Money Monster

A flamboyant television finance journalist (George Clooney) is taken hostage during a live program by a young man who has lost his savings by following the journalist's investment recommendations. The program's director (Julia Roberts) tries to diffuse the situation without drawing attention to her actions and endangering the journalist.

'Money Monster' is entertaining in parts but never quite reaches the levels of tension to have me on the edge of my seat. Roberts is as watchable as ever and Clooney has his moments but the increasingly improbable plot, whilst reflecting 21st Century issues, misses the mark.

✭✭1/2

Up, up....

...and away.

A long weekend in Brisbane with friends coming up.

Take off, over Sydney

Sydney Harbour

Sydney's northern peninsula

Gold Coast, Queensland

Landing at Brisbane

Bridge

Tonight, 50%, 7/15

Back at the DOG

For a couple of years Cs and I spent many a Tuesday night having dinner at the DOG. Two meals for the price of one. Two main meals for the single price of just the dearer selection.

The menu didn't change and truthfully we were probably bored with the food but it was a cheap meal out and the clientele, heavily based on British and Irish Tradies on working holidays in Australia still wearing their construction work clothes provided irresistible eye candy.

Oh, this is the DOG;

The affectionate nickname for the Duke of Gloucester Hotel in the Sydney suburb of Randwick.

Then came disaster. The restaurant section changed hands. The menu changed and the two for one Tuesday became two burgers for the price of one. The real disaster, though, was that the Tradies stopped coming.

That was about six months ago.

I suspect that the hotel regretted that change. The management of the restaurant has changed again. So has the menu and two for the price of one has returned. Not so, it seems, have the Tradies returned. The menu is slightly pricier but at least a degree of choice has returned. We enjoyed out meal there this evening and whilst Tradies were not in evidence there enough eye candy to encourage us to return. For a while at least.

Bridge

Tonight, 45.83%, 6/9

Housebound

Plans for this weekend included a barbecue on Sunday to mark the birthdays of numerous Geminis in our circle of friends, the almost obligatory weekend cinema visit on Saturday with Cs and the almost as regular emergency visit to sort out another friend's computer 'difficulties'.

All of that went down the drain - almost literally - when a huge rain and wind storm affected pretty well all of the eastern seaboard of Australia from Southern Queensland to Tasmania.

Some damage in Sydney and surrounds has been horrendous. I am lucky. No damage or injury suffered although rain and wind forced water somehow through windows or brickwork and lay in small pools on my kitchen floor.

The house next door, sold only last week, lost a tree which landed on our property. The volunteers of the State Emergency Service were on our grounds in horrendous conditions late Sunday removing the tree.

Those volunteers are wonderful and I thank them for all that they do.

The barbecue was cancelled. The cinema visit was cancelled too and Ae's computer difficulties have to wait for a calmer day.

All in all, from Thursday night to Sunday night I only went outside twice, for about thirty minutes each time, to shop at the nearby Woolworths.

DIY

I'm always in admiration - but not envious - of Andrew and his Do It Yourself attitude and abilities. He solves many problems with his own hands and no doubt also saves himself considerable maintenance costs.

I've never had an aptitude for DIY. It has never interested me, although I have noticed that DIY types are often rather delicious looking.

This morning I was ready to depart for my volunteer work at the hospital. It was 6.20am and it was dark. The sun was still to rise. Sitting in my car I pressed the remote control for the garage door to open. It rose several centimetres and then froze. I pressed the remote again and the door closed. I pressed the remote once more and it opened only to again freeze several centimetres up.

In a scene fitting for a Marx Bothers movie I repeated this loop - open and close, open and close - another four or five times finally conceding that something was wrong and someone must fix it.

It took a while for me to find the documentation for the garage door. Actually, I didn't find it. I noted the name of the garage door device and looked the company up on the internet. There was a 1300 number to call. I called it and a recorded voice told me (in effect) to wait for their business hours which commence at 8am. Only on weekdays. Bad luck if your door jams on a weekend or worse still on a public holiday long weekend.

At 8am, I called the number back. I was offered the choice of two repairer/dealers. One located 49 kilometres away and the other 16 kilometres away. Guess which one I chose. I rang his number. He asked me numerous questions about my device including colours of buttons on the remote and the wall pad. I dislike these questions. I have colour defective vision (colourblind) and always have a sense of uselessness when a tradie or call centre asks me (for example) 'is the displayed light red or green'?

