Author Archives: DorkyMum

Live In The Now: June

June 10, 2011 By in Family Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 13 Comments

Pink blossoms on a blue background with the slogan 'live in the now'

Wow. I’m amazed that it has been a whole month since I put up my first Live In The Now post. For those that missed my May ramblings, the premise is that you try and take a monthly snapshot of your life, and capture some of the details that you don’t take the time to record in photograph albums or baby books. It’s something that the excellent Scribbling Mum started, and if you haven’t checked her blog out I’d urge you to do so.

Anyway, it has been one of those weeks. DorkyDad is travelling, and within five minutes of him getting in a taxi to the airport I’d managed to drop a two-litre carton of milk on the kitchen floor. DorkySon was supposed to be getting a haircut – something that has previously been no problem – but on this occasion he had a meltdown and refused to let anyone near him. In the queue at the bank, DorkySon stuck his fingers so far down his own throat that he threw up all over himself. And today we walked past a toy shop without going in and buying a new truck and so I was rewarded with twenty minutes of screaming around the supermarket, before DorkySon slammed his legs against the checkout counter with such strength that he flipped his pushchair right over and ended up staring at the ceiling. The shock of that, finally, made him shush.

Phew. I feel like the gin and tonic I am sitting sipping has been well earned. Continue reading →

Cut, stick, glue! My scrapbooking son.

June 9, 2011 By in Family Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

We are currently working its way through one large Pritt Stick a week. It seems that scrapbooking is the activity of the moment.

DorkySon follows me around the house, chanting “Cut, stick, glue! Cut, stick, glue! Cut, stick, glue!” until I finally give in and sit down with him at the table, a tower of magazines in front of us.

I suspect it may be in his genes, as I spent ridiculous amounts of time and money doing the same thing as a teenager. But while I filled my scrapbooks up with pictures of boybands, carefully cut out from Smash Hits, DorkySon’s tastes are a little more highbrow.

So far he has shredded the entire collection of Lonely Planet magazines that were my birthday present last year. We have to hide the Saturday and Sunday supplements until we’ve read them; otherwise they end up in pieces across the living room floor. Last week I even found myself buying a copy of Top Gear magazine, because I knew it’d have enough pictures of cars to keep DorkySon happy for a whole afternoon. The only publications he won’t cut up are his own Peppa Pig and Bob the Builder magazines… funny that. Continue reading →

Last Post From Paris

June 5, 2011 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Image of the Eiffel Tower with two pigeons in the foreground

Dear DorkyMum,

Well, it is over.  The 20112 Coupe du Monde de Slam Champion is David Goudreault from Quebec.  He was simply perfect, hit all three of his poems with calm, beautiful intensity.  The audience loved him.  The rest of the poets loved him.  He is a good and true champion. Second place looked like it would go to Roberta from Brazil after she scored two 10s during her final poem, only to have Chris Tse from Canada (the guy who knocked me out of the elimination round by 0.1 point!) score THREE 10s with his last poem.  And Youness Mernissi came in fourth in the scoring, but first in his elegant skills as a writer. Continue reading →

Letter from Paris

June 4, 2011 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Image of a bridge in Paris at night, lit up.

Dear DorkyMum,

Paris has a way of swallowing time.  It seems like just hours ago that I arrived here on Tuesday morning, and now it is Saturday and the final round of competition in the World Cup of Slam is on for tonight.

And what a final it will be!  Roberta Estrela D’Alva from Brazil, 33 years old, six feet tall, a beautiful confident woman who shines with kindness; David Goudreault from Quebec, always smiling, sure of himself and his poetry; Chris Tse from Canada, 21, self-aware and cool in an engaging, friendly way; and Younes Mernissi from Belgium, possibly the strongest poet among us, who puts together words in the way great artists paint pictures — you see what he wants you to see.  Who will win?  Who will hold their nerve and capture the fire for three rounds? It will be very, very close.  But the quiet consensus among the rest of us is that Roberta will be difficult to beat.  She is an Amazon warrior with a heart of sunshine.

But truth is, all 16 poets in this competition deserve to be here.  64 poems have now been performed in front of eager and enthusiastic audiences, and not one has been bad.  The youngest person in the competition, 20-year old Mathias Bungaard, is the only poet to receive a perfect score of ten twice in the same round.  The oldest, 63-year old David Morgan from England, an unreconstructed anarchist from the Old School, spins stories out of the ether and leaves people breathless.  The talent is so rich, and the people are so nice — we have become a community. Continue reading →

The Knock-Out Round

June 2, 2011 By in Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Image of a hand painting the word 'poetry' in bright colours on a graffiti wall.

Dear DorkyMum,

0.1. One-tenth. It takes ten of them just to make a single one. A very small number, 0.1.

Five judges. Three rounds. 15 different scores. My highest was 9.8 out of 10. I had three 9.7s.

One-tenth of a point. And that is the difference. I did not make it through the Round of Death. My new friend, Chris Tse from Canada, scored 79.8. I scored 79.7. And Roberta from Brazil — more on her in a bit — came in at 81.2. They are both in the semi-finals tonight. And I will be watching from the audience. Continue reading →