And it gets even better. Two fabulous days just gone both involving the BAC.

On Monday, it was finally time for an important BAC person to see what we've been working on since September, and we performed a little 'scratch' for them of a few scenes and explained the concept of the play. To our absolute relief - and indeed hers - she really liked it, and it's looking likely we'll be performing the play sometime in May. This means that it's going to be an immensely busy month as that's the same time the City Lit play is performed, meaning I'll be working on two different plays at the same time!! Oh lordy.

And not only did today involve glorious sunshine that only required me to wear one extra layer for the first time this year (rather than the three I've needed since December), but I was back at BAC to see Little Bulb Theatre's latest show, 'Sporadical'. I have huge respect for this company after seeing last year's awesome 'Crocosmia' there, and this play was just as inventive, taking the form of a family reunion with all the audience as family members, as we entered we wrote our names on stickers and put them on us. I was with some YPT friends and I wrote 'Doctor Billy' on my sticker, as a subtle reference to Better Humans that only three of us in the audience would actually get.

I ended up being part of the actual play!! Early on, one of the characters called on 'Doctor Billy' to stand up and read out a speech from cue-cards, which they gave me. Well, I thought, I'm going to put my all into this, and read out the speech with gusto. The glee on the look of the cast was very encouraging, and references to me kept appearing throughout the play, ending with them awarding me a cream egg and a shot of rum. Afterwards the cast came up to me and said I was amazing, the best one they've ever had. "We've never had a Doctor before!" they said. There was a million other things going on in the play too and it was easily the best thing I've seen this year, and it's going to take something mindblowing to stop it from becoming the best play of the decade. Yep, already. It was that good. And even more randomly, Tim Crouch was in the audience - the playwright who wrote and starred in 'The Author' that we saw at the Royal Court last October!! A very surreal experience.

This time a few days ago, I had absolutely nothing interesting planned for this week. But recent events mean that in fact it could be quite incredible. More about that when it comes. For now though, ever since Friday night everything's gone wonderful again, to the point where I've forgotten that I'm...completely unprepared for college tomorrow night.

Don't stop me now. I'm having such a good time!!

Goodness me yes. Incredibly Friday's position of being the best day of March so far has already been usurped by a monumental Saturday.

I did indeed have just two hours sleep. And then hopelessly dragged myself out of bed, forced some toast down me and set off to college half-asleep. I was still hung over and my voice from the previous night was very sore, luckily it was another session where I didn't have that much to do so it didn't affect things.

Then as we finished just before 2pm, the fun began. Grabbed my stuff and legged it out of City Lit, ran up Kingsway onto a bus to Waterloo, and then a train to Wimbledon. For this afternoon we raised money for Marie Curie Cancer Care by...swing-dancing in the middle of Wimbledon piazza.

You heard that right. The big circular space next to Morrisons was taken over by me and several other swingers dancing away. In the open air, in the middle of the day. This was surreal enough itself but what was even better was the reactions of the townsfolk of Wimbledon. People stopped their Saturday shopping to watch. Some attempted to join in. Lots donated money, even asking where swing-dance classes take place. At one point things looked a bit scary when a few police arrived, but we just went up to them and gave them swing-dance leaflets. And at the end of songs, passers-by applauded us.

By the time we finished at 5pm, it felt like we'd cheered up the whole town. Everyone walking past seemed to have a smile on their face, including an adorable moment where a kid of about three years old joined in the dancing. I feel so proud and so happy that the swing-dancing I love was able to raise so much money for such a good cause.

And the aftermath continued the fun. We went back to one of the dancer's houses and had lots of tea and huge amounts of cake. And looking at all of us, sitting around the room eating our cakes and chatting about pretty much everything, good grief, was I glad to have these people in my life. I could have stayed there for so much longer, but I had to get the train up to London Bridge for the next part of the evening.

This time it was a meetup with pals from City Lit to see Shunt's current show 'Money'. I always love productions that play with the boundaries of theatre, and this took part in a massive three-storey installation, where you walked around and saw scenes taking place both above the ceiling and under the ground. Hard to explain and the plot is completely mad, not sure if it was meant to make any sense at all as it just seemed to be random lines, but as a visual experience it took me back to Punchdrunk shows like the Red Death. After a few iffy days at City Lit itself, this was a wonderful time to forget our college woes and simply have a good night out, we continued the drinks until they closed the pub at 11pm. I'm really going to miss these dudes after May.

