Heritage

After hearing about the Tesselaar Tulip Festival about a month ago, I found out that this weekend would have a Dutch theme, with food, music, dancing and crafts. Knowing that it could be an improvement on the one I went to at Southbank in April (where high winds and rain buffeted all day and it was all but shut down as soon as it had started).

With a forecast of a chance of showers and moderate winds, we decided to risk it and headed out on a train. The train should have taken us to Lilydale, but instead stopped at Ringwood for a replacement bus service. It was already raining by this point, which we should have taken as an omen. We got to Lilydale station eventually, and the connecting shuttle bus had just left. Another omen. After seeking shelter out the front of an estate agent, we were about to move into Coles for warmth, when what I think was unscheduled bus turned up. Never one to complain, we made a run for it and were on our way, crossing our fingers that the rain would stop soon.

Unfortunately it just varied between heavy and light rain for most of the morning, rendering the grassy areas sodden and the fields of brightly coloured tulips uninviting.

Hoping to find the Grolsch tent that we had seen noted on the website, we went for a short walk and found a small tent serving non-Dutch food, with a fridge containing some bottles of beer and lots of people sheltering from the rain. Braving the weather, we moved around a little bit and I went on a search for some delicious food. First of all I found some Rookwurst (with mustard), which was devoured. After wandering a little more and sheltering in tents with various crafts, we gave up even thinking about taking photos. I had some croquette (with mustard) and bought some siroopwafelen for later.

After one last round, hoping the rain might ease up, we noticed that a previously empty tent was now selling various chilli sauces – Death Sauce, Stupid Hot etc. We had a quick chat with the stall owners while deciding which to buy (I settled on a four-pack, two milder and two hotter Death Sauces).

After this, there seemed little point in hanging around getting wetter, so we headed off to wait for the bus, which came thankfully quickly. It was good to be on our way back to civilisation.

Judging by my recent experiences, I think it’s safe to say that unless the weather forecast is ‘No possible chance of rain, fog or high winds’, I won’t be leaving the house voluntarily soon! I reckon it could have been improved greatly by some rubber matting laid down on areas of grass into/out of the tents, and perhaps an extra tent or shelter or two. As it was, it was unbearable for any extended period of time.

Yesterday was slightly better though. After a bit of research, we headed to the Penny Black on Sydney Road to watch the Grand Final. We had a quick lunch at a place called ‘Empire’, also on Sydney Road (quite good food, fairly standard) beforehand. We had a table reserved, giving a lovely view of the projected game, just next to the bar. It was a shame about the result (it would have been nice to see the Saints win, and more importantly, Geelong lose!) but at least it was a good, close game to finish the year off.

Now however, being a Sunday afternoon, it’s time for warming up, drying off and kicking back until Monday morning arrives.

Chicago

Last night I went to see Chicago at Her Majesty’s theatre, something I’ve been itching for since I heard it was coming to Melbourne. I booked my ticket last week, a seat at the back of the stalls. After mentioning it at work though, someone told me that it’s quite disappointing. She said the outfits and some characters aren’t done very well, and now I know exactly what she meant.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good. It’s a relatively professional stage production of a great musical; it would have been hard to ruin entirely. However there are many criticisms to make – of many different aspects.

First of all, the casting. Caroline O’Connor and Sharon Millerchip (Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart respectively) were definitely not expected; I had been waiting for leggy, young, attractive, confident characters with powerful voices. Instead, two older women, without the bodies (but definitely with voices, don’t get me wrong) were introduced. More importantly, Roxie was being portrayed as a child-like, almost retarded woman, instead of the confused but then reassured character. This was most frustrating, as it added too much humour to it (watching a grown woman act like a handicapped prisoner is funny now?) and distracted from what could have been fantastic songs and acts.

Next up was Gina Riley, who I’m sure many people know as ‘Kim’ from ‘Kath and Kim’. As most people know, she can sing, so that was no surprise. However, it seemed that were relying on that and her fame from television to distract from the fact that she couldn’t really act and had a terrible outfit on. She kept giving the audience little smiles which said, ‘How cool is this, I’m live on stage’, instead of saying, ‘I’m a sexy prison officer who does favours for the in-mates, check out my sex appeal’. Her outfit was a loose-fitting trouser-suit, with a tiny bit of cleavage, and she barely moved around the stage. She should have been strutting around the stage wearing something tight-fitting and/or revealing.

On the other hand, Craig McLachlan and Damien Bermingham (Billy Flynn and Amos Hart respectively) were fantastically cast, their outfits and mannerisms were spot on and did all that was expected of them (by me at least). Damien Bermingham especially did well, with a perfect version of ‘Mr Cellophane’. Of course, the back-up singers/dancers/extras/whatever they are called were all brilliant as well – the bodies, the moves and their voices were great. It’s almost enough to encourage me to take up dancing.

I think the fact that the main character wasn’t portrayed correctly all but ruined it for me. The fantastic singing and flexibility couldn’t make up for the fact that she was playing an entirely different character to what was expected (maybe just from me).

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good performance. A lot of money and effort has gone into it, and it shows. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Trying to make use of my day off, I decided to head into the city to look for a new bag. Knowing that my current bag is ready to drop at any minute, I’ve been looking for pretty much exactly the same bag as before. Which, as we all know, is almost impossible.

