New Worlds.
When I was about twelve I was on holiday with my parents and we had a slightly unusual evening. The next day my mother said 'That would make quite an amusing little story ... like the ones they read on W0men's H0ur'. (Then probably the most famous and popular daytime radio programme in Britain). She sat down .. wrote it .. posted it .. and some weeks later it was broadcast to hundreds of thousands of listeners. She had never written anything before and never did again. I remember to this day that it was called 'Saus@g3s for the Church' and was an account of our being taken by motorboat from our island hotel to a massive charity barbecue held on a remote mainland beach.

We had a totally ordinary evening and then waded out in the dark to the boat ... which wouldn't start. While the seaman repeatedly turned the engine over in an embarrassed, sweaty way .. every single person on the beach slowly walked off up the cliffs until when he finally said that we were f.cked ..we were all alone. We sat there, freezing, as the moon rose attractively and hadn't the faintest idea what to do. After an hour, literally, of pointless arguing about whether to try to walk several miles in the dark along the cliff top or to sit icily in the boat until dawn .. a little fishing boat drew near. And did something to the engine and it started instantly and we were back at the hotel in a trice.

So nothing really happened .. and why would she be inspired to write about it and especially have the mad confidence to think that this serious, important programme would even look at it? Perhaps it is the 'Beginners' Luck' thing .. because you don't understand the complexities you aren't so afraid. I won a recipe competition years ago when I could hardly cook at all. It was quite high level and had a decent prize of a fitted kitchen and your recipe printed on sliced bread wrappers for a whole month. (The recipe had to be bread based). My repertoire at that time only included about four dishes .. luckily one was made out of bread and apples .. with some secret ingredients which I will only reveal to my daughter on her wedding day. I typed it out in a moment of boredom and .. it won. I think I still have an old bread wrapper in a drawer somewhere .. it was one of the high points of my life .. and a grinning photograph of me featured in a glossy magazine. When we went to look at the fitted kitchen it was so hideous that we just left it in the shop. Still ....

Perhaps that is the answer .. to something or other .. Every so often to make an effort to succeed in a world that you know absolutely nothing about. Your lack of nerve and fascinatingly fresh approach might lead to fame and prizes beyond your wildest dreams. And if they don't .. no one cares .. because they won't know who you are.
- posted by Iris @ 3/12/2006 08:13:00 PM comment