Not Biroman. The other one

Today I suffered from Tubunculosis.

There was allot of lounging and wearing of sweat-pants. But no going to work in torrential rains.

I did manage to finalise a few LOVESONG issues in order. Cutting off payments, stopping the website. All in a days work really. I even managed to get in a Futurama movie too.

I was quite sick today. Maybe more down than sick, but that didn't help. I managed to work out I had lost a little over half of what I had spent on LOVESONG. Which in the end was completely worth it in the "I've achieved a dream" dept.

I also bought pretty railway postage stamps.

Fruit of the Moment: Clean Sheets

Inspired me to take an acting course

The final two shows of LOVESONG began with a blind panic.

Email.
Everyone.
I know.

Once the initial panic wore off I managed to drive my sister and Manal into the city to help me spruik the show on the streets of Newtown with the remaining fliers.

Having fought the good fight there, I could live the rest of my day at peace knowing I gave it a shot.

Leila and Glen were waiting for me at the gates of the PACT theatre when I walked down from Kings street. Seeing them there helping me in this way, giving up their entire weekend to work for me and the success of the production made overwhelmed me.

They did all the work. They got the sets ready and the front of house spotless. I managed to make my last minute adjustments to the lighting and make my director's notes with the cast and the crew. Its strange how quickly an hour goes.

Before I knew it, 17 more happy patrons came in through the door. This was the performance to take my happy snaps. Glen had brought his it-cost-more-than-my-life-insurance-payout camera, so I proceeded to loudly click away during the first performance of the day.

Then dismissing the cast and crew for dinner break, I happily stayed behind chatting with Louis followed later by the cast who had returned from stir crazy.

Our last show was for lack of a better term, perfect. Especially Pete's "i'm very angry" scene. The cast were on fire, the audience ballooned to 38 and so many awesome people turned up.

There was Tim and Grant, who were my original cast and screw when putting on backyard plays for our parents.

There was Greg and Pam who traveled down from the Blue Mountains!

There was Mr Wednesday! Who, turned up with a female friend of his sending myself in a flurry of discussion and ponderings with my super spies (a.k.a Louise, Leila and Pam). 

Louise pointed out he couldn't bring a guy if he was interested. And Pam wisely added that their body language painted friendship. Lyn suggested we put the public liability to use and have an unfortunate "farming incident".

After the show, Bump out lasted for all of two seconds before the waiting game began. We had all cleared out by 8pm and said our final goodbyes by 8:30 when a seemingly irrelevant breakdown in communication turned my night into a very long stretch indeed.

Seems Gen had not remembered offering her table to use as a prop. For some reason or another this ended up with me getting home at 1am instead of the projected 11pm.

In anycase, I'd like to thank all the amazing people who made my dream a reality over the past couple of days, weeks or months.

Mum and Dad for their support and understanding and belief in me.
Louis for his Stage Managerial Awesomeness.
Chris Fung for manning the Auditions.
Maureen for her support and paper.
Leon for making the music real and being one of the Queensland boys.
Lyn and Ron for being truly amazing and passionate people.
Louise and Brendan for being there when I needed them.
Gen for listening and opinionating and clarifying and directing.
Leila for driving the motorcycle in the rain.

And most of all Glen, whom I really couldn't have done any of this without and he knows it.

Next.

Fruit of the Moment: Pam's Famous Monte Carlos

Tool box under the passenger seat

This morning began in beautiful rainy uptown Double Bay. Genevieve had left her keys to the castle in my care so Glen and I wouldn't have to drive back to Sydney in the morning.

We both get to PACT before anyone else. And it was the calm before the storm.

What followed was a whirlwind of people arriving. From actors to tech crew, I was moving from person to person, trying to keep tab on everything and every one.

Lyn and Ron arrived with coffee in tow.

Gen and Tomas arrived after a three hour drive down from Dungog, smiles in tow.

Leila arrived with a with her cow in tow.

Louis arrived with his pretty, pretty iPad in tow.

Leon arrived with his guitar and tweed jacket in tow.

And after a quick phone call to the PACT venue's Technical Supervisor who was 30 minutes late, he too arrived.

It was the mother of days involving both stress and business and I managed to stay relatively calm all day thanks to my entourage of amazing supporters.

As is the case with most bump-ins, the schedule was more of a guide than a stone tablet. Our 1pm tech rehearsal turned into a 3pm tech rehearsal. Our 4pm dress rehearsal was pushed forward to 5pm. Everything was shaved finer than finely shaved Parmesan.

Our actors were ready, Mum and Dad had arrived with the canteen and along with Leila had taken charge of the entrance. Lyn and Ron switched over to pre set lights and I held my breath to witness 32 audience members flood through the doors.

Keep in mind that in order to break even, we needed to sell 80 tickets to all three performances. My worries had been realized and were soon to be consoled with a slice of pecan pie from the Newtown bakery after the show.

The audience, although low were just what LOVESONG was missing. It meant the world to me that there were people seeing the sweat and tears come to fruition. 

It was a long day, and an artistic triumph. There are now two to go.

Fruit of the Moment: Deep Fried Mistake

I'm in class... I'll call you in 2 hours

Friday, a blur of work and pretending to do so while worrying about LOVESONG and its execution. Making production schedules, phoning contacts, making sure actors were okay, liaisoning  with my co-director's boyfriend was all part of the whirlwind that had me all in a bother.

I left work bung on 4:10pm. 5 minutes early. Expediently getting myself to the nearest Commonweath Bank to withdraw my ticket sales float and buy some much needed tim tams from Woolies for the crew to enjoy over the weekend.

Glen and Leila were half way to loading their car with thousands of set and prop pieces when I trampled up the driveway ready to play the world most amazing game of set Tetris.

AND I won the internets. I got all four projectors and a lounge AND all the props in my 'tiny' car. GO BAYBALOO GO! After depositing all the items at the PACT theatre, Glen and I headed back to Gen's house in Double Bay and got some much needed rest.

