Face Man to the rescue

A few years ago I met the actor Dirk Benedict, aka Face Man in one of my favourite TV shows growing up, the A-Team.

Following the rule of 'pics or it didn't happen', here's a pic

One of us was super excited

You can read about when we met here.

But anyway, I have started a new job and very close to my office is a charity shop that has a regular turnover of toys. I've bought some Matchbox trains and a big bag of Duplo. Yesterday I went in to have a look and see what they had in and there was a vintage 1980s 5" action figure of Face Man.

Well I duly gave a pound to charity and took Face away. He fits nicely on the little ledge next to my desk (now that I actually have a desk) and will keep me company. He seems very happy to be my new buddy.

Good to see you!

2010 - that was the year that was

It's 2011. It seems like only last week it was 2010...

A year in review always seems more momentous after the fact. But some stuff did happen worth chronicling.

January
In a journal entry in early January I wrote: "I do feel like I need to get out of [workplace]. I feel disengaged and unmotivated. Money is tight in the organisation but I feel very calm... I think I just don't care about [workplace] any more." Four months later I was gone.

February
Rumours of redundancies at work. It doesn't help when a load of redundancy packs are discovered on the printer (for real!). The eventual announcement reveals over 30 redundancies are needed - over a third of the organisation.

March
While under notice of redundancy I did a few days freelance in the office where I would end up working just seven weeks later!

April
Was interviewed for and offered a new job the day before my birthday. Then I went to the theatre and met Dirk Benedict!

May
Started the new job. Spent a week in London with my Dad at the London Festival of Stamps. Didn't vote for either of the parties in the new coalition government.

June
I went to a disappointing Florence & the Machine gig at Cooper's Field in Cardiff. Why was it disappointing, I hear you ask...

July
Being made redundant has an upside - you can get training paid for by the government. I had a fun couple of days playing about with Dreamweaver. Also saw Terrorvision at yet another 'we said we retired but we quite like gigging so here we are again' gigs.

August
Saw Toy Story 3. Nearly cried. Went to a wedding. Didn't cry. I don't cry at weddings. I don't really understand why people do. That's just one of the many things that makes me feel like I'm abnormal.

September
We spent a week in Sussex with Mum and Dad. A number of highlights - Beachy Head, Dungeness, a cliff railway in Hastings, a steam railway in Tenterden.

Fantastic gig - Barenaked Ladies in Bristol. Probably number 2 on my all-time gig list. Also the place where we heard Joel Plaskett for the first time.

October
A football match, an ice hockey match, and my boss won a national award at a fancy ceremony. What a month!

November
This won't make much sense unless you're a writer, too. Or maybe it will. But anyway, I had to write an introduction for a report 'from' our programme chairs. I wrote it, and rewrote it and then it got rewritten again by someone else and then they had a look at it and tweaked it, and in the final result only two paragraphs of mine survived unchanged.

Then at a national event, to over 300 of the key players from across Wales, one of our chairs got up and summed up everything we do using two of the sentences I wrote.

Those were my words. Being spoken by a very important person.

At that moment I knew what it must feel like to be a speechwriter for a president or equivalent. To hear your words articulated by someone else is incredible. It meant so much, but most of all it meant that when I wrote them I caught the essence and 'got it right'.

(In other news, the house next door is raided by the police because the tenants have been using it to farm cannabis!)

December
I have an enquiry about publishing my Zodiac Team novel. I also get asked to do some freelance writing for a national organisation in the New Year. My brother and sister-in-law go public with news that, tangentially, means I am going to be an Uncle. Snow threatens to white out Christmas, but fails. However, the bad weather means we don't get to the church carol service and also miss out on going to a footie match on Boxing Day.

December was some month, to end some year.

The most awesome blog post about birthdays ever (or: The Night I Met Face Man)

The good thing about having your birthday on Good Friday is a long weekend to recover. Plus, being holy, I also got to go to church on my birthday with the added bonus of it being shorter than the average service. (Not that I mind going to church normally, but it was my birthday.)

The party started on 1 April when I had a job interview with some folks I've done quite a bit of freelance writing for, and then got a phone call to ask if I wanted it. Of course, I did. The guy offering the job was really glad. "I got the man I wanted," was what he said.

Now I know I shouldn't take the fact that my entire team has been downsized and outsourced in any way personally. But it has felt a bit like all our hard work has been reduced to 'Yeah we can get a couple of people to do what you do for nothing.' I'd be lying if I said my confidence hadn't taken a hit. I'd also defy you to go through the same process and not feel any rejection. Do feel free to try.

But knowing that now I'm going someplace where I'm wanted has lifted me.

In the evening we went to see a boyhood idol of mine, Dirk Benedict, appear as Lieutenant Columbo at Cardiff's New Theatre. I was very excited, much to the amusement of my wife and our friends who came with us. Thing is Dirk Benedict was Face Man in that most awesome of TV shows The A Team. I liked him as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica too, but for me he will always be Face.

We did something afterwards that I've never done before - queued at the stage door like excited groupies. We were first in line when he came out and I was tongue-tied. I wanted to tell him how huge a fan I was when I was a kid; how when we played A Team in the playground there were always arguments over who would be Face, and so on.

But I didn't. I laughed at his jokes, stammered a request for a photo, and got him to sign a flyer. Then walked away knowing that I had put my arm around Face Man and got it on film.

Truly a memorable 'birthday eve': new job, meeting Face Man... how could my actual birthday measure up. Surely all I was destined for was an anti-climax.

Well, no, actually. My birthday was great too, but this blog post has gone on a bit long, so I'll tell you about that some other time.