Well.. here I am in Portland.
two days to get here (ish) a short hotel stay on the way.
Currently sat in Pat Short (Portland managers) empty living room (he's just had all his floors redone) writing.
I think I wont get to do a big blog til I get home next week.
Tourney was GREAT! We WON... beat NOLA into the ground... muahaaa ;) not really, but we did win, and it was great fun as usual.
Met some great new friends, Myles from LA especially. And got to hang out with new friends from Dallas too, Jill and Evan. Was a great time.
Am exhausted right now though.
WIll try and write more
BRON
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IN LA!
What a drive! I will have to fill you in, maybe wit pictures when I get home. Long long drive. LA is sunny and not too unbearably hot. Steven, Ste and Rach all got here fine and we've been doing touristy things.
Tonight is the first get together of the teams, so that should be nice.
Dallas match... was ok... will write more about that later too
BRON
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omg I'm feeling shitty
i can't really explain why... cos partly i dont know...
i'm tired
i'm groggy
i'm stressing.... about anything I can get my stress nodules onto
i'm supposed to be horseriding today, which i want to do, I'm just worried I'm going to die from lack of sleep
I've hardly slept for about 2 weeks.
plus i can't seem to eat
dont know why
tiiiired
playing Dallas tonight
should be fun, as long as I can last out
BRON
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DALLAS WATER TASTES LIKE MOLD!

No joke! If you know me, you know I pretty much only drink water. Now... as the water tastes like mold, I can't drink it... so I've been drinking a whole load of mountain dew, therefore, my caffiene starved body is just freaking out with all the caffiene and I'm hardly sleeping. Anyhoo. Dallas is great, but very HOT! Met up with the Texan (Evan) and had some good times and great hugs... currently staying with Heather, and hanging out a lot with Jill (who also rocks)... not much to say really, but here are some pix!



Me with a GUN!! Look how impressed I am



Heather and I at a RODEO... with no cows.




Heather and I at the Water Gardens... no water... we provided our own



Heather and I at the Williams Square.. largest equestrian display or something... they had water but I was just water happy...

check out more pictures on Heather's photo thingy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/featherchickie/sets/774648/
Head off on the road trip to LA tomorrow night!! After playing in Dallas... will try to check in in LA!
BRON
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CHICAGO CHICAGO... my kind of town...

How much FUN did I have in Chicago? A whole LOT! We got there early, myself and Jer and Michele, and went to get some food. Mexican. I'd never eaten Mexican before, and it was yummy. Avoided the beans though. Had something with Spinich in, it was very good, I coudlnt' finish it all, in truth I was very nervous for the match! Chicago are a proper big team, and just seeing their theatre (which I forgot to take a pic of... damnit) knocked me for six. I watched their first show, 8pm, and seriously was bricking it. They are so slick, I thought there was no WAY i was gonna fit into their teams... but then I met up with Andre, and other people started saying Hi and giving me hugs, I started to relax. Then Zach (who gave me my lovely Chicago CSz bag last year) arrived and changed the team name to The Razors Edge, lol! Rather cute. Zach, incidently, at tourney last year won 'Best British Person' Award. Hehe.
So I got changed, everyone loved my shirt, which was cool, and they really made me feel like home.
MATCH
First Half
We started with Da Do Run Run... I actually won at this game back in Dublin, but when I played in it MKE and also in Chicago I blowed... I was first out in MKE, but second in Chi... lol. Next we played a game out of the bucket... they chose 'Irish Drinking Song'... lol. I whispered to Andre 'do you play that the same as us?' ... 'No, you'll pick it up'... turns out they DO play it the same as us - but I got confused, or Zach did or something... anyway, we played it singing two lines each instead of the usual one. It went fine though. We sang about a lawyer or something. I fell over drunk which go ta laugh... it hurt too. The next scene game we played was Replay. Which was fun. Me and Andre started a scene about cereal.. and he'd been stealing mine. Then we replayed it as Suspense, whcih was vey short but funny, then as 'Gamers' which aparantly are peolple that do Dungeons and Dragons... but Tara said it was video game players (which tbh worked better for me) so my american accent came out for the first time... lots of fun. Finally we did it as a RAP! HAHAH!! Oh dear... enough said. Andre was great, my rapping waasn't my finest hour... but I rolled my sleeve up to make up for it.. and Zach did a tumble THROUGH a window!!! Wow. the the OTHER TEAM did 5 THings... phew!
Second Half
We played Grand Theft Auto to start.. which was rather funny... kind of like What Are You Doing but the whole team... anyway, we sat in the 'car' and I got confused and Started Driving (duh! I was sat on the right!)... so the audience cracked up and I got a point for being British ;) It was a really hard game for me for some reason - could have had something to do with the fact that it was only explained to me on the stairs on the way to the field!! Then we played another head to head, continuation... where I sounded like I was doing a fake British accent!! And Steph did it even worse! Hehe... then to finish we played Last Action Joke... which I didn't do great in but whatever it was GRRREAT!
So much fun - then I got to see Nate from Portland afterwards! So a fun night. Off to Dallas tomorrow! Scary and cool... woohooo.. the tour continues.




