Happy New Year...

So. What will 2014 bring? Here's the nut-shelled plan so far, then I can compare my hopes and ambitions with the actual outcomes in one year's time…

i) New theatre company. I was planning on starting my own company but I am now involved with another one instead. And we have big plans involving a varied season of new work and ACE funding.

ii) Martial arts. I will continue to improve in 2014 and this is the year I will finally compete.

iii) Writing: Finish the new stage play, finish the first draft of the CDA play and finish the new TV comedy idea.

In summary, one theatre company, some competitive martial arts and three new scripts. That's enough to be going on with. For now...

The Waterboys...

I've had an ongoing love affair with the music of The Waterboys for nearly three decades.

I first heard a crackly bootleg tape of one of their early gigs when I was about 16 or 17, and I instantly fell in love with their big, driving sound and pseudo-Celtic rock mysticism that was part WB Yeats and part William Blake, with some 1980s politics thrown in.

Their debut album, The Waterboys, with its haunting masterpiece, Gala, and the still brilliant Savage Earth Heart impressed and still does. But my adoration of that album was soon overtaken by the excellent second album, This Is The Sea, and the booming third, A Pagan Place.

Then they released Fisherman's Blues in 1988.

Some fans loved the raw Irish folky rock sound of the 1988 album while it bemused others who wanted more of the heavily produced sound of its three predecessors.

I loved them all and have consistently bought anything The Waterboys or Mike Scott as a solo artist has released since, so I was delighted when they announced they were doing an anniversary tour to celebrate 25 years since the release of Fisherman's Blues. Even better, former band members Steve Wickham on violin and Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone and electric mandolin were also onboard. And they were coming to my home town. Tickets were rapidly bought.

And the gig didn't disappoint. They played lots of stuff from Fisherman's Blues but also dipped into other albums with A Girl Called Johnny, Don't Bang the Drum and The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy.

Singer Scott was an engaging and charming frontman and the memory of this gig wiped away the stain of the only other time I saw them, which was in 1990 when they touring the Roam to Roam album and they put on a pretty lacklustre show in Southampton.

But this gig was wonderful and I was delighted to finally see the fabulous Waterboys gig I'd waited almost 25 years to see. Happy camper...

Other Woman News…

The Other Woman is a black belt martial artist who has just passed the first part of her second dan exam. She’s a tiny powerhouse in sparring, her strikes break wooden boards and her low spin kick is probably the best I’ve ever seen in the decade plus I’ve been doing this and other fighting arts.

A while ago she and her sister went on a zombie experience. In this, a group of participants are locked up in a warehouse or a shopping centre and are attacked by actors in full make-up pretending to be zombies. It sounds like quite good fun.

There are certain agreed parameters, however, to ensure everyone’s safety so the zombies never touch the participants and the participants are not allowed to touch the zombies.

The Other Woman, however, rounded one corner and a zombie pounced out of the shadows to scare her and her sister… so instinct took over and she punched him in the chest and sent him crashing to the ground. She was very apologetic and the zombie recovered. Eventually.

But fact: My Other Woman kicks arse and kills zombies. Just when I don’t think I could love her any more, she finds a way…