Off-camera rehearsals

My day started unravelling almost as soon as I'd woken up this morning. I believe there's some kind of phenomenon in the early part of any day which means the last quarter of an hour in every hour merely evaporates. Take this morning, for example. I gave myself an hour to get to Shepherd's Bush. I needed to be there at 9.45, was ready at 8.40, so thought I'd send a quick email before I left. Next time I looked at the clock it was 9.09 and I swear only ten minutes had past...

My continuing tube journey was less than enhanced by the decision I made to sit next to a toddler who promptly shat herself. A silent, warm, fruity smell drifted up from my left hand side, and everyone in the vicinity looked at their shoes.

I read that author Iain Banks has died. I've never read one of his books, but I was rather touched to read that, upon being given the news that he had but months to live, he got down on one knee and proposed to his wife asking if she'd "be his widow." There's something profoundly romantic about that, I think.

At the moment, to save crippling pains in my shoulders, I'm walking around with a wheelie suitcase instead of a bag. I feel a little like a camp trolly dolly, but it's improved the shoulder situation no end. The unfortunate part is that one of my computers now only works with a slave keyboard, which is so large it doesn't fit into the suitcase itself. It therefore gets stuffed into a side pocket where it peaks out in a "come and get me" sort of way. Unfortunately, because most people are genuinely nice (obviously excluding the tedious people who stole Nathan's phone yesterday) I'm regularly stopped by people who take one look at the slave keyboard and think a kindle or something is about to fall out of my bag. Cars beep their horns. People come rushing over, shouting things. It's very sweet, but blinking annoying!

I spent the day with the other Michelle on the White City Estate, doing "off-camera" rehearsals for our film. I've never done these sort of rehearsals on a film like this before, but I suspect it will save us a lot of time because it gives people a chance to practice lip-synching to their songs and standing and moving in the locations where we'll eventually be filming them.

Today was the turn of brave vicar Bob, our incredible poet, Imhotep and the beautiful Norma. If Bob can get his head around every subtle nuance of his highly complicated song, I think we might have something rather extraordinary on our hands. He defines the phrase "gung ho" and seems to be willing to try almost anything. Michelle and I dashed out to Westfield during lunch to get him a pair of knee pads... That's all I'm willing to divulge at this stage!

At about 3pm today, probably as many people on the estate were out and about picking up their kids from school, Michelle and I stood for a few moments and watched local residents, in the bright sunshine, making their way up and down a street. I have seldom seen a more diverse set of people; from Rastafarians to white-haired Poles and women in hijabs to men in turbans... All were waving at each other as they passed by. It was both striking and touching. I'm glad I noticed it with enough time to take a mental photograph.