Me and the Chicagoeans... lovely people!!



Tara and myself... she reminds me of KT, she gave me a huge hug and I suddenly realised I would have a great time :)

OK I didn't finish my last blog. Basically I drove around for a bit. Then in the evening I did a workshop with my mum's theatre company. Lots of fun. Did my basic improv run down and got my mum to join in, felt really jealous, really wanted to be more involved with the show, they are such a tight group and their project is realyl interseting. Oh well.

SO, last night I played in Milwaukee. I got there and once again, was only expecting to play in one match and ended up playing in two. The first match was to a lovely crowd of about 70, ... my team won that match... the second was a 2 on 2 with a crowd of about 10 (just like home ;) )... great fun though. Played 5 things twice more! Got to guess the second time and we did OK... so I think I'll be teaching that more when I get home.
Let me try and do a quick run down:
FIRST MATCH:
Head to head Meanwhile Elsewhere began the match. Was interesting as the first time I was on the pitch I realyl didnt' know what I was doing.. we were in some field that everyone else knew what it was.. found out later that it was an American Football field, a well known one... that's about all I remember from that game. The blue team then played Forward Reverse, which went OK... we then played Spelling Bee... an dit went great! As a team game, it was geat, we all played 'Jocks'... which was fun for me... ;) Then came 5 things (but the head to version - 6 things)... was hard work, but got through it and I think we won it! Tim managed to steal the points from the other team once.... yay. Did an impression of
Kiss at the end... their wigs smell
second half
no head to head to start the second half - instead they decided to do two audience games. We played Sound FX, and I didnt' really get into the scene at all. I initiall y was playing Johns wife, who'd bought him tickets to the Nascar race... but left pretty much at the beginning. And was dragged back in at the end. Then came Do Do RUn Run, managed to stay in til I got the rhyme 'Beth' and really struggled. After that we played Double Blind Freeze which was great fun! I got to lie on Joel which made me laugh, he was damp. THe video cuts out just before my death defying feat! grrrrr
SECOND MATCH
AS this was such a small audience the guys decided to make it a 2 on 2 and have no half time. We started with What Are You Doing? which I did pretty badly - instantly forgetting the rule of 'don't say 'I'm' so I figured out not to do that by the last time I was up there, not great at that game. The next scene game we played was Blind Line which went in a weird direction where I was a minstrel and Tom was a construction worker and he was building my stage for me. Then I decided he shoudl be on stage with me and he fell in love with me or something... it was a bit odd... and very hard with just two people I found. Then we played 6 things again, this time I guessed and got everything but one thing! A band called 'Men Without Hats'.. what?they even tried to convince me that they werea British Band? Are they? lol. So then we played sound effects again and this time I was more involved obviously as there were only two of us. We were secret agents and I was being trained how to skin an alligator... then near the end Christine came on as an old woman, and we shot her, and I asked to skin her cos I wanted a bag. Finally we played normal Freeze... may favourite being the last one where Tim created something calle da Woman Fry... so I ate one... "Tastes of Woman!"... anyhoo.
That's pretty much it for now... got stuff to do before I head to Chicago... so I'll check in tomrorow before I head to Dallas
BRON
xx






Me with thw milwaukee teams and ref on the pitch. First match, won, second match lost :(!