And then what? I went home? Ha! Nope, another quick travel to St Paul's and I spent the rest of the night at the Saturday Night Swing Club, re-meeting the swingers from the afternoon in Wimbledon. By now I was very tired and so my dancing wasn't that much cop, but was great to be there anyway and we stayed right to the end at 2am. By this time I was hungry again so got some chips to eat on the N98 back, and then home, at which point I suddenly had a burst of energy and wrote this post, energy which is gradually dying away now and my bed is looking more inviting.

Today wasn't just the best day of March. It was one of the best days of the year. I can't believe that I just did all that in one day. And with only two hours sleep after a Friday involving six and a half hours of non-stop clubbing? Impossible. But it isn't. Nothing is impossible.

Goodbye lull. Things are back to brilliance. :)

Oh, did I need a night like that so much.

A swing-dance friend's 24th birthday, and we went to a club called the Roadhouse in Covent Garden. And it was one of those nights that reminded me just how wonderful it is to be young.

The music varied between a DJ playing pretty much every R&B/dance hit of the last few years with a few pop ones too, and a live band with loads of covers of every classic rock song you can think of. So we were absolutely singing and dancing our hearts out to classics including 'Don't Look Back In Anger' by Oasis, 'Chelsea Dagger' by the Fratellis, 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers, and what's swiftly becoming one of the most iconic songs of our times, Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. All the while swaying our bottles of Corona around and generally feeling very laddish indeed. And when they played 'Alright' by Supergrass, and we were all dancing to it together, never has that song felt more wonderfully true. We are young. We are free. And we're alright.

I even got some swing-dancing in. Remember that track 'Why Don't You' by Gramophonedzie that I linked to a few weeks ago, which fuses an old swing-dance sample with modern dance music? Well, they played it and we swing-danced to it. In a regular nightclub. Successfully. Words cannot convey the awesomness of how that felt.

Quite the varied mixture of songs, too. You'd go from something like 'Riverside' (another track that'll no doubt be extremely nostalgic in the future) to a Cheryl Cole song, to an occasional treat from the 80s (Prince's 'Kiss') or 90s '(Livin Joy's 'Dreamer'). But at 3am the place closed and we headed home, to which I've only just got back from. What an evening though, one of those I can look back on in years to come and be reminded of those youthful days. Ok, so in ten years time I may still be clubbing. But it'll be to whatever's big in the charts in 2020, and I'll have to listen to a load of crap from then and hope they'll play an old classic from the 2010 days.

Wait. It's Saturday morning. When do I need to wake up for City Lit again?

Oh.

In two hours.

I'm back in a lull.

I've only realised it after the fact, but wow, late January to about the middle of February really was something. Things gained momentum through January, then peaked for a few weeks and since then, especially since March started, they've gradually slowed down again. I'm actually getting nostalgic for events from a few weeks ago, which is silly.

On one hand, I want Easter to come with its longer nights, warmer weather and a well-deserved break from college work. On the other hand I have no idea what to fill it with. I no longer have any idea when our BAC play will be performed, will we be rehearsing over Easter or not? Last year there was New York to keep me occupied, the year before, Masque of the Red Death. This year looks like it's going to be a rather quiet Easter in comparison.

I still have no idea what direction my life is going to go in after June. And that scares me slightly. Yeah it's only March but I really don't want to end the year miserable and longing for the 'good old days'. I think for now, I just have to concentrate on the present and enjoy the evenings I have as they happen. Still not enjoying City Lit that much now but I'm going to try to more, only a few more weeks until the break.

Today I woke up, looked at the time, and freaked out for a few seconds as I thought it was Saturday and I'd overslept. Luckily not, and actually the next two days look to be the busiest in some time. A friend's birthday party tonight, and tomorrow will involve City Lit, followed by rushing down to Wimbledon for some afternoon swing-dancing, and then back up to London Bridge for a play. Hopefully this is the start of things getting busier again!

March 9th, 2020

Exhausting but enjoyable day on set today. There's a scene where I'm chased by a Dalek and have to jump in the TARDIS just before it fires. It had to be filmed several times from several different angles, due to that thing where you can switch angles while watching by pressing the red button on your TV. I rarely bother in all honesty, all the young folks seem to be doing it but I just watch the standard version, like the old days.

I've been thinking a lot about those old days recently. All day yesterday as I paid for things, I tried to remember what they used to cost just ten years ago, back in 2010. I mean, my Oyster+ travelcard costs me £10 and your average pint is about £6.50 - a decade ago, you could just about get a day's travel and a couple of pints for under a tenner, and it felt like a lot. When my passport ran out last year, I paid almost £200 for a new one - in 2009 it cost me £72 and I thought it was far too much even then.

