A Good Start.

I get very superstitious about the first few days of a new year.

I rather think in some sort of pagan primeval way that the course of the rest of the year will be determined by the events of the first week or so.

If that is indeed the case then I probably have little cause to worry as this week has been a nice mixture of work, socialising, and surprises.

Monday, which was the last day of no congestion charge prompted me to persuade Rich to go into town and have a mooch around the shops. He had a surfeit of Marks and Spencer vouchers to spend and I needed to get an external monitor connector for my flash new macbook air,my Christmas present from Rich and on which, incidentally, I am typing this weeks blog.

One of the things Rich has learnt from me over the years is how to shop. It wouldn't be his activity of choice, but when he wants to he is rather good at it and we had a great afternoon pushing our way through the sales, taking the extreme rudeness of a sales assistant in HMV on the chin (No surprise they've issued a profits warning!) and coming home laden with lots of nice bags. Always a good result.

Tuesday saw the tree coming down and an evening trip to the dress rehearsal of Cirque De Soleil at the Albert Hall. Such a fabulous venue and we had a box on the Grand Tier. Very impressive. More so than the show in fact, which although it had it's moments, was all a little too international and bland for me. If you want a real classy evening in the big top style then go see La Soiree which has just had its run extended to end of February on the South Bank. We're taking some friends again this Saturday and it's brilliant.

Tuesday also brought a phone call from the lovely Kirsten at my agents office. When I signed with Amanda some 14 years ago, Kirsten joined her as an assistant. Over the years she has been the person who has rung me with good news and bad news, but she always does it incredibly well. She has a gift of making you feel great by the time you come off the phone with her.

She's been away for the last fourteen months having had twins, but it was really great to have her back in the office and her first call was of course with a job interview. Admittedly it turned out to be for two lines in a new drama for BBC 1 which films later this month, but it's a start.

My friend Kevin rang with an enquiry about a corporate for February which could turn out to involve several actors and which I will direct and on Friday while I was in Amsterdam working with the dutch law academy where I teach presentation technique, Amanda who is my agent e mailed an interview through for a theatre job.

It's not the sort of thing I want to do, being a second tour of a West End play, but I am desperate to do some theatre this year and get some feeling back in my soul, so that too was a start in the right direction. I learnt my trade in the theatre, in repertory in York ,Exeter and Nottingham and with years at Stratford and the Barbican. It is always where my heart has lain. I like television and over the years have grown better at it, but it is the thrill of an audience that really turns me on.

These days my boredom threshold is low so the prospect of a long run is not something that ever excites me, but four weeks rehearsal and a three week run of something gives me a feeling that I get from nowhere else.

Partly the illicit nature of theatre in that you are going in to work at a time when everyone else is going home, the free days, the camaraderie and the gossip and the fact that you have a chance each night to live and change what you are doing.

So hopefully 2011 will offer that chance, but all in all it's been a great year.................so far!