My Week With Matthew - New York!

Hi again! Here comes part two of my week with Matthew :)

I told you before that MJ was here in the States to attend the Christening of his niece and to become her godparent. MJ's family were kind enough to extend the invitation to attend along to me, and of course I definitely wanted to be there! I hadn't met any of the American side of MJ's family before so I didn't want to miss this opportunity :)

So straight after rehearsals on Saturday evening I dashed off to Fort Lauderdale airport to find the plane that would transport me up to NYC!

After checking in and going through security I proceeded towards my gate! On my way there I came across the most amazing vending machine I've ever seen in my life! EVER! LOOK!  

No, your eyes are not deceiving you... It's a Benefit Cosmetics Vending Machine! In an airport! A vending machine that gives you MAKE UP! :D Craziness! Just had to share that with you :) Anyway...

I made sure I was wearing my St. Christopher necklace and then departed for New York! 

... the flight was very smooth and we had TV sets to watch to keep us occupied! After a bit of an interesting ten minutes trying to find my driver when I arrived I was soon well on my way to Valhalla, where MJ and his family were staying, and before I knew it Mango and I were reunited again :)

I have to let you know at this point that I was to be spending less than 24 hours in New York... sleeping felt like a bit of a waste of that time but I am terrible with no sleep and needed to be awake and fresh for the Christening the next day so off to Bedfordshire it was :)

The next morning I met the members of MJ's family that I hadn't previously been introduced to, and also caught up with his parents as they had arrived just a few hours before I did! We had an amazing breakfast roll from a deli a few minutes walk away and then got to work decorating and setting up the house ready for the party after the Christening.

We had a 'who can make the best paper flower?' competition... 

...before hanging them all in the marquee outside...

... along with themed table clothes and floral centrepieces!

After all the preparations were done, we finalised what we planned to wear for the Christening and proceeded to get ourselves all dressed up :) Here's a few of us together... 

        

     

And one of my MJ looking dashing in his brand new suit! 

Then we were off for the Christening :) it was a lovely service, lots of friends and family there, many smiling faces and pictures of those smiles to mark the occasion!

Back to the house for the party which was catered amazingly by a local restaurant; the food was great and I tried some dishes I'd never heard of before! Everyone had a happy afternoon celebrating; it was great getting to know MJ's family and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it :)

All too soon however it was time for me to start heading back to JFK to fly back to Miami for another week of rehearsals. It was a bittersweet goodbye indeed. I had had such a wonderful time, felt so welcomed by everyone I had met and I knew it would be a while before I would see MJ again in person... needless to say I was a bit of an emotional wreck when it came to waving goodbye! Oh dear..! As I think back now though, I just remember the smiles and the happiness so am very grateful indeed for everyone who helped in organising how to get me to NY and back in less than a day!

View out of the window of my take off back to Fort Lauderdale

I hope to be visiting New York again soon for a longer period of time as it's a city I've always wanted to explore and appreciate fully!

Until next time, meow! xx

Rum Tum Tucker #3

Wow... so it's been rather a long while since I last posted to my blog! I've had a very busy couple of weeks with rehearsals, an amazing week with my boyfriend, a trip to New York and more rehearsals! I have been taking lots of pictures to remind me what to write about though so I will attempt to catch up with myself today :) here goes! 

I'll start with my food blog from a few weeks back! 

Our Old Deuteronomy, Trent, had his birthday this week - this was his amazing birthday cake :) 

It was layered cake; vanilla and chocolate! Very light and fluffy, the icing was great too! 

While in Publix I came across a few varieties of lemonade and opted to try the Mango Lemonade variety! Very thirst-quenching and fresh! 

I also tried some french toast... I wasn't the biggest fan of this! It was a bit soggy and didn't really taste of much! Never mind :)

I also picked up my first lot of vegetables since I've been here! I felt like I was back at home with this meal :) chicken kiev, rice and veg! It was sooooo good though :) home comforts! 

When I was younger I always used to drink the powdered Nesquik milkshake but saw that they had it in syrup form here so decided to give it a try! It has the taste I remember but you don't have the powder stuck to the bottom of your glass - genius!  

