So there I was, last Tuesday, strolling through Temple Bar in Dublin. I had just been to the cinema in Parnell and had horsed into the ice-cream. All in all, the mood was good.
It occurred to me that the weekly edition of Woman's Way was now on the shelves of newsagents throughout Dublin. I had been haunting newsagents for the past three weeks since I sent them in a story and had almost given up the weekly jaunt to the newsagents. However last Tuesday I thought I would get my hopes up one more time.
I opened it and sure enough, in the index, it said 'reader fiction, page 41'. So I headed on into page 41, not daring to hope.
And there it was! My short story' Where's the Sky?''. I could not believe my own eyes. I was one air to say the least. I looked for my name and there it was in tiny white letters on a blue background in the lower left hand corner of the page. I raced to pay for it and in my absolute joy, could not help but tell the assistant behind the counter that I had been printed in the magazine. He congratulated me and this was to be the first of many congratulations in the coming week. I was delighted to find out that so many people were happy for me because they knew how much I had wanted this to happen. It was, and is, a tremendous feeling to know that your work is out there and is being read by so many people. I am still on air one week later.
My children both loved the story and I am glad to have made them proud of me.
I would say to anyone out there attempting to get their first story published to keep going. It will happen for you too. #delighted
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I have had experiences in my life with male jealousy that you would not believe. I am not saying that women do not get jealous but it seems to me it is just that bit more toxic when it is emanating from a man.
A long time ago I had a fling with a famous guitarist. The bass player in the band kept passing snide remarks the whole time when we were around him. He was so negative it was horrendous. I found out many years later that he was jealous because he felt he had' never had anyone look at him like that'. Well sitting there passing snide remarks all the time was not going to improve his chances now was it?
I also recall the reaction from the lead singer in the band many years later when I showed what I could do in terms of songwriting. We had been sitting in the Pitz Bar in Cork in 1989 and I just got it into my head that we should write some songs. It is not every day that you reunite with old friends the way we had that night so what could possibly be wrong with us writing a few songs? Well I guess I did not know the male ego well enough back then. At some point in the night I overheard the lead singer turn to the guitarist(my ex) and say' I am not the only one who can do this and I dont like what I am feeling right now but I have to be the only one who can do this'. I was surprised on many levels especially the one where he thought he was the only one who could do this. The night wore on and the bass player invited the rest of the band into the men's room. He did not know that there was a hole in the ceiling where his every word was heard by the barman who had followed them. I was most intrigued to be told that he had started off by saying ' that tramp is making us look bad'. I have always wondered how he got so many women when he is so toxic to them. Oh wait, it must be the shedloads of money and the homes in 3 countries. The band have since continued to deny that night even happened despite them assuring me in 2007 that they would no longer deny it. I have been told this by people who used to work for them. It took the lead guitarist until 2007 to even begin to apologise to me on this. He said I had eclipsed them that night and being immature Irish men, they could not handle it. I guess he had a point and I felt a bit justified in hearing this. The bar had been very crowded that night and the following Monday morning, over 300 people went to the local newspaper to tell them. I was not to discover this until 1991 when the album was released and the owner of the newspaper came to my house to tell me. Even then I wanted to believe that the band I once adored as friends would come to me and apologise. The owner of the newspaper was wiser than me and told me I would have to wait until they grew up and that would take a long time. It did,it took 18 years.
I wanted the apology to be in a financial form but I might as well cry to Heaven for that one.
Another time I experienced male jealousy was when I was volunteering in a charity shop in southern Ireland. I had the idea of arranging the music section in alphabetical order. This resulted in an increase of sales. So I did the same thing to the books. I also did a display of the books and they got a bit of love too. Usually we were lucky if we sold 10 books all week, but, with this interesting display, we were doing 10 books a day. This is not a lot but we were a bit out of the way in terms of location. One of the other male volunteers instantly took credit for this and this annoyed the other male volunteer who told the manager. The manager talked to me privately and reassured me he knew that it had been me who had been behind the increased sales. When the lying volunteer was leaving to start a job, they told him they would not be giving him a reference as he had taken credit for other peoples work and they did not like this. He was stunned and stomped out the door. I could not believe he had lied about something so daft but I know better now. Jealousy can be male too.
