Trivaali uutiskatsaus
A Trivial News Update
Tällä välin tapahtunutta:
Tein taitto- ja kirjoitustöitä. Panin pisteen pitkälle matkailujutulle, jossa suosittelin Morningtonin niemimaan uimarantoja perhematkailijoille. Tunnin kuluttua yleisradio uutisoi aiheeseen liittyen tällaista.
Lopetin seitsemästä toiveikkaasta kirjasta yhden. George Eliotin Silas Marner pääsee väliaikaisesta sijoituspaikastaan kirjahyllyyn.
Matkalla optikolle osuin ensimmäisten joukossa onnettomuuspaikalle. Autonromusta kuoriutui tuttuja ihmisiä. En pyörtynyt ja adrenaliinia riitti yli oman tarpeen. Päättelin, että ensiaputaidoissa on kehittämisen varaa. Tutisin kaksi tuntia jälkikäteen kiitollisena siitä, ettei kukaan kuollut tai vammautunut vakavasti.
Söimme oman korttelin Pizzas in the Mist -ravintolassa kolme ruokalajia plus juomat (PiM on ns. BYO-ravintola: omat pullot mukaan). Kotona aterian ja viinin jälkilämmössä kehkeytyi ylittämätön teoria miesvokalisteista. Tähän palaamme vielä.
Katselimme Bowralin elokuvateatterissa uuden Ylpeyden ja ennakkoluulon. Minusta romaani on liian monisyinen mahtuakseen pariin tuntiin, Keira Knightleyssa ei sinänsä mitään vikaa, eikä varsinkaan Matthew MacFadyenissä. Andy tykkäsi, etenkin kamera-ajoista mutta arvatenkin myös Keiran silmistä. Minä tykkäsin myös hanhista ja possuista.
Jätin viikkosiivouksen väliin (taas).
Hiljennyin katsomaan miesten permantovoimistelua. Ahhh. Andy nukahti minuutissa.
Luimme viikonloppulehdet sängyssä. Pohdin kuolemanrangaistusta. Luin typerän tarkkaan joululahjaliitteen. Järkytyin huomatessani, että jokikinen Australian ammattiorkesteri esittää tammi-maaliskuussa Vivaldin Neljä vuodenaikaa solistinaan Nigel Kennedy.
"Don't miss this unique opportunity to see on of the superstars of classical music performing at the height of his powers."
Aikakoneessako tässä ollaan? Missä ne ovat viettäneet viimeiset 10 vuotta, ja ylikin?
Nousin kello kaksi iltapäivällä.
Sääraportti: sumua, ukkossateita, tihkusadetta, sumua, tuulta, tyyntä, hellettä, sumua, rankkasadetta, sumua.
Meanwhile:
Finished writing a long story, in which I recommended the Mornington Peninsula's beaches for holidaying Finnish families. One hour after sending the story off, the ABC News reported this.
Finished reading one of the seven hopeful books. George Eliot's Silas Marner can finally take its place in the bookshelf.
I was one of the first to stop at the scene of a car accident. The first person to crawl from the wrecked car turned out to be someone I knew. It must have taken only a couple of minutes to make sure that, miraculously, no one was badly hurt. But what long minutes they were! I kept shaking for 2 hours afterwards. The lesson? While I did not faint at the sight of some blood, and produced enough adrenaline to function, there is room for improvement in my first aid skills.
Had a nice meal, with Andy, at Pizzas in the Mist (what a blessing to have such a nice place almost next door). Afterwards, warmed by the meal and the wine, I concocted a theory about male vocalists. I am afraid you are going to hear about it one of these days.
Watched the new Pride and Prejudice in the Bowral cinema. I find the novel and its characters too many-sided to fit in a 2-hour film. Nothing wrong at all about Keira Knightley, and especially not with Matthew MacFadyen. Andy liked the travelling camera shots and I suspect also Keira's eyes, although he muttered about her being 'too pretty' for the role. Do people really want their Elizabeth Bennett with warts?
Skipped the weekly cleaning (again).
Watched artistic gymnastics on TV - Men's Floor. [Sigh!] Andy fell asleep in minutes.
Read the weekend papers in bed. Pondered about the death penalty. Read the SMH Christmas Gift Special with embarrassing enthusiasm. Was shocked by the big ads about Nigel Kennedy performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons with each and every professional orchestra in the country.
"Don't miss this unique opportunity to see on of the superstars of classical music performing at the height of his powers."
