Unemployment

The placement at the Almeida was phenomenal.  I had so much fun running all over London, and going through pages and pages of research on things that are perfectly normal back in California.  Laura, Annique and Helen were all perfectly lovely and I look forward to visiting them on a matinee day.  The rest of the cast and crew were also great and I am so glad I was blessed enough to meet them.  On press night the lovely stage management team got me flowers and a poster signed by the cast.  It's funny, I got BIllie Piper's autograph and I didn't even have to ask for it - she still doesn't know I'm a Who fan.  She is also incredibly sweet, just so personable it would have been hard to feel nervous talking to her.  And after press night I found another example of chivalry in the form of a gentleman noticing I was looking for something and he walked me to the bus stop, sweet guy.

Now I'm unemployed and BORED!  Bored and broke, not the best combo, so I can go to any of the amazing free museums as long as I don't mind the walk.  So first I did the closest, The Imperial War Museum, which I wanted to see anyway.  Now however the museums I haven't seen are a two and a half hour walk away.  Don't get me wrong I've already done it once to see the Natural History Museum, but it's hard to convince myself to make it a regular thing.  I need to go out though, not knowing many people in London I end up home a great deal of the time and I need out.  My knitting has greatly benefited by this inactivity.  So far I finished a blanket I started a year ago, started and finished a Christmas Wreath, started my first pair of socks and made great progress in my K9 bag.

I haven't done nothing during this time though.  I found a church which makes me very happy.  It's great to be able to go somewhere and worship God each week, and I've met a couple people there as well.  Oh, and I went and saw Piff the Magic Dragon in Cardiff!  It was a cold, blustery day in Cardiff, raining on and off but it was great to see the place all done up for Christmas.  I also took the opportunity to rearrange some of the stuff in my storage unit.  Soon there shouldn't be anything in there anymore.  Piff was opening for The Pajama Men whom I had never heard of.  Needless to say he was great, I was apparently the only person in the audience who had seen him before and he carried that off in his slightly grumpy, understated way.  It was super weird though, I was sitting in a row entirely by myself - every other row was full.  It was quite strange.  Mr. Piffles was as majestic as ever, despite missing his entry cue, and read minds and cuddled with the audience participants to perfection.  The Pajama Men, how do I describe them?  When they first started I thought to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?"  They do these sketches that at first seem to be unrelated, from hospital scenes to aliens to time travel to cowboys, but then you begin to see how they fit and by the end you find yourself actually caring - don't ask me how they do it.  It was a bit dirtier in patches than I generally go for, but I must admit I enjoyed the show in all it's ridiculousness.  And I'm a bit partial to time travel anyway as most of you know.  Afterwards I gathered my courage and told Piff (cunningly disguised in roughly human form) how much I enjoyed his show and that I had seen him previously at the fringe.  I'm pretty sure it all came out in a rush, but hey, I was nervous.  Then he let me give Mr. Piffles a scratch, softest chihuahua I've ever met (and obviously the cutest - sorry Diamond!).   I think I did rather well considering my shyness, I feel pretty good about it.

I am going to north Wales for Christmas to stay with Sian again and I am super grateful as I'm finding Christmas time a bit hard being so far away from the people I love.  That means you guys and I wish I could be with you now.  I know that it's an amazing blessing to have this opportunity to be here and experience London and I know I'll find work, but knowing that this is where I need to be doesn't make me miss you guys any less. Think I'll watch Muppet Christmas Carol now.