Happy Birthday Teddy

This week saw the 10th birthday of my goddaughter Teddy - or to be more baptismally correct, Theadora Anne Mahon Phillips.

It's not her fault but it makes me feel old. She is now a fully functioning poet - her latest work regarding London the City would not have shamed my own efforts in creative writing class during the first year of drama school. I suspect they have been having classes in simile and metaphor, but it's a very adult minded and evocative effort.

I remember waiting for Teddy to be born. I got a job out of it as Brian, her Dad, didn't want to be away in Washington at the time she was due, so it helps remind me that during February 2000 I went off to Dubai and Washington on various corporate gigs. These days all one seems to manage is Hitchin.

Work this week saw me spending two half days with a very senior lawyer from Nigeria - sadly not in Nigeria, but training him in presentation skills over here in London. As anyone in the entertainment industry knows everything takes skilled rehearsal and preparation to be effective. What was it Mark Twain said ? "It takes me at least three weeks to write a really good impromptu speech" How right he was. I wouldn't dream of standing up in front of people I didn't know without having thoroughly prepared, and yet in other industries people seem to think they will be able to present well with no preparation.

Thus the lawyer turns up this week with no presentation prepared for us to work on.

"No time" is his excuse. Overnight from the first session to the second he goes out to dinner and has"work to do " which means he turns up for the second session with nothing prepared either. During the sessions we do a lot of good work. I manage to help him control his nerves, but as most of these are down to the fact that he constantly stands up in front of people to talk with no preparation there is no wonder he is nervous. The brain is a wonderful thing. It functions from the day you were born till the day you stand up in front of people to speak.

Anyone who makes a living standing in front of other people knows this - and prepares for it.

How well Teddy will prepare for her poetry readings is in question. her mind rarely stays on one subject for long. But if she does decide that preparation saves perspiration, then at least she'll always have a godfather to give her a helping hand!