the · musings · of · a · moderately · deranged · mind

So the first thing is that I got a job that is now over.  I was brought in 10 days before show to finish off the directing of it because a director didn't have time (filming commitments, dahling).  It was 14 short plays and it was performed Sunday last (so now over a week ago).  Was very good and I am hoping more work will come from it.

We pitched the musical AGAIN on Monday, just before I ended up in bed with a migraine yesterday.  It was to an amateur group who were so up their own arses that we are quite pleased that we didn't get it.  They were very worried about the budget and who was going to manage it all.  I said "You don't know anything about me, but I do this for a living.  Every day I deal with budgets and people and production issues.  During my last show I got to within £17 of my budget".  Did it help?  No.  Starting to feel a bit discriminated against because of my youth.  I know that sounds rich, but I am wondering how many times recently (and I have applied for quite a lot of things), I have not got an interview because people have looked at my CV and thought, "she's so young, she can't possibly know what she is doing".  Gah!

So the musical is once again free as a bird and I am fed up to the teeth of it not going anywhere.  Every time I hear it, I fall in love with it again, so if anyone knows any weathly philanthropists that love the theatre, I would be much obliged.

I can't wait until I am legitimately on holiday, as it's been quite hard trying to be my own boss these last few months.  Some structure is needed next year, I feel.  I can feel new year's resolutions coming on...

So I have the most boring admin assignment in the world, but the up side of filling in people's illness details is the gift of hindsight. I have been filling in details from as long ago as 1995 and have seen sicknesses develop and end. On the funny side, we have a woman who was off for two weeks with "nausea", and the next doctors certificate says "pregancy". Well done.

-"I've missed my period doctor and I am nauseous all the time. Do you think I could have lupus?"
- "Ah no, don't you know that it's never Lupus?"

Less funnily was a man who was diagnosed with TB, then diagnosed with something more serious. He was off work for about 2 years, then went back to work and died at work. He was only 40 and his family were very worried about his lack of sick pay. Poor sods.

Anyway, most of the time I deal with things like "Thomping cold", or "Lethargy" for reasons that people haven't come into work. Brilliant. Also, it always seems to be the sme people who are off sick. Job disatisfaction anyone?

and then only posts in order to show you all something that made me giggle, from the Simpsons Movie (which was fab, BTW)

And yes, they call it my Temporary Place of Work.  
I have been hired (for a sizeable sum of money), to ring up clients in a certain country and ask them whether they received certain documents.  On monday, I had a list of 100.  Now I have done 90 of them and the rest do not pick up the phone.  And so, what am I doing?  Surfing the net, sending emails, making phone calls, and generally pissing about.  I would like to say that this is the good life, but I prefer not being chained to a desk, pretending to work.  
As I have always been concerned about the level of efficiency in this country, I am not entirely thrilled at being paid to do nothing.  It stagnates the economy and sets a bad precedent.  And yet, I will come out of this week several hundred pounds richer.  So this is a good thing.
In other news... oh wait, there is nothing.  help meeee....

