and on to LONDON!

David and I are in the last hour of packing before the car arrives to take us to the airport. We're off to London for 3 weeks starting today!

Photos from the Berlin premiere to come...

late night lifts at home?!

Tonight was the last preview before Media Night, followed by Opening Night. We've had the least amount of previews here in Berlin - but the show is in great shape and the audiences have been fantastically responsive.

Tomorrow is our last day off before Opening Night. David and I will spend the day writing cards for the cast and beginning to gather our things to leave Berlin... it's come so quickly!!!

Tonight we had drinks with James (director), Amber (producer) and other people in various departments (video, sound, lighting, etc.) at the 100 Beer Bar near the theater. It was all good times - David had Strongbow cider (as he doesn't like beer) and I had some Chimay Bleu (high alcohol content Trappist beer - fantastic). It was great to all sit outside and chill out as we approach opening.

David and I then came home, had some eats, and DID THE LIFT!!! Yes, indeedy. David wanted to lift some weights and there I was, free and weighty. We did the DD lift in our own home - and I was able to stay up there! If only someone could take a photo of us doing the lift as proof...! We have done the lift with David lying down on the floor, we have done the lift in the ocean, but we had never done the lift standing upright. And in a strange way it was easier to do the lift for real than in other ways! We shall perfect it and get a photo...

PREVIEWS!!!

I arrived back in Berlin yesterday, in time for the first preview. Fantastic to see the show on its feet 2 weeks later - I am mesmerized seeing each cast member in his/her costumes and killing it on stage. The ensemble dancing is HOT HOT HOT. David has done a brilliant job, as usual.

Today we had the 2nd preview and the pacing was much improved from last night, the first preview, which was good but had a nervous energy quality to it. I think the show will just get better with previews.

Tomorrow there is no preview - we have the EPK and press tapings. And then a day off. Can't wait for a day off!!!

It's good to be back together with David. x

How March flies

2009 seems to be moving along quickly!

I have been in London for a week now, beginning the re-cast process, while David remains in Berlin and continues the tech-ing process. I have 4 more days of casting in London, and then will fly back to Berlin on Saturday in time for the first preview. Then we will have a week of previews until DD Berlin opens on April 7th! It's all happening, and quickly.

After Berlin, David and I will make our way back to London, where we will stay for 3 weeks. We can ALMOST feel our home in New York... but we're not quite there yet!

London casting is going apace. It's a big cast change this year, bigger than we expected. But I have seen some interesting actors and dancers, so crossing fingers... being in London solo is a strange feeling, especially since everyone else in the creative team is in Berlin putting the finishing touches to our newest production. Fortunately, there are a lot of brilliant plays on in London at the moment, so I have kept myself busy with outings to the theater. I have seen 1 comedy show and 3 plays already, have seen DD twice; I have a ticket to see Madame de Sade with Judi Dench on Thursday (didn't get great reviews, but still good to see it). Not bad. I have been a social butterfly, went to an engagement party, went to dinner at Val's in Fulham, and have been keeping myself occupied. It's a good change to be in an English speaking country.

But I miss David of course and I miss watching the Berlin cast go into its last stages of preparation before opening, so it will be good to go back to Berlin on Saturday.

More soon.

time goes quickly when in production... (sometimes)

(The facade of the Theater Am Potsdamer Platz, where Dirty Dancing Berlin will open is a few weeks' time)

February came and went, and now we're in March and in tech! The cast went on stage the end of last week and so began tech. It's great to be in the theater finally, working days and evenings, and being able to walk to work. It makes all the difference in our sleep quantity and quality.

