Confessions of a Struggling Actor

Here I am back in a town that I hold conflicting feelings about.  It is slightly different this time though...

Thursday night was another night out that I had to miss (think of the bank account Scott...) as I left early from my mate Sam's leaving drinks from GWR to enjoy a rehearsal in Hampstead.  Not that I ended up missing out too much, as Friday was a doss.  After ironing out the details and info for the trip to Germany, I joined the final goodbyes to Sam at lunchtime (for 2 hours in a pub) where the atmosphere was quality.  Much as I slag GWR off, there are some good people there whose company I enjoy, but don't get the chance to spend enough time with in the working day.

I then met Simon for further discussions about how our plans for the near future were going, but it was very brief as he had to head off to meet mates and I had to go to a meeting about the french trip.  I was informative and interesting, but I left early to get some packing done.  I was knackered, but managed to get it all done and only forgot my toothbrush.  (Insert 90s game show gag here...)

Saturday, I lugged my stuff to rehearsal, which went well again.  We'll see how things are when I return (and we know all our lines) next Monday but I'm happy with the progress I'm making with the Friar.  I'm beginning to make some inroads and hope that I'm not just completely barking up the wrong tree and playing to the gallery.  Then it was down to Heathrow, get a bus to meet Sam to watch 15 mins of the England game before checking in and watching the pens amongst hundreds of people in a little pub in Terminal 2.  Felt sorry for my English mates as penalties are again how they go out and it's not pretty to watch unless you win.  Not that us Scots have much chance of getting to the stage where we actually get that far...  Flew across, got to our hotel around 12 and had a quick Becks and to bed.

Munich is not what I remember it to be.  OK last time was full of apochryphal (sp?...sense?) tales, but I didn't realise how much of the city we'd missed.  I'm here with Sam (on a last hurrah before he leaves) and Pam (a local) and Simon, both from our TV department.  Really nice group to go with and we've had a great time so far.

As far as the work we're doing, there is a kids tournament going on in the Olympic Stadium that we're a part of.  It's all football, so you can imagine how much I'm bored and hating it.  Sunday, we went down to meet a few of our hosts and do some preliminary setting up of our area - putting up large flagpoles, checking that everything was there that we expected it to be and then heading back for a shower as it's baking hot here.  We then went out and met two of Pam's good friends.  Blonde, leggy, extremely good looking and with a firm grasp of English (but not enough to be fluent, which makes it even more endearing) Elke and Brite were great company as we ate weiner schnitzel and drank from litre stein glasses.  As the single male, I was trying to converse as much as possible - not that I believed I had any chance, but because I felt that I had done this kind of 'getting to know you' chat a lot more than the two other gents (who are in long term relationships and were a little quiet to start with).  We ended up having a sparky discussion about fame, its manifestations and the pitfalls that come alongside it, with the girls and I ganging up against Sam.  Why do I always seem to be on the side of the females in lively debates?  It's not intentional in an ingratiating fashion, I just tend to share their point of view very often and that it isn't all B&W as many guys make out.  Annnnyway...

Today was hard work with a fair bit of heavy lifting and manual work.  Again it was boiling hot, but there's something about being on the pitch at that park that makes you work harder and feel inspired.  Eventually had everything set, but are still waiting for a FedEx parcel to come through with a lot of the important stuff we need.  They swear it will be here on time tomorrow, but we'll see...  This evening we met with the Elegant Elke again and we went down to Marianplatz, the Hofbrauhaus and then a long, but enjoyable trek to the Englishgarden.  This was where Biz's stag did Heads, Shoulders Kness and Toes (if I remember righly), but I hadn't brought my words with me.  Pity.

This time round, Munich is great.  I'm sure it would have been the same if I'd been on the stag, but there's none of that history going on.  It's a wonderful city and the people are fantastic.  We're watching both semis on a big screen in the Olympicstadion over the next two nights and have been promised a great night if the Deutsch win tomorrow.  It's going to be a mental couple of days, but if I'm alive on Thursday evening when I have my stop over at home, I'll update you.  It may not make much sense though.

So far this trip, smoked a pack of fags and drank nearly ten litres of beer.  I know I keep saying it, but I HAVE to exercise when I get back home...