The Barber of Manchester

Has a month really gone by since I last posted?  Well yes and no.  In fact it's been over a month and I really can't say that I'd miss these particular five weeks if they decided not to bother happening again next year.  The drudgery and routine that define these crappy, cold nights and weekends can, if allowed, act as the nightclub bouncers to motivation and positivity.  The trick is to stay active but I'm not sure watching TV re-runs of Dinnerladies at 90 degree angles count.

I jest of course.  I've also been watching The Vicar of Dibley.  And The Royale Family.

Thankfully there are people out there that inspire and shake us out of our torpid stupor.  One is this fella Ged King, a barber and owner of Manchester based salon Skullfades.   I came across him at a panel session held by a marketing trade publication.  To be precise, he is an ex-serviceman who found it really hard adapting to civilian life.  Close to homelessness on four occasions, he decided to learn a trade.  Before long he'd opened a boxing themed barbershop.

Erm...I sense you feel.  And?  So?

Bear with, it gets better - although there is a lot to be said for those that drag themselves up from destitution to leadership  - there is more to this than a bloke who started a cool-themed business.  But I mean, really, that in itself is impressive.  How many of us own businesses?...I thought so.  So hush yo gums.

Finding himself in a good place and knowing what the flip side was like really like, he was experiencing an especially sensitive reaction to what he was seeing on the streets of his hometown.  Scenes of misery and despair played out quietly on Manchester pavements under raggedy old blankets or those more propitious had sleeping bags.  Symbols and remnants of a life once lived under roofs slowly caking over with the filth of exhaust fumes.

To put it in his own words:  'It broke my heart to see all these homeless people in my city as I cycled to work each day.'  It broke his heart because he knew first hand the excruciating sting of loneliness, the slow degeneration of the mind and the gradual dehumanisation that resulted from living this reality day after day.  So one fine morning he decided to come out on to the streets and try, if not to reverse,  at least slow down the decent to hell for as many of these people as he could.  And he did it by simply offering them a free haircut.

These pictures speak for themselves:  All photos are courtesy of The Mancunian Tribe Community

Before and after

The right to smile

Feeling human

Since that first outing his individual effort has grown into The Skullfades Foundation which seeks to help the most disadvantaged in the community - one haircut at a time.  He now has a team of enthusiastic volunteers.  My favourite anecdote tells of one homeless man who after receiving this life-changing haircut went on to train as a barber himself and now has a job and a home.  That's what I'm talking about.

The initiative has also come to London and Ged recently visited the refugee area in Paris.

So when I find myself slipping into self-pity over how boring bourgeois is I think about people like Ged and those he helps and give myself a mental back-handed slap across my ungrateful face.  And I think, what can I do?  I know I can't be a foundation overnight, maybe never, but I can also help people 'one x (replace 'haircut' with what you can do) at a time'.

So I've made a list of things I can do well and I'm now looking at how I can contribute to society in a more meaningful and direct way.  If you can afford to buy coffee everyday, you can probably afford to give up one evening a week to pay it forward.

My apologies to Gold TV channel - looks like I'll be watching a lot less of you this year.

Vintage Vintasia

So, I'm sitting here in a vintage Joseph denim skirt and Abbots pink pinstripe shirt (try saying that after a couple bottles of wine) that I found in a charity shop on Kilburn High Road, feeling utterly fulfilled.  It came to 11 British pounds.  Eleven.  JOSEPH!!!.  Mint condition.  It's a pencil skirt and I'm wondering whether the person who bought it over-estimated (or perhaps more accurately) under-estimated how much room a real woman needs for her thighs, because it hasn't been worn.  And I'll tell you why - walking is somewhat of a bonus in it but I feel this garment needs to be released from its peg purgatory.  It's so narrow, it really only ought to be used  for display purposes, however I intend to wear it out to see SATC 2 with 30 girlfriends at the Electric cinema in Portobello; man and child free zone - it doesn't get any better than this. (Who cares if I need a stair lift to get to the auditorium .)

Picture Stockard Channing in Grease with her itty bitty, narrow (as the extreme right) tapering skirt and you get an idea of the squeeze.  Put it this way, I will need to leave 15 minutes earlier today to go pick up The Lish from daycare if I want to be on time.  But it's oh so worth it.  Look!! (took piccie with webcam to save time - so this is all you get.)  The denim diet!!  I've shaved 5lbs off in 30 seconds.

Anyway, you get the picture.  Look at the shirt!  It's linen you know.  I love finding bargains like this.  I also found a mini Boden skirt and Gap dress for the nipper in mint condition...for 4 quid!  FOUR.  My husband will be relieved and grateful - especially since I shop with 'our' money, though I have yet to make a significant deposit into the joint account.  Good things come to those who wait I tell him.

Some people play golf - I trawl charity shops for gems.  Same difference.

I'm going through a bit of a general overhaul having finally found my feet (left one to be precise) and have begun hitting the yoga mat with the rage of a cuckcold.  I also discovered a community (a.k.a priced for the poor) Asthanga class at London's arguably most prestigious yoga studios: Triyoga.  I learnt more in one class with a teacher trained by India's foremost Ashtanga master, Pattabi Jois than in 15 years of gymnasium yoga.  Wow.  What a difference a great teacher makes (no reflection on the amazing people at the Canadian studio where I studied). 

Now I just have to hope my friend who is kindly designing some pamphlets and a logo for me, pulls his beer soaked finger out cos I feel a Yoga Open House coming on!! 

(Vintage Joseph skirt will be surplus to requirements at this time).