Tech has gone fairly well, the theater is great and the cast looks wonderful. David is excited to be working with the dancers on stage, he truly thrives on this process and it is beautiful to see. We've had a quiet time mostly - unlike Chicago, which was full of parties and from where we barely survived with our livers in tact. We have had a couple of cast parties sponsored by the production, which have been great fun. Last weekend there was a big welcome party at the theater, and that was excellent good times - the older actors got onto the dance floor along with the dancers and dirty danced the night away, quite literally. We even witnessed Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher (the old characters) gyrating away, killing it on the dance floor. Incredible. All in all, though, David and I have remained sensible in our partying. We've opted for time lounging at home when we can, or going to the movies (we live near the Sony Center, which has a beautiful cinema that shows films in English, not dubbed or subtitled), or watching DVDs. "Normal" things we don't often get to do. We love our Berlin apartment, so our apartment has been an oasis for us away from the occasional chaos and stresss of work.

On Sunday I leave for London for 2 weeks of prelimiary casting. THIS, will surely be chaos, as we will do two days of open dance auditions, which expect 600 girls and 400 boys. A zoo. And then I will see a series of actors, singers, the usual. David and I haven't been apart in a while so 2 weeks seems like a extraordinarily long time in the middle of tech - but I shall be back in Berlin in time for previews.

For now, here are some recent snapshots from Berlin:

(Close up of the fancy Opening Night invitations - and there we are! Me and David on the invites - we have come a long way since we last did the show in Germany...)

(Dirty Dancing seems all over Berlin... even on back of taxi receipts!)

[At the welcome party at the theater... FROM LEFT: David, me, James (director), Claudia (who plays "Lisa") and Michael C. (our production stage manager)]

(John O'Connell - aka Cha Cha - came through Berlin and we had drinks with him - we had not seen him since the Sydney DD opening, so that was a nice catch up, especially for David)

snow, snow and more snow!

(View from our window a couple of days ago... the snow looked gorgeous in the sunshine... but now it is just gray and overcast as it continues to snow...)

It has snowed non-stop for the past 3 days in Berlin, and continues today. The snow hasn't "dumped" on Berlin, as it might in a snow storm, but it has fallen steadily and has piled up. Initially it was all quite beautiful, the snow softly blanketing the city. But as it continued and occasionally mixed with rain, the city has become more treacherous to walk around, wet, cold, icy, and squishy.

David has made a smooth recovery health-wise, although the heavy, creamy-sauce-driven German lunches at work have taken their toll and his stomach hasn't been at its finest. He has began bringing food from home. I, in turn, have succumbed to the illness going around, and have spent yesterday and today cooped up in our apartment, watching the snow fall, emailing and working from home while trying to rest. Resting is the hard part, when one's mind is racing with all that one might do.

(Prepping for the press event...)

Rehearsals continue well here in Berlin. The cast is gorgeous and getting along very well. We had a big press event on Wednesday, in which 3 dance sections were presented: Magic Moment, Mambo, and Do You Love Me. The dancers looked spectacular -- David has done a fabulous job, as always, preparing them. They were the highlights of the press event... although David and I did both give a brief speech in an interview to the press, which was a first for us and nerve-wracking for me, but we were told we did a great job.

(Me and David after the press event, in front of the DD bus that is all over Berlin)

I am now beginning to set up the London re-cast auditions -- one show cast, another show to look after! I will be heading to London for 2 weeks in March, then David and I will be there for 3 weeks after the Berlin opening.

It will be full spring by the time we return to New York!

Snowy in Berlin

(Snow beginning to blanket the streets of Berlin...)

Today is the first Sunday we have spent all day at home, sleeping in and chilling out, since we arrived in Berlin. Our last Sundays - our day off for the week - have been spent doing more auditions, so we've not had the chance to sleep in. It's so great to spend a free day doing nothing. David has been under the weather, too, so he very much needed the day off. A cold had passed on from Kimberly (the dance department assistant) to Craig (the ballroom choreographer), and finally onto David. He's feeling much better now, but we both have to watch being over tired.

It's snowing in Berlin today since the afternoon, so it's been nice to just stay indoors. A mellow day in Berlin.

Mission Accomplished!

David and I are now proud owners of these two shopping trolleys. Our trusty production assistant called a huge store that seems to sell everything and discovered that shopping trolleys were on sale this week for 15.99euro. A BARGAIN! I was driven to the shop (just down the street, but apparently the area where we are rehearsing is not especially safe), and I emerged a more readily mobile grocery shopper.

