I’m Off to Catch Me a Stingray

The last couple of weeks were pretty hectic. We’ve been packing for the holiday and trying to get the house ready for open inspections. I’ve also been frantically trying to leave my work in a state where my replacement doesn’t have to tear their hair out trying to find out where the hell I got up to and how on earth they tackle the project. Needless to say, it’s been a little bit stressful, but we managed to survive.

I also somehow managed to fit in two trips to the theatre to see the Melbourne Theatre Company. One play starred Noni Hazelhurst, who anyone my age would remember fondly from playschool, but whose acting career has since taken off. It was called Madagascar and was a moving play about the effect of adult “runaways” on their family and loved ones. It was set in Rome in one hotel room 5 years ago, 2 days ago and at the present. The different scenes were interwoven and the story of a young man’s disappearance, the circumstances surrounding it and the devastating consequences slowly unraveled. It did move quite slowly, but I found that the plot was interesting enough to keep me hanging on waiting to find out what happens.

The second play was called The Swimming Club and featured a number of minor stars from Australian stage and screen. The idea of this play was quite charming – a group of people who met in Greece 25 years ago and then meet up for a reunion in middle age after marriages, divorces, children, affairs, etc. The acting was great, but I found this play did move too slowly. It didn’t keep me enthralled and I didn’t really identify or sympathise with the characters. It was fun and entertaining though, so not a complete waste of time.

My last day at work was a bit of an emotional one. I was sad to leave the girls who I’d become such good friends with, but I was happy to be moving on to try something new. The group had bought me a gorgeous present, written beautiful things about me in a farewell card and even said lovely things in speeches. I’m sure they can’t all be true! Although my baking skills are exceptional, so I’ll give them that one. Hehehe! We’ve already arranged a time to see each other again, so I’m sure we won’t lose touch for a while yet.

Early on Friday morning – before the crack of dawn even, Paul and I bundled Myf into the back of the car and set off for Adelaide. We stopped around 3 hours into the drive at Horsham for Myf’s first toilet stop and the first driver change. Then we stopped at Nhill, about an hour later for a coffee top up. Our final stop was at Keith for the last driver change. As with all road trips, we feasted on junk food for the entire journey; breakfast was cookies and cupcakes left over from my work farewell party and lunch was hot chips from Keith.

We arrived in Goolwa at around 3pm to drop Myf off with my Aunt and her puppy, Tuppy. Myf and Tuppy are still trying to work out who’s the boss. The older Myf, or the home owner, Tuppy. They go through periods of playing happily and sleeping next to each other but will occasionally give each other warning growls to let the other know that they’ve had enough or they don’t appreciate what the other’s doing. I’m sure it’s all natural and as they’re both such sweet natured, friendly dogs, they’ll have it all figured out soon.

On Saturday, I went to another cultural event. I saw the Chooky Dancers performing “Wrong Skin” as a part of the Fringe Festival. They were great! There was a Romeo and Juliet style tragic love story, woven between bouts of their fun, free and entertaining dancing with influences from modern video clips, old movies and bollywood. It was refreshing to see a bunch of people up on stage obviously having a ball with what they do. Check out this youtube clip and check out the chooky dancers if you ever have the chance.

Sunday was a full day. I had brunch with friends who had been in London for 2 years and had just moved back to Adelaide. We ate at the Tin Cat Café, and the food was really good. I had eggs benedict and the ham was thick and tasty and the eggs were cooked perfectly.

In the afternoon, I caught up with another friend, whose 30^th I’d missed earlier in the year. To make it up to her, I took her out for high tea at the Intercontinental. YUM! I recommend this to all the girls out there. It’s not as expensive as some of the high teas that are around, but you get champagne on arrival, as much tea and coffee as you want and a great selection of tasty afternoon tea foods. Savouries on the bottom, petit fours in the middle and scones up the top. The service was great too.

