Minty Bit Stronger

I'm going to treat you to a story from my dusty bookshelf of memories. This particular yarn will be familiar to a few readers and some might have even lived it with me. For this latter reason I will change the names of those involved to hide their identities. So, why am I sharing this? Wrong question. Why am I sharing this now? The issue of fidelity and questions of blame, repercussion and consequence have hung in the air in recent weeks. I am left, watching from the sidelines, with my dusty storybook eager to be opened. Its lessons, eager to be shared. Are you sitting comfortably? Shall we begin? It's was a grim autumn in 2005 and I had been working for Skittles Theatre company for eight months since leaving Blackpool. It was a summer like no other travelling up and down the country performing day in, day out and not having a care in the world. My second tour of Alice in Wonderland was finished and my Tour Manager Natasha and I were heading back to the Scottish head offi...

Taking the wise words of the great scribe Madonna, 'life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone' I wonder if it's true. I don't mean to be frivolous but I hope we don't have to stand alone. I fear sometimes we do. This morning I have been to the funeral of a friend from my days in Blackpool. She 'stood alone' in that she was unique and she 'stood alone' in that she was single minded and inspiring. Sadly, it seems she 'stood alone' in her dying days too. Her desire to keep quiet the severity of her cancer from people whilst keeping her children close must have been a factor. But still, to spend your last days in a hospice with so many friends in the dark is shocking. Emma burst onto the scene around nine years ago as a bar(wo)man at the Norbreck Castle Hotel. She was everything I like in a person now but, nothing I liked back then. Immature, opinionated, silly, lazy, bossy and scarily capable. At first I didn't like her, but secretly ...