Olympic Music Inspirations

For some reason I am reminded of the lyrics of songs from previous Olympic games that seem to match what I am feeling and going through right now. Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time, "and Gloria Estephan's "Reach," are playing in my mind as I think about how things have changed for me here in Edinburgh. In addition to starting to confirm my travel plans for Europe, I have finally spoken to Tom Orde-Powlett at Bolton Castle and he is, "Very keen to meet and talk with me." We have a scheduled lunch meeting at Bolton Castle on August 5th. For those of you who have not been filled in on all the details of the importance of this meeting, let me take a few lines to catch you up. I will attempt to make this short and sweet.

After 10 plus years playing Lady Margaret Howard, 9th Baroness Scrope of Bolton I decided to combine my excitement over the history of her life with the business of a hotel, restaurant, and living history venue. My dream has always been to rebuild or replicate Bolton Castle, which is located in Wensleydale, North Riding, Yorkshire, England, to play out key history in the Baroness' life. I want to specifically deal with the events of the year 1568 when Mary, Queen of Scotland was forced to abdicate her throne and chose to come into England for assistance. When Queen Mary arrived, she was put under the care of Baroness Scrope who was the premier ranking female noblewoman in the area. Anyway, my vision has always been to play out this history where it actually happened and charge visitors to come "meet the Queen." Well I called and wrote to Bolton Castle over the years and never got much if any response. Now that I am in England, I seem to have gottent their attention.

At first Mr. Orde-Powlett thought that I just wanted to come to the castle on one weekend and play. He actually "rents" the castle to people for weekend gigs. Well when I told him that I wanted to play the Baroness, be at the castle full-time, and act as if I was home and was doing all the things one would have naturally done in the time, he was momentarily dumb-struck until he realized the possible benefits and interest for the castle it might create. So finally after years of struggling to "get an audience" with this man, I finally have it.

There are still challenges to making my future dreams come true. 1 my job at Harvey Nichols is making it difficult for me to make travel plans to Bolton. Granted I committed to working for them full time and during the busy season, but they are a bit wishy-washy on what days I get to have off. Also, due to this schedule 'conflict' I may not be able to participate in the one and only Renaissance re-enactment faire at Bolton on August 16 and 17th. Additionally, my application for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been approved and I have been given at least 9 time slots i which to "perform" my Baroness Scrope gig. All these things I feel I need to attempt to do and I have bumbs and roadblocks in my way. Let's not forget the time and expense of sending for my gowns from Oregon plus the issue of how to tote everything around, how I'll get dressed, etc. All of this and I am working full-time and trying to hold on to my money for traveling. I am trying very hard to take my life one day at a time. I am even getting back into my Slow Kwon Do practices. This is the special training Ian teaches at a gym in Portland.

On my way home from work tonight I thought about the possibility of moving up my meeting with Tom in order to get an answer that much sooner about what plans he might have for me and Baroness Scrope at Bolton Castle. If I am going to perform in the fringe, I have so much work to do to prepare. I am so tired from working at Harvey Nichols that I don't know if I'll be able to perform at my best. I will however perservere and take many small steps every day to work towards the expectation that I will not only work full time at Harvey Nichols, but I will also perform at the Fringe at least once, and I'll be present at Bolton Castle when it prepares for the invasion of the Spanish Armada on August 17th. This is going to cost me so much money :(

It also looks like I am going to have to cut my Europe travels down to three weeks max. I just won't have the money or the energy to do much more than that. As a result of cutting back on my plans, I am skipping Spain pretty much altogether and only going to Barcelona to see Ian. Wait, suddenly I am remembering why I wanted to go to Spain in the first place. I need and want to research the life of King Phillip II of Spain. He was instrumental in many of the political and social events relating to Mary, Queen of Scots, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Baroness Scrope, and everyone in England. I really don't need to see all of Italy, I just really want to. I need to figure out what I am going to do so Ian and Richard can figure out what they are doing. It sounds like Ian is clear about going to Barcelona and Bologna/Parma. Richard seems keen on spending his time in Europe following me around. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my cousin Eliot also plans to travel to Europe and hopes to catch up to us all too. My head is too full right now for me to be clear about what I really want to do, can afford to do, etc. I hope that Ian, Rich, and now Eliot will all be patient with me while I try to get my stuff straight. I think it's a safe bet that everyone plans to travel during the month of October. We may have to make impromptu and last minute plans to all meet in some location outside of our own original cities to catch up. Whatever happens, wherever we all wind up we know that we will all be in Europe at the same time. Lets just plan to meet somewhere in France, Spain, or Italy at some point. I am looking forward to seeing all of you soon.