People News

Had an eventful TMOW rehearsal on Wednesday. In the break Denise learned that her Great Uncle had died. He had been v. ill so it was expected but it still really upset her. She decided to carry on with rehearsals. But the next bit was one of the sister's talking about how the hospital had rung to say that their mother was dead.

It was gut wrenching sitting there, trying to look at the script to prompt them if needed, always being acutely aware of the impact the words were having on Denise. Sue was finding it hard to get through the speech but we got there in the end. I think it was good that we did get through the scene because otherwise, everytime we have come to have done it in the future it would have been even more awkward.

I was just checking my usual web haunts and read that Carl Samuelson, founder of Stagedoor Manor as we know it, died last week. Now, I'm not trying to claim that I knew him that well because I really didn't. But he created that amazing place and was a 'summer Dad' to so many of the kids that his passing is truly a great loss. Camp will feel very different this year, but we will do our best to make him proud.

On a good note Wil Wheaton (and wife Anne's) friend Kris, has just been told that she is clear from Lukemia!! Anne and Wil have been writing about her struggle since she was diagnosed with it and are taking part in a walking marathon for a cancer charity. SO that cheered me up a bit.

On a more 'normal' note, I have loads of work to do for the shows I'm working on so's I best get to it...

Money is a demon...

..that is causing me a huge amount of stress. It's enough for you to know that, I won't go into details, 'cos heck, everyone's been there.

Stage Management workshop went OK tonight. No staff came, whewf! had about 6 girls there and I think they enjoyed it and learned a bit - I managed to do a power point presentation and everything! Hopefully get some of them trained up!

Jo Gill asked me about doing the Sound for Alcester Operatic Societies production of "Singin' in the Rain" I've saide I can organise it but I can't actually do the performances as it's the same week as TMOW. So I had to pop into their rehearsal after I'd been to AGS - and blow me if it wasn't like a tiny time warp!

I have to admit I was a bit nervous before I went in, I haven't seen them all since a few months after we did "The Sound of Music" (I was Liesl - it was in 1998) and I wasn't sure who would be there. Huw was there (Captain von Trapp), Cynthia (lady in charge of pretty much everything! many costmues I think), one of the nuns I think, Jo and her sister Rachael. It was strange seeing Huw again, he seemed smaller than I remember - but then he was playing my Dad so I guess I would remember him as being taller! Still I now have to ring the producer (who I don't know) to sort stuff out with him...eek.

Planning on doing the lighting design for TMOW tommorow, I've got to get all this stuff done sometime!

Clubs and Cars

Last night at work I remembered why I enjoy working at the club - a clear difference from Friday which could possibly have been my worst night ever!

Saturday was fa-y-b because:

* It was light when I started -which meant I felt more awake all evening!

* It was nicely busy with cheerful customers

* Music was great - with hardly any songs containing swearing (which beleive me is a rare occurence!)

* I changed the kegs by myself - ah an acheivement!

* I bumped into an old friend I worked with at Burger King about 6 years ago

* We sold more Champagne than I have ever known including the only 2 bottle's of £90 Dom Perignon!

* My feet didn't hurt too much

* I got a decent amount of tips :)

Thought I would mention another type of club goer (or general patron of pubs etc) - The Winker- (yup, that's the right vowel!) There's a lot of them out there, nearly all men. They always wink when they give you the money for the drinks - why? It doesn't mean 'take a tip', You say 'Thank you' at the same time so it doesn't mean that, It's not as if it's a dodgy transaction or anything! - so what is it for? ANYbody know?

I've been putting the under door sil's on my car, I've never had them on before, as the original set got lost. So I've had to spray these up and everything - dunnit look nice? (well, better anyway!)

Also realised after going on about the cylinder head and brake master cylinder going that a lot of people who may drop by this site may not know cars that well - so here is the start of a (Morris Minor) education:

The cylinder head is the, new looking, light green thing with the leads going into it.
(these are on the spark plugs, connecting them to the distributor cap - but that's another lesson!)

