random life – Page 29 – helenthura.com

September 28, 2008

Water and Fireworks, a dangerous combination

I am sitting at my desk, looking out at the bottle brush, waiting for the family of possums who live in the tree to wake up and start their evening’s play and I just glanced at the corner of my desk and caught my eye on the brochure from the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra concert I went to about ten days ago and thought I really should write about that.

I have every intention of catching the train to QPAC in my refined orchestra listening clothes but time very much got the better of me and the shawl I wanted to wear was at Mum’s place so I ended up driving but I wasn’t going to pay for parking! I parked on the street outside Gambaros at South Brisbane and walked the streets of South Brisbane in my finery instead.

They played three of the Water Music Suites first (D major, HWV 349; G major and minor, HWV 348; F, HWV 348). Which was a reasonable treat but I fully admit I dozed on and off through it (just like I always do in the first half of any performance). After the interval it was time for what I was just begging to see, Music for the Royal Fireworks. The females in the orchestra had changed outfits from black tops with purple skirts to black dresses of a wide variety of styles. It was everything I thought it was going to be and more. The opening strains had me sitting upright in my seat, eyes sparkling as I watched the various sections joining in.

I have no shame in admitting that one of the reasons that I like Music for the Royal Fireworks so much is that at the first concert for the king it featured a nice large number of bassoons ( the superior instrument) and oboes.

It was so great seeing the cellists playing cellos with no endpins, just holding it between their knees. It was also humorous watching the various horn players (all with no valves) constantly empting the spit. One of the cool things was the theorbo player, I had never seen one before it was quite interesting to watch. The funniest thing though was watching the Paul Dyer the founder/artistic director/harpsichord player get really excited during sections and get up from his bench and play with great vigour. It was a fantastic night and I am going to keep an eye out next year to see what the Orchestra offers on their next tour away from Sydney.

September 25, 2008

Ship Visits

The past weekend the HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Leeuwin have been in town and of course on Saturday they were open for a looksie. We ended up having a Medical Section family afternoon out with three of us from Med and three other family members. We toured the ships, had some good laughs and ate way too much ice cream at Hamilton Portside afterwards.

There was a really impressive turn out of people for the afternoon and both ships put on really good tours. The Melbourne had people stationed at various points where the people accumulated waiting for people to climb stairs ready to have a chat about whatever they were near. On the Leeuwin we had good fun looking through the binoculars with which you could see a fly on a leaf 2km away, ok maybe not quite but they were slightly impressive.

On Monday the main deck of the HMAS Melbourne was the place where the enlistment ceremony took place for this months Navy intake. In addititon to the ceremony been on the Melbourne, it also saw the fourth son of one family enlisting. This meant that the Chief of the Navy was in town to do the honours and the press turned out for the occasion.

September 11, 2008

Birthday Eve

I had a bit of flex time up my sleeve so I had a Birthday Eve day off (also because I was taking cake to work for my birthday and I wanted cake on my birthday not on the day before or after). I slept in till 7am!!! I did some washing, took care of the 1.8kg hunk of Pancetta I picked up last week, replied to some emails and then I headed off into the city. First off I collected my ticket for the Brandenburg concert and then I went to GOMA and checked out the Picasso exhibit at last (it closes on Sunday), that was everything I thought it was going to be and more. It was a really well presented exhibit. Getting a chance to see the works of Matisse, CÃ©zanne, Rousseau, Renoir and all the other pieces that Picasso had collected presented alongside his own work was really good. At the GOMA shop I picked up one of the spilt pain teacup sets, it looks so good (I will take a photo of it later)

Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!

After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.

Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies 😀 Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some 🙂 After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.

Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed 😀 so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today 😀

September 9, 2008September 9, 2008

Bridge to Brisbane

On Sunday I did the Bridge to Brisbane with a friend who works in the Maroochydore recruiting office and another one of her friends. We completed the 10km walk/jog in a little under 1hr 20 mins and shortly after we crossed the finish line, we were deciding that our goal for next year was to jog the entire way and hopefully get near the 1hr mark.

It was such a great morning. Everyone was happy,sweaty and content. As we entered the RNA grounds, I picked up my pace and moved into a faster jog, thinking that the finish line was just round the corner, except it wasn’t just round the corner. I rounded corner after corner till I saw the gates to the arena that marked the 200m to go mark. I wanted to stop but I knew that if I stopped or slowed down my pace I wouldn’t get to the finish line, plus there were heaps of people lining the final 200m who had already completed the race and well I didn’t want to look like I had walked the entire race did I? I crossed that finish line and man oh man I was slightly buggered but I felt so good.

Now I am just waiting for midday on Thursday (my birthday!) for the results to come online to see where I placed in the 36000 people who competed.

September 1, 2008

Fireworks, music and photos

One of my favourite pieces of work to play either on Flute or Bassoon at high school was Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Musicso imagine my delight when I saw an ad in the paper on the weekend saying that the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was about to start touring this piece! I booked my ticket this morning and thanked my mother for qualifying for the under 30 price 😀 The tour includes Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, details here.

On the topic of fireworks, this past Saturday night was Riverfire, the night that Brisbane puts on a firework show just because we are Brisbane and we have a mighty cool river. This year unlike previous years, I watched Riverfire from the hill that I live on.

I loved how they had coordinated the fireworks so well together. There was some song about two hearts and they had the heart shaped fireworks 😀

sigh fireworks.

The second dump and burn to mark the end of the show.

This is the view from my hill and the about a third of the crowd (the rest were behind me)

August 17, 2008

RACQ Woes

It all started Saturday morning, I was in the car, all ready to make my weekly trip to the West End Markets.

I turned the key, the engine turned over but then nothing. I tried again. The same again. Luckily Andrea and her boyfriend so we were able to jump-start the car and then it was fine and off to the markets. I thought I must have just left an interior light on.

Sunday arvo, I needed to make a trip to the shops. I was making something. Oh yes that is right, I was making pasta and and needed some meat to make a sauce for dinner. I hopped in the car, turned the key and nothing. The engine didn’t turn over, the battery light didn’t light up. I was not happy.

I borrowed Andrea’s car and went to the shop and came home and kept making pasta (I had ravioli the next three days for lunch or dinner (so yummy) and I now have two containers of pasta dried in the cupboard ready for use.

Thinking of my week ahead. I called the RACQ after I had eaten on Sunday night. A nice chap came, had a look round the inside, tested the battery which had a paltry 0.2v left in it. He noted that the battery was just over four years old so was probably reaching the end of its natural life. He filled the battery up with water and advised me to take it for a long drive to charge the battery.

Monday arvo, I hopped in the car, turned the key and nothing. So I called the RACQ again, a test of the battery showed that it had 0.2v in it again, the RACQ guy advised me that I really should have had put the battery on a bench charge overnight to charge it 100% but who has one of those laying around. I asked him to just replace the battery and hopefully that would fix everything.

Tuesday morning, I jumped in the car and drove it down the street to the train station. Yeah it worked!!! Tuesday afternoon I walked back to my car from the train station. I turned the key in the lock and woe is me, only the driver door unlocked. Still I jumped in the drivers seat and turned the key. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

I called the RACQ again and he was at my car in minutes (I had seen him with another car outside the train station. This time he jump started it, had a really good look round the car to see if there was a light or something that could be draining the battery and found nothing. After a quick call to the Auto-Electrician to see if they could have a look at the car. I drove the car over and left it parked outside.

I got a call the next day. The alternator had gone. It is now fixed though and my car is running smoothly again D: