Bridge

Tonight, 54.60%, 5/16

Dry and wet

Thankfully the forecast of four days continuous rain for the Easter long weekend proved to be off the mark with sunny weather returning yesterday (Easter Sunday).

The sun is out again today following some early fog which affected airport operations so Cs and I make our way to North Bondi RSL Club for lunch.

Walking along Bondi Beach to the club

First into the Club and we obtain a table on the balcony looking out over the Beach. Bathers and sun bakers have flocked to the beach but notice the ominous clouds rolling in from the west ahead of a storm as forecast by the weather bureau.

Bondi Beach

Cs orders a chicken parmigiana and I order chicken schnitzel. Basic dishes but very nicely done and generous portions. Back home three hours later and the rain returns.

Ten minutes after the above photo and the sky is brighter, the rain has stopped and the sun is breaking through again.

Mind the curtains

Daylight saving ended last night bringing the four Eastern states and territories and Tasmania back into time zone alignment.

My recalcitrant Queensland friends can be assured that my curtains will not fade for the next six months.

Wonder of wonders though, awaking to standard Eastern time for the first time in six months Sydney has a sunny sky confounding the predictions of four days of continuous rain. Our Easter weekend may yet be rescued.

Take that, smug Andrew.

In my Easter bonnet...

...or rather in my Easter raincoat.

As I wrote to Andrew enjoying moonlit Melbourne, Sydney does what Sydney does and we are experiencing a four days weekend of continuous rain. Overall Sydney enjoys a fine climate of many sunny days but it is the wet Easters that stick in my mind. Add the 2015 version to the list.

Rain running down my dining room window this morning

Take a seat

My periodic visit to the financial advisor. Yes, I have one of those.

The routine is same each time. Take a seat. Would I like a coffee, tea or water? A glass of water each time. Wait five minutes.

Browse around the small foyer. Occasionally another client passes by but very rarely. This time an elderly couple with, I assume, their adult son depart from the conference rooms. 'G'day' says the elderly man to me. 'Hope your news is better than mine' he adds.

I look at the magazines neatly piled on the side table.

A motoring magazine and a golfing magazine (for sir?) and Marie Claire and a travel magazine (for madam?).

Oh, and my news was fine (I think).

Dior and I

Anyone who has met me will attest that I am no 'fashionista'. A pair of shorts and a plain black t-shirt are 'de rigueur' for me. My own fashion sense, or the lack of as others would claim with justification, does not explain my interest in movies about fashion.

'Dior and I' is at least the third documentary feature length film I have seen and I have enjoyed them all. In this film the past and present intertwine with images of and quotations from Christian Dior in the 1950s mingling with the arrival from Belgium of the latest(?) head designer Raf Simons and his 'right hand' Pieter. Raf and Pieter have just six weeks to assemble their first haute couture
show.

By the way, I felt vindicated in my dress sense by the appearance of Raf who mostly is only marginally less casual than I.

A highlight is the generous time given to acknowledging the significant work of the various seamstresses (and one male seamster(?)).
★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 56.40%, 3/14

With a song in my head

From time to time I have a song or tune stuck in my head. Infatuated with that song I hear it and/or silently sing it sometimes for weeks on end until I lose interest in it. These songs are not from singers like Taylor Swift or Kanye West whose work I wouldn't recognise if they were standing in front of me performing live. No, as a stereotype older gay man I often have a tune from a musical on perpetual repeat in my head.

The latest one is from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Carousel' This is not one of R&H's more high profile works but it contains some glorious melodies. Based on a Hungarian play from 1909, 'Carousel' is unfortunate to contain a plot that comes across as somewhat ludicrous nowadays.

The musical is completely heterosexual in theme and one of its best tunes, 'If I Loved You', is a duet between the principal male and female characters but it could easily be a gay torch song without changing any of its lyrics. That is not the reason I like it. The song's soaring and romantic melody wins me every time especially when sung as beautifully as it is by the tenor in this version from a night at the BBC Promenade Concerts.



By the way the tenor is Julian Ovenden and, yes, he is the actor who plays one of Lady Mary's suitors in television's 'Downton Abbey'.

The tune has been stuck in my head for weeks now. I know it will fade away to later be replaced by another song.

I know that will happen.

Eventually.

Bridge

Tonight, 46.30%, 8/11

Pelicans three

These three pelicans circled the fisherman as they cut and scaled their catch of the day and were rewarded with some evidently juicy off cuts (if that is the correct term).

Oatley Bay

Cinderella

I guess everyone knows the 'Cinderella' story. No need for my usual synopsis.

