Easter housekeeping

Poirot Egg says a belated Happy Easter. He has three eyes because when he solves a crime he turns to the perpetrator and says "trois yeux!!" ......twas you.....with French accent.......hm?....

Good Friday was spent trying to buy a bottle of wine, with no success. So we resorted to spending way too much on cocktails in Glebe before Raami's birthday party. Saturday was food shopping (the only opportunity to shop in the whole 4 days!) then watching Elegy at the cinema.
On Sunday, we took the train to Bondi and found an amazing fish and chip shop (Fishmongers) where we podged up, before walking around the cliff path to Tamarama and then Bronte beaches. I love Bronte. I think I could literally be happy forever if I could get a nice spacious apartment in Bronte, with Mark and a lovely puggy and I would walk along the sea and swim in the little open air pool and never leave ever. Unfortunately we are priced out of the area for the foreseeable, but who knows for the future...
We sat on the beach for a while then wandered back as it got dark. Walking back from Bronte to Bondi is how I imagine walking back from the French Riviera into Blackpool Pleasure Beach to be. Not that you could really walk from one to the other, and not that I have actually visited either, but UH Bondi is so tacky.

On Monday we took the train to the Blue Mountains, getting off at Katoomba to walk the Giant's Steps. The weather was rather different from last time we were there!



Echo Point, the viewing platform for the three sisters, where we ended our first mountains walk in February. Not much viewing to be done this time!



A bit like Narnia!



It did make for some quite dramatic views though.

After making our way to the bottom of Giant's Steps (believe me, it was HARD even going down, they are practically vertical!), we pootled along the path at the bottom, then back up Furber steps at the other end to the Scenic World centre. Unfortunately it started to pour with rain about half way up Furber steps, leaving us ABSOLUTELY soaked and having to navigate a path that had become more of a swamp. It was quite invigorating all the same, and fortunately we both had a spare dry t-shirt, but the train ride home was not what i would call comfortable!

It was then back to work for a short week. Last weekend, we took a trip to Parramatta so Mark could investigate the bike he is getting from Parramatta Bike Barn. Parramatta is actually ok. It is Sydney's biggest suburb with a big shopping and business centre in it, but it also has some nice old buildings and a pleasant square (which was hosting 'Parramatta Chess Festival', much to Mark's excitement!), setting it apart from most of the West which is just bland. It has a bit of history as a town in its own right, so it's worth passing through for an hour or so if you have an excuse to go there!

And now it's Monday again, *yawn*. I must away to bed. After discovering the shocking state of my fitness on our Mountains walk, I am on a new exercise regime and was dragged out in my jogging gear before the clock even hit 7am this morning. And it was raining so double sad face :( We're on again for tomorrow morning. I almost died going up a gentle slope so something must be done!

Also please spare a thought for a guy I know named James. He worked at HCF with me until a couple of weeks ago when he left to go travelling, and is a close friend of my friend Karl. He was involved in a serious accident on Fraser Island, Queensland on Saturday morning, reported in the Times here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6125177.ece. He is one of the two passengers who were airlifted to Brisbane and is currently in intensive care.

Dah dah daaaah...bloody old news!!!

Happy Easter, one and all! Easter in Australia seems to be roughly the same as Easter in the UK, except for one fatal thing that we did not realise: EVERYTHING IS SHUT. Public holidays I find a little bit odd here because their trading laws seem quite strict. So whereas in UK one can potter around the shops a little and it's generally like a second Sunday, here pubs are about the only thing open. You can't even buy takeaway alcohol to drink quietly in your home on a bank holiday it seems, yet you can go to a pub. Which is greatly frustrating when trying to buy a bottle of wine on Not So Good Friday to take to a friend's birthday party.

BUT first, let me take you back to a pre-Easter era; no, not pre-Jesus, but the era of the weekend before Easter....if such a weekend can be considered an era.

The weather has been nothing recently if not damp. There have been some pleasant days but the weathermen seem intent on conspiring against me to make them fall on weekdays when I am, of course, in work. Last weekend was no exception; it was, for the most part, overwhelmingly damp. That is not to say it rained the whole time, fortunately, but there was a certain moistness to the air throughout.
On saturday we headed to a cafe in Pott's Point for a late late breakfast, then walked up to the water.



