I've been waiting so long...

Hello all- sorry it's been so long since our last blog. Usually when that happens, it means John wants to write but can't find the time. He has been very busy at work this week because his NY Boss is in town. I might have let you wait a little longer, but I can't because I just got great news and want to share it with you all. After years of waiting, I have just been given my FIRST PAID Directing Gig!!!! I will be directing an Actors' Showcase for Debut Productions. Apparently Showcases aren't widely done here and this is the only company that really does them. The story of this job is kind of funny. Got time for a story?

I had sent in my Resume for a theatre teaching job. The women who run the school also run a Production Company that produces Actors' Showcases in a few cities in England. They called me in to interview for a teaching job and as a Director. By the way- I got that call when my Mom was in town- I told you she brought me luck! The interview went really well but I wasn't sure about the schedule for the One Act I'm directing in May. I got those dates Monday and emailed them to the women and voila! I will be directing their May Showcase and if it goes well, may continue to direct for them next season! I wish I could call you all one-by-one to tell you this news. I just called my Mom (it's 5AM in PA) and left a message on her machine!

In other news--John and I will be leaving Friday morning for his Birthday Trip to Shrewsbury where we will explore the towns of King Arthur and celebrate John's 29th Birthday in style (we're staying in a Tudor Home.) As long as John remembers to drive on the Left - that is!

The Aftermath

Jamie here. I've spent the past few days recovering from Mom's visit- she's a very active one for her age! (that was a joke, Mom) As I'm sure you could tell from her blogs, we had a fantastic week together. But Mom did not just bring Frank's, South Beach Bars and Vanilla with her, folks. She also brought some luck! On the second day of Mom's visit, I received an email. Laura, a playwright friend from NY, had submitted Below 14th (a show I directed for the Sam French Festival last year) for a One Act Festival in London. It was accepted. So, I have landed my first London directing gig! Just to be clear- I am not being paid and it is only going up one night. BUT it is a great way to meet people and to have my work seen. It will also be nice to put "London" on my resume. So, now I am scrambling to hold auditions before I leave to come home on April 5th. I placed my first ever Casting Notice this morning and have already received about ten responses. This is going to be interesting....I'll keep you posted.

OH MY God!! Goin Home Already :(

Hi Everyone, I am sure U have been waitn with baited breath to hear whats a been goin on:) Well Can I start with I am Pleasantly Exhausted ! Boy can Jamie get alot in in a short time! But; I'm sure many of you already know that already. Well I must start with I can NOT believe it is Ok to Pee outside.. EWWWWW ! but; true!! So that's my tip for UR trip- watch out:)
Friday Jamie and I got up and she had a couple of errands to run.. And I got to veg a bit. By 1:30 Jamie waz home and off we went to Shop yes Shop isn't that what girls do best ? Right Flo : ) . Well we headed for Harrods and I was reluctant to buy things there mega expensive in my world. But; none the less I did give in and buy a few souvenirs. We left Harrods and walked around a bit and looked in other shops some we have back home that I will visit and buy some things that I liked but; was not gonna pay double here! Then out to dinner. It was St Patty's Day and all and we thought Oh let's find a Pub.. AH ya everyone else thought that same thought. go figure. So where did we eat U ask. A steak house yes indeed. Food was excellent and so waz the atmosphere. The Company was the best though!

Off to the queen Theater to see Les Miserable. John warned that it was a little sad . He was right! But; it was fabulous! The voices on the actors WOW knocked me out! Loved It!! Left the theater the streets were absolutely MOBBED!! I didn't mind it in NY . This seemed to me alot worse! Got home and crashed to start a new day of JOY!

Saturday up and out to see London by Tour! First thing was a brisk and I mean brisk walk around town. Our tour guide's name was Frazer. Great tour guide and a great tour.. Lots of pics!
Back To the National Gallery to Pee inside :0) And off to the bus tour . Yes on the famous double decker buses and It was Brisk Up There but; we are not USA sissys ! Right ?
Another great tour lots to C. And we did see it! This bus took us to the boat tour to cruise the river Thames and the boat was sooooooooo nice and warm! All glass so we got a great view all around. Loved It!. What a day! HUH! Got home at 6ish and John made Indian food for dinner and we watched a movie and chilled.

