Is there a degree in Procrastination?

I probably already have it...

So I'm preparing for this audition for Complete Works... or I'm meant to be anyway. Really I'm sitting in the square of sunshine streaming through the window, daydreaming about Melbourne (in 2 days!!!) and boys. Ok, one boy. And if u don't know which, you haven't been reading my blog, have you!

It's been a while since I've written, but not a huge amount to report - have just spent the last week preparing for CWTC audition (which I am oddly, dreading - and yet feel I have to do, to keep in 'practice' at auditioning. I think there's definitely part of me that's terrified I'm not very good, cos I haven't done an audition for so long... the continual bane of the actor). Am hoping at very least to get a call-back - but that won't happen unless I write this 3 minute piece they want performed, telling the story of a Shakespearean play 'as creatively as possible'. Argh, creativity AND time limits!! Neither of which I've had great practice with recently. Ok, so that's perhaps stretching the truth... but script-writing has never been one of my strong points. And now I've left my notebook, with everything so far, out on the Island (I hope!), so won't have it until tomorrow. So have decided to write this blog, rather than try to remember where I was with my canine creation...

I have had a couple of visitors in the last few days... I had Andrew MacDougall come and stay for 4 days or so, and he certainly kept me entertained. Doing the play with him will be fun, and quite fresh. He really fits the Aussie larrikin stereotype out on the island, with his broad Aussie accent (despite Richard referring to him as a mad Scottsman!) and stockman's hat. I've really got to get me one of those - especially now the weather is starting to (slowly, and patchily) improve. Sunny days on the island, like today, are just gorgeous - lying on the grass out there at lunchtime is almost as close to heaven as I reckon I'll get at the mo (only to be improved by soon having D-boy lying out there with me!).

I've currently got Rob Timms staying, who's quite a lot quieter than Andrew, and enjoying the time away from his noisy boys. I do enjoy the company up here on the hill though - and so does the house, I think, which feels a little empty with just one person in it. Not for long though - pretty permanently to be at least 2, probably 3-4. I've let everyone know I'm happy to have visitors stay - it's fun, especially when I will have less to worry about (once this 'big' audition is out of the way). It feels good to be doing the audition though, as it's the first of many for this kind of work that I wish to undertake. Getting in practice, as they say. I do suspect I probably need to do some audition courses, as it's been a while since I've had someone show me HOW to prepare an audition, and while I'm fairly confident in my process, it'd be great to be able to check in on it all. Probably not going to happen til I get back to Melbourne... eventually... and considering the amount and type of work down here, I wonder when that will happen?

Went and saw the local schoolkids put on a shadow-puppetry show on Wednesday, co-ordinated by a guy who runs the company "Creature Tales" up in Penguin - and he offered me work guiding and performing on the Spirit of Tasmania! Now that might be interesting work... I reckon you could work almost all year round here if you wanted to. Perhaps much less work June - September, but that's at least 9 months of the year you could spend here, performing... and then another 3 to travel or create... not a bad lifestyle! Can't believe I'm thinking about settling here, but part of me certainly is... if not now, then perhaps in the future. It's an option, anyway. Although another option is to look at eventually setting something up similar to what Richard has done, in another tourist area... Tasmania is just so beautiful. I am really falling in love with the place. But still itching to see other beautiful places too... Andrew also gave me the link to a company that does Theatre in Education throughout England and Europe, so will have to follow that one up too...

Meanwhile, back here, am finally really settling into playing Porter, and have run the show with Tom 4 days in a row now, which has been great for getting a raport going. Richard has given me two 'compliments' (or closest to it that you get with him!) in the last week - one for Shires, when playing with him, and also saying that I'm sounding much more natural and relaxed with Porter too. Tom has come along well as well, and got a compliment for his Shires from Richard last night too. So he must be fairly pleased with our work overall at the moment. He's pre-occupied at the moment with pulling out one edge of the garden by the set, so that the council can start building us a box office. It will be good to have something permanent there...

Hmm, better go get onto remembering this script I suppose... and day-dreaming about getting 2 more sleeps (and a 4 hour drive, and 1 hour flight) out of the way!!

Devoted to D-boy

A nice short post for a change (say I now)... to add some images to this little blog of mine. These you can see here were all taken on our holiday up north, to Stanley, and were all a planned attempt to rectify the situation whereby Dav spends far too much time behind the camera, and I have far too few photos of him, comparatively speaking! There's Dav in front of the Nut, the big outcrop at which Stanley sits at the base; D-boy sitting in the window of the old convict barracks outside Highfield house; Dav and I on the beach at Crayfish creek; and Dav surreptitiously (hah!) crossing the Penguin Crossing just outside Stanley (very cute! Ah, the elusive fairy penguin... :) These are just a couple, and all both rare photos of Dav, and some of my first attempts at photography (given I've never owned a camera). Dav is inspiring me to come up with what I like in the composition of a good photo (and not just holiday snaps). I love that he inspires me to branch out creatively in new and exciting ways!

Life here in Strahan skips and jumps along... although not fast enough. D-boy is in Rockhampton as I type, debriefing after his first day of auditions for West Side Story. I've just finished playing Porter with John for the first time (he really doesn't give any eye-contact whatsoever! Still, a very 'consistent' show), and am now wishing that I was up in the sun / warmth with my boy... 9 sleeps till D-day though, am counting down again!

My voice has been strained since coming back from the break last week, and doesn't seem to be recovering too quickly. I've also got a pretty non-stop run of work until I fly out next Monday. Luckily tomorrow I'm only doing the play; and I have a day-time period off next Saturday as well. I'll need the break by the time it comes - not that it'll be too much of a break, with packing Dav up, catching up with everyone, and doing a Fight Choreo certificate!!

Also just got off phone to Nigel, and one thing he said sticks with me - u can't be lazy with this job. You really have to put your heart into it as if it's the first time all over again every time you do it, or it just dies. Nigel is a real contradiction - pointing out all the downers of the job, and yet he really did put his heart and soul into it. An inspiration point for me. I have yet to really hit a 'wall' with the work, and am hoping that, as I'm still enjoying it, it won't happen as such - although I am aware that Porter is still much more of a strain for me than Shires, a character whom I've really started to find and to have fun with. Am very much looking forward to Dav coming down, not only for the obvious reasons, but also for the fresh outlook it will give ME on the work, helping him to train up.

But for every hard day on this job, there are the golden days, like today, when the weather is just serene and the water is like glass... or the days when one or two visitors are like little shining stars in the sea of faces - like the little family the other day who obviously recognised me from the play, and stayed out on deck as the boat left after the tour to call out my name and wave at me... then ran into me again at the mill where 'mum' asked for the 2 girls to have a photo with me. Having these ppl recognise me and call me by name feels special (as opposed to retail work, where it was just a reminder that you wore a badge and the customer did not), as it feels like I've really shared something with them, connected with total strangers and communicated in stories and experiences with them - and it makes me realise that here, in this little town, I'm finally starting see the results of doing what made me so passionate about theatre - communicating on an experiential leval, and change others' days or lives, even in a little way - to share something with them on a 'greater' or deeper level.

Hmm, this post has already become longer than I'd intended - but it's helped me realise what it is that I love about this job so much (apart from the fact that I get to go on a cruise every day, and work in the fresh air, and act all day long!). Some days, I'll even have people asking me to sign their copies of souvenir booklets, or "Sarah Island Conspiracies". That feels quite strange, especially as Richard is the real celebrity here - but it is a little taste of 'celebrity-ness' that is so unfamiliar it is amusing. Still, it's these, and the appreciation of most people I tour with in particular (as the tour gives you more of a chance to really share something with people, as well as entertain them; and often these people attend the play as well!) that will, I think, inspire me to keep on putting my heart and soul into this work, and doing my best with it. I have reached the stage now where I'm pretty much trained up; but I do have to be careful that I don't get lazy with it, even in so far as finding new ways to play the characters, and different things to try out along the way... I notice that I have said this a couple of times, in different ways, but have yet to really enact it...

But for the next week and a half, my extra concentration is to go into preparing an audition piece for Complete Works, who are holding auditions while I'm back in Melbourne. Part of me is resisting putting the time aside to prepare; but I know that this audition will be good for me, whether it gets me work or not. Particularly the 3 minute storytelling exercise (eek!). Speaking of which, better get back to it now... (!!)

Exciting things afoot!!

In an update to last post, a few exciting things have happened in the last 24 hours - the biggest being that my beautiful talented boy is going to join me down here much sooner than I had even hoped!! He's coming down here with me when I come back from my Melbourne visit in early December to start work!! The slight down side is that he'll then leave again in late January for 2 months; but will then be back to work April and May with me, if the job extends that far.

And the other exciting thing is that this has all happened because he's been offered a job up in Rocky directing the musical West Side Story up there! It's for the amateur musical society, but the pay their directors very well; and is just the sort of career move that Dav has been feeling the lack of recently. So very exciting for him; and while it means time away, it also gives me another good excuse to visit Qld in February sometime...

Admittedly my feelings are a little mixed - already there's that twinge of jealousy that he will be returning to a town where he is well-known and no doubt liked, and I'll be at best an unseen and unknown part of that; and I was definitely hoping to have him down here to myself - but that said, the offer in Rocky has meant that he needs to do his training down here earlier, which means we should get both Christmas AND New Year together!! Which is better than I could have hoped for!! Am very VERY much looking forward to living with my boy for a while; and also in a strange way relieved that for once it's my partner leaving ME for a job, and not the other way around. I may have found a boy here who will keep me on MY toes :) It can only be a good thing! It's fantastic that he's free enough to be able to take this job, which will hopefully lead to further directing gigs in Melbourne and Rocky for him.

It's interesting, Nigel made the comment when he found out I was Aquarian that 'Aquarians are most pre-occupied with their CVs'. I don't know about this; but I do know that my career IS important to me; I can't help it, that's just the way I am. So when Dav was looking at taking a job on a Bollywood film as a runner, I was disappointed as it meant he wouldn't be able to visit as I'd hoped. But this trip away is different - I know it's something that not only pays him what he's worth, but is a career move that will lead to further work, and hopefully towards his feeling fulfilled which can only make him feel good about other areas of his life too (as I do when I'm doing work I want to do and love); and so I feel more than anything pride and happiness for my talented boy. I'll miss him during the two months; but it gives me hope that whatever we do career-wise, we can be equals as professionals and keep our relationship balanced too. This has, in the past, been one of the hardest things for me - balancing professional and private life; and my overwhelming feeling of happiness for this opportunity for Dav gives me the hope that I am that much closer to finding happiness in my work and in my relationship, and still being able to fly free and go where I need to - and able to feel nothing but pride and trust in my beautiful boy, who can do the same.

Rainy Island afternoon

Prepare for a long one. Written in a quiet solo 5 hour gap on Sarah Island, Sunday 12 Nov, waiting for an afternoon cruise...

I'm sittig out the back of the little hut we have here on Sarah's Island, reflecting on my last week. I'm feeling particularly lethargic today; I'm not sure why. I was half-thinking of exploring more of the back half o fthe island in the 5 hour gap I have between morning and afternoon tours; and maybe even finding the tunnel John's children were talking of (they enjoyed the camp-out here for the Discovery very much it seems!) but it's been drizzling non-stop all afternoon, so have elected to sit here and listen to the patter on the tin roofing, and catch up on some reading. I'm still battling through the "Sarah Island Conspiracies" - a good read, but complex! - and have yet to go up to Richard's and watch "The Strahan Kid". I aim to learn as much as I can about hte history of this place, as I do find it both fascinating and useful; but in practicality this job is a lot more draining than it would seem, and now that I've moved in to Nigel's and inherited a little TV, it's all too tempting to just sit in front of it and switch off in the evenings.

The second tour today was a particularly draining one - I had both Italians and non-english-speaking Lithuanians in my group, and several translators speaking under me, which made it hard for both me and them! Nevertheless, the group did seem to enjoy the tour as always, and the Italians do tend to be much more expressive of this - I got lots of handshakes out of it, and a very merry little gentleman who decided he would escort me to the boat, and seemed disappointed when I told him I was staying! One lady commented, "That was a lovely speech you made!" - although I do wonder from these comments how much of it they actaully retain and learn from, as we do give them a lot of information; but at least Richard encourages us to be entertaining with it, and it's certainly good training for me (a very 'seriou' actor and a shy girl who hated being laughed at!) to get the tourists laughing, and to have a joke or two with them... I'm getting decidedly better, I think, at incorporating or acknowledging visitors' comments, and still getting on with the story - although I have to continually work on being open to comments and participation, and balancing this with time management. I don't want to keep giving the same tour over and over; I do want to discover how to keep the quality consistent and still keep it fresh and lively...

I have also found a refreshed zeal for getting other things done while I'm here; assisted by my very exciting purchase of a guitar while Dav was visiting. I'ts just a beginner's guitar, but it is bright purple! And Dav has shown me how to tune it, and also 3 chords to practice. I think I picked them up quite quickly, but will plod more doggecly through the beginer's book I bought at the same time. I've always wanted to be able to play; and feel more of an affinity for the guitar than the piano, despite having relished in playing it during highschool years. In fact, when Dav was showing me chords, I remembered that I'd started learning guitar at the same time as my brother; but dad had to ask me to leave it for a while as I was picking it up quicker at first than he, and guitar was to be his instrument. Between then and now my only other encounter with guitar was to accidentally sit on Justin's Matin, left on the loungeroom couch - ouch! I'm hoping that getting back to a musical instrument will also get me back to practicing a little singing; as so much work seems to require some basic singing at the least.

But I am neglecting to describe the best bits of the last week; having Dav here with me!

He arrived, not a minute too soon (although many a minute waited for!) on Monday arvo; and I had him (mostly) to myself until Saturday morning. We had an almost perfect holiday week together; starting with a whirlwind tour of the town and then dinner at the Mac Inn (something you don't do often as a local here, as it's genearlly tourist province; but the food was nice, the view was lovely, and the company was, of course, D-divine!). I even adventurously tried oysters, scallops, prawns and calamari for the first time; although I couldn't bring myself to try the baby octopus that Dav delighted in eating whole. Being new to the whole fish thing, I can't quite face something that looks like it could still swim away, if it hadn't been boiled alive that is... yes, still new to piscatarianism - but the fish is lovely here,and (I tell myself) good for me as well. Haveing turned vego for largely health and animal rights reasons, I've never been terribly militant, and have always said that I'd eat meat again if I needed to. I have to admit that I'm enjoying trout every now and then (especially in the delicious way that Dav cooks it!). Can't say I'll eat calamari rings every chance I get; but it was worth a try and I try to keep an open mind to trying most things at least once! Of course, the most evil thing on the menu was the caramel brownie for desert...

There started a week of binging, admittedly. I've somehow managed to put on 2 of the 4 kilos I lost since being here, in a week. But I had such a good time doing it.... Dav had the hire-car, so we headed up the coast on Tuesday morning, and it was just fantastic to get out of Strahan for a couple of days! It was a bit rainy on the Tuesday, so we didn't manage to do the Montezuma Falls walk as we were hoping; but we did tour up to Stanley, in the north; and we were there (with plenty of stops) in time to check in to a very cute B&B and then climb the Nut before sunset. I was amazed at a tourists claim from the previous week - that his motorised wheelchair had got him up the Nut - as the climb was very steep, and I can see why the chairlift would be necessary! It was a gorgeous (if windy) walk aroudn the top, with amazing views - you almost felt you should be able to see St Kilda when looking out over that ocean! The seaside village, and the Scottish thistle, all made me feel as if I were somewhere in the UK; and Dav tells me that Edinburgh is built below a similar steep cliff or outcrop. Am very much looking forward to discovering that one myself! Next year...

We found a picnic ground on the lee side of the Nut, and fished out the pistachios we'd bought in Wynyard - where we'd stopped for lunch, and I'd treated the local Woolworths with all the glee of a kid at Christmas - 2 nuts, eating nuts, on the Nut :)

By the time we climbed down and headed to the local for a pub meal, it was twilight - but we'd forgotten that a) twilight in Tassie is already around 8.30pm and b) Stanley is a small town - and we just managed to convince the staff to serve us dinner, the last two there. As we were leaving, the barman asked us if we were going to hunt the Fairy Penguins - oooh, penguins?? Trust the barman to know what's going on. So, following his advice, we braved the now chill wind coming in round the Nut and strolled down to the wharf with a couple of 'travellers' to keep us warm. It was so dark that we didn't end up seeing anything (I am rediscovering my love of the stars, now that I'm living in a small town again!) but we sure heard them. They make a sound like a ghost snoring - it felt quite spooky at first, like they were going to jump out at us - Attack of the Killer Penguins! No such luck, so we headed back to the B&B, Sealer's Cove - which was everything you'd want out of a quaint little seaside B&B, complete with retiree owners Collen, with her helmet of hair and lavender jacket, and Barry, who ovviously enjoyed the varied company. They were lovely, if very attentive, hosts - but it was much more fun and felt much more romantic than staying in a '5 star apartment' down the road. The house itself was built in the 1800s, done up beautifully; and we were the only guests at the time...

After a drive around the town in the morning, and a visit to the Artworks gallery (which has some beautiful timber work for sale - one day I'd like to furnish my house in native timbers!) and to Highfield House (we thought we'd forgo the $7 entry fee and just take pictures outside!) we headed out again; stopping at Crayfish Creek to soak up some sunshine and explore the rockpool we'd seen on the way in - amazig carved mountains in miniature of rocks, beaten into shape by the wind and the sea - and then again at Burnie for more supplies (including my new guitar!); and finally at Henty Dunes to have a look before getting back to Strahan in time to have a drink with Timmy and Cassie at the pub (and introduce Dav to Hamers, the local gathering place). Henty Dunes is definitely worth a visit; I'd love to go back there with a cardboard box or two! Up the steep sand climb, it's a wasteland of sand dotted with green oases, stretching out to the distant Ocean beach. The sand blowing over the dunes in sheets, and the golden light of twilight, combined to make me feel I was somewhere in Arabia...

This was not quite the end of our adventures though; on Thursday we followed a lead from Franz and introduced ourselves to Kathy and Gary, who live by the Magic Cottage and who kindly let us borrow their 2-person sea-kayak! Kayaking was a first for me - and lots of fun, if tiring! Good exercise, considering I didn't run all week... we paddled aroudn the bay for a couple of hours; it was fairly smooth, so we didn't even encounter a threat of a spill. Then we thought we'd better get Gary and Kathy a thank-you gift; so headed to the local fudge shop for a box... emerging with far more than we'd intended (and not all to give away, of course! Home-made fudge is dangerously attractive!), we went from there to Frankiln's Manor for some very civil (and lovely) Devonshire Tea - ok, scones and wine, even better! The weather was absolutely gorgeous (how I long for it now as I sit here typing this, freezing today!!), which made preparing for the show particularly hard; but I managed to pull off a decent Porter (I'm slowly starting to relax into the role; but have to admit I enjoy Shires with Richard more, or at least am more comfortable with it as Dav remarked. Am still tending to enjoy the tours more than the play; and still have yet to do analytical work which may help my play work...)

Thursday night we spent moving me to Nigel's and cooking trout (mmm, love a man who can cook ;) - we certainly ate well this week! And Friday we were out on the boats. Friday evening after the show, Richard took us out to dinner at Risby Cove, which is where the locals go to eat out. It's really refreshing to talk to Richard in a social context; and he gave us an abridged versio of the Piners' Festival and characters of the town; including the origins of the feud between the boat companies. Slowly the picture builds up for me here. He also gave Dav the 'fatherly stamp of approval' as Dav said, and told him that he'd be welcome to come and work here whenever he finishes in Melbourne. So Dav may even be here earlier than I'd hoped, in January! I'd love love LOVE to speand New Year with him; but this may be hoing too much of course, as Prison break doesn't actually finish until the end of January, if he chooses to stay with it. It is a big move, way from the convenience and industry of Melbourne too; and I'm feeling it as well. But it is a lovely town, and a beautiful place to work.... and I can imagine staying here for longer than I'd planned - but will of course have to see... O/S does call next year... and I am definitely looking forward to my visit back to Melbourne in two weeks time!!

Dav left Saturday morning, after helping me to settle in to the new house. I miss him already. I also miss my wallet that he accidentally took with him! Oops! I wonder too what it will be like to live with him; and I know it will have to be more disciplined than this lovely holiday week - but I do look forward very much to sharing the day-to-day experiences of this little town with him... and hopefully learning from him too. We started our singing lessons in the car on the way up to Stanley... and my challenge (given while he was teaching me to Kayak) was to find something I can do and HE can't, that I can teach him!! Gotta think about that one...

For now, I've just written a veritable essay - which has whiled away an hour of the wait for the afternoon boat quite nicely. but it's also stopped raining, so might go and see if I can find that tunnel Faith and Naomi were talking about...

Long time, no D (plenty of sea though)...

So it's been a while since I've managed to blog - I've been thinking about it the last week, but a few things have stopped me. The first being, that living in Strahan should have a health warning! Yes, have been getting to know some of the locals here - particularly Timmy, the wood-turner (who is definitely a bad influence :) ; Cassie, who works at the Post Office; Wayde (the barman); and the crew from the Lady Jane, Jaime, Jess, Jo and Lauren, whom I ran into after the show on Wednesday night and ended up fishing with (or supporting Jaime's fishing efforts and drinking with the girls!). In fact, Jaime caught 2 fish-farm escapees, and he and Jess did a cook-up on Thursday - so I got to taste my first Ocean Trout! Lovely fish...

However, 'getting to know the locals' inevitably means spending a healthy (or should I say, unhealthy!) amount of time in the pub. Wed and Fri were both big nights this week; the most unhealthy part being the fact that I wasn't rostered on to work either Thursday or Saturday; and was called in at the last minute for both! Saturday was a corker; I was woken up at 8.45am, with (shall we say) a rather rough head, by an intrusive banging on the front door... not sure whether to look around for the nearest baseball bat or cast iron frypan (and lacking both instruments), I opened the door cautiously (having been informed only the day before that my little cottage has had a number of 'interesting' past tenants) to find John there, breathlessly announcing that Tom had had an accident and I had to get to the boat in 10 mins!! Luckily after further urgent investigation, Tom's accident involved hurting his car, but not him; and I only had one tour to do. Still painful... made more so by the fact that Franz was looking almost as green as I was on the way out. Thank goodness for the still weather at the moment. I don't know if I could have coped with Hell's Gates on a bad day!!

My little recreational sojourns were initiated by Nigel, who was generous enough to really introduce me to Strahan - I feel like I'm becoming a little more a part of the town life now, which I think will help keep this summer enjoyable. However, the other big disturbance this last week is that Nigel, the only other regular trained actor on the show, has up and quit at last. Being the new girl, I don't know all the particulars, but I do know that he had a particularly rowdy crowd the Tuesday before last, and almost pulled the plug on the show... it seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back; the last in a long list of potential resentments and disputes between Nigel and Richard: and on the Friday Richard told me he'd resigned. I'll miss working with Nigel; his shows were fast and furious - perhaps not as controlled as Richard's, but definitely more fun, and more like 2 actors working together on a level...

As a result of Nigel leaving, I've also had a bit of a run-in with the boss... not intentionally, but Nigel offered me the lease on his place, which is a big old kooky house, quite run-down, but a lot closer to town, on the hill behind the post-office. It has dodgy electrics, 4 bedrooms, an outside toilet, a '60s student-house theme (all of which I've had in houses before), and a goat (now that's a new one!). I put the move to Richard, who had apparently just signed the lease on my mouldy little cottage in Trafford St (the place is not too bad; and quite contained; but not quite my style...). After having a big blow up and bluster about it at lunch when I proposed the move to him, during which I almost backed down and said I'd stay, he came back on Thursday night much more reasonable, having talked to Sue and determined that he could reneg on the contract on condition that we help her find another tenant. I must remember that he seems to work like this - if Richard has something sorted in his mind, that's the way it MUST go, and to change it is very much putting him out; unless he's given time to think about the positives in the change for him (when I suggested I stay in the cottage until we were sure we could get tenants, he told me to go ahead straight away, as Kathi was pleased about the move as it meant not having to move the fridge and washing machine they'd lent Nigel!). Franz called him an 'adolescent elephant' - blustering and blowing about something that the next minute was perfectly fine.

So, I'm now waiting to hear back from Nigel Morgan, who looks after the place for the owner; but it looks like I'll be on the move again within a few days! I counted this morning... this will be the 19th house I've lived in! That makes it almost one a year, although in practice I've lived in 15 of those in the past 6 years. Am going to do my best to utilise some of my time off to make this new place a little more 'my own space'; as my last few places have just been 'half-way houses'; and I'll be here all summer at any rate! I have, in the past year or so, dreamt every now and then of having a house or space to call my own... but as it's not likely to happen in the next couple of nomadic years I have planned, I'll just put that one in a box for later...

And that brings me back to work. Nigel's left - but I have also got to know Franz, the other 'trained actor' with Round Earth, who comes down for 10 days a month from Hobart. Franz is a lovely guy, and we seem to have struck up a rather spirited working relationship - in fact, on the first day working on the island together we spent the whole time swapping jibes, and as I got into his car to grab a lift home with him afterwards, several tourists walked past and commented that 'we still hadn't stopped'!! It's quite refreshing to have this kind of fun friendship with someone, as I do tend to be the quieter one in many work-places; but Franz means well enough that I know none of his jibes have anything behind them, and he's also a fun guy to bait :) Ooh, the naughty side of me coming out!

Franz, Richard and I are now the only actors able to play Porter; this leaves Tom, John and sometimes myself to play Shires. Rick Eaves comes down for 3 days at a time here and there but only does the tours. So it's a tight ship at the moment (excuse the pun!)... Richard is trying to organise someone else to help out before Christmas, as we do need it - Andrew McDougall, from last year (I have yet to meet him) can't make it till December, and hopefully will stay through to Jan, when Dav will then come down and join us - yay!!!

Speaking of which, Dav is coming to join me, in hopefully less than an hour!! Yes, I'm blogging now because I doubt I'll get to it over the next week, as Dav is at last coming for the long-awaited visit. Am v excited, and admittedly this blog is distraction (also procrastination, as I should have done the essential packing of the house by now!! eek!!). Counting down the minutes... in fact, I'm off to ring and get his progress in a minute...

But before I do, here are a couple of moments I wanted to write about at the time but didn't get a chance to:

* Walking home from the boat, on a sunny afternoon, feeling the warmth on my hands, watching the sparkles ripple over the water, and thinking about the good job I've just done. In particular, the old man that enthused to everyone he met on the boat about how good the tour I'd taken was. These kind of rewards of the job mean a lot; as yes, it can be repetitive, and draining, and sometimes visitors can be demanding and less than pleasant. But on days like that one, I really do feel I have the 'best job in the world'.

* Argh, I've run out of dandelion tea! Yes, I'm hooked... I've avoided dandelion tea as it just did not sound tasty at all... but once I got to Strahan, I discovered a) that there's a definite lack of available herbal teas; and b) that I had brought a store of the stuff, untried, with me. So I took a risk - and have been addicted since. It's lovely and spicy and warm... and I'm out of it!! Crossing my fingers that in my ramblings with Dav over the next couple of days, we might be able to hunt down some Dandelion tea....

* Hmm, I knew working here may cut off other opportunities, but have just had my first practical experience of this. Last Tuesday Nathan Bennet emailed, offering me an audition with Bell Shakespeare while they are down in Melbourne - this Wednesday! I seriously considered flying up for the 10-minute audition; but given the huge week it's been just did not have the necessary time to prepare, and emailed yesterday to let him know I would not make it. I did look into it seriously, so while I'm a little disappointed, I am resigned to the fact that it just isn't possible this time round. However, it is heartening to think that my CV must now be attractive enough to get me such an audition; and hopefully it won't be less attractive next year!!

* Dav is coming, Dav is coming...... :)