Ain't This The Truth!?

No More a Virgin

Hubby and I are no longer festival virgins (or the biblical kind....I've mentioned the five kids, right?). 

Thursday last week we headed off to the Hop Farm Festival near Tonbridge in Kent. Arriving in beautiful sunshine and met by all the other early arrivals with huge smiles and eager anticipation. The three night break away for us was enough to be excited about (half-pint is only four so we were looking forward to a lie-in or two!) the line-up however had us so wired we couldn't stop grinning inanely at each other. 

My other half is a major Bob Dylan fan and, don't shoot me, I am not. However I was so chuffed for him to be able to see one of his all time idols that I was looking forward to him headlining on the Saturday night too....Bob Dylan that is, not my husband!

One or two of my favourites were playing too and on Saturday afternoon I got myself positioned right at the very front of the crowd and was thoroughly overwhelmed with 'Love and Affection' when the lovely Joan Armatrading played some of her most famous songs - 'I Love it When You Call Me Names', 'Drop The Pilot' and 'All The Way From America'. Fabulous!!

There were so many moments of brilliance over the weekend that I can't do a complete roll-call but special mentions should go to: Randy Crawford, Billy Ocean - who was just unbelievably brilliant and had the whole crowd dancing and singing - I didn't realise I knew so many of his songs! The Stranglers certainly didn't disappoint when they sang 'Duchess' and 'Peaches' - the soundtrack to my teenage years along with Gary Numan and Cars!

Bruce Forsyth was a random addition to the line-up and if hadn't been for the fact that Joan was following I would have disappeared off to join the long queue to hell (more of that later). However, as soon as Brucie set foot on the main stage the love from the crowd was palpable - everyone willing this veteran entertainer to be his very best on his festival debut - he's no longer a virgin either! 

Three Blind Wolves are worth you-tubing if you get a chance - three lads upfront with guitars and great tunes and a drummer with a penchant for undressing! Very very entertaining! I'll definitely be getting their stuff on to my ipod (God i'm so 21st century!)

The melodious voice of Damien Rice cut through the night like a knife - the crowd hanging on his every poignant word - just one man a guitar a huge stage and a throng held in his songs - I've loved him for 10 years and have seen him a couple of times live in more intimate venues and was worried that this event wouldn't have the same atmosphere for a performer like Damien - I was so wrong - he was just magical.

Suede ended the festival on Sunday night. I have never been a massive fan of them before but, my word, I am now. What a performance! They played all their big hits and played them fantastically with all the energy and passion of twenty year olds!

For me though, the very best performance of the whole three days was from 'Bellowhead'. I'm ashamed to admit that i'd never heard of them before and again was only down the front by the railings waiting for Joan! 

The Aforementioned

A band of amazing musicians with fiddles and saxophone, penny whistles and a tuba to name a few. Such an amazing and fun set. Traditional British folk songs with a modern and sexy twist. If they were for hire for New Year's Eve I would most certainly book them.....somehow with their  talent I have a feeling I would be saving for a very long time before I could even afford the penny whistle solo! At one point three of the boys came to the front of the stage and performed a song, which if memory serves me right, was called Hop. They did a little jig involving jumping and encouraged the crowd to join in. Always being one to do as i'm told I joined in most enthusiastically. Jumping too much probably as, some minutes into my wild abandon, I felt something around my ankles...yep, you guessed it....I jigged right out of my pants!.....I should add that, mercifully, I had put them on OVER my leggings (in an attempt to keep the leggings up! major wardrobe fail!) Anyway, I styled it out, pulled them up with haste and continued to dance clinging desperately through my dress to the aforementioned undergarments!!!

The music at The Hop Farm was diverse and thrilling having something for just about everyone. It was well organised and on the whole the staff were friendly, However, I did get the feeling when moving around from the main arena to the campsite that I was being marshalled around a POW camp. The constant bag checks and being ordered to throw away open bottles of water as you can't take the from one place to another was pretty jarring after a while - especially as the MC for the event constantly reminding the crowd to keep hydrated - I would do Dave, but I have just thrown away my third almost full bottle of water for the day (£6 worth....I thank you!)

Essentials for toilet trip!

Now....The toilets - I know everyone warns the virgins about these but Christ on a bike, I never expected anything like it! On the second morning I went for the obligatory early morning pee and after queuing for ten minutes was scared that my kidneys were about to implode, finally stepping up into the dark plastic box and dropping my drawers (a theme emerging here!) I genuinely gagged and  fell out of the cubicle with the sting of acrid tears falling down my face! From that moment my subconscious had a very strong word with my bladder and bowel, urging them to refrain from needing abluting for the next two days! There should have been at least double the amount of toilets and toilet cleaners....gross!

