A somewhat belated Happy New Year!! I know it's the middle of January already, but time has gone a little crazy during the past few weeks and frankly I seldom know which way is up at the moment, hence the reckless abandonment of my poor writings here.  All in a good cause, mind - out of the blue, a few auditions have turned up (which can only be A Good Thing), necessitating lots of frantic learning of new material, practising same and working through it with great coaches, precautionary visits to the spa (steam rooms are GREAT for the voice and I'm convinced that jumping from hot to cold like you're meant to confuses bugs so much that they give up...), and flying here there and everywhere.

In my defence, the time weirdness is not confined to my brain.  I have slowly become aware that my smartphone (ha!) reckons it's a darned sight smarter than I am, and therefore alters any appointments I have made according to the time difference (hmm, that could have been more snappily put...). What I mean is, I note down, for example, an audition at 1440h  for a certain date, in London.  Because I was in Germany when I bunged that in the calendar, it then without damned well asking (or even telling me) shifts the appointment to an hour earlier once I arrive in England.  This has led to me hyperventilating in slight panic a couple of times when in the UK, and once arriving waaay too early at the airport for a flight (sorry L, my dear friend, I was too chicken to admit this, you having hauled yourself heroically out of bed to transport me to the station!).

It snarls things up in the other direction, too.  Having agreed when in England with a friend here in Germany to meet her at the spa in Wiesbaden at a certain time, I was gathering my bits and bobs together in a leisurely manner when she rang wondering where I'd got to.  Blasted phone had switched that appointment to an hour LATER!  Aargh.  Mind you, that particular meeting was somewhat ill-fated anyway - I leapt on the bus and arrived at the spa rather out of breath and unrelaxed, to feel a little smug that my friend hadn't yet arrived.  I texted her to say it was a bit too cold to stay outside so I was lurking in the foyer.  Text back - erm, so am I, and I can't see you.... Oh yes.  It turned out we had different ideas of what "the" spa in Wiesbaden was...

I do have to say, though, that I SO much prefer having pages to learn and places to go; many of the auditions I am currently facing are pretty much guaranteed to turn up nothing concrete in the near future, but the thing is I shall have sung for that particular company, and hopefully they'll remember me when it comes to casting the season after this...  And I have to admit, new stuff can be glorious - whatever the outcome, I shall never forget my first musical theatre audition this last weekend (outfit as per photo above, much admired by fellow auditionees, for which I am hellishly thankful for the advice of my New York Musical Theatre Guru, who knows who she is ;-) ) - I have seldom enjoyed myself so much!

There really can't be many better starts to the new year that that, huh?  Prost!!