loop 14 October 2009
Got to wear an actual dog collar today – I have a neck the size of a dachsund, apparently. Yes, it was a collar bought at a pet superstore. Jo, our costume genius, tried on various sizes and styles and when the (nervous looking) assistant approached her she said ‘I bet you get people in here all the time doing this’ and she really did think such a thing likely but apparently not as his reply was a bewildered ‘eh, NO.’ Anyhow it’s a lovely thing, bit of sparkle and all, and I have asked for it to be mine in ‘real’ life as I’ve always fancied one and it’s for wearing out to parties and top nights out rather than in private, since you were wondering…
And apologies for the unpredictable service – I have got myself into a vague loop of strange hours (work) coupled with getting distracted (work) and a being bit rubbish (self made problem). Am determined to wrestle myself back to attention now…in fact I may just have done that!
Bond 13 October 2009
The net was playing silly buggers last night and I opted for bed before it decided to give me any class of usable signal (and this is between wireless in the hotel and me dongle yoke) hence nixi de blog. The sleeping tablets must be doing something, by the way, because I took the double does (as allowed by the doc) and woke some hours later with the ipod still on having slept some (and been hijacked into it obviously, if I didn’t even have fair warning to switch the music off!) Hard to get back to sleep then but I managed and was veh reluctant to wake up just now. I have a big thick sleepy head on me and am bumping into the furniture so coordination maybe a lil ropey for a while.
As to yesterday all I was going to tell yiz was that I was admiring a concealer the lovely Rachel is using on the dark and considerable bags under my eyes (apparently, I think they’re far worse than anyone else – but everyone else knows NOTHING…clearly) and it’s a Dior 002 – the 001 is too light and the 003 too dark for me, she says – and I was reminded that when I used to avail of the services of the Well Woman Clinic in Dublin I was one of the first to transfer to their new Northside clinic when they branched out and my file number was 007! It never failed to raise a smile when I announced myself and I went there for all sorts of reasons over the years that didn’t really warrant their expertise just so’s I could say ‘I’m 007’
33 11 October 2009
I am saddened beyond expression by the early and untimely death of the lovely Stephen Gately. 33 year of age is unfair and so wrong. Anyone who ever met him or spent time in his gentle and cheeky company (and I was lucky to be one of those, however briefly) will tell you that all of the statements today about how wonderful he was are true and more. It is so awful that I am using the past tense to write about him now and the world is missing a positive presence that complimented it while he was alive.
Let’s get on with it, folks, as we know not the hour, eh? We owe it to those who are departed, especially prematurely, to make every moment count.
out n about 10 October 2009
I don’t know how it was done but the nail varnish chipped slightly as I slept last night – I was undaunted by this mild setback and merely topped up the loveliness that had been created for me by Bob at work (a v dark navy/black colour and SO foxy). I did a lot of gesturing with the hands today so that everyone would see. Then it came time to choose the big knicker that would allow me eat a meal without swelling to impossible proportions in the tight frock (the chosen undergarment shall be pressed into service on SHAMELESS for those fat tum days I have decided – v good and even if it’s doing nothing it feels like it is and that can be half the battle sometimes) BUT there was bound to be one slight disazzo and it was the shoes – they are not meant for walking. I suspect they may be a bit big (I did go up a size and it was a mistake) and the heel isn’t quite deep enough to keep the foot in…hmmm…I stopped for heel grips on the journey twixt church and reception and was told they’ve been discontinued (too useful a product, clearly) so I had to make do with some sort of gel arrangement thingy that didn’t quite solve the problem. A Wrong Shoe can ruin a gal’s day though I rallied, but I fear for the future of those shoes. I did the wedding (which was lovely – hurrah for Jarleth and Tina) on the dry, got home and got on the treadmill and rowing machine for an hour’s workout…that can’t be right. I wonder if the Shoe Incident got to me more than I would like to admit? Oh, and there was the matter of Ireland managing to let Italy equalise with only breaths left in the football match tonight thereby feckin up our chance of an historic win – we were only INCHES away from it. Frustrating…
varnish 9 October 2009
The ladies of the SHAMELESS set were veh veh good to me tonight. I have to go to a wedding with Himself tomorrow and was worried about my tummy (i am a woman i should be proud of it, yes, but people see me on tv and expect perfection – eek!) so i have 3 sets of foundation underwear to choose from now, and a nail job that makes me weep – here’s the thing, i would’ve never attempt the nails myself cos one hand has to be done by the wonky hand, inevitably, BUT the make-up dept did me this evening and i LOVE it – makes me feel womanly in the right way…
adaptable 8 October 2009
Well, us humans are adaptable, ain’t we? Here in Manchesterford the schedule has had to be a pliable thing, so it is, and therefore so are we, but it does mean you’ve got to be poised and ready for change. The horrid end of it is that I feel like I lost a bit of yesterday that I intended to use for writing, but I realise now that though I did it was down to me and not the schedule or Acting taking up more time than it should, cos it didn’t, it was just different scenes than I was expecting to do and as a result I have that feeling that practising Catholics do when they miss Mass on a Sunday and then can’t be quite sure what day of the week it is – it’s still the day it should be, just their heads are a bit scrambled.
