My thoughts this morning are with the injured audience of the Apollo theatre. I am not going to link to anything, because quite frankly I am disgusted by the blandness of the media coverage regarding this.
On one hand, it is to the media’s credit that injured people haven’t been targeted and forcibly interviewed and paraded across the TV, along with their personal life exposed for all. That injured pregnant woman – was she with her lover? (no I am not speculating or starting a rumour – that is the fiction writer within me…)
Cynically, could be though that the legal class action that will inevitably follow from this has already kicked in, and those ambulances which arrived on the scene so quickly – along with a film crew (who were coincidentally filming the ambulances) also contained paralegals.
On the other hand though, I don’t know at a very basic level whether it is safe to attend any West End Production, or even a local panto. The Apollo was the first Edwardian Theatre to be built in 1901, the Bristol Hippodrome was built in 1912 influenced by the same style and building techniques.
If newspaper reports (interestingly enough from Ireland(!) are to be believed, when the property was sold in 2005, the previous owner – our beloved and sainted Andrew Lloyd Webber - notified everybody and everything – including English Heritage that the building was not fit for purpose (along with others), and one of the descriptions used today was that it had suffered for years from “benign neglect”.1
If so – why were the paying public even in it? What other public buildings are suffering the same fate? AM I SAFE if I go to the museum, the rail station?
I know they look good and are iconic structures – but when I attend these public buildings, it is because I want to look at their exhibits or catch a train – I need to be able to do this knowing I am not going to be killed because the structures have been neglected. Benignly or otherwise. I am pretty sure that you do to.
This is newsworthy and of interest to me, as it affects the safety and influences the decision making of me and mine.
Unlike one of the predominate leading stories of the week – the snorting habits of Nigella Lawson seem to have preoccupied one and all. I really don’t care what on earth the poor woman got up to in the privacy of her own home, and I am pretty sure I am speaking for quite a few people here. It does not affect me and mine “not a jot” as Billy Connelly would say.
So what on earth is the point of the “News”?
What are we trying to achieve with this quite nasty witch-hunt, and who is behind it? Who is influencing and censoring the information which is being filtered out to us? Everyone has someone who is paying their wage in the News Rooms, and therefore they have to do what they are told to get paid. Who is censoring what I am told?
Has Saatchi got shares in theatre world? Is he behind the press – he sells advertising – doesn’t he? These are now questions winging around in my head. I am sorting of hoping/assuming that others are also asking this, so I don’t need to.
I am not going to drift off into a pointless philosophical rant here, but News along with Seasonal Advertising on the main TV is basically destroying my sanity and peace of mind at the moment. It isn’t good enough to say you can switch it off, or switch over. You still lose an hour of your life when watching a really brilliant film, which is interspersed every 15 minutes with a smattering of pointless messages.
We were warned… this was predicted… did we listen? “Not a jot”
But closer to home, affecting me and mine – what other things are we not told about that affect us?
Even closer still, over the last 24 hours or so I have watched – mesmerised – as a very carefully created, and totally believable, façade has crumbled.
I am sorry to be enigmatic about this – I cannot explain more, but the reason I am mentioning it is that pragmatically I can now deal with the information that has now come to light, keep the good stuff, discard the crap and now rebuild some external relationships from the foundations up.
I am going to be able to put some of the very upsetting events, discussions and half-truths of the last six months of 2013 well behind me when the year changes - without even looking back.
The peace of mind that gives me is incredible. I had thought at the start of last week that it was me going mad, and the subconscious writer within had taken over…as he (yes I did say he…) does every now and again…Some times the subject matter is too gorgeous and sumptuous to ignore 
Now, thankfully, having the correct information, will make some seemingly impossible decisions, very straightforward.
Google Knitting Doodle alerted me this morning to the Winter Solstice – appropriate then it was an animated knitter ! Shortest day, longest night – and then we start getting back to normal. All I have to do now is to survive Xmas Day without throttling someone – no change there then, some traditions endure !
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Writers Note:
I have received over the past few months, quite a few requests for sharing some of my “behind the scenes” practical writing tips. I really haven’t had the peace of mind to do so, but will do my best when I can, and I will put them at the end of the blog under Writer’s Note, until I have thought what to do with them. . If you aren’t interested, then you can just scroll away.
1. I have highlighted that phrase, because I will most probably revisit it at a latter date. That is what I do with my notebooks, and my Kindle reading – I highlight phrases that interests or intrigue me.
It is difficult to describe the feeling that finding “something” – a picture, a word, a phrase,smell or a piece of music – creates within me.
For me, it is like the self-satisfaction you achieve over finding the lost piece of a puzzle,
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