Here we go.  I am at uni rehearsing Wuthering heights, kicking myself for having a script that is so long and fucking wordy.  Really glad that the weekend is a time when agencies can't ring with bad news of any kind.  Thinking about whether, if murder was made legal, people would do it.  Seeing plays in everything.  Got really angry today about a car that has been parked for about three days in the disabled space at uni, who is clearly NOT disabled.  Told the security guy.  He said they would email the car owner.  I said that's too little.  They don't clamp or tow anymore, coz it's too expensive.  So the disabled people are fucked.  Nice.  The care agency that I rang to arrange for care for GF while I am away (next week) have not rung me back.  I have three days before I leave and I still have wet washing in the machine.  And I am fucking exhausted every time I walk in the door of the flat.  Have taken to watching Buffy rather than working.  Beginning to think life would be simpler if I was a vampire slayer.  Would like it all to stop please, although not in a suicidal way.  I dream about wheelchairs.  And if my grandmother asks me one more time why I don't have a boyfriend, I will kill her, as much as I love her.  But seriously, would you commit murder if it was sanctioned by the government (or the church, or whoever)?  Answers by air-pigeon.  Syntax is overrated.  I seem to forget things as soon as I have thought them, and had to be told 6 times today what time I was rehearsing.  I will buy shoes in America, and maybe an ipod, but I know I will be worried the entire time I am there.  At least I can pretend to work.   Feeling the need for mindless escapism at the moment, or even mindful escapism, so I have retreated back into the world of literature and philosophy.  I feel like it is a bad thing when the most stable things in your life are Descartes and Philip Pullman.  I might be offered an assisting job, but probably only if I am willing to go to Edinburgh, which I can't and wouldn't do even if I could.  My brain is completely fried and I feel like I am floating away somewhere and the sunshine is making everything not quite real.  I wonder whether I am going mad?  Would that be a problem?  After all, both sane and insane people are told to go out, get a job and be upstanding members of society.  As we aren't discriminating, maybe I should just go loopy.  The summer is coming, I don't know what to do, but I can't convince myself that there is a crisis on the horizon, because I can't bring myself to care if there was.  And that's what I'm thinking.

Hey All,
So, as you may already know, I am walking across london very soon.  And why, you might ask?  Well, firstly because my brother bet me that I couldn't (but that is moot), and also to raise money for the Fibromyalgia Association UK, to help raise awareness and that.  Also, I am mightily cheesed that the tube is so Darn inaccessible, so I am walking mostly along the District Line, which is subbish for these things.  Anyway, we can be found at www.greatlondontrek.com and you can sponsor me there.  It's about 17 miles from where I start (Gunnersbury) and where I end (East Ham), so it would be lovely if you felt like sponsoring me per mile or something.  You can sponsor me via Paypal, or email me at gavroche2000@hotmail.com and I will add you to my list.  I am walking on the 11th of May and anyone who wants to can come and join me for a little while (or a lot) and say hi.
So yes, do a good thing.  Sponsor me now!

Ok, so it's been almost a month since I last posted, so here I am again.
What to say, what to say...
Ok, let's start at the boring stuff:  Plays I have seen this month. 
So, enough about that.  What else has been going on?
I workshopped my musical, which was great fun and I am well up for continuing on with it.  I have also been asked to go to Edinburgh by a writer who I have been helping with her play.  Now, after swearing I would not go to edinburgh ever again, this is a bit of a problem.  Also, with GF at home, I need to plan my moves carefully, so this is still under discussion.
Speaking of GF, I have been meaning to write a little disability rant on here.  As some of you may already know, GF is now using a wheelchair some of the time to get around, which means that I spend a lot more time thinking about how to get her from place to place and about how accessible things are generally.  Now, to get to this point in the proceedings, we have gone through a lot, from councils that refuse tax breaks, through to endless doctors' appointments via bus ramps that are too steep and every bloody cafe on West End Lane being inaccessible.  But, of course, this is old news to many people.  It's not like I invented the Wheel of Disability.  So why aren't people shouting louder?  Why haven't the changes been made?  Why is there an entire page on the BBC website dedicated to people wanting the routemasters back when they know full well that the damn things are innaccessible?  Because, as usual, the problem is not the physical access, it's the attitudes.  And this is where this rant extends past wheelchairs and into any other disability.  Several west end theatres give consessions to "wheelchair users".  Very nice of them, but does that mean that blind people, deaf people and people with chronic illnesses have money to burn and find it easy to get to the theatre?  I know otherwise.  The argument is that wheelchair users are inconvenienced by the inaccessibility of the theatre. Fine.  But isn't a blind person inconvenienced by not being able to see the show at all?  The idea is that if the customer service culture in this country apologises to disabled people enough then they will not  notice all the services they are being denied.  Attitudes suck.  I am fed up of people not being understanding on any equality grounds.  I am fed up of having to miss lectures on my course because I need to spend Passover with my family, I am fed up of having to walk an extra half-mile to find a cafe that doesn't have a bloody step into it (just the one, mind you.  They never seem to have more than that) and I am fed up of the bloke at Yo Sushi asking me if GF is my mother just because he can't imagine how someone that young could be using a wheelchair.
Bearing all this in mind, I just wanted to tell you a story that has been percolating inside me for a while and I needed to vent about it.  When I presented my theoretical theatre to my class, because it's a very youth-friendly place, I wanted to reserve the first two rows for students who could not otherwise afford the theatre.  The response I got was "what about the old disabled people who need to sit in front because otherwise they can't hear properly?".  I almost screamed.  I completely agree (see above) that we need to be catering for disability, but having to cater for someone who is too lazy to get a hearing aid so that they can tap into the hearing loop is like saying "I need to install a monorail to each individual seat because there might be disabled people who can't walk and can't be arsed to sit in a wheelchair".  I mean, WHAT?  How dare they try to pull the disability card on me?  I will fight for access forever, but not when the disabled person refuses to make any "reasonable adjustment" themselves.
And that's that.