Sunday: one more day to try to keep up with Jamie cause, she can move on those lil legs of hers. John and I just strolled while we tried to keep up . And ran a few times too. :/
Well after a short nites sleep we were off to: PARIS! yes we were! Get to the tube by 7:15 to catch the Eurostar by 8:00. Made it! And back through security we go. Good to know everyone is doing their job with security. Well Mum set off the alarms. Yup me and "my belt I said" ButI was frisked all the same! By a very cute lil gal. Ok she smiled and let me through. Jamie said" U should take that belt off comin back"! And I said depends on who's doin the friskn:) She didn't seem entertained by that.
Finally we arrive in London and get tickets to the metro and exchange money sounds quick huh was'nt! But that's ok we were in Paris and soon above ground and off and runnin. Walked a bit around town and found a French Cafe' to eat lunch. In the window it said they served sandwiches but; once we were seated no sandwiches. So French Onion Soup and French Fries what else right. Very Good Lunch!
Back out on the streets to stroll while waiting for our tour bus. At 3:00. Walked across the street to Tuileries Gardens. Big Park fancy name:) It was awesome though lots to see and not enough time in a day! Jamie got a bottle of water there and paid 2.50 euros.. tooo much money!
We got in line for the tour bus right behind 2 other small groups of ladies and then everyone started to gather no order to things and U know how we like order. Finally at 3:00 the driver lets us on the bus which had airconditioning which was not running and when Ur at the top of a closed in bus it gets very warm! 1\2 hour later he starts the bus and we leave! Thank God! I waz a meltin. Nice tour. Got a nice ride around the City and taken to a Boat where we cruised the River Seine. Now That is a trip U must take I Was all over the boat at lotssa angles gettn Pics. It was Awsome! Loved It!!
Got dropped off at the Eiffel Tower sooooo cool.. Soooooo Big. Now I always knew that just standing next to it was mind blowing!
Got a bite to eat at a stand and stood and ate it in front of the Royal Theater Chaillot. Back to the metro and off to Eurostar . Long Story I know but; Bottom line is I had a terrific Time here with Jamie And John they were both great sports waitn for the ole lady to catch up. I know one thing if U can come o vist them U should. By the By the weather was great in Paris and only 1 day was it really chilly! It's all about the layers. Well I am goin home today to sleep :)
I just want to say I can NEVER Thank Jamie And John enough for this vist!And for Jamie being a BIG Part of planning a surprise 50th Birthday Party from abroad! The Best Birthday Ever Jamie. TY Lottsa Love MUM xoxoxoxoxoxo
I Hope UR All Well ! And not terribly Bored:/ Jamie could not believe I wrote this whole Thing!.. Ciao!

Hello From MUM Coops :) 2nd Visitor to The Flat

Hi everyone! Well I have arrived!! For anyone who may know I recently turned the big 50 .. And had a nice Birthday surprise party. And this trip is a gift to myself..I have never flown Internationally Nor Alone But; all the same I am here.. I flew Virgin Atlantic Jamie and John's recommendation and they were right it was a very comfortable flight alil bumpy at times but; nothing too bad:) Food waz plentiful and no one sat in the seat next to me so I had 2 seats. Wow HUh! I thought so. I met a Welsh woman who now lives here in London on the plane whose daughter moved to NY 3 years ago and she was coming from NY and she did walk me through the airport and to passport security and then we were split up and I waz on my own :( Yes I waz abit nervous but; rose to the occassion and found my luggage and my daughter! Yeah !! I Love it here! We have been going almost nonstop except to sit on the "tube" or the double decker bus . Yes I'm braggin. We have done the following things thus far:oh wait U should know Wednesday was a Beautiful Day! We were up by 7;00am and outta the flat by 9am and off to Clapham Common Park for a wonderful cup of Java and a long stroll . And there is nice green grass already and daffodils too. After a wonderful stroll off to the West End- Covent Garden Market to do some shoppn. Way Cool! Entertainers and lots of shops. First gift I bought waz for my lil niece and god child Lizbeth a hand painted T-Shirt with Big Ben/A Double Decker Bus and The Sign Covent Garden Market cute..We walked around alot in the West End and I put my hand in Bruce Willis hand ... On the side walk hand prints for the stars.. What big hands Ya got Bruce :)..Took a double decker bus ride home.. Day2: Up round 8ish coffee shower and off to the Camden Market place must tell U today much cooooler. But; dressed for it and ready 2go. Once at Camden Markets we noticed they were still settn up and strolled for a bit and Jamie bought a vintage dress looks great on her and I finally found a top and a bag for the spring really neat 1 if I say so myself. Some hot chocolate and off we go .. More shops now open and I wanted to go to a place called "Spank " But; Jamie would not allow it. But; she did take pics of me there with a model dressed all in leather Momamia! Any who we left there and went to a small cafe Inhabitions and had some delicious homemade veggie soup and fresh bread ohh and of course afternoon tea. VERY GOOD! We decided to go to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and see what we could see there and tryn get on the tube before rush hour and we spent time there and off we were to the tube and home.. Whew! Tomorrow is hopefuly dinner in a Pub for St . Patty's Day and off to see Les Miserable.. And Back to the pub?? Maybe we shall C. If UR plannin a trip to London to see the queen "Jamie" be prepared to hit the ground runnin.And by the by the queen waz not here . Guess she didn't know I waz comin to town :) Well I am havin a blast and look forward to Sunday also we are plannin on going to Paris! Did I ever think that I would be here.. Let alone Paris? NOWAY.. But; I am and I'm goin for it.. So I hope I did not bore anyone. I'm not the writer FLO is ..I hope UR all well. Take Care.Maybe I'll Blog again before I'm off and back to the States.Maybe I'll stay :0) Just kiddn Eli..

