Laughing with the Universe

My Crazy Life Part 2

OK, so after all the strangeness of the summer, things have finally started to turn around.  The future is looking quite interesting and just like the global economy there do seem to be small signs of a return to stability.

I’m going to ask you all to cross your fingers that an application I’ve made to the Arts Council is successful, because it’s for a really fabulous project where I’m going to work with Jenny Wren Productions to produce a play about John Nevil Maskelyne.  Haven’t heard of him?  Well he was an amazing Victorian inventor and magician who started his career in Cheltenham by exposing the fraudulent performance of a couple of spiritualists before going on to create incredible lifelike automata, and developing some illusions that are still stunning audiences today.

On top of that my other half and me have been invited out to Qatar to present workshops at their first ever Science Festival.  This would be our first international Science Festival and a huge opportunity for us – all will be confirmed by October, so cross fingers for that one too.

I’ve also signed up to do a distance learning course with Harvard University through edx.  I’m studying Greek Heroes and will hopefully gain a certificate of mastery by the end of the year.  If you don’t know about edx courses they’re absolutely free and the standard is exceptionally high.  They’re mostly science and technology courses, but a few humanities ones are appearing on their list so take a look if you fancy a mind stretch.

Talking of Science, despite having spent the past couple of decades as a Science Presenter my high school was rubbish and gave no encouragement to girls who were shoved towards studying shorthand, typing and home economics.  So my other half bought me a chemistry set for Christmas, and I’m working my way through it then searching the internet for extension projects I can do.  I’ll share more about my copper plating fun on our Timezones Facebook page next week.

And finally, after more than ten years with no telly I’ve discovered Netflix, where for just £5.99 per month I can watch as much telly as I want, which is fab.  The terrestrial channels are all full of dreadful pap, but I’m loving seeing smart US comedies and sharp US dramas such as ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘Hemlock Grove’ – I’ll start on ‘Breaking Bad’ once I’ve finished ‘Orange/Black’.

So with all of this going on it feels like me and Andy have woken up from comas and are now feeling that life is fun and full of wonder again.      

  

The Universe is having a laugh!

OK, so here’s a slightly condensed version of the things that happened to me over my crazy summer.

Things started so well when Andy, my other half, had a choice of three jobs lined up which were going to keep us going till the autumn when my teaching work would kick back in.

BUT then all three jobs mysteriously fell through for various bizarre reasons which were nothing to do with his skills or personality, leaving us with no clue as to how to pay our bills over the summer.

THEN a lovely friend offered us his flat in Cardiff Bay and told us to take a break to chill out and rethink what to do. We had a fabulous week in the glorious sunshine, stopping off to briefly perform at the Cardiff Science Festival.

ONLY to come home and find our house had been broken into – Grrr!

HOWEVER after a few weeks of unpleasant wrangling with our insurance company they suddenly stumped up enough money to fix damage, replace stuff and have a bit left over to cover some bills.

THEN I heard the news that an old friend from college had died.  His wife was one of my closest friends in college, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years so I went up to London for the funeral which was a lovely send off for the crazy Billy Danby.

BUT it was good to reconnect with some very old friends, and after a few difficult years with the universe being very unkind to me and my other half, I started to feel like myself again.

SO I’ve started rewriting my first novel – mad wrestlers and bad mothers – I don’t care if it works, I’m writing this one for myself. 

There are quite a few other things that have started going well for me and Andy, but I’ll have to tell you about Maskelyne, Harvard, Qatar and copper plating another day.