I'm sold, convert my cash to aussie dollars and move me to Sydney, but let me live in the gym first - the boys are well fit! and I like the city too!
So some facts and figure first, we are here for four weeks, hand have three different hotel rooms across two chains - me thinks there was a booking error somewhere. My usual roomie and I started off in an apartment, then after four days we moved to Star City Casino, well to the hotel and an individual hotel room is no where near as good as a two bed apartment. Anyway after another four days we moved again, into the apartments at Star City and they were probably my favourite for the whole tour.
So we opened the show in Sydney and that was all fine and then we came to the end of our first week, did the Sunday shows and were in the bars by the harbour for 7. Which is early enough for you still to eat, but late enough for you to think you have eaten. I left at about 10ish and went back to the apartment picked up some food, ate it and went for a power nap, I was desperate to get a night out, even if no one else was up for it.
I woke up at 1am, gutted! Had I missed any chance of a night out, well only one way to find out. A quick shower, ran my GHDs through my hair and I was ready. I think roomie was amazed I was not only going out to find the queer end of town in Sydney on my own, but the fact I wasn't letting oversleeping stop me.
And off I went. Oxford street had the feel of the gay bit of town, but felt a bit dead. Okay it was 2am on a school night, but its gaydom, when had that ever stopped us before. I went into Stonewall for a Sweet Sherry and got chatting to some guys and found out where to go. And off we trotted. I was getting worried, although there were people milling around the door and although I could hear some tunes it didn't have that buzz about it and the air smelt fresh, not like a club. I had only taken my aussie mobile, so that ruled out texting half the world if it was crap and I was bored. Still I paid my money and took my chance. We wandered up the stairs and in front of me was a wall of glass with one of those automatic revolving doors in the middle. I duly entered and then the doors allined and I was inside. I felt like Lucy must have felt when she went through the wardrobe.
The smell, the noise, the boys, THE BOYS!!! the tunes. This place has all the makings of a good night out. And so I danced and drank and I drank and danced and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a smirnoff ice. I asked and still got smirnoff black. Not that I cared one jot. The only gay on the ice show (bet you thought you'd never hear that one) had somewhere to dance!
And so the night went on and bits get hazy and the tunes got better and then all of a sudden I was awake in the apartment and supposed to be on a coach in half an hour to take us to Star City. Not only were we moving hotels, we were doing it on our day off. I slumped into a corner of the coach and zipped my north face up as far as it would go and hope this combined with my sunglasses would obscure me from the rest of the company. It didn't.
By the time we got to Star City (twenty minutes if that) I was tired and dehydrated and knew only one thing was likely to follow. Then the word comes back down the checkin line, none of the rooms are ready, what fresh gay hell! So I gave up and sat in a corner till the rest of the company had checked in. I was in no rush to move. I sauntered up, filled in the form, asked where we were leaving bags and when my room would be ready.
"Oh no Mr Parcanboy, your room is ready. Would you like your bags taken up?"
Jackpot!
Naturally I declined the offer of my bags being taken up. The five minute wait for them would upset me as it would be another five minutes when I wouldn't have been in bed. A short sleep and the world was a better place. I woke up about late afternoon and looked to see what delights the minibar had. I wanted a bacon roll and they had none, so I had a cup of tea and a nice long shower - I know how to live! By the time I was out the shower I had a message waiting on my aussie mobile.
"Do you want to meet up for dinner?"
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Cinders On Ice - part 5 (Adelaide - Aug 2008)
So you might have guessed that I wasn't overly impressed with how things ended up after my chat with my boss, but I wasn't really sure where to go with it. He hadn't interviewed me so I could hardly say he misrepresented the job.
However there were more pressing things, yet again moving the show. The out from Melbourne seemed to take forever, but actually passed fast enough and before long we were on a plane to Adelaide. Landed, dropped bags off, slept for an hour or so and went in to pre rig that evening and what a lovely crew they have. Our first wagon to leave Melbourne had made very good time so they had tipped it for us!
After a bit of moving around of house masking (black material borders that the venue have in stock as they are the right width/ length for there venue) and hanging our headers (bits of set that frame the top of the 'picture' as you see it from out front) we were all done for the night, back in the next day and got the rest of the set up and the ice rick mat down for the ice guys to make ice on overnight. Off I went to the hotel, knackered and there I slept till the morning.
