So no car to get me back from Keswick and having no time to plan for this eventuality was a worry for everyone but me. I knew better than most just how much of my crap was in Keswick and how utterly unrealistic it was that I would 'get it all back on the train', but one should never underestimate my ability to reassure myself in advance of the event. The Dr knows better.
The Dr is my youngest brother, who happens to be 14 years older than me and who shares a fair few character traits with me. I'm one of four boys, but that's for another day.
The Dr knows well that I am excellent at reassuring myself 'all will be well' as we are both skilled in the art of denial and self reassurance. I'm not sure if he does it too, but I end up having a panic when I realise that my fancifully ideas (or "guy queer notions" as Senga like to call them) have gang agley. I normally call Betsie and The Dr while I half rant at myself for being a fanny and half whimper about my predicament to anyone who has the misfortune to be within earshot. I shouldn't be surprised that The Dr refused point blank to let me get the train and came to pick me up from Keswick.
I made the most of the final night out the night before and woke to find The Dr at the foot of my bed, thankfully not banging saucepans. We got the car pack and headed off with The Dr promising not to drive too erratically - he had sympathy having had a similar experience when Dad picked him up from uni at the end of one term, except Dad had top stop on the hard shoulder so The Dr could be sick. I wasn't sick, I had the morally high ground in my mind.
So home at last and Senga and I could plan our holiday - oh Jesus where to start - all we knew was it was going to be a last minute affair. However KM earned her stripes, she is a travel agent so came home with passwords galore for all sorts of travel agent type websites. Meanwhile Senga found a deal for two weeks all inclusive in Tunisia. KM worked some travel agent magic, but then her wand snapped and she proclaimed that it was actually a really good deal and she couldn't beat it. So we booked and went.
I'll save telling you the full details now and save it for a wet night when the telly is crap. However we had two weeks great weeks and despite sharing a room and didn't fight. We were absolutely amazed. We did have a teeny tiny tiff, but I think we secretly both wanted not to have a fight, so we both backed down.
While I was away I got two phone calls for the same job and came back and arrange an interview and by the end of February I was on tour with Acorn Antiques - The Musical! as ASM - with red Ford Ka mark II. Again on a wet evening I might write all about the Acorn tour, but for now I will just list the Cities;
Woking, Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool, York, Preston, Leeds, Sheffield, Darlington, Richmond, Nottingham, Canterbury, Reading, Bath, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Bournemouth, Southend and Cardiff - although none of them for more than a week.
After four months away I was glad to be back in Glasgow and after a few weeks catching up on things, I started a wee project with 7:84 Theatre Company on a tour round Scotland for a few weeks, which was happily based out of Glasgow and allowed me some welcome time living in my flat, which I was beginning to forget what it looked like. It was also really good actually living with KM, as we only spent a few nights under the same roof since she moved in. Senga was away for all of August and KM got me hooked on Lost (and M&S mashed potato).
The day after I finished with 7:84 I went down to London for an interview for Panto at The Barbican. I stayed with my friend in St Albans and had a really good catch up that night and by the morning had been offered the job - ASM (book cover) for Jack and the Beanstalk. I celebrated that afternoon by seeing Mary Poppins in town. Suitably impressed! That evening I saw Rent: Remixed. Suitably unimpressed, glad I got seats in the centre of the dress circle for a good price with my Equity card, cos it wasn't worth face value on the ticket. To be fair tho there were one or two who stood out as having ability, however as they shone it just showed how poor everything else was.
I was a bit hacked off as I had missed Rent when it was in town and when it was in Glasgow on tour. I love the music and vowed I would not watch the film until I had seen it on stage, wherever that might mean going to. As soon as i was back in Glasgow I watch the film. It was a joy. I have a mate who also vowed the same as I that she loved the music too much and would not watch the DVD till she had seen it on stage. I called her told her to save the price of a trip to London and buy the DVD.
So by the end of October I was down in London and in rehearsals. I had a small crisis on the way down tho. I had booked to stay with a 'theatrical landlady' in Camden who rents out rooms to theatre bods who are down in London for a bit. I called to say I was just coming off the M25, and would be there shortly. She now decided to reveal that she had change her mind!!!!
Its 7pm on a Sunday night. I'm in the car in north London. I have just driven from Glasgow. I have been in the car all day. I need a pee ... now ... this minute! and have to shower in the next two hours (there is another story in there for another rainy day). And now I'm homeless. Thanks! Thanks Maggie C******l of G*******d Street, NW5. Not that I'm bitter.
So found myself a B&B in Contacts, got my head down and went in to start a new job the next morning. My ordeal was like wild fire through the company. By morning tea break half the company had heard a whisper and by lunch the word was out and heads were being scratched. And then my knight in shining armour, my Company Manager (CM), came to my rescue and I stayed with him for 5 nights while I found something a little more permanent. I paid my CM in gin, wine and flowers for his hospitality - I tried cash, but some people just say no!
Barbican sent out an email for me to their staff and AC gave me a ring, we met up and had a cuppa and agreed I'd move in for the 8 weeks left of my contract in exchange for some cold hard cash - I offered to warm it. The rest of the contract with Barbican had some trials and tribulations, but ultimately all came good in the wash.
I'm going to stop short of 'and then it was January and I was unemployed' but it is coming.
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