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| Saturday, March 24, 2007 |
| Ataland Is Exhausting |
Oh boy. The last week has wrecked me real good. It is working 8:30 - 5 PLUS rehearsals and performances that has done for me.
We got the final complete finished script two and a half weeks ago, and opened performances last Wednesday. The week before opening was kind of heavy on rehearsals - even a rehearsal the night before opening that started at 8pm and didn't finish until after 11. Fortunately performance nights aren't as hard going as rehearsals - show opens at 7, we're taking a bow at 8:15 and happily at home by 9:30 at the latest. So Ata was feeling somewhat recovered by Friday.
Still. The show has gone well so far - opening night audience of 80+ people, including a number of reviewers. The Adelaide Advertiser gave us two stars, but it's a well-known fact that critics are idiots unless they're giving you compliments. Audience reaction has been positive. Mr Ata even insists that the accents are good, although the Adelaide Advertiser took special care to slag our accent efforts.
But still - between work and play Ata does not have a great deal of extra time for the Interweb, and a brief chat with Dil and Prue was cut sadly short when the chatroom had a tantrum and threw me out, then locked up Explorer when I tried to get back in... and by that time I was too tired to fuss with the stoopid puter any further so I had a shower and went to bed. So, um, sorry Dil and Prue. I didn't just leave unaccountably in the middle of a discussion. Really.
Oh, but I have something that is making me very happy (and very unfocussed, but nevermind) - due to work commitments and the impending move, Mr Ata is unable to make the Great Rollercoaster Tour to the US, so it shall be put off again. And why does this make me happy? Not going to the States means that Ata may accompany her parents and little sister when they visit South Korea on the long-promised trip to visit the land of little sister's birth, a trip that Ata badly wanted to go on but could not do both that and the States. Hooray! Travel makes Ata even happier than dark mint chip chocolate does. So I shall be going to Korea at the end of June for a couple of weeks, with or without Mr Ata depending on his work commitments. The minor downside is that my contract does not finish until the 30th of June, and skipping out on contracts early is a Black Mark with temp agencies, but hey - what can they do? Fire me? It'll only be two or three days early, and I Don't Care.
Korea! Korea! With perhaps a side-stop in Singapore! AND moving to the UK in less than 12 months time - this is proving to be a Very Good Year so far. Perhaps, if I am in a very good mood, I may even try to fit another play in before the end of the year. |
posted by Ata @ 10:53 pm  |
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| Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
| Tattoo-Total |
Ata recalls with great clarity the first moment she noticed tattoos. It was at a public swimming pool, when a man removed his shirt to reveal a chest-and-back collage of inkwork that had sprawled also down his arms. Little Ata was fascinated.
"Mum," she asked the font of all knowledge, "why does that man have pictures all over him?"
Little Ata's mother looked at the specimen in question.
"That means," she replied with great dignity, "that he does not look after his skin."
Little Ata wondered about this for years. Specifically, she wondered what the criteria were for not lookng after one's skin, how poor skin-carers were identified, and who it was that enforced their picturification. She did also consider the possibility that the pictures simply developed if one did not take proper care of one's skin, but eventually dismissed this as unlikely. After all - why would a skin disorder caused by insufficient moisturiser or not wearing a hat in the sun manifest as a burning skull and a skeleton on a motorcycle? No, she decided, it was more likely that the worse care one took of one's skin, the more pictures were added to declare their poor stewardship to the world.
As you may imagine, Little Ata took the application of sunscreen very seriously, having gathered that being permanently marked as a careless skincarer was a Bad Thing. After all, the exact criteria for what degree of carelessness earned what inking were part of that large body of knowledge that Little Ata presumed she would be made privy to when she Grew Up. One would not want to aim for, say, a lizard or tiger but be branded instead with a topless mermaid.
Very many years later, Young Adult Ata had a gecko drawn on the inside of her left wrist during University Orientation Week. When her Mother asked on the telephone that evening what Ata had done during the day, Ata replied slyly - "I got a tattoo."
"What?!" Ata's Mother gasped, "Do you know how long those things last?!"
