Days without alcohol 28 - that's 4 weeks! Just twelve more of those and that's a year. What could be easier. I am pretty confident that I will at least get to February. But booze is just one emotional earthquake away!
I like the very occasional acting jobs I get (you know, when I haven't written the part for myself, which is obviously cheating). Today I was filming some improvised scenes for an internet comedy about an office that acts as an intermediary for superheroes, hooking them up with disasters to avert. I was playing the boss of the office, Orlando, the son of a superhero, who had alas failed to inherit any noticeable superhero traits. Beyond a page of character ideas and a very slight plot for one episode there wasn't much down on paper, so it was my job to make up the story as I went along, sometimes on my own and sometimes with the other actors. I really enjoyed it and am regaining the confidence in my dramatic skills that I once had in abundance, but lost somewhere along the way. Also it was really cool not to have a script and just see what crap popped out of my mouth. Some of it was funny and as each webisode is about 2 minutes long then I am sure that the rubbish stuff will not get the indignity of a public airing. Along with most of the good stuff if I am realistic. We shot an awful lot of footage. But I hope something comes of it. It's a cool idea and as it was a labour of love for the crew, shot in their spare time in the office that they work in, it was a pleasure to be a part of it and the enthusiasm was infectious. The day flew by. I will let you know when you can see it.
I was wearing my suit for the part - I only have one nice one - and I couldn't be bothered to change when it was over, so did my gig tonight like the proverbial businessman (in his suit and tie). It made quite a change and I wondered whether it might be a good way to go. I am 40 now, so maybe once the tour is over and I leave behind my kidult persona I might try a little change of style.
When I got back to Shepherd's Bush tube this evening, the platform was packed drunken Australians in fancy dress, still streaming out of the station, even though most of them had been on the previous train. They were in extraordinarily high spirits and yet no threat of danger hung in the air. Had this many English people been this pissed in these kind of numbers on a Sunday afternoon then I would have feared for my life - especially given I was in a suit, a pink shirt and ostentatious black and white pointy shoes - but as they were Australians it was a fun carnival and everyone was happy and everyone was included if they wanted to be. Why can't we be like this, apart from those rare occasions when we have just won an important football match.
A girl bedecked in green and gold decided to try to run up the moving down escalator. I think it's fair to say that she was not the fittest young lady in the world, though I could only see her generously proportioned bottom. But despite the sustained spurt of energy required and a belly full of Fosters she pushed onwards, cheerfully waving passengers on the descent to one side, all the time being boisterously cheered by the hundred or so people on the up escalator.
It was quite a battle for her, much more impressive than any of that Chariots of Fire shit. I doubted that she could keep it up and envisaged her having to stop running and slowly descending to the bottom of the stairs. But she would not be defeated. Just as she got to near the top she slipped and fell out of view, and I was worried that I would be proven right. But clearly she had fallen far enough forward to at least claw her way off the escalator and she got up to receive the biggest ovation that anyone had probably received on these soon to be defunct escalators (the station closes on the 2nd Feburary for several months, much to the chagrin of local tradespeople). I am a big fan of
the escalator race in the middle of a magical day and was delighted to witness this madness.
God bless you Australia. Hope you enjoyed your special day. You deserve it! Thank God there is no England Day. We'd only ruin it.
