A new world...

So much has happened to me over the past 12 months that sometimes I wonder how my head doesn't spend all of its time spinning on top of my shoulders.

Over the past 12 months I have gone through so many different, earth moving changes, each of them deserves its own blog post put to sum them up quickly...

1. I moved my whole life from one continent to another, leaving England and starting over in NYC.
2. I achieved the greatest success and accomplishment of my career to date in London, with the second largest client in my field, to only then land a job with THE biggest client in my field - in the world - in NYC. A bigger role, a bigger gig, higher stakes, the 'eyes of the world on me' kind of gig.
3. Through diet and exercise I managed to lose 120lbs / 9 stone going from a fat and mushy 350lbs / 27 stone to my now healthy 230lbs / 18 stone weight which I'm managing to maintain.
4. The relationship I was in for around 2-3 years ended at the start of the summer when my then-girlfriend left me. That sounds worse than it is, because it was a relationship that wasn't right for me and wasn't right for her - pretty much right from the beginning. We were together for the wrong reasons, we both needed someone but we weren't the right ones for each other and we had been kidding ourselves for a long old time, certainly I had. It was over about a year before it ended if you know what I mean. She's a star actually, a true star, and we're still really good friends but (and not her fault) it pretty much destroyed all my faith in love, relationships and certainly gave my confidence a swift kick to the dangly region. 
5. I regained that confidence by putting myself out there and worked out that I'm actually not a bad catch and that I shouldn't give up on life and love. And then... the most amazing thing that has have ever happened to me... that has me floating on a cloud every single day...
6. My heart was won by the most wonderful, most beautiful, most amazing girl I have ever met. She's so incredible in every way imaginable. My Miss Musical. From first date to falling in love in less time that it took to introduce myself to her, to getting engaged in 12 weeks!!! This really does deserve it's own post... or ten, or more. (If you're reading, honey - you're the best, you're my world. :)

If you look hard enough, you can see where I live... :)

So anyway, back on to this post... A new world.

The latest adventure of the past 12 months has just started since meeting my super-hot Miss Musical. I have been exposed to something I thought I knew, at least enough to say 'been there, got the t-shirt' and move on without paying it much attention, but how wrong I was...!

What is it? Musical Theatre. Yep, I didn't see it coming! (My wonderful Miss Musical is a stage actress, singer and dancer you see...)

My friends will not believe me, not me, not me and musical theatre. Not in the same sentence. I was (and still am) a kind of 'jock', as you Americanos call them. Working out, not dancing. Playing lots of sport (rugby, football, golf...), not playing characters. Acting the fool, not acting. Watching Hollywood action movies galore, not watching glamourous shows on Broadway. I did do English Literature at A-Level  (High School, junior and senior years), but drama? acting? musicals? ME? Nope! But yes, I'm getting drawn in. In fact, I AM drawn in. My eyes have been opened to an whole new world of working, entertainment, ambition, personalities, celebrity...

Small aside: This is one of the great things about Match.com by the way, meeting people you would never have met otherwise... I went out on dates with a TV producer, an opera singer, an artist/painter, a nurse... And my finally, my love, an actress in the world of Broadway and theatre. (I'm a management consultant by the way, my world is business change and project management. The closest I get to 'the biz' is holding the door open for Jon Stewart at Bubby's in Tribeca or celeb spotting in the Meat Packing district on a Saturday night.)

All of a sudden I'm watching broadway shows and plays on a weekly basis. I'm meeting people in 'the biz' who talk about completely different things, who have completely different work ethics and routines, who are driven by fairly different passions and different goals. My eyes have been opened up. It's hard to process it all! It's amazing, it really is. Everyone LOVES what they do, they love it. They're all so friendly, approachable and fun loving too. Not what I was expecting. I haven't come across any divas yet, or snooty types. They've all been great and very welcoming of me. 

It's quite overwhelming at the same time too though, at least it can be. Not all the time, but just now and then. 