Upon seeing these trolleys and testing out their wheels, David was in love. His life had changed - no more frozen fingers gripping onto bags and bags of groceries while we searched for a taxi in Berlin! David loves these trolleys so much, he wants to bring them back to New York. He talks about the trolleys so enthusiastically and effusively, he is convincing members of the cast and creative team that they, too, should acquire such trolleys -- which are, after all, on sale at the store just down the street. And they're so cute! We're starting a trend...

Ah, the small pleasures.

Part of the Berlin Organic Shopping Club

Today we acquired memberships to the LPG BioMarkt, a chain of organic supermarkets in Berlin. There is a modest monthly fee and a membership card deposit (which you receive back when ending your membership). Everything in the store has two prices, one for non-members and another, lower price, for members. It's hard not to feel an outcast paying the higher rate for the same thing... so in a proactive move, we've hopped on the organic-shopping membership bandwagon! Very exciting! Now we feel we are on the INSIDE of organic grocery shopping culture in Berlin.

Here are our brand new cards:

We don't know what it says on the card, exactly (lecker - we do know means "delicious"), but now we feel like considerate people who shop healthfully and sensibly -- and not yuppy tourists who willingly pay higher prices than the locals for organic food.

Next item on our "Berlin life set up process agenda" is to buy a shopping cart. That's right, a shopping cart. We've concluded that the easiest and most economical way to shop in Berlin is with a shopping cart we could roll to the organic market and back to our apartment. Now, that's commitment to organic eating!

But where does one buy such a shopping cart in Berlin?

First Sunday in Berlin

(View from our kitchen window in Berlin...)

Until we move into the theater for tech, our day off per week falls on Sundays. This schedule proves slightly tricky for life in Germany, since Sunday is a "quiet day" and most stores are closed, including supermarkets. Seemingly simple domestic activities such as grocery shopping is a scheduling conundrum, since we don't get home until 7pm at the earliest Monday through Saturday. Sundays were always bizarre when we lived in Hamburg, because there wasn't much we could do with ourselves -- no TV programs we could watch, no movies we could go to (most German movies are dubbed in German), no shopping. Luckily, life in Berlin is comparatively easier. While most stores are indeed closed today (Sunday), we found a few stores in the shopping arcade Potsdamer Platz that were open. Supermarkets do stay open later Monday through Saturday (until 8pm, sometimes 9pm), so we could make a dash for it for the last hour of shopping. I guess we shall get used to it. The comforting thing about Berlin for us is that people eat late -- which did not happen in Hamburg. We already know numerous restaurants that are open until midnight or later, and a few open 24 hours. This knowledge helps us tremendously -- especially for David, who could now reside in Berlin knowing he shall not starve (a threat that seemed always imminent in Hamburg).

(Our dining table and living area...)

Our apartment here is great, which is a huge plus and relief -- this may be the first time we didn't have to move or want to move. We are very lucky. I had looked at an apartment last time we were in Berlin, in the same building as Eleanor -- but then that apartment fell through due to the Berlin Festival (that building is right in Potsdamer Platz and steps from the theater). Only one apartment was available, which, rightfully and appropriately, Eleanor will take. We were just recently told about our new apartment, and just went with it, never having seen it, only photos on their website which too often can be misleading. While it is not as close to the theater as the one we were supposed to move into, this apartment is much better for us because of its lay-out. We have a great panoramic view of the city, and the apartment is very spacious. The apartment is less than 10 minutes walk from Potsdamer Platz, although technically we are in an area called Kreuzberg. It is in East Berlin, and, despite being so close to the glitzy and very commercial Potsdamer Platz -- home of Berlin Film Festival next week -- one gets the sense that Kreuzberg hasn't been "westernized" heavily yet. Many of the buildings around us feel extremely boxy and concrete, spartan in their appearance and very uniform. Some of the buildings (like ours) have been gutted and renovated, but the neighborhood itself very much feels like it is still in the midst of being gentrified. This isn't a bad thing, really. It's quiet where we are, but we are within walking distance to various shops. And while it is cold and dry here, New York has been far colder recently, that we are doing okay weather-wise.

