Happy New Year!

Well, here we are, another year is coming to an end. :)

It's funny to think that this time last year, if I remember rightly, I was getting off a plane before heading back to Westwood and spending NYE with Pilar and watching Moulin Rouge, eating pizza and pound cake as the calendar changed. Is it really 365 days later?!

This was a year of Shakespeare, Robyn, Gaga and Ono, Terzopoulos and Mnouchkine, Cirque du Soleil and a cute little mouse. This was the year of Much Ado and Samuel Barber, Hamlet for months, a whole bunch of good cooking, a move to Santa Monica, a visit to the Greek islands, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Dublin and even Las Vegas!

It was the year in which I've started my fun 30-before-30 project - more details coming soon - and of conquering a variety of fears. Everything from going on a rollercoaster (or eight!), eating a chili pepper, writing more, working more and listening more.

2010 had some peaks and some deep valleys, some new wins and some sad losses, but on the whole, it has been one in which I came face-to-face with a lot of challenges, as we always do. And I'm still standing!

So here's to 2011, may it be one that inspires, thrills, surprises, challenges and changes all of our lives. And hopefully with lots of new music, movies and fabulous food.

I sound like I'm writing this drunk. And I'm totally not. Honest.

Holly, Ivy and Ratatouille!

Stranded as I am in Los Angeles (listening to Mudd and Bing Crosby... Sigh...) I have decided to throw a lunch party tomorrow - Christmas Day - for a bunch of other Christmas orphans from my programme.

Given that we have vegans and veggies and all sorts of dietary requirements and considerations, I have decided NOT to do a turkey - or a ham - but instead I'm preparing a whole bunch of small things that people can nibble.

Piece-de-resistance will likely be the delicious-looking leg of lamb that I'll roast tomorrow. Along with it;

- caramelised maple sweet potatoes

- a ratatouille that looks just like the one from the movie (thank you Thomas Keller!)

- Conor's "roasted roots" - potatoes, garlic and fennel

- white miso peas and carrots

- Ellen's grilled asparagus

- cranberry bread and butter

AND FOR DESSERT;

- my pumpkin spiced bread & butter pudding

- chocolate raspberry brownies

- coconut macaroons with pomegranate cream

- pumpkin pie

- french macaroons with cranberry sweet cream filling

Cooking

I really love cooking - but I seem only ever able to get any done during school holidays.

I'm going for some hardcore nostalgia this weekend; yesterday it was spaghetti bolognese (see above, accompanied by the pumpkin spiced pudding that seems to be becoming my signature autumn dessert!), and today I'm gonna make a quiche - like my mom used to. Maybe with some tomato soup on the side!

As companions to the recipes that make me feel a little less homesick, I'm having fun with some true Americana recipes - yesterday was a bread&butter pudding, and today it's going to be a pumpkin pie. Haha!

(Tomorrow will likely be a chili, and a tres leches cake. Delicioso!)

30 BEFORE 30 #2

I have had a book published. Well, it's ready to be published. My aim was to have it in my hand by the end of 2010, but the timing of these things seems to be somewhat elastic. I'll DEFINITELY have it by the time I turn 30, and my work on it seems to be complete. So it can go on the list.

If you would like to buy a copy, email me! ;)

30 BEFORE 30 #1

I went on this rollercoaster! It's on Santa Monica pier.

Rollercoasters

I must confess I have always been petrified by the idea of rollercoasters. Ever since the afternoon - I don't even know how long ago - that I pestered my parents into letting me go on a Waltzer in Waterford (it's a Tea Cup ride without the narrative attached) I have been "motion sensitive".

Then, all of a sudden, I found myself studying theme park and experience design, and was curious as to why so many people love them and I block myself off entirely from them. I mean, how awful can they be?!

SO - in August I bit the bullet and went on the little mini-rollercoaster on Santa Monica Pier. This was mainly because "Go on a rollercoaster" is on my 30 Before 30 list. With the intrepid Ms. Lenbergs at my side (laughing happily at my terror) we lined up and got on the ride. It's a little yellow track that whooshes around with split-second views of Malibu, and I figured that since they were able to film an episode of Modern Family on it, how awful could it be?!

It was fun. I was petrified, and clung on for dear life, but I didn't die, and didn't hate it. Mission accomplished.

Then I found myself at Disneyland last week, with the Mexican, and he managed to coerce me into going on Splash Mountain (one of the first things we did at the park!) We got absolutely SOAKED. And a 50ft drop is not something I ever actively want to do. But it was such a thrill!

So, since then I've been on Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn. (What's with the mountains?) I think it helps knowing just how safe Disney makes everything, every day. It's gonna be a while before I brave Knott's Berry Farm or the like, but I am glad to know that I really enjoy such things now.