'I'll be there by 12 noon', the repairer assured me. Filling in time I noticed a rusted spring on the garage floor and nearby a small ring which seems to have snapped away from it. Looking further at the door itself and I noticed one newish looking spring at the eastern end of the door and no spring at all on the western end. Even my non-DIY mind registered that the problem may be a broken spring.

The repairer called from his car to announce his arrival around 11.15am. Good sign, he was on time, even a little earlier than promised.

A quick examination of the 'crime scene' and some chat about his latest golf holiday to Las Vegas and Palm Springs followed and within about 20 minutes my garage door had a new spring on its western side. My forensic assessment had been correct.

$231. Yep, a new spring and 15 minutes labour plus the holiday chat.

The door works better (smoother) than ever now.

I took the repairers business card. He was on time and he fixed the problem. That's all I need to become a loyal customer.

He wasn't as good looking as the DIY man in the photograph nor was he better looking than Andrew either.

Queen Of The Desert

In this era when we lament the paucity of meaty roles for women in films, surely the story of Gertrude Lothian Bell provides the ideal opportunity to redress that situation in at least one movie. The British woman Bell played a significant role in the establishment of various of the Middle Eastern Arabian Kingdoms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An extraordinary feat for her gender, in that part of the world, at that time.

As far as I can see, Bell's story has only featured once previously in film, in 1983's 'Al-mas Ala Al-Kubra' which appears to have originated in the former Soviet Union.

So 'Queen Of The Desert' is a long overdue effort from the Hollywood or British film communities.

What a pity, therefore, that it is so burdened with deficiencies. Nicole Kidman plays Bell but it is not one of her better performances. She is less than convincing in the film most of the time. Less convincing still is James Franco badly miscast as a Third Secretary in the British Embassy in Tehran. Franco is unable to sustain a British accent for more than two syllables at a time making his renditions of Omar Khayyam's poems sound very mid-Atlantic indeed. Also unconvincing is Robert Pattinson playing no less an historical giant than Col T E Lawrence ('of Arabia').

The film is beset with needless errors or inconsistencies. When Franco first translates some Khayyam for Kidman he does so by correctly reading the Farsi script from right to left. Later, when he teaches Kidman some Farsi Franco incorrectly reads from left to right. Bell was a prolific writer which Kidman portrays throughout by writing right handed except for one late sequence when she slips into her own natural lefthandedness. Little errors like that can diminish much better films than this one.

Bell's story told straight would have been fascinating but instead this film is presented as a series of romances whether platonically with others or with the cultures she encounters. The British Embassies and Consulates are portrayed as opulent palaces fit for the Monarchs rather than the clerical functionaries who worked in them.

The most positive aspect is that the film contains some stunning images but that is barely sufficient for the lost opportunity it represents.

✭1/2

A case of pedantic spell check

Two bloggers I follow loyally - although neither may realise it from the rarity of my comments on their postings - by coincidence both use only lower case for their identities.

marcellous has a legal and musical bent whilst wcs posts glorious photos from his adopted French home. Apple's spell check doesn't like them; at least in my experience. Whenever I type their IDs spell check stubbornly tries to change them to marvellous and was respectively. Even the links above were only accepted after fierce resistance by me.

I can see why Apple might try to change the entirely lower case marcellous. A capital M could be more to Apple's taste. But in regards to wcs I assume case is not the issue, rather that Apple doesn't cope with lesser known acronyms.

The Nice Guys

A bumbling private eye and a heavy handed stand over merchant join forces to locate a young woman  who has vanished.

'The Nice Guys' is a 1970s period caper using a mix of violence and humour in an endeavour to be endearingly goofy. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling make for a good pair a la Butch and Sundance although both are outshone by a newcomer Aussie, Angourie Rice who plays Gosling's older than her years teenage daughter and who looks to have a bright future.

Cs loved it. I was less impressed but still found more to laugh and smile at than in other supposed comedies I have viewed in the past twelve months.

✭✭✭1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 46.30%, 5/8

Spoilt photos

This man ran through my photo of the Harbour Bridge

This man walked across my photo of the Opera House forecourt

I don't know why men keeping walking across my camera line.

The changing look of Sydney

This is a small section of Sydney's Central Business District photographed in zoom from my apartment. The buildings in the middle with cranes on top appear to be in the CBD. In fact, they are under construction in the new precinct named Barangaroo which lies adjacent to the western boundary of the CBD. That precinct lies on land considerably lower in altitude than the CBD. The fact that the new buildings appear to match the tallest of the CBD buildings indicates just how huge are these new buildings. There are more to come.

