As I’m certain you all know - irrespective of how you got to this page because I’ve been raving on about it on Twitter, Facebook and through good old-fashioned talking! - 7th-10th January was our London Adventure. It all began back in August when Judith and I were lamenting never having seen any play with Robert Glenister in and we made an agreement that whenever his next play was announced we would make sure we got a chance to attend. And then the rest is history.
Noises Off, the play we went to see at The Old Vic, was absolutely fantastic, made only slightly less than perfect by my ridiculous idea of wearing mascara… not good for someone who always cries when they laugh. And I don’t mind admitting that the point in the play when I came most close to crying with hysterical laughter was the part with the cactus, although the whole second act had me giggling away.
The trip was my first big adventure of 2012 - a year for which I already have high hopes, and none of them involving the Olympics. I’m not in favour of New Year Resolutions as such, maybe because it shows up how most people lack a resolute mind, but I do have a set of aims that I would like to see fulfilled before the end of the year. New Year is one of those occasions when people are happy to look to the future and forget the past. I hope I never do that.
My past is fundamental to who I am.
Tonight we watched Stand By Me, the film based on Stephen King’s novella The Body. It puts a lump in my throat every time I watch it. There is a part of us all that when we grow up longs to be a child again, an idea that has become particularly poignant in the last couple of years with the premature death of one of our fellow childhood adventurers. It’s a cruel reality that we six who wandered off to launch Lego boats and face whatever perils may lay around the bend in the burn or along the track and over the hill armed with homemade bows and staffs, shall never meet up again and discuss or share stories about those “Good Old Days”.
But I would never want to go back to them. The past is what it is, and it is that which shapes the future. Even the happiest and most exciting moments of our past if we tried to recreate them would just be a disappointing echo of the original experience. I’m beginning 2012 with a good, honest look back at what has come before in the certainty that it is undoubtedly what will forge the future.
So to lay my cards on the table here are some of my New Year Aims:
To enter at least one writing competition each month.
To keep my room tidy - ooops! I think I’ve failed that one already!
To put on a concert of pupils’ musical excellence.
To get everyone’s birthday presents to them before or on their birthday.
To read more.
My hope of running a music school? Maybe next year.
I’ll be thinking back on the past and forward to the future with a smile on my face, because whatever happens, if you face it with a smile the burden is a little lighter, for you and the people who will undoubtedly stand beside you.
In the meantime, if you’re around London in the next couple of weeks go and see Noises Off (Judith’s review of the play is here). If you’re not laughing hysterically by halfway through then you must have gone to the wrong theatre!
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