Looking ahead

The Naming of Cats

I'm not quite sure when and how my mild 'wouldn't it be nice to have a cat' became 'we're adopting the four feral farm cats from down the lane'. Never mind, they are safe in the kitchen and now they need names - hence this musing out loud. With four new kittens to name all at once there seems to be the need to make a statement or tell a story through the interplay of their name tags.

An early suggestion to go with the readymade quartet of the Four Musketeers might have been tempting had it not been for the idea of calling 'Athos, Portos, Aramis, d'Artagnan' over and over from the back door. This 'back door' test is essential before landing on any cat's name apparently.

Other famous foursomes have made their pitch. John, Paul, George and Ringo - too obvious around here really. Richmal Crompton's band of Outlaws - William, Henry, Douglas and Ginger have a certain youthful appeal and ol' Ginger is easy enough to spot amongst our lot. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - not sure you want cats named after war, famine, conquest and death even as a joke.

Four seasons - bit contrived; four gospels - controversial; north, south, east, west - confusing for everybody. Earth, air, fire and water - still boy band country unfortunately.

So which are the most popular names for English-speaking cats? For the boys, it's:

1. MAX
2. BUDDY
3. JAKE
4. ROCKY

And with the girls:

1. MOLLY
2. MAGGIE
3. DAISY
4. LUCY

Short, punchy, crisp names with little sentiment or pretension - names for calling out clearly, spelling easily, remembering quickly.

So what's it to be? Movie stars, motor cars, favourite bars? Family members, old flames, names discarded for earlier offspring? Rhyming couplets, an alliterative string, four bad puns, feline onomatopoeia? Huddle, Cuddle, Puddle and Muddle?

You could over-complicate the whole selection process - all part of the onerous responsibility of new cat ownership - why not just go for four names you like?

Any ideas?

Conducting the choir

Robert Poynton of 'On Your Feet' - my improvisation guru - and the Danish choral conductor Peter Hanke, founder of 'Exart Performances', recently combined their two sister disciplines to produce a workshop in London's small and perfectly formed Amadeus Centre. After a brief welcome and warm up exercise, fifteen slightly nervous participants spent the afternoon taking it in turns to conduct a four voice ensemble rehearsing their madrigals. Using a well timed series of gentle interventions Peter nudged all his amateur conductors up the competence slope towards a firm base camp of confidence. As a demonstration of the leadership principle that you sometimes need to 'act yourself into a new way of thinking', the experience was full of sharp insights into our individual communication styles and interactions.

I walked out into the russet light of a London autumn evening humming what I fondly imagined to be a baroque melody and determined to listen harder and let my hands do more of the talking in future.