There I slept till about 20 minutes after my call. So while recreating the opening of Four Weddings And A Funeral I called our head of stage - who was my boss, but as we had a strange structure to our team it was never expressly stated that he was my boss - who was lovely, said I wasn't being missed and reminded me that for being late I had to buy doughnuts. So an hour late I trotted in, two dozen doughnuts in hand. I think secretly people were glad I was late.
We opened the show, bla bla bla, was all fine. local bar was good, I bought an aussie mobile. really enjoyed having an night in with, with for it, the international edition of The Guardian (I really ab Margo Leadbetter) a bottle of vodka, Tori Amos on the iPod and the longest bath known to man. It was well lush.
I also had a very long - and probably quite expensive call to Senga about work and although I forget what we talked about now, I know it helped.
I've just realised that I've not mentioned WelshLad recently, well we are still together, although this long distance thing isn't easy, easpecially with the time difference. Time shall tell.
At the end of the week we did our usual, it all packed away and a big pile of ice was left outside the loading bay and we were off into the night, off to Sydney - for four whole weeks without moving the show - where two new playmate would join us, but we would loose too two, although we only knew about one at the moment.
However there were more pressing things, yet again moving the show. The out from Melbourne seemed to take forever, but actually passed fast enough and before long we were on a plane to Adelaide. Landed, dropped bags off, slept for an hour or so and went in to pre rig that evening and what a lovely crew they have. Our first wagon to leave Melbourne had made very good time so they had tipped it for us!
After a bit of moving around of house masking (black material borders that the venue have in stock as they are the right width/ length for there venue) and hanging our headers (bits of set that frame the top of the 'picture' as you see it from out front) we were all done for the night, back in the next day and got the rest of the set up and the ice rick mat down for the ice guys to make ice on overnight. Off I went to the hotel, knackered and there I slept till the morning.
There I slept till about 20 minutes after my call. So while recreating the opening of Four Weddings And A Funeral I called our head of stage - who was my boss, but as we had a strange structure to our team it was never expressly stated that he was my boss - who was lovely, said I wasn't being missed and reminded me that for being late I had to buy doughnuts. So an hour late I trotted in, two dozen doughnuts in hand. I think secretly people were glad I was late.
We opened the show, bla bla bla, was all fine. local bar was good, I bought an aussie mobile. really enjoyed having an night in with, with for it, the international edition of The Guardian (I really ab Margo Leadbetter) a bottle of vodka, Tori Amos on the iPod and the longest bath known to man. It was well lush.
I also had a very long - and probably quite expensive call to Senga about work and although I forget what we talked about now, I know it helped.
I've just realised that I've not mentioned WelshLad recently, well we are still together, although this long distance thing isn't easy, easpecially with the time difference. Time shall tell.
At the end of the week we did our usual, it all packed away and a big pile of ice was left outside the loading bay and we were off into the night, off to Sydney - for four whole weeks without moving the show - where two new playmate would join us, but we would loose too two, although we only knew about one at the moment.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Comments and Thoughts
Another one of these posts about the present day, just slotted in to the retrospective 'history' of my blog.
I had a good bit of a bottle of wine before I wrote my previous few posts (31st March and 1st April) and I got a fair few comments back.
No 2 Lx and I were chatting online just after I posted and he said although funny, cos he had been there, just to remember that theatre is a small world and you never know when someone will pop up and in what capacity, so be careful what you say.
PM left a comment (not on here) "nice read! keep going im likeing" which I read exactly as it was written.
Then I got an email from The Dr.
(You know as only one person follows me on here its kinda hard to know just how may folk are reading this, but I was supprised by The Dr).
Anyway The Dr said,
"Aren't blogs meant to be a contemperaneous record of events not several bloody months later...
The Dr
p.s. be careful what you say publicly re previous employers... everyone
has google now and we certainly google job applicants now to see what
they are about."
All that got me thinking.
I had a good bit of a bottle of wine before I wrote my previous few posts (31st March and 1st April) and I got a fair few comments back.
No 2 Lx and I were chatting online just after I posted and he said although funny, cos he had been there, just to remember that theatre is a small world and you never know when someone will pop up and in what capacity, so be careful what you say.