Next stop will probably have to be California Screamin'. Though I dread it...

Done and Disneyland

Dear Blog,

I know I have neglected you terribly since June. Ironically that's when I started working on Hamlet. The show ended yesterday, after six months of preparations, editing, dramaturgy, rehearsal and performances in three separate locations. To celebrate its conclusion, I'm going to Disneyland this afternoon. For the second time in a week. Hurrah!

And I promise to treat you better from now on. (A consummation devoutly to be wished.)

:)

One week from today...

I'm off to Greece. Can't wait. It's been way too long.

Just because

...!!

I saw this photo on my iPad. (Yes! I got one! Thank you H&R Block!!)

Shipwrecks and Wild Hope

I'm currently feeling shipwrecked/beached by a very tempestuous, challenging and exhausting school year.
Not to say that it wasn't enriching, engrossing and altogether beneficial, but it was TOUGH.
One more paper separates me from my summer holiday (in which I nonetheless have to write MORE papers - and, you know, a book...) and I'm thinking of writing it somehow on a production I saw in Paris, Les Naufrages du Fol Espoir, at Theatre du Soleil.

(If you're reading this and have an issue with the lack of accents, please visit www.gofuckyourself.com)

I'm assuming that the essay should be 4000 words long. Here goes ;)

Food Network

I just saw someone make ginger caviar on Iron Chef America.
That is all.

(Paula Deen would have made butter caviar. And that's why she always wins.)

Telephone

So, I'm only the 29millionth person to see it on YouTube (only now) but I finally just saw Gagace's "epic" video.

Didn't anyone else kinda think it looked a bit like if Chicago happened to be designed by Gaultier and then got spliced into a portion of that awful "Legion" movie? With Art Direction by David LaChappelle and occasional nods to Kill Bill and Thelma & Louise?

I'm sure I've missed a whole bunch of references in there too, mind you.

Fun, raunchy (I loved the hermaphrodite joke) and very reminscent of Chelsea Handler's description of HER time in prison for a DUI.

PS, dear Universe, I'm sure it would have looked much better on the iPad you're sending me.

Amer-I-Can!

Today is Erin Murray's birthday. (But she never reads this so won't get the loving tribute/reference in my title for this blog...)

I've been watching TV this week - perhaps unsurprisingly, since I recently bought a TV. Go figure.
Apart from the tv shows themselves (Lost, Glee, Idol, Chopped, V, RPDR, Robert Verdi and a whole bunch of crap on Bravo and the Food Network - including my first ever introduction to PAULA DEEN) I'm amazed at the advertising. Like, AMAZED.

It's bad enough that you can't watch things online without occasional little interruptions, but holy moly there are so many on tv!

So thanks to this evil little distraction box and its nefarious ways, clearly I'm now desperate for an iPad, a new Lexus (although I was tempted, too, by the Ford that can apparently park itself), a variety of Rachaeaeaeaeaeaeal Ray's crockery items, some Skechers shoes, an iPad, a trip to KFC to support Breast Cancer, dinner with any/all of the Real Housewives, and an iPad.

iPad.

It's ridiculous. I had to turn it off and go for a walk.

Can you watch TV on your iPad? I hope not.

Chrysalis

So, it's been a few months!
But kinda huge ones. I'm surprised at how long ago New Year feels already - so many sea-changes have occurred, in just about every part of my life. (Some visible, others not, some painful, others not...)

BUT it's Springtime, so that means that there are new things blossoming!

And, after all that psycho-babble bullshit, I should add that it's time to kick some ass. And maybe take names.

(Who DOES that?!)

And FYI, nerds, that image is of a MNEMOSYNE butterfly. Nice, huh?

A New Year

Happy New Year!

I hope this year is going to be a good one.

Without question 2009 was the most difficult year of my life. My mother died in January, I spent 3/4 of the year working harder in school than I ever have, and then in the summer, rather than resting, I went to Japan and had my ass kicked by a very rigorous, intensive programme in Noh Theatre!

I'm sure it's not accidental that the two major projects I worked on in 2009 were rather obsessed with death. The first, a production of three Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima, was a labour of love, since I have wanted to work on these cruel, dark little jewels for a very long time. And then the second, a new play called Last Autumn, couldn't really have come along at a better moment.

However, Greek tragedy, Japan and dying characters aside, I feel that some cobwebs need to be swept out. So, very happily, I'm starting this new year with a comedy. A big one. (It's Much Ado About Nothing). I saw the sketches for the costumes yesterday, and they are little short of miraculous. This will be a wonderful project!

I'm pretty eager to make a number of rather big changes in my life this year.

And who knows, I might even keep this little blog a bit better up to date. But no promises ;)