And so, I sit here typing away. Wasting my time… as per usual. Well, I guess it’s Christmas right? Well, Boxing Day but the whole vacation period is still here right? New Year’s yet to come! It’s time to unwind and relax……..

Yes, well on top of all of the relaxing, I have a fair amount to do. I need to learn my lines and get a literature review started, finished and printed for when I return to York. Doesn’t sound much… but time is fast running out, and so is my motivation. Bad times…

So, they call this aftermath of Christmas “Boxing Day”. Now, usually I can hack a busy environment filled with people flooding in and out of shops and falling over each other to get the cheapest bargains there are… Having said that, today was a different matter. As soon as I entered what has been branded as Europe’s largest in-city shopping centre: “Westfield”, I began to get slightly dizzy and nauseous. After a bit of walking around, I was run over by buggies, knocked into by people and my patience was beginning to wear… Following this, my back began to deteriorate and I had to get out of there.

What’s going on? Is my University life making me soft? I can’t seem to hack a busy environment anymore! Having said that, I’ve been pretty OK elsewhere… maybe it was just today. Boxing Day. Where we box up all our unwanted gifts and buy what we really want. Half price!

Yes, a frightening experience it was. At the cashier, we were told it would only last about half an hour, and therefore I was reluctant to pay £12.95 as a student price. However, I was glad it was so short, and it only lasted us 20 minutes as we ran through a lot of it. As we waited, a video outside showed people running out of the show and referring it alike to a movie. My thoughts ran as follows: “Surely it can’t be that bad!” But then, we were asked to walk down a set of stairs in pitch black, where a man jumps out on us and takes our ticket. We sit in a misty cinema, 3D glasses propped on our noses ready for a scary 3D film, which never happened. Instead we watched a lady fall through a door in the show and land herself back in time, where Jack The Ripper kills her, and then comes into the show in the present day through the same door. Boring.

But, as we walk through the pasaje del terror, we witness zombies jumping out at us, Death following us and most scary of all, a possessed girl jumping out at us from her bed, and following us. All in all a frightful time which is worth every penny. Almost!

So, as a typical student may do, I am still awake at a time gone 2am. Why? I have no time left in the world of University! My time is currently devoted to the campus lifestyle and am no longer aware of going-ons even just in town let alone the general news. Rehearsals for different shows are currently back to back. Any work left for my degree after that are done in any spare time I can get which can be rare – thus resulting in the possibility of reducing all I have to a smaller number at graduation. My plans of writing a novel and a play has gone out of the window. I no longer have time to sit down and watch a film or two. What’s happened to my cooking? I don’t think I even know how to use the hob! Time is drifting away and I am becoming ever so tired everyday in an attempt to catch up on sleep that I waste away during a busy day. A vicious cycle indeed…

OK, so am currently in York and haven’t updated the blog for a while – no doubt readers may have gone down but nevertheless, here is my overdue update!

So, project dissertation is almost sorted and am amidst doing plans for my literature survey on the functionality of stereotypes. That’s the boring side to university life summarised in one sentence. However, several productions within campus have kept me alive and kicking, and even fit.

Half Moon Man in the 3rd week of term went off to a great start! Playing a range of dream characters, I had a lot of fun changing from a freaky House figure with 2 stethoscopes and a crazy looking nurse to a pillow fight as a builder with buildings thrown at me. We can only hope that NSDF enjoyed the wacky, abstract dreams we played out on stage. We got a good review from Nouse and not so good from The Yorker but I don’t think the reviewer understood the play so all in all has been great! We also got great feedback from NSDF so again, something to be happy about!

This then leads onto tonight. Our opening night. For the one and only… High School Musical on Stage! Moving from the cosy Drama Barn, I will be thrusting my moves as a jock to plenty of the songs from HSM in this exciting production. Tickets are still available so go grab your tickets before they run out! We’re all in this together…

Finally, one more to go… Another Once Upon a Time – a bunraku style play based on Carol Ann Duffy’s take of Snow White, and Hansel & Gretel. I’ve been to a few rehearsals for this already and it seems fantastic. Watch the classic fairy tales unfold as we control other people as if they were puppets in the style of bunraku to portray an unlikely combination. Will it work? I’m sure it will!

