Good Friday Good Friday in my heart!*

The end of the week hath cometh. Had lunch at the Zoo cafe and took a nice stroll back through the Savannah (the Baboon boys are growing and Chad is nearly as big as older brother Taye); the Galap tortoises (#3 was up to his plastron in mud) and the eles (Silup had a bran ball which he was dropping from a great height).

The weather has been most pleasant - it was about 23 today, much the same over the next few days. I'm not sure how much of the tale of the cyclones that are crossing the north west coast we'll get in the next few days.

Looks like I'll be making a shiny thing purchase tomorrow - the latest Harry Potter fillum has been released on DVD.

Found on the rec.travel.australia+nz news group. Dunno who wrote it but it's very funny. Additions to the Strine Dictionary:

* billabonk: to make passionate love beside a waterhole
* bludgie: a partner who doesn't work but is kept as a pet
* dodgeridoo: a fake indigenous artefact
* fair drinkum: good quality Aussie wine
* flatypus: a cat which has been run over by a vehicle
* mateshit: all your flatmate's belongings lying strewn around the floor
* shagman: an unemployed male roaming the Australian bush in search of sexual activity
* yabble: the unintelligible language of Australian freshwater crustaceans
* bushwanker: a pretentious drongo who reckons he's above average when it comes to handling himself in the scrub
* crackie daks: 'hipster' tracksuit pants
* shornbag: a particularly attractive naked sheep
* technicolour lawn: the front yard after a rave party.


*Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Stephen Fry on Graphic Novels

Mutterings continued.

Have you become interested in graphic novels since getting involved in V?
I’ve read Watchmen, which I think is an extraordinary piece of work, an absolutely towering achievement, and I will read more. I need someone to take me through it, because you go into a shop that specialises in these things and Comic Book Man from The Simpsons is there saying, “Do not touch that please” and you have no idea what’s a good one or what’s a crap one. It’s like someone who’s never read a novel going in and not knowing what’s Danielle Steele and what’s Jane Austen. They’re just names. So I rely on people like Jonathan Ross and friends of mine who know these things to tell me what to read next. I have to confess – I’m enough of a slob to feel embarrassed about reading them on trains. I know that’s terrible and I should be reading them proudly, but I sort of hide them under plain covers.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

Ok, eyes.

We'll be back to our normal Saturdays this week and I'm hoping there will be an ep of BSG. And Stargate:Atlantis. And we have Black Books series 2 and Space:1999 and Kolchak...

Busy day - we're interviewing potential Exotic mammal keepers and I've been up and down the stairs all day giving the candidates their interview questions and leading them into the elephant supervisor's office for a bit of peace and quiet before their grilling.

Let every eye negotiate for itself

Mutterings continued.




Speaking of cats, I woke up late on Sunday morning after the after-show party, to find Gus sitting on chest, staring at me, and Milo on the pillow next to my head, staring at me.

Just back from dins with TUS-R (who has been visiting Legoland. Or is it Penguinworld?) and is due back tonight.

I'm finally clearing my car of props - yesterday it was the tub full of flowers from Titania's bower; this afternoon it was the large wicker basket the rude mechanicals used to drag their props onto the stage in. Somewhere in the basket is a small Scottie dog that I'll have to unattach from its cardboard plinth.

You know you're getting older when...

Mutterings continued.

you don't know what day it is but can remember the lyrics to a song you haven't heard for 30 years.

Woke up this morning and had no idea what day it was. Though it could have been Wednesday, but wasn't sure.

Contrast this with a time last week when I was listening to The 60s at 6 on 1080 and found myself singing along to Slade's Far Far Away, a song I haven't heard for yonks*.


*A yonk is a measurement of time - greater than 'ages' but less than 'like, forever'.

Pause awhile, And let my counsel sway you in this case.

A Tuesday. Had a meeting this morning and then ambled down to the main lawn to take some photos of participants at the ARAZPA conference. And had a bite of lunch.

People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.*

Mutterings continued.

So it was back to work for this little black and blue duck. I have the odd bruise to remind me of the past couple of weeks.

It's amazing how much piles up on the desk and in the Inbox after a couple of week. A goodly number of new journals and newsletters to go through and input into the library database.

