HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
Well my diet fell spectacularly from grace in the last four weeks!
So much for living wheat free/sugar free/dairy free……..the guilt is so strong I can list every sin:
2 mince tarts, four servings of Christmas pudding and custard, a bag of Liquorice allsorts and a piece of bread and cheese (a serious crime) and it didn’t stop there….a bag of Marshmallows and a serving of Chocolate Log not to mention being found in bed by the Fripp eating a box of chocolates under the duvet.
Now I am in wheat/sugar/dairy free for January and already my waistline is decreasing.
Christmas was excellent. My hubby gave me fantastic pressies….a new I-Pad Pro……spectacular. And I surprised him with a 1780 barometer (yes, just what he always wanted) and three paintings I painted for him in Menton, France last September. “Where Angels Go To Die”, “Angels Over Menton” and “Anatomy Of Flight”.
My dear 71-year old hubby is absolutely wiped out from two months touring the USA. (he is booked to tour until 2024!) I am concerned about how he will cope in the next 6 years, he is doing a hell of a lot of travelling.
On the day his car came to take him to Heathrow at the beginning of October I hid a locally famous parcel in his bag thinking he would find it before he left the house.
The parcel is an innocent Activia yogurt.
Over the summer Robert and I played many jokes on our neighbours who run shops in the town by leaving this yogurt on their display shelves, seeing if they would discover it or if someone would offer to buy it. One neighbour not only discovered it but kindly gift wrapped it and gifted it back to us at a dinner gathering. This yogurt is now about a year old and we still have fun hiding it in silly places. (Buckingham Palace would be our most ambitious achievement)
So on the day hubby left to tour the USA I hid it in his bag and forgot about it. He never found it until I arrived in Pittsburgh and fished it out his bag and showed it to him. He wasn’t impressed even though I was thrilled I truly won this one. This yogurt has not only gone through about 40 airport security checks but has travelled most of America without bursting!
I thought December would quieten down but more bookings for the band came in than any other time in my 45yr career. It’s exciting and 2018 looks great so far.
Thanks to my work on Swipe Right, the director Sean Cronin has given me the female lead in a movie GIVE THEM WINGS, which I am really looking forward to shooting, not only do I have to age but I have to enact a stroke. Before that JUBILEE opens at the LYRIC HAMMERSMITH on the 15th Feb AND before that I have about 13 TV programmes to shoot.
I cant wait for JUBILEE to be in London. Sooooooo many people coming to see it.
2017 was an extraordinary year. It was so busy there where times I didn’t have time to have a glass of water or go to the bathroom, which became my war cry……”I need water now”…..it was a marathon.
Because of travel and filming plus all the concerts I didn’t get to Birmingham until December to see my WALK OF FAME STAR, which put the cherry on the cake. I am seriously proud to have this accolade.
2017 was also a very human year. The festivals that the band played had a huge impact on me, the people where so in love with music, with being outside and part of a community. Festival life is vibrant.
In Dunstable, a long day as I played Lets Rock Clapham Common at lunchtime then on to Dunstable for 5pm, playing to a surprisingly large audience of 5000 in a small park. In the audience I kept seeing this baby being launched about four feet into the air, it really looked like a flying baby, it was a father throwing his son into the air every other minute and it looked so bizarre I asked him to come forward and introduce himself. He was such a beautiful man who was completely bewitched with being a father and this is what 2017 has left me with….how many men love being hands on Dads, we have seen it everywhere and it has been a joy.
IN EXTREMIS winning so many awards has been great for my self confidence. I loved shooting this film and loved writing the outro song. Simon Darlow and myself cried and cried as we recorded it. Touching the nerve that grief leaves so raw forever.
So onwards and upwards into 2018.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support.
BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD.
LOVE TOYAH
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