The Heat Is On

Since my last post, the mercury's been climbing and today it hit a max of about 40 deg C. Not only that but the nights have been warm as well & I actually slept in shorts & T-shirt last night & practically threw off most of the doona ( Aussie-speak for quilt or duvet ) as the minimum temp only went down to 26 deg.
There was also high fire alert yesterday as the strong wind coupled with dry & hot temperatures makes for a perfect bush-fire condition. Heard on the news that indeed there were some fires out in the country, which were fortunately, not out of control. The rain that fell in the late afternoon and caused a bit of delay to the Australian Open tennis matches did not serve to reduce the temperature much at all.

Was at my usual Saturday morning church bookshop duty this morning and felt like having a really cold drink, so wandered out at lunch time to Melbourne Central, which is just round the corner from the church. As I was walking out, I felt the wind blowing in my face - it was actually warm ! Such a strange feeling for me, and somewhat distressing too, being used to the fact that winds are supposed to bring relief & refreshment from the heat in Singapore.

So I did what any self-respecting Singaporean would do to escape - I went to the movies ! Bernice, Olive & I just walked over to the cinema in Melbourne Central after we closed the bookshop for the day.

Hurray for the airconditioning, which was comfortable enough for me not to feel hot and yet not need any cardigan to cover up as we are used to in the cinema halls in Singapore. The seats at the Hoyts Cineplex in Melbourne central are quite comfortable & plush, with ample leg room, which is something I really love.
This particular cineplex has been renovated recently & boasts a hall in which patrons are seated in giant bean bags rather the the usual sort of seats. It is known as The Half-Pipe, which is cinema 2 of the cineplex. Apparently the prices are the same as for the other cinemas, and you can even arrange for special hampers of tid-bits & stuff to be sent to your bean bag. We make plans to return to try out the Half-Pipe in the future.

We watched Memoirs of A Geisha, which turned out to be a beautifully shot & scored film. Ultimately, however, it failed to really moved me, so I would have to give it a rating of 3 and a half stars out of 5. Felt that it was too westernised - the fact that the actors spoke in a kind of Japanese accented English was also irritating to me. The few times when they actually spoke in Japanese sounded better to me, even though I did not know what they were saying.It just felt more authentic to me somehow when they did that.

After the movie, Bernice & I had dinner at the little chinese place along Swanston Street where they have a $3.90 crispy chicken rice, which by Melbourne standards, is very cheap for a meal. The chicken is done beautifully, with the skin nice & crisp but flesh still tender. Only gripe I have is the fact that they don't put any vegies on it, so in order to make a balanced meal, I add on a beancurd and vegies soup.

I head home on the number 8 tram after that, which is filled with the usual Saturday night young "crowd" looking for Chapel Street fun. As I enter the apartment & open the window, the warm air outside makes me close the window back & turn on the airconditioning in the apartment for the first time.

Ahhhhh....bliss at last ! Well, I guess I will survive the heat after all. :-)

Hot & Dusty

Since it's summer here in Melbourne, we have actually had days where the max temperature climbed to almost 30 deg C. Still, the humidity has remained nowhere near Singapore standards, so thank God that it has not been unbearable so far. The weather forecasts had predicted up to 36 deg C last week ( that's higher than the highest recorded temperature in S'pore ), but thankfully, it only went up to 29 deg C, so I have not had to make too many changes to my daily wardrobe.

What's new & hot is the musical DUSTY - a totally new one based on the life & music of one Ms Mary O'Brien, whom the world knew as Dusty Springfield.

I had gotten tickets to the preview shows much earlier ( kiasu S'porean that I am ) & we found ourselves seated in the fourth row or thereabouts during the saturday matinee we attended a week ago.

And what a spectacle it was - colourful, dramatic & totally evocative of the times it portrayed. Kudos to the set & costume design team who created wonderful sets & beautiful & fantastical costumes. It was also an eye-opener as Jane, Nikolle & myself were not too familiar with Dusty's repertoire & even more so, her life story. All I knew was she sang one of my favourite Karaoke songs ( "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" ) and some really good ones like "I Only Want To Be With You" & had a comeback of sorts in the late 80s with The Pet Shop Boys ( "What Have I Done To Deserve This" ). She died in 1999, having succumbed to cancer & but not before she had been honoured with a "dameship".

It was a revelation to us, this story about her life, including some shocking bits ( at least to us ) about her sexual orientation. Wonder if it will ever travel to Singapore in view of this ? Well, if they had "RENT", I think Dusty should be acceptable too.

Also, unlike "Mamma Mia", which was also a very enjoyable musical featuring the music of ABBA, the writers of Dusty managed to weave songs that were in Dusty's rather extensive & hitherto unknown ( at least to us ! ) into a coherent & poignant story of her roller-coaster life. It was amazing to discover "new" songs, which were all the more meaningful, when placed in this context.

I found the whole musical very moving & actually shed tears at the end when they had the scene about her death. She possessed such talent but was apparently never quite confident of herself, constantly struggling with finding the perfect "sound" and even more sadly, the love & acceptance she so desired.

