My Latest Poetry and Comedy Exploits

Things to ponder...

I had a fantastic time at Lyric Lounge last Saturday. It was great fun using balloons and paper aeroplanes of our poems to muster the crowds and I really enjoyed hosting the talent showcase in the evening. Mark Gwynne Jones was excellent. Everyone was excellent! But I also had some really good feedback for myself (poetry and hosting), all of which is adding to my thoughts that perhaps poetry is where I'm getting the most kudos and respect, rather than comedy. What can I do with that, I wonder?

Then on Wednesday I went to my writing group and my stuff was up for critique. I had submitted the first chapter of Wonderwalled - my first attempt at long fiction since the 90s, and aptly set in the 90s as well. I've been scribbling away at it for a while but don't seem to have got terribly far with it. My intention was to write something anti-chicklit, but the general consensus from the group seems to be that I have just gone a little bit too far in this respect and there was a resounding cry of where's the story? Silly question - in my head! The thing has legs... but they need to paddle harder.

I think I may go away, read some Sophie Kinsella, come back to it in a couple of weeks.*

It occurs to me that writing is such a solitary occupation that sometimes it is difficult to even share work with yourself. You become divided into the person who can do extraordinary things and the village idiot. Together, they make one heck of a crime-fighting duo!

But seriously, this is why critique groups are damned useful.

Things I am up to this week include a poetry reading at Weston Favell library this morning at 11am. Then I'm doing my first comedy show on Thursday as part of the Nottingham Comedy Festival. I say first show... my bit of it will be about 25 minutes. Family stories and silly poems. All good, clean stuff. Mostly. That's at The Maze. tickets here:
http://www.nottscomedyfestival.co.uk/calendar_70739.html


Apart from that, I'm going to be pretending I'm Barbara Good.

*or maybe not. I seem to have come back from the library with Christopher Brookmyre's Pandaemonium and Submarine by Joe Dunthorne which I shall probably not have time to read as I also got some gardening books and will have a go sorting out my veg plot ready to feed me in the spring.

Seafood Glorious Seafood

I've had a night off seafood tonight, as recently I've been gorging on it. This is largely thanks to having the contents of a rather lovely goodie bag from Lyons Seafood Co. after attending a PR night the week before last for the launch of their new food range.

I had accompanied my sister-in-law Annie Ko, who is the organizer of Bite n'Write - and a fellow committed foodie.




The event took place in a trendy London studio, which was decorated with fabulous fruit and veg displays that seemed to tie in with the food we were going to eat.





We were greeted with cocktails on arrival (I had a gin fizz!)but before long we were invited to go into the kitchen and had the range introduced to us. There was Catalan fish stew, Thai sweet chilli prawns, Malaysian Laksa and Keralan seafood curry. I just happen to love Keralan cuisine - and as it involves a fair bit of coconut, it is usually off-menu whilst I am on Weight Watchers... so of course when they asked us to choose one to try I went for that one!

We then got to watch the chef at work preparing the meals. My goodness, must be autumn - my hair's gone red.





After this, food stylist Natalie showed us how we could embellish the food with herbs and garnishes. For the curry, she suggested dressing the plates with sprigs of fresh coriander and amaranth (not sure they have that in Asda...). She had also made a raitha (very garlicky, but nice) and a carrot and fennel seed salad to go with this meal.

As we sat down to eat, the merits of heat versus flavour in Asian food was discussed by myself and some other attendees.I did like the curry, which was quite a sweet one with little mouth-bursts of 'semi-dried' mango, but although the label on the packaging said it was hot, it tasted quite mild to me - only slightly more kick than a korma. Having tried them all at home later, the one with the most zing is the laksa, I'd say, but still falls slightly short on the optimum heat. Judging from the comments round the table, though, there were only a couple of us who thought this.

As for the ethos behind the food - I think they are aiming the range at the hopeless, affluent time-pressed foodie. These are not ready meals, but ready-prepped constituents of a meal you cook yourself, but when I say 'cook' these things make it look like Delia Smith was never cheating. You have to prep your own rice or noodles, but basically it's 5 to 6 minutes' flash in the pan.

For the person who is scared of cooking, or looking at dead fish eyes, this is definitely a positive step away from the ready meal. It still comes packaged like a ready meal - though they are keen to point out the sustainability of everything on their website.

Anyway, I liked eating them.