Focus

This week I was involved in breaking a world record! I guess it's not often we get to write that - although I should point out that it's not the first time I have assisted in such an endeavour (we'll get onto that one later).

On Saturday night I was a part of the largest sized image of a music event ever taken - me and 85,000 other Take That fans packed into Wembley Stadium. It was shot on a special high-res camera that allows you to zoom in and focus on every individual in the place. I'm to be seen clapping in Block 523, row 5, lime green top.

Focus is something I've had to work on myself this week too, as well as feeling a bit like I'm trying to break records. I'm stacked with work (which is a good thing... I think....), taking an art course and being a Mother, partner, daughter and housewife. Sometimes (in fact most times), it is difficult to know where to start.

In fact, do I have time and more importantly, should I be writing about it now? Probably not, but I'll keep it brief (and anyway, blogging is good for my soul).

When I first started freelancing, it was fairly easy to keep on top of things and I enjoyed a certain amount of free time to keep up with household chores. Now, with success and a number of clients under my belt, plus the desire to weld drawing and painting implements to my digits and play football in the garden of an evening with my boy, I'm having to become more and more organised... something I haven't been for a while...

I've even bought books on the subject and am currently trying to organise my time enough so I can read Leo Babauta's Power of Less and learn what are his 6 productivity principles that will change my life...

I'm nearly half way through the book and applying (some!) of his teaching and it does feel better, although I feel a bigger house with my own office, art studio and generally more room to spread out might also help!

I'm proud of who I am and that person is on a constant drive for improvement fuelled by a desire to always do a good job. I want to be like Take That - put on a good show, raise the bar and dazzle my audience. I want my clients eating out of the palm of my hand and screaming for more!

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And finally ... the other world record? Well, it was to take part in the world's largest YMCA dance... at Northampton Balloon festival in 2008. Sadly the internet is not awash with news stories about this event, and this sorry report is just about all I could find (even the YouTube videos have gone). Given that it was never much of a record, I imagine it has been beaten by now. Perhaps I should have got 85,000 people at Take That doing YMCA instead of Mexican waves while we waiting for the band to come on stage!

An 85,000-strong sing-along

Forgive me if I sound a little hoarse today readers, I did rather a lot of singing and screaming last night alongside a further 85,000 other singing and screaming Take That fans at the closing show of a 26 date (including a record-breaking 8 at Wembley) UK Stadium tour.

The uninitiated might think that with it being the biggest tour in UK history and all, it would have been easy to procure tickets. Not so my friends. It took a whole day of hanging pages on websites which crashed more than a season of stock car races before yours truly finally bagged the big prize at 7pm that evening, just as she was giving up hope of seeing her heroes perform on stage reunited once more.

And so months later the day finally arrived. It looked like the rain might hold off as the four of us piled in the car ready for the journey to our fair Capital. It was of course a necessity to warm up our vocal chords with some serious singing on the way there - in particular, Robbie's Angels got a very good airing on the M1. We looked out for evidence of other fans en route but there was a distinct lack of scarves and banners waving from tour buses so we just had to guess and wave at car loads of women with expectant smiles on their faces.

As it turned out the audience has changed a little in its demographic since I first saw them tour back in the mid 90s when I, in my mid 20s was probably one of the oldest there. Fan base then was screaming teenagers and the gay scene. Yesterday everyone from the under 10s out with the family to senior citizens were decked out in Take That T-shirts and singing along with gusto.

I've seen both Take That and Robbie on his own numerous times over the years and both easily rank as my favourite live performers. Tonight having Robbie reunited was truly something special. When he burst out of the backdrop to opening bars of Let me Entertain you, the crowd, already bursting the scale of excitement, then took off into cyberspace! If ever a man knew how to hold an audience, it is Mr Williams (although I was disappointed he didn't split his trousers as apparently he has managed on numerous occasions through over-excited stage acrobatics.

With a show that included everything from Alice's white rabbit and giant caterpillars to spidermen acrobats climbing the walls, pyrotechnics and giant statues that stood up taller than my house in the middle of the football pitch, it's certainly hard to pick favourite moments. And, seeing as I've already written reams maybe I'll just leave it with one understated word. Fanbloodytastic!! Thank you boys. Actually, maybe there is a favourite moment - knowing that a couple of them are (fractinally) older than me! Suddenly I felt cool being 41!

