APRIL 2008 DIARY ENTRIES

Lie in!!!!! lovely restful afternoon in the apartment and then Jen and I went shopping! I wanted to splash out on myself a bit this week as the shops in Manchester are excellent and Jen wanted me to pick out my birthday presents from her so we headed to Harvey Nichols and we had a lovely lunch and Jen also had a champagne bellini AND a mojito!! I was well jealous!!!  Anyway after our lunch we hit the menswear floor and I didnt know where to look first as there was some beautiful, t-shirts, jeans and shoes all over the place. After trying on a few different things I decided to buy myself a nice pair of dress shoes by Prada and a lovely pair of grey stonewash jeans by Diesel.  Jennifer bought me a pair of brown dress trainers by Emporio Armani and a bright pink fitted t-shirt by Diesel.  I was a bit wary about the t-shirt before I tried it on but when Jen saw it she was convinced it would look good on me and I actually loved it when I tried it on.  It may even make an appearance at stage door one day and you guys can let me know what you think!!!  So on to the show itself, I really enjoyed myself and its great sometimes to just do the one show as I can just go for it and not worry about pacing myself to get through two shows.  I am now about to have my usual late dinner and then get a good night sleep. Tommorow I am having some of the cast round for drinks to celebrate my birthday on Saturday there will be music, drinks, food and a bit of poker for some of us so I will tell you all about that tommorow.............

I set off for Manchester and arrived just in time for Jen and I to check into our apartment before I had to go to the theatre for the technical run through. I had been looking forward to my digs for this week as I have "pushed the boat out" for this week because Jen has the week of and we wanted somewhere really nice for the week, and we were not dissapointed! the apartment is absolutely gorgeous, real luxury and i will have a great time here this week.

The theatre in Manchester is fantastic and my dressing room this week is more like a flat!!! it is right next to the stage and is the nicest dressing room I have had yet.  The show itself went well I think and I felt that I had a really strong show so its just fingers crossed for the reviews because I hear they can be quite critical in Manchester but I dont think I could have done any better so if they dont like me then I will have to hold my hands up and say....."thats all ive got to give!!!"

After the show I came home to a lovely home cooked meal of spanish chicken, potatoes and vegetables made by Jennifers fair hand and we then settled down to watch a dvd called "stranger than fiction" starring Will Ferral, we only got halfway through before getting tired so its off to bed in preparation for tommorow.

Today has been very much a "chill out" day, the drive to Birmingham last night was fine and Jennifer surprised me with a mixed c.d of all my favourite songs so I could have a little dance to myself in the passenger seat!!!  I have spent today just relaxing, we had a lovely sunday roast and a couple of glasses of wine and I had a nice relaxing bath and also watched the Everton vs Aston Villa game.  Jen and I were going to go out for a bit of a walk but it has just started pouring with rain so we will probably just watch a dvd or play some online poker and then get an early night in preparation for our trip to Manchester tommorow.

Today goes down as a bad day as my beloved Manchester United have sunk to a defeat at Chelsea leaving the two teams level on points with two games of the season left. Had Man Utd even got a draw today the title would have been all but wrapped up but now it is wide open!  Jennifer also got to a bad start as she went out to get us a subway sandwich and came back to discover that the diet coke she bought had leaked all in her bag, everything was soaked! To make matters worse, her nail polish also burst in the bag so it was smelling as well!  On a more positive note, as I type this I have just finished the 5pm show so its only one more to go and then im finished for the weekend! Jen and I are driving to Birmingham tonight so we have the whole day off at hers on Sunday and her mum and dad are treating us to a nice homemade sunday roast dinner...... mmmmmmm!!!!............

Today I had to miss my normal Friday lie in to go and do radio interviews all morning in Essex along with Antony Hansen, this was to promote up and coming tour dates and also to promote the fact that Antony and I are part of DREAM ON and have a single out in the summer. After that we travelled back and I performed the 5pm and 8pm show, I must say that I felt particularly strong vocally today and really enjoyed the shows.  My girlfriend Jennifer arrived for me finishing the last show and after signing autographs etc we went to the bar next door with some of the cast for a bite to eat and a drink and then myself, Jennifer, Niel, and Eve headed to the casino for a couple of hours which was a lot of fun.

As I write this it is about 4 o clock and I have spent the day in bed!!! as a lot of you know I like my sleep and I always enjoy my Wednesday matinee off to lie in and recharge the batteries!

I had two good shows today, the matinee consisted of older people so wasnt as lively as normal but was still a good show, the night crowd were very lively and all in all it was a good day, the sun has been shining all day too which seems to lift everyones spirits.  After the show myself and some of the other cast had a drink with Harry Morrison from the old cast, he said the show looks in great shape and said some nice things about my performance.