Kakadu, Killing Time, Scooter, and Seasons

1. Had a dream about Lost in Kakadu, the Australian romance novel I've been reading lately.

In the book, Mackenzie and Abi are lost in the bush after being in a plane crash. For the first several chapters, they stay near the plane and learn to live off the land and the few supplies they have. Then the two venture off, trying to find civilization.  

In my dream, the book has been made into a movie, and I'm watching it with Tim and someone else.  

Mackenzie and Abi are on some kind of plateau.They've been carrying around the head of Mackenzie's dead lover.  Mackenzie decides he needs to give his boyfriend a proper good-bye, and plans to leave Abi behind for awhile. Abi's not happy about this, and I don't blame her.  It would be one thing if Mackenzie was leaving her for a life and death emergency, but this isn't one.  

Then there's a scene with Mackenzie showing up at someone's house. He's dressed like an over-the-top adventurer traveler. The people at the house seems to be his parents, and he seems to be trying to reconcile with them.  

I begin to realize that this scene is supposed to take place long after he left Kakadu. Abi has been rescued too, but she's still mad at Mackenzie.  

At some point while watching the movie, Tim, and the other person, watching with us, wonder about the size of Kakadu.  I tell them it's eight thousand miles. They're surprised by this and say it makes Kakadu seem quite scary.  

I feel dishonest leading them to believe I've known this fact for a long time. I confess that I learned it very recently.  

At some other point, while watching the movie, I am hoping that the book has a different and better ending then the movie.  

2.Thought that the dream was one of the most elaborate dreams about a book I've had.

I think I dream more about TV Shows and movies than books.

3. Looked at my dream from a month ago (as I do most mornings). I saw that I had dreamed about Kakadu.

I was wondering if the dream was inspired by reading the book.  But then I remembered that no, it's not the case. I randomly dreamed about Kakadu. Then that inspired me to look for a book about Kakadu on iBooks. That's how I found Lost in Kakadu.

It's interesting to me that, exactly a month later, I had a dream about the book. 

Maybe Kakadu is calling to me.  

4. Started watching an episode of Home and Away.

5. Saw an article ranking the worst TV shows of 2016.  

Unfortunately, Heartbeat, starring Melissa George and Don Hany is #5 on the list.

Ouch. 

The show's score on IMDb isn't so bad, though. They have a 6.8.

6. Saw, on Home and Away, that Ricky (Bonnie Sveen) is not at all happy about Brax's (Stephen Peacocke) escape-from-prison plan.   

I don't blame her.  

I think Brax is being selfish and stupid.

I still don't know what he expects from Ricky. Is she expected to become a fugitive with him? Or is she to stay at home, and once in awhile, he'll sneak in a visit?

7. Thought that although being in prison isn't fun for Brax; for Ricky, visiting him there is probably easier than living the life of a fugitive.

8. Saw that Ricky is okay with the idea of being a fugitive.

I wish I could see that as romantic, but really, I just see it as being very stressful.  

Maybe it would be fun without an infant. I don't know....

9. Listened to my Australian music Spotify list while putting laundry away.

I enjoyed that.

Highlights for me were "How Deep is Your Love" by the Bee Gees, A cover of "Reckless" by Tom E. Lewis, and Missy Higgin's "Scar".

The Bee Gees song reminds me of my childhood, but I can't manage to get specifics. I associate it with my dad, for some reason. And I kind of picture it playing while we're all at the pool.

It took me some moments to place "Reckless". The song sounded familiar to me, but I didn't know what it was. Then I figured it out. I associate that song with Puberty Blues. I think they played it on a promo for the show.

10. Looked at the entire cast of Killing Time. I'm going to start watching that soon. I thought of listing the actors familiar to me, but I'm lazy, and it's overwhelming. There are a lot of guest stars.

Instead I'll just do the first episode. Or I mean, I'll do the episodes as I watch them rather than all at once.

So....

There's David Wenham.  He's the star.

I saw Colin Friels name, and knew I've seen him in something before. But I couldn't remember what it was. I had to click on his name, and then I saw he's from Water Rats.

There's Diana Glen who I know from Satisfaction and The Secret Life of Us.

There's something else as well, but I can't remember.

11. Clicked on her name and saw it was The Slap.

I can't remember who she played.

Maybe it was the wife of the slapper?

Yeah...I think it was.

12. Saw Bethany Whitmore.

I vaguely remembered her and was reminded by IMDb, she's from Mental.  She also did the voice of young Mary in Mary and Max

13. Saw Kate Jenkinson's name.

Like Dan Wylie, she shows up in almost everything.

