The immense blogging catch-up: Part 1-Mango chutney and moving forward…

Apologies for the delay in my blogging, I’ve been a very busy girl! Therefore I shall update in small chunks to try and get you back up to speed in where I am. Buckle up, there’s a long way to go!

So when I left you, it was half term. I don’t remember much of it to be honest, I’m going back a bit! Natalie’s acting workshops went down a treat at Starlight, and led to drama classes being held at the studio! Not by me though, I’m still driving around in a van! And of course there was Ladies Night. I’d never been to one before so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it didn’t disappoint! The booze was flowing, and there was a stripper. Job done! The only part of the night I wasn’t keen on was the drag queen(!) but I just closed my eyes and headed for the bar!!

And then it was back to the tour! I’d promised the boys that I would make them an amazing cheesecake, so off I went to Leeds to Eden’s house with the cheesecake strapped into the passenger seat in case of accidents! Nobody needs cheesecake over their windscreen when they’re driving up the motorway!

I was hoping that Adam would be there when I arrived but he got a later train than expected. I was slightly relieved though because I was nervous that he would have changed his mind about me over the half-term and we would have an awkward few weeks. But he arrived and gave me a cheeky smile and I felt immediately better.

We only had one show on the Monday and it was awful! We were performing ‘An Inspector Calls’ and it was just dire. We sped home as soon as we could! Oh dear. That evening (after lots of debating) Eden went out on a date! He’d asked me over and over if I thought he should go and of course I said yes, wanting to be alone in the house! ;) So eventually he went off and had a lovely time, dressed in an outfit that myself and Adam chose! And then we were alone! We polished of the remainder of the cheesecake, and had a nice cuddle on the sofa and have a very pleasant evening!

Tuesday brought two shows with it and a change of accommodation. Our morning show of ‘Of Mice and Men’ was a dangerous affair, we performed on the most narrow of stages and 5 steps! How we all managed to stay upright I’ll never know, especially when I was teetering around in heels! We had a nice long break over lunch so we packed up the van before our afternoon show which was ‘Macbeth’. When we drove up we immediately wanted to go home again. There were kids running about everywhere and people were just barging past us without any care for anyone else. We prepared ourselves for the worst. But we were wrong! Despite the show being aimed at GCSE students, we did it for year 7, and apart from giggling at the words ‘breasts’ and ‘sex’, they were amazing! So much better than the next time we went a couple of weeks later! So with a song in our hearts we went off to Northwich, which was to be our home for the next 3 weeks.

I’d been to the cottages before so I knew what to find, but this time we found new friends! Marcus and Sarah were also working for Arty-Fact doing a primary schools tour (which Eden and I would take over in June). Sarah came round that evening and we bonded over board games, the girl’s team being clear winners! But before we could have any fun, we had to clean the van. Sadly our jar of mango chutney didn’t make it the whole way, and it covered EVERYTHING! We were still finding it on things a month later!

After our immense drive on Tuesday, we had the next morning off. The show went well, and things between myself and Adam were going even better. We got caught kissing by Eden that night when I’d said I was going upstairs to unpack! He knew things were going on but I felt bad about him seeing us, and I learned a valuable lesson- shut the door!! Thursday was one of those days that TIE actors love- 2 shows in the same school. Bliss. The only downside to the day for the boys was having to clean the van again after finding even more chutney plastered everywhere. I just stood and watched from the window and took pictures!

We didn’t have the best time on Friday. We arrived at our afternoon school about 5 minutes late, only to find that we were at the wrong campus. This wasn’t our fault, we had the wrong address. After getting the correct postcode from the receptionist, we set off again. According to my completely trusted sat-nav, we were 5 minutes away when Eden exclaimed that he could see it- he saw the same sign as the previous campus. So off he went in again. After 5 minutes he came out again, wrong campus. Really??! Trust the sat-nav! We eventually found it, and somewhere to park, and then we had to take everything up 3 flights of stairs! I think we started the show about 45 minutes late (after much grovelling), and it turned out that there were only about 20 students in there, much older than GCSE age, and half of them left the room half way through. We just gave a sigh, packed away, and I dropped the boys at a train station and went home. My day didn’t stop there though, I still had a 3 hour rehearsal for the Starlight show! We did a run-through of the whole show which went quite well. Then it was back to Jacc’s for Chinese food and a viewing of Cake Boss. Some things are worth going home for!

Before I knew it I was driving back up to Northwich and very excited about seeing one of my castmates! We’d all been home for the weekend and had a lovely time, now it was the final few weeks and myself and Adam weren’t going home again. The shows that week flew by, we were getting great reviews and all was well. We woke up on the Saturday and tried to make plans to do something fun. Eden had planned on going home for the weekend but had come down with a mystery illness and decided to stay. I didn’t want to catch whatever it was so Adam and I went to Manchester for the day. We caught a matinee of ‘A Comedy of Errors’ at the Lowry- I’d never seen or read the play before so I didn’t know what to expect but it was amazing! I’d go as far as saying it’s the best Shakespeare I’ve seen done! Marvellous! After the play Adam showed me a few of the sights before we headed for something to eat in a nice posh bar. I felt a bit exposed but it was such a perfect day that I didn’t mind too much! By the time we got back it was pitch black and we fell into bed ridiculously tired but content! We spent most of Sunday together as a two too! He asked if I could drive him to his house so that he could have a driving lesson (of course I obliged), and I ended up meeting his mum and auntie Christine, took his dog for a walk and had a nice couple of hours finding out more about the guy I had fallen for. After the family meeting, I was whisked off to another house where I met one of his friends (whose name I can’t remember now) who he met on a previous Arty-Fact tour. He was lovely too and we had a nice chat discussing our plays and our ridiculous careers until it was time to go.

It seemed things were going better than I’d hoped!

End of part one!