Performing Arts and Public Libraries.

Claire and Luke (my kids) were in a playlet yesterday, a modern take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. It was the end of term show for the Performing Arts class they go to at the local YMCA.

I have to say we did not have any high expectations; in fact we were in a bit of a bad mood about the whole thing. The play seemed to have too many words, which the kids only seemed to have a sketchy knowledge of. That was Saturday morning, with the show only hours away. Plus we somehow had to produce a wolf costume for Luke, who was playing the part of Sidney, a vegetarian wolf cub who came bottom of his sheep worrying classes. ("Sheep have enough on their minds without me adding to their troubles" was one of his lines.)

In the event, it somehow all came together and was great fun. I made a little pair of grey wolf's ears for Luke, cardboard covered in grey-painted cotton wool. The rest was up to the audience's imagination. The kids somehow seemed to know their lines - or enough of them at least. I can't say the play made a whole lot of sense, and it did require Luke to pipe up "The End" at the end to get the audience to applaud. An inspired little ad lib on his part, I thought.

As we were going in, we spotted a friend, Ian, who was walking along Tottenham Lane with his two little girls. They were on their way to a Teddy bear abseiling event at the clock tower of a local church. There was a certain amount of trepidation regarding Teddy's safety but I tried to reassure Ian that he would be all right.

Completely out of the blue, Ian said: "Roger, just let me say, one of the best books I have ever read and I mean that." He then added that he had bought a copy for his Mum, who apparently likes Ian McEwan, which makes him think she will like mine.

Thanks Ian - you, and the kids' play, made my day, which was a long one as we had one of Luke's friends over for a sleep over.

And so on to libraries...

Last night I discovered this resource. Amazing what there is on the internet. This appears to be a list of all the UK public libraries, or regions that have libraries, giving access to their on-line catalogues. So, inevitably, I picked a few at random and entered Taking Comfort.

I was disappointed to discover that my home region of Tameside don't have any copies.

Haringey have six copies, two of which are on loan.

One picked at random: York seems to have one copy, on loan, and to be in the process of acquiring another copy. Good for York! (To see the Taking Comfort entry, just click on OK on the page that shows - if you can be bothered, that is.)

I really wish I hadn't discovered this, because I can see it eating away hours of my time. Oh, and I really should get on and register for public lending rights! (Debi will probably give me a hard time for not having done it already!)