Edmonton at last

Well, we made it here... eventually, 24 hours later than planned…after the day from hell at Heathrow...the cancelled flight, the horror of hearing that the set was being held in Canadian customs and might not be released until the first performance was over...ho, ho, ho...the waits for coaches to take us to the hotel and queues at every point of the journey....including being the last people allowed through at immigration and being sent to a special room whilst they decided whether to let us in or not...oh yeah. We have sweated for Art over the last 3 days....When we arrived here it was to find that the set had been released, and all was well...But not everything has gone to plan since...tiredness, stress…whatever, caused me to completely singe/burn through the ribbon on one of the ribbon sticks yesterday whilst ironing it out… one of the drum sticks feel apart during the show today and our computer projector is playing up...so still plenty of sleep to lose...though, frankly, last night we were so exhausted after arriving and going straight into the tech…by the time we got to bed it was 10 pm Canadian time ( 5am UK time) so it won't come as any surprise to say that we slept straight through to 7.30am this morning....

Our preview show to a local school went well and everyone seemed happy - then a press call for 3 local TV stations and the local papers...then, joy of joys, we met up with DonnaLee Iffla - our mate form Orchard days...for a long lunch and coffee and chat session..

Am now just a little tired - but ready for the big opening night/sponsors evening tomorrow...will try to replace the ribbon after abortive attempt this morning...sort out projector...and glue drum stick..

Mind you we're doing a live breakfast TV interview tomorrow...with 4 live excerpts from the play over about an hour of the show…eek ..We have to be at the theatre in costume by 7am...so no long lie-in until Saturday....

On the good news side...the hotel is FABBIE…even got a gym - breakfast amazing and complimentary drinks at 6.30pm every evening. Love that. Also Spring has suddenly arrived...so after robbing John of all his thermals and bringing all me woollies ...the thaw happened overnight last night and temps are due up to 19 degrees this weekend...after being minus 7 last weekend...extraordinary...even for Edmonton apparently. Needless to say I have no light summery clothes with me. Ha bleedin' ha.

But - I think we ARE going to have a good time...I think they like the show...and it will settle now we're getting it and ourselves into the right frame of mind…It was something of a challenge today. The theatre auditorium is big and projecting our storytelling piece for the size of the space without losing the intimacy of its narrative style was quite demanding…but we'll be fine...

But what a start to the adventure, eh?