Hey Everyone,
Happy WEDNESDAY!!! Yup, I'm writing this week's blog a day early as tomorrow I am heading up to my family in North Wales until Monday and they don't have internet there and also I don't think it's very nice to arrive home having not been back since December and then sit at my laptop for an hour and a half typing a blog ignoring my family.
So I am currently sat on my train into town from my flat - I really need to leave my flat a couple of minutes earlier….every day this week I have ended up seeing my train arrive when i'm 200 yards away from the station and end up running to get on it - so you can picture a wind swept, out of breath Evans typing away on the 10.35 southeastern service to London Victoria right now. Ha.
So the last time I blogged was last Thursday and after the show that night I went to stay with my best friend Sally and we had a nice chat and a catch up over some cornflakes before bed! It's so exciting eh???
The next morning we went for breakfast (not Cornflakes) to a little cafe near by, then popped into a few shops. I ended up spending too much money on underwear! Completely replaced my collection! Ha
Then Friday afternoon I headed to West London to record a track for the new album by the wonderfully talented composer Tim Prottey-Jones which will be released in September apparently. The song I sang is called 'Exit Signs' and it's got a great rocky feel to it which i love. The album is gonna have 16 amazing artistes on it so I'll let you know when it's officially released 'cause I reckon it'll definitely be worth buying!
It only took about 45 minutes to get the track down so after that i headed to Oxford Circus to find an outfit for my friend Aimee's wedding which is this Saturday. (I actually only needed a shirt and tie) I walked into Topman and saw exactly what i wanted immediately which was so refreshing - usually if you have an idea in your head of what you want you can just never find it, don't you agree???
Aimee and I have been friends since school so she's told me I am an honorary bridesman (is that what you'd call the male equivalent of a bridesmaid?) so she has asked me to co-ordinate with the colour scheme of the entire day which is why i needed that specific shirt and tie! Anyway……
After that I headed to the gym for a good work out before the show, then home to bed after work!!!
Saturday morning I popped to see a mate before heading to work for two shows. The weather was so nice that it was hard to step into stage door for the matinee and then after the first show, a group of us from the cast went to eat our food outside in the sun - however we were true brits down to the bone because it was actually really REALLY cold, but we sat there regardless - "the sun is out so we must sit in it!" - so daft!
After Saturday night's show I had a quick drink in the pub with a couple of people from work and then headed home.
Sunday morning was quick clean of my flat, then headed out for the day for the WICKED charity football match. What a great day. I popped to Sainsbury's on the way to the train station, but had only left myself 7 minutes to shop, pay for it, and get to the train on time - so I was running around like I was in Dale's supermarket sweep, just grabbing anything i saw that was picnic like and that I fancied eating, then ran to the checkout, quickly paid and made it to the train with 90 seconds to spare - I was impressed with my timing skills. Ha.
Once we arrived Battersea Park at about 1pm we sat down and I tucked straight into my food (trust me, there was a lot to get through!) The sun was blazing down and it was so nice to socialise with the wonderful people i work with, away from the theatre or London Victoria in general. Everyone I work with is lovely, we're very lucky to have such a nice company of people! (that doesn't always happen in musical theatre, believe me!)
Kick off with the game was at 2pm. Basically a few weeks ago, WICKED were approached by a gay football team known as the Left-footers, asking if they would be interested in challenging them to a football match to raise money for a couple of worthy charities - well WICKED always like a challenge and there is a football team within the company already who play friendly matches against other West End shows etc so that's why it was all arranged for last Sunday.
I was going to play originally and then having worked my ass off at the gym every day of the week leading up to it I decided my body definitely needed a day of doing absolutely nothing but sit in the sun and relax, so that's exactly what I did!
It was a good game, WICKED won 3-2 and then after the match we just sat down in a massive group on the park for a few hours, eating, drinking and laughing. There were lots of dogs too as people had brought them along so it was like a big family gathering.
