Since I am no longer traveling extensively, and simply now manage a daily commute of about an hour from Manly to Ultimo for work (think Ferry, Train, walk, arrive!) I would like to take this opportunity to shift the focus of Carlagoespostal from travel stories to simply stories from the bizarre, dramatic and sometimes serendipitous life I am leading here in Sydney.
So now I submit, The Referee.
I am currently playing on a women's soccer team. I was playing random pick-up soccer at Moore Park after work when a girl came over and asked me if I wanted to play with their team. I was currently playing on the Sydney University team and so I said I would check it out. I practiced with them that night and then a few days later. It was such a better fit - the girls there were friendly and older (as in they had jobs and weren't Uni students) and the team did less traveling.
And so my love affair with the Dunbar Rovers began. We killed teams in the early going, before the league was split into two separate divisions. Our home field is at Rushcutters Bay, right on the water. You can see Sydney Harbour and sailboats just behind the goal. It is pretty magical. After we had our first few tougher opponents and managed to come out unscathed, I knew our team was bound to do some special things. Alan our coach entered us into a State League competition - playing tougher teams from regions around the city. It was a much better comp and we flew past the first round. We beat one of our central players former teams to advance past the second round. And this weekend we meet the Liverpool Rangers to get to the Final Four.
Here's where the ironic funny story comes in. We had been rained out for a few practices thanks to Sydney's glorious weather. The whole country is in drought except Sydney. So we managed to get a scrimmage invite at UNSW. We rolled up to play under the lights. It was great fun, but the referee was the opposing team's coach. He was of Eastern European descent. He reminded me of my coach growing up who was Polish. After the first 25 minutes of play, we had put a lot of pressure on their goal but hadn't managed to score. The second period started and we put 2 quick goals away. That's when the "creative officiating" began. The coach called 4 fouls in a row for his team. Not even 1 for us. He gave them throw-ins that were clearly ours. It was getting ridiculous. I may or may not have said something like, "Just because you're losing. Ref it fair." The minutes tick by. We enter the third period. They had an offensive chance. Claire, our sweeper for the game, tackled the girl in the box. It was a fair tackle and 50% of the time, if I had been reffing, I would have called it and the other half I wouldn't have.
She gets up and says, "I got all ball!" We all complain a bit.
The referee/coach then blows up. He's like, no no no, everyone is a smart ass. Come on! Come on? That is BULL shit. And walks off the field, taking his confused players with him.
It was the most bizarre and immature series of events I have seen in a very long time. But it made for some entertaining fodder.
So the whole Manly crew is heading up to the Hawkesbury River region to stay at a cabin for the weekend. We are driving up armed with food, booze and plenty of board games. It should prove extremely entertaining, and I hope I can eek out a story or two for the blog.
Baby Got a Job!
Just hours after my last post I got a phone call.
Geoff: "Carla! How's it going?"
Me: "Hey Geoff, yeah, it's going. Still unemployed, which sucks...what's up?"
Geoff: "Well, what's the status of your visa? We would like you to work for us."
And the rest is HISTORY!
I have started working at StoryHead Pty Ltd, as an Associate Producer and I could not be happier. Everything I have wanted out of a job I now get to do. I get to produce, I get to write, I get to liase with clients, I get to shoot... the list goes on. On top of that, I am still working with StreetTV. This weekend we are going to shoot at the Gathering Ground, a community art event in Redfern. Let's just say when God closed a door, he opened a very large window.
Geoff: "Carla! How's it going?"
Me: "Hey Geoff, yeah, it's going. Still unemployed, which sucks...what's up?"
Geoff: "Well, what's the status of your visa? We would like you to work for us."
And the rest is HISTORY!
I have started working at StoryHead Pty Ltd, as an Associate Producer and I could not be happier. Everything I have wanted out of a job I now get to do. I get to produce, I get to write, I get to liase with clients, I get to shoot... the list goes on. On top of that, I am still working with StreetTV. This weekend we are going to shoot at the Gathering Ground, a community art event in Redfern. Let's just say when God closed a door, he opened a very large window.
Baby Needs a Job
So here I am. I find myself some weeks out of work. After TCO, I went to New Zealand to come back on a different visa to work and travel in Australia.
The time in NZ was great. I went to a horse farm outside of Christchurch and rode for 5 days. The rest of the guests... were 10 year old girls. And they were much better riders than me. But I improved so much! The first day we were going up a huge hill and my stirrup came loose. We started trotting and I wasn't skilled enough to keep my balance and went over. I landed on my side on the high side of the hill, so it wasn't that bad but I still bruised my spine.
I was so sore.
The rest of the week progressed and I can honestly say I am no longer afraid I will get thrown off a horse, again. I can't wait until I get a job here and can start riding Elvis, the amazing horse I began dressage lessons on in Centennial Park. Maybe for my birthday I will indulge in an Elvis lesson.
