Stagecoach

The ten years that I have spent with Stagecoach have been wonderful. It is the best career choice that I ever made. It is all the “best bits” of my former teaching career without the bureaucracy and excess paperwork. I have been privileged to meet some lovely families and to help to shape some extraordinary young people. I have done this alongside a dedicated, loyal and hard-working set of teachers, husband and administration staff . Being a part of Stagecoach has made me very proud of what we achieve every week with hundreds of children of all ages. It has felt like an extended family.

Just before I started Stagecoach, a medium told me that there was to be some good news and some bad news. The good news was that starting Stagecoach would be more successful than I could ever have dreamed of and the bad news was that it would be “an awful lot of hard work”. Dramatically both forecasts were true. We had won five awards in the first couple of years, sent Jamie Bell for his successful Billy Elliot audition, watched Zoe on TV every Saturday night for weeks in Pop Idol and there were a myriad of smaller triumphs, BUT, in the process, I had to work the equivalent of two fulltime jobs for a year and then continue to work “silly hours” to build up the business. It was all worth it. Not many people, these days, can say that they love their work but I do.

My mum lent me the money to start Stagecoach and the passing of these ten years has also seen her passing in November 2004. I feel that as a daily loss. On the positive side, I have my daughter Katie`s wedding to look forward to in August (I’ll post some photos here for you all to see!) and my son is finishing his MSc at Newcastle University in the same month. I have moved house from Stockton to Middleton St George, where I really feel at home. A great ten years. Here`s to the next ten!!

My grand-daughter Lily had her first birthday at the weekend - now where did that year go??!!

Starting her on the costumes early, I had bought her a fairy dress not long after she was born, so here are a few birthday shots of our baby, who gives me and Jeff such joy. Happy Birthday darlin`!

 This photo never fails to make me laugh

And this one where she is sneezing and not crying as it may look. After she has sneezed she always makes a sighing “aahh” sound

 Here is a photo of Great Grandad (my dad) and Lily

And here I finally get a photo with her too.

Lily`s first outing in her pram  - round to our house

The finger is mine!

NOW SHE IS 2 WEEKS OLD

I have been trusted to do my first baby-sitting stint. Have done the bottles and the nappies - am just rediscovering the knack

Success at last -  Katie felt like a photo and then I managed to catch Lily with her eyes open and here she is meeting her uncle Jonathan for the first time - he was obviously very fascinating!

I am suffering from terminal pride at the birth of my fist grandchild - Lily Ann Dineen, born in Darlington Memorial Hospital at 01.26 on Thursday 7th August and weighing in at 7lbs 12 ozs. Mum and baby doing well - grandma excited out of her tree.

Visiting time is not until 2pm - don`t they know I`m a grandma!!  Lily`s name is already on the  waiting list for Early Stages. Photos to follow as soon as I can get through that ward door!!

Well I did get in the ward but only just. Katie and Lily were discharged at 11.30am but I got the photo of Lily in the perspex box, newly born and she is a doll. Lots of spiky hair! - like Michael. I`m chuffed to death. Jeff trying to remain cool.

A very strange thing happened today.  as you know my daughter Katie is due to have her baby any day now and we believe that it will be a little girl. I had seen a lovely miniature doll on E Bay, big enough to put into a mini-pram that I planned to make for her for the baby`s arrival. I bid for the doll and won and paid for it and when it arrived, there were two dolls included with a hand-written note which said that because I did such good work with children the lady had sent the doll as a gift. Not only was I touched, as I always am by spontaneous kindness, but I was puzzled as to how she knew  what I did for a living. Of course I e mailed her to find out. She said that my name had sounded familiar to her so she had googled it. Fair enough, mystery solved but then I decided that I`d better google myself and see what was up there and I found a whole host of articles about our students that I did not know were there SO thank you Rosie from Edinburgh on 2 counts!!

It was fascinating. I found that there was another Trudy Hindmarsh, working in Southwark council, who is a fan of Mick Hucknall and I found my son`s comments that I had mentioned to the editor of the Northern Echo, made when my son was in Reception Class. Pete Barron had included them in his column as a “things kids say” item. Here is the clip:-

TRUDY Hindmarsh, of the Stagecoach school for performing arts, emailed with memories of son Jonathan when he was in reception class.

