Epic drives and a whole lot of kissing…

So, Saturday began in a dizzy haze of tissues and uncontrollable nose-running which meant I confined myself to the sofa while the boys went off into Crewe for various reasons. They did ask if I wanted to go with them but I found my illness the perfect excuse to sit in front of the television and put on my ‘John Barrowman Live at the Albert Hall’ DVD, my Christmas present from my brother. As soon as he bounded onto the stage I felt my mood lift and all sniffly thoughts were pushed to the back of my mind as I joyfully sang along to my heart’s content! Two hours later, the boys burst back through the front door just as John was getting to the dramatic climax, singing ‘I am what I am’. Amazing! The boys made themselves scarce while the DVD ended, and I yelled them to tell them the coast was clear, and that John had gone back into my folder until the next rainy day. The rest of the day passed in a fog; Adam picked out a cheesy rom-com starring Robert Downey Jr which we all enjoyed for a while, and then I decided that it was time to dance! They say exercise is good for you, so I attempted some routines for the show in the kitchen; if the boys could practice sword fighting in there, I was going to get my time too! I did quite well considering the space I had, and the boys even tried to join in until my arms started flailing around wildly so they had to get out of the way!

We had decided to go out for lunch on the Sunday, a nice treat for ourselves before the real work began. Our bosses told us that there was a pub that did a cheap carvery not too far from where we were staying, so we decided to give it a go and walk there. We got lost. Well, when I say we got lost, we didn’t know where the place was to start with so we were just walking around the area aimlessly! I’d already been out for a walk in the morning to the supermarket to stock up on Lemsip capsules and powders to try and become human for our first show, and due to the cold, my hips were hurting (I know, how old am I?!?) After walking alongside dual carriageways and over fields, we eventually asked in another pub, and faced yet another half hours walk to our destination. I’m told it was worth the walk; I didn’t eat anything due to feeling rough, but the boys seemed to enjoy themselves! Adam wasn’t helping my crush situation by looking mighty fine in his shirt and wearing a gorgeous smell that even got through to my nose despite battling with the olbas oil tissues I’d bought! We got a taxi home, popped on a Disney DVD and settled down with Dancing on Ice for the rest of the evening before retiring to bed for the first touring day!

I woke up on the Monday with mountains of energy! The boys seemed slightly startled by my incredibly good mood, and Eden even commented that he’d never seen me that way before. But after seven weeks off and another week of quite intense rehearsals, we were finally being let free on the road again, and I was ready to act! Despite only having been touring these shows for five weeks, having someone new in the group had brought not only new direction but new energy into the team. Adam is also incredibly talented, and working with him seemed to make me up my game and I felt that this leg of the tour would be much more enjoyable than the previous. Our first day would bring us a full day of Shakespeare, starting with Macbeth in the morning, and Romeo and Juliet in the afternoon. Typically we were late to the first school, and our contact teacher was expecting something completely different to what she got! Despite a few mistakes from all of us, the show went well. The director said that she had wanted passion between myself and Adam when Macbeth first arrived back to lady Macbeth; I almost went in for a kiss but pulled out right at the last moment due to a horrible feeling that I was going to sneeze right in his face! Gutted! Before we knew it we were off to the afternoon school. Again, for a first attempt at a show, there were minor hiccups but we got through with smiles on our faces and made our way home for tea and cake!

We’d spent so much time trying to cram everything in during rehearsal week that we had got a bit giddy by Friday afternoon, and hadn’t managed to rehearse ‘Of Mice and Men’, so on Tuesday morning we trundled back to the rehearsal hall to do a final run through. The run went well, and then the boss decided to spring it upon us that she was going to come with us to watch our afternoon show of Romeo and Juliet. Eek! As if I wasn’t already nervous enough about being perched on top of a ladder several feet in the air trying to do a romantic scene, now I had the pressure of being watched by the boss! Brilliant. As my nervousness increased, I became more and more shaky and almost fell off my ladder as Adam decided to go for a proper snog mid-balcony scene! Completely unexpected but quite enjoyable!!

