Yesterday was a strange day as most of it was spent at the venue, first rehearsing and then the show. I was up quite early and feeling very tired. I was in bed and asleep at a relatively reasonable hour but still have that disturbed REM sleep feeling in the morning. You guessed it - coffee with a coffee chaser and I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed. After breakfast I sat down and wrote yesterday's blog before warming up slowly and going for a run. It's interesting how even my muscles seem to know something is not quite right, from taking much longer to stretch into some kind of fluidity to taking 20 minutes into running before they say "oh, that's what you want us to do". It takes a lot more effort but at least by the end of it I've convinced them that it's mid-morning and not the middle of the night.

I didn't have time to go out as we had to get to rehearsals early to go through a few things with the choir and a couple of the band musicians, so no new photos today. It was also our first and only full run through with the orchestra before the show, nothing like flying by the seat of your pants. I'm glad to say that having the full orchestra made everything sound a lot better but there were still a few kinks to work out with the band and choir, but due to the tight schedule, and the fact that all the other acts have to rehearse, we have to make do with going through a few things in the dressing room without the luxury of actually rehearsing them with everyone. Strangely I feel quite relaxed about it though, it is what it is and I'm sure we'll manage to bluff our way through it.

After rehearsals we go back to our hotel to relax and warm up (vocally that is). I manage to fit in a video conference with the kids before they have their piano lessons in the morning. They decided about a month ago (without any nudging from me) that they'd like to learn to play, so I'm now the proud owner of a Yamaha upright, and the wonderful Afton (who is with TFF on tour) is their new piano teacher. After some camera fun (we discovered the special effects on iChat) I decide to take a hot bath to relax before going back for the show.

About 10 minutes before we play I'm struck by the fact that I've not even looked at any of the show in progress, so the first time I'm going to see the crowd of 8-10,000 people is when I walk on stage. All of a sudden it seems a little surreal.

Considering the limited rehearsal time and all the new elements, the show went far better than I expected. When the going gets tough, thank God we can bluff. The audience reaction was great and I suddenly realize why we're here (I knew there had to be some reason). On a strange note (synchronicity comes to mind), the encore in Germany (which everyone sings together) is "Imagine/Give Peace a Chance". My two t-shirts of choice for this tour? One has Peace written on it, the other Imagine - weird huh?

It's gone midnight by the time we arrive back at the hotel, and we forego the bar as we're both relieved the first night is over and all we want to do is sleep. Of course sleep doesn't come until 1.45am due to a mixture of jet-lag, adrenaline and a drunken woman unable to open her hotel door opposite me. I confess that I may have spent a little too much time at the peep-hole in my door enjoying the spectacle, but I have to get my entertainment somewhere and it was as if I had my own mini reality show. At 1.30am the show starts to get stale and I fire up the Kindle and start reading some of Cesar Milan's words of wisdom about dogs (we'll discuss the imminent arrival of Bella Smith in due course).

EZEZEZ

Papa S.