Is this a time machine? Oh, I forgot, this is Australia.
Got up at 2 pm.
Weather report: mist, thunder, drizzle, fog, wind, calm, heat, mist, fog, heavy rain, more mist.
Comments - Kommentit
DATE: 9:09 PM
What's this about being in a "time machine"? As for the weather report - you seem to have forgotten that this is the "wide, brown land - a sunburnt country".Have you moved to New Zealand?Denis
Posted by: Denis | February 23, 2006 06:17 PM
DATE: 10:34 AM
I have never been to New Zealand, I'd like to. One tends to forget about the sunburnt bit these days, doesn't one? (For anybody else reading - Denis was being ironic I think, since all around us we see nothing but drizzle and green pastures these days.)Time machine - when I was working in the music industry somewhere in mid-1990s, Nigel Kennedy was playing Four Seasons everywhere (I seem to remember he was no longer quite at the 'heights of his power' even then). Good on him that he has made a comeback once more. Maybe he is better than ever... but I wish not all the Australian orchestras did exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, since there are not so many of them to begin with! They could ask him to play something else, for instance.Anni
Posted by: ah | February 23, 2006 06:17 PM
DATE: 11:31 PM
I'm with you on almost every detail from this entry! Silas Marner finally made it off my "Books I Really Ought To Read" this year (as did To Kill a Mockingbird and 1984; I was too depressed to get into Brave New World or Heart of Darkness)... Having waxed lyrical about the particular beach where my family goes (Brooms Head, far north NSW, near the river island where my mum grew up and with the southernmost coral reef in the Southern Hemisphere) to all and sundry for years, it came as a bit of a shock when someone was almost eaten by a shark there. But it was at Back Beach, after all - only crazy people swim there (serious rips all year round, cliffs at either end and surrounded by National Park. Pretty but dangerous!). Remind me to wax lyrical about this at a future point.Anyway, a bus ran into a block of flats three doors down last week. Incredibly enough - the bus pushed SEVEN CARS in front of it before ramming into the building - nobody was seriously injured.Long philosophical conversations about the comparative merits of Keira Knightley and Jennifer Ehle.Can no longer find my bedroom floor (nothing new).Did you see the women's floor finals? That poor Russian girl was robbed. The American who came first was wonderful, but Thingya Whatsherfaceskia (sorry, terrible memory for names, and it was VERY Russian) had ten times more precision and bounce and sheer sparkly exuberance than the drab little thing who came second. Shame!(But on the subject of sighing, my old youth orchestra has done a few concerts with the Queensland Ballet... it's amazing that any right notes were played from the woodwinds and anyone else facing "out" - all of the girls and most of the boys were pining after the beautiful backs of the male dancers!)I love Christmas catalogues. The David Jones one used to be fat and glossy but has gone woefully downhill. The Oxfam catalogue is always nice, as is Ikea (but it's also the product of a degenerate age, they used to be a lot funnier and had so much natural continuity that they took on qualities of narrative). But for sheer joyous browsing (and a win-a-library quiz into the bargain) it has to be Gleebooks. Mmmhmmm.Lats Christmas - or possibly the one before - I heard two Four Seasons in close proximity - Nigel Kennedy's wonky-haired and mildly interesting rendition, and a much more, um, interesting interpretation by the baroque group Red Priest. Second movement of Winter as a pseudo-steel-drum Jamaican daydream while the rain pours down the windows in soggy Venice? Drop the marshmallows in my hot chocolate and off I go!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 23, 2006 06:17 PM
DATE: 10:14 AM
You lost me a bit somewhere around the pseudo-steel-drums... Check Gleebooks catalogue p. 14, the Highly Recommended section for some excellent writing about music.
Posted by: ah | February 23, 2006 06:17 PM
DATE: 12:03 PM
Ah, yes, nepotism at its best. I like the sound of the glut-producing conservatories though. "Hotbeds of orgies, drugs, power and corruption," eh? As opposed to powerless and poverty-stricken; the closest the Sydney con comes to drug-fuelled orgies is when the composition students go down the hill to the Paragon for a drink on Wednesday nights. Although you can never tell what the lecturers are up to...And I bet Stephen Fry's book can't beat "Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys," which got me through at least six years of AMEB general knowledge grilling. (Favourite Bit: Brahms ate lunch every day at his favourite pub, The Red Hedgehog. FN: In later life, Brahms even began to resemble a hedgehog.)
Posted by: Look, I have a name now! | February 23, 2006 06:17 PM