So it is midnight and I am suddenly not tired.  I have been going to bed at 8pm every night for the past week and now when I finally want to be sleeping, I AM NOT TIRED.  WTF?  Ok, never mind, onwards.
Apart from trying to plan a season at my invisible theatre (which I have called The Melchester Playhouse - look it up) I have had many sessions with pointless people about things that are totally irrelevant to being a director, artistic or otherwise.  And then, On tuesday, we had a meeting with an artistic director of a fringe theatre in London.  Now, this theatre is fairly well known and respected in the industry, and yet all I wanted to do coming out of the session with him was cry and give up.  Why?  Because all he talked about was politics and passion and I am sick and tired of hearing that all theatre today has to be either political or ethnic, otherwise it will not get funded.  On the flipside, tonight we met with an artistic director whose policy is NOT to take new writing or anything ethnic, because he is not funded by anyone, does what he likes and knows that his demographic is middle aged white people.  Now, I realise that this is not benefitting society's deprived, but, fuck it, I don't want to put on theatre about 9/11 or about Iraq or about killing people or war or climate change or hunger.  I want to put on theatre about marriages breaking down, about siblings finding each other, about best friends who part, about love, about pain, about death, about emotion but NOT, I repeat NOT about 'issues'.  I will never make excuses for this, as I am a storyteller, not a campaigner.  My art is in telling the tale and that is something I am passionate about.  Maybe this means I will never be the artistic director of a theatre (a company, maybe), and that I will never get funding from the arts council, but screw it, I am perfectly capable of doing what artistic director number two does - knocking on the doors of the rich and famous and telling them they want to 'invest' in the theatre.  To complete this rant, I would just like to say that I am hating the theatre industry right now, because the more I understand it, the smaller and more narrow-minded it seems.  Maybe it's me and I just don't know how to be grown up about things, but, again, I am not making apologies, as this is not a logbook, but my very own rant-fest.
In other news, my parents are coming next week.  Joy.  And then I am taking my gran to Paris, which I have been promising her for about 10 years and we are finally going to do it.  And then I am workshopping the musical.  And then I am learning to Adapt Things, in a new unit.  Don't let me forget that I want to do an adaptation of WH Auden's life, which means I need a biography...

