claytoncast

It's been a really good week. Probably the busiest week I've had so far this year. Work wise. Monday took me north to Sheffield to spend the afternoon with Mum before spending the night lodging at the Premiere inn Sheffield prior to a days work on Tuesday. This hotel proved what I have said (and said and said, unfortunately) more than once in my blogging. As long as the basic level of facilities is provided, and the room is clean, then in a hotel it is all down to the service. The Premiere Inn Sheffield on Monday evening cost £46 for a large double bedded room which had a very nice chaise longue from which to watch the television. Yet what made it were the staff. From Julie the receptionist who checked me in and dealt with a problem with the booking with a smile and an efficiency that was absolutely brilliant, to the unnamed woman in the lift who said hello and welcome to Sheffield, to the student who was working part-time in the restaurant in the evening and chatted to me ...

So what is the difference between an amateur and professional? Simple   I hear you cry.   The professional gets paid for doing the job, while the amateur   does it   for fun. And yet it’s not always that simple. This week I went to see an amateur theatre production. A friend of mine I have not seen for too many years was appearing in it in Bromley. It seemed a heaven sent opportunity to catch up. This friend I met when he was a young aspiring actor. He was good and had a certain presence about him. He went on from the National youth Theatre to drama school and completed three years training. Yet despite an awful lot of energy and some good performances on the London fringe it didn’t happen for him. He wasn’t the type of person to sit around revelling in unemployment, and whenever theatre had nothing to offer him he would be off doing telesales, being a waiter, or selling insurance which is what he eventually did as a full-time job. He now has a very high-power...

Sometimes in any good relationship you have to learn to speak with one voice.   Not to add to or embellish what your partner has said, not to undermine it with additional comments, but to just let their words speak for themselves. It’s part of working as a team. That’s exactly what I’ve decided to do this week in telling you about our recent holiday in Iceland. Richard has written about it so well on his blog that I’m simply going to post a link to it here. It sums up the week brilliantly, and he’s also added some fantastic photographs of the many he took while we were over there. Click on this link and then come back. http://www.richardhowle.co.uk/Richard_Howles_Website/Home/Entries/2011/3/12_Iceland.html In times like these when all of us freelancers are finding work that little bit harder to come by, and money that little bit tighter to manage, it’s important to have things to aspire to. Ambitions, aims, desires and dreams. One of the things I’m always aiming for is the nex...