It’s been a pretty busy couple of days in Tasmania. I always feel relaxed coming home but also a bit panicked, trying to see everyone. I have literally got 2 mnutes to myself between now and Sunday, which is good because I won’t get bored and I will get t see nearly everyone. By jingo it is packed.
The other night I went along to an Adult ed course my friend Gavin is running. It is an introduction to Stand Up comedy. Gavin is a great comedian and really dedicated to his craft. He and a group of funny guys have really made a dent in the comedy scene in Hobart, organising open mic nights and gathering other funny folk together. I went along and listened. I was asked some questions about performing which was funny. One lady asked me if I get nervous. I said
“Before every gig I am absolutely terrified. I wonder why I ever agreed to do the gig. I feel like I want to chuck, that I don’t know what I am going to say and then after it is all over it is wonderful and euphoric, it’s like being in a nightmare and then waking up and finding out everything is OK….”
The class stared back, horrified.
Gavin:
Well that’s great Aleisha, thanks for your input……um I am sure you have really helped these guys out…..really.
This morning I headed into ‘town’ the city centre of Hobart to meet up with my old mate Charles Wooley. I did an interview on his show with my fellow performers,Dave Callan and Tim Logan, who will be doing their stuff at tonight’s Movember gig.
It’s funny. I think I will have to be playing some sort of massive room in vegas before I accept the title of ‘comedian’. Nicole introduced me to one of her friends the other day and said
Nicole:
This is Aleisha, she is a comedian
LeishBlog:
No I’m not. I mean, I’ve done some gigs but..
It’s sort of embarrassing when there are so many funnier and more experienced people out there. It feels like there should be some sort of ceremony when someone decides, maybe after another 50 gigs that I am deemed funny and talented enough to have that title.
Anyway, the interview with Wooley was funny. It was very much like old times. He took the piss out of me, I fought back. Dave and Tim looked a bit scared then joined in, which was great. Wooley bought up all wedding cancelling hoo ha again and then tried to get us to talk about politics! Oh well. We got a mega plug in so it was great.
I love parking in Hobart, it is mega cheap. Here is an example.
I have decided I want to have a baby (I don’t really) because of the afternoon naps that you get to have. Yes I know the rest of the time is hard and you can’t just leave them for days on end, but geeze I like that nap. I have been staying with my friend Suze and she has 2 kids. Kate and Will. (I think this post might jog your memory about me being chucked on). They are proper little people now with opinions and the ability to talk back. The ‘why?’ questions are coming on strong.
Kate:
Leishy why do you straighten your hair?
LeishBlog:
Because Kate, I want to look good in case I find someone to pick up!
Kate:
Pick up?
LeishBlog:
Yep, you know go out with?
Kate:
Go where?
LeishBlog:
You know…..a boy?
Yeah well she doesn’t know because sometimes I forget that I am talking to a four year old and me ‘picking up’ might make me come across as slutty aunty Leishy in a couple of years!
Oh dear.
This afternoon I had a wonderful chatty chat with Kath in Japan on Skype. We couldn’t chat properly as Anth was asleep (because he had worked all night and didn’t get home until 9am…working in Japan, tough gig!) so we did a Skype typing chat. It was fun but I realised what a shithouse typer I am under pressure. Kath is happy because she is teaching English a lot more and has found some private students so she is getting paid properly. I am happy because now she has a bit more money we might have some more time together. Always greedy Leish, always greedy.
I am getting a bit nervous about my stand up gig tonight, feel a bit spewy, so I’d better go and pace. I think it will go well…I hope!
Lastly here is Suze’s cat Indy who is pretty strange and likes to climb on the fly screen and just hang off it!
Do you think shopping is love replacement? Will if it is I am loved up. Feeling that post climax buzz. I went on a mini spree on Sunday, not on purpose, it was like a consumer one night stand. It felt good so I kept doing it and then in the morning I when I woke up I saw all of the shopping bags and wanted to run back to the store with the receipt and delete it all.
I am speaking in bad sexual metaphors.(This will only give Rowan the Hawk more material because he thinks I am desperate and dateless and constantly referring to it…..possibly true)
Anyway what I am saying is that on Sunday I purchased a new suitcase for my holiday because I couldn’t be arsed lugging my pack around and then I thought it wouldn’t hurt popping my head into one of the big Ski shops in the city to just have a look. Yeah right. The guy took one look at me and decided that he could probably go home early because he just made budget.
