Whether it's stewarding at a festival, writing for a magazine, or producing works of art, volunteering for creative projects is bound to get those juices flowing.

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Tuesday Aug 19, 2008

I love the night shift

When I'm on day shift, I feel I don't have time to do anything and I always feel sleep-deprived. (I really ought to go home after work, rather than seeing shows and going to the Cabaret bar) but on the night shift, the whole sleeping-in-til-3pm-if-you-need-to means you THINK you've slept enough, even if you haven't.

Today I went to the GP about my bad throat and numb toe (Fringe battle scars, ooh). The first is Laryngitis which just means my vocal cords are inflamed, probably with overuse when I was answering the phones for 2 days solid. The second is Neuropraxia which tells me I should have worn trainers for my first two weeks here and NOT flats.

I'll be fine soon. Not particularly bothered. :)

One of my flatmate's Victor is an amazing cook. He made a spanish tortilla the other day. I'm sooo going to go home and learn how to cook properly. i don't think my million-and-one-variations-of-pasta-with-tomatoes really cuts it.

I've never lived by myself properly before. It's much different to when your parents go away on holiday and leave you behind. It's cool though. I'm just definitely learning how to cook more stuff before I go to university next year.

Tonight is Spunk! night in the Cabaret bar. It's basically gay night. I'm not sure how different the Cab Bar will be compared to every other night - basically the entire C Venues staff there and no-one else.

Posted by Mei ( 5:08 PM )
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Sunday Aug 17, 2008

Becoming all DIY

It's odd how this trip has changed me.

Today, a shelf in the Urban Garden Box Office was bothering me. it's been shaking and slanting and wobbling for a couple of days now so I went to Stores (our giant room of power tools and gear), got 5 one inch screws, a drill and a crosshair bit and fixed the shelf.

It's all perfect and stable now and before the get-in (when we were busy building the theatre spaces), I would never have felt at ease with using a drill or trying to fix something my self.

Cool, huh?

Posted by Mei ( 9:14 PM )
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Saturday Aug 16, 2008

Wooooo, results day!

I had A Level results the other day. I went to another country for six weeks to escape the pre-exam day stress but I still caved and phoned my college at 11am. Got five As so I´m very relieved (and obviously, super-nerdy, lol)!

My results day celebrations were a little unconventional since I´m up here at the Fringe. Rather than going out with my close friends who are all in London, I first went to a pub called The Tron, near C Main, then went with two of my flat mates to a Masked Trance Workshop.

It was very cool - Belt Up!, the group running tons of cool shows in our Red Room, talked us through the experience of wearing masks and how they have their own personalities which come through when you wear them and all that kind of stuff.

The first one I wore was a white mask which had burn marks. I also found a white suit jacket, a strand of beads and a hat and just wandered around feeling creepy, violent and mean. Afterwards, one of the cast members came up to me and said when she wore it, she´d felt exactly the same.

There was also a mask they called Roger who collects sounds and one of the other participants, who didn´t know that, went around banging drums and being fascinated by the trumpet, etc.After that, we all went to the C Soco Urban Garden bar, then around 3am, I finally went to the Cabaret Bar at C Central so in the end, quite a normal Fringe night for me.

Tonight, I´m going with Lucy and Danni (two flatmates) to see Titus Andronicus and Apollo/Dionysus at C Main, so bye bye. :)

Oh, and I´ve completely lost my voice and have no idea why. I´m really susceptible to tonsilitis and throat infections though so I´m guessing its the latter.

Posted by Mei ( 9:15 PM )
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Thursday Aug 14, 2008

You'd think I'd be all theatre-d out by now...

But I'm not!

Last night I went to see Precarious' The Factory at The Zoo (a different theatre venue). A bunch of us went and couldn't help but compare The Zoo to C Venues. I was amazed that they only had one box office window. We have six in C Main and its always packed! They have a Cabaret Bar too but their's looks like a café whilst ours is an actual bar.

I also went to see Happyland (odd), Dragon Lady: Being Anna May Wong (I didn't have a clue who AMW was before I went it, I really should've done some research), a college production of The Rat Pack, Live! (good keyboardist. He looked really young to be that good, which is impressive), Darning Jilly (insanely creepy and terrifying. I want a copy of the script to pour over so I can digest it better), What's Wrong with Angry? (good play, very much of its time with the whole Section 28 and controversy thing) and You Need Me's How It Ended (stunning, simply stunning post-war romance which ends sadly. Heart-warming and heart-breaking and wonderful).

Last Sunday was Fringe Sunday, a sort of Day-in-the-Festival at the Meadows (large patch of green). As I was on a night shift, I spent a few hours of the afternoon down there. Essentially, there were loads of street (grass?) performers and performance tents.

