My Fair Lady

Opera Australia is currently staging 'My Fair Lady' celebrating the musical's 60th anniversary. The production is directed by Dame Julie Andrews.

I saw OA's previous production (about ten years ago?) which was very good and wasn't intending to see this one until friends told me how much they enjoyed it.

I agree with them.

This is a magnificent production. The staging, the sets, the costumes, the performances, indeed every aspect of this production shines. Alex Jennings (Professor Higgins), Reg Livermore (Alfred Doolittle) and Robin Nevin (Mrs Higgins) are outstanding in the ensemble cast.

★★★★★

Valletta streets

More images from Malta's capital.

Somewhere.....

....just now

In front of my apartment

Keeping Up With The Joneses

A sleepy suburban community is dewy eyed at the arrival of the Joneses, a couple too perfect to be true. Their neighbour (Australia's Isla Fisher) smells a rat and sets out to discover the truth.

Fisher is the most interesting performer in 'Keeping Up With The Joneses'; a comedy with occasional laughs that misses the mark more often than not.

★★

St John's Co-Cathedral Valletta

Information about the Cathedral here.

Snowden

'Snowden' relates the background and events leading to Edward Snowden's release of thousands of classified documents from the United States' National Security Agency.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite brilliant in the title role, an assessment confirmed by the appearance of the real Snowden at the end of the film. Although the subject matter feels a little dry at times, with so much technical dialogue employed, the film remains interesting throughout.

Quite thought provoking.

★★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 39.43%, 12/14

Valletta

Information about Valletta, the capital city of Malta, here. Some photos from our visit.

The entrance to the old city under restoration

Municipal buildings designed by Renzo Piano

Old buildings, new uses

Republic Street

President's Square (I think)

Narrow, hilly streets

Bridge

Tonight, 39.42%, 8/8

Mr Blogger and Mr Apple - Please get together

I'm having great difficulty downloading photos or images into blog posts. I suspect it has something to do with macOS Sierra, the latest operating system for Mac Books, which I downloaded on my return from overseas this week.

I am mightily pissed off having wasted considerable time today trying to get back into blogging for no benefit.

If anyone from Blogger.com or from Apple notices this complaint would you please provide help or better still fix the frigging problem.

Any readers who can help are welcome to provide comment or advice to this post.

In the meantime consider me off the air from Blogger until further notice. Friends can find me on Facebook.

Bridge

Tonight, rusty after a month away, 42.50%, 11/12

Where was I?

Ok, to start off with I was in Malta. We rented three apartments between the six of us (two per apartment) in Gzira/Sliema a fifteen minutes or so bus trip from the old city of Valetta.

The view from our apartment

Malta is a bit like Sydney. Proud of its harbour and clinging to its many seaside bays. There was immense daily water traffic just down the road from this position. Commuter and tourist ferries in particular.

Our first sunrise in Malta

In forthcoming days I'll post photos from this trip which included Sicily and Rome after Malta.

Where am I?

I haven't abandoned my blog.

I am holidaying in Malta, Sicily and Rome. I will resume blogging from about 18 October after my return to Australia.

Here's a photo to be going on with.

The view from our apartment in Gzira, Malta