Apologies for the food-fest that was the last blog, I shall try and steer clear of mealtimes this week (who says dancers don't eat!)...So most of the company went home for the weekend, but I travelled straight to Manchester for a nice weekend with my beautiful parents (who are gradually adopting the whole company!). I like performing at the Lowry as it holds many memories - for many of us our first 2 weeks with the company were spent there and our first tour ended there. For me, it's about as near to home as we get and so my friends from home can come which is great! (Hi to The Old Man and The Hero).
2 performances in Manchester means 1 morning off, and a few of us went to the Imperial War Museum which was a pretty cool place with a great viewing platform to see the whole of Salford Quays. For the first time on the tour there was a strange silence during our pre-show preparations - no last minute sound checking!
Manchester was pretty cold which made me doubt that I had packed an adequate winter wardrobe for the impending trip north to Inverness (which apparently is in line with Sweden) Brrr...
It was the turn of Miffy and I to travel early morning ahead of everyone to lead one of our numerous Workshops. We got a very tiny plane (which had propellors!) to the suitably playmobil-sized Inverness airport, flying over beautiful snow-capped mountains. Arriving a little too early to check in to our hotel (by 4hours) the only option was shopping *DANGER*! Er... I might have accidentally bought a kilt... The lady warned me not to believe the rumours and always wear undergarments - Thanks for the tip.
Had a good evening of workshops at the stunning Eden Court (yay for heated floors!), taking over a Musical Theatre and Jazz class for some Jasmin Vardimon Company action! On the performance day we had the luxury of having access to a sauna in our hotel (Thank You Tour Manager!) which was a luxury pre-warm-up-warm-up!
The morning after our performance, I was alarmingly woken up by a chamber maid dressed in a pink sparkly cowboy outfit knocking on the door (don't ask) then we did another workshop before travelling south to Stirling. We all went different ways, some in the van with the technical crew telling tales of 'relentless scenery' and some on the train appreciating the views at speed.
Halloween meant there was only one choice for entertainment- a scary movie. We went for the only one available - A Swedish Vampire Movie (no really!) - although it was slightly tongue-in-cheek and had some decent one-liners, I think Sweden should probably stick to flat-pack furniture and elk-salami!
We had a lovely reaction in Scotland! What is it about these rowdy Celtic audiences? There must be something in the blood that makes them go crazy for exposed flesh! Ha ha! I really like Scotland and the Scottish folk are always very friendly (Hello to Pete and his minions!). Back to London before the final leg!
