Shine A Light

What a packed week it’s been! On Monday I went to see the Poliakoff play (see previous entry), then after a brief sojourn of ironing on Tuesday, things simply spiralled out of control - again. On Wednesday we had our ‘Word of Mouth’ event at the Royal Concert Hall – this was a reading event provided by the Nottingham Writers’ Studio where a selection of studio members read out (or had performed) their work in front of a paying audience. I had volunteered to man the bar which involved buying and delivering the wine and then attempting to quench the thirst of dozens of clamouring writers and their adoring fans. Quite a task.

On Thursday I attended the dress rehearsal of the launch of Unleashed Limited’s latest project: ‘Finding Beauty’. This was a series of art & performance installations set in a derelict police station in the centre of Nottingham. There was a woman taking Polaroid photograph after Polaroid photograph of her own Polaroid photographs; the world’s smallest rave set in one of the piss-stinking, graffiti-scorched cells; a woman hiding inside a bag whilst showing a film of herself not hiding in the bag; a cardboard ice-cream van serving real ice-creams (gratis, providing you were willing to be filmed accepting them); a tribute band to The Band That Never Was – it was all there at Unleashed.

The dress rehearsal was completed to satisfaction, and so Friday night saw the launch of the real event; the Press Night. The guest list was rigorously checked by corset-clad faux policewomen on the door; a male model (painted white) sat on a shooting stick and criticized the guests’ outfits (I wore a gold brocade shirt with orange-striped trousers, heavily mocked). This was a fabulous event - the place was buzzing with life as the massing crowds milled from room to room admiring the various exhibits and installations. I was interviewed by the BBC (in what had once been the custody suite) on my impressions of the photographed photographs. It was all huge fun so well done to you, Unleashed!

Today was a complete contrast. I attended an all-day audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was a series of spiritual teachings about the meaning of life and about finding inner peace and satisfaction. In some ways it was rather predictable and fairly high-level, but the Dalai Lama is such a lovely man that it was just enthralling to be in his presence and listen to him expound his musings on the human condition in his laid-back, almost comical style. The young girl who washes my hair asked me recently who "this Dalai Lama fellow" was – she had thought he was some sort of comedian. In his own way, he is. One piece of advice he had to give on the subject of finding inner happiness is: Never take yourself too seriously. I don’t have a lot of trouble in following this particular piece of advice – I wore my elephant trousers today and nobody could take themselves too seriously wearing those.

More of His Holiness’s teachings tomorrow. I can’t wait.