My Fringe World 2015 'Must Sees'

Froget Christmas! Fringe World is officially my favourite time of year in Perth. The city comes to life with activity, with people, with performers and with awesome artistic displays, tinselled with strings of pretty lights. It's the time of year you remember that living in Perth is actually pretty awesome!

One week in and Fringe has certainly whisked me away. There are so many amazing things to go and see. Last Friday I saw Big Titty Ha Ha: Hard Time which was a bit of fun and I went to see Mummy on Tuesday night, written by Mick Devine and starring Claire Munday - it was absolutely incredible! A great peice of writing coupled with sensational acting, it was funny, quick witted, morbid and sad all at the same time.

There's still about another 3 weeks of Fringe World and here are a few of my 'Must sees' for this year:

10,000
Great new play by two Perth writer/actors about a couple who get thrown into a video game trying to save their flatlining marriage. Plus I'm doing the publicity so go see it!




Asking For It
This I can't wait to see - Adrienne Truscott's 'One Woman Rape About Comedy - tackling the big issues through comedy dressed from the waist up and the ankles down. Challenging the point of view that certain women's behaviour is asking for it.



600 seconds
Read: 10 minute plays. It's like a buffet - you can get everything and then come back for more. I love short snippets and it's awesome how much can be communicated in 10 minutes.





Impromptunes - Tune your own adventure
Improvisation + music - what could be better? Ok so I was a massive Wayne Brady fan back in the Who's Line Is It Anyway days and humour through improvised song is just awesome to me. 



Those who fall in love like anchors dropped upon the ocean floor
This received rave reviews during it's season at The Blue Room last year... and I missed it! By all accounts it's amazing and I'm so glad it's back, giving me the opportunity to jump aboard.



Metalhead
I saw this in October last year at Victoria Hall in Fremantle. Tiffany Barton is an exceptional Perth playwright and it was a hard hitting, emotional play. It's back with a new cast and a new director and I can't wait to see the transformation. 

23 days in

So I missed the obligatory 'new year' post and 23 days in, I feel I've begun to settle into 2015.

So far, the start to 2015 has been full on. But then again, full on seems to suit me much of the time. I may have started the year with a sinus infection and flu (who the he'll gets that in summer!!!) that's slowed me down some but none-the-less, so far it's been a great start. 

I've started the year with family and loved ones; merriment the bubble in a glass of champagne.

I've started the year with trips to the beach, rewarded with sun bronzed summer skin. 

I've started the year reading The Trouble With Flying and watching Boardwalk Empire; watering my soul with inspiration and relaxation.

I've started the year working hard; another year, another project to sink my teeth into.

I've started the year running again, or should I say jogging? Either way there's movement over kometres driving me to go further and faster each week.

I've started the year planning and saving for an extended trip at the end of the year that I couldn't be more excited about - expect to hear more on that soon!

I've started the year with words swelling in my heart and a keyword at the ready to capture them. 

How have you started yours?

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10 things to be thankful for today

As an American tradition, Thanksgiving has never been celebrated among my family or many families here in Australia, unless they've had some American or Canadian influence. Traditions aside, in the lead up to the silly season, when often the commercialism and the statement of it all takes away from the genuineness of it's purpose, it's a pretty good time of year to take a step back and think about what you really are thankful for.

So here's just 10 things in my life that I'm thankful for today.

1. I'm thankful first and foremost for family, friends and a beautiful man who love and encourage me, and I them in return.
2. I'm thankful for a well paying job that offers me security and challenges alike.
3. I'm thankful for having had the opportunity to study whatever I wanted, to read whatever I wanted and be afforded knowledge that in many countries and cultures is either still denied of women or simply cannot be afforded for anyone. 
4. I'm thankful for both the times my family did it hard and those when we lived well, because it's taught me to be appreciative, taught me to be resourceful and taught me to be compassionate.
5. I'm thankful for having lived in the country, the bush and the city in this enormous country of ours that so few get to experience the true breadth of.
6. I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel, to be in a position that has afforded me the opportunity to explore other countries, meet long lost family members and experience things I never dreamed I would.
7. I'm thankful for a creative mind that takes me on many journeys.
8. I'm thankful for the harsh words said to me throughout my life that have thickened my skin and thankful for the encouraging voices as well that have fed my soul and ambitions.
9. I'm thankful for clean running water available at my beck and call.
10. I'm thankful for my little home, that each night I am sheltered, comfortable and surrounded by nice things and for all the little things it is teaching me in this new phase of my life.

