I am not totally alone, although both our eldest are at the camp our youngest, my fellow blogger Ruth, is not old enough to go, so is at home with me.
Now don't get me wrong, I am a thoroughly modern man, washing, ironing,cleaning and cooking hold no fears for moi ! The practicalities of being a single parent for the week don't scare at all, but even though I work on my own 8 hours a day normally, I'm not looking forward to quiet nights and an empty bed ! But such is life when your parted from one so close,even for a short time, we move on and overcome!!
Sat pondering the coming week a song kept coming into my head. Years ago when it was me that was away from home, Joanne wrote me a letter including the lyrics of this song and by changing it slightly from Male to Female it works well for how I feel today.
On My Own - Les Miserables
And now I'm all alone again nowhere to turn, no one to go to
without a home without a friend without a face to say hello to
And now the night is near
Now I can make believe she's here
Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of her and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head
On my own
Pretending she's beside me
All alone
I walk with her till morning
Without her
I feel her arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes
And she has found me
In the rain the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is her and me forever and forever
And I know it's only in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to her
And although I know that she is blind
Still I say, there's a way for us
I love her
But when the night is over
she is gone
The river's just a river
Without her
The world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere
The streets are full of strangers
---
Les Miserables is probably my favourite stage show, Joanne saw it a couple of years after we were married and were captivated by it. We have always had the music around, but this Christmas we got the DVD of the 25th Anniversary concert and now the kids rate it too.
The following clip is taken from the 10th anniversary concert of Les Miserables with the part of Eponine sung/played by Lea Salonga. Interestingly, if you're a fan of the musical, for the 25th anniversary concert Lea Salonga stars again but this time as Fantine.
Lea also provided the singing voices for 2 Disney films Aladin (Princess Jasmin) and Mulan (Fa Mulan)
Of course no blog that includes mention of Les Mis would be complete without a version of "Bring him home" and I cant decide whose version to include !! So lets start with the current star Alfie Boe.
But if you want to choose for yourself here is a quartet of all the past players
Colm Wilkinson (1985 Cast), John Owen-Jones (Barbican Company), Simon Bowman (Queen's Theatre Company) and Alfie Boe (25th Anniversary Company).
For me.... Colm Wilkinson will always be Valjean as we saw him live ! But oh my word, I defy anyone to listen to either of these two tracks in a quiet room and not get goose bumps !!!
Till tomorrow ....................and the letter P
