| Monday, May 12th, 2008 |
| 6:37 pm |
The prospect of a Booker of Bookers is nerdishly exciting. |
| Friday, December 28th, 2007 |
| 6:52 pm |
Mad xmas, caught up with Tessa before flying out to Townsville. Hit Maggie Island with Paul, Big Ron, Beily and Steve and JOnathon. Wiped out jetskis and scootered around the island before heading back to Tsv with a hangover to head to Cairns to chill with Neil for a few days. Time went so quickly. Dang. I'm back at work next week!!! Might head out to Woodford with Yvette tomorrow and then a party at Troy and Tave's for new year's. Where'd the year go??? |
| Monday, December 3rd, 2007 |
| 12:17 am |
Brilliant couple of days down the coast chilling out with Yvette tacked on to the end of the Tassie trip. I've lost all sense of time and all ability to grasp the concept of work. A night out at the boxing on Friday night was just what the doctor ordered too, although not for Nathan Briggs who got pummelled relentlessly by a Samoan dude. |
| Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 |
| 11:54 pm |
What a wickid trip to Hobart with Andrew, only organised a few weeks ago. I arrived at the Old Hobart to find that it's name was a reasonable representation of it's presentation. It was certainly old, and somewhat quaint and well, shitty. Andrew's flight was delayed on Friday night, not getting in from Melbourne until about 1am. He took the opportunity to weasel his way into the Qantas club lounge and get absolutely shickered, sending me texts abusing Jetstar every five minutes. Meanwhile I was accosted by about a dozen drunk girls in the hallway insisting that I go out with them. The heavily tattooed and pierced one shoved her bourbon under my nose to prove how drunk they were. ANdrew finally arrived about 2am and we stayed up all night talking. before going to the Salamanca markets in the morning. There was nothing open in Hobart city, meaning takeaway noodles and beers and watching the election coverage on telly in our room. We head out about 1am and find a place open where we can get a couple of beers before it promptly shuts. Sunday is a walk to our new digs at the casino, and curry with Andrew's friends John and Jen and a look at their new house. We hit the casino and more beers where we met Tammy, a hairdresser and a few other characters. Monday equals massive hangover and a car pick up for a Port Arthur trip. What an amazing place, I wish I wasn't so hungover. A meal of Tassie salmon goes some way to setting me right. Today we went to the Cascade brewery, the Cadbury factory where we couldn't get in but Buzz managed to pull half the fender off the hire car. Dang, it's over all too quickly. |
| Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 |
| 11:55 am |
Off to the pub this arvo to meet with The Beast to talk about the upcoming biography. I can't seem to get a publisher definitely interested but there are a couple of agents who are interested enough to see a couple of chapters. Having a weekend in Hobart this weekend with Buzz, boozing at a dodgy pub for two nights and then living it up in the casino for the next two with car hire to go to the Cascade Brewery and Port Arthur. YEE-har. |
| Saturday, November 17th, 2007 |
| 11:14 am |
Mum and Dad left this morning after three weeks. The time always slips away so fast, I hope they enjoyed their trip. We went to see the new Elizabeth movie on thursday night, Red reckons it's the first time he's seen a movie since Man from Snowy River. And, I've had some fairly trying hours since 3am Friday morning. I think in the interests of perspective that these things are good for resilience building. When they happen again, the pathways are already there, and it's less painful. I feel a different person though. |
| Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 |
| 11:21 pm |
A good, but hard 39-37 win tonight, at this rate we won't be downgraded to 3rd if we keep beating 2nd grade sides in grading. An interesting brewery tour yesterday - Fred's knowledge/guess of the brew process earned him a high five from the tour operator. |
| Saturday, November 10th, 2007 |
| 9:31 pm |
It's bloody weird to see yourself on the big screen, and to have people come up afterwards and say they liked the film. I'm still waiting for Hollywood to call with the lead role in the new Police Academy movie though. A couple of good days at the cricket with Mum and Dad although it isn't shaping to be much of a contest unfortunately. |
| Thursday, November 8th, 2007 |
| 12:58 am |
I sat down and did some sketches with Mum tonight, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm taken by the mix of creativity and industry, and also with the non-verbal nature of the creative task. It is really quite absorbing and therefore liberating, and I'm going to get myself a set and put 15 minutes each day in to it. And, I'm off to Hobart for election weekend, which is close to NZ where I'll be going should Rudd's Prime Ministerial aspirations go down the gurgler. Bedtime now though, for what will likely be a rained out day of cricket tomorrow. Then the screening of the short film at the Centro tomorrow night, I'd better be drunk for that... |
| Sunday, November 4th, 2007 |
| 6:56 pm |
A dang good family trip to Canberra with Mum and Dad, including a couple of things I didn't see a few months ago. Most notably, the High Court of Australia which is absolutely riveting (beyond reasonable expectations of boredom). It's eye-opening to learn about the appointment of judges, their workload and the knowledge they must have to execute the role. Cricket this week, and the Lankans don't figure to put up much of a fight based on recent form. |
| Monday, October 29th, 2007 |
| 3:23 pm |
Off to Canberra with the olds tomorrow - a full itinerary but should be a good trip. Back for the Cup and the cricket, then Mum and Dad leave about the 17th and I head home for Xmas a few weeks later. In there somewhere I'd like to fit a trip to Cairns and maybe NZ/Hobart. And start writing a bio of Mugabi, as a couple of agents are interested. All in all, life is good. |
| Thursday, October 25th, 2007 |
| 11:06 am |
John Mugabi has to be one of the nicest blokes I've met in boxing. And next time we hold a Sunday afternoon shindig for a big fight card from Vegas, he's coming around for a beer... |
| Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 |
| 10:45 am |
