Excitement (by sarah)

For the first time since I had Jean really, I am starting to be excited about my future and to see something like a career forming. I am not forcing anything, I am not planning or going down approved routes - I am just going with the flow.

I am creating... well STUFF, art, craft, writing and finding people want me to share in the form of workshops more and more. I am getting more short stories and things published and winning awards. I am using my art to communicate science concepts and helping instill a love of learning.

I am so excited that today I actually got some material for my mum to help me make a new skirt for the Poetry Festival which is currently happening in Cheltenham - I am reading on Friday at the Muffin Man and then I am going to be running two lots of childrens' workshops.

I have also very nearly gotten the contacts of all my close school friends - there are still some wholes but it is getting there 🙂

I feel I have achieved more since January than I have done in the last six years. I am finishing off projects and starting ones I'd wanted to do. Our debts are whittling away nicely and I have my purple carpet and a purple butterfly on the outside of the house. Alaric, David and my Dad have worked so hard on the house - it is starting to be lovely 🙂

I fear slightly writing this incase it all suddenly tilts again but it is all feeling just so right. I still feel sad about science and my health but I can do science later on and the health stuff I have things in place to deal with now - no I am not going to be an explorer ever again, trapsing up mountians but I have the memories of when I did and you know there is alot of fantastic stuff I can still see - even if it is from the lense of someone elses camera.

Life is good at last.

Havering Youth Circuit Choir (by sarah)

Back when I was about 13 I joined a choir/singing group based at Upminster Methodist church - this would have been in the mid 90's I suppose. We primarily did religous musicals like Witness. I just find myself wondering where everybody is these days and what they have been up too.

I am really rubbish with names though so only remember that there was like John, Clare (not sure how it was spelt), Martin and so on. I even went on camps and things with these guys - me and my school posse were basically the youngest members. I bumped into the Clare whilst at Uni at a pub but she was still that older cool person so didn't really establish contact with her and that itself is now an age ago.

Basically I'm posting this because I tried googling and didn't find anything but now there is something so if someone else tries hopefully they will find this post 🙂

Not The Oxford Literary Festival 2012 (by sarah)

On March 30th I headed to Oxford to read some of my up coming collection Political Converse. Earlier that day I died my hair what was supposed to be purple - it came out not but that didn't matter. I had a weekend then week then month of readings and workshops, it was time to get rid of the four inch roots plus I was nervous and this sort of thing helps me cope and actually go and perform.

Then there was the issue that due to scare mongering there was no fuel to be had so we had which set up a panic but was quickly solved and we were on our way.

We arrived in plenty of time and then spent an hour trying to find somewhere to park - we didn't use the park and ride as our experience with it have not been good and as I'm still struggling with walking we need to be somewhere relatively near the event.

But we arrived in time to catch the end of an interesting session on self publishing and small indie presses. Including a talk from Dennis Hamley who I remembered from my school days! Though this didn't stop me saying that if he ever met my dad and drink was involved - they would never stop discussing the war (as in WWII).

We then had some fantastic music.

And no I don't remember anyones names 🙁 And that goes for the poets too!

This guy had been involved in the UnCut protests and got himself arrested for being in a shop and reading poetry which is menacing behaviour - if I understood it correctly.

This guy is an ex-solider and has PTSD - his poetry was powerful and I also found out that Westminster is trying to make it illegal to help the homeless to get rid of the problem before the Olympics which makes me sick. I shall be looking into that one a bit more - the guy is involved with various charities.

Dan Holloway the organiser and runner of Eight Cuts Gallery.

I'd bought a posse:

And then sang my Shit Creek I was very nervous and struggled to get my voice out - Alaric said it was just quiet at the beginning but I still did it 🙂 I then read my poetry.

More Poets:

The whole thing was run in the loveliest book shop in the world (that I have found so far). The Albion Beatnik in Oxford - it is almost what me and Alaric wanted to ran our Salaric Emporium (books, gifts, tea, think), back in my uni days.

