Well, Here’s Another Life-Changing Story (Could Be, Who Knows?)
This story is about an incredable turn of events! I attended a forum theatre play all about the struggles of everyday legal problems that are met by the local community.

A Grand Entrance

This play was in an incredable-looking building that looked straight out of Roman days, with pillars at the front entrance that me and my compardray entered through. I will call my friend Big Cat.

If that was not a grand enough entrance, then as soon as we entered through the pillars we was greeted with a duel staircase that looked like a palace (maybe it was hehe).

We both climbled the staircase like we were panthers, excited to see the performance, and honestly we was not let down in any way.

The Forum Begins

We entered the room and it was all open-planned, so the audience were sat around tables so we could kongregate. The actors and stage were on the same level as us, so the show felt very intimate — plus me and Big Cat got front row seats so we could hear better : )

And this is when we got splitt up. We had to go on separate tables because we was a little late, but it’s ok — little oavo could see Big Cat in that very overwhelming building.

Little Cat, Boys Do Cry, and a Mother Figure

On my table, from what I remember, were about 4 students who had amazing inquisitive minds, also 2 ladies from a charity called “Help Liverpool” who made a very big impression on me. So I will give them nicknames also: one was called “Little Cat” and the other was “Boys Do Cry”, and we had an amazing mother figure on the table to bring us together. Thinking back, I couldn’t have asked for a better table hehe?

The icing on the cake was our 2 table hosts, as they were actors in the play as well. They made us feel so welcoming all the way through #Thanks22AmazingGuys : )

Scene 1: Poetry and the Policy Rangers

The play was set in 3 scenes, and at the end of every sceane we had the chance on the table to all talk about it and come up with community ideas about the scene that we think will make our communities better!

The first scene, we all had to come up with a poem just using describing words, and then our hosts would read out the poems from each table to the audience.

This is a good time to talk about the tables in the audience, because there was a special table there with some very influential backing and stature. This table had about 7 people on and — believe it or not, this is no nickname — the table was called the “Policy Rangers”.

Their task was to listen to the performance, but then listen to how the community audience interacts with the performance and then maybe try their best to make our ideas come to fruition.

The Interactive Community Notice Board Idea

I always knew this was my chance to get my notice board idea straight to the top of the council, as I knew firsthand about the Policy Rangers table and that there would be a very high level council rep attending.

I tried my best during the reading of the poems, but when each table spoke theirs out, I tried to count the words and see if there was any words repeated! I wanted to find common problems, and the 2 words that were said twice were “Anxiety” and “Bewildering”.

Lots and lots of words got spoken in the poems, but I think they was the only ones said more than once?

Our table was full of ideas. It was this point when I could see massive care in both the eyes of Little Cat and Boys Do Cry. They are some unique characters for our community, and if we had some more like them then our housing problems would not be in the state it’s in now for sure! I’m going to do a page all about the 2 ladies’ organisation as they really did make an amazing impression on me #Thanks22AmazingLadies.

Pitching My Idea

After the poems there was another scene by the actors, then we had to come up with ideas again as a table and we all got to take a turn to tell our ideas around the circle. Conveniently, this is the first time I could get my idea in!

I pleaded with my table — I’ve been taking pictures of empty community notice boards for 2 years now, and my idea is to turn them interactive.

I said: we program a system where any member of the community can go up to a screen and press a button saying “Help” — and this is the first button!

Then they will get a follow-up screen with 2 scroll bars with the day and time, and another button saying “Enter”. There can also be a section here for any added info about the problem in hand.

This is important — I said that we make it a 2-button access service for all community members. Any community members signed up to the interactive notice boards will then receive a notification about the very public area where the board is, and will go and help the community member in need!

The community members that will be getting the notifications would have to be vetted to a very high standard also.

Inspired by Jam and Window Cleaning

I made an article with Google about 2 years ago and made my timestamp on Google all about my idea for an “interactive community notice board,” and honestly I got this idea from my window cleaning customers!

