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

Cold snaps

Those shark attacks made it into the news here. I'm telling you, sharks and crocs, they're the only kinds of stories that the British media are interested in about Aus!

It is seriously cold here now. We went to the football yesterday (finally broke the curse - Arsenal actually won! They still didn't play that well but at least their fans got some relief) and despite wearing socks and thick stockings under jeans my feet were going numb. I think the max yesterday was 2 or 3C, dropping to -3C overnight. I still haven't seen snow though. So ripped off.

We saw a really weird film on Sat - Far North. With Sean Bean and Michelle Yeoh. One of the strangest films I've ever seen. It was all shot in Finland or somewhere - the landscape is all ice and snow - it looks incredible. But the story? So Michelle has an adopted daughter and they live in a tent/igloo thing in the middle of nowhere and she rescues Sean Bean who is alone in the snow. A love triangle forms. So far, so good (although a bit slow). But then... 

TURN AWAY IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FILM. Spoiler ahead. I personally do not recommend it.

Michelle Yeoh's daughter tells her she and Sean are running off together. So Michelle turns into a scary witch and strangles her daughter with her own hair before cutting her face off and sewing it onto her own! Then she has sex with Sean Bean who realises something weird is happening and runs out into the tundra naked.

So bizarre. On the plus side, I never saw it coming!!

We saw the film at the Barbican after I'd been working at a concern which is my idea of hell - a selection of the cheesiest numbers from various musicals. Oh God it was awful. I Don't Know How to Love Him, a Sound of Music medley, There's No Business Like Show Business, I Feel Pretty, a medley from Mamma Mia... on and on it went. My ears were bleeding. And the singers were trying way too hard. Ugh.

Gotta take the good with the (oh so) bad I guess.

Another one down

Who needs parents? We had a great Christmas yesterday, for all 3 of us (Ben, sis, me) our first away from home. Our menu: roast potatoes (with garlic, rosemary), sweet potato, baked field mushrooms with goat cheese, yorkshire puddings (Fliss and I ate 17 each!! They were smaller than usual, but that's still a good effort!), beans and mini zucchini with pesto and gravy. Yeah. Total awesomeness. Plus a few glasses of wine and some Baileys. Oh, and mixed berries with clotted cream for dessert. No-one was missing the turkey.

Basically we watched DVDs all day. TV (Extras, Gavin & Stacey) and classic movies (Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Casablanca). A perfect Xmas. Sis went to bed at 10pm because she was so full. Then today (Boxing Day) she has gone to visit a friend in Norwich. I can't take Norwich seriously as a place, thanks to Alan Partridge. There are a few locations in Britain that suffer from that problem in my mind, they've been mentioned in some famous sketch or comedy show and now that's all I associate them with!

Working NYE, so no exciting plans there. But I should be finished in time to go and see the fireworks on the Thames.

Hope you all had a great (hot) Xmas and are enjoying your holidays.

xxx

Merry Xmas to you and to you...

I can't believe this year's almost over. It's been quite a big one! And next year looks like it will be almost as hectic (not quite as intense, because I have no plans to get married again or move country!) If The Bacon has her way (my new boss, for those who don't know) then I'll be making 4 films in the first half of next year - two docos, a corporate for the theatre company and a viral campaign about illegal immigrants.

It's just a pity I won't see Ben for most of the year! That's going to be weird. It's been pretty nice having him here. At the moment both my flatmates are away (back home for Xmas) so we have the house to ourselves. Almost like being a real married couple.

I've got some meetings with journalists first this in the new year. Just some meet and greets, to introduce them to the organisation and to me. The media here is crazy. And I have to say that it's a poor reflection on the British people how crap their media is, because there is so much competition here that if the Brits want high-quality journalism they can get it... instead the highest selling papers are the awful tabloids (I think the Sun is the biggest seller, Murdoch's contribution to the UK scene). People even read the News of the World - which is that paper that often reports on aliens landing and huge imaginary sex scandals. I thought it was a joke! But you see people reading it on the tube!

Here is a nice little summary of the British press to leave you with, from comedian Russell Howard. The quality of the video isn't great, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the content. The sad thing is that it's true.

Merry Christmas!

xxx

Christmas craziness

This week has (thankfully) been a bit more relaxed than last week, probably because last week I tried to shoot a film in amongst working 2 jobs! It was a bit stressful, but the film was for a competition and is now up on Youtube. Check it out (it's very silly, but I think it's funny!)

The film had to somehow be inspired by this short story, which is quite absurdist and our interpretation is loose to say the least! Basically we started thinking about what furniture gets up to when people aren't in the room.

My theory over here is I'm just going to enter everything and anything. Put myself out there. However I can. Hopefully next week though I'll have some time to relax over Xmas and coming into the new year!

xxxx

It's been a while...

My apologies. It's been some time since I wrote.

I'm STILL living in the 18th Century. The boiler has been broken for 2 weeks, and we had told the real estate agent there was a problem more than a week prior to that. What a nightmare. It's been freezing cold (I got sick - gee what a surprise!) and we've had to go to friends' and neighbours' houses to have a shower! Thanks to all those friends and neighbours that kindly invited us in.

Plumbers are supposed to have the boiler fixed today. But I'll believe it when I see it.

All the tradesmen who have come to work on the heating and water systems have been very nice, most helpful, but the real estate agents are so difficult. They have this attitude that they are doing us a favour anytime they do anything - when all they are doing is the absolute minimum they should be doing for their job! And not even doing it very well. They keep telling us how much it is costing the landlord - like it's our fault and we should be grateful! Just get the fucking boiler fixed for Christ's sake! Total arseholes.

