Holiday Time

It has been quite a while since I had a holiday that I spent at home and it is proving to be an interesting event. Apart from anything els I have done little excercise and lots of work - I need to get so piece in the February issue which doesn't give me much time - eek. I have now done two showcases and held a couple of interviews which I need to write up before I can relax.

That aside I had a fabulous start to the hols in the shape of the Whatsonstage.co.uk Theatregoers Choice Awards. I invited Cara to join me as Sean was up to his teeth in Top Hats for the new Tim Burton movie.

For me, the best bit was seeing Sheridan again and getting to meet her Mum and Dad. We also met James Corden, whom Sheridan is currently dating. Such a great girl who I am sure we shall be seeing a good deal more of in the future.

St Valentine

For the first time in a long time I had such a wonderful Valentine evening. There were roses and chocolate, gorgeous food and lots of champagne. The rest of the evening was equally fabulous and equally none of your business. Suffice to say I wandered home from Kingston with a smile on my face that is, in fact, still there days later as I am fingering the petals on a single red rose and whistling around the flat.

Who cares about weight with all these good feelings!

Mmmmm....I see a flaw here

Well, it has been a week. Seven days of cutting out, holding back, calorie counting and exercise. I have swum 7 miles this week and cycled 42 miles. I am now in France!

The result - I have lost 1 pound and gained 2 inches in height.

I think the machine may be faulty.

Tonight I shall drink champagne, each chocolate puddings and work them off in a far more appealing manner than I might normally.

Day One - It Begins

Not off to a great start as I managed to leave my lunch in the fridge at home. Grrrr.... It's not so bad though as I didn't have much cash on me and could only buy some rice concoction from the shop. Bland - very bland. For breakfast I had two pieces of toast, a poached egg and some smoked salmon with an infusion of lemon juice and ginger to kick start the metabolism! Yeah, right! I then SERIOUSLY kickstarted my metabolism by my usual 1 mile swim in 35 minute followed by a 7 mile cycle ride in the rain!!! THAT is how you are supposed to kickstart your sodding metabolism. Humph! I want a biscuit but will have some fruit I brought in with me.....yummy.

Thankfully Sean is joining me on this cusade so that we can both look fabulous on the beach this year.

I also have tickets to the Whatsonstage Awards on Sunday and have been asked to review Othello at Hackney. What fun!

Bloody Hell!! How Much?

Having been for a swim I was feeling in a buoyant mood I thought I would pop 50p into the machine in the Leisure Cente foyer and see how much I weigh. Seriously, I have probably not weighed myself for about three years - I kind of gave up after a lifetime of being obsessed by my weight. Would you believe it, I weigh 17 stone 9 pounds! Can you sodding believe it?! 111.9 kgs...apparently. Jesus! How did that happen. Well drastic measures are obviously called for so I have set myself a goal to loose three stone and 9 pounds by my holiday in May.

Welcome to my journey......!

More January Theatre-ness

This time it is the annual Stage New Year Party, which this time I could attend without the thought of dealing with the Trade Show the next day. The party this year was particularly special as Sean was also invited as the Corporate Head of Sean Barrett Enterprises Inc. UK…snigger. I was particularly nervous about him coming, and as my readers will know I am usually a stranger to alcohol but I needed to steady my nerves a little. Actually the party was great fun this year and it was good to see loads of old and new faces –

including top theatre posh totty, Anthony Alderson of the Pleasance who will be celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. I also met Ryan Molloy – Frankie Valley in the current production of

The Jersey Boys and took a photo of my work colleague, Julie with him. Also there were Richie Valens, 2 Buddy Hollies and a Big Bopper and the cast of Thriller Live. Such fun!

I left the party with every intention of going to dinner with Sean but the closest I got to that was McDonalds – a first for Sean – which I felt awful about. He takes me to Quaglino’s I take him to Maccy Dees – hmmmmm… The reason for such haste was the opening night of Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Trafalgar Studios.

IMATS 2009

The Trade Show this year seemed to be plagued by dreadful weather but the numbers seemed ‘up’ on last year. As education co-ordinator my job has been greatly reduced in that I simply introduce the lecturers and ensure they get to the right room in time. Still, it was good fun to see all the people I only see once a year. It was awful that I had to cancel the speakers that I had planned, but of the tickets I had scheduled on the door only Terri and Gareth turned up. So much for dedication! Gareth took a shine to make-up and popped over to mine a few days later to borrow some watercolours from me. As he is a good artist he may well take to the techniques. We shall see.

This was also the first year without seeing either Michael or Ralph at the Trade Show. Ralph is now so busy that he rarely works for Temptu anymore and Michael has just become a father to Lucas Benjamin! I hope they allow me to visit him in Harvard! Actually I am not allowed on campus after dark ever since that incident with the Clinton at Yale – I know I shouldn’t have partied with Tyra when I was Stateside! Kisses Ralph, Tyron, Michael and Sam – for me you are New York!!!

Now That's What I Call January!

No sooner have I put the Make-up and Costume Supplement to bed than I am off to the Theatre again for a big opening night! For the first time I am taking Dr Marina Murphy with me to see Thriller Live. Now I am not a big Michael Jackson fan by, my God he has a back catalogue of hits.

Well hold on to your horses if you think the evening ended there!!!!! I was an invited guest at the aftershow party at the Café de Paris where I caught up with several people including the lovely David Badella – about to launch his solo show at the Leicester Square Theatre and the equally lovely Russell Labey, author and director of New Boy staring Skins Nicholas Hoult at the Trafalgar Studios. I designed Russell’s make-up for a production of Aladdin at the Pleasance when I first left Fox’s.

What Dr Murphy thought of all this theatre-ness I have no idea, but the gin was fab! Also present was a young gentleman accompanying David called Chris Jaman. Rather charming and ridiculously familiar, he must have thought it really creepy how I was trying to place him – he seemed SO bloody familiar! It turns out he was in Gone With The Wind and I mentioned that we knew Gareth in common.

Speaking to Gareth, he reminded me that Chris was on his photography business card and I knew him because I had spent the last 6 months with this card on the desk at the Royal Adelphi Hotel – duhhhhhhhh!!! I thought I was going a bit nutty!

Turns out Chris is in the cast of Sister Act so I shall obviously have to put in to review that one.