So what are we buying in the time of #Coronavirus?

A clothes store sends me emails with special offers which I sometimes look at but usually delete unopened. Today when I saw the email it made me wonder who is going to buy clothes in the time of corona virus?

Suddenly we are working from home so we don't need petrol, we don't need work clothes and nor do we need sports, gym wear or swimwear (they say to stay away from pools).

In fact what do we need at all really?  A musical instrument to learn perhaps, Sudoku puzzles, books. It would be nice to have a decent broadband connection but I have given up on the NBN having tried it in a previous house. Instead I am relying on my phone as a hotspot which is working well for me and much cheaper, even live streaming the odd opera.

The change to our consumer habits is long overdue. We didn't seem to be able to get off the consumer conveyor belt within our current structures. Will this crisis be with us for long enough for us all to rethink our options I wonder?

Making the most of quarentine

A 15 year old of my acquaintance, striving to loosen the harness, is driving his parents crazy in the process, particularly at a time when we all need to pull together (previous post). We talk very seldom, but I have his phone number and just now I gave him a call.

Every fledgling has to develop its own wings to be able to flutter from the nest so I do understand him, but his parents' distress had made me feel very negative about him. When I heard of his reaction to Covid 19 I could have gladly wrung his neck and it took me all day to think of something constructive to do that might help both he and his parents. It is not that he and I have much communication, or any really.

The thing is, he is good at English, even gifted at English. His family had expected him to excel at science and math because he finds them easy, so it is with some astonishment that they discover his talent and interest is in a different direction.  He is not only good at writing, he is an exceptional drawer. His drawings are like his writing, imaginative if distopian.

Anyway, I just rang him to suggest that he might think about using this coming period of home incarceration (with any luck the schools will soon be closed) to write a book. Something for this age group, with or without illustration. I told him that if he is interested in doing so, I will help him publish on Amazon.

The beginning of our conversation was mainly grunts from his end, but by the end I was getting proper replies. I am hoping the change in tone meant he is actually interested in the idea, not just relieved at not being castigated.  I would love to be involved in helping publish his first novel. I asked if I might check back in a week to see what he thinks of the idea after consideration and he said yes, so I have made a note in my diary to call him.  I'll not say anything to the parents as I suspect that would immediately put a kybosh on the whole idea. I do hope that, on reflection, he does find the idea a sound one although I don't know how one competes with the allure of computer games. 

I watched the Vienna State Opera company's performance of Rheingold this afternoon (they have made their Livestream free for the duration of the lockdown) and  that together with a possible collaboration with my young friend has made me feel much more positive about the world.

Teen-agers in viral times

My heart goes out to those with rebellious teen-agers, kids kicking over the traces but now forced to stay home (or soon will be) with family.  Do we just let them binge on computer games (the male of the species seems most afflicted)  and, if not, how do we best motivate them to aspire to something more productive? 

These same rebellious teen-agers are often beautifully polite and considerate when they are at their friend's houses, but that is no longer an option either. Or maybe it could be. Families could swap teen-agers for the duration. It might have interesting outcomes.

Behavioral changes in the face of catastrophe

I grew up on a farm in New Zealand. When we went to town my mother always wore a pair of gloves. Summer or winter, always gloves. It was because you 'caught germs in town'.

My mother was born in 1920, in other words, just after the flu pandemic that killed so many. Now in 2020 at the start of the worst pandemic since, I remember my mother and her gloves and wonder how Covid 19 will affect us and future generations, what we will demand of our governments,  what sort of behavioral changes will be long lasting.

My mother's gloves

Dr Norman Swan recommends proactive national lockdown | ABC News

Coronavirus in Sydney

I've been thinking of setting up a blog to track Coronavirus but things are moving so very quickly that it is hard to keep up. Sydney is suddenly tracking quickly along that exponential curve we are familiar with from Wutan and Italy. Today we have 11 new cases in NSW that are not connected to previously infected people or to overseas travel, so we are definitely in phase 2. A couple of weeks ago I would not have believed I would be socially distancing to the extent I am. Keeping 6 feet from everyone and staying home as much as possible. No more concerts, at least for now. My heart goes out to all the musicians affected (among many others). Now is the time for universal basic income.  The next two weeks will be a torrid time but I am hoping we can avoid Italy's fate. There are 10 pages of obituaries in today's Milan newspaper.

Much depends on our government and the problem we have is that our current government has been rewarded for focusing on tribal politics and they now seem incapable of thinking outside the square. Trump does something outlandish and our PM Morrison seems to do the same thing. They are cut from the same cloth, both marketing men with empathy deficit. In addition Morrison is an active member of a penticostal church that is getting ready to welcome the rapture (after they have all made lots of money). It is not very encouraging for the Australian public to have the medical establishment's opinion overruled or derided, although I must say it is refreshing to see the science establishment is at least being consulted.

