Attended my first evening of Chaos Thaoghaire, a storytelling and games night with an imaginative impetus, encouraging tall tales, creativity and cunning (i.e. cheating). Though our team didn’t win the coveted Chaos Thaoghaire belt (despite managing to fool several of our competitors with our spooky story about the ghosts of Rose Hall in Montenegro), we did get to hear some cracking stories, the highlight being Sunday Tribune journalist Una Mullally’s eerie tale that involved Michael Jackson, a Dutch castle owner, a medium from Blanchardstown and her grandmother’s nightdress. . . . These elements combined, believe me, were a helluva lot scarier than the individual components may suggest. Those interested in signing up for future events should high tail it to www.chaosthaoghaire.com.

In other news, Seamus Heaney and John Banville will be reading tomorrow night at the Irish Writers Centre as part of a series of benefit readings hosted by John F. Deane. The centre also boasts a revamped website and a lot more activity in recent months: more events signalled here. Does this mark a turnaround for the beleaguered centre? Unfortunately, the Banville/Heaney reading comes the same night as Abbie Spallen’s new play Strandline opens at the Project . As Natalie Imbruglia would say, that’s what’s going on. Nothing’s right: I’m torn. What would you do?