Surprise Find

The rehearsal rooms at the Brisbane Arts Theatre are full of broken couches. I'm reasonably proud of the fact that at least two of them were destroyed during the first run of He Died With a Felafel in His Hand earlier this year. The poor things couldn't stand up to the amount of jumping, climbing, romping and dancing that occured on them nightly for six weeks.

Still, they retain some structural integrity - enough for us to rehearse on them as we prepare for the January revival of the show. By the way, did you know you can book your tickets online right now?

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BAT 2010 Season

I mentioned a while back I've been busy, busy, busy working on a few projects.

The biggest has been the brochure for the Brisbane Arts Theatre's 2010 Season.

Here it is in video form:

As you can see, He Died With a Felafel in His Hand is back for a limited revival in January - and then, in April/May, the BAT has the great pleasure to stage the world premiere of John Birmingham's The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco. The righteous Simon Bedak is writing the play specifically for the BAT. I'm so excited that he liked our version of Felafel enough to get uber-keen and pen the "sequel". I hope to have both John and Simon at the theatre for both Felafel and Tassie Babes - but they're busy men with battles at the hell-gates of Thermopylae to win ("Sparta!"), so we'll see how we go.

The Wah is also directing Joseph Heller's masterpiece Catch-22 in March, so I'm sure there be plenty of literary types out there who'll be keen to check that out. The Wah is a fantastic director, with a keen eye for the absurd and profound, so I can guarantee a great show.

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Judgement to the Max

You know what I love? Pepsi Max.

I just love it. I enjoy it. I relish it.

And you know what? I'm a bit tired of being judged for that.

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Synch Me

I honestly don't know that I've seen anything more ridiculous than this furphy over Britney Spears lip-synching at her concerts.

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Emblondening

One can do a lot in four-and-a-half hours. Read a book, watch a couple of movies or a whole TV series. Cook something, do some admin work, volunteer at a centre for illiterate puppies.

I spent four-and-a-half hours on Friday getting my hair done.

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Glorious

The Wah and I took a drive through the wild windy roads of Brisbane's north-west this afternoon, ending up at Mt Glorious. It's a lovely spot I remember fondly from childhood, as it was a popular picnic and walking spot not too far from my then-home at Albany Creek.

I also remember it less fondly when, way back in my first year of university, I stupidly took a wrong turn around Settlement Road at The Gap and wound up taking a 60 kilometre route home. Oh, there were tears on that occasion, I can tell you.

Fortunately, on this occasion there were no tears - only the usual pressure headache I get when driving around lots of bendy roads at increasing altitudes (my family are water people, not mountain people. Mind you I'm not all that good with the water, but that's by the by). It's a beautiful spot, Mt Glorious, and where we stopped, Maiala, was just the same as I remembered it as a girl - a sloping, grassy hillside dominated by a massive pine tree of some description, which falls away to rainforest and a number of good walking tracks.

I took my big Nikon D80 with me in a pathetic attempt to prove that I'm still trying to develop a knowledge of DSLR photography. The dozens of blurry shots I found myself deleting this evening would indicate even the attempt at the attempt needs more work. Still, there's a few I'm happy with:

I'm desperately trying to get better at this blurry background business.

Mushies! Gloriously golden rainforest mushies! If you eat one,
it'll make you see hydrogen! I mean, really SEE it!

Who is this "Kat"? And what's she all about, carving her name into trees?
THE TREES FEEL PAIN, KAT. (The mushies! The mushies!)

Emperor Funghi

The Wah has a habit of buying me incredibly clever birthday presents - ones that I would never think to buy myself, but really love when I open them.

This year, it was a Mushroom Growing Kit.

It's a simple, one-box system - you empty a bag of soil and spores onto a layer of mulch/compost, keep it moist and in a dark place, and voila - your own home-grown mushies.

Just over three weeks ago, we set up the kit, and placed it under the sink. For two weeks, nothing much happened, except for the appearance of tiny white spots, the size of a pinhead.

Then about a week ago, we got some mushie action:

 You can see that a decent sized baby mushroom popped out of the soil, with an even tinier brother next to it.

We kept up our watering, and the mushie seemed to get a little bigger every day. But in the last day or so, it's experienced a massive growth spurt, resulting in this today:

That's right - I am growing the Emperor Funghi under my sink.

The baby brother mushie has also increased in size, but we don't have any others poking their heads up yet. Hopefully they'll make an appearance in the next week or so.

I'm not quite sure when to harvest the Emperor Funghi. Part of me wants to get that bad boy out right now, cover him in some herbs and pan fry with some haloumi. But the other part of me is much more interested in seeing exactly how big he'll grow...