Prepare Thy Liver For An Onslaught!

My self and a contingent of visitors (from bottom going clockwise_ : Jules, Jacq, Wishy, Liz & Prem.

Typical St Pauli paraphanelia (no idea how to spell!!)

Well, it has been as I predicted – a very social time here in Hamburg! There has pretty much been an excursion to a bar each night. The great thing has been that all of us have gotten along. There was never one night unfortunately where all of us were in town (prob a good thing due to limited hotel floor space!) but there were definite overlaps and it was great to be able to kick back with true friends and not have to form friendships on the fly as we are forced to do alot of the time. It was also great that even though each new group who entered the fray didn’t know the rest, within 5 minutes there was jokes passing freely back and forth.

Myself & Jules keeping our 6 monthly beer tradition in tact!

The sad, but great thing, was that we didn’t really leave the St Pauli area at all! I haven’t really explored Hamburg as well as a two week stay would warrant as everything we needed was contained within a 2km radius from the hotel! It’s a little dodgy but it was great to being an area that felt like home and having friends around.

Silke & I at Soul Allnighter.

Silke took us to a great bar one night that played all this 60’s & 70’s sould/funk. Kinda like Thurs nights at The Cherry Bar in Melb. It was a fantastic night of great music and I’m not much of a dancer but I danced up a storm. The DJ’s running the night were either called or called their night “Soul Allnigter”. It was great to find a pocket of St Pauli that was a direct reminder of home. Silke also took me out to explore cafes and stuff . She was a local and we went out on a few mornings to grab coffee, go exploring and sit back and just chat and slowly peck away at sandwiches and plates of food. I gotta tell you, actually having some decent stop time and ‘living’ in an area is such a welcome change and breath of fresh air.

Liz, Jacq, Dan, myself and a crusty old man at this very seedy but surprisingly fun little bar that we came in and took over!

One day Dan, Wishy & myself we’re walking around and we’d stopped at this street side cafe and were dining outside when this old, toothless smile guy came up playing the violin. He played all of about 10secs of music and then pulled off his hat and held it out, expecting some money! I may have been partial to passing on some cash but not after 10 secs..! He started singing a little song to encourage us to contribute and he was basically singing – “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.” All of a sudden I got the fright of my life when a second voice started singing, accompanied by a piano accordion from right behind me! This made the three of us laugh quite alot and we joked that if we didn’t give them something, we’d end up with a whole orchestra serenading us!! We ended up giving them a few Euro just for the sheer hilarity of the Danke Shen Song!

Myself & Prem

I have also found my German dim sim substitute - the Curry Wurst! It’s some kind of sausage that they chop up, cover in this decent curry sauce, add some raw onions and then serve it to you with a dinner roll to clean up the leftover sauce. They have all sorts of other wursts to try but the Curry Wurst rules supreme!! Maybe it reminds me of the Friekendel Speciale of Holland...?

Wish in a very arty moment!

Dan being given terse look..!! Jules, Prem & I enjoy a "Mexicana' - basically a Bloody Mary but in shot form! They're all the rage in Hamburg and range from 1 to 3 Euro a pop!

Liz and I finally catching up for a beer, just over 1yr since we both left the Arts Centre.

Hawthorn Takes The Flag!!

“We’re a Happy Team at Hawthorn...” Myself & Wishy (a fellow Hawks supporter) still showing our true colours some 6 days after the event!

Ah, twas a great game! Truly hard fought and nothing like the drubbing that occurred last year! We finished second on the ladder and managed to bump off the top team! I tried to watch the DVD in the TV room that the hotel had but couldn’t get my laptop to play through their TV! Bummer! So I sat there, adorned in my beanie & scarf and yelled and cheered at my computer screen as the Hawks fought & fought hard to get in front and then hold off a determined Geelong who wanted back to back flags! Our team picked up many injuries but they just kept fighting on and put so much pressure on Geelong, who, luckily for us, felt the pressure and could only manage to score points when they should have been kicking goals.

A few of the Argy’s popped on in as I’d told them what the plan was and it was fun trying to explain to them the rules of the game as it was nothing like what they’d seen before. They didn’t really get it and seemed quite amazed at the physical aspect of it – especially as the players don’t wear padding or the like!
Gabby (the pianist) was great and slipped in a few bars of Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ during the show that night! A very nice touch and yes, I did wear my scarf & beanie for the whole show!

I would have loved to have been at the game or been amongst friends to watch the Hawks take the flag but in the end, it was a very unique (delayed by 4.5days from the actual event) way to watch the Hawks first Grand Final appearance in 17years and to walk away with the flag – one I will never forget.

Hawthorn Takes The Flag!!

“We’re a Happy Team at Hawthorn...” Myself & Wishy (a fellow Hawks supporter!) still showing our colours some 6 days after the actual event!!

Ah, twas a great game! Truly hard fought and nothing like the drubbing that occurred last year! We finished second on the ladder and managed to bump off the top team! I tried to watch the DVD in the TV room that the hotel had but couldn’t get my laptop to play through their TV! Bummer! So I sat there, adorned in my beanie & scarf and yelled and cheered at my computer screen as the Hawks fought & fought hard to get in front and then hold off a determined Geelong who wanted back to back flags! Our team picked up many injuries but they just kept fighting on and put so much pressure on Geelong, who, luckily for us, felt the pressure and could only manage to score points when they should have been kicking goals.