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I try to sympathise with Melania. I do. After all, she is married to the most embarassing high-profile bully on the planet. Yes she got to be first Lady but look who she had to sleep with in order to get there.
We all want to meet the man of our dreams but I think Melania must have had her drink spiked theday she met him. There really is no other rational explanation as to why she would tip up against the aging serial groom. We know all about the money but we all know how good he is at losing it too.
Maybe she is from circumstances so bad that he seems like a good idea. How bad would they have to be that she looked at his tanned face and that horrendous hair and still felt the need to get married?
She looks miserable for a woman who is in the higest office in the land. She can't make a break for it now, too many eyes are on her. She reminds me of that other famous social prisoner, Katie Holmes. Melania, there is hope. Katie broke free so the people of America are there to help you in this your desperate hour. Run Melania run! We are with you all the way!
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The celebrity of today seems to me to be a lot different to the ones we had back in the Eighties. Of course this is not to say they all kept their clothes on. Madonna would get her tits out at the drop of a hat but she controlled this. Samantha Fox was a big star in every sense of the word and was the page 3 girl other women seemed to like.
Nowadays the publicity stakes seem to have been raised.
You are nobody unless you have had at least one sex tape and flashed your knickerless crotch during at least one public function.
Why are the starlets doing this? I do wonder if some of them own any full-length mirrors.
I can understand Kim Kardashian having to do it as she does not have an iota of talent.
I don't understand Rihanna doing it though. I do think she is talented.
Are they showing too much or am I just too old?
If you think I am way off the mark in this then just imagine your teenage daughter being the centre of attention as she emerges knickerless from a car.
It would be nice if society could teach girls to present themselves a bit better than this.
Whatever happened to the days when a celebrity was known for a brilliant album or a decent performance in a film?
A sex tape used to be something that would ruin a career but, since Paris Hilton, it now kick starts them. You have to wonder if she did this on career advice.
Once you have gotten it all out on camera there is no going back. Maybe all those young women out there wondering whether or not to get it all out on camera should know one thing. Porn is porn at the end of the day.
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That bigot Trump is just the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. I notice his ban does not extend to countries where he has business links.
So he has made a Presidential decision which was based around his private business concerns.
Now I do not consider myself to be the most political creature in the world but surely this represents conflict of interest at its most compelling. Can he legally do this? I can only hope that this is possible grounds for potential impeachment but the Potus without shame would surely bluff/bribe his way out of it.
Is this the same President who swore he was giving up on his business interests to concentrate on the presidency?
Of course this was a politician's promise therefore it did not have a whole lot of value to begin with.
I do wonder if the people who saw fit to vote for Trump are now regretting their foul deed in droves. He is a total joke.
Already the people of Ireland are petitioning their government to prevent their leader from going to the White House on Patrick's Day. Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach(leader) has said he is going to go but then Enda has roughly the same brass neck as Trump and does not want to annoy him in case he pulls his business interests out of Ireland. We are just recovering from a severe recession and frankly our politicians would shake hands with the devil himself if they thought he would invest money in these impoverished shores.
Trump's horrendous ban is a new low for a man who has lowered the bar on many occasions in his life. Does he really want his term in office to go down as one in which racial segregation was reintroduced into the United States?
I guess he is learning from history. Sadly he is picking facist leaders to learn from, with predictably horrendous results.
President's usually earn some goodwill in their first few weeks in office. Trump has managed, in a new best, to alienate the planet in less than a fortnight. Shame on you Trump and is there any chance you could haul ass out of Ireland while you are at it?
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I remember, at the time, imagining I was in love with you. I was a teenager and you were my blue-eyed boy with blonde hair. I had a crush on Sting at the time and I guess you fulfilled my Sting fantasy.