Here I am, yes yes.  So what's been going on, oh journal?  Well, I have been on my latest unit for 2 weeks.  I don't need to write a logbook for this one, only a massive project on how I would run a theatre.  Which explains why nothing has been posted here.  We have not been taught a single thing so far that has been directly relevant to theatres, only to managing a business.  Three days worth of "human resources and people management" and now that we have moved on to "budgeting and accounting" I am suddenly excited!  The more I learn, the more I suspect I am actually a very dull human being and should have just holed myself up in a lab somewhere exclaiming over dipthongs.  Today we will be learning the secrets of Management Accounting, and I am more excited than when I found out I am EMTP on the Meyer's-Briggs personality scale.  Maybe my pretend theatre should only show plays that are aimed at the chronically boring...
In other news, I currently have 2 jobs (neither paid, as usual).  The first is this Lovely Little Playreading that I am directing for a couple of weeks from now, which was going swimmingly until the lead actress pulled out.  I am letting the writer deal with this problem, as she did the casting to begin with.  Otherwise, it bears no resemblence to the Worst Musical Ever Written, as it is a good piece of work, the writer is lovely and the reading is in a respectable theatre, not a church hall.  Also, the Musical that I have been Working on Forever, is finally getting on its feet, it seems.  The writers are workshopping the music with singers from the Royal Academy of Music and then, in March, we will be grabbing some actors for a workshop for the script.  All very exciting.
Otherwise, I am bored of Camden Council being shit and useless and bloody doctors ignoring us.  On the up side, spring is on its way and this endless cold will finally go away.  I spend most of my time freezing my bollocks off.
Quick thought about Valentine's day.  Firstly, it is clearly a female construct which was invented to make their men suffer.  Which works marvelously, judging by the number of panic-stricken men I saw at Sainsbury's on Wednesday.  Second, it both depresses me and makes me feel superior to think that, in many relationships, the partners only do something special for one another for one day in every year.  Otherwise, the effort is nil.  Rather than seeing it as an excuse to put their partner on a pedestal, all they feel is the pressure that society has placed on them to get it just right.  I heard a bloke on the radio saying that he hadn't got his wife flowers but "at least I remembered to book the restaurant".  How much bloody effort does it take to pick up the phone and make a reservation.  I think he thought he deserved some sort of prize for doing something a receptionist does 50 million times a day, and not for anyone they love! 
Ok, rant over.  All I would say is, if you have a partner who you are lucky enough to love, remember how lucky you are and remember to show them on days other than Valentine's day, lest you and they should forget.
That is all.

So the musical is over.  It actually shaped up quite well, considering that my actors kept disappearing for work commitment, or just turning up late because "a man got his leg stuck in the tube".  I wrote a 4 page letter to the writer, whose response was, "take this back.  We need a meeting".  I wanted to tell him that if we ever meet again I would not be held responsibe for kicking his head in or boiling him in oil.  Instead I said "I am very busy for a while".  Which is actually true.  I am off back to Geneva today, leaving GF to fend for herself for a little while (which I feel unbelievably guilty about).  At least she now has the new hamster to keep her amused.  And oh does he amuse her.  She spends hours watching him sitting in his box in the cage.  But what can you do?
Bizarrely, even though I am all done with this show, I feel like there is something I have forgotten to do or something that is weighing on my heart.  You know, when you can actually physically feel that something is not right.  Maybe I am being paranoid and need to stop worrying.  Of course, the things I need to do today don't help.  Apart from packing and getting myself to Gatwick, Middle Brother just rang to say I need to go to his flat and find a V5 form because my father is having fits that he doesn't have it.  I need to go to RADA to return the big-arse bench that I borrowed for the show. Also, I need to take GF shopping for a week's worth of ready meals.  And I need to cook up the rest of the food I bought last week.  Grrrr.
Mostly, though, I am not happy that I am going to be away this week when GF needs to be seeing doctors and making arrangements for benefits.  She finds it very difficult to be on the phone and I can't help her if I am far away.  What happens if she locks herself out again?
Ok, I am going to go start doing things before my head explodes.

...Or some moniker to that effect.  That is what I am directing right now.  For obvious reasons, I am not going to tell you what the name is or the names of the people involved, but this is a rundown of what has been going on. 
But first, an idea of the project. 
1 Musical. 
3 scenes for a showcase
8 Songs
45 Mins running time
11 Actors (from the 18 we had when we started)
1 director (me)
0 Musical directors (but I will return to that)
1 Writer/Producer (who we will also return to)
31 hours of rehearsal time
1 1/2 weeks until curtain up
2 performances
0 pounds I was offered as payment for this

