Kristin Mack Alnaes: City of Big Surprises

I find two features of my new workplace quite unique from what I am used to. First, I cannot use color on type. As the books are translated into different languages, the images and graphics are produced with the same 4-color process in all issues. In the end the text is printed separately and therefore only in black spot color to save plates and consequently production costs.

Secondly, in producing a magazine I would normally take part in a work chain that is limited by the necessity of an effective and recurring production. The work progress is quite similar for each issue due to the narrow deadlines and need of the readers' recognition every month. As my regular job is characterized by routine and rhythm, my recent job offers more surprises. For instance, nowadays prototypes are being produced on top gear for the book fair in Frankfurt. Lots of parallell final stages equate lots of versatile tasks. Last week different circumstances made several people doing a lifesaving effort to finish a book on first aid. My contribution involved modeling (Top Model next!). Anything is possible on a photo shoot; fortunately the boy that I was doing CPR on woke up after six hours of resuscitation and recovery position.

I cannot get around mentioning the biggest surprise of this week: You name it — Armageddon, a plague imposed upon Sydney by higher powers, the end of the world — or as I thought: the sunrise doing a decent attempt to penetrate the thick fog (the sun always paints my apartment orange in the morning). I understood too late for photographing that this was not a phenomenon that arrives on a regularly basis. There was a red layer of sand/dust covering literally everything in the city. Everyone that I have met here have stressed that the spring is the best time to be here. But no one had told me what to wear when the sand surprisingly decides to leave ground — and so I went to work with my sunhat and my umbrella. Some hours later when people back home in Norway were awakening, I understood that the vigorous sand had made its way to the newspapers and the word of mouth on the other side of the world. And initially I thought it was fog...! (See the comparison of the view from my apartment on an ordinary day and on a dust storm day...)

To compensate for my lack of knowledge on Australian weather phenomenon, I have taken a great interest in the local eating habits. So far I have revealed that most people have sugar in their coffee. They are fostered on some delicious chocolate biscuits called "Tim Tam". A pint of beer is not a pint, but a schooner. And I have apparently the best yet to come: Vegemite!