A colourful new ski jacket, pants, goggles and gloves later I left the shop skipping. Silly girl. I did however get a wonderful deal and I smiled a lot! For example the jacket $450, I said
LeishBlog:
Dude, that’s way too expensive….heaps out of my price range,
Ski Shop Dude:
Ok well…..how about $200!
LeishBlog:
Deal! I should probably look at some pants as well…
Ski Shop Dude:
I’ll throw these in for $100
(they were $250)
LeishBlog:
Great. And while I’m here I should get some new goggles and gloves!
Ski Shop Dude:
You are killing me here….How about $50 bucks each?
LeishBlog:
OK!
He then did a wonderful thing and wrote a separate full price receipt ($889 instead of $400) for me to take to customs and they are going to give me $100 refund for GST under some sort of travellers scheme. So I ended up getting all that gear for $300 bucks. And I don’t feel as guilty!
Now I have all of my own gear so I am ready to take off on a whim when an eligible TV executive says
“Aleisha you look like you need a good down hill skiing adventure followed by some hot après adventures! Let’s go!”
Yep always ready for that. Got to be prepared!
Today I have been really trying to get my shit together for my gig on Thursday night. I am pretty terrible with this stuff. I do the same thing every time. I think the problem is that I seem to do all of my best writing and learning when I am totally under the pump and feel panicked with pressure. So I have been pretty free and easy with it all and now I am actually at the week of the gig I feel a little bit nervous but much cooler that I have before. I think that’s the thing with stand up. I am much more aware of the performance now, not just standing there and trying to remember all of the lines. I hope I remember all of the lines. Oh God bring on the paranoia.
Looking forward to visiting Taswegia tomorrow.I feel a bit old and slightly nostalgic because as I said in the last blog it has been 10 years since we finished high school and our reunion is coming up.
Our High school was funny because it was zoned between 2 very different areas. Gagebrook, Bridgewater and Risdon Vale (where the prison is) and GeilsotnBay and Lindisfarne which are fairly middle class. Saying that there were a lot of bogan’s that attended our school and then there were the ’squares’ the ones that didn’t have babies at the age of fourteen and went on to grade 11 (In Tassie you go to separate ‘colleges’ for grade 11 and 12).
The non bogan’s and bogan’s all coexisted in a funny way. There were a couple of cross over people that went back and forward between the groups which was always interesting. One of my favourite characters from school was a girl called Tabitha Kennedy. She used to pronounce her name as ‘Tabfa’. I sort of modelled my character of Charlene on what I thought ‘Tabfa’ might be like now.
There was nothing really offensive about her. She was just sort of silly and always had something amusingly inappropriate to say.
The other stand out was a girl called Nicky. Nicky had a baby in grade 9 and named it after a power tool and a cheap TV assassin, Nakita. She used to go around calling all of us ’square’ girl’s sluts. Oh the irony.
‘Lubey’Lubey lips…..(I can’t remember his real name but with a nickname like that who needs it!) is one of the other dudes in our year. His claim to fame was having a fake tooth which he famously swallowed, shat out and then put it back in his mouth and also he ate an entire months worth of contraceptive pills to just “see what would happen?!”. Reading that back, he was like the original gross out Jackass dude. If only he had filmed this stuff. He could have been a millionaire.
I have been reading a bit more about Japan. Getting pretty excited now. I am particularly intrigued and eager by the tradition of the onsen, the Japanese hot spring. Our Hotel has it’s own and apparently after a hard day on the slopes you take our beer and sake to the spring and sit around, letting the natural hot mineral water take all of your aches and pains away!
YUM!
I shall bring you more Japan facts as I read them in my lonely planet guide. Fascinating.
Finally…. pop along to my gig if you are in/on the island.
I wasn’t the only one who yesterday referred to Election Day as ‘Christmas’ What a day! I had a full calendar of activities book for the daytime and 2 parties to attend at night.
The morning started with Flat Mate Sarah and I going to our local café for some lovely eggs, followed up by us trying to locate an interstate polling booth for Sarah and us then getting distracted by a lovely little shop in Crows Nest that fully sucked us in. And too righttoo!
The shop is called handcut and it is unique because all of their clothes are made from pre lovedvintage clothing. They deconstruct then and then re-craft them into one-off originals. Flat Mate Sarah made a couple of stunning purchases and I got talking to the lady who owned the shop about skiing in Japan (one week away yeeeeeew).
