Owen's Blog

Ok so first thing’s first, Photo’s of mine and Pete’s holiday are up in the Photo Album here.

Well it was a marathon week of no snow and more than enough alcohol, seeing people I knew from last season was great, and thanks to Susie (who will never read this) for inviting us to the hotel for a meal on the last night. Also a HUGE thanks to Arnie and Jacquoline our amazing and crazy Dutch hosts for the week.

In other news myself and Elaine have decided, after 2 years, that we are both wanting to make another go of things, this has been one of the scariest decisions to make but I have decided that as we are both very capable of making each other very happy then why not. We are the best of friends and I hope that can continue too. Perhaps I’ve asked too much, I don’t think so. There you go Elaine you got a mention

Too bunged up with cold to make this a long meaningful post.

Congratulations to Ruth and Steven, may they be forever happy in marrage.

So ok I may have been a little drunk last night,
And ok I did have a certain amount of free will

But I maintain it was my managers fault I went into that casino, at 12:00 am

But won £30 so not everything is bad 

I actually found myself looking at my watch and saying “Wuh!!!!” I think I even pronounced the exclamation marks.

NEVER AGAIN.

Why do people gamble? I just followed someone and had to place bets to feel ok about being there and drinking beer. But there were some seriously compulsive people there. Just sitting by the roulette table (I was playing blackjack, the only game you stand a chance at!) and placing bets with their own strange and wonderful (to them anyway) strategies.

I did find I had to say out-loud to my manager who was wondering which number to put money on, that the ball has no memory so probability should go out the window.

Don’t think he liked that but he came out £75 up so I’m now his good luck charm

Ok everyone has been told who needs to know so it??s time I told the world about the secret I have been reluctant to post.

Wednesday 2 weeks ago, I got the following email (edited for my own security ?? )
Thought I would let you know that you have a son, i know it’s a bit of a
shock but I would of let you know sooner, but i only found out the day he
was born, a concealed pregnancy the midwives say.
I do not want anything from you, i just think that you have a right to know,
that??s all.
He is called ********* and is a healthy baby, he was born on the
25 October.

This came from a girl I haven??t seen since about March and wasn??t at all intending anything like this to happen.

So for the last 2 weeks my head has been spinning somewhat and my perspective on life has seriously taken a 90?X shift.

On the Wednesday I just went home and cried for a good hour, then I got up the nerve to phone my brother and pull him out of rehearsals. First he thought I was going to tell him someone was dead, then he actually seemed happy which took me by surprise. We had one of the longest chats we??ve had for a while, after which he said to make sure I phone him regularly to make sure everything??s ok. Then Larry took me out to get well and truly pissed at the local pub, which I realise now is one of the only things that made sense that night!

Slowly things have started to die down, and I don??t go into an absolute panic every time I think about the subject. If anything the past 2 weeks have taught me how many great friends I have with everyone offering their support and guidance (although not much guidance).

Unfortunately this is one of the few situations I have faced that people can??t give me advice on. It??s seriously difficult to know what moves to make, what steps to take, and what my options are, just cos there is no advice available.

But anyway I have met up with the mother, and now I??m trying to work out what to do next?K

Got to sort out a paternity test?K
If Positive:
Got to work out how to be a dad from a distance (I don??t want anything to do with the mother :S )

If Negative:
PHEW

Just a couple of things floating round in my head on a minute by minute basis.

Thanks to all my friends for their support.

is here

A Girl in a Car With a Man

Royal Court, London

Lyn Gardner
Wednesday December 1, 2004
The Guardian

In Orwell’s 1984 Winston Smith struggles to find a blind spot to conduct his rebellion out of sight of Big Brother’s all-seeing eye. Rob Evans’s edgy drama, which takes place in the wake of a child abduction, is set in the here and now but it gives the sense of a world where we spend our time observing each other through the lens, where our image and sense of self and each other is filtered through the grainy pictures that seem more real than real life.
On the many CCTVs dotted around the theatre, the image of a little girl making her way home from school, being stopped by a man and trustingly slipping her hand into his as he leads her to a car, is repeated again and again. It is the betrayal of that little hand that cuts you.

Directed very niftily by Joe Hill-Gibbins in the round, with much of the audience surrounding the action so you can never get away from it, Evans’s play depicts a world of intense loneliness through the fragmentary stories of several lost souls stranded in the dark and the pelting rain. It is a world where despite all the cameras, a child can simply disappear; where the memory of the person you loved fades, where a woman on the shopping channel talks into a camera in an empty studio, where a gay narcissus is so busy watching the effect he has on others that he forgets to feel.

There is much about Evans’s narrative, and its interweaving of the stories of those who have claimed ownership of the child’s tragedy, that is reminiscent of Simon Stephens’s One Minute. But there is an imaginative verve and quiet intensity about Evans’s writing that is wholly original and which keeps you with it even when the drama is at its most elusive.