The Final Countdown

So...

2 more sleeps until I head up to Scotland to begin my next adventure. Though I don't start rehearsals for another 6 sleeps, it worked out so much cheaper to go up a few days earlier and spend some time exploring Scotland. I've booked into a hostel in Glasgow a few days before I start rehearsals on Monday, in Ayr. I've never been that far north before so I'm rather excited to go on my first proper solo adventure. As I'm in Glasgow for 3 1/2 days, I figured that I'd see if it would be worth looking into a day trip to Edinburgh as well to make the most of my time. To show how little I knew about Scotland, I thought Edinburgh was at least a couple of hours away from Glasgow. I found out it's less than an hour on the train so I'm definitely going! It's just a shame that the fringe festival isn't still on because that would have been amazing. 

**If anyone has any recommendations of fun things to do solo come rain or shine in Glasgow/Edinburgh please let me know**

This week, I also received my script for the Panto and it was very exciting. I've already begun shaping my characters and bringing them off the page, as well as learning as many of the lines as possible and getting to grips with the script and the story as well. Knowing that there's a lot of ad lib in the show, there's not a massive pressure to be word for word so as long as I am completely familiar with the script, in rehearsals it will develop organically. (Though knowing me, I will probably know a good majority of the lines by Monday). I read through the script quite a few times and played the songs when they appeared, and oh my goodness, I can feel how tiring this panto season is going to be.  But I'm super excited for this change of pace and hope it'll be something I really love. Playing 4 very different characters is going to be one hell of a challenge but it will make me a stronger actor (I hope). This experience is going to be a massive learning curve for me as I'll be experiencing so many new things. They will be skills I can carry forward with me in life, whether I decide touring pantomime is the life for me or not. 

The biggest challenge I have to face though, even before I leave? PACKING. Where do you even begin packing for 3 1/2 months, knowing it's coming into winter so I'll need more layers, but it's not cold enough yet to be wearing them so a lot of your case is a bunch of 'just incases'. It's been very stressful trying to get my case to a weight that won't break my arm. I was planning on taking a cabin sized bag. HA. I realised very quickly that my coat and hoodie filled up 70% of that case so what am I supposed to do? I wish I could say that if it wasn't coming into winter it wouldn't be a problem, but this weather in the U.K. is so unpredictable that it's safer to pack those things anyway. 

I've decided. I hate packing. 

I'll attack the case one more time and whatever happens in the third time I sort it, is what stays. I'm just gonna have to pretend it's super light and accessible. Hey, I'll practice the whole 'acting' thing. 

There's always gonna be last minute stress, I just have to learn to deal with it. Oh, I have no bank card after the end of September? Cool. I'll figure it out. That isn't stressful at all. Here's hoping that Mr. Postman can save the day and bring it this week! Putting way too much faith into Royal Mail but I have to. It hurts. 

Anyway, the next few months are going to be an amazing adventure... maybe because I'll have no way for paying for things unless I find a bank to get cash out, but it's all part of life. I should have been more prepared but there's not a lot I can do about it now other than hope for the best. 'I'll figure it out' is going to be the saying of the tour. Who needs 'what goes on tour, stays on tour', something as cool as that, when you can just say... I'll figure it out. 

Spontaneity is the BEST kind of adventure.

Well, I've just come back from a lovely little break in Spain after only booking it a week in advance. After spending months looking for holidays and things getting delayed, avoiding booking things, money getting in the way and time running away from us... I didn't think I'd get the chance to go away at all this year and it was driving me insane. So basically, I went on a load of last minute holiday websites and I said to my friend, who also had the same travel itch as I did,

'I don't know where I'm going, but I'm going. Are you coming with me?'

And of course, the answer was 'Yes. YES. YES!'. Within a couple of hours of looking, we found a brilliant deal and just booked it. Nothing planned, just 4 nights in Spain near Barcelona. Finally. going somewhere new, creating new memories and getting a well deserved break after finishing University this year. It was so exciting to book something and only have a 7 day countdown. We started trying to plan things to do in the short amount of time we were there but we just decided to plan to be spontaneous, as contradicting as that sounds. Obviously we knew that on one of the days, we wanted to go into central Barcelona as we were staying about an hour away from there. But other than that, we had no idea what we were going to do, knew nothing about the area we were staying in, but just turned up and just explored, and discovered the nicest little places in this Spanish town. When we first arrived, our thoughts were 'dingy, washed up, tourist destination that people have forgotten about' but that wasn't the case at all. We found where it was all happening and when we were sat out for dinner and sangria dining al fresco, we happened to be front row to some kind of 'drum-off' fiesta! There were groups of drummers doing their little routines, passing by us, and just making us feel really happy about our decision to come to this holiday destination.

Now, this may have been because of the Sangria... but either way, we had an amazing time. We then just sat on the beach and watched the sun go down, and it was just lovely sitting there, finding the prettiest stones and shells. It's moments like those I enjoy the most. That whole day was so completely unplanned, it started off with swimming in the hotel pool, sunbathing, eating lunch at the hotel bar, sunbathing and swimming some more, then a stroll around new parts of the place we were staying in, finding the cutest little restaurant and accidentally stumbling across the fiesta, then the sunset on the beach. It was just wonderful.

              The best times in life are usually random, unplanned and completely spontaneous.

I could go on and talk about how many memories we made, and all of the new culture we experienced, but I'm afraid it would take way too long. Travel is something that every single person should experience. When was the last time you did something for the first time? That's something that travelling can offer you. Every single day, you can try something new, whether it's food that originated from that particular country, an original landmark that you won't see anywhere else, or even just a sunset over a beach you've never walked across...

"Travelling's not something you're good at. It's something you should do. Like breathing." 

- Gayle Foreman