Taken up the Grand canal!
Well what a week it has been. Starting with the most un-birthday like birthday last Monday. The day saw me working at McDonalds – Big Mac and Fries anyone? – last Monday morning. Monday afternoon was spent in the ophthalmology department at Kings waiting to find out about the cataracts in my eyes. I am going to have two ops to remove them! And then the evening took me to Birmingham where on Tuesday I spent my first day filming as “Rowly Calderone” my character for five episodes of “Doctors:
Rowly is a larger than life figure who everyone thinks is gay, but who turns out to have a big crush on his old college friend ~Julia, played by Diane Keen. Good fun to play but there’s no time on “Doctors to sit back and enjoy things. Tuesday saw us film an outdoor picnic before lunch and then a further fifteen scenes in Julia’s house which took us up to wrap time at 7pm
Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear in South London and Gatwick, but not so in Venice our holiday destination. We landed mid afternoon in a snowstorm. For reasons of a romantic nature, and because I was told it is best to see Venice first from the water, I had booked the Allilaguna airport boat shuttle to the centre of Venice. It was colder than a witch’s tit and blowing a real blizzard. None of this was helped by a phone call from our builder telling us the bathroom wall was damp and the repairs would cost twice what we thought they would.
To make matters worse I loosened my grip on my return ticket and it fluttered off into the Lagoon. A truculent ticket seller said he couldn’t give me another on as it wasn’t his fault and only when his colleague relented and said I could board the boat but would have to buy a new ticket for the return, did we head to the pier.
The boat ride was 90 minutes of hell. Freezing cold, dark with no visibility whatsoever so it was like sitting in a cold damp box.
A change of boats got us to Zattere and then began the search for the hotel. Dragging the case down snow covered canal side walks looking for an alley the size of an anal fissure is hardy fun at the best of times, but when your bones have chilled to the core and it’s at the end of a long days travel its even less fun, but eventually Rich spotted where we needed to be and we were ensconced in the annexe which was a large palatial room above a local restaurant. The restaurant provided sustenance for us and we headed back to the room to spend the night shivering, and one my part, dreaming of a warm bed in Sydenham.
Thursday brought a warmer dawn and the 35th birthday of Mister Richard Howle. Presents in bed and breakfast girded our spirits for the day ahead, but even though the snow lay on the ground, the sun had broken through the clouds and this beautiful city began to work its magic on us. We walked through the most gorgeous streets, made even more so by the previous days covering of snow, and made our way to St Marks Square.
The rest of the day and the two that followed were magical. We wandered streets, we took a gondola ride on Rich’s birthday afternoon- madly overpriced but worth every penny for the sheer tweeness of it all. Lots of highlights – hopping on and off the vaporetto was probably my favourite, but glass bowing in Murano, loud bell towers, Chinese tourists in gondolas and the sheer other worldliness of it all – a beautiful four days.
As I write this I have spent three hours at home before heading back to the Venice of the North – Birmingham for a further three days filming. Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice, but not a vaporetto in site. I think I’d be hard pressed to find a Cornetto!
Rowly is a larger than life figure who everyone thinks is gay, but who turns out to have a big crush on his old college friend ~Julia, played by Diane Keen. Good fun to play but there’s no time on “Doctors to sit back and enjoy things. Tuesday saw us film an outdoor picnic before lunch and then a further fifteen scenes in Julia’s house which took us up to wrap time at 7pm
Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear in South London and Gatwick, but not so in Venice our holiday destination. We landed mid afternoon in a snowstorm. For reasons of a romantic nature, and because I was told it is best to see Venice first from the water, I had booked the Allilaguna airport boat shuttle to the centre of Venice. It was colder than a witch’s tit and blowing a real blizzard. None of this was helped by a phone call from our builder telling us the bathroom wall was damp and the repairs would cost twice what we thought they would.
To make matters worse I loosened my grip on my return ticket and it fluttered off into the Lagoon. A truculent ticket seller said he couldn’t give me another on as it wasn’t his fault and only when his colleague relented and said I could board the boat but would have to buy a new ticket for the return, did we head to the pier.
The boat ride was 90 minutes of hell. Freezing cold, dark with no visibility whatsoever so it was like sitting in a cold damp box.
A change of boats got us to Zattere and then began the search for the hotel. Dragging the case down snow covered canal side walks looking for an alley the size of an anal fissure is hardy fun at the best of times, but when your bones have chilled to the core and it’s at the end of a long days travel its even less fun, but eventually Rich spotted where we needed to be and we were ensconced in the annexe which was a large palatial room above a local restaurant. The restaurant provided sustenance for us and we headed back to the room to spend the night shivering, and one my part, dreaming of a warm bed in Sydenham.
Thursday brought a warmer dawn and the 35th birthday of Mister Richard Howle. Presents in bed and breakfast girded our spirits for the day ahead, but even though the snow lay on the ground, the sun had broken through the clouds and this beautiful city began to work its magic on us. We walked through the most gorgeous streets, made even more so by the previous days covering of snow, and made our way to St Marks Square.
The rest of the day and the two that followed were magical. We wandered streets, we took a gondola ride on Rich’s birthday afternoon- madly overpriced but worth every penny for the sheer tweeness of it all. Lots of highlights – hopping on and off the vaporetto was probably my favourite, but glass bowing in Murano, loud bell towers, Chinese tourists in gondolas and the sheer other worldliness of it all – a beautiful four days.
As I write this I have spent three hours at home before heading back to the Venice of the North – Birmingham for a further three days filming. Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice, but not a vaporetto in site. I think I’d be hard pressed to find a Cornetto!
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