PM left a comment (not on here) "nice read! keep going im likeing" which I read exactly as it was written.
Then I got an email from The Dr.
(You know as only one person follows me on here its kinda hard to know just how may folk are reading this, but I was supprised by The Dr).
Anyway The Dr said,
"Aren't blogs meant to be a contemperaneous record of events not several bloody months later...
The Dr
p.s. be careful what you say publicly re previous employers... everyone
has google now and we certainly google job applicants now to see what
they are about."
All that got me thinking.
- I have edited the last few posts and removed some of the more liable comments and will maybe just save to draft my posts when I am on a roll and have had a drink.
- "contemperaneous" I had to google that word - I guessed it was conected to contempory. Well okay I am blogging about past events and well tough. I'm getting there and am closer to the present that when I started. But, BUT, B U T who said it had to be "contemperaneous". Its my blog and I'm doing it wrong my own way!
Oh and if The Dr is reading this is a South Wales Letter ;) - Just how many folk are reading this at the moment and are they likely to be regular (if I get to the present any time soon)? So there is a survey in the top right, one question "how likely are you to folllow this blog?". I'd love it if you answered.
Line close at noon on Friday 8th April 2009. All entries made after this may be counted, but who knows. I may use a relative in place of a real winner and prizes may be crap. Straight acting terms and conditions apply.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Cinders On Ice - part 4 (Melbourne - Aug 2008)
Melbourne
We were supposed to have a 'down week' in Melbourne as it would take a week to sea freight bits over from New Zealand. I never thought about this at the time, but as sea freight is cheap and we were sending some stuff by sea, why were we air freighting the set? Its only occurred to me now, so I never asked. We had added and extra day to the run in Wellington as we were selling so well the box office was struggling to accommodate the punters that needed re-seated from the cancelled performance. Our flights were already put back a day to allow more time for the get out. So that was two days lost. We were starting the get in 8 hours early in Melbourne and there was a days work added mid week. So the 'down week' was vanishing. However after four weeks on the go with no days off it was good to have a lazy two day.
The next day four of us had a forgettable day at a haulage depot looking at air-freight pallets. DULL DULL DULL, but needed doing.
That night we were invited to the Edward Scissorhands end of Australia party (they were the show in before us at our next venue and also being a UK show a lot of our guys knew their guys). I had a good long call back to the UK to The Dr (an hour and a half, that was expensive) before I headed over to the party. I was feeling pretty fed up and disalusioned. I couldn't say that I was working out with the scope of my contract or that my contract didn't match my interview, but my interview didn't match my job in practice. There is obviously flexibility in our 'standard' job title, but as a rule of thumb theatre departments become more focused on their area of responsibility the bigger the show and bigger the company. We were a sizable show and sizable company and the thing that had been discussed before I signed didn't paint the picture I was looking at.
However once I was off the phone and at the party I soon forgot about all that for the night. Really late on that night I was at the bar, turned and next to me was a dancer I knew from the UK, our dance captain from panto. What a lovely supprise. So we chatted away and I made a twat of myself. I asked if he was dance caption on Scissorhands. No he was Edward. Well I always thought he was good.
We were off the following day off and then back in to fit up again. The week went okay, the venue management were trixy and we were filming the show for the DVD so it was a long week, however it was all right all in.
I spoke to my PM towards the end of the week about being hacked off and feeling cheated, kinda went like this.
- I was interviewed for ASM/ book cover and would 'help' with exceptional moves.
- I've not seen sight of the book and am doing every and all in and out.
- I have not had time to do my primary job properly IMHO, we even had to get a prop buyer as I was struggeling to get time to prop (and as an ASM thats a big part of the job)
- I feel that the job I interviews for and accepted are not what I am doing
- I took the job for the book cover as it gave me progression and I'm not getting any.
And the answer came, 'you should never have been interviewed for ASM / book cover as there is no such job, it was always Technical ASM.
Bugger.