Right, so now that everyone knows what we are about, this is what has been happening.  On sunday night (casting), the Musical Director didn't show.  I had been emailing him and had heard nothing.  To date, we have still heard nothing.  Justin, the writer, hopes he had a motorcycle accident.  Consequently, I spent the last week waking up in the morning, thinking "fuck, I have no one to play the piano for me!" and making manic phonecalls until some poor sod has said yes.  And then I had to repeart the process ever day.  Luckily, one of the aforementioned poor sods is now available to help us out for the rest of the period, so at least I am not worrying about that.
My biggest rant, however, is about the writer/producer, who I shall call Justin (this is not his real name).  He is 65, a Cambridge English Graduate and  he is completely out of his mind.  This is for several reasons, and I will make a list again, so you must forgive me for that:

1)  He thinks that his musical is (and I quote) "The first great musical of the 21st Century".  He also calls it the "New Wave of musical".  I can't tell him it's a panto and I have seen better scripts on student productions
2)  He has no idea how the theatre works.  I came into the process only to realise that his idea of Casting was to look at people's pictures on CastingCallPro and say "You, you and you", without ever meeting them or seeing them in advance.  He is also convinced that a personalised "invitation" with our picture on the top is what we want to send out to "producers, artistic directors, agents and casting directors".  How to tell him that, as a director, I don't want people to know what my face looks like?
3)  He thought that coming to every rehearsal and making public statements about what he wants from the play directly to the actors (while pontificating about the philosophy behind it for 15 minutes of my 31 hours) was a good idea, before I very tactfully told him that if he continued to come to rehearsals, I would stop coming.
4) His latest brilliant plan is to "get the musical performed on Dragon's Den".  For those who don't know, Dragon's Den is a BBC Program that sees enterpeneurs come with the Next Big Thing and try to flog it to a panel of investors that tear the idea to pieces and then either give them money or not.  Justin truly believes that they will give him £100,000 to put on this show and that the Arts Council will give him the rest and that this will go to the west end.  I hear the messiah is due next week, too, so maybe he will come to see it.
5)  He is completely computer illiterate and does not own a mobile phone.  I know this is a very small gripe, but when he continually sends me attachments that I can't open, I am sent slightly mad.
6)  He will not change a single syllable of his precious work, and this means that I can't function properly, because, as we have covered, he doesn't understand the theatre and therefore doesn't understand when something does not work.  The other day, he wanted a scene to be played so that the audience has no part in it and is completely cut off from the action.  I very nearly screamed "so put them in a different fucking room!!!!!!", but I didn't.

What else?  Oh yes, 31 hours is not even close to enough time, but I have ceased caring.  I find it all quite funny right now.  I will try to actually update instead of doing it in bulk, because this is just too amusing to be lost in my memory.

Looking over the last year and posting the beginning lines of the months, one thing has become painfully clear:  I don't post nearly as much as I feel I should.  And I keep apologising for it.  So one or the other really.  So I will try to post more.  And maybe I will.
Onward.

January

Apart from the total annoyance of Wicked coming to the Apollo in September (I wanted to put this show on so badly!) I am now considering the idea of accessibility of musicals.

It's a bit bizarre that I start the year off with talk of musicals, although this has been an incredibly career intensive year, so maybe it's apt.  In January I started a brand new course (and learned how to make films, apparently).  I went to the theatre and spent some time in the mountains dealing with girlfriends that did-or-did-not exist (not mine). Learnt about Catholicism.  They don't like us.

February

I spent most of the time I was not directing being put on sound, because, as insignificant as it is when it goes right, it is very obvious when things are going wrong.

well, yes, obviously finished the film course.  And no, it was not the best one I have had so far, although, compared with the one that was coming, it was a walk in the park.  Got a job as an assistant director (and even made some money), decided to go to Edinburgh and decided to move home.  The latter idea was by far the better one. Had headaches.

March

I should not be posting before I have had my coffee, but I am going to anyway. Last night was dull, even though the actors and director were nervous. I need a book up there, rather than the newspaper, I have realised.