Tonight for example, I picked up Miss Musical from rehearsal and we went to dinner with four of the cast and a few of the band members. I sat there for about half an hour without really having any idea what they were talking about or having anything to contribute! Haha. This is strange for me as people who know me can tell you. I'm not a genius but I'd say that I have above average intelligence and I'm great at meeting people, talking to anyone, making friends - I'm 'safe hands' socially, basically. Put me anywhere with anyone and I'm generally fine, I'll rock the show. Today, however, with a dozen actors and musicians, all talking about musicals and shows that I've never heard of before, naming actors who only real hardcore broadway followers MIGHT have heard of... It was tough to get involved. I was fine, but it's not often that I feel behind the curve. They were all awesome though and made me feel very welcome, plus Miss Musical has such a great way of making me feel completely at ease - wanted, loved, included, without any effort or trying really and without sacrificing her personality or her natural way of interacting with her friends and colleagues. She amazing. AH-MAY-ZZZING (am I making myself clear??). It's been a long time since I've felt out of my depth. I love the challenge of learning about a new corner or culture though. It's interesting and exciting even though it's a little challenging at times. Awesome.

The other side of this little world I knew nothing about though is the lifestyle. I work Mon-Fri, 8am to 6pm mostly. Miss Musical's last show ran for say a month or so in Florida. After a week or two of intense rehearsals, sometimes singing and dancing for 12 hours or MORE straight (?!?!?) they then went into their opening night (which was AWESOME - another blog post to write) after which they could spend all day at the beach or by the pool. They just had to be at the theatre 6 nights a week between 6pm and 10.30pm, 2 shows on a Saturday, but that was it essentially for a whole month! YES PLEASE!!! Where do I sign up for that?!?!? Haha.

Can you imagine?! I run my own company and there is inherant flexibility with that, but still - nothing in comparison to this past show of my love's. Then again, I earn about 5 or 6 times as much as she does. But then again, again, I'm learning that it's not about money though. I love my job, really do, but I work to make money essentially, even though I do believe in what I do. I help save lives, I help police and fire departments save more lives, respond faster. But the money keeps me keen. Miss Musical could make boat loads doing anything else really but she loves loves LOVES what she does. And she's so frickin' good at it!!!! It's incredible to witness and it's actually really inspirational to me. I am inspired. She has found something that gets her out of bed, that's she loves to do and that she's reeeeeally good at! Her reviews for her last show in the press... and I'm paraphrasing here...

Miss Musical "steals the show...", she "has what it takes... sexy, funny, perfect timing... amazing voice...", the "next big thing out of..." where ever.

For me, my clients get sick of me telling them they're doing their jobs wrong or that they could do them better. Often they don't want to hear it. God forbid anyone could point any kind of finger blame in their direction for anything. Many of the people I work with day to day don't care too much about their jobs or what they're doing, there is no pride. They talk shit by the water cooler trying to waste away a few extra minutes of their day so they can go home sooner. I'm in a profession where there aren't many professionals. Even the professionals you do find are often not capable of doing what you need them to. Of the dozens and dozens and dozens of people I have worked with I would only really rate or recommend (or trust!) around 5 or 6. Can you believe that?! That's over 11 years of doing what I do, across 4 continents, dozens of projects, dozens of clients. 10 people I would trust to do a good job, trust with my reputation. No one strives to be the best or do their best. Most of these people anyway.  Everyone here however, from the actors, the musicians, the lighting guys, the producers, the girl who runs backstage - they all love their jobs and try their hardest AND have boat loads of fun doing it! I sometimes wonder if they're all on drugs, drinking the love medicine. Is this a cult?! Haha.

Anyway... tonight.

Here am in Pennsylvania, at a beautiful theatre tucked away in the mountains, in the forrest by the Appalachain trail. Miss Musical's show has come here for 6 weeks and I'm here for her opening weekend. Tonight is 'Gypsy Night' - it's the night before opening night, their last dress rehearsal. I'm sat in a virtually empty theatre hall (sorry 'house') watching the cast go through the show bit by bit. I was expecting a straight forward run through of the show but they're stopping and re-tuning bits of the act, playing with the lighting, working the sound levels, changing the way a few lines here and there are delivered. It's so interesting!!! I had no idea how many different things go into to putting on a show. Of course, I knew it was hard work and they'd be working their asses off but I had no idea how technical it is. The positioning of the lighting, how the mic/sound levels differ along the stage and up/down the stage. Transitioning from one set to the next. Positioning of hands, eyes, fingers!!

