Pictures for you

Some new snow pictures added on the right! In the second photo (night) what looks like rain is actually snow. Although the bad weather has been causing severe transport problems, thankfully Heathrow hasn't closed (Gatwick airport was closed this morning, and Manchester too). I also keep checking the Transport for London website and so far all the tube services seem to be operating. The tricky thing will actually be getting from my apartment to the tube station without slipping over! The roads and footpaths are so icy. Last night, as the snow became really heavy, it was peak hour and I could hear cars and (especially) trucks struggling to get a grip. Lots of revving and sliding going on. No crashes though, thankfully.

Leaving the house in 3 1/2 hours - yay! See many of you soon!

Sleek

Just had my first experience of sleet. While snow still has its charms, sleet is like being spat on by a slurpee. But without the raspberry flavouring. Insert cold shiver here.

Freaking freezing

It's so cold here that, although it hasn't snowed for well over 24 hours, the snow is still sitting on rooftops and around the park. It started snowing on Wed, which unfortunately was a day I had to run a lot of errands. My own fault, I'd been putting things off, and then karma punished me for my procrastination by making it snow on me! Feeling a snowflake land on my lips is actually quite charming - freezing my arse off less so.

Just a few days to go until I get on a plane. Not looking forward to the trip itself, but am most excited about getting home to Melbourne. Got a 7 hour stopover in Hong Kong.

Fliss is now back in Melb. She was quite melancholy on her way to the airport. I'll talk to her tomorrow, find out how her job interviews went yesterday. She was talking to St Kilda FC and the new soccer club in Melbourne. I hope she does well.

Got some good meetings set up for when I get back. With ITV and a producer who was at the Pitch competition. I've also emailed Nick Broomfield about the web series, because it's about an undocumented migrant and he's interested in the subject.

I probably won't blog much while I'm away, because most of my "readers" are in Melbourne!

See you soon! :)

Sleepy Saturday

Yesterday I finally got around to following up with people about the pitching competition win from last week. No response from anyone yet (it's so rare for anyone to reply to emails over here in my experience - although maybe that's just me!) but will chase them all in the New Year. Chasing people is exhausting, probably the most frustrating part of my move to the UK. Having said that, perhaps it's just because I know less people over here, so there's more cold emailing/calling.

Did have a good meeting yesterday with Chris Mayo, a stand-up comedian. We have already come up with an early idea for a narrative comedy series, so we'll do some more work over the coming months. I then went to see him do a small gig in Islington and I got a glimpse into the less glamourous work of stand ups - it was a small but strangely hostile crowd. Chris did OK, considering the atmosphere in the room, as did another guy called Daniel, but the MC and another guy completely bombed.

Now, on a Sat night, I'm sat at home watching telly, eating roast veges with cous cous and tzatziki. An excellent night. Felicity is out on a date. Will tell you more later...!

Winter blues

It's totally winter now. For the last 10 days it has rained heavily almost every day and rarely managed to get into double figures temperature-wise.

Last week was chaos, but this week is busy in a more manageable way. Shoot last Wed went well, although I felt so bad for the main guy who is our key interviewee in the video. He's a current service user, an ex-offender who is receiving support from the charity and he is clearly severely damaged from long-term, hard-core drug use. His interview was a bit like pulling teeth, he struggles to form coherent sentences and in between questions he (I'm not exaggerating here) looked like he was passing out! And then last week we needed him for re-enactments, I had wanted to hire an actor but the charity insisted it should be "authentic"...

Well, it was that. This poor guy was shivering and pale, he frankly looked like shit and I felt bad asking him to stand in the cold and do the take over and over to get the shot right. We have ended up with something that looks fine, but if I'd been able to use an actor I could have shot so much more! I just felt so bad for this vulnerable shell of a human being.

First cut of the edit is all done now. Showing it to the client tomorrow. I have no idea what they'll say, but I'm happy with it.

The other news is that the love of my life, who is on the other side of the world, has been very unwell and was in hospital over the weekend. He had an inflamed (not sure if it was also infected?) gallbladder. Obviously intense pain (he was put on quite a lot of morphine) and vomiting, really awful. Anyway, he is feeling somewhat better, despite ignoring my advice to take a day off shooting the kid's TV show he's filming in Sydney. He will probably have to have surgery in January.

I've never felt so far away as I did when he called me on Sat night, he'd already been in hospital for 10 hours. I wish the friend who admitted him had called me earlier, not that I could do anything but I hated being so far behind, it just made the distance seem even greater.

So, ups and downs as usual. Looking forward to seeing you all in just over 2 weeks.

Think I promised to give you the link to our new script submission scheme, you can find all the details here!

I won!

I won the pitching comp! It was quite fun actually and I was surprised to win because there seemed to be a lot of good ideas. In something like that you expect a few stinkers, but there weren't any. Some of the actual pitches were better than others but mostly strong concepts.

Anyway, it's not even 6:30am and I have to drive to Surrey to film today. Haven't slept properly for the last 2 nights so hopefully adrenaline will see me through and then I can go to be early tonight!

Ugh.

Week stress

Last night I got a deep tissue massage. I did, at some points, feel like I was meant to confess something, but overall it was worth it. It's been a stressful week!

I had two shoot days this week, both of which went well but there was plenty of tension and nerves leading up to them. Mostly because the client on this film, a mental health charity, kept changing what they wanted us to do at the last minute. We have had to explain to them (in a necessarily patronising email) that filming actually involves a lot of planning and preparation, we can't just wing it. Especially when shooting in prisons - I'm sure you can figure out for yourselves how much time it takes to get security clearance etc to film in a prison. Plus, we need to know who (in terms of inmates) will be filmed, because there are rules about "victim issues" - anyone who has an identifiable victim outside prison cannot have their image distributed in any media. This video might end up on a website, so we have to be careful.

Anyway, both shoots did in the end go well, but there's one more shoot day on Wed (it was supposed to be Fri, as in yesterday, then Monday... you get the picture!) I won't bitch anymore about it or go into too much detail.

I've also been working at iceandfire of course this week. We're launching a new script submission service, Everyone Has the Right, in conjunction with Amnesty International next week. I'll put the link up once the website goes live. Basically, anyone from around the world can enter a play script to iceandfire and receive written feedback. The plays we like will also receive a public rehearsed reading at Amnesty's headquarters in London, and the plays we REALLY like will get further development and dramaturge work, with a view to maybe producing them.

I met up with comedian Chris Mayo on Tues night, who I might talk to in more depth about possible TV comedy ideas, all part of my plan to get out there and meet more people in the comedy scene here.

But the really nerve-wracking event coming up this week, the day before the shoot (I am going to be one big ball of tension!) is a pitching competition at Channel 4. I mentioned it in my last post I think. I'm working on my pitch over the weekend, but I need really good vibes from you all at 7pm on Tues (for those of you in Melbourne that's 6am on Wed! Oh well...!)

Look forward to seeing you all in 3 1/2 weeks. Be sure to email me and let me know your movements over the Xmas period so we can have a drink/meal/coffee/walk together!

x

Danke Schoen

Berlin is such an awesome city. Shopping, art galleries, museums, markets, and lots and lots of bars with cheap beer. Hard to fault it really. Especially because there is also such incredible history - both very recent and very distant. Some photos on the right.

We did all of the above. A walking tour on the Friday (all day, much of it in the rain!) then we went for dinner in a small Italian restaurant and did some bar hopping in the uber trendy Mitte district. Saturday we went shopping after breakfast, first around Mitte and then we went to an area a few people had recommended. Sadly, they had not been specific about the street we should go to so we walked around and around for ages! Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad. That night we had a drink with a friend of Felicity's, Adina, who was very nice, and her boyfriend Paris. They took us to Billy Wilder's - and they were somewhat taken aback by how excited I was by the theme of the bar! Sunday, Fliss and I went to a market near our hostel (we stayed in the excellent East Seven Hostel - which I would recommend to anyone. Clean, good location, nice staff) then went to the Pergamon museum (which Fliss found a bit boring, but I liked the Ishtar Gate!) and the Helmut Newton gallery. Lots and lots of naked ladies. We'd never seen so many breasts and vaginas.

This week has been busy and next week will be even more so. iceandfire had a performance on Monday of a new show (Listen to Me, in collaboration with Save the Children and EveryChild), then I had more iceandfire work plus recces for filming next week. Driving to the prison in Surrey was soooo stressful on Thurs - no GPS or proper road map, just GoogleMaps directions and a couple of map print outs. So if I took a wrong turn (which I did a few times!) I had no way of knowing how to get back. GoogleMaps said it would take me 50 mins to get there, I allowed 1 1/2 hours... it took 2 1/4 hours! I was so tense. Turned out OK in the end. And the prisons that I saw were really interesting.

I'm on the shortlist to pitch a new web series idea I have at Channel 4, through the Stallar Network. It's very scary! I'm not that good at pitching so will have to do a lot of work. Exciting though.

Social butterfly

Fliss and I are off to Berlin tomorrow - hoorah! Any suggestions or tips welcome - be sure to email them through. I went to Berlin about 4 years ago and loved it but would love to see more this time.

