Day 164 - Noodling

How good was that? To be arse-honest, I have spent a couple of days feeling a niggle in the pit about tonight. Last week, in a bout of heady glee at the end of the drop2 drop-in (it's always the way), I said that next week was DEFINITELY HAPPENING, and that I'd bring some masks. And then I murfed about in my brains thinking 'oh, can I do it? Will anyone come? Will it be any good? Should I be working instead?'. This last one is particularly pernicious. My mission is for my work to feel like play, not work... or like craft. Today's work, proofing and checking a concatenated game script, felt like solving a good puzzle. How to make the sentences fit, the inflexions buzz so that wherever the word appears in a sentence, it will sound like a human, not like a train announcement. I loved it. It wasn't exactly play, but it was easy even when it was difficult, if you know what I mean. Lovely.


And there's quite a bit of the work I do that feels very much like the old concept of work - toil, labour, drudge, strain - often before and during it. After, it nearly always feels good. Anyway, digressface, I finally got to publicising tonight's drop-in this morning (shameful, really) and I was blessed almost immediately with messages from brilliant men Barry McStay and Damo Warren-Smith saying they were coming. Then Vicki Pipe said yes, and then to add to the juice Clive Moore and Andy Hix came to play. And Noodle. Thanks to Michael Brunström (I bow to you, Meister Stroid), I have a monkey in my care. He was with me, having collected him from a very patient Michael this morning. 


So, after some warm-ups done in the best of spirits, causing guffaws and massive up-for-it-ness, we did scenes with masks, puppets and people. Every one had gold in it. I learnt loads again and I loved it. AND I got to a. experiment with the monkey and b. watch someone who's done it a bit more than me use him too, and let me notice what I liked about his movements and when I found myself broken from the reality. When he was Noodle and when he was a plush monkey with someone's hand up him. All in all, a delightful session, full of juice and very nice people. And I got another taste of what it IS like when work feels like play. When it IS play. When I'm using skills that give me a buzz and a high.




Thank you, Hub warm people... Sarah, Anna, Luke, Andy, Rob, Kirstie and lots more. I felt welcome and warm today. And thank you for good food, a sturdy bike, good friends and my lovely bed. Night, then.


Oooh, and thanks to Wikipedia, I found out that 'noodling', as well as just generally dicking about, is a term for catching catfish with your bare hands... hence this very happy-looking gentleman and his whiskery companion.