A few of the Argy’s popped on in as I’d told them what the plan was and it was fun trying to explain to them the rules of the game as it was nothing like what they’d seen before. They didn’t really get it and seemed quite amazed at the physical aspect of it – especially as the players don’t wear padding or the like!
Gabby (the pianist) was great and slipped in a few bars of Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ during the show that night! A very nice touch and yes, I did wear my scarf & beanie for the whole show!

I would have loved to have been at the game or been amongst friends to watch the Hawks take the flag but in the end, it was a very unique (delayed by 4.5days from the actual event) way to watch the Hawks first Grand Final appearance in 17years and to walk away with the flag – one I will never forget.

Messing Around In The Fliegende Bauten

The Tent! The Tent!

I got to admit, it’s actually nice to finally be on German soil – I have before but only the airports of Munich & Frankfurt many, many times over on my first ever overseas travel! We’re staying in St Pauli, which is a suburb of Hamburg and we’re performing in the Fliegende Bauten (the Flying Tent) and it’s very similar to the Spiegeltent (for those in the know!). The theatricality of the show has had to be sacrificed as the grid (height of the lights) is about 4m above the stage – usually it’s around 9m! Also, the stage is quite small, well, really, it’s tiny! But I gotta say, this is one of those gigs where you basically hand it over to the guys & girls who run the joint. It’s not a theatre, it’s a ‘dinner & show’ kinda venue, it’s unique and you have to think outside the norm – even for theatre!!


The main patron entrance.

The crew are great – Citro, the Head LX, is this crazy, old but hilariously funny, tiny German woman who loves to speak French. Silke is one of the office staff but spends a bundle of time making sure we’re all ok, Ollie, Michael & Cassie as our general techs & spot ops plus a couple of others round out the team. I can’t speak highly enough of Citro – she had worked on the show the last time they’d performed in Germany (also in the Tent) and was pretty quick in getting a 4 colour wash and pretty much most of the required specials up and running. The show looks nothing like what it should and we’ve lit things a different way but that’s ok because the venue more than makes up for it in atmosphere & character. It’s when we’re in a ‘real’ theatre and the right look isn’t achievable that I get shirty!


Dan found a silly hat...!!

Hamburg is also going to be quite a social old time. We actually get to ‘live’ if that makes sense and truly explore Hamburg as we’re here for two weeks. Taking advantage of this are Dan’s friends Jacquiline & Wishy (real name Chris – whom I first met in London) who are both backpacking around the world. Jules and Prem from Holland – myself & Jules made a pact before she left Aus that we’d have to catch up every six months and so far so good! A friend of mine, Liz who used to work at the Arts Centre but now lives in Paris and last but not least, we have Floris & Paul, our two Dutch touring crew who are driving across for a couple of nights! Tis going to be a busy two weeks me thinks!


This is no way relevant to Hamburg but the guy in the middle is the Ricardo "Yeeessssssss" Idiot who was our main Portuguese production contact! Twit!

St Pauli is kinda like a cross between Fitzroy (before the money moved in) & St Kilda...! It’s pretty cool and is peppered with little bars to suit all tastes as well as an abundance of cafes and eateries. The advantage for us is that we’re here for two weeks so we get to call it home and truly ‘live’ in St Pauli...! It’s quite a cool little town and I never knew it but Hamburg is a harbour town! There’s also a main drag that is far more geared and aimed at the tourists – Reeperbahn is where it’s at. It even has it’s own ‘Red Street’, like in Amsterdam, but it’s much smaller. It’s a weird deal as the ladies literally sit in windows, you negotiate a price for what ever it is you want and then the window opens as a door, through you go and...?!?! There’s also a number of ladies roaming the streets offering you all sorts of ‘pleasures’ for all sorts of crazy prices! It’s just a shame we get such a bad conversion rate for the Aussie $..!!

See... they're real streets!

Intersecting with the Reeperbahn is the Hamburger Berg (yes, that’s it’s name!) and that’s the street where we’ve laid claim to a bar called “Rosies” and made it our local. It’s a great little bar that also has Foosball – it seems Europeans are as crazy for it as some Americans (remember the story of Ric & I...?). Prem is really good at it and Wish isn’t too bad either – I however, continue to flex my sporting prowess by sucking! Although I will admit, I did get pretty good at defence there for a bit...! Not great but not sheer fluke either – there did appear to be some kind of coordination to my movements...!!

Another great thing that’s happening here in Hamburg is that I will get to watch the AFL Grand Final as my beloved Hawks are in it against Geelong. It’s the first time we’ve been in the Grand Final since 1991 and unfortunately I’m here in Germany! I’ve organised with my mum to tape the game onto a DVD and then FedEx me the disc ASAP, regardless of the result, so I can watch it as ‘live’ as I can. Having done some research at home, if it’s collected 1st thing on Mon morn, it should be in my hot little hands by Wed night, German time....! It’s costing me about $120 but I figure I would have paid that much for a ticket or spent as much on booze if I’d gone to a pub to watch the game! I will be going into a complete communication black out from the moment the first bounce occurs in Melb and will not be turning on my phone, computer, TV or even thinking about surfing the Net in case the result leaks through. For 4 days I’m going to have to entertain myself via analogue means! I have also packed my Hawks beanie and scarf in anticipation...!

Gathering funds for another Foosball onslaught @ Rosies!

They had such nice wallpaper that Wishy, Lynda, Dan & myself did a series of 'model' shots....

Dan's solo portfolio shot.

And I'm not quite sure what my inspiration or 'look' I was going for here....