Country life...(or how everyone in Salisbury thinks I'm a hooker)....

Well Reader, we're not in Kansas anymore. I'm in the wilds of Salisbury for the week, filming for short Lost Boy/ Lost Girl, in which I play a porn star called Leanne, who's sort of lost grip on her life a bit. I was determined only to bring my small carry-on suitcase for the week, but forgot that part of my costume is an enormous fake fur coat that makes me look a bit like Pat Butcher, so I wore it instead, and now I think the woman who runs my B&B thinks I'm a hooker. This isn't helped by a number of things:

1. I am actually playing a porn star, so tomorrow I'm leaving wearing a fur coat, mini skirt, false eyelashes and lots of boob on show
2. I am the only girl in the B&B (which despite being all chintzy and covered in fake flowers and Laura Ashley prints from the 80's, seems to be entirely populated by burly, slightly stinky truckers who grunt as they pass each other on the stairs) 
3. I've left the B&B at about 10.30 pm every evening so far (to go and have dinner with the crew, who finish pretty late.) I never have a chance to explain where I'm going, so she just sees me leaving late at night in fake fur, getting in a car full of young men, and coming back at about midnight
4. Last night, the other actor (a lovely young chap who's just about to do a national tour of 'Our Country's Good') finished shooting too late to collect his room key, so I let him crash in with me-meaning last night she will have heard us coming in past 12 (after another very late dinner), me telling him to shush and then letting him into my room. We're actors, so we're used to having to bunk in together when stuff like this happens, spending the evening going over scripts and correcting lines, but she can't have known that.

Oh dear. I'm being really careful to be very polite to her and dropping things like 'on set' and 'filming with the students' into the conversation, but I have noticed she's gone a little hyperactive around me. Bugger. 

Salisbury is pretty interesting. Until today, I'd only seen a couple of bits of it, but met with my lovely friend Dave from many years ago, who is now a director at the theatre here, and he gave me the guided tour. It's actually a very pretty place, but still decidedly odd. There's a campus here for Bournemouth Uni students, but none of them seem to go out. They don't have a student union here and the streets are empty by 9pm on a weeknight. I went to uni in Canterbury, and every night you'd find at least a few gangs of students in the pubs having a jolly old time, but not so here! Plus the conversations you overhear are very strange. Last night, I watched in fascination as a group of very young, intimidatingly pretty and done up girls tried to chat up two old, ugly, rude squaddies. The Squaddies were practically beating them off with sticks! I couldn't quite tell why the young ladies were interested to be honest, the men looked a bit like they lived under a bridge and ate goats who lost their riddles and their personalities seemed rather pants. Add to that the fact that they were roaringly drunk and you had an enigma in your midst-what were the girls so attracted to that they kept throwing themselves at these blokes? The service industry here is incredible, I've had taxi drivers who gave me history lessons as we drove to set, shop people complimenting my hair and look and just now, when I clumsily knocked over my bottle of diet coke in the cafe I'm stealing the wifi of, the charming young barista not only mopped it all up, but brought me a new one and winked at me!  Of course, there are a few downsides. There are NO free cashpoints, you have to walk for ages to find one. My B&B, although cosy, has no WiFi, so I'm getting behind on work and emailing and having to catch up today (next week will also be very busy now as I'll be working extra evening shifts to cover the loss of wages). People see me in my teddybear fur coat and look at me like an escapee of a local mental hospital, wheras at home I would just be seen as a bit eccentric. Plus, the area I'm staying in isn't within walking distance to ANYTHING. No sweet shops, pubs, Tesco Extras. So once I'm in the B&B, that's sort of it, a day of reading my pile of books and nothing else. Not having internet is driving me slightly mad, every hour that passes without me popping on Linked In to do a bit of work makes me think of the noise of money tinkling down the drain. Being able to sit and blog in this cafe is HEAVEN. I've even checked my facebook and applied for a few bits on casting call pro! 

Makes me realise just how much of a city girl I really am. I'm already dreaming of sushi and hot yoga and being able to hop on a bus and find a jazz bar or a snazzy theatre cafe to work in. It's a nice change of scene though, and dear lord, it's worth it to work on the camera that the crew is using. Everything looks beautiful and I'm already hopelessly excited to see the film. It helps that the actor I'm working with is really easy to bounce off of as well, fingers crossed it'll come out beautifully! 

Plus I got to see Dave. Which was like lots of birthday presents and Christmas presents all in one go!

Hope you're having a lovely week Reader, wherever you're based!

Ash

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