Inspired by the BBC My Story Competition we’ve been putting pen to paper:
What advice would you give yourself?
Dear Will
Don’t chew the end of the pencil and try and keep your homework neat and tidy, and don’t spoil your tea with sweets.
Always take time out to do your duties, your homework and your studies.
Will
Dear Tim
Things I’ve done and wish I hadn’t: Don’t hate people like I have. I have hated people all my life until there’s nothing left to hate them for.
Don’t break the law, even petty things. You’ll get a criminal record and it will follow you around for the rest of your life.
One last thing, don’t lie. You’ve got a bad memory. My father once told me, ‘Tim, you need a good memory to be a liar and you ain’t got one!’
Keep your love of animals and the countryside. You still like working hand to mouth, it’s much harder to do, but the work’s still there.
Keep Safe
Tim
Dear James,
Don’t start drinking. One because it’s not good for you at all, and two, because it’s going to ruin your future.
Learn how to cook because then you’ll be able to get a job as a chef.
Be more confident because it will boost your life in the future.
Take care of yourself
Love
James
Dear Henry,
Never get married. They always fall apart. In some ways you’re always arguing, and it’s always happy at first. Then you plan to have a family.
Don’t worry about anything and have more confidence.
Bring up your children and be there for them.
Yours Sincerely
Henry
Travelling Tales…Have you visited anywhere that has stuck in your mind?
Thornham
I loved going to Thornham as a child. Myself and my Grandfather spent a lot of time dog walking and gardening. A lot of happy memories, walking the dog down the lane with my Grandad.
Summer time walks, with the sound of reeds rustling in the breeze, feeding Mr. Wright’s horses carrots.
Walking to the barn over the sluice gate, standing on the sea wall to watch the harvesting in the fields. Then back home to a nice cup of tea and homemade cake made by my Nan.
Tim
Venice
My ex-friend Daniel Stewart and I took a jet plane to Venice, setting down as it got really dark and cold. It was January 8th or thereabouts. Daniel knew where he was going because his lover Chiara Silvano (Clair Wood) was a Venetian. I had never been to Venice before.
There is no airport that I know of in Venice, instead Daniel and I, and all the rest of the passengers, disembarked at a smallish town the name of which I forget, it began with a V funnily enough.
From ‘V’ we took a coach to Venice, which took about 20 minutes, and the sky was full dark when we disembarked.
Venice must be the only city in the world with no cars. The airport coach came to a halt outside, just outside of the city. This perimeter is a fairly limitless field of cars, buses, lorries etc and a canal with a prettily shaped bridge. Dan and I crossed the bridge, Dan on his mobile informing Chiara of our arrival.
Because of this sharp traffic delineation, you know when you are in Venice, it’s a very strong feeling of being in a place. You are definitely somewhere that isn’t anywhere else – you’re in Venice. So I’ve been to Venice in the winter with my ex-friend the modern, some may say prettier, Daniel Stewart.
However, what made this trip (and I use the word advisedly), who made this trip to Venice interesting and why I’m still thinking about it and writing about it is that I got the damndest feeling of de ja vu.
It could simply have been a mixture of relief at surviving the plane flight, and excitement at being in this famous city I had long heard about, seen only in movies, but now I was here! That feeling of being in Venice before could have been generated by my experience of the movies and those with Venice as a local.
However, how many of these films are set in Venice at 9pm in the middle of winter. It’s a question that puzzles me. Was it that my real mother (I’m adopted) had been to Venice?
Or was it indeed a past life of my own…..?
Julian
Birmingham
I arrived by train at New Street Station. I was a little bit manic at the time as I have a bi-polar disorder. On arriving, the first thing I purchased was a mobile phone on a one-2-one connection.
I bumped into some street buskers who were rapping in the street. I joined in and the money rolled in. They asked me to go back with them for a smoke, but I was not the mood for that.
I then walked around Birmingham, travelling through the bull ring and further out. I also came across ‘The Garden of Eden’ that was not far from the station I had arrived by. This consisted of concrete statues and one male and one female looking into each other’s eyes across a water pool.
There was also another statue made from metal of some sort. Nearby was another big old building which had a library in it, and bumped into some people that felt like the city had a connection to a parallel universe.
At the time it was a clear night with that vibe in the atmosphere. Is it madness or does it have connections to other worlds? Or solar systems?
There was a strong vibe coming from the old buildings, as if you were being taken on a guided tour by supernatural forces. There were certain buildings with old figures moulded from concrete that I felt drawn to.
Adrian