(Another sign that we seem to be moving up in the work-accommodation ladder (knock on wood!) is that this apartment has REAL PLANTS! And they are hydroponic! None of the plastic ones we so often find clever ways of hiding or secretly disposing, due to their creepy quality.)

(Sunset, looking towards the west side of Berlin...)

(Berlin in the late afternoon, as seen from our kitchen)

Reading and speaking German remain a huge struggle and challenge. Today, we went to a Bio Markt in Prenzlaur Berg, because the website had open hours that included Sunday. Turns out the Bio Markt in Prenzlaur Berg is, indeed open on Sunday, from 9 to 3pm, but ONLY the BAKESHOP. We missed this part, because we didn't understand the fine print of "BACKSHOP" on the website -- after having traveled some 20 minutes by taxi, we learnt that "BACKSHOP" means BAKESHOP. This is one thing I will not understand about Germany -- just how much priority baked items receive. The Bio Markt in Prenzlaur Berg is massive -- very much like a Whole Foods. But on Sunday, while the 4 other Bio Markts in the city close -- like most other stores in Berlin -- the biggest one remains open ONLY TO SELL BREAD. And it's in the middle of nowhere. In fact, while most supermarkets are closed, most bakeries around Berlin are open at least until 3pm. There seems to be so much urgency on having freshly baked bread...

... but we must avoid German bakeries, to avoid being afflicted with the "German chubbiness" factor again. And to avoid getting chubby, we must cook for ourselves at home as much as possible. There is just no other way. We are lucky that Berlin has Bio Markt, which is a great chain of all organic supermarkets -- there are 4 of them in Berlin, and one is within a not-too-bad walking distance. That was the first thing we did when we arrived on Thursday -- went to the Bio Markt and filled our kitchen with basic supplies. It was a huge shop, and I think we surprised the cashier who clearly was not used to people buying so much stuff. Anyway, now we're pretty set up and are able to cook at home. So far, we have eaten at home and had a very quiet time.

It remains to be seen how quiet and domestic we shall be in Berlin. Last time we lived in Germany, we lived in a one room hotel room in Hamburg, where cooking was out of the question. We would try to find places we could eat, and late -- or bring up crappy food from the hotel restaurant downstairs and eat on our bed. I survived on chicken wings, and David on Burger King. We came to think that a Chinese restaurant in the red light district was our life saving place for food because it fed us until 1am (we realized that we were fooling ourselves and that it really wasn't very good when we returned to NYC). We really hated living in Hamburg, never got used to it, and doubt we will ever find anything that remarkable about the city, no matter what people tell us. Life in Germany for us is different now, and in Berlin. We still don't know any German, but we have more knowledge about how the DD putting-in process goes... and we have aspirations to keep in tact a more domestic life while living abroad all the time. Plus, we have a kitchen! And separate rooms for sleeping and eating! We have come a long way since squatting for 3 months in a hotel room.

Anyway - so we begin our time in Berlin...

We are currently rehearsing in a massive TV studio about a half hour drive from where we live. Although it's not convenient to travel so far, the space is great and all the departments (music, costumes, wigs, etc.) could be in the same building, which makes life easier. Here are a few pics from the first few days of rehearsal -- currently David is rehearsing the Baby's, Johnny's, and Penny's (the leads and their understudies) in a "dance boot camp":


(Craig - ballroom choreographer - and David teach Baby and Johnny, as well as their understudies, "Hungry Eyes")

(The girl in the orange is Janina Elkin, who will play our "Baby" in Berlin)

(The 3 Penny's -- from left: Charlotte [the role Penny], Bridie and Milana, who are Penny understudies)

(Kimberly, the tall blonde in the middle who is David and Craig's assistant, works with the girls; David in the mean time works with Daniel, who will play the role of Johnny Castle in Berlin)

IN BERLIN!...this time until April (or so it seems for now)

David and I arrived into Berlin this morning! It has been a whirlwind -- as usual -- getting ourselves together and packed and onto the airplane. We've adopted the method of "Just Pack It and Go." 5 large suitcases this time, a clear sign we are past trying to economize. We've embraced the fact that we shall never be "light" travelers... but at least we will be well-heeled ones.

