People In Your Neighbourhood CD out

Check out track four on this free-download album, the People In Your Neighbourhood, a flagship project of the British Council in NZ.

Funky Oriental Beats - tickets on sale yay!!

http://www.the-edge.co.nz/Event-Pages/A/Auckland-Fringe-Festival-(1)/Funky-Oriental-Beats.aspx

Little Rain

Been collaborating with my friend Cat again, and a new friend Karena. It's a really neat process, working out how to combine and blend our thoughts. For me it's very much a feeling process - kind of like the thought surfing I usually do when I'm writing, but in company, which makes it much nicer. And unpredictable. And as with surfing, which I'm only guessing at as I have little actual knowledge, the bigger the wave, the more you have to trust one another. Anyway, it feels really really good to be peeping across the divide to where the grown-up artists play.

Anyway as with all my deadlines the dates seem to creep up on me. Once I got back from Japan it didn't take long before I was running from deadline to deadline again, though these days it's such a normal state that the stress aspect seems to have disappeared. This week for example, apart from the writing for Little Rain (completed, hurray!) I have the latest draft of Lantern to finish (tonight), a contract to sign (last week), a blog to write (tomorrow), and a video/poetry performance (Friday). Then there's the preparation for the upcoming Fringe show next weekend, another funding application, and my tax is due....

Radio NZ interview with Lynn Freeman

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/art/art-20090208-1343-Renee_Liang-048.mp3

Back home

I've been back home about 4 weeks and am slowly getting used to being home. It's strange; I never expected to suffer from reverse culture shock. I didn't have culture shock in Japan because, well, I expected things to be very different. Here are some things I've noticed about being home:

1: Everyone here is so tall! And wide! There are actually fat people here. Lots of them.

2: I can talk here. I mean, talk and be understood. This is not always a relief. There's a certain lack of stress that comes with only being able to grunt and point at things. This might explain something about boys. The laid-back ones, anyway.

3. The sun is warm here. Toasty warm.

4. I like wearing dresses.

My ideal workday

I'm working in Hawkes Bay at the moment, stocking up on experience, doleros and a tan. They've given me a motel room across the road from Hastings Hospital and I've been slowly working out the lay of the land. Everything is pretty sweet and handy. Here's my ideal working day:

8.30am: go to handover.

9 am - 5 pm: save lives.

5.30 pm: 5 mins up the rd: Aquajogging session at Swimgym (my motel key gets me in free)

6.30pm: Towel off. 10 mins up the rd: get icecream from Rush Munroes Icecream gardens(I've earned it).

6.45 pm: Still eating icecream, wander into Hawkes Bay seafood to grab some fresh fish and mussels.

7 pm: sighing happily, cook dinner.

7.30 pm: write.


This is a theoretical timetable, of course. I don't think it will ever turn out this way (for a start, I tend to work past 5 at the moment ... and I'm pretty good at constructing excuses not to go to the gym). But dreaming is halfway to doing.

Ok, it's not, but at least it's a fun exercise.

We-ness

In the latest TBI issue I've posted a recent interview with Square, friend and producer of the Asian Tales concept. I'm quite excited by some of the ideas we talk about, especially around shifting identity and the concept of "we-ness" (sharing and being rather than standing apart and looking). I'm going to have a think and expand on those issues for my TBI blog which is due in tonight....

Grindstone Day 20

Automated External Defibrillator combined with drinks vending machine at Jurobe residence, Tokushima

Time: 5.40 pm
Chapter: 10
Pots of tea: 0
Lunch: rice, egg and soup combo - winter comfort food
Snack: sweet potato

Feeling guilty, guilty, guilty. Went well on Friday, but over the weekend and today? Phtttt. Haven't managed to really even open my word file, let alone make good progress. On the good side though got an email from my mentor today to say she's enjoying Part 1 of the manuscript. Hurray! maybe at last I'm on the right track.

Also feeling bad because the end of the "writing solitude" has crept up on me and on Wednesday we'll be heading north to Kyoto for Xmas - we're going to have a Mexican Xmas with lots of socialising. And after that we'll be heading north to Naruto and then Tokyo, staying with friends all the way, so again maybe not too much writing opportunity there, and from there I leave for home.

Then again I might be much more efficient on this next "stage" of the trip - very easy to fritter away time and not do so much when I know I've got the whole day, so I may manage to do the same amount of writing or even more if I snatch an hour here and there and FOCUS. Ah, grrr. Silly, silly me.

On the upside, the weekend was nicely lazy with lots of sleeping in, eating (pancakes, mostly) and wandering around Tokushima. Went to the local puppet theatre which is a
living traditional art" around here, the puppets are superbly crafted and I even got to handle one,fantastic!!

Now I have to cook dinner, some hungry Mexicans are on their way and the fridge needs to be emptied before Wednesday :)