23.07.2008

a watery week

So yes, did the guest role in Satisfaction, which was a great experience, and I got to work with some fabulous people, although it was pretty gruelling emotionally...it took me a few days to fully recover my equilibrium after the long day, a good couple of hours of which were spent sobbing in character.

I've also been recording (onto talking book) a wonderful young adult title called Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson, which tells the story of a young Afghani girl and her family fleeing Afghanistan and making the long, long journey to Australia. It made me cry when I read it at home, and in the studio.

And then I saw Mamma Mia; it was great, but Meryl Streep is absolutely AMAZING! She was fabulous all the way through, had so much depth and yet lightness at the same time, and never got flippant or dismissive. And then she sang 'The Winner Takes it All,' oh my god...it was incredible. She wrang those words out her soul, with bitterness and love and tenderness and regret. I was a very wet wreck. She's always been an inspiration to me, one of a handful of high profile actors who I admired and aspired to emulate from an early age...and I still do. What a woman!

Finally there has been definite progress on my novel, Stripped. After a few months of concentrated effort, and quite a lot of angst (the novel is about death, after all...and sex...but mostly death)I gave Sophie Cunningham, the editor of Meanjin, a completed draft of the entire novel and that felt pretty satisfying and quite significant. Just to hold the whole printed manuscript in my hand was much more of a buzz than I had expected. There is of course more work to be done, but the end is near and it is great to imagine that story, which I began in 2002 (I think) being completed and out of my head. Space for new things...wow...

Oh and one more thing. I finally planted the quince tree, guerrilla gardening style, in the nature strip directly over the road from my front door. I've had the quince tree for about a month, but had to plan my strategy quite carefully, gathering all the correct equipment...stakes, council-style ties to stake the tree, council-style mulch (taken from a convenient pile just down the road,) a new bag of dirt, compost, seaweed emulsion, tacks, scissors, hammer and instructions from the Gardening Australia website. Finally everything was collected. A friend had cancelled a coffee date with me, so then I had the perfect lazy mid-morning opportunity. I'd also planned the outfit, being a true actress, and so donned my boiler suit (a full set of overalls) so as to look innocuously council-like (although the bright red french gardening shoes just might have been a giveaway...as is my propensity to run when happy...a group of serious-looking workers spied me as I was running back to the garden to collect something I'd forgotten and made comments about jogging and exercise...NOT very council-like on-the-job activities...) I hastily carried all equipment to the site, dug the hole, planted our beautiful, public fruit tree, and then watered it in well. Just water though, no tears.