And we are fortunate in sharing similar travel approach/packing abilities.

Sunny here in Berlin today -- David begins dance boot camp tomorrow, so today is our day to unpack, buy some groceries and get our Berlin life up and running. I have a few more people to cast (swings/vocalists), so I shall be right onto casting next week.

Here we go!

YES WE DID!

Tomorrow is the US Presidential Inauguration -- Barack Obama will officially take office as US President.

Hooray!!!

Day 2 of Detox...

... and I want solid food!

The fruit and vegetable juices are great, but if I attempt to be full by way of drinking juices, I just feel like I'm a waterbed.

Incidentally, I watched the Golden Globes last night and I have yet another way to pretend my way through wanting a juicy steak -- I shall pretend to be some L.A. celebrity whose idea of indulgence is drinking fruit juices!

(The funny thing is, I'm not particularly hungry. I just miss being able to chew on something while consuming food energy.)

...Now onto a 5-day Kidney Cleanse

Now that David and I are back from our Mexican vacation, we're onto doing a 5-day kidney cleanse. This is not unlike the 5-day liver cleanse we did about a year ago. (Click on the tag "Detox" at the bottom of this blog entry and you will be able to read all the entries about our detox process -- or click HERE). Today is our first day and I am already dreaming of steaks and roast chickens, but David is very excited about the cleanse... and I really need it, probably, what with the hive break-outs and the tequilas. We leave New York for Berlin next week... so we have 10 days in New York before we are in Germany again and trying to dodge crappy food consumption (although food is much better in Berlin than in Hamburg). 5 of these days we shall spend existing on fruit juices, tinctures, herbal teas and such... (to be fair, 1st and 5th days we are allowed fruits and vegetables, raw or juiced). For the next 5 days, I shall find support in my active imagination and acting background... and pretend to be forest creatures and other such woodland-type beings, who would eat/drink/subsist on the type of things we shall consume. (Nothing convinces me more of my inability to be a long-term vegetarian than doing a detox.)

Well, here I go!

Back from MEXICO!!!

David and I just spent 6 nights in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. It's a small fishing town south of Cancun, to which people often refer as the beginning of Riviera Maya. Excellence Riviera Cancun, which was our first experience with an all-inclusive resort. It is also a "grown-ups only" all-inclusive resort -- by which it means there are no children under the age of 16 or something along those lines. In fact, there were no teenagers at all, mostly honeymooners, anniversary-celebators and other married people, with a sprinkling of other kinds of couples and groups of couples. It was overall a very classy resort with fabulously attentive staff. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather.

On our Mexican trip, we engaged in some adventure activities: ziplining through the jungle; mountain biking through the jungle to a cenote (a fresh water sink hole); diving into cenotes (by cliff jumps and zipline), snorkeling (not the best we've done elsewhere - probably the most disappointing activity we did this trip); driving an ATV onto the Mexican highway and the dirt roads to visit more cenotes; visiting Chichen Itza, a site of Mayan ruins and a new Wonders of teh World. We loved our various activities, and felt sufficiently sportivo on our holiday.