The rest of the week went by in a dull blur. We were performing in all manners of odd rooms, including a school gym that was colder inside than it was in the crisp seaside air outside. By Thursday I’d become more flirty with Adam and so I decided on the Friday as we were saying goodbye for the weekend, that I would give him a cheeky little kiss to see what would happen. He didn’t run away screaming so I made my way down the M6 towards home with a stupid grin on my face. It seemed I was falling...

The weekend went by pretty quickly in a jumble of dance rehearsals, junk food and alcohol, and before I knew it I was back in the van, back up the M6 in the pouring rain to pick the boys up from the train station. Adam arrived first, and as he clambered into the van there was nothing I wanted to do more than give him a huge hug and a kiss... but things seemed awkward. I immediately felt that I had overstepped the mark on Friday and I was devastated. What if I had read things all wrong and things were going to be awkward for the rest of the tour? What if he left the group and we had to find another boy again?!?! Thankfully it wasn’t too long before Eden arrived and we made our way back to the house to watch this week’s celebrities attempting to jump on the ice...

Monday was February 14^th, Valentines day. I had bought the boys a card each and a packet of love hearts, just because I thought it would be a nice treat for them. We were all single so I thought they could at least feel loved by me! I rolled myself out of bed to find a red envelope shoved under my bedroom door. A smile immediately crept over my face, I knew it would be Eden, he’s as lovely a person as I am(!) He had written it anonymously so I took great delight in not thanking him for it, and talking nonsense about it being from the postman! We only had one show that day, and it was Romeo and Juliet. Hoorah- at least I’d be getting kisses on Valentines! The show was in a girls school and went really well. Everyone seemed to be in a fabulous mood today apart from Adam but I didn’t want to intrude, after all I didn’t know him that well. After our show we ventured into Chester for a wander round the shops. We stopped in a nice coffee shop and had cake, and Adam still seemed to be sad. I took the opportunity to give him a big hug, squashed his face into my chest and he seemed to perk up slightly! We went back out onto the streets of Chester and I linked arms with him to let him know that I was there for him if he needed to chat. A few minutes later he shrugged my arm off, only to hold my hand instead! I felt such relief! It was beginning to seem that I hadn’t scared him off on Friday after all. With my mood lifted, I drove us home singing all the way!

And then came Tuesday. None of us were looking forward to this day. We had a slight lie-in before we had to pack up everything from the house, drive two and a half hours to Barrow-in-Furness for a one hour and twenty minute show, to drive two and a half hours back down to Leeds, where we would be staying at Eden’s house for the rest of the week. The journey up wasn’t too bad, we split the driving, had lunch in Ulverston (I had a gorgeous Brie and bacon baguette!), and arrived just as the teacher was phoning the booking office to find out where we were. Once more communication was shocking, wires were crossed and people were panicking at our absence when in fact we thought we were early! The audience was quite large and in my opinion, quite rude, but we finished and wearily made our way back to the van for the next epic drive. Thankfully we have one of those tape devices that you can plug your iPod into and play your own music in the van so the journey to Leeds was spent snuggled up to Adam singing along to the Johnny Depp version of Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. We had never been so relieved to get out of the van on Tuesday night; we threw our bags down and settled on the sofa, ordering a takeaway and watching rubbish television. Bliss!

Wednesday brought us another fun challenge. We arrived at our location on time, only to be told that we were miles away from the room we would be performing in. This room was to be two classrooms. Yep, classrooms, not a hall or a gym, classrooms. This obviously meant we didn’t have the height needed for me to perch in my usual spot on top of my ladder, so we had that to work around. The students were also older than we were expecting. We didn’t have our usual 14 year-olds, these were a minimum of 18, and included two foreign mature students who Eden mistook for teachers! But before we could even start we had the challenge of getting all of our equipment up to the room. We were in a college, and a big college at that. We ended up loading all of our set into three cages- the sort that you see at the supermarket that employees use when they’re shelf-stacking. About twelve corridors and two lifts later, we made it to the room to find the students already there waiting for us. We ditched as much as we could to get set up and ready on time- our epic journey round the campus had wasted about half an hour. We threw on our costumes and performed the show quite well in my opinion! Despite resistance from the students, we made it a success! Of course what goes up must come down, and we had to make the journey with the cages back downstairs once more. I gave Eden the keys to the van so that he could bring it as close to us as possible, and while he was gone Adam and I shared a sneaky kiss on school premises- naughty ! ;)

