I would advise that if you need to go to Sydney for the weekend you should try and avoid the red-eye flight from Perth. It's hell. You get on at midnight WA time and get off at 7 am Sydney time after a four hour flight. If you could sleep it would probably be OK, but on Virgin Blue the seats recline by about two inches and you are packed in like sardines. And you can't even get a pillow. Not even if you pay. Suffice to say it was hideous.
Why was I going to Sydney anyway? Well it was my friend Doug's birthday (one with a zero) and we thought it would be a good idea. In fact we didn't really think about it at all. We got an email from Charms seeing if we wanted to go and just sort of said yes. It was only when we were at the airport at midnight that we realised it was a pretty daft idea. Work all day Friday, fly overnight, party and catch up all day Saturday and then fly back Sunday.
However it was worth every moment of discomfort. The party was great. Charms had arranged a whole Scottish thing as Doug thinks he's Scottish. Well he sort of is, in that very English way of wanting to wear a kilt when one of your parents is partially from the end of the high road. She was stressing out but it all went off beautifully. All the neighbours brought stuff and there were even a couple of Australians there. I think they live in one of those little Britain suburbs like we have here in Perth so Aussies are a rarity.
The evening was slightly marred when a haggis was brought out, but people recovered pretty quickly and it all went off with a bang. however I'm afraid I can't report on the wildness after 11 pm as I was dead to the world. My brain just sort of stopped functioning. All I can say is that there were hangovers in evidence on Sunday morning. All in all it was a great night and brilliant to see my friends again and to see the kids getting bigger and bigger. Pity they are so far away really.
Anyhow on Sunday I went into Sydney and again realised how lame Perth can actually be. There are shops and cafes and people and best of all an American apparel with 20% off everything. I've always been a bit anti-Sydney but after this weekend it's started to grow on me a bit. I don't know what's changed but there you go.
Apart from this not much has been happening. The film is pretty much done, the fine-cut looks really good and now just need the music which we have some local musicians writing. I've got to organise all the thank you presents and a final wrap party for all the people who've helped. I just hope to god that the Town of Vincent who gave us the money are happy. What amazes me is that Adam even has special effects in it. What used to take George Lucas weeks on end and millions of dollars can now be done on an ancient eMac in your bedroom!
So that's it. I still have things to post about Taiwan but it's probably a bit late by now. Never mind. I'll see what mood I'm in tomorrow.
