Shaking all over

In order of importance, I have to mention immediately that Alannah and I missed the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand by just over half an hour. We arrived at the airport there round 11.30am. We were met by car and, after some delay at a petrol station, we decided against having lunch in Christchurch itself, and instead drove on to our accommodation at Oxford some 30 miles from the city centre. We arrived there at exactly 12.51pm, because as I tried to get out of the back seat, the car tilted to my left. I thought it must have been a hole in the drive, but in fact it was the tremor which had extended from Christchurch city centre to the doorstep 30 miles away. It was only later we realised our near miss and thanked God. However our thoughts were then with the ones who didn’t survive in Christchurch’s business district and are still with the survivors who are finding it tough to this day. Then, on our return to Glasgow, the Japanese earthquake happened – horrendous - and I gather the tsunami had also hit the beach in Honolulu. I’d been there only six weeks before doing a Burns show for the Caledonian Club, when everything had seemed so normal, sunny and exciting. 

Now we’re back in solid, stable Glasgow and I’ve already done two of my ‘Conversation’ shows, one for the Aye Write book festival, which was more an improvised stage memoir and the other for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, soon to be called the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The show was a more academic version of ‘Greasepaint Monkey’ to celebrate Sixty Years of the College, dating from my time at the College of Drama, as it was called in 1950. Performing in the Chandler Theatre, named for my very first director, Colin Chandler, I had the eerie feeling of having been there before. It was heartening to receive the welcome I did and to know that sixty years of professional work has not been wasted.

Now that I have found my land legs again, I can get back to writing my Celtic book and painting my Burns canvasses.