A couple words to describe my current situation

Sixty-plus hours of raw footage must now become 46 minutes of television.

Enough said.

Now the hardest work begins.....

Last Travel Shoot!

Wow, I don't think I could follow up Brazil with anything more fascinating... and I didn't.
Ok, so I'm being a little bit unfair to South Carolina.... and yes I have mixed opinions of this part of the US, but with the amount of energy, stress and effort put into the whole Brazil experience, it really did feel like the grand finale....

Except I had one last trip to take. To visit a plastic surgeon who's become a leading expert on booty augmentation surgery. Yes, you heard it right.... booty augmentation. The procedure has been around for some time now, but now there are actually TWO types of augmentation a less booty-full woman can opt for! It's incredible, and it's growing in popularity, if you can believe it.

As usual, I wont go into too much detail here, because that will spoil the film, but the doctor's name is Dr. Roberts and he's based in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

After the Brazil trip, I've just been wiped. Not sure if I caught some sort of bug down there, but I've been exhausted every day.... plus trying to screen the footage has been majorly time consuming.... we have 60 plus hours of content! Thank goodness I'm working with an editor I trust!

Plus, we had already used up most of our travel budget, so in order for us to get to South Carolina we had to do a little Expedia-affordable-but-not-necessarily-the-most-convenient-way-to-travel-booking through Expedia. Basically, a direct flight to South Carolina is about 2.5 hours.... our total travel time to get there via Expedia was more like 7 hours... landing in Charlotte NC via La Guardia NYC... and then a 1.5 hour drive to Spartanburg.... fun times. I won't even get into the details of our flight back, except that I got home 12 hours after I left Spartanburg. Oh ya, and I saw Victoria Gotti in the La Guardia airport. :)

Small town South Carolina doesn't have much to offer me. Because we did a fair bit of driving, most of the shots are just highway ones... and boy, do they like to clutter their highways with signs.

You can barely see this one but it's advertising the local "Cracker Barrel" -- a Southern country-style eatery.... very unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Sort of one of those "gotta try it once" joints like the good old Waffle House....

This one is neat -- there literally are DOZENS of fireworks warehouses all along the I-85 in SC... something to do with more stringent laws in NC? Dunno, but I wonder how they all do enough business to stay open. Didn't realize there was a huge market for fireworks.

This is funny... I actually visited this store.... with a specific goal -- to find some "booty humor" t-shirts. I had asked around, and locals had told me that because we were in the bible belt, we'd be hard pressed to find anything along the lines of "Southern Booty' paraphernalia. So I gave this place a shot... but it was beyond weird. It was located just off the highway, and you had to show your ID through a slot before they would buzz you in. So sketchy! And the place was pretty hopping for 4PM on a weekday... Anyhow, didn't find what I was looking for. There wasn't a single novelty thing in the place... let's just say it was all merchandise with very specific practical uses... I'll leave it at that.

This one's great -- a Waffle House sign AND a McDonald's side-by-side.... blech. I couldn't find a Starbucks in town so I had to grab a coffee from McDonald's one morning.... and I still can't get over the fact that there is no milk to be found for coffee. It's cream or coffee whitener. I don't get it.

We did manage to get to Greenville for dinner one evening and that is one lovely, bustling little city.... and sadly I didn't take any pictures. I mention this only because I don't want people thinking South Carolina is only what I've managed to snap pics of....

For example, look at these pretty dogwood trees in bloom.

Ohh! The Gaffney Peach! It's a watertower that looks like a BOOTY! How perfect!

This is our hotel -- a layout that is all too common in the southern part of the US -- the windows to the rooms are hermetically sealed, the lobby always smells of grease from the daily breakfast buffet. This location through me for a loop though -- the whole pool in the middle of the lobby is a new one. How is that relaxing? Especially when you can see everything that's going on from the glass elevator? Anyhow, not the end of the world. We were only there for 2 nights.


We pulled off the shoot and were on our merry way again in what felt like a flash...

Just to give you an idea of how we travel -- take a look at this gear. We're talking 7 hard cases of equipment, our personal stuff and a Carnet (paperwork that makes life hell and requires constant visits to American and Canadian Customs Officers)... Basically, this means getting to the airport 3 hours before each scheduled flight, massive excess baggage fees, stress, and hard work. Welcome to the world of travelling film crews....

I need a vacation.

Extreme Temperatures....

This is more for my foreign readers and my Brazil colleagues....because us Torontonians are no strangers to the weather we face....

This photo was taken a mere day after I returned home from Brazil. Having never gone "South" for the winter, I don't think I've ever had tanned skin in this setting... notice how it stands out next to the snow!


Just a couple of days before, this was the setting.... I'm trying not to think about it too much because quite frankly it's going to make me depressed.

No surprise, my body was in a bit of shock with all of the extreme temperatures I've been exposing it to. But hey, at least I got a little taste of life South of the Equator, as opposed to none at all!

I think I'm dwelling because it's mid-Spring and it just snowed AGAIN! Enough already! I'm supposed to film one FINAL segment of streeters (man-on-the-street interviews) in Toronto but this weather sure is putting a damper on the plans... tushes are still in hiding!

It's all got to thaw soon.....