Here are some pics, I'm quite pleased with the one where I caught the hat mid-toss from toe to head.

As you can see, it was actually sunny. It rained for over 48 hours a few days ago. You wouldn't think it was meant to be summer.

Once again, I'm in the Urban Garden box office on my own. Most FOHBOs hate it out here as its outside and therefore can be cold or rainy, but I think its worth it. It's quiet and calm. I have the internet, a kettle, a large box of teabags and the occasional visitor.

Sooo, back to chilling out in my little hut (the one I "built" a while back) and just having an easy day.

Posted by Mei ( 9:27 AM )
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Sunday Aug 10, 2008

Six hours in the gents

Remember I mentioned I had to poster the gents toilets before the press launch? Here´s a photo of the finished product.

And here is a picture of me in the centre of Edinburgh being all touristy, when I was sent by Adam-the-admin-man to collect Fire Selectors.

Today, I switch from day shifts to night shifts so I´ll be working from 4pm to 2am for the next three days. I´ve not done a night shift before so I´m hoping it´ll be marginally calmer and quieter than the day shifts have been so far.

Also, it means no more sitting in the box office of the urban garden with only the internet for company.... which meant it was actually a nice one to spend the day, though cold.

Posted by Mei ( 1:22 PM )
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Thursday Aug 07, 2008

Hello, C Venues Box Office, how can I help?

I've spent all day in the Box Office Admin area downstairs, manning the phones. It's been ringing nearly non-stop since 9am this morning and its only just gone 5pm.

Two nights ago, C Venues had a traditional Scottish night with a Ceilidh band and free whiskey. About 30 members of staff turned up and we all attempted to dance. It was great, if only because I'd never been to a ceilidh before.

My roommate Kim says she's going back home this Saturday; she hasn't enjoyed herself here. I think its her first time away from home, etc, etc. Danni has moved into our room; thankfully she comes back as late as I do, so I won't need to creep back in anymore.

Since I last updated, I have been to see Three's Company's Auditorium (very different), Maximum Entertainment Productions' The Great American Trailer Park Musical (amazingly professional performances and great plot), EHX's Trangression (an amazing freesports show), Dancing Brick's 21:13 (amazing beautiful piece!!!), Poison Whiskey Theatre's Who's Afraid of Howlin' Wolf (sexy, interesting and with some great lines, loved it), The Boom Jennie's Shindig (some sketches were funny. I'm really hard to please with comedy though. This means most people would probably love it), WitTank's Sexy Pudding (funnier than the Boom Jennies cos more of the stuff was relevant to my life) and Drumcat's Dream of Cats (six amazingly beautiful Korean women who can dance and drum amazingly well at the same time. Very intense performance and insanely cool).

Finally, I went to see Little Shop of Horrors for the first time ever. I thought it was very good but incredibly odd. They did the plant by having clothes yanked off the victims and they joined the first plant-man in green skin tight suits. Incredibly odd.

Yesterday it was my day off and it rained. It rained, and rained, and rained and so, I didn't get to sightsee Edinburgh at all. It's still raining today, I think it may rain forever. :(

Posted by Mei ( 4:29 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 05, 2008

Bad bad bad day

Yesterday was possibly the worst day I've had here so far. I was working on the Box Office in C Main and it was just too busy. Why are our shows so popular! :P

Soooooooo, today I requested to be Front of House which means I just check people's tickets as they come in. Much more stress-free.

Posted by Mei ( 1:04 PM )
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Saturday Aug 02, 2008

Opening night

I'm fully recovered from that odd illness I had as the wonderful Louisa and Beth let me get home early and get 16 hours sleep.

The festival has now started and we're being overwhelmed by members of the public wanting to see some shows.

On the first day (August 1st), I was working with the Front of House team, checking people's tickets, directing them to the right place and generally, just sitting around waiting for shows to start and finish. Overall, a very relaxing day before a night at the theatre!

As a member of staff at C Venues, I get to see all the shows I want for free and I've seen five already. Quick Thrill's After Liverpool was a giggle and the 50 minutes flew by whereas Glenn Chandler's Boys of the Empire whilst a clever and witty satire, wasn't quite to my tastes. Plague! the musical was definitely the highlight of that evening; it was hilarious, silly, funny and very high-spirited and energetic.

On the second day, I was trained to work in the box office where we are doing manual bookings and ticket sales. It was immensely chaotic as theatre and propduction companies were running around carrying out technical rehearsals and freaking out over missing deliveries, a lost prop and the tight time schedule they have to keep to. Sitting in box office itself was great though. We were constantly busy and I'm getting an idea of what shows are popular and so, which I should watch.

