I finally figured it out!!
No, not the answer to life, the universe, and everything - just how to log into the damn blog again, now that it's switched over to Google. Have been having blog withdrawal symptoms for the last 2 months, but very little time to do anything about it. So finally, the simple process of realising that Jane must have logged into hers using her email address as a username (on my computer) made me realise that the non-email address username that used to work is no longer valid (duh! No wonder I couldn't figure it out!). Ok, one of my longer-lived blonde moments... but here I am again at last, and there's lots of news to catch up on. Have written a couple of updates on paper in the last couple of months, but have also managed (in classic style) to promptly lose them, so lets see if I can do a summary of the exciting news so far...
What's foremost on my mind at the mo: I got accepted into the SITI Summer Intensive in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York!!! So I'll be an international gal of mystery from around mid-July - if I can get my student visa organised that is. Fingers crossed in a big way there, as I'm still waiting from paperwork from the Uni to be able to book my appointment... argh!!
AND D-boy just got the gig directing for Rockhampton Venues and Events again next year (Cats - what a huge project!); which is good news for both of us. Him for the obvious reasons; but me, because it has helped me make my mind up that, unless something amazing comes up between now and then, I'll finally apply for and do the Zen Zen Zo internship, with the aim of getting accepted into the core company for the remainder of next year.
Sooo... my plan at the mo is to finish up here in Strahan around mid-June (less than a month of work to go! After 8 months, it's hard to believe...); then head to Brisbane to do Winter Stomp. Then back to Melbourne to organise and do Melbourne Stomp. Then tie things up and head O/S to upstate NY. The SITI course goes til mid-August; but I'm hoping to travel from there to Canada (or at least to see Niagara Falls); perhaps meet Dav there; but then go back to NY city for a week (whether staying with Dav's friend or in a hostel) to have a look around; then to fly from there to London, where I hope I'll definitely meet up with D-boy (and hopefully say hi to Annabel), and travel UK (I've already touched base with Uncle George, and hope to visit our friend Katie in Edinburgh as well, and Dav's friends in north Scottland), Europe, and then Thailand (and hopefully get to Indonesia to see Erinn!) for the next 4 months. I'll need to be back in Brisbane by New Year's, if I am to do the Internship... which means it's quite a bit more of a whirlwind world-tour than I was expecting. But it may also just mean that I'll come out of it with a bit more cash in my pocket than nothing, which will help to pay for the Internship fees at any rate! We have yet to figure out where we'll live in Brisbane (whether I'll go and live with the family for a while, which makes sense for me in terms of lack of money; but where Dav will live til he goes to Rocky is another question!...); but I'm hoping to dip my finger into the industry up there a little - there seems to be a lot of filming going on in Qld in general at the moment, and I'd definitely like to do the La Boite generals mid-year; and the QTC generals at the end of the year. It'd be great to get some actual work up there.
In the meantime, work here has dropped away to almost nothing (comparitively speaking anyway); we are working one day in four on the boats, and only 3 out of 4 nights on the play (and only because we are now utilising a Stage Manager position to help set up the show and do box office). I do have to admit, it's a nice change in pace; but as Jane says, it's quite easy to slip into 'Strahan time'; and instead of writing that novel you'd planned, end up doing not a lot but 'taking things easy'. Which I'm partly whipping myself over; and partly accepting as a much-needed 'time out'. I am trying to use the time to get in touch with people in the outside world again; to update my blog of course :) and to re-organise my business things - my website is now up-to-date, I'm working on a new edit of my showreel, and I'm currently trying to pick out monologues from movies and plays I know, to work on on an ongoing basis. I'm also hoping to start researching putting a very basic mock-voicereel together. Oh, and the last 3 years taxes are STILL on the list. I MUST get them done before I leave here. Let alone think about what to pack, what to send home, and what to throw away. Argh.
So yes, plenty to keep me from twiddling my thumbs. It is hard to find the motivation for all these little tasks sometimes; and now that it's colder, it's also harder to keep the weight off. The weather has finally decided it should be winter (we've been incredibly lucky really, and even had a few actual amazingly golden-lit autumn days last week, must be the first Autumn Strahan's seen for a while!) and is generally rainy and cold, so much harder to keep the daily running up (in fact, it's becoming occasional running, and yoga and strength in the living room when I can be motivated. Am trying to curb my eating again currently. It's not entirely an obsession yet, even if it sounds like it! Just an ongoing battle. Dav tells me that to look at me, no-one would believe that I work so hard at it; but I do, and I 'bust out' far too often for my own liking. I'm also far too good at guilting myself over it!!
