well, there goes another birthday. i spent the day in absolute silence and solitude on my farm in the mountains. it was time off i desperately needed after the last few weeks. my previous stint on the set of 'binnelanders' was fairly easy going. i checked in on average at 10am and was usually done by 3pm. so when this month's shooting dates came up i told my agent that she can book gigs, no problem, as i should be able to manage both with ease. my goodness, what a mistake. my schedule for the past two weeks was pretty consistently along the following lines: go to bed at 1am. wake up at 6am, run through the words of today's scenes whilst shoving a bowl of pro nutro and mc nab's energy tabs down the gullet. take on the shortish drive (thank heavens for that, i live a mere 3 kilometres from the studios) through peak hour traffic, check in, get dressed, get makeup done and film the 8 or so scenes i have scheduled for the day. the producers decided to make the most of my stint this time around and i was worked well and thorough. get done with the television stuff at about 6pm, rush off to some venue in gauteng, sound check (or line check if i'm too late), eat, gig (a very short word for a ver big job...), meet the fans, drive home, bath, learn words. actually it went really well. i was pretty much in form on set and the gigs were great (i was a bit tired at the willowbridge barnyard, it caught me right in between that first and second wind). amazing what a healthy lifestyle and a bit of discipline can accomplish. but that is why i'm loving this time off on the farm. soon i'll be at it again, working hard on the next afrikaans album, the noot vir brood show and rehearsing boo! for the european tour. one thing i must mention about this character i play in 'binnelanders': the guy is a compulsive obsessive. he's very uptight and is vibration is one of unending stress. now, i don't know if some of you have noticed, as i have, that when you go through periods of intense stress, your sweat smells, well... kinda unpleasant. perhaps it's the body's way of protecting itself in times of stress (in the tradition of evolution, stress is something we experience when our lives are in danger), as if making itself unappetizing to predators or something. well, after a day at the studios, playing this stressed out character, i would notice that my body odour has a bit of that tension in it. mmm... maybe a bit more info that some of you need, but i do think it is interesting how the body reacts to the state of the mind, without asking whether the mind has grounds for it's take on things. similarly, this means that with a healthy mindset we can establish a healthy body. in any event, it prover that acting can be a particularly unhealthy occupation, as your body gets put through a lot of stress which is fake, but which it perceives as real.