We saw each other a few times and, in the way of lovesick teens everywhere, I thought you had the same opinion of me. I would sunbathe in the back garden listening to love songs and thinking of you.
Then the sun seemed to go away or so it seemed to me. You got distant. Then I got told you had danced with another girl at a disco I had not been to. This was a rotten thing to do according to the strict teen outlook of my circle. You swore she had asked you and you did not want to turn her down.
The weeks passed and then both of our separate youth clubs merged for a charity walk. You kept dodging me and on the one occasion you did bother to talk to me, you kept looking over your shoulder.
I noticed a petite blonde staring at me. You dumped me the following Tuesday by phone.
I was devastated as only a teen in love can be. I lost half a stone in weight and cried like a beast in pain.
You were seen out everywhere with her. She seemed sophisticated to me. She had dyed blonde hair and she was no longer in school. She seemed so mature. I later found out that at one point you had even proposed to her. I know this because after you broke up, she told me. You did not know that, did you? She approached me because at some point in your bitching about me, you told her that I was connected to a famous band and, incredibly, she thought I would give her an introduction to them. She felt I should do this because she had been honest about certain things. One thing she had been honest about was the way you had invited her on the charity walk and pointed me out and said' See her? That is the girl I am going to dump for you.'
Yes, you were indeed that cruel. I remember her standing in front of me telling me all this and all I could think was;' Wow, she is not half as beautiful as I remember.' She seemed pasty and pale and her roots needed doing. She was sneaky in a way to be telling me all this and it made me think she had been perfect for you.I never did introduce her to the band. You did not know I knew all this when you went to work in that factory all those years later. You did not know my sister was working there. She remembered you though and she remembered my broken heart at the time. She invited you out for a drink because she thought I might want to see you again. I loved the look on your face when I told you everything your tiny blonde ex had said to me. I noticed something else too. You were not the blonde blue-eyed hero of my memory either. Your hair was mousy and your eyes were watery and dull from all the cannabis you had been smoking. Frankly, I was over you. You could see it in my face. My sister looked at you with a hard face. You put down your drink and left. We sat there and wondered how I could ever have dated you in the first place. I have not been so innocent since..
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I wrote a manuscript 2 years ago called 'Spirit'. SInce that time, I have, among other things, been in a lot of shorts, a play and one music video. Being in the play must have planted the seed because, last December, I began to write the play version of the unpublished manuscript.
It was interesting to write and to just get all the characters talking to each other. I can type all night if I have to so this was very handy as their was a fierce amount of dialogue to come up with for all of the characters in it.
It is what you would call very much a women's play. There are only 3 walk-on parts for men in it. I know I was influenced by the Waking the Feminists movement in the writing of the play. I also wanted to write something which had parts for actresses over the age of 40. I don't think every piece of theatrical work should have to centre on young actresses all the time.
I enjoyed myself in the writing of the play and am now going to read it over and see what I would change. I think I might already have met one of the actresses I would like to cast in it so that is handy..
It can be very interesting when you see characters come to life on a page. You can literally get them to say anything you want which is cool.
I know I am getting ahead of myself but, on some psychological level, I am already visualising it on the stage.
It is not nescessarily the most conventional of plays so I think it is going to need the most spot on casting ever.
The two main characters are going to need to have some serious chemistry between them as they are going to carry the play.
I might even put myself in the tiniest female role in there.
Well, I would not be an actress if I did not write myself into my own play now would I?
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The Donald disaster just gets more and more bizarre by the day. Now he decides to get into a Twitter hissy fit because America's greatest living actress decides to have a go at him.
I do not blame her in the slightest. He is a pathetic bully who is simply a walking joke.
He gives actors so much material to work with that they simply cannot resist mocking him; the weird hair, the fake tan, the tiny hands, the sheer tackiness all around.
He is meant to be the future President of a country where freedom of speech is enshrined in the Constitution and yet he reacts like a petulant schoolboy when he is criticised. Now we are getting some serious insight into his tiny mind.
Has anyone else noticed the remarkable silence from his ex-wives?
