A chill in the air

Well the fall has come and gone. Quickly it seems. There was snow before all the leaves had fallen. Sign of the times I suppose. The weather is so unpredictable that you don't know what to expect one minute from the next. Today it went from sunny to blizzard-like to windy to rainy to sunny again. Oh polar bears.

I have been pretty busy since my last blog. I've posted some photos covering my whereabouts. I hosted the Scarborough Walk of Fame with Kathy and Deb. That was loads of fun and very inspiring. As well as extremely nostalgic seeing as how the actual stars are unveiled at the Scarborough Town Centre. I LOVE Scarborough. As we unveiled the stars and honoured the inductees people eating their KFC and Taco Bell were looking at us like, "What the hell are you guys doing?" And of course you can take the girl out of Scarborough but you can't take the Scarborough out of the girl. Deb, Kathy and I managed to get a little shopping in before we had to head out.

Went to Regina for the Geminis. I was lucky enough to be nominated for The Jane Show. I didn't win but it was fun to be there. I got lots of coverage because I was sitting beside the famous America actor. Gotta love Canada. Hmm .. I wonder why we don't have a star system?

I also performed in St. Thomas at the beautiful Capitol Theatre with The Doo-Wops and Debra DiGiovanni. I've included a pic of the inside of the theatre. It is so gorgeous. And everyone made us feel very much at home.

Henry is getting so big and is just a joy to be around. He has a new friend. Ralph Chapman and his wife Sara had a lovely baby girl named Sadie Rose. She is beautiful and I think already knows Yellow Submarine off by heart.

Women Fully Clothed opened at The Wintergarden on Nov. 15th. We are running until Dec. 8th. The run has been great. Amazing crowds and such fun on stage. I love performing with the ladies.

My house is coming along. Lots of work but I love it.

That's all for now.

Stay warm.

September, Henry and History Bites

Okay well I just posted this really long blog and then erased it. Great. It's one of those nights. Sweltering hot in September (no I'm sure the planet is fine) and I'm tired but unable to actually go to bed.

Looking at the photos from Edinburgh it seems like a lifetime away. So many great memories. Great experiences. I did miss everyone though. And I'm glad to be back and settling into my house. But I would love to be enjoying a fine meal at David Bann (the great vegetarian restaurant we went for my birthday) right now then stroll home past the noisy pubs taking in the clean sea air. Ah. But instead I am back in Toronto. Hot. Noisy, Stinky. Lovely Toronto. With all it's pleasures and annoyances.

I've been hanging out with Mo, Sho and Henry a bit lately. As you can see from the photos he just gets more wonderful with age. I can't believe how much he changed in the time I was gone. He is so cute. I know I'm biased but seriously he's damn cute.

Shot History Bites today. They are doing another special and I was in today. Lots of fun. I've posted a few photos. I was working with some very funny guys today. Laughed way too hard. Think I may have popped a stitch from my dental surgery. Not good.

Off to Ottawa with WFC for some shows. Should be fun.

I've also posted a photo that I took of Shoshana and her mom, Linda at Sho and Mo's baby shower. Linda passed away on August 24th. She was a wonderful, intelligent, beautiful, caring woman and I will miss her.

Home again

Well, I'm home. Hard to believe. Got in last night. Still feel a bit of jet lag. I think I'm a little bit culture shocked actually. I keep looking to the right for cars when I cross the street. And I keep hearing the sound of bagpipes in the distance. Ah Edinburgh. I do miss it. I am happy to be home though. I think Stanley and Quinoa were happy to see me but it's hard to tell. Of course I come home to more house issues. Love the home owning!

Our last couple of nights in Edinburgh were incredible. Saturday I did some more shopping. It was really rainy though. Had an amazing breakfast at Urban Angel (corn fritters to die for). Then we went to see a show, The Tom Tom Club. They are from Australia. Four gymnasts, a drummer, and an amazing beat box artist. They were incredible! And shockingly hot. The beat box guy was beyond belief. I've never heard sounds like that come out of a human being. After that we had our show. We had a few special guests in the audience. Our friend Nia Vardalos was in Edinburgh to visit Kathy so she came to the show and brought her friends Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. It was a real treat to have them see the show. Nerve wracking though because it wasn't our full two act show, the theatre was boiling hot and the audience was a bit medicated but other than that it was great. They really loved it.