Fruit of the Moment: Wrong Turn Garlic Bread

No, thats crushed meringue [ZOMG♥]

The countdown to LOVESONG has clocked over and started to sound alarms at a faster pace than ever before!

Having taken Wednesday "off" of LOVESONG duties, I was once again in full swing today printing canteen price-lists and everything from front of house displays to name tags. Good thing I don't have enough time to bake muffins, otherwise I'd never get any sleep this weekend from all the additional baking I'd be doing for cast and crew.

Today at work was the Cancer Council's BIGGEST morning tea where Australian Idol media darling Rickie Lee hosted a raffle and sausage sizzle in the name of the annual fundraiser. I even won a fabulous orange handbag in the staff raffle! GAZAL raised over $5200 at the event. Go team us!

The prizes kept on coming when Phil the coffee man gave me a free coffee at the event after having been one of three customers who braved the rain to grab their coffee when he made his morning call. The only thing better than a long black is a free long black. Then, to put the cherry on the top, he starts spruiking LOVESONG to all his customers. Hes coming to the show too!

Still having no word from Apple about my broken computer I was told I could "possibly" expect a phone call this evening. Fat chance. Not with the iPad coming out tomorrow. Stupid magic paper.

So I was stuck at work until 8pm typing, emailing, organising, digitally preparing for the performance. I even managed to print a few production shots, which look fabulous. (No bias, of course having taken them myself)

Genevieve had left the keys to the PACT theatre at [secret location] for me to collect. Trouble is, [secret location] was harder to locate than my next clue on the Amazing Race. A few failed phone calls to Genevieve and Tomas later, (who were on their way to DUNGOG) I managed to locate the [secret location] despite having to illegally park in a handicap zone for 10 minutes in the crowded one way streets of [secret location].

Tuneil had been a lifesaver and spent the night searching Lindcraft for Chinese noodle boxes. I had to pick them up along with a few items from Mums [i.e. cordless telephone etc...] when I arrived back in Campbelltown at around 9:30pm. I think I deserved a cookie for my strain. Maybe it was a little indulgent of me.


I am addicted to Coles Sticky Date Cookies. They are deliciously gooey and caramely and awesome. OH! Idea! Sticky Date Cookie cheesecake base!? All my dreams could come true at once! Or cookies crushed up in the cheesecake mixture. Look out, there may be cheesecake about.

I managed to pack for the weekend when finally getting home at like midnight, and boy were there allot of things to fit in my car. I'm concerned now that the lounge won't fit. Gosh, I hope so.

Stay Tuned Kids!

Fruit of the Moment: Hidden Pastry Containers

Woohoo thats my cup!

As fast paced and full on as yesterday was, today was comparatively in slow motion. Spontaneous bursts of time at work were spent creating lists and emails to people involved in LOVESONG, hopefully tying up lose ends.

As Sydney was subjected to flash floods, so too were my cravings for baked goods storming towards the nearest bakery. Having discovered that Coles is now the supermarket that opens longer hours, I went on spending splurge buying cookies for everyone at work. It was totally worth it.

I managed to keep up the baking efforts with a $1 bag of bananas from Franklins. A ginormous Banana Bread Slab is now cooling in the kitchen, a massive chunk taken out for dinner.

When my new Futurama Movie finishes, I suppose I shall hit the sack, pretending not to be worried about LOVESONG not making money, or continuing flash floods ruining the performances.

Fruit of the Moment: Spelt and Honey

It's THE facebook. I KNOW!

The only benefit from designing thousands of care labels over the space of a month is that now, when I am asked to redesign an entire range for one brand, I can knock it out in one day with intelligent layout. And I don't mean the kind of intelligence that gets you into Harvard. Rather the type that provides maximum design awesomeness with minimum hassle in code alterations.

And if that doesn't make sense to you, its because you haven't lived and breathed DO NOT DRY CLEAN for 36 days of your life.

This evening was the final rehearsal for LOVESONG. We had every man and his dog out to watch the show. Our long list of attendees were as follows:

Genevieve (the other director)
Peter (plays Bean)
Hanni (plays Molly)
Courtney (plays Joan)
Andrew (plays Harry)
Glen (the set designer / plays the waiter)
Louis (the stage manager)
Lyn (the lighting guru)
Ron (the sound guru)
Leon (the live guitarist)
Justin (the posing critic in fabulously attractive attire)

So we had all these people and very little Tim Tams to go round. Thankfully the cast had stepped up since last week. Still, the lines are not there yet. There's variation and deviation from the beautifully written script (which is, not ideal I know). But their characters are spot on. The relationships are cemented, their energy is present and the timing will come on Saturday along with the set they are yet to meet.

Gen, the other director asked as we enjoyed our pre-rehearsal Chinatown meal if I thought she was contributing as much as I had hoped. Truth is, originally I had expected allot more of her vocally. This was before the rehearsal process began. When we got into the thick of things, her pensive directing style ultimately became an advantage for unpacking or discussing scenes, issues, character, staging and actors.

So in a complicated answer to her question, even though she will not be present at any of the performances as she is attending the Dungog Film Festival to represent the film ROSY MAX we had made previously together conveniently screening the same weekend as LOVESONG... Yes she had. And given I can not make Dungog, I feel its fair she can't make LOVESONG, even though we both pine for the other.

I shared a cab ride back to Erskinville with Miss Direction himself: Glen Jackson. During the ride, he shared his take on the performance as it stands.* I find Glen amazingly helpful. Its most likely due to our natural rapport. His two cents are always welcome in my book.

Fruit of the Moment: Rock Hard Ginger biscuits
* it was very positive btw.

...and this is Helvetica Neue

An ordinary day with an extraordinary addition: coffee :)

Last weekend, a friend of mine suggested I was addicted to that liquid black gold. So to prove them wrong, I spent a week without my precious.

This morning, and several times after I welcomed back the sweet sweet bitter nectar back into my belly. And boy was I in a good freakin' mood. Phil the Coffee Man was pleased to welcome my coinage back to the fold and I was likewise overly happy to freely provide it.

