Me, London; David, Chicago

I "moved" with my things to Chicago Friday night and joined David in the Windy City. As I unpacked in our Chicago apartment (very nice and spacious), I had to simultaneously re-pack as I flew out to London Sunday for nearly a week. I arrived in London this morning.

My time in Chicago was brief, but it was good to see David before my week in London and Hamburg. I got to see the Baby's, Johnny's and Penny's (the leads and their respective understudies). Everyone seemed to be in good, positive spirits. It was surreal to be in a room full of Baby dopplegangers, Johnny dopplegangers, and Penny dopplegangers. It's like being in a room full of genetically enhanced attractive people.

Their dancing already looks great. As usual, David is doing a terrific job! :)

Chicago seems like a fun city to live for a few months. I suppose it's a nice city in the summer. It was hot -- and I hear the Chicago summers are hot -- but it was less oppressive hot than New York has been, so it felt fresh to me.

But now I am back in London! Just hanging out in the hotel today, laying low. Walked around Covent Garden and tried to get a massage, but everywhere was booked. I walked over to the Sanctuary, which is a "ladies only day spa"... the idea being that women spent half the day there relaxing and being pampered. I didn't want to spend half the day there, only get a massage, but was willing to pay for the entrance fee if that was what I needed to do as I was desperate for a massage. But I encountered a fat, repulsive and rude lady at the desk, who insisted on calling me "Darling" as she emphatically and dramatically told me it was impossible for me to get a massage. She repeatedly emphasized the impossibility in a near panic-stricken and overly loud tone, as if my inquiring about a massage availability was an outrageously inappropriate question. A simple, "I'm sorry, we're fully booked" would have sufficed, it seemed to me, but she was nastily melodramatic and offensively unattractive. It was too much for me to handle having just flown in from Chicago without much sleep, with an aching back. I grumbled, "I understand that you don't have any openings but you don't have to be rude about it" and walked out. There's nothing "Sanctuary"-like about a place that is overseen by a hideous, rude, stressed-out and grotesque lady.

Luckily, I found a nicer, more elegant and certainly more peaceful spa at the One Aldwych hotel, where I booked a massage for Wednesday night.

Casting continues tomorrow, and on Friday I will fly to Hamburg. I hope the week will go by quickly... although I suppose I will also need to hope there will be enough time to complete what we need to complete.

And so it goes... I will miss David this week, but he will have a busy week in Chicago -- ensemble dance week -- so I shall take the positive outlook that we are both working very hard and making contributions to make our show better.

Where We Are...

David is now in Chicago, working through the first dance week of Baby/Johnny/Penny. He rang me from a bus en route to rehearsals on the first morning, and it was very funny to imagine him in Chicago on a bus-full of Baby/Johnny/Penny's... a very peculiar circus of attractive performers!

I am still in NYC, although I will leave for Chicago Thursday. Then it looks like I will fly to London on Sunday for 5-ish days, then onto Hamburg, Germany, for a day, and then back to Chicago.

This means I need to get my NYC life together by Thursday to relocate!

I don't know if I will ever get used to the packing/traveling/moving house.......

Snapshots of San Juan & Bonaire

Here are few photographic snapshots of our Caribbean holiday 2008....

In Old San Juan, Puerto Rico:

David with sea food paella at the restaurant in our hotel, the El Convento. It was very delicious, if filling...

Great sangria at a restaurant recommended by the hotel -- the place serves Puerto Rican food and boasts that the Pina Colada was invented there.

David makes a funny face while sipping his Pina Colada...


Near the rain forest park....
On top of a tower overlooking the rain forest...

Flora in the rain forest...


And fauna in the rain forest... these snails were seen all over the rain forest trees...



David takes a dip in the waterfall at the rain forest park...


Getting coconuts hacked up for drinking the juice...

A lunch of coconut water and arroz con pollo (chicken and rice)

In Old San Juan...

We visited the Bacardi factory in San Juan... in the end we feel we prefer Barbadian rum...

In BONAIRE!
A pelican grooms itself...

Iguana, up close and personal...

Bonaire flora...

David approaches iguanas who hang out in the beach restaurant where hotel breakfast is served...


"Downtown" Bonaire...

Meeting a wild donkey...

Flamingo at one of the many flamingo sanctuaries...



Very colorful and fearless lizard (the lizards had a habit of approaching people and their cars, so that breaking for lizards became a common observance...)

Fajitas on the beach...

At a Spanish tapas restaurant by the harbour...


On "Pink Beach"... which the guide book claimed would turn "pink" at sunset... it was more a "dusty rose" if any pink at all, but it was pretty and peaceful.

We had a marvelous holiday... and feel Bonaire is a place we'd love to go back!

Aaaand, we're BACK... for a wee bit

David and I are back in New York City after a FANTASTIC holiday in the Caribbean.

