Big Red Writer’s Bloc

After a fairly quick exit for the shop yesterday, I met Madeleine at a fairly new cafe called something like The Tea Tray, where the old Web 13 internet cafe used to be.

Good, plain food, nice coffee, then off around the corner to what used to be Lawson’s Timber Yard – now known as the Big Red Door and run by a performing arts charity/collective called te POOKa…

Inside, it’s a large open space on the ground floor, with a small bar at one end,  a low stage in the middle, and some sofas and tables & chairs filling the rest of the space. The event we had come to see was a ‘best of’ selection by members of Writer’s Bloc, which was being recorded for future use as podcasts, etc.
It started a bit late, but no matter; it was all good fun and continued until after 12.00 – almost 4 hours of story-telling, and drinking gooseberry beer! Which was very nice.

Performers!

We recognised a lot of the pieces from previous shows, but there were a few we didn’t recognise, including various micro-stories which had first appeared on Twitter, etc.

The house dog was friendly, almost too friendly, sometimes sharing the stage with the performers, and Stef’s puppy was quite active, too!

Tonight? Probably back to gardening, if it’s dry enough; there’s a lot of branches to be disposed of somehow, as I’ve recently lopped off heaps to let more light through on to the grass, etc. And I’m trying to re-invent a completely overgrown flowerbed (or nettle patch as it has been until a few days ago!)