Happy Thursday aka Blog Day.
Hope you're all well. There was suppose to be a heat wave this week wasn't there? Don't know where it is but it's not in London right now! Clouds!!! I'm quite glad actually as I have lots to do today and when it's sunny I just wanna stop everything and sit in the sun! Ha.
So I just sat down on the train into the theatre and thought i'd start the blog now. I am heading in early today to meet a special someone who is going to be duetting with me on my album. We are rehearsing the album track with the person who composed the song so we can get a real feel for how we all want the track to sound.
The reason I am not telling you who these people are is because it will all be revealed in a video blog very soon.
Did you see the first video blog of mine by the way? It was posted on Sunday. Check out my Facebook page if you didn't see it.
So last week's blog was done after my folks had been with me so it was a late one which is why I'm going to try and get this one out early today.
Friday last week I spent the morning working on lots of music stuff for my album, printing, downloading audio tracks etc etc as the time has come for me to stop having to think about all the preparation for the album and actually start nailing these songs so that when I hit the studio for the first time a week on Sunday (5th June) I will be able to get the exact sound that I want.
So I was also using the time to sing through some of the songs whilst cooking. My freezer needed de-frosting while my parents where down so I had to take all the food out and then of course had to cook it asap as i couldn't re-freeze it. My goodness, if you'd have seen how much steak and chicken i was cooking you'd have thought I was working in a cross between KFC and McDonalds - just with real meat instead of substitute meat! Just kidding. I'm sure all their plastic looking food has meat in it….somewhere…maybe?!!
Then I had a meeting with my agent before heading to the gym with my pal Haley. It was great fun - I was making her do boxing with me and we were taking every ounce of any aggression within us and smashing it into the punch bags. It's such a great feeling - You should try it!!! :)
Haley had to leave after 90 minutes and I carried on - only realising when I was leaving that I'd actually been in there for two and a half hours! How crazy is that?! I love it!
I felt so geared up for the show after the gym session. It's so true what they say "energy creates energy" - If you feel tired or slightly lethargic then go for a run or do some star jumps or something :) - or even the 'Wicked Summer Work Out' that's circulating the internet. Hahaha!!!
After the show I headed home to rest and then Saturday morning got up to make some phone calls that I'd been meaning to do - You know what it's like when you need to call people and it's not urgent but you should contact them, but you know it's gonna be a long conversation….well a whole bunch of them that i decided to get done. Sometimes I really dislike talking on the phone. I'd much rather meet and chat face to face, especially when you are doing business phone calls and you feel the conversation has come to an end and then the other person starts talking a load of useless rubbish again. Booooooo!!! hahaha.
Had a good two show Saturday then I caught up with a friend which was lovely.
Sunday morning i woke and packed my bag for an eventful day consisting of recording on Jon Robyns' album, meeting the lads from Wicked for a BBQ chill out afternoon and then heading to a boat on the Thames for a birthday party.
So I arrived the studios where i was recording for Jon's Album just after midday and started filming for my the next edition of my video bog immediately. Check it out -
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24284493?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=1" width="398" height="224" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I am going to try and embed them all into my weekly blogs from now on to break up some of this text that seems to get longer every week, haha.
No need to write about Sunday's recording though as you'll see what we were up to in the VLOG.
Once I'd finished I headed over to East London for the BBQ which was great. Great food lots of banter with the lads and drank lots of wine so I decided to slow down a little else the night ahead would've gotten a little messy.
About 7pm we got the Thames Clipper (commuters' boat that regularly travels along the Thames River - another form of public transport in London) from Greenwich to Central London so we could arrive the HMS President which is permanently docked on the Thames to celebrate Rachel Tucker's (Elphaba in Wicked) birthday bash. Her party theme was Hollywood Glamour and everyone looked amazing. It was a cracking night and I really enjoyed it. Come 11pm though it really did feel like I'd been awake for about 27 days - I was so tired so I made a cheeky little exit to get my last train home and got straight into bed and was out like a light!
JUST GOT TO VICTORIA ON THE TRAIN - I'll continue this blog in a little while!
So I'm now sat in my dressing room. Got drenched walking a few yards in the stormy weather. Drying off with a cup green tea now.
So where was I?……
Monday I had given myself a pretty empty schedule to recover from what i thought was going to be a hideous hangover - but although I had put away about two and a half bottles of wine during the whole of Sunday (don't judge me! I can tell you're judging me right now! Stop it!) I didn't feel bad at all. Forced myself to drink two pints of water when I got in and i think the amount of BBQ food i'd eaten soaked up a lot of the alcohol. So I felt fine, Sh-Boom!!! Had myself a big breakfast and then headed into town.
Monday afternoon I met my friend Hakan from Germany who I haven't seen since I graduated from college nearly six years ago and it was so good to see him. We spent a couple of hours catching up before i had to head to work to do a quick phone interview for a magazine then got ready for the show.
Monday night was the first time Gemma Atkins who understudies Elphaba was on for the role and it was lovely to play opposite her as we were at college together and sang a few duets in college shows! It was just like the olden days but less desperate and we are now getting paid! HA
She did a great job of playing it and I felt proud of her.
I stayed at my mate Sally's house on Monday night and we woke Tuesday to have a good work out at her gym. She is a demon on the treadmill. I ran 5 k then got stuck into my weights. After that we had a lovely lunch then i decided to pop in to my old college Laine Theatre Arts as it's just down the road from Sally's place.
It was a real trip down memory lane as I haven't been back for over a year - I taught there for a while when i was working in SPAMalot 4 years ago. I admit i felt OLD being there!!! Now I know that I'm not old at all but i think back to 6 years ago when I was wandering around that college in my third and final year and it's almost hard to remember it. So much has happened in my life since then that the time has just flown. I had a nice catch up with some friends who are teaching there and some of the staff who taught me too so it was a very nice afternoon!
Then I grabbed some dinner at Giraffe - probably my favourite restaurant near the theatre here in Victoria then i headed to work. After the show i went straight home to watch Grey's Anatomy - why does each episode seem to end in such a sad way? After each episode I have to watch something light hearted before going to bed otherwise I'd be depressed. ha. Love the series though.
Wednesday (Yesterday) I had a chill out morning before heading into the theatre for two shows. Last night I had some friends watching the show which was nice as i hadn't seen them for ages so had a catch up on the train home then bed!!!
Which brings us back to today. It's now 9pm so the blog hasn't gone out as early as I'd have liked but hey ho - I've been busy!
I got lots of footage of me rehearsing with my two special 'soon to be announced' album folk so keep your eyes peeled for the next video blog where all will be revealed!
Hope you're all well. Thanks for reading and for your continued support in everything i do. I had a moment last night where i felt grateful for all the good things in my life, and if you're reading this now, please consider yourself a good thing in my life - not that that should mean anything to you but I just thought I would say it!
Keep loving life!
Sh-Boom!!!
Mark :)