Work was fast paced and productive. And filled with delicious dried mixed fruit.

Post work, I went back to Newtown to replenish the stocks of LOVESONG fliers around local watering holes. I also managed to spend a Motzah on stationary and bought me the most delicious bread and butter pudding slice in the whole wide world. It made me want to be a pastry chef.

This evening, while Louise made me some mashed potato, she had this amazing idea that we should write a novel together. My first suggestion? I managed to retell around 70% of the TWILIGHT plot before she had cottoned onto what I was doing. I then kept doing it until It upset her. I'm a bad brother. Soon, I'll come up with something fabulous to write together. Still, it just goes to show how generic the TWILIGHT plot can sound.

Fruit of the Moment: Syrup Design

Hey, aren't you that guy from Spelling Bee?

When jam packed events contain as little jam as today did, you might begin to wonder (like I did), why busy days are often mistaken for full jars of stewed blueberries doused in confectioner's sugar.

I joined Matt and Kel for a 18km run down in Wollongong, and believe on the way got caught by a Mr police man speeding in an 80km zone. No excuse, just a general laziness to check my speed. Its hard to tell, because he lowered the radar thingy when the 3 cars I was also with passed him by. So, time will tell if I owe my $200 to the NSW police force. Point is, I was meeting Matt and Kel and meeting their adorable little baby boy. Gorgeous!

During the marathon runathon, I had me a bladder emergency. Deciding to ignore the need at around the 10km mark, I was regretting the choice not to stop somewhere by the time I reached the finish line in pure agony. I also had the world's biggest headache. Then again, I hadn't had any food or water yet.

Good News? The Lounge chair for LOVESONG fits in my car, which means we wont need to use any utes or trailers in the bumping in and out process!

Bad News? My Mac is still brokens.

I managed to meet up with my leading actor Pete today to run over a few monologues of his. Hes so uptight about every detail, I'm trying to get him just to relax and let the lines deliver themselves. He's seriously good. You'll enjoy the play. WHEN YOU COME TO SEE IT. WHICH YOU WILL.

Last night I had a nightmare realisation that I could lose money on the production. This was a reality from the start. Time will tell here too. Irony dictates that my yet to be confirmed profit will only be enough to cover my yet to be confirmed speeding fine.

I traversed to the George Street Apple Store in order to submit by laptop for it's doctor's appointment. Took a bit of persuasion on my end to get them to accept it into their repair department. Goof thing too. I had traveled a very long way to get there and had zero waiting around time.

Post my Mac Book Pro drop off, I had a sound and lighting meeting with the technical supervisor of the theatre venue and my head lighting/sound guru Ron. All was sweet and no problemos. Huzah.

And being the good son I am, I managed a meal with the parentals this evening. Mum had bought pumpkin soup, and had gone to the trouble of finding a variety made without Chicken Stock. Much love.

We went through many upcoming event details and such. She has bought enough chocolate to feed Asia for a week. LOVESONG patrons be warned :)

Sounds like a lot right? Oh, and I got me a sweet ass Upgrade and refund for my Disneyworld vacation. BooYEAH.

Fruit of the Moment: Forgotten Milk

Chinese on Tuesday

Today was my chance to get all sorts of loose LOVESONG ties joined and double checked. No surprise that I preferred to spend the day on the phone with Apple support, only to be told that my laptop is officially broken and in need of repair. Guess who gets to visit the Apple store tomorrow?

Meanwhile, as a reference to a previous blogg post and sms conversation the awesome Sean made me THIS!?!? It totally made my week. Talented little smart ass.

I mean what sort of person goes to the trouble of making a totally kick ass animation without want of some kind of money compensation or gifting? Oh wait, maybe I had inadvertently commissioned the work while in my constant state of sleepiness this week. Dagnamit! Now I owe people money. Thats shit. Maybe I can sell my broken computer on ebay to pay for the awesome animation. 

Curse Kevin Spacey and his infernal paying it forwardness!

Fruit of the Moment: Interrupted Pancakes

dimentions are upright 90cm wide 110 high 80cm deep

Another day, another muffin.

It seems my friends that I have a coffee addiction. And that in denying myself that delicious black gold, I am inadvertently replacing that need with sugar and baked goods such as petrol station blueberry muffins.

My Computer remains unfixed. Although, I have reformatted the hard drive losing all of my data in the process in attempt to fix the problem. Nothing is ever easy when it comes to computers.

My safe little boat was rocked today in a stormy ocean of cleaning, filing and moving offices. The big boss, coming back to find the office in shambles after her 3 week absence went on a war path of reorganisation. Around 6 people changed their office or desk location in preparation for two new arrivals on Monday and I was one of them.

I have of course been relocated to what I affectionately call the isolation office. No human contact is possible with the new position I'm in. So to emphasize this, I boarded up the glass wall with black foam board... No one seemed to notice my point.

Leaving work at around 8pm, I journeyed up to Glenhaven for Max's birthday. It's always a pleasure to drive several hours past Sydney to catch up with Max. I figure, he did it every day in rehearsals for wedding singer so whats the problem?

In anycase, it was great. I only wish there were more time to chill-axe up there. My son Barnaby came along too. He had fun with all the new friends he made.

Understandably, I fell asleep several times driving home at 2am on the M7. Lucky its so straight.

Fruit of the Moment: microwave burritos

This means I'll have to kick a cute puppy in the face. Totally your fault.

While the sweat on my brow becomes viable due to the impending production of LOVESONG, is comforting to know that people like insurance agents will continue to squeeze you for every dollar you have.

The original mob I had a quote with in February turned round and said they were to tripling their price. I was a little taken back, essentially because the production was not possible with such expensive public liability and mostly because it was triple and I had no other option. Or so I thought. The lovely Angie over at GNG was wonderfully calming to talk to, and unlike the we-charge-triple-original quote mob, she returned her original price within the hour.

I wasn't surprised to receive a phone call from rip-off-insurance inc. after informing them I was no longer interested in their business. Low and behold? Magically their original quote was suddenly applicable. Er, no thanks. You had your shot. I'll go with my friend Angie.

