Grieveworld Goes Global (Our new competition)

Welcome to my world!



If you are reading this then you are probably interested in learning more about our exciting new competition which gives one intrepid & daring person the chance to win a fantastic iTunes Voucher worth £50 Sterling!

The rules dear reader are simple, I want you to download your choice of our three posters which you will find here, print it out either in colour or black & white and head on out there into the big wide world around you to find an an interesting location, be that exotic, unusual or just darn funny and take a photograph of the poster and if at all possible, you! Once you have done that I want you to send that to me here at Grieveworld either by email, mark@1Radio.org, Facebook, Mark Grieve (Grieveworld De-Classified)or Twitter, @MarkGrieve so I can add it to our gallery. You should also send me your name, your location & how you found out about the competition.

The only proviso I make is that the photo must feature the poster in a public place and it must be clearly visable (no Photoshopping please!). you don't have to leave the poster where it is when you have taken your picture, we don't want anyone getting into trouble, but if it can stay up then great! You don't even need to be a listener of the show but I hope you might listen in sometime. Anyone in the world can take part. If you are tweeting the picture then please use the hashtag #GrieveworldGlobal and remember and tell all your friends about this challenge, the more taking part the merrier. You can enter as many times as you like.

The competition will be open from today (Fri 15th July) up to Midnight on Monday 29th August 2011. The winner will be drawn from one of my numerous hats live via webcam on the following Grieveworld Show on Thurs 1st Sept so that gives you all about six weeks to get snapping!

There will be runners up prizes for two others so keep at it and have fun but please don't do anything which puts you in any kind of danger!

So that's it, off you go now my impressive adventurers and sally forth into photographic tomfoolery. All the links you need are below.

Have fun everyone.

Take care out there.

Mark.

MarkGrieve on Twitter
Grieveworld De-Classified on Facebook
Posters for Download (Choose any of the three campaign posters)

1Radio station

The Big Chill

So after a couple of days of reflection how did our efforts on Fri night/Sat morning turn out?

The experience was a crazy mix of profoundly moving and surreal. For those not in the loop on this I was due to catch up with an old friend Helen whom I hadn’t seen in years, we go all the way back to Carnegie Youth Theatre days and that now feels like so long ago, another lifetime. The plan was to meet up in Edinburgh and have dinner and a few drinks plus a good old catch up. That plan changed when Helen, she is a nutter in the loveliest way, texted me at 1am Thursday morning to enquire if I could change days as she had just realised there was a charity sleep out on Friday and she really wanted to take part. I’m afraid not, texted I, other plans have been made for Sat so maybe another time. Was this good enough for our H? No!! There then followed a string of persuading texts asking if I fancied joining her and telling me all about it.

To cut a long story short the event is called Byte Night and is held at various locations across the UK on one night every year in aid of a wonderful charity called Action for Children, their aims are to deal with the suffering of youngsters forced out of the family home to fend for themselves (usually through choice) due to a variety of reasons. Their work gives these kids shelter and vital assistance in rebuilding their lives in an attempt to prevent as many as possible slipping into a life of poverty and of living rough. It’s so much more involved than that however I will invite you to click on the link below for more info on what they do.

Anyway, H says “Come on. Let’s do it! we only have to raise a minimum of £500 each to be able to take part” (Well it was along those lines, I have omitted any choice language). It took me a minute to think, this was not something I would have ever done, spontaneity is not something I am renowned for. The more I thought about it the more that little voice in my head that’s been missing for so long said “Come on, do it!” I saw my fingers texting “My god! You know what? Let’s do it!” Shit! £500 in a day and a half!! How the hell do I do this?

I have done far too much thinking and brooding on me of late, time wasted when others have it a million times tougher than me or may of us out there. I knew it was time to do something that would benefit others and might help me focus on how tough people have it when they don’t have the comforts around us we all take for granted.

So, first thing Thursday morning upon arrival at the office I set up my VirginGiving Donation page, I phoned people, I emailed people, I emailed colleagues, friends, anyone and everyone I could think of, I Facebooked, Twittered, and went desk to desk and door to door and for a wonderful two days I was fired up and alive and focused on just reaching that target. I am stunned to say I reached £500 at around 2pm on Friday, a staggering response and one I will be eternally grateful for, the figure has since risen and I will occasionally post the link up over the next few weeks to allow anyone who would like to contribute to do so.

Friday itself was a profoundly moving and at times joyous experience. It was positive and at times deeply sad. It is one of those evenings of my life that I will never ever forget. Helen has blogged on it and I’m sure she won’t mind me including a link to that blog below. It says it so much better than I ever could. I’m so glad I did it. The actual sleep out element was crazy, It was fun, it was nuts it was in the middle of the night bitterly, bitterly cold but it was only one night. There are far too many people in this country who are forced to do this night after night because they have no other choice. They have reached the limit of what any of our fellow humans should ever have to endure. What we did was the minimum we could, think of what we could achieve if all of us worked together in this country to have a society where we didn’t stand for this and we reached out and helped whomever we could whenever we could.

