A root canal, some disco, and a surprisingly emotional chicken curry 🍛


So… it’s been a week.




There was a root canal (ew, 😵‍💫), a shawarma-fuelled sunset in Holland Park 🌯🌇, a TooGoodToGo bag so generous it fed my mum and brother until Wednesday (£3!! 😳), and a whirlwind of theatre magic in between. Somehow, I’m still upright. Barely. But upright.

VISION: The Musical rehearsals have been on fire lately 🔥—and honestly, Saturday was one of the best days I’ve had in ages. Disco Miller is now officially my favourite number. The whole vibe was so much Saturday Night Fever energy—glam, glitter, and just the right amount of emotional unravelling under stage lights . I adored hanging out with the cast too—gorgeous humans, the lot of them.

Also… I was sent a pic from our MD of our VISION poster on the Tube. On the Tube, darling!! 🚇🎭 I don’t think I’ve ever squealed quite like that in public. It’s real. The promo videos have been released too and they’re phenomenal—so much heart, beauty, and craft behind every shot. I feel genuinely privileged and honoured to be part of something this bold and brilliant. 💫💕
CAN TOUR BE SOON???? PLEASEEEE



I’ve worked abroad in various companies, but I’ve never felt this level of excitement and joy in one creative space before. There’s a kind of electric camaraderie here—chaotic in the best way. ⚡️💖

After rehearsals wrapped, I grabbed a TooGoodToGo bag from Leon (shoutout to the chicken Thai green curry 🍛, Leon slaw 🥗, and a salted caramel protein shake 🧃 that tasted like angels whispering), and made my way back to Notting Hill, where I’m crashing with a friend. Cozy digs, familiar surroundings, and just enough headspace to breathe. Then I watched the new season of Black Mirror (creepy 👀, but solid) and got a proper early night.



Sunday was more croissants and coffee ☕🥐 before heading to Camden for another full day of choreo—so, so good. Our choreographer is just the most encouraging soul—patient, kind, and so uplifting with every correction and note. I honestly didn’t want to leave. There’s something really healing in being seen and supported in a room like that. She has so much positivity and light, and patience! There's something so wonderful about being in a creative space with people that genuinely love and get excited by theatre and movement, and having not moved for years, it's such a beautiful experience, to just start to move again! 

Also: only one panic attack all week? Considering I’ve been mentally juggling a whole filing cabinet’s worth of postponed medical appointments and dental dread, I’m taking that as a huge win. 🧠💪

I’ve also been using TooGoodToGo like it’s a spiritual lifestyle choice. It’s genuinely brilliant. On the last day, I picked up a kebab shop bag for dinner—two enormous wraps packed with shawarma and falafel, all for under a fiver 😍. I ate them in a sunny little corner of Holland Park, watching the sky melt into sunset. Warm, peaceful, restorative. Highly recommend.



✨ TooGoodToGo is one of the easiest ways to fight food waste and still eat really well on a budget. Everything’s a surprise (which makes it weirdly thrilling?), and the value is incredible. You can check the app for places near you and just pick up whatever’s left at the end of the day—bagels, wraps, pastries, hot meals, you name it. Life-saver. 💚♻️

Meanwhile, back at home in Wales, we’re still rehearsing for Give Us a Sign by the wonderful Tony Domaille, and last night was another whirlwind of community theatre realness 🎭. There’s something extra surreal about jumping from high-octane professional choreography to amdram rehearsals with a dodgy tooth and half a bagel in your handbag, but here we are.
Oh! And a lovely little bonus bit of news—Newtown Amateur Dramatics (home of Give Us a Sign) were recently announced as runners-up for a community award from Newtown Council!




🏆✨ It’s such a joy to see all the heart and hard work that goes into local theatre being recognised like this. Honestly, the backstage tea, the glue guns, the script rewrites, the dodgy wigs—it’s all part of the magic. So proud to be part of it. 🎭💙

I’m playing Nadia Kovlova the Russian spy, and something very odd is happening with her character lately... she’s gradually becoming a bit... bimbo-fied?? 💋🕶️ I don’t know how or why, but suddenly she’s all swishy hair and mysterious pauses. Honestly, it’s kind of working. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Might be leaning into it. Might be having too much fun with it. I definitely see her as an influencer who tried these weird social engineering tactics of flirting in Dubai and found they worked though... 
So she is loosely based on an influencer I follow on tiktok. 




