April Round -Up

How are we half way through the year already? I know it seems terribly cliché to talk about the time and how fast or slow it may be moving but...seriously? June? How? I need to be a little faster with these monthly round-ups if the year is going to get away from me like this so here we go! 

On the 1st of April, Jonny Vickers, his lovely wife Lucy, Oliver and I went to see Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds Immersive Experience as it was being built. It has opened now in Aldgate and I have since visited but seeing something that big, epic and alien to me in its initial stages was fascinating. Secret Cinema is the extent of my immersive theatre experience and so seeing how shows like that are made is so interesting and admittedly, a little intimidating. Improv is definitely not a kind of performing I'm comfortable with or interested in pursuing  and I have a real respect for actors who, not only do it but do it well! It's such a skill!  It's those live actors who really make the experience come to life. I've made a video about my time at the experience which you can watch here!

On the 2nd, I was involved in filming something that has yet to surface so more on that soon hopefully but in the evening, Harry Potter was a-calling! Mum, Dad, Oliver and I all took a trip to the unveiling of Gringotts at the Warner Brother's Studio Tour in Watford.

During the drinks reception before we were allowed to go through the tour, I was nabbed by the press team and asked to do some interviews. I didn't realise this meant I would be taken to see the inside of Gringotts before everyone else! EEP! I got walked round the back way and I tried my hardest to swallow the lump in my throat as I turned the corner and saw the breathtaking Wizarding bank in all it's glory! The Potter tour sure know how to put on an awesome event and I've been lucky enough to go to a few over the years but Gringotts felt particularly special! 

During the next week or so, I handed in the second draft of my book having gone through all the notes and edits my editor had sent over. Also, all the secret work Celinde, Ben, Ramin and myself had been hiding away, finally came to fruition on the 8th, the night before... 

My family  flew to DisneyWorld on the 9th! Two weeks were spent on a family holiday in our favourite place. This time, we had the addition of Oliver who had never been before but he seemed to take to it well! 

On the 25th, the day after we landed back home I head into London to film this video for Les Miserables. They asked me to remove my glasses for filming to make it easier to light and I think I look really weird without them but hey, ho! The video is still really lovely and I'm DESPERATE to get back to the barricades!

On the 26th the Vitality 10K running group all met for the first time to meet, greet and run coached by Tim Weeks who was a sweetheart and really made us all feel like we belonged, despite most of us being complete beginners! I'd been running through my holiday and had actually seen some improvement but I was so worried I would suddenly find that everyone was running 5K's in under twenty minutes and I was going to be lagging behind, stumbling and breathless. The reality was that everyone seemed to be on relatively level pegging but even so, we were a team, no matter what!

The holiday in the middle of the month meant that, upon reflection, April didn't seem as jam-packed as the rest of the year before it but it was a glorious month nevertheless! <3