Hi everyone,
How are you all? Hope you've had a good week.
I'm writing this from the studio in Cardiff again in chunks while I'm not needed on set! It's so nice to do something different to just learning lines or drinking water!
I have been pretty busy since my last blog last Thursday! (Now there's a surprise eh?!)
Thursday evening I went to the gym as I knew I wouldn't be able to go over the weekend because my sister and two brothers were coming down to stay.
Friday day time was a really long tough day. I was so looking forward to seeing my family that night that the day seemed soooo long! Granted we're working long hours anyway (7am-6pm) but time seemed to drag and we were spending the afternoon re-visiting scenes that needed slight alterations which is pretty soul destroying when you have a mammoth schedule and all you want to do is get through it! So re-doing some scenes was tough, but it was worth doing an good to get it done to ensure each episode is top notch! We have seen clips of the edited programmes and they look great! We are going to be making a pilot in English so that the producer can pitch the idea and the programme to other channels universally. I think it would be great for all kids to have the opportunity to enjoy this programme because it's so fun and new and fresh and very educational!
So anyway, as soon as i finished work on Friday I popped to Tesco to stock up on food to make italian style nibbles for the arrival of my brothers and sister to have with a good few drinks, then prepared everything before heading to meet them at the train station! They were very impressed with my apartment and the view from my balcony! If only i owned it eh?!?
We had a lovely evening and ended up chatting playing cards until about 2am! Perfect!
Saturday morning we all went for a swim in the pool where I'm staying before breakfast then headed into town to do some shopping and i ended up buying a lot more than I thought I would - you know when you randomly just see loads of things that you really like, which never happens when you purposely go out to buy things! So I made the most of it which was nice as I now have a good few additions to my wardrobe!!!
Then we grabbed some food and a couple of drinks before heading to Hollywood Bowl in Cardiff Bay, for a couple of games of bowling - I won the first one which I was thrilled about because we decided that whenever one of us got a strike then the others had to drink a certain amount of alcohol! It was so funny because I shocked myself and my siblings at just how many strikes I kept getting! It was hilarious! I'm usually pretty rubbish!!! Then we had lots of fun in the arcades before heading out to a few bars in Cardiff. My brothers got stupidly drunk and decided to stay out for a couple of hours longer than my sister and I. My body clock is so out of sync with late nights at the moment because of my filming schedule so us two were acting like grannies and heading to bed!
So Sunday morning it was a chore to wake my brothers up in time to head into town for lunch before they left on the train and I went to rehearse 10 dance numbers with the Marcaroni crew! I hate saying goodbye to my family, especially as I know that due to my work commitments this year, between Wicked and various concerts and T.V/Radio stuff and recording my album, I'm not going to be able to get back to see everyone in North Wales half as much I would like! That is the one massive downer about being in London, the distance - but looking at the positive, at least it's only 2 hours 40 mins on the train from Euston!!!
So then Monday morning came and it was back to the weekly routine of getting up at 5am so that I can go for a 40 minute run or swim 60/70 lengths of the pool (loving working out at the moment as the gym is in the complex I'm staying at and is so convenient!) I shall miss that when I leave next Friday! I only have 6 more days on set with Marcaroni and one day left in the dance studio! It has flown by because we've been worked so hard and have had so much to do, but we're still going to be grafting like troopers to get everything finished by 6pm next Friday! This has been a huge project and will be a massive achievement for all involved once we reach the end! Can't wait to see the end product once it aires for the first time in April!
Tuesday evening after work, Myself and Non & Elan who I am working with went out for dinner (Went to Spice Root in Cardiff Bay - it's amazing!!!) and then watched the new film starring Natalie Portman, Black Swan which I thought was insanely brilliant! What an imaginative masterpiece it is! Apparently it's had a mixed response but as far as I am concerned I thought it was incredibly acted, very well written, beautifully shot and perfectly produced! I definitely highly recommend it! So nice to see a film which is based on dance without it being cheesy predictable and slightly naff! I was so impressed by Natalie Portman in the starring role she obviously immersed herself into the life of a professional ballet dancer in training and to prepare for the role! What a stunning dancer! I was very inspired by every aspect of that film! There, that's enough about that I feel!
So… here's a funny story - I woke up at 5am on Wednesday morning and as the gym doesn't open up until 6am I was rehearsing all my Wicked material (as any sane person would at 5am eh?) and I was in the kitchen going through the choreography for 'Dancing Through Life' - my biggest number in the show for those of you who haven't seen it - and was doing this for a good 10 minutes then I looked out the window of my apartment on the 6th floor to discover that a woman in the apartment block diagonally opposite had been watching me, as she was stood there smiling and applauding me! I laughed out loud, bowed and turned the lights off and left the room, slightly embarrassed but also relieved that clearly she thought that snippet of my performance as Fiyero was worthy of applause! Ha! Must have brightened her morning to see some looney 6ft 2 guy doing contemporary choreography in his kitchen at 5am!!!
I open in the show in WICKED a week Monday and can't wait! I'm heading back to London tomorrow night and will be rehearsing for Wicked on Saturday as well as doing an interview and photo shoot for M magazine! I have found out today that some of the shots will be slightly more revealing than I thought! All I'm going to say is that I am relived that I've been working so hard in the gym this month to work off the bits of Christmas that decided to cling on to my body for as long as they possibly could!
Looking forward to touching base with London and my flat and then getting back to Cardiff to kick off the final week of Marcaroni!!! Next week's blog will be the last one before I am back in the land of all things green again! From the green land of Wales to the green world of Wicked!!!
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who send comments and messages and tweets to me! I love hearing from you (especially my 'early birds' who tweet me between 5-7am to cushion the blow of the early morning!) You are all wonderful. Thanks!
I hope you're all well and happy and are enjoying my blogs!
Keep smiling cause life is great
Mark