I was sad to have to duck out of the evening VISION rehearsals to get back for a dental appointment though...  a root canal is never fun, and it's always so bloody expensive, but the way I see it, when you have CVID, a small infection could turn into a much bigger problem, so it's always worth your while to prevent these things before they get much worse, and I knew I was in safe (and frighteningly enthusiastic) hands.. also BUPA covers a fair chunk of dental now! YIPPPEEEEE

I hate missing out when momentum is building and I get FOMO really badly!, and this production really is building fast now—promo videos are going up, tickets are selling 🎟️🎥, and the whole thing feels real in a way that’s got me properly buzzing. I didn’t expect to be excited about going to London, but I am. 

Maybe I don’t hate London. Maybe I just haven’t found enough places to love there yet. And if finding them helps me give my best to these rehearsals? Then by all means, give me croissants and curry until curtain up. 

🌿 Any tips for free or hidden gem places to visit in London? Drop them in the comments—I’d love to explore more without bankrupting myself 😅. Quiet gardens, odd museums, quirky corners, anything magical and cheap (or preferably free!).

Clare Alexandra

X

 👑💌



Comments

  1. Clare AlexandraApril 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM

    Just needed to post how great my week was! WOOHOO!
    🧿🕯️🛡️🌒🌿

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CVID & The Journey to My Diagnosis: A Story of Illness, Perseverance, and Discovery

Image
The Journey to My Diagnosis: A Story of Illness, Perseverance, and Discovery In my first year of university, I entered the music program full of excitement, ambition, and plans to pursue my dream of becoming a classical singer. But my journey quickly turned into a frustrating and confusing series of illnesses. It all started with a simple throat infection, or so I thought. I was just 20 years old, and when I visited the campus doctor, I was told that I should be able to fight it off. I was given antidepressants and sent on my way with no real explanation or further investigation. But the infection didn’t go away. It worsened, and soon it spread to my voicebox. I was prescribed 250mg of penicillin, but still, the infection lingered. My coursework became harder to keep up with as my health deteriorated. I requested extensions, but it wasn't long before I had to resit my second year under medical circumstances. I was constantly sick, and the antibiotics just kept coming., and they a...
Read more

Stretched Thin: Chronic Illness, Work, and Loneliness

Image
  The past few weeks have been incredibly difficult. Chronic illness always brings its own kind of isolation, but lately, it has felt sharper—more present. I feel stretched so thin I might just disappear altogether. And if something had to give, of course, it was work. Not that you could even call it a “job” in the traditional sense. I work on a zero-hours contract, solely on call time and commission because my condition fluctuates too much for a set schedule. Even with that level of accommodation, I almost lost my job this week—if you can call it that. I woke up to an email threatening to suspend my account if I didn’t log in. So, I put everything on hold, cancelled a doctor’s appointment, and worked, because I had no choice. But I still have to attend a respiratory appointment later this week—an hour away—and all things considered, that’s non-negotiable. It’s exhausting, and not just physically. My social battery is utterly fried. I expected that, to a degree. The afterparty fo...
Read more

🎭 Playing Nadia, Healing Me

Image
 It's been a while... I have been busy, burnt out, joyful, stressed... chasing my tail and playing an absolute dream role... Playing Nadia Kovlova in Give Us a Sign has been an unexpected balm. She’s half Vlada Bulkakova, half Anna Chapman, with a sprinkling of that one inscrutable blonde Russian model on Instagram who always looks like she’s judging your fashion choices from a marble balcony. There’s something delicious about leaning into that stereotype—mocking my own Eastern European roots with a wink and a smirk in a sympathetic way. It’s been cathartic, even empowering. And lately, I’ve needed that. Because offstage, things haven’t exactly been velvet and roses. Just before I was told by the consultant that my lungs were miraculously clear, I’d had not one but two appointments with a nurse who could only be described as a battle axe in orthopedic clogs. She looked me dead in the eye and said I’d never get better. That pseudomonas would take me out faster than the CVID. Th...
Read more