WEEK TWENTY-ONE

So, with last week behind me, I decided to try and make a clean break – which really didn’t work, so I phoned Hannah to cheer myself up, and get some gossip! My next thought was to get out of the apartment and get some fresh-air and enjoy the sun. I just went down Rundle Mall, which seems to be a main shopping strip, but when I got to Woolworths (food shop here, not the old fashioned Woolies) and just stocked up on some crap food for the day, and after I decided I’d had enough of the sun I went back to the flat and spent the rest of the day drinking beer, and eating crap food. Not exactly my idea for my first proper day in Adelaide, but I have five weeks here, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance for looking about at some point! So, I went to bed, with alarms set ready for my training day, and my first day of work in months! It’ll be a good change!

So, by 9am I was up and getting ready for work, and actually starting to get a bit nervous! Strange, but I suppose you’re meant to have slight butterflies in this situation. And just before 10am I headed down stairs to the coffee shop which was just next door , and got a massive cup of tea, and a cookies to get me prepared. I had been told that we were meant to be training until 5pm, which scared me a little bit, but I got settled in, to what turned out to be a good three hours of training and speeches and all sorts of other thrilling things to listen to. When everyone else got to go for lunch me and the two other people who will be working in the Box Office went to find out how the computer system worked – as we were going to be on our own pretty much. It took us about an hour to get this over and done with, and it seemed like a pretty simple system to use, a bit clunky and slow, but despite this, one of the other girls kept asking some of the most retarded questions, and that meant we were in the tin-can for longer. Not happy! This one act alone (or multiple acts if you count each stupid question separately) made me cautious to warm to her, and I think she might be quite annoying! We spent the afternoon trying to get stuff looking nice ready for the opening on Thursday, and at about 4:30pm we got set free, and the big group of us all went to the pub. A good way to celebrate the end of such a tedious day! That evening I spent my time cooking my final really meal for about a month, and sat and enjoyed it in front of the tele watching some kind of crap. And then I slept. 

In my final day of freedom I had actually volunteered to help on site, and so at about 10ish I headed back down to site (across the road!) with my tea and cookie, and started putting on poster walls, and other such stuff. We also got the chance to see my box office for the first time, which seemed good enough, pretty tiny, and with no shade, but it looked good enough to do the job. This meant I did get a chance to sort this out ready for the public to come in the next day. We went back to the main Fringe box office that day to ask some questions that we had thought of overnight, and it seemed slightly disconcerting that no one seemed to know the answers to some pretty crucial questions regarding the running of it all, but, fingers crossed everything will be alright? After I’d spent as much time as I possibly could doing box-officey type things I had to go and help with the other stuff, which meant scraping old posters off board, but, oh well, we were set free early. Bonus! Once I had finished I found out Will was at a pub somewhere watching some kind of acoustic folky type lady singer, with a couple of his friends, so I went down to have a look. This meant negotiating Adeliade’s tram system, which is a lot easier than Melbourne’s, as they only seem to have one tram that goes up and down one route. Simple. So I managed to get n the tram on the right side of the track, and I was off, destined to get lost. Will had actually given me pretty good directions, and told me to get off when I saw the ‘Entertainment Centre’ and the pub was just across the road. So, when the tram pulled up outside a massive centre of some description, covered in lights. I assumed it was right and jumped off. And, as the tram pulled away I saw the pub, clearly labeled, and directly in front of me on the other side of the road, was ‘The Gov’ – exactly where I was looking for. Well chuffed with myself! So I spent the night having a few beers, listening to lovely music, and having a chat. How very civilised, and a very nice way to spend my last night of freedom, before my evenings were stolen by work.

