Journal Day 42 - Sydney and 'The Barber Of Seville.'

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Sydney and 'The Barber Of Seville.'

I woke up this morning with the intention to go on my day-trip to the Blue Mountains but it was pouring rain and I was definitely still feeling a bit under the weather. So I canceled my 7:30am pick-up and decided to get my stuff organised. I've way too much stuff now. All my clothes are now in my hand-luggage as my rucksack is filled with souvenirs and handcrafted goods from around a variety of countries..!
I went for a bit of a walk around the King's Cross area and found a good cafe near Darlington Road to have a proper breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs etc.
It started pouring down when I was inside the cafe, with rain bouncing off cars, the pavement, and unfortunate people who had places to be, and soon water was flowing down the sides of the road. But as at that moment I actually had no place I needed to be I was more than happy enough to sit in the cafe for a few hours and write down my last few days journal entries up to yesterday's visit to the Sydney Opera House. And I've just realised that the Opera House 'journal entry' turned into more of a 'thesis'..?!
But that's ok I guess.

So i had to get myself back down to the Opera House for my date (with myself) to see 'The Barber of Seville.'

I've never been hadn't really have a clue what to expect.
I thought maybe it'd be a few big women and men singing/shouting for a couple of hours.
But the experience was really good. Just to see anything in the setting of the Opera House was worth the tick price alone. I felt a bit under-dressed amongst all the suits and dresses but fortunately there's no dress code and no one seemed bothered by my the fact I was wearing the exact same clothes that I wore tramping around the jungles of Chiang Mai.

The Barber of Seville by Rossini.

I recognised a few of the songs. like the 'figaro, figaro, fiiiiiigaro....' number! But I never knew it was actually a comedy. The whole opera was hilarious.

The story is basically about Seville's barber Figaro who is also the local fixer and go-to-man if you're looking something done!
The wealthy Count Almaviva falls in love with Rosina who is soon to be forced into marriage with her horrible guardian Dr Bartolo. The count wants her to love him for himself and not for his status and wealth so he asks Figaro for him help in wooing and freeing her from her prison within the house of the nasty Dr Bartolo. This leads to a succession of ridiculous plans hatched by Figaro which first succeed in getting her to fall in love with the Count and then into the Dr's house. But freeing her from his clutches proves to be a lot more difficult and complete chaos ensues! Eventually true love prevails though!
The whole thing was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen and the production, acting and singing was top-notch as you'd expect for the Sydney Opera House.

The theater was full and I was up in the side gallery which was the cheapest seat available but also meant I could look over the stage, the orchestra pit and the rest of the auditorium. As well as being just able to read the text box above the staff which translated the Italian singing into English subtitles which meant I could follow the story. But I think even without the subtitles you'd still be able to follow the story through the acting and expressions. Glad I went!

Walking along the harbour back to the train station I had a quick sit down on a park bench and pretty soon felt something hit my knee. A little brown stain. I looked at the ground. The entire surrounding area was covered with the same big brown, sandy splodges. I looked up and saw a few black silhouettes moving through the air. Bats?? Looking closer at the trees, there were absolutely tons of big bats... I'd just been pooed on by a bat! Yuck.
But it inspired another poem......

~Bat poo~

'From high up in a Sydney Tree,
A bat,
Just Shat,
Upon my knee....'

The end.

I'm thinking this poem has gotta be one of the greatest poems ever penned about the Sydney bat.... Top 10 at least!?

Its 5am Right now and I can't get any sleep tonight for some reason. Think it's a combination of having a head-cold and the fact that I'm flying to New Zealand tomorrow afternoon. I'd planned most of the itinerary for the other parts of my trip to get to New Zealand but I'd always assumed that the end goal was that I was simply 'going to New Zealand.' so now that this event is really happening in a few hours it's dawned on me that I actually don't really have clue what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go once I touch down in Auckland.

Well thinking about it I guess I'll start with Auckland being the answer to 'where I'm going to go.' And guess I'll worry about the 'what am I going to do when I get there' part later.

It's absolutely pissing it down outside now really loud, it's been raining consistently all day so I'm really glad I cancelled my trip to the Blue mountains.
At the time of writing now it is flippin 5:30am and it's just me and my cockroach flatmate 'Stephen' here in my tiny little room. I just yawned a minute ago and stretched out my body. Doing so I realised that if I stretch out my arms they span the entire width of the room... And if I stretch my legs and touch my toes against one end of the room, my head touches the other end. So my height and wingspan are the exact dimensions of the whole room.
I am the living embodiment of Leonardo Da Vinci's illustration of the Vetruvian Man.... Albeit a backpacker version, trapped within a smelly little $35-a-night cell defined in space by the limits of my own extremities. I should probably get some sleep and stop writing cloudy Sudafed induced nonsense.

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