Photo-mania

I've just entered this photo in an online competition at picture.com. Got there by a random link and thought I'd give it a go!

London Baby!

Went to Embassy to day to get Visa - now very tiiiirrreed....zzzzzz

However, I will impart these tales of my day ;)

Ended up not having to get the train down there as met Gwen (from Absolute Beginner's) at rehearsal last night and she was heading back to London that night so very kindly offered me a lift. Did mean driving abck to Wythall first though! We made a great a convoy as I, of course, was in Moffy and she was in this....


HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT THIS CAR!!!! The noise, the speed, the random way the door opens, and the fact that you're literally sat on the floor. SOOOOO COOOL! I'm sure will be well impressed - as she will also be with this random website (she has a thing about this particular B+W striped animal:))

Spent a very enjoyable evening discovering we are both geeky and I introduced her to WWDN and she showed me some v. cool animation site's (including this one - recognise the characters from the anchor ad's? well here's where it all started!) and a site called b3ta, which is also full of random stuff - feel I have now overused that word so will stop its useage!

The plan in the morning was to meet up with Robbie Jack (actor from Uni) as I haven't seen him since we graduated! So headed bravely in, with my crutches, on the tube. I would just like to point out that the only man who in the ENTIRE DAY who offerred to give up his seat for me was an AMERICAN guy on the first train I took - and people wOnder why I love AMERICANS SO MUCH!?!

Anyhoo, the British Transport service being what it is, Rob's train was about 45mins late getting in. So we spent a great 1hr or so chatting and drinking frescatti's in Waterloo station before I had to leave to get to the embassy! He's in a play in Guilford at the mo I think it's called "My Son". It starts David Hague (from 4 Weddings and a Funeral) and Belinda Lang. Rob's an understudy ASM, undertudying 4 parts eeek! It goes on tour all over the place until July, pretty cool. He also filled me in on what some other's are up to, gosh, we're a talented bunch!

So the Embassy, that place of long queues (sorry, lines!) and wierd numbering systems! Got through the security machine with no beeps (was sort of hoping my toes would set it off - that would be funny!) got in, girl on desk asked if I was 'Camp America' I said no 'ICCP' and she said I could go straight to the top of the stairs - I din't need to stop where everyone else was.
So away I went. Joined the queue, started to get a tad tetchy about 5mins in, as I realised a lot of people had grey envelope type things that I didn't. Still, the girl on the desk had said I'd be fine so I trusted her.

She lied

After about 20mins I got to the front, "great" I thought "that was pretty quick". But no, alas, I was sent right back to reception to get me a nifty grey envelope and join the line all over again, grrrr. Needless to say by this point my feet were pretty flippin' painful! There were 2 guys behind me also with ICCP, they got sent back because they didn't have all the right forms,
we got back in about the same time, so at least I didn't feel so much of a twit! I really should learn to trust that little voice inside me - if I did, believe me, it would save me a lot of time and stress. It knows when I gone the wrong way on a motorway, that I should of stopped at that petrol station and not waited for the next one, not to trust certain people whe they say everythings sorted.

- Little voices are there for a reason, we should all pay a bit more attention to them.- (yup, I'm tired....)

Long and short - I got my Visa so am all set for the States - I just have to get my plane ticket ..... lastminute.com here we come!

Comprende vous?

If you look down my nifty side bar you will see a link to WWDN (wilwheaton.net) and also that I'm reading (well, re-reading for about the 4th time!) Dancing Barefoot - by said bloke above. If you go back to the roots of my blog (the frist one in fact) you will see that my main inspiraton for starting this blogging shbang is because of his website, and his amazing writing within that.

Now he's been working his fingers (and coffee machine it would seem) to the bone to get his next book Just A Geek (JAG) to print and has finally completed it this week.