This virus will show us just how important science actually is and will perhaps give us the opportunity to change our ways, as we will have to do to survive climate change. I had just about given up on the chances of the human race to survive, now I am not so sure.  This nasty lesson will hopefully refocus us on what is really important.

Beethoven's 1st, 2nd, 3rd Symphonies with the ACO.

Beethoven is everywhere this year and I have no complaints at all. I can listen to Beethoven any time, anywhere. Today I heard Beethoven's Symphonies 1, 2 and 3 played by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Anna Melville, Head of Programming with the ACO gave the introductory talk. I am not alone in enjoying her talks and the small presentation room was packed, with people sitting on the floor to listen. She talks about the context in which the music was written and adds a thing  or two about the music that we might otherwise not hear.

Anna Melville presents

ACO members were augmented by wind instrumentalists from the world over, and by students from the Australian National Academy of Music, ANAM. It was heart warming to see each of the young musicians playing beside their mentor. The ACO works extremely hard but they are a happy crew and I can't think of a better way to be introduced to the playing life than as a member of this band.   They were all playing on gut strings, perhaps a first for some of the students, and several disappeared to get strings mended when they broke. (Melville had told us that there is an expert in re-stringing instruments back stage.)

They all played magnificently and the audience was rapt. What a pleasure to know that these young folk have chosen classical music as their career choice. Or perhaps music has chosen them. Right in my line of sight sat ANAM student James Morley with his cello shining yellow in the hall lighting. I couldn't resist making a little sketch as he played.

James Morley with his cello

Australia, land of extremes

After months of fires, the East Coast of Australia now has floods. During the fires the Australian Broadcasting Service (ABC) did a wonderful job of keeping people informed about which areas were under threat, when they should leave adn where they should go. Yesterday afternoon and evening  the same team were again giving evacuation advice, but this time for floods. After two days of torrential rain,  300mm fell on many parts of Sydney overnight  and 500mm on the Blue Mountains. Transport is in chaos today and people are being advised to work from home today if they can.

I read now that south coast people now approach ABC staff to thank them for help in desperate times. In many cases, with power off and no wifi, these people were dependent on battery radios for their information and the ABC was the outstanding performer.

It is hard to believe, but our far-right wing government favours a commercial station over their own ABC, paid for and owned by the Australian people. They have cut the ABC and cut it again, and more cuts are planned. They don't like having a broadcaster that is neutral and tells the truth. Who cares that they are the best source of information by a country mile? Woe is us.

Some trickster has doctored a photo of the harbour bridge to make it appear like a waterfall. Probably some will believe it, such is fake news in our era. If you want to see a real waterfall, search for Wentworth Falls on google. Those falls in the Blue Mountains are bucketing down the cliff after so much rain.

Fake floods - tricksters phototshopped image

Real floods in Sydney yesterday (photo: ABC)

Hello Woolworths! How about selling loose veges?

You would think by  2020 the supermarkets would have worked out a way to sell things without packaging, especially organic veges, which are bought by folk who know the problems  caused by packaging.

At the supermarket this morning the woman working at the checkout counter couldn't get her reader to read the barcode. She asked me to read out the very small numbers she had to use instead. She complemened me on my eyesight and I said I wouldn't have been able to read the code without glasses. It turned out that she had had some glasses which had cost her $600, but she'd left them at the till for 2 minutes and someone had pinched them.  Really some people are swine.

I can't help thinking about this woman. She was older and would have had to work a long time at the Supermarket to save for them. She said she was not going to buy a replacement.

2020 - may it be a year of big changes

I blog from bushfire surrounded Sydney where there was a big fireworks display last night, despite protests. It could have been a watershed.moment, a moment to tell the world 'we have got to get serious about climate change, but our leaders are lacking in imagination and integrity.

My twitter feed reflects a people pushed to the brink.

While Scott Morrison PM parties at Kirribilli house the nation burned. Tex called him out:

Bars and colour

My new abode has so many bars on the back windows you'd think you were incarcerated. I will remove them when I have time since we have entered the age when it no longer pays to break into people's houses because anything worth stealing can be bought for less trouble in the $2 shop. While the bars remain, I am drawing the eye away with colour.

Teapot, Tomatoes, Snapdragon, Red Glass.

My sewing machine is running hot, sewing curtains for the remaining windows. Two down, two to go.

