Odd Thomas Odd Blog

I have been rather bad with blogging lately, but I do have some very good reasons ... half of which I can't talk about at the moment... Okay, that probably sounds a lot more ominous than it actually needs to be, but I've gotta hook you in for more somehow ;-) In the meantime, I think I'll bore you with yet more diving stories! In preparation for the three adventure dives at Capernwray next weekend, the last three needed to complete the Advanced Open Water Diver certification, Pygmie and I went up to Tiger Dive in Sheffield for a dry suit orientation course. It may be that we were spoiled by going to Emperor Divers in Sharm el Sheikh as they have now set the standard by which all other dive training centres are going to be measured.  Our experience with Emperor was so good that the apparent mayhem at Tiger was something of a disappointment. It probably didn't help that the seven open water learners were not booked in to hire the full kit, so there was something of a ...

Woohoo, the second night of the play is now under our belts and what a corker it was! All the things I did wrong last night were on my mind tonight, so I was constantly on edge, nerves jangling my system more than a rampant rabbit ever could: though there was no pleasure in this!! The main piece that had me worried was my long bit with Hector as I really messed that up last night. However, we succeeded in getting it pretty much word perfect tonight and, when we both came off the stage, we were beaming like Cheshire Cats ! It probably helped that we had a really good audience that reacted appropriately to the play, laughing and gasping in all the right places. Getting that kind of feedback is great, as you feel the audience are really getting involved with the story, so it helps to bouy you along. There is only one problem with having a good night: because you are on a high from it, the following night tends to run not quite so smoothly, whether due to complacency or over-confidence....

I think I can safely say that I will be joining Cath's C.R.A.F.T club in the not too distant future. What with work and the play, and not being able to settle down to sleep until gone 1:00am, I am forgetting all sorts of things. It is especially embarrassing when I am halfway through a sentence and forget what I was saying ... which I am seriously hoping won't happen in the play this week. It's hard to believe that twelve weeks of rehearsals are now up. Finished. Finito. Barring, of course, the full and final dress rehearsal tomorrow night. I'm bricking it just thinking about it, but as the others have said, what's the point in doing it if you don't get nervous? The nerves really hit home on Sunday when we had gotten the set pretty much sorted and I walked into the hall to see the main lights off and the stage lights on. That was enough to set off the hourde of butterflies in my stomache, and I wasn't even on the stage at that point. With everything ...

Well, tonight is the night I try for my opportunity to tread the boards! Kind of like walking the plank but with fiercer sharks!! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a single thing about the play we're auditioning for (House of Secrets by Peter McKelvey), so I'm going to be walking into this blind. But then, I guess, so is everyone else. Despite getting nervous just thinking about this, there is a part of me that would really like to have a part again ... but another part of me screaming: "No, don't do it! Stick with the stage management!!" But I don't always listen to that part of me ...

Is it fair, when asked if you have a problem with flying, to respond with "Only if we fall out of the sky"? Okay, I didn't actually say that, but I did think it. My mouth seems to be working on automatic, with generic phrases like "Yeah, that's fine" and "Not a problem" popping out in place of inappropriate witticisms. Which is a shame, cos when I want to be funny, my mind blanks ... so I must have a strong desire to amuse, as I draw a blank most of the time!! It seems that next week, my boss and I are flying off to sunny wee-Glasgee to train another bod in the technical aspects of the application I developed: I can't say 'we' as there was only one developer ... me! This should be interesting as I haven't done any work on the app for over a month now, so a refresher is in order next week, me thinks. All of which means we can look forward to the free-for-all window seat-grabbing, that nervous feeling you get as you realise you are...