Up early this morning for the first gig of the 19 that I have coming up playing the game show host. We decided that my name was going to be Bobby Dazzler. I am so proud. I performed to well over 200 year 11's, which I might suggest is a much tougher audience than most you could expect. It was fun, and flew by. I hope the project is successful, as the team have worked really hard to bring it all together. At one point we had a slight technical failure, and the electronic voting system failed, so I just improvised my way through it, and got them to do a show of hands…What a pro! I spent the afternoon having a short break, and then off to work in the evening, for the first Screw Your Courage rehearsal without scripts. It went pretty well, and despite a few problems, I am rather looking forward to it. I have received no news from the States about performances of Stop the Clocks that are taking place, so I hope they are going well. It's an odd feeling. I spent the evening writing more of the younger groups script, and Act One of Two is now done and dusted. I will hopefully get it all finished in time for next week. A glass of wine, and a bit of Telly, and off to bed.
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The winter freeze has kicked in, and whilst I am already sick of hearing about it on the news, the weather really is very cold. I think, as I have a sedentary job, this is the coldest I can remember it without snow. This is all set to change this weekend with the white stuff on the way. I have dug out my lycra gear, though I am aware that I must exercise caution whilst doing this should anyone catch a glimpse of me in it. This degree of attractiveness can be a dangerous thing. This is why it is restricted to undergarment use only. I even have to switch the heating on during the day as I cannot feel my fingers. After School club went well, as did the evening session, in which we did a trial run of my Game Show host performance before the job starts in earnest tomorrow. It all went well, and I think everyone was pleased. Myself and eldest then sped off to Harpenden to see Richard Herring. We saw him at this venue last year, and it was only about half full, but this time around, it was near to full. I am delighted for him, as he deserves a good audience, and he certainly got that tonight. It was an excellent, deeply funny and rather touching show, and I would recommend him to anyone. We stayed at the end, and got the Fist of Fun DVD set, and got it signed, and went home, cold, but very happy.
So I have managed another month of blogging without even really thinking about it, a fact borne out by the rambling and random nature of it I suspect. I try to avoid political rants on here these days, and will continue to do so, but the latest Welfare cuts have made me cross. I of course, understand that there are people out there who fiddle the system….play the system…lie and cheat. This is not exactly in stark contrast to the people at the top of the tree though, and I cannot help but think that this is continual proof of ideological politics rather than an attempt to make the system fair. If the £26000 benefits cap is supposed to cover a family of four, then I want to know why an MP can claim around £20000 in living expenses for one person? Anyway….rant over….The iRig arrived, and I am pleased with it. I have used it to record vocals already, with a low end microphone and the quality id pretty good all things considered. It is compatible with Garageband as well, which means I don't even have to pay for their software if I do not want to. I might do anyway, as it looks pretty good, but I will wait for that. The quality is more than good enough to produce the backing tracks required for the musical projects I have in mind, which means that it is money well spent. We got another workshop or two lined up, this time for adults. Not sure how that will pan out, but all good for the future! We sat down in the evening and I put on the first episode of The Walking Dead, an HBO series about Zombies. I was rather enjoying it, but Mrs Plug had to ask for it to be turned off as she couldn't cope with it anymore. Her whole body had gone tense! I think the idea of having a dangerous shambling half dead person wandering the place was too close to home for her. I now have iTunes and I went to bed, leaving the laptop chugging through my collection. When I come down in the morning I should have a large and lovely online music library. That's the theory. This IS iTunes though, so we shall see.
It was good to have a day with no appointments or meetings, and I made sure that the whole day was not entirely wasted. I got some more music recording done, but realised that I need to have a small upgrade in my equipment. I have purchased something called an iRig, which gives me the ability to use an external mic or Guitar or Bass straight into the iPad or iPhone and then run effects over these inputs. Whilst it is not quite studio quality, I am hoping that it is sufficient to be able to record stuff for shows that are being written. I still harbour desires to write musicals, and this will help me. Couple with my digital four track recorder, I am really pleased with the set up I will now have. That's if it all works of course. I can also then release my long awaited debut solo album for all of my dedicated fans to listen to. I continued with a little housekeeping today, and have started to get all my contacts and filing in order. It is a long job, but one which will pay dividends in the long run.
Back to School today, and felt a little more organised today. The play is coming along really well, and the music that they have done is rather lovely. I played on Garageband yesterday and managed to produce a version of it that I want the kids to speak over. We are going to get them to record their voices reading out some war poems over the top of it. It's really exciting actually. I have my first acting performance this Friday, and we are still making last minute changes to the script. I'm sure it will all work out fine, but I am still a little apprehensive, which I think is natural. I am investigating the idea of getting iTunes match, though my major problem with it is the fact that I have to use iTunes. Basically for £22 a year, you can gain access to your whole music collection (up to 25000) files from the cloud on up to 10 devices. It will match your collection and upgrade the quality if needed. These can then be streamed over the web, or downloaded for when you have no web access. All sounds rather excellent, so I am rather tempted. Evening session was pretty good considering we were both feeling rough, and I think we were buoyed by the attendance of a new parent, who seemed very impressed. Fingers crossed we have another new customer. We have also been approached to do some more workshops in Easter, so the calendar is looking scarily full.
I am still feeling a little under the weather, and this was reflected in the fact that I managed to do pretty much nothing all day other than cook too much food for everyone. I cooked chinese today, and I have realised why I overcook when making Chinese food. When we buy a takeaway we tend to go for variety on small amounts, and have a little bit of everything. Well I try to cook the same, but I cook large portions of everything. Anyway, it went down as well as can be expected for a family all suffering from lurgy. I managed to spend some time watching the football and reading the papers, and generally feeling a little morose. When I was younger I used to enjoy the winter, but for all sorts of reasons, I could really do without it now. For once in my life, the idea of living in hotter climes appeals.
