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Varekai

We had the most fantastic night last night! Eyes darting all over the scene in front of us, our ears enchanted by the music, laughing at the antics of the clowns, smiling as the artists performed in the aisle in front of us, whispering and pointing as we spot artists appearing in different locations, playing with the masks in the shop and just absorbing the Cirque atmosphere.

We went Cirque du Soleil last night to see our fourth tour – Varekai (well forth for Mum and Matthew, the third for me) and oh what a magical show it was. Mum had got us the best seats, we were twelve rows back and smack bang in the middle, everything was laid out in front of us! Those seats were fantastic! Apart from Mum, Matthew and I, Grandad and one of my best friends Sam also came along.

One of the great things about this show is that there is a local boy(man) in the show, Steven Bishop and his assistant had the us holding our sides as their clowning antics sent us into fits of laughter.

Once again we were mesmerised by the costumes and make-up and would love to be able to see all the costumes close up and feel the beauty in them.

Now I really want to find a way to go to Las Vegas for the night so I can see the LOVE show as how could you top the music of the Beatles with the artistry of Cirque du Soleil?

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Study. Avoid Study.

There is really nothing that exciting to say as at the moment it is Study Week and all I have been doing is studying and avoiding studying by watching a couple of movies (Kuch naa Kaho was by far the best and Beautiful People came a close second), making biscuits, playing a few too many games of spider solitaire and that is really about all.

Study. Avoid Study. Study. Avoid Study. Repeat ad nauseum.

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Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey

You might be wondering what the deal is about the title for this post, well even if you weren’t I will tell you anyway. Pabbi has just been diagnosed with the D word aka Diabetes Type II. Currently his blood sugar levels are in a bad way – high 20’s, low 30’s – the normal level is between 4 and 6. Hopefully though as his medicine and diet changes kick in, it will improve.

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The internet is well the internet.
This blog (I really hate that word but let us keep on moving) has reconnected my family to at least three people so far and I think that is pretty cool.
We have hooked back up with Neele who was our first German exchange student in 2001.
My older brother has hooked back up with one of his mates from around the time Matthew was born in 87.
And just the other day I received an email for Mum from a Kiwi lady who knew Mum from the fish factory she worked in Iceland many, many years ago.

All through the power of Google!

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We spent the most delightful time this morning on the phone to Karl, whilst he was wandering round the streets of Berlin at 1am in the morning, killing time between his flights as he heads to Munich/ München for Oktoberfest. Mum started telling Karl about the time she had spent in Berlin and the bullet holes in the buildings, when he asked where they were and Mum of course couldn’t remember. I quickly hopped on Flickr and Google to see what I could find. I found a couple of streets and then by the time I was back on the phone with Karl, he had actually started to walk down one of the streets I had found on the net. Then as we talked, as he walked and looked for bullet holes, he found what he thought could be bullet holes, well more to the point, there was little else they could be – lots of dimples on old stone buildings, which matched with what I saw in photos. The wonders of technology!

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I also just watched the season three opener of Veronica Mars which MSN is showing before it starts on TV in the states next week . Bonus! Play the episode in Windows Media

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I am also in the midst of finishing an essay on the Japanese camera industry and I have to say not only is this essay coming out faster than any other, it certainly rocks writing about something I really enjoy and have a decent knowledge on already. I certainly never thought at the start of this degree that I would be writing an essay on Canon, Nikon, Sony and the like. Certainly pretty cool.

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Go Blood Go

Tonight is the last night of The Chaser’s War on Everything. 🙁 The Chaser is the best show I have watched on TV for a while now. Those guys have me cracking up from the get-go to the very end of the weekly 26 minute episodes and tonight is the last night 🙁 and the best thing is re-watching the clips either via the ABC or on youtube, it is just total gold.

That doesn’t explain the post title though does it?
This afternoon I picked Mum up from her school and we headed to the Blood Bank to donate 🙂 Since my blood likes to be a total drama queen when it comes to donating I was not that hopeful that I would be able to donate the 470ml, especially as we had a slow start with my veins playing hide and go seek and then my blood only wanting to come out at a snail’s pace.

In an effort to get my blood pumping I started whispering ever so quietly to my arm “Go Blood Go” and after much whispering the buzzer went that said my time was up and I thought what a bummer I didn’t get the full amount but as the nurse came over to disconnect me she told me that I had in fact reached 470ml just as the buzzer went.
It worked!!! All that quiet whispering worked!! And to make it even better I received a lapel pin since it was my fifth donation!

I went to the local fruit store today to get some goodies to make goodies for my birthday picnic on Sunday, one of the things that happened to catch my eye when I was there was Rose Petal Jam from Syria! I plan on having some on my toast in the morning 🙂

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Advance Australia Fair

I reckon our national anthem is a pretty good song, however there are just some cases when you wish the anthem was, say, slighlty more progressive, so when I came across a reference to ABC Comedian Adam Hills perfoming such a version this morning, I had to find myself a copy. A quick search of youtube and there she was in all her beauty 🙂 enjoy.

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Stick It

Well no Iceland post for today as I have spent the day scrapbooking 🙂 This past week I have been helping a friend out with her entry in one of the major scrapbooking comps here in Australia and it started my fingers itching to play.
A couple were done a couple of weeks ago but most were done today or yesterday.

Micra Power Pink Chucks Albatross Tessellated Pavement An Old Hops Kiln Mum

Mum and I went to Stick It tonight and loved it! It was a great movie however I think it will be/was pigeon holed by most as a teen girl movie however I think it had a couple of very good story lines and was very well produced and it also had a pretty kicking soundtrack.

As we were walking out of the cinema to go down to have supper the strangest thing happened. We were walking over to the lift and who do I see sitting near the cinema but one of my best friends from high school and her boyfriend, which was fine because they are quite the movie goers. Then as we walking to cafe area, a girl calls out to me and says “Hi Helen” and after a bit of chatting, I had no idea who she was at first but she said we had worked together and she was a year above me at school. Then after we parted I realised who she was and my jaw just kept on dropping. I had not seen her since June 2004 or so and she must have lost at least 30kg and was looking fantastic. I just kept on saying wow to Mum.

Then as we drew closer to the cafe, I walked past someone else I had worked with at a different store and had a chat to her as well that was not all one of the wait staff at the cafe we supped at was a couple of years below me in both primary and high school and we had played in band together. It was quite different.

I mean we were at our local shopping centre and pretty much everyone I have worked with or gone to school with would hang out, shop or work there but I have never run into that many people I have known in such a short space of time. I mean I work at this shopping centre and I might only see people I know once every fortnight or so.