As the days fly by

As promised an update on what happened in York. Like the other International Society trips to various destinations, we were all sardined into a coach again. Departing at 8.00 from Liverpool Guild of Students and arriving in the beautiful Roman city of York at 11.00 ish. It was a very nice clear day, the sky was a gorgeous light blue but it was absolutely freezing. While we were walking the old Roman wall that surrounds the inner city we were told that on this day a Viking vs. Saxon battle re-enactment would be taking place just outside the city centre and not surprisingly, the city was overrun with people dressed up as 9-11th Century Norsemen clad in spear and shield. It was immensely busy with people, but that didn't deter us from enjoying the city sights. The York Minster is a world (or at least national) famous cathedral in the city centre. Although they charge you an insane amount of money to enter (without concessions about 8 quid) it turned out to be one of the nicest churches I've ever had the pleasure to visit. Unfortunatly, it is so big that it is impossible to get the whole thing on a photo, you'll always end up with only part of the façade or side.
We also visited 'The Shambles' an overrated little street, overcrowded with eager tourists queuing up for some overpriced fudge. Next we walked around the city a little bit to end up at the National Railway museum at the edge of town. However, a picture says more than a thousand words so here goes:



















The Monday after, me and my friend Julia decided to go on a little trip of our own. The small towns and villages that surround Liverpool in the Wirral area are easily reached by train, the Merseyrail system is a cheap way to get around in Merseyside. New Brighton was our destination, a deserted beach resort kind of town with nothing much to offer but a nice sea view, an unused war fort and a pretty lighthouse. Although it was obvious that it didn't look anything like Brighton or any other southern beach place, it was a very nice outing. We walked along the promenade and had a pleasant amble on the beach. We then thought we could make a little stop at Birkenhead Park, the first public park in the whole world situated just below New Brighton in Birkenhead. This is a very large and very attractive park, much like the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. As soon as we entered through the gates we were virtually attacked by a horde of grey squirrels that seem to have made their home there. They got absurdly close to the visitors, but we figured that generations of squirrel feeding might have made them a little tame. Closing off the day with a blueberry muffin overlooking the goose pond in the middle of the park was very delightful indeed.


On the Sticky Floor Improv show side of things, we had an eventful week. This Wednesday we hosted our second shownight in the Mandela Bar in the Guild. We didn't make as much money as last time (40 quid) but it was again a very succesful evening that we will be repeating every other Wednesday from now on. As a special treat, we were invited by the Guild of Student's President to preform during the Culture Fusion event on Friday. This is a big internally hosted party where loads of different acts took the stage in the gigantic Mountford hall and display different cultures and arts. We were sort of there to represent English culture. We got a 15 to 20 minute slot at the end of the night, and it was a huge success. We had the crowd roaring with laughter at some point, one bloke even fell off his chair. Everybody was hugely positive and I can definitely say this has been my/our largest audience to date. From now on we might be taking the Troupe into town to preform at various venues that support amateur stand-up/comedy. Really exciting if you ask me.

(this is the Poster that is going up all around Campus next week; the faces are (clockwise from the left) Camilla, Richie, Mark, Hari, Me, Matt, Jack, Owen, Paddy, Jonny, Will and Laura.)

Some pictures that were due and some blah blah that was due too

Three of the Fab Four:




Finally I managed to get the photos that were taken during our Cavern Club outing off Maria; to prove that we were really there!




And a cool little clip of a live performance by the Beatles, as you can deduct, it's Penny Lane, the back up vocals were provided by Maria and me, not the best singers in the world I'm afraid and rather off key.
Because the Beatles are cool, you have to gesture coolly into the camera of course.....


And yesterday we went to see the Chinese New Year Parade/Festivities in Liverpool's Chinatown, which incidentally is the oldest in the UK and also has the biggest Chinese Arch outside of China. Chinatown itself is actually rather small, Manchester's version is much nicer and more fun at night, but it's the cutest thing anyway. We saw the Chinese Dragons roam the street and there were a lot of fireworks banging around.

















Last Wednesday provided the date and time for another exciting event, our first official Improved Sticky Floor improv show. We are now 10 funny fellows (7 boys and three girls) who will preform every other Wednesday in an advertised-all-over-the-studentguild improvisation show. The first performance was last Wed, and against all odds (we had some organisation issues) loads of people turned up and we made over 40 Pounds! I'm getting more excited about improv every week, and the dynamic is slowly forming and hopefully we'll turn out a finely tuned bunch. We all have our own polo-shirts now in different colours with Sticky Floor sewn on them, it's well cool to walk around the Guild in them as the official Student Comedy Troupe :). In other Drama news, rehearsals are going alright I suppose, although we are all still a hugely disorganised bunch of actors there seems to be method in the madness.

Next weekend the International bunch is going on a trip to York, one of the oldest cities in the UK. That will be cool. So further updates when I'm back!

Apples and Oranges

I don't want to brag. Well, actually, I DO want to brag, however I don't want it to look like I'm bragging because I want everyone to think I'm a person that doesn't get a kick out of talking about herself all the time.....

Unfortunately for you, I do. So here goes...

In a weird twist of fate, two poetry related things happened this very weekend. Both turned out to be very good for my Poet-Ego (one more of those things on which Freud would be able to write another one of his compelling case studies) We all know (I presume) I've been very involved in writing and general experiencing the art of Poetry during the last couple of months. Well, my friend Emily knew about this and asked me to help her out with something. It just so happened that I was to start my career as a "Wandering Poet" that very night....
Thing was; students of various Societies (with a little help from the Student Guild) hosted a Bohemian Paris themed night on Friday (think Moulin Rouge) various acts and performances were hired and among those was me as a poet on the spot. Fully dressed up as one of the Moulin Rouge's (for lack of a better word) '' showgirls '' with pen and little memo cards in hands I would roam the scene of the party-crime as a Bohemian Poet for hire. (Oh, the poetic irony in that) People would give me a topic and I would write them a poem within minutes. However agonisingly anxious I was to go up to random strangers to ask them if they wanted a poem written about them, it was hugely rewarding with all the compliments and even the occasional hug I received in return. Even though the service was free (the tickets for the party were the fee) I did make 2 pounds too boot. (I realise not the wage a poet, or for that matter a Parisian Dancing Girl, would make much hoohaa about, but still, it's 2 quid ya knoow?)

Well, the second verse and rhyme thing that I was talking about was the email I got earlier that related to me the happy news of the birth of Myrthe Brouwer; Published Poet. Yes, that's correct, I am now in print. It's University funded recycled print, but it's in black and white and all over campus nonetheless. Liverpool Uni's magazine Sphinx have published two of my poems. And even though first of all the editor of the page that I'm published on said the poems fitted nicely with a World Aids day theme they were running because they 'contrast nicely' and sombody spelled my name as MYTHE BROUWER which sort of misses the point of having my name in print completely, still I'm very proud and told everyone I knew the great news. I am of course expecting huge publisher deals, heaps of fanmail and a retirement fund the size of a small country's GNP. Or, if that doesn't come to pass, someone to go 'Hey, nice poems. Wasn't your name spelled with an 'r' though?' which would hugely satisfy my Poet-ego once again.

And if all of these aspirations of poetic grandeur fail, I can always fall back on my acting career. Yes, my acting career; I do now not only appear in a fantastic play, but also in a short film. The film society needed some actors to film a little 20 min film for the Moulin Rouge party. It's a silent black and white in which I wear feather boa's, drink expensive wine (grape juice) and throw flower water in the face of my actor husband who cheats on me in a 1920's restaurant.... It's all good....



(my effort to look like a classy prosti.....I mean, poet, of course...)