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On Saturday we came into the break room to find a scrummy surprise from the office staff at Royal Caribbean :) lots of boxes of Dunkin' Donuts!

Here's Enric with one of the boxes! Such a nice treat :)  

This is donut I shared - had vanilla cream inside and powdered sugar on top! 

Me enjoying my donut :) 

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On Sunday I went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Enric and Kelsie... 

I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea...

...and a Macaroni and Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries :) delicious!

And I couldn't eat at the Cheesecake Factory without ordering cheesecake! This week I opted for the Red Velvet Cheesecake! Cannot even tell you how good this was :) 

So that's it for my food craziness this week! 

Until next time, meow! 

The Oasis of the Seas

Yesterday, my kittens and I had morning rehearsals and then we piled into a minibus to make our way to Fort Lauderdale to visit our new floating home: The Oasis of the Seas!

Excited was an understatement! I have never seen/been on a cruise ship before so I really had no idea what to expect... I knew that the Oasis is the largest cruise ship in the world but had nothing to compare it to so everything was a surprise! It. Is. HUGE! Like, HUGE! Until you see it you can't even imagine! :)

I took quite a few photos, and also filmed a few areas to make a video to share with you all!

My first glimpse of the Oasis in the distance from the minibus 

My visitor badges issued by port officials

Kelsie, Dom and I getting all excited on the gangway to the Oasis

The entrance to our new theatre home - The Opal Theatre in Entertainment Place

Sneaky side view of the stage from the wings

Looking up at the lifts to the top of the ship from deck four

Guide to areas on each deck (if you zoom in you can read them all!)

Panoramic view of Port Everglades from the Windjammer Marketplace restaurant on deck sixteen

Another view from somewhere on the ship! 

Water attractions on deck fifteen 

FlowRider on deck fifteen - I would be rubbish at this!!!

Apparently I like taking photos of flags.... hahaha! 

Oasis of the Seas life ring

We only had about 45 minutes or so to dash around and explore the ship while we weren't rehearsing so didn't manage to get photos of everything but I will have plenty of time for that in the future months :)

Here is a video of the Royal Promenade, Central Park and Opal Theatre (where we will be performing 'Cats' and 'Come Fly With Me.' Please try to ignore my horrendous commentary!!!)


Hope you enjoyed my photos and video :) gives you a little insight to the Oasis! I shall leave you with one final picture...

Kittens sad to be leaving the ship behind!

We received our Cats scores on Friday and are starting our Cats rehearsals TOMORROW! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Cannot wait! Next week I am sure I will have lots of feline news to inform you all about!

Until then, meow!

Week #2 In Miami!

Hellooooo :) another week has passed! Time goes so quickly! Today in Hollywood it is rather overcast and can definitely hear thunder so fully expecting some full on Florida rain to follow it shortly...unfortunately not an ideal sunbathing day so no new tan lines for me, never mind!

I've just a bit of an icky ordeal! Was just cleansing my face in my en suite and a HUGE moth interrupted and proceeded to freak me out!!! 

After having to momentarily run from the room to creep myself out, I managed to trap it under a glass and release it outside but look at how huge and gross it is!!! 

Just thought I would relay my horrific experience with you and give you an example of the crazy American wildlife... ick ick ick!!! 

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Anyway! This week was my second week of rehearsals at Royal Caribbean. After learning most of the choreography for our aerial show Come Fly With Me last week; this week we focused on cleaning what we had already learnt... highlighting dynamics in the movement, making tricky footwork crisp and precise, spacing and blocking certain numbers, controlling our movement energy efficiently, and adding the performance aspect to all the numbers now that we weren't just concerned with remembering the steps anymore :)

We also learnt the epic finale to our show! It is quite a long number with intricate steps and details that we have to all get spot on for it to have the desired effect for the audience; once we got the choreography though it was all about the stamina! This applied even more so when we began running the complete show with our super talented singers. We had to find the energy and stamina to not only dance one number but to put them altogether and still maintain a high performance level :) I am pleased to say that through the week we did about 3 full runs of Come Fly and each time it definitely got easier! I have come to appreciate the power of a positive mindset; especially when your body feels tired! It certainly helped me through immensely, and also the fact that we pulled together as a team... POLKA DOTS! ;) 

After our first full run-through on Wednesday, the Royal Caribbean office staff came in to watch our second run-through on the Thursday :) this time around we had the use of the stage lights and dimmed auditorium which for me makes all the difference! It definitely felt like a performance and we received awesome feedback from everyone who came to watch, so that was great to hear :) 

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The not-so-sunny Miami weather we've been having this week!

