Happy phone call

5:30 alarm. Coffee. Still using the grinder. Still loving it. Clothes. Driving licence. Angle grinder. Mask. Oh fuck.

I had put a little pot with yesterday’s daily disposable contact lenses at the top of the stairs. Boo had found it in the night. I need my lenses but they could be anywhere. I’ve ordered more but they won’t arrive until afternoon.

Thankfully it’s too early in the morning to panic. I just relied on my own chaos and found an unused pair in a random pocket of an old denim jacket. Into the van.

I got to Aylesbury at 7:40, and met the guy. He shows me the unit.

These units have been cherry picked. 100%. Probably happened when they were loaded in. Still my job isn’t to assess value. My job is to clear. I pulled everything where I could see it. Empty boxes that used to contain power tools suspiciously present. I’m fed up of seeing these theatre units stripped. They are stored at great expense in case of a remount.

Metal to the metal pile. Wood and junk mixed up as the local place doesn’t shred the wood. Marie arrives and then John. He rolls in with the Luton and I send him off to the recycling centre full as quickly as I can. We re-sort the second wave. Anything even vaguely decent goes into my van with all the mixed metal. Everything else to John. We are done by lunchtime and John is at the tip while I’m at scrap. Sorting it makes such a difference. Job well done I stop at Heston services. I’ve got a heavy bucket full of dead candles on my passenger seat as I wasn’t gonna pay weight to throw them. I’ll drive them to domestic some time. The back of the van is full of similarly random stuff, and one great big trolley that might be useful and might have to be cut up and binned, but that’s for tomorrow-Al.

Sitting in my van with a face full of Greggs sausage roll I answer a call from my agent. I’ve been waiting for this one. If it’s “yes” they call and if it’s “no” they email. I almost choked on my sausage roll. “Have you got a criminal record, darling?” “No.” “Good, well you’re going to America.”

That’s a fucking turn up for the books. This morning my filming took off the pencil so fuck it let’s get the hell out and reset my passion and make some new friends and see weird places. It’ll help me forget its cold. I’ll have to pack a hot water bottle.

Immediately all the practical stuff flooded in. We’ll have a lot of work to do. I love the play – As You Like It – and the line of parts is interesting. Don’t know who else is coming yet. But seems I’m off to America! Lou will be going to Saudi at the same time I’m in America. I’m lucky! If she was writing a blog she’d have to be careful what she put in it. The middle east is frequently depressingly autocratic, whereas for me it’s the land of the free, baby!

Right now though I’m just thinking about moving all this crap around. Then it’ll be form filling in, digging out my social security, working out the exact dates of my last trip, all the admin fun, plus line learning… Joy at the end of it though.