Then wandered around to Mrs Macquarie's Point, which is...well, exactly where it looks in the photo below; the next pointy out bit of headland to the east of the harbour, which offers some pleasant views.









View to the East, away from the harbour.

We wandered through to the Botanic Gardens where I enjoyed this Queensland Bottle Tree:



And was bemused by the topiary letters "sex and death" in front of the tropical pyramid:



We looked at the lovable bats, still roosting in great numbers (although they are sadly damaging many of the trees and need to be gently discouraged) and read a bat fact sheet from the visitor centre, which was interesting.

On Sunday, Mr L. Rogue, our friendly house platypus stowed away in my bag to investigate an exhibition on Charles Darwin, the advertising poster for which having suggested that he may have been of some import in the development of the notion of evolution. It was indeed an interesting exhibition, focussing on Darwin's voyage to Australia and how his findings there helped shape his theories. And indeed Mr L. Rogue and his kind did turn out to have been a bit important. When Darwin saw platypuses on his travels, he noted that it behaved in the same way as a water rat, in the same habitat as a water rat, and yet looked different. If God made everything, why put a water rat in some places and a platypus in another? Of course, the platypus and the water rat have both evolved and adapted to fit their specific environments. The platypus held himself up to be the embodiment of evolution. What a vain, and yet lovable platypus.

Scandal! Russellmania!

So last Wednesday was Russell Brand in Sydney !!! Apologies therefore if this post descends into some kind of extreme sickly feast of sycophantic adoration.



We went to the show at the Hordern Pavilion. It would have been amazing to get Enmore Theatre tickets for the previous night as the Enmore is a small theatre (whereas the Hordern is a large arena) but I think they underestimated his fame in Australia when booking that one, as it sold out in 30 minutes! Fortunately they then added the Hordern date to placate those of us who didn't realise how popular he would be!

The warm up act was an Australian duo called Merrick and Rosso...I wasn't expecting much as let's just say I've not thus far been overly impressed by Australian comedy, but they were ok, they got the crowd going and due to a late start were only on for around 15 minutes.

Then it was time for Russell! The lights went down and the show started with a series of video clips of Russell's career played over a soundtrack of Mozart's Requiem. Beginning with the footage of the MTV awards trailers where he is in a room with the elephant and asks "Am I in a dream?" followed by news clips concerning Sachsgate, old footage from when he got naked in the MayDay riots, radio show footage and his BBC resignation, end ending with the footage breaking down into just clips of various people saying "Russell Brand; Russell Brand; Russell Brand; Russell Brand", and onto the stage he marched!

You can see someone's video of the show opening (in Liverpool) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yANkmosnDp4

I was actually shaking when he came out on to the stage! After greeting the people of Sydney he then went for a walk through the audience. He paused about 2 metres away from where Mark and I were sitting to talk to a 13 year old boy who was in the row behind.



I am amazed I even managed to take this photo, I was shaking so much and had to concentrate to catch my breath. It was like Beatlemania but with only one person (me) and Russell instead of Beatles. Russellmania!

He made his way back to the stage and I tried to take deep breaths to stop my heart pounding. Calm down, Anna, you are almost 25 years old, not 15!

The show itself was mostly concerned with the Sachsgate affair, as well as the MTV VMA backlash. He played the clip of the song he sang with Jonathan Ross onto Andrew Sach's answerphone ("not ONE person congratulated me on making that song up on the spot - I even rhymed 'menstrual' with 'consensual'!), and described his reaction to the ensuing madness.
"I had 70 people with cameras outside my house for 3 weeks. The main thing that went through my mind was: 'what does one wear to go on the news?!'"

"Now, I already think I'm quite important. So when I put on the 6 o clock news and hear 'On tonight's news: Russell Brand', I think 'yes! what have I been doing?'"

He also poked fun at comments by members of the public, who came up with such punishments as "send them both to Afghanistan" and "Russell Brand should be on the sex offenders' register".
"What, with all the paedophiles and rapists? YES. I don't wanna go on the sex offenders' register....Well...not for that!"

He also did his Bush speech from the VMAs (*audience laughs* "Yeah thanks...I wish you could have been there on the night....") and read out some of his favourite death threats. The whole show was about an hour and a half but it felt like about 10 minutes, I could listen to Russell for days on end! [And indeed I do sometimes with my iPod full of Radio2/6music podcasts!]

