Keeping my can of worms closed - FYOB Friday

Last night I did something I've never done before.  I went to watch a taping of a TV show.  My main motivation was seeing Chrissie Swan in all her glory, hosting Can of Worms.

My guest was my favourite little sister in law, Moo and Chrissie's guests were Julie Goodwin, Matt Okine and John Safran.  I've been a fan of John Safran's documentaries for years and Julie Goodwin seemed to be a good egg.  I'd only seen Matt Okine on a comedy show once before so did not recognise his name, but kinda knew his face when he came out.

I knew that taped shows had a bit of warming up beforehand and fixing up after so was kind of looking forward to that.  I've always had a bit of interest in the way TV works behind the scenes and I ended up watching the woman who was directing everything (maybe the director?) and wondering if I could do that.  Bit late to be thinking of a total career change, but we can dream, eh?

She was everywhere at once and controlling everything, all with a casual air and a bit of fun.  Reminded me of when I was doing event management roles and being in the thick of organising a conference.  Was a real buzz when it all came together and people ended up enjoying themselves.

Another bit of very important glue who was pulling it all together was Dan Ilic who had us cacking ourselves before the show started and all through the breaks.

Now I can't let you know too much about the content of that show as they made us promise not to tell, but if you're watching it on Monday night (and I recommend you do), look out for the red cardigan behind the blonde audience member who talked about being brought up by fundamentalist Christians. That was me!  Not the blonde, the red cardi woman, frozen as I've realised I may be popping up in people's lounge rooms next week. Suddenly I'm stressing out about my spare tyre and many chins. And the impressive cleavage beside me? That was Moo. Her boobs are legendary.

After the show we were waiting in the foyer of the ABC building (yes, even though it's on Channel Ten, it's filmed in the ABC because they have the right size studio) for my chauffeur (i.e. husband) to come pick us up and we happened to see Chrissie coming out.  Of course I had to stop and ask for a photo which she graciously did even though it may have made her miss her plane. She didn't miss her plane (thanks for letting me know @ChrissieSwan. We also got to meet the beautiful Julie Goodwin, who was lovely and interesting on the show too.

Moo and Julie (they could be sisters!)      A couple of Swans (not related unfortunately)

But once again, when actually meeting someone I admire from afar, I lost all my brains and blurted out "Hi, I'm Becci Swan" as if that would impress her and stuck my hand out. I then had nothing further to contribute except a goofy smile.  Doh!

So will someone please tell me how to meet someone famous, in a way that will either impress or at least so they don't think I'm some random, crazy stalker!  And it seems I only do this with people who write stuff I really, really like (hello Nikki Gemmell, Kerri Sackville, Eden Riley, Mrs Woog, etc).

Joining up with Grace for FYBF!

It's February Already!

So how did it become February already?  How did it happen that I've been back at work just three days and I feel as exhausted as if it was 12 days straight?  Why do the powers-that-be believe that's it's a great idea to start a whole new way of doing things at the beginning of term when we are three quarters the way through a renovation?  Why does my computer at work decide to have several,near fatal strokes right at the time I need to produce the quickest reports at the drop of a hat?  And why does the IT department in head office STILL have no idea what we do here?  We've only been operating 30 odd years.

Well that was my week and that's all I'm going to say about it.  I would much rather review what January brought:

• My big sister and her husband visited us from the North Coast for almost two weeks which was lovely and an excuse to have the odd wine or two and a nightly Bailey's (oh and someone to go dancing with all night at The Unity!).
• Watching the best fireworks in the world (not just my opinion) on New Year's Eve from a local park with the family and a bottle of champagne.
• Spending way too much money and way too much time organising my husband's 40th birthday party which was the biggest gathering of Darth Vaders, Obe One whatevers, Rocky Horror Picture Show characters, Disco Diva's, Taxi Drivers and Blues Brothers in the Southern Hemisphere (yes, there was a theme, 70's movies!).  There was a week preparing the house, two days cleaning up vomit mess afterwards and three weeks waiting for the recycling bin to finally be free of booze bottles.  But it was worth it all to see all of my three sisters and their partners partying on with all of my husband's family (even though we could have done without one of my sisters dressed as The Exorcist doing her backward possessed -by-the-devil crawl in front of my MIL), from all accounts (and some embarassing photos which I have not got permission to show you ... yet), it was a raging success.  The Moneymaker was suitably impressed by my presentation/trip down memory lane photos, hopefully enough that when my birthday comes around (don't forget MM, it's in March!) he will feel guilty enough to surprise me with something wonderful.
• A couple of lovely trips into the city (I think I may have fallen in love with Westfield - shock/horror!). One with Mr Moneymaker and Nugget and one shopping trip with my Chicken, which turned out quite fun. Surprisingly as we were looking for the elusive pair of aqua Vans (not found anywhere in this wide brown land so some weeks later she was quite happy with pink ones).
• My baby girl turned 13!  A teenager.  OMG (as she would say)!  Though really she's been a teenager since she was 6.  I expect that more of the puberty drama is to come over the next seven years and I'm not sure I'm prepared. Any advice would be very welcome if you've gone through it all and survived.
• Back to school shopping.  Not as painful as I anticipated after doing exactly the same thing as last year - walked into the shoe shop advertising the biggest discount and realising that of course it did not apply to shoes in my childrens' sizes then just remembered the other bargain outlet where they had exactly what we needed and walked out with change from $100!
• Saw The Descendants - great film with believable characters and interesting storyline. See it if you can.
• Thanks to Twitter found out that Celebrity Apprentice had a challenge in Sydney Park where they needed everyone to bring their dogs for a bit of pampering.  Of course I had to take Sydney the Schnoodle to see if I could get a photo and succeeded beyond the cost of the $25 donation to The Starlight Foundation (you can read about it here).
• Saw my head on TV yesterday - probably should have not done this as every time that Domino's Chicken Ribs ad is on (Channel 10 or Youtube if you're interested, I will not post it here) I hide in the kitchen.  I realise if there is ever a camera around I need to point my chin UP.  I do not remember when I lost my neck, I think it was some time in the early 90's.

Now that I've listed it all down, I suppose I did do a few things in January, even though I feel I've spent 80% of the time on the laptop reading everybody else's blog and suddenly realising it's 11pm and I haven't written a thing myself.  Oh shit!  It's 10.54pm already!  So there you are, I've made it!  

Hope your January was fun and action packed or at least a time to rest up.  I think I need another January....

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