We also had the first LOVESONG run through. I suffered through a few brain aneurysms when some of the cast hadn't leaned their lines. Not that this wasn't expected. Actually, my young'ens had learned their lines like the excited puppies they are. Bless their cotton socks. It makes such a difference when you have production people like sound and lighting seeing the material for the first time, judging you with their judgmental eyes.

It was buisness as usual for the amateur theatre mob, when everyone kept stop starting with giggling and apologies for not knowing lines etc. It was basically why I had scheduled a second run through rehearsal anyway. The point is without coffee this week, I have been replacing my craving subconsciously with the need for muffins. I had a muffin. And later, an apple pie. This is getting out of hand and the muffins are forming a top.

Fruit of the Moment: Page 2, bottom corner.

And actually, I dated one towards the end but he thought I was Jewish because of my last name

It has been far too many days of indulgences as of late. And I really can't help it. Dieting doesn't work because if you abstain from something for too long, you're bound to go ku-koo-banana-crazy when the whole things over. Today was another such day. Just with the packet of biscuits I snuck in. And 2 slices of apple pie. If it were not for Tuneil taking the pie home, there would currently be more slices to be shoveled in.

Today was however an interesting social day at work. A guy from accounting, came up and asked me out to lunch. Got to love forwardness. He even had a rainbow on his dashboard as we drove down to the shore to visit a seafood restaurant. I had lettuce with avocado. Pretty woeful lunch if you ask me. Lucky I had some soups as a back up in my work cabinet.

Sadly, the lunch aside from the food was a bit of a fizzer. Turns out Accounts Man has no personality, or if he does its kept hidden behind a cunning beige exterior.

Also being Wednesday, I got to visit Mr Wednesday a few more times. And to continue this over-used plot line, I managed to secure his last name and the know-how to stalk on facebook after he found the event for LOVESONG and clicked 'attend'. Of course, Louise and Tuneil found this way more exciting than I did this evening and they ended up clicking on 'add friend' when we all had located him from the comfort of Louise's dining room. Shame. this may creep him out a bit.

At the moment, my Macbook Pro is reformatting and taking it's sweet ass time about it too. Louise, Dianna and Tuneil played a game of Catan post a eggplant and burnt roasted pumpkin risotto dinner. Louise of course, won. Why do I keep playing? Because its awesome. Thats why.

I am dreading having to go back on the diet because of the extra pudding slowly forming due to my recent adventures in sweets and cheeses. Tonight was a slice of apple cherry pie with sweet mascarpone cream

Fruit of the Moment: Ringbound

Seeking more male ensemble

Having 4 hours sleep, and still managing to plow through my morning run resulted in a sleepy driver on his way to work. Traffic was particularly stand-stillish too. I am currently praising my breaks for their excellent job of preventing a few near misses thanks to the always pesky micro-sleep.

Anyway, I had a sudden urge for vanilla malt milk. Not feeling I had to answer to anyone, I found a BP that sold not only delicious delicious Oak brand Vanilla Malt milk, but also super moist Apple crumble Muffins. The two "breakfast" items were overly welcomed by myself and had me craving more of the muffin family.

I slipped up at work with food again. 3PM came and my snack went from one muesli bar to two. Plus 2 cups of soup and almonds. I must find some sort of food that can be described as "satisfying afternoon snack" or be doomed to eat pointless whatevers. Stupid whatevers.

Louise, being home for the first time in 6 months for dinner decided to get back into the swing of domestics. Making pasta, she took on cooking the vegetarian & meat sauces separately. I'm afraid I may have not have been as supportive as I could have when things didn't go smoothly over the stove as she had planned. What matters however is that it tasted great. And Brendan washed up. And I made blueberry muffins. With buttermilk. And they were amazing. And I had four of them. But they were tiny. So it was like having one big muffin.

Bring on the Sleep!

Fruit of the Moment: Caramel Pie Filling

Into the Branch

Into the woods, Its time and so I must begin the journey.

Sydney's cast of Wicked achieved an amazing feat of musical theatre last night. In the true spirit of community theatre, The cast, crew, venue, musicians, technicians (well pretty much everyone) all donated months of their free time in order to perform Sondheim's classic tale of wishing gone wrong.

The understudies for the WICKED cast got their chance to shine onstage in their full glory. And for the most part, the WICKED set gelled beautifully with INTO the WOODS. Weird right? I noticed Cinderella's step mother using an Ozian brand umbrella, but for the most part we got some decent costumeage.

Putting Vanessa Williams to shame, the outstanding performance award go to Zoe Gertz (understudy for Elphaba), as the WITCH. Of course Australian Media darling Lucy Durack was beautifully (and intelligently) placed as ACT 2's Cinderella. And as always the always understated Baker's wife played by Johanna Allen (understudy for Madam Morrible). The eye candy gold star was awarded to Ryan Sheppard as the Narrator, who would have ordinarily never been cast so young.

Milsey did his masculinity proud, poncing around the stage as Cinderella's Prince. And I had to contain my delight when Gertz got to throw away all her beans before her big finish and have Durack scrambling at her feet in attempt to pick them up. Its not often a principal cast member grovels at their understudy. Not in a malicious way of course, just in an appeals-to-my-warped-sense-of-irony way.

The Music was crystal clear. The cast were understandably 95% of the way there with the dreaded Sondheim Syncopation, and their were some very VERY minor slip ups with lines. I recall the 2 "best" examples were when the Baker interrupted his wife early when they first meet in the woods, and the witch stumbling on a lyric in the Last Midnight. Totally minor.

Udderly Fabulous Performance of an utterly fabulous and thrillafying show. The lined up chairs at the beginning were a touch wanky, but i'll pay it.

Sucks to be you if you missed it.

Fruit of the Moment: $4,750 Poster Print

Tap Dancing Polar Bears Are a Yes.

Getting back into the morning run routine felt good after a whole weekend of gluttony. It may be my imagination, but I reckon I've definitely gained a little around my middle. Which is, you know not ideal but also not the end of the world.

