"I'll Have to Love You and Leave You"

My time in Cardiff is coming to a close. From the deprecating self-talks to the tears of exhaustion to the cwtches and kisses and multiple pieces of cake. To the hairspray and deodorant spray, the changes of clothes and packed lunches. To sharing cuddles, soup, and sickness. Complaints, coats and bottles of red wine.


Thank you.

Thank you for sharing this time with me, Cardiff. Thank you for accepting me as I was, as I am now, and every nuance in between.

Thank you for giving me opportunities to excel
and lessons in humility.
Thank you for making me tough,
tougher than I was.

Thank you for making me more loving and resilient than I was.

Thank you.

To the MAMTs of 2014

I am so proud of our achievements and even though we are destined to part ways from here, I want to congratulate each and every one of you. Those of you I saw yesterday, you looked gorgeous. Those of you who missed the ceremony (namely +Alice Jarvis, +Luke McCall and +Laura Platt), we hope you feel included in our celebrations and continue to keep in touch! Thank God for snapchat!

Yesterday, I felt so privileged to be graduating with you beautiful people, and I felt freaking awesome celebrating last night. What absolute fun. Dancing with a banana and pinning my hair with decorative drink umbrellas will be etched in my memory (for about 2 months until I forget). 

Giving Attitude to the Camera. SNAP

Aside from cwtches and soup, Cor and I also seem to share leprosy. #clublighting

How to Love You and Leave You

After completing my final work shifts this week, I've been absolutely swamped with visits and outings and everything nice. I think, once everything settles down, it will be a very drastic realisation that I've left these wonderful people and experiences for the promise of different (and hopefully just as wonderful) experiences in London. Thinking over my time spent with friends, I have a strike of sadness descend into the pit of my stomach (oh how poetic of me, but it's true). I will miss you all very much, and it's hard to fathom why one would move away from such love, but I'm doing it. I'm destined to do it. 

Carol, Landlady extraordinaire 

In my final full week here, Carol offered to bring me to St. Fagan's and was the best personal guide one could ever want! She seemed to know everything, from the layout of the grounds to each building's history, and as I was chatting away, she was busy ensuring I didn't get lost. This helped me to be ready for when the oh-so-funny @Libby Burrell came to Cardiff. We biked all over - St. Fagan's to the Llandaff Cathedral to the Cardiff Museum, Cardiff Bay to the Castle. A ridiculous number of miles in total, I'd say. Libby, despite having sore biking bum, was such a trooper and replenished her energy with plenty of Welsh Cakes. The true, Welsh experience! Here, we pose for a photo in which I retardedly realise I was pouring water everywhere. Libby enjoyed getting splashed, it seems.

On Thursday my parents arrived, and oh, the joys of catering to them! They will forever never know how to work their iPhones or pack enough undies, but so far, they've been very good company. Sometimes, I get fed up with how proud they are of me, but I guess that's expected. I mean, I am the first of their children who is a MASTER what what what. I've adopted other "families" as well, and there has been no job in which I've felt more at home than at the Café. Perhaps it's because Mama and Papa Sweet work alongside me, making sure everything is "a-o-k" as I say. I've had so many well-wishes from our customers, so I'm going off to London with so much support and encouragement. I'm gonna need it, so thank you thank you thank you!

Colourful People inside. obviously outside.

I'm Going to Really Miss This - these wonderful people!

Following my gig at Sweet, I happened to have the extreme pleasure of attending a duck race. I've been excited about it ever since I first heard. With my awesome coworker, @Laura Hickenbotham and boyfriend, we traipsed down to the river, realising all-too-late that the ducks weren't actually real. None of our duck entrants came close to winning. But we were winning at heart, being the oldest people in attendance, that is, the oldest people who didn't have children alongside them.

And they're off!

Characters in Action

So if my life is a story that means you all are characters, making a path in and out of my book and impressing what you will. One of these characters, +shijie xu, was meant to be graduating with me on Friday. He's back in China, but we celebrated in his honour, enjoying his favourite dish from his favourite restaurant. As Ma snapped this photo, it is obvious that James and I are much more interested in chewing and swallowing. 

Ma, what are you doing.

Although we pride ourselves in our professionalism, James and I often take time during rehearsals for dancing (okay, he hasn't danced, but he did pull his groin doing a cartwheel). When singing, you need to make sure your body is warm, because singing is a muscular activity, you know! On this particular occasion, James needed a lie-down to realign his back when he realised this room resonates on an A flat. Here's him testing it...

We're Professional GOOFBALLS

Our gig went fine. I'm really awkward. I like to think I'm really awkward in the whole Zooey Deschanel cutesy way, but not sure if I will ever pull that off.

Having arrived at graduation just in time, I missed all the group photos, but I must say, I'm glad I got @Johanna O'Brien in this gem. She's a keeper.

Smiles that Shine. (some of) the Masters of Musical Theatre, 2014.

And now, to the boy who coined the expression "I'll have to love you and leave you" (or at least he did in my book) - Thanks for being so warm and accepting when I was anything but. I look forward to our continued FaceTime chats and to love you more and more, regardless of the fact that I am indeed leaving you.

My wonderful hubby (number 2)

The adventure awaits and so does my bed. Nos Da, Cardiff. Until we meet again (which will be soon indeed)!