Christmas=yay, etc

Is the word 'yay' too feminine? For an unshaven, six footer such as I with an occasional gruff voice when the situation demands it? That thought aside, things are actually taking shape rather nicely. The weekend was remarkably good, firstly a rehearsal with Our Painted Nature which continues to be mind-blowingly creative (despite the fact that I think I was still drunk at the time from a drinking session with my returning mate Rob the night before), and then the first ever gig for Eureka Stockade - which was sadly the last ever gig for our venue, The Alma, as it shut about half an hour later. I know we weren't the tightest, but we weren't that bad surely...in all fairness though a decent gig with lovely people. The Sunday saw the premiere performance of my new Christmas script - On The 12th Day Of Alex, which really could have gone either way. I've tried a lot of things with this script - the typical Boy Richards awkward young man traits mixed in loosely with live music, stand-up and tragedy. Somehow, it works, and it worked fantastically at the weekend as part of WriteOn's Christmas celebrations - at times it felt like we couldn't do much wrong up there, I feel very happy with the way it's turned out. Next Friday we're doing 2 shows at CB2 in Cambridge - one at 8pm, one at 10pm, because the first one has now nearly sold out - and here's me moaning only last week that nobody was interested...I really want to go to town with this, it's our show - the audience belong to us - lets give them more than just a play, lets give them an experience. I have ideas, I want them to come out of the show feeling more entertained than they ever imagined possible. My head is exploding with ideas, most of them impossible with the time scale but we'll see.

Otherwise I'm struggling to find serious time to write new material which is a deep concern. I think it is something to do with all the Christmas festivities which are upon us - tonight I wasted a whole evening trying to sort out the lounge because we got ourselves a tree that is simply too big and now it's getting in the way of the telly, last night was my works Christmas party (with, somewhat randomly, a live appearance from McFly), tomorrow it's a friends birthday and then suddenly it's the weekend in which I'm back with Our Painted Nature, watching the fabulous Ezio, and then last minute rehearsals with The Lunar Pilots before the big London gig next week. I still need to find time to work seriously on next year's Edinburgh Fringe shows - and it is a case of 'shows' not 'show' at the moment. I just need time to nail these ideas properly and see if they have legs. I have found time though to complete a sitcom script that I've had knocking around pretty much all year, it's called 'Awkward Age', it's about young people who don't know what they're doing with their lives. Hmmmm...

But things are roughly falling into shape, still have no idea if I'll have a job by the 1st January when my contract ends, and still haven't written the Glass Onion Panto which is creeping up, but I've got some musicians together for New Years Eve (James and Keith at this stage - both top chaps) so that's one weight removed from one's shoulder. I'm rambling now, I'm going to sleep.