Well, yesterday was an interesting day.
I didn't do a great deal... I drove my mums jeep thing, which was strange, and I ended up on the West side of town. Now, for those of you not from Madison, and who've not known me for a good long time... the west side is where I lived from 1995-97... I even drove into fitchburg and past our old house. And I have absolutely no idea why, but seeing the house made me cry.
Now other things are making me cry.. will write agin later

Had a fun impromptu night out with my good pal Justin last night... we went to Wisconsin Dells. It's like a theme park place in Wisco. We decided first to stop off at the first thing we saw that took our interest:



the upside down White House!
Yeah we went for the tour which was half heartedly delivered by a group of foreign people... turns out our mission was to figure out why the house was upside down... it was Aliens... but shhh dont tell anyone! It was all pretty lame to be honest, plus I was shitting it all the way rouned cos I dont like dummies and there were a few in there... Justin kept laughing at me, I had to keep grabbing onto him. PLus we were the only ones tehre who seemed freaked out by the upside down rooms, as in we kept nearly falling over. We must have looked drunk

we then headed into the dells further and went for a walk and saw Ripleys Believe it or Not... I believed pretty much all of it. Once again, Dummies galore! Including this guy:



me and Uncle Sam!

So Justin had a good laugh at me, we had a nice chat, it was great fun. You forget sometimes how much you miss someone til you see them again. We figured out that we'd known each other for nearly 10 years, and that freaked us both out... we were feeling old.

Anyway, last pic from last night:



Justin and I!

That wasn't me pulling a face for once, I actually coudlnt' get the camera to work.. damnit
BRON
x

Americans sure love wars.
Enough on that subject.
BIt of a wasted day today, most of it spent writing that last post! Made a fruit salad for my dad, talked a lot on the phone, did some emailing, blah blah blah.
Curently watching 'Futurama' cool.
Was asked tonight if I'd do a workshop in improvisation at a theatre company on Wednesday... should be fun - means I get to teach my mum improvisation :D heheheheheheh
heehhehe\ahhha
\hahaha
hehehehee
ahem
BRON
x

OK.. just got the camera out to watch the tape.. it wasn't as bad as I thought to be hoenst.. with the second match... not great but not as bad.. anyway... second half continued.
Right to start the second half we played what WE call Collums pretty much... they call it Copycat. It went OK, nothing to write home about. someone got a groaner foul - the only foul of the entire evening (compare that to OUR matches!) We were winning going into the second hlaf... next we played Oscar Winning moment... soon realised in this scene why I don't play this game yet, I can't talk enough. It was OK, the other two stole it which was good cos I wasn't great. Although I got to do some yoga in it! lol. The blue team did an excellant scene called 'My Aunt'.. hilarious! I became a dead body during it... something I tend to do a lot too. Then we played foot in mouth to end - and it didn't go to well. Mostly cos I blanked (it was after midnight at this stage) and I just ripped off some stuff from our VCD, cheap, and shameful... ahh well... so in hindsight I kind of wished I'd have left the second match as I'd intended. All in all, I really enjoyed the evening though. Right I have spent enough time on this and you're proably all bored... have a great day.
BRON
xx

