some croppers 23 April 2008
I am working with the composer Neil Martin again, while here at Annamakerrig (the wonderful artists’ retreat in County Monaghan). Yesterday, we came a cropper on our opera, two days in. But the work has not been wasted and will be revisited – we started too big, with the beginning (as it happens) and in fact it’s probably the section that should be tackled last. No mind, we are tackling another area now. While Neil writes music to my words I go to Lady Guthrie’s room, which is mine for the week, and write some novel. That’s the plan, at any rate. This morning, I was contemplating a chipped mug with one of the ladies who works here and telling her my own plan for the halt and the lame of my crockery world is to attach wire to them and hang them from the small rowan tree in my back garden, possibly also use them as tea lights. She said ‘you must have a lot of time on your hands’ to which I, truthfully, replied ‘No, I have a lot to avoid.’
In the meantime, the student in Ukraine was given a character test by a tutor today. He was to make a person from shapes – circles, triangles and squares. He used one circle, one square and five triangles (good choices I thought and perhaps my own selection) but the result according to his teacher is that he is ‘very determined, very stupid and lacks emotion’. We laughed hard at this. And, although I fundamentally disagree with her analysis, it’s wonderful ammunition to have for the future.
