Christmas carols can cure all

It has been a very strange 24 hours. There was an incident over the weekend with Laura and her internship – she was in charge of all of the press for the 2008 Urban Music Awards (an award show the small media company she interns with was  hosting). During the show - in which she was in charge of all of the press BY HERSELF, there were 3 stabbings by gang members, which unleashed hysteria in the building. Blood was everywhere and to make a long story short, Laura and the two other Elon interns she was with, Ashley and Michelle, were abandoned by their supervisor (who left with the celebrities) to deal with the press and the police all on their own. It was obviously traumatic and scary, and it was the last straw to a series of scary happenings since being here. Trying to be there for her and support her through this emotional whirlwind right upon getting back from Paris has been really tough. I want to do something to make her feel better, but she is understandably a mess, and I feel so helpless. I wish I could tell her that the sun will come out tomorrow…. But not even Annie could make me believe that. Always rain and gloomy skies here in London... we could all use a pick me up.

 

So, when I went into the office today, Gordon came up with a brilliant idea to cheer me up – Christmas music day in the office! All day long we youtubed every holiday song you could imagine from Celine to Whitney to Mariah, and of course all of the classics that make me feel safe and warm. The office was really quiet, I think the phone rang four times the entire day so we were able to get a lot of administrative work done uninterrupted. Of course, busy is always good because busy means business, but I do appreciate the days when we can all breathe without the phone ringing every two seconds.

 

My daily activities were pretty boring. I began with doing some research on the child clients, searching through their files to figure out which components they were missing be it a photo, CV, CV email, contract, or document sheet with their personal details. We recently took on about ten new clients from the School of Comedy, and so many of them had missing information that had to be documented so that everything is order for the New Year.

I also went through all of the adult files and took down a list of when the client’s contracts expired so that we could make sure all contracts were renewed and in order for 2009. I was surprised to find that many of the clients had contracts that were already expired. This is mostly because a lot of Robert’s clients are friends and so some of the business side of their relationship has not been maintained. But, of course, to ensure the business is going to move forward, Robert intends to get the contracts in order, because in the end friends are no guarantee.

       

After sorting through the files and compiling this list, I sat down to organize piles of receipts that have dated back to 2006! I, again was shocked by the major pile up, but luckily we are getting all the finances in order now so that can be all taken care of before starting a whole new pile of receipts in 2009. And even though it was monotonous, sorting to the sounds of Michael Buble’s Winter Wonderland made it worthwhile J.

       

Castings are very few and far between, however we have a client, Lara Martin, who I recently saw in the production of Blues Brothers in Dublin, who was called in for the final stage of casting for the upcoming West End production of Sister Act and we are really hoping she gets the part. It is a very exciting new production that has had a lot of hype surrounding it, so it would be great for the company to have a client in the show. Also Gavin Alex is on the short list for the show Never Forget, which means he is being highly considered for the final stages of casting.

       

Last week we auditioned Chris Robson, an older man who has tremendous clients, and he decided to come on board with us today, which was very exciting news. He will be a great asset to the company not only because he is talented, but because he fits the profile of none of our other clients because he is middle-aged, which means we now have a client to put up for older roles. The more versatile our client list is, the more role descriptions we are able to submit our actors for, which increases the opportunities for the company.

 

So work was good, and the boys and I had a lot of laughs. Then I headed off on my own to the Hammersmith Lyric Theatre – which is about a 45 minutes commute away, by myself. And I just do not like being by myself in the city – especially not now, and especially since it gets dark here literally at 4:30pm. I called my mom when I got to the theatre, wishing she could give me a hug. I am starting to really itch to be home, and while I love it here, there is nothing like the safety of your own home and having your parents there to protect you. I know I am all grown up now, but that need will never go away.

 

The show we saw was horrible – it was a modern day version of Othello set in a bar in North Liverpool. The accents made the already difficult to understand language unbearable and I was so bored. There was no interval, I had a splitting headache, yearned for friggin subtitles, burnt my mouth on my soup just before the show and to top it off, the ending was the most gruesome and gory death of each main character – including stabbings and a slashing of the jugular with blood that gushed everywhere.  This is exactly what happened at the awards show Laura and the girls witnessed. So they all left crying. It was horrible timing. I think everything will get better soon, just right now we all just want to go home. 

But if I have learned anything from being here, it is that you can never predict what tomorrow is going to bring, and for every moment I have wanted to go home, there have been ten in which I have been so happy and content. It is those moments I will take with me. The rest can drown in all the rain.

 

Love and hugs,

Jenny