The photograph below also appears to be of the CBD but it is in fact the suburbs of Kirribilli and North Sydney which are effectively now a CBD of their own. There is quite a bit of high rise residential accommodation amongst and a part of the officer towers.

The number of cranes indicates that this secondary CBD is thriving. The rather grand looking stone building overlooking the harbour just off centre at the bottom of the photograph is Admiralty House, the Sydney residence of the Governor-General who is Australia's Head of State when a certain Queen is not about.

The Meddler

When I saw a film was titled 'The Meddler' my first thought was of the fast talking crime caper genre favoured by Guy Ritchie.

One look at the film's poster and I knew that this film was far from Mr Ritchie's style.

Susan Sarandon plays a widow desperate to be a part of her adult daughter's life who when rebuffed seeks other targets for her unrequited love and devotion.

I always enjoy seeing Ms Sarandon perform and she gets plenty of screen time - virtually every scene in this film - which for once keeps the male performers in the incidental roles.

It takes a long time for the film to get to the point before it reaches a sentimental and heart warming conclusion. A catchy soundtrack kept me going in the meantime.

✭✭✭

Vivid

The brilliant annual event that is Vivid Sydney gets underway tomorrow night. This self styled light, music and ideas festival has grown into an event that is almost too large.

(Image: Daniel Boud)

The crowds around the Circular Quay area are so huge, especially late in the week an on weekends, that movement around the displays can be difficult. However, it is such a spectacular display that it is worth battling those crowds at least once in your life.

This year's festival has been extended to 23 days which may help diffuse the crowds; if ever so slightly.

Bridge

Tonight, 40.37%, 14/16

The bullet proved unpalatable

Well, that bullet proved to be unpalatable.

My friend took three others to inspect the property she intended to bid for and each found something about it to criticise. 'I don't want to live somewhere that makes my friends uncomfortable' she told me later.

So, that purchase is off the agenda but the search for a new home goes on.

Bridge

Tonight, 51.97%, 5/8

The show didn't go on

Whatever happened to 'the show must go on'? That was Cs' response when I informed him that tonight's performance of 'The Cherry Orchard' at the New Theatre was cancelled due to cast illness.

'I hope the cast member ill was not your ingenue', I replied. The only reason we decided to book for this production is that it features an actress Cs introduced and directed in his amateur theatrical days and he was keen to see how she was handling the professional stage.

We may never know. The season ends next weekend and we have no other days in common available to attend.

The Events

A lesbian Christian minister welcomes a stranger to join the choir she manages with unexpected consequences. The stranger is later connected with events of mass shootings and murders.

It seems to me that 'The Events' is more a 75 minutes long performance piece than a play. It features two actors; one of whom plays multiple roles, a pianist and a choir. In this staging, the choir varies at every performance. These are real choirs from various communities around Sydney. They contribute half a dozen or so songs - spiritual in nature - and, reading from a song book, a number of choristers deliver some lines of dialogue to interact with the two actors.

I imagine this makes for interesting variety at every performance for the two actors and pianists; variety that will go unnoticed by audience members apart from any who attend more than once.

An unusual concept, this somewhat muddled work has its moments.

★★1/2

Biting the bullet

For the past four years a friend has been vacillating over the sale and purchase of property. She desperately wants to move out of her home of the past thirty years or more which is in a prime location but badly in need of refreshment. She wants something equally well located but smaller and in good condition.

The problem is she is scared. The adventurous, carefree woman I knew when we were in our twenties is a cautious, frightened late 60s senior. Unfortunately she has fallen out with siblings who for decades were her closest and trusted confidantes.

I find myself walking a tightrope. I respond to her requests, almost pleas, for advice but as I am neither legally trained nor expert in real estate processes I want to avoid losing our friendship over some perceived catastrophic decision based on my assistance.

I hope it works out for.....and for me.

Captain America: Civil War

The apparently growing number of super persons known, or should that be 'working', collectively as The Avengers is in a spot of disagreement. They have signed an accord limiting their activities so as not too over reach their 'authority'. However some members, notably Captain America, think there should be no limits to their authority and they should exercise their powers wherever they feel it appropriate. And so, they are at war with each other. A bloody and violent war yet with enough civility to pause momentarily to exchange wisecracks.

'Captain America: Civil War' is more of the same. It is the same crash bang, whiz bang, knock em over high tech fisticuffs as in the previous super hero movies. And, the band of merry super persons is growing. Quite a club of oddities.

