Ruth Livingstone

Olympic Torch – through Stamford

The crowd waits with intense excitement. Many questions in our minds. But two are uppermost. (1) When will the Torch arrive? and (2) will the rain hold off long enough? Continue reading “Olympic Torch – through Stamford”

Getting down to writing – not!

My Birkbeck term ended a few weeks ago. I planned to use the free evenings (Monday and Wednesday were ‘school’ evenings) to write, write and write some more – no longer do I have the distractions of assignments, prescribed reading, etc.

What have I done since the end of term?

I have done the following: Continue reading “Getting down to writing – not!”

Tried it. Read it. Done it. Survived

Yesterday evening I joined an enthusiastic group of student poets in Cambridge House, Camberwell. This was a reading-aloud poetry evening, part of Birkbeck University’s ‘Try It!’ programme. The theme for the evening was ‘Journeys’.

I am not sure if any actual members of the public were there – the audience seemed to consist mainly of poets and their friends. But it was a great evening with a wide range of fantastic poems, and Continue reading “Tried it. Read it. Done it. Survived”

Try It! (Reading poetry out loud)

At the moment I feel like I am standing on the tracks and waiting for a train crash to happen.

I don’t consider myself to be a poet. But I did write some poems last term as part of my BA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University. And, in a moment of madness, I volunteered to read one of my poems at an evening poetry session.

Why? Well, the theme of the session is ‘Journeys’ and I had a poem that was about a journey. And I have set myself the challenge of always trying to respond to a new writing challenge. And, to be honest, I thought there would be numerous volunteers and I could happily stand down. But, no, I was the only one from my poetry group who responded with “Yes, I can read one of my poems out”.

Then it turns out we need to bring two poems to read. Not just one.

So, on Saturday, I will be reading a couple of my not-very-good poems out loud in front of a (hopefully) small audience at Cambridge House in Camberwell. If you are passing by and fancy a free glass of wine and nibbles, do drop in. The other poets are much better than me and you will enjoy it. We kick off at 6pm.

(Further information can be found on the Birkbeck Web site.)

Race Walking – the forgotten Olympic Sport

Let me explain why I wrote my latest Olympic Story on the topic of Race Walking.

Some months ago I met an 82 year-old man at the communal breakfast table, while staying in a B&B on one of my walking trips. He listened attentively to my tales of walking-round-the-coast and seemed politely impressed by my achievements. Then he mentioned he had done some walking himself, in his younger days.

But it turns out that he was no ordinary countryside rambler. No. Ronald was a race walker.

Race walking? I had forgotten about this particular sport: a gruelling race where the competitors walk as fast as they can without running, and adopt a curious hip rolling gait so as to achieve maximum speed while never allowing both feet to leave the ground at the same time. Continue reading “Race Walking – the forgotten Olympic Sport”