I’m stunned and saddened to be saying goodbye to you today.

Dom you were truly one of a kind.

I’ll miss our chats when we put the world to rights, politics and journalism our favourite targets. I’ll miss us joking about bad journalism… who do I send examples to now? I’ll miss your singing. I’ll miss us discussing lunch… or any meal for that matter. I’ll miss your strange combinations for lunch.. Yoghurt AND beetroot?? I’ll miss your distinct WAY OF speaking ON the PHONE… I’ll miss our discussions on love… on Hazel… on setting up our podcasting business… we SO should have got round to that!  I’ll miss the fact that everytime you did a serious voice…it turned into a Yorkshire accent. I’ll miss discussing the plots to our novels… would we every get around to starting them?

You are one of the nicest, most intelligent, funny, geniune people I know. Let’s be honest you are also one of weirdest… but that made you also one of the coolest.

Here’s to the coolest person I know!

I’ll miss all these things about you… but most of all I will miss you.

My friend.

Rest In Peace.

Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes.  A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.  And meeting again, after moments or a lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.

Anyway we’d like to offer out big thanks to Ron Ellis and Jenny Robson for their support and of course to all at The Champion Make sure you visit their website and support them too www.champnews.com

As farces go this hilarious Ormskirk Civic Hall play by award–winning writer Peter Gordon ranks among the best I’ve seen. With imaginative and brilliant direction by Cliff Gillies, who also played a major part, and a stunning summer garden set, the comical story–line sees Alan (Rob Darby) tending his vegetable plot a week before his 50th birthday.
Secret telephone calls and messages lead him to believe that his wife, Claire (Susan Fryer), is having an affair. A chain of events are set in motion which affects not only them but two other couples. Next–door–neighbours are idle, good–for–nothing Dave (played by Cliff) and his long–suffering partner, Jill (Helen Haygarth), who waits on him hand and foot and doesn’t seem to mind never receiving any thanks. Recently separated Sarah (Joanne Wasilew) is a sitting target for lothario, Dave, who never misses an opportunity to turn on his harm to ask her out. (But he is the only one who thinks he has charm!) Then along comes Derek – a totally inept, clumsy, geeky nerd who rides a moped.
John Windsor’s portrayal of this character was brilliant with just the correct amount of humour and pathos. In true farcical fashion misunderstandings bounce around the stage. It transpires that the friends have arranged Alan’s surprise birthday party. Ah – so that’s what all the secrecy and whispering was about! Cue balloons, fairy lights, drinks and laughter.

Although Alan’s concerns are temporarily eased, the evening’s events only serve to throw everyone else’s relationships into turmoil and sow the seeds of doubt for everyone. The standard of acting in this production was off the scale despite only six rehearsals. It is no wonder that the Too Friendly Theatre
Company has been rewarded with various nominations and awards over the years. They are a joy to watch!

Score 9/10 – A blooming good night out!

“First Sight written and produced by Cliff Gillies and performed by Too Friendly Theatre Company was the first play. Cliff took the part of Matthew, the main character, who delivered the dialogue mainly as a monologue. He tells the story through a number of love letters  he has exchanged over many years with Emily, his love at first sight. His delivery was an emotional roller coaster which could not be faulted. The parts of Dave, played by Mark Haygarth and Emily plated by Helen Rawcliffe are important to the story…

…However the writing was excellent with  an unexpected twist in the denouement. This was a good short play well presented.”

Edited from the full NODA review.

“This comedy which borders on farce was a brave choice for the group and it came off… The set was very good indeed and the pace was fine. The cast worked hard and came across well with good characterizations. But what can I say about Rocco, played by Mark Haygarth, who doubled as Elvis. The poor man was pushed from pillar to post throughout the play… and handled the role extremely well. Rob Darby gave us a believable police inspector with a good accent.  Sue Thomas played Daphne for all it was worth and added to the fun. There were good performances, which I have come to expect,  from Cliff Gillies and Helen Haygarth. Lydia, played by Dot Scott and Keith, played by John Windsor, who along with Cliff led the team in what was a very enjoyable evening.”

Edited from the full NODA review.

and again…

Eventually I managed to pull myself out  from between the duvet and my slumber and head toward the train station to start an eleven hour round trip. There I grab an (extremely large) coffee and grab a copy of Metro, the free newspaper.