Had a very social week this week - 2 dinner parties chez nous. Sara from iceandfire came around last night with her lovely boyfriend Tom. They're both very tall so Fliss was suitably impressed. And on Sun eve Pete & Thea came over with their friends Hugh & Tash. Pete had asked me if I knew Hugh and I wasn't sure, but of course I did. I think we met first year politics at Melb Uni! He's someone who I've run into every now and then over the course of the last 8 years!

Sat night was bonfire night - Guy Fawkes day was officially on Thurs but they have the fireworks etc on Sat. Victoria Park had a full carnival set up and the fireworks were great. I went with my former housemates, Aurelie and Cinzia. Foolishly I wore my new ankle boots and got them covered in mud - the crowds of people had churned the wet ground up pretty good!

Prison film is in full swing now. Had a 2 1/2 hour meeting about it yesterday. Will probably start shooting the week after next, but having trouble getting the mental health organisation to commit to shoot dates.

C'est tout, en ce moment. I'll take photos in Berlin and put them up soon. Also have some photos of the fireworks, if I remember (don't have the cable with me right now!)

Bisous.

Comedic capers

Yesterday Fliss and I went to the football (Arsenal v. Tottenham - mortal enemies. It was a charged match but we won 3-0! Ha!) Then I went to meet my friend Sara (with whom I work at iceandfire) to see more comedy in Forest Hill. Really liked the MC, a guy called Chris Mayo, and absolutely LOVED this guy, Tom Allen. If he comes to the Melbourne Comedy fest next year you should definitely check him out. Charming, confident and with the ability that really good comics have of being able to look behind an incident, which on the surface might be rather nasty, to bring out the absurdity - not only making it funny but also thereby undermining the nastiness. He was great.

Today I have cleaned my room, which is enough achievement for one day. Later, dinner at Christine's. A busy week this week - on Tues I have 5 meetings, thankfully I've managed to make them all in Central/East London! One is a meeting with a signer/songwriter, Aisling Stephenson, who I might make a music video for. I really like the track, it's called You Took the Sun Away.

Laters.

Cops and Meerkats

This is an extremely popular and successful series of ads for a car insurance website. They are incredibly odd and random and yet it's easy to see their appeal!

In other news, I have had 2 experiences recently that demonstrate why the London Met police are so slated over here. I'd heard that they were racist, but I didn't experience that (Australians are not usually their specific target) I have instead witnessed their incompetence!

I rang 999 the other night. I've never called an emergency number before, but there was a guy who had been buzzing my neighbour's doorbell for about 10 minutes, then someone let him in and then he went up and knocked on the door inside the building for about 15 mins! It was, of course, the one neighbour for whom I don't have a phone number so when the knocking started to sound aggressive, I called the cops. About 10 mins later, the neighbours came home and obviously let the man in, so it must have been OK, but 5 mins after that I got a call from the police saying they hadn't forgotten about me and would try to come by soon! What if I was being murdered?? I told them they didn't have to come (I was actually relieved they didn't turn up, in case the neighbours hated me) but it did seem a bit hopeless.

The next day I needed to get a certified copy of my passport to apply for Ben's visa. I went to the local police station and waited for quite a while (people kept pushing it - grrr). When I eventually spoke to the policeman at reception and asked him if he could certify a copy he said "I don't know. What do I have to do?"

"I think you just have to sign and stamp that you've seen the original."

"Well I mean I can stamp it for you, but I don't know if it would be official or nuthin."

WHAT?? Of course I need it to be official! Then he said something strange about having done something similar for South Africans before, but not Australians. What difference would it make? Maybe he was being racist towards Australians.

I went to the post office. They knew what to do and even gave me some advice when the copies I made were a bit dark.

The funniest bit is, after going to the police station I got a text message from the Met Police asking me to go to their website and fill in a survey about their performance when I'd called 999! Hilarious.

But man, I hope I never have to rely on them to rescue me.

Jesse

My lovely aunt Jesse Sherlock died last week, of cancer. Cancer is such a horrible, insidious way to die, but Jesse lived exactly the way she wanted to and was incredibly outgoing. I loved and admired her.

On the off chance that anyone reading this knew Jesse, you can donate to a fund, to preserve a part of British woodland in her name. This is the link.

Last time I saw Jesse was in January and she treated us to a wonderful evening at a pub in Scagglethorpe (the BEST name for a town EVER! Like something out of The Lord of the Rings!)

And Fliss and I are thinking of you Mum, and of Cissy and everyone else who loved her.

Finally!

The prison film has finally been given the absolutely, iron-clad, definite go-ahead. Hoorah! (and phew - I was starting to get just a TAD nervous about it). I quit the Barbican because I knew the project was funded, so I assumed it was green lit, but then we had to get permission from the Ministry of Justice and it took about 3 weeks. But I got the call today and it's all go.

For the last 3 weeks I've just been waiting, not just for the prison film but am waiting for actors to respond on 2 feature film projects and also waiting to hear about a job application. At least now I can get into a project properly rather than just waiting!

Got my British drivers license in the post yesterday. Somehow that feels even more official and important than the passport!

Anyway. I'm off to drink some cider to celebrate the fact that I do actually have the job that I thought I had but then wasn't so sure!

Lucky charms?

For some reason we always have ladybugs in our flat. Not sure why, but they're everywhere! I hope they're as lucky as people say.

Trying to buy a present for Ben's birthday today, which has proven to be difficult. How do you choose an object to put in the post that is interesting and has meaning and says "I love you"? Keeping in mind that he already has an iPhone.

Mitwoch

Seeing as I haven't left the house for about 2 weeks and have not attempted any exercise since the theft of my bike (grrr) I made myself go to Pilates last night. Sadly the teacher that I used to love is no longer there (come back Emily D!) and although the new teacher was perfectly nice 2 new yoga schools have now opened up even closer to my house so I might explore them! What a trendy, yuppy area I must live in, with at least 3 yoga schools!

My main job at iceandfire this week has been to try and find interviewees for new projects, including British people who are living in poverty and Australians/NZs/Canadians/Americans who are living and/or working illegally in London. We have a script about undocumented migrants, The Illegals, but that focused on the people you would expect - Africans and Latin Americans - but the majority of illegals workers in England are actually white westerners. If you know anyone who would talk to us (completely anonymously and confidentially) then let me know.

Things also seem to be moving with World of Chickens, although I'm not going to hold my breath. At the moment I have 2 films that are supposedly shooting at the same time, but the chances of either one of them actually making it are so slim that I'm happy to go along with it.

Spoke to Chels yesterday - she's about to move in with a Scientologist! I'm so impressed. A Scientologist in LA. I'm hoping Chels can investigate and find out the secrets of their inner circle...

PS: The title of this post is Wednesday in German, but I don't know how to spell it!

Thurs/Fri Update

Back on track now. Up to the present.

Thursday night I went to an event organised by BECTU, the media & entertainment union. It was a discussion on the future of TV drama in the UK, featuring two big names in British television, Charles Sturridge and Tony Garnett. They were both great - so eloquent and interesting. I also loved the fact that, although they were both very critical of how the TV networks are being managed over here (especially the BBC) they were also positive and hopeful about the future. Whenever I've been to similar events in Australia they would always end up being really depressing, all doom and gloom, but this was still inspirational despite the criticism and disappointment at the current climate. I wanted to talk to Charles Sturridge afterwards - it was a small, intimate atmosphere so I felt confident going to speak to him - but he seemed to disappear fairly quickly after the talk, unfortunately. I did meet some other good people though, including a director from Melbourne who has been working in TV here for about 7 years. She has offered to have coffee with me so that I can pick her brains. She works in factual but might still know some good people and be able to offer advice.

Was invited to 2 events last night - a party and a concert - and ended up piking on both of them! The concert was a composer I didn't know and it started to piss with rain just before I had to leave, so I cancelled (my friend had been given free tix, so I didn't screw her over too much!) and I'm blaming Chelsea for missing the party, because we skyped for over an hour! Although we all know that it's not actually Chelsea's fault, that I was glad for the excuse!

It's starting to cool down here although the weather is still generally pretty good. Some rain this week but it's supposed to be sunny the next few days. Global warming is doing wonders for London!

x

Chapters 5 & 6

So on to Chapter 5. A bit later than I promised. My new housemate is... Felicity! Yes, little sis has moved in. She finished at Arsenal in June then went on holiday for 4 weeks (to Spain - poor thing!) but when she got back she struggled to get a job. Being unemployed, I offered for her to move into our small room so she could avoid rent until she could afford it again. She has now been offered a job back at Arsenal, so she is working there until she goes back to Melbourne in December. Arsenal really needed her back, so Fliss is enjoying being the person who came to their rescue!

