This is Friday, August 7th.  A day that I’ve had highlighted on the calendar for many weeks.  After a month of training and around twenty weeks of filming, it has come to this, my last day.

I’m awash with varied feelings and emotions today.  I am feeing great because I’ve been ill for about a week and today, I finally feel healthy and strong.   I am a little melancholy that today I’ll most likely hug and kiss some very lovely people for the last time.  Talented people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with and learning from.  People that have been with me for 50-60 hours a week since March.  I will miss them.  

I feel so relieved that this job is hours away from being done.  This task and the steep learning curve that came with it is about to finally be complete.

I am a little sad about leaving Richmond.  I’ve been living in Richmond, a small city completely on its own, yet still a part of Greater London.  I’ve been quiet about my exact location till now for the privacy of many of the other actors who’ve been staying there as well.  It has one of the only hillside views of the Thames.  It has Great Richmond Park, which one of the biggest parks in the UK.  It is so big that it has its own flock of deer.  The walks along the Thames in Richmond are like an English postcard.  Drinking a pint from the Cricketers on Richmond Green is like walking backing time, and the High Street of Richmond has everything a man, woman, or child could want.  This project has afforded me one of my life long dreams of living in, not visiting, living in England.  What a treat.

That said, I am so excited to go home that I can barely contain myself.  It’s tough not to break into smiles or tears.  It’s tough to remember that I have to stay in character and shoot a very important scene today.  I left home on January 3rd for the first training session for this film.  Between the gigs early in the year on the cruise and at the Junos, and the commitments to this project, I have been in my house 11 days in 2009.  I am more homesick than I’ve ever been.  I miss my family. I miss my friends.  I miss St. John’s.  I miss my dog.  I miss my bed.

As I said in the last post, I am in no headspace to give you a decent description of the past few months.  I need a few weeks to let the dust settle.  I can say that Robin Hood and the other Merry Men have been so generous with their talents, and so patient with the Rookie, that I can never thank them for the opportunity to walk on their stage and to share in their work.  It has been the experience of a lifetime for so many reasons.

Just Scene 52 left to shoot till Max calls the final cut.  There’ll be a few celebratory song and dances I hope, then, quick as that, the detour will wind its way back to the main road.  And right back in the fast lane.  I’ll be flying to Halifax in the morning, and hope to meet Sean and Bob and the guys for a chance encounter for a very special reunion.  I’ll tell you more about that later.  Then on Sunday morning, at 6:50AM, all things being well, I’ll be flying to St. John’s.  

Home.

Cheers,
Alan