After loosing track of time in the shop I realised I had to dash because I was meeting Ben in the city to go and watch Keating the Musical! I have seen Keating 3 times. It is awesome. My friend Julia Zemiro took me in Melbourne the night before I performed in the Raw Comedy finals. I was nervous about the next day I didn’t think I would be able to sit still but the musical was kick arse and by the end f the first song I had forgotten all about performing. I then took my Dad and Poppy to see the show when it came to Sydney in July and then Ben I thought it would be poignant to see the show on election day.
Being a matinee it was a bit of an old school crowd and we were amused by some old ducks in front of us shaking their heads in disapproval when it got to the sexy dancing scene that involved Eddie Perfect (Yum!) and Mike McLeish (good name!). When the John Howard character appeared everyone booed and hissed which was wonderful and rather appropriate! It is honestly a fantastic show and I couldn’t recommend it enough, you don’t have to know about politics that much (although it gets funnier the more you know). Paul Keating has seen it himself a number of times and this year the production won 3 Helpmann awards, including best musical.
Besides the election yesterday it was also an eventful day for our house. I purchased an iron. I know revolutionary! Yeah I know, most houses have irons but we didn’t and we were proud. Flat Mate Mick was keen to buy one for a while but Flat Mate Sarah and I couldn’t give a damn. A lot of our clothes are stretchy and we just didn’t see the need to have one. It was like some sort of stance against domesticity.
Well I broke it but I did go out of my way to buy the cheapest iron possible so as to only commit myself to the domestic world on a small level. When Flat Mate Sarah saw the iron she said
“Leish no! Why?”
I blamed it on my increasing love and habit of being feminine and that none of my dresses would dry with out creases and I was starting to look like a dishevelled hobo joe.
Post musical I dashed home to get changed, scoff some Spag Bol and then head out to Raina and Sam and Katies election parties. On the bus I overheard a lady on the phone talking about the election and when she asked the results so far she said,
“Well that’s very disappointing,”
She looked a bit like a Labor supporter (really how can you tell?) and then I sank into a deep depression on the bus thinking that we were screwed. Turns out I was wrong and she was probably going for Mr Howard. Sucked in Bus lady! The parties were a couple of streets apart so spent the night dashing in between them. I hope I was a good guest at both!?? At Raina’s we all wore stickers with election day phrases and words on them as a drinking game. Sam and Katie had huge charts with margins and numbers on their lounge room wall that were moved about with the each result.
Basil and Katie and the wall of margins!Cheers, when they finally announced Ruddy as the winner!Me and my mate Basil. Bas composed a lot of the, music for our sketch comedy show! Clever lad!Bas and I loking pretty weird in a scene from the show (2004)
The highlight of the night was Maxine McKew and her very possible seat win in Bennelong aginst John Howard. There was a lovley moment in the ABC broadcast when Kerry Obrien made a faux pa by sayng
“And that’s a win for the ABC…I mean ALP!”
The night ended with much champagne and cheering and comments on Jeannette Howard’s sparkly gold suit!
What now in politics….What now for my Dad who can’t say,
“Bloody Liberals…Bloody Howard and his bloody…..work place agreements, tax, stupid face etc?”
It should be interesting.
I am heading back to Tassie on Tuesday for some time before I head to Japan and I am looking forward to it. It is always great heading home, catching up with the peeps but I have noticed that each time I return I have a little less patience for crappy Tassie drivers and pubs that shut early. Oh well maybe I am a city girl, actually I defiantly am, but I love Tassie and I love the people there so I shall always return! It will be weird without my beloved Kath and Anth there though (who are in Japan) but I will see them in a couple of weeks in bustling Tokyo, which will be very different from sitting in their little lounge room in North Hobart, re-stoking the fire, eating one of Kath’s marvellous whipped up creations and drinking Pinot.
So I am officially without work as of today and what better way to celebrate my unemployment than with a shopping trip, followed by paying for my holiday neatly followed up by a trip to centrelink. Now before you dibber dobbers call the centrelink dibber dobber hotline I must say that it is a precautionary act, hopefully not needed but if I do go a bit nuts in Tokyo I want the reassurance that the tax payer (which is really me, so I am paying for it) will cover my arse and my rent when I get home. I know I will be judged poorly for this and I accept it.