Chapter 6: My crap week. It started with my new bike being stolen... from inside my apartment building! Yes, the one Ben bought me for my birthday. It lasted 2 1/2 weeks. Bikes are just really hard to hold onto in London! I was so pissed off, am still really annoyed actually. I was enjoying riding my bike around. I put in a police report and everyone said to go and look at Brick Lane market, where a lot of stalls sell second hand bikes, but I haven't found it yet. *sigh*

Then the day after my bike got stolen I had the 11 hour shift from hell at the Barbican! In the whole time I've worked there I've never needed to call security or the medic, or even call the manager to sort out an issue, but I had to do all 3 on my last shift! I was looking after the cloakroom at a wedding and the patrons got SOOO drunk. They weren't allowed to take drinks outside while they smoked, but we had to tell them about every 5 minutes. They started sneaking drinks outside under their coats, in their jackets and bags. They only had to put it down for 3 minutes, but apparently that was too much to ask. One gentleman, upon being asked (by me) if he could please leave his drink inside said "What is this, the Third Reich?" To which I replied "Are you calling me a Nazi??"

Later in the evening, there was a fist fight between patrons (thus security was called), then some drunk guys picked up their mate and dropped him on a terracotta pot, knocking him out cold (medic) and my manager caught them doing cocaine OUTSIDE OFF THE PAVEMENT! So wrong. It was the longest shift of my life.

Then I got rejected by 2 agents. One of them, to be fair, liked me and my work but said to get back in touch when things had progressed further because he doesn't have any contacts he would consider useful to me at this stage in my career. AND my rent got taken out before I got paid by iceandfire, so in the middle of my crap week I had £18 in the bank! It's better now though.

I've just drawn a line under that week. Moving onwards and upwards. I hope.

Chapter 4: New job!

I had started to despair over the summer about ever being able to quit my job at the Barbican. I resented them somewhat less when I found out they were going to pay us the London living wage (there's been a big union push for councils/boroughs to pay the London living wage, as opposed to the British award minimum, because it costs so much more to live in London than anywhere else in the country).

There was one good thing about the Barbican job, which ironically came out of the worst ever shift (which I talked about in an earlier post) During the dreadful Carpark 5 shift, I met Graham Sheffield, Artistic Director of the Barbican. I chatted to him briefly, and the next day I cheekily sent him an email about iceandfire's season at the Edinburgh Fringe. A couple of weeks later he wrote back and said he'd like to come, and he did! Christine saw him in the audience, shaking his head and tutting in the appropriate places (it's a show to make you angry!) So I then sent Graham another email after the festival was over and asked if he would meet with iceandfire to discuss a potential collaboration. Not only does iceandfire fit many of the Barbican's artistic aims/vision (as discussed at some Barbican staff meetings) but Graham is also on the board of advisors for freedom of speech organistion Index on Censorship, whose editor is on OUR board! And they have commissioned one show from us and we are working with them on another.

Anyway, on a fateful day about 3 weeks ago, Graham's PA got back to me and said he was keen to meet and talk about a collaboration. Very exciting for us - the meeting is in a few weeks (late Oct) and the Barbican is definitely the most high profile venue/arts collaborator we have spoken to. About one hour after receiving this excellent email, I had a phone call. From Inside Job Productions, with whom I made the prison film in May, offering me another job! A more long-term project, to take me (working part-time) til late February!

So I feel like I must have been working at the Barbican for a reason. Putting up with the less-than-generous pay and unexciting work in order to get this meeting for iceandfire with Graham Sheffield... then the universe rewarded me by allowing me to quit!

My final shift at the Barbican was another doozy though. I'll go into more details in the Crappy Week chapter...!!

Chapter 3: Birthday/Ben leaving

My birthday in early September was Ben's last day in London. The Sunday before my Tues birthday I had a pub lunch with some friends and family (Mum and Dad were over, from late Aug to mid Sept). My previous housemates didn't realise it was lunch, however, and after we had all gone back to our place for cake and tea I got a call from them demanding that I go back out to the pub and have a drink with them! It was very nice to see them though.

On the day itself, Ben took me to buy a bike. We went to this lovely shop in Victoria Park that recycles bikes and builds custom-designed bikes for disabled people. Then we walked through the park, a whole section I have never seen before (it is a huge park!) and we saw deer and numerous squirrels. In the evening we went to dinner with my parents and Fliss at a nice Sardinian restaurant nearby. It was lovely, but knowing that Ben was leaving the next day I started to get a bit weepy by the end of the evening and just wanted to spend time with him. Ben left early the next day, I couldn't go with him to the airport because I had to work. I walked him to the street, where he said I should go back inside. I watched him from the window as he trudged to the bus with his backpack. I won't see him until Christmas, a 3 1/2 month parting, the longest so far.

Chapter 2: Portugal

I have already put some photos up of our Portugal trip. We flew into Faro, which is on the south coast near the border with Spain, and stayed in Tavira, a small town about 40 mins away by train.

Had an incredible flight over though, sitting next to this odd woman. She was reading the Daily Mail, so alarm bells went off early, but at first she was just talking about her health and other less-than-interesting subjects. Then she picked up the paper. Front page was news of the Lockerbie bomber being released back to Libya (not sure if you got this news in Aus) and the crowds in Libya waving flags and cheering as this man got off the plane. This woman shook her head. "These people would have us all wiped off the face of the earth. Look at them!" I made vaguely reassuring noises but didn't really say anything. "They come over here, talking about human rights..." Ben did nothing to help me. He sunk into his book. Eventually the woman asked what I did for a living and I took a deep breath. "I work for a human rights organisation" I said. Thus we started a debate.

What was interesting though, was that the debate was quite enjoyable. She never got personal or nasty, often referring to how much she was enjoying the debate and how much she liked me. Eventually she tried to bait Ben into the conversation, asking what he did. When she found out Ben was interested in history she told us we should go to Spain, to the north, where there are the oldest universities in the world. "Yes, built by Muslims" Ben told her. "No... Really?" The Moors, Ben informed her. Eventually she nodded "But those Muslims were different to these ones with the..." (she mimed the burkha).

She herself, Brenda, was a British aristocrat living in Portugal (she wasn't willing to confront the irony of an ex-Pat Brit being anti-immigration) with an incredible family history and so many stories to tell. Her niece, who is married to some Hollywood special effects artist, and when Brenda went to her wedding she sat next to "Oh what was his name, George Kukas I think? Short, Jewish man." "George LUCAS??" "That must be him. And some Francis Coppola fellow." She had no idea who they were, although she did seem to know that they were impressive names to drop! Also some crazy relative of hers who was a strict vegan with six degrees and lived in a sprawling mansion with, among other things, a Romany sword encrusted with diamonds and rubies laying around. Some great great uncle had been the Duke of Wellington's right hand man and had taken this sword from Napoleon himself, who had taken it from the Russians!

Arriving in Faro, Brenda showed us where to catch the bus. The public transport in southern Portugal worked well, but was infrequent. The train from Faro to Tavira only took 40 minutes but only arrived every 2 hours! We missed one so we sat in Faro and ate cheese sandwiches and drank beer. A typical menu in Portugal seemed to be: cheese toastie, ham toastie, cheese + ham toastie, cheese baguette, ham baguette, cheese + ham baguette. Arriving in Tavira we had another ex-Pat Brit show us to our hotel, a lovely softly-spoken man named Brian. He gave us his number and we intended to call him on our trip, but in the end we just wanted to spend time the two of us.

Tavira was an excellent place for a holiday where I just needed to do nothing much of the time (especially after Edinburgh). It's a small town, attractive although run down. It meant that we didn't feel the need to rush out and see many sites, we could just stay in and read a book if we felt so inclined. To go to the beach, we had to catch a ferry (Tavira is on a river) with these grumpy old Portuguese men with leathery skin. It was only a 15 minute trip, and very pleasant, but the way back would often get very crowded on board (I don't think there are strict maritime rules in Tavira, the old men seemed to pack everyone on!)

One day we did venture out to see a Moorish castle which had been the subject of crusader attacks in the 12th Century (no prizes for guessing whose idea it was...) We caught the train out to the middle of nowhere, somewhere inland. It was really hot, 33-35 C, and we had no map and no idea where the castle was. We just trudged, following some road signs that pointed (we hoped) to the town. Eventually we came to the top of a hill, there was very little around in terms of houses or shops, and we finally could see the main town, and the castle that dominated it. We made our way up there and it was in excellent condition, a fine castle specimen. There was little else in the town though and so we were keen to not miss our train back, or else we would have to wait more than 2 hours in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a hot day. Thankfully we got to the station with a few minutes to spare and made the 1 1/2 hour trip home, our legs sticking to the seats of the unairconditioned carriage.

There was also a castle in Tavira itself, not a very big one but very beautiful, with a garden in the middle. There was a lovely restaurant next to it, so on our final night we went and ate next to the 12th Century castle, on top of a hill, looking over the town, in the candlelight. Quite romantic, if I do say so myself.

Chapter 1: Edinburgh

iceandfire did the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time in August, taking our show Rendition Monologues for a one week run. I went up for 4 days.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was crazy. The festival itself was much as I expected - a similar vibe to the Adelaide Fringe (the 2nd biggest fringe in the world I believe) or the Melb Comedy Festival - but doing a show was exhausting. Constant promotion and plugging. You can't just build up to opening night and then relax once it's over. After opening night drinks you have to go back out there, with flyers, and hassle people to come to your show.