14. Saw Martin Sharpe's name and remembered that he's Scooter from Scooter: Secret Agent.

It's going to be awesome seeing him not being Scooter. I mean not that there's something wrong with Scooter. It's just that it was such a silly, dorky role.  If he's different in Killing Time, it might be interesting to see.

15. Thought of Reef Ireland, who is also in the cast of Killing Time. I know he was in Puberty Blues.  I think maybe he was also the guy from Wentworth,  

16. Saw that Ireland was also in Tangle.

I don't really remember him in that. 

17. Saw Steve Mouzakis. I know him from The Secret Life of Us.

And...just remembered that he was in The Slap

18. Wondered if Killing Time is based on a true story, so I Googled Wenham's character, Andrew Fraser.

There really is an Andrew Fraser.

He's a lawyer who went to jail for some kind of cocaine offense.

I'll learn more when I watch the show.  

19. Started watching Killing Time

20. Thought, that if it weren't for mean, violent fellow prisoners, prison wouldn't be so bad. At least that's the impression I get from TV and movies.

21. Thought that this movie is good at making people look ugly.

Diane Glen and David Wenham look awful. They remind me of me when I try to take a selfie with my iPhone.

22. Wondered if the unattractiveness is done with lighting or a lack of make-up.

Maybe it's a mix of both?

23. Wondered how much my appearance would improve with good lighting and professional make-up.

Well, I don't think it would make much of a difference on my iPhone. I almost always look awful when I take photos on that. But sometimes I look pretty okay with other types of camera photos.

I'm not sure what the iPhone issue is. I know it's not universal, because I've seen plenty of iPhone selfies where other people look quite good. 

24. Saw that the movie has flashbacked to when Andrew Fraser (Wenham) was a lawyer rather than a prisoner.

He looks handsomer and happier.

25. Figured the beginning prison part was just an intro, and most of the series will be about how he ended up in prison.

26. Remembered that season two of Rake ended up with Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh) in prison. 

I miss that show.

27. Thought Sally (Louise Crawford) looked familar. I clicked on her IMDb filmography and saw she was on City Homicide.

I'm confused, because I thought the actress on City Homicide was also the one on The Secret Life of Us, but I don't see The Secret Life of Us on Crawford's filmography.

I guess I'm confusing her with someone else.

28. Found the actress I'm thinking of. It's Nadine Garner.

Both Garner and Crawford are blond, but I remember only one blond woman on the show.

I'm confused.

29. Saw Scooter the secret agent not being Scooter the secret agent.



That's Kate Jenkinson next to him.

They both have pretty small roles in the episode...well, at least so far.   

But I have only eight minutes left.

30. Finished watching the first episode of The Killing Time

31. Saw that the director of Killing Time, Peter Andrikidis, also directed Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms.

Andrikidis seems to do a lot of crime stuff. He's directed episodes of The Straits, Underbelly, Water Rats, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, etc.

He's also directed episodes of Farscape.  

32. Decided to honor my Kakadu dreams by looking at Kakadu photos on Flickr.  

33. Looked at an arial view of Kakadu.

It looks pretty vast. 

34. Found it hard to link to the photo, because the address was so long. I think it's because I was looking via search.

So...instead I'm going to look at the album in which the photo came.  

The album belongs to someone named Catherine Marshall, and it's of Kakadu during the wet season. 

35. Read a website  about the wet season in Kakadu. 

They say the rain time and amount can be unpredictable, but if I'm understanding things right, the main rain time is January to March.  Though they confuse me, because they say the temperature drops at that time. I thought January would be one of the hottest months.

36. Went to the Parks Australia website. They have information about the six seasons of Kakadu.  

37. Saw that December through March is the monsoon season. And it is hot.  

April has the big wind storms.

May through mid-June is cooler, but humid.  

In the middle of June, it gets even colder. That lasts through mid-August.  

Then it gets dry and hot until October.  

Then there's a pre-monsoon season.  

38. Saw that I can get Kakadu on my weather ap.

It says it's 84 degrees, and it's only 8:00 in the morning.  It's supposed to get up to 100 today.  Yikes!

It's going to be in the upper nineties, and above, for the next several days.  

Despite it being the season for the big windy storms, there are no signs of storms, and at least for today, the wind seems pretty calm.  It goes well with the first website I looked at: the weather is unpredictable. 

39. Started to look at Catherine Marshall's photos.   

40. Liked the colors in this photo—the sky, clouds, trees, and dirt. 

41. Liked the shades of green in this photo

42. Could imagine Abi and Mackenzie from Lost in Kakadu hanging out in this photo.  

43. Thought the wild boar in this photo was interesting looking.  

44. Hoped that I never get lost in Kakadu.

45. Wondered if it would be worse to get lost in Kakadu or the Tasmanian wilderness.

Then I decided that's a stupid question.

I imagine both are awful.



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