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Published: January 24th 2007
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10/01/07 - 16/01/07 Sydney once more (and Molong)
Our last visit to Sydney was an eclectic mix of shows from the fringes of street entertainment up to the prestige of Verdi at the Opera House, sandwiched round a weekend of country hospitality as we visited our friends out in Molong.
In our smartest clothes - jeans, we mixed with the throngs in their suits and cocktail dresses to a fantastic performance of La Traviata, breathtaking in both its sets and arias.
The next night we saw ‘Small Metal objects’ a show as part of the Sydney Summer Festival. Seated in a makeshift-seating stand in the street we sat, each wearing a pair of headphones, faceing a public concourse area of Circular key. The voices in our heads started talking and we stared forward trying to work out which of the passing public were actually the actors. Eventually it became clear and we watched the cast of 4 act out the street scenario. The other stars of the show were the innocent members of the public passing the area who either instantly saw that something was happening and walked around behind the stand, stood staring to see what we
were watching or the more gregarious characters dancing and generally playing up to the crowd, sometimes directly in front of the actors that we were trying to watch.
We headed out to Molong for the weekend to see Becks and Wendy (PJ girl to regular readers). Our Friday night was in the local pub and onto the bowls club at closing time. Nursing our hangovers on Saturday morning we visited Beck’s parents farm and met their huge dog that people think is a horse and their one eyed sheep that thinks its a dog! Our country experience continued with a trip up to Plonky’s farm to view his rare vintage tractor collection (one is allegedly worth AUD 2 million!!!)
It just so happened that up the road in Parkes that weekend was the annual Elvis festival - Australia’s largest Elvis event. We headed over for the evening, unfortunately missing the moment when the Guinness world record was broken for the most Elvis impersonators in one place. Previously at 78, Parkes managed an impressive 147! There was still enough Elvises to go round though and plenty of Priscillas on the side - and plenty of Elvis karaoke into the
night!!!
We waved goodbye to our friends at Lithgow and headed back to Sydney on the railway, passing scenically through the Blue Mountains.
Our last day in Sydney, after 3 months in Australia!! We headed out to Bondi Beach and spent the day chilling in the cafes and browsing amongst the secondhand bookshops. For our last evening we headed to another Sydney Summer Festival event, Mamootot, described in the festival programme as,
the audience is seated close to the action on all four sides of the dance space. Choreographer Ohad Naharin dissolves the boundary between audience and performers, inviting you to see a world of seductive sensuality and compelling mystery from the inside.??Mamootot is a work of arresting honesty, stripped down to essentials in set, lighting and costumes. Nine gifted dancers generate an atmosphere of erotic heat and a spellbinding sense of wonder that flows in and around you.
The most unusual part of the show was when one of the male dancers stripped naked and continued to dance, swinging bits and all, for a section of the show, before finally dressing again to finish the show, thank goodness, fully clothed!!
We hit the Opera Bar for final drinks with Dave and Lou and decided, as it was our last night to check out the cocktail list. As Lou works there, we were invited by the manager to drink in the private party for the Stomp Lost & Found Orchestra show. We graciously accepted and enjoyed the free sparkling wine and canapés, chatting to ‘Seal’!! We didn’t want the night, and our time in Oz to end, and so carried on to another
bar in Sydney, which we thought was rather quiet. It turned out that 2 nights earlier the whole bar had been robbed at gunpoint by masked men, with both the bar’s money and all customers valuables being handed over. That explained why it was so quiet, but with a lightning doesn’t strike twice philosophy we stayed for a couple of drinks. With only 3.5 hours sleep before leaving for the airport we finally called it a night!
We had no idea what fun we would have filling out our New Zealand quarantine form. Having visited a farm and been in contact with animals (apart form cats and dogs) within 30 days we had to answer ‘Yes’ to virtually all the questions that you really want to say ‘No’ to on the form.
After a small interview with a quarantine officer, showing both our walking boots (non-soiled) and dried fruit snacks and explaining our one-eyed sheep story, we were allowed through into New Zealand!!
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