Dear Alexandra,

Many thanks for coming along to audition for ‘West Side Story’. Unfortunately, we cannot offer you a place on the recall list. As we’re sure you will understand, we had a huge number of people audition (over 150) and the standard was extremely high. Please come and see the show, and if you have any questions about your audition, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Production Team

PS: If you would still like to be involved in the show on the technical side of things, please let us know.

Never mind. Guess I just wasn’t what they were looking for… again…

AxXx

Well I’m back from my audition, and only ache slightly which is a good thing. We arrived and they decided that they’d do the dance part of the audition first, just so we were nice ad out of breath when it came to the singing. But i guess in the show you’ll have to do that anyway.

The piece of dance they taught us was to the song “America”, which is rather fast indeed. It also has a weird beat as it’s 123, 123, 1-2-3 (please say that makes some kind of sense. No? Ah well) It was really agressive dancing though, lots of punches and rolling around on the floor. I succeeded in giving myself carpet burns on the first time we hit the floor (going from standing to sitting on your leg is never a good thing) but i was fairly confident when they had us up in groups of 3 to perform it. And you know what? I didn’t screw up.. well not too noticably anyway.

The singing came next (after we’d gotten our breath back) and coz i was third on the list it meant i was able to sing whilst the adrenaline was still pumping. The nerves hit about halfway through the song (just as i reached the high point) but instead of making me go flat it actually helped me. If anything i think i was a wee bit sharp, which on that top note is impressive! I sang it al lte way through, without them stopping me and with no mistakes. I think i was also the only one not to have the words with me having already learnt them.

Lastly was the acting. They wanted the Puerto Rican accent (which for some reasno kept going russian during practice - well you try it) but when it came to the read through everything was fine. Again, it went all the way through with no stops, just a big smile and a thank you and you’re free to go.

So that was it. No way near as bad as expected. And somebody said we may well hear tomorrow about whether or not we’ve been called back. Fingers crossed.

AxXx

- apologies for any nasty typos. I’m in the computer room and the keyboard is a wee bit sticky.

I’m off for my audition. It runs for an hour and a half and i’m just a wee bit on the nervous side.

Wish me luck… God knows i need it.

AxXx

- will post the results of the audtion saga as soon as i can

I’m a very busy person. No apologies… life happens.

In the case of my life i can break it down quite simply for you:

- I have an audition for West Side Story tonight

- I have been made official conductor of our choir and we have a concert on the 3rd

- I’m stage manager of the panto at college and my duties as head boss man start on monday

- I’m working Ladies Night instead of going to it

- Things with G are just fantastic

Lets start with the first one shall we? West Side Story is being put on by DULOG (Durham University Light Opera Group). Last year they did a production of Fame which I also auditioned for but sadly didn’t get a part in. This year however, I feel more confident. I know the song I’m singing, I’m fitter and more supple than i was so the dancing shouldn’t kill me off, I know the story (G got me the script to read bless him) and I’m raring to go. Doesn’t stop me being really really nervous though. I’m really not the worlds biggest fan of auditions. But You never know unless you try, and I’ve got G supporting me.

The choir is a newly ratified one in college called Castle Singing Society (catchy name huh?!) Basically we’re a group of people who like to get together to sing, and sing we do. We’re currently singing the rhythm of life and also Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd (used as the them tune to the Vicar of Dibley for those of you who don’t know) I have been appointed their official conductor (go me with my commanding presence!) and we have a concert on friday with the orchestra. This would be all good if I hadn’t since been informed that they want to try and learn a christmassy one. We only have a week!!!

*breathe*

I’ve started sitting in on the Panto rehearsals (or “Panto Panto” as we call it… with jazz hands) and things are… interesting to say the least. But as of Monday i get to take over. Apparently lots of e-mails have been sent round saying how much in charge i’m going to be, quite scary really. I just hope they don’t do anything again like they have before. Already they’d re-written a scene and changed the stage plan without telling me… don’t you just love it? But I now have stash so it’s all good
Ladies Night is tomorrow and is themed on 1940’s war time (last year it was the 1920’s gangsters). I really wish i was going but I’d already said I’d work it to help get a foot in the door when it comes to an exec position. So G is just gonna have to go eat out and not join in the fun and frolics. The only sad thing is that I’ll only be able to go to the informal ball next term as if I get my exec position then I’ll have to work the June ball instead of going to it. And what with G being a 3rd year that means he’ll want to go and i won’t be able to.

Ah yes, G. Things are just wonderful. We’re taking it slowly as I’ve said but I’ve yet to really spend a night in my own bed. I wake up smiling no matter how bad my day gets i can always cheer up again as i know i can go to him to get a hug to make it better again. Not only that but he’s been really supportive about my audition, getting me the soundtrack and the script, and even offering to watch it with me on the weekend. he’s also really understanding about me working Ladies Night too. I can’t really believe it sometimes… my love life appears to be on the right track again.

But I’m not gonna say too much as i don’t want to jinx it. All i will say is that I’m happy. I have a wonderful bloke who smells gorgeous and has a delectable derrière.

I think that just about brings us up to date. I’m off down to the kitchen to make some more chocolate covered marzipan balls (present for G) and then to take a nice relaxing shower to calm myself down before tonight.

