DREAMS VERSUS GOALS

I taught the other night and honestly, 15 teenagers in one room where I desperately try to corral them into singing the same song at the same time in any sort of fashion that won’t crack the windows is hands down, the most effective form of contraception one could possibly imagine. A little late for me unfortunately, so I’ve started a program of talking to the peanut and informing it of manners, etiquette, respect and general niceties. I vow to you all here and now that we will have a polite peanut if it’s the only thing I manage.

But the week got better, the show I’m in 40 in Song, opened last night and it feels great to be back on the stage. Somewhat more encumbered than I was last time I trod the boards, but great nonetheless. And it’s great to be back in a dressing room with a bunch of kooks all loving the same thing I do. One woman won’t wear deodorant for fear of aluminium poisoning, but took some G from a guy in a nightclub the other night and had to be resuscitated and taken to the hospital. (G, for those not in the know – and I’ll happily admit I was one of them – is the new drug on the party scene, don’t know what it’s meant to do, but sounds like you should be wary of your supplier). Another lacks confidence in her beautiful voice and frets herself into a frenzy before places and not even the glass of champagne the non-deodorant girl bought her can calm her down. There’s the requisite good-looking tenor keeping to himself in the other dressing room, the drum playing violinist who fiddled her way across Europe, the silent bassist, the soprano with a side career in corporate law and little ol’ me sitting in my dressing room wondering when it became normal for me to feel my child kick me from the inside.

This what I want to do. Be a mum absolutely, postivitely, but also to write a bit and sing a little bit more.

A friend told me the other day about two things - dreams and goals. If all you do is talk about something it’s a dream. If you make a plan and then enact it, your dream will become a goal. And that’s what I’m shooting for people, pardon the pun.