Welcome to the August newsletter. It was a busy month with a trip away, lots of concerts, my graduation and a visit to the Powerhouse Museum. There was some sadness at the end of the month, though, one of my guinea pigs, Ah, died. I found her sick in her cage in the afternoon and she died that night. I’m pretty sad about it.
Travel
The month started off with me coming back from Narrabri on the train it was an awesome trip. The next week I flew to Hobart for the Beaker Street festival. The festival was a great event full of science talks, CSIRO open night, comedy science shows, forest walks and a tour of a Radio Telescope, followed by a swanky dinner at a winery.
While I was in Tasmania, I also went to a whole heap of concerts. Kicking off with 2 days watching Irish music at the New Sydney Hotel one day then Irish Murphys the next, having Guinness pie both days as well. hehehe Then each week I went to a lunchtime concert in the Town Hall, hosted by Van Diemen’s Band. Week 1 was Georgina Lewis, she was amazing with a really interesting repertoire. My favourite piece was Equator Loops composed by Stuart Greenbaum. In week 2, the concert was VBD Fellows. The VDB have a fellowship program for historically informed performance (HIP) and this concert was the celebration of the end of the program.
Beaker St Festival Highlights
Food selections
Scenery
Concerts
A massive variety of concerts for the month. So many I’m just going to list them.
- Peter Byrne: Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night Show – Kicked off the month with seeing this at Bankstown Sports Club. So much fun. Peter Byrne was brilliant; he didn’t impersonate Neil Diamond, he just performed the arrangements. Lovely afternoon. You can get a sneak peek on YouTube.
- Burn the Floor: Ballroom. Reinvented. – This year’s edition of Burn the Floor didn’t disappoint. I was in the playhouse at the Opera House. It is a smaller stage than the last couple of years. The dancing was amazing and this year we got even more of Tyler Azzopardi singing (shame there are so few recordings out there of him). I was a very happy audience member.
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Lyrical woodwinds in the City – I had a wonderful evening at the City Recital Hall listening to the woodwinds of the Sydney Symphony, with a little help from a cello and a double bass. (program and playlist)
- 4 Tasmanian concerts – See above
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Stephen Layton conducts Bach, Mozart and Handel (program and playlist)
- Opus Now: #33 – A new ensemble to go and see. The cello player and driving force, Christopher Pidcock, plays with the Sydney Symphony. This concert was in the clocktower of St John’s College at Sydney University. The concert and the venue were beautiful.
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Schoenberg and Williams (program and playlist)
Graduation
Wow, what a day. So proud of myself for completing my Graduate Diploma in Mathematics and Statistics. The Graduation made it all feel a bit more real. Here are some photos from the day. You might notice that I had a very fun time.
Serious Graduation Photo of Filita with Yellow Folder Filita being shown on the big screen as she walks across the stage Filita just so happy to be graduating No 1 of the silly photos of Mara, Filita and Annie No 2 of the silly photos of Mara, Filita and Annie No 3 of the silly photos of Mara, Filita and Annie Annie, Filita and Mara looking very happy about the graduation Filita being silly and showing Mara why it’s called a hood Filita and Jake, her favourite Stats lecturer who came to the graduation just to see Filita Graduate. Filita is very chuffed. FIlita in her pretty dress and graduation garb.
Books
Due to the trips away I got through quite a few books. The month kicked off with an audiobook of short stories by Agatha Christie called Murder in Paradise (from the library). Which worked well as I listened to it on the train and there were a couple with trains in them. Then there were two R. A. Sprat books, Friday Barnes: Girl Detective (Ebook from the library) and Epically Good Greek Myths (audiobook from the library). Though not as good as Hamlet is Not OK, they were fun. Excited to see that there is a new one in the Shakespeare series coming out in February next year, Romeo v Juliet.
In Tasmania, I had a bit of a binge. Agatha Christie book of the month, Murder at the Vicarage. The first Miss Marple and first set in St Mary Mead. It is narrated by the local vicar, which was the prompt for the month (Ebook I own). The next book was Dead Girl Gone by Gareth and Louise Ward. Set in a bookshop in New Zealand. We swap each chapter between Garth and Eloise (yes, they are alter egos of the writers). They are ex police from England who have opened a book shop in NZ. They are sent a book and start to investigate the disappearance of a girl 10 years earlier. It was funny and the mystery was great. I highly recommend (Ebook from the library). The next completed book was Lady Violet Attends a Wedding by Grace Burrowes. This was the second book in the series, a historical mystery set in the Regency era. I enjoyed it, a fun bit of escape (Ebook from the Library)
After the binge I took a break from the fiction as the plots were getting mixed up. I started Things to make and do in the 4th Dimension by Matt Parker, but more on that next month.
Things from around the web
Check out this article about the internet in 1998. What a flashback.
Next Month
Since I am writing this in October, there is not much point in telling you what happened in September.