Month: August 2004

On Monday Jonathan and I took the bus to Manchester Airport to rent (‘hire’) a car…that was the only way to make sure he got to Gatwick in time for his flight. I rented it in my name, since he’s still a young’un. 😉 I had no problem with using my left hand to work the gear shift, and it only took me two or three curbs before I got the hang of driving on the left side of the road. We were originally going to try to find a sushi place for dinner, but the signage was so poor leaving the airport that we weren’t quite sure which way was which, so we settled for McDonald’s and the safety of staying on the A6 back to Buxton. Listened to a marvelous show on Radio 4 called Just a Minute, where four celebrities are challenged to speak on random topics for sixty seconds without hesitation, repetition, or deviation. We stayed in the car to listen for a while even after we had found a parking spot. Here is an example. Had a triple feature at the opera house that evening: The Zoo, Cox and Box, and Trial by Jury. The first, a festival production, was excellent; the second, decent; the last, unfortunately, was pretty dreadful. Skipped the cabaret in order to get packed (wasn’t expecting any time for it on Tuesday).

Got up on the day of the show and drove our costumes to the opera house. Wandered over to the market square, bought a copy of Elijah for £1 to have music for the cabaret in the evening, then went around trying to find some Buxton Blue Cheese for Glenn and Elizabeth…found a cheese shop that had some, but the owner informed me that would probably be the last, since the place that makes it is going to stop soon. Bought a cold bag at the camping store and put them both in the fridge at the opera house so that it would make it home without spoiling. Jonathan got an email from Caroline Shaw saying that she was going to be taking three trains and two buses to come up just to see the show! Quick walk-through before lunch, then first (and only) dress rehearsal. No problems at all with Heavy Dragoon, including the encore verse, but after the run-thru they wanted us to do it again to work on the guys actions, and I completely “lost the plot”, as they put it, which turned me into a nervous wreck for the show. Put the encore verse on a scroll for Justin (the Duke) to hand to me, but I was determined to not use it for the ‘real’ verses. Showtime arrives, everyone is sounding and looking marvelous, then it’s time for the dragoons entrance. We march on, no applause at the end, so we go into Heavy Dragoon. Manage to recall everything in the correct order, but then go on to a) forget to come in on time for my line “Angela, what is the meaning of this?” which comes out in a very East Texas twang, and b) to pull the line from verse 2 of Uniform into verse one. Ah, well. Everyone else was brilliant…I’m still amazed at the quality of the folks, and of the whole production in just one week from first rehearsal to performance.

Cabaret was a lot of fun. Caroline declared Patience her new favorite G&S show. Simon Butteriss, the current standard-bearer of patter excellence and theatrical descendent of Grossmith, Greene, Lytton, and Donkin, came up to me and said that he really enjoyed the show and my performance, and that it was the best diction he’d heard on Heavy Dragoon. *blush*

Got the DVD of both the show and the cabaret at 1am (Christopher, you rock!), then got about two and a half hours of sleep before waking up and driving to London. The first 3 hours were smooth sailing, aside from the occasional bit of rain, but it took us a good two hours to get the little bit around the M25 to Gatwick…but, in the end, Jonathan got there in time for his flight. I dropped off the car after filling up the tank (less than 8 gallons cost more than $50!!), left my big back at the Left Luggage counter, then took the Gatwick Express back into town and flopped at a hotel near Victoria for a quick nap. Was going to see about a ticket to a show that evening, but decided not worth £21.20 to fall asleep in a theater. Went up to the offices of Turmeaus to visit with Mitchell and Michelle, who were completely swamped with their latest expansion. Had a nice dinner in Lisle Street at Imperial China, then wandered around a bit before heading back to the hotel.

Woke up at 5:45 in order to get to Gatwick in time, and a good thing, since rains had delayed the trains and I got there 45 minutes later than I had planned. No problems retrieving my bag or checking in, but when I got on the plane, I discovered that I had the middle seat of the middle section, and I was seated between two women who each had an infant. One of them said as I turned went to my seat, “You look horrified.” Luckily a flight attendant took pity on me and let me scoot up to the half-empty business section. 🙂 I slept for at least four hours. Had my quickest transit through immigration and customs (less than 5 minutes combined!), and Camille was good enough to give me a ride home.

I think the best part about traveling is coming home. I love going all over the place, seeing the different sights, eating the different foods, learning about different cultures, but I love even more the sense of belonging that sweeps over me every time I get back to Houston.

Will post final diary entries and pics later today.