letters -30th may 2006
Hi Folks,
Its been a bit of a while since my last broadcast, so my apologies for the break in transmission. There have been a few reasons, but the big one is that I have been waiting for a particular shoe to drop. Now that its on the floor, its time to start talking about it.
In May last year I got notification that I had made it through the first round of the US Diversity Visa program.
What that means is that I am in line for a Green Card and while its not certain, I have just been notified of my interview date (19 July) so things are looking positive. All going well, that means that I will be looking to relocate to the US by January next year.
As they say, when one door closes, another opens.
The other piece of good news is that I have been talking to a large VFX company in LA and they are interested in having me come to do an internship with them as part of my Masters program. At the moment I am looking at spending 2 months with them (October and November) with maybe a couple of weeks in late September to have a bit of a holiday and visit some of my friends in the US.
If all of this comes through I am going to be trying to sort out two details for my stay in LA. The first is a place or places to stay while I am there, and the second is a car.
So anyone with a spare bed, and the inclination to have a highly entertaining Australian in residence for a while, please let me know. I am hoping I can find a couple of people to stay with so I can share the joy around/not overstay my welcome.
On the car front, I am looking for some pointers on the best way to get a cheap (and reliable) car for two months. Suggestions are very welcome.
My plan at the end of November is to return to Australia for the southern summer. While its a little indulgent, I had a double winter coming home in 2004 and its not fun.
I am not sure what my long term plans are reguarding where I want to live. For now I am going with the flow and seeing how things pan out.
This year is a bit of a repeat of last year to the extent that its really about working for the future and being careful with money. As a result its another low adventure year.
Low, but not no.
In February a complex chain of circumstances led to me having the opportunity to head to Cairns to go diving. Given how much I love last second surprises, I couldn't pass up the opportunity, even though it fell on the same weekend as Harbor Party. As much as I love shaking my boot around and as disappointed as I was to miss seeing some friends who were in town (I am really sorry Richard & Alfredo), this year is not about parties for me.
I have written much more about the trip to Cairns in a couple of articles in my blog if you are really interested (FNQ1 & FNQ2) but the short of it is that I had a fantastic time.
It was wonderful spending more time with Jerome before he headed back to the UK and I really do love diving. I had forgotten how incredibly peaceful it is. We also spent a day up in the Daintree Forest which is an amazing experience if you ever get the chance to venture to Northern Queensland.
There are more pictures on Flickr if you are interested, although I was just getting used to a new camera, so they are not the best.
The year has not been completely disco free. I am having a quiet year, not laying in state.
In February Joe and I went to the Midsumma Carnival Tea Dance which was a hill o fun, but then I do love an afternoon party in the outdoors so I am probably biased. A lot of my friends were there - Joe, Tony, Scott, Stuart & Peter, Cameron, John to name a few and we danced until the place shut down.
As is also becoming a tradition, I stumbled into school the next morning for the first day of the term - Disorientation Day as I have come to call it. Fortunately as a Masters student all I need to do was smile and wave.
There have been some visits so far this year. My Mother came down for 10 days in April which was something of a longish stay. She was here for my Graduation from VCA and she stayed to spend time with me as well as Marie and Geoff.
The big update here is that after all of the problems she had late last year with cancer and all, she has been given a clean bill of health - which quite frankly is amazing and very good news. She doesn't even need to have any Chemo, just regular check ups to make sure everything is ok.
I am, understandably, very relieved at the outcome.
A few other friends have come through town this year , but they have been noticeably camera shy and to be honest we have usually just hung out and relaxed rather than going charging off anywhere.
The most notable reunion was with my ex Steve, who I haven't really seen for about 8 years. It was wonderful to spend some time him. He is a great guy and its easy to remember the good times we shared.
There have been a few international visitors including Jason Boxhill and a new friend, Adam, who is carrying the Melbourne torch in San Francisco until I can make it back. This is Adam and my new training partner Cass.
Saxon is doing well. He is still living with Marie, an arrangement which is probably going to be permanent. As much as I adore him he is settled in a good home where he is very much loved. I don't think it would be fair on him (or Marie) for me to uproot him since I am going to be heading overseas again for an indeterminate period.
Once I am settled somewhere, I do plan to get myself a dog because I have loved having him in my life.
Not what I planned for him, but in this case I think it's the best outcome, certainly for Sax. And I can visit with him anytime I like.
At the end of last year I made a list of things that I wanted to do this year. Lets face it, I have done the party thing to death so I figured it was time to start expanding my horizons in different directions.
One of the things on the list is learning another language. Spanish was my first choice, given it would be useful in the US. Circumstance has conspired however and meeting a number of very wonderful Francophone's has caused me to change directions, so I am going to be studying French.
Classes are starting this week at the Alliance Francais in St Kilda. I studied French for 3 years at school under a fabulous lesbian teacher, but apart from starting me on the path to becoming an avowed lesbi-friend I don't feel that I retained much. So its off to class in my beret and stripped shirt with my string of garlic.