We were supposed to have a 'down week' in Melbourne as it would take a week to sea freight bits over from New Zealand. I never thought about this at the time, but as sea freight is cheap and we were sending some stuff by sea, why were we air freighting the set? Its only occurred to me now, so I never asked. We had added and extra day to the run in Wellington as we were selling so well the box office was struggling to accommodate the punters that needed re-seated from the cancelled performance. Our flights were already put back a day to allow more time for the get out. So that was two days lost. We were starting the get in 8 hours early in Melbourne and there was a days work added mid week. So the 'down week' was vanishing. However after four weeks on the go with no days off it was good to have a lazy two day.
The next day four of us had a forgettable day at a haulage depot looking at air-freight pallets. DULL DULL DULL, but needed doing.
That night we were invited to the Edward Scissorhands end of Australia party (they were the show in before us at our next venue and also being a UK show a lot of our guys knew their guys). I had a good long call back to the UK to The Dr (an hour and a half, that was expensive) before I headed over to the party. I was feeling pretty fed up and disalusioned. I couldn't say that I was working out with the scope of my contract or that my contract didn't match my interview, but my interview didn't match my job in practice. There is obviously flexibility in our 'standard' job title, but as a rule of thumb theatre departments become more focused on their area of responsibility the bigger the show and bigger the company. We were a sizable show and sizable company and the thing that had been discussed before I signed didn't paint the picture I was looking at.
However once I was off the phone and at the party I soon forgot about all that for the night. Really late on that night I was at the bar, turned and next to me was a dancer I knew from the UK, our dance captain from panto. What a lovely supprise. So we chatted away and I made a twat of myself. I asked if he was dance caption on Scissorhands. No he was Edward. Well I always thought he was good.
We were off the following day off and then back in to fit up again. The week went okay, the venue management were trixy and we were filming the show for the DVD so it was a long week, however it was all right all in.
I spoke to my PM towards the end of the week about being hacked off and feeling cheated, kinda went like this.
- I was interviewed for ASM/ book cover and would 'help' with exceptional moves.
- I've not seen sight of the book and am doing every and all in and out.
- I have not had time to do my primary job properly IMHO, we even had to get a prop buyer as I was struggeling to get time to prop (and as an ASM thats a big part of the job)
- I feel that the job I interviews for and accepted are not what I am doing
- I took the job for the book cover as it gave me progression and I'm not getting any.
And the answer came, 'you should never have been interviewed for ASM / book cover as there is no such job, it was always Technical ASM.
Bugger.
Cinders On Ice - part 3 (Wellington - Jul 2008)
Wellington
We arrived at the hotel in Wellington for 14:00 and had to be at the theatre for 18:00 for a 4 hour pre-rig. We weren't supposed to be in today, but management was having a panic about the show fitting up in two days, well given how long it took to get it out and all the problems with flying the wonky set you can see why.
I had got up at 11am on Sun, was working till 9am on Mon, had a couple of hours sleep on a plane, a bus, and a few hour in the new hotel before heading in for 6pm. By 11pm I was in one of those quiet, contained moods - the ones that you can manage as long as no one says anything silly, like "I don't know what all the fuss is about". However we were all shattered, so we kept the banter light and gave each other space.
Getting the set up in Wellington wasn't so bad, at least we had done it once. It still flew like a bag of shite and was a pain in the arse, but no worse than we expected. The ice rink was another mater.
To have an ice rink you need to keep the water frozen. To keep the water frozen you have lots of tiny little pipes that run at the bottom of a kinda pond liner. Those pipes have antifreeze, glycol, running around at -8 to -15 depending on what we need (-15 to build ice, -8 for skating). We would finish the first day of the get-in by laying the ice-rink mat (the tiny tubes) so that overnight our ice technicians could build up the ice mm by mm.
Overnight a pipe ruptured and the glycol, under pressure, spread rapidly. (When we first come up to pressure we watch carefully for bursts in the mat, but once we have been up to pressure for a bit we kinda assume it all good). However the mat spring a leek, which from above looked tiny, but a lot of glycol spread rapidly. It was found and plugged, but the full extent of the leak wasn't realised.
We came back in the morning to slush and as time progressed things got no better. By lunchtime we were talking the slush out, washing the rink and all our equipment down and preparing to start all over again. There was just too much glycol mixed in with the water for it ever to freeze. The evenings show was cancelled and we made the national news.
