Oz III - Silly Season

It is only 3 days until Christmas and I feel the least Christmasy possible. For starters looking out the window I am gazing over a bright sunny day . The weather hasn't been brilliant for the past couple of weeks (and Christmas day could be overcast) but even when it rains it is still warm. I associated Christmas with dark days and cold weather. There are Christmas decorations but these are few and far between. I don't have a TV so haven't seen any Christmas specials or Christmas adverts. I haven't been inside many shopping centres. I have heard a handful of Christmas songs and as yet have not heard 'Merry Christmas Everybody' by Slade. I haven't had an advent calendar. I haven't had any mulled wine to drink. I haven't seen buildings covered in Christmas lights. I have eaten one mince pie and it wasn't what I would describe as a traditional mince pie. I haven't had to defrost my car and then watch the windscreen freeze halfway down the road. Also for some reason Australians call this time of year the 'Silly season' or the 'Holiday season'. This isn't to suggest I am having a bad time. Its just not Christmas.

I moved out of the gay impersonator's house to a converted mansion in Bondi Junction. It is very much like University living. I have a sink and fridge in my room. The bathroom and showers are communal and so is the kitchen. 35 people live in the mansion, young and old. I moved in at the weekend and have so far met lots of English and Irish backpackers. I can see the Pacific Ocean from outside my door. The area is nice with good transport links. My two jobs have ticked along to the Christmas break. The call centre job got much better after the first two weeks. I got to know alot more people there and how far you were allowed to bend the 'rules'. The 9-5 job has worked out very. The telemarketing finished last week and I have been kept on into this week entering the data from the research. I then coming back for the middle two weeks in January to do some more work towards their marketing plan. The first week of Jan I will spend watching the final Ashes test (I have managed to get a ticket for the 4th day, hopefully England last that long) and the final week of Jan I'm going to go to Melbourne and catch some of the Australian Tennis Open.

I got in contact with the Sydney Comedy Store (www.comedystore.com.au) and performed their last week. The gig went very well. The audience were in good spirits, lots of Christmas parties, and the other acts were good. I got another gig there on Tuesday night. I was a bit nervous beforehand because I didn't want to spoil my good work from the week before. The audience were much less forgiving than the week before and the acts on before me were struggling, if not dying. I managed to do an even better job than last week. I will hopefully have a couple more gigs there in January. I have also performed with the local short-form improv troupe, Scared Scriptless (scriptless.improaustralia.com.au). They are a really nice bunch of people. One of the guys remembers me from coming to watch the Imps in Oxford a couple of years ago. The show itself was a bit awkward. It was a big Christmas Micetro show with a cast of 20 and multiple hosts. It meant it didn't really work well until the end. I am looking forward to performing with them again in the New Year.