In other news, started my work at the Barbican, which is quite fun on the whole. Lots of nice people work there, most people do something artistic. And we get some free tickets. Got paid to watch a movie the other day! It wasn't a great movie (Changeling - Clint Eastwood's film with Angelina Jolie. Story is interesting but Angelina is rather OTT and the film is too long, it keeps going for about another 30 mins after the main mystery has been solved) but I liked it that bit better because I earned £17 while sitting on my backside.

Ben is over, which is so nice. We're like a real live couple again! Watching DVDs in bed (can't leave my bedroom coz it's too cold in the rest of the house!!) I'm working a lot this week, sadly, but we've booked a holiday in January. Going to Sicily for a few nights! Will try to avoid being shot by the mafia.

Think that's it for now. Will try to get back into doing more blogging this week.

Living in the 19th Century

I just did the washing up by boiling water in the kettle.

Yes, our boiler is broken. No heating or hot water for a few days now. A guy was supposed to come yesterday but didn't. He is supposed to come today but it's nearly 330pm and I haven't heard when he's expected to arrive. I have to leave at 5pm. I guess if he hasn't arrived in the next 1/2 hour I'll go and splash cold water under my armpits so that I don't smell at work!

Oh the joy. Why are real estate agents all such shitheads/nobjockeys/cunt weasels (that is  term SD invented - credit where credit is due)? He keeps telling us he's sorry about the delay and the landlord is going to pay for extra electricity costs due to using portable heaters, but he won't say when someone is coming to fix it! We don't want compensation, just a working boiler! And this guy has stood us up for meetings twice! Booked us in to come to his office then failed to be there.

So here I am, waiting, and I'd rather go into the office because it's so cold here but I don't want to leave in case I need to let someone in to fix it!

In better news, I quite like my haircut. Photos included.

Change is as good as a holiday

Today I am volunteering to be a hair model, in a crazy hair-brained (ha!) scheme to get a free haircut. However, it means they can do whatever they like to my hair. I'll post photos of the (potentially-disastrous) results soon...!

Love the stereotypes!

Another funny moment with my French housemate.

She was complaining to me about some shit at work and she said that, because she was unhappy, she had a go at her manager about it. "But all the Engleesh are like 'how could you do that?' But I am French you know? We don't put up with that sheet!" And I said that her people had fought a revolution not to have to deal with hierarchy and she said "Exactly!" Hilarious.

Still no luck with getting an agent yet, but possibilities are still open. My new plan is to enter any and every competition/opportunity that comes along. Yesterday I wrote a script for a pitch to direct a music video, and SD and I will make our short film for the Guardian soon as well. There are lots of good websites, on the BBC and Channel 4 for example, which list new opportunities for writers and directors (and DOPs, designers, etc). I still think it was a good idea to move over here.

Off to brunch with my housemate soon, possibly on Brick Lane, and then we have to sign another contract with the real estate agent (don't ask. Yes they are the same everywhere!)

Bisous xxx

Winter wonderland?

There's snow forecast for first thing tomorrow. I hope I get to see it, I missed the snow last time (it snowed everywhere except where I was staying that night!)

Une nouvelle expérience...

Living with my new multi-lingual housemates has been really fun so far. My French housemate, AB, made the most typically French dish the other night (no, not snails). It was something her grandma had taught her and seemed to involve balls of batter (boiled) with grilled halloumi and chunks of ham. So pastry, cheese and meat, not a vegetable in sight! The German, SJ, seems to eat more generic food (not just sausages, par example) but she gets unnaturally excited when I offer her a beer! I think she used to share a beer with housemates back home but AB doesn't seem to drink beer, so perhaps she misses the experience. I've never had such a positive reaction to such a simple offer before!

Very busy week at work, which was good, and I have training for my new job at the Barbican on Mon/Tues so this week could be busy too. Luckily I don't have something on every night, like I did last week.

And Ben arrives in 2 weeks!

The next dilemma, now that the house and the job are sorted, is what to get Ben and Fliss for Xmas...! Christmas carols have been haunting me in supermarkets and cafes since the start of the week. And it will only get worse from here. Ugh.

Wot's up guvna?

Went to my first game of English football and surprisingly loved it! I guess a 60,000-seat stadium just can't help but create a great atmosphere, even when your team (Arsenal) loses... against a team that haven't beaten them since 1993! It were a dark day. My sister blames me. I blame the fact that Arsenal never went anywhere near their goal. Hard to score from the middle of the pitch. And I don't even know nuffing!

I'm in my new flat today, in Bethnal Green, which is East London (that's why I'm talking with a Cockney accent, I'm an East Ender now). So glad to unpack my suitcase, what a relief, despite the fact that PM and TL were the best hosts anyone could hope for, so generous and accommodating. I hope I didn't get in their way too much, but even if I was the best guest in the world I bet they'll enjoy having the house to themselves again after 3 weeks!

I was able to properly meet one of my housemates for the first time today, SJ. I met her briefly a few weeks ago but she was clearly stressed, coming in late after a hard day at work and her computer had broken. So she was kind of quiet and distracted. But today we have been chatting away and she is so sweet, she gave me a moving in present of some German chocolates! She's German. My other housemate, AB, is French and is also lovely, but I already knew that.

So 10 weeks after first seeing the room I was able to move in! Man. What a crazy time. I'll take some photos of my new flat soon and post them.

Missing you all in Aus.

xxxx