Hug a frog (for good luck in 2019)

Everyone needs hugs, especially little plaster frogs that no one wanted during the Christmas game of Kris Kringle. I can't remember who eventually got little frog, but whoever it was left him behind, so I took him in hand and gave him a green coat and a cheerful yellow sign. Now he is happy again.

Airport sketch

Airport

I had an hour longer than expected at Melbourne airport on my way home. Staff were hurriedly lining us up to board the plane before the threatening storm arrived but they weren't quick enough. The lightening alarm went off and we were grounded.The woman next to me in the queue took a quick look at the BOM storm app and said 'Well be waiting 30 minutes, or maybe thirty five."

  It was a short but violent storm with hail blowing in through the cracks in the door.

Hail coming through cracks in the door

I said to my neighbour that I was glad to be inside and not sitting on the plane we could see through the window, unable to dock as our plane was in the way.

'Spare a thought for those in the air circling the airport,' she said opening a radar app and showing me a tight bunch of  planes hovering over Melbourne. Turned out she had once worked at the airport. (Her estimate of a 30-35 minutes wait was two minutes short.)

Meistersinger in Melbourne

Kasper Holten Set his Meistersinger in a gentleman's club, and it works. The set for this production is a piece of genius, never intruding but always adding visual interest to the stage.

The singers and musicians (under the baton of the magician Pietari Inkinen) did credit to the music and the audience loved the whole thing.

Eva storms off the stage at the end, which I thought decidedly odd but then  I remembered this is an English gentleman's club that her Walter had been blackmailed into joining. I would have stormed off too.

(I couldn't help thinking about Brexit and all those Tory fellows in their clubs hankering after their colonial past.)

Darabin Parklands

After a few days in noisy city streets, how relaxing to be walking along woodland paths listening to the bees buzzing in the trees. Or was it flies in the undergrowth? It was difficult to tell.

Along the path there are benches and small plaques suggesting methods of contemplating life's problems. Sage advice: examine your problems, think about your support structures and about small steps to move along your chosen path. Then think about what you are going to do to take that first step. 

Unreal cakes

Cakes at Brunetti Cafe in Lygon Street
Real actually, not unreal. 

Melbourne shopping

A book, all I wanted was a book.

I set off down a Melbourne street to find a bookshop, followed some schoolkids into an alley and found myself in 'the southern hemisphere's biggest under-cover shopping precinct'. It is a series of shops with pedestrian bridges across intervening streets. Mercifully no Muzak,  so it is relaxing, especially on an early morning week day.

I asked a passer-by where the nearest bookshop was and she scratched her head and said "Well there used to be lots, but the only one I know if now is right at the other end of this street. Just keep on walking and you'll find it."

So much stuff....

So walk I did, on and on past clothes and yet more clothes. No bookstotes and hardly even a shoeshop. Who wears all these clothes, clothes that are apparently out of fashion two months after they are bought? Someone must or these stores would go broke.

Three storey of clothes shops

I eventually found the bookshop. It was busy fortunately so there is still a need for books in Melbourne.  Just imagine though a city with as many bookshop as clothes stores.

Early heat

Sydney is breaking heat records with 37.5C today. Last night was one of those nights where you toss and turn, then finally at 2am you get up and change your bedding to summer weight.

Today was a scorcher and tonight will still be warm. Will we drop off from exhaustion or will we be still more zombie-like tomorrow?

Holding tight

Grabbing on and holding tight

Puddles. After such a long dry.

It's windy though, said the pilots

Qantas pilots discuss matters arising

Waiting at Brisbane airport to come back to Sydney after Peter Grimes,  I visited the Watermark Books and Cafe for a Campos coffee. Next to me were three Qantas pilots discussing their flights.
"Weather looks alright," they said.
"Yes, but it's windy."
A friend said later that comment would have stressed her out,  but I was so busy trying to sketch the pilots without being obvious that I didn't really think about what they were saying
It was a bit bumpy in the air, but nothing like the lumps and bumps on the way up two days earlier. 

Brisbane: cars roar and cars roar

Brisbane is a city for cars, noisy racing smelly cars. The roar of cars is everywhere, sometimes loud, sometimes a dull roar.  Two days here is plenty for me because I've been a pedestrian. It's like being a pedestrian on a race track.

I am staying not far from the cultural centre of the city, the South Bank. To get there I walk over a bridge dodging down an unmarked  set of steps at the other side to get away from the roar.