Well.. now I've recovered from the weekend (if I get that knakkered after just two days! dread to think how i will react to tournament this year!!) I can write more about the matches and my trip.
I set off from Cambridge about 7.40am... I was planning to set off at 7am, but I'd somehow managed to convince myself that 7am was the time I HAD to be out of bed... anyway... finally got on the road... it was a lovely drive through the state and then into the next state (which I have never done before! exciting) I managed to make it there in just over 3 hours, which amazed Debbie (my friend from High School) cos it usually takes her 4. Met her cat Ketzel to just instantly liked me, which Debbie was very surprised at. She usually attacks people at first sight... Ketzel, not Debbie.
I'd not eaten yet so we decided to go to that mighty fine resturant - Denny's. I love Dennys, only becuase they have veggie burgers!
So then we were trying to think what to do, and the only thing I knew about Minnesota was THe Mall Of America - the USA's biggest mall. So off we toottled. It indeed was large - with a full Snoopy themed Theme park in the middle! Madness. Wish we'd had more time really. I spent about $10, half of that was on a smoothie...
So then we headed back to Debbies and I got my stuff ready for the show.
We went to pic up Debbies Chinese friend, Wai, and off we went. I wanted to get there early as I tend to get nervous and stress out... and then we hit an art fair! Almost literally! Got stuck in traffic for about 20 minutes... finally found somewhere to park and I got there... everyone was very relaxed about the show, so I managed to be relaxed too. It was great seeing a couple of familiar faces, and meeting people I'd not met before. INcluding a lady, who was about my age, and for some reason I've blanked on her name!, who went to Middleton High School, and knew some people I knew! Madness. Anyhoo...
THE FIRST MATCH
Mary, the manager and captain of my team, went through how they usually play their matches. Some cool ideas I may pinch in there. They took out 5 Things as, even though we've workshopped it, we've really never got it right, and I wasn't confident about it... it was the only game I really wasn't keen on trying... and in the review of the second match you'll discover why... anyway. So we started with a cool guessing game called 'Home Shopping Channel'.. where Doug (who I'd met previously in DC in 2003, and again last year in Milwaukee, 2004)and I were presenters of a home shopping show. We had to guess what Mary was miming.. they were easy things to guess, the emphasis being on the interaction between the two presenters. Doug played a rather camp guy and I was his ditzy blonde companion. We won that game.
Next we played Soap Opera... funny as we dont play that in the UK either, as we dont have soap operas like the USA... basically I just went OTT and it was fun. We came up with a new name for a woman who is a man: muman. Funny. the next game we played was Blind Line (which I chose and found out later that Doug hates that game..oops). Was rather funny. It was about a portapotty. Turned out I was someone who worked with them and I was teaching Doug how to use them... and how to sell them etc... so then one of his lines said something like 'You're the only one for me' and it turned into a love story... it all went a bit strange after that.
I would normally have chosen a guessing game but Twin Cities as a rule dont tend to play scene guessing games, which was hard for me, as that's my best area usually. Anyway, to end the first half we played Continuation, and I was specifialy asked to do regional accents to throw off the cocky guy on the other team! lol it was funny I started out being scottish, then he changed it to Irish, thenI changed it to Cornish, then it just went mad and a unichorn was involved somehow... was funny.
Second half went by in a blur. We played A B Scene to start, as head to head... hard work.. I got 'f' at one point and before that was told something ab it insulting.. so I just appologised for what I wanted to say and walked off. The next scene game we did was replay, which went quite well, I did my usual trick of picking the character that didn't have to talk... i played a cow. Then the blue team were trailing so much at the end they challenged us to Foot IN Mouth (*which we call Worlds Worst) ... but sdaid that ONLY I WAS ALLOWED TO PLAY IT... so it was me vs the blueteam... and WE STILL WON! Yay... dont remember any that I really did... mostly cos the video cut out and I can only usually remember mathces from the video !
Anyway.. I wasn't supposed to be playing the second match, but I wantede to so was easily talked into it.
SECOND MATCH
Memory gets even hazier from this point... it was now 10.30pm, I'd been awake since before 7am... I was tired... I felt I'd used up all my 'Hey look I'm British' gimmicks in the first match, so I felt a but dry.
We started wtih Story which went weird, and I dropped out first, I'm not great at that game. Then people kept appologising as it wasn't going how it usually went or something. The first scene game we played was Columns. That's not the game we play called Columns btw. You get two audience members up and every time you want a word or anything you tap them and they speak. Debiie managed to get herself dragged up for that! lol... wasn't a great scene, fell to bits a bit... for some reason if in doubt i always become a 'overseer' character... usually with a clipboard. Next scene game was Sing It.. which again I'm not great at... I did it though.. but bailed myself out at the first available opportunity. Then came DUN DUN DUUUNNNN FIVE THINGS! I wans't ready for this game, I assumed it'd be cut like in the first match... i soon realised why... a) my gibberish is absymal b) I didn't know who half the references were and c) I'm crap at mime. One redeeming moment though.. I had to get him to guess that he was with Moses... so I went over to one side of the audience.. looked out and parted my hands in the middle... took a couiple of times but the audience caught on and all parted in the middle when I did it... yay... round of applause :D
Second half... I dont really remember... I was down from the first half.. although it did pick up a bit... I may have to get the video out ot remember the rest....