This list could really go on and on. Yes we live in a country where there are many opportunities available to us, but above all that, all the little experiences in life, good or bad have influenced who I am today and how I interpret the world around me. So we might change this or that, if we had the opportunity to do it all again but from where I'm sitting, I've got a lot to be thankful for.

What are you thankful for?

Love thy sister and thy self

I've been witnessing a little too much womon hating lately... by other women and you know what? It's really got to stop.

First we criticize women for not changing their names when they're married, now we're criticizing them when they do change their names.

We criticize them for being too fat, then we criticize them for being to thin.

We criticize them for not breastfeeding, then we criticize them for breastfeeding in public.

We criticize them for not 'contributing' to the workforce and financially to their families, then we criticize them for neglecting their children by also having a career.

Why is there so much scrutiny on a woman's choice? On a woman's right to make her own decisions? And why, oh why, when we burned our bras and banded together for women's liberties are we now judging them for the biggest liberty of all? 



A woman's right to shoes - I mean choose

You have the right to choose your lives ladies and you know what - it can be whatever the fuck you want. 

It shouldn't matter what it is you choose, the name of the game is that you get to choose it. And whatever your fellow ladies choose - respect that it's their choice, because in 2014 Australia, thankfully we can! 

So let's drop the judgement, ladies and pick up the empowerment!





*I saw these images recently and thought 'Amen Sista!' For more truely inspiring peices of acceptance check out Carol Rossetti on Tumblr.

Inspiration - it's everywhere!

I believe it to be true that when you open yourself up to opportunities, speak up and put something out there, the universe conspires to get you what you need. 

What I needed was inspiration and lately, the universe is absolutely showering me in it! I feel like a never ending packet of sparklers and each day someone or something is just the flame I need to set me in a crackling, fizzing, sparkling fuzz. Alight with beauty and a fierce tingling flame.

And once alight, all it takes is one quick connection to spark that flame in someone else.

Lately I have been meeting people. Really meeting people. People I feel instantly connected to. Some might call them kindred spirits. Not only that but I've been taking them with me when I leave, embedding them in my networks. One random conversation in a room full of people, one turn down a street towards a new shop, one word outside an event, one word at a dinner party and there they were. Other people just like me, ready and waiting to open their floodgates of inspiration and support.

I feel like a sponge at the moment, soaking everything up then wringing out the residue to mop up the juices again and again. 

I've realised that there are so many inspiring people in this little town of ours. People who are generally interested (and interesting!) and you know what - they genuinely want you to succeed! They genuinely want to support you and value your support in return.

It's often too easy to get stuck inside your own head. To talk things over with yourself so many times that you talk yourself out of them. We're our own worst critics in that way. So talk to some other people about it instead! Get out of your head and get into the real world because it's full of amazing people flickering with inspiration.

So go get sparkling!

Much love
A spongy, sparkly El x

Back in the land of the living

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been well... ah... absent lately.

I'd love to say that my absence from this space (and several other spaces both physical and virtual... and mental now that I think of it) is because I've been on some spectacular trip sunning myself, sipping cocktails or trekking through majestic mountains with my nearest and dearest... but no. I've been working. Working harder than I ever have before on a program/event. But I must say, climbing that metaphorical mountain has been a significant challenge and the view from the top is pretty darn good actually. I've not climbed down yet, I'm staying up here with the sunset for the time being, assessing the world from this height and appreciating every bit of it.

But now that the climb is over and the next phase begins, I've been taking time to rejoin the land of actually living, instead of the land of the working dead - yes I mean working, not waking.

I've been able to appreciate little things like the smell of jasmine from a tree in full spring bloom, the incredibly happy face and wag of tail from my hound running around the park, even a cup of tea. I've had time to start new projects, to read beautiful books, to eat cake and start planning a big exciting trip in the not too distant future with MR. There's been time to sip wine on friend's front porches, to watch soccer grand finals and to celebrate the coming of the new season with those I love. 

I've come out of my cave just in time for my favourite time of year in Perth. When the sun wakes earlier and goes to bed later, as do I. When I want to be out in my garden more, want to exercise more, want to generally celebrate more. And the sunsets are starting to become really beautiful too.

It's good to be back in the land of the living.