The other thing I'd dearly love to do in the next month, before I leave Tassie for who knows how long, is to walk the Frenchman's Cap walk. Dav tells me I have endless lists of 'to dos', and as I tell him, I know I won't get them all done, but it's exciting to have things 'to do' to aim for. The hiking bug has bitten me since completing (at last!) the Overland Track just over a week ago... my first long hike, and it was amazing! I loved it, and I loved doing it with Dav. The changing landscape was just incredible, and while we had our fair share of rain, cold, and bad knees, and learnt a lot from the people we met on the trail, I am so glad we did it. It was largely just a relaxation holiday; but it was also the completion of a goal I set myself when I moved down here - to walk the trail that my grandmother is supposed to have walked with her two nursing mates in the 1950s. The track now is somewhat different from what I imagine it would have been then - the trackwork and the huts are just amazing, and absolutely warrant the Walking Fee that people pay in peak period. And the Rangers (of whom we met two) love their job also, you can tell. It would be an amazing job to have. I've been thinking a bit about using the journey as the basis for a show of some kind, exploring my family, and my journey... but the Trek itself deserves it's own blog entry. I have some notes I'll write from soon.
However, Frenchman's Cap is looking less and less like a reality, given the weather (as we really need at least 3 days of good forecast weather to do it), and while we've put the company on notice that we could take off at any time to do it (we have the staff to cover it at any rate!), I do doubt we'll get there this time. It's possible we'll head over to the East Coast, to Frecinet or Maria's Island, instead - if we get the time off. Just as well the weather's not so good at the moment though, as Dav is recovering from a fairly violent virus, which has kept him in bed for the last few days (no fun for either of us! But least of all for him, of course), and probably won't be up to another hike for at least another week. Luckily neither Jane nor I appear to be susceptible (so far) to whatever it was he caught while he was over in Hobart doing his First Aid (he headed off straight after we got back from the Overland).
So, Dav's been knocked about a bit, but hopefully he'll be back to his normal self in the next few days, and back to work too. He'll be working here right through to August at this stage, to see the next season's staff in (whoever they end up being!), before he comes to meet me in... well, wherever we end up! It's exciting, but not really a reality yet - until I book my ticket, and get the Visas sorted, it's all still really up in the air. I wish that paperwork would hurry on up!!
What's foremost on my mind at the mo: I got accepted into the SITI Summer Intensive in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York!!! So I'll be an international gal of mystery from around mid-July - if I can get my student visa organised that is. Fingers crossed in a big way there, as I'm still waiting from paperwork from the Uni to be able to book my appointment... argh!!
AND D-boy just got the gig directing for Rockhampton Venues and Events again next year (Cats - what a huge project!); which is good news for both of us. Him for the obvious reasons; but me, because it has helped me make my mind up that, unless something amazing comes up between now and then, I'll finally apply for and do the Zen Zen Zo internship, with the aim of getting accepted into the core company for the remainder of next year.
Sooo... my plan at the mo is to finish up here in Strahan around mid-June (less than a month of work to go! After 8 months, it's hard to believe...); then head to Brisbane to do Winter Stomp. Then back to Melbourne to organise and do Melbourne Stomp. Then tie things up and head O/S to upstate NY. The SITI course goes til mid-August; but I'm hoping to travel from there to Canada (or at least to see Niagara Falls); perhaps meet Dav there; but then go back to NY city for a week (whether staying with Dav's friend or in a hostel) to have a look around; then to fly from there to London, where I hope I'll definitely meet up with D-boy (and hopefully say hi to Annabel), and travel UK (I've already touched base with Uncle George, and hope to visit our friend Katie in Edinburgh as well, and Dav's friends in north Scottland), Europe, and then Thailand (and hopefully get to Indonesia to see Erinn!) for the next 4 months. I'll need to be back in Brisbane by New Year's, if I am to do the Internship... which means it's quite a bit more of a whirlwind world-tour than I was expecting. But it may also just mean that I'll come out of it with a bit more cash in my pocket than nothing, which will help to pay for the Internship fees at any rate! We have yet to figure out where we'll live in Brisbane (whether I'll go and live with the family for a while, which makes sense for me in terms of lack of money; but where Dav will live til he goes to Rocky is another question!...); but I'm hoping to dip my finger into the industry up there a little - there seems to be a lot of filming going on in Qld in general at the moment, and I'd definitely like to do the La Boite generals mid-year; and the QTC generals at the end of the year. It'd be great to get some actual work up there.