There was a nice postcard in the letterbox today - L and R have been enjoying themselves in Mandurah.

Pre-recorded messages - the other side.


*Ogden Nash

So, good night unto you all

Mutterings continued.

Give me your hands, if we be friends
And Robin shall restore amends.

In other words, that's another Shakespeare done and dusted. And with a decent profit at the end of it. My car is full of props, nothing unusual there, which I will have to find a home for in my spare room. The rest of the props went into the store at the back of the Octagon Theatre at UWA. Small audience last night but they enjoyed themselves. And then we partied and I went home with booty - pressies from the cast, director and production manager.

Spent a couple of hours today helping with the bump out. Director Stephen was most annoyed that only four of the cast of 22 actually turned up to help. Actors!!

Got my hair cut yesterday - finally. It has been 3 months since I last got it cut so there was a far amount on the floor of the hairdresser's.

Last day of hols Friday.

Mutterings continued.

What the Aust. Tourism ad should really have said. Probably would have caused less controversy.

Did a bit of retail therapy this morning and then met Genette for lunch. I am never going to Garden City of a Friday again. Had to drive 'round and around until I found a parking space and then had to negotiate my way through malls without being run into by women with trolleys full of groceries and kids.

Reasonable audience last night - small but they laughed a lot. The rain held off - just.

I've booked myself an Easter holiday at the Chifley on the Terrace - just one night of luxury - "Executive Suite, 1 queen bed, comes with a 1 person bath featuring spa jets for true relaxation, including a Bottle of Champagne and Easter Eggs on arrival."

It's very grey outside; we've had a bit of rain today, however the BoM is forecasting fine conditions for this evening.

The Me Me Meme

Mutterings continued.

Thanks to Diamond Geezer for this:


Name seven things in your fridge: two litre bottle of skim milk; bottle of champagne; grapes; peaches; half empty bottle of Baileys; Vegemite; water.

When was the first time you went abroad? The first time I flew was when I was 7 and we had a holiday of Kangaroo Island off the south coast of South Australia (silly thing to say - all the South Australian coast is to the south!). I was terrified as I was convinced that the pilot was going to do acrobatics. Think I'd seen too much telly. Not exactly abroad, but. In 1993 I went to Bali with friends. That's abroad, innit?

Who were the last five people to send you a spam message? Dunno - my email is spam filtered by Westnet.

If you were a type of chocolate biscuit, what type of chocolate biscuit would you be and why? A Tim Tam, possibly one of the alcoholic ones you can't get any more.

Describe your best friend using only Madonna song titles: Difficult as I don't know many Madonna songs and "Like a Virgin" just ain't right.

What's the funniest thing you've ever seen a kitten do? Watch a game of cricket on the telly and try to catch the ball.

The rain it raineth every day

Mutterings continued.

Not quite but we did get a nice drop of the wet stuff yesterday. It stopped in time for us to go up at 8pm with a dry stage and dry audience. The fairies froze their proverbials off, however. A forecast of 20c today. Nice.

Last night's audience was rowdy before 'curtain up', but rapt, attentive and appreciative. They laughed a lot and got all the jokes. I got to the theatre about 5pm to take down the tatty old ivy and put up the new. The peacocks started on it as soon as it had gone up, the bastards. Probably won't be any left when I get there tonight. *sigh* In Shakespeare's day they probably would have captured the peacocks and eaten them; unfortunately this lot are treated as sacred by the University and you get into trouble if you do anything to them. Bloody exotic pests.

Owies! Just got back from lunch with the gels, and one chap, at the wonderful Annalakshmi in Perth. Great vegetarian food, serve yourself, go back for seconds (I only went back for a second cup of orange and pineapple juice) and you pay what you feel you think is right. We agreed on $10 each, which is really cheap for the amount of food. Lovely semolina, condensed milk and cardamon dessert. Mmmm.

We caught the ferry there and back, a nice little trip. A bit rough on the way back but I don't mind a bit of rough. Let me rephrase that...

The 'owies' refers to my left knee and shin which are giving me gyp. Dunno why, age I suppose.

“He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right.”