I do however have a lot of work possibilities lined up for January when the TV industry comes alive again and I will step back into employment asap. I haven’t had a holiday (besides the ski long weekend) since last December when Nick the ex and I went on our non honeymoon. (that’s a long story!) It was a good holiday but damn I need one now. The only problem I have with holidays is switching the brain off. Yes we will be swishing and swooshing our way down powdery Japanese mountains but you bet your bottom dollar I will be intensely thinking about something. This brain doesn’t rest. I am heading back to Taswegia for a week to do a gig and catch up with the Tassie crew and I am quite excited because it si 10 years since I left High School and the non bogans are having a little get together. I think it is going to be spesh and even though a lot of the people are gallivanting around the world it will be nice to see whoever is there.
This morning I headed back down to Kogarah, to meet Positive Simone on her home turf to have a coffee and visit my favourite discount dress shop and secret bargain lair Fashion Frenzy. You would never know it by walking past but this rather dull and boring shop houses some of Sydney’s best designer bargains. Simone is a regular but always rolls her eyes upon entering because the lady that runs the shop is completely mental. She refers to everything as ‘Darling’ and is not afraid to talk about someone in the shop while they are there if she isn’t in to them. She loves Positive Simone and much to her horror she even left the shop in Positive Simone’s hands one day when she wanted to ‘pop out and get something to eat!’. Today I found a Cooper Street dress, normally $139 for $35. I shall wear it yum cha-ing and salsa dancing on Friday (that will be an interesting blog…..Asian Spanish fusion maybe?) While trying on my dresses I overheard this conversation in the dressing room next to me,
Woggy girl 1 Oh my god you look so goooood.
Woggy girl 2 Oh my god, I can hardly breath!
Woggy girl 1 Oh my god just suck it in a bit….you can breath when the zip is done up hey??
Woggy girl 2 No way, I can’t breathe and it is pinching my back fat…
Woggy girl 1 Listen to me beauty is not about being comfortable…I think if you get this dress you should defiantly not eat for a day and then it will look so gooooood on youuuuu…
Woggy girl 2 Really I can’t breathe……(sounding weak and a bit breathy)
Woggy girl 1 It’ doesn’t matter you look like a real lady! Maybe a boy will actually look at you aye?
I had finished trying on some stuff and I was zipping up my boots when I heard
“Girls, Come on will you just hurry up!”
being yelled impatiently from outside the change rooms. Positive Simone and I laughed assuming that the woman was speaking to people she knew, like her kids or something, but apparently not. It was for us and the woggy girls. I love Sydney southern abruptness! Good one lady.
Tonight I headed to the Oaks with Nicole and Rita, Nicole’s friend who booked our holiday. She is cute. I had never surprisingly been to the Oaks before but it is now my new best favourite north shore pub. Nicole and I played pool badly and made up our own rules. We were obviously very skilled but I am sure if there were any boys around they would have chastised us for our lack of skills and diversion from the actual game. I also think the Oaks would be able to sell the video of us playing the game to an internet mogul because there were a lot of dodgy lying on the table shots and bending over in weird ways until we realised there was a sneaky camera in the room. Bless.
I might be the only person in my age group thinking this but I am excited about putting into practice my democratic right to vote on Saturday. It is awesome. I am going to my friend Raina’s election party in the Glebe on Saturday night….I suspect there will be polling drinking games! Bring it on I say. Did you see how I avoided pushing my political beliefs on you the blog reader just then….that is responsible and no biased, like a good journo.
Kevin 07.
There you go I did it.
I have to go to bed because I have a hard day of lunching tomorrow.
OK well first of all big ups to Justin (and a plug for his blog as he has already written about our night out) for getting me into the Bee Movie premier and then being patient while I loitered around the stage door with all of the other groupies to get a close up glimpse of Jerry Seinfeld my comedy hero. Practically anyone that has ever had any dealings with me would get how much of a sad uber fan I am of Jerry’s work, not just the show but especially his stand up. I have been lucky enough to be in lots of meeting famous people situations this year but just standing a couple of feet away from this dude really took the cake. He had lots of security guards but I was impressed that when he arrived at the premier he went straight across the road to the fans. Good on you Jerry. Also with Jerry was his long time manager and Producer of Seinfeld, George Shapiro. George Shapiro is a legendary manager who also managed Andy Kaufman and had was heavily featured in Jerry’s film about in stand up come back, The Comedian.
Bee Movie was funny and full of adult references. It’s defiantly worth a look.
After I composed myself I took Justin to the Channel 10 studios to watch the final studio record of the Friday Night Download, the show I have been working on for the past 7 weeks. I had a couple of drams yesterday at work with clip clearances ad a feisty legal department in Hong Kong, so I was keen to talk to the Executive Producer of the show Micah to try and redeem myself and hope that he didn’t think that I was a dick.
