Dressing Room

(Click To Enlarge)

I think I look cute! ;-)

Out Of It

I've been really ill since Saturday and have barely ate anything since then. Went to bed at 2am hoping to sleep off a bit of tension that had set in my forehead but woke to an awful headache which made me feel sick everything I moved. I was feeling a bit better last night but after a nice of extreme dreaming and crazy sleep, I now feel quite peculiar. Part of me feels like how I did when I was on the co-codemol during my hospital stay. Drowsy is probably the best word for it. I'm physically & mentally drowsy.

Despite feeling awful on Saturday I still had one more show to do and I managed to pull myself together for that with the help of a toasted muffin and cup of tea at the venue. However as soon as I spoke my first line my voice began to go. As the play progressed I got hoarser and hoarser and I spent the aftershow party asleep on the sofa. Sunday and Monday was split between lying down and/or sleeping and not much else.

Hopefully tonight I'll have enough energy to give the flat a tidy, wash some clothes ( and myself) and begin to pack. I'm going back home (via bus) this weekend to spend Xmas with the family. Haven't decided on a date yet but it'll probably be a Saturday. Hopefully the lunatics back home will control themselves for a little while so I can get a proper rest. Will be good to see my neice again. I saw her last when she was two months old, she's five months old now and is probably completely different!

PS: Got word back from the woman about the Marathon places. I wasn't elligible for one as the places were only allocated for people at her company. Probably for the best, to ill to begin training now. Might go for the half-marathon in March instead.

London Marathon 2009?

Oh... there may be an opportunity for me to run in the London Marathon in April 2009. Waiting to find out if I am eligible for a place. Then I have to decide if I want to commit to it. I have to give this a lot of thought. I've got all that training to fit into my life somehow, plus I haven't ran or exercised much in recent months due to all my health/eye issues so would need to start from scratch again. So lots to take into consideration.

Time will tell....

Back To Work!

The performing kind, not the office kind. After a much needed and deserved 3 evenings off, we were back at the theatre yesterday for the second run of our play. As the shows at our theatre only run for 4 or 5 days over one week, it felt so odd to be walking back in to prepare for another run of shows when we knew we'd already completed a run. I think I even said at one point "Oh, I can't be bothered doing this again" and a couple of people agreed with me but that all changed when the show began and we got back into the ol' routine and thrill of entertaining an audience. I'm now looking forward to tonight's show and not just because I want to leave (office) work.

We also had a great audience last night who joined in with the "panto" elements of the show and some of my lines got good laughs from them. I think this week will be fun. We had a couple of diffult nights last week when we had a small audience in, which changes the atmosphere, but tickets sales are looking quick healthy for the rest of the nights so hopefully we'll have more shows and audiences like yesterday.

It will be sad when the show finally ends as the cast have got on so well with each other and new friendships have been formed, old friendships strengthed. I think the intensive (and disorganised) rehearsal schedule really made us bond. Time will tell if it lasts but right now they are a great group of people to hang around with and during quiet moments in the shows (and in the pub afterwards) we have the chance to amuse and counsel one another.

Ahhh... Peace & Love & Zen. You can definitely tell it's a Thursday and not a Monday in 'Meldaland.

Om My God

I got a pressie!

I found a nice little package at my door and in it was something I've wanted for a long time... and a couple of other unexpected goodies.


I always drooled over (new mum) Boho Girl's jewellery but missed my chance to get my hands on some when she stopped making jewellery to concentrate on her photography (gorge pics, I'd loved to be snapped by her. If only she/I lived closer!). Then I was contacted by the lovely Daniele from France who, with Boho's blessing, made a very nice gesture and offered to make me the necklace I wanted for such a long time. Et voila! It arrived this morning in a little brown box along with some French mint sweeties, fancy soap and a handwritten note in a card with my favourite colours on it (how did you know?).

Thank you Daniele. It was all totally unexpected and I'm wearing it right now as I type. I wish you all the best with your jewellery and online boutique.

This Time Last Year...

I didn't know it then but I was happy. I had settled into my new accommodation and I was shape. I was acting in a play with a large cast so made many acquaintances and new friends. I also had a crush on someone then, which was fun. ;-)

I'm having some good moments now and having a lot of fun with the people in my current play but a lot has happened this year and that takes some sorting out. When I think about this time last year I realise how less complicated life was. And I had two working eyes back them too.

This film and this song takes me back to that time. Love them both.

Food & Sleep

What more could a Mel want?

Not long back from the theatre after our second show and I'm sitting here with a big bowl of pasta and a cuppa tea. Niiiiice. Trying to ignore the fact that I've got a 9am conference call to Singapore in the morn and wondering if I'll get in trouble with my manager tomorrow for not making it stupidly obvious to someone to save a report as .xls and not .csv.

I'm so glad to be performing the show even though I'm completely knackered and have no time to do anything. The rehearsals were soul destroying, we had to replace one cast member as he's currently stranded in Italy and not allowed back into the UK due to visa issues and another cast member pulled out on Sunday. With such short notice the only way to get around that is to have his character played, via one cast member, by a hand puppet and voiced by another cast member. Crazy! Despite everything, we're having fun doing the show for real. Even when there's more cast members than audience as was the case tonight. We got through it as best we could. We've got six more shows to do so hopefully we'll get larger audiences (opening night was good). We've got the weekend shows coming up so people will be happier to stay out late in the knowledge that they won't have to get up for work.

Speaking of which, time I hit the sack. I've been getting no more than five hours sleep every night this week so I'm going to try for six tonight. I love sleep. And sleep loves me!