Mutterings continued.

A good day yesterday - retail therapy in the am, lunch with Shirley and Pat at Secret Squirrel and then to my brother's in the evening. It was his birthday yesterday. I overstayed my time in the free carpark opposite the restaurant (free for the first 2 hours and we were there for about 2 and a half); was surprised not to see a parking ticket tucked under the windscreen wiper.

I was listening to Tony Delroy's Nightlife on the radio on the way back from my brother's - he has a quiz, one of the topics of which was 'Shakespeare'. And no bugger would pick it! The last contestants had the choice between Shakespeare and Horse Racing and most went for Horse Racing. The Shakespeare questions were asked by default as that was pretty much all that was left - I got all five right. *smug smug* Some of the answers given by contestants were amusing. Q: Who said "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."? A: Richard the First? Almost right. Q: Who said, "Kiss me, Kate." in Taming of the Shrew? A: Howard Keel?

Found a nice fish recipe that I'll give a go tonight - avocado, light sour cream, tomatoes, mix all together, refridgerate for a while and then blob on top of grilled shark.

Lunch Thursday at the Annalakshmi Indian restaurant in town.

The same, two days later

Mutterings continued.

Another free night ahead, hurrah! Last night I flaked in front of the telly, watched a couple of episodes of R and H (D), one of which has a commentary by Charlie Higson (writer, director, etc etc) and the stars, Jim and Bob. The episode they commentated on was the one I bought the disks for - the one in which Derek Jacobi guest starred.

Attended the GRADS AGM yesterday afternoon and came home with the position of secretary thrust, every so nicely, upon me. I informed the Society that Dream will be my last production for this year.

Got up this morning to find that Gus had been into the rubbish bin and dragged the remains of a chicken carcass into the lounge room. *sigh*

And then I headed to Carousel for a bit of retail therapy and to get some cat food. Went to feed the cats this morning to discover that the larder was bare, Whiskers-wise. Came home with 6 tins of cat food (on special for 99c), two kaftan tops and a black frock (I have no idea why I bought myself a frock! I don't actually wear them and haven't worn anything approximating a frock or a skirt for over 10 years. It was black, made of linen, reaches the ground and only cost $19.95.) and pressies for my brother's and niece's birthdays. Oh, and a couple of Beatle's DVDs for $4.95 each from Ezydvd.

A hit! A very palpable hit!

Mutterings continued.

Full house tonight, mostly students from Kelmscott Senior High School. Not overly demonstrative, though they did laugh like drains during the play within a play (and so they should - it's bloody funny), but they were very attentive.

Break now for 3 nights. Huzzah!

I received Vol. 2 of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) from Sendit yesterday. It's the 2001 remake of the 1969 series and stars Vic Reeves (real name Jim Moir) and Bob Mortimer (the people who brought you MonkeyTrousers and Geordies in Space). Oh, and Tom Baker. I'd bought series 2 as Derek Jacobi guest stars in one of the episodes - I have now ordered series 1. Good stuff.

Heading home from the play tonight I ran into, not literally, a booze bus in operation on Mounts Bay Road. It took two blows on the breathalyzer for me to register - as all I'd had in the last six hours was a bottle of water and a carton of ice coffee, I would have been well peeved to have registered anything at all.

The pain, the pain!

Mutterings continued.

I'm knackered! Two nights into the run and everything below the waist and down to my toes hurts. I'd forgotten how much my legs suffer during productions - I think it's walking up and down two flights of stairs and along long corridors that does it. Last night I wore shoes instead of sandals for the first time in about 4 months and had to take them off. My poor toesies weren't used to being confined.

First night - very successful, about 210 in the audience. Last night - about 20 less. Both nights consisted mostly of school kids who loved the tit and dick jokes. And the coarse acting.

I can hear my Thisby's face

Mutterings continued.

Some humour never goes out of style. Four hundred odd years after this was written, it's still funny:

"I see a voice; now will I to the chink
To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face"

Preview night last night; L and R and R attended and Leece wrote a very nice review. There were some last minute panics, as always happens - glasses got broken, torch went AWOL but it all worked out in the end. I think.

