Grantblings

Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 7, 2014 – Day off

Today was great as it was a full day off. No Puppet Up responsibilities at all. Though I love the show and would do it every day for the rest of forever (or until I could not longer keep my hand above my head), I enjoy a day off here and there. And if there’s no traveling, that’s a plus.

We had hope to get in last night and just settle in for our two week stay here but the hotel had other plans. The room type we were supposed to have was not available last night so we stayed in a different room and would have to move into our long term room today. A minor inconvenience but not insurmountable.

I slept in a bit and when I awoke I realized I was just in time to watch Wrestlemania via the WWE app. It was a fu, relaxing way to spend the morning and it was cool to be watching from Australia, in bed in my corner hotel room, curtains pulled back with an amazing view of my new favorite city…Melbourne.

Side rant, thanks to the WWE for allowing their app to stream to Australia. Netflix, Hulu and HBO GO are all blocked here. I understand WWE owns the rights to everything on their app and the others need licenses. But I’m an American customer paying for a service and it should work wherever. I’m not selling tickets here in Australia for people to come watch stuff on my ipad. I just want to watch shows. And no, none of the ip spoofers will work for me.

Dan joined me for a bit of Wrestlemania. I think it was his first time watching the big event. He will always remember where he was when the Undertaker’s streak was broken. In my hotel room. In Australia.

After Wrestlemania was over, I got cleaned up and Dan and I walked out to get some lunch. It was so great to be back in Melbourne. I enjoyed Sydney,Mobutu there’s something about this city that just makes me truly happy. After lunch it was back to the hotel to move to the new room and settle in a bit. After moving in, I answered some email and generally just relaxed.

Was saddened to hear of the passing of both Mickey Rooney and John Pinette. I was a fan of both of them and they will be missed. Never met John, but was a big fan of his comedy and did see him live once. I met Mickey once at Dragon*Con.

Around 5:30 PM, Dan and I set out to go see one of my favorite comedians Sèan Cullen who is performing here as part of the same comedy festival we are. Dan had never seen him, so I was glad he was coming. Huge thanks to Rosie, our handler, from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for getting us tickets.

Sėan was amazing, as always. So inspired by his ease of improv and the way he seems to effortlessly go off on amazing tangents that are simply hilarious. Also fun to hear him sing some of his songs including Kacheevo and Wheay. Just a fun way to spend an early evening.

After that we went out to a company dinner. It was all the cast, Pateick, Dan, Sean our stage manager and Bec our puppet wrangler. It was a lovely time and the restaurant, Trunk, was fantastic. All the food they brought out was amazing.

After that it was back to the hotel to do some more writing.

So, no major puppet fun, but a nice day off. Tomorrow we get back to The Princess Theatre and back to the puppet anarchy!!