Filed under: advertising, dad, family | Tags: charity, gibberish, mark gorman, pego's millions, peter gorman, St Columba's hospice
Come on, have a go.
Only a tenner and you can win £100 and a bottle of bubbly. All proceeds to St Columbas Hospice.
I only need a few more to crawl over the £1,000 target line.
We’re looking at about 23rd December now I’d say.
Filed under: creativity, dad, family, humour, life, Scotland, stories | Tags: gibberish, mark gorman, mark gorman gibberish, markgorman.wordpress.com, million hits, pego's millions, peter gorman, St Columba's hospice
Thank you to everyone who has donated to Pego’s Millions. After only a week you have donated a whopping £766 to St Columba’s Hospice. (My target is £1,000 but originally it was £500 so let’s see if we can power our way through that milestone this week).
The good news is that my site stats only grew by 5% last week so there’s still probably (at this rate) about 37 days until my millionth hit which remains at or around 21st December.
So, if you want another guess (and remember it’s all going to a good cause) plus the chance to win £100 and a bottle of Tesco’s finest bubbly you’re more than welcome to have another go.
Just visit this site and it’ll work it all out for you. (Actually it won’t, you’ll need your wits about you but if you become unstuck just send me an email with your guess or stick it into the comments box on this post.)
It’s £10 a pop and all you have to do is estimate at what time and on what date markgorman.wordpress.com will register its millionth hit.
Imagine the excitement as the deadline approaches.
It’ll be just like that scene in The Soccial Network, for those of you that have seen it.
Filed under: dad, family, Scotland, stories | Tags: appeal, cancer, gibberish, hospice, pego's millions, peter gorman, St Columba's hospice
OK. It’s not even 24 hours since I launched my Pego’s Millions idea and the response has been phenomenal.
We’re at £327 online and £10 off line already, so I’ve raised the target to £1,000.
Please circulate the idea amongst your friends.
Here’s the link again
just so as you know today’s numbers are 10% up on the average with 6 hours to go. So 21st December might be a bit late if this continues.
And you can guess as often as you like.
Filed under: dad, family, life | Tags: charity, fct, forth childrens theatre, fundraising, peter gorman, St Columba's hospice
I’m running a sweep to guess when I will hit 1,000,000 views of my blog and the proceeds will be donated to St Columbas Hospice.
The reason I am doing this is because my blog first took off as I wrote about my dad dying whilst he was in St Columba’s.
So the deal is this. Go to this link and Pledge £10 to guess when the magic millionth reader will arrive and the closest to the time and day will win £100 and a bottle of champagne (put up by me and not taken out of the proceeds!).
Now, to give you a little help we currently sit at 964,124 views (at 8pm on Sunday November 7th). I am currently averaging 786 views a day but it has been higher and lower.
At this rate I will hit Pego’s millions in 45 days. (About 21st December roughly?)
But will it be sooner and at what time?
You can enter as many times as you like. Good luck.
Filed under: Arts, dad, family, gigs, life, photography, Scotland, theatre | Tags: 30 years of FCT, acting, am dram, Bugsy, children's theatre, fct, forth childrens theatre, Jeckyll and Hyde, Little Shop of Horrors, musicals, My FaiR lady, peter gorman, Sound of music, sweeney Todd, The Wiz, theatre, ya beauty, young talent, youth
The day has arrived.
We took ownership, however briefly, of the Church Hill Theatre tonight and had our first run, in the studio theatre. Tomorrow we do our technical run at 10.30. Dress at 2.30 and open at 7.30. We’re ready. The rehearsals on Sunday, last night and tonight have all built on each other and started from a good place. It’s getting pretty tight all round I have to say. (Although one of my numbers – Get me to the Church on Time from My Fair Lady happily calls for rumbustuousness and a lack of overall discipline!)
The show with the exception of the Sat Mat is, to all intent and purpose, sold out. As I predicted. And the Saturday matinee is half sold and will no doubt fill up quickly now as the latecomers realise that when we said we thought the nights would sell out it wasn’t just us making it up.