My body clock is all over the place. I've been getting home at 11.30/11.45 and then winding down in front of the telly and a bowl of cereal, not getting to bed until 1am-ish. This means I'm getting up at 9am, a full 2 and a half hours after my normal rising time. Will have to get back into rhythm before going back to work.

Yesterday's shiny thing purchases: called into JBs in Cannington for something to put the overflow of DVDs in (came home with the wrong thing but, with a bit of rearranging, managed to find a home for the disks that can't fit in the DVD stand) and two more DVDs - Batman Begins ($13, bargain!) and Howl's Moving Castle (which I didn't get to see at the pics).

Without him, it's just a yo!

Mutterings continued.

A busy weekend behind me, a string of late nights before me.

L and R came over for dins and DVDs on Saturday. We had chunky pepper steak pies, mashed spud and tarragon carrots and coffee and walnut cake while watching a mess o' Serenity extras (so many, we didn't get around to watching Rah Xephon, Space:1999 or Kolchak), Black Books, from which the quote in the title comes, and a very bad, very sub-sub-Ghoulies/Gremlins 80s MST3K called Hobgoblins. Only the riffing from Mike and the bots made it watchable.

Old Man: The vault! I tried to warn you! Those creatures! The vault! I tried!
Crow: Sentence fragments! Just phrases!

Daphne: And you know what a man wants after two months of army training...
[Cut to Nick making humping movements]
Mike: Belly Dancing Lessons?!?

Unsurprisingly, very few of the leads actually went on to make any more movies. Two of the lesser lights, however, went on to make a hell of a lot of stuff. One of them, credited as Daran Norris, the overly fey MC at Club Scum (yes, that was the name of nightclub in the movie, a place that looked more like a CWA hall dressed up with shiny things than a nightclub) is the creator and star of Veronica Mars (under the name Rob Thomas). I don't think this series has aired in Aus - it was mentioned by Joss Whedon on the Serenity Q & A as being a very worthy tv show and it gets its own sub-section on the Whedonesque.org board.

And the guy who played Road Rash, a not terribly good bouncer at the aforementioned nightclub, has also done a lot of stuff, most notably Pulp Fiction.

Most of yesterday was spent at the New Fortune dressing the set with vine leaves, organising props and running the play. The torches didn't perform as expected - more fuel is needed!

First day of the weekend.

Mutterings continued.

A pleasant day - it's currently 23c, which is just about perfect.

I've done two lots of shopping today - groceries this morning and props this arvo. Shiny thing purchase this morning: Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing DVD. I found it in K Mart for $15.99 but couldn't remember if I already had it. Bought it, on the off chance that I didn't (though I do have the video) as I could always return it. I checked the Shakespeare DVD shelf (yes, my DVDs are organised this way) and - huzzah! - I didn't have it. I'm still waiting on Branagh to release his Hamlet in DVD format.

Just thought of my other shiny thing purchases - silver sleeper earrings and a silver brooch with an amethyst in it for me. $7 and $24.50 respectively. Bargain!

Exciting props purchases: two cheap wedding rings for Helena and Hermia (I always buy cheap as I know they'll get lost) and some buckets to put Titania and Oberon's flares out in. And by flares, I don't mean the cheesy 70's trousers... T and O will be doing their firey thing (though not too firey, please the small gods) in the final act on the Juliet balcony. Stephen wants them to put the torches out in buckets of sand, so I bought two largish dark blue plastic tapered plant pots that look rather nice and not as obtrustive as your regular buckets. They were on special and didn't have bar codes, so the lass on the check out at Bunnings had to get someone with special sub-section security clearance to code them in the register. $6.95 and they needed a special somebody from a special sub-section with a code.

Now, I know that sports commentators aren't always the most highly educated of journalists... This mixed metaphor from a chap describing a football match: And that really put the cat among the wolves.