I think I found it especially hard because it's the first play that I've worked on (for more than one performance - iceandfire's outreach project usually only does one-off shows) where I wasn't creatively involved. So my job was to deal with the stress and promote the show but without getting any kind of adrenaline rush when the show went well. I wasn't onstage performing, or sitting in the audience enjoying a show that I directed and gauging the audience's reaction.

That said, the show did go pretty well. We got an average audience of 60 per show - compared with an average audience of about 6 for most shows - and we got a 5 star review from WhatsOnStage, plus a nice review in the Scotsman as well. Sadly the reviews came out the day before our last show, so not much time to bring in an audience! Oh well. That was part of the learning curve.

The other big lesson came from the rubbish PR company that we hired, who seemed to do absolutely nothing. Perhaps they did plenty, but they certainly didn't tell us about it. I sent them at least 6 emails asking them to be specific about who they had contacted with a press release and invited to opening night and they would always reply with vague responses like "We are talking to our contacts. Peace." I swear, he signed off every email with the word "peace". The company's only advice while we were actually there at the festival was to get the cast to go out to the cool bars and get photographed with celebrities! When I asked "why?" he said it was for the media. But why would the media care about a photo of 5 guys they don't know standing next to someone they maybe do?? Who is going to print that? These guys DIDN'T EVEN COME TO OUR OPENING NIGHT!! I was furious.

So we did get some OK media, but it all came from me. I didn't even know anyone in Edinburgh, that was why we hired a PR company. They got us one radio interview on local Edinburgh radio. We threatened to not pay the second half of their fee (not sure if Christine gave in eventually) but they STILL didn't produce any evidence that they had done anything. They said they had some but refused to hand it over. Wankers.

But next time we'll know better!

Email me if you want to know the name of the company so that you don't ever waste £1000.

Task for the weekend

I am officially nominating myself in the Worst Blogger of 2009 competition. In the "just plain lazy/crap" category. Not in the "inciting racial hatred" category or anything.

So quite a lot to talk about. I think I'm going to do this in chapters based on significant events of the past 2 1/2 months or so...

1) Edinburgh

2) Portugal

3) Birthday/Ben leaving (a bitter/sweet chapter)

4) New job (sweet!)

5) New housemate (you'll have to wait and see...)

6) My crap week last week (just plain bitter)

Think that's most of it. The list is more for me than for you (I don't know if anyone still bothers to read this, considering how inconsistent I am!) I'm going to try and write about all of the above over this weekend. In chronological order.

Ranting

Not much this week, mostly work stuff. Wed night Ben and I went to our nice local (one of the locals) The Approach for dinner. It's a really nice pub. I had actually been there before but that was when I first arrived, last Sept. Last night the DOP on Ben's New York Othello film came over for dinner, Zelmira. She's actually British although she lives in NYC and her husband is Swedish and she just got back from shooting a doco in Germany...!

Nought else really. I'm getting a bit frustrated about my lack of time to work on my own projects and write. Life just seems to get away from me all the time. I'm working part-time but then on my days off stuff just always comes up - such as today when there was a problem with my application for this video project that I submitted a few weeks ago, so I had to go into the office to fax it. Then from 5pm I'm working at the Barbican so that allows me 2-3 hours to do my own stuff, but then there are emails and dirty dishes... It's hard to make it a priority. Hopefully next week I'll get some of my own work done.

And can I just be very English for a moment and complain that the weather here has been rubbish for the past 2 weeks. Weird sun-rain-sun-rain weather - and the rain isn't even normal London rain, it pelts down and then suddenly the sun comes out and it's 23C. So odd. And annoying.

Barbed

Had the worst shift at the Barbican last night. 5 hours in the carpark supervising a photo/sound installation. About 30 people came in the whole time and there was this music on a loop, which, I kid you not, sounded exactly like the theme to psycho played at half speed. Did the artist think of the poor sod who had to work on his stoopid installation?? That music went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on...

In better news, Ben and I have booked a holiday to Portugal! After the Edinburgh trip, just before Ben will go back to Aus. 4 nights in a nice hotel on the beach... Yeah!

I gotta get out of the Barbican though. Driving me crazy. I applied for some funding last week for a video participation project with some refugees in Wimbledon, through iceandfire (partnering with FilmAid). So fingers crossed for that coz then I can ditch the Barb and do basically full-time hours for 3 months working on bleeding heart do-gooder projects!

Wired

I know that I'm just full of excuses for why I keep abandoning my blogging duties but this time it's a real good one.

I haven't had the internet.

It took more than a week to get the internet connected at our new flat (yes - new flat! I'll get to that in a moment). I don't know why but all the communications companies said it would take 5-10 business days! It's not like a person ever turned up, they just seemed to flick a switch, and we went from living in the Dark Ages to being in civilisation. They sent us a text message saying we were online and that was that. Why the 5 working days then??

Anyway, new flat. Hoorah! And living like a real, live married couple. In the same house, not just the same country! The apartment is great. Overlooking a canal and a park, with cafes and pubs all around. Nice open plan living/kitchen and good furniture. The only downside is that it's on quite a busy road, so if we have the windows open it can be noisy. But I used to live on the corner of Brunswick St and Johnston, so this is nothing! No trams or crap 80s music blaring from One Twenty Bar...

Had housewarming drinks on the weekend. Slightly disappointing turnout, I think a lot of people were away, but we met some of our neighbours which was nice. They brought us flowers! A lovely couple downstairs. There's another nice guy across the hall, who we're having a beer with tonight. I want to get to know the people on the ground floor who have an awesome terrace on the canal! Maybe they'll invite us over for a BBQ...

I'll put some photos up soon.

At iceandfire we're preparing for Edinburgh Fringe. It'll be the first time the company has gone and we're in a 350 seat venue! So the pressure is on! Thankfully we're in a few "Top Picks" lists, and we also got this Preview Article. Two reviewers have also confirmed they're coming on Opening Night, including one from the Scotsman, so that will hopefully bring some punters in. If you know anyone to Edinburgh, tell them to see Rendition Monologues!

Fliss went to Spain yesterday - I'll miss her! We seem to be more involved in each other's lives over here than we were in Melbourne, I guess because we're both away from home together. We've always been close but I think I see her twice as much living in London as I did before. Anyway, I suspect she is going to have an awesome time on her holiday. And she has already had some interest from potential employers for when she gets back, so fingers crossed there!

That's all from me at the moment. But now that we're all wired in Bethnal Green I promise to keep up the blog more!

Sickness city

Last week was horrid - I came down with a fever Tues night, somehow managed to get through most of Wed/Thurs, but then Thurs night the headache that had been slightly frustrating me became like a sledgehammer, my body was burning with fever and I came out in a rash. My Mum was demanding over the phone that I go to hospital, but instead I called a nurses hotline they have here and a nice nurse told me how to check that the rash wasn't serious (ie: not meningitis - what you do is push down on the skin and if the red rash turns white under the pressure then it's viral, if it stays red then it's bad!) and to take more painkillers and go to the dr in the morning. I started to feel a bit better again on Fri before - SURPRISE! A new symptom. Vomiting. All Sat and Sun.

It's been beautiful weather here but I haven't had a chance to see it until today!

Possibly the worst virus I've ever had, and a rather lonely experience too - being sick all on my own! My housemates were busy with their lives and weekends and Fliss was away from Thurs - Mon (how convenient!)

AND I had to cancel my meeting with the agent again! I think pigs will fly when we finally meet.

Anyway, feeling better now and starting to pack up my room to move into the new flat on Fri, the same day Ben arrives.

Have added some new Amsterdam pics.

xx

Monday madness

The agent has postponed our meeting again! But he has an excellent excuse this time - he's going to see the Queen! His dad is receiving an award at Buckingham Palace.

Some Amsterdam photos are up now. I'll change and update them over the week.

I can't believe it's almost July...!

Last night I had a bizarre cinematic experience working at the Barbican. In the afternoon I saw "Persona", a 1960s Ingmar Bergman film about a relationship between two women, a nurse and her actress patient, that becomes a bit crazy and they start to get confused about who is who. Then, in the evening, I watched "The Hangover". Nuff said! (American Pie 15 years later...!)

Got our Asylum Dialogues show in London tonight, I think I have about 10 friends coming so I'm really looking forward to it. And Fliss and I will have dinner in the evening.

Oh, and I just realised I haven't mentioned the big news. Ben and I might be getting our own place! When he comes over in July he was going to come for 3 weeks but now it will be more like 2 months and so we're going to get a flat together. A 2-bed, that way when Ben goes back to Aus for work (he has 2 TV jobs later this year) then I can rent the second room out - hopefully to a friend or to Fliss, someone who will understand the situation and be easy to live with. Next year Ben will either make the move over here or will be coming and going, depending on Sucker (I'm so sick of that movie - I used to love it now it's the bane of my life!)

Last week I looked at a few flats. The good news is that it's a buyers market over here at the moment, which means that there are a lot of decent places around in my price range. The bad news is that it's a buyers market over here... so it's hard to find someone who can take my room! I don't want to put an offer on a flat until I know that someone will take my room, I don't want to pay double rent for an indefinite period of time!

