Footnotes by the Footprint team

I took the day off yesterday to go down to Birmingham with our senior choir to perform in the Music for Youth National Festival – a really prestigious occasion, and an event to which we were really proud to be invited.

After we had performed, we sat in to watch some other choirs – there were some amazing choirs singing, and it was great to see so many kids singing and enjoying themselves.

The last choir we watched was from a boy’s school – their performance was okay, but I really do not have a clue what posessed one of their parents, sat in the audience, to start blowing a vuvuzela whilst they were performing?  It is bad enough that they brought it in to blow as the choir was introduced, but during the singing?

It does make you wonder what some people believe to be appropriate - and where are we going to see vuvuzelas next?  Perhaps next time you are sat in a classical recital, you might give a hoot – or if you prefer popular TV, give a blast during the X-Factor auditions.  Or what about in the House of Commons?  “All those in favour, say aye!  All those against, PPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPP!!!!”

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I’ve never been a particularly ‘happening’ kind of guy – going clubbing holds little appeal, for example – but this weekend was a new watershed in my life, when I realised that I have turned into my parents.

My wife and I escaped for a weekend break in Manchester – as we both grew up not far from Manchester, I thought it would rekindle old memories.  How different it is from how I remember!  The IRA bomb hit Manchester when I was at university, and other than a couple of brief visits, I’ve not really been back since.  The city is now completely different – although the tacky public loo-style tiling on the Arndale Centre persists!

We decided to dine out at Tiger Tiger – I’d heard of it vaguely and the food looked good – but as we arrived early, went to grab a drink in the bar.  I realised that it is nearly 15 years since I last went into a bar where the music was so loud that the only hope of getting the drink you want is to point at a drinks menu.  I’ve not missed it! 

Observing people in the bar, I wondered how this kind of partying can be classed as social – the music is so loud, you can’t have a conversation, and the vast majority of people were simply mouthing along to the song playing and bouncing up and down.  Frankly, I can do that perfectly well at home with Just Dance on the Wii.  Drinks are cheaper, too.

Our meal in the restaurant was very good, though – great service and delicious food!

Just how old I have become was really evident when we left, though – the doorman wanted to stamp my hand.  I gave him an incredulous look at the thought that I might be back later.  It was 11pm – surely everyone would be following our lead and heading home to bed, soon…?

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In all my years of doing PR, there have been a few hairy moments – arriving in Bristol expecting a horde of Vikings to arrive for the waiting TV crew in a longship, when they pulled up in a Volvo, doing photoshoots in the middle of a busy town centre with a skittish young horse, for example – but I have to say that yesterday evening was one of the most nerve-wracking photocalls of my career.

The job?  Lighting 900 candles at Rievaulx Abbey to mark the 900th anniversary of Aelred.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Yes, except that we’d already had to postpone once due to inclement weather, so there was a lot riding on this working.

Again, in theory, it sounds fairly easy, but reality and theory don’t always agree.  Even though the nightlights were in glass votive holders, the lightest of breezes was enough to extinguish them.  And we had several hefty gusts of wind during the course of the evening!  Over the course of the evening, my two helpers and I must have relit the 900 candles about three times.  We went through eight lighters and a blow torch, and none of us can feel the end of our thumbs this morning after the click, click, burn, ‘Ooowwwww!” that accompanied each candle lighting!

Thankfully, there were also some still, breezeless periods when the photographers were able to get their shots, and they do look brilliant. Thanks to Tony Powell of Rievaulx Abbey who wins the award for standing in the same pose for prolonged periods, and my partner in lighting, Katie Savage!

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We had the sad news this week that the eggs laid by the ducks that I took up to Whitby Abbey back in March had been stolen.

What kind of person would do this?  We were prepared for natural predators and the reality that the ducks, eggs and chicks, when they arrived, would be prone to foxes, or even attacks from nasty seagulls (where is St Hild when you want her to cast out some more predators?), but someone nicking the eggs so that they can have a tasty breakfast?  I wouldn’t have expected that!  Let’s hope we get some good coverage in the local press about this so that the culprit feels suitably guilty!

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Is it just me, or has the world stood still for the last few weeks with election fever?

This isn’t the place for me to start spouting political opinions, and whether I think that the new Lib-Con alliance will work (although as an aside, a friend did post on his Facebook status that he wondered if Con-Dem might be more appropriate!), but I do hope that the latest upbeat messages coming out of Downing Street start to filter onto the streets, and people really do start to get a spring back into their step.

So far, this Spring has been pretty rubbish – May has been really quite cold and miserable (had to scrape ice off my car this morning), but today seems to be a sunny day.  I really hope that the weather lasts until the weekend so we can start the ‘days-out’ season in earnest!

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One of our most fun projects this year has to have been setting up an April Fool’s joke with the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme – did you know that Shakespeare is half French?

Aside from the joke, which was brilliantly fleshed out by Dr Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (www.digforshakespeare.com), it has been fascinating to see just how this story has spread around the world in a matter of hours.  The story featured on The Today Programme at 7.40am today, also appears on the BBC News homepage (although it will probably be removed at 12 noon!) and has since been the subject of hundreds of Tweets, as well as being featured in the Associated Press (USA)’s round-up of the best April Fool jokes in the British media – and so is now appearing on websites of lots of major US newspapers.  It has even  been on Taiwan News Online.

We truly live in a global news world!

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Many laughs in the office today as John had to phone a US-based courier service and use their automated telephone system.  Bridget and I helpfully suggested that the voice recognition software might struggle with John’s British accent, so he did his best American accent. 

Have a nice day, y’all!

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