Anzac Day

Christmas Card Tango

I'm in the midst of a catch -up Christmas Card Tango.

You know the sort of thing. This year I'm not sending xyz a card because xyz did not send me one last year. But then with only days to go to Christmas I receive a card from xyz too late for me to respond to thereby revealing the fact I had dropped them from my list. No doubt xyz's timing is quite deliberate.

After decades of sending cards religiously - how apt - to everyone in my address book regardless that some never, ever, reciprocated I decided several years ago to whittle the number of my cards to the absolute essentials and where possible only those who returned the compliment. It seemed to work. For a while. But now I'm in this alternate year's catch-up routine.

What is galling about all this is that I met one of these xyzs at the funeral of a mutual former colleague recently. xyz and I worked side by side for several years more than 25 years ago but this was our first face to face encounter since that time. 'Hello', said I cheerfully to xyz. 'Er...hello' was the hesitant response to me. Clearly xyz had no idea who I was and worse he hazarded a guess as to my name and picked the name of someone else altogether. How could this be? We had exchanged cards every year without fail in the interim. He'd been sending cards to someone he no loner remembered.

Oh, how I dislike this annual tango.

On the other hand, here is a much more enjoyable tango. An all male version, in aid of charity, of the 'Cell Block Tango' from the musical 'Chicago'.

The Archibald

The Archibald Prize is a very Sydney event. Awarded every year it is a Portraiture competition 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics painted by any artist resident in Australasia'. The winning portrait is often universally panned by the general public and has at times been the subject of legal protest.

I can't recall a year when I agreed with the judges' verdict but then what do I know about art? As the hoary old response goes, I know what I like. Usually I don't like their winner.

As always the winning portrait attracts plenty of attention. This year's winner mysteriously entitled Judo house pt 6 (the white bird) is a portrait of controversial Barrister Charles Waterstreet. I couldn't get a clear view of the accompanying narrative which may (not?) have thrown light on the title.

Nigel Milsom's 'Judo house pt 6 (the white bird)'

I preferred Jessica le Clerc's portrait of painter David Hart;

Jessica le Clerc's 'Living inside of stories'

And I also preferred Edmund Zu's portrait of Edmund Capon;

Tianli Zu's 'Edmund, your Twomblys are behind you'

Then again I can't resist a nude - not that I'm suggesting it as the winner. One panel of five of Marcus Wills' 'El cabeceo' which celebrates the long marriage of a couple, both doctors, showing both of them dressed and naked.

Dress circle view

The view from the rarely opened Dress Circle of the art deco cinema at the Randwick Ritz. For most sessions in this cinema only the downstairs Stalls section is available.

Off they go....

One of the world's major ocean races, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race gets underway from Sydney Harbour every Boxing Day at 1pm.

Here are the yachts tacking about 10 minutes before the starting gun as seen down harbour from my apartment.

The same moment on the television coverage.

(Channel 7)

The moment of the starting gun.

The same moment on the television coverage.

(Channel 7)

The race is over 628 nautical miles. Depending on weather conditions and the capacity of the yacht the first across the finishing line might only take a couple of days but it is not unusual for the slowest of the competitors to reach the finish after January 1st.

This is the 70th race of this annual event.

Compliments of the day

(Edward McLachlan)

However you celebrate December 25 and even if you don't; have a good one!

Guys and Dolls

The Waverley Lugar Brae Players are an amateur group who stage musicals. Their longevity, celebrating 54 years this year, is impressive. It's been years since I attended one of their productions and this year Cs and I went to see their 2013 presentation, 'Guys and Dolls'.

I'm not sure what aspirations the participants have for a theatre career or their level of experience but judging purely from what we saw last Sunday my guess is that most are enthusiastic amateurs.

The lass who played the role of Adelaide was the standout amongst performers who otherwise generated a level of entertainment without achieving sustained professional standards.