What has bummed me out more so than a teeny tiny expanding waist was the death of my Mac. Well, rather the crash of the Tiger. My operating system finally gave in to the strain of the copious amounts of data I utilize, causing the operating system to freeze, restart, not load, freeze and then restart in an infinite loop. I plan to reboot the bugger tomorrow evening. When I have more time up my sleeve.

Tonight, Leila met me in the city for our exciting weekday evening out. Featuring seedy, cheap Asian food courts, a chat with Genevieve and the Wicked cast performing a one night only performance of Into the Woods.

And did I get a shock to find the who's who of amateur musical theatre packing out the Capital. Seriously, everywhere I turned there were people I knew, people trying to avoid me and people I was trying to avoid. Ah. such is the dramatic soap opera that is musical theatre. I should have thought to expect them all. But with a lack of facebook, I have been rather disconnected over the past few days.

The Performance went on forever. Not that it wasn't fabulous. There was an auction at half time and it seriously took 30 minutes to sell 3 items. They raised about 10k so, I guess it was worth the lack of sleep I suffered for [insert charity here].

Post performance in running for my near midnight train, I descovered that the M5 had closed down this week for tunnel construction which added an extra 30 minutes or so needless driving around greater Sydney. Not happy Jan.

My bed just wanted me to collapse. And so I did, with minimal crashing into walls and obscure objects left on the floor in the hallway.

Fruit of the Moment: china town cream in a cup

You had made out with this guy in Engalnd and It somehow pissed me off. The POINT is;

As cold as yesterday's morning frost was, today drove home the gold medal in making it extra welcoming for those of us who like our eyelids frozen shut.

Louise actually picked up a ball of frost to form a snowball. It hit Noah. There was much excitement.

So as I was settled and ready for a good 20 minutes of sleeping in my toasty warm double sleeping bag, Louise and Brendan started to poke around the fireplace in the sub zero temperatures prompting me to arise. Good thing I did too. First order of business was to say "Screw this for a joke, I'm headed to the communal kitchen".

Never having inspected the building down the road, I was beside myself with joy, then exasperation when I discovered it provided free access to a clean microwave and instant hot water! INSTANT PEOPLE?! It cast a dark cloud on my efforts of 30 minute noodles the night previous. I gave a squeal and quickly awoke Tuneil and Justin, getting them to attend our Sunday Morning Breakfast Sans Frost along with additional Buttery goodness. The combination of the lack of frost indoors and the smell of butter slowly cooking our eggs, bacon, toast, tomatoes and such was a welcomed start to our Sunday.

It was so welcoming. As was the Sun which had by the end of breakfast (which included Louise's spectacular triumph over Noah's tantrum for his dinosaur cup/orange juice) arrived once again to thaw out the winter carpet. Ah, the circle of life.

We just sat there, slowly burning our skin and having no one or nothing to answer to besides the three empty packets of sultanas that had somehow formed next to me.

Eventually, Brendan and Louise had to depart for a funeral back home, leaving the rest of us to very slowly pack up the campsite. And we did so a a leisurely pace. Having won at that game, we moved onto the next game called Lunch.

I had barely stopped eating since breakfast. I just kept at the food. I found some kind of need to continue. Just call me mentally deranged. Post our no cutlery/plate luncheon, I taught Justin and Tuneil how to play CATAN. No prizes for knowing that Justin won. He's good at doing that. As he proved the night before.


We waved goodbye to Wombeyan as I used the jumper cables in my car to kick-start Tuneil's drained battery. And I made an hours pit stop in Bargo to pick up a massive 50 meter ream of paper off my Aunt for LOVESONG, and have a quick tour of the new renovations. I only wish I had more time to spend catching up.

The dryer has only JUST finished as I typed this, so I can finally head to bed after a night of continued food and gluttony. Seriously, my stomach protrudes for the first time in my life. It's freaking hilarious. I mean, i've got like this little pot thing going on in the center instead of a round all over thing (which is the sad norm for me). I shall need to address it this week however with a little stricter calorie control to make up for my indulgences over the weekend.

Fruit of the Moment: Raspberry Sugar

Champion

Waking up to the carpet of frost and hurriedly racing for the toilet block, I realized that I was not getting back to sleep easily.

I took a walk down to the camp office as it was time they had advertised "opening hours". However, I was upset to find they were quite closed, despite the 30 minutes that had passed since they were meant to be open. *sigh*

A motivating factor in staying awake was the unshaken pancake mixture. Finding a flat, concrete surface such as the septic tank entrance, I set up my little gas cooker and was on my way. 20 minutes later and the septic tank pancakes were cooking beautifully. And they were the most delicious golden pockets of awesomeness evah!

It was such a beautiful day, when the sun actually decided to come to the party, peeking out from behind the tree tops and defrosting our white carpet. I decided then to retry the office to pay my camping fees. This time, I took Noah for good luck.

Noah had other plans of hunting for man-eating-wombats. So carefully using my powers of negotiation, we maneuvered our way towards the office still in search of the fictitious wombats.

Thinking I had ages until my sister arrived, I set to work finishing the tent I had half constructed in the the dark last night. I was about to fill up the air mattress when they made their jolly way down the dusty road. Apparently, they had gotten up earlier than I had anticipated.

It was definitely a food day. As Tuneil passed around chocolate cake and banana cake, I found myself greedily eating 2 slices of the banana selection. My head started to pound like gangbusters. I assumed it was due to the massive amounts of sugar and butter I had consumed over the past 24 hours. That or my lack of coffee. Either way, it was a bad sign. Sleeping it off didn't help. but the Nurofen Plus and cup of instant coffee did the trick.

I had me an afternoon of sitting, and cooking toast and making wedding plans and buying Vegemite and chill-axing and hunting for firewood and bundling kindling... Getting colder much earlier than yesterday, we were forced to cease our laziness and start the fire.


