Culture

The atrium at the Storyhouse with a stuffed peacock sitting on the Art Deco features

I'm sat in the Storyhouse in Chester with my laptop and flat white. On my fashionably raised metal table are a collection of bright young things all tapping away on their computers . An old man with a Corfu hat is reading the papers opposite to me . He has already complained that the scrabble players in the corner are too loud. I shut him up by offering him my complementary shortbread biscuits .

I'm in Chester because I've just enrolled in a nursing agency. I'm not sure how useful it will be as the agency is rather pushy, and I am not a lady to be pushed into work I don't want, but we will see.....I left the clerk somewhat exasperated by my lack of commitment and in my best Walking Dead T shirt I've come to the Storyhouse to see what's going on. In half an hour I've booked myself into a talk with the tv presenter, historian and writer Dan Snow. Haven't a clue what he's on about but what the hell.
I may learn something

The talk is only an hour, and I've got my choir CD to practice to on the way home. I have to nail the bass bit of old Lang Syne without crying. The choir sings it so beautifully.



38 comments:

  1. He's good on 20th Century Battlefields.

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  2. Is it like a 'temp' or 'supply' thing, where you would get called in, to fill in for someone?
    There is something incredibly stirring about listening to voices all coming together as one. I belonged to a community choir for one year and sometimes still miss it. -Jenn

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  3. omg I adore Dan Snow 😍😍

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  4. Other motorists and pedestrians noticing you singing away will think, "There goes a lunatic!" How wrong they will be...I think!

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  5. Have fun, sounds like fun, let them send you on new adventures.

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  6. Anonymous1:56 pm

    Onward and upward dear. Donna@gather (Still can't comment but anon).

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  7. I'll shut up if you'll give ME your shortbread biscuits.

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  8. I admire the heck outta you.

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  9. Re that last paragraph John - we always end our session playing ukulele for Alzheimers and their carers to sing to by singing 'we'll meet again', Twenty months after David's death I still can't get through it to the end without the tears flowing.

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  10. I can picture it now, all the choir singing away to Auld Lang Syne ... then a mass nose blowing session from the choir, and of course potentially the audience too ☺

    Where are you all going to be doing this performance?

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    1. The Eagle and Child in Gwaenysgor

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    2. A Smaller Life....Ive felt a bit down all day and when I read...a mass nose blowing session...it made me laugh so much.So Thank you!!xx

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  11. When we first started our business, I stayed enrolled in an accounting agency. I too was very selective about the assignments I took. In one I discovered inventory was undervalued for years. In another I helped shut down a large manufacturing division, so well I was offered an important job in a neighboring city. It was tempting, and I would be much ahead financially had I accepted it.
    I don't know--I'd be hard pressed to give up a shortbread!

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  12. I hope the Dan Snow talk is wonderful. I have been watching all the history and documentaries specials on Netflix. Enjoy them very much.

    cheers, parsnip and badger

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    Replies
    1. He was sweet but it wasn't worth 12 quid

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  13. At my local Caffè Nero there are always several people earnestly tapping away at their laptops, occupying seats that could be taken by less selfish customers who just want to chat. And I would need more than a complimentary shortbread biscuit to stop me complaining!

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  14. I understand your ambivalence towards agency work. It smacks of instability and lack of control which you already have enough of in your life. Is it possible to do private nursing, be your on boss? Keep your chin up.

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  15. I temped 8 years for the local authority here. I was allowed to be choosy about what projects and assignments I accepted.

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  16. I did agency work for about three years when I first started driving, I needed to gain the experience so I had to do any job offered. Later on towards the end of my driving career I went back to agency work because it gave me the flexibility of working part time, and I could turn down the jobs I didn't want to do.

    I hope they find you the type of work you like doing.

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  17. The choir has sung it so beautifully, but perhaps not so in the future ��

    I wish you would have let me know you were in Chester so I could have added cake to your "break"

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    1. I will mave.....you had a hangover I understand today

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    2. Only until breakfast of coffee had kicked in.

      NEXT TIME!

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  18. At my dad's nursing home they had singsongs every week and it happened that I was there fairly often for it. Even when my father was still alive, I couldn't get through "You Are My Sunshine" due to emotion around his poor health and my love for him. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

    Belt it out in the car, John. Hope you enjoy your talk at the Storyhouse and find work you like with the nursing agency.

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  19. With your years in the NHS you should be lecturing and passing on your experience?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:45 pm

      I agree. John has a way of reaching people with his words.

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    2. I shall leave all that to my husband.

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  20. Hope it goes well with the agency work.
    Do tell us about the Dan Snow talk..does he come over as well in real life as on tv? I love his curiosity, enthusiasm and thoughtfulness.

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    1. He's funnier in the flesh . A very dry wit.
      And incredibly passionate . I liked him

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  21. That is a very interesting building. Is it repurposed from something else, or was it built as a theatre? Love the peacock.

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    1. It's a restored cinema. Here is a link to the history of it.

      https://www.storyhouse.com/about/the-building

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  22. I love Dan Snows History Hits podcasts on itunes.

    I am sure with all of your years in nursing the agency won't be able to push you around. Maybe though it will be a good opportunity to find somewhere new to work that is a good fit for you.

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