Thank you and Goodnight

c/o Ashlee Kelly

It's done! Finished! Finito! Over!

Last night at 7:30pm we took our last bow, the curtain came down for the final time and I could not have been happier. I actually felt the weight of unhappiness lift off my shoulders and the tears of relief started. That was one miserable job.

I would like to thank those of you who's constant messaging and calls kept me going because they made all the difference. To have cheer and chirpiness from; The Big One, The Roving Chef, HawkandFallow, Agent Buddy, Red, Irish and My Lovely Dad consistently reminded me I have so much in my life to smile about.  Whenever I felt lost and lonely you guys were there often before I even articulated it and for that and so many things I thank you  - I am one lucky lucky gal.

 Now there were positives to glean - 

Due to the cardio nature of the show twice a day I have firmer legs and ass - bonus! 

I now know I can sing on stage and my voice got much stronger throughout the run. 

I feel so much more like me, for a long time (waaaay before this job) I have felt I was struggling and somehow a lot of that has gone or is going.

The main positives though I think are the friendships I made, it's very rare to make genuine friends on jobs in this business but I think I may have found three. Together we were the Train Gang and our daily commute became something to truly look forward to. We each laughed, cried and talked and vented (there was a lot of venting). As one commented it was almost like group therapy. I will genuinely miss our journeys.

We made our last journey together last night after the show and we had a train party all the way, the champagne flowed, the cheese and biscuits were shared and we roared with relief and laughter.  It was magic.

 “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end”

-Ursula K LeGuin

Bargain Hunting

I love online sales - I love clothes, a bargain and getting post so you see it's the perfect way to shop for me.

Thought I'd share some of my latest treasures...

£5 reduced from £12 from Office Shoes

£25 reduced from £55 from Office Shoes

Sparkle and Fade Harem Trousers £19.99 reduced from £42 from Urban Outfitters

I pur-chased a couple of other bits too but I'll wait til they arrive to share.

"A bargain ain't a bargain unless it's something you need."  

~Sidney Carroll

Feathers, Beats and Ballerinas

Costume Design credit - Phillip Lim...but of course.

 I've been listening to his new album (on my amazing new headphones from The Big One), it's really dark but good.

It's All About 2011!

Happy New Year to You All!  I have a gooooood feeling about 2011....

It started purty well for me I must say - I got home at 9:30pm after a 12 show week to a delicious dinner cooked by The Big One, a fresh squid pasta dish that was so good I had 3 helpings! A lovely bottle of vino to help wash the week away, then after dessert and midnight (followed by After Eights - classy bloke my fella) we headed to the living room with a bottle of champagne to watch Carnivale on the brand spanking new enormous telly he'd bought.

So I started the year snuggled up with him eating popcorn and drinking bubbles - LOVED it!

After a lie in (we ended up heading to bed at 4am) we got up to brave Ikea. We're hardcore! 3.5 hours later we stumbled home with plenty to do and still smiling and liking each other - result!

THEN - the amazing happened - I was browsing through the online sales and found the wedge lace up shoes that I had been viisting in Office on a weekly basis reduced from £67 to £18! Yes please, thank you very much!

2 shows today but I'm feeling good - another day off in 2 days then 5 more days and tis done - it's a wrap!

It's been one hell of a year and I am so ready to wave it goodbye and utilise all I've learnt in it. 

I hope you all had a great 2010 send off and are ready and raring for whatever 2011 has to bring.

P.S. 2011 Resolutions: 

Drink more water (1 litre a day minimum)

Use my voice

Get my sewing machine out

NEVER work with children on stage again

and you?

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

~Bill Vaughan

Is it really nearly Christmas?

Well it's been a week and then some!

It was 10 shows this week but I only appeared in 9. 

On Thursday I collapsed after the first show of the day and then could not regain my vision and balance. It was horrible. Really disorientating and quite scary. After a long time in A&E I was diagnosed with delayed concussion from having banged my head the day before.