After work, the staff at C venues went on the C Hunt bar crawl and so, I got back home at 5am and only had 3 hours sleep before coming into work, *sob*

Then yesterday, I learnt that just because the festival has started, doesn't mean I won't be called on to do random fit-up work again. I spent about 5 hours with Hyon Chu wallpapering the gents' toilets with posters and flyers before the Press Launch party last night.

You know, I'm manning the Urban Garden box office at the moment and there's a pirate reciting a speech from Macbeth in front of me.. I really ought to find out what he's doing...

Last night, I went to see Strippers and Gentlemen which was interesting;. The way they used the space was great. The audience stands in the room for the entire show (30 minutes) whilst the show takes place before them. (on a nice floor from which I spent 3 hours pulling out rusty nails, using a crow bar)

I also went to see 21:13 which was quite possibly one of the best pieces of theatre I've seen in a long while, just WOW. I can't recommend it enough, its that wonderful. I'm planning to go see it again soon.



And I leave you with a picture of me (right) being all hula!girl on the opening night as a Front of House person.

Posted by Mei ( 12:22 PM )
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Friday Aug 01, 2008

The newsletter's finished!

We made the final touches to the newsletter yesterday and now all that remains is for it to be printed! I haven't seen it in its printed form yet, so I'm quite excited about the postman bringing it during the next week. It's like waiting for exam results! I always get a bit nervous knowing that it's out of my hands and I can't make any more changes. If there are any mistakes, hopefully they won't be glaringly obvious. I would be a bit upset, but I'm only human.

I will post some pictures of the finished article when I receive it!

Posted by Catherine ( 10:18 AM )
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Monday Jul 28, 2008

Sleep, glorious sleep.

I´ve been working from 9am til around 10pm most days and that eventually took its toll on me. I left C Venues early yesterday to get some sleep and have just woken up, 16 hours later. I don´t think its exhaustion-sickness though as I have a bad cold as well and one of my flatmates has been violently ill for the last two days.

Bleeeeergh

Posted by Mei ( 11:22 AM )
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Sunday Jul 27, 2008

I've been injured!

I dropped a scaffolding pole on my nail a couple of days ago and its now turned purple and tender but I'm not too fussed. Quite a few people are wandering around with bandaged up fingers, plasters all over them, ankle supports, etc. I lost all feeling in my left toes 3 days ago and its still numb!

I'm still working at C Main (left) and C Soco (right):

Two days ago, I helped to build a shed in the Urban Garden. It's the most DIY-sorta thing I've ever done in my life so here's a photo:

I also did a LOT of shovelling. We've built a beach in the Urban Garden (looks quite nifty) but this involved a lot of pushing sand around in the baking heat (whomever told me Edinburgh was an icicle LIED). That's me on the right, wearing a high-visibility jacket so I don't get squashed by an over-enthusiastic digger:

So, after a hell of a lot of hard work by everybody, the Urban Garden has transformed from this to this in about two days:

It's got to be ready for the big launch party tonight though.
(I've been told I'm working til 1am, dressed in a grass skirt. I hope that was just an evil rumour).

Last night, a load of us volunteers went to the cinema to watch The Dark Knight and it was good to have some time wherein I wasn't expected to hold a conversation for once. Being surrounded by people throughout the day and back at the flat is fun but incredibly exhausting.

Right, lunch break is over and I need to get back to drilling hinges onto some stairs. Goodbye.

Posted by Mei ( 1:09 PM )
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Thursday Jul 24, 2008

Nearly complete

 

Yesterday I went into SCVS to meet with Felicitie and work on the newsletter. I only spent 2 ½ hours at the office but I would have to say it was quite a productive afternoon! I hadn’t been able to show Flik the newsletter for a few weeks, so it was a good opportunity for her to see what I’ve been doing at home.

The newsletter is progressing well and so far we have 10 complete pages. We aren’t far off our target amount which is 12 - if we have 12 pages it will be easier to put the booklet together.  I am fairly confident that we’ll be able to find some additional information for the remaining pages.

At the office, I spent most of my time filling in a few spaces that were left in the existing pages. I found out more about the opportunities the Global Xchange volunteers are involved with and put that information alongside the two volunteer profiles. I also put together an article about Gwirforce and GwirVol, and finished another page about the Swansea Youth Bank.   

While I’m excited that the newsletter is nearly complete, I am also aware that this is the last issue I’ll be working on as my gap year is coming to an end. Until then, I’m going to continue to enjoy volunteering on the newsletter!  

Posted by Catherine ( 2:07 PM )
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Wednesday Jul 23, 2008

A few teething problems

Tonight marks Day 6 of my time in Edinburgh but this is only my first entry since I arrived at the Fringe. Through no fault of my own, I hasten to add! I have been surprisingly diligent about recording my tired/excited/fed-up/happy rambles onto the audio device that Chris from TheSite.Org kindly provided me with, but despite my best attempts, I can't find a computer here which will allow me to send the files to him.

