I welcome my guests at the entrance of the Burnside Ballroom for our Words, Wine and World Music event on the 10th November 2021. I sit down with them, fairly close to the stage.
At about 6.55pm Sharon, Anne, Georgette and I go and sit on chairs on the left of the stage. I feel in my trouser pocket for my writing. Shock, horror, it isn’t there! I rush back to my guests. They don’t have it. Why didn’t I leave a copy with my wife Jane?
I rush back out to the entrance of the ballroom to the registration table. I see a piece of paper on the table. It’s my writing! I’m saved! I rush back up onto the stage.
When it is my turn to read, I stride to the lectern. I try to take my COVID mask out of my jacket pocket – blow me down it’s stuck to my mobile phone. I deftly unwrap it. Then it wraps around my glasses. This is not good. In fact these are two of the examples I speak of in ‘my Mask Day Blues’ piece which I am reading. Somehow my glasses don’t fog up like they normally do when I panic.
Those sitting behind me on the stage must wonder what I am doing!
Then finally order is restored.
The reading is easy after that.
While mingling with Jane and the others after the show, people ask if the start was part of my act. ‘Amazing’ they say. I own up. ‘Well, no.’
Well, fellow writers, it wouldn’t be a night out without a bit of drama from me.
Burnside Writers Group 