Hey Everyone
Happy Thursday!
How you all doing? I am sitting in a lovely Italian restaurant in central London writing this as the matinee of Ghost is about to start! Yes that's right I have a week off on holiday which means I can spend today and tomorrow chilling out all day! I might even change location half way through writing this just because I have time to relax! Happy Mevans indeed!
It's been a very busy week since my last blog and a tiring one too so these two days are very much needed as I am flying to New York City on Saturday for a few days and want to be rested before being affected by Jet Lag.
So last Friday I was doing lots of work on my summer school and preparation for a busy weekend in Wales which I'll write more about in a little while. Then in the afternoon I had a swim then a physio session before heading to the theatre to pre record a press interview over the phone and then did the show.
Saturday morning I drove in to town so that my car was there for my journey home to North Wales after the show on Saturday night, then after some food I headed in to do the matinee. I had my good friend Aimee watching the show with her Mum and Mum's friend and then we went for food afterwards. The evening show was great, it was really nice to randomly feel like my voice wasn't really exhausted at the end of the week! I seemed to have extra vocal supply in some newly discovered reserve account which I managed to access so I went to town with the ole belting my tits off!
After the show Aimee and I exited the theatre as soon as we could to get to the car and get out of London as quickly as possible! We certainly managed it, we were on the M1 motorway by the time I'm usually just exiting the car park which was great......but then.....the gods of the motorways clearly decided it was not our night to get to Wales in a hurry! They had closed the motorway for a whole 4 junctions which resulted in them diverting ALL four lanes of busy traffic off a single carriage slip road, then for miles through a couple of small towns which had the MOST amount of traffic lights and junctions I have ever known. We were at a stand still for most of the time we were away from the motorway. It took two hours twenty minutes to get back onto the motorway and we were still 20 miles south of Milton bloody Keynes. When we set off our estimated time of arrival was 2am - I got to bed at 4.15am. The birds were tweeting in the trees as the sun was rising and there I was trying to get some sleep, 6 hours after finishing the show! I could have performed Ghost another two times in the time it took me to drive back!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that for the last 25 miles the petrol light was on in the car with nowhere to buy fuel so that was an added stress at the end of a long journey!
ANYWAY....enough moaning! I woke on Sunday and chilled during the day then put some petrol into the car from the stash my dad has on the farm for his quad bike and then drove to The Rhyl Pavilion Theatre for the night.
My first dance school The Adele Meads School Of Dancing were doing their show and the principal had asked me to present the awards and to sing a song which is why I headed home for the weekend. I was also signing copies of my new album as it was the first time in a long while that I've been able to get back to North Wales!
It was a great night and it was a real trip down memory lane for me seeing all the kids wear some of the costumes I would have worn over 10 years ago - when I was much shorter and fatter and spottier! It reminded me why I do so much work to promote youth theatre because I thank my lucky start that everything worked out for me as far as making the right decisions and getting the breaks I needed are concerned but for some young talented people they don't have a clue where to even begin when it comes to following their ambition to work professionally as a performer.
I decided that night that as this year will be the final year of my West End In Wales summer school, I have lowered the age limit down to 9. So the new age restrictions are 9-18 so spread the word folks and lets give those 9 year olds the opportunity to work with myself and west end stars for a week in August.
After the show I drove to my folks' place and was entertained by two of my little nieces who were thrilled that they were still not in bed at midnight. They were singing and dancing and acting like crazy animals and I loved it!
After a good sleep I woke up feeling a little reluctant to drive back to London but alas, after a breakfast with my wonderful sister I jumped in the car and drove back for 5 hours in the hideous rain and dangerous driving conditions listening to music blaring to keep me awake and finally reaching my place in London at 3pm. Instead of allowing myself to crash and burn on the sofa I quickly grabbed my swimming gear and went to swim away my stress before heading to work to do the show.
I went home on Monday night and boy did I need my sleep. I slept like a baby.....in my pants though, I don't wear a baby grow to bed! Neither do I have a dummy or a soft toy! Ok I'm gonna say I slept like a log instead! I slept like a wooden log!
Tuesday I woke up and had lots of work to do in my office at home before heading to the BBC Radio building in central London as I was performing a set of three songs at a media showcase along side Louise Dearman and a guy named Mike.
It was basically promoting my new album to radio, tv, press and media people in a chilled out environment with a very laid back acoustic feel to it. I had to do my set first as Ghost had allowed me to be late for work that day so that I was able to do the gig, so as soon as I sang my third song I grabbed my bag and legged it to the theatre in time to do the show.
After the show on Tuesday night I chilled watching a movie before bed and then woke Wednesday (yesterday) knowing I only had one more show to get through before having some time to chill. I did some shopping to update my wardrobe and then had some work to do at the theatre before doing the show then heading home to officially crash and burn!!!
I woke this morning and headed to get my hair cut and then had a physio session before heading to Vapiano where I am now, having devoured amazing food and I've just made plans to meet my friend Nathan at a cool place called The Riding House Cafe on Great Portland Street for a coffee! Nathan is a great friend of mine and is a technical genius! He bought me my cool new iPad case and this is in fact the first blog I have written on my iPad instead of on my computer! Good times!
That's me done typing! This time next week I will be performing in Ghost again having had a couple of chill out days and a few days in New York too! Plenty to write about next week I'm sure!
Have a great week folks! Thanks for reading as usual.
Keep believing
Sh-boom!
Mark