As I was walking down from North Melbourne, I went into Melbourne Central and had a look at some of the more likely shops, but found nothing close. Instead of heading down Swanston Street, as I’ve done before, I went into Myer, hoping there might be something reasonably priced in a sale. I managed to find a similar style messenger bag in the Dangerfield section of the basement. They said that their till wasn’t working, so pointed to another one which I headed toward. This one had two women at it, neither of which acknowledged me when I approached. I put forward some pleasantries and indicated I’d like to make a purchase, but one walked off and the other informed me that she works for another company and can’t sell me other goods.

They pointed me over to another till (by which stage I’d lost all sense of direction in the windowless basement filled with school kids), where there was also nobody serving. I stood for a minute, looking around hopefully, but could see nobody willing to help. Eventually I started wandering back in the direction I had come from and found someone wearing a Myer lanyard, and hoped that he might be able to help me. He point out the till I had just come from and said that I could pay there. When I pointed out that there was nobody there and I had been sent from till to till, he let out a big sigh and sauntered over to help me. Just in the nick of time, as I was about to walk out with the bag and point out that if nobody was around to take my money, I couldn’t pay…

This is just one of the many, many reasons I hate shopping.

Thankfully I now have what appears to be a reasonably strong, well-priced bag to replace my other one. Hopefully it’ll be another few years until I have to deal with it again.

Almost Respected Lord Mayor

Our wonderful Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, has had some bad ideas since coming to power – re-opening Swanston Street, stopping the hailing of taxis in the streets and keeping the bogans out of the CBD. However, he’s finally come out with some sense.

When the tram and train services change at the end of the year, there has been talk of better timetables, cleaner carriages and value-for-money. However, Doyle has urged the new company, a branch of Keolis, to run certain trams all night on Friday and Saturday nights.

I reckon that this is a great idea. Now that I’ve moved away from the city, if I stay out late at night, then the only reasonable way to get home is a taxi after the trains and trams stop running. If some tram lines keep running ’til the early hours though, it’ll mean that many people can home for a reasonable price by their usual routes.

Good on ya Doyle, just make sure you keep Swanston Street closed so that the trams can run up it though.

New toy

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Bronica ERT-Si and 50mm lens from someone I know through Flickr. It is my first trip into the medium format SLR world, and I was quite excited. Excited as I was, it took me until this weekend just past to test it and unfortunately, it didn’t go too well.

First of all, I had a problem with the battery, but after that was sorted, I thought all was going to be smooth sailing.

Get home with two rolls of film to develop, so I make a start on the first one – a single roll of a cheap black and white Chinese film I picked up for free. The roll came out with the text and some light leaks, but otherwise blank, so something had obviously gone wrong. As I finished and re-wound the second roll, some Neopan 400, I realised that it was the wrong way around.

As I all but concluded that this was the problem with the other film too, I decided not to waste the film and work out which way around the film went. I wound the film back onto another spool and loaded the Bronica in the light until I saw the film come through. I then closed and shot the rest of the film, just to check the shutter was firing well too. I developed that roll this afternoon, and all is fine.

The one thing that’s been frustrating with it though has been the waist level finder. I haven’t had a camera with a WLF before, but I’ve tried some at Flickr meets before and it’s not for me. I like the camera being at eye-level more. Now that I know the camera is working, I’ve purchased a prism finder (with meter) so that I can use the camera more comfortably.

All is well in the world of new-second-hand-cameras.

Second Anniversary

On September 1st it passed the second year I’ve been in Melbourne. As pointed out in my last post, I’m quite settled here and enjoying everything.

Anyway, the weekend before last, I took a day-trip out to Mt Buller to see Australian snow for the first time. After doing some investigative work, the best deal I could find was through the tourist agency ExtraGreen for a bus from the city and back. After a last-minute upgrade, we ended up on a good quality bus on our way out of the city at 6am. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t exactly pleasant, and as we headed to higher ground, the rain started to fall. It continued all day, and all but ruined the day.

If it hadn’t been raining, we could have hired some snow shoes and gone for a hike, or completed the Gnome Roam (as it was, I could only find one gnome on the clock tower before giving up), or even just had a better look around the village. Unfortunately, after some lunch and some more skipping between buildings, we headed up Summit Road to a pub and spent some time playing Buckhunter! The snow barely got a look in.

I was almost grateful to be on the bus going home after the wasted day there. As we pulled into Mansfield (where people had hired snow-gear), the rain cleared and there was some beautiful late afternoon light. As we had some time to kill, we went for a quick walk around nearby and took some photos before the clouds covered the rest of the sky.

Other than that, nothing too big has been happening for me. This Friday past, I had free tickets to the Comedy Club, where I got to see Adam Rozenbachs as MC, with Terry North and Lehmo. Terry North is an English comedian that I’ve seen on two other occasions, and he still has no new material. Thankfully Lehmo and Adam Rozenbachs both made up for this and it was an enjoyable night.

I’ve been quite busy at work recently, but I’ve also been to the movies a few times. I saw District 9 a few weeks ago. This was a refreshing movie. The fact that it was South African, with little American influence, was quite noticable. The acting was a little iffy at times – with the main character barely developing at all. Apart from that, the special effects and costumes were impressive, and I liked the movie.

The other movie I saw was Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Now this movie has had a fair amount of press, and I was looking forward to it. It didn’t disappoint. The violence was plentiful, and there was more than enough dialogue, but overall I felt that it worked. The in-depth dialogue and speeches were, at times, overkill, but added to the rest of the action, it was fantastic. The acting was fantatic, with mostly unknown (to me at least) actors. The character of Col. Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, was particularly impressive.