Hey Everyone
Happy Thursday and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!
This year is gonna be a great one I can feel it! Let's all think positively and make the most of 2012! Agreed? Good. I'm glad you all agree!
What a week it's been between holidays, new year celebrations, my birthday and getting back into Ghost rehearsals.
Last Thursday night was the first ever time for my TV documentary to be aired and I was (and still am cos some of you are watching it back online) blown away by the response. If you messaged me about it I am very grateful. The most incredible thing was that so many people got in touch to say that watching it had inspired them in one way or another - this to me means the world, because that's the whole reason behind me setting up my summer school WEST END IN WALES is to inspire people to do what they want and achieve what they actually desire in whatever line of work or whatever direction they want to go - none of us should ever have to conform to what we or other people assume is 'right' or 'what we should do'! Do what you want and work hard and live your lives. We only get one chance after all!
So Friday I flew with 11 friends to prague to bring in the new year. We arrived our lovely hotel and then headed out for drinks and to suss out a good location for new year's eve. It was a fun night but we were really cold by the time we got back to our hotel. I had forgotten to take my long johns to wear under my jeans so I ended up just wearing an old pair of ballet tights underneath instead (sexy eh?)- if you've been to Prague in the winter you will know that you definitely need extra layers on. It was freeeeeezing!!!
We woke Saturday and after I did a session in the hotel gym we did lots of the tourist and sightseeing things - the castle, Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, and walked the entire city before heading back to the hotel for a siesta before the evenings antics. We had booked a table at a great italian restaurant for new year's eve and ended up really enjoying ourselves there. It was really good food for a very reasonable price (especially compared to London) and a great atmosphere. One of our group, Caroline had decided to go all glitzy to bring in the new year and had a little glitter powder on her cheek bones. So after a few drinks (no, actually, much more than a few) she decided it would be a good idea for everyone to apply some of her glitter (she brought it with her in her bag!) in different ways - cheeks, chins, foreheads, lips, noses, ears - and Mevans here decided it would be funny to have it in my eyebrows! BAD MISTAKE! It was impossible to get it out of there at the end of the night and I think I'm still finding little bits of glitter on me now.
The meal finished with our waiter handing each of us a miniature bottle of champagne to take with us to the bridge to watch the fireworks at midnight. It was amazing! The atmosphere as electric. We were all very giddy and didn't seem to care that it was actually potentially rather dangerous - you see, Prague doesn't seem to have as many laws and rules as London, which became apparent when we spotted people within the crowd we were stood in, lighting fireworks in their hands and letting them fly up into the air right next to us! Crazy people! But it did mean that there were just fireworks everywhere you looked, filling the sky over the river! It looked amazing.
We then thought "we'll never be able to get in anywhere now" - but one of the first places we saw on our way back from the bridge was a little bar that was about to close, however, they decided to let the 12 of us in and we had many am alcoholic beverage, and they ended up letting a few other groups in too so it became our own little private party!
It was a fantastic spontaneous night which ended up with me scrubbing my eyebrows in the shower before getting into bed and NOT setting my alarm clock! What a novelty!!!
New year's day we woke and had a massive breakfast before having a 90 minute Thai Massage which was blissful! Then we spent the day wondering around the city before heading out to an amazing Argentinian Restaurant in the evening where the food was absolutely amazing and they had a dancing couple who just danced in the middle of the restaurant to the live music by the band! The atmosphere was crazy and before we left, the whole restaurant started singing happy birthday and I joined in, looking around to figure out who's birthday it was and then I realised that the whole restaurant was actually looking at me, and then I spotted one of the waiter's heading over with a slice of cheesecake and a massive sparkler in it! I was speechless! Everyone usually forgets my birthday because it's so close to Christmas and New Year so it was actually rather nice to be made a fuss of.