Our efforts were not as rewarded as yesterday either. We managed a small bundle of glowing coals. Bust our lack of an axe or any decent sized firewood prevented us from achieving a shit load of warmth and flame.

Dinner was provided by Tuneil's Easy Mac Pack. The cheesy macaroni goodness was especially awesome, perhaps even matching the deliciousness of the Septic Tank pancakes.

The little flame we had died down early on in the darkness and so did our enthusiasm for staying up past 8pm. By 7, the air was so void of light and the stars were such beacons it felt like 2am.

I forgot how we manged to get there, but there was a stage where Tuneil, Louise and I were (for lack of a better adjective) Dry-Humpng Justin in our boredom. I think the excuse we used was "retrieving a stolen phone" In any case, a fun time was had by all. Especially Justin who won the rumble, Not that his bulging ego could use any more inflating, but their you are.

My thermal underwear were a welcome bed time comfort. Along with the double sleeping bag arrangement.

Fruit of the Moment: Camping Butter Toast

The Road to Wombeyan

During the past few days i have been super keen in writing the Haiku. Seriously, I don't know where this sudden inspiration has come from, but I get to torture you with my endless armature poetries:

I pass under trees.
Their shadows pierce the darkness;
Imprisoning me.

Thanks to my boss, I got to leave work at 2pm today. Just as well, s the light fade fast of an evening and I was the first to return to Wombeyan caves camping ground. Tuneil, Noah & Justin were hot on my heels, but they didnt arrive until around 8:30. And by this time I had built my own small society out of warm sleeping bags, pillos and various buttery flavoured digestive biscuits.

Without the firewood Justin was to bring, I believe I was going a little stir crazy. Not to mention cold. I set up a landing pad of tea candles for their arrival, locked myself in my car and considered changing my name.

With the Tuneil and Justin came banana chips and delicious salt and vinegar rice cakes. Being delirious and all, my attempts at setting up a fire needed to be rectified by sexy uncle Justin.

No! Don't go out there!
Is it not the right exit?
Actually, it is.

Fruit of the Moment: Paw Paw More More :)

Hi love.

This morning, the traffic on the M5 inspired me to write this:

Its really not fair.
I have to wait one more month,
To go back to camp.

And this chap decided to write in response:

Now now don't you weep,
Just be a little patient,
And then you can go!

Today, I blasted Erskineville and Newtown with a thousand paper fliers for LOVESONG. It seems to be taking up the majority of my time. Luckily I also had time to meet with Leon for a music update.

Today also was another over eating day. Its all just so futile.

And while checking out this website, I discovered I was not successful in my application to direct their March show. I'm not bitter about their choice, I am however a little disillusioned that I found out in this way.

Now to pack for camping.

Fruit of the Moment: Pecan Pie

the massive reach of the gloss

Back to the normal downer that is the working week. Even my midday coffee, perked with the warm glow of the cheerful sun couldn't raise the mood of an otherwise very dull lull in the week.

At least it was hump day.

This evening, was spent signing my mother up to iTunes. Her new iPhone prompted an application gift card for Mother's Day, so we spent the night wading through the many options that lay open before us. Most important of course was the Fart generator.

I am freezing. The snap has fastened its cold grip on the icicles and shaken the freezer into full air con. Brrrr.... Need more doona.

Fruit of the Moment: Doodle Jump

#25 SATÉ STIR FRI NOODLE

So when I woke up feeling like death, it seemed like I was in for a pretty rough ride.

Luckily, my friend the coffee bean and Phil the coffee man was there to make my day brighter, better and beanier.

I got through a ton of work today too. Armed with an unstoppable chipper mood, my work load just melted away before me as I zoomed through project after project. I even got some extra vitamin D in with Gab and Lidia as we strolled down to the french bread store to get ourselves some more coffee.

LOVESONG rehearsals went well, as well. We were even upgraded to the "Quasimodo" hall, which was big enough to house five large football fields. Lucky we had so many people.

Both Hanni and Peter stretched their acting skills and after some traditional communal Eggplant, we got on with our stuff. We even found time to take a few "artistic" promo shots.

Tomorrow, I will evaluate how profitable spending upwards of $800 on newspaper advertising actually will be.

Fruit of the Moment: "Chinese" Flavoured Mushrooms

Sorry for what seemed to be a misleading formatting issue with our email blast

This morning, an acidic substance was edging its way up my throat as I completed my 5mile run. I suspect it had something to do with all the rich foods I enjoyed yesterday... Or the Thai. The Thai food was pretty shit. Dam shame that.

At work, somehow I manged to find a photo of the Buck's Rock Glass Shop Mural and suffered from what only can be described as homesickness. It feels so long away.

Our last minute LOVESONG rehearsal made possible by a free space at Macquarie University went well. It was interesting to work without Genevieve. Flying solo in the directing spot wasn't as much fun, but definitely more draining.

Maybe it was because I spent the day on the email wearing my producer's cap, but right about now I am LOVESONGed out... I tried to get a hold of the local newspapers today without much success, but I was assured they were ringing back. I also managed to contact all my tech crew and touch base for production week. Now for another rehearsal tomorrow night :)

Fruit of the moment: Spoils of the Luncheon

Cool. You're on Noah Duty then?

How much can one man stuff into one jam packed Mother's Day?

Apart from the morning 8mile, and the scrubbing of the kitchen, and the disinfecting of the floors, and the preparation of the salads, my morning was pretty chill.

I did not however achieve my ultimate weekend goal of banana pancakes. Sad as that may sound, I had me a nice cup-o-muesli with puppy Link on the back veranda before my sister came home from her over night trip to the farm.

Today turned out to be another food filled day. Cheeses and Crackers and Yogurts and Fruits and Salads and Nuts and Cheeses and other assorted awesomeness.

Mum eventually turned up for a luncheon in her honor. Dad, Bridgette and Brendan formed party A in the living room, while Mum and I formed party B in the dining room. Teas and Coffee were flowing, and nuts were freely consumed. I got to work on the domestics of cleaning and cooking, leaving the chill out for the family to suffer with.

