Nina was home sick today, so we spent it together comparing music and YouTube clips. I did a bit of domestic stuff quite ineffectively then went to the supermarket. I bought some sweet treats for Nick's birthday tomorrow, a good bottle of wine, and I a card I'm pleased with. It felt good putting it all together in a gift bag and hiding it away to bring out triumphant tomorrow.
Andrew Collins has published the photo I sent him on his blog, complete with picture credit. I got a little buzz seeing it. My life has evidently got very small indeed.
The evening's big thing was going to a book reading in Birmingham by Dave Gorman. Nina was uncomfortable but she had looked forward to it for a long time, having been a fan since she was 13 - a long time if you're 18. We sat on the train beside a man who was looking at the NATO website on his laptop. Opposite him, a woman of about 30 was talking loudly into her mobile. It was a work conversation detailing some employees she wanted to fire, the difficulties of deploying chefs when they had family commitments, and her being aggrieved that Colin was taking one of her top people without asking. In her hands was a poorly looked after Radleigh briefcase. Nina whispered that I used to be just like that. I had been thinking the same thing. Just before we got into the station, the four of us got into a good humoured conversation started because Nina disclosed that she was too scared to learn to drive, recounting a go-cart pileup aged eight. NATO man laughed, and the woman said that she had been frightened too, but is fine now and is an Opps Manager. It was a nice moment among strangers on a train.
Waterstones in Birmingham used to be a bank and has retained its fine old painted plasterwork, brass stair-rails, and gilding. It is quite church-like, in a comfortable way, and lent the reading a sense of occasion.
Our expectations of Dave Gorman were high, but different. Nina I think had thought of him as a jack-the-lad and had felt a personal connection with him that she thought would be reinforced by meeting him. I had expected an intelligent, self absorbed man with determined views. Nina started the evening a little rattled as her friend had said the as far as he knew, Gorman was an 'arrogant prick'. We agreed we wold be open minded and make a decision as to whether we wanted to get tickets for his stand-up tour based on how it went tonight.
As it turned out, Dave gave a proficient if fast reading, enlivened a little by the fact that his Mum was in the audience. He allowed lots of time for questions and answered them politician style with rehearsed responses he counted on being able to include. I had the feeling that he wasn't giving much of himself, and didn't want to. There was some openness when he talked warmly about America being a good place and about us having the wrong idea about it. The last question was about his views on the work of his former housemate and writing partner, Danny Wallace. It struck me forcefully that he replied that he was thought of as a "bad man" because he was no longer in touch with Danny and had not read his books or seen his film. He protested too much that they had just been colleagues and that seven years was a long time. It all felt raw and painful, even though it was an answer that he had obviously used before and that I had seen written down on line before.
The queue to get the books signed was long, but Dave signed Nina's sellotaped and tea stained copies cheerfully. I wondered around, conscious that Dave's voice projected cheerful bonhomie that was just a little off key. Glancing across, his smile was present in wrinkled cheeks and smooth lips, but not reaching the eyes.
Nina said she wasn't sure what she thought of him and wanted time to think. She admitted to a little disappointment. I had found him engaging, but probably for all the wrong reasons, will I buy the stand-up tickets? Oh, I expect so. I sent a message to Dave on Twitter to say thanks and that he made it look effortless which, technically, he did.
No comments:
Post a Comment