Tuesday 7 February - Harvington
Time to get this show on the road. Our first performance day runs like this: leave Essex a little tired following 2am Ella wake up (still coping with jet lag), car fully packed, drive two hours to Coleshill where wonderful cousin Nadine is waiting for our arrival, meet Nadine, drive to Nadine's friend's house to meet nice people who we've never met before, take over their house and leave our baby with essentially random people she has never met before, drop off Ella and luggage "bye bye honey, have fun with all these new people", feel slightly like a bad, mean mother, get over it, drive to Birmingham International train station to collect Greg, double bass and luggage, drive a further hour to Harvington Village Hall, meet lovely Harvington villagers, set up show, do a quick survey of the show, wonder if we have done enough to prepare, become slightly nervous, begin show, breathe sigh of relief when all goes well, send text to Christa (the never before met house host) to see if our child is surviving, breathe sigh of relief to hear she is delightful and having a wonderful time with her new friends, have a little hooray when things go brilliantly in second half of show, finish show, get back in car, attempt to navigate back to house we left from, get it totally wrong and go to different but very similarly named street in village 25 minutes away from actual house, curse rubbish i-phone map, become hysterical after passing the stroke of midnight and still not home (must not turn into
pumpkin, must not turn into pumpkin), finally, miraculously arrive back at house, try unsuccessfully to enter home with keys, wonder how long frost bite takes to set in (it is below 0 degrees), continue to pass keys around to see if anyone can make it happen, meet Christa for the first time in her dressing gown and slippers as she kindly lets us in the door, apologise for waking her up, taking over her house, leaving our child with her, being hysterical. Lovely Christa smiles a kind smile and says we can help ourselves to anything. Bless.
All in all a massive day, but what an unexpected success! The show went hugely better than any of us could have imagined. The rawness of our states after all the travel and logistics somehow managed to put us in a place where we were totally ready for anything. The audience were a dream and we had great lighting from resident techie Chris. Could be just beginners luck but it seems that this show is a perfect fit for these audiences ... let's see what happens tomorrow.
pumpkin, must not turn into pumpkin), finally, miraculously arrive back at house, try unsuccessfully to enter home with keys, wonder how long frost bite takes to set in (it is below 0 degrees), continue to pass keys around to see if anyone can make it happen, meet Christa for the first time in her dressing gown and slippers as she kindly lets us in the door, apologise for waking her up, taking over her house, leaving our child with her, being hysterical. Lovely Christa smiles a kind smile and says we can help ourselves to anything. Bless.All in all a massive day, but what an unexpected success! The show went hugely better than any of us could have imagined. The rawness of our states after all the travel and logistics somehow managed to put us in a place where we were totally ready for anything. The audience were a dream and we had great lighting from resident techie Chris. Could be just beginners luck but it seems that this show is a perfect fit for these audiences ... let's see what happens tomorrow.
