That Dress...

Well, here it is, for all those who have been asking! Slightly foreshortened but you get the general idea. SO much more impressive than any rehearsal dress I've ever had and probably ever will have. I do enjoy slinking around in it!

Looking at it, I cannot imagine how it survived today's rehearsal - at one point I am meant to fall whilst attempting to restrain my stage daughter; well, fall I did, with feet skidding over the stage in opposite directions, ending near as dammit in the splits, and laughing so hard I bit a huge chunk out of the inside of my mouth and spent the rest of the act furtively swallowing blood (yes, yes, I know - the glamour, huh?).

'Tis the season of mists and... nope, forget the mellow fruitfulness, we're straight into fog, chill and blasted colds. Always a tricky time of year for singers, this. A couple of people have gone down already, and I am dreading that familiar tickling at the back of the nose which presages some lurgy or other.

My previous experience with German chemists (I was in Berlin a few years ago, purportedly to do a batch of auditions; came down with severe laryngitis/pharyngitis and was utterly unable to sing for weeks. The chemists shrugged their shoulders and recommended sage tea. I was gobsmacked - sage tea?? I wanted DRUGS!) allowed me to stock up on cold'n'flu medicine in Boots before I left (I also bought a load of painkillers and remedies for vaguely embarrassing ailments while I was at it, just in case - they thought me a complete hypochondriac!), so I am prepared, but I do hope the inevitable cold doesn't clash with the première. My body has appalling timing when it comes to illnesses, so fingers crossed!