This is because that ginger megalomaniac has gagging orders on both of them.
I wonder does he seriously imagine either of them could possibly make him look any worse in the public eye than he already does? Is this humanly possible?
I think Meryl's speech upset him more than anything because he could not control it and he is, like all egotists, all about control. Oddly enough, for a man who is all about control, he exhibits none when he goes within a yard of Twitter.
He just makes a towering twat of himself time and time again.
My heart goes out to America at this time. How did you do it, how did you manage to replace the decency of Obama with this ginger joke? The rest of the world has to endure your poor choice as well you know.
Frankly, I hope Meryl has another go at him. Oh and just in case you imagine that we like him because he has invested money here, you are wrong. Ireland is very good at being nice to Americans with money. We are a bit broke at the moment so our government is smiling at anyone with money. It does not mean we take them seriously. It's Trump for feck sake, would you?
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So here we are in 2017. A New Year and a New Beginning.
We are all full of determination on the first day of the year. I am going to lose that stone/write that book/land that man. Oh but we nicely delude ourselves all the same.
The people who most need to change their ways are way too busy snarling from the top of the tree to even think of New Year's Resolutions.
How about we ask that one member of the overpaid Irish government actually resolve to step forward and actually do something about the housing crisis in Ireland? Could it be anything to do with the fact that most of them are landlords?
How about Donald Trump resolving to be a teensy bit humble in the New Year? I know this is asking a lot but I can dream.
How about the Kardashian family resolve to stop looking like a bunch of people who are only half aware how to dress themselves in the morning?
It is ironic that people who are in the public eye to that extent are so remarkably unselfaware.
So this is what I wish for in the New Year. Decency in a random politician and some intelligence in the celebrity community..
I would love to see an American version of Appollo House. America has her homeless too and needs to get the finger out and do something about it.
What if the White House made the first gesture and took one homeless person off the streets and gave them a job?
Can you imagine the publicity?
A human being's life would be changed, and it could not do the incoming administration any harm.
We all know they could do with good publicity for a change given that the President elect is an egotistical casino owner.
Happy New Year!
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Oh what a horrendous year it has been on so many levels.
America elected Trump for a President. They had the option of electing Hilary Clinton but that would mean doing something intelligent and the temptation to do otherwise was just too strong.
A madman drove a truck into a Christmas market in Germany and killed 9 people. A plane fell out of the sky in Russia and killed over 90 people.Aleppo and Syria were as horrendous as ever. Immigrants trying to make it to safety were drowning in their hordes. It seemed as if a day did not go by without something horrendous happening.
On the celebrity circuit they were dropping like flies. Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Rick Parfit, Carrie Fisher and George Michael all left us. Carrie Fisher was simply a massive part of my childhood. I was 10 years old when I sat in the cinema watching Star Wars and was totally fascinated by her. She was awesome and she lit up the screen. I did not know she meant something sexual to her many male fans, I just wanted to be out in space having adventures the way she did.
George Michael was someone who was a vital part of my teen years. I was a teen in a more innocent time and many of my friends simply refused to believe he was gay. They concluded that anyone who could write 'Careless Whisper' and 'Last Christmas' had to be straight. ' Careless Whisper' is, like all great songs, capable of transporting you back in time. I hear it and I am in my Eighties bedroom, probably wearing something neon and curling my hair. Such is the power of a song.
So many stars have left us this year that it is like the movie 'Final Destination' has been recast with celebrities.
Is it possible to issue a command ordering stars to stay indoors until 2017? Is this too much to ask?
Prince was another giant on my teen landscape. ''When Doves Cry' is just so full of the sort of sexual longing that was his trademark. In later years he did not have the same musical output but he was a genius to the end. When he came to Ireland he sang '' Nothing compares to you'', while admitting it was not really his song anymore and we loved him for it.
I just want 2016 to be over right now. We need a better year in 2017 Make it so.
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suzy bevan / Blog
So I got my first short story published.