We also had time to relax, sit on the beach, sip cocktails and sample some serious tequilas. We met some lovely couples -- mostly Canadians, who seemed to dominate the resort (or who we seemed to attract). David mingled with the staff and other guests by playing beach volleyball.... and was affectionately nicknamed around the resort as "White Guy." In fact, on our final night, the social director-ish guy of the resort challenged David to a dance-off at the packed resort disco. This energetic social director (think John Leguizamo) knew that the White Guy (David) had some moves, but he did not know that the White Guy (David) was a professional dancer. White Guy (David) whopped his ass at dancing, and all the other White Guys (normal non-dancer ones who are all David's age) cheered and hollared and worshipped David for representin' the White Guy-ness on the dance floor so heroically. It was a beautiful evening, and David was beaming. It just like in the movies... a combination of "Bring It On," "Step Up" and "Rudy," with, of course, some "Dirty Dancing."

Here are a few snapshots of our Mexican getaway:

Delicious cocktails in coconuts on the resort beach... on our special beach bed huts...


Taking a nap with one hand firmly on the cocktail straw...



Mountain biking through the jungle...

Zip-line into the cenote (sink hole)

Free-fall into the cenote!

I follow in (a slightly more timid) pursuit!

Learning about tequilas...

Chichen Itza


David studies Chichen Itza...

David studies Mayan alcoholic spirits...

Diving feet first into another cenote...

Lunch poolside at the resort

Tequila + pineapple drinks at dinner...

At the resort discoteque with our new Canadian friends...

David at the airport, enjoying big scoops of ice cream before leaving our warm climate vacation... and enjoying every bite!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

David and I had an excellent New Year's Eve party - we rang in 2009 at the Soho House with Amber, her brother Clayton, his fiance Simona, Liz and her boyfriend. Good times were had by all... (although we were all hurtin' today). It's now almost 2am on January 2nd -- come morning we're off to MEXICO!!! It is icy cold in New York at the moment, so David and I can't wait to get into some summer clothes and have a break from things in a WARMER CLIMATE.

Anyway, we wish you all a very happy and healthful 2009!

SEASON'S GREETINGS! xoxo

Happy Holidays from New York City
xoxo Tomoko & David

A Photo of the Two of Us from DD Chiago Premiere

Because we were always taking photos of each other with other people, David and I realized after the Chicago Opening Night that we had no photos of the two of us, together! Luckily, we had some press photos taken when we arrived at the party by a professional photographer, so we were able to acquire some for our keepsake:

We cleaned up nice. x

BOTH in NYC, trying to beat the German GORDO factor, and the Mexican "spring break" we've never had

David returned to New York Thursday night... after traveling almost 20 hours. That's right, 20. To cross the Atlantic. When he arrived in Heathrow around 5:30am, he discovered that his flight to Dusseldorf had been canceled. This meant he would not make the connection in Dusseldorf to return to New York. Luckily, Lufthansa re-booked him onto a flight back to New York via Munich. Unluckily, this flight left at 11am, so David had quite a few hours to kill at the airport, having slept only a few hours the night before. But no complaints -- he made it home safely, and a good thing, too, because Northeast and Midwestern states have been on a "winter storm watch" and, sure enough, it snowed quite a bit in New York Friday.

Now we're both back in New York, spending some much-needed chill time in our own apartment. It's wonderful. We've not bought a Christmas tree yet, and we go back and forth on this. It's hard when we are so in and out of town -- the last thing we feel like doing when we are FINALLY back in our own place is to go buy a big tree, put it in our place and decorate it, but, then again, it doesn't quite feel like Christmas without one. Also, where will we put the presents?! I think we will get a tree, maybe not as big a tree as last year. And we really need to get on that Christmas shopping band wagon... somehow, we shall manage it all.

We encountered a couple of health/physical problems in Germany, from which we are recovering now.

ONE: I broke out in serious hives. I've never broken out in hives before, maybe once when I was little, like 6 years old, but never like this. I woke up about a week ago at 3am, achingly itchy. I'd developed spots all over my legs. We had the sheets changed and everything, but the spots remained. Next day, they spread to other areas of my body, so we had to call a doctor to come to the hotel. He told me that I had an extreme allergic reaction, but it was hard to tell to what, since I was in a foreign environment. He gave me some anti-histamine tablets and cortizone cream, because I had also been dragging a horrible exczma behind my left knee. The exczma cleared up, but the spots and itchiness remained. Now back in New York, I went to the doctor on Tuesday and was told that they were "stumped" as to what was wrong with me; so onto a dermatologist I was sent. The dermatologist confirmed that I had a severe allergic reaction, and gave me antibiotics to take as well as a topical cream that would help reduce the inflammation. It's still unclear what caused it all -- probably a combination of exhaustion, stress, being under the weather, having bad exczma that left me exposed and more vulnerable to allergens, and maybe red wine I had the night before the hives broke out (a German pinot noir). Who knows. But I shall now be afraid to drink red wine.