I'm so excited for two reasons a) he's just such a great writer that it wouldn't even matter if you'd never seen him on TV in a film or read his blog, you'd still be hooked on the book and b) I'm going to be working in America at Stagedoor this summer - when the book comes out. I'll actually be able to get it off the shelf instead of ordering it over t'internet ::BIG GRIN::

Now I know most of you are probably thinking "yeah, yeah, so what's the big deal?" (either that or many other things including 'wil who?.....') but it's a big deal to me, it's my thing, so deal with it! (yes, that is a blatant Sex and the City steal)

So as a pressie to you all whilst attempting my first ever Trackback (and failing to understand the concept miserably!) here is a sneak peek from JAG (after the letter from his editor)that he put in his blog just to whet our appetites. Go read a few paragraphs of well written life! [/fangirl mode]

Tips on line learning abound

Just been at rehearsal for TMOW. Going OK - have some pics I'll put up later. Been meaning to blog for a while but never seemed to get round to it. It almost felt as if I had to much to write, but no way of expressing it. But finally have sat down to have a go.

On Friday me, mum, Vix, U. David and Cousin Brian, cleared the rest of the stuff out of my Nanna's house and moved it to David's new place.

It was wierd, I hadn't been back to the place since the funeral 2 years ago, I've had the opportunity but always made an excuse not to go. However, this was my final chance to see the house so I went to help and have a final look round.

I don't remember when we moved house to come to Wythall, I was only 2 at the time, so I've no real experience of saying goodbye to somewhere that's been so much a part of my life. I took photo's and did mean to put them on here, but for a reason I've yet to determine I've decided not to.

I drove there. I don't think I'd actually EVER driven there, so I enjoyed it and tried to remember it. It's so familiar to me, the railway bridges, the Jaguar factory, the church where you turn right, there was something comforting about it all being where it shoud be. As if as long as I knew my way by those landmarks, I'll always be able to find the house.

Walking round the house was odd, as most of the furniture and all the ornaments etc had gone. The rooms looked smaller. Nanna and Grandad had the biggest cosiest bed I know in their room - I remember we had to jump up to it it was so high. We used to stay for a weekend whenever our birthday was, and get taken out for the day, watch whatever videos we wanted and cook cakes, Nanna taught us all to make the best sponge cake :) At night we slept in the spare room - it was a double bed, with a heavy duvet that always smelled fresh - and there was an electric blanket so it was nice and snuggly, I always felt so safe in that bed. When we got up in the morning we'd go into their bedroom and have tea. The kettle was boiled in the bedroom and all the cups and things were on a tray, kept on the floor or the pink pouffy ottoman. Grandad always used to make it really sweet!

I remembered Christmases in the living room, watching Mary Poppins, playing with the miniature kitchen set or the cars that used to belong to Uncle John and David. The Christmas tree would stand on a table in the corner, always with the same decorations - one of them was a chocoleate bear circa 1970! We found that bear in a box that we obtained from Nanna's - it had melted on the journey over.

The kitchen is long with counters on both sides. Right at the end on the left is a cupboard larder. It always had a smell - a sort of mix of bread and cakes - I opened the door to see if it remained....it was still there, engrained into the wood shelves and paper lining. There are photo's of me being bathed in the sink when I was little - my main memories of that kitchen are
*watching Vix take her first steps and then spend the rest of the day running from one end of the kitchen to the other
*cooking cakes with my Nan - the oven had a glass door so you could sit and watch the wonder of your very own cake baking
*serving people tea and coffee at both my Grandad and Nanna's funerals.

I went round ever room and tried to remember something from each one, so that I'll always have a reference of that house. Just before I left we had one last photo taken by the hedge outside. Nanna always used to take our picture there, there's probably one from every year of mine, Jo's and Vix's lives. She was a great one for photographs - especially of family.

I'm glad I went, wierd as it was it was a good cathartic release to go once more, and also to visit the graves in the churchyard at the end of the road.

