Did you know I was on TV once?

I forgot to take the USB stick with this blog in word to work. Even if I hadn’t, there just was no time to write. I think I spent my lunch reading someone else’s blog – but hadn’t anything to write anyway. About an hour before it was time to go home, I called my boss again, this time – oh miracle upon miracle! – he actually answered! So I said that the project manager was asking whether he should withdraw the offer for my increase, since he hasn’t received the quote yet – leading him to assume we’re not interested. He assured me the quote would be out Monday at the latest. When I hung up, I was quite stunned and expressed aloud “Wow! So I can actually lie?” Not that my boss will have believed me – he’s not stupid. Although the project manager did ask why my company isn’t showing an interest in extending my contract at a higher rate. The site manager just laughed at my exclamation – and I told him the story of proof that I can’t act. About twenty years ago (1992 to be precise) the TV Series ‘Tropical Heat’ was filming a Season in Pretoria, South Africa. I was one of the extras – you know, just walk across the road making up the background population. Then one of the crew suggested I should act as a witness to the accident: it was at a T-Junction, a car drives down the road parallel to me crossing the horizontal road. As the car passes a spot marked in the road, it ‘hits’ a boy on a bicycle (well that’s how it will be seen on TV). I politely decline “Sorry, but I can’t act to save my life!” He wouldn’t take no for an answer, tried comments like “this could be your big break” (as if!) etc. After the third attempt he gave up and said “Well, you were quite right, you can’t act.”

Having told my story of glory, I turned back to my work. A few minutes later the site manager exclaims “You’re right! They DID film Season 3 in Pretoria! Which episode are you in?” Yeah, that’s a tricky one, I’m afraid. I never saw any of the episodes myself – since I had no TV. All I know about the episode is that that scene was supposedly a flashback to when the lead character was a little boy. Apparently he witnessed this accident. I have no idea which episode that played a part in. The site manager and I spent the rest of the day looking for that episode! But Tropical Heat was not a very … remarkable show. There’s not much info available online – even on the Internet Database the episode descriptions are one-liners. So, no luck! I would like to see that episode one day … I wonder if my crossing-the-road in the background (without the ‘witnessing-accident-act’) ever made it to the final cut. I also walked across another road in the background – so there’s a chance one of the two background scenes might be somewhere in there.

My claim to fame! Ha Ha! The only other time I was an extra was in the Advert for the Casino between Hammanskraal and Warmbaths – I’ve seen the ad a few times, I’m not visible! Even knowing exactly where I am in the crowd, the camera just swings past, can’t even spot the distinctive purple skirt I wore!

When I got home the online game I play wouldn’t load – trouble with the server. So I used the time to vacuum. Then I took all the obvious cat-lives-here things to ‘stash’ at my neighbour’s and had a lovely long chat with her. We went for a thorough tour of the garden, admiring everything about to bloom, how well the rock garden is doing – even there are flowers coming on most of the succulents! The cactus appears to be very grateful for the trimming – it is covered in little red blobs promising to become new flowers! It is promising to be an absolute spectre in green and yellow! We walked and talked until it got too cold.

Back inside the game was back, so I went into a frenzy of catching up! Our fellowship is doing very nicely thanks to the organisation of our Archmage! It got late again – and I completely forgot the blog!