Friday has given me so much to think about, I want to be able to live my life unafraid to help others. I will be doing this again. This and so much more because I can and because it’s easy. If you have the opportunity to help others please do.

Mark's Sponsorship Page

Helen's Blog

Action For Children

Spiderman, Spiderman. Does whatever a spider can.....not!

Time to lighten things up methinks, some of you may know this story, some of you wont. It’s all true and is one of those fond memories from innocent days that always make me smile.

Let me take you back to 1978, young seven year old Mark, oh how sweet and painfully shy he was. I wonder what happened to him? Anyway a quiet but happy wee lad was he, a small group of friends at a very good primary school in Dunfermline (Commercial fact fans) and memories of playing happily around the copious school grounds. Add to the mix a father, known to some of you I'm sure who would on occasion take a well earned golfing holiday with his friends to foreign climes. No problem there, he was a publican - work hard, play hard. Dad, being a loving kind of parent, would often return from his travels bearing gifts for Sister Suzie & I. These gifts would vary but were usually top notch. Now Wee Mark, remember him? Well Mark was a bit of a Spiderman Nut at that time in his life. The Live action Movies with Nicholas Hammond were doing the rounds at that time and I was rather obsessed to say the least. Dad returns from this trip bearing what could only be described as manna from heaven for our young would be hero, A SPIDERMAN COSTUME!!!!!



Now dear reader please don’t underestimate the significance of this moment in young Marks life! As he tears open the box to gaze lovingly upon the garment and at that moment knows his life has a purpose and a meaning, bless his little knee high socks our Mark was going to be a Superhero!

Oh the hours I would spend locked in my room practising my action hero poses, spinning imaginary webs from my wrists (I found two steel band digital watches over both costumed wrists looked the biz!!), the days I spent happily whiling away the hours perfecting my techniques for what I was convinced would be my thrilling lifetime career. The day though soon dawned when I realised I had to reveal to the world that Spiderman was real that day had to come soon and I knew where it should happen...

That morning I prepared carefully, I pulled my marvellous costume on and dressed into my school uniform over the top of it. How good it felt, knowing that at the slightest emergency I could quickly be garbed in my foolproof disguise and confidently save the world, or at any rate The School!



It was an average day, can’t remember the specifics of the morning but I do recall being most disappointed that no evil megalomaniac was threatening the world let alone my class. The dinner bell rang out and I'm sure I sat down in the hall to consume my school dinner with my normal gusto. I do know I loved the jam sponge cake deserts with custard.....Mmmmmmm.... Oh sorry! Where was I, oh yes....

After lunch I must have felt some unearthly urge to reveal the hero amongst everyone’s midst, off to the toilets I traipsed knowing in my heart it had to be now. The shirt buttons were ripped Superman stylee and it could only have taken seconds before I was standing in front of the mirror looking at the reflection of the one and only Spiderman staring back at me! Now Marky, Now!

Picture the scene, the heroic music swells as I burst forth from the WC to greet the world (The School) and reveal the majesty of Spiderman to a grateful and adoring public! How I ran, I ran around the school to cheers of delight that could easily be confused with howls of laughter, know I know it wasn’t that. Round the building I ran knowing I must now reveal the ability which had so far neglected me, I must scale the wall of the building!! I will scale the wall of the building!! I'm trying to scale the wall of the building!!! Damn I can't right now so I'll......keep running!?!

How I ran, around the grounds of the school, on the grass and I swear the entire school ran after me! Ok maybe it was more like 60% of the school but trust me it was a lot of Kids, all screaming Spidey or Idiot or Clown or something else that must have been appreciative but the followed me and for that moment, that one moment all was right in Shy Marks world! I had found my true calling. I was a hero! At least I was until some mad teacher clipped my ear and dragged me to the Headmasters office but god it was good!!

Looking back, maybe that's where I went wrong in life, perhaps I should have followed my vocation 'Kick Ass' style... then again perhaps not.

Good innocent harmless fun, we need more of that in life. Keep Smiling. There’s more to come.

Letting go

Coming through one of the strangest and most emotionally charged periods of my life has been both horrifying and strangely fascinating. All of these emotions and feelings and anxieties have surfaced because for quite some time now I have refused to let go of something which although one of the most important things in my life, I had no purpose in holding on to and more to the point due to my own past actions and behaviours I am directly and totally responsible for. Today I have finally called time on this episode of my life with the realisation I have to let go and regain control over my own life. That letting go begins here and now.