I was bored fairly quickly. The one highlight for me was a flashback scene employing special effects to portray Robert Downey Jr in his teenage years. A great reminder of how good looking he was in his younger days.

The film is long and mostly for aficionados.

★★

One pest too many

The pest control man visited this morning. The appointment was for 8am. He rang at 8.30am to apologise that he was running late because the prior appointment took longer than expected. He was at Marrickville and would be with me shortly. Oh no, he wouldn't, I thought. Not at that peak time. The traffic would be too heavy. Of course he wasn't with me shortly. He arrived at 9.30am.

He was quite thorough spraying in every room and applying his magic sticky stuff in dobs on every internal hinge he could find. All the while, he talked. And talked.

He'd recently relocated from Perth, Western Australia. He is starting a new life. He is divorced. He doesn't want more children. If he finds a new 'woman' he wants her to be ten years older than him so there will be no young children. He is almost a grandfather at nearly 41 years of age. The traffic in Sydney is far worse than in Perth. The view from my apartment is fantastic. The rent must be huge. I must be a lawyer or a doctor to live here. You can buy a whole house in Perth for under $500,000 but not so in Sydney. His rent in Sydney is $$$$$ .......... And so and so forth.

All that in about fifteen minutes.

Once he departed I felt that at least one pest had been eradicated.

A Month Of Sundays

A real estate agent (Anthony LaPaglia) is drifting through life and his work when he receives a misdialled phone call. The caller was ringing her son and the agent finds the caller reminiscent of his own recently deceased mother.

This mistaken connection sparks a familial style relationship between the two.

'A Month Of Sundays' has its moments but is dragged down by its one tempo style. A  scene of a school play rehearsal is a rare moment of light whilst John Clarke's dry humour provides some relief and Julia Blake is a dignified presence.

★★1/2

The First Monday In May

'The First Monday In May' is a documentary detailing the planning for the annual Gala and fashion exhibition that jointly serve as a fund raiser for the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The planning phases that comprise most of the documentary are interesting in a celebrity watching way and therefore of little interest if you don't care to snoop into the lives of the rich and famous. Hearing hints of who is in and who is out and watching the machinations of table placement provides a frisson of excitement for celebrity snoopers.

The final twenty minutes or so when the audience 'tours' the completed exhibition is simply stunning.

My companion and I loved it.

★★★★

I always love this view

It is Autumn in Sydney but we are having a seemingly endless Indian summer. Today we enjoyed temperatures in the upper 20s centigrade and ongoing clear blue skies.

Opera Bar, this morning, beneath the Opera House Concourse

Looking back to Circular Quay from the Opera House Promenade

My mate Stan

As a long time subscriber to Australia's main pay television service I assumed that I would not be seduced by the various streaming services that have entered the Australian market in the past twelve months or so.

In my view I was already paying well over the odds for access to dozens and dozens of channels many showing no programs of interest to me or else showing programs repeated ad nauseum.

I would read about people who binge watched entire series of long running shows and I wondered who in their right mind would spend their time doing that.

Then along came Netflix and its initial program in Australia included first run of the American series 'House of Cards'; a series which until then had been exclusive to the pay service and a series to which I had become addicted.

So, I weakened my resolve and signed on to Netflix. The entire collection of episodes of Series 3 was released in one go and I was hooked into binge watching it. Like my pay service this streaming service had some programs that I liked and many more of little or no interest. Practising shrewd 'drip water torture' strategy the streaming service introduced new series and programs at a regular rate and occasionally one or two of them would engage my interest.

Having signed on to Netflix I was fairly sure I would not be tempted by other streaming services but then I was intrigued by advertising for '11.22.63' and 'Billions' screening on the Australian streaming service curiously named Stan and once again I couldn't resist.

Through Stan I was exposed to the television series 'The West Wing' (1999-2006). I never watched this series during its original release. I don't why. It was highly regarded and very popular here, yet I never saw even one of it's 154 episodes. Boy have I made up for it now. Binge watching? I sure have been.

What is it about The West Wing? Yes, the technology looks a bit quaint ten and more years later. Yes, the idealism seems naive at times. Yes, the politics and strategies are brutal at times. Yes, some of the episodes are just a little too clever by half. Yes, it is often parochial. Nevertheless I love it and at a time when actual American politics, 2016 style, leaves us bemused, this historical display of that country's political system is proving quite educative.

