Opera in the Park

And on the 27th, it was Opera in the Park where the Opera Australia put on a performance of Turandot. Memorable for being a pretty good open-air performance of opera. Photo: Opera in the Domain, The Domain. Models: Opera crowd

1. Opera with Bats flying overhead and strange beetle / bug like things landing on your shirt collar in the middle of the performance!

2. The evening was compered in part by one of the performers with Opera Australia - John Bolton Wood. Commenting upon Mazda sponsorship of the Opera in the Domain, "It's good to see car companies co-operating with opera companies to put on performances. I gather Nissan sponsored the Three Tenors to perform in London. They supported the event down to the smallest detail. Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti's campervan was even supplied. The Nissan Dorma!"

Photo: Mazda on stage with Orchestra Model: MX5 - The car's the star!

Well, if being an opera singer doesn't work out, he can always fall back to being a stand up comedian. Actually, he was a pretty good compere.

3. Being a Puccini Opera, at least one Soprano is killed off somewhere in the script. Basically a tale of rape, revenge, murder, unrequited love, torture, insanity and sacrifice. Though unlike most Puccini operas, it has a (relatively) happy ending. This was explained away by the fact that Puccini died before finishing the opera and so someone else got to do the ending...

Australia Day

Well, last Friday was spent in Sydney centre celebrating Australia Day. 3 events that were going on in the city (though pretty much every suburb had something going on to celebrate).

1. I spent most of the day by the harbour, with the day kicking off with Ferry Racing - 4 of the Sydney Harbour ferries racing against each other and it seems, accompanied by most of the boats in Sydney at the time. The AAMI ferry (in red) just edged it over the Bonds ferry (green and gold) at the line (which was first under the harbour bridge).

Photo: Sydney Harbour Ferry racing. Models: AAMI ferry, Bonds ferry

The harbour scenes were best described by aussiegnome as a 'boat mosh-pit'. Harbour was probably more crowded than New Year's...

2. As a rather random aside, I decided to pop over to Milson's Point where it was 'Celtic Day' put on by the Celtic Council of Australia which I thought was rather appropriate for Australia Day ;-) Only caught the end of the day, but saw an Irish Ceilidh, a musket firing demonstration from the 42nd Highlanders and bagpipes. The best bit was seeing a man dressed in a kilt talking about how to load a musket in a broad Aussie accent. But I'm sure he was Scots through and through.

Photo: Taking potshots at the Harbour Bridge. Models: Bagpiper and 2 Sergeants from 42nd Highlanders. Plus innocent bystanders with fingers in ears.

3. Wandered down to the Jazz at Pyrmont park event in the evening - where you could listen to Jazz by the waterfront as the sun went down. Memorable for the bald but swingin' singer covering Frank Sinatra.

Photo: Jazz in Pyrmont Park (nr Darling Harbour) Models: Big Band supplied by Australian Army and singer impersonating Old Blue Eyes (might well have been singing 'The Lady is a Tramp' when photo was taken.

It was here that they announced who won the 'best dressed' boat in the harbour competition. To have a decent chance, I think the occupants need to dressed up as much as the boat itself. So this boat won!

Photo: Winner of best dressed boat - based on Priscilla Queen of the Harbour...

Restaurants to revel in

Now there's an idea - restaurants that serve meals based around 'Revels'. Stay away from the coffee revel ones...

Well, over a week back in Sydney. Visited my nephews and nieces in Sydney this week and been to the Blue Mountains, watched DVDs and even been ice skating (which made a nice change from all the hot weather in Sydney at the moment). But you'll get that in another blog once I've dowloaded the pictures from my camera.

In the mean time, 3 restaurants I've enjoyed in Sydney.

1. The Lord Nelson (the Rocks). Pub serving lots of different beers and pretty decent pies. Just the job after a day watching the cricket.

Photo: Lord Nelson pub, Sydney. Models: mattandjules, da_tonester, beer, Gazman, O.A.s and pub patrons.

2. The Bathers Pavillion, Balmoral. It's in a posh bit of town and looks out into the ocean. Does great brunch menus. I had the the Chef's special oven baked beans with hock of ham. Probably the poshest place I've eaten in on my Birthday (yeah, even posher than the Tiroler Hut). OK, Royal China might give it a run for it's money. Though the poshness was balanced out later on in the evening by stopping at Harry's Cafe de Wheels pieshack for dinner (which would have featured as a top place to eat in Sydney, but doesn't qualify as a 'restaurant' for the purposes of this blog!




Photo: Bathers Pavillion, Balmoral (even mentioned in the Qantas inflight magazine!!!), Models: Fenella, Gazman, da_tonester

3. Ripples, Milson's Point. I originally misremembered this place as 'nipples restaurant'. But that would be a silly name for a restaurant. Anyway, this is right next to Milson's Point ferry jetty, sitting in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge and just across the way from Luna Park. Does a great line in fish dishes.

Photo: Ripples, Milson's Pt. Models: Pol, Gazman, Aussiegnome, fenella, da_tonester

Sydney (again??!!??) 3 paragraphs of explanation

1. Having finished Adelaide (thanks to Nathan and Julie for their kind hospitality, and enabling us to tick off Koalas and emus from the 'Aussie Wildlife seen in wild' checklist), Gazman and I headed over to David and Kathryn's wedding in Auckland before I returned to Sydney.