Zoe Rainey (who plays Nessarose in the show) announced on Sunday that she has never learnt how to ride a bike - so i had my first 'Dad-like' moment of my life and I taught her! We used someone's bike that they'd brought with them and I did the whole help her on it and run along side her while she picks up speed peddling and holding on to the back of the saddle and then when she felt confident enough I gave her that little shove and let go and away she went - seriously, she was so overwhelmed it was great! We have video footage that we're trying to upload onto Facebook and twitter so hopefully we'll get it sorted. -
She did however nearly kill a mother and very young baby because she was heading in a straight line towards them and couldn't figure out that all she needed to do was turn the handle bars to avoid a collision- I kind of slowed her down and she more or less hoped off the bike instead of just turning. It was F.U.N.N.Y!!! She won't mind me telling you all of this.
Right my train is just getting into Victoria now so I'm going for a swim and then i'll continue writing this when I get into work. Sh-boom!!!
…….. 60 lengths later and a good steam and I'm now in Starbucks finishing this off before I head into to the theatre. I have major brain freeze right now from swigging too much mango frappuccino!!! Brrr!
Right where was I???….
Oh yeah, so after I taught Zoe to ride a bike it was about an hour later that we decided to head into Clapham where the Left-footers football team had arranged a cabaret/karaoke/auction off a date with a gay football player type event at a classy place known as the Two Brewers (For those of you who have been, you'll appreciate exactly how sarcastic I was just then when I said classy - ha)
We drove over and decided that as we would have to wait a while for other people who got the train to arrive the bar, that we would go to a restaurant across the road for a meal first - also none of us felt we were drunk enough or brave enough to enter what looked like the rowdiest gay bar in Clapham at that point of the evening - and then once we'd eaten and chatted a lot, I realised that all I wanted to do was go home. It's surprising how a long day in the sun combined with way too much Pimms and lemonade and socialising can make you feel really tired, so I headed home - that's right, I didn't even make it to the Two Brewers.
Got home and had a large port and a KitKat chunky and watched Atonement as it was on the T.V - what a sad film. I'd seen it before so it didn't matter that I nodded off a couple of times watching it on Sunday I was still feeling pretty sad!
Monday was another glorious day of sunshine so I got up, headed to do a good work out at the gym before meeting my mate Haley for a couple of hours to walk and talk - I adore her! Great friend!!! I even managed to make her wanna get on Twitter - WATCH THIS SPACE, you'll love her sense of humour!!!
Then before I headed to the theatre I met up with my ex-flat mate who is now living in Cardiff with her Boyfriend and they are 5 months pregnant! They are so happy and she looks amazing! It was her birthday so they'd travelled up to London to do some shopping and come watch Wicked. It was so good to see her - even if she did have smelly feet when she lived with me :-) - (hope you're reading this liz!!! You stink!!!)
We had a few bevies after the show and then I went home.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I met my friend Craige at the National Theatre on his lunch break from rehearsals for The Cherry Orchard which I can't wait to go see in a few weeks! It was great to catch up with him again this week (saw him last Tuesday too!) and then had a meeting with my financial advisor to discuss boring adult stuff. Then i worked my tush off at the gym for 90 minutes before work.
Just gonna put it out there - I LOVE MY JOB!!!
So that more or less brings me to where I am now. It kind of feels like a Saturday today as I know this is my last day at work this week. I can't wait for tomorrow to get home.
My sister text me yesterday saying my 5 year old niece asked her "how many sleep's until Uncle Mark comes home?" - and I'm delighted to say that it is now only ONE SLEEP!!!
So tomorrow morning Uncle Mark will be getting one of the first trains home to Wales loaded up with easter eggs and treats and way too much love to go give to my family and then in the afternoon I'll collect my eldest niece from school as a surprise to her - then we're having Christmas dinner! Yup - I asked my mum if we can have the amazing meal we had at Christmas if I pay for the massive turkey….and so tomorrow evening were having a family meal for 15!!! Amazing!
Right then - this is getting to be a bloody long one - especially considering I've written it a day earlier than usual - so on that note, I'm off into the building for two performances of "The Most Popular Show In London" - Sh-boom!!!
Tweeting might be difficult from the sticks this weekend but i'll do what I can.
Love your lives folks.
Sh-boom!!!
Mark
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P.P.S TWEET ME IDEAS OF SOMETHING YOU MIGHT WANT ME TO TALK ABOUT IN MY 40TH BLOG NEXT WEEK!!!
