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.

And Today's Fixation Will Be...

Okay, I admit it - I get these fleeting fixations on subjects that will preoccupy my mind for weeks sometimes and then slip from the top of my consciousness. I will always love these subjects but they only possess my mind in it's entirety for a bit.  Take the Muppets - I LOVE the Muppets, I will watch their movies or shows all day, if allowed, and am currently working on an amazing Muppet movie script with some of the most awesome people ever (I hope the new movie does well so the audience is there).  However, it will never take over my whole world as it did when I was getting the show on netflix.  I watched endless hours of interviews and special footage, I read large chunks of the muppetwiki site, I even looked into how hard it would be to get a job at the Creature Shop in London (very, very, exceedingly hard by the way).  But after that three week period, I only think about them in spurts.  Same thing has happened to me with Ardal O'Hanlon (why oh why did I watch every episode of Father Ted?), Hyperbole and a Half (a blog), Precious Metal Clay, Knitting (although I sustain this one better), and many other subjects that I have vast knowledge of for no real reason).

Today I will admit it's Magic.  I don't think I'd seen a magic show in around 5 years.  That's a long time for someone who's mother does magic and who was a clown and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.  The reason, or catalyst, for this recent fixation is Piff the Magic Dragon.  It was like the 1st or 2nd flyer I got up here on the first day of the festival and I knew I had to see it. I mentioned in last blog about the serious awesomeness of his act.  Looked into him as a person, inside dragon costume, and found he's also a proper legit magician (not that he didn't do real magic in his show - loved how he worked in cigarette magic which seems to be a dying art) by the name of John Van Der Put (not sure if it all is capitalized or not) and winner of magic awards and inventor of magic effects (check out VDP).  This has sparked the magic bug again.  I will be seeing a further 4 magic shows this week and I've been trying to catch up with what's happening in magic these days since I haven't paid too much attention since I stopped spot light op-ing magic shows around eight years ago.  It also is a great reminder that straight theatre is not the only job opportunity for a stage manager.

I will say this for my seemingly random fixations - I learn a lot of truly interesting information and it leads to interest in surrounding topics that I would not normally have looked into.  And I never really move away from the subjects, I love them all, and I look forward to greeting them like old friends.  I'd totally see Piff or Ardal again, and I can't wait to have time to make jewellery again and the Muppets are always with me - long live the fixations!

21 Days

So I visit SoCal (can't believe I called it that) in just a scant three weeks.  I shall be there for three weeks before moving to London.  I have not had my interview yet and I don't have a place to live and, you guessed it, it stresses me out.  I can't believe I will get to see your shining faces so soon :)  it will be amazing.

I saw Piff the Magic Dragon, supported by Mr. Piffles the first levitating chihuahua, live on stage on Monday.  Dude is a full grown man who dresses as a dragon to perform magic (not a kids show) and I was so excited to see him.  He opened with the cup and ball - no joke.  He was great, funny and had amazing eyebrows.  I think he's probably funnier the more you know about magic but even still I would recommend him to anyone.  I am lead to understand he also does straight magic but how can you go back to that after the amazingness of being a dragon?

So excited to see you all soon!