It's a little while since I last blogged; it can sometimes seem that the energy to put pen to paper is in short supply and something more pressing takes priority. I had knowledge of an up and coming competition that I hoped would focus my thoughts; it was called 'Mental Health and Me' and was to ask local writers to enter their work on this theme in various categories, short stories, Poems, diaries, letters and blogs.
It was the second year of the competition and was an event celebrating World Mental Health Day. The previous year I had actually been a judge in one of the categories having attended a course that was run by the competition organisers the previous year, the authentic voice of the loon if you will. I had become familiar with the organisations running the competition; The Liverpool Mental Health Consortium with whom I have been a trustee some three years now and Writing on the Wall who ran the original course. I felt overwhelmed last year as the quality of the work entered in the short story category I was co judging was so good. I think it subsequently spurred me on to try the writing thing myself as my blog began not long after. I was looking at reproducing one of my blogs for the competition, perhaps writing a new piece, when I was contacted to judge again this year. I was flattered and relieved in equal measure as I discovered all my old blogs exceeded the word limit and fresh ideas were in short supply.
I asked this year to judge the blog category and was jointly assigned the task with a man called Ronnie Hughes who is a prodigious local blogger with an excellent site called A Sense of Place. I had stumbled across his blog previously when a conversation with a neighbour about animals living nearby prompted me to research the subject and found his blogs looking at remembered sites for dairies in the city. I ended up being the sole judge in the category as the Ronnie was away on holiday during the judging period. I did meet him prior to going away and we observed how difficult it is judging other people's work. I did my best anyway, read them several times and went with my gut feeling I guess.
So to the show, it was very well put together I thought and attracted some national and local celebrities along to announce the awards. This video shows them in action and with a little cameo from yours truly.
I was busy myself that night as I was off to a comedy standup show later that had some friends of mine appearing. It was another of the many events in Liverpool to celebrate the ways we keep our mental health buoyant. Pets and Pals organised an event in our local park promoting health, we even got interviewed for the local radio station to talk about how having pets help with your wellbeing. In Liverpool we had one of the biggest collection of events promoting mental health, lasting over 10 days, here is the brochure with the detail.
Meanwhile back to the comedy show; it was good entertainment, it also had a greater impact on me what with my friends performing on the lineup. Most were trying it for the first time following a short course on standup fun by the Comedy Trust called 'Feeling Funny', they received the funding to help men who had experience of mental health problems. It's also a route that I have since taken and my debut is next week, on the bill with another ten fellas. It's a new challenge for sure but I think I am doing the deed within a supportive group of guys, which makes all the difference.
You can see now why the blogging is taking a back seat for the while; my agent is making me concentrate on more lucrative work.(that's a joke by the way!)
It was the second year of the competition and was an event celebrating World Mental Health Day. The previous year I had actually been a judge in one of the categories having attended a course that was run by the competition organisers the previous year, the authentic voice of the loon if you will. I had become familiar with the organisations running the competition; The Liverpool Mental Health Consortium with whom I have been a trustee some three years now and Writing on the Wall who ran the original course. I felt overwhelmed last year as the quality of the work entered in the short story category I was co judging was so good. I think it subsequently spurred me on to try the writing thing myself as my blog began not long after. I was looking at reproducing one of my blogs for the competition, perhaps writing a new piece, when I was contacted to judge again this year. I was flattered and relieved in equal measure as I discovered all my old blogs exceeded the word limit and fresh ideas were in short supply.
I asked this year to judge the blog category and was jointly assigned the task with a man called Ronnie Hughes who is a prodigious local blogger with an excellent site called A Sense of Place. I had stumbled across his blog previously when a conversation with a neighbour about animals living nearby prompted me to research the subject and found his blogs looking at remembered sites for dairies in the city. I ended up being the sole judge in the category as the Ronnie was away on holiday during the judging period. I did meet him prior to going away and we observed how difficult it is judging other people's work. I did my best anyway, read them several times and went with my gut feeling I guess.
So to the show, it was very well put together I thought and attracted some national and local celebrities along to announce the awards. This video shows them in action and with a little cameo from yours truly.
I was busy myself that night as I was off to a comedy standup show later that had some friends of mine appearing. It was another of the many events in Liverpool to celebrate the ways we keep our mental health buoyant. Pets and Pals organised an event in our local park promoting health, we even got interviewed for the local radio station to talk about how having pets help with your wellbeing. In Liverpool we had one of the biggest collection of events promoting mental health, lasting over 10 days, here is the brochure with the detail.
Meanwhile back to the comedy show; it was good entertainment, it also had a greater impact on me what with my friends performing on the lineup. Most were trying it for the first time following a short course on standup fun by the Comedy Trust called 'Feeling Funny', they received the funding to help men who had experience of mental health problems. It's also a route that I have since taken and my debut is next week, on the bill with another ten fellas. It's a new challenge for sure but I think I am doing the deed within a supportive group of guys, which makes all the difference.
You can see now why the blogging is taking a back seat for the while; my agent is making me concentrate on more lucrative work.(that's a joke by the way!)