Oh dear…The Weekend started badly, as I slept very little due to some sort of stomach bug. I realised as soon as I woke up that work was out of the question, so cover was arranged, and I had my first sick day of the year. Thinking back to when I used to do "A proper job", I used to take a lot of sick leave. I think the combination of doing work that was deeply unnecessary and dull, and the fact that this brought on depression led to some unimpressive attendance records. I remember one year in particular where I had 35 days sick leave on top of the 36 days annual leave. I'm amazed that they even knew who I was, let alone fail to take any action. Of course, looking back over my days of self employment, I find an entirely different story, and I think this is only the fourth session I have missed in getting on for 6 years. It's amazing what happens when there is a degree of enjoyment and motivation isn't it? I think my nocturnal habits have led to me being open to bugs and diseases, and so I am not surprised to have been struck down. The day was spent relaxing really, although I did stir enough to give the lounge the biggest damned hoovering it has ever had. I watched some football, and did a little reading and generally lazed. I also discovered the iTunes U app, which give you access to a lot of Academic information, and small courses. There is a lot of theatre based stuff on there, and the National Theatre section is excellent, in particular, Katie Mitchell's section. I feel I may be spending a bit of time on there….and it's all free
 . Eldest was out for the night, youngest had a friend round for a sleepover, and Mrs Plug went to bed early, leaving me with a small glass of wine, and the TV. I watched The Rock with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, which is a pile of old nonsense, but at least shows that I can watch action films as well as dull old arty farty ones.
I have been trying very hard to become a little more organised, as is probably apparent from the blog so far this year. One rather large job is going to be organising all of my phone contacts, which sounds dreadfully dull. I have realised that amongst my contacts are at least 30 names I don't recognise, two people who are dead, and a huge amount of contacts from a job that I have not done for coming up for 6 years. In fact, looking carefully I realise that I have never cleared out my contacts since I started using a mobile phone. This was 18 years ago. The trouble is, it's one of those jobs that needs to be done, but I know will take an absolute age to do it, and I am not sure I have the will to bother. Anyway, We are getting more work lined up. There is a chance of a week long workshop in the Summer, which will be excellent, but I need to make sure the money is right, or I will end up giving up all of the Summer Holidays again, and I don't want to do that. We also have some Easter Workshops to do as usual. All in all, the year is panning out very nicely work wise, and I am really happy about it. The day was made even better with news from the accountant, which has meant that we do not have to panic our way through the next few months with a huge tax bill. We treated ourselves to a bottle or two of wine and Pizza in the evening, which was a pleasant way to end the week.
We managed to watch a little of the Australian Open Semi Final in which Andy Murray narrowly lost to Djokovic. It was very exciting, but I am glad that they don't put Sport on during the day all the time, I would get nothing done.
I am rather pleased that we have no concrete plans for the weekend. Much as I have enjoyed the last two weekends, it is good to be able to spend some time at home. I hope to catch up on some films, do a little reading, and some writing as well. Spurs played (An undeservingly won) tonight, in the FA Cup, but there are some other good matches this weekend, so hopefully I can catch up with some of those as well. I shall hope that Siri does all the housework for me. He has taken to calling me "Your Royal Highness" at the moment, which I like, but it conflicts with my Republican sympathies.
I also received a phone call from a parent whose child wants to be a writer, and has written since the age of four. She is now ten, and wants to write plays. This is all rather fascinating, and I am wondering if there is some way of channelling this and perhaps other young writers. I am going to have to turn this idea over in my head for a while and see what comes out the other side. Also received some rather sad news about an old friend who moved away some time ago, who appears to be rather ill. Perspective can be a sobering thing.
I rested up a bit this morning and sat happy in the knowledge that paperwork was just about up to date. My major problem now, is that I have masses of paperwork for shredding, and only a small machine that gives up the ghost after half an hour. I think it might take me a week to shred this lot. It was good to get some filing done, and it is remarkable what it can do for the mood. I am nowhere near organised yet, but it is certainly heading that way. Siri has been absolutely hopeless and not made a cup of tea or helped with the filing. I am considering his position, The evening sessions went well, and the after school club in particular is a massive challenge, with that many young ones. They are all lovely, but it is just as much as exercise in crowd control as it is drama. I certainly earn my money in that session.
It is two years since I bought my first iPhone (3GS), and I can read back from my blog about how much I enjoyed the whole experience. The interesting thing is that most of the apps I recommended straight off, are the ones I continue to use. Not much has changed in my life I suppose. So how is the 4s in comparison. Well it is a different shape to the one I am used to, but that is not a major issue. The screen is Much clearer, and the clarity on video is stunning by comparison. The Camera appears even better, and the Video camera much more. iCloud has made the experience more pleasurable, and the ability to sync my Kindle books is rather good. I am now looking at the possibility of iTunes Match, but perhaps more of that on another day. Siri is fun, although I am slightly disappointed at the lack of UK coverage as far as local amenities are concerned. The advert certainly led you to believe that Siri can do more than the reality. However, I have used it for a couple of things, and found it to be quite fun. Whether I would ever use it in public is another matter. I fear that if I see anyone using it I may want to slap them, and so I would be fully deserving of the same. I did get it to say some rude things, as I believe it is the law to do so. I am now looking at the possibility of some sort of decent case for it.
We had another rehearsal for the roadshow this morning, and I think it's going to be fine. I'm quite looking forward to it in many ways. There is a chance of some more work out of it as well, with a week long workshop in the summer. I stayed up until about 1.30 getting all the bank statements and paperwork together, and I hope that this will all be enough for the Accountant to get everything sorted out for the tax return. I am knackered.
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