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For the last few days of rehearsals this week, we have also been taught routines for other aspects of our ship life! Number one thing was a piece set to Nicki Minaj's 'Turn Me On' that we will perform once every two weeks at a party night in the on board ice rink/night club! Crazy huh! The party is called Glow and makes use of glow in the dark features. 

The second session had us all learning a flash mob! The dancers begin the flash mob with a latin partner work section before the entertainment/sports/aqua/ice crew members come and join us for a megamix of popular songs from the last couple of years! This was a super fun rehearsal and we all had a laugh learning the choreography :) 

We also learnt the material that we will be teaching guests in the Family Dance Program on board the ship. We will be teaching three dance styles; Hip Hop, Jive and Cha Cha, with each class running for approximately 30 minutes. 

Finally, we learned the patterns and choreography required of us in the two parades that we take part in on the ship! I am a swing for the parades which means that I need to learn all of the different girls parts so that I can take their position if they are ill/injured/etc... They are called Rockin' Rhythm Nation Parade and Dreamworks Parade, the latter of which features characters from popular Dreamworks films such as Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. 

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Saw this on the way home one night - hundreds of birds having a party on the telegraph lines!

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So that pretty much sums up week two in Hollywood, Miami... ooh! Except for my visit to the ship I will be living on; the Oasis of the Seas! Thought I would dedicate a whole separate post to that though so that will be following on shortly :) 

Meow! 

Rum Tum Tucker #1

As promised, this is the first of my food segments featuring foods that I hope will make you very hungry while reading :) Credit for the genius Cats-related naming of this little post idea goes to my clever mum Julie, thanks Mutti! Get ready to have those tastebuds tingling...

Bit of background required for this one! My mum, sister and I had gotten into the habit of making and eating a caesar salad for lunch at home so on my first day of rehearsals I visited a local cafe/restaurant and ordered myself one! It came very much American sized and was super scrummy!

Chicken Caesar Salad

On one of my first shopping trips I came across the Oreo section of the supermarket and was overwhelmed by the choices on offer! I will work my way through the varieties they have here and not at home and let you know my opinion! The first variety I decided to try was the Heads or Tails Double Stuff Oreos :)

They taste amazing as usual but also a bit more fun than the standard! Definitely recommended!





Also on this shopping trip I came across the brand which has meant that my Cats character name has been changed from Jemima to Syllabub! The name change was due to racism surrounding the advertising and branding for Aunt Jemima baking products...

As I mentioned, last Thursday it was a cast members birthday and he ordered in some amazingly beautiful and delectable treats from Cold Stone Creamery... We don't have these delicacies available in the UK so I was very excited to try these....

Ice cream cupcakes - wonderfully decorated and yummy! 

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches with sprinkles!

Me enjoying an Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich 

And the centrepiece - Red Velvet Ice Cream Cake - cannot tell you how glorious this was... layers of red velvet cake with creamy vanilla ice cream, icing with sprinkles and added chunks of Kit Kat for good measure! Can't go wrong really! 

For dessert after our cast meal out at the Aventura Mall, a few friends and I decided to treat ourselves to a slice of cheesecake from the infamous Cheesecake Factory! I opted for the Oreo Dream Cheesecake (or something like that!) One slice was $8.75 which may seem a little steep but the slices are generous and the taste more than makes up for it :) I took quite a few pictures of this little delight!

My heavenly slice of Oreo Dream Cheescake

Yes the whipped cream has more Oreo chunks sprinkled over the top! 

Tucking in - soooooo good! 

So that concludes my first week of yummy American food :) am very excited to continue trying new things and letting you know all about them! Hope I didn't make you too jealous ;) 

Meow!