Say cheese!

OK, so the play reading went really well on Saturday night. I was a little nervous actually, because although I know all these plays have been well received in Australia, I wasn't sure how well they would translate on the other side of the Pacific - especially the comedies. Aussies and Americans have a slightly different comic sensibility. Anyway, I needn't have worried because everyone got the jokes and are excited by the idea of putting together some of these scripts to create a show for ourselves. Woo hoo! It was quite a riotous evening; hey, you put five actors in a room, we're not shy! So the next step is to suss out some local theatre spaces, see what they cost and what is available.

I bought some fabulous cheese to accompany the reading from my favourite cheesery in Studio City. It's a cute cafe and very serious about cheese. The guys behind the cheese counter are always friendly and cheerful - quite flirty actually - which adds to the fun. They had some wine tasting happening when I went in, so tried a few lovely things and bought a cheap bottle of French something (white burgundy?) which was delicious and went beautifully with the cheese. For the foodies out there, I'll describe the cheese (apologies, I can't remember what each was called): a French lightly blue veined cheese, wrapped in vine leaves which had been soaked in brandy - the overall effect was sweet, with a slight tang from the blue; a Spanish goat's cheese, much like Swiss cheese in consistency, almost floral aroma; and lastly, a very stinky French washed rind soft cheese. Pure decadence.

Yesterday I met up with some Aussies, referred from my friend Laura in Melbourne (thanks Laura!). Kevin is a familiar face on Aussie TV and is travelling in the U.S. for a holiday (next stop Las Vegas) and to celebrate his 50th birthday with some mates, also turning 50 this year. They've known each other since high school. Amazing to think of friendships lasting that long, and I hope my current close friendships will too. I expect they will, some of them have already lasted more than a decade. You guys mean a lot to me. Also meeting up with Kevin yesterday afternoon was another young Aussie, Paul. We had already "met" on Facebook, thanks to Laura, so it was nice to meet in the real world. He has also won a coveted green card, the same draw as me, and arrived in L.A. barely three weeks ago. Kevin said he was really happy to help facilitate a bit of Aussie networking here, that's what it's all about baby! The more connections you have - be they friendly or purely professional - the easier it is to tackle this big weird town.