So that's exciting, although looking for flats is time consuming. And with Refugee Week last week I was busy at work, so it made for a hectic week! My meeting with the agent got postponed, it's now on Wednesday. So I'm sorry if you wasted good vibes on me last week! Try to send them again on Wed if you can (although I think it will be 1am for anyone in Aus, so they'll have to be dream vibes!)

26C here on Thursday. Londoners will go crazy!

Amsterdam update

Fliss and I had a wonderful time in Amsterdam. Thanks especially to Chelsea who gave us a list of suggestions! We got through a few of them as well.

When we arrived late on Friday nowhere near our hotel was open for food! It was only 9:30pm on a Fri night, but we were a bit outside the main city and even the hotel stopped serving after 9:30pm. So we ordered a pizza online... which never arrived! Thankfully we hadn't paid for it. But we waited up, both falling asleep but jumping whenever there was a noise in the hallway in case it was the pizza man! The next morning we both slept in a bit more than we had intended, and by the time we got into the city for breakfast everywhere had stopped serving it... but it was too early for lunch! We saved a lot of money on food in the first 15 hours, because we were unable to buy anything. We eventually found a bakery and then hired bikes.

We rode up to a big square, parked our bikes and walked around. We walked through the Red Light District, which was weird. Prostitutes on display in shop windows. I didn't know where to look! Part of me wanted to take a photo, because the concept is so bizarre to me, but they are people behind that glass so it felt exploitative and wrong to take photos.

Then we had lunch in the park, felafals and beer. Very pleasant in the sunshine (we both got sunburnt!) Rode around a bit, then went to see Anne Frank's house, which was great. I've never quite been able to comprehend the geography of the house, despite having read the book and seen a recent BBC adaptation. Walking through the space made it a lot clearer. And the photos of movie stars that she had stuck on the wall, cut out of old fan magazines, was a reminder of just how young she was when she died.

We had nibbles and wine at a wonderful little restaurant, it was called something like Mama's Cafe (but I don't think that's it). The walls were covered in photos of mothers and the menu was based on the traditional recipes of the owners' mums! Very cute.

Sat night we were totally lame and just had a drink in the hotel. We got the giggles though because I was eating some nuts out of a bowl on a table in the bar, and Fliss pointed out that the other tables didn't have nuts so someone must have paid for them. We sat at that table anyway and continued to eat someone else's nuts, bursting into laughter whenever someone walked past or looked at us because we were convinced they were about to ask why we were stealing their food.

The next day we rode around again trying to find somewhere for breakfast. Where the previous day we had been too late, locals told us on Sunday we were too early - it was 10am! A local woman asked if we needed help and she rode us to a lovely coffee shop on a canal nearby (in the traditional sense, not an Amsterdam "coffee shop"...!) The only food they had was this cold apple pie thing, so we had that for breakfast. Not sure why this was such a weird trip food-wise!

After returning the bikes we went on a very pleasant canal bus ride. I then left my jacket on the boat. And I lost my sunglasses. Why - WHY??

Then our only normal meal, tapas at a lovely restaurant, and then home. The flight is only 45 mins! Shorter than Melb-Adelaide! It seems to ridiculous.

Anyway, that was our trip. I'll try to write more on the weekend about the rest of this week!

xxx

PS: When we got home, Fliss discovered an email from the online pizza company saying they had closed down! Probably should remove their website then...!

Good things come in threes...

iceandfire Theatre are kicking arse!

We just got 3 years worth of core funding, and our show for the Edinburgh Fringe has been singled out in a press release by the Fringe, thus ensuring we have been mentioned in at least half-a-dozen news articles already... and we haven't even started our own publicity!

Here is us mentioned on the BBC.

And here in What's On Stage.

How great is it when awesome things just fall into your lap??

I also have a meeting with that agent I mentioned, on Tuesday. He said on the phone "You know where to find us? We're just in the same building as Working Title and Universal Pictures"... yeah, coz I drop by Working Title all the time!! Anyway, he does sound nice.

Off to Amsterdam with my sis tomorrow, so will have more pics to put up! In the meantime, here's a photo of Felicity with DJ Mark Ronson (and they're wearing matching clothes!)

Quirky London

Just in case any of you are planning to come and visit me, you might find this Guardian article inspiring (it's about some really cool, cheap accommodation options).

Had a lovely dinner and drinks with Pete and Thea last night, as well as the always-entertaining Dave Fraser. Fun night. But I've been out every night this week so I will not be drinking any alcohol on the weekend!

Oh, and apparently the agent I emailed will meet with me, I just need to nag him some more :)

Small successes

Our viral campaign on the homepage of Third Sector magazine. I did register with the website but now it won't let me sign in, so unfortunately I can't give you my login. You'll just have to register yourself (it's free) to read the full article. Or you can just trust me that they say nice things!

Also for iceandfire, I booked us an ad in New Statesman magazine, and got a £300 discount! It helped that the sales exec knew iceandfire and was super enthusiastic. So all I had to do was say what our budget was and he gave us a much bigger ad than we could usually afford plus an event listing.

Got an email from a big ad/music video/film production company, Academy Films, who want to see my showreel (exciting!) They were recommended by Matthew at my meeting on Monday. The agent he suggested, however, has not returned my email or phone call! Grrr.

So quite a good day. Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference!

Results of weekend musings!

Had the meeting with distributor. I didn't really push him on any of my projects in the end, it seemed a bit inappropriate seeing as I was there on the pretense of asking him for advice. His advice was to

1. get an agent (he has given me someone to chase up and drop his name. I've emailed them, will have to call them this arvo methinks. He has offered to call them himself if they won't meet with me)
   
2. make a bigger budget short film, to show I can deal with big budget projects and/or look at making advertisements (easier said than done!)
3. keep writing

Don't know if Al Jazeera aired our piece about Rendition Monologues. However, Christine was interviewed by George Galloway MP (an eccentric and larger-than-life character in British politics! He is my MP, but I'm not sure if I can vote for him. The opening credits of his TV show are hilarious, him smoking a cigar out front of Westminster, even the fact that he HAS his own TV show! He is clearly an ego maniac - he was on Celebrity Big Brother - but he has some good causes)

Also, Third Sector magazine are going to put the rendition viral video on their homepage as their "digital campaign of the week" on Fri. They interviewed moi, so I'll put the link here when it comes up.

Half the cabinet are quitting today. Gordon Brown is screwed. Hopefully the Labour party here have a quick and painless removal and get someone fresh and new in the PMs chair (I'm going for Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader and one of the few Cabinet Ministers not tainted by recent expenses scandals. In fact she's one of the only MPs here that I like.) They are almost certainly going to lose the next election, but they can try to reduce the damage by making changes now.

Musings on the week

I'm afraid there is nothing much to report about this week. Apologies to those of you who think my life in London is glamourous and filled with constant excitement. A few minor highlights...

• Skype meeting with World of Chickens' Dublin producers on Tuesday. Will hopefully be meeting with them face-to-face in the next couple of weeks to make final script changes and to sketch out casting/financing plans.
• Some movement also on the other feature project, Happy. Response from a distributor in London who has met me a few times saying he wasn't sure if I was experienced enough. So I (rather cheekily) emailed him and have set up a meeting next week! Aims are to either change his mind about me and/or find out what he thinks I should do next. He's quite big-time.
• Haven't seen Rendition Monologues on Al Jazeera, will have to follow that up! Did get some further interest from a magazine publication though about the viral, Third Sector Magazine (focused on the not-for-profit sector in UK)
• Had a meeting with charity FilmAid about collaborating with them on a project. Meeting went well, they seemed very impressed with iceandfire and what we do.
• BEAUTIFUL weather here at the moment. 25C for the next 3 days and sunny. This afternoon I'm going to the park with Fliss and Pete (I'm also assuming Thea) and will have a few beers (it's legal here!) before going to see a play. Well, Felicity is going to a party but the rest of us will see a play!

That's it I think. Got the Amnesty International Media Awards on Tues night, which I'm actually looking forward to. I get to dress up and maybe do some shmoozing, not sure who will be there.

Playhouse problems

Today iceandfire had our show Rendition Monologues at the Southwark Playhouse in London and Al Jazeera were coming to film it for a news broadcast. I said I would meet AJ at the rehearsal at 2:30pm and arrange an interview with Christine... but when I arrived at 2pm Christine and the cast were still waiting outside the venue because no-one from the theatre was there to let us in! They were supposed to open up at 12, Christine arrived at 1:30, and by the time AJ arrived we were still locked out! Quite embarrassing for us, our first big TV broadcast. EVENTUALLY someone turned up from the theatre, but only after Christine called the artistic director 6 times (she wasn't answering) who then gave her the tech manager's number, who also didn't answer his phone!

Anyway, we got in sometime after 3pm (after Christine had been calling and waiting for 1 1/2 hours) and Al Jazeera filmed for just over half an hour. Hopefully they'll put the story online and I can put a link here.

Volunteer follies

Last night I hired a video camera for a vounteer job... from a boat! This guy had an office on a 1918 ship docked at Victoria Dock on the Thames. It was quite funny.

The job I volunteered for though was a bit of a nightmare. I was filming a show, a play being put on by an African youth group, which started 30 minutes later than it should have and ran almost 2 hours longer than it was supposed to! Ergh.

