hooooo boy... update-o-rama!

I've got a bit of catching up to do, eh. Er yeah, sorry about that. I've been so horrendously busy these last few months it's kinda slipped by me.

Cripes, what have I been up to?

Well, I flew back from Brisbane this morning. I was there for a schmooze night at our office there. Murray invited an old friend of his, Gary Wilkins, to give a talk. Gary's been in the sound business for years upon years - certainly long before I was born. He told some awesome stories, my favourites being about working on Mad Max, and about Michael J. Fox getting drunk and going crazy with the Aussie soundies in Thailand. I think I might know why the guy has Parkinson's now... heh.

All in all it was a good night and I met some interesting people but my goodness I'm tired! Now the challenge is to get my foot in the door for autocue in Brisbane, while living and working in Sydney. That'll be an adventure.

I've been working on a few different things - currently Australian Idol. I'm training with my freelancer, as I'll be flying solo for the last few weeks of the season. It's been pretty good, the crew are all really nice and interesting people, and the contestants are okay too. I've seen some past idols and various other musical types come on and perform, and while I'm not really into the whole pop machine, I do feel pretty priveleged to see talented singers doing what they do, and doing it well. When people are rehearsing and the band's jamming out, it's a really magical atmosphere, there is so much talent just kicking around the studio. Hopefully I absorb some of it somehow!

The freelancer has been awesome this season. She got the kick in the pants she needed over her antics on 'So You Think You Can Dance' (being, I didn't hire her for anything else, until the EP of Idol insisted on it). She's taught me a lot, and we get on like a house on fire now. She'a kiwi too, although a bit older than me. She's of Maori descent, grew up in Auckland and is now having a blast in Sydney. She has a daughter a couple of years older than I am, but I can't imagine her as a Mum at all, she's such a party animal. I guess that's what happens when the kids leave home. My parents are probably standing on the couches, air guitaring to Led Zep right now (or popping wheelies on the tractor).

The hosts are pretty cool too - they're funnier off camera than they are on it, and James especially has a really dry sense of humour that I enjoy. Strangely, the catering has also been really good. I think I eat better on Idol nights than I do the rest of the week. Maybe it's because I just love it when someone else cooks, and it's free...

I've also got a regular gig (once a month or so) on Crime Investigation Australia. It's sort of a pulp crime reconstruction kinda thing. To be honest, I haven't actually seen a whole episode (because I don't have Fox!), but I gather some of the reconstructions can be pretty graphic. The stuff I do is with Steve Liebman, who is a great guy. I think he's my favourite person to work with. We usually have a smallish crew, seven or eight, and we mostly do outdoor stuff. That largely means I lug my gear out to far-flung suburbs (including my 34kg battery pack!). It's hard work, but I love the location stuff. The assistant, Paul, is really helpful and often carries my really heavy stuff for me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all glamour and bright lights and film crews.. I do plenty of office days, and plenty of weird little corporate jobs. I had one last month for TVSN, when their autocue unit broke, and that was just surreal. I rocked into their studio, which is in a warehouse in the nothern suburbs, and it was like walking into some sort of real-life Kath and Kim. Everyone seemed to be convinced that they were the pinnacle of style, in white pants and leopard-print shoes. The piece I worked on was a ten-minute long spiel on the crazy home shopping products of the month. There was some sort of body-shaping underwear, a spanner set, a very nervous, bearded nerdy guy from Dan Murphy's (a liquor store chain) talking about wine, and a few other bits and bobs straight out of the Innovations catalogue. I don't know if they have that in Australia, but it used to appear in the letterbox in Wellington every so often, and it seemed to be full of completely useless and bizarre inventions.

Other than work I don't think I've been up to much. There doesn't seem to have been time for much else lately. It's AGM season, so I've been pumping out quotes and doing corporate bits and bobs and testing gear and so on and so forth. Because I've been doing Australian Idol, I work Sundays, so my "weekend" days tend to be Saturday and Tuesday. I have been going to trivia nights in Newtown on Wednesdays, in order to ensure I get to see my mates at least once a week. I'm hanging out mostly with the best bunch of nerds in the world, who I met through a forum I frequent (no I won't tell you which one, the internet is a bad bad place and you would be shocked).

My apartment is coming together nicely, though it's always a work in progress. I took a trip to Ikea a couple of weeks ago for more bookshelves, and some shelves for the bathroom. I also came back with fairy lights, an artists' figure model, ice cube trays shaped like stars and hearts, and a couple of other Swedish oddities. Turns out Ikea is a big Swedish blondwood nightmare/adventure - I took my friend Sean out too and we were in there for hours. Everything has a hilarious Swedish name.. my favourites were the "Poang" chair (PWANGGGG!) and the "Groggi" cocktail set (heh, groggy). They also have $1 hotdogs at the end (not for me, for the carnivores among us). Ah, those wacky Swedes and their crazy antics.

I've also gained some plants in the last few weeks. I have rosemary, basil and chives in the kitchen, pennyroyal and pyrethrum on the living room windowsill (to try and stop the bugs flying in), a big thing I don't know the name of in the living room and a peace lily in the bathroom. I've always felt that plants really make a place home, so I feel much more content with my little oxygen factories sharing my space.

I think I'm about newsed out for now, but I promise I'll update this more frequently. If you want some news, please kick me in the pants so I don't forget! Now for a nice cup of tea and a lie down after all that Queenslanding.... :>