October adventures...

Well it's been an interesting month! After our lovely family adventure to the USA in August/September, returning to the UK (which was full of the 'B' word) and a return to school and work for some was a bit of a come down.

Our time in the USA had been full of fun, drama (Hurricane Dorian) and excitement. Our Park visits, the 'kids' swimming with Dolphins at the Dolphin Research Centre in the Keys and our driving over 1,500 miles in a huge Chevy Surburban (if you ever watch any US Cop drama's it's the huge machine with three permanent sets of seat, a cavernous book and a 5.3 litre behemoth of an engine!) that was a joy to drive.

Anyway, on our return the regular routine recommenced as it usually does and I got on with preparing the 'evidence' for Laura's EHCP Tribunal. This took a long time and a lot of effort but within this I was still writing my poems and recognising that I still haven't completed the work on my second collection of short stories (we all need some types of guilt in our lives and there are two straight away!).

Anyway, I do use Twitter, FaceBook and when I can work it out, Instagram. And I'm always looking out for new things, new people, new contacts and new experiences. Lisa told me about a FaceBook group 'The Creative Eye' which is a new group that hopes to build networks for creative people and share something unique to all involved along the way.

They  - in the form of the lovely Abbey Parsons who runs it all - asked if there were any poets, singers, artists, photographers or other creative types who might like to attend a networking event at 'The Folded Space in Southend. Well, throwing caution and ego to the wind; I replied and said I'd go along if they had no-one more interesting offer.

To my surprise (and consternation) the idea of a tall fat white haired late 50's chap turning up to speak poetry at them didn't deter and I found myself invited along! I spoke to the Yeti to see if he wanted to cmoe along as well but he was a bit non-committal and thus I wasn't sure.

But I powered up my little PA system, checked batteries and microphones and worked out a few poems to read out. I have to admit that I wasn't sure how many to inflict upon the poor unsuspecting fools - I mean of course the discerning audience. In the end i settled on taking 15 with me, with each under a couple of minutes I'd be able to hopefully read them wihtout causing too much boredom.

In the end, Ed came with me and we met some lovely people, saw some interesting art and photography and found out that the singer that was going to attend had had to cancel due to a throat issue.

So, girding my loins and ensuring that my jeans wouldn't fall down during the 'performance', I stepped onto the stage and gave my 'all'. It was great, and I really enjoyed it. More benefits were that no one left, no one fell asleep, no one threw anything and I wasn't booed off the stage! I did learn something from Ed, who although totally unprepared at the beginning of the evening (ah the resilience and adaptability of youth), managed to sort out some of his own poetry and also did a stint on the stage.

I learnt something from his performance in fact. I have habitually dated, timed and recorded where the poems I write are 'born'. But although I explained one of my poems - The Falling Man - I didn't introduce the rest nor state when and where they came into being. I think it was partly nerves, partly lack of confidence and partly poor 'stagecraft'. 

If I do it again, I'll know what to do differently, that's for sure.

And if that was not enough; another amazing thing happened; young Abbey P asked me if I'd be interested in running a Poetry Workshop in Southend for the Creative Eye's November gathering! how amazing is that! Seems like I'm still managing to fool some of the people some of the time!

Below are just a few photos of the evening, to find more, find the Creative Eye's web presence. Go on, it'll be fun!

​Stay safe all, keep reading!