It's a pity I don't believe in God, because I would totally go to heaven.

The week that was

I've still been a bit crap with the blog. Oh well, a week's delay is better than 3 months!

The Barbican screwed me around a lot last week. First of all the woman who looks after the rosters refused to tell me when my shifts were, beyond my first one ("check your rota in your pigeonhole" is all she would say!) Turned out I had 3 shifts. Then I got a letter saying I was about to be fired for not turning up to shifts... which was untrue! It was quite a harsh letter as well. I found it a bit upsetting, even though my manager had no trouble believing that it was their error and not mine. I'm a good employee and feel a bit hard done by!

Saturday night it was my housemate's birthday (technically it was her birthday all day, but she had a party in the evening!) Our flat was filled with hip young French people smoking, it stank for a few says afterwards! It was fun though. I stayed up until 2am! Shock!

Lots of iceandfire work as usual. We sent out a press release on Monday, Al Jazeera are coming to film our performance on Sunday night! I had a meeting today with the producer of the prison film, who said I am now their drama director of choice! However they don't have any drama commissions at the moment. Poo. Also got a meeting on Friday with an organisation called Filmaid who I'm trying to organise a project with, in collaboration with iceandfire. If I can get more work through Inside Job Productions or Filmaid then I can quit the Barbican - hoorah!

Having a crap week

And it started with something shit that happened in the final few hours of my otherwise fun trip to NYC on the weekend. But I'll start at the beginning...

Arrived in NYC, had to spend more than an hour in the immigration queue. At one stage someone left a bag unattended and the immigration security guards walked along the queue demanding "Does anyone have a green bag? Do you own a green bag?" before taking the offending item away (presumably to be destroyed).

Was chatting to a woman (Trisha, from Hertfordshire) in the queue and she asked if I wanted to share a cab. I convinced her to take the subway (it was 6pm on a Friday night, traffic in Manhattan would have been hellish)... but then I got on the wrong train and so it took twice as long as it should have! I was a bit embarrassed. Don't know why she was even listening to me to be honest - she could have caught a cab, I was too cheap!

However, I did see Keanu Reeves on the subway (Taking the A Train) He was with an odd looking skinny girl with long greasy hair who was wearing pyjamas and maniacally biting her nails (even worse than me!)

Arrived at our hotel, halfway between Times Square and Central Park on 7th Ave. Ben was already there. We went out for some nice pasta but, even though I was starving, the time difference fucked with my appetite and I was full after about 3 mouthfuls. Disappointing though coz it was really good!

Saturday I just wondered around, mostly in the East Village/Lower East Side. Saw another 2 actors (this guy from Sex and the City, and some guy who I know has been in a lot of sitcoms. Don't know his name) Ben and I thought we might go see a movie that night. We didn't. Just like at home!

Sunday we went to look at some locations for Ben's crazy-arse film project (he's shooting a trailer of Othello in New York. With a budget of $0) in Brooklyn. We got lost and wandered along some godawful industrial estate for hours. Literally I'd say we walked for 2 1/2 hours, trying to look out for a taxi (none), somewhere to eat (nowhere) or a metro station (nada). Then we walked through the Hasidic Jewish ghetto and were almost at our destination (ie: civilisation) when we finally hailed a taxi to take us up the last few blocks. It was worth it, I was so sick of walking. I even got a bit sunburned (sorry Mum!)

Monday Ben had a meeting (his first ever meeting) with his DOP, Zelmira. She was very nice, I liked her a lot. I went and bought a week's supply of Swedish fish (these awesome lollies, like undiluted raspberry cordial in chewable form. Keeping you buzzing for ages!) Then I realised that, although we'd checked out of the hotel, I'd left my favourite coat (seen by my regular readers in many photos on this blog) in the wardrobe. The coat also had a new brooch on the lapel, which my lovely friend Anna had bought me for Xmas and which had traveled around the world and back again through some dodgy postal system, only to (fortuitously) arrive in Melbourne when I was there! But the hotel claimed not to have my coat. Ben went and checked in our old room (another guest had checked in)... it wasn't in the wardrobe. It has gone, along with the brooch and (as I discovered upon my arrival home the next morning)... my keys. For my flat and office.

A shite start to the week, which so far hasn't improved.

This website is cheering me up somewhat though.

Also the fact that the prison asked me to "add bed linen" to the prison cells in post production!! What the fuck do they think we're making, Terminator 2??

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet

Here is the video I made for iceandfire, about extraordinary rendition.

Please go to www.renditionmonologues.org for more information... and/or rate the video on Youtube!

I know I know I know

I'm a bad person. Or at least a bad blogger. I've neglected my duties for more than 2 months. Unacceptable.

My excuse is that I thought it was odd to write this while I was back in Melbourne (seeing as it is called Charlotte in London! I'm very literal minded) and since I've got back I've hit the ground running.

First things first. The prison film.

It was a low security prison, level C (the top level is A, the lowest is D, which is an "open prison" so prisoners are allowed into the community during the day but return at night.) Having said that, my cast and crew consisted of 4 murderers and a paedophile! I was pretty nervous the first day, when I had a rehearsal and met the inmates for the first time. I wasn't worried about my security, but the prison officer in charge of the filming had managed to give me the impression that the playwright and actors would be utterly unimpressed by my attempts to make their script more "filmic". I'd been given a play script so naturally I'd written it into a film, seeing as that's what we were making - turning some talking to the audience moments into voice over and cutting it down a bit (not much). When I tried to explain this to the prison officer she shook her head and looked unimpressed and said "Ooh no, they like doing the talk to the audience bit. I don't know about that..."

Consequently, when I met the inmates for the first time my leg was shaking, I had to concentrate to stop it from jiggling up and down! The author of the play had had a heart attack the week before and so we had to move to his wing, where he read my version of his script stoney-faced. No emotion at all. At the end of it though, he clearly approved, and instructed his fellow inmates to go along with the changes and follow my instructions. The playwright appeared to be something of a leader in the prison.

The shoot went remarkably well, despite some rather hefty obstacles. One was that we only had a day to shoot, and a small crew. And the day before I was told by the prison that the inmates would have to be locked up in the middle of the day for lunch, giving us 2 1/2 hours to shoot in the morning and only 2 in the afternoon! So only half a day in actual fact! Thankfully the producer called the head of security and got our cast a special dispensation to stay on the wing during lunchtime. We still had a lot to shoot, but we got it done exactly on time, even managing to get a bit of coverage. The camera operator was grabbing cutaway shots whenever he could.

All in all, it was an eye-opening experience. Three of the four men who had committed murder were very polite and rather charming, it was hard to imagine how they managed to do what they did. What it really made me think about was the girlfriends, wives and partners of these men. I find that I can't help experiencing a flicker of judgement when I see on TV partners supporting their loved ones in court, defending them, despite their obviously violent natures. But I find it easier to understand now how someone could fall in love with a man and have no inclination of what he was capable of, until it was too late. This goes for the paedophile too I guess.

Sadly can't put the film up on Youtube or anything to show you guys, due to victims rights laws (fair enough too - I wouldn't want to see the man who murdered my sister on Youtube making a film about diversity in prison!!).

Anyway, I'll write about my special weekend in NYC with Ben tomorrow... I promise!

PLEASE NOTE: My sister is not actually dead. The reference above is in relation to a hypothetical murderer! Please don't be alarmed. She is safe and well...!

Artsmania

Been less crazy busy this week, thank goodness, although I have instead been sampling much of what London has to offer in terms of the arts. I hope I can remember it all...

England People Very Nice (at The National): A play about the history of Bethnal Green (where I live!) and all the waves of migration. It was done as a comedy, fast paced and engaging throughout most of the show, but the problem was that it made its point in the first 10 minutes and then had nowhere to go... despite being 2 1/2 hours long! The show was considered "controversial", some people accused it of being racist, but it had such a light touch (and touched on all racial stereotypes) that I imagine most of the offended parties hadn't actually seen it.

View from the Bridge (West End): Starring Ken Stott (who pretty much always plays grizzled cops on TV!) this Arthur Miller play was great. The tragedy built from the first moments, you knew it wouldn't end well! My only complaint on the night I went was the audience! There was a school group, whose phones went off during the show. Once in the first half (and the girl took AGES to find it and turn it off) and then during the second half one kid's phone went off 3 times! The same phone! Just as the tension was building (Ken and co were acting their hearts out). The ushers were pacing up and down to find who it was. Grrrr. But the oldies were no better. Some old dears behind me kept eating butterscotch, which were individually wrapped in crinkly plastic and the noise of them unwrapping each sweet echoed around the theatre...!

Then I saw Entertaining Mr Sloane: With Imelda Staunton (who was fantastic) and this guy Matthew Horne, who plays Gavin in Gavin & Stacey (has that made it to Aus yet? It's very sweet and worth watching.) I was really interested in this show because the playwright, Joe Orton, was the subject of a great film, Prick Up Your Ears (starring Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina) and I've also read his diaries. Orton was murdered by his gay lover of 16 years in a fit of jealous rage, because of his growing success as a playwright. Mr Sloane is dated in parts, but the cast were so great that it didn't matter. They were genuinely funny, and it was easy to see why it had been considered shocking when it was first performed in the 1960s. It was also obvious, from what I know of Orton, that he based the lead character on himself - a man who can charm both men and women but who is hiding a dark secret.

