Getting Chilly!

Hi there everyone!

Hope you're all doing OK! It's been really busy here since I got back from Summer travels - But there still seems to be tons of stuff I don't get around to doing! One of which is updating this site enough! Anyway I'll write until I get too tired to make any sense (tis 1:16 in the morning) or till I run out of things to say!

Check out the photos! I've put a couple from a few events I've been to recently. Not going too photo crazy these days! Which is probably healthy, don't want to spend all the time looking at the world through a lens. (or, through an LCD screen!)

After returning to London I had only a couple of days before work started - We had a really long 8-week half term, and have just finished a week off *ahhh*. Tons of sleep and relaxation - so much so thast I *still* have work to finish tomorrow! Ahh but that's life.

The big news since I spoke to most of you last is that I'm in a play! It's Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer, playing at Blackheath Halls between Nov 12th and 15th. If you happen to be in London, then come along! :-) Here's a flyer from the show:

(err sorry it's a photo of the flyer - a bit ugly. Don't have a scanner!)

I actually read that the production was going to be on, and thought "that might be good to watch" before actually getting a part in it! Networking is good - the director is good friends with the music teacher at my school. Unfortunately everyone else in the show has had a few more months of practicing the music than me! Which is annoying, but just means I need to sit bashing out the notes to myself now and then. Only 10 days till we start performing! ;-)

So tis good to be doing creative stuff again. I am still managing to see artsy stuff now and then - I dragged Kylie, Ashley, and Mike & his family to see "Greenwich by the Sea" - it was pedestrianised, and there was tons of jazz on - there were these two guys juggling hats and 10 battons between them, really good balloon blowers, and some rusty looking statue guys (so realistic that some kids were quite scared!). Have managed to get to see Fullham vs Leicester (Premiership) as well as Wiggan vs Wimbledon (1st Div), and in both games the team I was barracking for won! I was in a pub to see England vs Turkey, surrounded by very drunk, very loud Englishman - was a really good atmosphere! Almost as good as being there! Well almost better perhaps, as they didn't let any England fans into the ground anyway!

I went to the Aussie Rules game at the Oval. Good that Freo won! There was a real "kick-a-Vic" atmosphere, so the Dockers had tons of supporters. It ended up being a bit crazy, with all the streakers, ppl running off with goal posts etc - we managed to have a casual stroll around The Oval, which was quite nice. Didn't bring my footy though :-( (haven't pumped it up yet!). Twas good to bump into Amanda Jahn after the game! Haven't really spoken to her since high school - supposedly there's tons of Thornlie ppl here (thanks for the email Ritchie - yes you do need to come over) so will be good to find out what they've been up to for the past 5 years or so.

So recently... I zipped up to Glasgow! I'm not used to having extra time committments - I didn't have 12 hrs each way to kill on the bus, so I flew BA. The plan was to leave work on Fri around 4-ish, go home and organise my bags, get to Gatwick by 7 to leave at 8:30, and be in Glasgow at 10pm with still time to party :-). But it didn't quite work out that way - The flight attendants were stuck in Italy due to some strike, so OUR flight was delayed for 2 hrs! I ended up arriving in Glasgow after midnight - too late to go out! So in the end I payed a premium price to travel from my preferred airport at a specific time, and it would have been quicker and cheaper flying with some budget airline! Hrmm it is nice only travelling to Gatwick though - it's only about 45 mins from home, whereas the other airports are around 1:30 away.

It's so nice travelling and meeting people! I met Kate and Jo at the airport (after a million messages - "We're delayed" - "We're delayed more" - "We won't be leaving for a while" - "we still haven't left" etc!) and drove back to Kate's place. After meeting her parents, and keeping poor Jo up talking for ages, I finally got some sleep. The next day Jo toured me around Glasgow while Kate was working - we drank some magic tea and unfortunately didn't spot any NEDs. After a tasty family dinner (tis really good borrowing someone elses family experience for a few days, especially when your own is on the other side of the world!) Gillian drove me & Kate into the city, where we went to "Buddha", for pre-club drinks, and a club called "The Shack" in this big church. (err... our other options were "The Garage" or "Trash"... a bit of a theme going???). The locals were really quite lively - was queues to get into places and tons of people were on the dance floors. We stayed till about 2am - and though I mentioned the whole "in Australia we'd be heading for a late night cafe now" everyone had decided to go home :-(. But I was on hols, poor Kate had to work the next day - I had a big sleep in, talked to her bro Phil and played with her new ("horrid, squiggling" - gotta love Glaswegian lingo) kitten Pete. On Monday I was able to meet up with Auntie Mabel. Kate joined us for lunch at this trendy new restaurant-bar (after they both declined eating mussels! Arghh! I ate some tonight though so that's OK!) and we strolled around a bit. Mabel's thinking of heading down south somewhere for New Years - heard about her trips around Europe - she really has been some amazing places! On Monday night we hit a local pub. Was nice to sit, chat and play cards :-) I managed to win the first game - surprising considering I didn't know what I was doing! But twas all downhill after then.

So then it was Tuesday! Time to go home - at least this time the plane came on time and there were no problems. So hope the Glaswegians can visit soon so I can repay some favours... although I'll have to find some cooler places to party before they come over!

Since Tues I've just been relaxing. I went to a house party on Fri night (everyone was dressed up except me!), and have just come home from Claire's 25th dinner (she's the pink-hat-cowgirl that I have a photo of from a few months ago). Tomorrow I have tons of marking to do and a rehearsal in the afternoon, so it'll be time to sleep very shortly!

We got a new housemate today! We waved goodbye to Beth who is moving just 5 minutes up the road, and Fiona moved in. She seems to talk more than me(!!!) and should be quite fun to have around. It also means that I've snaffled Beth's old shelves! So now my books and random junk have a place to live and my floor is clean! Yay! Haha you wouldn't believe how happy I was moving around my room this afternoon!

The next few weeks should be quite good. On Wed I went to my first "ceroc" dance class, which was really fun! It's like modern jive stuff... and they teach the same style at tons of locations. After the production is finished I'll probably start to go on Tuesdays at Greenwich. A couple of weeks after the production is Amee's last weekend in London, so we're planning a big night out, and then the week after that Kaye and her friends come around :-) should be great fun! Hopefully during Christmas my crazy American friend Zola will be here - at the moment she's in Russia, then she's going to Texas for a while, then she's coming here (errr?? These well travelled people!). Haven't heard too much about that one though.

OK it's time to wind up. Has been nearly 2 hours since I started writing this. Hope you are all well.... am going to get back and answer some of those emails... promise :-)

Check out the photos :-)

Posted by Sam at November 02, 2003 02:23 AM