Reading the newspaper I spot an advert for a film. I’ve not heard of it but it sounds good and I wouldn’t mind seeing it. I quickly fire up Evernote and take a photo of the advert so as to remind me later.

A short time later the paper is read and discarded and my coffee has gone and Im still hours away from even my first change of trains. Looking for something o read I log into Newstand and read a few articles from the Guardian blogs and from Lifehacker.

Time passes but the train refuses to move, and has been like that for the last ten minutes. Worried whether I will now make my next connection I load up my rail enquiries app and find that  I am indeed going to miss my connection. A quick look around and the app tells me I can get another train and rejoin my origional train further down the line.

Onto the next train and on the wall is a poster advertising a book I’d like to read… I like the authour but hadn’t realized it was out yet…  I log into Safari and check if it’s available on Audible yet. It is, so I add it to my wish list for download later. While I have the phone out I check my emails.

After the next change of trains I’m, once again, a bit bored. I check Facebook and update my status and get in a quick game of Flight Control. Then, looking for something more to read, I check out some articles I’d saved to Instapaper.

I’ve another hour till I get there so I switch the phone to Ipod mode and listen to ‘Buzz Out Loud’. By  now It’s coming up on 9.00 a.m. so I give my mum a call to see how she is.

The last change of trains and the rail enquires  app tells me I’ve got 30 minutes until my next connection. I need a coffee. I fire up the iPhone and locate the nearest Starbucks…. One vanilla Latte and a rocky road biscuit later I’m back at the station.

Not long until I get there so I fire up the iPhone again. I’ve copied the presentation and spreadsheets into Filemagnet so I’m able to check over them and refresh before the meeting.

I check my emails and I’ve been sent the address of one of the places I’m to visit when I arrive. I plug the postcode into Google maps and get directions for later. It looks easy enough so I don’t think I’ll need the sat nav. So I take a photo of the screen (hold the power and the home button at the same time) and throw it into Evernote.

Whilst I’m dong this the people in the front of me say something really funny which I like. I tend to collect little snippets like this for ideas for dialogue in my plays. When they go I record it as a voice note in the Evernote app. It gives me an idea for a play so I open up iBluesky and spend about five minutes mindmapping it out. I don’t think it’s got legs for anything but I may use it somewhere else.

I switch to Remember The Milk and go through my lists… I’m trying to learn to use GTD… and I add a few more items to my to do list.

Later in the day and I’m back at the station for my return journey, but first its time for food. I don’t know this town so I use Vicinity to find out where the nearest decent food place is.

Pretty soon I’m sated and back on the train for the long journey home.

I fire up Remember The Milk  again and add some actions from the meeting. To take my mind off the journey I have a couple of minutes of Tetris and decide I’m really not that good at it. After such an early start I could do with a sleep so I start a program called Ambience which plays relaxing music and I doze. When I awake I decide as the phone is out I will watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Watching the program I suddenly realize just go much I’ve used the iPhone today. I’m tech savvy but I’m no businessman or power user by any means yet I’m amazed how much I use this device. So much so I decide to document it. Hence this posting. I fire up Writeroom and churn this out. I then email it to myself and when I get home I post it to WordPress. I know what your thinking and I do indeed have the WordPress app on the iPhone and I could have posted it straight from there. It was simply that I’d fired up Writeroom and started to type before I’d realized. I have to say though I’m looking at buying the Quickoffice suite…. Cut and paste… can’t be a bad thing!!!

Reading this post back I realise it reads like a bit of advert for Apple and the iPhone and it’s really not meant to be. So that’s why I decided not to add any links in to any of the apps I spoke about, whether free or paid for.

I simply was so surprised at just how powerful my device had become and how much I rely on it on a day to day business… and, ironically, I only actually made one telephone call on it.

If you want check out the apps I use then simply search for them on the Itunes App Store or use your own favs…

Either way I’ll not be giving up my iPhone soon.

Rehearsals have started and the set is being sorted so just need to design the program, design the poster, sort costumes, sort props, learn the lines and lose a bit of weight.

Speaking of weight. I’ve put a pile of it on recently and really really need to lose some. If you have any ideas… Things that worked for you… let me know. I guess I need to start a diet… It’s Now Or Never!