So there I was, last Tuesday, strolling through Temple Bar in Dublin. I had just been to the cinema in Parnell and had horsed into the ice-cream. All in all, the mood was good. It occurred to me that the weekly edition of Woman's Way was now on the shelves of newsagents throughout Dublin. I had been haunting newsagents for the past three weeks since I sent them in a story and had almost given up the weekly jaunt to the newsagents. However last Tuesday I thought I would get my hopes up one more time. I opened it and sure enough, in the index, it said 'reader fiction, page 41'. So I headed on into page 41, not daring to hope. And there it was! My short story' Where's the Sky?''. I could not believe my own eyes. I was one air to say the least. I looked for my name and there it was in tiny white letters on a blue background in the lower left hand corner of the page. I raced to pay for it and in my absolute joy, could not help but tell the assistant behind the counter that I had been printed in the magazine. He congratulated me and this was to be the first of many congratulations in the coming week. I was delighted to find out that so many people were happy for me because they knew how much I had wanted this to happen. It was, and is, a tremendous feeling to know that your work is out there and is being read by so many people. I am still on air one week later. My children both loved the story and I am glad to have made them proud of me. I would say to anyone out there attempting to get their first story published to keep going. It will happen for you too. #delighted
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Male Jealousy; Worse than female?
I have had experiences in my life with male jealousy that you would not believe. I am not saying that women do not get jealous but it seems to me it is just that bit more toxic when it is emanating from a man. A long time ago I had a fling with a famous guitarist. The bass player in the band kept passing snide remarks the whole time when we were around him. He was so negative it was horrendous. I found out many years later that he was jealous because he felt he had' never had anyone look at him like that'. Well sitting there passing snide remarks all the time was not going to improve his chances now was it? I also recall the reaction from the lead singer in the band many years later when I showed what I could do in terms of songwriting. We had been sitting in the Pitz Bar in Cork in 1989 and I just got it into my head that we should write some songs. It is not every day that you reunite with old friends the way we had that night so what could possibly be wrong with us writing a few songs? Well I guess I did not know the male ego well enough back then. At some point in the night I overheard the lead singer turn to the guitarist(my ex) and say' I am not the only one who can do this and I dont like what I am feeling right now but I have to be the only one who can do this'. I was surprised on many levels especially the one where he thought he was the only one who could do this. The night wore on and the bass player invited the rest of the band into the men's room. He did not know that there was a hole in the ceiling where his every word was heard by the barman who had followed them. I was most intrigued to be told that he had started off by saying ' that tramp is making us look bad'. I have always wondered how he got so many women when he is so toxic to them. Oh wait, it must be the shedloads of money and the homes in 3 countries. The band have since continued to deny that night even happened despite them assuring me in 2007 that they would no longer deny it. I have been told this by people who used to work for them. It took the lead guitarist until 2007 to even begin to apologise to me on this. He said I had eclipsed them that night and being immature Irish men, they could not handle it. I guess he had a point and I felt a bit justified in hearing this. The bar had been very crowded that night and the following Monday morning, over 300 people went to the local newspaper to tell them. I was not to discover this until 1991 when the album was released and the owner of the newspaper came to my house to tell me. Even then I wanted to believe that the band I once adored as friends would come to me and apologise. The owner of the newspaper was wiser than me and told me I would have to wait until they grew up and that would take a long time. It did,it took 18 years. I wanted the apology to be in a financial form but I might as well cry to Heaven for that one. Another time I experienced male jealousy was when I was volunteering in a charity shop in southern Ireland. I had the idea of arranging the music section in alphabetical order. This resulted in an increase of sales. So I did the same thing to the books. I also did a display of the books and they got a bit of love too. Usually we were lucky if we sold 10 books all week, but, with this interesting display, we were doing 10 books a day. This is not a lot but we were a bit out of the way in terms of location. One of the other male volunteers instantly took credit for this and this annoyed the other male volunteer who told the manager. The manager talked to me privately and reassured me he knew that it had been me who had been behind the increased sales. When the lying volunteer was leaving to start a job, they told him they would not be giving him a reference as he had taken credit for other peoples work and they did not like this. He was stunned and stomped out the door. I could not believe he had lied about something so daft but I know better now. Jealousy can be male too.
