leaping 29 February 2008
Did you know that most of us do today’s day’s work for free because it only exists once every 4 years? So, not only are you further into The MAN, but if you’re a bloke you might also be saddled with a proposal of marriage. I think it must take great courage to say no when someone asks you to marry them. Poor old Rich hardly had the words out of his mouth by the time I’d agreed to his (as he now realises) crazy notion. (Poor devil, he was the only one manners enough to ask, ever, though looking back perhaps the other lovely lads were just plain smarter and knew when to get out…mmm…) I wonder how many people out there are married because of politeness or the avoidance of hurting someone they care for, indeed love, but perhaps are not IN LOVE with? This day, above all others, probably has a lot to answer for. No insult intended to all those who have found perfect happiness because of it, of course.
leaping 29 February 2008
Did you know that most of us do today’s day’s work for free because it only exists once every 4 years? So, not only are you further into The MAN, but if you’re a bloke you might also be saddled with a proposal of marriage. I think it must take great courage to say no when someone asks you to marry them. Poor old Rich hardly had the words out of his mouth by the time I’d agreed to his (as he now realises) crazy notion. (Poor devil, he was the only one manners enough to ask, ever, though looking back perhaps the other lovely lads were just plain smarter and knew when to get out…mmm…) I wonder how many people out there are married because of politeness or the avoidance of hurting someone they care for, indeed love, but perhaps are not IN LOVE with? This day, above all others, probably has a lot to answer for. No insult intended to all those who have found perfect happiness because of it, of course.
leaping 29 February 2008
Did you know that most of us do today’s day’s work for free because it only exists once every 4 years? So, not only are you further into The MAN, but if you’re a bloke you might also be saddled with a proposal of marriage. I think it must take great courage to say no when someone asks you to marry them. Poor old Rich hardly had the words out of his mouth by the time I’d agreed to his (as he now realises) crazy notion. (Poor devil, he was the only one manners enough to ask, ever, though looking back perhaps the other lovely lads were just plain smarter and knew when to get out…mmm…) I wonder how many people out there are married because of politeness or the avoidance of hurting someone they care for, indeed love, but perhaps are not IN LOVE with? This day, above all others, probably has a lot to answer for. No insult intended to all those who have found perfect happiness because of it, of course.
earthquake 28 February 2008
I lived through an earthquake once, in Birmingham of all places. I was filming a double episode of DALZIEL AND PASCOE and in the middle of the night my hotel room and, in particular, my bed began to jolt about. At first, I thought that perhaps the couple next door were indulging in an above average bout of energetic early hours’ delight, so much so that even I was feeling the earth move. Then I wondered about a bomb. But it was all so brief that I slipped back into slumber and in the morning was told we’d had a quake of 4.7 on the Richter scale.
Actually I stood beside a Japanese woman once in the British Museum at an exhibition about quakes. We got onto a moving exhibit that replicated a supermarket during an earthquake near her hometown. It wasn’t all that violent, to be honest, but it obviously brought back a lot of memories and by the end I had my arms around her shushing her sobs.
Today is the 10th anniversary of Dermot Morgan’s death. We all still miss him hugely. Do raise a toast in his honour.
the darker side 27 February 2008
I was asked recently through this site how I write about painful subjects such honesty and I thank that person for thinking that I do – it is what I hope for. I think that any writer (and those in other creative arts) who has felt hurt or sadness files it away to nurture it at a later date for whatever reasons might present themselves. I have often put it forward, probably a little too flippantly, that every actor I know (and me among them) sits back a little when sad or devastated or crying and thinks in some devious piece of brain ‘I must remember this’ for future use. It’s not easy to fake, I find, but you do remember how you looked or felt or sobbed or shook and try to use it to illuminate a script or action. As a writer it’s a lot more personal and that’s probably because you must put the feeling into words and not in a self indulgent way, but visceral and true. To be human is to experience loss, of course, but also a great happiness can be just such an ecstasy and they are really flip sides of life’s coin. And you cannot have one without the other. As a person gets older, there are more variations on the experience, from death, be it a beloved other or a cherished pet, to loss of love, or a careless hurt either inflicted or endured. But these are what we keep locked in our hearts, our treasure, and they all add up to what we are for our duration here. As a writer I let some of mine out in the guise of other people’s/character’s experiences and the feelings are all quite malleable in as much as a feeling of loss for one subject, and all it entailed, might just be how you imagine it would be for one of your creations even in another circumstance. And if you can imagine it, I believe it can happen.