I had a minor heart attack when David, the publicity guy for the show said that he had been invited to go and see Julia Morris do her stand up act and that Hugh Jackman was going to take Jerry Seinfeld along to watch. Well I jumped in like a vulture with 50 questions, David sent Julia text messages, asking what time and where. I got very excited and then she said that he had decided to go to dinner instead. Oh well. I was happy that I might have had the chance to sneak along!
As well as talking about Jerry Seinfeld David and I also spoke a lot about Japan because David and his Partner have been skiing at the same resort that Dad and I are heading to for the past 3 years. He told me some magic things like, there is no Alcohol tax in the northern regions of Japan….that’s big. Which means that a bottle of vodka is only about $11. He also said that the village is very cheap and even if you go to the ritziest restaurant if is virtually impossible to spend over $25 a head on dinner. That made me excited because I want more money to spend in Tokyo on useless gadgets and plastic things!
Being the final record of the year we decided to have some drinks after the shoot. We headed to the Casino because Mike, Fitzy and Bree were all staying there. We had a good time, ate some cheese and drank. It’s funny to see so many people out boozing it up on a Monday night. Maybe I am a nanna for thinking that! We have a big wrap party yum cha lunch on Friday which I m thinking will stretch on to Friday night so that will inevitably be debauched.
Very Sexy, very mysterious…….
Lastly my favourite online Tshirt company threadless is having their annual Christmas $10 tees sale. These are great presents and also just uber cool for summer. Here is me in a couple of the threadless creations.
Lastly I took this photo in the Channel 10 car Park ….Love it.
Thanks for reading people…..I really appreciate it!
Some weekends pass by without a blog worthy moment (actually I haven’t had one of those for a while). Others are filled to the brim with adventures. This last weekend was a bit like that. Friday night was my last official day at Southern Star so we decided to that I should go out with a bang by starting to booze it on fairly early in the office.
Raina, Nicole, Rowan and I are pretty good at clearing everyone out of the office on Friday night. As soon as Friday drinks are called we grab a bottle and cheese and sit around my desk laughing and being loud, indulging in the delightful company wine (which is good stuff) until everyone else is sick of the ‘good times noise’ and all leave. After watching a bit of comedy, eating some more cheese and a bathroom photo shoot, we deemed it was time to take off.
Bathroom Photos…..yeah I know Vanity!
Friday we had a number of appointments to fill. First off we went to St Leonard’s to the Cabana Bar, a surprisingly hip place set amongst all of the boring office buildings. There was a guy playing bongos to 80’s music. Bongos are fun. There was a great crew there and lots of silly photos were taken.
After that we headed into the city to watch Flat mate Sarah’s brother’s band, (I could have just written my friend Ben’s band) Alaska Ratioplay at the World Bar.
Because there were 5 of us and we couldn’t fit in one cab we decided to be tight arses and take the train. This was more trouble that it was worth and we really should have paid the extra money because when we got to Town Hall station we realised that none of us had purchased the right tickets to get to Kings Cross and that we would have to go out of the station to get new ones and then come back in and get the train. What a conundrum. Rowan the Hawk and Joel decided they didn’t want to do that and that they were going to risk not having a ticket and take the train anyway. Because I was in a woosy la la mood I said that I didn’t want to jump the turnstile, knowing my luck everyone else would make it and I would be caught by the train cops and be sent to train fare evasion jail, while everyone else went and partied. That would suck. So while the boys took the train, Rain Nicole and I took a cab and of course the boys beat us there by about 15 minutes and didn’t get caught……damn them!
The gig was wicked (and you should defiantly visit the Alaska Ratio’s web page!!)
Me and The Alaska Ratio Boys
Saturday I was subdued. I attempted to finish writing my act for my upcoming gig.
But instead I mopped the kitchen floor, ate some nachos and fell asleep on the couch (Procrastination is my forte!) only to be awoken by Rowan the Hawk calling to invite me to his parents joint all the way down at Kogarah to hang with the crew , talk about our TV show pitch and play PlayStation 2.