And finally, last night at the Barbican I saw Pied Piper, a full-length hip hop dance show based around the Pied Piper of Hamlin story. It was great, but I had to try not to dance along in my seat as I would have certainly looked like a tool if I tried to replicate any of the moves!

Less than 2 weeks and I'll be back in Melbourne. Look forward to seeing you all, perhaps I'll try to organise drinks somewhere one night?

xx

Ahhh awkward moments

Not sure if I wrote about the hoo-ha with my pay at the Barbican? Where I found out they had been paying my wages to someone else?? It was about a month ago. Well I met the person who had accidentally received my wages the other day... and they took them back off her! Even though it wasn't her fault, it was their mistake! They just deducted it off her paycheck in one lump sum, which I think is pretty unfair. She hadn't even been told what was going on. Slightly awkward when she pointed at me and said "It was you, it was your wages I got", but we both agreed it was management's fault (management blames payroll, who blame management!)

Speaking of awkward, I went to the pub the other day and the friend I was meeting was late so I was sitting at a table by myself. A couple asked if they could sit on the other side of the table and I said yes. They got some drinks and then the woman proceeded to say "I wanted to talk to you today because I think you've been drinking too much and you get abusive and cruel towards me when you're drunk..."!! I was about 2 metres away! I didn't know where to look. I was furiously sending pretend text messages on my phone and staring into my beer. Then the guy started to cry. Oh my God, the pain. Thankfully my friend arrived soon after and the couple moved to another table (although we could still see him crying!)

My German housemate is moving out, which I think is probably a good thing. I like her as a person but she is difficult to live with. But now we'll have to find someone else, and the room is very small and rental prices have dropped in the last few months so it might not look like a good deal... Oh well!

Ouchy ouchy ouchy

I did yoga last night. Ashtanga yoga, which I've never done before. It was hard. It hurt. Every one of my muscles is spasming and screaming in pain. Cleverly, I paid for 10 lessons upfront before I even tried the class, so now I HAVE to go back. If I'd only paid for one class I'm sure I would have found a myriad of excuses not to return. Excuses like "it hurts" and "I don't wanna go".

Saw some great theatre at the Barbican the other night, Shun Kin by Complicite and Setogaya Theatre. I really enjoyed it despite being extremely tired (this was Fri night, having worked 3 jobs all week!). The play had sub-titles, which at the start I was extremely annoyed about because it meant I couldn't close my eyes for just a little while... which is what I really wanted! Probably good in the end. I've heard of at least one staff member who was fired because they fell asleep during a show. The performance was in Japanese and was a strange tale about a spoilt, blind aristocrat and her servant/lover. The staging was amazing, using puppetry and mime and video and and incredible soundtrack. The Times gave it ****. I agree.

Seeing another play on Fri night, but this time I'm actually paying to see it! England People Very Nice is at the National Theatre and the play is set in Bethnal Green, my neighbourhood. It's been rather controversial, people have accused it of being racist, so I'll tell you what I think (my opinion is obviously the defining one).

Fliss and I also saw Confessions of a Shopaholic on the weekend - our brains were both dead after working so much and it was pretty good for a no-thinking-required, fluffy experience. Some surprisingly funny moments, but the main problem is that the lead character is quite annoying! Isla Fisher's performance gives her some charm but otherwise I just wanted to slap some sense into her. Not that I condone violence.

Keeping moving

Busy-ness all around. I'm now editing the footage we filmed in Cornwall last week and it's a tough job - 4.5 hours to reduce to 5-10 mins! I've only really edited drama, where there's a script to help you make decisions, but we have interviews, observational footage, sketches, vox pops and more! Trying to turn it into something coherent that flows smoothly and is engaging is quite challenging. Although it will be rewarding if I can get it right.

I've also been asked to make another film before my trip to Aus... filming in a prison! Not sure which one, and I haven't seen the script yet, but a production company I met with last year has asked me if I'd be interested in shooting a film based on a script a prisoner has written, set in the cells. Will definitely be an interesting project. Although I haven't heard from the producer since she first called me (almost a week ago) so hopefully it's still happening.

Keeping busy is ensuring I don't have time to mope or dwell on missing Ben (and other friends/family). Thankfully Ben is busy too - he won the Australian Writers Guild unproduced screenplay award (which involves a trip to Adelaide - ha ha!) Although he has been DUMPED from the Tom Budge Good Time Band! I suggest a boycott of their gigs by all Melbourne music lovers. Bring back "hot strings"! There's no loyalty these days (his fellow band mates haven't said anything! Not even a "sorry you got kicked out of the band for not being trendy enough!" Ben would quit if any of them had got unceremoniously dumped. Makes me mad)

Bushfires

I haven't written for a while, my apologies.

Partly it's because I've been in Truro, Cornwall, making a film with kids who have/had substance use problems. Although it went fantastically well, the young people were so enthusiastic and candid and creative, it was exhausting! I had internet access but no brain at the end of each day to write anything.

The main reason I haven't written though is because I found out a week ago that I know someone who died in the bushfires, Eva. And I don't know what to say. I didn't know Eva that well but she was a friend of one of my best friends, Petrea (one of the greatest people in the world), so I have spent some time with her over the last 7 years or so. I know Eva will be sorely missed by many people. Petrea and her friends have suffered enough tragedy for several lifetimes, and now they have to deal with yet another terrible loss. It's so hard to comprehend. I just hope you're all OK. And also those people who were close to Eva and her family who I don't know. Just. Fucking. Awful.

The bushfires have made all the headlines over here. In fact they were front page most days until the plane crash in NY. Just goes to show how the news media works - they obsess over one tragedy until another takes its place.

I hope you're all well and able to keep smiling through this hardship.

xxxxxx

Rambling banter

So Ben is gone, back to Melbourne. I have tried to fill the void with a new hoody (see snow photos on the right) and Ben has tried to fill the gap in his life with an iPhone. I am confident that the iPhone will be no match for me, but Ben faces stiff competition because the hoody is cute (picture of a teddy bear wondering 'why?'), cuddly and keeps me warm at night. I can't really remember what else Ben does...

Watched a freaky documentary last night. About some South African guy who swims with great white sharks WITHOUT CAGES. He reckons you can read a shark's body language and he has learned to communicate to some extent. If he rolls himself into a ball, the shark comes closer, thinking he's easy pray, but then if he extends himself to his full size, which the shark considers to be a threat from another predator, it backs off. He also swims down underneath sharks in order to put himself in a power position, because sea predators almost always take their prey from below. Interesting stuff, and the guy is still alive so there must be something in it. Although he did talk about noting when a shark's body language is aggressive (their mouths are open - duh!) and my questions was - well what the fuck can you do about it?? Noticing that it's aggressive won't save you from the chomp! 

Not sure if it's going to screen in Aus but it's called Great White Shark - a Living Legend. Some of the footage of him swimming with sharks is really scary - scarier than any horror film. I felt edgy and full of adrenaline for hours afterwards.

The down side

I did fall on my arse. It was inevitable.

I have also stepped in large sleet puddles thrice today. You would think I would learn, but apparently not.

It's snow amazing

The streets are covered in snow. The trees are white, cars are buried under a foot of powder - it looks like icing sugar! Walking to the shop to buy the newspaper (I'll tell you why in a minute) I was struck by how childlike I felt. You have to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, the ground is unsteady and slippery in places, I was sure I was going to fall on my arse at any moment. And the snow is still falling; tiny, floating droplets of icecream. Quite incredible.

It's not so nice on the main street, where the snow has been walked on so much already it has become brown slush! Less picturesque.

I'll upload some photos as soon as I can find a USB cable to connect the camera to the computer! I was outside last night as it snowed, taking photos of myself. The only other people on the street were other Australians making snowballs!

And the other news for today is my coup for iceandfire, this article in The Times about our show on Friday night starring Simon Callow. I was very excited that I managed to set this up and the article is great. We're also in Big Issue I believe, but I don't know how many street vendors will be outside today so I haven't seen it yet!

It's snow time

Ben has been hanging out for snow. The whole 2 months he was here we didn't see any, not even in Scotland. He left yesterday and I would say half an hour after he touched down in Australia today, snow started falling here! Just light showers throughout the day today, but heavy snow is forecast for tonight.

So I am yet again alone in London. Well not quite alone, there are 4 German girls sleeping on our loungeroom floor! My joke is our flat is like Poland - being taken over by Germans! Considering our flat is tiny I think 4 guests is a bit inappropriate, I haven't been able to use my own loungeroom for 3 days, but I don't feel I can say anything because my housemates have been so good about Ben staying for 2 months. So I'll just put up and shut up (in my room...!)

Last week I called the Barbican because I still hadn't been paid for the work I did over Xmas/NY and after some harassing they told me they'd been paying my wages to someone else! Amazing. I have been paid some wages, so I don't know whose, but they have to go through every payment I've ever been given and compare it to the hours I worked. Hopefully I'll get a nice big payout this week (fingers crossed).