She's on her way...

Hi, Everyone-

The "she" in question is my Mum and she is on her way to London (well, she will be in two hours!) I'm sure I will convince her to write at least one Blog entry while she's in town, but here's a little sneak peak at what we'll be doing: Harrod's, Camden Markets, St. Patrick's Day at an Irish Pub, Les Miserables, A Sightseeing Bus & Boat Tour, PARIS!! Just a few things:)

Many of you have asked how the Surprise Party went- she was completely surprised! She had a great time and was thrilled to see some friends she hadn't seen in years- SUCCESS!

Today is my last day at this temp job. It's a shame because the guys have been great and the work has been minimal, but it's good I'm leaving because I'd hate to get attached. I am hoping to be working in the theatre, after all.

Finally, I have another addition to the American-English translations:

knock on wood..............touch wood

Have a wonderful week-

Hello Everybody! C'est John.

We've had an exciting weekend. Jamie had her training at the Globe Saturday morning and it went great. They toured parts of the Globe where normal people don't go, like the Lord's Room. In fact, she gets free tickets to the Lord's room for some shows as a thank you for volunteering. They even provide breakfast and cab fare home if you steward a Midnight show!

We had quite the Friday. Let's just say that after sufficient weirdness, we ended up having two discussions with two separate people who aren't fans of Americans, one of whom is American. Odd no? The lesson I take away is this - Drunk argumentative persons on a night bus in London are most likely not statisticians, no matter how much they quote "facts" and "figures" of ephemeral nature. We did however meet a nice puppy.

Jamie and I went to the St. Patrick's Day Festival today - that's the picture. We caught the tail end of the parade and then walked around. It seems we were there a bit early for crazy Irish antics, but we did get to see the Lord Mayor in person as he opened the festival.

Other good news - our DVD player finally showed up this week. Off to watch some movies!

What can it all mean?

Hello, Friends-

I am writing from work. I was expecting to be the only one in the office today, but two men who had never been here came in today. They actually gave me some work to do and I was busy until noon! Then I read Time Out and looked for theatre jobs online. They just left and I am alone with 45 minutes to go and thought I'd write.

I was musing to John last night that I have learned so much in one week of working here. This very nice man (we'll call him Tottenham) who has been the only consistent person in the office has enjoyed exchanging bits of information with me. He showed me a map of the UK and pointed out good places to visit, I showed him a map of the US and we discovered together which states were the least populated. To my surprise- Vermont is second! We've also learned several new words. That is what I'd like to share with you today. Before moving here, we were aware that some words had different meanings in England (never say "fanny pack" for example,) but I am continuously encountering more and more. Here is a short list to which I'm sure John and I will add in the coming two years. Some of these you already know, but I wanted the list to be complete. The first word is the American word and the second word is the English word for it. Enjoy!

pants............trousers
underwear..........pants/knickers
sidewalk.........pavement
stroller.........buggy
truck...........lorry
drugstore...........chemist
cell phone............mobile
fuzz...........fluff
call..............ring
highway..........motorway
apartment..........flat
rent (as in a car)...........hire
rent (as in a flat).............let
appointment book/datebook...........diary
soccer.............football
football...............American football
cabinet/closet.............cupboard
broke (as in "no money")............skint
girl/lady..................bird

More to follow...

Those who blog together...

Hi - We're doing a joint blog tonight. This is John's part-
I have discovered that most cold medicine here sucks. You can get Codine over the counter, but you can't get a decent 4 to 8 hour congestion remedy. Another fun fact - Night Nurse kicks Nyquil's ass. You better be in bed when you take it cause you ain't doin anything else for 8 hours. So my cold is mostly past, thanks for asking.

