Sunday 21 February 2010

Time for a catch up

Wow 2010 is moving past at a fair old pace. It's almost the end of Feb. So what have we been up to?
We saw Inglorious Bastards at the Outdoor Cinema. Situated in the Botanical Gardens, this event shows a different film every night. Tickets sell out fast as it is such a fantastic location - we did well to get seats. I had a bit of a dash home from work, but we made it, and even had time for a bite to eat and a bottle of something chilled and sparkly before the film began. I have to say that the contrast between the stunning setting and the violence onscreen was quite surreal.

Then we had Australia Day. It's compulsory on this day to attend a barbecue, eat lamb and drink too much.

We just had to obey - and despite the onerous demands - we had a good time. Thanks go to our hosts Andrew & Shane.

Our weekend in Canberra however proved less exciting. Canberra is a planned capital - all sweeping vistas and grand boulevards for the politicans to drive along. The whole place is designed to make the politicans feel important - trouble is, at weekends, the place is absolutely dead. They all go home, leaving behind a soulless city. And that's when it is sunny. We picked the weekend of Canberra's first rain in 8 months - and boy did it rain. Torrential. Another "rain event". And Canberra in the rain is a lot less interesting than Canberra in the sun. There was one highlight. The "Masterpieces from Paris" exhibition - artworks from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, featuring Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne, Seurat & Gauguin. A great exhibition, and proving wildly popular. People have been queuing for 2 hours just to get in - there ain't much else to do in Canberra admittedly. We were lucky - we were advised to go late afternoon and indeed the queue was only about 10 minutes. It was worth the 3 hour drive from Sydney.

Now we do love living here in Australia - but just occasionally we come across something which makes us think fondly of life in the UK. Like this sign, on the toilet building at a rest stop on the road from Sydney to Canberra.


You don't get that at the services on the M6 now, do you?

2 comments:

  1. Omigod-- did you go in there??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes I did - and I opened the toilet lid very very carefully -

    ReplyDelete