“Mam, did you know that Jesus died on Happy Friday?” he announced.

“But you don`t have to worry because he rose from the deck on Sunday.”

On another occasion, he came out to tell his mam that they’d had a great story in assembly about three leopards - and they had bells and were shouting “Unclean! Unclean!”

I`ll be adding any of these discovered articles and links to the web site when I get a chance to look through them properly and add the links to this post

Below you can follow the links I have discovered so far :-

The first article is the final outcome of a visit I made to Radio Tees, last year, to be interviewed by some school girls who believed in their friend`s talent enough to want to get her some advice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/content/articles/2008/03/13/school_reports_showbusiness_two_feature.shtml

The second is an article that I have never read about Jamie Bell that appeared in The Sunday Mirror

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20010225/ai_n14523171/

SO WATCH THIS SPACE

The Main School Workshop rolled to a halt yesterday with its show “Yee-Ha”.  42 students (about 1/3 or more of whom were new to us) produced a lively and incredibly polished performance given that they had only had 32 hours in total to get ready. We had one or two last minute hitches when the costumes that we had ordered did not arrive. Poor Janie volunteered to save the day and went down town to find some fantastic T shirts that she then shredded at the edges to make Indian squaw outfits.

The music was fantastic in this show and helped to keep us singing along all week - Robin and Jodie were to be seen still performing them in the headlights of our car in the carpark as we made our way home. Special thanks to Jodie and Robin for an enthusiastic input to the week as new guest-in staff members and special thanks too to Janie, for being there even though she is still recovering from her operation.

All the cast gave of their very best but particular mention must go to Toby Chapman, Ben Hunt and Emma Preston who carried most of the line learning and did so impeccably!

We made a collection for The Hands of Love Orphanage in Uganda, which  is still to be counted - total on a later posting. We also made “Wanted” posters of all our cast members. Cameron Carnegie-Brown from Darlington PM school`s came out fantastically - hence his appearance on the front page of the site but others were equally good. I am happy to post any photos to the web site to add to this posting from workshop students who would like theirs included but I will only put them up if I have your permission to do so. Here`s Mine, Robin`s, Janie`s, Jodie`s, Miriam`s AND the cow`s to start you off.  I have mounted ours onto the “Wanted” frame. Yours will come separately on two attachments to your e mail for you to put together yourselves.  Your photos will also appear on the web site site unmounted.

If you would like your photo e mailed to you, together with the “Wanted” frame then e mail me on darlington@stagecoach.co.uk .

Well done partners! See you next year!

As one onlooker in the foyer said “What did the cow do wrong?!”

They don`t come meaner than her! Red eyes to match the hat!

Miriam even co-ordinated her jewellery for the photo shoot

Janie - after shooting the company manager who did not deliver the costumes in time

Jodie hiding from the papparazzi after her ITV series “Monday Monday” hit the air!

I think there were times this week when Robin wished he was in the saloon! The feathers arn`t much of a disguise! 

Cameron Carnegie-Brown

Ben Hunt

Dominic Muns

Alex Wylie

Erin Dobson

Sophie Elliott

Oliver Allinson

I can be pictured here trying to organise a getaway - care of LondonTransport.  This photograph is of me and Phil. We both trained as Stagecoach principals at the same time so we have a good natter at the conferences. Phil also organises all the photography for the Stagecoach Agency photos.  Everyone who went to the 20th Anniversary Stagecoach Conference was pictured climbing aboard a London bus, to be either taken to the Globe Theatre or the London Eye. Interestingly, the buses broke down on both trips - Not Guilty!!

My Daughter Katie married Michael on Sunday 5th August in Middleton St George. Dave Cooil from RightClickProductions.com (& RightClickStudios.com), who films our shows for us, was the photographer and made the video. There were some lovely photos taken on the day and I have included some of the nicest. Also Singing STARE formed a choir in church and sang two hymns, because the church does not have its own choir. They are pictured here too.

Click the following photo for a small sample of the photos from the day…

From left to right

Sarah Warbey, Chris Mitchell, Hayley Mc Kay, Trudy and Jodie Taibi at a business awards night about 4 or 5 years ago in Middlesbrough. Hayley had sung solo, Chris and Sarah sung in a duet and Jodie had performed a monologue to entertain the guests