A mighty horse named Black Caviar- Australia

It just so happened on my final weekend in Australia there was a horse called Black Caviar running at Caulfield. It also happens Black Caviar is the Australian racehorse of the Year. It also happens my auntie and uncle part own Black Caviar. This all makes me feel connected to the horse and its easy to tell people about the mighty Black Caviar but its a different story standing track side to watch it run.
Therefore I made my way to Caulfield with a couple of my friends to experience the day out. As we walked in the gate there was no denying the day was about one horse. The 'Black Caviar pavilion,' a Black Caviar memorabilia stand and flags with the black dots on a salmon background the colours of the jockey.
Luke Nolen rode Black Caviar to an easy win to continue its unbeaten run of 14 wins in a row. It was the second time I had watched it win live and hopefully I will be able to see it win again sometime before it retires.

The AFL Grand Final

I returned to Melbourne during Grand Final. I am an MCC member therefore had a ticket to go to the game, the biggest day of the year for Australian sport. All I had to do was turn up and considering I was in the country I made the effort to fly home to attend the game.
It was the second year in a row I had been to the Grand Final having watched St Kilda draw and then lose to the Magpies the year before. It was a little different this year as my team was not playing and I could not decide whether to support the team who defeated us in 2009 or the team who defeated us in 2010.
I decided to support Geelong for the day. Having spent three years living in the city I had a connection with the team. I stayed at a friends house nearby the night before and made it to the ground around 8.30ish and was able to get a seat in the top stand of the Members. As I was walking to my seat I spotted a very good mate from Primary School who I had hardly spoken to for ten years. For the rest of the morning we shared stories as we walked around Richmond in search of my other mates I knew would be going to the game.
Geelong were the better team and deserved winners, so I found my Geelong supporting mates and celebrated with them after the game. We had a few beers at a pub in the city before watching the team be presented on stage at Federation Square.
It was an empty feeling though. Hopefully one day I will be in the stands to watch the Saints win.

Returning to Mt Martha - Australia

My final day in Darwin was fairly uneventful as I spent the day by the water in the waterfront section of the city waiting for the late night flight. I got a bus out to the airport for what is known as the read eye flight. The flight which leaves Darwin at 1.30am bound for Sydney.
I did have to stop in Sydney although it really only meant I got to read the Northern Territory papers, the Sydney papers and the Melbourne papers all in the same day. Mums car was at the airport having flown to Perth the day earlier which made it a simple trip back to Mt Martha where I got home and started organising my next trip which was to Thailand in less than two weeks time.

Arnhem Land and Darwin- Australia

Darwin seemed to be full of end of season footy trips on the weekend I spent there. With the AFL finals, rugby finals and the rugby World Cup on television the pubs were full of drunk men. I did watch the AFL but the rugby was no interest to me and I was wandering the town at night not knowing what to do when I spotted a couple of the film crew I knew from the few days earlier. They were heading to dinner to celebrate the end of the shooting of the film. I sort of invited myself along to their dinner which was at one of the most expensive restaurants in Darwin.
The crew decided we would all order a load of food and share. It was a good idea and the food was great, fish, oysters, some Thai food. As I was eating though I couldn't help but think how much it was all going to cost me. To my surprise and pleasure at the end of the night the main cameraman offered to pay for everybodys meals. What a bonus.
The following day I did not get up to much in Darwin just explored the coastal areas and set out to find the Darwin Surf Life Saving Club where one of the Mt Martha members used to patrol. I found it after visiting a couple of markets then headed for Fannie Bay goal for a quick walk through. I was too hot though to stay to long and wanted to get back to the pool at the hostel.
I spent a full day on a tour to Arnhem Land as it was somewhere I had wanted to visit but it is difficult to get to and get permission to visit unless you are on a tour. The tour left Darwin and drove through Kakadu to Arnhem Land the aboriginal owned land in the top west of Northern Territory. I booked the tour but was not really sure what it included. The drive to get there took over three hours each way and we stopped at Injalak Hill where a aboriginal guide we had collected in the local town described to us for about four hours all the different paintings we could see on the rock.
The paintings were similar to what I had seen in Kakadu although there were no barriers here to stop people from getting right up close. A couple of times I had to be careful not to brush against the paintings when squeezing between rocks.
The views from the rock were quite spectacular as well and we stopped for lunch on the side of the rock with seemingly endless views of trees and mountains. The tour also took us to the Injalak Arts Centre where we got a tour of the way aboriginal art is produced today. We met the very shy Glen Namundja whose aboriginal art is sold and displayed all over the world. The art while being produced is thrown around and left on the ground but when it enters art galleries it is only touched with gloves.
The journey back was another three hours at one point we completely ran over a small wallaby and the driver thought she had damaged the bus till we pulled into the roadhouse and got one of the guys there to check it out giving us the all clear to continue. The strange thing was where we had hit the wallaby was on the same stretch of road Campbell's tyre had blown up on the week before.

Time to be a movie star - Australia

The Sattelitte Boy shot

The big day of acting had arrived and we waited around all morning before getting the call up to go to the post office for a costume check. We needed to wear non-white, non-brandname clothing of which I had none so I stopped by Target to buy a plain blue t-shirt. Campbell took his whole wardrobe and with the help of the costume designer we found clothes which were suitable. Until getting there I had no real idea of the role I would be playing.
My role was to act as a photographer working with a journalist. I was told to take photos of the young boy, the star of the movie, while he came out of the police station with his mother. It seemed straightforward enough. The first angle was a wide angle from across the road, they filmed from opposite the road while we did our thing in front of the police station. The same shot was filmed about three times I was told to act more.
Then the cameras were moved closer in the filming began again with the camera about three metres from my face. A mix of nerves, the humidity in the enclosed location and the fact I was wearing a long sleeved short over a t-shirt with long pants made me pour with sweat. I am fairly sure if they use the close up shot in the film you will be able to see the sweat pouring from my forehead.
A couple of takes at that angle and the camera was moved again. In the final shot the camera was placed where I would have been standing so I was not needed. The whole process took a couple of hours for what I will be guessing is about ten seconds in the movie. If it makes it at all.
Campbell's scene was shot inside a Target store and he was told to act as a shopper and pick up the biggest item he could find which did not have an obvious brand name. He collected a BBQ till the director told him the branding was to obvious, then he was given a vacuum cleaner. I was waiting inside the Target store trying to watch what was going on although I did not want to get in the way.
The following day after the shoot one of the editors invited me to the production house to watch the film. I watched and was shocked how close the angle was when the camera was pointing directly at me. I said to the editor 'Wow that shows everything.' 'Wait till you see it all on the big screen when it is released next year.'
If they do use the shot I am in there is no denying it is me. For the whole couple of days I could not believe I was actually acting in a film in Kununurra. A place I had rarely even heard of before arriving.
With the fun of the film shoot over we were hired again to work a couple more days packing up the tents as the filming in Kununurra was complete.