dullness update

p>I’m almost through the horrid admin stuff for the trip. Well, I was until I remembered that the scholarship people demand to know your whereabouts at all times. Now, as per pgrad usual, I’d not bother filling in this form. But seeing as how the bureaucracy will know I’m gone (via the sneaky grants people), it’s best to cover your bases. So I will. With about three weeks to go, I’d better get a wriggle on with that form – requires signatures from supervisor and head of school (whose name I’m yet to learn, despite having spoken to his PA and a number of other people)

Still no word from the grants people re the dosh. When it arrives I’m dashing into the uni to pay my ticket

And my only other real business is paying for the savoy camp

More sewing has taken place. A couple of cute little dresses to go over pants and a nice pair of trousers.
The cold is easing
. Well, it’s gone south, and is now smeared all over the bottom of my lungs. Interesting vocal effects from stuffed up sinuses remain. My cough is impressive, but I’m finally feeling a bit more alert. Still very tired and quite dull to be around, but definitely more alert.

And I’ve noticed that this blog is very dull at the moment. Well, that’s a natural consequence of my own dullness. I will try to be more interesting. Do more interesting things

There is an interesting question percolating in the back of my head, though
to do with doing online research and ethics of fan-scholar research
hmm

workin’, workin’

ok, so i leave on the 26th of june. and i’m still wading through bureaucratic bullshit. you wouldn’t beleive the work involved in actually getting this grant thing sorted. i had a run in with the insurance people (arseholes), met about half a dozen very useful people in grants, the finance office and the faculty office, spent at least two hours in a travel agent trying to get my itinerary sorted, and sent a jillion emails.

it’s insane.

but finally, the flights are booked and i’m going. i’ve had to ditch the french bit of my trip, unfortunately, so i can’t go to the sea, sun and swing camp in la grande motte. that utterly sucks, as it was the one bit i was really looking forward to.
otherwise, i’m going to a wedding in wales, i’m (hopefully) going to see some of the countryside there, i’m doodelly dooing around england, i’m spending time in london, doing dance and other stuff, i’m going to Herrang in sweden for the camps (for a week and a bit), i’m going to a savoy camp in england after that, and then i’m stopping off in bangkok on the way home, where i’ll arrive on the 8th august.
i really liked bangkok the other times i’ve been, but unfortunately, i will once more be limited by time and $$ to only a few days. oh well.

so i’ve a busy trip ahead of me. i’ve mixed feelings about herrang – it should be fun, but i’ve never been all that keen to go there for my own sake. too much crazy cult action. and while there’ll be some arseholes from australia there, i’m sure i can avoid them. it’ll be a chance to catch up with dancers from all over the world, and to meet lots of new, excellent people as well.
and from a research a perspective, it will be facinating. i’m trying to sort out some interviews as well… i will be buuuusy.

major jobs left to do:
– contact family in england and wales to secure accomodation and lifts to the wedding
– sort out some rail passes for the uk
– plan the london bit more thoroughly
– confirm bangkok
– actually pay for ticket – hurry up finance dept!

there are also about a million other things to do as well. my to-do list is huuuge.

so of course, i’ve responded with some compulsive sewing. under the pretense that i’ll need lots of dance wear, so i have to whip up some things. but really, probably more an opportunity to Indulge.

meanwhile, i’m coughing up goobs, blowing out goobs and sneezing out goobs. tres sexy.

it’s that crazy disco dancing. it’s led me astray.

i am about as boring as boring gets at the moment. i’m full of goob, and trying not to panic about getting well in time to travel…
i’m flying out on the 26th (straight through to the uk… aw yeah, that’ll be excellent fun), so i’ve about 26 days to get the tubes in my head clear so i won’t explode in the plane. speaking of eustachian tubes. guess i shouldn’t have jinxed myself.

things weren’t helped by my dancing like a nut on two seperate occasions over the past week – a wednesday night at a pub, dancing like an idiot for too long, followed by talking and dancing with germ-ridden blues dancers til 6:30 in the morning; and a friday night at a bar (dancing like a complete fool, and without inhibition for about an hour).

it seems i have not only lost the few inhibitions i once had about dancing in public, but also any good sense about caring for ill bodies. it’s that crazy disco dancing. it’s led me astray.
i just don’t seem to care at all any more about what people think about me when i’m dancing. and while i’ve always loved disco dancing, i’ve not always been as prone to spasticity on the dance floor.
the next day i cringe at the memories… it seems there’s no dance move i won’t do, no limit on the amount of dance floor i’ll coopt for my own use, no unsuspecting peer i’ll not rope into dancing with me.

