Hi Everyone,
Happy Thursday!
How you all doing? I'm good. Very good. Getting psyched up for a double show day. Really takes it out of you, dying twice in one day!!! I love it though!
So it's been a good week since the last blog.
Thursday night after the show I finished the last episode in the 3rd season of 24! My god I actually tense right down to my butt cheeks when I watch it! I loved the whole of season 3 but decided I needed a little break in my life before immersing myself into the next series and was wondering what I should buy that was a little lighter to watch.
Friday I had a good gym session before a rehearsal with Siobhan for a private Ghost gig she and I are performing after the show on Valentines night then I had my vocal massage before heading to work for physical and vocal warm up before the show!
On Saturday before heading to work I popped to HMV and I bought the box set of 'Brothers & Sisters'. I'd heard great things about it and they were selling all 5 seasons in a box set that was reduced from £120 to £49 so I thought it was too good to leave on the shelf!
I watched the first 2 episodes of the season in my dressing room between my matinee and evening performance and intended to watch a couple more after I got in before getting an early night so I could head to Wales for my West End In Wales 'Sunday Funday' that I run in Rhyl 3 times a year. Well that plan went completely out the window when I walked out of the stage door on Saturday night and the whole of London was white with snow! I could barely walk in my nike airs which I'm wearing at the moment for a bit more ankle & knee support - they are NOT designed for slushy snow!!!
I walked as quickly as I possibly could to my train station only to find that all the trains home had been cancelled. There was a queue a good 80 metres long for the black cabs (of which there were none arriving anytime soon!) so I thought I'd try a bus. I waited 25 minutes for a bus and nothing came, so I walked to another bus stop only to see that there had been a collision between two buses which meant that the road was blocked and no other traffic, including buses could get through. I spoke to the driver and he explained that there had not been a collision but two buses had "touched" and the TFL (transport for London) rule is that if two buses make contact they have to wait there absolutely stationary until someone can arrive to make an accident report. In the mean time the hundreds of people who were on the dozens of double decker buses behind the 'touched collision" were encouraged to get off and find alternative ways of getting home. Well there weren't any!
So with no trains, taxis or buses, there was only one form of transport I could genuinely rely on - my legs! I decided to walk in the direction of home hoping that a bus would come along. I walked about a mile and a half and then a bus did indeed come along and I managed to sneakily squeeze myself through the exit doors because there simply wasn't enough room to fit a candidate of America's Next Top Model on there, let alone someone who's about 4 times the size of one of those said candidates - so needless to say it was not a comfortable journey. We travelled about a mile and a half and then we stopped on a hill in traffic for 25 minutes. I decided I was bored of relying on other people to get me home so bit the bullet, popped my umbrella up and walked home! It was 3.5 miles so I decided the only way I could get through it was to buy myself a little treat from every 24 hour store that was open along the way! I had a packet of kettle chips and a Lucozade in the first, an oat cookie (which was the size of my head) from the second and a bag of mini eggs from the third! By the time I arrived home, 3.5 hours after finishing work I was not only a sopping wet mess I actually felt a little queezy from all the sweet food I'd eaten!
I had already accepted that it was highly doubtful that I would get up to North Wales on a train that was meant to depart at 6.15 the next morning if I wasn't able to get a train a simple 7 miles across London that night!
I woke Sunday morning early to check out the situation and then just had to call the staff of my Sunday Funday, Aimee & Gareth to say I was unfortunately unable to make it back and they were more than happy and definitely more than capable of running it without me.
So I ended up trying to chill out during the day after an exhausting two shows and 5 mile walk the day before. I watched the next two episodes of Brothers & Sisters, then in the evening I headed to a mates house to have some nice food and watch the film 'The Kids Are Alright'. I thought it was great. Great story and very well acted! It was a good night!
I am however, craving an alcoholic beverage at the moment, especially when I'm relaxing on a day off work. It's because I know I can't drink as I'm still on antibiotics for a week and a half since my vocal infection. I'm telling you, as soon as I'm off those pills I might fill a swimming pool with Red wine and do my daily swim in it to get my fill! I don't even drink that much but it's always difficult when you can't have something, you think about it even more! No matter how hard you try you can't block it out! If I tell you to not to think of the colour red right now, your picturing it regardless! Stop thinking of the colour red, no seriously stop it! See I told you! That's what I'm like but add the word 'wine' after the word 'red' and that's a little more accurate to my state of mind! Oh my god am I a border line alcoholic!??!!?
Monday was a very productive day, I had a healthy brunch with a friend before heading for a good session at the gym and then I walked through the park to the big WHSmith in Victoria station to buy a magazine I knew they had that I wanted. The Men's Health Nutrition Manual. It is amazing. It has loads of recipes in there for pre and post gym workouts and explains exactly why things are good for you and what foods you should have when to maximise your energy levels. I am finding it really interesting and so on Tuesday morning I went to Sainsburys and spent £114 stocking up my cupboards and fridge and freezer so that I have most of the ingredients I need to cook all the recipes I liked from the manual. It actually works out so much cheaper on a weekly basis by making all your meals at home!
I find it really satisfying making food! I have worked in two restaurants, a bar and a pub in my lifetime and in the two restaurants I used to make a lot of the food and help with preparations and service! I think maybe in another life I'll be a chef. It's therapeutic, rewarding and even better that it tastes great whilst still being very healthy.
I'm now sat in my dressing room in between today's two shows and I've just munched on my home made chilli with rice that i made last night before bed! Yum! Loving the healthy food!
All this talk of food reminds me of how I used to write some of my earlier blogs way back in september 2009! I talked a lot about food then!
So the rest of the week since Tuesday's food shop has revolved around cooking, working out at the gym, doing the show, an afternoon's rehearsal with the new Ghost cast and a guitar lesson! So there's not much else to report.
Oh yeah, I meant to say, on Monday night I got the Brothers & Sisters DVD out to carry on watching what I thought was season 1 when I realised I had in fact been watching the first 4 episodes of the 5th and final season! I'm such a muppet. So I started at the very beginning and it's a bit annoying cos I am kind of just sat there saying,"well I know that you die, and you end up with him and you go off to do this etc etc etc" - Anyway I'm still finding it very entertaining and can highly recommend it to you all, just do yourselves a favour and start at the beginning!
So that's about all I have to say today. I'm gonna get ready for my second show of the day and then head home! I had a swim this morning too - Don't know what I was thinking doing that before two shows but I haven't crashed yet so fingers crossed tonight will be a breeze! Ha. I wish!
Keep in touch folks, Twitter & Facebook, I always read your messages even if I don't have time to reply. I do try! Oh and by the way, to all of you who have gotten in touch somehow saying you've seen me on the new Ghost poster - I have to inform you that it isn't me! It's a friend of mine named Jack. That poster is the new Ghost The Musical poster for every production world wide, and that's why they're not using any of the cast members because it shouldn't be specific to any particular company around the globe. By next year there will be Ghost London, Ghost Broadway, Ghost Holland & Ghost Melbourne! - It's taking over the world! And so it should, I'm very proud of this show and think it's great!
Have a great week folks! Keep believing!
Sh-boom!!!
Mark