TWO: We got fat. I mean, not really really fat, but David and I both got a bit chubby in Germany. It's impossible not to -- the Atkins diet never reached Germany, everything is in bread or on bread or made out of bread... and if it's not breaded (which most likely it would be), it's fried. Or loaded with sugar, laden in chocolate, and filled with marzipan. We love marzipan. And there's gluhwein -- mulled red wine, with amaretto. Hard to resist while walking along the wintry German streets. And bratwurst became our easiest snacks on the go. Casting all day our eating rhythms go totally off kilter; the catered lunches were unappealing, so often we would step out for bratwurst or end up eating really late, and we'd drink a lot of wine because at that point in the day, sometimes, that's all we want to do. (Clearly, we had some abysmal days in casting.) We hit the gym a couple of times in Berlin, but the gym was the size of a closet and thus uninspiring. David, who is always on a mission to gain more body mass and bulk, managed to make great strides in Germany by eating massive amounts of eggs and croissants every morning. He is bulkier than I have ever known him to be. And so, I have taken to calling him "Gordo" ("fat" in Spanish, but said in an endearing, nickname manner), although he doesn't look fat, just bigger, and seeing David suddenly much bigger is a bit funny and striking. Now that we're back in New York, we're getting ourselves back on track. Especially with my whole hives thing, I'm not drinking and cooking at home, eating totally organic. We eat out all the time, and, while we love going to restaurants, when we are "on the road" we mainly eat out because we have no other choice -- and this gets tiring. It loses its luster fast. So it's good to be home, cooking for ourselves, and going back to our own spacious gym. We hope to tame our "German bulge" expediently.

And expedient it must be, because we're off to MEXICO!!! David and I needed to get away somewhere easy and warm before returning to Berlin... so we decided to go to Mexico, and do an all-inclusive resort. We've never done an all-inclusive resort, and we've never been to Mexico together. I went to Mexico City when I was nine, but that was it. I've never done that collegiate thing of Cancun Spring Break (like one would see on MTV). David and I are headed to Cancun, but not exactly the Cancun area that is like Vegas/Gold Coast -- we will be in Puerto Morelos, which is between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and which is the start of the Mayan Riviera. We hope to chill out, learn a bit about tequilas and Mayan ruins, do some snorkeling and jungle zip-lining and mountain biking. And get some sun! This will be different from our "intensive snorkeling" holidays (although we will snorkel a little bit), so we are looking forward to it. And the whole "all-inclusive" resort culture will be an interesting experience.

Can't wait!

Tomoko in NYC, David in London

I flew back to New York last night -- David went onto London from Berlin for a few days to work with the new resident choreographer who has been appointed there. David flies back to New York via Dusseldorf (silly, yes, but so it goes with different DD territories paying for pieces of his travels) Thursday.

It will be GREAT to stay home for a while with no work trips scheduled (crossing fingers) until the end of January, when we "move" to Berlin.

It's already mid-December!! How did that happen. The year has passed so quickly, and for much of it we were not in New York, sadly. New York is gorgeous this time of the year, so it's nice to be home. It's nice to be home, period. It's an odd thing when one finds oneself acclimatizing to one's own apartment, having been outside of it for so long. I keep finding various hotel keys in my coat pockets and handbags... surely a sign that we live in hotels too much.

Anyway, David and I will have to pull our socks up and get re-acclimatized to the world outside of DD and get some serious Christmas shopping done this weekend!!!