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Melania and the choice she made
I try to sympathise with Melania. I do. After all, she is married to the most embarassing high-profile bully on the planet. Yes she got to be first Lady but look who she had to sleep with in order to get there. We all want to meet the man of our dreams but I think Melania must have had her drink spiked theday she met him. There really is no other rational explanation as to why she would tip up against the aging serial groom. We know all about the money but we all know how good he is at losing it too. Maybe she is from circumstances so bad that he seems like a good idea. How bad would they have to be that she looked at his tanned face and that horrendous hair and still felt the need to get married? She looks miserable for a woman who is in the higest office in the land. She can't make a break for it now, too many eyes are on her. She reminds me of that other famous social prisoner, Katie Holmes. Melania, there is hope. Katie broke free so the people of America are there to help you in this your desperate hour. Run Melania run! We are with you all the way!
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The famous are a bit more pornographic now
The celebrity of today seems to me to be a lot different to the ones we had back in the Eighties. Of course this is not to say they all kept their clothes on. Madonna would get her tits out at the drop of a hat but she controlled this. Samantha Fox was a big star in every sense of the word and was the page 3 girl other women seemed to like. Nowadays the publicity stakes seem to have been raised. You are nobody unless you have had at least one sex tape and flashed your knickerless crotch during at least one public function. Why are the starlets doing this? I do wonder if some of them own any full-length mirrors. I can understand Kim Kardashian having to do it as she does not have an iota of talent. I don't understand Rihanna doing it though. I do think she is talented. Are they showing too much or am I just too old? If you think I am way off the mark in this then just imagine your teenage daughter being the centre of attention as she emerges knickerless from a car. It would be nice if society could teach girls to present themselves a bit better than this. Whatever happened to the days when a celebrity was known for a brilliant album or a decent performance in a film? A sex tape used to be something that would ruin a career but, since Paris Hilton, it now kick starts them. You have to wonder if she did this on career advice. Once you have gotten it all out on camera there is no going back. Maybe all those young women out there wondering whether or not to get it all out on camera should know one thing. Porn is porn at the end of the day.
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The Muslim Ban and why it is disgraceful
That bigot Trump is just the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. I notice his ban does not extend to countries where he has business links. So he has made a Presidential decision which was based around his private business concerns. Now I do not consider myself to be the most political creature in the world but surely this represents conflict of interest at its most compelling. Can he legally do this? I can only hope that this is possible grounds for potential impeachment but the Potus without shame would surely bluff/bribe his way out of it. Is this the same President who swore he was giving up on his business interests to concentrate on the presidency? Of course this was a politician's promise therefore it did not have a whole lot of value to begin with. I do wonder if the people who saw fit to vote for Trump are now regretting their foul deed in droves. He is a total joke. Already the people of Ireland are petitioning their government to prevent their leader from going to the White House on Patrick's Day. Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach(leader) has said he is going to go but then Enda has roughly the same brass neck as Trump and does not want to annoy him in case he pulls his business interests out of Ireland. We are just recovering from a severe recession and frankly our politicians would shake hands with the devil himself if they thought he would invest money in these impoverished shores. Trump's horrendous ban is a new low for a man who has lowered the bar on many occasions in his life. Does he really want his term in office to go down as one in which racial segregation was reintroduced into the United States? I guess he is learning from history. Sadly he is picking facist leaders to learn from, with predictably horrendous results. President's usually earn some goodwill in their first few weeks in office. Trump has managed, in a new best, to alienate the planet in less than a fortnight. Shame on you Trump and is there any chance you could haul ass out of Ireland while you are at it?
