From my perspective, it’s Ali’s last day. He’s off home. He’ll be back before it’s over but I have some very high profile prancing to do so I can’t be involved in the paras so I won’t see him back. The games will continue. I just have to do a Shakespeare. From a high profile event to high profile theatre job. My existence is truly “blessed” right now in the annoying social media “punch that person right now” sense of the word. I can see the path back from both of these wonderful opportunities through time and work. It’s delightful to trace it. Carpe Diem, repeated. Hey kids , remember, if you work as hard as you can at every opportunity, things tend to come back. Thank fuck. I love to give my al. It is powerful when that all is seen and received.
I mustn’t start doing Shakespeare at the games though. I’ve worked so hard at my craft outside this wondrous madness, but actually yes – I’ve also worked very hard to expand into this response driver type thing. Being useful is a pathology.
I’m probably one of the lowest profile workers in terms of these games, which is how I would always want it frankly as I’m not here to be big and clever. I’ve got to move things from place to place and respond. Don’t have to fill in any forms thank god. Apart from secure load, but that’s just for the potatoes to half look at before just doing what they would have done anyway. Largely I can exist free…
When I go up to the RSC I’m playing Lodovico in Othello – far from the lead, bien sûr, but the poshest person in the play. What a remarkable opportunity. There’s this thing where it is pretty much always the highest status living character who finishes the verse in a Shakespeare play. Then you might well have a bit of foolery and a jig and hey ho the wind and the rain, but the job is done. I finish the last verse line, and I’m sure you’ll all be inundated with that before long. Right now I’m just loving the balance of my existence, still weighted 100% towards Olympic consumables and making this madness work, but knowing I’m gonna have to be off book on day one etc. I’ll be here as long as I need to for a handover to the team, but I was always gonna have to pull out before the paras.
I’ve been up to the usual. Perhaps a little too jaded with van gates when it can go in by hand. I had to haggle with some dodgy fucker for a half empty propane can that was in his empties pile. It’s for a burner to apply a floor sign that has never been supplied in the right size. The burner comes with a gazebo – (We’ve got two so to keep track they both went to HDV). The burner only comes into play if it rains, which it won’t. If it does though, they can dry the road under the gazebos and apply the alu floor sign. So long as it doesn’t rain “too much” whatever that means.
Reassembling all this stuff has been a remarkable job, made all the more remarkable by the fact that apparently there’s a WhatsApp group called “Aluminium floor fuckery” that I’m not part of but which I’ve been instinctively problem solving for. I’ve coincidentally got everything into the right place in time by sheer fucking listening and being visible. But yeah, visible is my thing. When I first got involved in the Rosamund Pilcher stuff for German TV, Lutz was my point of contact. He was easy to contact and reference as he always wore a trilby. It’s a helpful identifier, it was my father’s, it is mine. One day I’ll get a monogrammed Locke and co version. But for now I’ll finish off the ex hats of beloved ancestors. Dad’s is parked, Peter’s is still under heavy use, one day I’ll justify the buy… And Lutz is mostly retired with his alpacas now, but fuck it, I’ll go hang out with him anytime and learn. When we meet our people, we know it.
AlBarclay 