You know Lizzie Manning, who plays my companion? She was born in 1998, and she's 21 years old. I remember before she was born. She has an annoying habit of making a 31 year old like me feel absolutely ancient - I mentioned to her between takes at how excited I was when the show came back in 2005, and she laughed and said "I wouldn't remember, I was only six years old then". She was SIX in 2005!! And it took me back to when I was her age, doing the same to people in their thirties. I finally know how it feels.

Even though I'm a successful actor now and on BBC One every Saturday night, I get so nostalgic for those carefree days of 2010. At the time I felt completely swamped with work, but it was a breeze compared to now. I could stay up longer. Parties were happening weekly, daily sometimes. I had much less wrinkles and looked much more attractive, I just stupidly didn't realise it at the time. Ha, I used to be really into that 'Glee' show. I wonder what happened to the original cast? Even they'd be pushing 30 now. Wouldn't be surprised if they reformed in a couple of years, recently we've had everyone from Steps to Daphne & Celeste having another shot at things.

Now THAT was when music was good. I turned on MTV4 the other day and had no idea what the hell was going on. Some songs are literally just weird noises for two minutes. Then you've got acts like 'Furby' and 'Tama Gotchi' with the whole big 90s revival thing, sounding exactly like 2 Unlimited, Ace of Base and the like did in their heyday, just not as good. In the pub last night, I spotted some teenagers wearing bright colours, Oasis style haircuts (remember them?) and backwards baseball caps, and it freaked me out. How is all this popular again? We'll probably have a noughties revival in a few years, that'll be even weirder.

I'd love my 21 year old self to see this. If I really was a timelord, not just acting one, I'd go back exactly ten years ago to his LiveJournal and post this there. Sadly despite my fevered wishes, we've not been able to transport more than a couple of atoms back and forth through time. All progress is good progress though. Had better hop on Crossrail to the studio now - we're filming a skit for Sport Relief today where me and Lizzie take part in a three-legged race between past surviving Doctors and companions. Quite unfair on poor Tom Baker, who's 86 now yet still taking part with 72 year old Elizabeth Sladen, but may the best man - well, doctor - win. We've got a better chance than the Daleks, anyway...

What do I enjoy more - City Lit or BAC? It's an answer that's completely swapped around in the last month or so. Back in February, progress on our BAC play had really slowed and we were wondering if we were ever going to get it finished. Meanwhile City Lit was trundling on very enjoyably, especially our Musical Theatre performance.

A month on, the BAC play has really kicked off and we've finally got all the scenes on their feet. We've started rehearsing more often and even the little extra meetups have resumed - Friday was a wonderful evening seeing the spoken word play 'Return' there, and a classic YPT drinking session followed just like old times. Today, on a very sunny but quite cold day, we rehearsed some more and then had tea afterwards. Rather than last month when I'd leave rehearsals worried that we were stuck in a rut, now I'm enjoying every day again and can't wait to rehearse there again, which happily will be tomorrow.

But in contrast, I'm not enjoying City Lit at all right now. No particular reason, I just find the spark's gone out a bit of the Access course. I've not enjoyed myself there for a few weeks now, and even when we go out drinking afterwards I much prefer to go home instead and have some extra time before sleep. Truth be told, although our City Lit play looks amazing, I'm much more focused on the BAC one right now.

Nothing majorly exciting in March so far, but it's only the first week. Started a hell of a lot better than last March did!

I've done it. I've booked the ticket for the V Festival on the 22nd August. Just before 9am I was refreshing Ticketmaster every few seconds, and the moment they went on sale I snapped up a ticket. The £78.50 sounded like a lot on its own, but adding all the service and postage charges up, it's come to an account-wiping £91.40 just for the day ticket.

Still, the acts are looking great, and travel worries have also been sorted out - every year they add extra trains back to London, right up to 1:30am so even if I walked back I'd still be able to catch the entire festival and still have a huge amount of time to get back. Bit silly really that I actually thought the last train back would be straight after the festival...good old National Express.

And looks like I did it just in time, as less than two hours later it sold out! http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/music/816127-v-festival-2010-tickets-sold-out Tickets are already selling on eBay for hundreds of pounds more. With a lineup that includes Faithless, The Prodigy and La Roux, I'm not surprised and while it's a lot of dosh, so much worth it.

So August now has yet another thing planned in what's going to be a crazy month, and now a very very long wait until V time. Today it is wonderful and sunny. Hopefully it bodes well for five months time!