This aerial shot of some of the cast and crew (including Blake) gives you a glimpse of how we are all feeling, having spent every weekend filming since the start of July!

At the same time as being pooped, I have some fantastic memories and have made some great friends. It has been a real team effort and sometimes we have been living like a family. Like all families there are always hiccups and an expectation that everyone will pull their weight, but its been my pleasure to work with such great people in a team situation.

This weekend we did some ‘I will kill you’ stuff (in joke!) and lots of jumps onto the crash pads, drownings in the pool and car chases (in the car port on the blue screen). The neighbors must wonder if John and Rachel have weird things going on in their carport. The noises coming from there are pretty strange at times!

I fluked these action shots of John jumping off the roof (2 stories) and Cassie practicing her jump off the balcony. Blake did it too but I was too slow with the camera! He was in the car chase (above) complete with people bouncing the car, rocking the car, imitating passing trees and other hilarious special effects.

Thanks for the great times everyone. Its something I will always remember……. not to mention all the washing I have to do now lol! Can’t wait to see the Elindil’s secret footage! Watch this space for the big moment!

What is it about leaving school that has had such an effect on Sophie?

My kids (and I) have a fantastic health record. I have had no sick days in 10 years (apart from this one!), Shan hasn’t been to the doctors for 7 years, Blake went to hospital 5 years ago to have his appendix removed and that was the last time he saw a doctor. Sophie hadn’t been for about 5 years until she finished school!!

She had her nasty stint in Dec/January in hospital with MRSA (see ‘Sophies yukky nose‘ on this blog). Then today she had all her wisdom teeth out. The xray showed that she had a cyst on her jaw under the tooth but when she was under general anesthetic, they realised the cyst was inside her jawbone (its called a Keratocyst) so they had to remove some bone and remove the cyst from inside. There is an open cavity in there where the cyst was which we have to ‘watch’. (How….. I have no idea lol!). Have you ever tried to watch the inside of your jaw bone? ANYWAY……. the Doctor is worried that since he has exposed the nerve she may have no feeling on one side of her face. Hmmmmm. She is such a complicated girl this one.

She came home with the most swollen face I ever saw (unrecognizable) and bleeding all over the floor leaving a trail like a murder had happened. She is still giving cheek though! She is not able to eat solids for 7 days. Mush mush mush. Poor baby:( She is eating stewed apple right now.

Just as well I have taken tomorrow off as I think she will be pretty miserable once the painkillers wear off. I have to say though, even though she has always been a little drama queen, she is amazingly tough and resilient.

LASTEST UPDATE: (next day) She has the funniest reaction to a GA. Last night she talked non-stop (even though her mouth wouldn’t open for more than a cm). She sounded like the Elephant man…… I won’t comment on how she looked!!

This morning I can’t get her to take any painkillers. Looking at her wounds inside her mouth, she has stitches where all of the teeth were removed but where the jawbone problem is, she has stitches from the back of her teeth almost to her front tooth! Looks real yukky. Unfortunately she has no sensation in her lower face on the left side today so we are hoping that is temporary and not permanent nerve damage. ALSO has huge black bruises coming out over her face. Poor chicken:(

There is a lot of ‘down time’ when you are on a movie shoot, and the Elindils secret days are no different. In the pic above you can see:

1. Warran checking out the back of his eye lids on a blue screen day

2. David and Mark keeping out of the rain at the Grampians

3. Grant doing a Lizard impersonation at Bega

4. David putting clothing on a baby doll (!!!)

5. Mark, asleep on top of a ladder (I swear…. he really was asleep)!!!

As you can see, we resort to some pretty strange lengths to relieve the boredom.

I usually make lunch and mind babies, with the odd continuity fill in stunts. Other than that I wait until there is an actor who needs a costume change. It can be very Zzzzzzz!

Last weekend Rachel was sick so I set up the lunch on my own (Leanne made some scrumptious burgers) and yesterday it was chicken rolls (as a change from the usual Ham ones). Doing the ‘hospitality’ thing with Rachel has been great as I have got to know her and love minding her baby girl too. THANKS Rachel, you are amazing having us all there with your 3 pre-schoolers etc.

One more weekend to go Woo Hoo!

On Cup day, Colin and I continued our ‘visiting’ spree and went to see Dads brother, Ron and his wife Con. We took Dad with us too (Ron is on the left and Dad is on the right). Ron and Con live in the most awesome place, on the beach front at Aspendale. What a place to live!!!! I have such fond memories of visiting them over the years. Getting burnt to a crisp on the beach, Cons cooking and the concert we put on for them at the end of the day…….. which they watched attentively regardless of the talent or lack thereof!

Ron is having a struggle with cancer at the moment and it is very hard to see him so unwell. He is 85 but like Con (who is 84), a very active person. Con is REALLY remarkable in that she just won the Kingston Citizen of the year award and Kingston Senior Citizen of the year award and that she just stopped working full time in a Womens refuge last year!

While we were there she ‘whipped’ up batches of scones and ran around like she always does, being the perfect hostess.

We really love their company and have had some great laughs and memories with them over the years.  Its terrific that people like Ron and Con can bridge that ‘generation’ gap.

Since I have lost contact with so many people while filming the movie, I decided that today and Tuesday would be visiting days. I popped in on Dad this morning and then Colin and I went to visit my Gran in Eltham.

You may wonder how an oldie like me could still have a Gran……. amazing huh? She is 92 and still as sharp as a tack. The only thing she says which may be considered a little odd is: Ooooh you’ve grown Jen! This is very typical of her cute sense of humour!