*The sketch on Sunday went well, one line forgotten but not bad. We actually learned the whole thing and practised quite a lot. I feel as if I could do more Drama in church now, as long as people are willing to do it with me. It was good to have Brett, as he made me practise more than I would have bothered - which mad the whole thing more polished (not that it was brilliant by any stretch of the imagination!) But it got the point across so it did its job:)

*It was my first night back at work on Saturday - I was on the door, so it was nice to be eased in gently. Feet were still aching at the end of it, but only as much as they would have been before so that's good. Christine was there, haven't really seen her since we finished guides - about 9 years ago, we had a little reminisce and will probably go out later in the week.
Bit nervous about it really, feel like totally different people. When I meet old friends from primary school, I sometimes feel as if I've done so much, seen so much and been places, that I feel almost on a different level to them. Most of them have stayed in Wythall (or the general South Birmingham area) and got a job setteled down etc and haven't changed too much from when we were younger. They have changed (obv!) but I always get this feeling of forboding, like I'm going to sound like I'm bragging or something, either that or they'll feel sorry for me, 'cos I'm still living at home and I don't have a boyfriend.
I shouldn't pre-judge people like that, I know. But I didn't have great relationships with anyone at primary school really. I was bullied a hell of a lot, never fitted in, never felt like I had the social skills to deal with kids my own age. I guess I'm worried they'll think I'm like I was then, which I am in a way, but I have chilled out a lot.

Anyhoo, this blog is INCREDIBLY long and I have to sort out all my visa stuff tommorow - the photo's gonna be the hardest thing! Night

Mysterious Music

There's a piece of music which is bugging me.

I first heard it on the ST:TNG episode "Masterpiece Society", a boy was playing it as part of a piano recital.

Then 2 weeks later I watched my Dad in a play by Wythall Theatre Company, and they used it as scene change music.

Then, last night, I was watching a film - 'The Haunting of Helen Walker' and there it was again.

It's haunting, simple and very evoking. As far as I know it's by Chopin (most of the music I like without knowing the composer is by him!) but apart from that I've been unable to find out what it is. It's all truly spooky!

Have found the music - see THIS post

*Drove my car to rehearsals last night - first proper drive since the Op - wOOt!

*Moffy failed her M.O.T - fortunately only a bit of welding needs doing, so it's not too bad.

*All the frog spawn has now gone, swum of to the furthest depths of the pond!

*There's a new ST collector's thing out. It includes a DVD every week and the magazine has loads of info about the film/episodes that week. Good way to get the films and the first 3 series I think. Will give it a go anyhoo.

"I wanna run through the halls of my high school, I wanna scream at the top of my lungs...."

John Mayer RULES!!!!

Sis Jo has bought both his albums home over Easter and they are sooo good! We were helping Sarah E strip wallpaper today, listened to both and to Radio 1's 10 hour takeover - v.cool - Frank Sinatra, The Muppet Show, The Bartman what a mad combination!

Went to Packwood house amongst other things on Friday. Me and Edd had an ingenious idea - CATALOGUE SHOTS.....Here's the results!

Thought we might start a website or summat - there's probably already one out there - it was a larf though :)

*The frog spawn is swimming away - Yey!

* I have had a thoroughly chilled long weekend, completely out of the ordinary, hysterical (group last night - Cranium and Pictionary, 'nuff said!), strained at times, painful in places but very refreshing, enlightning (went to see The Passion - amazing + testing) and just plain COOL!

yey...boo..yey...boo

*YEY*

My Visa Forms have arrived!

*BOO*

The Cylinder Head for Moffy is in London Docklands ?!? dum ass courier service *tut*

Things that go bump on a SUnday morning

I have spent this morning in hospital. The reason being as follows:

I was pottering up the stairs on Sunday morning, just to get TPDL as we were heading off to church, when I carelessly misplaced my foot on the edge of a step. As it descended toward the lower level my big toe was bent backwards - my left foot follwed in a similar fashion and then they both landed so that the whole of my body weight was taken by the front half of my foot.

