castle 15 January 2009
Oh dear, oh dear – I spent most of the afternoon on a bouncy castle and it now HURTS to be alive. I can feel muscles that I never knew were there. I am hoping I will be a toned goddess by the time the play opens. Basically, I thought it would be like bouncing on a trampoline (not that I’ve been on one of those very often) – I thought it would be easy to use my own velocity to do most of the work for me – eh, NO. It’s like trying to bounce on a few (very good) duvets all piled on one another and all on top of a water bed. If you get too close to anyone else you’ll end up ON them or vice versa. Get too close to the sides and you may as well set up camp there and plan to be set on a slanty angle for the rest of your day. Try adding in lines and acting and you are just facing failure. I’m hoping we’ll have a stretch on the evil thing every day so that it’ll be unremarkable to us anytime we take to it to work on…and I’d like that also because it’s GREAT FUN TOO – my main problem is trying not to go WHEEEEEE every time I get a good bounce on.
Thanks to all of you who have been in touch to say you enjoyed the new novel – it means a lot and I am thrilled that you have liked it…if only the next one would START ITSELF…perhaps I should involve a bouncy castle…that’s something I’ll know lots about soon (I seem to jest but books have come from less and if it comes to pass then you’ll all be able to point to this blog!)
doom 14 January 2009
I started to watch a programme on tv about the present recession and I had to give up on it after 10 minutes. It was SO UTTERLY depressing and very worrying. Money worries are a thing that really get me down and this ignited a whole load of fears. Also, I felt so sorry for the people interviewed who had hit rock bottom and could see no way out or up or whatever. They say that acting is a recession-proof job but what isn’t generally added to that is that there aren’t many jobs out there in the first place, without the monetary pressure that a recession brings with it. Add to that the still relevant statistic that there are about 7 men’s parts to each woman’s role and it’s a nightmare.
And we really do rely, as a profession, on people wanting to lift their spirits with Entertainments in rough times. I hope it holds true now. I learned tonight that the Russian for show is ‘spectacle’ and I hope that OCTOBER will be such a thing and spectacular with it. The bouncy castle arrived today and I had a go on it and I must say I was a bit puffed out afterwards. The prospect of bouncing and acting and having enough breath for both and the skill to sneak in scripted lines throughout is a daunting one but I felt the tingle of a challenge and look forward to having it on board from now on.
I turned over channels on the tv and saw that 1,000 people have been killed in the Gaza conflict over the past 19 days. Such a disgraceful figure and a terrible, terrible situation.
I’m going to bed before I lose all will to continue – the world is in a bad old state and human nature is proving a vile thing right now. I’ll try bouncing all of that off in the morning but sadly it won’t make it go away altogether.
new eyes 13 January 2009
It is really interesting to see your adopted home town through new eyes – Connor (yup a crazy 2 R’s) who I made Hell’s Pavement with last summer in Uxbridge (surely coming to a cinema near us soon, or in a year or so) is here in Dublin to make a commercial and he can’t get over how well it looks – and it does. Thing is, I do look at it as ‘adopted’ cos I wasn’t born here and we know that precludes you saying you’re FROM here or being native. Grand. But you do also find yourself then thinking ‘but I am not from anywhere now if we apply such stuff’ in that it’s ages since i was properly in Galway where I grew up and anyway I wasn’t born there so I never got to say that anyhow – such things count, apparently…Doesn;t take away from the fact that Connor thinks Dublin is FINE and looks FINE and is FINE in the way of a Southern Gentleman saying ‘That Lady is FINE’ – it’ll do for me.
Some phrase in the play led to a discussion about cocktails ( the drink, as opposed to the telling of ‘em) and the idea that A Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall ain’t what you want as you get older at all at all – we all were in agreement that we wanted ‘The Slow Comfortable Silence’
‘nuff said….