This now brings me to my title. This afternoon Paul and I fly to Coffin Bay where we’re meeting up with my parents. We’re spending 10 days there fishing, reading and relaxing in general. Last time we were in coffin bay, almost a year ago, we had such a great time, we begged to be allowed back. We spent quite a lot of our time fishing out in the boat and caught a large number of squid and had a reasonable haul of KG Whiting and Garfish. Much more interesting than that, however, was Paul’s battle with the stingray. On three separate occasions he managed to hook a stingray. We didn’t see the ray, we only know through Dad’s expertise of what stingrays do to fishing lines, rods etc that that was what was on the end of the line. So this time Paul has vowed to land that sucker. Let’s just see how successful he is. Haha!

Now all that remains is for me to bid you all farewell. I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the fun that was had and bore you with hundreds of pictures upon my return. I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks.

Cheerio!

Abstract Theatre

Last night we went to a play called The Dictionary of Imaginary Places.

For weeks I've been calling it Conversations on a Train, because I'd forgotten the real name, but I knew that all the dialogue in the play had come from conversations overheard on Melbourne trains. The writers had been travelling the Melbourne lines for a year and collecting bizarre snippets of conversation.

I had thought that they would be intertwined into a story. Instead what we saw was more installation art. Four actors talking, sometimes to each other, but most often to themselves and sometimes over the top of each other. They'd recite random things that the weirdest and probably most drug affected bogans in Melbourne had said while catching a train.

Whilst they were reciting the lines, they were also interacting with the set, which was essentially rows of chairs similar to a train layout with bits and pieces strewn about. So they might stand on a chair and do some yoga poses, or pick up some rubbish, or screw up a newspaper and proceed to shove it down their dress, etc... One of the actors put on a pair of bathers under her clothes, then took off her clothes and stuffed them into the bathers - including her stiletto heels. Another actor was wearing a balaclava with plastic cups stuck to it in a sort of a mohawk style and at one stage he took a cup off his balaclava and offered it to another actor.

It was bizarre.

Some of the lines were classic and I'm sure I've heard many similar conversations on my train line. Especially all the relationship ones.

It was just a very surreal interpretation of the lines. A world where surrealism, Melbourne and psychodelic drugs intertwine.

I'm not sure I'm quite arty enough to appreciate that sort of theatre.

Just like the Cowardly Lion, I wish I had some courage!

Last night Paul, Tash and I went to a play reading. The play was The Joy Of Text by Robert Reid. It had an amazing cast for the $5 entry fee - Shaun Micallef, Noni Hazelhurst, Heidi Arena, Kat Stewart and Tim Potter.

The play itself was really interesting. It was set in an outer suburban school (semi-rural) and revolved around a battle for the vice-principalship and a students attempt at satire. It was cleverly done.

The reading was great. The cast read from the script, but they acted as well. There were no props, so the director read the set directions from the script. They'd only read it through together once before the day, so was rough in places, but still wonderfully acted. It really did feel like you were part of the production process.

At the end of the play as we were milling around in the foyer, all of the actors came out. I really wanted to talk to them, but I couldn't think of anything remotely witty, clever or interesting to say to them. Somehow "you rock" or "I think you're awesome" didn't really feel right in a room full of artistic types. One day I'll come up with a whole bunch of amazing lines to use in circumstances such as these so I will eventually find the courage to speak to them.

The French Are Weird!

Megs came for another visit this weekend.

It was a pretty chilled visit. On Saturday night we went out for an early dinner and drinks at Gingerboy. The food was good and the cocktails were yummy.

Then we went to see a French play called God of Carnage that starred Hugo Weaving. It was a bit strange. Good, but strange. It was about two sets of parents that had come together to discuss a violent incident that occurred between their sons. They started off on their best behaviour and being quite fake. But then as the play progressed they descended to the level of their children and were fighting, bickering and throwing things. It was quite amusing, but odd. At one stage one of the actresses had to vomit all over the stage and then the next 10 minutes, the rest of the cast were cleaning up the vomit. Bizarre.