As you can imagine I expressed my excruciating agony in the time honoured tradition of yelling/screaming my head off for about 2mins with intermittent crying and clawing of the carpet. Mum was asking me what I wanted her to do - my brain was trying to explain that.."incase you haven't noticed I'm having problems screaming properly so I really think a constructed sentence is beyond me right now"..whilst the most my face could manage was an angry face. Vix got me a teddy and gave me a hug - much more constructive!

Unfortunately Edd was also there and the poor guy was just stood at the bottom of the stairs looking lost - so when I had composed myself I apologised and promised to try and not scare the living daylights out of him again!

Anyhoo, went to he hospital to see if I'd damaged anything. I've not done anything bone wise and they think I've "...wrenched the ligaments through" whatever that means - sounds painful, and the fact that I'm having to use my crutches again confirms it!

Ah me, never a dull moment.

Four Seasons in one day...

Hail, rain, sunshine, howling gails - and I believe I felt some snow aswell - the weather's having a ball this week! Nice though, if a bit chilly.

*Saw the fish in the pond today - they survived the winter - yey!

*Frog Spawn is growning - fascinating

*I know who John is!! I haven't seen him for about 18 years. He is the first guy who gave me a valentine's card ::beam::. He was only in Meadow Green for one year (1st year infants) and he remembered the card, and the birthday party when the boys climbed this patio wall and it collapsed ending up with one kid getting a broken leg! It is wierd the things you remember from being little.

*I got a phone call from a girl who I went to primary school with and all through Brownies and Guides. I haven't seen her for about 6 years and she bumped into Vix in the pub last night, so we're going to meet and catch up - my past appears to be catching up with me, it's all very strange!

*My Visa application has been FedEx-d, wooooo!

*Bloody cylinder head still hasn't got here - Mark is doing his nut :(

Page referrals

For a laugh - and to kill time 'til my laptop battery dies! - I thought I'd look at the pages where people who visit my site (other than those I'e told about it) come from - ie get referred from.

*On Focus.com - was a link to my blog, 'cos I mentioned Wil's book (Dancing Barefoot) - how bizarre!

So I thought I'd say, that IT ROCK'S.

I've read it twice now (it's pretty short) because it's so well written you feel as if you're escaping into his world for a bit. He writes with such immediacy, and with his own 'voice' which makes it really compelling. I take great pleasure in reading his blog - and now I have some of the best bits for when I can't get online and I need a break! :)

*A Search page on Google - for "Master Cylinder" (blog actually linked to twice on the same page!) You wouldn't believe how many other people have the same problem with theirs, huh hum....

*AllConsuming.net - a website that watches weblogs for books they're talking about. Again, for mentioning Wil's Book :)

*rateyourmusic.com - not entirely sure, linked me to a comment I'd left on someone's blog - tres wierd!

Well, that was mildly entertaining - battery is noe nearly down and I must away to bed,
Night.......

Perfick'

Have been watching my 'Darling Buds of May' videos for the last 2 days. So nice! I bought them when I was at Uni 'cos I missed the countryside and fresh air - plus I needed a break from real life!

Got an email this evening from a guy called John Savage. He was in my year at Primary school for one year, and is now at the Birmingham School of Acting. He got in touch via Friends Reunited. I think I remember who is! Also spoke to Nick - or King Nick (who I know from Camp last year) last night. It was wierd but cool! I'd forgotten how much I missed his sense of humour - if slightly macarbe! He was my Secret Buddy - and a darned good one at that - I wonder who'll get me this year!

Babysat for Ian and Sarah last night. They live opposite and have 2 kids aged 4 and 6 I think. Also their friends kids were there - aged 10 and 11/12. It went pretty good. The littlest one got upset when we tried to put her to bed, so we all watched a film 'til she fell asleep. She woke up when I moved her into her room, but I read her a story and she fell asleep again.

It was such a lovely feeling - reading her a story and watching her drop off to sleep *fuzzy*