"But there's no place like London..."

Well, not quite as up-to-date as I was hoping to be, so let's remedy that, shall we? When I last left left you, I was Rat Packing it in Dartford. Not quite the bustling theatrical centre of the UK world, but the people were nice and I suppose it was a good place to get started. It's hard for me to get used to a Saturday load-out, as I've been programed with a Tues-Sun playing schedule and a Monday traveling day, but here, it's all moved up a day, so we play Mon-Sat and travel on Sunday.

Saturday night found me at the venue fighting over the merch statement for hours. Nice to see somethings never change! A simple mathematical error on the venue's behalf was at fault. And being the dorky accountant I tend to be at times, I felt so triumphant for finding it! Of course, it did cause me almost to be locked in the theatre. My office was quite a way down the hallway from the stage, and unbeknownst to me, the load-out had finished and they were locking all the doors, when I ran out in the hallway and was like, "Wait! I'm still here!" Whoops. It was a miracle that I managed to get everything crammed into my computer bag and get out the door without forgetting something! I ran into my head electrician on my way out, and he had two of the crew guys walk me to a cab place so I got home safely. Well done.

Sunday morning, Michael and I (we're Americans, so we travel together) got the train to London. And the two of us and our luggage managed to make it through 3 train/tube stations with all our crap and found a taxi to take us from the Wimbledon Park station to our hotel here in Colliers Wood. As we got out of the cab and began walking to the front of the hotel, we both exclaimed "WHAT!" as we had both seen the tube stop DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET from the hotel. When we asked at the check in which line it was, it was of course the Northern Line which was the first of our three transfers. Ugh! Oh well, live and learn! I unpacked and sorted my 1150 pounds of laundry while watching Smallville (yay!) I didn't unpack in the last two places, but I feel very dishelved when I don't so, as much as I hate packing up on the last night, it makes it worth it to feel a little more at home with my suitcases out of my sight! Around 3:30, I headed into London proper for some sightseeing with Becky (my stage manager for my last 7 weeks of US Rat Packing) I met her at the Embankment tube station, where there was, much to me pleasure, a Starbucks! While I was sitting in there waiting for her, I was thinking, "oh my God! I'm in LONDON!" Very cool! We walked all over the West End and shopping districts. I bought a pair of socks because I'm the most boring person in the world. Also, because the ones I had on kept slipping off my heel, and my lovely Uggs were attacking my left ankle. We crossed the Thames by Royal Albert Hall and the National Theatre for dinner, then headed up the Oxo tower for a drink. It was lame, so then we walked over to a proper pub to enjoy the rest of the night. It was great fun! Very nice to be in some familiar company and see beaucoup de fancy theatre places. I headed home and settled in for the night.

Monday we loaded in at the Wimbledon New Theatre. It was quite uneventful, which was loverly. The show went off without a hitch, and we gathered at the pub across the street to bid farewell to Maria who has been so graciously training me this past 2 weeks. Unlike Dartford, and much to my happiness, this pub doesn't close at 11, but a blissful 12, so I can finish up all my reporting and still make it out to have a drink with the crew and band.

Yesterday was my first day on my own, and I think it went alright. Company management is such a weird little career. You have a certain set of things that must get done, but everyone who does it has their own way of getting there. I always think it's difficult when you get too many cm's together as we tend to be quite an group of bossy, independent people who all think their way is the best! And though I don't really consider my way to be the best, and SURELY know that I have a lot more to learn about implementing policies and such, I like my space to be my own, so once I walked into the office yesterday, I felt much better. Also helping this was the voice of my favorite Scottish wig mistress Morag who was in to help sort out the wigs for the girls I was so happy to see her I almost cried! Morag toured with us for all but 3 weeks in the US and she's really one of the most fantastic people I've met on this show. We chatted and hung out while she dressed all the wigs, and then I went out and finally bought my own UK cell phone. So, now I have 3 phones on me. I'm a total nerd for real now. But this phone is pretty and pink, and if any of you reading this walked into a cell phone store and had to pick out a cell phone for me, I seriously believe you would all chose this one. It's just perfect for me. I suppose I spent way too many pounds on it, but whatever. I did more Houston planning last night getting the visa applications ready for the girls and correcting the new program and getting all my flights to Houston sorted. I think we're finally working with a full crew, which is fantastic! We still have 2.5 weeks, so we're totes ahead of the game. I met up with Mitch (our director) and Jo (our resident director) and the cast, crew, and band at the pub last night. It was fun when everyone was out!! When we head out of London next week, there will probably be more nights like that since everyone won't be rushing to catch a train. Then I headed home, and was blindsided by the worst headache I've had in quite sometime. I tried to sleep, but couldn't, so just worked on box office statements and random Excel spreadsheets. Say what you will, Excel makes me a happier person.

Today, I've been taking full advantage of the internet at the hotel that I sold my soul for. At the theatre I'm using DIAL UP! Do you guys even remember that? Every time I log on, I fully expect to hear Tom Hanks narrating on the wonders of New York in the fall. Anyone, anyone? It's been nice having the high speed, but it's probably about that time to head over to Wimbledon. Much love from London!