And then I started work. As I didn’t have to work until the evening I had plenty of time to get ready, and try to decide what to wear on my first day. This gave me time to go down the street shopping and get a few final touches, including a pair of lace gloves which look lovely, but are hilariously uncomfortable to wear, but they were cheap, and they finished off my outfits, so they were bought. Looking at my collection of clothes I was pretty happy, but also slightly scared that everything I had was completely wrong, and I would look ridiculous, so I donned what was reasonably conservative – black tutu, knee high socks, and an awesome waistcoat – and then braved the streets of Adelaide. As it was the opening evening there was still a few final touches happening when I arrived on site, and after being given everything I would need for the night, me and the other person working in the box office went to sit in our little shed for the night. There weren’t actually any shows on for the night, which meant a lot of sitting around and doing nothing, but I got to finally finish some boring box office admin stuff, and have a good look through the guide to try and figure out what I wanted to see. There isn’t really much to report really as I did very little for hours, but get annoyed by the other girl. Boring. Once I had finished and cashed up I went to find Toni who had been drinking for many hours by then, and safe to say was pretty drunk by the time I found her, so I had a couple of beers with everyone who was around, and then as I was much more sober than everyone else, went back to the apartment with one of my new flat mates, and then went to sleep, slightly disappointed by my boring first night at work, but eager to actually get into it.

And so, the first Friday night. Night of us really knew what to expect as it was so early in the season, but, people had told us stories about there being queues right around the block, so, we braced ourselves, but actually had a reasonably quiet night, but at least we had a few customers so we could get used to the system as I seemed a bit odd at times, but, it doesn’t seem too bad, and we also got a chance to try some of the lovely food that they have there, such a choice! Hehe! I know it all seems exciting at the moment, but in about a fortnight I will be begging for food on a plate, and possibly, if I’m really lucky, some vegetables. During the course of the night I got a phone call from my Dad to tell me that my Grandma had died. And then I had to go back to work. The rest of the night seemed to be pretty uneventful, and to be honest, I just didn’t want to be there. Shit things come in threes, I wonder what my last thing will be?

During the weekends I had the day shift, which also meant I had the box office to myself. Waking up at 9am after so many late starts was not appreciated, but I dragged myself into the shower, and down to the café to get my usual for my brekkie, and then head to site. It was all a bit up in the air at the start, but we finally muddled through, and I got everything set up and ready to go. And then I sat in a box for 7 hours. Not the best of fun, but it was lovely and relaxing, and not busy at all, so I read a large chunk of my book. Luxury. At about 5pm the other girl came into work, and the joys of a Saturday night crowd started to arrive. In the evening me and Toni had planned to go and see Cantina, which looks amazing, but as it was sold out we couldn’t get in and instead just wandered about and had a drink and got something to eat. I was in the mood to see a show of some description, and everyone had always told me that the Tom Tom Crew are amazing, and I just managed to squeeze in to see it. I didn’t really know to expect, apart from a lot of drumming, as in Edinburgh I could always hear when they went on, and I worked across the road from them! Safe to say I was well and truly entertained for the hour, and could have watched it for much longer. It is a great hour of full-on entertainment – beat boxing, acrobats, and drumming crammed into a tent. Amazing! After that I decided nothing else could compare to that show, and I still had another 5 weeks to cram some stuff in, so went home. Not overly exciting, but I had to be up early again in the morning, and I didn’t want to feel as bad as I had before!

Sunday’s did not mean a sleep in for me, however it did mean that the queue was twice as long at the café downstairs. Damn you yuppy mums. I once again had the box office to myself for the day and once again enjoyed myself thoroughly, trawling around on the internet, and getting some emails written. A highly productive day! In the evening, me and Toni managed to get in to see Cantina, and it was a lovely show. It was exactly what I felt like seeing, and saw some magic that almost made me wet myself! Always appreciated. After that I went to make use of the free candy floss (fairy floss) and then went for a drink outside ‘the bus’ – which was literally, a converted double decker made into a bar. Pretty cool really. Once I had talked to many random people I was introduced to, and had many drinks I went home to sleep. And to get a lie in. And I slept like a baby!