guess where we are?

today is my 22.5 birthday, and i have been a week in Toscana to the day.

i am staying in an abandoned old hill-top village called Linari, about 15 mins out of Poggi Bonsi, half way between the historical enemies Florence and Sienna. Airdrie, our generous host and festival organiser, shares her beautiful house with a host of Australian kitchen crew, Dutch musicians, 10 cats and one German Shepherd.

Anyway, you guessed it - dot points!

• Day one and we drove our hired van to the northern industrial districts of Firenze. Ikea! Yep tom, you should get a placement in Firenze Ikea (pronounced Ick-eer)... so foreign, yet so familiar. Then we went to a Big W-cross-European Foods-cross major f*cken warehouse called Metro which we arranged a trade-card for and yesterday spent enough to cover half the staff's annual wages. Awesome! Plus, you dont need a licence to buy spirits - yeah!
• On the next day the Dutch movement arrived, and they are amazingly friendly and talented! They have taught me how to find the north star, how to skull tankards of beer, and how to talk dutch - lecker, lecker!
• The next day, we had to cover our first venues catering staff, and prepare a meal for our opening night for the festival-funding members. I drove our van, a manual with the gear stick on the right, and hung out with my new Jamaican friends Devon (18) and Junior (14). they are rad! I'm trying to set them up with the 14 year old daughters of two of the Dutch performers... yeah!
• Last night we got lost on our way home from Firenze, and ended up an hour off course... that was too cool!

Hmmm, i think that's about it... Ian, Marg, Sue and John have arrived, and suddenly Perth is dominating... unlike the eagles...