Thanks to my new mate Stan I now have an understanding of the attractions of binge viewing. It just has to be the right program. I am 128 episodes into it. Just 26 episodes to go.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I came to 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot' without any foreknowledge of what it is about and with the uninformed assumption, because it stars Tina Fey, that I would be seeing a broad comedy.

In fact the film is a drama, and a good one at that, about the wartime experiences in Afghanistan of a television journalist, her media colleagues and the military with whom they associated in the field and  at leisure.

The film has humour, in the style of 'MASH', I suppose, but it is mostly a depiction of wartime relationships in closed and dangerous environments.

✭✭✭1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 39.68%, 13/15

Bridge

Tonight, 32.78%, 11/11

Florence Foster Jenkins

'Florence Foster Jenkins' was an American socialite who supported the arts by establishing and financing a performance club. She was also an unknowing eccentric who yearned to perform on stage as a classical and operatic singer whilst being unaware that she had absolutely no vocal talent whatsoever. She was encouraged and protected in these endeavours by her devoted partner St Clair Bayfield.

This another of those films where the trailer suggest one thing - uproarious comedy - whilst the film itself is unreality something else - a gentle depiction of human devotion.

Certainly Meryl Streep draws laughter out of Foster Jenkins' excruciating vocalisations but the overarching message is one of an unusual love, strong devotion and mutual dependency between herself Bayfield (Hugh Grant).

The film presents colourful images of street life in 1940s New York.

★★★

Mia Madre

Margherita Buy is directing a film about a factory in turmoil with workers rising against management but is battling to take control of the project. Meanwhile her mother is in hospital facing lengthy tests and Margherita is battling that relationship too. To top it off, Margherita's daughter is holidaying with her father from whom Margherita is either separated or divorced and Margherita finds it difficult to control that relationship as well.

In fact, Margherita has battles everywhere; her American star can't remember his lines and her brother's hospital meals for their mother always seem to trump her own.

This Italian mostly Italian language film has been widely praised but I found it difficult to get into. 'Mia Madre' was nearly 40 minutes in before I realised some scenes were in flashback and the narrative wasn't strictly linear. The various bearded men in the cast looked similar to me and I had difficulty sorting one from another.

The second half was stronger and funnier than the first but by then the film had largely lost me.

★✭

Woy Woy

We spent today's 'seniors Thursday' meeting up for lunch in Woy Woy. It is a 75 minutes train journey from Sydney's Central Station passing through tunnels and beside the Hawkesbury River along the way.

Incidentally, type Woy Woy, on my MacBook and autocorrect changes the first Woy into Why but not the second Woy. Why?

We lunched at Woy Woy Fishermans Wharf. Seafood only and fried fish only. I would have preferred some grilled fish but the location was attractive as was the weather so the lunch was a pleasant enough occasion.

Across the road a local, historical pub, the Ye Olde Woy Woy Hotel. A 'footwear must be worn at all times' venue.

The return train journey coincided with the end of the school day and the carriages were filled and emptied by school students at several stops along the way. The students were clearly from selective schools in the area. We knew this for the simple fact that the faces of these students were without a single exception Asian and Sub-continental in appearance. Are there no 'Ginger Meggs' types at our selective schools? Or maybe they are collected by mothers in massive SUVs and do not face the indignity of travel by public transport.

Bridge

Tonight 52.91%, 4/15

Bridge

Tonight, 50.73%, 4/10

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Based on true events and actual people 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' tells the story of a young Indian man without formal higher education who just instinctively was a genius at mathematics. Although he secured a place at Trinity College, Cambridge University he experienced racism and violence because of his background especially as the Great War of 1914/18 loomed.

This is a fascinating and beautifully told film and I feel some shame that I had no prior awareness of this Mozart of Mathematics whose now century old formulas still inform us about matters in our universe to this day.

✭✭✭✭

Mother's Day

Here we go again. This fad for romantic comedies set around a holiday season or annual celebration. New Year, Christmas, Thanksgiving and now 'Mother's Day' all excuses for this formula driven unrelated series of films.

The template is identical. Create multiple plot lines, featuring photogenic characters and season with cheesy, happy endings, or at least heartwarming situations and with any luck audience members will identify with at least one of the set ups generating positive word of mouth and box office success.

The current outbreak was sparked by the world wide success of  'Love Actually' in 2003/04 with its ridiculous number of plot lines.

