Sunday again.

Mutterings continued.

No blog yesterday as I was too busy. Shopping in the morning and then on to Hillary's Nodes (snigger) Park for Rob's Birthday Lunch Picnic. Lovely day, though the wind was a little chill. Sausages and salad and a couple of rounds of Boules - Leece and I won the second round 5 - 1 after lulling them all into false sense of security with our poor showing in the first.

It was lovely driving past the ocean on the way up to Hillarys and back again - the sea was grey blue in the morning and aqua in the afternoon.

Back home, quick whip around with the vacuum cleaner before Leece and Rob came over for our regular Saturday night session of The Prisoner (It's Your Funeral) and MST3K (Wild Wild Women of Batwoman). Pizza with Attitude pasta and leftover salad.

Wonderful day.

The Proverbs (by which I, as stagecrew, live)

Behold, my son here is wisdom. Pay heed to these words, and in the days of thy play, in the hours of thy performing, thou shalt not be caught short. For truly, it is said, pay heed to the errors of others and you shall not make them yourself, and again, as we have been told from on old, to thine own self be true.

1.Give not unto the actor his props before his time, for as surely as the sun does rise in the East and set in the West, he will lose or break them.
2.When told the placement of props by the Director, write not these things in ink upon thy script for as surely as the winds blow, so shall he change his mind.
3.Speak not in large words to actors, for they are slow of thought and are easily confused.
4.Speak not in the language of the TECHIE to actors, for they are uninitiated, and will not perceive thy meaning.
5.Tap not the head of a nail to drive it, but strike it firmly with thy strength.
6.Keep holy the first performance, for afterwards you shall party.
7.Keep holy the last performance, for afterwards you shall party.
8.Remember always that the TD is never wrong. If appears that he is, then you obviously misunderstood him the first time.
9.Leave not the area of the stage during the play to go and talk with the actors, for as surely as you do, you will be in danger of missing your cue and being summarily executed or worse.
10.Beware of the actors during scene changes, for they are not like unto you and are blind in the dark.
11.Beware of actors when flying in walls, for they will stand and watch and get crushed.
12.Take not thy cues before their time, but wait for the proper moment to do so.
13.Take pity on the actors, for in their roles they are as children, and must be led with gentle kindness. Thus, endeavor to speak softly and not in anger.
14.Listen carefully to the instructions of the Director as to how he wants things done - then do it the right way. In the days of thy work, he will see thy wisdom, give himself the credit, and rejoice.
15.And above all, get carried away not with the glow-tape, or thy stage will be like unto an airport.

Further to #1, or give them unto another actor to hold and then forget that he hath done so.

Yesterday's This Time Last Year

Rome, eventually.

This day would have to rank among the scariest and most stressful of all my travels. I thought landing in New York, completely alone, and NOT being met by the people who were supposed to meet me, having an Immigration man with a gun tell me that I must give him an address of where I was staying (I had no idea, the people who were meeting me were looking after that! He accepted the address of the friends in New Hampshire I was going to after that) and then standing in an airport terminal that was closing (the only one at JFK that does, apparently) at 11 at night with no accommodation and no transport was scary.

My flight from London to Rome was delayed about 3 hours because there was a general strike in Rome. I'd been emailing the B and B I'd booked in Perth for confirmation of my room but hadn't received any replies. I'd spoken to the booking agent in Rome while I was in London and they confirmed that everything was ok but I was still a little worried at not hearing back from the actual B and B itself. I rang the B and B (my dad had given me a phone card before I left Perth - thank the small gods as my mobile was flat!) and left a message in English on an Italian speaking answering machine.

The plane was further delayed by a terrified child who wouldn't get on board.

Finally got to Rome at about 8pm, huge queues at Passport Control which moved through very quickly (I discovered at the Vatican that the Italians seem very good at moving long queues through quickly), baggage took a while to arrive, walked to the train station not looking forward to having to catch 2 trains to get to the B and B, which was just near the Vatican. The ticket office closed at 9pm and I must have got there at 8.59 as he closed the window on the couple standing behind me.

The first train was 15 minutes late was 15 minutes, first stop Trastevere where I had to get another ticket. An English chap picking up his brother showed me how to use the ticket machine for the next leg of the journey.

The train was due at 10.15pm and I was already getting a little panicky as I was about 5 hours late to the B and B. There were other people on the platform who seemed to understand what the pa announcements were saying but I was completely baffled. They were also getting annoyed at the non arrival of the train.

It was getting later and later and the train still hadn't turned up and I was thinking that if it doesn't come soon I'm on the first train back to the airport and going home! A PA announcement was made and all the people on my platform took off and ran down the stairs heading to another platform - I followed, dragging my suitcases, only to see them all heading back towards me with sheepish grins on their faces. One young guy saw me struggling with my bags, grabbed the heaviest one and dragged it up the stairs for me.

The train finally arrived, one hour late, and I got off at Appiano station, two stops later. I had a pretty good map of the area and found the B and B easily enough, though walking unfamiliar streets in the dark and not speaking the language was a little daunting. I found the building. Or rather, two buildings. The B and B was a pent house apartment in one of two blocks and I only had the name of B and B and street number - not the name of the people who run it or the apartment number. There was also a security gate on the front door which was locked. Fortunately a young man who lived there came along, I gave him the phone number of the couple who ran the B and B and he rang them for me (second piece of unexpected kindness).

I was met at the lift at midnight by two very solicitous Romans who ushered me in, gave me food and wine made me feel a whole lot better!

The apartment was beautiful, full of antiques and cats, and the cupola of St Paul's can be seen from the balcony.

So ended a very scary day. I was convinced that I would turn up and they wouldn't have heard of me and I'd have to sleep on the doorstep until next morning. Fortunately Romans are night owls and were still up at midnight. Had this been Perth, they would have been in bed hours ago.