And.....the showers.....a festival with thousands of campers and ......14 showers....that's right....14 showers! Which were closed from 12 lunchtime to some random time in the evening then opened for a short while (begrudgingly) and then closed between midnight and 6am.....not enough Mr Power....nowhere near enough!

Finally....my very last complaint....for those people who brought their own food along there was nowhere for the to wash up dishes apart from the sinks next to the toilets and the open urinals where people were washing fecal matter from their hands and also having to brush their teeth.....not good, especially as there were many small children enjoying the festival. Generally I can put up with this kind of thing....if i'm not paying a handsome price for the privilege! Come on....sort it out!

Bellowhead

All in all though a bloomin' fantastic weekend! And, Bellowhead, if your ever in Hastings and fancy a cuppa.......!

The Hook

''To be or not to be? That is the question.Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer....'

David Tennant as Hamlet

As an opener they don't come much better than Hamlet. Although 'If music be the food of life, play on give me excess if it' is a pretty close second. Shakespeare had the whole first paragraph thing nailed. Centuries ago he knew, instinctively, that if a writer doesn't hook the reader within those vital few words she is danger of being lost forever.

As Bill's brilliance knocks on the door of my sub-conscious with every word I write I question myself, 'Is this boring?' 'Have I just lost another precious reader?'...shush, that was rhetoric!

There are some amazing openers, those already quoted above but how about 'Marley was dead, to begin with'. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Or, 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.' 1984 By George Orwell? Both suggesting intrigue and grabbing the reader very firmly by the short and curlies from the very first sentence.

Writing my own novel I have absolutely no idea how i'm getting on. So I set myself a challenge, I read as many first paragraphs as I could manage in one hour and then went back to my writing from some weeks ago and took a long, hard and analytic look at my own. Wow, you really could waste some paper in this game....thank the lord for technology and the delete button!

Anyway, several attempts later and this is what I have come up with as an opening paragraph.....

'As a child I wondered how someone could slip off the edge of the world, no note. How they could be there and then not. Be missed, then not. How the world you lived in just yesterday is unrecognisable today. The wound they left heals and no one mentions them again. At least ‘no one in their right mind’.

Would you be lured in and want to find out what is happening?

Choice-Words

I have just received an email from a girl (now woman) that I went to school with nearly thirty six years ago and became close friends then sadly drifted in our 20s.

When I told her that I was now writing and that I have had some poetry published recently she said "I'm not surprised, you always were creative, I remember that poem you wrote 'REFLECTIONS'." I couldn't believe someone not only remembered  that I used to write poems but could remember one of them clearly enough from circa 1980 to remind me about it! It just goes to show the power of words. I wrote something all those years ago that resonated with her and her teenage life which has stayed with her ever since, indeed, she told me that she had used the first lines in a letter to someone many years later!

I'm re-reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Some of those lines are so precisely etched in my memory that Jem and Scout's scorched days brought back so clearly my own sweltering classroom where we took turns to read their adventures aloud. Just the names; Jem, Scout and Atticus are enough to conjure up the heat of unnecessary school blazers and BO.

Whoever had this copy from the library before me seems to have a shared love of the words and phrases used by Ms Lee, as the borrower has underlined many throughout and far from being irritated at someone's graffiti I am fascinated that, on the whole, they are the same ones that I remember being mesmerised by. I'm fairly sure that this author understood completely the power of her words, but not all of us do. 

At this point I would love to insert that long-ago penned poem that my lovely friend remembers so clearly - unfortunately I can't remember much past the title! However, I do remember another scribbling, written after someone else's words had completely devastated me! 

'Anoint'

Kissing my neck so sweetly

You pushed me through your door

And crushed me so completely

Another of your angels crashes to the floor

Free-falling, Earth-bound

I crack my head on the bannister

Then realise your words were brimstone

When I’d thought they were lavender.

I suppose what I am trying to get at is the power of words, our words. How we talk to others and how we hear what others say to us. In writing I choose my words carefully I just hope that I am as careful when I talk. Written or spoken words can either delight and entertain, congratulate or commiserate or degrade and destroy! Of course, for story-telling purposes go wild with your words but when dealing with the fragility of the human soul, especially those you love, tread lightly, speak kindly. 

I know the adage 'actions speak louder than words' but I disagree. But then i'm a writer not a mime artist!!

Writer's Retreat

My Own Writer's Retreat. Ok, well not my actual own personal one!

This is where I will be spending the Summer though! Beautiful house in South West France. Bliss. Many happy holidays have been spent there. This could very well be the last one though as my folks are selling up!

It has to be said that it is stunning. The peace is like nothing I've ever experienced and the skies at night - wow -  a blanket of stars!

This year we will be truly making the most of it, building dens for half pint, swimming in the gorgeous pool, BBQs 'til the sun goes down - the food not our bodies...factor 50 is the order of the day as it does get very hot indeed.