So, meanwhile, I came back here and have been aching for a purpose. I finally connected with some amazing people who work for StreetTV. They took a chance on me and I got to shoot the Hope Street Markets for them on the Sony Z-1 Camera. It felt amazing to be back out there and getting an active say in what was produced. The only drawback? They can't pay me. So I am literally a starving artist.
I am so thankful for all my friends here in Sydney. They have really been lifesavers! Julie and Mark and Jo are the greatest for letting me stay with them, rent free. I only hope someday I could even come close to repaying them for their kindness and hospitality.
Going to a National Team (Women's AND Men's) game tonight at the Sydney Football Stadium. It should be great fun!
In the meantime, if you know of anybody in the Sydney area who needs a devoted, passionate, motivated individual to work in production give them my name!
The time in NZ was great. I went to a horse farm outside of Christchurch and rode for 5 days. The rest of the guests... were 10 year old girls. And they were much better riders than me. But I improved so much! The first day we were going up a huge hill and my stirrup came loose. We started trotting and I wasn't skilled enough to keep my balance and went over. I landed on my side on the high side of the hill, so it wasn't that bad but I still bruised my spine.
I was so sore.
The rest of the week progressed and I can honestly say I am no longer afraid I will get thrown off a horse, again. I can't wait until I get a job here and can start riding Elvis, the amazing horse I began dressage lessons on in Centennial Park. Maybe for my birthday I will indulge in an Elvis lesson.
So, meanwhile, I came back here and have been aching for a purpose. I finally connected with some amazing people who work for StreetTV. They took a chance on me and I got to shoot the Hope Street Markets for them on the Sony Z-1 Camera. It felt amazing to be back out there and getting an active say in what was produced. The only drawback? They can't pay me. So I am literally a starving artist.
I am so thankful for all my friends here in Sydney. They have really been lifesavers! Julie and Mark and Jo are the greatest for letting me stay with them, rent free. I only hope someday I could even come close to repaying them for their kindness and hospitality.
Going to a National Team (Women's AND Men's) game tonight at the Sydney Football Stadium. It should be great fun!
In the meantime, if you know of anybody in the Sydney area who needs a devoted, passionate, motivated individual to work in production give them my name!
It's Been A Long While...
So, here starts my life in Sydney. I arrived and headed straight to work the next day. So much for catching up on jetlag!
We have been working on a project called the WotNext music tour. Basically, it takes Kram from Spiderbait (Black Betty remix a few years back) and Geoff Young from TCO, inserts them into a VW Kombi from the 70's and they travel around Australia finding undiscovered musical talent. Then, we have showcase events where there are bands from the area and they play. Where TCO comes in is we shoot the event and upload it to the wotnext website (think YouTube for music) and people can vote. The winner is decided based on votes and downloads.
Eh, voila! That is wotnext. Apart from that we are doing some work for the FFA (Football Federation Australia) shooting a documentary from turning 1 non-football fan into one. Lachlan, the 6'5" barrister is the non-fan, accompanied by Con and Leon, 2 boys from Liverpool and Amy, the chiquita that has connections to the fan section.
Lachlan got to meet David Beckham briefly when he came to Sydney. He stood up in the middle of the press conference and just asked Becks his question. Then, we went to the Sydney FC - LA Galaxy game and got to shoot. I took stills, which hopefully will be in The Australian (USA Today equivalent newspaper) on Monday. The game was great, though LA lost 5-3, at least we got to see an incredible Beckham free-kick. It is even more insane when you see it in person. There is no way a goalie could stop the bend.
Up next for work is putting together something for Myer, the department store, Purina and MakePovertyHistory in Africa.
So, picking up from where I left off the stories in Africa...
So, after Jinja, Uganda (you have to say it like that. One can't just say Jinja, you have to put in the locator, it has a nice ring to it) we headed off to the waterfalls in Uganda. We saw our first hippos and crocs on the way to the falls. We took the boat and then hiked up to the top of the falls to look down at the raging water. Insane! And it was about a million degrees out, which is always pleasant. After that we headed to our first game drive. I will never forget the first time I saw a giraffe in the wild. It was pretty far away, but I was still in awe of the size and grace of it. Little did I know, we were about to see a few hundred more.
We pretty much saw every type of wildlife possible, except the big cats. We were just hoping for some elephants when we were driving back to catch the ferry. Just off the side of the road on my side of the ferry was a herd of them! We stopped and took some photos. It was insane to think that we had to have a guide with an AK-47 just to scare them off in case they attacked us. I am pretty sure that if the elephant wanted to cause us pain, nothing could stop it.