I love going to other people’s parent’s houses. Rowan the Hawk has a sweet deal and is quite clever living at home while also paying off an investment property. His parents were away and I said it felt a bit like that episode of Sex and the City when Carrie goes out with a guy that still lives at home and it takes her back to her teen years.Well Saturday night was a bit like that. We all ate pizza, played the PlayStation 2 and watched our own sketch comedy shows (that sounds sad!). The funniest part of the evening was Rowan the Hawks justification for ruining his own birthday. He did a bad thing by finding his parents present, Guitar hero 3 game and guitar under their bed and unwrapped it and played it all night. I said that was cheating, but he didn’t care. I was hopeless at the game and just wanted to go back to playing shoot’ em ups.
Rowan the Hawk turns 24 in 2 weeks……..do I have to say any more?
Nicole kicking on Guitar hero 3″
Nicole was horrified when I was playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreaswhen the boys were encouraging me to kill the prostitute after having sex with her to get my money back.
Nicole:
But what has she done to you for you to kill her?
LeishBlog:
Nicole, it’s Grand Theft Auto, you kill everyone.
Nicole:
I know but why kill her? That is terrible. She had sex with you, it’s her job. Let her go.
Rowan the Hawk:
Don’t listen to her! She made the decision to become a computer game prostitute!Hurry up, she is getting away. Use the sniper.
Rowan the Hawk became impatient, snatched the controller and proceeded to get his arse whipped by the prostitute who pulled out a machine gun.
Nicole:
That’s karma!
The next morning Nicole and I headed into the city to have Nicole’s very first Yum Cha! We met up with Jess who I met at the Arias and her boyfriend her Andrew Hansen. We had a wicked time, ate the nicest food and talked about TV, which I do believe is one of my favourite activities.
I am really looking forward to my Japanese adventure, especially after talking to Kath last night on Skype. God Bless Web Cams becuase it was fabulous to see Kath laughing and carrying on and Anth sitting in the background shaking his head as he does at our conversation. Kath has put together a full itinerary for my stay which takes us all over the place and she guarantees that we will be eating 8 solid meals a day! YUM!
Niseko had 30cms of snow last night so that might stop Dad from freaking out for a couple of days.
Tonight is my brush with Jerry Seinfeld at the Bee Movie premier. I am excited.
Lastly another excellent Writers Guilds Strike video, this time from the writers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Funny and defiantly worth a look.
Yesterday on my way to work I was crossing the Pacific Highway and to my delight I spotted a man on a Segway.
All I could think about was GOB from Arrested Development. What a kack. He was pretty old and defiantly American because he was wearing lots clothing bearing brand names and insignia and to top it off he had a US navy ship cap
GOB rules!
Last night I was supposed to go to yoga, or yo yo as Nicole called it but I was convinced, quite easily to attend a bourgeois restaurant for dinner. Nicole is fabulous and she is wiley because when I was talking about my holiday and that I couldn’t really afford it but I was going anyway I said something like ‘life is about experiences, not about cash’. So now whenever something comes up she says to me
‘Leish, remember life is about experiences, now lets go eat an expensive restaurant!’
Anyway I still stand by my statement and really half of the stuff that I have done this year wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been a bit rash and a tight arse so I agreed to go to dinner.
Before I left work yesterday I popped my head into the head of developments office, he basically commissions TV shows and I asked if I could pass on my showreel and some examples of my comedy work to him. I don’t know where it came from but I started talking about some ideas that The Hawk Rowan and I have had for some shows and he said that we should have a screening and discuss our ideas next week. I edged out of the room, ran to Rowan and he said
The Hawk:
You said what?
LeishBlog:
That we have heaps of great ideas for show and we are going to sit down next week and talk about them
The Hawk:
You do know we haven’t come up with any ideas yet?
LeishBlog:
I am aware of that yes. I suppose we should come up with something pretty quickly
The Hawk:
There goes the weekend!
LeishBlog:
Yep
Nicole heard us talking about this and simply said
Nicole:
I’m worried
Rowan aka ‘The Hawk’ after hearing of my plan!
I have no doubt that we will pull something fabulous out of our hats……or at least impress him with our bullshitting skills. Also if anyone has any decent TV show ideas that we can borrow, please get in touch!
The restaurant that we dined at is called the Longrain. A lovely Asian Fusion eatery in Surry Hills. That has won many awards and charges a bomb. We started with some delicious cocktails; mine was filled with Lychees and other yummy things. Rowan and I talked shop a lot and Nicole again announced that she was
‘Worried’.
When it came time to order we decided to share so we all got a taste of a variety of uber nice dishes. Nicole decided that she wanted order the barramundi that lived in the fish tank at the front to of the restaurant.I thought that was sad because they all looked like they were having a really nice time swimming around, looking out over the posh diners and it would be shame if Nicole broke up their posse by murdering one of their friends, I am sure it would put a real downer on the evening!