The audience seemed to be stacked with friends and relatives of the participants some of whom may not be accustomed to attending mainstream theatre. This could account for the level of restlessness and inattention from the auditorium including the gentleman sitting next to Cs who decided to play games on his tablet during the performance. Needless to say, this greatly distracted and inflamed Cs who had words with said audience member at the interval.

Amateur the production might be, but the quality of the book and music of this classic musical still shone through.

★★

We will remember them

Sail away

Is your doctor/lawyer/other professional not available Wednesday afternoons? S/he may be on the harbour participating in the mid week sailing races.

'And yet all this comes down when the job's done'*

(* 'Scaffolding' by Seamus Heaney)

Having spent the best part of two days dismantling the scaffold that covered the south-west corner of my twelve storeys building (and my dining room) for the past three months, the scaffolding team was busy reconstructing it on the south-east corner.

Here is a section of the team moments before signing off for the day at 3.30pm.

(Click to enlarge)

As tomorrow is Good Friday and the first day of a four days long weekend for most Australians I suspect the scaffolders will not return to continue the reconstruction before Tuesday. In the meantime valuable visitor parking spaces will be unavailable during that period which may prove a problem for some residents. Our building/residents has had a long association with rural Australia and traditionally hosts many Easter visitors spending the holiday period in the 'big smoke' for the Royal Agricultural Society's annual Easter Show.

41st City to Surf

Today was the 41st running of Sydney's City to Surf. It says something for Sydney's winters that this race is often run in warm to hot weather and today's event was only the second on which it rained. The course is 14km (8.7 miles) starting from the edge of the Central Business District and ending at Bondi Beach.

This year, the race limit of 85,000 competitors entered the event. I wandered down to the bottom of my street an hour after the starting pistol had been fired and fifteen minutes after the first of the elite runners had reached the finish line and watched the non-elite competitors pass by.

(Click photos to enlarge)

In the pack

Onlookers offer support in all sorts of ways.

A fellow photographer whose equipment is bigger than mine

An hour after this photo another huge pack of competitors was passing this point

Well, I'll be hallowed!

(St Stephens Newtown churchyard this morning)

Halloween; for me another one of those cultural oddities seen only in American movies and not, in my experience, practised in Australia.

But times are changing.

(Woollahra)

A few neighbour's homes have been decorated with faux cobwebs and the like presumably showing themselves receptive to a 'trick or treat'.

But all of this is a mystery to me. Who 'tricks or treats' whom; the one knocking on the door or the one who answers the knock? And what are the responses? I know that lollies ('candy' for North American readers) are a response to 'treat' but what is the response to 'trick'?

I need to know in case this 'treat', seen wandering through the churchyard this morning, should knock on my door.

(Trick or treat?)

I gather all types of costume are acceptable on this day.

(Redfern)

And it looks like cobwebs are not essential decoration either.

Meanwhile back at the churchyard it seems the artists have been busy at night.

Anzac Day at 'Palmo'

The morning of Anzac Day in Sydney was cool, cloudy and drizzly. At Palm Beach on the northern peninsula locals (and we interlopers) gathered outside the Palm Beach RSL (Returned Services League) for their traditional march and ceremony.

The march of returned servicemen and women approached just ahead of 11am accompanied by a band from the Avalon Primary School.

The parade terminated in front of the of the RSL Club and it's memorial.

A few hours later, the clouds have cleared and the beautiful young things have packed the club's Beer Garden for an afternoon of drinking and who knows what later. The crowds around the bar trying to place their drinks orders are eight deep.

A space has been cleared adjacent to the Beer Garden where the menfolk are engaged in a traditional game of Two Up. Had I bothered to read this Wikipedia entry beforehand I might have saved the $2 I lost on my one game. Others were betting real amounts of money (ie banknotes).

We five old farts returned to Hn's place nearby for a relaxing afternoon of scrabble, gossip, leisurely drinking and eating. Hours later into the night we could hear the raucous sounds of those 'beautiful young things' as they departed (were thrown out?) from the Club.

Twelfth Night

It is Twelfth Night and it looks like one of my neighbours is taking it seriously placing their Christmas Tree amongst the garbage bins.