If lots of people do it, it becomes ok... as long as its not you being hurt

I nearly lost me little girl this week and there’s no evidence that she’s gonna be around in the near future. Em’s mother has decided that she wants to move in with her new boyfriend. This would mean moving away from her established “support group”, Emily’s school (where she is doing great), her friends and grand parents including me. Individually, each one of these would be devastating to Em, but put them all together and you end up with a potential disaster. Of course, the new boyfriend refused to even consider moving away from his ex-wife and children (who live in the next street from him and have keys to each others houses) and extended family to be with Em's mom

Emily’s mother isn’t stupid, she insisted she knows my views on this knowing I’d probably fly into a rage at the thought of another man bringing up my daughter as his own while he pops round to the ex wife’s to do a little decorating (you know what I mean, “just popping round the X’s to fill a crack in the bedroom, wont be long”). Em’s mom uses this technique of getting me pissed off to convince herself I’m the baddie and what she decides to do is right…. So this time I didn’t play, I kept calm and just told her the facts…..

Fact 1: He won’t move in with Em’s mom because he doesn’t want to move away from his family. This can also be read thus: You’re not good enough to move away for.

Fact 2: Moving Emily away from her school will interfere with her Schooling and tear her away from friends

Fact 3: Emily’s grand parents will no longer see Emily, neither of them have access to a car, public transport is at least 2 hours away.

Fact 4: Em’s mom doesn’t drive. She will have to stay at home and look after his children/house

Fact 5: Em’s mom doesn’t know what split his marriage therefore has no idea of his track record.

Fact 6: Emily will become a second class citizen in his house… It’s NOT his child, his biological children WILL come first

Fact 7: She is moving away from her support network into an unknown environment

Fact 8: Emily WILL kick back

Of course, I’m only Emily’s Dad, I have no legal say in any of this. I have to sit and watch my little girl drive away with her new Daddy….. and continue to pay for her upbringing and hope I still get to see her occasionally.

I’ve been told Emily’s mom (and Em) are not moving now, they are staying where they are. I don’t believe this for a moment. I know how she works, she will be looking to justify her actions in any way she can.

Next year, there will be a new name on Emily’s Fathers Day card.

In need of some help....

I'll be taking part in a charity ride in aid of Breast Cancer Support and need some help. I, along with a few other IAM members will be riding from John O'Groats to Land's End, a total of approx. 850+ miles within 24 hours.

We aim to raise £3000. It's a lot of cash, but it's needed. Breast Cancer, if caught early enough is a very very treatable disease. Please help me by lobbing some wonga in my general direction.

You can do this by simply catching me in the street, at work or on the lavatory and forcing me to have some cash.

If you're geographically challenged then simply goto our Charity Donation website and scrape some plastic into the coffers.

yes, it is a bloody long way, about 850 miles, lots of fuel, possible RTA's and soreness
and remember, I'm doing this on my Honda Super Blackbird, not a poncy Hardly Ableson*






*if offended, please donate £50 to my sponsorship and I'll remove it.....

It must be the permissive society......

This is the bit where you get a little nervous, the bit where you know someone may get a little offended when you tell them directing may not be the thing for them....

Just as well Habeas Corpus from the Ottershaw Players was an absolute blinder for me.

I'm not a theatre go'’er, it's was never part of my growing up you see. A theatre to me was a bingo hall, full to the brim with cackling fishwives.

Anyhow, seeing as I'’ve not seen a huge amount of theatre, and the fact Pete is a good mate of mine I was a little apprehensive going along to the opening night.... I had previously seen an Amdram play about 6 months previous, I'’ll not mention what the play was or who was playing, but I did come away feeling that the "Amateur" part of Amdram had been well catered for.

So there I was, in the Rhoda McGaw Theatre, waiting to be entertained.. ... and heavens to Betsy was I entertained. It was a corker, hats of to Mr Bennett for a great play, but I do get the impression that most credit has to go to the cast and Pete'’s direction.

The best part for me was the believability of the characters, there wasn'’t one bad performance, but there were more than a few outstanding ones..
Matthew Horton did a fantastic job of Sir Percy Shorter, the twitch, the pompous attitude and not forgetting the very large chip on his diminutive shoulders was simply a joy to watch.
My other personal favourite was Lady Delia Rumpers played by Danny Sparks, she simply had me giggling like a girl as she had more than a passing resemblance to Mrs Slocombe on one of her days off, fantastic stuff.

To sum up, I had a great time. The Ottershaw Players with a little help from Alan Bennett and Peter Moore gave the gift of entertainment and laughter on a otherwise dull Wednesday night, marvellous, bloody marvellous.

Last but certainly not least, Alison Byers who plays Muriel Wicksteed.... I do hope that those are stunt boobs being thrown around so enthusiastically! It'’s the first time I've winced and laughed like a drain in ages.

Sometimes.....

Just dont even think about it. It's more addictive than directing your own play. I'm on about reviewing and editing your own DV tapes from 8 years ago. There's just so much stuff to go through.

Anyhow, here's one from the last nights tape, a tape I thought I'd lost years ago. Recorded at Skyline Studios at Epsom in July 1999.

On this one you'll find Goober, Keith Small (Pants Dance), Jez (Skyline Engineer) , our very own PT and some rare appearances of Rob Web (semi naked door puller) and some fat baldy bloke in a Sunderland top making a tit of himself.

There's a lot of it about.....

yes.... its another vid. The reason for all this stuff is I'm transferring the best part of about 30 DV tapes to HD and eventually disk, and sometimes I just get bored and play around with the effects board until something odd happens.

so.... here's one I did this evening..