Wolfgang – or why the theatre is bad for people

My Uncle Wolfgang was not related to me, he was one of my godparents. The other one was my great-grandmother, who must have been over ninety years old when I was born. She died when I was five and Uncle Wolfgang never showed up, so I was given honorary godparents. These were two ex-girlfriends of my dad’s: Sonja, who lived in Sweden and Gisela, who soon emigrated to Canada. He had asked both of them to marry him and they had refused, so he had apparently taken my mother by default. Suffice it to say, I was basically bereft of godparents.

Molly and Rinaldo

It was hot. Far too hot to sleep and Molly sat in her light summer shift by the open door to the garden looking out into the darkness. She knew she should sleep, get some rest before her job interview in the morning, but it was her twenty-first attempt at getting a job as an administration assistant and somehow the urgency to get it right and make a good impression had passed long ago. She could reel off all the answers in her sleep by now – team work, equal opportunities, functioning under stress, tick, tick, tick, yes, I can do all that and a lot more, yes, I have worked in offices before, yes I can handle cash, yes I can prioritize, yes, I am computer literate and use email and the internet on a regular basis but I can also do so many other things that you don’t want to know about.

With a “SCIP” in his step

 An enthusiastic David Guthrie brings IT skills to community and voluntary projects in Brighton & Hove.

Peter the Refugee

Today was Peter’s fourteenth birthday, April 20th and he was so excited. Yes, Carl had bullied him at school yesterday and his big sister Annie had called him a ninny, but what did all that matter. There were tadpoles in the brook and he had seen a hare and a deer in the forest last evening and was sure they would be there again tonight.

Two Elephants in the Room

There were two elephants in the room: a big old wrinkly one and a tiny one that could barely stand on wobbly little legs. Around them a wedding was in full swing, but it was a tentative wedding.

 People would dance around the elephants but then the big one would swing his trunk and gently lay it on a dancer’s shoulder and the couple would break apart and stand still, holding hands, with tears in their eyes. Or the baby elephant would lean against the legs of a woman chatting to a cousin and she would fall silent, again hands would seek other hands and eyes would start to glisten.

These teeth are cursed

„Ouch, Sarah, what the hell are you doing!“ exclaimed Isabelle and pulled her nipple from her infant daughter’s mouth. Sarah had bitten her rather firmly. Isabelle had known from the start that Sarah’s teeth were going to cause trouble. She had been ill with cystitis during her pregnancy and the doctors had given her an antibiotic which they said then would harm the developing teeth of her baby. “We have no choice,” they had said to her, “if you develop a kidney infection, you might well lose your child.” When, after days of crying and running a temperature, Sarah’s first incisor broke through on a Friday, January 13^th, it didn’t surprise Isabelle at all.

Thoroughly pleased by Aluminum

It is our last of 10 days in Scotland and we have driven all the way across. We have seen hills and rivers, midges and seals, slept in a large number of beds, but now we are haring down to Edinburgh, the kids exhausted in the back of the hired car which must be back by noon.

“Enjoy the sunshine” says a friendly man as he hands us our bus tickets to Waverley Station. On the way in we see the zoo and the kids exclaim with joy. Let’s go to the Zoo! Half heartedly I promise, but first we must find the youth hostel and get rid of all these bags. We drag along the streets, not knowing which way to go. It is hot, we are hungry but then we see people in pretty costumes, wigs and fancy make-up. Oh my god, the festival has started! All my life I’ve wanted to see the Edinburgh Festival and now here I am with two young kids who only want the zoo.