Saturday, December 23, 2006

Good news

I had my regular twice-yearly checkup yesterday, giving the usual collection of blood samples to the friendly resident vampire at the health centre. The doctor wrote out a prescription for six months more Lipitor for the cholesterol and before I left took my blood pressure. It was 110/70 which I understand is pretty good.

In the evening I went to the editorial Xmas party at the Northcote Bowling club. Not long after I arrived we were treated to a magnificent downpour of actual rain. Despite the loud music it was quite an enjoyable night the highlight of which was the awarding of the "Wokka Awards", named after Warwick Fairfax. A bit of fun for all.

Off to the slow food farmers' market this morning with P&B. They went off this afternoon to see Dame Edna while I managed to do a little cleaning up and sorting.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Advance warning

For various reasons I am very soon going to change the address of this blog. The new address will be that of the alternative blog I set up earlier this year: http://lifebythepark.blogspot.com. The few postings that were at that address will disappear.

I'm warning regular users so they know where to look when I make the change, probably early next week.

Smoke and the city

The smoke from the bushfires in the east of the state choked the city again today. The visibility was so bad this morning that sun was a red ball, and the city buildings were barely discernible from the station. More of the same is expected tomorrow though a change of wind is predicted for the morning. Let's hope it blows away some of the haze.

When I opened the front door it was this depressing prospect I saw and I dragged myself unwillingly out into it - I could have stayed at home and finished the cleaning. Equally unwillingly I braved the city and its shopping-crazed hordes.

I hope there is some relief from the fires soon, and by relief I mean rain. There's supposed to be a thundery change on Friday. We'll see.

Though there won't be any relief from the crazed hordes until next week - and I still have to get to the market for the berries.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Getting there

It's not been the happiest couple of weeks, what with the burglary and Pushka's passing. I get home expecting to hear her insistent miaow outside wanting to come in, or expecting some food or water or even just a cuddle.

However things are improving with replacements starting to appear. And last night's Gombert concert also helped to make me feel a bit better as it went off very well; I enjoyed singing the fascinating program very much. Afterwards there was a reception for the subscribers with champers and nibbles which was a nice way to top things off. And Tat has kindly lent me an amplifier until my replacement arrives in stock next month.

Today I went for my usual visit to Mum who is well and was looking very chirpy today.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Vale Pushka

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Still smoky

The air today has been thick with smoke again, worse than on the weekend; the smell even penetrated the air conditioning at work.

Yesterday I had the day off and spent most of the day with BN installing some software for her and reorganising the tangle of wires on her desk. We also set up her new scanner which she will use to sort through a lot of her old pictures. We had a lovely time, catching up and generally enjoying ourselves.

Afterwards I came home for a quick dinner before racing off to rehearsal at Trinity for Saturday's Gombert concert. I do enjoy singing: at its best it's like very satisfying; when everything works it's such a buzz.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

A short weekend

Yesterday morning was exceeding eerie; the air was full of smoke from the bushfires and the visibility was very low. The smoke gave the light a strange, foreboding quality.

I've had a fairly busy weekend: yesterday morning we had a rehearsal for EG in the morning followed by lunch with the choir at the Great Northern in North Carlton. The food was good and the place was not screamingly busy or too expensive.

After lunch we all returned to Trinity Chapel to rehearse and then sing for a wedding. It all went off OK but you have to wonder at the ethos that expects the guests to dress up in dinner suits and evening gowns for an afternoon wedding on one of the hottest days so far. Or ever, really. Seriously, is there anything more uncomfortable? And meaningless.

Afterwards NE, who had kindly picked me up, dropped me back home and I managed to sneak in 30 winks before setting for B&P's for a delicious meal of smoked trout, cajun chicken salad and berries and ice cream. KL was there as well and it was lovely to catch up.

This morning I was off a little earlier to Mum's before coming in to work. The upside of working today (Sunday) is that I get Tuesday off. Mum's place was nice and cool, especially the bathroom. By now the change has hit; I hope those fighting fires get some rain and relief from their desperate situation.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Moments musicaux

In my annoyance at the weekend's unauthorised entry I forgot to mention a couple of very enjoyable musical experiences I had last week.

On Friday night I went with B&P to hear Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges superbly played by the MSO with a great group of singers headed by Sumi Jo. It was such a treat to hear this magical score played and sung so well. The concert began with Leopold Mozart's eminently forgettable Toy symphony (why on earth do they bother?) followed by Wolfgang Mozart's wonderful Prague symphony; the son's piece well and truly making up for the father's embarrassment.

Then on Saturday DG took me to see Opera Australia's production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. Neil Armfield's clever direction made this a very funny and ultimately extremely satisfying night of music, love and life. Splendid.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Enough, already!

I was burgled again on the weekend and I'm not happy. The usual things were taken, mostly easily replaceable electronic equipment but this time they trashed the place, even going through my drawers.

As well, they made a dog's breakfast of my back door requiring a locksmith to come today; though, if I'd had the right heavy-duty pliers I could have saved myself a lot of money for what took him all of 15 seconds to do.

I did all the proper things and the police duly came and took details, dusted the glass doors for prints and took pictures of all the mess. According to the lovely Tristan CSI they use the pictures for when they apprehend the perps, "to remind them of the place they burgled". Let's hope they have some success. Still, the idea of photos of my bedroom and study being on file at Collingwood police is strangely comforting. Or is that just strange?