Sondheim birthday

Highlight of the last few days was the performances dedicated to Stephen Sondheim for his 90th birthday. It included some wonderful things, including The Ladies Who Lunch performed by Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep and Audra McDonald and a cameo from Randy Rainbow.  It's on YouTube, and well worth watching.

Unfortunately I missed out on the Met Gala, as they only left it up for a couple of days.  I hear it was also fun.

However I did catch up with a rather odd production of Nabucco - the production was pretty opaque, so I left it on in the background for the music.

Adrian had asked if I'll help getting Loclan up to speed in editing repeat programs, something I'm more than happy to do.

Today I made some rolls/small loaves.

More opera

Highlights of today were a nice catch-up, via Zoom, with Brent, then tonight I watched Britten's Gloriana. This has been made available on YouTube by the Royal Opera, I think until the end of May.

It's an interesting piece, with some extraordinary orchestral writing. The production,  by Richard Jones, sets the opera as performed in a village hall. Simon B. visible in the chorus.

Successive views of demolition of fancy car showroom. 

Mailout in isolation

Today I was joined by a few of the 3MBS staff to stuff envelopes for this month's mailout. All went fairly smoothly, except that because of the huge numbers of renewals (May is Radiothon month) we ran out of On Air magazines - many of those getting renewals letters would be receivers of it by email.

Not a lot else to report - last night I baked a big pile of vegetables for dinner and will use some of what's left to make a frittata.

I was going to process Monday's repeat files this afternoon connecting to the new remote server Sam sent me the link to, but it turns out it's crashed. So I'll do them tomorrow using the usual connection.

What used to be the motorcycle warehouse is being demolished

All gone!

Space Station sighting

Yesterday evening I saw the ISS pass overhead - almost directly above me. I'd heard about it from some alert I'd  seen online. It was easily identified and moved a lot faster than I expected.

It's due again tonight, as is a meteor shower, though that is a bit too late for me.

Today I was actually busy: after my morning shop and coffee I went to 3MBS where Manny plan was to print off the labels for this month's mailout. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. I had problems with the printer, then, when that was sorted out, I realised that the file Richard had sent me hasn't been sorted by postcode.

After a bit odd to-ing and fro-ing with Howard and Richard I finally got everything printed and managed to get the individual postcodes and the VCR sequence labels on the envelopes. Grace was going to be in this afternoon to print out the renewals.

Richard and some of the other staff will be in tomorrow to take envelopes to be stuffed along with boxes of On Air. I'll go in and do a bit of stuffing myself.

While I was there I got a message from Australia Post saying that the box of wine I was expecting (that was over a week late) had been taken to the Abbotsford Past Office.

I left a bit after 1pm to be home in time for the delivery of the produce box from The Farm Cafe. Of course, when I got home the boss was sitting on the doorstep. I gave the milk, a bunch of bananas and a cucumber to Steph next door.

At 4pm Margaret and I did today's quiz via Zoom (we scored 17) and after that I took the shopping jeep (in which I found the umbrella I thought lost) over to the Post Office to collect the Scion wine.

The ISS is the light in the middle

Autumn

Quiet weekend

Yesterday and today were much like each other, in fact, much like all the previous days. I only did one walk yesterday, but this afternoon did another 40 minutes.

Did a bit of pruning of the roses late today for material for the green bin. While in the back yard I noticed that the jonquils, the leaves of which I'd noted yesterday were looking very healthy, are flowing.  In April!

Yesterday I ordered another produce box from the Farm Cafe, to be delivered on Wednesday afternoon.  The wine from Scion still hasn't arrived, and I bet it turns up tomorrow morning when I'm at the radio station (early shift tomorrow).

Early jonquils

Another Friday

The time ticks on.

Yesterday I had a lovely Zoom conversation with Mariese - so good to just sit and chat.  The afternoon was taken up editing all the programs for playout next Monday.

This morning I woke to find a text message from Geoff C - he was to present his first Daybreak, but couldn't work out what to do and was, understandably, Derry frustrated.  Stewart had gone in but was unable to solve the problem. I asked if the green light was on in Studio 2 - it was, so i said just start broadcasting.  There's nothing to be done, it all happens automatically.

It turns out he hadn't got Adrian's email to all presenters - a confusion over his email address.

Later this morning I had a call from Stewart M, after he'd tried to help Geoff he'd gone out for a walk but was unable to get back into the building. I went around, but my fob wouldn't work either.  I left Stewart waiting for the security company - he called me later to say that the building security system had failed.

This afternoon I listened to Marschner's Vampyr, the recording with Kaufmann as Aubry. It stands up well.

