Getting to be a habit with me.

It’s easy to get out of the habit of things.........like work!

The whole country has been enjoying an April of short weeks and long weekends. Three weeks ago I decided that my attitude to having no work till the 3rd of May would be to declare a two week Easter holiday. As a ploy it worked a treat. Absolved me from the guilt of the freelancer that a day at home should really be a day working.

So imagine the shock to my system when on Tuesday this week I had to go into town for a casting and then do a three hour job in the afternoon.

Thursday and Friday also saw a trip toAmsterdam for a job so that by the end of the week I was ready for a long weekend once more.

It’s the bane of the freelancer that when you’re working you are thinking about time off and when you’re not working you are worried that you should be. For an actor the best time is between getting the job and starting it. Once it’s started you’re looking at how long each day is and when you will get a day off.

The promise of our summer holiday has also begun to loom in my mind . Only five weeks or so to go and we have two whole weeks away from everything with nothing to worry about.....except the prospect of returning to no work. See! It never goes away.

Having already turned down the possibility of one theatre job while we are on holiday and definitely one corporate job, the holiday has a lot to live up to. This year as indeed last year, I am so looking forward to it as an excuse to have nothing to do. I wonder if it is a sign of growing older.

We are currently looking for a new home and my ideal would be to spend as much time in it as possible and not to have to worry about the world of work. One small Victorian cottage in which I would have happily done this definitely became not ours this week as we lost out in a race to entice the buyer. We offered more money, the other people were ready to go, so our search is on again.

We’ve had a couple of viewings of ours but it is obviously going to be along drawn out process. This is not good for me. Rich has a patience that is exemplary - I have often called it into being by my own actions. I however when I decide that something should be done, I want it done there and then. I want to move. Now. Instant gratification. That’s probably why I like comedy so much as an actor and a director. The gag either works or it doesn’t and you get the instant reward of the laugh. Not for me the moving deeply affecting piece of work that gets people thinking. Send them out with a warm giggle in their souls, thats my motto.

That’s why the Royal wedding was such a joy. So much laughter and smiling in the country  - all on one day. Never a bad thing. Just a shame that it was followed this week by all the puffed up American Imperialism over the death of Bin Laden, and the patronising gits at Westminster telling us we don’t know how to vote.

Every piece of information given out was about how AV worked - as though someone had made an assumption that we wouldn’t understand. Nobody really propounded the arguments why it would or would not work. It’s a shame as a really serious reform of how we run our democracy is needed, but this was never going to be it. I think the current term is that it got “Clegged”

So we’re not going to change our voting habits anytime soon. Though if we do get to vote over endless bank holidays, I’m for them!