leak 12 January 2009
The rain has returned (with something of a vengeance) and I can hear a leak but I cannot find it…most annoying. There is a stain spreading across the bathroom ceiling alright but it doesn’t seem enough to be the dripping I hear – Richard says I may be going totally mad (in a kind of final phase way – this has been coming a while) as he is convinced the dripping is to do with the new sloping zinc roof that has replaced the old flat roof (now THAT leaked and dripped and made a mess in its day) and the fact that the guttering hasn’t been finished on it…damn him I think he’s correct but I’ll say nought just yet as I am reluctant to admit defeat (or certain madness). The builders return Wednesday(-ish?) and I’ll put The Leak on a list of things to be sorted (even if it may exist only in my scrambled head). The auld noggin is a bit muddled in general at the moment – I find the day GONE once I leave the house and even now I cannot believe it’s nearly 11.30 and I intended to be in bed an hour ago. The morning will zoom in and I’ll lurch into another day and suddenly a week will have gone and then it’ll nearly be time to panic about learning lines and TRULY nailing down Miss Fiona Looney’s play. There is also the small matter of Novel 8 not wanting to start itself (or reveal much by way of story detail at all) AND the fact that The Itchy Eye is back (also with a grudge-like quality involved). I feel like a run-down wreck and to be honest I look even worse…all in all I am finding 2009 a challenge….
I’d like to win the national lottery.
boasting 11 January 2009
Well, I brought it on myself, really – I did the diary piece for the Irish version of the Sunday Times today and was a boastrel about blogging every day on this site. Those of you who have just joined or are regulars will note that there was no blog yesterday – hmmmm. Simple reason – I didn’t do it during the day and was too bendy when I got home after a doo at my sis in law’s. Foolish, as I have been in such situations before (and doubtless will be again) and can usually manage to write something before I go out in the full knowledge that, with the best will in the world, I will get blotto and be unable to churn up a thought at all let alone write it down. I have suffered much today as a result of the night out, you may be glad to hear, so no one is sorrier than me.
I also didn’t get around to this apology till now, either, ‘cos I was mesmerised by Sky Sports all day. I got it in for Christmas, as we now have a larger screen to watch everything on, and it’s BRILLIANT. Although we were stuck into soccer today I actually got it more for the golf. I don’t know why it is but I love watching golf on tv. I did a film with Tom Cruise years ago (yup, tis true) and he once remarked that watching golf on tv was about as interesting as watching the grass grow – I now beg to differ. I find it uber-exciting and seeing the lovely Tiger Woods in even higher definition courtesy of our new system is very fine indeed. I can’t play the game for toffee, by the by, but would love to – I disagree wholeheartedly with the theory that it is a good walk wasted.
review 9 January 2009
Well, a review of MISSING YOU ALREADY so good it looks like I wrote it myself appeared in the Irish Times today – I didn’t write it (in case you are wondering) but I’m chuffed as hell that someone ‘got’ the book so well. If you’d like a look it’s on
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0109/1231406001519.html
End of first week of rehearsals today – we are half way through making out what moves we might make and I head into repacking my life away (builders are back Monday) while thinking I must read the play again with totally new eyes…and yet there is SO MUCH ELSE that needs to be done – am vaguely resenting the return of the builders cos they should be long gone by now and I shouldn’t be coming home to a SITE each evening and also be woken up at least an hour and a half before I’d like to each morning…but dems da breaks…
aches 8 January 2009
Ooh, I can already feel the pain awaiting me on waking in the morning – or at the very least a lockdown of the limbs. Basically, lots of the action of the play I am rehearsing takes place on a bouncy castle (I may add this to the list with animals and children depending on how things turn out) but we don’t have it in the rehearsal room yet. So, we spent most of today bouncing on a wooden floor instead. (The staff in the office across the road are finding it hard to concentrate on their work while they try to figure out what in hell is going on – and where it is they know most of the cast from) I don’t think it’ll make much difference to my knees as I did a lot of Irish dancing in my yoof and haven’t an ounce of fluid left behind them patellas as a result, but the arms, legs, bum and back are all involved and they’re feelin’ like a gym workout has taken place. This is no bad thing as the extra Christmas pounds are hanging around like a pongy fart and this should help shift ‘em. Still, it’d be great if you could just THINK them off – did I read a foolish article somewhere once that this could be done? If it’s not so foolish an idea could someone explain the process to me and I need never move again. Of course, when I wake tomorrow I will feel like I’ll never be able to move and that antissssipppppaaaation (as the Rocky Horror Picture Show has taught us) is a killer…and so will the aches be…
The Christmas tree is still up – it’s lovely. Lots of the municipal Christmas lights in Dublin are still up too and looking very pretty so I don’t feel so silly having mine twinkling away. In Russia and Ukraine restaurants usually have long, festive strings of white lights outside to signal that they’re eating houses and they look fab. I may make a decision to leave the tree up all year just to cheer us along…mind you, the builders return on Monday for God only knows how long, and I don’t want the new and inevitable dust to diminish the loveliness so a-packing I may go.