Strangers opened.  Thrilling.  Had three of the most boring weeks of my life.  Until May and Land of Opportunity.  Remind me please why I operate sound? Moved home.  Realised that GF and I were meant to be. Good stuff.

 

April

I have spent half an hour trying to find a cinema in london that is showing Rent. Or will be. Anytime.

The month of the Musical Theatre unit.  Possibly the worst month I had this year.  Felt really shitty about myself, but bounced back in time for Edinburgh.  Went to see Rent and sank deeper into Idina Obsession.

May

Ok, so once in a blue moon entry, as not much has happened since I finished the course.

 Nothing happened this month.  I ran sound.  I went to the gym.  I did research on Beckett.  And then we went to New York, which totally saved the month from being a non-entity.

June

Yes, yes, back from New York and have figured out that I can't post photos without a paid account.

So I got a paid account!  My great grandmother passed away.  GF took me to Comedy Camp for my birthday (proving that she is the best)

 

July

So, here I am in the land where death is common and everyone thinks they are a political saviour.  And I am going to the doctor.

Yes, Israel.  War broke out when I had left and I, in the meanwhile, rehearsed the crazy show that was to become Edinburgh.  Which explains why I did not post once in the entire month of August....

 

September

Ok, so I have been noticably (or not) absent from LJ for over a month and, seeing as how I have survived Edinburgh, my Parents and Coming Out to Youngest Brother, I am not going to apologise.

September was actually harder than it sounded.  I ran around and had to be with my family for the holidays, after being totally exhausted from Edinburgh.  I started playing in Orchestra and started learning BSL.

 

October

So, I started the newest unit and met about a million new people on the course, all of whom seem lovely.  And I wasn't even on best behaviour! I am sat with the Complete works of See Above on my lap and trying to figure out how to make Macbeth into a central american corrupt general.  Oh yes.

The Shakespeare Unit was bloody brilliant, and I did not do much else that month.

November 

Alll's fair in love and Bubblewrap

So I am sat here waiting for the bubblewrap that will never arrive. And why, you ask?

I decided to move house.  Again.  And then it happened before I knew what had happened to me.  And suddenly GF and I were living together in the best thing that happened this year.  And I operated sound.

 

December

know it has been nearly a month since I last posted. I have gotten this weird idea that no one is interested in what I am doing, and my random day-to-day stuff, so why bother?

Ok, so I was over-reacting.  I operated more sound.  And lights.  I went to Israel and then spent Christmas with GF's family.  And then she spent New Year with mine.  The world is very insane.

 

New Year's resolutions pending.

So I am sat here waiting for the bubblewrap that will never arrive. And why, you ask? Well, I decided I would start packing massively in advance of my move next saturday and consequently managed to order my packaging materials online. The company I ordered from guarrantees next day delivery and I paid £8 for the privelege. Because they don't know when the courier will arrive, I sat at home from 8am to 6pm yesterday (even though he was meant to come before 4pm) and eventually left the house. Sometime later (I don't know exactly when, as he conveniently didn't fill in the time when he left his little card) the box was trying to be delivered, but I, of course, was in East Croydon. So I rang the company up this morning and, lo and behold, the box was delivered at 10am. How nice. Ripping the box open, I quickly realised that the bubblewrap that I had ordered (and the one item I cannot pack without) is missing. I rang up the company and was told they "would get back to me". At 2pm, they did. The answer is that the couriers "lost" the box. I said this is unnacceptable and that I expect the goods to be delivered to my home before 10am tomorrow morning, as I am a very busy and important person and I can't sit at home all day and wait. And now I am sitting at home and waiting.
In other news, I seem to have agreed to operate a show at the Trafalgar Studios for an extra 3 weeks after I am finished with the one I am currently doing. Worried that I am boxing myself into a techie role, which is not my job but I seem to have fallen into.
Oh, and I am on a diet and have stopped biting my nails. Again. Diet because 59kg is totally unnacceptable and I will not get out of bed for much longer if this continues. Nails because GF threatens to kill me if I don't. Or maim. She'll settle for maim.
Procrastinating writing my logbook by moving house. This is definitely a new record.