It's really exciting watching it all come together. And what's more, Miss Musical is just so nice to me!!! She's the star in this show, working her ass off, doing her job and what she does professionally but she's just going out of her to make me feel included! I'd be happy just to sit and watch and not get in the way but in between takes she blows kisses to me and when they take breaks she comes into the house to sit with me and give me a quick hug and hello. I fall in love with this girl more and more, day after day, more and more and more. I'm speechless!! Literally speechless. She's so good to me. Sometimes I wonder what I've done to deserve such a beautiful gift in my life. I'm grateful every day for her.

So... It's midnight and besides a 90min dinner break, they've been working solid since 12pm.

The director called it a night just now as everyone started to look really knackered!! They made it all the way through act 1 and half way through act 2. Tomorrow afternoon they'll run through act 2 twice then act 1 once before putting on the show with a real live audience!!! 

Miss Musical has done this show a few times in other productions at different theatres so she's all over it. Rock star. Her supporting actors are all new to the show and although they're all doing an amazing job of picking it all up (really impressive job!) they haven't yet settled into their characters fully and their timing is a little off. Also, the band hasn't played together enough yet and it's not tight - at all. They've only had just over 1 week of rehearsals and they're professionals, they'll pull it together in time. Plus, who the hell am I to comment!?! My one attempt at acting was when I played the lead alien at a junior school play when I was 10. I was supposed to die after my 11th line, I think, but I died after my second line and just lay there on the stage. The cast and my head teacher / principle were left stunned not knowing what the hell to do. Haha.

And, scene.

My liggidy love.

If you have read some of my initial posts, you will have picked up on the fact that I've recently moved to the States from England and during the small amount of time that I've lived here I've been fortunate enough to the meet the girl of my dreams and we're engaged to married!!!

She's beautiful, funny, intelligent, hilarious to be around, has the biggest heart - so generous and thoughtful - has so many friends who adore her (over 900 on Facebook who she is close to all of them, compared to my previously impressive 250!) and well... I can't say enough about her. I love her like crazy!!

Like a good episode of Lost, I'm going to start with the present here and then show you the past on another blog post...

On May 15th, in the early hours, on a beach in Florida under the stars and in the moonlight, I proposed... she said yes!! In fact, she not only did she said yes - she said yes then got down on one knee with me and proposed right back! Pretty awesome, right? (She is an actress though, a leading lady in fact, so let's face it - I never had a hope of up-staging her. Haha! :)

The most amazing part, well - not as amazing as actually being lucky enough to find the person you want to share your life with more than anything else in the world - but pretty amazing is that we only met 3 months ago. We had our first date on Feb 5th! My finacee and I, Miss Musical, met on Match.com. I was a cynic of internet dating I have to say, but it was a fun experience. I met a lot of new people, made a few friends and went to a lot of cool places in the city I didn't know about at the time! Most importantly though... I met my wonderful Miss Musical.

We're so happy. Both so excited as are our families. The fact that it has only been 3 months isn't the odd thing for me, which it is for some of my friends who worry it's too fast (only the minority!). So many of my friends and family couldn't be more supportive and happy for us (I think my Dad is the happiest of all and he doesn't get excited about anything besides playing golf or watching Mel Brooks movies!) but the odd thing is that I didn't think love like this existed. Here is it though!! And WOW! I was happy before I met my wife-to-be, and I believe that you and you alone can determine your own happiness, but she makes every colour beam brighter than before and what we have gives me more contentment, joy and pleasure than I ever thought possible.

Did I say I'm happy? I'm happy people! Overwhelmed with happiness! Miss Musical - you ROCK!!!