As a result, I have now in my possession 2 additional Dusty CDs - the legendary "Dusty in Memphis" recording ( the reissued one ), as well as a 2 CD set entitled "Dusty Springfield - Classics & Collectibles".
Truly, she was a great singer who managed to convey all the emotion of a song & make it intensely personal to all the listeners. Definitely recommended listening for all who love music with soul & for all aspiring singers !

Christmas Lights Downunder

Thought I'd post some pics I took of the Christmas lights in Melbourne. It's nothing like Orchard Road here, but they do have pretty fantastic displays in various places.
The best place for lights is apparently in Ivanhoe, along the Boulevard, but somehow I never made it there to check it out. So have to be content with the lights in the city area, around Federation Square.

This is the view of the giant tree at Federation Square. It's a synthetic monstrosity, not a real tree unfortunately. You can see a bit of the front part of Flinders St train station just on the left, and the lights & displays of the buildings at the corner of Flinders & Swanston Streets. This was taken at about 9pm, about 2 weeks before Christmas, while we were attending the free Christmas concert by the Richmond AOG church.


This is a pic of Sasha, Liz's 16 year old daughter, and moi, lounging on the comfortable cushion/chairs at the Ikea Christmas display at Fed Sq at the atrium just below the Ian Potter Museum area. Those teddy bear shaped cushion things are quite comfortable & fun too !





This is Liz & me standing next to a fairy covered in crystals in another part of the display. Quite pretty, don't you think ? I mean the fairy & lights lah....haha....
;-)











This is probably my favourite pic - what a gorgeous looking unicorn ! That's my favourite mythical creature.Look at the faces of the people behind - full of wonder.




This one is me in front of those really cute lights in the form of flowers - was really tempted to go Ikea to buy them...hehe...









This is a bit dark but you should be able to make out the gingerbread men having a party behind the penguins..."Kawaii" !

Finally, this is us standing in front of the Ikea tree - looks better than the Fed Sq one, doesn't it ? This display of lights was also to raise funds for the children - in the day time, you can choose to pay & take a picture with Santa in his transparent igloo in the centre of it all ( made from plastic actually ). The proceeds go to charity - good way to promote your products as well as do something worthwhile, don't you think ?

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...

Christmas - my most favourite time of the year ! Somehow there's excitement & a buzz in the air. It's interesting to note that for a lot of people it is just a time to spend with family, exchange gifts & have a feast, helped by the fact this is also when we get our year-end bonuses.
Here in Melbourne, this is the season of parties at work & many get in to the mood by wearing Christmas-themed stuff like dangly Christmas earrings & such at work. We even had special caps with holly & bells printed on them for use in the OT !
There were also manger scenes set up ( the hospital I go to most often was started by Catholic nuns ) - which I thought was a good reminder of what the season's all about.

I feel kinda sad when the birthday boy's ignored in the midst of all the celebrations...

Christmas for me turned out to be a time shared with many new friends & fellow contrymen & neighbours ( Malaysians lah, not the ones in the next apartment).
I hosted a potluck party on Christmas eve where we actually sat down & ate almost continuosly from 7:30pm to 1 am ! We had the usual Christmas fare - turkey, chicken, ham, potatoes, as well as pudding. As usual, everyone had been worried about not having enough food on the table, so we ended up with many leftovers - all had to go home with a package of food as I was also trying to clear stuff before my trip to NZ (more about that in another post). We also watched the live telecast of the traditional Carols by Candlelight, an annual affair held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. While chatting about the performers, we realised that we had absorbed quite a bit of Aussie culture or at least TV as we could actually identify quite a few of the TV personalities performing !
Either that or we have been watching too much tv....

Managed to get up & get to church for Christmas service on Christmas morning - had BK & Tze Gay & their kids Natalie & Ben join me for it as they were visiting from Singapore. We sang more of the contemporary Christian music rather than the traditional carols - and this included one of my favourites ( which is probably a clasic by now ) "We Are The Reason". After that I decided to invite Bernice, who was born in S'pore but raised in Melbourne, as well as Kim Poh & his family to my place for lunch. I needed help to finish my ham before I left for NZ the next day !
We managed to have a very nice lunch ( still had a quater of the ham left at the end, which the Ongs took home ) - I used up almost all of my salad greens & tomatoes, as well as cleared my stash of sausages bought from the Queen Vic market, plus my 2 mini pizzas (frozen). Also managed to get some nice cakes from the Laurent patisserie downstairs, which we had for dessert with coffee ( I got to use my french press bought at a sale at Glen Waverley !). The kids (KP has 3) had a great time watching my The Incredibles DVD with all the extras, so they didn't feel bored. I think they also enjoyed getting presents from me, as much as I enjoyed geting the tree up 7 the presents wrapped ! :-)

The evening was another eating session as I went to BK & TG's service apartment to meet them for dinner. TG cooked a nice roast beef with veggies & I brought along my salad & a Van Gogh cake from Laurent for dessert. Had a nice glass of Penfolds Shiraz with my dinner, and a lovely time catching up on news from Singapore, as well as hearing about their experiences when they were in Melbourne about 5 to 6 years ago for BK's fellowship.

Got back at about 12 midnite & had to frantically pack for the NZ trip - finally went to bed at about 3am, feeling very happy & contented about my first Christmas downunder.