Ah, January. The time when people like me who like writing lists upon lists upon lists of fun things to do in the upcoming year write those lists upon lists, and those who are grinchy have a good whinge on Twitter or Facebook about how we should be ‘making resolutions all year round: why wait for January!? Grumpgrumpgrump”.
Well, actually, I do make pacts with myself year round because, given the natural warp and weft of life, what stands true on January 1st likely won’t be the case on, say, May 23rd. But I still love the new notebooks, the fresh start, the renewed sense of self that a new year brings…but I also know how most resolutions don’t tend to see the (half) light of February. Oh sorry, I meant, how most of my resolutions don’t make it that far.
So I’m breaking it down a little in 2012. Measurable goals, a bit of carrot and stick. In 2012 I got back into knitting and taught myself a few new stitches and techniques (this from a girl who couldn’t even purl a few months ago, is no mean feat). But typically I haven’t finished more than a scarf, and even then I didn’t block it, so £40 of perfectly decently knitted yarn is sitting in the back of my wardrobe, and there shall it ever remain. Not this year!
which brings me to January Challenge Number 1: Complete a fold-over cushion. Like, actually complete it.
Number 2 is – typically – fitness related but for me it’s not thankfully starting a new fitness plan, but continuing. Thanks to the ever-inspiring Ruth Walters (who, by the way is running 3 marathons in 3 months to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK), I started properly getting into running in the last few months of 2011, even cancelling my gym membership so I could buy some decent outdoor running kit. This year it’s all about persevering with the running, hitting some new distances and faster 5k PBs.
Which makes January Challenge Number 2: at least 3 runs a week, a 5K PB by the end of January and work my way up to one 6K run a week.
2011 was a busy, successful, difficult and fulfilling year for me. There’s still a million and 1 other things I’ve been wanting to do, but being publicly accountable for just 2 things is enough for me for now… so let’s get going 2012!
(PS: I’d love to hear if you made any resolutions this month and what they’ll be…tell me, we’ll be resolution buddies )
The boy is away on business for a few days, so I’ve been having a leisurely weekend remembering what it used to be like before the days of being able to spend 24/7 together.
A good weekend isn’t a good weekend without making some food…amirite? I’m no ”foodie” per se; my palate isn’t particularly refined. Hearty food in the winter, fresh in the summer = one happy Toz. But I do love to potter around the kitchen. There’s a special sort of alchemy in taking a few veg, bit of red wine, mince and other sundries and turning them into your favourite spaghetti bolognese or chopping up some tomatoes and bits and bats and coming out with the tastiest salsa. (Bubbling away on the hob and chilling in the fridge, respectively). As you can see though, it’s not all good-for-you stuff. I have a real weakness for Nestle Flipz but you can’t get them in the UK any more. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to make these sooner (maybe it was the 2 full bars of green and blacks chocolate I managed to burn in the microwave?) but there’s now a jar full – minus the pre-requisite tasters *cough*- sitting in the cupboard. Yesss.
I’m also loving my new water-purifying Camelbak…that I got fo’ FRIZZLE. Yes indeed and it wasn’t a five finger discount, ho no…I’m just a walking advertisement for Facebook with it (you can just about see the branding at the bottom in the pic). A colleague was given that and a £50 gift card to donate to a charity of her choice – well played Facebook – and she actually didn’t want it. As I was standing there being all, but it’s a CAMELBAK, she kindly donated it to me…good times!
I’m in love with this song (Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone). My friend Sam and I went to see Romantics Anonymous on Saturday night; an adorable French rom-com, and this was the credits closer. We sat in the screen until it had stopped playing, we loved it that much, and I’ve had it on constant repeat today. Which makes me think it’s prr-o-bably a good job the boy isn’t here to have to sit through that.
…and it’s definitely not a good weekend without a leisurely browse through my blog reader and a big bout of Pinning.
Add to that a good solid run, apple tea from Glasgow’s Willow Tea Rooms, some strength-training via the NTC app and a couple of lush lie-ins…and you’ve got a pretty great weekend.
* If you’re intending to see Audience at Soho Theatre, but would rather the vast majority of the content were a surprise, then please don’t read on just yet but come back after you’ve experienced it and tell me what you thought!
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I start this post feeling licked before I already try; after all, what new thoughts could there possibly be added to the plethora of reviews and dissections of Ontroerend Goed’s Audience?
Here’s my confession: I read as little as possible before going into the show. In fact, I had no idea before setting foot in Soho Theatre’s auditorium that it was even ‘interactive’, having read little more than the show’s title and brief glowing pull-out quotes from critics who saw its earlier incarnations. I tried to preserve an element of surprise for myself.