the perfect antidote to swing, i think.

dancey pics

The Squeeze did stills photos for a friend’s film project on the weekend, and took some utterly awesome photos. when i have time i’ll ravage his collection and post as many as i can on this site before he gets shitty with me. some are utterly fabulous. some made me laugh so much i thought i was going to die. this sequence is great, though the joke is probably lost on non-dancers. at the very least non-dancers’d be thinking ‘ok, i see the joke, but i ain’t laughin’. but i nearly wee’d my pants when i first saw them.

blahblah mental notes

ok, things are really getting complicated. i’ve got about a month until i leave, and i’ve yet to book my ticket (can’t do that til i get the $. which i can’t do til friday, so i’ll probably not book the ticket til a week from friday, unless i book it and pay for it all later…
i have yet to ring and sort out insurance with the uni, get the head of school to give me ‘permission’ to go overseas with a brief letter, and get him to send similar letter to the insurance people.

and it turns out that abbie and co are moving to australia at the beginning of july. great. so i’ll miss her by a whisker.

i’ve yet to sort out london, but i can’t say i’m fussing that much. i should get onto the british dancers via the intynet…

blahblahblah.

meanwhile, The Squeeze is making a wonderful website for my surveys…

a Thing

i’m currently nursing a Thing for gillian welch, who i’d heard before, but finally chased up this weekend, after hearing her name on twang.
and it’s not helped that i’ve just seen that she’ll be in europe when i am. luckily (?) i’ll be in herrang, then, so there’ll be no conflict.
sheesh. swing over good goddamn music? am i on crack?

i’m listening to all her 4 albums back to back. i can’t really decide which one i like most, but i think it’s time (the revelator), or perhaps hell among the yearlings.
it’s the only thing to have kicked natalie merchant out of the cd player.

now i’ll chase two soundtracks – the o brother where art thou one (which i’ve lusted after for a while) and the songcatcher one (loved the music, kind of got bored in the film).

werd

well, i’ve finally received the official Werd from the grants people. i’ve been given a wad of cash to go dance all over europe. kewl.
and today i spent another fat lot of hours figuring out the logistics of four countries in one month, with different dance camps in three of them. then there’s the wedding, visiting a friend’s new baby, catching up with assorted relatives and making time for expat friends. phew.
PLUS i’d also like to get to hay-on-wye for the first time ever. it is, of course, the home of a jillion book shops. and half way between wales and england (two key points on my itinerary)… in fact, i’d really like to go… might see if i can collar a likely cousin into taking me, as it’s not exactly the most convenient place on earth. and i’d like to go to the brecon beacons which really blew me away last time i was there…
maybe i’ll do some hostel-hopping in the uk… sidestep london (and the swingers there) for some loveliness…

this is me

meandvan.jpg

aren’t i cool?
this is me when i’m between 4 and 7 years old. probably at the 4 end. we lived in fiji during that time, and we were hippies. well, sort of. that van covered in hindi advertising was our family car. it was eventually painted red, and was notoriously unreliable. it was small and had brown seats. i’d like one now.
note my blonde hair. i haven’t been blonde since puberty hit.

we were in fiji because dad took a contract at USP, and we left england to go there for three years. mum was a social worker, but there weren’t jobs for her in suva. so she was a housewife til she went nuts with boredom and started running playgroups, teaching people to ride horsies and so on.
i have quite clear memories of fiji, aided by photos like this one. my uncle ziggy was in fiji, visiting from england for a while when this one was taken.
that fence in the foreground was built by my dad to keep my brother in the garden. he was 3 when we left fiji, and for the first 3 years of his life he was an escape artist.
he had to be caged in because he’d escape, go wandering all over the neighbourhood by himself. not so safe. increasingly unsafe for a white kid between 1980 and 82.

Here we are together, on a beach in fiji, a bit older. i remember that day – we were on a little island with The Mother and a photographer/graphic design friend of the family. just a day trip for a bit of beach time. i loved those green togs.
this last photo is of us in brisbane. i was somewhere between 11 and 13. probably at the 11 end of things. he was between 7 and 9. it was a school photo day – why else would we be wearing our uniforms?
that’s all i’ve got to say – just showing some photos…