It seems like an age has passed since writing a post on here, and in-between that time many things have happened, one being an attempted hack which kinda ruined my old word press installation so we currently have the standard layout, which actually, I sort of like.
So anyone reading I last left you after spending a week don london preparing to take the Priscilla bus apart prior to her facelift (cut & shut) and her trip to Brazil! picking up where we left off, I had a brief spell at home which consisted of catching up with friends and frantically getting in Xmas shopping, not quite last minute and in a flash I was back down York at Stage One were its still frantically busy and were I’m finishing off the Automation playback wing which is looking rather neat if I say so myself and will be used on the How to train your Dragon tour beginning in Sydney Oz. I cant currently post a full photo but heres a Geeky teaser!
Theres allot of exciting projects going on at Stage One so were all being kept busy, working together we all go a little stir crazy at times but Smithy remained very sensible and turned the rip in his jeans into an advent calendar with a tin of kippers behind the denim doors, bloody good work sir!
I finished for Xmas on the Wednesday and headed back home to Newcastle that evening ready for a break and to finish off present buying. On the friday before Xmas there was a get together in Tynemouth with all the lads which also involved Jamie Moore buying everyone a curry for helping with the Nitelites warehouse move I wasnt around to help with the move but J still bought me one too. It was top craic and good to see may people I hadn’t seen in quite a while. There were may photos from the evening but this seems fitting the most. Not even near everyone in it but here we have, Jamie, Gaz, Pimpy, Uncle Dave, Tim, Stu, Sad & Myself.
Two days later it was Xmas, no where near as exciting as it was as a kid but it was great to get over to my Sisters along with my parents for a top sunday dinner. I arrived around 11.30am first greeted by my niece and nephew, Sophie and Daniel who had already been up for many hours!! Shorty after my parents arrived and we had a top meal cooked by my Sis and the family.
It was a great fun filled day and I’m happy to say the kids have developed a great use of sarcasm which kept us all entertained!
With Xmas over with the next couple of days I met up with my good friend Chris who was back home from working in Holland, we ventured out in town, I showed him a few card tricks and sleight of hand, another top night of catching up!
I was due to do another job but not before being invited to Graeme Nixon’s house-party Xmas bash, i was flying to Turkey the following day so didnt pend too long there but once again, had another top night of seeing people i hadn’t seen in ages, very glad I went after humming and haring.
The following morning I was up at 05.00 in a taxi to Newcastle Airport by 5.30, on a plane at 06.30 and had landed in Gatwick at 8.00, I had 4 hours to kill before meeting the others so I continued reading Carter Beats the Devil on my new Kindle. The kindle was a bit on an impulse buy but the book i was reading i had started around 5 years ago and had never gotten round to finishing. I finally finished the book, which is FANTASTIC read and also the Kindle is Amazing, such a nice clever surface to read off and incredibly thin.
I finally met up with Ana, Richard & Graham where we went through and begun out journey to Izmir via Istanbul, we were off to do a site visit for the installation of Re-rite as part of the Izmir International Festival. Around 6 or so hours later we arrived in Izmir, to a surprisingly cold climate, got a lift to the hotel in a fast taxi checked in, had a beer, looked for some food places, eventually bought a bread based cheesy thing after we hand aimlessly wandered around releasing most places were closed, got back to the hotel and slept ready for the following day.
We were p early for breakfast and then went to meet Ceyda from the festival who was looking after us and showing us the venue. After a good introduction and a great Turkish coffee we went to the venue, an old tobacco factory based in Izmir.
On approach the place looked like a James bond Villains den and once we got inside it was a little crazy, nothing had been touched there were holes in the walls, some holes in the floors and lots of general “oldness”, it was great! My task was to draw up and measure allong with Graham from ‘Theatre Structures’, we spent the first half of the day exploring and sketching the rooms measurements and noting bits like the big hidden hole in floor on the second level in a dark corner! We broke for lunch and had some great Turkish cuisine, got shown around some of the city and then continued back to the venue to CAD the layout of the building with Graham whilst Richard & Ana discussed how to fit the video installation into the place. The air was cool but the sun was shining through various parts of the building just enough to stand in the rays and warm up again!
Cracking on, we managed to draw up all the rooms we were interested in, in CAD just before we all stated to shiver and became too dark to do anymore. We headed back to the hotel, I continued to draw the building from the notes and then made an accurate model in Sketchup to make planning easier.
Ceyda had invited us out for some food, so we met at around 20.00 and ended up at a fish restaurant, generally i would always go for a red meat given the option but I had half a Sea-bass which was frikkin amazing! We continued on around town after dinner and Ceyda took us to a nightclub in Izmir down one of the main streets aparently. Im not sure what the event was but i think we had ended up at a private party as at one point tin the night (after the raffle!) the music changed and EVERYONE seemed to be an amazing salsa dancer!!! It was surreal but fun. After the club we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before another 12 hours of traveling. The following day at the airport Ricard decided to show us the magical powers of his “Pointing Finger” by producing a series of number out of thin air near a call box in the airport!
Unfortunately, the power of Richard’s ‘point and happen finger’ was no match for the cue we had to wait in before take off………….
Twelve and a half hours later I was finally home after, 2 flights, a taxi a train and another taxi, one sleep later it was new years eve! I managed to go round and see friend and family, and then spend the later part of the evening out with a couple of friends drank a suitable amount of alcohol and had a great laugh! Two more sleeps after that it was back to work down london to carefully take apart the bus from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The show Priscilla had spent almost 3 years in the Palace Theatre London and is to transfer over to Brazil. This should be pretty straight forward but the buss is too large to fit through the doors of the theatre so we had to dismantle it bit by bit, cutting securing and marking cables etc so that sides front back roof and chassis travel as independent parts with their relevant automation, lighting and video component arts still attached! Its a bit of a crazy job/idea and schedule but over 5 nights we managed to get her (Priscilla) apart and put her into hibernation for transport.
One of my good friends Iain Walton is off with Priscilla to reinstate the video & led which I programmed and pixel mapped 3 years ago. After the strip-down I expect it is going to be a difficult rebuild but nothing the team over there wont be able to pull of given enough time and resources.
So thats it, my mega long post of whats been happening over the past 20 days, it never rains but it pours 🙂