2006 In Review

What a funny year 2006 was. This is how it went for me: Went up to Byron Bay at this time in January after handing in my notice. Quit my job as a writer and editor in March. Went to Turkey to see a total solar elipse and dance in the mud for six days. Also went to Spain and the UK. Came back to no job. Started getting regular writing work with another mag almost immediately. Had my second feature published in Men's Health (a story about tattoos). Kept writing my monthly column called Grumpy. Started seeing my theatre reviews on the walls of various theatres. Started masquerading as a chef at The Sydney Opera House. My part time chef job blew out to 60 hours a week and I still managed to review some theatre and write a story or two for the mag and spend a couple of days in my shop. I seemed to morph from a lazy dreamer into some sort of high energy version of me.

All in all, not a bad year at all. Some unexpected turns, a bit of leaping into the great unknown, and really, just not bad at all.

When I get back from my two week road trip I'm going to start badgering overseas magazines with a couple of short stories that I believe in (they are at least as good as this one), try to keep the chef stuff in balance and try to get grown up money for my arts writing. And I'd like a regular humour column in a major newspaper too please because my God there's some drivel out there... and I can write drivel to compete with the best of them. Some of the Christmas columns were stinkers.

But look, really, the absolute highlight of 2006 for me was when in a pension in Selcuk in Turkey a pissed and probably very stoned Japanese tourist fully believed I was Bra Pee. I don't think I can top that moment. Me talking to The Dreaded One, my head almost shaved, rugged as fuck facial hair, pissed tourist stumbling into the room and pointing at me and insisting to her equally inebriated boyfriend "Rook! It's Bra Pee! Bra Pee! Hello Mr Pee."

Me: "Wot?"

She: "I get camera. Take photo of Bra Pee."

Me: "Wot?"

Amused Canadian Traveler: "She thinks you're Brad Pitt."

That was definitely the highlight of my 2006... no wait. It got better when a friend in the UK was telling her flatmate the Bra Pee story and was absolutely horrified that someone should make such a profound mistake, and where the flatmate was supposed to join in the laughter of derision, they paused, looked a little closer and said, "No... I can see the resemblance."

Absolutely horrified UK friend: "Oh fuck off! Don't tell him that."

Perfect.