"Oh yes," said Ata with confidence and - dare I say it - panache, "About three days."
Oh yes. Ata likes to tease her Mother. |
| posted by Ata @ 10:38 pm |
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| Tuesday, March 13, 2007 |
| Mysterious Roy |
Ata began a new contract last week. It is four months doing accounts reconciliation for a freight company. Ata sits opposite the IT department - which consists of Vince and Gary (who talks like someone off of Corner Gas, which I suspect makes me smirk at him without apparent reason). They provide a certain amount of welcome entertainment for Ata.
Today, Vince called someone in one of the company's freight depots to see about arranging training on a recently-installed freight tracking system. Vince did not get the person he expected to get. Instead, he got Roy. After some confusion, Vince discovered that Roy was the new Fleet Controller, and that he did not have a computer. Well, technically he did have a computer, but it was still in the box, and he definately did not have network access. After getting off the phone, Vince reported these facts to Gary.
"What's his surname?" asked Gary, apparently preparing to check on the system to see what access had been set up (or should have been set up) for Roy.
"I don't know" said Vince, who had not thought to ask for this information. "He's the new Fleet Controller. He's answering on Doug's number."
"What's happened to Doug?" said Gary.
"I don't know," said Vince, "But he's not on that number any more."
Gary commenced investigation. A series of phone calls followed, that - from Ata's end - sounded more or less like this:
"Yeah, hi! I'm trying to set up access for Roy, and I need to know what his surname is. Roy. He's the new Fleet Controller. Roy. Uh-huh. He just started. Oh. Okay. Well, thanks anyway! Oh, by the way, what happened to Doug? No, Roy's answering Doug's number. Oh. Uh-huh. Hm. Yeah, okay. Well, I left a message for Joe already."
The initial call was made before ten in the morning. It was around lunchtime that the next piece of information was discovered - Roy did, in fact, have a surname. However, there was no record of him in the system. Every person questioned denied all knowledge of Roy (except, presumably, for the person who gave up his surname).
Eventually, towards the end of the day, the mystery was unravelled. Roy was not new. Roy had worked for the company for some time. Roy was - prior to moving into the Fleet Controller position, and for reasons unknown to all but himself - known as Rocco. Doug was still very much alive, well, and employed - but the newly promoted RocRoy had been assigned the same phone number.
Heheheheh. |
| posted by Ata @ 6:17 pm |
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| Monday, March 12, 2007 |
| Things We Must Do |
Ata is rapidly developing a list of Things We Must Do when we go overseas next year.
It gets added to in this way:
"Oh, you MUST visit our friend in Germany!" Yes, says Ata, we would love to visit your friend in Germany.
"Oh, you MUST visit this Important Ancestral Location!" Yes, says Ata, who expects to receive a fairly comprehensive list of Important Ancestral Locations to accompany the family tree that was a wedding gift from a second cousin with an interest in family history.
"Oh, we have called our friend in Finland and told them you are going, and they would LOVE to have you stay, so you MUST visit!" Yes, says Ata, of course we would love to visit.
Ata is beginning to feel that in 10 months time she will have such a long list of People and Place that We Must Visit, we just might barely fit them all in over the five-to-ten years we plan to be gone. |
| posted by Ata @ 10:10 pm |
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| Thursday, March 08, 2007 |
| 10 Weird Things About Me |
1. I have a 6-inch scar on my stomach. As a child, I delighted in showing it to people. As an adult... well, I still delight in showing it to people, but I try to be a little more cautious about the circumstances under which I do so. ESPECIALLY if I'm wearing a dress.
2. The top joint of my thumbs bends out at a right angle. I don't consider it particularly weird, but many other people have commented on it so I figured it should rate a mention.
3. I sing to myself. A lot. And sometimes dance, too. MLB#1 has, on occasion, reprimanded me for this.
4. I talk to animals. After also being reprimanded by MLB#1 for barking to dogs/meowing to cats/warbling to magpies, I try to keep it to spoken English when in public.