I got home earlier than expected tonight and killed a 19th century girl I had never met before in a novel that is taking it’s own sweet time writing itself…that’s how I roll right now, my friends, and I (for one) am a little perturbed by it…we all should be, if we had a titter of sense…
taken aback 7 October 2009
There are days when even I am taken aback by the tv process. It is a long and often quite boring process but, mild whinge aside, it’s a magical and wonderful way to fling off a day. Today was one of the more technical for us. We did a big scene (on the pub set) that was tricky, and mechanical in the end of all. SO we spent 5 hours making approx 2 minutes of telly. It’ll look great but really pass in a few blinks of the eye and rightly so as the audience should and will go GREAT and just accept that this is what’s due and only right and proper for the level of what they want from the show = a compliment to it, for sure, but no one would believe what it takes if they weren’t there!
I know now why the Hub was let into my room – he knew the number and only me and the hotel knew/know that and they don’t ever give it out but I did tell him on the phone as I was being driven home – so relax all, you are safe if you never share that kind of private info…
surprise 6 October 2009
I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t like surprises and I would generally discourage them. But I got a nice one tonight – Himself turned up in Manchester unexpectedly. Now, it’s not something I’ll be encouraging simply because if things had gone wrong on set I would have been working till 1 in the morning and the grand gesture would have been wasted as he’s off at dawn on the morrow (and what if I had come in the door tired and cranky and not fit for human company?). Also there is the fact that I am trying to do 2 VERY big jobs at the moment – acting and writing in a major clash – and he is lucky that I had my novel homework done by the time I got home and just had to write it up. But the most curious and worrying detail of it all is that the hotel took him at his word that he was my Hubby and let him have a key to my room! He could have been any random nutter. Yes, he stayed here once before but I don’t think any of the staff were repeats from that time and besides no one ever remembers Richard (I have seen the weirdest proofs of that over the years). Most worrying to me is that the Conservative Conference is on in Manchester at the moment and many of the delegates are staying here…so I might have found a TORY in me bed!!!! As a Leftie, that doesn’t bear thinking about – though now that I think of it, if they were well presented, mannerly, entertaining and stood their round I might not be THAT shocked/dismayed???
productive 5 October 2009
We are on night shoots this week – or at least days leading into darkness (ain’t it so autumn!). So that means that I still have a day’s work I can do before I head into The Acting (though this makes for a LONG day, my friends – kinda 2 days for the price of 1, sort of thing) and today was the start of just that – because, yes, it was bound to happen, my editor QUITE RIGHTLY wants to see some buke! I hope to replicate such actions for the next forever and therefore fashion a MAHVELLOUS tome asap. I was pleased with today, I am happy to report, and there is nothing like the happy brain exhaustion when you know you have delivered yourself of some good work…which I hope is true…leave it with me till I read back what I wrote (morning) and see what I filmed (january!!)
Other than that – the rash is maybe shifting (I know, I know, too much info etc, but we all know about it and many of you have been really helpful, so…) and I have bought proper trainers so the gym walking and running are transformed (I will never again use clapped out footwear!) And for what it’s worth I think a lot of you were there or thereabouts on the money correct saying it might be trauma/stress because of the G passing – she was SUCH a huge part of my life and I will always miss her and that’s gotta turn up physically as well as mentally, eh?…though the new exercise shoes are a whole other level of practical BUT they might never have happened without her going (I’d‘ve felt wasteful throwing out the clapped out ones but NO they HAD TO GO) Still wish she was here…and that’s a feeling that I hope I will always have because it proves how much she meant to me.
paintings 4 October 2009
I did very well out of my brother’s trip from Galway yesterday in the borrowed van (before we headed to Kilkenny on our road trip) – basically, the Mammy has given me a whole load of her paintings and ones I have loved since I was growing up in the old family home. They’re portraits she did of me and the 2 lads centuries ago and one of my Dad asleep that is SO him that I have to smile every time I see it. I feel really lucky and am so looking forward to some time actually properly seeing them at a stretch. Who knows when that will be as things are fluid on the tv show – you gotta be available for change, so I never quite know when I’ll be home. In the meantime I have taken the back wall of the garden falling down (well, it’s mostly fallen over) as a sign that I should start again out there, so it’s all change. The garden was used as he builders’ dumping ground for a year and a half and I ignored it (much as I love getting stuck in out there). With the cat gone, I don’t feel any loyalty to the ‘lawn’ which is largely weeds anyhow so I have ‘commissioned’ a new arrangement with big beds all around with some fruit trees in and space to grow a little veg and herbs but also some pretty and smelly plants, and a basic, largely hard, middle surface. Am excited by it all.
Oh, and the builders seem to have finished and gone…though no final bill yet! How do they get by? If i waited that long to be paid I’d be bankrupt…