Thursday 2 June 2011

The great benefits of being a cheeky mare


Recently I have had some great luck from being just plain cheeky.  I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before that the simplest way to get something is to ask for it but now that I have started asking I am receiving rewards for my cheekiness in spades! 

Take next week for example. On Monday I am off to a comedy workshop at BAFTA with Miranda Hart. I LOVE Miranda Hart and have actually got to the point of near hyperventilation with hysterics watching her programme so this is a major scoop for me. And how did I manage it? Well by being cheeky of course! I saw an advert for the workshop on BBC Writers Room a week ago, knew full well it would be fully booked, but phoned anyway only to find out some returns were going on sale in 40 minutes time. Thanks to Starbucks and my friends Mac, the tickets were mine!

Then on Wednesday I’m off to Wycliffe Hall in Oxford  (a rather spiffy theological college) for a retreat  day. Again, some pestering and phoning around got me in there at the last minute, something I never would normally have done as picking up the phone to chase people is somehow hideously unbritish but what can I say, it works!

And THEN (yes, there’s more!) I was sitting at home last night thinking lots of grand theological thoughts and scanning my bookshelf for my next book to read when my eyes settled on a book by a theological pastor based in Oxford. I thought to myself ‘well I bet he’d be able to help with these questions.’ So I thought, ‘Right. I’m going to email him and ask.’ So I did and now I’m going for coffee with him next week to pick his brains. Much better than flicking through a paperback eh?!

So friends, I advocate the cheeky way to you as a proven technique of greatly enhancing your life. If you want to go somewhere, phone around till you get in. if you admire someone, call them up and ask them to meet up with you. Apparently it works!

4 comments:

  1. Your post made me laugh out loud, Nicola. "If you don't ask, you don't get" is obviously your motto for the week :-) Enjoy all the lovely opportunities your asking has obtained for you.

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  2. <3 this one!! Wish I could be that bold :) Up here they say "shy bairns get nowt".

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  3. Hope the novel is going ok. Here's some words of wisdom on writing, from Neil Gaiman you might find useful..

    1 Write.
    2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
    3 Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
    4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you've never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
    5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
    6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
    7 Laugh at your own jokes.

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  4. Thanks for the comments all and glad the post gave you a giggle! Emma, wise words indeed! I shall try and put them to good use!

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