This time, it's personal...

Following the excitement of The Youngest’s birthday and opening night nerves yesterday, I had a lovely day today.

My final half day at work this week was fine and stress-free, preceding a relaxing afternoon before heading back down to Burneside to prepare for this evening’s performance.

It was a very personal one for me as all of The Offspring were in (even The Eldest making a trip back to see the show) and accompanied by my parents. In addition, my ailing boss and his wife had trekked up from Wigan to come and see the show, so I wanted to ensure that I was “on it”.

From my own perspective, I felt it was one of the strongest performances I had delivered in my many, many years of treading the amateur boards. My character goes on a bit of a journey throughout the show and by the time my head finally hit the pillow this evening, I too felt like I had been through the wringer.

It seemed to pay dividends though as when I reappeared into the auditorium post-show, The Youngest barrelled into me with a tight hug, closely followed by The Eldest before m’boy got in on the action. It was a good moment. There were hugs and kind words all round from family and friends and it was not without some sense of relief that they were received.

My sister too (who is also in the show) received plenty of hugs and rightful praise from her nieces and nephew along with our parents. My Dad had subject himself to proceedings for a second time!

We posed for an all-family selfie at the end (extra) and then The Eldest took the one for the main photo. 

It means a lot to me as I’m not sure when we last had a photo of just the four of us.

After months of hard work, we are already at the halfway point of the run.