Personally I am not a vego but the idea of choosing who you are going to eat somehow just doesn’t sit right.
Nicole didn’t seem that bothered by the fish assassination but the price tag weighed on her mind and she eventually decided to spare the fishes life and go for the chicken instead!
The meal was super delicious and we also had a lovely bottle of as Nicole puts it Savvy B. Yummo.
Nicole and Leish: satified customers
Rowan and Mel and the famous Egg Net!
Today is my last full day at Southern Star, although I am helping out tat the studio record on Monday as well. We are heading out for drinkies and to watch Flat Mate Sarah’s brothers band Alaska Ratio rock it at the World Bar in the city.
It should be a fab albeit messy night. No doubt blogs will follow.
Lastly I had major palpitations just then because the lovely Justin just invited me to the premier of Bee Movie were the comedy deity himself, Jerry Seinfeld will be attending.
This is so major I just might wet my pants. (I know not attractive, but for those who know me, Seinfeld is a pretty big deal)
So it looks like there is going to be a LeishBlog may be turning temporarily Japanese in December. Last night Dad called me and said he couldn’t go skiing due to Antarctic issues (he works for the Antarctic Division) so I was a bit bummed and wondered what the hell I was going to do with a month up my sleeve. I then decided I’ll be buggered if I was going to miss out on a holiday and decided to go to Tokyo on my own anyway!
As I was getting ready for work today Dad called and changed his mind so the McCormack’s are heading OS. This should be interesting and make some excellent LeishBlogs, because when I first suggested we go to Japan instead of Canada Dad said,
But all of the signs and stuff are going to be in Japanese, geeze Leish how are we going to get around?
LeishBlog:
Dad there has to be English signs and stuff there, we can’t be the first Australians to go to Japan skiing and how hard is it? Get on lift, ski down mountain go back again, really?
Dad:
I don’t know, I just hope we know where we are going…
Bless. My Dad is an excellent skier and I think it is going to be a really fantastic but physically demanding week for me, because he jus turned 60 and could outrun a tiger.
I am also delighted because we are staying near the cute snow monkeys that take baths and people laugh at them so that will be a great McCormack day trip.
After the skiing I am heading to Tokyo to visit Kath and Anth who are living in a shoebox, eating cake like bread, working their arses off and loving every moment! The best thing is that I will be there for Kath’s birthday which is going to be awesome because there has been some suggestion of us heading to TokyoDisneyLand. Rock it. The trip is being confirmed tomorrow and I really will be morbidly disappointed if it doesn’t go to plan. Again I am setting myself up for disappointment when I write things like that.
Leish Kath and Anth in our Tassie Woollies
Moving on.
This morning while straightening my hair the hair straightener (250 degrees) brushed the side of my arm. It hurt a bit at the time but then I got distracted by peanut butter toast and I didn’t think about it again until I saw the inflamed scorch mark on my arm at work. I thought I should inform the whole office of my injury and the lovely Nicole played along with me like bloody clockwork. Being the First Aid officer, she thought it best if she treat me just in case. I agreed. Firstly we elevated my feet, just in case shock was yet to kick in.
The BurnNicole elevating my feet…she should work in an ER
There was wound inspection, bandaging and recovery.
All very necessary stops in helping me recuperate and us having a couple of minutes at work. The bandage was also a nice talking point and made me look injured for the day so that was fun (not that I am condoning injury…I am now nocking on wood furiously to avoid bad Karma for hamming it up!).
Rowan, who has asked to be referred to as The Hawk on Leishblog (I am still deciding if he should be called that) left instructions to read this article on my desk.
I think he is having a go.
*Hawk Rowan write a blog and then you can bring you clever commentary articles from industry magazines, until then, shut your beak….although the article is funny and pretty much correct in all points!
I don’t usually just post things without a long drawn out blog of explanation but after all of my youtube clip searching and possible brain rotting this is the clip that always makes me laugh. If and when I have babies I want them to have English accidents and speak like this kid. I am ashamed to say adorable, very ashamed. What a bloody toughie.
I don’t know why I haven’t done it before. I mean it all looks the same but I don’t have to bother faffing around with all of the extra dots and slashes and the vagued out looks that follow the initial interest of people asking about the blog, when it comes to them having to remember where to find it!