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Nasty and innocent went on some dates
I remember, at the time, imagining I was in love with you. I was a teenager and you were my blue-eyed boy with blonde hair. I had a crush on Sting at the time and I guess you fulfilled my Sting fantasy. We saw each other a few times and, in the way of lovesick teens everywhere, I thought you had the same opinion of me. I would sunbathe in the back garden listening to love songs and thinking of you. Then the sun seemed to go away or so it seemed to me. You got distant. Then I got told you had danced with another girl at a disco I had not been to. This was a rotten thing to do according to the strict teen outlook of my circle. You swore she had asked you and you did not want to turn her down. The weeks passed and then both of our separate youth clubs merged for a charity walk. You kept dodging me and on the one occasion you did bother to talk to me, you kept looking over your shoulder. I noticed a petite blonde staring at me. You dumped me the following Tuesday by phone. I was devastated as only a teen in love can be. I lost half a stone in weight and cried like a beast in pain. You were seen out everywhere with her. She seemed sophisticated to me. She had dyed blonde hair and she was no longer in school. She seemed so mature. I later found out that at one point you had even proposed to her. I know this because after you broke up, she told me. You did not know that, did you? She approached me because at some point in your bitching about me, you told her that I was connected to a famous band and, incredibly, she thought I would give her an introduction to them. She felt I should do this because she had been honest about certain things. One thing she had been honest about was the way you had invited her on the charity walk and pointed me out and said' See her? That is the girl I am going to dump for you.' Yes, you were indeed that cruel. I remember her standing in front of me telling me all this and all I could think was;' Wow, she is not half as beautiful as I remember.' She seemed pasty and pale and her roots needed doing. She was sneaky in a way to be telling me all this and it made me think she had been perfect for you.I never did introduce her to the band. You did not know I knew all this when you went to work in that factory all those years later. You did not know my sister was working there. She remembered you though and she remembered my broken heart at the time. She invited you out for a drink because she thought I might want to see you again. I loved the look on your face when I told you everything your tiny blonde ex had said to me. I noticed something else too. You were not the blonde blue-eyed hero of my memory either. Your hair was mousy and your eyes were watery and dull from all the cannabis you had been smoking. Frankly, I was over you. You could see it in my face. My sister looked at you with a hard face. You put down your drink and left. We sat there and wondered how I could ever have dated you in the first place. I have not been so innocent since..
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So I finished writing my play.
I wrote a manuscript 2 years ago called 'Spirit'. SInce that time, I have, among other things, been in a lot of shorts, a play and one music video. Being in the play must have planted the seed because, last December, I began to write the play version of the unpublished manuscript. It was interesting to write and to just get all the characters talking to each other. I can type all night if I have to so this was very handy as their was a fierce amount of dialogue to come up with for all of the characters in it. It is what you would call very much a women's play. There are only 3 walk-on parts for men in it. I know I was influenced by the Waking the Feminists movement in the writing of the play. I also wanted to write something which had parts for actresses over the age of 40. I don't think every piece of theatrical work should have to centre on young actresses all the time. I enjoyed myself in the writing of the play and am now going to read it over and see what I would change. I think I might already have met one of the actresses I would like to cast in it so that is handy.. It can be very interesting when you see characters come to life on a page. You can literally get them to say anything you want which is cool. I know I am getting ahead of myself but, on some psychological level, I am already visualising it on the stage. It is not nescessarily the most conventional of plays so I think it is going to need the most spot on casting ever. The two main characters are going to need to have some serious chemistry between them as they are going to carry the play. I might even put myself in the tiniest female role in there. Well, I would not be an actress if I did not write myself into my own play now would I?
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Donald, do you actually have anyone advising you at this time?