And the day pretty much progressed from there.

No surprise that Puppy Link got all the attention out of our visitors. Especially when Leila and Glen stopped by after a motor cycle joy ride for a knitting lesson and a spot of work on the set list for LOVESONG.

It was also good to fit in a phone call to Nanna Tess, who had spent Mother's Day with my Aunt's family.

The Crazies and Beautiful Kate were tonight's double feature, science fiction. The Crazies was shit, Beautiful Kate was intriguing...

Fruit of the Moment: Final Wrong Thai

Would you like your free Chocolates with purchase, sir?

Well, I woke up this morning. And Brendan commented on how tired I looked. And when a 20 year old says that to a 26 year old, you start to feel old. Especially when the previous night you clocked up 10 hours sleep, sensibly choosing your bed on a Friday evening after a long working week.

I'm not saying I'm old. I'm just starting to feel tired. Its unavoidable I suppose.

You'll be all glad to note that my continuing journey into the realms of over eating have blossomed into what is sure to become a cheap slap in the face for all the past 12 week's work. Soon enough, I predict to recover what I had lost because I can't seem to stop eating at night. Even when feeling completely full. Now that the diet is lifted so are all realms of sanity and tubs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese are no longer safe in my fridge.

Today, a lead actress of LOVESONG calls me, saying she cant make a rehearsal. With two days notice. Its just one of those shitty situations. I guess I could tell you she's being a difficult actress, but in reality, shes just balancing her day job with her passion. We all do it. The pull between what pays for bread and what keeps us eating it.

In the end, this miraculously works in my favor as it allows us to clock in an extra rehearsal, which we needed. And before the pitchforks of injustice come screaming down the driveway, she has organized a free space to rehearse for this extra day. So there is love in the LOVESONG. Come see it.

Puppy Link was surprisingly tolerable today. Mostly because he slept for most of it. Really. Incredible stuff. Just one tuckered out puppy I suppose. Same with me. I need to get to bed soon, being old and all.

Fruit of the Moment: Gallbladder sludge

Can you close the doors from the outside?

Friday, I got Monday on my mind.

This evening I caught up with the rest of the world and watched HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON in "eye popping" 3D.

Once again, I will state that 3D is not needed. Its currently a pointless aesthetic that everyone's grabbing at. That said, the 3D in DRAGON was quite decent.

I think what really had me here, the selling point if you will was the Chris Sanders. The Chris Sanders brought this beautiful retelling of the ugly duckling into a breathing reality. True, the main character of Toothless resembles his previous box office winner Stitch, but so do all his characters.

This movie hit all the right chords for me. With two outcasts coming together and forming a co-dependency that strengthens them and the world around them, the tears were in no short supply. The beautiful themes of companionship, love and being true to one's self just ate away at my loneliness and left me with a yearning for a bond such as that of Hiccup's and Toothless.

Fruit of the Moment: New Mustard

What kind of f*@:ed up assary IS this?

Today was such a sleepy day.

I did get to work a hour early. And there was very little to do today, despite receiving a call at midday from Shanghai asking about my progress (very little). And out of the "very little" pile of itsy bitsy things to do, I managed to stay occupied for the whole day.

I'd say the highlight of the day was the Steve Martin Double feature: Father of the Bride Parts I and II. And a poorly written script it was. The whole thing is narrated. BOTH movies. Shameful writing. I remember watching these films when they first came out. I thought they were the bees knees. A nice slice of nostalgia.

The "maintenance" plan arrived in the email today. It had virtually no difference to the original diet. Screw that for a pair of sixpence. I rebelled with jam, avocado and sultanas (in separate meals of course). Now I feel very sick having all that sugar. Blame that mad cap diet I was on.

Fruit of the Moment: Visa Fail

Double Bay

Gotta love a Davenport pickmeup kinda day.

I am sorry to report that I not yet received my final spreadsheets of diet data. So the aforementioned graphs can not be created. However, soon they shall arrive in my inbox and all will be well.

Work was such a rewarding experience today with checks and yarn-dye stripes for the men's 2011 2 pack boxer-shorts. The Dav design assistant was an amazing help at every step of the way. It was such a perfect pantone pickathon that we even got a green boxer in! Green, I have been told is not a very commercial colour.

The LOVESONG fliers arrived in the mail today too. And not a moment later I was handing them out to the office staff left, right and center.

Those of you will be glad that Mr Wednesday was overly joyed to see a flier. And a little embarrassed to ask for my phone number, which he lost after I gave it to him 2 weeks ago on a post-it. Now, safely in his iPhone, we shall see if anything comes of it...

Now that my diet is over, I'm feeling insanely hungry at dinner time. Which had me reaching for seconds at cheap Asian Food World in Chinatown with Genevieve before heading off to rehearsals for LOVESONG.

The rehearsal went super smooth with Peter and Hanni, despite having to spend my last dollar on a public phone to call my mobile which was locked inside the old church we rehearse in as I foolishly locked myself out half way through the run.

The drive home was scary and sleepy.

Fruit of the Moment: Vegetarian Eggplant

There's gonna be much blogging. I'm jealous

Today was a day of rebirth, revisiting and repayments.

STEP ONE on our magical journey begins late last night, with an online booking for the happiest place (and second happiest place) on Earth. Yes that's right. I'm spending 14 glorious Orlando Days in both Disneyworld and Universal Studios!!

After much deliberation of three days, I bit the bullet and secured 11 nights inside the Disneyworld theme park, and four nights at Universal Studios. Giving me a total of 10 days in Disneyworld and 4 days in Harry Potter World!

STEP TWO along the war path was an office devoid of any upper management. We all came in and thought we should be wearing silly hats or something. After yesterday's turn of events, I definitely needed a perk-me-up.

Another designer sat down with me today and had a long chat about how to process yesterday's events. Having assessed the work I showed them from the "rejected pile" they became dumbfounded. They reassured me my work was beautiful. "Perfect" was also an adjective thrown in there for some. This, I assure you perked my spirits higher than any coffee van double strength long black without sugar could.

