What we did on Thursday

[Marguerite]

Gday All

Marg's man here.
I don't know why I'm still up (it's after 10 PM our time and I was first up this morning at 5 AM) after driving the lot across Sydney and doing my own turn as an extra. Hey the play needed an 'audience' and I was going to be there anyway.

The filming went really well and difficult child 3 'done us proud'. There's no way they can cut his bit out without whole chunks of the movie. It's a paean to warrior mums and the scene they were in is central to the main plot.

It's not easy being Thomas Mollison. He's turning sixteen, and his autistic brother Charlie embarrasses him. So do his wacky parents. Then Thomas meets Jackie, and learns to swim. "The Black Balloon" is a coming of age story about fitting in, discovering love and accepting your family.

The film is a personal story and stars Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, Sixth Sense)as the boys' mother. There are other stars but most of you won't know most of them because they are big in TV here.

In the scene Thomas and another boy are in a play when the other boy has a meltdown due to all the noise and bright lights (WE know what that looks like, don't we?). After events that we still don't know about the brothers are reconciled and Thomas does the number WITH his brother.

difficult child 1 plays a Rainbow Lorikeet (with the attitude of an English football hooligan - bright, noisy and totally insane i.e. Aspie); difficult child 2/easy child 2 gets up on her low stilts and plays a giraffe and difficult child 3 (with Marg as his 'wrangler') plays Noah on the ark. He introduces the 'show' and reacts when the meltdown occurs. Marg tells me that he thought it was for real during the first rehearsal and tried to jolly 'Charlie' out of it. Today he just got up and did his bit - take after take after take. Time came for him to stop (he too young for a full day under Actor's Equity rules) and he was worried they wouldn't be able to go on. We reassured him that they would use playback and he was cool with it. Just as well; because the bits involving me went on for another two or three hours and I was stuck in what turned out to be foreground - I usually hide when a camera comes out. This time I would have fogged the lens if I breathed hard! On top of all this Marg missed her medications and is now nearly bedridden with pain waiting for them to kick in having taken her daily dosage about 12 hours late.

It's difficult child 3's birthday tomorrow (which is also Australia Day equivalent to 4 July) and we have yet another outing but this time it will be fun after a l-o-n-g sleep in!

It will almost certainly get a world release later this year. We'll let you know when.

Marg's Man

 

[ScentofCedar]

Cool! :laugh:

And have a Happy Australia Day, Marg and Marge's Man!

So, what kinds of foods will everyone over there be eating for their Australia Day celebration? Here, we eat pies and salads and some kind of barbecue on July 4th. We have fireworks that night.

Is that what is happening for everyone in Australia, today?

And I know I should already know this, but when (and how) did Australia slip the British yoke? Was there a rebellion, was it done in an orderly fashion, or did Australia never really belong to Britain in other than a cultural way?

Like I said, I should know that. :crazy:

Barbara

 

[Shari]

Tell marg to hang in. The movie thing is AWESOME. I want a copy!

 

[Marguerite]

Good morning (Aussie time) on Australia Day. We're heading to the local zoo as soon as we can get out whatever together. difficult child 3 has been up early watching his b'day present from his siblings - Cars on DVD. We're still scraping ourselves out of bed, I've got some online paperwork to do before we go, then it's a holiday. Until I get home to more paperwork (two articles to write).

Australia Day - it's midsummer, so we eat summer stuff. Salads, barbecues - the emphasis in ads is on eating lamb because it's patriotic (supports our farmers). There is still some controversy over the Aussie flag flying, because some thugs have used it in the recent past to bully people (especially those with apparent Middle-Eastern descent). And today we have our state opposition leader (flamin' idiot) making a speech in our area (where the riots happened so recently) talking about 'practical multiculturalism', which even his own party are nervous about. And it's pure electioneering, which shouldn't be happening today.

Today is also a day where we increasingly have to be sensitive to the Aboriginal communities, for whom this is a day of invasion. We have a lot of reconciling to do.

For us - Aussie burgers after the zoo. They're still beef burgers, but each one is the size of a dinner plate, it's loaded with salad and sliced beetroot as well as the beef pattie. Options to include are cheese (Aussie cheddar), bacon and egg. And pineapple. Try and wrap your laughing gear around that lot!

We showed easy child the photos we took at the filming yesterday. We weren't allowed to take photos of any stars but the costumes were more important to our kids anyway. And after having heard that blasted Animal Conga music for hours and hours yesterday, I still can't get it out of my head. It was playing in my head ALL NIGHT!

They said to us as we left, "See you at the wrap party!" This was from the director, so hopefully things should eventuate. We'll keep you all posted when it comes out but from what we've seen in the attention to detail in the filming and the script, this is going to be a great film for families with kids like ours. VERY difficult child.

And why? The director is also the writer, she's based it on her own family. Her brother was there yesterday - it was his birthday, we all sang for him. He is non-verbal but can sign. It was interesting - at a glance he seems normal, but not to a difficult child or a Warrior Mum. difficult child 1 saw him first and asked, "Is that bloke autistic?" and within seconds, a couple of other mums wandered past and asked me the same thing. All we could see of him, in the crowd, was fifty metres away.

I've gotta go, the kids are getting impatient.

Marg