta-ra