That's it for me - Oh, I'm getting better at the rower! I can actually row 2000 Meters under 10 minutes and walk around immediately after! For those of you confused by metric, 2000 Meters equals about .000000000000000000000000000000000000001 Parsecs, or 2 half-Bogles. Which do not equal one Bogle, as a half bogle is how far Bogle can throw a rock while drunk. Hi Bogle.

Jamie's turn-
As you know, I started temping on Wednesday. The job is a piece of cake. There are only a couple of guys in the office and there is little to no work. I answer the phone which rings about once an hour and fix a couple of reports. Even though the guys are really cool, I resisted the urge to get online last week. BUT today I spent most of the day online- reading the NY Times, London Theatre Reviews and doing research for my Mom's visit. I'm going to be the only one in the office on Thursday! Nice, huh? I got out early on Friday, so I walked around the city a little. I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, but it costs 9pounds to go in, so I left. I have issues with paying to enter a church. And I figure at some point, a visitor will want to go and I'll go then. Then I took the bus to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Portrait Gallery. It is so cool! I went with my class four years ago, but they have made major changes and the collection is HUGE and FREE! I really enjoyed it in spite of the fact that I was wearing my high boots and my feet were killing me. They have a Shakespeare Exhibit right now- looking at portraits that may or may not be him and trying to figure out who he was and what he looked like. I didn't see it, though, because John and I are going to go to that together.

On a sad note- I read today that the Theatre Museum may have to close because they didn't get the funding they requested. You may remember that I was disappointed with the museum but hopeful that it would improve. Apparently, it needs a ton of money to transform its space and if they don't get the money, they will have to close. I will continue to look into it and keep you posted.

That's all from me for now.

We hope you enjoyed our joint blog!

Working Girl

Well, Readers, it's official: I am no longer a LOL (Lady of Leisure for those of you not familiar with the initials.) Today was my first day temping London. "How did it go?" You ask? It went pretty darn well. It was relatively uneventful but there are a few things worth mentioning.

It was my first Rush Hour commute and let me tell you - my husband is a saint! He has told me about having to wait for a train and then not getting on because there is no room. He has told me how he has waited up to half an hour before actually getting on a train only to have to transfer a few stops up because the train wasn't going his way and I sympathized with him, but I just had no idea! You see, Londoners have this Mega Flaw when riding the tube: They never step all the way into the train. As Flo can attest, this is an annoyance during normal hours but you can usually ask people to move in or just push your way into the train. The problem with Rush Hour is that everyone jams into the space just in front of the doors. So while in New York 10 more people could easily fit into the center of the car, no one at the doors can or will move to let you on. It is UNREAL! It's a good thing I gave myself my trademark 20 minutes of extra time, because I had to let 2 trains leave before literally squeezing my body into the third train. Luckily I was heading in the direction of the city, so most of the trains were going my way and I only waited 15 minutes, but it was still very annoying. Now I understand why John takes the bus to work!

Even with the crappy commute, I arrived five minutes early and before anyone else in the office. So I ended up waiting a bit. The head guy wasn't in today, so I mostly sat around. I am told that there are 5 men in the office, but only one of them was there for most of the day today. He was so friendly! He made me a cup of coffee (instant) first thing and then proceeded to offer me another every time he made himself one (which was frequently.) We spent a lot of the day discussing London and New York and travel. He gave me a couple of projects but I maybe worked two hours on all of them combined. Another man arrived a little after 12 and left around 3. He came in. I said, "Hi." He said, "Hi" and sat at his desk. What is it with people not introducing themselves? Loyal readers will remember that Flo and I experienced this problem when we went out with John's coworkers. Shortly after he arrived, I took it upon myself to do the introductions.

Oh- I only made one "silly American" blunder. I was trying to add a color printer to my account. The nice gentleman gave me the filepath but it wasn't working. We tried it with spaces, without spaces, etc. Finally, we gave up and called the Help Desk. She said she'd have someone get back to me. Two seconds later I thought, "Hmmm...I wonder if..." Have you guessed it? Yup! I was writing COLOR but it's COLOUR! In my defense it's spelled COLOR on the side of the printer. Only one for the day- not bad.

And it snowed a tiny bit today! It barely counts as snow- it was that really light stuff that almost looks like rain when it falls and it doesn't accumulate. This has happened a couple of times this week. It only lasts a few minutes, so you have to be in the right place at the right time. But it's nice to see something white falling from the sky- even if its only for a minute.

Well, that's about it on my first day working in the UK. I'm sure as I get more to do, I will have more fun anecdotes to share.