Ok... I'll draw a line under the happy now for fear of you reaching for the bucket instead of the mouse to keep scrolling down the page...! :)

Here's to the future and hoping everyone finds the kind of love this love-drunk moron has found!

Lost... THE END!

**Spoiler Alert**

If you haven't watched Lost before and have any interest in ever watching it from the beginning DO NOT read this blog post (skip onto another one of my posts!!).

BUT... if, like me, you have been a devoted follower for the past 6 years - you will know that the show is now over AND you know (or at least you think you know) how it all ended. And I'm sure, that like me, the millions of male fans out there are maybe more sad about the fact that we're no longer able to drool over the lovely Kate each week. (Miss Musical - if you're reading this, I love you and you rock my world every day! *GRAB* But I'm just saying... oh Kate, goodbye to my TV girlfriend...)

Anyway... for those who have seen the finale... please for God's sake help me work out what happened!! :)

So... **FINAL SPOILER ALERT**

They are all dead.
They are all connected to each other in some way.
Now that they have found peace, come to terms with their problems and who they are, they can now move on together... to heaven or whatever in the cosmos. Right? (Besides Ben who has more stuff to work out).

BUT:

1. Were they still alive on the Island after they crash landed? I think so.

2. When they died on the Island, they travelled to the parallel universe / alternate reality (the reality set in LA that we have been watching throughout Season 6) where they sorted out their problems. Like Jack invented a son whom he worked through his own father/son issues with through that invented relationship with the invented son. Right?

If yes, then I can live with that. I guess that kind of makes sense, but then what is the Island? A place where evil exists and good people try to keep it at bay? A gateway to the next life where you're morals and beliefs and challenged? If they were all dead on the Island, then how can you explain the Darhma people who came the island voluntarily, without being involved in a terrible plane crash? And Juliette, who came voluntarily by invitation from Richard and that mysterious tall thin black guy?

3. Although they were all in the church in the parallel LA reality at the end, it was a place where time doesn't exist - so although Hurley and Ben didn't die on the island during the show, they could have lived for another 50 years before dying, but would still be in the church in LA in the same 'time' because time itself has no place there. Right?

4. What about Hurley's numbers? How was that explained?

5. Where did the woman come from who was on the Island when Jacob and the Man in Black (his brother) were born, whose mother she killed?

6. Was the light in the well divine light? Like the light that came out of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

7. Desmond - why did he know more about what was going in the alternate LA reality? And why did Daniel Whitmore's mum know who he was and asked him if he was going to take her son from her?

My brain is tying itself in knots!! 

Thoughts anyone??

Having caused myself a certain level of anxiety whilst tapping out those 7 points, I did LOVE LOVE LOVE the show and unlike Alias, JJ Abrams first major successful TV show which I also loved, I really enjoyed the ending. (The Alias ending SUCKED).

Blog me back people, the Tall Englishman is in need of help!!

Death by blog template...

As you may have worked out, I'm new to the world of blogging.

I didn't like the choice of templates that eBlogger presented me with so I thought I'd see what Google suggested... oh my GOD! How much choice?! Without wanting to or realizing it I have essentially spent the best part of 2 hours surfing through pages and pages and pages of blog templates that are free to download!

At first I thought this was a great thing - lots of choice, lots of scope to make my blog individual and unique... what it actually turned out to be was 120 mins of looking at things that we're ok at first glace, then lame. Lame at first sight, then cool, but for girls. Then cool but difficult to customize. The easy to customize but laaaaaaame... urrghhh...

So what you see here as my blog is right now is the result of too much choice and not enough patience to find something I couldn't live without... it's ok I guess. I'm done surfing... 

When it comes to something as inconsequential as this - pick something and stick with it, that's my thought for the day.

Thoughts? Comments anyone?! :)

So you're from Liverpool? Where the Beatles are from?

That's right! That's what most people over here in the US say when they find out where I'm from...

So... what else? Here's a short history of Liverpool... I'm sure there are lots of people who are proud of where they come from, I'm one of them. Liverpool. I'm a Liverpudlian, or a Scouser.