Sunday I went to see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the National Gallery. It was great. An amazing collection. (see photo of his silver clouds) We did our last show Sunday night. It went really well. And there was a great crowd. Sad saying good bye to our excellent crew. They were so good to us. We gave them a bottle of Canadian Club to remember us by. Then we went out for dinner with Karen, the woman who runs the Gilded Balloon. She took us to a fabulous restaurant called The Outsider. We had a lovely meal overlooking a spectacular view of the castle. What a perfect way to end the trip. I walked home on my own taking in all the sights and sounds I'd become so familiar with over the past three weeks. I do love that city and will miss it.

And then there were ...

Well the "foxes" (Jayne's daughters and their friend Sarah) have left. Slowly the house is emptying. Only two more days for us. And then it's back to real life. Hard to believe. We are all kind of in denial. Although we are all in need of sleep, our own beds and vegetables it has been such a wonderful trip and will be hard to say goodbye to it.

Thursday I went to the Book Festival. Yes there's also a Book Festival going on here. And the film festival, the Fringe and the Edinburgh Festival. Shocking that we get any audience at all. Kathy went to see Alice Munro interview Margaret Atwood. Funny that we chose not to do book club, our scene where I play Margaret Atwood, and yet she's here. But we only had an hour and we couldn't do everything. They have a tent set up and a huge book store inside with a cafe and signing rooms. It's really great. Ian Rankin is speaking. Lots of great authors.

Then I met my friend Raoul for lunch. We had a nice time catching up. He had just finished his show. His is at 11:15 everyday. So gruelling doing a solo Hamlet in the morning! I can't imagine. Some people hung out after to tell him how wonderful he was. And he is. Brilliant. Must see show.

Then I did an interview with Robin at the BBC for Jian Ghomeshi's CBC radio show The Q. It was good and is online at http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2007/08/16/women-clothed.html

After the show I went to see Kristen Schaal's show. She is an American actress who is currently on the HBO series Flight of the Concords. Great comic actress but didn't really like her show. I've realized seeing a couple of one-woman shows that the calibre of our show is much more put together than many of the shows here. I mean it is the fringe but I guess I expected something more slick. Afterwards I met up with Jayne, the foxes and Jayne's new relatives who came to see the show. We went to The Standing Order, a beautiful bar that used to be a bank.

Yesterday I took it easy. Did some shopping then had to be back at the house at 2pm to get ready for a photo shoot we were doing. There's a photographer here, Steven (don't know his last name) who takes shots of many of the Gilded Balloon acts. We saw his work displayed at the theatre and really liked it and then he offered to take our photo. So we got all dressed up and went to the top of Calton Hill (I have photos from there from the other day) and we got some amazing shots. Then we went to a pub around the corner from our house and took some shots at the bar. Really fun. He's a great photographer and fun to hang with.

The show went well last night. Then we just hung out at the Gilded Balloon afterwards. We haven't really done that much. And it was the foxes last night so we kept it simple. We went to the Library Bar (see above photo) which was rocking. Then home so the girls could pack for their early flight this morning. Deb and Luke got tickets to the Tatoo which was great because Deb REALLY wanted to go. They said it was spectacular and she cried throughout. A perfect night.

Off to have breakfast then some shopping. Then to a show at 4pm. Only two more shows for us. Oh by the way we got two more great reviews. One in the Scottish Gay magazine. They compared us to French and Saunders which is a HUGE compliment for me. And another in Edfest magazine. You can read it here http://www.edfestmag.co.uk/content/view/163/45/

Sunny day!

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Edinburgh yesterday. I slept in and then decided to go to Calton Hill to take photos and read the paper. Calton Hill has a great view of Arthur's Seat as well as an observatory, a monument to Lord Nelson and an acropolis (an unfinished monument meant to be a replica of the Parthenon but they ran out of money and now it is known as Edinburgh's shame). I sat up there in the sun reading the paper trying to take a moment to breathe it all in. It's been so fast paced since we got here that I thought I needed a few hours of chilling. Then I walked over to the Calton cemetary, another beautiful old cemetary. Took some photos. Found a woman eating her lunch amidst the gravestones. Of course took a picture of her. I've been loving taking photos. It has been really relaxing. I'm going to get my film camera out today.

We all met at the theatre yesterday after our day off. Everyone filling each other in on their adventures. Jayne went to a seaside town called North Berwick yesterday. She loved it. She said she felt like Angela Fletcher (Murder She Wrote). We had a pretty good show. Deb and Jayne had relatives there. They loved it. I had dinner with Robin, Hendrik and Augie at a cute Italian restaurant in the Grassmarket area. Very quaint. Then I met up with Jayne and the girls at a pub that used to be a bank called The Standing Order. I had a drink with them and then came home. I wanted to make it an early night so I could get up earlier today. I feel a bit panicked at the thought that we only have four days left. So much still to do. I have to come back to this city. I must.