They are off to Europe next week - I think there's still a few tickets available here and there... Hmm. Milan suddenly sounds extra tempting...



PS: the videos aren't mine - thank you to the lovely people who shared their experience on YouTube

Incognito

I remember a friend telling me once that they had a persona for work which was quite different from the one they showed outside of it. A bit like stepping on stage and acting a part, they would become this other person - the confident, no-mess manager who got things done - but underneath they were just a vulnerable person needing a hug as much as the rest of us.

Writing about Take That yesterday reminded me too of how incongrous it seems that someone like Robbie Williams who can step out on stage in front of 100,000 people and command the audience, conducting them in the palm of his hand, can ever suffer with stage fright - which is what he openly confesses. Do some people need that alter ego? Is it part of their soul?

Am I like this too? Am I incognito some of the time? I'm not sure anymore. I know for sure that I shine most when I'm allowed to be 'just me', but then when you think about it we all have these different aspects to our personality, we bend and adapt according to situation. Take this morning - I didn't like being 'strict mother' when my son wouldn't get out of bed and get dressed for school but it was for his own good that I became her.

Then there's the bits we hide - our vulnerability. Sometimes we get so good at this, that we forget it's even there...

This post is turning into a load of old useless waffle and opens up enough questions to fill a psycholdogy doctorate, so I'll just quit while I'm (possibly not) ahead and stick it out there. The artwork was inspired by this piece for Inspiration Avenue's Incognito challenge - so I blame Sharon for all this introspection! I'm also taking an Art Journaling class this week, so took my words to the page - unfortunately they got a little smudged, despite testing the pen's colour fastness first!

Flicking through magazines looking for a nudge, I was reminded of some of the biggest chameleons out there - the models.

"It's Tuesday darling, so it must be Madrid... Who will I be today?"

Why I love Take That (and am proud to admit it!)

OK, 'fess up. Who watched the Take That documentary on Saturday night and the big X-Factor reunion? There's something so appealing about these five 'boys' that keeps them close to the nation's hearts. The fact that we'd even call a group of men all pushing (or just pushed) 40 'boys' says it all.

I think one of the reasons I love them so much is that they are my age. They're my peers, we grew up together and we've been seen life. We've had the highs, the lows, the love and broken relationships, the inner turmoils, career conflicts and we've all come out the other side. OK, so I haven't exactly had the cash, global adulation and fame, but hey at least I can go to Tesco without being recognised that often!

I've written a lot about turning 40 this year. Eight months later and I'm finally starting to get to grips with it. I look at Take That and see the lines forming around the eyes, the pounds that crept on here and there but I realise it doesn't matter. I look at Take That and see a band of 'men' of a certain age that sell 1 million concert tickets in one day, whose album will sell millions in the run up to Christmas (and according to the cashier in Tesco this morning as I grabbed my sweaty hands on my copy - "It's been flying off the shelves"). I see confidence and belief in ability. I see bravery, creativity and comfort within their own skins. It's nothing to do with age. It's knowing what you want and then going out and grabbing it. Then, when it's in your hands, recognising that and enjoying every second.

Robbie's decision to rejoin the band after 15 years and a solo career to rival any rock legend was, in my eyes, a great example of this. As a fan of all of them, it seemed the logical next step. Take That as a five-piece, then a four piece likewise achieved more than many stars ever dream of. What other move could they have made now that the bridges are not just mended but apparently glowing with the freshest coat of protective all-weather paint.

Long may it continue for us all! Although I don't think I'll be headlining a Stadium tour next summer (but I will certainly be attending one!).

The album, by the way, is rather good. Better than the last with the returning Robbie clearly making his mark.


(Apologies to those from foreign climes that have missed out on Take That mania over the years and haven't a clue what I am wittering on about - you just don't know what you've been missing!)

PS - Still doing my Art Every Day - just nothing in a finished enough state to post - lots of ripping up of newspapers going on right now!