After that, we went to catch the night ferry across the river. We had to wait while the ferry loaded up on the other side of the river. There were some hippos nearby but as long as they were in the water we weren't worried. A few minutes passed and then I realize that Stuart had been saying something. I realized he had been standing watching the hippos and said, Hippo, out-of-water. Hippo, out-of-water! Little did we know one of them had crept close to the bus and our safety. Luckily we got back into the bus and caught the ferry away from Africa's most dangerous animal!
The next day we were about to embark on one of the longest drives of the trip. Pretty much 15 hours in a crappy bus to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Oy!
Nothing I say can describe what it feels like to be in a car that long, doing nothing but dozing and looking out the window. Looking back on it, I can't believe I survived Africa without my ipod, seeing as how it died in Greece. But somehow I managed. We arrived in Kampala, a freaking bustling metropolis and headed to our hotel, Jeliza.
Oh, Jeliza.
We get there and go to our rooms. Not the best hotel ever, but by African standards it was alright. We immediately took a nap and got showered up before eating dinner at the hotel. We got there and ordered, and I think took the girl by surprise. 10 people ordering food was probably the most business they had had in a long time. So, I order spaghetti bolognaise. Who knew it was going to take... an hour and 15 minutes. And I was one of the first. Literally, another hour goes by and maybe 1 person's food comes. All in all, it took 3 hours for the meal to complete. Absolutely laughable. And, the best part was all of our food came out with plastic wrap on it, as if it had been cooked somewhere else and they had just brought it to us.
The next day, we realized we no longer had running water in our room. And, our light bulb was not working in our room. Christine asked the reception if she could fix the light and what was the concierge's response? "Do you really need a light?" Yes! It is Africa! And we need to SEE in our HOTEL ROOM!
So, we got it fixed, sort of. And the water still was not working. The next day we had several options to go around and see the sights of Kampala. The idea of getting into another cramped car that stunk and waiting in traffic all day did not appeal to me. So, instead I proposed we go to the mall. Karen and Bob accompanied me, and we ended up having a great day! I bought a canvas map of Africa, we got pedicures, we checked internet, we ate Japanese food. It was an incredibly relaxing day. Then, we headed back to Jeliza, the now infamous hotel.
Whenever you take a taxi in Africa, you have to build in the time it takes to fill up for gas. Every time. Why? Because there is so much theft of cars that nobody ever fills up their tank more than the bare, BARE minimum. I'm talking, they put in 1 liter. And then they stop and fill up. 20,000 Ugandan shillings is about $15 US. That would last them about 2 weeks. But instead, they put in 1,000 shillings. Just when you think you aren't going to have to stop for gas, the taxi driver pulls in to the station and you wait.
So, we finally get back to Jeliza, which is by now the bane of our existence. We find out, there is still no water. And what is worse, the construction on the place continues. Jackhammers starting at 7am. Dust everywhere. And, the water had to be brought in by truck. But, the truck pulled in before our bus pulled out. So we wait. So Africa. By this time I wanted to shoot someone. Karen asked the concierge biyatch if she could have a bucket of water to bathe with. The lady was like, I will help you. We can work together. Oh. My. Jeliza then became adopted as a swear word. For the rest of the trip, whenever things went poorly we would say, Jeliza!
After that, we went out in Kampala seeing as how it is the safest of the African cities we would go to. The night life left a little something to the imagination. We basically had a few expensive drinks (even expensive for Western standards) and danced around. I am going to be in somebody's graduation video as the white girl dancing around. Then we left and went back to the... place we were staying. The next day we were heading out. Thank GOD. I am sure when we left nobody ever wanted to return.
We have been working on a project called the WotNext music tour. Basically, it takes Kram from Spiderbait (Black Betty remix a few years back) and Geoff Young from TCO, inserts them into a VW Kombi from the 70's and they travel around Australia finding undiscovered musical talent. Then, we have showcase events where there are bands from the area and they play. Where TCO comes in is we shoot the event and upload it to the wotnext website (think YouTube for music) and people can vote. The winner is decided based on votes and downloads.
Eh, voila! That is wotnext. Apart from that we are doing some work for the FFA (Football Federation Australia) shooting a documentary from turning 1 non-football fan into one. Lachlan, the 6'5" barrister is the non-fan, accompanied by Con and Leon, 2 boys from Liverpool and Amy, the chiquita that has connections to the fan section.
Lachlan got to meet David Beckham briefly when he came to Sydney. He stood up in the middle of the press conference and just asked Becks his question. Then, we went to the Sydney FC - LA Galaxy game and got to shoot. I took stills, which hopefully will be in The Australian (USA Today equivalent newspaper) on Monday. The game was great, though LA lost 5-3, at least we got to see an incredible Beckham free-kick. It is even more insane when you see it in person. There is no way a goalie could stop the bend.