I have made some horrendous mistakes in my life, I’m sure we all have but my mistakes I am coming finally coming to terms with. I understand now that though these mistakes have hurt others they have hurt me more than anyone else. My self esteem for so many years has been non – existent. I have locked my real self away and without often realising it I have fallen into a world where I felt a desperate need to exaggerate trivial things so as not to appear a disappointment to others. So as not to feel a failure as a person. This mindset has been part of me for most of my life and I can trace its origins back to my childhood. It’s only truly lately that I have fully and completely confronted this and I will accept it no more. I know the person I am, I know I am a good person and I know I’m not a failure. I know I am valued by my friends for the real me and the real me is all everyone is getting from this point on. I have so much to give and I will do this without ever looking back or re-living my past. I am throwing this in the bin, closing the lid and making sure the garbage compactor crushes every last aspect of this behaviour so no trace can be found of it. I retain the constant lesson it has taught me and that reminder will spur me on to a brilliant new life.

I’m not a fool and I don’t expect the journey to be easy, it will have its days of doubt but for each day I have doubts I will also have a day where the sun shines and the future will stretch out before me. Very soon the sunny days will outweigh the dark ones and will increase until every day of my life is filled with positivity and the knowledge that my destiny, my future is in my own hands. I’ve wasted so much time and have hurt or upset too many good and decent people. I will be reaching out to friends both current and past on a one to one level over the coming months. This is important to me but most important for me to move on is that I put this down on paper for anyone to read and for me to acknowledge my past and to accept my mistakes. I want no more. The line is being drawn today and I will not look back any longer.

If anyone has questions then do drop me a line and I will respond. I will make no further reference to this in public, and no further outbursts of feelings on social networks. It was important to me to get this off my chest and it’s now done. If anyone else feels similar then I hope this gives you optimism and hope. I know I will get there and you will too.

Thank you for reading.

What led me here?

It's a good question Mark, so what's your answer? What led you here?

To be open I think, this is designed more for myself chiefly, a manner of means to write and log who I am, what I am and where I am. Kind of an affirmation and a way to review where I am on the great journey. I don't intend to reveal any intimate details of my life, or others for that matter. I won't promise to be on this all the time because I know I won’t be, I may surprise myself but I doubt it. By doing this on a published blog I guess it gives me some kind of permanence to anything I record. It doesn't mean I am going to lay my soul bare nor does it mean I will keep my inner thoughts locked away in the mind safe but I will take it as it comes.

Who am I?

I'm a creative person. I've locked that way for a long while now, pretty much deliberately but I am a creative soul. Artistically and trust me on this when I say personally as well. The creativity has leaked into my life in sometimes great ways and at times in deeply personal situations that I am ashamed off. It's the good creativity that I am finding again after what seems an age of burying it away. I'm starting to trust myself again. I've lived a good life, I have been blessed in many ways but the fact is I haven't always connected with those closest to me in the right way. That's nobody’s fault but my own. I've made decisions in my youth which led me on a path that although was not pointless or a waste of time or regretted was on reflection not the choice I should have made. We all do that, every one of us and I'm no different than anyone else.

I'm an outgoing personality. Ok maybe to a degree that's true and those that know me may think I am a confident person and good socially and yes I can be but that's all part of an act, a facet of performance that is put on. I can switch it on effortlessly but does anyone really know me? No. I don't open up and I hate talking about personal issues. The problem with that is it leads to bottling your emotions and I'm very good at that but I've learned that you can't go on doing that. I can count a small handful of people that know me well enough to see through the artifice. I treasure them for that.

Lately I have been reflecting on so much of my life, at times nostalgically hankering for the innocent days of youth when the real world hadn't yet made its imprint on my life and the course had not been set. For friends not seen in decades and the sweet memories of a more simple time but that's all just a golden imprint my mind has created. The real world is now, the real life is now and I am finally and completely starting to live it.

I hurt easily and more times than not I have been the cause of that self hurt and that has had impacts, not physically or mentally, I'm not depressed and I don't self harm!! However my own actions have caused this suffering at times and regretfully that has inadvertently hurt others. I think we all have our demons so I don't want to over dramatise this, we all have things, big or small that we have to deal with. That there are a few, good and worthy people out there whom I respect and like immensely whom I have wronged is a regret. I hope in time I can reach out to them. My nature is such that until recently it would grind at me forever until I made things right. I hope I get that chance but if not then so be it. We all make mistakes in life and I've made my share. Surely we all deserve the opportunity to try again. I think we do.

So who am I?

I'm Mark
I'm a Father
I'm a Friend
I'm a member of the human race (allegedly) ;)

And I'm real.