My trip to Minnesota and the Twin Cities therein


myself and Debbie in matching CSzCUK shirts :D



playing with the red team on stage in Minneapolis.. I played two matches that night... this was the first... I didn't get any pix from the second



me with the two teams from the first match ... we won... and the second match too ;)



saying goodbye to Debbie's cat, Ketzel.. this car aparntly likes no one... except Debbie... and now me :)

the lovely Milwaukeeans playing



me and my Milwaukee Pals. Jer and I, Michele and I, Matt T and I, Dylan and I, and me with Tim

once again a lovely night... was a bit strange... I'm never sure what sort of recepttion I'm going to get there... the first couple of years it was like 'What we have an England team?' then that progressed to... 'Ah, Bron. right?'... now it's all hugs and 'Bron what are you doing in town?'... it's hard to differenciate the people I know from the people I think I know... it's odd.
Was still nice though.

update... OK - I went for that play a fwe weeks ago... I didnt' get in it... probably for the best... just worried about my confidence now... seeing as I'm about to start playing CSz all over the place! Need to put it out of my mind and hope that I didn't get cast cos I can't make the first few weeks of the rehs

night

What a lovely night. I will write more tomorrow, with pix, but just to let you know, tonight I went to Milwaukee and saw lots of people I've met a few times over the years and consider my friends. Met up wih Jer and went to 'The African Hut' for dinner, and it was very yummy!
Watched the match, was funny.. a group of about 50 in! and another group of a few... was rather interesting to see a 'slow' night! Got a lovely chat in aferwards with the lovely Matt Tremmell... and got lots of hugs from a slowly getting more and more drunk Tim HIggins... saw Dick briefly.. hopefully i'l see him again soon... looks like I may be playing next friday night now.... yay.
OK I'm going to get an early night... pictures and natterings tomorrow
BRON
x

BORED!
LOL... I dont know how to relax.. it's official.
Yesterday I helped my mum with a character... for the whole day! I am so bad at just forgetting stuff and relaxing. I need something to do!
Today I'm going to my favourite Mall from when I lived here. Memories... aww.
Wont be the same without Keya though really. We'd spend ages there.
I managed to stay awake til nearly 11pm last night, with help from a phone call from Evan... but still woke up stupidly early.
Anyway... going to have ashower and start the day
BRON
x

outside my parents house, just before the thunderstorm hit!



and again!

Well I'm here in the good old usa of a
I'm tired, and my throat hurts (it usually does for the first couple of days cos of the air conditioning.
I slept interstingly had a strange dream that freaked me out a bit.
I remember dreams more vividly in this country for some reason, I assume it's the atmosphere or something.
Went to a big WalMart yesterday onc I got in and bought crap. Mostly make up to be honest, and socks, two things i forgot to bring!
Went to bed at half 7 and slept right through til half 6! That's pretty WOW for me... so now I'm up... going to have a shower and stuff
Speak soon
BRON
x

Heading tot he states in a matter of hours... checking in with some pic from tonight... here is one of me admiring Miles' facial hair!



me tony and the katester!



Ste decides the best way for me to dispose of the cat I dislike!



Chorley Chaplins all geared up for World Domination!