On Sunday we went shopping down Bridge Road. I bought 9 tops for under $150 so that's around $15 per top. BARGAIN! I took Mum's advice and told Paul how much money I'd saved, but I'm not sure he was convinced. lol

Rockabye

I went to yet another MTC performance last night, Rockabye. Geez it was a performance to get to though.

I got home and after 12.5mm of rain, we had sprung a leak in the study and water was dripping through the light fitting. After having a minor panic attack and forcing down some dinner, I managed to get out the door in time to catch the train that would get me there in perfect timing.

I got to the train station to find that it's been cancelled an the next train is delayed. So out I go to hail a taxi...

Because I was going to catch a train, I hadn't looked up the address, so I didn't know how to tell the taxi driver where to go. I'm really not very good with street names... I finally managed to describe it's location to him in reference to various other landmarks so he did eventually get me there safely. lol!

So after all that I got my program and settled down in my seat with 10 minutes to spare. Too late for my traditional champaz though :(

The performance was really good and thought provoking. About the generation of women who 'forgot' to have children while they were busy having their career and the celebrity craze of adopting African babies. Does it actually help the country or hinder it?? Is it actually doing the child any good by replacing its identity?? Lots of food for thought.

A Musical Weekend

Last weekend Paul's parents, Alan and Barb, came for a visit. They arrived on Friday and hung out with Paul and Myf during the day. In the evening we went to see Jersey Boys. Loved it! It was a very different musical to the ones I've seen lately. Basically it was just the story of how the band formed, became famous and eventually broke up, with their songs thrown in to the mix. But the music was so good and the story was actually really interesting. The only problem is that I've been singing She-erry in my head for a week now!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at a Spanish Place in Degraves Street before heading off to the markets. I had a really yummy French Toast with Brioche (they had a spanish name for it). The other food looked really tasty too.

The day was spent relaxing before we headed out for another musical in the evening. This time it was Chicago. Loved it - again! The set was really great - the orchestra was incorporated into it. And the singing and dancing was fabulous. Great to see Craig McLachlan on stage - disappointed that there was no mullet though!

A Sunday Night on Avenue Q

This is my first attempt to backdate a post, because I've already fallen behind. This does not bode well for my blog!

On Sunday night, Paul and I headed out for a night of entertainment. We were planning on having a nice dinner out, but as we were running a little late, we had to have a quick bite to eat at Wagamama instead. It's actually not too bad a place to eat at if you're running late. The service is fast, the meals cheap and the food is pretty good.

After dinner, we headed up to the comedy theatre on Exhibition Street to see the musical Avenue Q.

OMG, it was hilarious. So wrong, so true and so funny. With puppet nudity and songs like "everyone's a little bit racist" and "the intenet is for porn" what's not to laugh at. It's loosely based on Sesame street, except it's a little bit racier and I don't think there were ever any Gary Coleman references in Sesame Street.

For all of my interstate readers (because there are SOOOO many people who read this blog!) the show is touring the country and I highly recommend that you get along to it.

Loving the Theatre

At the end of last year I purchased a Melbourne Theatre Company subscription for 8 plays throughout this year. I have not yet been disappointed with the plays I've seen.

Last night I went to see August: Osage County. This is a play about a slightly dysfunctional family that comes together when the father goes missing. It's a grim tale, but darkly funny.

As a whole, the plays I've seen have had wonderfully creative sets. Last night for example, there was a 3 storey house on stage. In every performance thus far, the acting has been superb. A stand out in 2 plays has been Robyn Nevin, who last night was brilliant as the pill popping mum.

When I purchased the subscription, I was worried about going to the plays alone. I thought I'd look like a loser. Now, I'm just so excited to be going to such wonderful performances I don't care if I look like a loner. I don't care that I'm wearing daggy jeans and a hoodie, whilst sipping champagne all by myself during the interval as Lisa McCune holds court next to me looking stunning in her little black number.

For me, this year, the theatre has provided much more entertainment than movies. The plots are less cliched, the acting more convincing and I'm learning about history. It's all win for me :)