My debut speeding along

The time for my acting debut, as Marie Celeste in Nude with Violin, is speeding towards us! I've learned my lines, pretty much and I think I know more or less my movements, so it's a question of polishing it and interracting with the other actors properly. It's a baptism of fire. Back in January I was happily criticising David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Dr Who (not much to criticise, but there you go) now here I am stumbling along through the process I realise how much more complex it really is. And I only have french tlines to learn. Sebastien, the main man, speaks French, Spanish, English Russian and Chinese!

I'd love it to be a sell out. On the one hand. On t'other that's a scary thought too! But I'd rather do this in front of a full house than an empty one if I'm honest.

Our flyer is below, you can book tickets for the friday and saturday by calling 0121 249 3630, and they are a credit crunching superb value of £8. For that you get a comfy seat and 2 hours of entertainment. Sold yet? Good! If you can't be there just wish me luck please. Send me french vibes too, if you can...

I also took some photos at a rehearsal the other week. Gives you an idea of the small size of the group. They all seem like good friends who go back years with a few of us being relatively new to it all.

The director Pat, doing her thing
The group rehearsing in the palatial Billesley Community Centre, less than a month til books down!

Nick & Iain
Tracy and Doug

Judy

Tracy and Iain

An early set design

That's me and Iain

The hen do

It was Sarah's hen do a few weeks ago, the weekend before our holiday and we all met up in London for a bit of a reunion, 50's music, big twirly skirts and mexican food. But first we went all civilised with an afternoon tea at the Biritish Museum... the pictures tell you all you need to know!

SARAH THE HEN

BEFORE... YUM
DURING... MUNCH

AFTER... AHH
Then all the hens got dressed up and the party got underway!

We all helped each other get ready

The girls posing

Sarah and her sister Jo who organised the night.

We went for cocktails and mexican food followed by dancing at a 50's music club. The polkadot dress was a gift by the hens and Sarah was in love with it. We all got a twirl in it too, it was fab! Everyone needs a rockabilly dress; if you're feeling low take a twirl and it's an instant happy pill!

Amsterdam

We went on holiday for our first anniversary and it was great to get away. We'd ummed and ah'd for ages and finally we just booked whatever we could on BMI Baby and it happened to be Amsterdam. We'd considered Paris, Seville, the UK, Brussels... just kept going round in circles but finally we made a decision!

We left birmingham at 7.45am and because of the joy of an on line check in, hand luggage only and a 50 minute flight, even despite a slight delay, we were changed and leaving our hotel ready to begin our holiday by 11.30am. Fabby! When we got off the plane the weather was dry, not very warm but relatively sunny. The dutch informed us that normally we shouldn't expect the weather to be very good, but in fact the weather just kept getting better so our photos show that for the 3 days we were really lucky with the weather!

Click here for a map

We didn't do anything very cultural. We'd gone to relax and it didn't disappoint! We walked around and saw various markets and parks, the canals (obviously), cafes, and just took it all in. The picture of me above with the 2 drinks are some freshly squeezed fruit juices that we'd bought at a great market out past the heineken brewery (south Amsterdam)

Below you can see a picture of the Dutch getting behind their national football team. It was amazing; Rembrandts Plein completely filled up with hundreds of crazy dutch all in orange. There was a fantastic atmosphere and best of all Holland won!

In these photos are the canals; the main focal point of any visit to Amsterdam ('The venice of the north') We took a boat trip which was quite interesting. All the houses along the canal have a winch or hook on the front of the roof's apex from which the Dam's winch their furniture in and out of the windows, their front doors and staircases being too narrow to move furniture!

This photo is of our visit to the flower market. It was a lovely market with masses of... you guessed it, flowers; but it was actually quite interesting. And of course, this being amsterdam, there were many flower gifts that played on the 'pot' pun and even rude plants; there are cactus plants in all shapes and sizes you know...

Sunday

It's a sunday and Al has gone to Nathan and Laura's to watch Aston Villa vrs Chelsea, so I've got a bit of peace and quiet.
Yesterday was Valentine's day. Sarah and John and Hannah and Rick as well as Phil and Ruth all came to ours to have food and a bit of a drink and we had a great night. Me Han and Sarah lived at Griffin in the 1st year, above Al and the rest of the boys, and in the block alongside us was Phil who even then was with Ruth - they're married with a baby and Ruth did our wedding photos, bloody good job Ruth, best wedding photographer ever! Since then we've all been friends. Sarah and John get hitched in May but we're not smug married's, we're just a bunch of friends of didn't feel bothered enough about Valentine's day to get all smoochy unnecessarily. Who said romance is dead?!
I cooked the puddings. I spent 4 hours making chocolate fudge, chocolate covered cherries infused with brandy and choc chip scones and Al made 2 types of lasagne... Mmm yummy! The guests arrived hungry as we'd instructed and it was a fun night, we had a real giggle and a catch up which is my favourite kind of night. Then as we're all boring and grown ups the Han/Sarah partnerships got back off to Wolverhampton in the car and Phil and Ruth headed back home to baby George, Ruth was driving too, so we even got to bed at a fairly un-scandalous time of 12.30 - so why do I still feel tired???
I suppose the main answer is Leukaemia CARE. Busy busy busy. Can't think. mind fogs up when I try and think ahead. All I can see it the A4 page that is my to do list plus the 300 emails and the database generated list to things to action by the end of this month. It's difficult not to get a bit defeatist. But every time I think it's not possible to do more something happens and we find a way; every task compleated is a small victory - even if usually it's replaced by 3 more.
The snow of course did its damndest to get in the way. I had to work from home twice because Birmingham roads were so slippery and snowy that I couldn't get onto the motorway to get to work. Still it was very pretty and was a good excuse to stay out of the way of the gym, something which I don't seem to need much help with recently, actually.
The play is going well. Went with Graham to the council on tuesday to go through ideas around publicity. Not going to get too involved with that as my reason for being there is the acting and nothing else. Still though, survived it and that's the main thing.
Next week is Nathan's birthday, week after is Leukaemia CARE's proms concert, maybe one day we'll even finish the wallpapering! In the mean time I try to go to church at least every other week and it's nice. I hear the bands being read out and look out for the excited couples, meet the newbies and keep in touch with old friends Jess and Graham, Mike and Jean. Jean's expecting baby number two, congrats! I like going to church. It is boring occasionally but it's strange little idiosyncracies make me smile and it makes me feel at peace in the middle of a hectic world. Rob's sermons always, but always, make me want to bottle them and take them with me. He always looks at things with such wisdom and serenity. There's so much to get het up about but he is always there taking things in his stride. The church I go to, St Nics, is consequently a calming, non-judgemental and welcoming place. I think and I'm pretty lucky to have found such a church as from personal experience I know they're not all like that.
So that's my life at the mo. I'd better get off and do the ironing. Plus I need to put the heating on again because my fingers are like ice. See you!