Incidentally, that’s the name of the song I’m singing… Tonight. Very nice, just thought I’d tell you!

AxXx

“Tonight, tonight, it all began tonight, I saw you and the world went away…”

Why is it that just as I start to get things back on track something else happens?

Mr Director is coming up on the 11th.
He could well be staying with me.

It’s bloody typical timing really. I wouldn’t have minded before, but now I do. Midge has already said that if Mr Director stays with me then he may well be forced to keep me hostage elsewhere whilst he breaks his legs.

And G, things are so lovely with G at the moment. We’re taking each day as it comes and things seem to be working ok. Well for a start i wake up smiling every morning which has to be a good thing right?! And now Mr Director is coming back.

Bollocks.

The hardest part of it all was telling G that he was definately coming and when last heard he would be staying with me. I think I’m just gonna have to give him the keys to my house and go live elsewhere whilst he’s here. Either that or get a sleeping bag from someone and make him sleep on the couch. G says he trusts me, and I trust myself too… It’s just Mr Director I’m not too sure about.

Hopefully though he will be a perfect gentleman and behave in a respectable manner. If not then I’ll just have to kick his ass into place. I’m a very loyal person, and once I’ve made my decisions i tend to stick with them, especially when it comes to decisions of the heart.

On a completely different note I’m still having issues with spam. This time however they’re hitting the trackbacks section… any idead on how i can get rid of these evil people once and for all?!

AxXx

Despite best efforts I am still being repeatedly whacked by an evil troll and his big spamming club. This morning I got rid of 700 odd comments and 50 trackbacks… my inbox can’t cope!

On a lighter note it did push my comments up to over 1000, which was quite impressive.

Why is the technological world against me? Why?!?!

AxXx

it’s being posted faster than i can delete it!

Help!!!!

AxXx

My bro has got a race running to see who will be the 1000th commenter on his blog. Apparently whoever it is will get a small mystery prize so pop on over and try your luck!

I wish i was nearly at 1000 comments, i’m only just pushing 400 odd.

AxXx

I’m sitting in the library, looking up some wonderfully interesting things for linguistics (as you do) when i chanced to look out of the window. I was greeted by one of the most gorgeous sunsets i have seen in a long time. The sky itself is still blue, a plae blue, almost icy to match the temperature. It’s the clouds that grabbed my attention. They are an extravagent mixture of orange, purple, pink and grey. The pure vividness of the sky is enough to make me just sit back and be thankful that i get to experience things like this.

It hasn’t been the best of days. I woke up with a massive headache and that set the tone for the rest of my day. I mae it to my lecture to discover that note taking with a bruised hand is kind of hard (frisbee incident yesterday). I made it to coffee with my husband and we both sat there feeling a little sorry for ourselves, me because of my head and ongoing life in general, him because of his love life. This was mde even worse when the food we ordered never turned up and they still tried to charge us for it.

As i said to my hubby, I’d narrowed it down to 4 things:

- take up smoking just so i can have some form of stress relief
- get something pierced
- have my hair cut and coloured
- eat my body weight in chocolate

We decided the first two weren’t really feasible, the last one would just get messy so haircut it is. I’m booked in for tomorrow morning and I think i’m going to go wonderfully golden blonde again. The red is good but i need something sunshiney. Mr Director will just have to have missed out on seeing me as a redhead again.

Having made the appointment i started to feel better, the headache is still there but i can live with it. I’ve managed to get someone to cover my bar shift tonight as well so i don’t have to worry about working through the pain. I also had a chance to speak to one of our bar exec (well he came and spoke to me actually). There are going to be some changes in the way the college bars are run. Apparently the university now wants all the college bars to have a bar sabbatical which means the students won’t be quite as involved. However, there will certainly still be some positions available so i’m not to lose all hope. Apparently he was telling me this as I’m one of the candidates for bar exec next year, though i didn’t hear this from him! It did a lot to cheer me up and i went from feeling like poo on a stick to just a girl with a sore noggin.

The sunset nicely finished off the day so it just goes to show that not everything with a bad beginning has to end the same way. At this point the sun has set completely and the sjy is entering that wonderful dusky stage that only autumn can provide. I have to go sing in choir tonight but i think i may take my headache home and just present my apologies. The only problem is i don’t like being stuck at home, I never have. I’d much rather be with people. So you can gurantee that i’ll be down in the bar at some point tonight, sipping orange juice and trying not to let the headache get to me. I wish painkillers worked on me, I really do.

Ah well, it’s Jims 21st tomorrow and i’ve organised the whole evening (go me!) It’s going to be quite a drunken one but fun none the less me thinks. I’ve got lunch with G tomorrow, 21st in the evening, then dinner with Midge on wednesday, his way of repaying me for cooking for him. I don’t know where we’re going but i have said that it’s up to him to decide, that is the whole principal of taking someone to dinner after all. It’s gona be a busy week, and at some point i need to sort out panto stuff, frisbee stuff oh and of course, degree stuff.

There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day, and this term is winging its way past far too quickly.

AxXx

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonh McCrae, MD (1872 - 1918)

AxXx