After the Romans left the British Isles a bunch of stuff happened in the North West of England where Liverpool is, which I know next to nothing about. At some point, I believe during the potato famine, boatloads of Irish people starting shipping out all over the world. I'm pretty sure this is why you will find an Irish pub in pretty much any city, any country, anywhere in the world. Some of the more adventurous Irish folk went to New York and the new world. Some even more adventurous folk made it to Africa (I've personally drank in an Irish pub in the middle of bumble-f*ck nowhere in Mapumalanga, South Africa, 3 hours east of JoBurg). The less adventurous Irish went to the UK though. They landed on the North West coast of England and dispersed all over the UK, some even making it over to continental Europe. Note: Brussels? Dozens of Irish pubs. 

BUT the least adventurous ones made it to the NW coast of England and... they stayed there. They landed, they brought their Guiness, they camped out and they've been sat in a wealth of different pubs all over Liverpool and the Merseyside area ever since. Hundreds of years of former-Irish folk sitting in pubs, drinking, fighting, watching football, gambling on the horses. That's us! We're the Irish too lazy to do anything else. Starving in Ireland? Booooo!! Land? Woohoo!! *drink*. (You could argue that the even less adventurous Irish settled on the Isle of Mann - in the middle of the sea between Ireland and Liverpool England, but they probably thought that this little island was England... bless 'em).

Ship building, merchant trading and dock working was what made Liverpool's economy boom over the 1800 and early 1900s. Dockers went home to their wives who, because most working class people were poor as hell, made cheap Irish stew with whatever they could get their hands on. This stew is called Scouse and today people from Liverpool are known as Scousers.

Anyway, since landing in Liverpool and staying there we Liverpudians have had some special things to be proud of and celebrate over recent decades. In the 60s and 70s the little band called the Beatles made it big! Ever heard of them? In the 70s and 80s Liverpool Football Club was pretty much the most successful club in England and Europe.

Then the 80s stuck... Maggie Thatcher, Poll Tax, unemployment. The booming docking town of Liverpool started to decline and the former-Irish did what they do best... Drink! Drinking led to fighting, stealing even rioting in the case of the anti-Poll Tax demonstrations. Today scousers are known for these things... Car crime, stealing anything that isn't nailed down, playing football (in the 80s our footballers rocked perms with big moustaches), fighting anyone who fancies a go or just fighting anyone who is in swinging distance after a few beers, whether the other person in swinging distance fancies it or not!! Haha. 

We Scousers laugh this off though and roll with the punches (literally!). We wear our history like a badge with pride. The city has turned around and is an awesome place to visit these days and I loved growing up there. Here's a commercial that Reebok ran to advertise the new yellow Liverpool Football Club team shirts, plastered all over Liverpool and the country. Hilarious, right?

Most recently, Liverpool shot into comedic celebrity fame when a London TV comic and his friends put on a weekly sketch called, The Scousers, about the antics of Baz (Barry), Ga (Gary) and Teh (Terry)... Absolutely hilarious and they still make me and I'm sure every other Scouser alive laugh out loud....!



So there you have it. The abridged, probably highly inaccurate but hilarious history of my home town.


Eh fella! A'right?! As we say in Liverpool for just about everything.

Cyber-heist!

While I was away over the weekend (visiting Miss Musical in Fayetteville PA) I was robbed, people!!

Not in person though, I was cyber-swiped! This has never happened to me before and it has been hard to process the different emotions I'm feeling... Part rage? Part surprise? Part fear? Part violation? Part I'd like to squeeze the windpipe of whoever stole my card details and spent over $2000 of my money?!?
I only found out at 5am on Route 81 as I was driving back to NYC... in the middle of bumble-f*cking nowhere as I tried to fill up with gas (sorry to my English friends, 'petrol') and my card got declined. Motherf*ckers!!

It turns out however that it hasn't been just one person spending money from my account... England? Moscow? Gibraltar? Mexico? Hello?!?! It turns out that someone has ripped my card details and sold them to several people across the world because they were all store-made transactions not ones made online! I was pretty p*ssed as you can imagine...

