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