In the meantime, work here has dropped away to almost nothing (comparitively speaking anyway); we are working one day in four on the boats, and only 3 out of 4 nights on the play (and only because we are now utilising a Stage Manager position to help set up the show and do box office). I do have to admit, it's a nice change in pace; but as Jane says, it's quite easy to slip into 'Strahan time'; and instead of writing that novel you'd planned, end up doing not a lot but 'taking things easy'. Which I'm partly whipping myself over; and partly accepting as a much-needed 'time out'. I am trying to use the time to get in touch with people in the outside world again; to update my blog of course :) and to re-organise my business things - my website is now up-to-date, I'm working on a new edit of my showreel, and I'm currently trying to pick out monologues from movies and plays I know, to work on on an ongoing basis. I'm also hoping to start researching putting a very basic mock-voicereel together. Oh, and the last 3 years taxes are STILL on the list. I MUST get them done before I leave here. Let alone think about what to pack, what to send home, and what to throw away. Argh.
So yes, plenty to keep me from twiddling my thumbs. It is hard to find the motivation for all these little tasks sometimes; and now that it's colder, it's also harder to keep the weight off. The weather has finally decided it should be winter (we've been incredibly lucky really, and even had a few actual amazingly golden-lit autumn days last week, must be the first Autumn Strahan's seen for a while!) and is generally rainy and cold, so much harder to keep the daily running up (in fact, it's becoming occasional running, and yoga and strength in the living room when I can be motivated. Am trying to curb my eating again currently. It's not entirely an obsession yet, even if it sounds like it! Just an ongoing battle. Dav tells me that to look at me, no-one would believe that I work so hard at it; but I do, and I 'bust out' far too often for my own liking. I'm also far too good at guilting myself over it!!
The other thing I'd dearly love to do in the next month, before I leave Tassie for who knows how long, is to walk the Frenchman's Cap walk. Dav tells me I have endless lists of 'to dos', and as I tell him, I know I won't get them all done, but it's exciting to have things 'to do' to aim for. The hiking bug has bitten me since completing (at last!) the Overland Track just over a week ago... my first long hike, and it was amazing! I loved it, and I loved doing it with Dav. The changing landscape was just incredible, and while we had our fair share of rain, cold, and bad knees, and learnt a lot from the people we met on the trail, I am so glad we did it. It was largely just a relaxation holiday; but it was also the completion of a goal I set myself when I moved down here - to walk the trail that my grandmother is supposed to have walked with her two nursing mates in the 1950s. The track now is somewhat different from what I imagine it would have been then - the trackwork and the huts are just amazing, and absolutely warrant the Walking Fee that people pay in peak period. And the Rangers (of whom we met two) love their job also, you can tell. It would be an amazing job to have. I've been thinking a bit about using the journey as the basis for a show of some kind, exploring my family, and my journey... but the Trek itself deserves it's own blog entry. I have some notes I'll write from soon.
However, Frenchman's Cap is looking less and less like a reality, given the weather (as we really need at least 3 days of good forecast weather to do it), and while we've put the company on notice that we could take off at any time to do it (we have the staff to cover it at any rate!), I do doubt we'll get there this time. It's possible we'll head over to the East Coast, to Frecinet or Maria's Island, instead - if we get the time off. Just as well the weather's not so good at the moment though, as Dav is recovering from a fairly violent virus, which has kept him in bed for the last few days (no fun for either of us! But least of all for him, of course), and probably won't be up to another hike for at least another week. Luckily neither Jane nor I appear to be susceptible (so far) to whatever it was he caught while he was over in Hobart doing his First Aid (he headed off straight after we got back from the Overland).
So, Dav's been knocked about a bit, but hopefully he'll be back to his normal self in the next few days, and back to work too. He'll be working here right through to August at this stage, to see the next season's staff in (whoever they end up being!), before he comes to meet me in... well, wherever we end up! It's exciting, but not really a reality yet - until I book my ticket, and get the Visas sorted, it's all still really up in the air. I wish that paperwork would hurry on up!!
posted by Franki | 2:33 AM
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