Sun 12th – Back On The Horse & Hair Of The Dog - Twistin’ By The Pool!

Myself & Adam have made a plan to get us through until 1530 when we have to catch the bus to work (we’ve decided to stay up!). We’re supposed to be walking down to the local shopping precient for hamburgers or any edible form of Grease in half an hour at about 1030 but I’ll lay London to a brick he’s asleep – just a seck, I’ll check……. Yep! Curled up amongst his computer paranphenalia, snoring his head off! Right! Nap time for Tim, catch you later!

Had set both my phones (one Aus # one Doha #) for a 1300 wake up…. Not to be. Adam came in at 1500 to get me out of bed!! Guess I must have been tired…! Rushed around, made the bus and felt all out of place and like my day hadn’t quite turned out the way it should have – basically started when I didn’t go to bed as planned after just one beer! We get there and are told that only the Hero Horse domes need to report to their position and that the rest of us were on coffee until notified otherwise! A dodgy Doha sandwich never tasted so good! After bout an hour, Prem comes on and releases all other domes as night rehearsals had been cancelled and we were free to go! The sweetest sounds I ever heard!

On our way out, Brad who’s on Costume LX and lives down the road comes up and asks if we’re al coming to Eligh’s 30th birthday bash? Which, of course, we knew nothing about! Eligh is on costume and also lives down the road and is pretty cool! We were told it was catered and due to kick off at our pool at 8pm! Bad sign, Bad sign!

On getting home myself, Jules, Sarah & Jess went a wondering up the street. Found a lady, with the full garb on, selling food from these big clay pots. Never one to miss an opportunity to try local food for local people, we inquired what it was. “To eat” was the response! She finally understood that we had no idea what she was actually selling so she let us taste test and thought it was hilarious watching us gingerly taste and then comment amongst ourselves! We ended up with this corn mash curry type thing with veggies & which had meat in it – what we are firmly going to believe was chicken…! We took it home, cooked up some nahn bread and tucked in. Really cheap and really filling! Shall be going back to her! It was a very tasty meal of what we named ‘goop!’

Once we’d dealt with dinner, we cracked a beer and decided to wonder n down to the pool as there was the beginnings of a racket to be heard! The pool was in full swing and people continued to flood in via taxi! Goodbye quiet night! (Now, I do remember stating that we don’t always drink… um, set that aside for at least this entry – next week will be different, promise, as myself & Kev start 10hr days on ‘Lucy’ before pushing a dome at night!) Eligh had got the party catered for by the little Cafeteria up the road and had also made up 2 x huge buckets of punch! A little light on the punch, heavy on the vodka! It was a great night. Got to properly catch up and chat with people that we’d met thru the Compound and also others we’d befriended on site. Very social & probably the first time that most of them had been able to let their hair down. The food was divine – falafels, great hummus, koftas, this black stuff – that was delicious but nobody knew what it was, nahn bread and a heap of salads.

Of course, there was the mandatory throwing of people into the pool! It was quite polite though as people did check or secretly check what people had in their pockets before being tossed in. Some people were forcibly told to remove things from their pockets whilst be held over the water! It was very funny watching Julia & Sarah attempt to team up and throw Bernie in – as revenge as he had literally tossed them into the water! (For those of you who don’t know Bernie, he’s 6 Foot 7 Inches and pretty solid!) They didn’t really have much success, even on the 2nd attempt! Sarah was basically slingshoted into the pool and landed pretty much on, if not past the half way point!

The above photos are Adam, Julia, Prem (SPot Caller & Myself) & me & Adam, well, being me & Adam!

I also met up with a couple of the guys (2 x Brits) we’ll be working with next week whilst on ‘Lucy’ – which is always nice to have a couple of familiar faces if entering into a pre-existing set-up like ‘Lucy’. We’ll most likely be working from a bucket, suspended from a crane at anywhere between 60-80m! Bring it on! We’ll be rigging the last of the moving lights, setting up 2 x followspot positions and then running all the control cable for said equipment. At some point we’ll probably have to go crawling thru the structure as well! Would love to have my camera up there but it will be a bit different than carrying it up 500 odd stairs! Should take around 4 days they reckon but have told us to be ready for 6 – I think it’s safer to be ready for 10 the way things have been going. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the extra $$ they’ve offered will cover the cost of my Accom and maybe some of the flights thru Singapore, Cambodia & Thailand at the end of this gig – oh yeah, for those who may not be aware, after the Games are done, I’m off on 2 weeks holiday (or is that extended holiday…?) Back in Aus early ’07! Tra la la la!

We did hear over the radios the other night that everything needed to complete the gig has now arrived in Doha! There was a big resounding cheer throughout the Kahlifa Stadium! It had taken awhile but now they only had time and people power to co-ordinate, with 2.5 weeks til Opening Ceremony, it’ll be tight but I can’t see it going pear shaped. There is a law in Qatar (pronounced ‘Cutter’) that only lets a certain number of trucks in the country at any one time. This is where the delays in getting most of the steel for ‘Lucy’ happened. Now I’ve heard, and only heard, and it was heard by the pool, that to quicken the entry of the required gear that a guy, with armed escort, flew to Syria where the goods were backed up, literally handed over a briefcase full of cash and loaded up container after container onto an ex-Russian military aircraft and flew off into the night…! It’s just so crazy that it has to be true! And having been here for nigh on 2 weeks and hearing the other stories floating around, I think it probably did happen but with far more cloak & dagger stuff than the story contains!