The Donald disaster just gets more and more bizarre by the day. Now he decides to get into a Twitter hissy fit because America's greatest living actress decides to have a go at him. I do not blame her in the slightest. He is a pathetic bully who is simply a walking joke. He gives actors so much material to work with that they simply cannot resist mocking him; the weird hair, the fake tan, the tiny hands, the sheer tackiness all around. He is meant to be the future President of a country where freedom of speech is enshrined in the Constitution and yet he reacts like a petulant schoolboy when he is criticised. Now we are getting some serious insight into his tiny mind. Has anyone else noticed the remarkable silence from his ex-wives? This is because that ginger megalomaniac has gagging orders on both of them. I wonder does he seriously imagine either of them could possibly make him look any worse in the public eye than he already does? Is this humanly possible? I think Meryl's speech upset him more than anything because he could not control it and he is, like all egotists, all about control. Oddly enough, for a man who is all about control, he exhibits none when he goes within a yard of Twitter. He just makes a towering twat of himself time and time again. My heart goes out to America at this time. How did you do it, how did you manage to replace the decency of Obama with this ginger joke? The rest of the world has to endure your poor choice as well you know. Frankly, I hope Meryl has another go at him. Oh and just in case you imagine that we like him because he has invested money here, you are wrong. Ireland is very good at being nice to Americans with money. We are a bit broke at the moment so our government is smiling at anyone with money. It does not mean we take them seriously. It's Trump for feck sake, would you?
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2017 and those pesky New Year Revolutions
So here we are in 2017. A New Year and a New Beginning. We are all full of determination on the first day of the year. I am going to lose that stone/write that book/land that man. Oh but we nicely delude ourselves all the same. The people who most need to change their ways are way too busy snarling from the top of the tree to even think of New Year's Resolutions. How about we ask that one member of the overpaid Irish government actually resolve to step forward and actually do something about the housing crisis in Ireland? Could it be anything to do with the fact that most of them are landlords? How about Donald Trump resolving to be a teensy bit humble in the New Year? I know this is asking a lot but I can dream. How about the Kardashian family resolve to stop looking like a bunch of people who are only half aware how to dress themselves in the morning? It is ironic that people who are in the public eye to that extent are so remarkably unselfaware. So this is what I wish for in the New Year. Decency in a random politician and some intelligence in the celebrity community.. I would love to see an American version of Appollo House. America has her homeless too and needs to get the finger out and do something about it. What if the White House made the first gesture and took one homeless person off the streets and gave them a job? Can you imagine the publicity? A human being's life would be changed, and it could not do the incoming administration any harm. We all know they could do with good publicity for a change given that the President elect is an egotistical casino owner. Happy New Year!
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2016 stop this now.
Oh what a horrendous year it has been on so many levels. America elected Trump for a President. They had the option of electing Hilary Clinton but that would mean doing something intelligent and the temptation to do otherwise was just too strong. A madman drove a truck into a Christmas market in Germany and killed 9 people. A plane fell out of the sky in Russia and killed over 90 people.Aleppo and Syria were as horrendous as ever. Immigrants trying to make it to safety were drowning in their hordes. It seemed as if a day did not go by without something horrendous happening. On the celebrity circuit they were dropping like flies. Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Rick Parfit, Carrie Fisher and George Michael all left us. Carrie Fisher was simply a massive part of my childhood. I was 10 years old when I sat in the cinema watching Star Wars and was totally fascinated by her. She was awesome and she lit up the screen. I did not know she meant something sexual to her many male fans, I just wanted to be out in space having adventures the way she did. George Michael was someone who was a vital part of my teen years. I was a teen in a more innocent time and many of my friends simply refused to believe he was gay. They concluded that anyone who could write 'Careless Whisper' and 'Last Christmas' had to be straight. ' Careless Whisper' is, like all great songs, capable of transporting you back in time. I hear it and I am in my Eighties bedroom, probably wearing something neon and curling my hair. Such is the power of a song. So many stars have left us this year that it is like the movie 'Final Destination' has been recast with celebrities. Is it possible to issue a command ordering stars to stay indoors until 2017? Is this too much to ask? Prince was another giant on my teen landscape. ''When Doves Cry' is just so full of the sort of sexual longing that was his trademark. In later years he did not have the same musical output but he was a genius to the end. When he came to Ireland he sang '' Nothing compares to you'', while admitting it was not really his song anymore and we loved him for it. I just want 2016 to be over right now. We need a better year in 2017 Make it so.
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