5. I don't like wearing shoes. I know it's been mentioned on other people's posts, but I still don't like wearing shoes. MLB#1 once refused to go grocery-shopping with me unless I put shoes on. Man, he sounds like a killjoy, doesn't he? Possibly the weirdest thing about me not liking wearing shoes is that I'm actually quite fond of shoes, and if I am wearing them I prefer them to be heels. I own far too many pairs of shoes, considering that I wear them as little as I can get away with.
6. I used to like sleeping on the floor. Until a few years ago I often had trouble getting to sleep, and one of my strategies was to transfer from bed to floor. Then I'd drop off very promptly. I don't sleep on the floor much anymore, though - probably because my husband might ask questions.
7. I like crinkle-cut chips (as in crisps) better than thin cut chips. Because I like to break them into small pieces& place each little bit between my back teeth with the ridges in the chip running up & down, so that when I bite down on it, my teeth crush the chip with even pressure down the length of the ridges. I don't know if that's weird, really, I've never asked anyone how they eat their chips.
8. I trained one of my cats to jump over a stick. Actually, this was quite amusing, as she generalised the behaviour from jumping over a stick on command to jumping over whatever was available when she wanted a treat.
9. I was once very adept at switching letters around between and in words, but in the last few years I've noticed that I do it more and more by accident and less and less by intention.
10. I chew my fingers when I'm concentrating, particularly on computer games. When I've been spending a lot of time playing games, I get big calluses on the knuckles of my index finger and little finger on my left hand. It's a holdover from when I was a kid - whilst trying to give up fingernail biting, I switched to finger chewing. I have to say, not really an improvement - but I don't bite my nails anymore. |
| posted by Ata @ 12:01 pm |
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| Sunday, March 04, 2007 |
| Doggerel |
How will it be
When I see you
Will you know me?
In ten years to come
How will it be?
Too many years
Too much time
Our lives unshared
Will you fall behind?
Will I be myself
Or someone new
Will I be alone
Or will it be you?
Is what we make now
Enough to last
Or just the beginnings
Of a forgotten past
A dream of a history
A memory of thought
Between you and I
Is it lost or caught?
How will it be
When I see you
Will you know me?
In ten years to come
How will it be? |
| posted by Ata @ 11:10 pm |
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| Thursday, March 01, 2007 |
| A Walk in the City |
Ata had a spare hour and a camera in the city yesterday, so she decided to take a photo tour. A la other Hobblings. We begin our trip through the shopping district of the Adelaide City Centre on Hindley Street. Not because it is a major destination, but rather because that's where Ata happened to be. Hindley Street has had a great deal of work done to it over the last few years, but despite valiant attempts at gentrification... 
...Hindley Street has maintained the connection to it's history.
Hindley Street, after many strip clubs and tattoo parlours, eventually reaches King William Street and then becomes Rundle Mall. Beehive Corner marks the beginning of the Mall. Do not ask why it is called Beehive Corner. This information is lost to the mists of time. Besides which, it is probably better known for the much more important shop occupying the ground floor on the corner.
Now, truth be told, Ata finds the shops in the Mall to be largely uninteresting. However, the City Council has gone to great lengths to make the Mall an attractive place to be, including several installations of statuary. The most recent being the Mall Pigs.
The Mall is a great place to promote stuff. The Clipsal is on this weekend - and what better way to promote a car race than with legs in short skirts?
The Adelaide City Council apparently has little faith in the ability of it's visitors to orient themselves in the City.
 Come to think of it, legs in skirts are a great way to promote lots of stuff. Like energy drinks. Man, if only I'd thought of legs-in-skirts as a marketing tool first, I could have made a fortune!
For some reason, these girls attracted lots more attention than the Clipsal girls... probably because they were handing out drinks that looked like beer (or wee, depending on your perspective, I guess). But then, they were standing next to the Balls, so maybe all the cameras I saw out were actually snapping a shot of the Mall's Balls. Or the security guard. I don't know.
Anyway, ladies and gents (mostly ladies, but I didn't want anyone to feel left out), I must be off. There is more of the Mall Tour, but I have just looked at the time and realised I should be leaving in ten minutes and I am still in my pyjamas. 'Til next time, then.
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| posted by Ata @ 9:38 am |
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