Apparantly it's very common when you are very tired and have just recovered from a cold. Delightful!

So for the first time in my professional career I missed a show and someone else went on for me with the script.  I felt fine after a long sleep and finished the remaining 4 shows of the week without a problem.

Today has been my day off and I spent it trying to get the house in some kind of order before Christmas arrives. With both of us working all hours, we have been living in quite the pig sty!  I was very impressed with how much I managed to get done despite having to sit down rather a lot today to try and re-energise.

We both still have no sense of it actually being Christmas next week. We are both working so hard and are so tired, it's definitely going to feel odd on the day.

This next week is a killer in terms of show scheduling so come the day I am anticipating feeling more sleepy then I usually do. I try and spend my days off as silent as possible too as my throat normally feels battered after so many shows. Silent Night indeed!

We have no decorations, no tree and no time so it may be an interesting one this year, but we always knew it would be.

Next year the plan is to go away, whatever happens I will NOT be appearing in any Christmas shows, I have learnt my lesson!

The Big One was working all day today trying to meet a deadline tomorrow, he sent me this on email to help me keep my tired chin up. It's such a treat I thought I'd share it.

 

P.S Liza is 18 years old here, ain't she gorgeous!

10 shows til Christmas then only 26 more to go!

"As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is." 

~Eric Sevareid

A Perfect Day, Fantastic Evening and Lots of Blog Names

c/o Rodrigo Melo

Yesterday was my day off, my one day off after performing 12 shows over 6 days.

Last week I spent my day off on the sofa watching crap TV and refused to get dressed til 5pm. I was absolutely done in.

This week I got up at the leisurely hour of 10am and after a casual potter was ready to leave the house in my fabulous new shoes with The Big One by my side, off we skipped (alright I skipped, he strolled) to meet up with various chums.

my new shoes (h&m) - apologies for blurry pic

First we met my lickle sister 'Red' (who I hadn't seen in aaaages) and her new beau 'Berlin' for a Sushi lunch. She was so happy and it was so nice to see her smiling non stop. He was charming, chilled out and seemed a throughly decent fella, it was great to finally meet him.

After filling ourselves with mountains of dragon and hand rolls we met two of my loveliest friends -  'Irish' and 'Agent Buddy' for a cuppa and an all too quick catch up. I handed over the piece Agent Buddy had commissioned me to knit for a Crimbo pressie and luckily she seemed very happy with it so with a huge sigh of relief I bounded off to have a full body massage.

Amazior! 2 ridiculously lush hours later (!!) I started the hunt for new glasses, The Big One had gone home so via photo messaging he helped me shortlist them. Decision unmade however I headed home to a lovely dinner and a bit of a knit.

Perfick.

Today, after a 6:30am start and 2 shows I headed back to meet My Lovely Dad for dinner but not before we met The Big One at Vision Express who'd come in specially to help me choose the new glasses. I wear contacts almost every day which is fine (and necessary as an actress) but I needed new glasses and wanted them to be ones I would be able to bring myself to wear out of the house. Owing to childhood issues (I was stuck with a large pair of men's NHS frames up til I was 15) I don't trust my judgement on picking glasses so their combined help was much appreciated.

They were both very patient and together we went through the entire range of collections. Not too long later we all agreed on a very chic pair from the Marc Jacobs line. The Big One went to play footie and My Lovely Dad then took me for a curry in Soho for a good natter and catch up. We normally meet for breakfast once a week and since I started this theatre job we haven't been able to meet for weeks so it was great to see him and have a good yarn about everything - we definitely put the world to rights over Thali.

This particular job has often proved a real struggle but days and evenings like these really lift my spirits and re-energise me. Two shows again tomorrow and another 6:30am start but luckily my fun continues afterwards as my great chum B-Cup is in town for one night and we have much to catch up on over great glasses of cider.

Ain't I just the luckiest gal!?

"How can there be so much difference between a day off and an off day?
-Anon