The next evening we had a show and by the end of the week we were packing it all way, however it was all being broken down to air-freight on pallets. We split the get out up - Bob and I went home after the first half hour of the out and came back in the morning. The rest of our team worked overnight with one team of locals getting the ice rink out. When Bob and I returned the ice rink gone and they had made a small start on the set.
We took over and with a fresh team of local staff got the set down, broken up and onto the air-freight pallets. Bob was calling the shots and I was mostly scribbling the pack list (when you have nine massive piles of set on wheels and it all looks the same knowing exactly what is on pallet one of 5 is kinda good) and making sure all the bits that had to go in the rigging cases was put away properly so we made things as easy for ourselves as possible.
The rest of our team came back in that afternoon, by which point we were finishing off getting the set palleted and loaded onto the wagons. Within two hours we were all done and were sharing a beer with the local guys in the dock. Beer always tastes better after a lot of hard work.
We weren't flying the following afternoon so made the most of our remaining afternoon and evening. As we were heading from one bar to another we bumped into some of the guys from the theatre we had been in all that week and randomly ended up in the crew room at the sister theatre to the one we had been in. A few more beers, some random bloke on a guitar and a smoke and the world was looking rosy and the sky was getting light.
The next day we flew to Melbourne.
We arrived at the hotel in Wellington for 14:00 and had to be at the theatre for 18:00 for a 4 hour pre-rig. We weren't supposed to be in today, but management was having a panic about the show fitting up in two days, well given how long it took to get it out and all the problems with flying the wonky set you can see why.
I had got up at 11am on Sun, was working till 9am on Mon, had a couple of hours sleep on a plane, a bus, and a few hour in the new hotel before heading in for 6pm. By 11pm I was in one of those quiet, contained moods - the ones that you can manage as long as no one says anything silly, like "I don't know what all the fuss is about". However we were all shattered, so we kept the banter light and gave each other space.
Getting the set up in Wellington wasn't so bad, at least we had done it once. It still flew like a bag of shite and was a pain in the arse, but no worse than we expected. The ice rink was another mater.
To have an ice rink you need to keep the water frozen. To keep the water frozen you have lots of tiny little pipes that run at the bottom of a kinda pond liner. Those pipes have antifreeze, glycol, running around at -8 to -15 depending on what we need (-15 to build ice, -8 for skating). We would finish the first day of the get-in by laying the ice-rink mat (the tiny tubes) so that overnight our ice technicians could build up the ice mm by mm.
Overnight a pipe ruptured and the glycol, under pressure, spread rapidly. (When we first come up to pressure we watch carefully for bursts in the mat, but once we have been up to pressure for a bit we kinda assume it all good). However the mat spring a leek, which from above looked tiny, but a lot of glycol spread rapidly. It was found and plugged, but the full extent of the leak wasn't realised.
We came back in the morning to slush and as time progressed things got no better. By lunchtime we were talking the slush out, washing the rink and all our equipment down and preparing to start all over again. There was just too much glycol mixed in with the water for it ever to freeze. The evenings show was cancelled and we made the national news.
The next evening we had a show and by the end of the week we were packing it all way, however it was all being broken down to air-freight on pallets. We split the get out up - Bob and I went home after the first half hour of the out and came back in the morning. The rest of our team worked overnight with one team of locals getting the ice rink out. When Bob and I returned the ice rink gone and they had made a small start on the set.
We took over and with a fresh team of local staff got the set down, broken up and onto the air-freight pallets. Bob was calling the shots and I was mostly scribbling the pack list (when you have nine massive piles of set on wheels and it all looks the same knowing exactly what is on pallet one of 5 is kinda good) and making sure all the bits that had to go in the rigging cases was put away properly so we made things as easy for ourselves as possible.
The rest of our team came back in that afternoon, by which point we were finishing off getting the set palleted and loaded onto the wagons. Within two hours we were all done and were sharing a beer with the local guys in the dock. Beer always tastes better after a lot of hard work.
We weren't flying the following afternoon so made the most of our remaining afternoon and evening. As we were heading from one bar to another we bumped into some of the guys from the theatre we had been in all that week and randomly ended up in the crew room at the sister theatre to the one we had been in. A few more beers, some random bloke on a guitar and a smoke and the world was looking rosy and the sky was getting light.
The next day we flew to Melbourne.
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