Where the Wombats Are

Oh man, I’m getting really behind really fast.

Pictures from Sydney trip

Trip was great! Up at 4a on Saturday to get picked up by Alex, John and another choir member for early morning drive to Sydney. Arrived in North Epping around 9a, in time to check in with folks that were putting up Alex and John and hop on the train to the city for rehearsal at the Angel Recital Hall. Then to lunch and afternoon choral workshop with Granville Oldham (a good sport, and really great choral tips!). Then practice for evening performance at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Sang that night after a bunch of other mostly youth choirs. Then tenors and a few others went to bar and sang karaoke!! Fun.

Sunday went to lunchtime concert at the National Gallery. Rehearsal in afternoon in the Sydney Opera House itself. Very cool. Huge, huge place. Ran back to King’s Cross afterwards to my hostel (Eva’s) to change. Made it back just in time. Concert was great fun, but so strange to sing so many times with different conductors. This guy did very different tempos than in Canberra and we messed up a bunch during rehearsal but nailed it in the final go. Then after party in one of the dozens of different performance spaces in the opera house – this one was in part with floor to ceiling windows looking out over Sydney harbour and bridge. Fantastic.

Sorry so short, but life is crazy right now with wrapping up all in the USA for Slade to come in a couple of weeks.

No time to write up Sydney and Prisoner’s dilemma now, but I just had to note that the bus home last night almost hit a very large and gutsy kangaroo who hopped out in the middle of traffic on a busy road smack in the middle of rush hour (~5.45p)! Unbelievable! I have no idea where he thought he was going. There was nothing but houses and shops around. And he was massive – well over 6.5 feet. I suppose he just figured that at that size he’d wreck any car that tried to hit him. Just had to record that one for posterity.

Farah’s going to be here any second to collect me to head up to Parliament House for a screening of a documentary (Beyond Beliefs) and dialogue about Muslim culture in Australia:
http://www.eoc.sa.gov.au/public/download.jsp?id=23548

Farah’s a PhD student here – Pakistani heritage. I’ll report on that one as well later in the week.

Ciao for now!

18 June 2008
19-29 Martin Place
Sydney – 7.15a

Having a coffee and waiting for my appointment at the consulate to get some legal paperwork notarized. Timing was pretty good. Left Canberra at 3.30a. Arrived just shy of the airport at just oafter 6, but traffic was bad and it took me another 30 minutes to go the remaining 15K and another 15 minutes to find a parking lot. A few people had said the parking was expensive but nobody mentioned an amount and I didn’t ask. Whatever it was I’d have to pay it – it would still be cheaper than flying up and taxis or bus and overnight. But when the guy said 3 hours would be $66 I nearly fell over. 2-3 hours is $46, 1-2 is $36. I really hope I can get out of here before 9am. Holy moly!

I do like Sydney, and I do miss cities. Somehow I feel right again to be in the city. Canberra isn’t bad. Slade’s been reading “In a Sunburned Country” and sending me quotes about Canberra: “what’s amazing about Canberra is that they managed to squeeze in another 320,00 people without hardly noticing. It’s like a big nature park with a city hiding behind the bushes.” That’s quite right. I does feel like that. But there were others like the woman who said, “Living in Canberra? I reckon it’s somewhere on the scale below breaking your arm. Only your arm gets better.” ?? Actually it’s a pleasant, calm and soothing place, which can be good. But it’s not particularly alive.

—-
So now I’m at the US Consulate. 10th floor. Full security check and they took my bag. We’re lined up in chairs, waiting like at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. I really hope all my paperwork is in order and I read the website properly. It would really be a drag to have come up here for nothing. Oh, I should ask about registering to vote by absentee ballot.

—-
Hippo Bar
Canberra – 9.30p

Wow, what a day! It’s now 9.30p and I’m at the Hippo. Don’t ask me who’s playing. I haven’t a clue. Honestly I can’t believe I’m still up. So the consulate was a little nuts. Through security on the 10th floor, as I mentioned, with complications from my hair hardware and zippers on my boots – America just loves to make people disrobe. I know it is for security, but I’ve now done three domestic flights in Australia and nobody even asks for my ID. It’s great! It’s like going back 20 years. In fact, that reminds me, somebody said that the other day. Who was that? Oh yeah, a woman at the bus depot markets. She was from Idaho. Lived here 16 years. “How do you like it?” I asked. “Great.” She said. “it’s like going back in time 30 years.” I didn’t really get that, but wasn’t sure I wanted to get into the conversation. [Oh, found a blog about the band I was watching: http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2008/06/great-way-to-travel.html]

Anyway, where was I. Oh yes. Security. So then we wait in the chairs til 8a and then sent up by our rows in the elevator to the 59th floor, where we go through another disrobing and security check. Then on to take a number like at the registry. Of the four people I talked to while waiting, three of them had been there before on the same matter. Apparently they had not been properly prepared, with the right paperwork, when they’d come previously. I was starting to get nervous. One guy was on this third try! Another woman had gone to Hawaii on a trip 30 years ago with some girlfriends (“a bunch of single nurses working in Vancouver”) and come back with a jointly owned one-acre piece of property as a lark. Of course they forgot all about it and the State of Hawaii had tracked her down for back taxes, but the property was still under her maiden name. So she’d been up to the consulate a few times. Another woman was there with her 12 year old dual citizen daughter trying to get a social security number for her, but they wouldn’t issue to the daughter til the mom got one and there were problems with that.

And so we all (along with the dozens of other individuals and couples) began the US consulate 2-step. First you go to the window (well, first you wait, then you go to the window). They figure out what you want, tell you that they can’t do half or all of it, take your passport and the rest of your paperwork, give you a slip of paper and send you off to the cashier, where you wait in line again to pay an inordinate sum and go back to the original waiting area and wait again. Then they call you with a question and send you back to wait some more. In my case I needed witnesses and so I had to solicit them from my fellow waiters. But then they had to come up and give their IDs before I could go any further. Then when I was t the cashier they got called for their own matter and I panicked, thinking they might leave and I’d have to find a new person and start all over! But, like the rest of us, they were sent away and told to wait. Elizabeth (woman with daughter) got called back first and actually got her thing sorted. She was a real sweetheart though and waited around with me until I was called. So nice.

So I was finally called and Elizabeth and Elaine came to sign for me. Elaine was there with a teeny tiny 3-week old baby named Finn and wasn’t talking much. But she had a huge document with about a hundred little yellow “sign here” post-its on it. