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...... :)
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...... :)
posted by Franki | 6:16 PM
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