What do you think? Too cheeky?

Dear BCC,

I can’t believe that every time I park at the car park next to the Rep something goes wrong. So, today I was so very careful. I gathered every coin in the house, so I’d have the right change. I tripled checked the price, so I didn’t pay the weekend rate. I bought 4 hours parking, when 3 would have sufficed. All set, I went off content to my meeting.

You cannot begin to imagine my feeling when I approached my car and realised it was adorned with one of your PCNs.

I had paid and displayed and returned while the ticket was still valid. Your operative stuck the PCN next to my ticket in an attempt, conversely, to convince me that I had not clearly displayed a valid pay and display ticket.

So, the PCN number is BM15211041. The ticket is No. 16614592 (as reference on the PCN).

The PCN is dated 04/03/09 timed 12:38. The ticket is dated 04 MAR 09, timed 14:28.

I cannot identify a single problem with this. I suggest you offer me an apology and send Civil Enforcement Officer BM452 for an eye test.

Yours faithfully,

etc etc

WHAT DO YOU think?  Please leave me a comment…

I love Stage 2

My dort is a very active child.  Over the years she’s learnt an instrument, swam, trampolined, danced and danced ooh, all sorts.  But nothing, no nothing, has absorbed and enthralled her like Stage 2. 

A youth theatre company set up and run in Birmingham, it has been going for over 20 years.    As is so very often the case, it is the work of an incredibly driven and talented woman, Liz Light. 

Of course youth theatre is all very well.  Take a few keen, stage struck youngsters, find some nice easy pieces and put one on each year.  Not so with Stage 2.  I can honestly say they have provided some of the best and none of the worst nights I’ve had at the theatre. 

The most recent highlight for me being Spoonface Steinberg featuring amongst others my dort and niece.  In which 24 children take on a monologue and move the audience through the journey of an autistic girl dying of cancer. A close second is the production of Teechers in which my nephew reduced me (and other audience members) to tears, with his moving portrayal of Salty.  Perhaps the most memorable for me was Picasso’s Women, produced in 2000, this was a fine and typical example of how Stage 2 manages to pick challenging plays for adults and get children to convince you they are in fact real.

Birmingham has a gem in Stage 2 and a jewel in Liz Light and I say a huge thank you for the experiences and chances you are offering to my dort and for the very many delightful theatre productions you have given to me…

[… oh and if you have a child over the age of 7, get yourself down to the Birmingham School of Acting on a Saturday – you are unlikely to regret it.]