Today's Blog is CANCELLED.


I sometimes wonder if I only make arrangements to give me something else to find difficult to pull out of last-minute.

Tonight’s a case in point. I was meant to go to my meditation class, which has just started up again after its half term break, but as my departure time drew closer, I began to um and ah about whether I wanted to go. I had good reason: I’m planning to attend an open mic gig in London tomorrow in hope of picking up a walk-in spot to try out some material, and because I’m meeting up with a friend during the day, I won’t have much time to prepare for it. I’d meant to do more work on my set today, but because I met up with another friend – yes, I have two - I didn’t get as much done as I’d like. I suddenly realised that if I didn’t attend the class tonight, I’d get the chance to run my set, and write this, and not feel so pressured tomorrow.

The problem is, if I don’t do something I’m meant to, I feel very guilty about it. I start to worry about whether I've made the right choice. Will tonight’s meditation class be the one that changes my life? Will my teacher pull me to one side and slip me the answer to existence?

I tend to see things as either black or white, or all or nothing. I forget that there are always shades of grey. I lose track of the fact I have a right to choose. I don’t have to go to any class if I don’t want to, and I don’t even need a reason. Missing one event won’t be my biggest mistake.

A wise man once said, “Other than the end of the world, nothing’s the end of the world”. That wise man was me. Wise, as in ‘wise guy’.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane
Read more