Yet another random photo

New experience

This morning I went up to the health centre to get some more tablets and asked for an appointment to see the doctor.  They're mainly doing phone consultations at the moment and, surprisingly, there was a spot available at 3:15.

Then I went of to get the paper and a coffee, before doing the quiz over Zoom with Margaret (some habits can't be broken by isolation). After lunch it was time for another walk as the cleaners were coming.

The doctor was about 20 minutes late in calling, but all was done quite quickly - I hope it helped him catch up a bit.

Tonight's Mad as Hell finished with an excruciatingly funny sketch about getting a haircut while socially distancing - made even funnier by having Milo Kerrigan as the barber. Even Francis Greenslade was corpsing; I was in tears.

Autumn colours

Opera and theatre

The days are blending together - I've got myself into a good routine which involves walking the long way to the IGA where I buy a paper and anything else I need.  Then I come home via Mavis for a coffee. 

Then, after cleaning what I've bought and washing my hands thoroughly, I sit down to read the paper, have some toast and coffee, and finish with the puzzles page.

The past few evenings I've decided against the free-to-air offerings on TV and watched a variety of things from YouTube and other sources. In the last week or so I've seen three Mozart operas, Bartered Bride,  Jane Eyre from the National Theatre, and tonight it's Rigoletto from Dresden with Damrau and Flores.

Today's loaf. 

Voyager

Tonight I'm watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager inn which 7 of 9 is left alone to run the ship while the staff are in suspended animation. Every day for her is the same and she begins to hallucinate.

I'm not saying my position is like hers, I'm certainly not seeing things, but there are certainly parallels.

Normal routine this morning, but when I got back and had my breakfast (crumpets today) I got stuck into editing the repeat programs for next Monday.

Another walk this afternoon - asparagus and mushroom risotto for dinner.

Random rrose photo

Not sure what happened to Wednesday

But it's Thursday today ... usual routine: walk to the IGA, followed by coffee from Mavis.  Back home for coffee with toast followed by time spent in the puzzles page from The Age.

Another walk this afternoon, then home again to prepare another Daybreak program for May.

After dinner I watched most of the MSO Messiah from last year. I'd avoided going at the time as it was Sir Andrew Davis's re-orchestration, but as it turned out it was actually very good. Siobhan Stagg was the soprano and was sounding very beautiful; the MSO Chorus was also splendid.

Tomorrow is Good Friday, so I'll probably do even less than today.

Random photo of a passion flower (seasonal)

If it's Tuesday ...

Largely uneventful day today (there's bound to be many more to come).

My main achievement was cooking the no-knead bread I left to prove overnight. While it's really easy to make, I do miss a good sourdough - though I can't be bothered to generate a proper starter.

The remains of the produce box are gradually getting used, my diet has become mostly vegetarian.

Signs are that Australia, or at least Victoria, has managed to flatten the curve.  We have to make sure not to ease up on restrictions too soon or we'll just be back where we were.

This morning's loaf. 

First cab off the rank

This morning was the first Daybreak under the new arrangements at 3MBS. From today only Daybreak and Intermezzo will be live presentations - at all other times re- packaged programs from last year will be played, ensuring that we keep broadcasting.

Last week I went in a few times, including to present my last Singers and Songs program, but from today most of my work will be from home.  I won't go back for a fortnight.

My daily routine is to shower and dress and go for a brisk walk to Johnston Street, to the IGA for the paper and anything else I need. I come home via Mavis, with a coffee. Then it's read the paper over toast and coffee, finishing with the puzzles page.

A bit of editing work can take me through to the afternoon, when I try to have another brisk walk.

Of course, all this time I'm constantly monitoring my phone for social media and news.

The internet provides a lot of distraction as well as an extraordinary level of communication - texts, emails,  video hookups ...

Photo from Saturday,  April 4

2020 is a mess

Well, it's been over a year - let's try again.

The world has changed into a very strange place with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the moment we in Melbourne are in lock down, with limited reasons allowed for going outside.

Currently I'm still presenting programs at 3MBS, albeit from tomorrow it will only be once a fortnight. But I'll still be working from home, re-packaging programs from last year for broadcast. There will now be only two programs per day presented live-to-air: Daybreak and Intermezzo, with the rest being recycled material.

I find when I'm not doing this editing work, I want to cook. The down side being that then I have to eat what I've cooked. Not a good combination with reduced physical activity. I'm trying to get in at least two walks a day, but this may become more difficult as the weather gets more unreliable.

I've started watching operas, and other performances, on YouTube and the newly created Melbourne Digital Concert Hall - certainly a great way of passing the time. One can only watch so many dramas on Netflix.

Photo: Botanic Gardens, April 3, 2010