She is amazing at asking probing questions to keep the conversation going. I really admire her ability to do that. She can’t understand why we would want to come and see her but she really is a lovely lady, although today she had a nasty headache and had been confined to bed for the morning. She still loves a good game of Scrabble and shows an interest in current affairs etc (better than bingo and sing-a-longs evidentially!).

There is a reason why I have half a face…………. C took the photo!!

Everyone else we visited today was either not home or they hid when they saw us coming lol!

For the past 2 days I have been at Geelong at the Converge conference, which is pretty much all E-learning workshops. All of the Flexible learning team from Swinburne went, apart from Richard who was left to hold the fort. Apparently the conference was called ‘work’ but I felt like a kid in a lolly shop.

These photos, were taken ‘after hours’ and were taken in the hope of capturing the size of the goldfish bowl sized wine glasses we had to keep filling.

They are a great lot to work with and I enjoyed the ‘bonding’ part…….. including trying to get Deb up for breakfast both mornings and sharing her toothbrush. There were many unmentionable moments….. if I value my job I will keep my mouth shut (for once).

Greg and Paul bunked down in the ‘dog box’, while us women stayed in the luxury we deserve. We exaggerated it considerably, just to make them feel even worse. According to us………… we had our own masseur , a spa etc etc

Greg and I did a presentation which ‘he allowed me to speak’ for all of 30 seconds of the allocated time. He is very kind 🙂 I re-payed him by getting him totally lost on the way home (to my own house!).

There is no Elindils secret filming on the weekend. It’s the first weekend I have had home since the 1st week in July!! Colin wants to go party and I want to blob around the house. I wonder who will win?

I managed to catch up with Dad yesterday which was terrific. Since the filming was 5 minutes walk from Mc Donalds, I met him for a quick cappuccino during the day. It was good to catch up with and nag him about his health. He probably wished he had never come lol!

These pics are from the weekend before, but now that we are doing all ‘blue screen’ filming its all starting to blur into one big filming exercise!

My duties during the filming this week were:

• Baby sitting
• Making lunch
• Cleaning up after lunch
• Making sure costumes were put on correctly and put away afterwards
• Washing the smelly costumes
• Putting dirt, vaseline and cobwebs (!) into Daniels beard both days
• Putting ‘mud’ on Daniels legs
• Doing the continuity sheets for 3 hours on Saturday
• Sitting in the peanut gallery giving unwanted advice
• Telling actors to put their hoods on, hide their undies, adjust their robes etc
• Annoying David H in the mornings when he is extremely grumpy (always)

As you can see, being annoying is probably my best trait. If I didn’t do that, there would be nothing for anyone to complain about (!).

Thanks Rachel for your hospitality. It really is a big ask of you especially having 3 pre-schoolers as well as our troup.

Jen S has a much more informative blog, if you want to know what REALLY went on!

Yay. No filming next week (not that I don’t LOVE it he he).

I am off to Geelong with work Wednesday to Friday, presenting at a conference. Better go get the presentation ready……..

Watch this space (no pics yet)! Blake has finally cut the hair off, shaved the beard and mo and taken all the piercings out. Is there a girl on the scene somewhere????

This shot was taken last weekend during his blue screen shootings of the movie. He is in the very first scene of the movie looking pretty creepy (as you can see).

What a weekend that was. A marathon!Why is filming in a garage (on blue screen) more tiring than going to locations? We started 7am on Saturday morning setting up the screens in John and Rachels carport. Filming didn’t start until midday so we were 4 hours late starting and didn’t finish up until 9pm. On location we have to finish when the sun goes down! Sunday was very long and hot too after having a power failure in the morning and off to a late start again. I feel so exhausted today which is pretty odd since all I did was sit around!

Some of the highlights (through MY eyes!) were:

• Blake played a part with John Capper in a 400BC scene. The atmosphere was incredible. It was the first scene of the movie and therefore very impacting.
• Baby ‘River Peel’ got passed around from person to person. I managed to hog her quite a lot (typical!). She had her first taste of solids. Guess what she has a liking for now??
• Mark fell asleep on top of a ladder
• Geoff preferred to have a nanny nap in a bed
• We had the most huge pizzas in the world (2 of them fed the whole 16 people in the crew!)
• Many people were threatened with a sharp knife
• McDonalds got all flustered at the extra cappuccino sales throughout the weekend
• Jenni’s make up studio was more exotic than anything she has had so far
• The wardrobe and change rooms were a great improvement on the usual ‘trees’

Most of my fantastic pics can’t be shown until after the movie has been released (gives away secrets). Its a bit of a pity as I really love some of the photos.

Today was ‘ride to work day’ so I dusted the cobwebs from my bike gear and braved the hills. Its a mere 7k, but since I have been ‘busy’ doing movies and working I have stopped my regular weekly ride. Usually I could do 70k without too much strain on the old bod, but today I realised how unfit I have got (even going to ‘Curves’ 3 times a week!). Having Colin unable to ride, due to health problems hasn’t helped. Its been 2-3 months now since I donned the lycra…….. well its not such a good look anyway!!

The trip home was much worse, as I had to contend with lots more traffic and the dreaded KENT RD hill. That hill never seems to end when you are riding up it. Apart from the strange looks from my colleagues, the traffic, the roundabouts and the car tooting at me, it was a pretty good.

It only took me 20 minutes, compared to 10 minutes by car. I think I should get the Orange peril out and ride to work more often. Its just so easy to get in the car and drive. WATCH THIS SPACE to see how many excuses I can come up with! Any helpful additional excuses from you guys would be gratefully accepted.