Cirqadian rhythms.

I have seen the theatre, and it is good. Lots of funky toys, almost ready for handover, milspec fibreoptic for the projection gear, awesome concepts. Not telling you much more than that, partly because of NDA, partly because words just don’t do it justice. Come see this thing. It will rock you.

But, like I say, *almost* ready for handover. Which means we’re doing some internal training, getting everyone on the same page about how cirque does things, dealing with HR paperwork, etc. Lots of hurry up and wait. And, of course, there’s a 15,000 seat arena with world-class shows booked, and not much skilled local crew. So last night, half the techs and senior techs, and even an assistant Head of Department went back to pushing roadcases for Beyonce. World’s most expensive loaders, yo. For many reasons, I suspect, but mostly so we could start working togather as a team in a stress-free environment, and to establish rapport between us and the Arena staff. Both of which it did. We’re already over the “What happens in Macau stays in Macau” thing, that got boring last week. But now we have “This one time, in Stairwell 11″ (inside joke, but you get the idea), and “Truss moving!!” (because apparently the Chinese riggers don’t say it. Nor do they bump through motors before moving truss. Aiyo!) as our little catchphrases. So we’re coming together nicely, I think.

Also, no-one told the tour crew who we were, and you could see them rapidly revising their game plan as they went, realising not only did we speak English, this was not our first rodeo.

So much fun was had by all, we finished up way early, and we get to see Beyonce tonight, after we finish backline loadin. Still not sure if I’ll take advantage of that, but it’s something to do.

Also to do today, sign the lease on the flat, so I can have a matress delivered on Monday and move in.

Life, she is good.

jai.

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Still alive The last few days have been orientation, tours of Macao, tomorrow we tour the theatre.

 Went in to the Venetian HR offices on Macau Peninsula on Monday. They’re a little overwhelmed by the number of people coming in – they sometimes ask you to fill in forms you’ve already filled in, and they’re a bit frazzled – but overall, pretty smooth. They took my passport away – no-one seems to know what for. I should have it back tomorrow, hopefully with a red consultant visa stamped in it. I had to borrow a pen from the lady sitting to my left, so we got chatting. Her name is Freida, and she is from Hong Kong. so I startled her slightly by shouting “Ah! I need to talk to you!”. When she recovered, I explained that I needed to pick up some pallets of my stuff from Hong Kong docks and ship them to Macau. This baffled her, but the guy over the table said “Oh, no problem”. Since he looks like a Chinese wharfie, I’m inclined to believe him Turns out he’s one of our riggers, called Danny, and is also from Hong Kong. He’s having some stuff shipped over as well, so he can just call the shipping company he uses, and get them to grab my stuff as well and bring it over. So that’s sorted.

The next day, we went on a bus tour of Macau, with a tour guide from Hong Kong who spoke excellent English, but no Chinese. And she didn’t know Macau very well. So Danny spent the day translating, and telling the driver where to go. Always, always have a local friend, is my advice We hit the main tourist places – Cenardo Square, the Red Market, Macao Tower. Red Market is just insane. Live turtles which we presume are for food, fish filleted in front of your eyes still breathing, chickens waiting to die at your whim. More pork than even I could possibly eat, and big bags (up to my waist) of deep fried pork skin, like those tiny bags of crackling chips you can get on an industrial scale. Fruit I’ve never seen before, and honest-to-god hundred year eggs, in 3 different varieties.

I haven’t tried those yet When we did Orientation today, the trainer asked what we liked about Macau, and I said “The food!”. “Ohhh! Have you tried chicken’s feet?” “Not yet!” “How about eel?” “Yeah, we have that in Australia. Not very exciting” “Ohh! Cow’s stomach?” “Yeah, we call it tripe” “Snake?” “No! I haven’t found snake!” “You haven’t found snake!? I’ll tell you where to get it!”. She thinks snake might be too expensive in Macau, and we might have to go to China to get some. But she and her colleague want to come see the Cirque show (and her colleague asked if I could dread *her* hair!), so they’re going to take me for Dim Sum some time, hopefully complete with snake, and in return I’ll try to hook them up with comps. I’m not sure if I even get comps, but the show doesn’t open for a while. I’ll work something out

Everyone at the Casino is very excited about the show. This is the largest casino in the world, on a strip that turns over more money per day than Las Vegas, and *they* want to come see *my* show. They’re making me even more excited about it

The Chinese, they love the dreads. They were walking behind me touching them, coming up to me to compliment them and giggle at them. It’s an awesome feeling.

The whole place is an awesome feeling. I’m learnig a little Cantonese every day, I’m trying some new food every day. Sooner or later I have to start work, but for the moment, I’m just wallowing in Macau. Even the pollution makes things beautiful. mother Nature never knew colors like that ….

 Photos: http://cirqadia.eccentrify.com/gallery

jai.

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I’m here. I have an apartment with a spa, and I’ve learned to order crispy skin pork in Cantonese. Beyond that, I’m not sure I have words yet. We’re spending a lot of time down the pub, and I’m trying to spend a lot of time walking Old Taipa learning Chinese.

The main story so far is my dreadlocks. I went into a little chinese corner store, to buy some water, and said “Lei ho ma” to the lady behind the counter. She grunted at me, and you could see the double take as she thought “Wait a minute, that’s Chinese.”. And that was all she needed. She reached out across the counter, grabbed a dread, and started playing. And then her friend came in from outside, and we had a whole conversation without words about how you back-comb dreads to start them, and roll them against the scalp to keep them tight. And then I walked through the crowded Red Markets, and they would stop me, and grab the dreads, or just point, and say “I like your hair”. They like me here, because I speak 3 words of Chinese and have dreads. I love it here. Photos later, more stories later.

jai.

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10 days til my flight, and counting. No apartment, no idea what I’ll be doing, nowhere near enough packing done. Wish me luck!

jai.

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