Thursday gave us another low ceiling and a wonky floor to contend with, but also a lovely school in the afternoon. We were in Bolton, at an all-boy’s school. Yet again we were faced with an almighty get-in, requiring more lifts, and no parking on site for our van, meaning I had to park it in some dodgy side street. But our performance space was lovely. It was called the McKellan theatre, named after Sir Ian McKellan, who I believe was a pupil at that school (if I heard correctly). He had been back to the school to open the theatre in September last year, and had signed the wall, which I thought was genius! Despite it being painted black, he had signed the wall in black marker so you only know it’s there if you are told. Legend. We’d spent our lunchtime in Bolton and had noticed that the theatre had Romeo and Juliet on that night. We had two shows of Romeo ourselves that day but we decided to go anyway, to see how the other half do it! It was a modern-dress production, in the round, and had Michelle Collins in it so I was intrigued. I enjoyed most of it but I thought some of the acting was a bit ropey to be honest! The two leads had a very bizarre way of speaking the lines and I just wanted to shout at them to speak properly! Since I’ve seen the production I’ve read some reviews which absolutely bum Michelle Collins as the nurse but I thought even she was dire. No, I lie, she was good at looking miserable in the background. Apart from that she just stood there and bellowed every line like she was in an outdoor production. We were still an hour away from home and didn’t roll in the front door until 11.45pm. It had been a long day!

Things were heating up between me and my lovely co-actor so I was gutted when Friday rolled around. We had two shows of ‘Of Mice and Men’ in the morning in Doncaster, and then we would all be going our separate ways home for half term. The shows went OK-ish, both myself and Eden had to shout at kids to move because they were constantly talking and doing our faces in! I’ve never shouted at a kid like that in a workshop before and I shocked myself! I had so much adrenaline pumping through me that I sped through the rest of the workshop like I was on drugs! We hopped back in the van and I drove the boys to Doncaster train station. They only had a few minutes before their train left so I didn’t get the chance to say a proper goodbye, which made me a bit sad. But I still had almost two hours of driving to do to think things over and wonder what might lie ahead after half term.

And what a half-term it promises to be... I’ll be at the studio every day; rehearsals, doing my own acting workshops, there’s a photoshoot, and to round off the whole week... there’s a Ladies Night on Saturday! Alcohol and naked men! What could be better? Nx

January; the month of cheesecakes. (And the tour resumes…)

The end of 2010 was another joyful affair... Not only was it the end of a shitty year, but New Years Eve also happens to be my bezzies birthday. So for two long days, that meant me trailing around after him trying to find him an outfit for his birthday party which would be held at Starlight’s studio. Now, we live in Kettering. And as anyone in Kettering with a pair of eyes will tell you, the shopping is rubbish. We pretty much wasted a day walking round the three shops and inevitably came back with nothing. New Years Eve rolled around and I arrived back at Jacc’s house at around 10.04am to jump up and down on his bed waving presents in the air! I had also made some delicious fairy cakes for his party as he had kindly made me a ‘beef stroganoff’ for my birthday. (it definitely wasn’t beef stroganoff!) So, after the present giving ceremony was over, we made our way to Corby; home of a new theatre, Primark and other such delights. After following him around for several hours, we made our way back to the first shop we had visited and found something appropriate. I finally realised what it must be like for blokes to go shopping with their girlfriends! Poor lambs!

The party was as always fun! This time, with it being Jacc’s birthday, the alcohol was flowing while there were children around, although we had to sneak into the kitchen to get it. Thanks to Jacc’s sister, I was quite merry on a quarter of a bottle of Sambuca and various other shots provided by other friends. My fairy cakes went down a treat and a good time was had by all! I woke up the next morning in my usual hangover spot (Jacc’s sofa) wondering how I got into my pyjamas...