The new Disney version had a cinema full of young children enthralled in rapt attention for its 105 minutes. As expected it is a slickly assembled combination of live and computerised action peppered with gentle humour and nothing too frightening for the children.

Cate Blanchett is the highlight with a glance here, a turn of the head there and the occasionally evil eye all conveying a deliciously wicked step-mother.
★★★

Centennial Park

Ban names

I'm not one who is into banning things willy nilly but one thing I sometimes wish was subject of banning orders is names. Particular sort of names. Those weirdly spelt given names like Jaxxsen or Caytie and so on which those poor children will have to repeatedly spell and explain for the rest of their lives. Those spellings would be a priority for banning in a world ruled by me.

But also high on my list is a short name that is not weirdly spelt but which always leaves me uncertain about its pronunciation. Marie. A simple name. Quite a gentle and nice name. But is the bearer a Ma-ree or a Mar-ee. I can never tell nor remember.

Ban it!

Bridge

Tonight, 37.70%, 11/11

Love is Strange

A mature age gay couple marry in New York after many years of partnership. When the income earning partner is fired from his employment the couple is forced to sell their apartment and spend time separately living amongst family and friends.

'Love is Strange' is not the film I expected from the trailer. It is quite claustrophobic and mournful in tone. Very slow with long, lingering French cinema style scenes, the film's plot raises many unanswered questions making it a somewhat frustrating experience.

The redeeming feature of the film is the fine ensemble acting.
★★★

Off my game

I've been playing reasonably well at Bridge in recent months making contracts that should be made and also making some that are, well, a little tricky and not necessarily makeable.

But last night I was off my game. I didn't get to play many of the early hands. About two hours into play a very nice couple reached our table. Their play was slow, oh so slow. They used most of the allotted twenty minutes playing the first two of three hands. Privately I was annoyed with them. I had to play the third hand with only minutes left and my private annoyance got the better of me. I was distracted, played the hand badly, really badly, and that was a bad result for us.

Next round I got to play a couple more hands. 'Focus', 'concentrate', I willed myself but my brain had shut down. The hands were makeable but not the way I went about playing them. Now I was annoyed with myself for becoming distracted but nothing was going to get my brain back on track last night.

I was simply off my game.

Bridge

Tonight, 46.80%, 7/11

Insurgent

'Insurgent' is the sequel to 'Divergent'. The same characters are still fighting the powerful controllers of what remains of planet Earth and are engaged in the race to decode a relic which contains secrets the controllers would prefer to have buried.

There isn't really much plot in this film which relies on computer enhanced images and wizardry to maintain interest.

Enjoyable enough visually but little else to recommend it.
★★1/2

Prime Ministerial chalk and cheese

Yesterday, Australia's 22nd Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, passed away.

Malcolm Fraser

Mr Fraser was not the most popular of Prime Ministers during his term of office yet at the end of his life colleagues and opponents alike have looked back with respect, even admiration, for achievements which included refugee resettlement, multicultural policies, Aboriginal land rights, the Human Rights Commission, the Special Broadcasting Service and the fight against the Apartheid policies in South Africa.

In the fashionable statement 'du jour', Mr Fraser ended up on the right side of history.

This week, Australia's 28th and current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, provided - yet again - a contrast.

Tony Abbott

During the week Mr Abbott spoke against bullying in a speech to mark 2015 National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. The sentiments sounded fine. What a pity that only a day earlier Mr Abbott had displayed all the hallmarks of a bully in referring to an opponent in Parliament as 'Dr Goebbels'. Did Mr Abbott even for one moment consider the irony of his words versus his actions?

Then yesterday Mr Abbott reflected on the achievements of Mr Fraser identifying a number of those that I mentioned above. The contrast of Mr Abbott's history of actions in the very areas he was praising Mr Fraser could not be more different nor damning.

Those of us who remember life during Mr Fraser's Prime Ministership could not have foreseen then that at the end of his life he would be the subject of deserved acclaim for his lifetime's work.

Many of us who are experiencing Mr Abbott's Prime Ministership cannot imagine there is a chance in hell of him being the subject of equivalent acclaim when his time comes.

Chalk and cheese.

Autumn morning

I often post photos of views from my balcony such as the two below but usually these are taken in sparkling sunshine. This morning at 7am the sky is filled with dark low hanging cloud, with showers forecast, and the light is darker to my naked eye than my camera (Canon EOS 700D) suggests. I needed a steadier hand for the second photo. Click on the photos to enlarge them.