I feel fabulous.

I just got home from the McLeod's Daughters set. They called me last minute to replace a clapper-loader. My boss at the restaurant worked her magic and got me out of the shift I had tonight. She's the best.

So I spent the day in Kingsford, in the heat(36 degrees), in the camera truck and on the beautiful land and homestead they have as a set. I ran around so much. I was so dirty and sweaty at the end of my 13h day, the shower I just took was absolutely delicious. And I am tired. A really good kind of tired. I feel so good having been on set again.

And tonight is the official start of my vacation.

Seriously. Aaaahhhhhh.

Degrees of seperation.

Right now, between Montréal and Adelaide, in celcius, about 70 to 75. Mindblowing, isn't it? We are literally worlds apart. I am dreaming of snow, and you guys are dreaming of white sand.

I got a funny email from Allen today. He got it from a friend at work.
There was only a picture and a title. Here is what it was.


'ADELAIDE WEEKEND FORECAST'


Enough said.

I give up

I don't know what the hell is going on, but I am about to hit someone.
In the following post, I have proudly put the before-after shots of my second chair. And for some inexplicable really REALLY frustrating reason, the second shot of the after is posted upside down. There is no reason why this should be, I edited it about ten zillion times and it still won't face the right side up. I have lost the last 40 minutes of my life for this. Why does it do this? Has it ever happened to you? Damn it, it's grinding my gears.

I hate when there is a problem and there is no reason for it and I can't fix it.

So please forgive me for the upside down picture, BELIEVE me I tried everything I could.

My second chair

So here it is.
The one I am keeping. This one was more complicated to do than the first one because of how the arms attached on the side of the chair. Lots of fiddling around to reupholster. And this one went through a bit of hardship- the left arm got cracked and split in transport, so I had to glue and clamp it back together and use putty to fill in the cracks and things like that. Now, you can't even see something was wrong with it.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


I decided to go with a bold print. Didn't know if it was going to work, but I was thinking I should try something different, young and fresh. And I am happy I did.
It looks great in my living room

Can't wait for my next chairs now...anyone want one?

Are you kidding me????

Ok. There are lots of great things about living in the city. Everything is close, you don't have to use any other mode of transportation than your two legs, there is always something happening, and I can get to work in no time.

But here's the thing.

On my street, somehow, there's always something making an obscene amount of noise early in the morning. I am talking about things like containers of metal things being dumped in a huge noisy truck at 6am. It's not like the lovely sound of the garbage truck coming by. It's so much more anoying than that.

And this morning, a new addition to the annoying list of super loud noises made in the morning. A ?%$&%?*?&( wood chipper. Yeah. A HUGE wood chipper right under my window and it's 9am. I am trying to sleep still, I had a big night last night. Man, we are in the city. Why is there a WOOD CHIPPER right under my window!!!!!
Go figure. It's my day off and I get woken up like this. Great. Now I am grumpy.

The unfairness of it all.

So the Oscar nominations are officially out.
As I do every year, I begin a cinema going marathon to make sure I see every significant movie of the year in time for the Academy Awards.
Usually, that includes all best picture nominations, all best cinematography nominations of course, and sometimes, when an actor(tress) is nominated for best actor but the movie in which he(she) is in isn't nominated for best picture, I see those too, if I have time.
So up to now, I have seen

Best picture:
- The Queen
- Little miss sunshine
- Babel

Best cinematography:
- The Illusionnist
- The Prestige

Other film which has best actor or actress nominated:
- The persuit of happiness
- The Devil wears Prada

So I'm not doing so bad, but I am frustrated, because some of the ones I need to see are either not here yet, cause Australia is so far, or I missed them because they were playing here while I was in Canada. So no chance to see The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Notes on a Scandal, Children of Men, The Black Dahlia, etc. So I am sad. It's not nearly as fun to watch the Academy Awards if the films nominated aren't even in the cinemas where you live yet. Boohoo.

Yeah, we're in Australia.

So the other day, Allen and I were out with some friends at a bar when this guy comes in with a huge snake wrapped around his neck and shoulders. He just walked in, like it was nothing unusual. We were playing pool near the door, so we saw him walk in. He looked at us, sort of assessing if it was ok for him to walk by us, looking to see if anyone was freaked out. We had a conversation with him, he told us all about his beloved pet, and encouraged us to touch it and hold it. I was patting it when I realized how weird this was.







I guess it's not every day you see a snake in a bar.

Plus vieille que moi.

Je suis dans une mauvaise période.
J'attends le prochain film qui devrait arriver en ville, mais rien ne se confirme. Des rumeurs, rien que des rumeurs, et ça commence à me peser, de savoir que tout ce que j'ai devant moi pour gagner mon pain est le restaurant. Cette semaine, mon assistant-manager a eu un bébé, donc j'ai écopé plusieurs shifts. Je ne fais que ça ces jours-ci: Je me lève, je déjeune, je vais au resto travailler, je reviens du resto et je me couche. Quelle vie plate.

Mais aujourd'hui, un petit quelque chose a fait ma journée.

Un groupe de gens sont venus fêter le 70e aniversaire d'une amie. Pour cette occasion spéciale, ils ont emporté une bouteille de vin. Mais pas n'importe laquelle. Une cuvée de 1971. Une bouteille de vin de 36 ans!!! Plus vieille que moi de 10 ans. Incroyable. Je n'avais jamais ouvert une bouteille aussi vieille. Les dîneurs me regardaient avec tant d'attention, les doigts croisés, les yeux craintifs. Mon limonadier s'est enfoncé dans le bouchon comme dans du beurre. Le liège était extremement moux et spongieux (il avait absorbé beaucoup de vin, il était tout rouge, presque noir) c'était presque impossible de le garder en un morceau. J'ai pris mon temps, j'ai été délicate et douce, et j'ai réussi à sortir le bouchon en deux morceaux, sans en échapper une miette dans la bouteille. J'ai sorté le décanteur et je l'ai laissé respirer pour quelques heures. Une fois dans les verres, le Claret sentait le porto. C'est fou, quand même, non?
J'y pensais toute la soirée. Ce vin est plus vieux que moi. Ce vin a été produit un an avant que mes parents se marient. Je n'ouvrirai probablement jamais une autre bouteille de vin aussi vieille.

Ça a rendu ma soirée spéciale, un peu. Parce que en ce moment, les shifts fondent entre eux. Ma semaine est comme une journée interminable. Et cette bouteille, je m'en souviendrai longtemps.