A group of us went to the edfringe festival for a week and challenged each other to write reviews. Here goes…

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Pleasance Dome (£12.50/£10.50)

A start to my week in edfringe began with a show in Pleasance. Being assured that acts in the Pleasance are notable above others attending, a group decision all round ended up in a warm and sleepy room with a less than entertaining one man show.

The show leads us through the life of the man in question: Johnny McKnight, as he discovers his homosexuality. It begins in his mother’s womb, then progresses through to school with his girlfriend, leads through puberty, early stages of adulthood exploring extreme sexual events before ending in the present – 30 years of age & gay. He does this mostly through story-telling but once in a while breaks into song, accompanied with a backing singer who takes on other characters dependent on scenes and a great live band.

A One-Man Show referring to none of the musicals shown in his poster

The opening scene as mentioned begins as Johnny dressed as a baby. This was the first of many moments when I thought I had paid too much for a fringe show. However, although a 30 year old man in diapers usually isn’t my kind of opening to a show, I found the idea behind it clever as he changed his costumes by adding clothes on throughout scene changes noted by the word “skip” to reflect his age and situation, before landing his final product – a 30 year old man in a tuxedo.

Nevertheless, the content of the spoken word which took up the majority of the show did not appear interesting enough for an oven-like room. Regularly I found myself nodding off and the songs weren’t enough to reinstate my sleeping brain. The comedy was in-your-face funny without the cleverness of suggestions, puns or other tools used to make people laugh in a punchline. All it was was a detailed account of life. This changes my phrase from “in-your-face funny” to just “in-your-face”.

Although the show was less entertaining on a personal level, I must admit that others in the audience did enjoy themselves and after asking others what they thought, the view was split between mine and “I laughed”. My suggestion is that if you’re on a small budget at the fringe, there are plenty of other shows you should be spending your money on. However, if you like the idea of a one-man show with a live band detailing an account of his life leading to homosexuality, then this is the show for you. For me – I should have “skipped” to another show…

The world famous Comedy Store opens it’s doors to practically anyone who’d take on the harshest crowd London has to offer in this once in a month show – King Gong.

And I loved every minute of it.

If everyone reduced their carbon emissions to 0, the film predicts that the carbon levels in the atmosphere will reduced to levels lower (i.e. better) than the optimum levels seen in 1970 where such problems due to Global Warming were minimal. I sit here looking out of the window in my high-rise flat in the heart of London and see many waste products being released into the atmosphere. These waste products contain high levels of carbon emissions. If anything, this is making my view a smoggy and dull which doesn’t span very far in distance – and this is not due to other buildings getting in the way (a metaphor?!).

Going green can be effortless...

Some although suggest that such pollution from aerosol particles are leading to Global Dimming – an effect which results in aerosol particles absorbing and reflecting sun rays back out into space, therefore counteracting the effects of Global Warming. However, the research into Global Dimming aren’t as reliable as those into Global Warming (in my view at least…) and also suggests that we need to pollute the atmosphere even more in order to lower the Earth’s atmosphere. Surely with extended pollution, this will release higher concentrations of carbon-related waste which inevitably overcome any temporary effects of Global Dimming – if any? (My account and understanding of Global Dimming is slightly hazy – do correct me or add more if necessary) Personally I would think that instead of polluting the atmosphere, a cleaner world would be a better world.