And while I’m glad I did, while I’m glad I didn’t know what was coming, I’m even more glad that someone else in the audience went in there somewhat gunning for a fight. You know why? It saved my own sense of shame in not knowing how or when or even if I ought to react to what was happening.
But to clarify: after a somewhat beautiful and relaxed sweep of the audience by a video camera connected to a giant projection screen, and a few brief musings on you-as-the-performance, the audience are jolted out of this gentle perusal of themselves in a rather nasty way. There’s a young woman in the audience on the front row. She’s pretty – very much so – and the warm-up guy begins to heckle her, his language is vulgar, his remarks vicious.
Now, had Webcowgirl not been there, had she not been utterly vocal and staunch in her defence of this woman (was she a plant?! Was she genuinely an audience member?), then I would have been unlikely to add my voice – small though it felt – to those objecting. I felt genuinely paralysed. On the one hand, you’re burning up with indignance, what he’s saying isn’t ‘okay’. But then you are the audience, you’re trapped in these self-styled codes of conduct. It might just be the play. It’s not real. It’s not real…and one minute you’re flipping through the possible reactions
well he obviously wants me to react, so I’ll stay quiet
but being quiet and ‘not reacting’ may be the ‘reaction’ he’s looking for
but how do you stay quiet in the face of that?
…surely that’s what they’re after anyway…
What would have happened if one person hadn’t spoken so loudly, so quickly? Where would it have gone? Where would we have let it go? Am I a wuss for being pretty glad it never got there? And at what point does the theatre stop being a safe enough space for what is happening and becomes simply wrong?
The staged manipulations throughout the show – the applauding, heckling, the music, the political rhetoric – I often genuinely didn’t mind, after all, there’s no moral quandary in whether you should get up and dance. Whether something makes you look stupid is in the eye of the beholder and quite frankly, other people’s thoughts on whether I look stupid or not couldn’t bother me less.
But I keep coming back to that girl in my mind, to that paralysing Bystander Effect, to the choices you make and the unwritten social contracts you’ll enter into, to the detriment of other people simply because there’s safety in numbers.
Thank you Soho Theatre for inviting Twespians* along to the evening – you certainly gave us enough to chew over!
* Next Twespians is our Christmas shindig in Charterhouse Bar, Farringdon. If you work in or enjoy theatre, come down for a pint and a damn good evening!
This afternoon I sat on a Guardian panel for Social Media in the Arts on behalf of Twespians (the networking events that Luke Murphy and I co-organise). It was a fantastic couple of hours of chat, with the rest of the panel bringing up things I’d either entirely forgotten about or indeed not heard before.
If you’re interested in social media for cultural organisations (and these tips could very well be translated to small charities given the budget restrictions of most arts organisations), then definitely have a read. There were some excellent case studies and ideas thrown up in the course of discussion.
Big thanks to @GdnCulturePros for having me; it was a brilliant bit of #artschat!
“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
You’ll never know the kindness of strangers until you stick your head above the parapet and ask…and for this, today, I am eternally grateful. It’s a difficult world to be making your way in at the minute, and though it’s never ‘easy’, it’s particularly tough in this climate of meltdown recovery. It feels good to be moving though, working and walking and making a way towards turning a set of tough goals into reality. The world is all gates…it is all opportunities. Sometimes you just have to push the weeds away to be able to see them.
…and I’ve been gripped the entire way through. From Mohammed Bin Laden’s construction in Saudi Arabia to the mujahideen and the war against the Soviets, to the Afghanistan civil war…from The Lion’s Den to the West Coast of the US, through Yemen and Pakistan and back to the NY FBI bureau and CIA offices…what a ride.
What absolutely knifes the heart the most though isn’t Bin Laden’s hypocrisy or the treatment of women and children, or the twisting of religious words to fulfill personal vendettas, but the fact that this could have been prevented if not for the turf war between the various US governmental agencies. How utterly, utterly hideous it must have been for those who tried to get information from behind the unspoken ‘wall’ that prevented the sharing of any of it in the aftermath of 9/11.
Read it, if you have the time; it’s fantastically well-written, enlightening…a brilliant joining-of-the-dots exercise.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Lately t’owld brain’s been feeling a little scatty up in here (up in here), and my attention span has been fading quicker than you can say “a video of a cat eating Nori seaweed? Youtube it nao!”. Not particularly conducive to achieving much of anything, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So I’m trying to cultivate a new small habit: when taking a break I either pick up a book or I jot a few things down on paper. And it’s helping, just a little. I find my time at the screen is less disjointed and punctuated by fewer Facebook visitations. I’m also learning a fair bit and getting all those random ideas that usually get lost in the subconscious out onto a notepad for future re-visits. I don’t spend too long on either during the working day, just a few minutes at a time. But it’s definitely helping.
What are your favourite tricks for keeping focused?
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