Interactive version of Oliver's Poetry Garret
Grizzly Man
Sunday, 11 June 2006, Blog 9
Lewes Garret
8.30am. Kitchen. I have opened the French windows and let in the morning's air, aroma and glorious sun. I shall move outside. Ah, that's better, feeling the warmth of the sun on my back, though it is harder to read the screen.
Last night was good. Dr Who was brilliant, and, afterwards, we went to the Arts Centre, a former church, to see Grizzly Man, a Werner Herzog film about Timothy Treadwell who tried to befriend grizzly bears and was eaten by one in 2003.
It did not take long to realise that whatever good work Timothy Treadwell's organisation Grizzly People might be doing (and I suspect Grizzly People does good work), he was an egotist and a bit of a nutter, albeit an entertaining one!
The saddest thing was the grizzly bears never truly bonded with him. They seemed to view him as a somewhat retarded irritant, and then, one day when the fish had run out, a bear felt grizzly - and ate him.
Henry VIII Management Consultant
Flashback to Wednesday, 24 May, 2006
Lainesford Garret
8.10am. Just returned from swimming in the outside pool and feel much better for it. I was the only swimmer (therefore breaching regulations. Indeed when I set off (after recovering my poetry book from the bar) and having had an early breakfast, one chap advised me I would be risking my life by swimming after eating. 'I might die,' I joked, darkly, 'Let's hope, eh?' He laughed.
It was beautiful in the pool girded by conifers. Luke warm, but exhilarating. I swam and did some exercises. My back was particularly bad this morning, all twisted and locked up. I thought, 'My God, it is getting progressively worse.' It has been six weeks since my 'accident'. I must start exercising more in the morning and, particularly, before going to bed.
Well, this is my last full day and night here. Praise the Lord! I could not stick an entire week. The mental anguish would be too great. The people on my course are not dislikable.
Far from it, several of them are affable. It is just they have no great spark about them just like the trainers. Not only will they probably never do anything great with their lives, they will never even strive to do so.
5.52pm. That Mary J Blige / U2 track is on again. It is the only CD I have here. A fun day. The final task was to put on an entertainment. Naturally, I suggested we do a comedy show taking the rise out of the course.
This we accomplished very successfully, with sketches based on taking the micky of the phrase 'no failure, only feedback', body language shadowing (and the Deputy Prime Minister), and the exclusion of a female member of our discussion group (and getting her name wrong). The other group roared with laughter.
Took some photographs with my Nikon FM of their show which was very funny. They did Henry VIII and Catharine Parr going through management consultancy. It was well done.
The quiet chap made a very dry Henry VIII, the West Country scientist who works in Wales was an incredibly insensitive and laconic (like John Bird in the TV sketches), and the middle-aged married woman was very good at expressing her disappointment in the relationship as Henry VIII's wife. She seemed to be talking from bitter personal experience.
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