Little outing

Happy Sunday everyone!

Sorry I didn't blog on Friday but as I was totally pooped at the end of last week and just didn't have the energy to think! All I wanted to do was flump in front of the TV and have a pizza (which, you'll be pleased to know, I did).

So Friday! Friday was a brilliant day for us because we all went on a little research to Churchill's War Rooms. It was absolutely amazing and we were lucky enough to have our own personal tour with our own personal tour guide! But I'll get to that in a moment...

We spent the whole morning on Friday going through the script and uniting. I've just realised that when I write "uniting" it looks like I'm writing that we "united" together, but for those of you who have read my previous blogs will know what I mean! We got a fair amount done before lunch, which was just as well because the plan after the war rooms was the pub!!

It was a beautiful day so after lunch in the canteen, the girls and I walked across to Westminster to meet everyone and begin our journey back in time...

The first thing we saw was the Cabinet War Room where Churchill would sit with his men and come up with strategies. It was absolutely incredible. Here's a picture:

Almost everything in the room was original from the ashtrays down to the blotting paper and pencils. Churchill's actual chair (the one at the back behind the red box and in front of the map) apparently has 2 marks on either arm: one for when he had scratched it down with his ring, and the other for scratching away with his nail - it's a stressful business, this strategy malarkey!

After this, we went to the map room:

  

Again, everything here was original from the telephones, the maps with tens of thousands of little pin pricks in them and the various documents lying around labelled SECRET. It made me laugh to think that these were the things Churchill was so secretive about and yet here they were everyone to see. The dummies in these rooms were pretty lifelike (the one facing us bore a striking resemblance to Steve Carell actually...)

This is a picture of the same room but taken from the other side of the room in the 1940's:

After that, we went along the corridor to Churchill's bedroom. Now, he apparently only slept in the bed a grand total of 3 times but it's pretty damn cool nevertheless, what with seeing his desk, various maps etc.

It had a tendency to get quite claustrophobic seeing as were a fair bit underground and there was no natural light or windows, so after nearly 2.5 hours I was glad to see daylight (and a glass of wine, yes). But before we went, Jo and I managed to get a look at the women of this place to get a sense of what we'll be doing on stage when we're not understudying. The women who worked downstairs in the war rooms were typists, secretaries etc.

We've got another trip tomorrow to the Kelvedon Secret Bunker in Essex. The most exciting bit? We get to go on a coach!! DAY TRIP!!!

Hope everyone's had a wicked weekend. Speak tmrw :) xxx