Theatre of the world!

Susan left this morning. So hard to believe a week went by already. It was a whirlwind that is for sure. We had a great time. I slept in this morning. I think I needed to. As I've said it's been non-stop since I got here almost two and a half weeks ago. Hard to believe that is coming to a close as well. I will miss it here. I do wish we were staying for the last week. I have a feeling that's when everyone comes to see stuff. Oh well. You learn.

Yesterday was lovely. We got up and went to see the Soweto Gospel Choir. They were incredible. Amazing voices, beautiful spirit and uplifting. Although the crowd in a typically reserved Scottish way didn't really errupt until the end. Funny that. We left there and did some last minute gift shopping for Susan. (See above photo of a little dog in a shop window) Then back to the apartment to get ready for the show Fuerzabruta. We got stuck in the rain making our way to Leith where the show was. Took a city bus which was fun and had to wait in the huge mall at the Ocean Terminal which sits beside the Royal Yacht Britannia. We had some tea and watched the rain. Funnily enough we ran into my friend Raoul who is doing his solo Hamlet and his director. They were using the free wireless internet at the mall. They are both pretty exhausted too. And Raoul misses his little boy, Alexander. It can be tough being away this long.

Then we made our way to the show ... which was amazing. Like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was really cool to have been to the Gospel choir from Soweto and then to see this piece from Argentina. There were some interesting similarities. Mostly in the passion of the people. And the dancing. Both Susan and I commented that there were some dance moves that were similar. We all have similar ways of expressing our spirituality and passion I suppose. I can't even really explain what the show was like except to say that we stood for an hour with about five hundred people watching it all happen above us. I took a photo (without a flash) during one piece where these four women were in this huge plastic water filled tank that slowly came down above our heads as they danced and ran and swam through it. The music was pumping, water spraying on us from time to time, smoke, flashing lights. Like theatre at a rave. Very cool. Not for everyone. But interesting.

I think today I'm going to take it easy. Maybe go for a walk and do some writing. We have a show tonight after having a night off. That will be weird. I want to take advantage of the few days that I have left but also need to keep the energy up for the show.

Edinburgh Castle

I've finally come down from my birthday. Sunday I was feeling a little worse for wear. The show was wonky as a result for me. But of course didn't slow down. We had a pot luck dinner after the show at Kathy and John and Liz's apartment. It was really fun. Everyone found stuff to bring. Colin made a lovely tomato salad, Kathy made pasta, Jayne made an avocado salad. Robin brought cheese and salami and strawberries. Susan and I picked up some scottish pies at a shop called the Pie Maker. They had all sorts of pies - veggie, meat, cheese. So great. We had a feast. The girls (Josie and Phoebe) were so excited. They made a sign that they put on the door that said "Welcome to the party of the broccoli head". Adorable. It was a perfect night.

Today Susan and I went to Edinburgh Castle. The line up to get in was monstrous. You'd think the Queen was in residence or something. But after about a half hour wait we got in. It is stunning. Amazing to read about how the Castle was built on the rock formed from a volcano. The detail and craftesmanship is amazing. You could just feel the history as you walked through every nook and cranny. It is huge! I almost had a stroke when a canon went off having totally forgotten that they do that every day at 1pm. I kept wondering why everyone was just standing around. After the castle we walked along the Royal Mile. We had to duck into a close because it started to pour. Honestly the weather changes by the minute here. It poured for about ten minutes then the sunshine appeared and it was a stunning afternoon. It will be raining when there's a blue sky. It makes no sense yet I love it.

It is so hard to believe that we only have six more days here. It has been stressful and sometimes frustrating but such a great experience overall. I'm going to miss it. I do miss home and everyone there but I have to say I love traveling. I just love it. Every time I do I say to myself I have to travel more. And then I don't. I'd love to be able to take six months off and just go. But I have a new house. And have to pay for it. I'd actually forgotten about it. Weird.

I've added lots of new photos. One of the ceiling of St. Giles church that is on the Royal Mile. And an adorable picture of Josie sketching. Some city shots, the castle, the usual everyday sights in Edinburgh. Tomorrow is our day off. Everyone is very excited. Colin, Deb and Luke left after the show to go to the first of two castles they are staying in. Jayne and the girls are taking a day tour to Inverness and Lochness. John, Kathy and the kids might take a day trip. Augie, Robin and Henrik are staying in the city. Susan and I are going to see the Soweto Gospel Choir in the morning, do some last minute shopping and then off to Leith in the evening to see the show from Argentina, Fuerzabruta. Then dinner after at Raj, an Indian restaurant that over looks the water. Can't wait.