It's not the Andes

I went to the gym as usual on Wednesday morning. Okay, it's not entirely usual in that some Wednesdays I'm busy doing something else, debilitated by MS fatigue or simply not in the mood. Wednesday morning is Neuro Group at Oxsrad. From 10 til 12, we work out gently and constructively. There is always a physio or physio assistant there. Some people come with their own carer / partner / companion / coach. We all support each other. Noone says "do more, work harder, faster, more weight".

I was quite pleased with myself yesterday. Not just because I went to the gym. I did my full routine - every exercise planned by my physio - no more, no less this time. Whilst taking a little rest between units, I chatted with a (now) friend who attends and often astounds with the level at which he exercises. Fast and high impact. He has slowed down a lot recently and says he is benefitting from taking things a bit steadier. I came up with this analogy -

Each unit of exercise/use of a machine is like climbing a mountain. It's not easy but we do it. And then we go on and tackle another mountain. However, we often need to have a rest in between mountains. This allows our bodies to process what we've just done. We may be in the middle of a major mountain range but we don't have to tackle it all in one go.

Coincidentally, today I googled the Andes and the page I clicked on - Andes - is headed with an advert for Serif's WebPlus. I have just created a brand new website for my professional persona as an actor. I've never done one before. Using a WebPlus package, it didn't take me too long to design the site but the hardest bit seemed to be publishing it. I have succeeded and will have the control to update my website whenever I want. It was a big learning mountain to climb and I am sure there will still be unseen rocky outcrops to navigate. But it's not the Andes and I don't have to tackle it all in one go. Good luck with whatever mountains you encounter and conquer today.

Never mind the weather

Whilst I was still a student (single hons Drama at University of Hull and the department is coming up to a 50th anniversary celebration... more of that another time)... where was I? Oh yes, whilst still a student, I started working with a touring theatre company. The first show I did with them was an outdoor piece. If I remember rightly (and, let's face it, that could be highly dubious) I played Morgana the witch but I can't remember anything about the piece. We might well have been performing in one of the fabulously named Yorkshire towns/villages such as Wetwang or Gilberdyke and we probably sang this in the van on the way to the gig:

JOLLY GOOD COMPANY
"Here we are again, Happy as can be, All good friends and jolly good company.
Strolling 'round the town, Out upon a spree, All good friends and jolly good company.
Never mind the weather, never mind the rain, Now we're all together, whoop she goes again.
Lah-di-di-di-da, Lah-di-da-di-di.
All good friends and jolly good company." 
http://www.petefaint.co.uk/jackhylton/jollygoodcompany.mp3

It was a company favourite van song. Often launched into by the stage manager as we drove from gig to gig.  At the moment, amongst many deficiencies, the company I'm working for doesn't have a van. We don't even have a stage manager. The show is good - surprisingly funny, accessible and touching - but the woman who started the company and is acting in the play (it's a two-hander, so no prizes for guessing who is the other actor in it) seems to know nothing about touring and possibly less about her own abilities or otherwise as a performer, let alone company creator.

There have been good things for me doing this production. I've had to develop a character different to myself with a strong (posh) New York accent. I've had to be able to learn lines again. It's a two-hander so there are a lot of lines. I've had to sustain my patience in the face of the nightmares created by the other actor (TOA). There have been frequent incidences of "whoop she goes again" and not many of "jolly good company". I titled a recent email reply to the director with the subject line "horror, horror" as I'd been alerted to a terrible YouTube video posted by TOA. 

The best thing has probably been the delight of working with a really good director (RGD). The RGD may be a first timer but is also an actor and really knows her stuff - perceptive, intuitive, creative. And she is going to be directing a production of 'Steaming' in the Autumn. She suggested I should audition. It's for a different company. A single venue. Proper staging. Organised rehearsal schedule and space. Thought-through production. I did audition and the RGD emailed me afterwards to say: 
"You were outstanding...Thank you so much for today, you really were superb."
I know that's me boasting but it was a real lift to my spirits and if I don't get a part after that feedback I will be crushed!

So, no matter what the weather throws at me, I am determined to be positive. I have chosen my new head shots, am building a new website for myself, will soon have a new showreel, I am performing in the tricky two-hander and have the prospect of a really good show in the autumn too. Forget the MonSter - no matter how much it reminds me that it's there (e.g. I keep falling over!), I am being who I am. I am an actor. And I am jolly good company.

What the heck?!

It's been a long time since I have blogged (two months). Apart from mini blogging on social network sites (and I don't think Twitter or Facebook status updates count as blog posts), I don't seem to have had time to write.

