other plans…
The original plan was for this week's blog / diary to be a slightly bleary eyed write up of Levitation-24. I've been looking forward to it since Gribbles suggested it when we were talking at WFR Central back in March.
Alas, although a long weekend was booked off, campsite paid for and plans were made, the universe had other ideas.
So, I'm sitting starting drafting this week’s blog /diary on Saturday afternoon in the car park of Cherwell Valley Services, while I wait for an AA lowloader to come and take myself and my deceased motorhome back to Southampton - the clutch having died as I came off the motorway. No Levitation for me this year. Try again in 2025, I guess.
I'm gutted obviously - not least because I had hoped to meet a bunch of folks I'd only ever talked to online - but I’m philosophical. It could have been a lot worse and plenty of folks in the world are facing real hardship all the time. Onwards!
- right, writing the rest of this from ‘the pod’ back in Southampton -
I will share though something I was going to do. Inspired by the fact I was planning to meet so many people I’d never met face to face before, I was going to wear a name badge. I’m painfully aware that this could be misinterpreted any number of different ways, but I figured it was worth the risk of looking like a total dinger against the reward of maybe making it easier for folks to come up and say hi. I got a degree of validation from this from a subsequent online chat where someone shared that they had approached someone at a previous event and when it wasn’t who they thought, their social anxiety kicked in and they didn’t talk to anyone else for the whole event. I figure, if I can help reduce instances like that for someone, then I’ll give it a go.
Names & labels obviously carry their own baggage - I get that and I’m not saying it’s the right approach for everyone (not least because I know that, for some, the idea of strangers approaching them is an absolute nightmare) I’m just saying it was what I was going to do and I was going to report back on how it went. I’ll do it next time instead.
If the universe is willing, I’m off to Machina Bristonica next weekend, but hey, I’m not making any assumptions.
In other news, I was absolutely delighted and honoured when the legend that is Kate Bosworth played ‘black swan occurrence’ on the Dark Train radio show on WCR this week. As a long time fan of the show and Kate’s general awesomeness (honestly, each show is like a performance in itself), it was a genuinely lovely moment for me that I will treasure for a long time to come.