Eighteen – The Hare and The Wire

After the rest of the class had left to go out to play, one nine-year old boy stood around looking a bit lost. My friend, who I was working with, asked the boy if he wanted to ask us something.  The boy did, “What qualifications do I need to do this a job?” My friend explained that, although both of us had been to university, neither of us had any specific qualifications at all to do what we were doing. The boy flung his arms up in the air as if he had just scored the winning goal in the cup final and ran out of the room shouting, “Yes!”

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Seventeen – Knowing Me , Knowing You

Friedlander, the great Max Friedlander, is very good on this. ‘Correct attributions’, he says, ‘generally appear spontaneously and “prima vista”. We recognise a friend without ever having determined wherein his particular qualities lie and that with a certainty that not even the most detailed description can give.’ [Frayn – Headlong]

Fly like an Eagle…

I went to an all-boys school in the centre of London. I can’t say that I liked it. It had its moments but I missed my last year of my much-loved Primary School and got a scholarship to a grand establishment – The City of London School just near Blackfriars Bridge. I threw up on the front steps on the first morning.  I remember a new Maths teacher.  Our Maths book was written by a man called C.G.Nobbs. The new teacher strode in with great aplomb, complete with robe, because that’s what the teachers donned in these hallowed halls with cloisters and all, and commanded the class, “right boys get your Nobbs out!” This was not a good start. Mayhem, Lord of the Flies, Mutiny on The Bounty in a classroom of 14-year-old pubescent boys. What a cruel mess ensued and continued! More than 50 years on, it makes me squirm to think of that poor teacher.

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Sixteen – Making the Invisible, Visible

Making the Invisible Visible

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying: Make me feel important. Never forget this message when working with people.  Mary Kay Ash.

On the morning I ran the workshop course to start the Moveable Feast Workshop Company I got into the space early. I had bought small coloured LED lights. I darkened the space, put out mats and cushions and placed the small lights so that there was a dim, atmospheric flickering of colour but near blackout. I had a story in mind. It was readied but I was nervous.

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Fifteen – Breathe In

There’s that mysterious dynamic, which is part fear and part excitement about what’s going to happen.  One of the things I always ask very early on in a workshop is, “Who’s going to create whatever we are going to create here?”  This is to make sure that they know it is they who are going to do it.  The Workshop Interviews  

Today is the day I officially become a pensioner. 43 years ago, way back in the last century, I got a job as an Assistant Playleader on a very rough adventure playground in London. There was an irony to my job title. There was only me working on the playground.

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