RNCM, Manchester

So today was Royal Northern College of Music day
I met some fascinating and creative people
including actor Michael Jenn
who is currently performing in
Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead
at the Library Theatre
Korean composer
Unsuk Chin
who is in Manchester for a festival
of her music
and Mike Hamnett
a marimba player who is half of
Snap Dragon
I also saw several kettle drums
and a large harp-shaped bag
which I presume contained
a harp

Urbis, Manchester

Urbis today where I
met up with illustrator Jim Medway
comic Alfie Joey and
opera singer Fflur Wyn
her taxi driver asked her
"Which Urbis? There are so many of them"
fantastic

Triangle, Manchester

Did the programme from the Triangle
today
chatted about the Manchester Ceilidh
Alchemy at the Manchester Museum
Hair the Poetry-Musical at Contact
Argentinian food from Gaucho Grill
and Craig McGinty told us how to make
money from blogging
sadly not enough to buy at steak at
Gaucho
who apparently don't do
corn beef fritters

White Water

Attended a concert last night
at my local church
given by members of the
BBC Philharmonic who
as a hobby
play as White Water a selection of British
folk songs with traditional instruments
including a Clarsach, Bodhran and Smallpipes

sadly the mood was somewhat shattered when
I was passed a note saying
'disabled loo is blocked'

I thought it inappropriate to ask to borrow
the Smallpipes to help
clear the plumbing
so I found myself at 10.15pm

with my local priest

staring down into a toilet bowl

Blogging Workshop

Just got back from the BBC Manchester
Blogging Workshop
I think everyone found it useful
I did
especially when Robin
was happy to do all the talking
I'd done enough talking
for one day

"Dad

they want you to write that play."
"OK. When do they need it for?"
"At least enough for the auditions at the weekend."

I'm going to eat lots and lots of
pancakes.

Chinatown

Spent a few hours in Manchester's
Chinatown ahead of the New Year
celebrations on Sunday
met some lovely people
the guy who runs the New Hong Kong restaurant
one of the family owners of Ho's Bakery
the author Helen Tse
and some writers from the Contact theatre

I wrote a poem once about Chinatown:

CHINATOWN

Chinatown
Is my kinda town
With its Imperial Arch standing up
And its ducks hanging down

Chinatown
The Pearl City
Is a restaurant that was closed last time I went
Which was a pity

Chinatown
Now here's a thing
It's got a great big heart
And a Little Yang Sing

Chinatown, Chinatown
So good I named it twice
The people are full of culture
And the supermarkets full of rice

Chinatown
Is my kinda town
With its Imperial Arch standing up
And its ducks hanging down

Woggles and Gang Shows

Thank-you to the nice people from the
Sale Gang Show for giving me my first
leather and metal woggles
in my days of Scouting in Chester with the 42nd group
I had to have a yellow one made out of plastic
it's such a shame I grew out of my uniform
otherwise...
Actually, no
there's no otherwise
let's just leave it there

Dib dib dib

When I was in the Gang Show in Chester it was called
Scoutabout
I've just found a link to my
first appearance in 1971
but I can't remember any of the
items although Fiesta Time
does ring a bell
and despite what I said on the radio
today
there were girls in it

(Disappears into the night
on a wave of nostalgia)

A postcard from Alan

Bennett
he's apologised for not mentioning me
in his diary for last year published in the
London Review of Books
and says I mustn't be 'miffed'
he also left out Melvyn Bragg
Harold Pinter and Alan Titchmarsh

wonder if they got postcards

Hang the DJ

I was at Salford Lads Club today
for BBC Radio Salford
(BBC Radio Manchester in disguise)
so I just had to have my picture taken
outside the entrance made
famous by The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead album
the other guys in this new picture
were guests.

A week off

Having a great week off work
writing and
browsing round second hand
bookshops
and doing little else
bliss

Where time stands still

I put the Super Bowl on the radio
next to my bed
last night
just as the game started
then I went around the house
doing my final chores of
the day
fussing the cat, clearing the kitchen
bathroom duties
switching of the TV and computer
what seemed to me to be about
twenty minutes later
I slipped into bed
the guy on the radio said that they'd
had forty-five seconds of play

they really know how to string a game out
in America

Bug

Forgive me for being a little quiet
I appear to have caught a writing bug
and I'm spending most of my spare time
churning out 500 word micro-fictions
along with working on a more
considered piece
I'll stop short of calling it the novel
because as of yet I've no idea how long it'll end up
or where the story is going