If you’re lucky enough to have a ticket (and believe me you will count yourself lucky) you are in for a spellbinding evening’s entertainment.
I count myself blessed and privileged beyond belief to be part of this. Felix McLaughlin who just came up from Cardiff on Sunday to join the final rehearsals was dumbstruck by the depth and quality of talent on show. I’m not talking about me and my generation here I’m talking about the current and just ‘graduated’ cast who have talent in extreme. And the directing team, choreographer and musical direction team have to be seen to be believed.
The impact this show has had on me will never be repeated in my life. I feel sure of that because it is truly a one off, truly a labour of extraordinary love.
My father would not only have got ‘the tingles’ as he called it. He would have been swept away in a tidal wave of emotion which is exactly what will happen to our audiences because, on the whole, their lives have been so positively influencd by the wonderful work of FCT and this is, after all, the best of FCT.
I keep coming back to the greatest thing of all; membership is a mere £3 – for the year – which includes the opportunity of being in a 10 night run on the Fringe PLUS a show like this and we’ve never had even so much as a penny of public sector funding.
FCT is immense and this joyous photo from the rehearsals sums it all up for me.
This is FCT!
Filed under: Arts, dad, family, life, photography, Scotland | Tags: burt bacharach, elvis costello, fct, forth childrens theatre, peter gorman, sylvia morrison, theatre royal bar edinburgh
The anniversary of my dad’s death looms large and as a mark of respect my mum and dad’s dear friend Sylvia Morrison cooked up a plan some time ago that came to fruition tonight.
She and her husband Gagy used to have
the occassional snifter with my mum and dad in the Theatre Royal Bar of an afternoon. Next to the Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre, it features a host of Playhouse performers’ signed and framed photos.
Sylvia felt my dad, as a ‘Local Hero’, should take his place for immortality, among the greats. And so plans were set in place to gain him a berth on the walls.
My pal, Jim Downie, beautifully designed a tribute to him and whilst this photo can never do it credit it might give you a wee taster to have a look yourself.
On the night over 100 people showed for a fantastic get togetherof family, friends and FCT.
It was magic.
We toasted Pego with an oggy, oggy oggy.
Oy, oy oy.
Yah beauty
A nice plus was that his picture replaced Burt Bacharach’s so, by way of an apology to Burt I think we need to enjoy some of his wonderousness.
For me, his collaboration with Elvis Costello is peerless.
Here’s a wee bit…
On the way home we collectively had our first ever Deep Fried Mars Bar. Ria loved it. The rest of us were less dismissive than we should have been.
Filed under: Arts, dad, family, humour, life, photography, Scotland | Tags: cavalcade, Edinburgh Festival, festivals, peter gorman
Originally uploaded by mark gorman.
my dad doing what my dad did best. basically showing off . Found this shot in Jane’s house on Easter Sunday and fiddled about a bit in photoshop with it.
Filed under: Arts, dad, family, life, photography, Scotland, stories | Tags: black and white, flickr, my dad, pego, peter gorman, portrait
Originally uploaded by mark gorman.
I took this picture 18 days before he died. On June 30th 2007. At a barbecue at our house. It turns out it was the last thing he ever ate. I know it’s a rather melancholy photograph but it was a moment of repose amongst a lot of smiling and laughing. I’ve converted it in Photoshop to add to its melancholy air which might seem a little morbid to some of you but, you know what, I think it’s beautiful and I’m very fond of it. There’s more, happier, pictures of my dad on my Fluickr site which you can find here…
Dad died last night at 4am as a beautiful new day dawned over Edinburgh.
He died full of dignity and at peace surrounded by his wife, four children and brother in the loving and caring environment of St Columbas Hospice. We will miss him desperately.
In an Evening News article in 1994 he said that he wanted his epitaph to be
“The eternal optimist whose dreams came true.”
They did.
Bye Dad.
If anyone has any memories they’d like to share with the many people who have been reading my blog please fill in a comment below. It’s really easy.
Honest.
