You thought I was never coming back didn't you?

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Hello all

Once again there has been a HUGE lapse in my entry making. As always apologies. This time I am blaming 2 things:

1. It is the festival and thus we have had members of Simon’s family to visit for long weekends both of the last two weekends (Simon’s mom is still here in fact) meaning that I am being a very busy hostess.
2. We still don’t have internet at home. Though we have arranged this week for internet service and we are now just waiting for the modem to arrive and then we will have broadband and all will be right with the world again. Except it’s not wireless and so we will have to sort that out eventually as well.

So I am sure you think that because of the festival there is also lots of exciting stories. But there aren’t really. I have seen some shows; the best being a hip-hop version of the musical Into the Woods called Into the Hoods. If you are not familiar it is basically a mashing together of lots of well-known fairytales and this version was a hip-hop dance show that had good music and was very intelligently done. I also saw a show that was a parody of all the HP books done in one hour, including an excellent teaser of book 7 (which I had finished just in time for that show) that was a song set to the tune of I Will Survive. I even got to be keeper for Gryffindor in a quidditch match. So I am awesome. Then we have seen an experimental one woman show which I quite liked (and earned my own Ping sound effect for creative audience participation), some improv and stand-up that were funny, and funnier with beer. As yet I have not seen any drama or even any traditional theatre, but tonight I am going to see a dramatic one woman show called Miracle in Rwanda that is very sad, very uplifting, very poignant, and very popular.

I also bought new pillows. Which was exciting in my world as they are fluffy and nice.

All of our friends should be drifting back into town towards the end of the festival. It is very trying to be here during the festival if you don’t have money and time to do whatever you want, so people like Simon and I who have jobs here just have to stick it out, but our friends who go home for the summer usually try and come back in time to do a few days of the festival before its gone and that’s all. It will be nice when they are all back as there are lots of people I haven’t seen since last Christmas and my world is very tiny right now.

Having Simon’s family around is nice, but it does make me think about how it will be a very long time before I see my own family and probably even longer until I see my friends. It will be hardest in these first years when Laura, Beth and I are all earning to little to fund the trip. But sooner than we realise we all be doing well enough to see each other every year, and maybe even convince mom to Britain another try. Dad has his little ones now so it may be a couple of years before they can travel very freely and then just a couple more and it will be school holidays only! K and M will hopefully be near sooner as Ireland is very close to Scotland. As for the rest of my lazy, broke friends - they begin to hyperventilate if more than an hour from LA so I think there is little chance of getting them over here.

I don’t want to sound like I am so sad in this little lonely place! It has actually been amazing having so time with Simon where we are mostly keeping to ourselves without this pressure that we are going to be apart soon. It has been a very happy tiny world, but we are ready now to venture out and socialise a bit.

I also am getting more geared up for the job hunt. I haven’t applied for any more jobs since the ones a month ago, but I have followed up on this both this week (I know its been too long for them to be considering me, but I asked for constructive comments on my resume and if they have any positions I might be qualified for etc etc) and hope to get feedback that will help me polish up my resume before I starting posting it anywhere and everywhere that has any kind of job listing. Simon is sneakily trying to convince me I can commute to Glasgow to work in the industry. I know many people commute between the two cities as it is a 45 minute drive - but as I tell him that is in your own car. For me it would be the 20 minute bus ride to the train station, then 45 minutes on the train (its faster than a car, but zigs zags and stops in few little towns) and then another bus journey to where I’d be working (which could be several buses, and there may not be any that actually stop) so I think it would more likely be 2 hours for me. But I promised to look into it. I did find a service provided by the city council that connects industry people/companies with people/companies in the city for on-location shoots and things. Their website lists contact info for all these companies that do varies aspects of production/post production and other related services so I am just going to send my resume to all of them and see if I hear anything. I will most likely not get around to any of this until September though as I still have a lot to do to get my resumes actually ready and save up enough money that I can take a few days off for interviews (being paid hourly, and so little, means I depend on being here all day every day).

Well that is pretty much it. I look forward to hearing from everyone! I know that not that many people are reading this at the moment so try and pass around the link to people who might be interested. Laura - give to Emily as she emailed me for it and I couldn’t remember what the link you guys use is as I use a different one.

Claire

PS the postal strike here is still going and shows no signs of ending, but it is now on some kind of rotating basis which means when only miss our mail once or twice a week instead of everyday so I think it is alright to send things now (though going through fedex etc is a bit more reliable as they aren’t affected, though more expensive). If you have sent me something let me know so that I can be watching for it as we aren’t sure what mail we are missing.

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Comments

[Kristina]

Glad you said that about the mail -
I was going to send off a DVD of Raya's music videos - Matthew just got done with colortiming and whatnot, so they're all done! There was a glitch with one of the final transfers, so when that's worked out I'll send you a copy. They came out so well. And Michelle, if you're reading this, I could drop a copy in the mail for you as well, if you'd like to see them - just e-mail me your current address. Also, we may not be coming to Ireland at xmas time this year, mostly because I'm not working (voluntarily, but still)...but a trip over there would still be in our future! -K