We then went to the famous Charles Bridge to set off chinese lanterns, which if you don't know are the very romantic looking things that are made of very thin paper and you light a little flammable patch at the bottom and the flames fill the lantern with air and when you feel them pulling your arms up you let go and they float into the sky like mini, beautifully lit, hot air balloons and the idea is that you make a wish as you let go and watch it float into the night sky out of your sight! I believe they are illegal in the UK - but then again a lot of things the Czech folk do would probably be illegal in the UK because we have so many rules and boundaries!
We finished the night with a drink in a cute little bar and as the clock turned midnight they all sang happy birthday to me and I blew out a candle that was in the middle of our table, haha.
I slept really well that night and woke up ready to enjoy our last day in the beautiful city and my birthday. We went around lots of gift shops and also went into an art gallery which was showcasing the work of Mucha and Dali which was awesome and it randomly really inspired me to want to buy some colouring penciles. I didn't want to draw, just colour (without going outside the lines) like a little kid. So upon arrival at the airport Monday afternoon, I bought some colouring pencils and I sat on the plane and coloured - it was quite therapeutic. Then we had our food on the plane which was lovely and I then worked on my script before we landed back in london. It felt good to be back and I felt really geared up to crack on with 2012.
Good job really because Tuesday morning I woke early and had to be at the theatre to get into microphones and other equipment and costume to start our technical rehearsals on stage. It was really overwhelming, having had two weeks off, to suddenly be rehearsing in show mode, with costume, microphones, set, props, cast members and doing all the illusions. It suddenly hit home that in not much time at all we will be performing these roles with an audience watching us. I can't wait!!!
I went to my new gym which is right next to the theatre after rehearsals on Tuesday evening and I was blown away by how incredible it is in there. It's on 5 different floors and has every type of equipment you could ever want including a 20metre swimming pool, a climbing wall, various different studios and classes, a boxing ring, an amazing variety of machines and weights and….get this…. it has a DJ!!!
I was in there for two hours. It was amazing. (I even got lost in there at one point as I tried to find the weights - it's so BIG)
I woke early the next day (yesterday) to swim 50 lengths before rehearsals started and then went into the theatre to tech the whole of ACT 2. We couldn't believe that we managed to tech our way through the whole show in just two days. It was great and I now know which areas I need to spend more time on! Good times!!!
Last night I crashed in front of the TV with my script some nice food and a few episodes of Family Guy before heading to bed for 9.30pm (what a granddad eh?)
The reason I had such an early night was because I knew I was going to force myself out of bed at 6.30 this morning to get my butt to the gym before rehearsals. I arrived the gym just before 8 and did and hour and 45 minutes before picking up my guitar from the theatre and heading to the rehearsal studio. We couldn't work onstage today as the show plays Thursday matinees.
And that brings me here, sat on my bed after a good days work. I am about to do a lot of preparation work for an event I'm the patron of which is happening this weekend.
It's a festival called Take pART which is held at the massive Venue Cymru Theatre and Conference Centre in Llandudno in North Wales and I shall be performing a few tracks off my album and leading taster sessions of what I do at my summer school (www.westendinwales.com) and also doing a question and answer session about life as a performer and living in London and working in the West End. There will be lots of other things happening there too so if you have an interest in performing or any element of the arts you should definitely make the effort to head on down. It's between 11am - 4pm both Saturday (7th) & Sunday (8th) January. Hope to see you there.
And on that note I'm gonna carry on working on it. Can't wait to check out what talent there is there this weekend. There is an estimated 3500 young people and children going to visit the festival over the course of the weekend. Check it out!
http://www.venuecymru.co.uk/home.php?/What's_On?/Take_pART!
http://www.venuecymru.co.uk/home.php?/What's_On?/Take_pART!
http://www.venuecymru.co.uk/home.php?/What's_On?/Take_pART!/West_End_in_Wales_Workshops
Have a great week folks. The next time I blog will be the day before my opening night of GHOST!
Believe!!!
Love your lives and remember…..love 2012!!!
SH-BOOM
Mark