I know there are many posts, articles etc just like this one demanding people need to cut their emissions down – and although there are worldwide successes, this is clearly not enough. The numbers of individuals not cutting down are still greater than the numbers who are. This leads onto something a friend of mine said – “Why should I waste so much of my time and energy trying to cut down on leisurely habits in order to try and save the planet when clearly a greater number of people are counteracting my efforts?” As more and more people get involved, the closer we all are together to solving this problem. As the film points out, small individual efforts can solve large problems. Minority groups have many success stories in over-powering the majority – women can vote, homosexuality is no longer a mental disorder, slaves were freed – to name a few of the more obvious accounts in history. I’m not here to bore you with the finite scientific details. I think the majority of us are aware that this is a real issue whether we choose to accept it or not. However, the minority of us are doing anything about it.

The minority are slowly becoming the majority. However, there is still a great number of people out there still in the current majority soon turning into a minority. This needs changing. My friend is a great person, but the quote is clearly a wrong set of mind. Of course an individual’s work can make drastic changes, and those drastic changes get amplified as more people do it. I am happy to say that this person is continuing to make an effort. I don’t ask for perfection and leading to 0… but to at least change. Think on the plus side – if you go green, your bills get drastically lower.

Here is a link to my google search on “Go Green” to find out how you can change. A lot of these efforts are actually quite effortless…

Right, so I’ve been away from this blog for quite a while it seems, but I’m back! Well, I’ll try to keep it updated anyhow. I’ve also attempted to create a Twitter account so follow me on that to get updates! I’m still currently in York but have finished all my exams so will be returning to London on Sunday. Then, let the fun begin…

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The past 10 days have been spent all over Japan. Here’s the quick rundown of what happened:

Day 1 – Tokyo

Landed in Narita Airport at 3PM local time after a 12hr flight from London Heathrow. Couldn’t get a wink of sleep. Still, on the bright side, I got to watch Yes Man again! The Narita Express took a further one hour after passport control to get to Tokyo station and took the JR to Gotanda where we checked in and I passed out.

Day 2 – Hakata

The early hours beckons as 2 bullet trains and 5 hours later, we had to arrive in Hakata station, Kyushu. With speeds of up to 300kmph, the Shinkansen beats any train in Britain willing to take me a fraction of the distance in half the time. Still, we made it and a speedy journey later, we had travelled the world, Japan, and I passed out.

Day 3 – Jono

Just a small town near Kokura. Had a wee look around, got thirsty a lot so glad there were loads of vending machines plotted on every street corner. I had a grape Fanta. Exciting times!

Day 4 – Kokura

Kokura castle is amazing. Large, old and picturesque. Then, you turn around and see a big yellow shopping mall in the backdrop… weird. There also lives a lady with “magical powers”. I was a bit skeptical. She said I had a chin injury. I had a dressing on my chin… She said she will cure it. It’s still healing… She also said I have a history of incredible stomach problems. I’ve not vomited since I was 6. She’s not very good… Also failed to notice my leg, back and shoulder hurting. All she did was push air in my direction.

Day 5 – Nagasaki

The home of the first Western house built on Japanese land. Was great to have travelled so far to visit an old English home where Madame Butterfly is set. Great views from the top though…

Day 6 – Yufuin

Among the mountain tops was one of few ryokans that accompanied guests such as I. It’s filled with onsens (a public hot spring) and we were fortunate to have our own private one. It was weird having a bath stark naked on top of a mountain out in the open. A helicopter flew by…

Day 7 – Tokyo

7 hours of bullet trains led us to Tokyo. I passed out.

Day 8 – Nikko

Another ryokan but with only a public onsen. I didn’t go in this time, but opted for the in-house shower instead. A small town indeed with speakers plotted all over the few streets to signal shops opening and closing.

Day 9 – Edo Wonderland and Nikko

Edo wonderland is a reconstruction of Tokyo during the edo period. All the death that surrounded me through figurines made me a little dizzy. The theatre had a few shows, the most impressive being a ninja martial arts show that physical theatre should be worried about!

Day 10 – Tokyo

I saw a baby that looked like a Potato. I was in a buffet.

Today – London

I’m about to pass out…