But wait... there is always a silver lining if you look for it and this will allow me to introduce a new part of British culture to my non-American readers... Chavs. God bless 'em.

Chavs, or scallies... you pick your favourite... wearing their cheap tracksuits, their fake gold jewellery, their fake Burberry baseball caps, teenage pregnancies, being a granddad by the time you hit 30. Robbing old ladies for their pensions, drinking cheap cider at bus stops and in parks, barely able to spell their own names correctly, not working, sucking the life blood from the country, breeding like rabbits... they're taking over the country bus shelter by bus shelter.

How do chavs relate to my cyber-crime story? Well... The fraudulent transactions that took place in the UK were in Manchester... beating heart of the chav-nation if you ask me (but then again, I am from Liverpool and so I'm biased, and to be fair there are thousands of chavs in Liverpool!)... so, someone in Manchester bought so much stuff from Asda with my card details that they needed the goods delivering to them. What did they do? That's right people, yep, they did...
They gave Asda their home address... no sooner as I had reported the fraudulent transactions on my account, my bank had contacted Asda, found the data and Asda passed it on to the police. Haha! Got to love it. Well done chavs, a masterminded heist.

So, there's my silver lining. Just picture the looks on those chavs when the rozzers (Liverpudlian term for the police) turned up at their house, where all 20 of them are probably living together.

Later people! Keep laughing.

My first blog... ever!

Hello!

Is anyone out there? I don't know. Of course there are... zillions of people all over the world in cyber-space. So to whom I am addressing this?! I don't know either! I guess, you - if you're reading this, whomever you are.

My name is the Tall Englishman. Welcome to my blog!

Why 'Tall Englishman'? Well, funnily enough (note my British sarcasm there), I am tall (6ft 6in) and I am from England, Liverpool in fact. 

The real reason that I've chosen this pseudonym for my blog though is because this is what my girlfriend, now fiancee actually as of 2 weeks ago, has been referring to me as on her blog posts. (Miss Musical is hers, if you've ever come across her blog...).

So anyway here am I, the Tall Englishman, kicking off a blog about... whatever comes to mind! Anything, everything - love, my job, living in New York, Lost's season finale (right?!) Hmm.... compelling I know... I can hear your keys tapping away with excitement right now, signing up to read more and follow me! Haha.

Quick intro... I moved to NYC in October last year to put one chapter of my life behind me in the UK and open up a new one in a new city, in a new job, throwing myself into the deep end and making a fresh start at life. Since I've been here in New York I've been doing everything and anything I can get involved in - from OD'ing on Match.com (this is a fun city to be single in, lots of interesting people, lots of fun places to hang out!), to crazy nights out on the town, bumping into people I've seen on the silver screen, making loads of new friends, spending too much, not saving enough and finding the person I want to spend the rest of my life with (this is an EVEN BETTER city to be in a relationship in!).

If there is anyone out there who has just turned a new page in their lives, maybe you've got engaged, or married, or had kids, maybe you've lost a shat-pile of weight and trying to fit yourself back into where you thought you were in life, maybe you'll find this an interesting read and follow me along or join in. Girls write about this stuff, so why not guys?! (no ribbing here ok guys, come on - we all end talking about this kind of stuff after a few beers anyway, so play nice!)

If nothing else, I hope I'll be able to look back on this blog one day and enjoy reading about my 30's during those exciting days I spent living in New York, starting a brand new chapter in my life with my wonderful partner in crime, the love of my life - Miss Musical. (She's is so wonderful, awesome, amazing and deserves a whole blog post - or hundred - all to herself... I'll tell you all about our amazing story in due course!)

So if you're reading this... feel free to drop by when ever you find the time and feel free to rip my words apart or post your own thoughts or antics if you live in the same city or somewhere else around the world!

To kick things off, here's a pic I took the first night I moved into my new apartment in the City... not bad, right?! Ahhh Lady Liberty, how I'd love to lift up your robe and see what's going on under there... :)

Have fun... I'm going to try to.

The Tall Englishman