More than a couple of times I have had my silver surfer customers wait 3 weeks for me to turn up and open jars of jam for them!

Why on mother earth do these companies still sell jars that our silver surfers find hard to open because of muscle loss in their forearms?

The jam industry is probably held up now by silver surfers hehe. Well imagine if the silver surfer can now get their bottles opened on demand.

The Table Reacts

I could see by their reaction they liked my idea — especially when I said that “I am just the little window cleaner here and I could supply the hardware and software to make this happen today!”

All software and hardware for this idea could come as a barter through advertising, as the software and hardware companies could now have their brand name seen very often #Cheeky ; )

Another thing I knew firsthand — all of the day’s proceedings would be recorded under very professional video footage for training and monitoring purposes, so the Policy Rangers could look back at the footage and learn from our ideas.

I asked the table host’s all day to use the exact words “interactive community notice boards” in the wording that the high-level council member will receive and read #DoubleCheeky.

Scene 3 and Face-to-Face Tables

Then we had Scene 3, and after that the Joker gave every table a description that was a problem in the community and the audiesnce could get the chance to move table . As soon as I heard a table called “Face to Face,” I moved to that one — how fitting, hey?

I gave my little Google speech like I have to — just for polite awareness if nothing else — and told them how I managed to get a face-to-face meeting with a politician after visiting them for about 14 days consecutively.

I was met with a bit of dismay, and I understand — I am very stubborn sometimes.

Then we had to go round in a circle again giving individual ideas in turn about how we can access info better as a community.

A Tense Table Discussion

The first lady spoke and said, “To be honest, if anyone says ‘innovative’ again, then that’s it.” I could see she wanted face-to-face real bad.

I was last in the circle, and all the way through I knew I had to say my innovative idea… hmmm.

I started by saying sorry to the first lady and tried to change the word a little to “innovation” — then told the table all about the interactive notice board idea, same as before.

This table was met with mixed results — the first lady looked amazed, quite literally, she looked like she had a lightbulb moment . But there was another very strong lady present on the table that said:

“Why would people want to display their problems in public? They would not do that.”

To which my ultimate response was — right now people are not even getting the chance to ask for help, with the digital divide that is happening now.

This is a fast way to give people face-to-face that right now do not have the chance to get any face-to-face. Imagine the council was part of the notification team (if they pass the stringent checks hehe) — now the community member could get face-to-face info

The Final Moments

I don’t know if I did convince the strong lady, but I think I did the first lady. I remember having that intrusive film crew over our shoulders the whole time on the face to face table — which I suppose was a good thing to record my idea.

To all my table partners — if my passion kept me talking a bit too long then sorry about that, as Big Cat might stop me in that instance now and again. And we only had Little Cat but she done as good of a job #LittleCatRocks : )

One Final Surprise

So that was it — all done! or was it ?

We had one of the best face-to-face performances you will ever see — quite literally face to face for me and Big Cat. About the problems we face every day as a community member… hmm, I wonder what your problems in the community could be?

I really do hope that if we all look hard enough, we could find someone face to face to talk about it with. A problem shared is a problem halved.

And so here we are at the end of my story and I can leave on the same reason I started: life-changing.

This could be the best cherry on anybody’s cake — ha! Me and Big Cat are walking out and guess who says “Hello Big Cat”? It was only the head of the Policy Rangers table from the council!

Wow — this was a mega moment for me. There I was, just the window cleaner, now in a conversation with dreams coming true with a head of the local council : ).

I never mentioned the idea face to face to the council rep here out of respect — because it looked like Big Cat and the Privacy Ranger hadn’t seen each other for a while so I just stood there in awe of the situation — but wow wow wow, Cheeky ruled the day here.

It was at this point I got taken away by Little Cat and she introduced herself formally to me and talked about her organisation — of which I will provide a link for their new page soon.

And That’s the End

That was the end of what was another momentous moment in the life of the cheeky window cleaner, oavo ; )

🎭 oavo’s Cheeky Limerick from the Grand Theater 🎭