Have to catch up a little. Where to start? Oh yes. I had the pleasure of a few swanky boat rides through the bays in and around Sydney the last weeks. First, friends of my step-mother Barbara and my dads here in Sydney invited me to join them all on a three-day ride through Pittwater. Then, the next day, Jamie invited me out on his boat for a cruise through the huge Sydney Harbour Bay together with a bunch of his Argentinean friends here in Sydney. Fabulous! It looks like we are going to repeat this the coming weekend...
Last Sunday - Australian Dance Awards in the Opera House. My friend Clare from Sydney was shortlisted in two categories and had hence to come down to the ceremony, and thus we could catch up for a drink in the Opera Bar just before the event. It was great seeing her again and getting to know her mum and brother. And lots of very arty dance people... Just before the show started, someone showed up (in fact, the woman who runs Australian Dance Victoria, really lovely - and she will have to organize next years awards...) with a spare ticket - so I got to see the event, too. What I had imagined as a rather boring ceremony turned out to be a very entertaining evening with lots of very different Australian dance performances - ranging from traditional Torres Straits Islander dance over classical ballet to ultra modern video/dance installations. And Clare won the award for her last piece! Fabulous.
The after-show party was in a hip bar near Circular Quay, lots of free champaign and more gorgeous dance people. It was really great watching things and talking to people. The social equivalent of the dinner of a physics conference - and as different from that as possibly imaginable!
On Monday, I went to Canberra to catch up with a dear friend down there. The train was effectively empty, but I had a nice man sitting next to me. His wife was sitting in the next car which initially struck me as slightly odd, but later on I got to understand why, at least I think I do now. Unfortunately he really suffered very badly from logorrhoea... (that is the verbal equivalent of diarrhoea) After an hour of what had been a quite interesting conversation (somewhat uni-directional, though), I spent about an other hour only responding with the absolute minimum of politeness by occasionally making grunting noises and a rare "really?".
Even me finally turning towards the window and going almost entirely quiet did not really make him stop his monologue. I then had to resort to feign sleep (in fact, I was quite sleepy from the night out before), but he still intercepted with his "conversation" many times. Only when I had seized a somewhat longer break in his indefinitely streaming accounts of his life to plug in the headphones of my music player, I was finally safe. I happily dozed off to some South American tunes. When I woke up after what must have been more than an hour, we were just about to arrive in Canberra, where Liz picked me up from the station. What a strange city Canberra is! So many trees, so few people... But truly interesting - a fully planned city. It was very nice to get to see the government buildings.
On the way back to Sydney on Wednesday, the bus had to make a major detour to avoid a bushfire near te highway. Other than that, nothing much to report. I did enjoy the quiet ride thoroughly, though.
Other than this, not much to report. I have moved on now to posh Manly, to Annas place. I had met Anna ages ago in Argentina and she now lives and works here in Sydney... Small world!
