Sun 5th Nov – Highs Of All Kind

Well, today was pretty full on - had a lot of boring bits spent in onsite canteens etc. and the whole day could have been squeezed into a 3hr session but we basically spent 0830 - 1730 on site, looking around and being shown things. I have the BEST position & Kevie is up with me. We're 68m above ground on this arch that goes from one side of the stadium at the narrow end to the other. We will have full view of all the happenings on the stadium floor below! We've been told that the climb up (stairs) is steeper than the Sydney Harbour Bridge gradient! Watch my calves get even sexier than they are now - I no longer have to worry about where my 'walking to & from work' exercise will come from! All I need to do now is work on the abs and upper body!

To give some perspective, on the attached photo, see the only real horizontal thing sticking out of the Arch on an iddy biddy platform...? That's my home when at work! Just so you can think of me as you have complete freedom of movement as you read this! May I mention, they haven't installed a port-a-loo yet...?!?!

So, I'll be climbing up these steps (1st time tomorrow) once a day for the next month at least - but wait, I'll actually be doing it TWICE a day when we hit full rehearsals! Why? Well, because towards the end of the show, they set off a whole bunch of pyros & fireworks from on my platform and then all these other little platforms that span the entire length of the arch! So, we'll get the 'Leave' signal and have to get the hell down off the Arch before they fire the pyros and once it's done, we climb back up and do the rest of the gig! The followspot platform has the 2nd largest charge on it! So, I'm 68m off the ground, I could fall, I could catch on fire, I could get shattered ear drums from the pyros, be caught in freak sandstorms or potential monsoon rain (both apparently HIGHLY likely) AND there's a tripping hazard... oh yeah, forgot to mention, some of the steps on the way up are loose! (or so we've been told!) All will be revealed tomorrow when we go up for a play!!

Adams not here yet and we're all supposed to be going out to Hotel Rydges where it's Aussie night and there's some kind of sport on..! Probably best to be social for the first few nights and then slowly wind back cause fark getting drunk each night. Met up with Kirstin this morning when she hopped on the bus - freaked her out when me, Kev, Bernie & Jules all went "Hi!" There is a bucketload of people over here - have bumped into around 10 extras who I didn't know were over here - there's still a few faces over here that I haven't seen.

Slept pretty well last night. Woke up once to go to the loo and did that "Where the fark..?" and then remembered. The mattresses are like boards - very solid. Each room has Air Con & we've been told to only go as low as 27 cause heaps of people got 'Air Con Flu' going from 40+ to 20 degrees. Some people even got newmonia....those who have gone before have provided many valuable lessons!

I am The Chosen One - NO ONE else has been able to log onto the Net! Heaps of people, even those who have been here for ages have been able to detect Networks but they've all required passwords or found nuttin’ & here's little ol'techno virgin me typing away after being in the country for under 10hrs! If this connection hangs around, I tell ya, that's gotta be a whole lotta Street Cred! When logging off yesterday it asked if it wanted me to save network and, with apprehension, I accepted and turned off the computer, expecting never being able to talk to you again but there it was, patiently waiting for me to press 'connect' again tonight! And it worked!

Ok, I'm gonna duck away for the eve as the gang are floating in the street discussing the day - Jamie hasn't changed by the way, some of his people whinged to us today and we just smiled & nodded! Discussions are being had about day trips to Europe etc as we've been told we have pretty much the entire 2 weeks whilst the actual Games are on, off! Definitely going to do drive buggies in the dessert dunes and sleep out over night!

When I send the next email or start this Blog I keep crapping on about, I'll attach a photo of my working position! I'm in front of and above the worlds biggest ever TV screen - 125m long by 70m high! Doha is going to world first's in a whole lot of categories. Watched an hour DVD of a computer mock up of what the 2.5hr ceremony will look like and if they can even come CLOSE to what they showed it's gonna shit all over our Flying Tram! I'm not supposed to say ANYTHING about what I've seen & know but I'm sure that will wear off over the next couple of days! Basically, EVERYTHING has a light in or on it and there's heaps of other really cool stuff - I'll save all that for later as I've only seen a computer animated mock up. When it's in 3D, then the stories will flow!

Anyway, it’s beer o’clock and the main point people have been enforcing again and again is to keep up me fluids…!

Well, it’s Mon morn but there’s a whole nother chapter to add to yesterday. I mentioned Rydges earlier…? Well, we all caught our cabs and off we went. 26 Riyal for a pint – basically divide by 2.74 but to make it cleaner we do 2.5. Expensive beer – a jug costs 100R! Most of us were feeling a bit tired and had pretty much adjusted from our jetlag and were all sort of thinking that we might not go, have a quiet night in etc. but we then all realized that we’ll probably have a heap of quiet time at the house between rehearsals so we all sucked it up and off we went. Well, we got there about 8pm and left at 1130pm and then got to bed at 430am as we grabbed some beer and hung out in the pool (bout 8 of us!). Very silly cause at 8am this morn the construction work carried on – nope, can’t sleep now! And remember – gotta climb the arch tonight!

We’ve also added another to the ranks – a Dutch guy called Prem who is calling all the followspot cues. Very cool & funny and has adapted well to us adopting him!

Adam’s here!! Excellent! He’s taken up residence in one of our spare bedrooms. Has been pretty much a year since we’ve seen each other. He’s turned the tables on what we all thought and has lost a shitload of weight – apart from that, it’s Adam! Very weird to now add Adam into the mix of faces in such a strange environment. We’ve already had a round of Cricket on the PS2, shared a few ciggies and basically filled each other in on the last year in three sentences or less and laughed a lot at the fact that we’re in Qatar, yes, yes we are! And it’s only Day 2 of 42…!