The Inner Child Keeps on Growing

So I've been off work all this week with the cough from hell. I actually drove part way to work in Reading on Tuesday and had such an awful coughing fit that barely kept the car on the road and at the next opportunity I turned around and came back home again.

I phoned the doctor to sort out a sick note (for the first time in at least fifteen years, possibly longer) and he said that I actually had bronchitis - the coughing following on from a cold is a bit of a clue. And there's really nothing you can do about it except rest and wait for it to clear up. That part is taking its time; I'm not really feeling any better than I was a week ago - I get a few good hours maybe and then have some ferocious coughing fits. Anyway, back to work on Monday and see how I get on - I have a feeling that they might send me back home again! But we'll see.

The main reason I need to get better as soon as possible is that we are only just over three weeks away from Scrooge and with the number of rehearsals I've ended up missing I'm feeling really unengaged with it. We've got a rehearsal tomorrow (Sunday) and I'm planning on going along so I can at least catch up on some of the bits of 'setting' that I've missed or only done once. I doubt that I'll be able to do any actual singing, but at least I can get a reminder of where to stand.

So in the meantime I've spent a couple of weeks getting through Clarke award reading and playing computer games from the comfort of the living room sofa. I finished 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' (verdict: better than many of the reviews seemed to think but still way too long) and played through 'Mini Ninjas' which was fairly slight but just about what my brain could cope with. And now, after a second attempt I've finally given up with 'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' on the Wii. There are things about it I like a lot but the nunchuck-controlled direction controls is just not working for me - I continually screw up the platforming and fighting sections because I just can't get the fineness of control that I need - it also leaves me with a slightly sea-sick feeling. I guess it's just me as others don't seem to have the problem!

I've also come to the end of Season 3 in my project to watch 'Alias' through from the beginning. It remains a) great fun and b) dumb as a very dumb thing. A great game to play is 'who is holding the idiot ball this week'...

That's auditions over for another show! I think mine went pretty well, as did pennski's.

I must admit to feeling a bit odd about this one. It's The Pajama Game, I show I wasn't familiar with. The music is quite fun but the show itself is pretty rubbish. All 1950 sexism (patriarchal male lead pats the little woman on the head and single-handedly solves everyone's problems). Still, we've got a director who finds some of the show as problematical as we do, so is intending to send it up more than a little bit.
Anyway, I'll be happy if I get the part I auditioned for (Hines, the factory time study man, a fairly comic, song-and-dance character role, which is the sort of part I like) but I'll be entirely happy to be in the chorus if not.

Other than that the last couple of weeks has been spent working, watching tv and playing computer games (excellent parties aside!).

I've got two games on the go at the moment. I'm playing through Lego Indiana Jones which is fun (basically if you like Lego Star Wars you'll like this - it's pretty much more of the same) and giving the MMORPG Tabula Rasa a go. I'm still in two minds about this one. It's pretty much a 3rd person shooter and has fun stuff going on, but it's not very friendly to new players. Most missions so far seem to be non-instanced 'kill and fetch' types and it has a rather cluttered interface, is sometimes unclear about relative difficult of creatures and thus far seems to have absolutely no sense of humour whatsoever. I'm enjoying it enough to be going on with it, but I don't think it's going to be something that I'm going to come back to often.

The amount of this afternoon, that is, that I've lost to playing 'Peggle'! There was a special edition demo which came with The Orange Box, which I thought was rather fun (it being a special Valve version it did, of course, feature the unicorn's face being eaten by a Head Crab).

So I bought and downloaded the full version...and that was the last couple of hours. I'll never learn.

Anyway, we need to eat, finish what packing we can and then up at some unholy hour (for a Sunday, anyway) for the airport. I don't know whether we will have any internet access while we are there, but I'll post some updates if we can (and littlebutfierce and sdn, look forward to seeing you!)

Play nice while we're away!