I saw a quote recently from the late, great Irish writer John McGahern that explains a lot, especially on the part of the writer: ‘I think that each of us inhabits a private world that others cannot see. The only difference between the writer and the reader is that the writer is able to dramatise that private world. But that private world, once dramatised, doesn’t live again until it finds a reader.’
our eurovision turkey 26 February 2008
So Ireland is sending a turkey to Eurovision. Now, I know some of you will say all of our entrants have been turkies over the last few years but I must explain that this really is a turkey – well, he’s a puppet of a turkey called Dustin. He’s an utterly popular Irish tv character and the nation is behind him (it was a public vote) though some of my Eurovision purist friends are horrified. I should probably explain that I LOVE Eurovision and am part of a coterie that text one another constantly throughout the competition each year and vote many times for our favourites. I’m between two minds about the turkey. For one thing, I haven’t heard the song but I am inclined to think that’s neither here nor there this year. We have lost our superpowers with regard to winning the thing with good songs. And the Eastern Bloc voters seem totally uninterested in engaging with us. So why not send a representative that is SO out there? He is a very witty creation and will say anything for naughtiness and a laugh and I rather think Europe will be charmed by him. I should probably mention that during a past Presedential election in Ireland he campaigned unofficially and actually beat one of the 3 political candidates in a large area of Dublin – people simply made a box with his name on it and voted. Fantastic! And you know how much I like to see a nation vote from a previous blog. Anyhow, I am wishing him the very best of luck this year. Wouldn’t it be a total blast if he got somewhere? Purists say it’s making a mockery of the event but they said that about Lordi a few years back and I saw no harm come to the competition as a result of the monsters winning. And if he brings this baby home I will have to put my name in the ring for presenting in Dublin. That would be my ultimate DREAM job…Truly…I LOVE EUROVISION
sad 25 February 2008
Well, I am sad today as the Shrew tour is over. I think the show is very special and I will miss it and especially the brilliant cast. When you work well and so intensely with people you admire I think it’s impossible not to fall a little in love with them and the job and so it is and was with the troupe this time out. And the parting is a little like the end of a very wonderful affair, emotional and sad.
I don’t feel like this about the books when I finish them but that’s no surprise, I guess, because they are always going to be there for me whereas a theatre show is an intangible and cannot be replayed once it has reached the end of it’s run. Having said that, I do miss the characters from the Leo Street books, having written about them the most. Thanks to all of you who get in touch to ask whether there will be more of them and, as you all know, the answer is I hope so as I don’t think I am quite done with those fictional people and I am more than a little in love with the fabulous Andy Raynor. A gay friend of mine once posited the notion that Andy was based on him to which I had to say ‘that’s the man of my dreams and if anyone is going to out him it’ll be me, thank you very much.’
And now to unpack and return to real life. I will get a bit maudlin around 7pm when I would normally start getting into makeup and costume and have a laugh with the gang. It would be lovely to think we might revive the show and trot it about the world at some time. Indeed, if anyone out there has lotsa dosh to facilitate that, let me know and I will muster the troops.
the get out 23 February 2008
The wind down is fully on and we can practically see our own beds now. Being away and working has been strange and wonderful. We are a remarkably happy company and it’s very odd indeed that most of us won’t see one another again for quite some time. But we move on and such is the life of a wandering minstrel. And it does mean that I have even more friends now than at the start which is great. Of course there is still one last insult to our systems in the form of the company dinner tonight. This enjoyment must end.
mountains 22 February 2008
I love being in towns where you can see the nearby mountains. I think it must be to do with growing up in the West of Ireland. I was a city girl, sure, but we were close to the sea (another joy) and you could see the Clare Hills from our little patch. From my hotel room now I can see some Kerry mountains and it’s fascinating to watch the clouds obscure them and the rain lash them and still they remain stoic in their guardianship of the town. Yep, I’ve come over all poetic which must mean it’s time to get stuck into a bit of writing.
And some day I would love to live by the sea again and maybe there might be a mountain or two adjacent (though a few to be climbed in the meantime to get there I don’t doubt)
my man at the store 21 February 2008
Thanks to Dave at Compub Store, Limerick, for being wonderful – he da MAN