I decided that to kick start my new year, I would have a huge clear out of my bedroom. I had no idea where to start- I had gathered up so much rubbish in my 25 years of living and I hate throwing anything away so this was going to be tough. I began with my desk which had been a Christmas present from my parents when I was about 7. It had seen plenty of better years. I knew I had to be brutal so I picked out a new small bedside cabinet and began throwing anything out that wouldn’t fit. I found photos, letters, exam results certificates... so much stuff that was just sitting there not being used. And then the bin bags came out. Apart from official documentation things, everything went. It was hard because everything seemed to have a memory or significance, and it took me a couple of days but I did it and it felt good.

That meant the next stage was constructing my flat-pack bedside cabinet. My brother had been intrigued by the strange noises coming from my bedroom during my clear-out and kindly offered his services as my assistant in the construction. He had helped me put up some shelves the week before so who was I to say no. Turns out I would have been better off doing it myself. The instruction leaflet said that it should take no more than an hour. We were there for three! Partly due to the fact that our family were having a hideous run of luck, and partly because the cabinet was cheap and mass produced, nothing was fitting together properly, and we were getting angry not only with the furniture but also with each other. Rob ended up walking away leaving me to finish it by myself after he had drilled a hole all the way through the side. Brilliant.

   

A couple of days after the cabinet incident I received an email from my boss saying that one of the boys from my tour had dropped out and we needed a replacement quickly. By this time, we were three weeks away from starting the tour again, and obviously had to rehearse again. I knew one f my friends was out of a job so I rang him to ask if he wanted it, and plastered the social networks with big flashing ‘attention’ signs... but no-one wanted to work with me. The next day I had another email saying they had found someone called Pete. It was all going to be fine!

The day we found Pete also happened to be the first Friday back at Starlight for rehearsals for our next show, ‘Say Cheese’. We were definitely worked hard, everyone was practically one big sweaty mess on the floor at the end of the night. But I can say now, a few weeks later, that things are definitely shaping up nicely and I’m quite excited about it!

My spring cleaning continued, and I ended up getting rid of my wardrobe and having one that was in my nan’s house. And that’s where things got tricky. We went down on the Sunday morning to begin the removal process. My dad and brother went upstairs to fetch it and begin the manoeuvre. My nan’s staircase had a corner at the bottom and for a few hairy moments, it looked like either my dad or the wardrobe wouldn’t make it out in one piece! Thankfully everyone was fine, and the wardrobe made it back to our house poking out the back of my parents car and into my bedroom.

The next day I received another email from the boss... Pete had dropped out of the tour. I couldn’t believe it. Were we actually cursed on this tour?!?! Once more I bombarded every suitable boy I could think of on Facebook- people I’d been to university with, actors that I had worked with, actors I had met whilst touring... not one single reply. Thanks guys, I know who to turn to in my hour of need next time! But a couple of days later, we had Adam on our team. So of course he was swiftly stalked on the internet and I tried to find out any information I could before we started. Psycho, me? Never!

January also happens to contain the birthdays of both my parents and my brother. After my fairy cake success for Jacc’s birthday, I decided that my mum should get the same wonderful treats. Yet again, they were a roaring success. Three days later, my dad’s birthday rolled around but I had decided that fairy cakes were not the way to go. I was going to make a cheesecake! My dad is a fan of Toblerone so it would be topped with that! Sorted! My cakes had come from a recipe by Nigella, so I turned to her again for another recipe. I found a very simple one, bought my ingredients and I was off! My dad woke up on his birthday and I raced to the kitchen to present him with the delicious treat! “Dad, I’ve made you a birthday cheesecake!” “Oh, thanks. I don’t like cheesecake.” Brilliant. But it turned out that he in fact did like cheesecake, he just didn’t know what it was! Fool. I even got an extremely rare compliment from him saying it was ‘lovely’. I almost fell on the floor!

After bragging to everyone about my new-found success as a baker, Jacc decided that he too would like a cheesecake making. So the week after, he too got one. I’d had to take it to rehearsals with me, and it caught the attention of a few people who liked the look of it and were all after a piece! I thought I could start a cheesecake business at this rate! Jacc and Craig said that they both enjoyed their cheesecake, but a week later I found half of it still in their broken fridge covered in mould. Mmm!