'Mother's Day' runs for 118 minutes and contains precisely two funny scenes, one of which relies on a cute baby to inspire its humour. The remainder of the film, some 110 minutes is deeply unfunny and pretty unromantic too. The blooper outtakes over the end credits are the best moments of the film.

A formula, already very tired, plummets new depths.

★ 1/2

Disgraced

(Sydney Theatre Company)

Religion, identity and stereotypes all are aired and argued over in 'Disgraced', the Pulitzer Prize winning drama currently staged by the Sydney Theatre Company.

Set in a loft style New York apartment, an ambitious lawyer, his artist wife, her art gallery sponsor and his lawyer wife are forced to face some home truths about their lives and relationships.

The set up is an unlikely but not impossible contrivance given that the foursome comprises a 'lapsed' Muslim of sub continental descent married to a caucasian Christian and a Jew married to an African American.

The performances are excellent whilst the dialogue and actions are provocative.

★★★1/2

Hay Fever

(Sydney Theatre Company)

I wondered a bit why a major theatre company would stage Noel Coward's 'Hay Fever' nowadays. Especially in Australia. It is a play of its time (1925) and is based on society people who would have been well known to the audiences then. It is very English in style.

Each of the four members of the Bliss family, unknown to the others, invites a guest to their country home for the same weekend resulting in a comedy of ill manners. It is a premise that could easily be adapted and updated for a 21st century audience.

The play hasn't been updated in this production although the period in which it is set  - judging from the clothing of the performers - I believe is left deliberately vague thus enabling the inclusion of an Amy Winehouse song.

Without some awareness of the individuals being parodied a lot of the first Act falls flat as the self absorbed characters engage in idle chatter but the play gathers steam when the farcical elements of the story develop.

★★1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 51.98%, 9/15

The Divergent Series: Allegiant

'The Divergent Series: Allegiant' is about the third film in the series that I have seen. The population of what is left in the skyscraper ruins of Chicago has been has been divided into a number of groups each with their particular characteristics and purposes in what remains of community. They are not permitted to travel beyond the wall that surrounds the city nor even know what, if anything, lies beyond that wall. There is a general sense of lawlessness as the groups battle each other for supremacy.

Well, that sort of what happens in my blurred impressions of what seems the same story repeated over and over in each episode.

There are some interesting effects but this is really one for the aficionados and fans. At least this time it is all over fairly quickly (at least that's how it seemed to me).

★★1/2

Cruise time

The cruise ship Carnival Spirit, a regular visitor to Sydney departed for its current cruise at dusk this evening.

Carnival Spirit pulls back from its berth at Circular Quay

After a 90º turn, Carnival Spirit is ready to steam out of the harbour

Georgy Girl

'Georgy Girl' tells the story of the Australian group The Seekers who came into world prominence in the 1960s and whose folksy style of music was as popular and at times more popular than contemporary groups including a couple of bands you may have heard about....The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Just three years ago I saw The Seekers perform at the same venue at the start of a tour in celebration of their fifty years performing. The tour had to be abandoned a few days later, not for lack of interest but when lead singer Judith Durham suffered a serious illness.

On that occasion The Seekers performed several dozen of their songs weaving them around vision and commentary about their performance history. To be honest that 2013 concert was a more interesting representation of their careers than this newly conceived musical.

The performers in Georgy Girl are skilful and sing well but the musical is singularly lacking in drama in Act 1 which feature as much, if not more, music by artists than the The Seekers. This Act is reminiscent of the cabaret productions favoured by cruise ships. The second Act is more dramatic and interesting.

A bit disappointing in my view although the audience generally seemed very enthusiastic at the end.

★★1/2

Jennifer McGrath

WARNING: This post contains an expletive.

I've been receiving daily emails from a person (business or bot?) using the name in the heading. I sense the sender is using the email connected with this blog and therefore may have been a reader.

The emails read;

There is a fine line between good service and being a pain, I sent you through an email a few days ago in regard to organizing a time to chat about your business and to see if online marketing could be a viable option for your business.

Understanding you are busy, I wanted to ascertain if you were interested in having a chat?


The fact that I have not replied to a single one of your emails (sent daily, not a few days apart as suggested in the emails) should be sufficient message that I am not in the slightest interested in chatting with you.

If Jennifer McGrath is reading this post then my message to you is.........fuck off.

Train arriving at platform 2

Surely there is no better view from a railway station platform than the view from Platform 2 of Circular Quay station in Sydney?

This was the actual view from the platform after I stepped off the train at Circular Quay on a gorgeous Autumn day yesterday.