Hi Everyone,
How you all doing? Happy Thursday.
I am pretty darn jet lagged today. I'm not sure why cos I had quite a restful day yesterday after I landed back from my trip to New York. Perhaps it's the thought of trying to energise my body enough to do two shows today that's proving a little overwhelming for my little (yet very intelligent) brain! :-)
So it's been a busy ole week including a trip to the other side of the world for a few days which was fun.
Last Thursday evening I packed everything I needed to take with me to NYC on the weekend so that I was all set and could use Friday as a chill out day before I left, which I certainly did. I had a lazy morning before heading to meet my good friend Haley on her lunch break from rehearsals which was nice to catch up and then after that I headed to Leicester Square to check out what film I might fancy watching in the movie theeaytre (I've become very American since my trip!) I decided to book a ticket to see 'Friends With Kids' but had a good hour and a half to wait before the film start time so I crashed on the comfy sofa in the bar of the movie theeaytre and watched a video on YouTube which was a bit of a research video for a project I'm working on at the moment.
'Friends With Kids' is a great film, very funny, very well written and very well acted. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. I left the cinema feeling like I wanted to find a friend to fertilise casually and raise a child with! I could just keep the kid in my dressing room while I'm on stage right?! ha. One day there'll be a bit more stability in my life to consider things other than being mainly busy with theeaytre stuff! (You're never gonna call it a theatre again now are ya?!)
So after the film I headed home to have some nice food and tried to get an early night after watching some Brothers & Sisters.
My wake up call was 6.15am on Saturday as I was being driven to Heathrow Airport at 6.50. I arrived the airport and headed straight to the lounge to shove my face full of as much of the breakfast buffet as possible before getting on the plane.
I arrived in New york and the weather just hit me like a tidal wave of hairdryers blowing as hot as they could on my face!….IT WAS HOT!!!
I checked in to my hotel which was just off Times Square and was on the same street as the theeaytre where Ghost is playing - I was like "of course I'm gonna feel like I'm at work on my week off!" haha. It looks great. I didn't see the show while I was over there. I might see it when I head back November time I reckon.
I went straight to meet one of my best friends Becca who is in Spiderman out there after she finished her matinee - I walked three blocks from my hotel to her theeaytre and was drenched with sweat! HOT HOT HOT!!!
We had some great sushi and spent the rest of the night chilling with Drinks which was great. It was 4am on my body clock by the time I got to bed but it was 11pm local time so that was a good time to retire to the land of nod.
Sunday I woke and wandered around with a friend of mine Jake and we had brunch, then just walked near the Hudson river and around Central Park which was great but I got some dodgy tan lines by the afternoon cos the sun was blazing and I was wearing a vest which goes really narrow at the back near my shoulder blades so I have a pretty curvy tan going on right now. Ha
In the evening I went for dinner and a couple of cocktails with my friend Stephen which was good. It was a really great mexican place with gorgeous food. I was stuffed by the time we finished. That night me and my mate Jim headed up the Top Of The Rock (the open air top level of the Rockefeller Centre) which I've done a couple of times before, but when you get a view of the New York City skyline from so high up it's a great moment to put the world to rights and clear your head so I am always keen to get up there!
We then met Becca for a smoothie before getting an early night.
I woke on Monday morning and had to go to a meeting until lunch time and then spent the afternoon eating a MASSIVE pizza from the famous John's Pizzeria - they're famous because of their 'no slices' rule - I had a small pizza and I was defeated by it, I had to take two slices back to my hotel room which is SO not like me. If you are ever in New York and want good pizza, go to one of those restaurants.
After that I headed back to the hotel to chill before meeting Becca to go for a walk in the park. We walked miles without realising it. We walked uptown through the park and it was only when we exited onto the street that we saw we were on 95th street (which is a long way from Times square) - and as Becca lives on 96th we walked to her apartment where I serenaded her with her guitar for about 20 minutes before we set off on the long walk back to the hotel. The hotel was on 46th street so between going to and from Becca's apartment, we walked over 100 blocks! That's insane. We had a quick drink in the hotel bar before I sent Becca home cos I needed my sleep. I woke early on Tuesday as it was my last day there and I had a meeting from 9-11am. After that, myself, Jake and Jim went for some gorgeous cocktails in an Oyster bar downtown. They were called Cucumber Rickeys and were really tasty and refreshing. Gonna try and make them here soon!
So all that was left to do after that was head back to my hotel to shower & pack and then get in a car to JFK airport and fly the red eye (over night) flight home to London.
I had a good couple of (ridiculously strong) drinks in the club lounge and then a fair few more on the plane with the food which was amazing before transforming my seat into a bed and getting a couple of hours sleep.
It wasn't enough though because by the time the cabin crew woke me for breakfast, we'd only been in the air 4 hours and two hours sleep was not good as you lose 5 hours of your life on the return flight because of the time difference. So I felt like someone had stolen my nighttime from me but it was good to touch down in London yesterday (Wednesday) morning, get in the car home (whilst sleeping the whole way) and then climbing into bed for an hour or two more! Nothing beats your own bed eh?!
So the rest of yesterday was just chilled really. I popped to see a mate then drove to get some food before having a chilled night on the sofa and then hitting the hay nice and early to get ready for today's double show day!
It's been an eventful week but a good one and I look forward to returning to New York again in November all being well for the 5th time.
Hope you've all had a great week folks. Keep smiling, keep loving life and as the song on my album goes - Keep On Believing!
Sh-boom!!!
Mark