At the QPAC (Queensland Center for Perfoming Arts) last night the comments by two couples about my plan to walk home after the concert were instructive.
The Queenanders who had come from Melbourne 50 years ago said " Oh it's a short walk, you probably wont won't need a taxi. And it very safe too!"
The born and bred Queenslanders said " Oh that's a long walk!"
Those comments say a lot about Brisbane.  I did walk home and at a brisk pace it took little more than 15 minutes.

C'mon electric car makers, get a move on. Make our cities livable.

From the bridge at night. The pink poles are on the neighbouring bridge

Queensland's Peter Grimes

How disappointing it must be for an artist to travel half way around the world to sing, then fall ill. That happened to Stuart Skelton this week.

Stuart Skelton as Peter Grimes

I came up from Sydney to see the Queensland Opera production of Peter Grimes. I saw it this evening, a very successful semi-staged version.

Skelton managed the first act, then handed over to a stand-in. Although not well, he very generously acted the rest while his substitute stood at the side and sang from the score. It makes a big difference to have someone who can act the part on stage, even if they don't sing and Skelton is the quintessential Grimes.

Last time I saw a substitute sing in the wings was in Leipzig when a lead singer in Die Frau Ohne Schatten was ill and in that case an assistant marked the singers movements. It helped, but was not nearly as successful. This is when you realise that opera singers really have to be good actors as well as extraordinary singers. It is a very demanding profession.

21 Sept. Addendum: I got an email from Queensland Opera today apologising that Stuart Skelton was unable to sing the full performance. Apparently the doctor diagnosed severe pollen allergies. He'll apparently sing the full concert on Saturday.

Falsified foods

The recent news that honey is not always honey reminded me of some South American olive oil I bought from a well known purveyor of organic foods a while back.  I discovered it was not olive oil only after I had used most of it (olive oil solidifies in the fridge) and since then I have bought Australian Olive Oil with a definite use-by date. 

Today I discovered that coffee can also be dodgy. I am one of those smallish percentage of the population who can't digest coffea robusta beans so I always ask before ordering if the coffee is 100% arabica. I can tell if there are robusta beans in the mix as it has metallic taste.

This morning I dropped my car off for a service then made for the cafe selling Campos coffee down the road. It has changed hands and now it sells ' leaf and berry' brand coffee. I asked if the coffee was 100% arabica and the owner said very forcefully that "he wouldn't sell any of those other floor sweepings', by which he meant robusta beans. I said some people liked a bit of robusta in their coffee but he was adamant it was rubbish. I was still doubtful as 100% arabica was not written on the coffee packet so he checked with the agent who replied it was 100% arabica. So I ordered my coffee.

I took a sip.... it didn't feel right.  I looked up the coffee bean online and there was nothing about it being 100% arabica in the bean description. The metallic taste developed as I researched and I wondered who was telling fibs, the coffee company, the agent or the cafe staff?  The cafe manager had checked and shown me the agent's reply on his phone so it wasn't him. As left, coffee un-drunk, I told him I was certain there was a % of robusta in the mix. Arabica beans are more expensive and if he is paying for them, he should get them.

In checking online I had discovered that the firm selling 'leaf and berry' brand also sells the Gusto brand. I used to drink a daily cup of coffee at my local cafe, but they switched without notice to Gusto coffee and after a particularly bad reaction I decided to buy my own coffee machine. The cafe was sold shortly afterwards. A European cafe owner had told me that coffee firms offer large inducements (white goods etc) for  multi-year contracts and I felt sorry for the new owner.  The cafe changed hands a third time and now it sells 100% arabica coffee again - but I have my own machine and hardly visit.

Bach's Goldberg Variations :

Bach's Goldberg Variations played by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a concert I heard live then watched several times online. This was one of those uplifting concerts, memorable for their ability to express emotion. One of those concerts you'd love to hear multiple times.

Such concerts are difficult to put into words - thus the nearly four week gap between seeing and writing. Do see it if ever the Australian Chamber Orchestra play it in a hall near you.

Steven Osborne piano (or Hello Marcellous!)

It isn't often at a concert that you discover you are sitting next to someone whose blog you follow.

The Scottish (not English, thank you Marcellous for the correction) pianist Steven Osborne played Debussy and Prokofiev last night at the Angel Place Hall.