I haven't had time to read either. Or, if I have had time, I haven't had headspace. My brain is definitely scrambled eggs at the moment. I have a stack of books next to my bed that I would like to read. I'm playing a character who claims to love books and "live a life of the mind". I'm not really living that life. When I'm in a rehearsal period, I often find it hard to read anything other than my script. I don't like to have different stories and people in my head. More than ever now I have to try to absorb my character lines. I have to work hard to get the words into long-term memory. I'm living the payback for having previously found it easy to learn my lines. My MS has taken away that aptitude.

I have been horribly busy. Not just with the play, I know I have been doing too much. I have been ill – a spectacular hacking cough and endlessly snotty nose. I have had eyesight lapses. I have fallen over (several times). And I have still rehearsed, done simulated patient role-play jobs, produced my agency's newsletter, supported a friend through the break up with her boyfriend plus starting working on a new website and show reel not to mention rearranging all the furniture in my front room.

It's crazy I know but at a recent MS award ceremony I was described as nutty, I didn't win the award. But my friend and fellow MSer Jo did. So, what the heck?! This video seems appropriate - enjoy (and yes that is THE Kevin Kline narrating!):

Busy, busy, busy

Cough, sneeze, splutter, freeze

I've coughed so much in the last couple of days that it hurts. It hurts my throat. It hurts my head. It hurts my chest. And yet I still cough. In years gone past I would have ignored this. Not taken any medication. Not done much more than perhaps sprinkle a few drops of Olbas oil on my pillow. Now I've taken my day/night nurse capsules (mostly just paracetamol). I've stayed in PJs, not gone out. I've cancelled meetings and social trips. I've watched banal (as well as invigorating) TV programmes. I've admitted to being ill.

The hardest bit about accepting this level of ill is that I haven't been out in the snow. I've not thrown a snowball, not made a snowman (or snow-woman!).

I've not wrapped up in layers, put on wellies and made my footprints the first in any patch of white. I want to trudge through it before it turns to ice and slush. I want to run across an expanse of pristine snow.

Of course I don't run anywhere now. The director of the play I am currently rehearsing (and, yes, I've had to cancel going to a rehearsal too) recently pointed out that it wouldn't be credible for my character regularly to play tennis and run 2 - 3 miles round a golf course. And she based that on my stiffness when standing up out of a chair. This is the first time I will have to incorporate a major character and script change as a result of my MS. I have suggested that we could replace reference to running with cycling - you can do that sitting down! I haven't cycled for a week but I will soon. Or rather I will when the ice and snow have diminished and my coughing and sneezing have eased enough for me to breathe in without inducing an onslaught of phlegm and sputum. I'll leave you with that image. Now, where's my pile of tissues?

Five things

Lists provide popular material for news items / magazine articles / blog posts / Facebook updates. Even the 140 character limited Tweet can be a platform for a list. Here are some recent ones that have caught my eye (Just five of them because longer lists can get boring!):

There are five things that you cannot recover in life:
(1) The  Stone..........after it's thrown
(2)  The Word..........after it's said,
(3) The  Occasion..........after it's missed
(4) The Time..........after  it's gone.
(5) A person..........after they pass on
(From a chain email promising wealth and success - I'm not sure how the above thought fits in with the "Financial Abundance Angel" pictured on the chain email and right If she has such financial abundance, how come she can't afford a coat? It's cold out!)

The BBC Health 'five things' for 2013 are a little hard to decipher from this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20800795: 
A watershed moment before January is out?
Will the government be bold with the old?
Getting tough on unhealthy habits
Money, money, money
Get ready for the big bang
(Thank you to BBC Health Correspondent Nick Triggle)

Two lists for the price of one! -
On Twitter, I found some freelancer advice in the form of
Five things every freelancer should do this January 
I'm freelance / self employed / just me... I'm not sure exactly what is applicable to an actor on Disability Living Allowance and Working Tax Credit.  I nearly understand most of the freelance advice and quite like this phrase in the Get your business ready for 2013 article it links to:
What our clients can do: No action required yet.
Thank goodness I live in the UK as I don't think I understand the often referred to United States Fiscal Cliff at all. (Thank you to the original Tweeter/Twit/Twerp/Tweep @freelanceadvice)

Here's another Twitter gem(?) - look for Jill Laine's eyes flickering back and forth in the video as she reads her autocue (or perhaps it's just auto cards that tell her what to say) on Trendspotting with Jill Laine: 3 Things to wear when you’ve gained 5 pounds I do most of this already but I think I've gained lots more than 5 pounds - I'm blaming the Gabapentin I take and not my largely-MS-induced inactive overindulgence.