Now we're running around in our usual kind-of-manic style, trying to get ourselves organized for our next installation DD... this time in Chicago! David heads out to Chicago this Sunday. I will join him (looks like, but yet to be confirmed) on Thursday, but only for a couple of days, as I will head out to London for a few days, do a day in Germany, and then back to London for a couple of days........then back to Chicago. It's a whirlwind, as ever. But at least this time we will be working in the US and kind of close(r) to home? It's kind of exciting, living in a different US city for a change...

More to come soon....

In Bonaire

David and I have been in Bonaire since Tuesday night... and we are loving our time here so far!

We enjoyed Puerto Rico, too. We had a great trip to the rain forest, an interesting experience at the beach (the beach was really dirty with garbage from the weekend partying... but the water itself was okay), good sea food and Puerto Rican food, and the most special of all -- an evening kayaking in a "bioluminescent" bay (the water glows in the dark!). We enjoyed where we were in Old San Juan, even managed to salsa dance a bit and visit the Bacardi rum factory. But coming to the quiet island of Bonaire, we realize that this is really what we were after... peace and quiet, drives around the island (in a pick-up truck, no less!), lots of snorkeling, all accompanied by plenty of rum-based drinks on the beach!

We'll post photos when we can... I hope to have some good flora/fauna pics from this trip!

And FINALLY... a holiday!!!

Life has been hectic and packed in the last couple of weeks. But amidst all the work-related happenings, David and I have also managed to accomplish some fun and memorable life-related things, such as: see "In the Heights" (brilliant!); go to Brooklyn to see a Polish production of "Macbeth"... which sadly got canceled due to rain (boo); throw me a birthday party (a successful one at that -- there were many mojitos and margaritas and LOADS of dancing and twirling... photos to come); and, most recently, we went to Brooklyn for a 4th of July celebration.

And FINALLY, tomorrow very early in the morning, we're off to Puerto Rico! And then two days after that, we'll be in Bonaire for almost a week! We've gotten out our snorkels and flippers from the storage, along with David's sun-proof gear (see last year's blog entry about our holiday for the photos). We bought sun screen, aloe and after sun moisturizer, as well as various Caribbean-appropriate frock. Now, all we have to do is pack!

Hooray!

crazy times in casting

We spent 4 days in Toronto last week for recasts in the Canadian DD company; now we're back in NYC trying to wrap up the US Tour casting while we continue to tie up Toronto. London is being recast, too, so there are recasts all around... a very hectic time for us, so we haven't been able to blog... but more to come, soon!

In the mean time, wish us luck finding some serious DD talents...

Farewell to London (for now)... and back to New York City

David and I managed to squeeze in some good social outings (a.k.a. partying) with our London friends before we left the city... one of the more solid night outs of which was Friday, the night before we returned to New York. We had drinks with Valerie, Katie, and Magnus at Bam Bou, joined briefly by David's old dance friend Ryan. I have known Valerie and Katie for 9 years now, and drinks with the two of them on a good night means seemingly endless rounds of cocktails. The rounds go round and round in a deceptively swift fashion, because we have engaging conversation and comic storytellings -- and Friday was no exception. I had a handicap of having had only about 4 hours of sleep that day and generally exhausted from the final week of casting... compounded by yet another handicap of my being stupid enough to think that a vodka martini straight up was the way to go. I felt fine through the cocktails, fine through the wine shared at dinner. Then there was a sly and possibly lethal shot of alcohol David made me and Valerie try after dinner at a near by lounge club, a concoction of tequila, rum and sambuca (Katie and Magnus had smartly gone home by then). And yet I felt well enough to suggest that we go to our apartment for more wine, seeing that London bars close early (which should have been a sign).

We had a good hanging out with Valerie at our place... and then I expired. Like a wind-up toy -- I was finished, and thus turned off and fell asleep on the couch amidst the hanging out. David put me to bed, and Val and David continue to chat, until they decided that they would like to commemorate the evening by taking photos:

The two as***les took this photo with me passed out! Even managed to put the camera on timer so that they could be fully in the shot. (I can't quite understand how perky the two of them can be, having drank all night. Obviously, I am just too delicate to keep up.)

And then the two got artsy, took out my velcro rollers and put it on and around me and on themselves and took this:

I never woke up and didn't know this had taken place until David showed me the photos. (They'd taken 6 of these "Tomoko passed out with velcro rollers and Val and David hovering" pics.)


Very funny, you two.

(These photos *are* really funny, actually. Lucky for them I have a very good sense of humor.)

We had a great night, and will miss Val and the rest of our London friends. Hopefully, we will be back again soon enough.

For those of you wondering, we ended up flying Delta, NOT Silverjet, and the flight was far better and provided plenty of edible food.

Now, we're back in New York, where it is muggy. The weather has been an odd mix, on and off between torrential rain and clear blue skies and sunshine. It's good to be home. We got up early today (jet-lag), went to Whole Foods to buy food, hit the gym, and had a late lunch at Casa Mono, walked around downtown and then came home to unpack. We'll have an early night tonight, as we go back to casting the US Tour tomorrow, bright and early.

And now for our last week in London

(View of London skyline -- including the London Eye -- from the exclusive roofdeck of our friends Laurie and John's apartment...)

