"Anthrax to all that!" a "Post-It From London" - by Kate Ayres (London, UK)

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From the Web 1.0 days I bring you The Forum. To preserve them for posterity as Geocities can no longer be found but also it's fun to re-read some of them.

25th October, 2001 

Well, I guess there's nothing much more I can add to the current world situation since September 11th.

Working in the City of London as I now do I can safely say that its almost business as usual ... but to say we are not apprehensive about the future and that, lo and behold, we seem to be harbouring suspected Bin Laden network people in the UK ... you can imagine that its not far from the front of everyone's minds ... However, this hasn't stopped us drinking, playing football/Rugby etc, clubbing or generally leading our hedonistic lifestyles! Hurrah ... 

So what's happening in London at the moment I hear you cry? Well not a lot. We haven't yet put our clocks back for winter and I am stumbling around in darkness at 7.30 am ... not funny.

Since 11th September a lot of big events, concerts etc, etc have been cancelled so for this Post-it ONLY I will impart some of my more personal happenings ... I belong to a local dramatic Society - Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society (HD&OS) Mikey Boyle visited me in rehearsals once ... I couldn't find the time to do the Autumn musical, "Mack and Mabel" last week ... so I volunteered for doing the cast's make-up.

For a start its easy doing your own make-up but hideous doing anyone else's. I had the men to make up ... oh yes, some perks of the job, and they were, by and large, good. Although they wouldn't sit still. There are usually 4 or 5 of us doing make up and it takes us nearly 1½ hours to complete the task. It's 5-7 minutes each face, some longer if its intricate work and afterwards your back aches, your hands are covered in make-up, lipstick and rouge and then you watch the performance and see they all look lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

So many people work backstage to get a production on, from lights, sound, stage management, canteen, programme sellers and front of house stewards. If any of you get the chance have a go, it's such good fun.

But now I am ready to return to the front of the stage for a change and auditions for "Cabaret", Liza Minelli's 1973 film, are almost upon me. I have had my hair cut in a suitable "Liza" style to aid the auditioning process (this is part of my dirty tricks campaign as my deadly rival - Julie - has had her hair cut as well ... we shall leave it for the judges to decide!!!).

In what other spare time I have I am helping our youth drama section called "Young Idea" to sing the backing/chorus vocals to the old Pink Floyd hit "Another Brick in the Wall". We have a visiting tribute band coming to our civic hall and as I have "rock chic" experience from my time within a friend's band, I have helped audition, run rehearsals and generally acted like a judge on "Popstars" - power is a great thing when used wisely ... I am loving it. The kids are between 11 and 13 years of age and guess what - the girls have so much attitude, required by the band, that I am afraid the boys may have to be toughened up a bit!

After their performance in November I plan to run a couple workshops on Voice Projection ... for those that know me, what else could I possibly talk about!!!!!

But this isn't all, we will start rehearsals shortly for our Christmas Charity "Words, Music & Carols" concert for our local hospice. So far we have raised in 3 years £15,000 I really enjoy these concerts for the fact that as it's a local charity we can see where the money is going and unfortunately for some of us in the cast, all too often know people who have used the hospice, not to come out ...

So there you have it, a brief "Post-It" but I very much hope that nearer to Christmas London and the rest of the UK will be a bit more back to normal and that in the season of goodwill to all men I can report back to you on the fun and happy side that is lacking.

Take care and be aware ... Lov Kate XX

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