Photo: 'The bush' in Adelaide, Model: Kute Koala

2. I'm now in Sydney until 7th Feb. As a result, don't expect too many interesting new places to appear in the blog. However, it will give me a chance to catch up on elaborating a bit more about some of the places I have visited to date (but I suppose limiting myself to 3 points a blog has meant that pretty much everywhere I've visited could probably do with more detail!). Well, what the heck, the blog could probably do with more photos - including one of the aforementioned Koala. Well, sorted the koala picture out with an update to this blog. Gazman's blog has got another picture of the Koala.

3. So, expect more crazy random thoughts from me over the next couple of weeks, but if you want to find out more about various different countries or read more interesting blogs, suggest you check out Gazman, MattandJules and Caillie's blogs.

Sydney Silliness

As promised, a report on New Year's in pictures...

1. We Partied...

Photo: Sydney Harbour Bridge, Models: Gazman, da_tonester, rock partygoer

2. Some of us partied pretty hard...

Photo: Kirribilli - nr Harbour Bridge. Model: da_tonester

3. Then it all got a bit silly...

Photo: Kirribilli - Nr Harbour Bridge. Models: Gazman, mattandjules, da_tonester, Pol

Adelaide in brief

1. Went to the beach and swam around the ocean for a bit.

Photo: Granite Island coastal walk, Models: Nathan, da_tonester, Gazman

2. Saw a 20-20 game - South Australia Redbacks against the Queensland Bulls. Redbacks won. Not very imaginative nicknames for the cricketers though.

Photo: Adelaide Oval, Models: 20-20 fans, Redbacks players and cricket umpire

3. Wandered around Adelaide, including through the botanical gardens. They have a conservatory which looks like a spaceship crashed into the ground.

Photo: Adelaide Botanical Gardens (Millenium Conservatory - I think...), Models: Pol, da_tonester, Gazman

That's it - short blog. Check out Gazman's blog for more detail on Adelaide. Especially the cricketer nicknames.

Uluru (e)ulogising

Just got back from a 10km hike around the base of Uluru, having got up at 5am in the morning to watch the sunrise over the rock. Photo: Uluru at sunrise

1. It's amazing the number of people who will wake up at the crack of dawn in order to go stare at a rock for an hour or more (Myself, Gazman and Da_tonester included). We even have to pay $25Aus for the priviledge (though it is a park pass for 3 days). Back before digital cameras were invented, can you imagine how many photos of the rock must have passed through the photo developing shops across the World? Especially those in the local photo shops in the Uluru 'resort'.

Photo: Uluru Sunset. Models: Uluru tourists

2. I reckon they missed a trick in the gift shop - I couldn't find a jelly mould / cake mould of Uluru. I would definitely have paid money for the ability to make an edible Uluru! If you dusted your cake or jelly with milo powder, it would look just like the rock at sunset (when the sun was hidden by cloud). Seriously though, I suspect that would be disrespectful to the local Aboriginal tribe who regard Uluru as a sacred place. Though not sacred enough that you can't buy the T-shirt...

Photo: Uluru Sunrise. Models: da_tonester and Gazman

3. There are more flies here than at a Gentleman's trouser convention (but of the insect rather than fastening variety). The jury's still out as to whether Aussie hats (with the dangling corks) actually make any difference.

3 mad ideas come up with on holiday

Well, it's been over a month since Gazman and I have been on holiday. Here are three random thoughts that have sprung up during the holiday.

1. (Food Court in shopping mall beneath Twin Towers, KL) While playing with Timmy, the game 'mapo-slido' was invented. Simply take fold up map of KL and insert in it's plastic protective wallet and proceed to slide it across the plastic laminated table towards one of the other players seated around said table. Points given for number of spins map makes on way to recipient or speed of pass. Bonus points may be awarded at start of go by resting half of map on table and flipping map up in air with hand (palm facing downward) and attempting to catch it with the same hand before map hits the table. Map should make 180deg flip (min.) before being caught. several minutes of fun if with children (or adults with appropriate childish mindset - that would be all of us)

2. (When on tram going past Melbourne Aquatics Centre) How come the you have so many different medals for swimming when surely you should be able to use any stroke you like to cover 50M / 100M as quickly as possible. Either that or maybe we should have more medals in running. So we can have the 100m running backwards... Just imagine the olympics with the 4*100m medley - the first leg is running forwards, the 2nd leg runs backwards, the 3rd leg has to hop and the 4th leg has to roly-poly...

3. (Gourmet Cafe in YHA Sydney, having been given a Hawaiian pizza when I asked for a vegetarian pizza) While wondering at the 'interesting' service at the YHA cafe / restaurant, Matt, Jules, Gaz, da_tonester and I thought you could inject a bit of excitement into your meal by creating the 'Extreme Dining' restaurant. You go into the restaurant and place your order and that's what you're billed for. However, inept waiting staff will come round with the wrong order - so you can either choose to wait for your meal, to go for the food offered or to wait in the hope that another meal which looks better comes along... It can even be spiced up with the addition of dishes like octopus tentacles, tripe, fugu, dishes made entirely from soya products which will come out at the end. So if you wait too long for a good meal to come by, you might end up with one of these dishes... Not recommended for anyone with food allergies.

Happy New Year. Pictures of New years in Sydney to follow!