Foxtel Digital have added a couple of new features, one of which is a program guide to their Air stations. These are series of really rather good music only channels that include 60s, 70s, R and B, blues, soundtracks, classical etc. The guide tells you what was on, what's playing now and what's coming up. And it has a screen saver - previously it was just a blue screen with white words that burned itself into your tube. Or however television works. I'm currently listening to Pictures at an Exhibition, another piece of classical music I discovered via rock musicians (see previous posts on Blood, Sweat and Tears/Eric Satie). I was heavily into Emerson, Lake and Palmer in the 70s (weren't we all??) and bought their version of PaaE, not realising that they didn't actually write it, some Russian guy did. Yeah, yeah, I was a Philistine. Ahh, ELP - one of the greatest exponents of wank rock.

From the sublime to the gor'blimey: have changed to the 70s channel and am listening to Van Morrison and Them's Baby Please Don't Go.

I saw a trailer for X-Men III: The Last Stand last night. Sweet!

L and R for dins and DVDs tonight. Most of tomorrow will be spent at the New Fortune dressing the set, setting all the props and running the play. Promises to be a loooooooong day.

Zoo no more (well, for a couple of weeks)

Mutterings continued.

I'm on leave, hols, vacation, whatever, for the next couple of weeks.

We had our first full run in the New Fortune last night and it was great to see the play on all three levels. Pity the poor fairies having to climb the set!

The weather has turned lovely - 25c tomorrow and it's looking decidedly cloudy outside at the mo. No rain forecast, unfortunately.

Blogger is still stuffed and has been all week. According to their status page, the problem was solved on Wednesday. If this post does turn up, this blog is mirrored on Live Journal which is much more stable. http://possbert.livejournal.com/

Yukky weather

Mutterings continued.

Blogger appears to be stuffed again so I have no idea if this post will show up.

Obligatory weather bitch - 31c, which isn't too bad, but humid. The sea breeze is in. Which is nice.

We're supposed to be bumping in the set tonight however as the set consists of some cargo nets, which we haven't got yet, and some curtains I'm not sure that there's much to do. I have two large bags of ivy, which will be entwined through the nets and up the poles, in my bathroom.

Cherub - the vampire in bunny slippers. And a taste for martinis.

Xcellent

Mutterings continued.

Just back from rehearsals. We ran the play within a play - the tragedy of Pyrameus and Thisbe as acted by the Country Women's Association (or Women's Institute). It's hysterical. Andie, who plays Bottom, and Kerry, Prologue, take the Art of Course Acting to a new level. There's even the Royal Shakeseare Armpit of Death. I was in tears at the end of it - it's wonderful watching sanctioned over-acting. Nearly all the props are done. I sewed a friend's Scottie dog (stuffed) to a piece of cardboard and it works beautifully. I was trying to use a large white poodle but it just wouldn't work. The Scottie is much smaller, more manouverable, and capable of being hoiked into the wings.

I saw an ad for Steve Martin's Pink Panther movie. I like Mr Martin as an actor and as a writer - his Picasso at the Lapin Agile is wonderful - but this film is just wrong. It doesn't need redoing as nobody could do it better than Peter Sellers.

And now, my daily weather bitch - a quarter to five in the evening and it's 33c.

Weekend, Long.

Mutterings continued.

It's Labour Day on Monday, a public holiday.

No L and R tonight as they are attending SwanCon. Last night I called by their hotel room at the Acacia, where the Con is being held, and we had a Saturday night on a Friday. We ordered room service and watched some good stuff, including the Dr Who Christmas special. Great fun.

The weather has been hot but not tooooo unpleasant. It's 37c at the moment, with the next week promising to be much the same. Apparently Perth has had its mildest summer since....er....a long time, which is nice. We have been promised a hot March, however.

The Dream props list was added to on Wednesday night (surprise, surprise). This evening I shall be making some pink sleeping masks with feathers on them. Today I made a moon onna stick - a rather nice white lantern strung on a chain hanging off a green bamboo pole.

To misquote Mrs Drudge in the Real Inspector Hound, "The same, two hours later." I have finished the sleeping masks - glittery pink with fake maribou feathers around the edges. And up my nose, over my clothes...

Very good meeting

Mutterings continued.

Just back from a production meeting and am feeling a lot happier about my props collection. Director Stephen and Prod. Mgr. Pat loved the broom; Stephen was happy with motley collection of swords I dug out of the Octagon props store and even liked the small flambeau I found. Just have to find another one.