And there we have it. You can comment with your own list for 2013. I don't make New Year Resolutions not least because I have this strange perversity that whenever I say I'm going to do something I tend to do the exact opposite. NB This does not apply to professional commitments I hasten to add just in case you felt like offering me a job! Please offer me a job!

The MonSter within

This Month’S MiSsive is brought to you by the letters M & S  (not the well known retailer)
I’ve always been Ms – if anyone telephones and asks for Mrs so-and-so I know they have no idea who I am. A caller once asked if they could speak to Mrs Morrell – my departed boyfriend (not dead, just left me) was Mr Morrell. We had always been MarvellouSly unmarried. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t thrilled to receive that phone call. Even if an unknown caller gets the correct surname, I’m unlikely to want to talk to them and rarely give out my landline number – Mobile’S best for me.

Let’s suppose my surname is Stuart. It’s not but I quite like the idea of being Ms M.S. It is common for me to be cast as an unnamed female character - Mum or Teacher or Nurse etc. I recently played Headteacher in a short film. The writer/director agreed I could call her Ms Mary Stewart. It always looks better for your character to have a name on your CV. I went with this name as I was drawing upon BBC newscaster Moira Stuart for the headteacher’s voice. Ms Stuart has gorgeous tones and is a joy for me to hear on BBC Radio 2 in the MorningS.

Anyway, as Ms Stuart I might get a junk phone call asking to speak to Mrs Stuart – I will ask who is calling or, if I’m feeling grumpy, I’ll just say there is no such person ignoring the fact that my sister-in-law is Mrs Stuart, my mother was Mrs Stuart, and there must be nuMerouS other Mrs Stuarts in the world.

Ms is not the same as Miss or Mrs but can disguise either. My Sister is a Dr (not medical but she has a PhD so doesn’t have to be Ms, MisS or MrS). I don’t even have a MSc. I am a Ms with MS. The MonSter pervades my life. On a Facebook forum today, another MSer posted the idea that referring to our condition as MonSter is negative and we should alternatively go with MeSsenger “telling you to slow down, rest up, eat well and love the good things and people in your life “. A bringer of tidings, good and bad?

I think I’ll stick with MonSter. I quite like MonSters – they can be friendly MaSsive MateS. Their MiSsion is not always MadneSs. The MeSs my MonSter brings may not be something I would have wanted to join. However, MemberShip changed my life MaSsively in a MilliSecond in MillionS of ways, not all bad but I’m still discovering what they are.

The MuSic of my life is an unknown ManuScript MoStly played out in MicroSoft packages or eaten with dodgy quantities of MSg. If I make MiStakes, I proMiSe to recoMpenSe as best I can.

This xMaS I have not kissed under the MiStletoe but I have MuSed on life and love. I am making MoveS forward. It is not iMpoSsible to change. I have MS but I won’t go backwards. Let’s face it – I don’t do SM. I’ve got enough pain going on already.

Enough

The bruise on my thigh got bigger and blacker. But this wasn’t the worst of it.

On Tuesday evening I didn’t fall but I did break my foot. I don’t know if the trip/stumble as I went into my bedroom was related to the fall from my bike on the Sunday. Perhaps I was even less steady on my feet than a ‘normal’ person might be. Perhaps I was simply overtired from having been to London and back for a casting. Whatever the case, as I went through my bedroom door, I stumbled forward and banged my foot against the edge of a chest of drawers.

I knew straight away I had hurt it badly. It hurt far more than stubbing your toe usually would. It crippled me. I wondered if I had broken anything. It was late and I didn’t want to do anything about it that night. I didn’t think there was anything that could be done. I went to bed.

I don’t think I slept very well. The pain did not go away. By the morning it was throbbing and one of my toes was swollen but not black and blue. I wanted to know whether there was anything in particular I should do if it was broken. My GP was concerned that the pain and slight bruising wasn’t just on the toe but into the foot. She referred me for X-ray meaning that I could bypass some of the queuing at A&E. The radiologist was swift, efficient and helpful. Yes, a broken metatarsal. Triage was also reasonably good: “Apart from my MS, was there anything they needed to know?” I could truthfully say, “I’ve broken my foot”.

The only long wait was to see the Casualty doctor who would decide what should be done. Again, he asked: “Apart from your MS is there anything I need to know?” “Isn’t having MS enough?” I responded.

The thing is, it is enough. Too much some days. I have MS, I fell off my bike, I unintentionally kicked a large item of furniture. I have broken my foot. Enough.