a return to the words

Wow, it's been ages. I hope I haven't lost dedicated readership due to the hiatus that was the Big Day Out. I hope I can still string together a few sentences after being immersed in Excel Spreadsheets for the last 3 weeks. It is sorta nerdy to get excited about finding a formula for calculating hours & minutes accumulated on time sheets, right? However, it does use the MIN and MAX, and really that is kind of exciting to revisit 8th grade math.

But on with it.

Being part of the esteemed BDO Sydney Site Crew was great fun and great long hours out at Homebush, the site of the Sydney Olympics. A Madonna-fueled soundtrack helped the office girls keep a sense of humor, Madge probably helps office girls the world over to keep going.





However, as Haydn, my dear substitute blogger, mentioned, part of my Day of Show duties was the Silent Disco. AKA the 4th circle of hell.


So what is the Silent Disco? Well, it is a sort of communal dance party with headphones on. Everyone gets a pair of headphones and can listen to two different djs. They all dance on a stage and generally stomp and flop around. The venue of the Silent Disco was in a big tented dome thing. No air conditioning. The duties of me and my colleagues there were basically collecting and handing out the sweaty Phillips headphones from the sweaty, boozy kids. I seriously feared that I would acquire some sort of fungus from those things. I must say tho, that the kids were having a blast, and it was pretty funny when Blur's Song 2 came on and everyone is dancing and shouting out Whoo Hoo! whilst dancing to the music on the headphones.

Of course, the good thing about being on site all the time is all the catering! And, mind you, the meals were really catered to the crew working outside all day. Lots of curries, stews, pastas, etc. Really good salads, too.

On Wednesday, when I turned 29 (yow!), Haydn flew me to Melbourne to meet up with him. It was like visiting little junior London. While some of you may have seen stifling hot Melbourne on tv during the Australian Open, the weather changes fast there (re: Crowded House's song "Four Seasons in One Day"), and I was there on a grey, drizzy, cool day, which was a nice change of pace, actually. The architecture is very British and old and stately. There are lots more nooks and crannies and little alleys and winding lanes.




For dinner, we went to Pellegrini's, a very old school Italian restaurant. There are two counters running alongside the long, narrow room, and another big table literally in the kitchen. They bring your pasta out in about 10 minutes after ordering it. I opted for Spaghetti Salati (?) -- basically pan fried spag bolognese. And Haydn had a really nice ravioli in a sweet tomato sauce.





Then it was off for a Subways/Mess Hall/Kings of Leon show. Those Kings of Leon guys simply defy some sort of law of physiology with the tight, tight, tight jeans they wear. Very rock n roll.



Now, with the payroll books officially closed, it's back to a bit of the leisure I've become so good at. I head to Perth tomorrow to actually see a Big Day Out concert (and maybe to be one of the sweaty kids at the Silent Disco!) and then to do a bit of Western Australia exploration. Hello, Indian Ocean?! It is a 5 hour plane ride, sort of like going from NYC to LA, except being as far West as I have ever been.

xo
tara