The night ended on a high with much laughter and deep thought. People left to put poetry to the public - stringing it on fences and what nots. We left to grab a veggie kebab and drive back to Gloucestershire.

p.s. my set was similar but not the same as I read at the Art Tournament No Hoax on the Sunday which Alaric videoed.

Sound quality is naff sorry about that!

Ten Things That Amaze Me About Me (by sarah)

1. My six year old daughter has a spelling age that is the same as I had at 18. Though my vocabulary has always been massive as in exceeded what is expected for an average adult in the UK in primary school.

2. I am obsessed with reading and learning things though I still do not have an adult reading age. Reading at all didn't really happen for me until about the age of 12. I am still a slow reader - I read text books for fun.

3. I got glandular fever and failed my first year at university - then had back and mobility issues involving painful weekly hospital trips plus a side helping of IBS with ulcers. And I still have a degree from one of the best Universities in the World and it was so close to a first it's painful.

4. I am so shy it is classed as a medical issue compounded by C-PTSD but I have a solution - it is called performing - as in stage.

5. My hearing needed sorting yet I have always been obsessed with music and probably because of this it is a thing I feel with my body and not just something I hear. I still struggle with comprehension if I can not see a persons lips moving.

6. Shyness and stutter plus the remnants of things like lisps mean that I like diction, languages and singing.

7. I am dyslexic, and I don't mean just a little bit - the educational psycologists said he had never seen anyone with such severe dyslexia even sit GCSE's let alone get the grades I got. The natural reaction to this for me? I have always had the ambition to write stories. I managed to get published before I was eighteen.

8. I am scared of heights and used to get bad vertigo, was the clumsiest kid around (called dyspraxia and is a cousin of dyslexia) - I became a climbing and archery instructure.

9. I almost died and was crippled by having a baby, I willingly decided to have another and do not regret it.

10. School and even university bullying made me feel that I was going to be single forever and never achieve anything. I have the most loveliest husband, intelligent and cute to boot and I have been 'going out' with him since I was 21. He supports me and seems to actually fancy me too.

Forgive the egotistical post but these things really do amaze me.

What An Amazing Week! (by sarah)

Friday I went off to Not The Oxford Literature Festival were I read out stuff from an upcoming collection called Political Converse including the song Shit Creek.

I gave out my new business cards which I am very happy with from Moo. Each card has a different picture on either of my art work, photos I've taken or me being arty. I have rationed them to one per person as some people want to collect the pictures 🙂

I came home on Friday feeling great especially as I'd worked out the old guy at the festival was infact the guy who's stories I'd been obsessed with as a child!

He's called Dennis Hamley for those of you who are interested 🙂

Then I checked my emails and.... I've won a Bronze Medal in the Gloucestershire Creative Olympics! For my song Windy Gloucestershire. So I am going to to an awards thing at Battle of the Winds in Stroud at the end of the month!

Then Sunday I went off to Art Tournaments No Hoax where I read out more of my Political Converse including another song 🙂 This was all whilst wearing my flashing corset!

Sound quality is naff and I am competing with the band in the other room! But you get the idea 🙂

I enjoyed watching the other acts and knitting whilst Alaric crotcheted - this was then topped off by winning a place in the finals for the Gloucestershire Poet Laureate! Which will take place at Gloucester Cathedral in August 🙂

So with all this I thought I should start working on my web home/hub, somewhere were all the bits of me are collected - I'm still working on it but here it is 🙂

Then I got an email saying I had made the long list for Flash Fiction South West.

I then made a cake with Alaric and Jean for Al's birthday - it didn't quiet work but tasted brilliant!

I feel I am on a roll at the moment and that I may even have reached the 'tipping point' with getting my work out there etc...

The only iffy thing has been that my SponsorMe account will be closed if I don't get some sponsors soon! People keep saying they will sponsor me but haven't yet - so if you're going to do it now please otherwise it will be too late!

Help me bring science art to all 🙂