I’m not ruining anything by saying that in the next Starlight show ‘Leave That Wizard Alone, 23rd October at The Lighthouse Theatre, Kettering (Plug over, I promise!), we are dancing to the wonderful Lady Gaga song, ‘Telephone’. I found out when I got back that as part of our costumes for this dance, we were to have a telephone stuck to our heads like the good lady herself!
Obviously we aren’t going to have real telephones due to the weight and ridiculous-ness of the idea, so it was down to me to make some papier mache ones! When this was first mentioned to me, I was very excited, I immediately went home and started thinking up ideas of what to use to make a telephone shape, and sure enough, the very next day, the first telephone was born out of a toilet roll inner, 2 plastic cups, newspaper, and a mountain on PVA glue!
And so, 15 days after my task was set, there are now 35 telephones sat in the corner of my bedroom! For the most part it was quite fun! I looked forward to seeing the toilet roll gradually emptying in the bathroom so that I could steal the inner tube and make another one! And it turned out to be a group effort! I told my mum about it (bad idea!) so off she went around the neighbours to ask them for theirs, I swiped about 5 from Jacc’s house, and my neighbours to the left came around with a bag of twelve on Saturday night! (Come on, you didn’t really think my family could bet through 35 toilet rolls in 15 days did you?!?)
As fun as it was making them, it was then sprung on me that Jacc would like them all to be painted white so that everyone could take one home and decorate them individually! I decided to get the troops in! So on Tuesday this week, myself, Georgie, Kurt and Caroline all sat down in the back garden, munching on Maltesers and M&M’s and getting in an awful state painting newspaper white! But, they are all finished and ready for collection and there’s still 3 months to go before the show, I’m on fire!!
I’ve also managed to get hold of another very important piece of costume, a pair of roller skates! What a mission that was! I’d been looking online to see how much a pair would cost me, but I wasn’t willing to pay £50 for a pair that I’d probably never use again after the show, so I turned to ebay! I’ve never used ebay before, and I’m determined never to use it again! Oh the stress!
I found several pairs of skates in my size that were going quite cheaply, so I was convinced that I would be able to snap up a bargain. Oh no. Every time I bid on a pair, it was a matter of minutes or even seconds that I was cruelly outbid way past the limit I had set for myself. I was convinced that someone was watching me, and if it was a fellow Starlighter, there would be words!
And then last Tuesday, I hit the jackpot! I’d been outbid on every pair of size 8’s that I could find, so then I decided to look for size 9’s. By this point I’d done some research and seen that it was wise to go up a size anyway. And there they were. A beautiful pair of navy blue skates with yellow stripes on the sides, brand new and in the box for £5 plus postage. I had to have them.
This time I decided to wait until the closing minutes before I placed my bid. Annoyingly, someone had put on a higher bid while I was waiting but they were still in my price range. I watched the clock count down from ten minutes to five and then I made my move. At five minutes to go exactly, I tapped in my bid, stuffed my lucky charm down my bra and held my breath. I kept hitting the ‘refresh’ button on my browser to make sure I was still the highest bidder. The seconds kept ticking away, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 20, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and then it was over. They were mine!!! I actually whooped out loud! A week of sneaky outbidders could not defeat me that day!
Saturday rolled around and there was a loud knock at the front door waking me from my pleasant sleep. I was going to ignore it but then I remembered the skates, and after getting severely tangled up in my dressing gown cord, I threw myself down the stairs just as the postman was putting the ‘Sorry we missed you’ card through the letterbox and snatched them out of his hands!
I couldn’t wait to get to rehearsal on Tuesday to try them out, there’s absolutely nowhere to practice at home so I had to gaze wistfully at them for a few days! While the kids were doing their class downstairs, I made me way to the upper level to try them out. I hadn’t skated for just over a year when I was in Centre Parcs with the lovely Lydia (hello again!), so I was a bit concerned that I’d fall over in front of everyone, but in fact I turned out to be ok!
When it came to practising the routine, I was the only one in my skates, but everyone was suitably impressed, my stopping technique was amazing, but I need to do some serious work on my fast turns!
There’s 3 months to the show, I need to find somewhere to practice or I’ll end up in the orchestra pit, or even on the front row! Surely that’s worth buying a ticket to see!
Nxxx
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