A good friend of mine who lives in London came up to visit me last weekend. It had been a few months since we had seen each other last but the great thing was, as is always the case with good friends, that it felt like no time had passed at all. His job was taking him for granted and paying him a pitiful amount so he handed in his notice and decided to do wee tour; visiting friends and family. Stress has made him quite ill so some quality time with his most fabulous friend was definitely in order and, as well as a large amount of chilling in front of bad TV, I took him for a walk through the West Pennine Moors.
Armed with a flask of tea, we walked the route I normally take and I decided to show him a place my sister and I found before we decided to explore further and get stuck in halfway up some ravine. I think the spot looks like a place where fairies could live. The trees are less dense but still provide covering and shelter, the ground is soft with that mossy type grass stuff (my sister would know the name) and there are a few fallen trees providing benches, though I did get a bit of a numb bum after a while. A knobbly, knarly tree stump sits about 10 meters from the log benches and it definitely looks like a gnome could pop out of it. My friend, who works in fashion, enjoyed the walk but wasn't particularly happy about having to wear wellies. Apparently there is a lot of biodiversity in the West Pennine Moors so I'll have to head out with my phone and see if I can capture anything.
In other news, in order to boost my CV and get involved in more stuff I have started volunteering at Bolton Little Theatre. They have a sort of open evening on Mondays where they tell you more about the company and show you around the building. They are quite unusual amongst amateur theatre companies as they have their own building which they took over in the 1930s, the building itself was built around the 1850s and was recently split into two theatres, their main one and a smaller one that only sits 61 people. Other groups I've been involved in put on approximately one show a year but BLT have seasons (I know!) and put on quite a few shows in this time, alternating between their smaller theatre and larger theatre. The entire operation is run by volunteers and people change roles depending on the production which was quite exciting for me as it means I can try a few different things. Someone may be in the cast for one production, doing the lights on the next and then doing the coffees during the interval for the one after. They show you how to programme and cue lights and sounds and you have the opportunity to direct productions although I think I'll definitely start as a production secretary if I was to go down that route. Seemingly everything is done in-house from set building to envelope stuffing and they have a sizable costume and prop store. And Sir Ian McKellen is the patron! And Justin Chadwick was involved in the youth group which sadly doesn't run anymore. I ended up doing a bit of set dressing on Monday for their upcoming production which was fun and as their next show is completely sold out I've been invited to the dress rehearsal - which has been opened to the public - to see what they are about.
I have applied for a few different jobs this week having cast my net a bit wider than just publishing to any media jobs so hopefully I'll hear something soon but in the meantime I'm quite excited to become more involved with stuff as opposed to sitting on my backside all day watching The Chase. Which I may or may not have applied for in addition to my job hunt.
No comments:
Post a Comment