Up next for work is putting together something for Myer, the department store, Purina and MakePovertyHistory in Africa.
So, picking up from where I left off the stories in Africa...
So, after Jinja, Uganda (you have to say it like that. One can't just say Jinja, you have to put in the locator, it has a nice ring to it) we headed off to the waterfalls in Uganda. We saw our first hippos and crocs on the way to the falls. We took the boat and then hiked up to the top of the falls to look down at the raging water. Insane! And it was about a million degrees out, which is always pleasant. After that we headed to our first game drive. I will never forget the first time I saw a giraffe in the wild. It was pretty far away, but I was still in awe of the size and grace of it. Little did I know, we were about to see a few hundred more.
We pretty much saw every type of wildlife possible, except the big cats. We were just hoping for some elephants when we were driving back to catch the ferry. Just off the side of the road on my side of the ferry was a herd of them! We stopped and took some photos. It was insane to think that we had to have a guide with an AK-47 just to scare them off in case they attacked us. I am pretty sure that if the elephant wanted to cause us pain, nothing could stop it.
After that, we went to catch the night ferry across the river. We had to wait while the ferry loaded up on the other side of the river. There were some hippos nearby but as long as they were in the water we weren't worried. A few minutes passed and then I realize that Stuart had been saying something. I realized he had been standing watching the hippos and said, Hippo, out-of-water. Hippo, out-of-water! Little did we know one of them had crept close to the bus and our safety. Luckily we got back into the bus and caught the ferry away from Africa's most dangerous animal!
The next day we were about to embark on one of the longest drives of the trip. Pretty much 15 hours in a crappy bus to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Oy!
Nothing I say can describe what it feels like to be in a car that long, doing nothing but dozing and looking out the window. Looking back on it, I can't believe I survived Africa without my ipod, seeing as how it died in Greece. But somehow I managed. We arrived in Kampala, a freaking bustling metropolis and headed to our hotel, Jeliza.
Oh, Jeliza.
We get there and go to our rooms. Not the best hotel ever, but by African standards it was alright. We immediately took a nap and got showered up before eating dinner at the hotel. We got there and ordered, and I think took the girl by surprise. 10 people ordering food was probably the most business they had had in a long time. So, I order spaghetti bolognaise. Who knew it was going to take... an hour and 15 minutes. And I was one of the first. Literally, another hour goes by and maybe 1 person's food comes. All in all, it took 3 hours for the meal to complete. Absolutely laughable. And, the best part was all of our food came out with plastic wrap on it, as if it had been cooked somewhere else and they had just brought it to us.
The next day, we realized we no longer had running water in our room. And, our light bulb was not working in our room. Christine asked the reception if she could fix the light and what was the concierge's response? "Do you really need a light?" Yes! It is Africa! And we need to SEE in our HOTEL ROOM!
So, we got it fixed, sort of. And the water still was not working. The next day we had several options to go around and see the sights of Kampala. The idea of getting into another cramped car that stunk and waiting in traffic all day did not appeal to me. So, instead I proposed we go to the mall. Karen and Bob accompanied me, and we ended up having a great day! I bought a canvas map of Africa, we got pedicures, we checked internet, we ate Japanese food. It was an incredibly relaxing day. Then, we headed back to Jeliza, the now infamous hotel.
Whenever you take a taxi in Africa, you have to build in the time it takes to fill up for gas. Every time. Why? Because there is so much theft of cars that nobody ever fills up their tank more than the bare, BARE minimum. I'm talking, they put in 1 liter. And then they stop and fill up. 20,000 Ugandan shillings is about $15 US. That would last them about 2 weeks. But instead, they put in 1,000 shillings. Just when you think you aren't going to have to stop for gas, the taxi driver pulls in to the station and you wait.
So, we finally get back to Jeliza, which is by now the bane of our existence. We find out, there is still no water. And what is worse, the construction on the place continues. Jackhammers starting at 7am. Dust everywhere. And, the water had to be brought in by truck. But, the truck pulled in before our bus pulled out. So we wait. So Africa. By this time I wanted to shoot someone. Karen asked the concierge biyatch if she could have a bucket of water to bathe with. The lady was like, I will help you. We can work together. Oh. My. Jeliza then became adopted as a swear word. For the rest of the trip, whenever things went poorly we would say, Jeliza!
After that, we went out in Kampala seeing as how it is the safest of the African cities we would go to. The night life left a little something to the imagination. We basically had a few expensive drinks (even expensive for Western standards) and danced around. I am going to be in somebody's graduation video as the white girl dancing around. Then we left and went back to the... place we were staying. The next day we were heading out. Thank GOD. I am sure when we left nobody ever wanted to return.
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