The moaning of life!

That Seth Godin again. I'm sure he has some sort of extra-sensory perception connection to my brain...

His last blog post, yet again, was a knife plunged right to the heart of my self-doubt about putting myself and my work out there.

"What's on your list?

"I have kids at home, I don't have a manager, I need to pay off student debt, my boss never lets me, I'm really busy because of soccer season...my RSI hurts when I type, I don't have a degree, I have a degree and can't waste it, I'm not good at that, I tried it before but it didn't work, I've never tried it before...I've been too long at this job, they won't listen to me, I'm going to retire soon, I'm too young, I'll never learn, it's too risky..."


We all have a list. Most of the things on it may in fact be legitimate reasons for no.


I guess the self-marketing question is, "how often do you remind yourself of what's on the list?"


If the first thing you do when considering an opportunity is consult the list, the list is the most important thing in your life, isn't it?"

 Aaaaaargh! What's on MY list today?

I have visitors coming for the weekend, must go shopping, the car needs an MOT and tax disc, I haven't heard from that children's literary agent so there's no point in sending anything off, I have too much corporate stuff to do to get on with the screenplay, I got crushed by a horse so I'm not sleeping too well ...and ...and ...and ...

THEN, I heard John Bishop on Desert Island Discs. What a lovely, genuinely humble man! He was sales director at a pharmaceutical company before he took a leap of faith to follow his dream to be a stand-up comedian.

This is what he said. "There would have been a little bit of a light inside of me that would've been growing dimmer and dimmer and I didn't want to get to 50 and say 'you know what I could have been,' so I thought I'd rather give it a go and fail than be a successful moaner.'

Yeah, Caroline...

Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.

You can always count on Oscar Wilde to find the right words. Well, I can, anyway.

Desert Island Discs celebrated its 70th birthday yesterday. I'm pretty sure it must have a worldwide franchise - but if not, it's a BBC Radio 4 programme where well-known people choose the eight pieces of music they'd take if they were stranded on a desert island (along with a book and a luxury item.)

Musical choices say a great deal about a person, I think. More so than words sometimes.

At various junctures, I've wondered what I'd choose. I really don't know, is the answer. I suppose...music to remind me of different phases of my life.

Early childhood? I think it would have to be Gilbert and Sullivan (no, NOT Gilbert O'Sullivan PLEASE!) much loved by my parents. And which song of the hundreds?

On a tree by a river (Willow, tit willow) from The Mikado. Takes me straight back to our house, 51, St. Matthews Parade, Northampton. To the drawing room, which was on the first floor because my father was a doctor and his surgery and waiting room were on the ground floor. To the radiogram. I WISH I could remember what sort it was. I can certainly remember what it looked like. (Hideous!)

Then, perhaps, the first record I ever bought, which was:

All you need is love!

I'm not sure what those two choices say about me. 

Hopeless romantic? Probably.