In Space No One Can Hear You Scream....

...and in Australia, no one drinks Fosters....ever!

However, drink they do, and as the dinner I was at wound down tonight and one of the key crew members fell down the stairs, I realized that no matter how high up you get, nor no matter where you go - people are people and film crews are film crews (meaning good drinkers!)

The trip continues to be great and tomorrow, tonight, whatever depending where you are, Friday night I'm going to a Twenty20 Cricket Match here in Melbourne. It's India visiting Australia in front of a crowd of 90,000+ people. I've been doing my homework and as I type this am watching a cricket match so I have half a clue as to what the hell is going on. Regardless, I'm going to be a part of one of the most controversial, exciting, anticipated matches of the season. I intend to drink plenty of beer (not Fosters) and even have a meat-pie to have the full experience and enjoy the match.

Australians are incredibly friendly, fun, warm people and I am going to be very sorry to leave here in a few days. However, the trip has been great and I am already looking forward to my next trip back, whenever that may be.

Good on ya' dear reader and g'day/g'night

Meat Meat Meat & Future Wives

Forgive the ineqliquence of this post - it's been a very long day and now at the end of a night of a few drinks, then a meal that consisted of 4 courses (meat followed by more meat with a main course of more meat,...and then desert) I'm trying to keep with the writing resolution that I started before I left on the trip.

The trip has been fantastic thus far. After arriving and claiming a tourist visa entrance at the airport, I (and my boss whom I am traveling with) were accosted by the immigration officer who kept asking "why are you coming to Melbourne for 7 days, why not Sydney, why Melbourne? Why not some place else? What do you know about Melbourne?" Of course my answer was - shit, I didn't know a damn thing. I was lying to him, telling him I was just coming in for a visit when I really should have told him I was coming in for a few business meetings etc. Anyway, after expecting nothing but a huge warm welcome that threw the both of us for a loop. But we got over it and so far everything else has more than lived up to expectations.

Everyone is incredibly friendly and welcoming, the city is beautiful and as far as work goes, the production and people that are involved in it are great. Tonight, as mentioned before I had a great meal at a true steak-house that served a fixed menu that had three courses of meat: sausage, liver then filets. Needless to say, all of them were great and combined with a bottle of wine it was fantastic.

The real kicker, my boss and I booked tickets to a Cricket match going on this Friday night. I've never watched Cricket, much less watched it live with 80,000 other Aussies so it will be a great experience. One which I will write about soon after...but for now, I need to sleep as there is work to be done tomorrow....

p.s. the future wives part of the title simply means, well, exactly what it says, I am coming back here sometime very soon as I feel damn certain that at least one of my future wives is in this country!!! They're all beautiful and apparently love American guys - we have the accents here! More soon.

10 Feet Higher and Never Coming Back

I’m sitting 39,010 feet above the surface of the earth right now, a height that I had never been at. Partially because I am flying across the Pacific but more because I got to add 10 extra feet this trip as I am sitting in the upstairs cabin of a 747 in route to Australia, and I’ve never been upstairs before!

Sometime around seven months back, I took a job that gained me the nick-name “suit” – referring to a character on the TV show ‘Entourage’. Where I had once started on the crew side, even dare I say a short stint on the “creative” side, this job brought me to the corporate / studio side and as such gained me the nickname suit. And now as I sit here some 7 miles above the ground I’ve been thinking about that change, this job and where I’m at these days personally and professionally. Needless to say, there is far too much in those thoughts to fit into this entry, hell even this entire blog; but one thing did became clear to me right before this trip that that I think kind of symbolizes those thoughts.

10 years ago, while preparing for my first trip overseas with my friend, we spent months pouring over books, maps, plans, guesses as to what might come up and how we will react. I eventually took that 14 day trip, hitting 6 different countries in Europe, backpack on my back, and it’s a trip I’ll never forget. However, this time, Australia hit my radar only 6 days pre-flight. No planning, no process, no real time to think – instead it was “buy a ticket, you’re coming with me (my boss) to Australia for the week.”

Just like that I had a business class ticket in my hand and was on my way down under. Don’t get me wrong for a single moment, it’s great. I’m giddy to be here – as shown by the fact that it’s currently three in the morning in Los Angeles, 10 in the morning in Melbourne and instead lf sleeping on my lay-flat seat or watching the plethora of free movies in my fancy seat, I’m sitting with my laptop writing. Something I haven’t done in far too long. No, I’m definitely loving this, but it’s different this time. My world got smaller this week. Suddenly far away seemed a lot closer, far off lands seemed much more within my grasp.

This job, this trip - it’s something I’ve always wanted and looked forward to even – but in the same breath it’s a bit sad. Growing up, you’re rarely aware when something in your life changes, it happens and only time and growth allow you the hindsight to become aware of it. It’s a blessing really, growing up is hard enough, it’s too much to expect you to be aware that it’s happening at the same time. However this time I was wide-awake and felt it happen, am feeling it happen. It’s rare that you get that feeling anymore and so as I sit here, on the upstairs portion of an airplane somewhere over the Pacific, I am 10 feet above the level I’ve been at all the preceding 29 years of my life and I don’t think that I can ever go back down, or go back.

1 suit, 2 suit, 3 suit 4....

Blogger told me my last post was on August 15th of last year....that was a long time ago....but lets not dwell on the past.

That's right, I'm back, or at least am going to try to be. And what is spurning this revival - well in 4 hours I'm going to be getting onto an airplane and 15.3 hours later I'll deplane in Australia! Throw another Steddy on the barbee cause I'm heading down under. I've never been and am very excited.

The short story is I was called into my bosses office on Tuesday and told that there were too many meetings for her to handle solo on her trip and so I should book a ticket and get on the same plane as her - the one that was leaving 6 days later. Oh, and book Business Class! Floored was a good way to describe my deminor, yet I did just as she told me to and now here I am about to take the longest plane ride I've ever taken.

So, there will no doubt be stories to tell from this trip and are many stories to recall that happened between now and August 15th (my last post...my bad). So I intend to do my best to get back to sitting down and doing a bit of writing each week. Also, this way if my plane crashes and I end up on the "Lost" island, this post will be all eerie! Ha...yes, I'm knocking wood right now.

Cheers, good-on ya and I'll write more soon.