Saturday 21st May 2022

Woke at 0430 for a toilet visit...could hear loud sound of running water, seemingly coming from inside the false wall which houses the soil pipe from the neighbour's bathroom above. Was her loo over-flowing, or was she having a shower at 0430 in the morning!? Woke Aki, and we had a listen...I texted the upstairs neighbour, but no reply. Very odd...it sounded as though we were standing on a riverbank rather than in a residential building! Managed to get back to sleep. Got up around 0900 and made a mug of tea, and went back to bed to listen to Saturday Live for a bit. Made porridge for breakfast. Slowly got my voice up and running...surprised at how good it was feeling, given the exigencies of the past week. Aki cycled off to Stoke Newington at 1230 to meet Louise, who was coming up from Kingston. I drove in a bit later. Went looking for them to say a quick hello, but they weren't in the cafe I'd suggested, so I went back to the theatre and warmed up for the matinee. Aki also had Tammy and Franco in to see it this afternoon, so I said a quick hello to them after the show, and they went around the corner for dinner at Itto. Tonight was probably our best audience to date...it felt almost half full, and there were a couple of kids on the front row, who made it to the curtain call. The show was interrupted 20 minutes from the finale by someone's alarm going off in the auditorium....it was so loud the stage manager thought the fire alarm had gone off, and the show was halted while he made sure we didn't need to evacuate the building! Unbelievable!!! But Ruth and Joel picked up from where they had left off as if nothing had happened, and the audience whooped and hollered at the curtain call. I said a quick hello to Martin and Janet in the bar afterward, and Colin Guthrie had been in too...I introduced myself to his missus, Pru, who I hadn't met before. The place was buzzing...I got a lot of congratulations from those that had witnessed my theatrical triumph. But I didn't hang around...drove home for a bath and bed.