I love the music of the romantics, from Beethoven to Sibelius but have never been a big fan of French impressionists like Debussy.  Osborne, however, took the opportunity to talk to his audience before playing each piece (he said it relaxes him) and told us a bit about composing music which gave me a better insight into this music. He said it is relatively easier to compose a piece in which a couple of tunes fit into an agreed structure than a piece (like Debussy's music) which is a single piece carrying itself forward without a pre-agreed structure. I listened to the Debussy pieces more attentively than I would have done without the explanation.

My seat neighbour didn't seem terribly enamoured with a pianist talking about the music before playing. He had swept in just before the concert, with bright pink scarf flying and a glimpse of red rimmed button holes on a black coat.

Something about the way he listened to the music made me think he may be a pianist himself, so I asked him during the interval.

'Yes', he said, ' Well no. Well I used to be! But yes!'

He turned and asked me, 'Are you?' 

'No.' 

'You're an artist or something?'

(I'd doodled little sketches of Osborne in my program.)

'Yes.' I said. 'Yes, and I often paint musicians.'

He considered.

'Did you grow up in New Zealand?' he asked.

'Yes I did,' I said, thinking he had picked up my accent. 

'Oh,' he laughed, 'I read your blog! And you read mine!'

How often do you find yourself sitting next to someone whose blog you follow? The blogs I follow are an eclectic bunch, usually discovered by accident and mainly well written diaries giving me an insight into lives different very from my own. Among them are a couple of blogs written by people who know much more about music than I do and who sometimes hear the same concerts I have heard. I visit their blogs to read what a formally trained musician thinks of the music I have heard - although not before writing my own impressions. 

'Well I wonder who you are?' I replied rather disconcerted. 

Angel Place hall holds 1200 people and even if you know another blogger might be in the audience, you don't expect to be sitting next to them, or if you are, you don't expect to be told.

'Are you Marcellous?' I asked. 

Once or twice in five years Marcellous and I have commented on each other's blogs, which puts us, I suppose on the end of the friendship spectrum below 'vague acquaintance' level. 

He laughed. 'Yes I am!

It was a very odd feeling discovering the reality behind the blog, a feeling we seemed to share. But perhaps if we are seated next to each other again we might find we have progressed up the friendship table to 'more than vague acquaintances'. 

Hello Marcellous! My spell-correct keeps changing your name to Marvellous.

Photo books from fotobuch

They say in business that if you under-promise and over-deliver your clientele will keep coming back. I was reminded of this today when ordering photo-books.

Almost 10 years ago a friend in Germany told me she had tried several of the producers of photo-books and had found fotobuch.de the best. I ordered one shortly afterwards. Fotobuch.de has custom software that you download onto your computer.  To make the book you open the software then load your photos either automatically or manually.You add captions, or poems or other descriptors, choose the page background, photo frame size and colour etc. I always place photos manually and spend lots of time fiddling to make each page looks as good as I can make it. I have made quite a few over the years and each time I discover new features.

The main problem for me is that they don't ship to Australia so I have to make them when I am in the EU or get others to bring them for me. Two days ago I realised that the photobook I had made of recent photos could be brought home by traveling family members if I ordered it quickly enough and had it sent to Scotland where they are staying. They leave next Friday.

I put the order in on Wednesday evening, Wednesday morning their time. The fotobuch.de website says it takes 3-5 working days to produce books, and because I ordered two somewhat different books (one for me and one for them) I guesstimated five days but hoped for four.   If they were sent Monday evening they might just make it to Scotland in time.

An hour ago, Friday evening (Friday morning their time) I received an email saying the books have been delivered to DHL. Production took only two days and now they are on their way.  I was sent a  shipping number, so I can track them on the DHL website, which currently says they are being delivered to the local distribution center.  It looks promising, but I have no idea of shipping times in Great Britain. Surely books that have been produced in two days could be delivered in six?  I have my fingers firmly crossed.

[To fotobuch.de if you are reading this: I love your product, but please consider shipping to Australia!]

A story about coffee machines

I don't live near a large shopping center so when my old Sunbeam coffee machine needed replacing I had to drive some way. I had done a bit of online research and discovered my machine was no longer in production but that a similar small Sunbeam got good reviews.  I bought one of those from Harvey Norman, refusing the extra long warranty the shop assistant was very determined to sell me.

I took it home and followed all the instructions for prepping a coffee machine but when I tried to make my first cup of coffee next morning the machine didn't work. No water throughput. So I called the Sunbeam people, got a number and took it back to Harvey Norman and swapped it for a new one, the same brand and model.

It was a Mini Barista and once again I took it home and prepped it and all seemed in order. I couldn't believe my eyes when I tried it the next morning and it didn't work. I took a video of it not working as it seemed so unbelievable, but the Sunbeam man didn't seem to think it unbelievable and just said I should ask for my money back.