Another thing I have on my list is to do some physical activity that doesn't involve the gym or mirrors. I ave been giving a rock climbing a go and I am really enjoying it. Its REALLY tough dangling 112kgs (245lbs) from my finger tips and its much more mentally challenging than I would have expected, but I am really enjoying it. So far I have been going to a climbing gym, but I am looking at heading up to the mountains just outside Melbourne for a weekend climbing trip soon.
No pictures of me looking like a spaz yet, but I am sure there will be a few in the near future.
In other news, there have been a few major sporting events here in Melbourne that I have been along to. This is again part of my new years resolution list of do more, see more.
I was really lucky to be given tickets to the Open Ceremony Rehearsal for the Commonwealth Games. For those of you outside the Commonwealth who have never heard of them, think Olympics a la the old British Empire.
The Ceremony was good, but a bit too intentionally arty for my taste. According to my sources, there was an inordinate amount of in fighting behind the scenes and there were moments when it could have come down to 10 people with cigarette lighters.
Guess we should think ourselves lucky.
Truth be told it all went off really well and Melbourne made a good showing of it all. I am very glad I got to see it, particularly since the AU$400 price tag for the tickets is WAY out of what I would have been prepared to pay.
Thanks so much to David for the opportunity.
I also got along to a few of the finals for the Australian Tennis Open. I am not much of a tennis fan, but a vendor had free tickets to the VIP area on offer so Joe and I trundled along and enjoyed ourselves.
We got to see the Women's Final where Amelie Mauresmo beat the four-time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin-Hardenne, and the Men's Doubles Final. I can't recall the names of the guys playing, but at that point Joe and I had been making merry in the VIP bar and I was happy but confused. I am fairly certain however that I was chatting to Elle McPherson for a while. She seems nice.
This year hasn't all been nearly meeting important people and sneaking into fabulous events by the back doors. No, no, no. There have been serious things afoot as well.
No, really.
Actually I have been up to a bit. After last years Post Grad at the Victorian College of the Arts, I decided to go on this year and complete the Masters Degree. This will be my second Masters which has led me to wonder if I go for a third one, will I get a cool cape of some kind.
I am working with a sane and very fabulous Director/Writer - Emma - on a film about a dog. More details when it gets closer, but for now I will say I am excited about it. I am also working on my thesis (US/Australian Co-Finance Models) and the internship that I mentioned up the front.
As 2004 came to a close and things were not looking so good, I sat down and made a five year plan. Geeky I know, but it helps. I am very lucky that to date things are tracking pretty well to that plan. Fingers crossed it keeps up, but its looking positive.
On other school news, I graduated from my post grad in May. My Mother and Marie attended what was actually quite an enjoyable ceremony.
The VCA has recently been swallowed up by Melbourne Uni, one of the oldest and crustiest of Australias Universities. As a result there were some started looking old white men in polyester suits on stage as:
- The traditional Aboriginal owners of the land on which VCA stands welcomed us and permitted the ceremony to proceed
- The Drama School all kissed and hugged their Head of School
- So did one of the Film and TV school
- The guest speakers, Fred Schepisi & Sue Maslin, gave stinging rebukes to the current government policy on locally produced content
- The music school broke out, en masse, into a negro spiritual chant
- Not one of the student wore anything that looked like a suit
The ceremony finished with each school showcasing some of its work. The school of dance went on a bit (natch) but the production schools puppeteers completely made up for this. All up it was a pretty great night.
On more school related news, one of the Directors from the VCA asked me to go to the opening of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. He is straight, but one of the gayest straight men I have ever known. He also has a film that is doing pretty well on the Queer Film Festival circuit so I suspect I was going along as his beard or something.
The opening night film was a touch dreary but we had a really good time none the less rubbing shoulders with Academy Award winners like Adam Elliot (who I know from school) and major spunks like Ian Roberts (lets just say that I know Ian and leave it at that shall we).
I suspect as a result of all of this hob nobbing, I was majorly networked by one of this years Post Grad Producing students from VCA. I guess as an alumni and a Masters student I must have some sort of cachet, but I felt like telling her not to waste her energy on my since, my own networking aside, I really don't know THAT many people.
The only other piece of news is that I have changed gyms to Colts in Prahran, so named because it used to be owned by a Colt Model. It used to be super gay, but now a days not so much.
The gym I had been training at was convenient to school and work, and equipped fairly well, but not a hard training gym. As a result my training was slipping, and while I am not over focused on training at the moment, its feels good to be training harder again.
I have to admit that one thing that this year HASNT been about has been work. I have been doing some odd jobs here and there between IT contracts, but its not really the focus for the year. And I suspect it doesn't make for truly exciting reading. The short is, work is fine.
So here I am, over two years after coming back to Melbourne from San Francisco.
In some ways its been a very long time, but mostly the time has flown. So much has happened and so many things have changed.
I will be completely honest with you, it has not been the best time of my life, but there are good things coming out of it and with some more perseverance and some luck, the plans I put in place back in April '04 appear to be starting to bear fruit.
I am really looking forward to getting back to the US and to seeing all of my friends there.
For now, keep your fingers crossed on the visa thing for me and write back when you get a chance.
Much love
R