David and I have had a wonderful time in London: a good mix of work, "normal" life (consisting of gym, local eats and chill time the two-some way), seeing friends, and enjoying the foggy city. Living in Bloomsbury has worked out fabulously well for us, as it's proved the first time in London that we've felt well-integrated. Much better than "living" in Covent Garden. On the life/gym-front, David has been trying to bulk-up muscle-wise and I have aspired to become more "fit" -- a regime/aspiration we began in New York and have been able to continue and maintain while in London. Of course, there are probably more wine consumed here -- a function of having better access to gorgeous wines and needing it after a long day of casting -- but on the whole we have spent the last 3 weeks in London without having to throw away entirely our more healthful routines we've established and stuck to in New York, which too often happens when we are displaced and live temporarily in a foreign city.

A few snapshots of our last week in London show us...

...at John and Laurie's apartment for a BBQ feast, as well as a treat to the London skyline...

(David and John discuss life and other manly things overlooking the London Eye...)

(Real men BBQ with a cosmopolitan in hand...)

(Happily intoxicated on John and Laurie's roofdeck...)

...at Mon Plaisir, digging into a delicious pear tart before going to watch Sex and the City Movie....

... at Busba Eathai, MANY times over... our favorite Thai restaurant in London, we are truly addicted...

... at Roka, where infused shochu and excellent food reign supreme...

... and the dessert at Roka was one of the best desserts we've ever eaten...


(David in dessert-time heaven at Roka...)

... and we've had a wild night out with Valerie, which started out civilized enough at a dinner at Yauacha...


... but which lead to an interesting outing to a random R&B club... and lots of silly dancing and Valerie, as always, being very popular with the boys...

... to back to Mon Plaisir, where we had a gorgeous rib-eye for two...
We have one more week in London left, and some more hefty bit of casting to do, but we are optimistic and look forward to having a good time... even if it means we have to fly back to New York on Silverjet.

Hopefully it won't jinx us... but we saw this sticker on a sandwich from Pret and thought it was quite appropriate...

Silverjet AGAIN?!

I blogged too soon... apparently Silverjet has been bought, and may still be running when we return to New York on Saturday.

BOOOOOO.

Silverjet No Longer

Silverjet, which we flew to London, has gone BANKRUPT!

We really hated the airline and pleaded with the office so that we'd never have to fly it again, but we had not anticipated that it would go out of business within our 4-week stay in London. We'd dreaded having to fly back to New York on it, but now it looks like we won't have to worry!

And nearly done with Week 2 in London...

Very long day today, and we're very tired. It's weird how tired one can end up feeling when one doesn't really do anything other than sit and watch other people audition. David thinks it may have to do with the lack of air circulation in the audition venue. In typical London fashion, the week has been pretty gray and rain-prone. This morning started off promising, the sun was out and it seemed warmer... but then came the rain.

David and I cast all day, come home, go to the gym, eat something, then try to go to bed. It's hard to go to bed even when we're pretty tired, because there is that part of us that wants to hang out and do something "social" before retiring for the night..... Audition days can feel like an exercise in endurance sometimes.

But we're enjoying ourselves, and have fallen into a good routine. And at this rate, we will return to New York a bit fitter than when we left it, as gym-going is becoming our breather activity for the day.

Tomorrow is Friday! -- and we will, of course, be casting, but in the evening we are invited to dinner at our friends Laurie and John's new flat, so we are looking forward to that. Always nice to have a dose of civilized social interaction.

Bank Holiday and Search of a Good Mango

David and I had a very relaxing Bank Holiday weekend, the bulk of which consisted of our sleeping in until at least noon each day. We needed the sleep as we're still a bit weird time-wise -- we tend to stay up way past our bedtimes and hating ourselves when the morning comes too soon and we need to get ourselves to a long day of casting. Besides sleeping, our weekend featured such activities as going to the gym, trying out a new restaurant on Saturday (Tentazione -- an Italian restaurant, the food was inventive yet comfortingly yummy), going to Roka for dinner on Sunday (always great, who can fault a restaurant with beautiful, infused shochu), and grocery shopping. We also had a few of our London friends (Val, Katie and her FIANCE Magnus - yay!) over for wine and nibbles last night, which was good fun.

One of our weekend "getaway" destination was Whole Foods, a grocery trip that may seem excessive (because it's quite a bit away from where we are) but was much needed on the mango-supply front. I have a great many fruit allergies, which leaves tropical fruits some of the only fruits I can eat raw. I had come to depend on mangoes in New York for breakfast and post-gym snacks. The massive mangoes we acquired at our local Waitrose in London, however, were disgusting. They tasted, weirdly, like fish. And then we splashed out on buying one of the organic mangoes, also at Waitrose. I had to spit it out. David and I both agreed that this one tasted like soap. So yesterday, we set off to Whole Foods and returned tentatively with a few selections of organic mangoes. We ate one this morning and it was... delicious!


Success! And very thrilling, our adventures in search of tasty mango.

Now off we go for a day of dance auditions!