fish in a barrel

I've just come back from two days at HMAS Creswell, the navy training base in Jervis Bay. Mon Dieu! That was hard work! We did nineteen setups, which involves carting my gear our on location, setting it all up, scrolling the script for a bit, and taking it to the next location. I'm going to develop enormous muscles if I do a lot of that - it's heavy stuff!

Those poor trainees, they got soaked and gassed and all sorts of carryon, whereas the film crew stayed largely dry and safe.

It was good fun though, we saw the navy trainees in mock ships being flooded, putting out fires and being tear gassed. It was well impressive. They also had kangaroos all over the base. There were heaps of them, all over the parade ground and kicking back on the golf course they have. They were Eastern Greys, so not the massive ones, but very cute nonetheless.

The weather was blowing a southerly gale, and cold (for Australia). I actually quite enjoyed it.. it's nice being able to rug up. I like how you can always get warm if you're cold. There's nothing much you can do if it's hot.

Mardi Gras is on this weekend, a block from where my place is. I might go down and watch the parade for a bit, and I'm also having a friend over for dinner and a bottle of wine. We'll have to make do without furniture still, but I'm sure he won't mind.

Now, I'm rewarding myself for two days of hard labour carrying my heavy gear around with a pizza, which has just arrived. Yummo!

Let's have a picnic on my loungeroom floor!

Wow, I did a crappy job of keeping up with my blog. Sorry about that, family and friends. I bet you're wondering a) whether I'm still alive (yes I am) and b) what on earth I've been doing since September (wouldn't you like to know!?).

So. Let me begin, in reverse chronological order.

I have a new job - Teleprompting Manager (it's managing the autocue department), for a Sydney audio and telly gear hire place. It's kind of a niche market I guess, we're not exactly Hirepool. It's also heaps of fun, I am absolutely loving it. I've done a bit of work on 'so you think you can dance', I'm doing autocue for the MTV awards in April, and I get to do a bunch of other cool stuff, like spending two nights on a naval base for a shoot in Jervis Bay, involving fire! I'm still an absolute newbie (I started at the end of January), so absolutely everything is exciting to me.

I decided in the end that stockbroking wasn't really me. I felt constricted by the stiffness of the corporate atmosphere, and I realised that in a period of record low unemployment, there really was no excuse for staying in a job I wasn't passionate about. So I took the plunge, called a few people and found the current position. I'm stoked with it! :>

I also have a new place - a one bedroom apartment in Darlinghurst. The building was constructed in 1928, so it's nice and weathered, as opposed to the bland modern-ness of my former abode in Triguboff Towers. Also, no flatmate. As much as my little quirks are endearing, I'm really not cut out for living with other people. Having my own place and my own space suits me just fine.

I've gained some furniture items, of course and I'm slowly filling the place with things I like. I've got a chocolate coloured timber bedframe, a pistachio mosquito net (no aircon, you see), with my pale sage brocade duvet cover and some green cushions, and I'm very happy with the effect. I also found a little table for beside the bed at the best little secondhand shop in the world, which is at the end of the street where I work. They have many things I'm eyeing up...

If only the lounge was looking so good. I have two perfectly serviceable wooden chairs, and my desk, and my beloved filigree floor lamp.... but oh! For a couch! The novelty of picnic dinners in the lotus position on my loungeroom floor is rapidly wearing off. I did actually buy TWO matching couches today, but I couldn't get them in the lift, nor could I get them into the stairwell (which would have been an epic mission anyway because I'm on the ninth floor). They're at Terry's parents' house, waiting for me to re-Ebay them and buy some smaller, less ostentatious furniture. Pity, cause I really liked them. I did get to have adventures in a van though, which was the first time I have driven in Sydney.I can't believe it took me almost a year to get round to driving something - anything!

But yes, the lounge is an ongoing project. I've also purchased a coffee table, which Terry will pick up while I'm away later in the week. I'll at least have something to eat off, but the lack of seating will be interesting given I had planned a housewarming party this weekend! Perhaps I'll postpone it...

So who's Terry? Well, it's complicated, according to Facebook. I suppose I should probably apply one of those naff relationshippy terms to it now. I'm not going to though. I like him - he's smart. We can argue about absolutely anything, for hours. Previous topics include: whether or not chickens are sentient; whether free will exists or is an illusion; whether Lindsay Lohan's Marilyn Monroe shoot was skanky; and many other inane topics. It's all in good fun though; they're debates, not fights.

In other news, I have bright red hair currently. Because I don't work in an office, and I can. So there. I like it.