So, just in case it sells quickly, we intend to enjoy every minute of our holiday this year and celebrate it in all it's wondrous beauty! 

I still remember vividly the first summer there with my older boys some years ago. As my mum pulled off the road and started to head up a dust track a tiled rooftop could be seen amidst the orchard, slowly as we approached the rest of the house showed itself. Me and the boys couldn't believe our eyes! We thought they had bought a cottage - not an enormous farmhouse with years of adventure promising itself in the barns and fields.

Whilst dreaming of my holiday and already tasting the local wines in my imagination I am feeling that dread of having to say goodbye to the place maybe for the very last time.

However sad, I have to say thanks to my mum and dad as I now have that feeling that life is for the taking and there is adventure around every corner. 

They bought the house the year my dad turned 70 and although my mum speaks French my dad, not for the want of trying, doesn't! How brave, then, of him to trust to the pioneer spirit and give it a go! Giving us all such great times and memories! 

I think the one that will go down in history is my dad (now 81 , left) walking up the very long dusty track to the house and striding, wordless and fully dressed, straight down the steps and in to the pool! 

Dad....you are amazing....mum (little girl on left of B&W photo)....you hold us all together. 

Cosmic Ordering

When you have a wobble, doubt your own decisions, or question your ability you need a word from the Cosmos....I got an email: 
My lovely husband even set up an email account on behalf of the Cosmos!










From: thisisthecosmosspeaking@hotmail.com
To: ms.bethdavies@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Better Believe (see what I did there?)
Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 11:19:54 +0100

Hello Bethan,

The Cosmos here. 
I have been watching you for some while now (mostly because you are the most beautiful thing down there).
It has come to my attention that you are very, very talented. Your style of writing, whilst clearly crafted, appears effortless & is a joy to read. Your characters are believable and storylines are genuinely heart-touching. I cannot wait until December, when I will be able to read back over the entire manuscript. You are absolutely following the path I have determined for you; you must continue the journey. For my part - if you will promise to stick to it, I will promise you success. See it as a joint enterprise, if that makes it less daunting. You are not on your own. Remember that.

Eternal love,

The Cosmos.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ain't love grand!x

THOUGHTS PLEASE...

Morning all.

My first week as unemployed....I mean freelance, and I've been nursing a sick child followed in quick succession by a sick husband (not just his sense of humour this time). So I haven't done exactly what I had intended so far. That said, I have re-written an original synopsis, completely changing the plot and by doing so have made the whole thing easier to write....I hope!

I've also been researching 'online presence' and the need for it these days. I was aware, obviously, that anyone wishing to promote a business from Marshmallow Toaster to Martian Trapper needs to be seen in cyberspace. However, I wasn't aware that it was necessary to have more 'white space' on one's blog or put the important stuff down the left hand column. Man, I'm out of touch!

      Apparently the whole blog should avoid busy patterns (whoops!) and too many 'non-specific' images (what's non-specific about Alice In Wonderland, eh? Eh?). So this is where I had to question my motives here. Yes, I am now a freelance writer (I am cringing too thank you....I know how this sounds to the experienced scribes out there!!) but this blog was not started to promote a product but my 'Manifesto for a Brilliant Year' which, if you haven't read it please go back to the beginning as it will make more sense of the rest of this blog!!

Basically,the premise of the blog is to focus myself and to move myself off the sofa! Last year was rubbish and I was determined that this one would be so much better. And, I have to say, that so far this year has been bloomin' marvellous. There is something very scary about announcing ambition and intention, but in my case it has been the best thing I have ever done. I have had so many times in the past where I have just given up at the first hurdle and convinced myself that I am useless and wonder why I am kidding myself in to thinking I could be a success at anything but, these days, I know I just have to carry on as I have publicly announced my intentions! If I get knocked back then I have to pull myself together and try again.....I have NEVER done this before EVER. It is an absolute revelation to me! 

This blog is a very personal attempt at improving my life and getting it 'out there' does not allow 'failure' to be a part of my Brilliant Year. My dilemma is, now that the writing part is slowly taking off, and this is where I need your thoughts, the blog may be visited by prospective agents (indeed it already has) and publishers etc. Will they want to see an all singing advert for my professionalism in creating a 'white-spaced, non-specific image free' blog? Or will they want to see me making my way through the Manifesto in my personal style, which for the record does NOT mirror my novel-writing style. I enjoy writing this one for the interaction with those of you who are lovely enough to comment on here and who send me such encouraging emails.

Maybe I should carry on with this blog and set up another purely with the intention of selling myself? (I am not knocking this notion, I am fully aware that if you want to be bought you have to sell yourself!). 

I would be really grateful for your thoughts.

And finally....the agent emailed me again and said she thought I was '...so talented that she would love to read anything I have!'...yeeeeha!! And that was the first agent I had sent anything to...whoop!

Looking forward to your thoughts!