My intention was to write a blog everyday to chart the progress of the HMO development. Alas some days I haven't even been able to switch on my computer I've been so busy/tired. This week (or at least the last 9 days have been crazy.

I did the performance at the Town Hall with Ita. It was fantastic to be performing on such a big stage to such a huge audience. The event was promoted on the local TV station, radio, on the B'ham website and in the press. This coupled with the large cast of performance brought an audience of about 400. We were on in the second half and I was a) disappointed that my microphone kept falling off which detracted somewhat from the preformance and b) that the music and the action were perfectly synchronized, (A first for any performance with Ita) Andrew helped me to put the music together and the sound engineer (Tim I believe his name is) on the night was superb. We had some good feedback on the night - the audience laughed in all the expected places and we got good applause - but then so did everyone. There were some superb acts my favourites being Barbara Nice - the compare, the group of children dancing in white and the cast of RENT. I must go and see them at the Hippodrome in the new year.

I'll stay with performances for the time being as they have been the most rewarding things this week. On Saturday I did my co hosting of the Amnesty/WWB event. It was fabulous - not just because Ita and I were great MCs on the night but because the performers were so spot on. The musicians included Steve Yimga, an amazing djembe player, Joe Beale from the Joe Beale Blues Band, Silk Road, Matthew Tuite, Rockstone from Roakstone and ghe Y2K band, and the headline artiste - Ben Akofor who came all the way from Malvern. I was impressed when he said he was thinking what songs to sing at this event while he was in Palestine a couple of weeks ago. They were all superb. And the WWB performers really stepped it up a gear. I felt proud to be a part of the group.

As well as doing the MC ing we also did our poetry. Mine was 'The Guide' a poem about domestic violence. Almost immediately after I'd finished a gentleman came to ask me where he could buy the poem - sadly at this stage I don't have my poems available for sale. A bizarre thing happened. At the interval a woman took my hand - I thought to shake it - but no - she kissed my hand, looked into my eyes and repeated thank you a number of times. Apparently I was telling her story in the poem. A couple of people who work with women who have experienced domestic violence wanted to know if I would do something with their clients. A DJ from Newstyle Radio wanted me to come on to his show and many of the audience sought me out to tell me how much moved they were by the poem. What I find interesting is that while I was focused on the comparing part of the evening I was not overly concerned about performing the poem, and while I enjoyed the performace I really loved MCing. Much more so than I thought I would. Feed back has been really positive.

All this has been a welcome disraction from the house which is still inching its way forward. Too tired now to say much more but main builder completed all his work today. He's been paid and its good that all the fire doors are now in place (getting arm exercise opening them) Too tired to go on.