Settling In

Given that this is my fifth trip to Australia, and my second as a worker bee rather than a tourist, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at how normal everything feels here but every once in a while I do stop to notice it. Without consciously thinking about it, I got my monthly transit pass, got on the tram for work, remembered which sandwich place I liked near the building, and went downtown to get some jewelry repaired and buy an anti-snore pillow for Stephen. (I have no faith it will work but we're grasping at straws...) Of course, I also had to get up for a 3 a.m. conference call this morning *yawn* but I consider it a small price to pay for the opportunity to spend 5 weeks here without using any vacation days.

Mind you, there are still strangenesses: every once in a while I spot a word in the local paper that I have to get a translation for: "spruik" (to promote by speaking in public) and "white-ant" (to undermine, as in termite behavior) were the latest. And I still tend to stand on escalators and pass people on the sidewalk on the wrong side. But by and large, I think I am starting to get the hang of this.

Settling In

Given that this is my fifth trip to Australia, and my second as a worker bee rather than a tourist, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at how normal everything feels here but every once in a while I do stop to notice it. Without consciously thinking about it, I got my monthly transit pass, got on the tram for work, remembered which sandwich place I liked near the building, and went downtown to get some jewelry repaired and buy an anti-snore pillow for Stephen. (I have no faith it will work but we're grasping at straws...) Of course, I also had to get up for a 3 a.m. conference call this morning *yawn* but I consider it a small price to pay for the opportunity to spend 5 weeks here without using any vacation days.

Mind you, there are still strangenesses: every once in a while I spot a word in the local paper that I have to get a translation for: "spruik" (to promote by speaking in public) and "white-ant" (to undermine, as in termite behavior) were the latest. And I still tend to stand on escalators and pass people on the sidewalk on the wrong side. But by and large, I think I am starting to get the hang of this.

Adventures of Action Item Man

For all you fellow corporate drones out there:

http://www.fatalexception.org/action_item.html

Adventures of Action Item Man

For all you fellow corporate drones out there:

http://www.fatalexception.org/action_item.html

The Tonys

I know you can't judge an entire Broadway show just on a number seen on the Tony Awards show but frankly, I was pretty shocked at the poor quality of this year's entries by and large. The Spamalot Grail number was fun but Christina Applegate in Sweet Charity was not -- I know she's gotten good reviews but I am not exaggerating when I say that she did not do one dance step in the "If My Friends Could See Me Now" number that I couldn't do myself. The number from the The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee did not really answer our question as to how you could do an entire play based on a spelling bee (and win Best Book over Eric Idle) -- the joke lines were lame at best. Ditto the number from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which seemed to have no melody at all.

( The bitchy moment you've been waiting for: the fashion review )

The Tonys

I know you can't judge an entire Broadway show just on a number seen on the Tony Awards show but frankly, I was pretty shocked at the poor quality of this year's entries by and large. The Spamalot Grail number was fun but Christina Applegate in Sweet Charity was not -- I know she's gotten good reviews but I am not exaggerating when I say that she did not do one dance step in the "If My Friends Could See Me Now" number that I couldn't do myself. The number from the The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee did not really answer our question as to how you could do an entire play based on a spelling bee (and win Best Book over Eric Idle) -- the joke lines were lame at best. Ditto the number from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which seemed to have no melody at all.

( The bitchy moment you've been waiting for: the fashion review )