I pilfered this from a friend of mine, but it brings back such fond memories that I thought I would post it.

YOU KNOW YOU WENT TO AN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL WHEN:

You can't answer the question "where are you from?"
You speak two or more languages, but can't spell in any of them.
You flew before you could walk.
You have a passport, but no drivers license.
You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
You don't know where home is.
Someone brings up the name of a team and you get the sport wrong.
You know there is no such thing as an international language.
You realize it really is a small world, after all.
Your high school memories include those days that school was cancelled due to tear gas, riots, demonstrations, bomb scares or flooding.
You have a name in at least two different languages, and it's not the same one.
You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card that you carry in your wallet.
You automatically take off your shoes as soon as you get home.
You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you dont know the geography or your own country.
You actually go to your 'HOME' country for summer holidays.
Your high school yearbook looks like a Bennetton catalogue.
You're spoiled. You know it. You're VERY spoiled.
You've been clubbing and bar hopping since you were fourteen.
Sports tournaments required plane rides and homestays.
No matter what people tell you, you'll never drink TAP WATER.

Now tell me that doesn't explain a lot about me!

So, I started the newest unit and met about a million new people on the course, all of whom seem lovely.  And I wasn't even on best behaviour! I am sat with the Complete works of See Above on my lap and trying to figure out how to make Macbeth into a central american corrupt general.  Oh yes.  Otherwise, I have been looking after GF, who has been unwell and cleaning the flat over and over and over as it seems like every time I have it in order, guests come and mess it up!  Bloody guests.
I hit 50 tube stations in my tube sign photo folder last week.  For those who don't know, I take pictures of tube  signs at stations.  The rules are that I am only allowed to take them when I get on, get off, or change trains, and I am not allowed to do a station more than once and I am not allowed to travel to a station for the sole purpose of photographing it.  If you look on the map, it looks something like this:

You can't see very well (damn you, LJ!) but I have central london pretty much covered.  Now I just need to get to the edges...

This is the point at which I want to run over to the Middle East, grab the Hizbollah, Assad, Olmert and Abbas by the ears, take them all to my secret bunker and say "right, now you guys figure this shit out, otherwise you will be stuck here for the rest of eternity, pushing a random button every 108 minutes".
I am so sick of this shit.  There was a moment last month when I read in the news that Hamas might be "considering" acknowledging Israel as a country.  For one blissful moment I thought "Oh my god, there is going to be peace", and that felt really nice.  Now I know that we will be bombing the shit out of Syria within a fortnight (partially because Dubya can't be arsed and it would be bad for his PR) and the whole of the Mid-East is going to be one massive crater with body parts strewn all over it.  I am totally losing my mind because everyone is being ridiculous.  What is the point of baiting the IDF, since they know that retaliation is inevitable?  And what is the point of shutting down an entire country in the space of 24 hours when it's clear that all that will happen is that the civilians will suffer and the UN will declare it a Humanitarian Crisis? 
Grr.  Arg.  We can't just get along, can we? Fabulous.

In my forrays into tube-land, I have found this fun little video.  Don't watch if you are easily offended, but it makes me love this mode of transport even more.  And has led me to posting my tube signs... to be continued

So, my producer and I sat for 6 hours in a theatre that my friend lent me for auditions yesterday, only to have 60% of the actors that I invited for audition not turn up.  Nice.  But we have a couple of actors that are workable and I hope will be fun.  So, at last count, I have a venue, actors, producers, accommodation and a script, but no set, no logo, no publicity and no transport.  Something is getting somewhere.
I wish I knew what it was and was let in on the secret, though.

Men jailed for gay barman murder . thirty years is too little.  And the statistics at the bottom of the article are horrifying.  And Peter Tatchell commenting that gay people should not hold hands or show affection in public is not really helping the cause.  But oh well.  If anyone knows how I could get the court transcript, I would be much obliged.