After the show we made our way out into the foyer where there was a crowd of people waiting to see if Russell would come out, including the usual girls in way too much make-up and way not enough clothes that make up the usual post-Russell-gig entourage it seems. And all of a sudden he appeared!! Everyone crowded him and he could barely move across the room, I stayed back a bit to see what would happen.
I think some people at the Australian shows were a bit shocked to see the way Russell acts after some of his gigs, the way he picks up girls whilst simultaneously signing autographs and getting photos with other fans. They lack the exposure to the extent of press it gets in the UK perhaps. I was very wary of getting too close to what was going on because it is part of his personality I do not like and although I accept that that is the way he is I don't really want to see it. I guess when you have basically deified someone in your mind for so many years you just don't want to be reminded of their most negative aspects. For me, his public personality is what I love about him and I feel that in his case, his private persona is probably very different and I don't want to be disappointed. I don't think that's foolish, I know what goes on, I just don't want that to be my overriding impression of him.
So anyway, I stayed towards the back whilst everyone else crushed him. He then got up onto a table and spoke to us all, and then I moved forward to get some pictures!





He said happy birthday to everyone, "whether or not it is your birthday today", and then said he was very sorry but he had to go off to a party Time Out had organised for him. Then he was whisked away by Danny, his huge security guy!
I would love to meet him but definitely in different circumstances, I would just like to say thank you to him really for making my life a slightly smilier place since...well, years ago....2002/3 I guess. It sounds stupidly gushy but he honestly has helped me through lots of stresses and sadnesses over the years. He has always given me hope that there are better people and better places out there in the world, and has just made me feel a little less alone. He is someone who's work i can always escape with.
To be honest if I did meet him I would probably spaz up, like when I met Will Self and I had spent all day thinking of brilliantly witty things to say, but when the moment came I just thrust my copy of Dorian at him and went "MYNAMEISANNA" and looked scared and forgot to blink. I would probably also never be able to meet Stephen Fry for similar reasons. Actually if I met Russell I would probably just pass out.

I am now going to give my The Young Ones DVD the full attention it deserves and then get my poop hat on ready for a visit to slumbertown.

Nothing of note

There is little of note to report of late. Mark has got a cold and was not feeling well at the weekend, so we stayed in bed until 3pm(!) on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday.

We went to see The Reader on Sunday evening, which is good but lacked impact I felt, and leaves you feeling slightly confused about which character to empathize with. Also, I didn't like how the actors spoke English with a German accent, even though they are mostly native English speakers (Kate Winslet etc). Yes the story is set in Germany and they are meant to be German characters, but they are speaking English because it's a Hollywood film. You can't convince us they are German just because zey haf a comedy aczent.
I liked it in Moulin Rouge where all the actors were allowed to use their own accents. I like how Baz Lurhrman didn't try to pretend they were all speaking French, he just sort of went "well, they can't speak French, so let them talk however they want".

Russell tomorrow night!! Aw I've been refreshing his twitter and basking in the love of him being in Sydney, "marauding through Sydney" even...he is so jetlagged though bless. "I love your country [Australia]. It's like a tidy bedroom in the sun."

Anyway. Oh goodness surely after however many days I can furnish you with a more substantial blogpost than this ?? Oh...errrm....maybe I can find you some pictures from the archives....



Here's my new (to me) Ghormenghast trilogy. I couldn't pass up such lovely editions in the secondhand section of Berkelouw Newtown.



Psammead! He'll grant you a wish, but remember....all wishes end at sunset!

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

My GOODNESS I have neglected you so long once more, dear readers. Although I do seem to begin most blog posts now with words to this very effect, therefore they are most probably redundant as you have likely grown used to my lengthy pauses between flashes of news and ponderings.

Many events have occurred and ponderings pondered over the course of time since I last opened up the white box of blogspot entries on my laptop. I shall write what I did this weekend I suppose, since it is freshest in my lovable little memory box.

As a brief preamble: last Wednesday, we baked a macadamia, date and beer cake. So named as it contains macadamia nuts, dates and a nice cup of Hoegaarden. It is a beautifully tasty fiend. Unfortunately little remains of it now.



So. On saturday morning we pootled our way in to a garage sale. Teenagers in Tokyo, a Sydney band, were selling many of their belongings in order to shift themselves over to London and live in a house all together and make music and generally have a lovely time.

I picked up a copy of Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance for the princely sum of $5, and we indulged in several of their homemade cupcakes. The sale was in the garden of a photography gallery, so we poked in that a bit, there was a Lomo shop in the gallery too. I really want a fisheye lomo a bit, but I'm not sure I'd ever really use it after the novelty wore off...



Grabbed a coffee in the cafe next door then poked in Paddington Markets. It's nice there, it's like a big version of the Glebe Markets, although more newer stuff and therefore not quite so interesting. But it made a pleasant stroll, and then we had a look in some of the Oxford Street shops, before ending up at Ampersand for salad and chai latte. Then because we saw these shoes with square toes we got obsessed with The Witches (because they have no toes which makes normal shoes uncomfortable for them) so we tried to get a copy of that.



We enjoyed the presence in Ampersand of 'Stirling Macoboy's "What SHRUB is that?"' I believe this would make a good basic concept for a new TV quiz show.

By now much of the city end of Oxford Street was becoming cordoned off and busy for the Mardi Gras parade.



We sat in the Cricketers beer garden for a while and had a few beers.





Then we escaped into Darlinghurst and found a cheap and cheerful thai restaurant for some dinner - well under $10 for vege mains but surprisingly tasty. Up the road is the Victoria Room, an amazing cocktail bar. It's how I imagine a really luxurious bar would have looked in colonial Africa or something. All opulent furnishings and indoor palms.





After some gin, we headed back down to the Mardi Gras parade. It was so amazing to watch! It's meant to be the biggest gay pride event in the world or something. There were so many floats representing so many things....drag queens, aboriginal gays, scottish gays, asian gays, big shiny corporate floats like foxtel and ANZ, high school lgbt communities, atheist gays, catholic gays, jewish gays, raelian gays ("f*** homophobic religion, love UFOs"), S&M, dancing lifeguards, sex workers unions, mature age gays (with a glittering pink triangle and the words "lest we forget" on the back of their bus), bears (bears have their own flag, aw), Amnesty International ("in 77 countries, love = prison; in 7 countries, love = death"), equality for same-sex couples campaigners, campaigners for same-sex civil unions, furries..... but mostly just a lot of happy people in a lot of glitter having a great time. There was such a brilliant atmosphere of love and acceptance there.





I love how Sydney is such a tolerant place. So different to what we are used to in the UK. It feels like somewhere where people can really accept you for how you are, like a little pocket of sense in a silly old world.

My leggy pegs ached SO MUCH after all that.

On Sunday, we found a new café in Glebe, Clipper Café, that had only been open since Friday. It was really lovable, all decorated clean and cosy, and did lovely juice and lovable sourdough toasted sandwiches. The staff were all really friendly, seemed like they were really interested in what you thought of the place and if you had any suggestions. I will definitely return.

Then I felt ill so we went home. I can't remember what I did then. I watched about 764872 episodes of House I think.

Now I am sleepsome. It is monday night, I am going to watch the end of Amores Perros then get the fast train to slumbertown.

Here is the news!

In tonight's headlines:

Carol (lady at work) managed to get hold of some Marks and Spencer's PERCY PIGS!!! for me and Karl (another British friend at work) after we expressed our sadness at their absence from these shores. Carol is from Essex originally but has lived in Australia for 20 years and is now an Australian citizen, and I think she was a bit excited to try these revered sweets!



Australians call all sweets "lollies" it seems. Absolutely no distinction made between actual lollies, on sticks, and those that lie stickless. They also seem to delight in calling chewing gum "chewie", which makes it sound more like a child's plaything than a substance nonchalently rolled in the mouths of rockstars and naughty schoolchildren. One night we were on the train and this drunk girl kept going "does anyone have chewwwiiieeee?", as if forlornly calling for a lost puppy.