STEP THREE along the line was spreading the Star Wars joy! Currently, Brendan and I are "watching" Empire strikes back. As part of Gen Y, we are quite capable of multitasking online tasks in conjunction with film viewing. We have just passed the "I love you" / "I know" scene. So cool.

FINAL STOP aboard the Hogwarts Express was the CONCLUSION TO MY DIET! Tomorrow, I shall have some visual aids and report on my progress with perhaps a graph or two. Needless to say over the course of 12 weeks, I lost 14Kg!? Something 12 weeks ago I would have believed impossible. Glen informed me that I could be soon smelling my own feces through my rib cage.

I therefore celebrated with Thai. It was a shame that the home delivery service in Campbelltown finds it difficult to understand complicated requests such as "I'd like to order satay chicken" or instructions such as "I live at the following address". The soup was delicious. As was the large rice :)

Fruit of the Moment: Chewtoy

Its on the Saturday isn't it?

In summary: today taught me that I have no affinity with the BRAND X signature.

When two lines of Underwear are canceled because your design wasnt up to scratch, it makes you very upset. Indeed it made me quite emotional.

Today, a good 10 minutes were spent trying to compose myself in the privacy of the men's room. This was after being informed that all of my work for one particular brand had been abandoned. Quite a blow I'd say. And out of left field for me. I just didn't know how to process it except with hundreds of tears.

I've only broken down twice before at work. Once when I was a prac student and told in a basic condescending way that I was a terrible teacher, I would never amount to anything, and have no creative skill whatsoever. This information I held in until getting to the car and then let loose. I decided never to work at that school when I graduated. And never have.

Another time was when I was locked in a room with my 2 supervisors, being heavily criticised for my first attempt at writing reports. This resulted with a composed walk to the Korean Office and an emotional phone call to my parents. They ended up coming down to work. To add to matters, I had the previous night come out of the closet to my best mate, and was disturbed when I got a phone call from his parents the next day (10 minutes before my "meeting" with my supervisors) asking if I knew where he was. As I didn't know the post emotional sledgehammer twisted the scenario into some kind of soap opera where my mate couldn't handle being the best friend of a homosexual and took his own life. This of course would have never entered my head, had my supervisors a) kept their office door open and b) treated a first year teacher with the support he needed.

You will be glad to note that the Principal of the school was horrified at how the situation was handled and I received a new supervisor as of that day.

Today, I was only told that all the work I had slaved, and done overtime for, and re-worked, and re sized, and re-everything over the past 5 months had ALL been scrapped. ALL of it. I'm kinda impressed how little crying I did. My only call for help was to Genevieve who told me I should print off as many colour posters as I could and visit a few porn sites. I did neither.

I even managed to stay at work for a further 2 hours, as working tirelessly on the unused designs had put me behind with every other brand that needed me.

Tomorrow will be a new day and I will be having loads of coffee. And with a new mindset that everything I approach for Brand X will be with a new mindset.

Fruit of the Moment: Improvised Grilled Eggplant & Veggie Sausage Sandwich

Losing this year's winter crop; finding it is snowing...

This morning was my second 8mile. With a good nights rest and a sunny morning, 8am is not such a daunting time for the weekend.

It took me a while to establish a loop, and in practice it was a little hillier than expected. But I made it, and slightly improved on my time from last weekend.

Today was a great day to spend by myself, putting my room, clothes and things in order. Catching up on some creative projects and researching travel plans were all part of my Sunday Monologue.

Louis had asked me 2 weeks ago to design a logo for his new software design company. Called "Guardian Software Design", I initially thought of an 8-bit angel as their logo.

Here's my efforts in 8-bit design.


I also busied myself with planning my Disneyworld vacation with the online vacation planner. After a few hours, I came up with what I found to be the best deal I could find with the maximum amount of extras at minimal costing, totaling at $1,800.

Now, for 10 days living in the park with all meals, it doesn't sound too high. $180 a day is pretty good for entry, food and accommodation I'd think. This is of course with the BUDGET hotel room, with very little in the way of space. But who's staying in their $1000 a night room when you have DISNEYWORLD right outside? Right?

Adam, meanwhile had appreciated how much I had appreciated his Song Cycle LOST AND FOUND. Waiting in my inbox were a few demo recordings from the show. They continue to be fabulous. I'm totally excited about seeing his work realised. It's really amazing stuff. I kinda had it playing on loop all day.

Mum meanwhile has bought herself an iPhone. Shes real excited about it too. It seems I've created another mac minion for my elite armed forces.

Fruit of the Moment: 6 hour pasta

Okay, i'm gonna go cos i'm on the toilet

Today, there was no glorious sleeping in.

There was also pain and discomfort.

I had consumed a large portion of food after 10pm last night, and my stomach, all shriveled and small was rebelling against the strain. Particularly since I had about 400g of dried fruit.

It was nice however to arrange a little bit of order in my life before tralumphing down to Wollongong for the Contemporary Musical Theatre Workshop Performance. Things like washing, ironing, cleaning, etc can all pile up so easily when you don't spend any time at home.

Being responsible with food intake today, Glen called me up at around 20 minutes into my trip down the Gong and asked if I was able to do a Lorenzo's dinner tonight instead of last night. There was much celebration of mind and stomach.

It was arranged post Cabaret to meet at 8:30pm for delicious deliciousness. And it was. It may not have been low calorie, but it was amazing.

The Cabaret went splendidly. I was relieved that there were music stands set up for all the performers, and that safety net was a blessing to an unpolished performance. I managed to put a plug in for LOVESONG before singing Dont Let Me Go from the music Shrek. Everyone loved it. Of course, its such a cool song, its hard not to. Also, I was a little bit smiley after a few more assessments from the audience... :)

But the big surprise of the evening was Adam showcasing a composition of his from a musical he's writing LOST AND FOUND. It was a beautiful ballad. I hear there are many more in the Song cycle. Cant wait to hear them.

Fruit of the Moment: Dessert Lament