Surviving the Sydney Property Circus

After months of visiting open houses I finally have a new home. I move in next Wednesday.

There has been a pause in blog posts but that doesn't mean I stopped writing. I kept a diary of my property gyrations which is now a book called Surviving the Sydney Property Circus: a Seller's/Buyer's diary. It is available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08114TJH1

 It's an E-Book.

Addendum: the Paperback version is now available at:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Surviving-Sydney-Property-Circus-Sellers-ebook/dp/B08114TJH1

Il Viaggio a Reims in Sydney

Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims is not your usual opera with a plot (however absurd) and beginning, middle and end. Instead it is a spoof on opera,  a very long (3 hour) sing with a great deal of repitition.   To the credit of Opera Australia and their collaborators (Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam Opera, Royal Danish Opera) the audience was entranced from beginning to end. Phenomenal singing and an ingenious staging. Bravo!

Teapot, little jug and Clivia flowers

Teapot, little jug and Clivia flowers

My teapot painting is finished. The teapot is a design called Amapola from the German porcelain firm Villeroy and Boch. It is about fifteen years old. I am not such fan of painted crockery but for some reason I never get tired of this design.

Addendum: I added a dropped flower for balance.

Painting domestic scenes

I have hardly posted here over the last two months because my energies have been directed toward finding somewhere permanent to live. More on that later. 

I am really missing a decent painting space, but while I wait for better I am alleviating  my property blues by  painting little domestic scenes.

Chalk drawing: teapot and milk jug

Teapot, milk jug and Clivia flowers on the easel

The teapot seems to be painting itself. It is very different from the last canvas of a vase with onions which sat on the easel and complained for such a long time. Each time I passed it I changed it, but in the end I took it off the easel and put it away, perhaps to just paint over it. It is so dark, perhaps reflecting the winter days that are now slowly receding.

Vase and onions

Slimming down before a move

Next time I move I hope it is with a bit more warning. In July I moved rather suddenly, taking all sorts of things you would normally discard (or eat) before moving. Frozen food, fridge food, an enormous bag of organic Penne pasta, a whole net of oranges and various kitchen items I should have discarded long ago. Thank goodness I had had a big clean out a few months prior to selling.  My house looked uncharacteristically bare when I was selling it, but I have moved to a smaller space and once again I have too much stuff.

Pictures I had not looked at in years appeared during the move. They include a collage made when I was in my early 20s living in Singapore. It features Buddhas, but only 20 years later did I discover Vipassana meditation and learn something about the Buddha. I also rediscovered a watercolour I made of my mother knitting. She didn't like but it still reminds me very much of her.

My mother knitting

Celebrating Mozart with the ACO

Whoops, foot stomping and whistles echoed through the Angel Place concert hall last night. It is not really the sort of response Haydn and Mozart pieces normally elicit, but this Australian Chamber Orchestra concert was not the normal ...it was the exceptional. 

Richard Tognetti and pianist Dejan Lazić played solos that made us all feel as if the conversation was with us individually. They were ably supported by the orchestra, augmented by a group of equally good  wind instrumentalists.  How lucky we are in Australia having this exceptional group to play to us.

Ayse Goknur Shanal at the Sydney Opera House

Ayse Goknur Shanal singing at the Sydney Opera House

Two and a half hours of exquisitely sung German Lieder in the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room is my idea of heaven. The singer was Ayse Goknur Shanal and she was ably accompanied by Ashley Hribar, a versatile pianist with a wonderfully sensuous touch. Together Ayse and Ashley led their rapt audience through Lieder cycles by Schumann, Brahms and Clara Schumann. The afternoon was dedicated to Clara Schumann and all composing women. 

The audience was the most mixed bunch of folk I have ever had the pleasure of attending a concert with, from members of the German Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to local street people as well as two groups of music school students. This afternoon was an afternoon to remember.

Andrea Chenier in Sydney

Australia is a long way from Europe so the three lead singers in this concert performance of the opera Andrea Chenier, Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westerbroek and Ludovic Tézier, had long flights behind them. I admire the fortitude of singers who are prepared to travel so far to sing to us. All three were magnificent on Thursday night  and the audience showed their appreciation by applauding wildly whenever there was a suitable break in the performance, and sometimes when there was a less suitable gap.

List of singers

All the singers performed well and since my seat was fairly near the front I heard all clearly. How those at the back fared I don't know as the acoustics in this building leave a lot to be desired.

Singers leave the stage after bows were taken.
I was too busy applauding to take a better photo earlier.

The flower decorations were as magnificent as the singers

Painting pears

What is it about pears that makes them so captivating to paint?

Pears and more pears