I found myself sat in front of my computer for about three days, working hard on ideas. Jacc had decided to offer different workshops for Starlight to give people lots of different opportunities, and I had offered my services to create an acting workshop. As I was going back on tour, I had to get moving, we set a date and I was off! I’m not going to tell you what we’re doing as I want it to be a surprise for everyone but I’m very excited about it! It’s got loads of interest so fingers crossed it will be a success! We shall see...

My final week in Kettering raced by in a flurry of Starlight classes, milky cocktails (don’t ask!) and plenty of sleep. As hard as I tried to wake myself up early to get back into touring mode, my duvet always won and I rarely woke before noon. I was looking forward to Sunday. Although I hadn’t packed a single item to take away, and had a mountain of tasks to complete before departure, I had one more piece of Starlight business to complete. February 6^th was Starlight’s 2^nd birthday, and a few days before I left, Jacc had received a phone call from the local paper who had found out this info and wanted to do an article including a photo, with as many students as possible. So on the Sunday morning, I walked myself into town ready to be bombarded with almost 100 children to help organise into groups, keep them entertained and then help to organise into a wonderful display for the photo! I was surprised how smoothly the whole thing went! I had to raise my voice at a few children to behave a couple of times, but on the whole everything went to plan, and photos of us all were cropping up on Facebook later that day from parents with camera phones! Needless to say, it all seemed to be a complete waste of time as when the article went in the paper, they used a photo from 18 months ago because they didn’t like the one that had been taken. Brilliant. There was just enough time to make on final cheesecake for my brothers birthday which I would miss, and I was quite sad, it was an amazing cheesecake!!

As usual I made my way to Jacc’s on the Sunday night to say my final goodbye and it was spent full of laughter and watching reality TV and shock-docs (our new favourites!!) and then it was time to do final packing. I wasn’t quite as sad leaving this time, I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I was home again, it was only 3 weeks til we got a whole week off for half term! I always miss everyone when I’m away, but I knew that things wouldn’t have changed and as soon as I returned, things would go back to normal straight away!

Monday’s alarm was a beast. 6am. After 7 weeks of waking up at noon. I wasn’t happy. The train journey wasn’t actually too bad. I’d made that journey enough times to know exactly where I was going, so armed with my iPod, I sat down and enjoyed the gentle swaying of the trains while caressing my ears with soft tunes and Facebooking and Tweeting occasionally as I spotted things along theway.

And then I got to Crewe. Eden picked me up in his little blue car and we made our way to the freezing cold hall which was beginning to seem more like home. We met Adam, said a quick hello and plunged straight into ‘Of Mice and Men’ rehearsals. I was quite glad we’d started with that one as I didn’t have a great deal to do in it and I was ridiculously tired. We plodded through, went home and just sat. It was lovely! We probed Adam for information about himself and I got the feeling that it was going to be a very happy tour indeed. He was chilled, relaxed and a lovely genuine down to earth guy. I was chuffed! Tuesday brought us another morning of ‘Of Mice and Men’, before we plunged forward with ‘An Inspector Calls’. I don’t really like the play as a whole, but I LOVE playing Mrs Birling, the bitch was back and I loved it! As with all rehearsals, I burst out into laughter at inappropriate moments but that’s what I do! Wednesday gave us ‘Macbeth’, and Thursday brought ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which I couldn’t wait for! It’s by far my favourite play out of the four, and of course I got to do some kissing with a new boy! Haha! The boss delighted in putting in lots and lots of kissing in the ‘balcony scene’ and I didn’t mind at all!

I had to give myself a talking to a few times during that week. Every day I found myself being more and more attracted to the new boy and I could feel myself flirting outrageously. Bad Natalie! I’ve said it before, I always find myself attracted to work colleagues, before Christmas it was fine as I was working with 2 gays, but now I had a straight one and I was falling fast! I had to push the thoughts of kissing him out of my head as I woke up on the Saturday with a hideous cold just in time for the tour to start... Brilliant.