I am reading the most wonderful book at the moment which I brought purely by chance due to the opening page. I was out shopping with Justin on Saturday at the beloved house of K, Kmart and spotted the book. I opened it up and the first page was all about a Tasmanian woman who moved to Sydney from Hobart, who studied at AFTRS (Australian Film television and Radio School) and had an interesting relationship with her flatmate! Sounds all to familiar, so I ignored the bright pink cover, purchased it and it has been one of the more entertaining books that I have read this year. The book is called How we met and it is lots of short essays by Australian best writers about how they met their partners, unrequited loves and mediocre one night stands. It sounds cheese but it’s enjoyable and it is one of those books that is so easy to read you forget the effort that sometimes goes into reading and switching your brains off!
After swearing that I wasn’t going to spend any money, I also purchased the new Ben Elton book, my heart jumps with glee and anticipation. Ben Elton is a serious hero of mine and I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview him last year while working on the Charles Wooley show. Actually the first time I met Charles Wooley he said to me,
‘Maccas (he called me that from day one) we can have anyone we like on this Show!’
LeishBlog:
‘Well Wooley, you can have you John Howard’s and your generation commentators, all I want to do is talk to Ben Elton’
And I did and I when he called me ‘darlin’ in his rough British accent, I dumped Wooley on air and offered to work for free for Ben, he told me ‘anytime!’
Anyway I am torturously saving the new book called ‘Blind Faith’ for my unemployment and perhaps as a plane book.
Dad called today and said he might have to go to Antarctica early so we might miss out on skiing but I say bugger it, I need a holiday and I think I will go to Japan anyway, because I have already begun to select he list of Karaoke songs that I am going to belt out after one to many Sakes.
(How much are we going to bet after making this decision that I get a call about a fabulous job that I can’t refuse and I end up staying in Sydney???)
Last night Positive Simone and I hit the town; well not really we went to dinner at an awesome eatery in Darling Harbour called Chinta Ria. It was yumorama and had a fab vibe, all cling clung clungy.
CHINTA RIA
Positve Simone told me a great story about her being used as a pawn in a sordid sex conversation between a dude and her boss at her casual job. On Saturdays Positive Simone has been helping out at a swanky hairdressing salon taking appointments. The owner, lets call her Sally is an infamous hussy and doesn’t mind a bit of something something on the side. On Saturday Simone answered the phone and one of Sally’s blokes was on the other end. He asked if Sally was available. Sally was not; she was with a client and couldn’t come to the phone. He asked if she could pass on a message.
Positive Simone:
Sure
Bloke:
I want you to ask Sally if her slot still need fixing?
Positive Simone:
Ok…..um Sally…does you umm, the bloke want to know if your slot need fixing…
Sally:
Ohhh ha, Simone please tell him yes it does need fixing and that he should bring his big bag of tools!
Positive Simone:
(Speaking very quickly and wanting to die)
She said yes and that you should bring your big bag of tools
Bloke:
Oh yes, fantastic stuff, Oh, I will and you tell her I’ll bring my extra big drill bit.
Positive Simone sat in the shower and rocked for the next 3 hours trying to wash the sex talk filth off of her! What freaks, oh well, whatever gets you off.
Positive Simone and Leish
Today I stumbled upon a really well produced internet TV show called quarter life.
It is being promoted though myspace but also has its own web site. I am guessing it’s going to be huge as NBC are looking at picking it up in their February line up. I think they might need it if the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike continues. For those who are don’t know, TV and film writers in the states last week walked out of their jobs over the lack of payments and revenues received by them from DVD sales and programming distributed on the Internet.
The future of TV is the internet and if these issues aren’t sorted The impact of the strike is already having significant effects on the TV industry with show shutting down all over the place. I was really happy to see Steve Carell from the Office and Tina Fey from 30 Rock, who are both actors but also write for their respective show on the picket lines. My favourite Julia Louis-Dreyfus also showed her support for the writers of her show The new adventures of Old Christine, one of which is her husband.
I am guessing reruns have been stockpiled to last well into next year because the last strike went for over 20 weeks!
This clip from the writer’s guild explains the strike and why we should care (trust me we should if we want any decent TV next year!)
This is LeishBlog, a blog about Leish (as I said, that’s me!) and my comings and goings. Last year my life changed a bit. I was going to get married but I found myself suddenly single, I moved state and I began performing stand up comedy. Not to mention I lived in my first ever share house and began working in television. Blog worthy? I hope so!
