Flavia's Official Blog

Another week, another town another market. This week 'The Last Tango' brings us to Northampton.
I couldn't remember for the life of me whether we'd already performed at the Royal & Derngate theatre with one of our previous shows. I caught the train from London Euston to Northampton on Monday morning, when I got to the train station I decided to walk to the hotel as it was only 12 minutes away.
As I was approaching the hotel I soon remember that I had not only been to Northampton but I'd actually stayed at this particular hotel, after all there are not many places that we've not been to. I also couldn't remember my way to the theatre at all so I used my phone for directions, unfortunately it led me astray, and half an hour later having walked round in a circle several times I finally found the Stage Door, having stopped off for a chicken pie along the way.
Memories came flooding back of us being at this particular theatre with midnight Tango.
 

I entered the Stage Door, signed In and collected my dressing room key as usual, I was then met by another door leading to the dressing rooms which was covered in photos of various past shows. Take a look at this and see if you can spot us!

On the Tuesday morning I popped into town as I had a parcel to post and other bits and pieces to do.
I came across the market right in the middle of the square, selling mostly fruit and vegetables. It made me think how much more appealing and appetising I find fruit and vegetables when they are presented and laid out in such a lovely fashion. I wanted to buy lots of bowls of various beautifully coloured fruit but instead i came away with just 4 bananas thinking that would be enough to keep me going for a while.

We have obviously now been travelling around the UK for quite some time, and it does make me laugh a little that I come across some of the same buskers everywhere we go? it feels like they are travelling on tour with us following our venues and set themselves up in the various towns and cities for our arrival. Last week in Cardiff I saw the tight rope walking violin playing man who some of you many remember from one of my earlier blogs. This week it's a band that has been to several of the same places as us, I think they are really good, their music always brings a smile to my face and has a lively vibe. So here's a short video of them, and yes, I was trying to look inconspicuous hiding behind a wall !!

Last year we were lucky enough to have a couple of short trips away. One of them was to Barcelona, I had never been to Spain previously and seeing as I'm Italian i have always been fascinated to see how similar these countries actually are. In my head I always imagined them to be very similar in both culture and lifestyle. We had a fantastic time and one of the things I was quite amazed at was how useful my Italian was. I found myself talking to many people on many occasions in Italian, they were able to understand me, reply in Spanish and I could pretty much understand them, It was fascinating. I came away thinking I would make it my challenge the following year to learn Spanish. Not long after we got back I came across an offer online of Rosetta Stone, and before I knew it i had snapped it up. It was only a week or so ago I actually managed to start lesson 1. It's very early days so I'm not sure how well I'll do or how much I will actually learn by the end, at the moment I feel a long way away from being able to have a conversation in Spanish with someone but time will tell. What I found interesting was as I started doing the first lesson on my iPad, with my earphones, using a touch screen to choose the correct answers I had flashbacks of when I was 5yrs old and learning English. It was very odd as I remember very little of that time but one of the things I do recall is being in front of a screen with big ear phones probably bigger than me, and having lots of pictures in front of me which I needed to tap on with a pen. I remember things like 'yellow bananas' and 'blue balloons'. I recall feeling anxious and worried about getting wrong answers as a big red X would appear and sometimes I'd cry. My first words in English were, paper, toilet and drink. I had a lovely teacher who was called Mrs Johnson and remember her taking me out of school and into town to walk around the shops. It's quite strange the things we choose to remember and the things we blank out. Unfortunately I have no memory of how it all came together, I only recall the initial struggle and then being able to speak quite easily. I'm so lucky that at home i continued to speak Italian with my family as it would have been such a shame to loose my first language. I'll keep you posted on my Spanish progress..

Our busy month of birthdays is over till next year, on Sunday it was Jimi's turn and we had a lovely walk with Pablo by the river and a very nice meal at one of our favourite Italian restaurants in Guildford called Positano. It was a delicious meal once again, up until Jimi decided that the sweetners for the coffee were actually mints and ate several of them in one go !!! I must say this was after a very nice bottle of wine. Looking at the expression on his face and for quite some time afterwards I would definitely not recommend trying that. It took a long while for us to stop laughing, the poor taxi driver must have thought we'd had 3 bottles of wine rather than 1..

I was missing Pablo terribly this week, but managed to get a cuddle with 2 friends, meet Merlin a 4 month old puppy, he could fit in my handbag and no one would know.

And Reily, who works with Bernie Keith everyday at BBC Radio Northampton. I've always had a soft spot for miniature Schnauzers.

Pablo's World

So excited this week, I've been on holiday at Dog Trouble. I love it there, get to see all my friends and go on bike rides, walks, we play fetch and they've even got a swimming pool for us. It's brilliant!! Looking forward to next week too as Flavia and Jimi have a week off and they are taking me to the beach so I can get covered in sand and run around all I like. Yipeeeee I'm so lucky.

Not long ago Flavia was choosing some costumes for a show and she asked me for some help, I couldn't choose between the yellow or peach !!

  

Then she was sewing and doing all sorts of things, by the end I was absolutely exhausted and had a good snooze, accidentally on one of her costumes.. Oops !

You can see our Tour Schedule, Buy Tickets and meet the New Cast for "The Last Tango" here Tweets Of The Week First tweet of the week goes to Emma Kendrick ‏@EmmaKendrick83 @vincentsimone @FlaviaCacace @RoyalDerngate #thelasttango was amazing!! Phenomenal show with boundless energy, passion, emotion. Thank You! Second tweet of the week goes to Scarlett Jordan ‏@s5carlett_ro5e Came home to this after stressful rehearsal thank you to boyfriend 😍 @vincentsimone @FlaviaCacace #LastTango Thought of the week By.Flavia news & tip of the week This is going to be a very exciting year for the By.Flavia range, I'm still working on and perfecting my sweet almond oil scrub and matching bubble bath. Very much looking forward to sharing these new products with you all once I am completely happy with them. There will also be some exciting promotions in the lead up to Valentine's Day so watch this space for some not to be missed special offers.  You can see our full range of By.Flavia products by visiting our website here. Hope you have a great week, see you next time.