We're also hoping for a payout eventually from our real estate agent. We've sent him a letter claiming our rent back for the period when we had no heating or hot water! As far as I know he's not disputing it but it has to go through some kind of legal process.

That's all from me for now. Over and out.

Photos

Have added some Sicily photos but for some reason they're smaller than usual. Not sure what's going on there, sorry.

Celebrity sightings

Last night at the Barbican I hung SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S coat in the cloak room! I got a bit star struck! Vivienne Westwood was also there. Some la-di-da London Symphony Orchestra performance for their sponsors.

I promise I'll put some photos of my Scotland/Sicily trip up soon.

East London

I've been here long enough now that I feel qualified to write about my reflections on my local area.

Bethnal Green Rd is a wonderfully down-market high street. There are street stalls selling everything from fruit and veges, to CDs, to bed linen, and the street sellers are out every day, rain or shine. Bought myself a hat from there when I lost my other one. It has a pom pom.

Apart from the standard shops - Tescos, banks, post office, traditional English cafs etc - Bethnal Green Rd has some odd stores, such as the pie and mash shop (which ONLY sells pies and mash. They do tea and coffee, but you're not allowed to buy a cup unless you also buy a pie!), the hot sarsparilla shop (they must sell something else as well, but that's all it says out the front!) and the many sari shops.

Bethnal Green Rd meets up with Brick Lane, so the Indian/Pakistani influence on this area is strong.

Been to a few restaurants on Brick Lane, and so far my pick is Sheba. Good food, cheap (we had 2 beers, 2 sofdrinks, 4 small vege dishes, rice & naan for about £20) and pretty good service. They were even nice about the fact that I left my purse, a pair of gloves and my Barbican shirt there (don't ask...!) The worst I've been to was Clipper. Fliss and I went there for lunch, it was a set menu and there were only 2 other tables there and it took more than AN HOUR to get served! Even the first course (samosas!) took 45 mins. Shithouse. AND they had a bottle of water on the table when we entered, which we assumed was complimentary, but NO! The most expensive water ever bottled. Must have been done by some holy men atop India's highest mountain. Or squeezed out of diamonds.

Brick Lane is also very trendy, lots of great bars, especially up the Bethnal Green Rd end. And a market on Sundays. My perfect area!

So come and visit me! Not that I have any room in my tiny apartment. But I'm going to be rich any day now and will have at least 2 guest rooms...!

And in terms of news, the short film I made last year is on the shortlist for the Guardian Youtube competition! So that's pretty funny. The Guardian article is here and you can watch the video here. There's even a nice comment from someone I don't know! At least I don't think I know them. The other comment (robg56) is somewhat less mysterious...

Not such a big town

Had 2 bizarre experiences in the past week which make London feel like a small country town!

Last week we went to see 12th Night with Derek Jacobi (I know - DAHLING! So posh) and were sitting literally 2 seats away from Pete & Thea!! This show runs for about 6 weeks, with 6 performances a week, in a 2,500 seat venue... and we were at the same show sitting basically next to each other. What are the chances? (I'll let you figure that out coz I'm no good at Maths!) But great because I'd been meaning to call them and so we had a beer afterwards.

Then last night I was working at the Barbican selling sweets etc in the foyer for a concert of American folk/roots music and I recognised 2 people over at the ticket desk... Ollie Browne and his Danish girlfriend Metta! Ollie was playing in the show (with CW Stoneking) but was running late and sadly only here for one night so I didn't really get to talk to them. He really was running late too, I saw him on stage about 10 minutes after we'd been speaking!

Such a small world.

In other news, I have my first paid filmmaking job, which I got through iceandfire! The co-artistic director of iaf was asked to make a film with kids with substance abuse problems in Cornwall, but Sara's never made a film before so I'm going to do the filming and she'll run a workshop. So a week in Cornwall in Feb plus some good extra cash. Quite a coup.

PS: I know I usually write initials for people so as not to identify them too much but that wouldn't work for these stories! So I guess that technique is pointless now!

Swinging Sicily

In summary, if you're going to Sicily my advice would be to spend more time in the smaller seaside villages rather than in the capital, Palermo. Palermo is a weird city - it's not very welcoming or friendly as a place, and although it is on the coast it is quite industrial so there is no waterfront area or beach. There's a working port, a marina and then a concrete pathway along the water. No restaurants or anything. I guess it's just not a town that is set up for tourism.

However, they know how to rip tourists off! The cab driver from the airport charged us 60 euros!! Even though, seconds beforehand, the metre had read 34.50. AND he drove around and around in circles, pretending he didn't know where he was going. So actually the metre should have read 28 euros. Mofo. Ben also got pick-pocketed by three men on the same bus! A crowd of people got on, pushing and shoving, and Ben felt 2 men put their hands in his pockets and I saw another. Thankfully he didn't actually have anything in there, so they achieved nothing. Then a Sicilian woman started to yell at one of the men (who acted very innocent, but she wasn't fooled) and all three of them got off after one stop.

Having said all that, the place we stayed in was amazing. A 14th Century converted paper factory that this old couple now lives in. High ceilings, slate floors. Admittedly the house was pretty cold! Sicily is not set up for winter, many of the cafes only offer al fresco dining and when it's pissing with rain and 14-15C that's not how one feels like eating!

Outside of Palermo we went to Cefalu, which I would definitely recommend. A small coastal town that features a great sea-front walk around the old city wall, a 12th Century Cathedral and a huge rock/hill (La Rocca) which provides not only great views of the terracotta-rooved houses, sea and surrounding mountains, but also has an Ancient Greek temple and numerous 6th-9th Century Byzantine forts. So something for everyone!

Ben also made us trudge up to Alistair Crowley's house, which is run down and overgrown and tourists are discouraged from going to visit. I suppose that's because they expect lots of occultists to go there and conduct rituals and have sex. But if there's one thing that's going to add to the mystique of a place to occultists, surely it's banning it! They probably wouldn't go if it was glossy and done up and pristine! Anyway, Ben felt brave and snuck in and took some photos. I sat nearby and kept a look out.

That'll probably do for now. We saw heaps of other churches (as you can imagine) and so on our trip up north to Scotland tomorrow I might make Ben go and see the Brontes' house as payback! So many churches. Some pretty amazing mosaics though, I must admit. Just don't tell him that.

Will upload some pics shortly.

And congratulations to my friend Johanna, who has had a baby girl named Sylvia!

London on Ice

This is a new level of cold for me. I've never experienced anything like it. Apparently temperatures are 10C below what they usually are at this time of year. Yikes. It's face-hurting, ear-burning, lip-numbing, foot-stamping cold! The Bacon reckons it will be -10 in Feb, I'm hoping she's wrong! She has no meteorological expertise as far as I'm aware.

We're going to Sicily on Fri - hooray! Working 2 jobs over Xmas/NY I'm quite ready for my holiday now. Although there is so much that Ben wants to see in Sicily - I hope we get to sleep in some days! I just want a little bit of sunshine and some nice food. You can get good food in London, but you have to pay for it and it's harder to find than in Melbourne. Think I've always taken it for granted. My REAL beef with London food (as it were! Although of course I don't eat beef!) is that the tomatoes are tasteless! I eat tomatoes with almost every meal but over here they're just not as good. I have discovered how to cook curry with paneer though and that's yummy.

We are also hiring a car to visit my aunty in Yorkshire. She is house-sitting somewhere in the moors, a town called Settrington.

Then we're up to Dundee (Scotland) to see Ben's cousin... which I'm assuming will allow me the pleasure of discovering a whole new level of cold!!

S&M Drama

I should point out that S&M is a chain of restaurants, not what you might be thinking. Gourmet sausage and mash (really yummy! Good vege sausages!)

Went there on NYE for brunch with sis (to hear gossip about her boy that she has been on a few dates with - it seems to be going well! Oooooo!) and I somehow managed to get some of my mushroom omlette stuck in my throat. Tried to wash it down with Ben's OJ but it just seemed to swell up more. I jumped up to get some water, but sipping the water made it worse - I don't think the OJ or the water could get past the omlette so it all started to back up and I basically had to run through the restaurant towards the bathroom choking and starting to spew up a delicious egg/OJ combination. Thankfully I got past most of the customers before it happened and made it to the toilet before most of the damage was done.

The waitress asked my sister if I was OK and she said "I think Charlotte is choking on something", at which the manager's ears pricked up and he started to stress out that I would sue them! Not sure I can really claim compensation for choking on an omlette. Who does that?? Omlettes are soft!

Anyway, terribly embarrassing. I've got to learn to eat more slowly.

Then working at the Barbican from 1:30pm - 9:30pm, which was fine. No real dramas. Ben came and we went to the Thames to watch the fireworks. We stood out on a bridge in the freezing cold (coldest NYE in London for 12 years!) but we couldn't even see the damn fireworks because the Tate Modern was in the way! Bloody art. Always interfering. Using my tax dollars...!

So that was my eventful NYE. Now on to 2009, which I'm a little apprehensive about. Especially because I won't see Ben for the majority of it! If we can get through this year though things will be great.

See all youse Melbourne people in March.

xxx