decorations 7 January 2009
I have left my Christmas tree up for the moment. Basically, I love looking at it and I didn’t see it while I was in Minsk so I feel I need a few more days. The builders will be back next week (ARGH) so it’ll be back in its box by then but right now it’s just gorgeous and so it stays exactly where it is as it makes me happy to look at it.
I have had good news from a regular in the US re the virgin olive oil bombshell – well, it’s probably truer to say she has given me information that I WANT TO BELIEVE. Mares (for it is she) says that I reported an urban myth and that the only change the virgin olive oil goes through when you heat it is that it loses some of its fabulous flavour. I like the taste of the stuff so I will probably just keep using it as I have done all along. It should be pointed out that it doesn’t go with everything in a frying/cooking way – for example The Mushroom is a lad that needs to be fried in butter, I think, and olive oil is less good, no matter how much garlic you use…(oh yes, already I can feel the slew of emails being typed out telling me how wrong I am – Bring Them ON)
We take to the floor tomorrow and try to put another, different shape on the play OCTOBER (having gone through it a tad forensically textwise). And suddenly a whole week will be gone…onwards…onwards…
And tomorrow my latest novel MISSING YOU ALREADY is officially published. I’ll sneak into a bookshop at lunchtime to have a wee look at it, trying to look nonchalant but nervous and delighted all at once – OOOOH! I hope you all enjoy it.
decorations 7 January 2009
I have left my Christmas tree up for the moment. Basically, I love looking at it and I didn’t see it while I was in Minsk so I feel I need a few more days. The builders will be back next week (ARGH) so it’ll be back in its box by then but right now it’s just gorgeous and so it stays exactly where it is as it makes me happy to look at it.
I have had good news from a regular in the US re the virgin olive oil bombshell – well, it’s probably truer to say she has given me information that I WANT TO BELIEVE. Mares (for it is she) says that I reported an urban myth and that the only change the virgin olive oil goes through when you heat it is that it loses some of its fabulous flavour. I like the taste of the stuff so I will probably just keep using it as I have done all along. It should be pointed out that it doesn’t go with everything in a frying/cooking way – for example The Mushroom is a lad that needs to be fried in butter, I think, and olive oil is less good, no matter how much garlic you use…(oh yes, already I can feel the slew of emails being typed out telling me how wrong I am – Bring Them ON)
We take to the floor tomorrow and try to put another, different shape on the play OCTOBER (having gone through it a tad forensically textwise). And suddenly a whole week will be gone…onwards…onwards…
And tomorrow my latest novel MISSING YOU ALREADY is officially published. I’ll sneak into a bookshop at lunchtime to have a wee look at it, trying to look nonchalant but nervous and delighted all at once – OOOOH! I hope you all enjoy it.
olive oil 6 January 2009
I love a drizzle of good olive oil on a salad (actually prefer it to a vinaigrette) and there is nothing more fabulous than fresh crusty bread (especially ciabatta) dipped in the stuff. For these most enjoyable of tastes I have been using extra virgin olive oil (and sometimes paying quite a lot for same – or was doing so before The Recession). Of course, it seemed logical that I would extend the use of this great oil to other culinary delights so, yes, I have used the stuff for cooking – WRONG, all wrong, I discover at rehearsals today. My character in the play slags someone off for frying eggs in extra virgin olive oil and I remarked that I thought that fine (more than fine, really) and didn’t know why it was said to be dodgy BUT it turns out that to heat the stuff is to make it turn to trans fats which are awful and in general not so good for a person! eeek – shattered is what I am by this news. Use ordinary olive oil if you must, I was told, but to use the extra virgin for frying is plain bad for the health. And who says a play can’t change a life?