Before I returned to the shop this time I went to the local library and looked up coffee machines in  Choice magazine. I was chagrined to discover that this machine got a very low rating when compared to others (so much for google 'research'). I made a list of the top four and set off again to the shopping center. I returned the machine for a cash refund then looked around for something else. None of the top machines were sold by Harvey Norman so  I went around the corner to a Bing Lee shop where they were all on display. I bought the one at the top of the list and although I was asked if I wanted extra insurance there was  no hard sell.

Breville Barista Express

My  new machine is a Breville, rather more fancy and expensive than the other but it works like a dream and makes much better coffee than my older simpler one. Despite all the driving I consider myself very lucky the two Sunbeams failed and I ended up with a much better machine. The experience taught me to do better research than just looking on google before buying such items and it also made me wonder about Harvey Norman, Would I have got my insurance back for the failed machine? Why are they selling only substandard models? Is that true for all their products? Questions, questions.

Bread with porridge

Today I made the best bread loaf ever. It was a surprise as the bread was an experiment. I had added the rest of my uneaten porridge to the mix. I had to put in a few more spoons of flour when it became sloppy.  

My bread book said oats can be successfully added to bread but still I crossed my fingers hoping that I had not wasted the other ingredients by varying the recipe. I didn't expect it to produce my best bread ever.

I was given the bread maker several years ago. It had been an op-ed shop buy and has been a wonderful addition to my kitchen. Bought bread now tastes like fake bread to me so I'd have to replace the breadmaker if it broke. Or I could be like my mother who made her own bread with little kneading until she was over 90. 

Haferstuten= oat loaf

Addendum. The bread looked good but was not suitable to toast as it was so dense. Perhaps I added too much extra flour. Bread with porridge - not really recommended!

Musicians in Wellington

Last weekend I was captivated by two very different musicians. 

Simon O'Neill, the New Zealand tenor was one. He is one of those rare tenors who can sing Wagner repertoire. Since I heard him in 2014 his voice has deepened. It is now a rich and resonant treat. He sang the Wesendonck Lieder and his German diction was flawless. Congratulations Simon, it was a wonderful concert.

The NZSO, with whom he sang, played Bruckner's 4th Symphony after the interval. It is a long and demanding work but they played wonderfully well. . Bruckner is not my favorite composer, mainly because it is difficult to tune your digital player to play the alternating very loud and very soft music that characterises his work - if you adjust to hear the quiet parts the rest blasts you out of the room. In a concert hall however it is a different story and I loved the orchestra blasting out their forte parts - the audience vibrated with the music as the strings and horns threw themselves into the music. They must have needed masseurs the next day.

The other musician I saw on Sunday was very different. He was sitting at a painted piano on the Wellington (NZ) waterfront.  He played the way my self-taught father used to, with the left hand strumming time to the right. I found myself humming his tune all evening.


Addendum 23 June: Today I read that shortly before the Wellington concert, Simon recorded a lullaby in German and Te Reo Maori with the NZSO as a gift for the new baby of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (More about the recording here.)

A hat on a chair

Interior with chair and hat

I am taking an art class at the local art Centre, partly to connect with a few more members of the community, but also to practise working with a palette knife.

Today's effort frustrated me so much I scraped the whole thing off then drew into the mess left behind with the knife and a wet rag. I enjoy scratching away with a palette knife.  Tonight I decided to draw into it with Indian ink but discovered that my bottle of Indian ink has long since dried up. Tomorrow I will buy a new bottle.

Addendum (next day) I discovered today that Indian ink is no longer sold as people use it to tattoo themselves. I will have to check art shops because surely it is still needed for Calligraphy? (The man from the office supplies shop told me that typing fluid is also no longer sold as it was being sniffed. It made me wonder how many other products have been disappeared for our own good.)

I added a little more colour and strengthened the darks.

Electric winter

Knitted wool jumper - old now, but warm

I am not keen on the idea of electric blankets, that is, I not keen on the idea of lying on an electric current all night. Every year I say to myself that a hot water bottle will be a good substitute this year, and then June arrives. My house is an icebox in winter and the bedroom the coldest place of all, being on the south-side and (I am guessing) having no ceiling insulation. 

Once again I have succumbed, the electric blanket is on the bed. I switch it on in the evening so I have a warm bed, but switch it off before climbing into bed. I still don't fancy lying on an electric current all night.