The tape of our film stuffed up, so we couldn't be judged. Disappointing, but we'll still get a screening at the Centro next Friday night and they might put our out-take reel on as well. We're off to interview and photograph John "The Beast" Mugabi today. He grew up in Uganda and fought Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the world middleweight title, and eventually won the junior middle title. Should be an interesting guy to talk to. Heading down to Logan on Friday arvo to interview Robbie Peden as well. |
| Sunday, October 21st, 2007 |
| 8:45 pm |
About 6 hours of sleep later, we have an awesome film. I have a new appreciation and respect for the detail involved in film-making, the sheer discipline and hard work to pull it all together. For a 390 second film we filmed an hour of footage, each scene is blocked and shot from different angles with appropriate lighting etc. It's a huge project. Look out for "Stan's Favourite Tiara" at Cannes next year!! |
| Saturday, October 20th, 2007 |
| 12:08 am |
We started the 48 hr film project tonight - we were given the genre Romance - and a prop, a character name and a line of dialogue. We have until sunday night to do it and have a great idea for it already. Only I have the massage course all day tomorrow which cuts into the timeframe somewhat. - - - - - - - - - - - - I can't help but turn everything into a task, which at least means I won't cark it having achieved nothing. But if I have 14 weeks off in total, then in the next couple of weeks I'll have had a month off. And by then I'll have: 1. written 5 short magazine pieces 2. written 3 feature magazine pieces including interviews 3. written a book proposal 4. written a poem 5. recorded 2 CDs of poems 6. completed 2 courses 7. been to 3 theatre events 8. read about 7-8 books 9. been to Canberra 10. helped in making a film |
| Thursday, October 18th, 2007 |
| 3:24 pm |
I've decided to get out of the comfort zone these holidays. I've lined up interviews with former world champions John Mugabi and Robbie Peden, and the editor wants (and will pay for) pics as well. I think I'll take Glen and he can take the shots. I've also another feature length idea to write, amongst helping Suhella move out yesterday, and a massage course and a 48 hour film fest this weekend. That makes me fairly busy, better hop into it!! |
| Sunday, October 14th, 2007 |
| 11:20 am |
So it seems Australians will be getting a chance to vote with their feet about November 24. Of course, the campaigning started quite awhile ago now. One could have been suspicious that a government which has consistently and formidably placed indigenous issues in the background of its tenure, then comes out with a reconciliation policy. In the shadows of the post. Does Howard flash home again? Of course, Howard will insist that he always believed in it, and that anybody disagreeing with him is part of an "elite", in whose best interest it is to maintain status quo. This is the way his government has come to mark dissenting political and social opinion. Very clever, but not that different to China, or Myanmar, and at least they don't hide behind rhetoric. It's shaping up to be a very interesting campaign, and I can't wait to sit down with a beer at 6pm on election night and watch it all unfold. Other than that, saw one of the funniest movies I've seen for a very long time - an English comedy - Death at a Funeral. The play by the Bell Shakespeare Company was a cracker too. |
| Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 |
| 12:38 am |
Now there is not one but two, GI Lewis poetry CDs to choose from this Xmas. It's also Day 6 of the beard. Not quite looking like Saddam's half-brother yet, but that's the kind of personal hygiene I'm aiming for. I went with Suhella to a free "Meet the Bell Shakespeare Company" event tonight. They're doing Gogel's "The Government Inspector" at the Playhouse for just 9 performances. There is a cast of 2 playing 19 roles and needless to say old Johnny Bell puts on a quality show. So we're going on Friday night. The olds confirmed they're all systems go for Canberra too (after initially knocking it back), so that was also booked tonight with accommodation still to come. I find that I'm a rolling ball - with a bit of activity my mind is sparked into action, thinking about a flurry of other stuff to arrange. It's probably exacerbated with no work to think about. Still, at the end of my innings no-one will ever accuse me of getting nothing done. I'll try to turn that off for now and go to bed. |
| Monday, October 8th, 2007 |
| 12:08 am |
I was just thinking to myself that I probably won't get the opportunity too many times in my life to have 3 months off work, and so I'd better use it wisely. Which led me to think about what I'd done in the first 12 days off. It's amazing how quickly I have shed my work skin, perhaps in line with the "it's no fun being stuck in the past while the present is passing you by" attitude I've been trying these past years to adopt in conjunction with my well-worn introspective, ruminating style of thinking. I've finished reading a biography of Yeats, Helen Demidenko's The Hand that Signed the Paper, and am halfway through F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. I've written two more short pieces for the boxing magazine, and my last one was just published in this month's edition. I've started writing another poem, and have recorded a CD of poetry with another one almost fully planned and to be done in the next few days. I'm finding without the constriction of reactive work-related thinking I am far more creative (Bohm was right, then). I've been to the theatre, caught up with friends and family, played golf, watched dvds, eaten more healthily (but drank more unhealthily) and started working out a bit. This week I have a XXXX brewery tour, a meet the Bell Shakespeare gig and my coffee course. Yeah, I think I've made the best of it so far. But my biggest accomplishment is the beard. |
| Friday, October 5th, 2007 |
| 3:32 pm |
The golf course was packed this morning so we turned to the driving range. I'm certainly making the most of this break, next week is looking full on to say the least. Monday I have lunch in the city, Tuesday a friend is coming over for lunch and then I'm heading to QPAC to meet the Bell Shakespeare Company. Wednesday is a Doc's appt and then (to celebrate good health) a XXXX brewery tour. I'm going to try to head out to Deception Bay to see Kevin on Thursday, a Barista course on Friday and then a trip to see friends on Bribie Island next weekend with a birthday party back here on saturday night. Phew. |
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