So instead! You get me typing and a few photos.

The trip up here from London wasn't too bad. It was 10 hours long and I couldn't sleep, but I'm sure it could've been much worse, somehow!

I'm sharing a flat with eleven people at the moment, but there are 5 double bedrooms and a sofa bed/matresses in the living room. We are seem to get on fine so far - hopefully it'll stay that way!

I've been working with a company called C Venues. I've spent the last 5 days at their main building, the aptly named C Main, helping with a variety of odd jobs, mostly painting, drilling, etc.

Here is the Broadway Bar section of C Soco (another venue of C Venues), which I painted white as a base coat, with the help of Ben:

This is the Urban Garden, which is the back outdoor area of C Main. As you can see, it´s majoritively scaffolding and work-in-progress at the moment, but its changing each day.

There you can see a team of volunteers doing their best ant-march impressions with 16 ply wood.

DJ and Francesca stapling carpet to black-out panels to block out outside light and noise pollution from wrecking people´s dramatic stuffs

And here, you can see our black-out panel on the left and in the background of the right, some other panels already in windows:

I´ll upload more piccies soon. :)

Posted by Mei ( 10:41 PM )
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Friday Jul 18, 2008

Volunteering from home

 

I haven’t been able to go into the office for a few weeks so I’ve been volunteering at home. I’ve been busy working on the layout of the newsletter and making any necessary changes to the articles.

Last time I met with Felicitie she showed me an old edition of the newsletter which had been made into an A5 booklet. Our newsletter is usually printed back-to-back on A4 and then stapled together. Sometimes it’s also sent out via email to cut down on printing costs. We were really impressed with the way that the newsletter looks in booklet form, so we’ve decided to produce the summer edition as an A5 booklet.

Since I started volunteering as an editor last October, I’ve also been in charge of the layout of the newsletter. At first this was rather daunting as I’d never designed any before! Initially, I spent a lot of time creating a template which we have used for two editions so far. I decided it was best to have a simple design and not use too many distracting colours. Most of the newsletter is composed of two columns, with a narrower one to the left of the page and a larger one to the right. This format works quite well as it enables us to put our own columns, and any volunteer opportunities on the left of the page, and then focus on the main articles in the larger column. Hopefully our readers agree!

Now that the newsletter is to be in booklet form, it means changing the layout slightly. The only stipulation about the design is that the font must be size 12 for ease of reading. According to Yk, the technical wizard at SCVS, the A4 newsletter will need to be reduced into a booklet, and this means that the font must originally be size 17. As you can see, I have no idea how to make the newsletter into a booklet! Due to the larger sized font and compact design, the space available for articles has reduced. This has meant press releases have had to be edited to fit the pages and ideas have had to be expressed in fewer words. At the moment, there are some spaces throughout in the newsletter that don’t have enough room for substantial articles. We’ll have to find some interesting things to fill the spaces.

Aside from working on the layout, I’ve been emailing Felicitie regularly about my progress.  We’re hoping that our illustrator Lindsey will be able to draw something to go with my article on elephants. When I first began volunteering, we didn’t have many photos or pictures to put in the newsletter, so we’re very lucky to have an illustrator to liven things up!

Also, in my last post I mentioned the article I was writing about Global Xchange. Well, it’s finally complete and Felicitie has sent it to the editor of the Millennium Volunteer newsletter in Wales! Hopefully it will be included and other MVs in Wales will be able to find about what’s happening in Swansea.

Posted by Catherine ( 2:51 PM )
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Monday Jul 14, 2008

Meeting the volunteers

In my last post, I mentioned I was hoping to meet a group of volunteers who are visiting Swansea with the GlobalXchange programme. The group have already spent three months in South Africa and are spending a further three months in Swansea. Flik and I recently attended one of their weekly citizenship days, where they were discussing human trafficking, and talked to two volunteers about their experiences so far.

I talked to Keenan from South Africa who is volunteering with Peace Mala and Discovery. Keenan is finding the second phase of the programme more challenging now that he's away from home and he's already noticed some big cultural differences between the two countries. Keenan is passionate about youth volunteering at home and has found that young people in Britain aren't as enthusiastic about getting involved in their communities. He also talked about attitudes to alcohol and was shocked at how easy it is for young people in Britain to get it.    

After having spoken to Keenan and seeing what the volunteers get up to I'm quite envious! I think that other Millennium Volunteers in Swansea will be interested to learn more about the programme and those involved in it. I'm hoping that the feature will go on the front page.

I’m off to write up my article now!

 

Posted by Catherine ( 11:45 AM )
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