In tonight's cultural review:

Theatre



We went to see the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The War of the Roses cycle, quite a while ago now actually. The War of the Roses is a modern adaptation of eight of Shakespeare's history plays (see if I get this right: Richard II; Henry IV Parts 1 & 2; Henry V; Henry VI Parts 1-3; Richard III). The total production is 8 hours long and we saw it spread over two nights in a very hot week in January, when it was rather pleasant to spend the evenings in a cool. air-conditioned theatre. It was an impressive production, the set design was amazing (and it rained golden glitter over the whole stage for about an hour in the first part), and Cate Blanchett was brilliant as Richard II. Her voice is so strong, she really suits being on the stage. The guy that played Falstaff was also really good, it must have been fun to play him. I am fond of the Falstaff character.
The intricacies of the plot are quite difficult to follow, especially as it is obviously condensed considerably from 8 plays into effectively 2 and all happens quite fast, but essentially most people either get killed, go mad, or both.

Unrelatedly, we went back to the Sydney Theatre Co. a week or so later for a Sunday afternoon tribute to Harold Pinter. Cate Blanchett, Robert Menzies, and two other actors performed monologues and sketches from his works. It was really good, and made me realise that I am seriously under-read in the Pinter department. This must be rectified promptly.

What with all that and Benjamin Button the week before, and am quite all Cate Blanchett-ed out. She is a great actor though, and it really shows on the stage.

Opera

We saw Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for 'Opera in the Domain 2009'. I like Italian operas, they are like crazy little episodes of Eastenders, everything happens! It was free, and fun to sit out in the park.



We didn't really know anything about it until we turned up, so we weren't very prepared. Next time we'll organise picnic blankets and wine and nibbles - there were people there with quite posh looking spreads for their supper!



There's the stage once it got dark.

Film

Finally saw Slumdog Millionaire on Tuesday. I won't bother faffing on since you've all seen it by now I'm sure, but it really is so good, really uplifting. After the film we went to Kammandhenu on King Street for some Indian/Sri Lankan/Malaysian delights. I have been training myself to eat spicier food lately (I am a firm believer that you can train yourself to like most tastes) as it was becoming a bit embarrassing being frightened of asian restaurant menus, and am really starting to enjoy it. And we got Mango Lassi to drink....mmmm lassi.

In tonight's weather:

It has pretty much rained since February 10th. There have been a few nice days, but it's been cloudy, drizzles a lot in the morning and hasn't been that warm. Oh well, I'm glad to see it's not just England that gets dodgy summers!

Valentine's Milk

My valentine's flowers. Mark also got me an amazing tweedy waistcoat from Cue that I can't wait to wear to work on Monday!

Battled our way through the rain on Saturday to see a band called The Devoted Few perform at the Apple Store on George Street. I hadn't heard them before, but I was quite impressed. They weren't playing as a full band, just doing an acoustic set of slower songs, but the songs sounded good and the singer has a really good voice.

Following this, we went to see Milk at the cinema. I'd been looking forward to seeing this for a few weeks, and it didn't disappoint. It's a biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, and on a wider scale, it's about the gay rights movement in during the 1960s and 70s.



In my opinion, Gus Van Sant makes better films when he doesn't go too 'art house'. His last couple of films, Last Days and Elephant were a little too self-indulgent in my opinion, although Elephant at least was actually a critical success. Milk is a return to a more conventional narrative. Although it has a similar feel in parts to those other films, it is held together better by the story being told. And Sean Penn is brilliant in it. And I must admit I do love Diego Luna a little bit...it's the accent? I might learn spanish...

It seems crazy that all the events depicted in the film happened so recently. It's distressing that as recently as the 1970s, people genuinely believed that allowing homosexuals civil rights was akin to granting civil rights to criminals. What is more distressing is the number of people still existing now, in 2009, who still believe this. The idea that a 'family unit' (I detest that phrase) made up of anything other than a man, woman and their own, biological children could lead to the downfall of civilized society is laughable. I have met gay couples with far more conventional home lives than Mark and I will probably ever manage and it is disturbing that just 30 years ago their lifestyle itself would have been illegal, and indeed still is in many parts of the world.

*inflammatory view on evolution alert !!!* One day we will all have mid-brown coloured skin, bisexual with the ability to reproduce a-sexually, physically a bit withered with poor eye-sight and hearing. [And if science keeps advancing, an average life-expectancy of about 768 years.] There will be no more need for war, and global warming will have made it too hot so we will all work from 'home' which will consist of specially built cool-boxes.

We are all the same and we are all doomed and everything is transient so in the meantime let's all love each other!