“So, what do you do now?”
This lack of internet is now officially my own bloody fault, rather than BT’s, as I’ve ummed and aahed about service providers like a proper Yorkshire miser. I’m sure not all people from Yorkshire are tight bastards, but whenever I’m on the penny-pinch, I feel the need to put on a pseudo-Rotherham accent.
Speaking of accents, I read my poems at Freed Up at Greenroom last night, the open mic poetry night that I wildly put my name down for about a month ago. My voice started off doing that erratic squeaky thing that comes with nerves, and by the end of the Glastonbury poem I was doing the boyfriend’s lines in another Yorkshire accent. I’ve obviously been sharing a house with Andy for far too long. People sseemed to like my poems. The Ringo Starr one even got a few laughs, and there were more experienced readers there who were, frankly, crap, so I’ve been bolstered a bit really. The theme for the next one (not till Feb) is “party”, and I’ve already got a fair few ideas.
On a separate subject, I saw Abi Willock on the way to work this morning. She went to my school and I’ve not seen her for at least six years. I also saw Briony Seed a couple of weeks ago, again while I was heading to work in the morning, although I’ve definitely seen her more recently than Abi. What’s funny is how we come to define ourselves by our jobs so quickly. In both cases, one of the first questions asked has been “what do you do?” I was reading on the Burning Man website that it’s really bad form to ask people about their working lives when you’re at the festival as it detracts from the sense of escapism. I would love to be the kind of person who didn’t care about a career, or rely upon work to provide a sense of self-esteem, but thinking about it, I am an ambitious person who would feel like a massive failure if I was working in recruitment or banking or something I felt was meaningless (as I have before - I even feel a bit of a failure just doing admin, even if it is in the arts) but I like to think that I ask these things of other people just because I have nothing else to talk about, rather than for any judgemental reasons, or for social climbing. It’s sad in a way, that we have so many shared experiences but nothing to talk about other than our jobs. Still, according to my horoscope, the Moon has left my opposite sign of Leo today (?) so any such disappointments will soon dry up. I’m heading to the Hedge third birthday party at the Carlton Club tonight, and Mum tells me The Travelling Band have thanked me in their sleevenotes, so it’s all good. :-)
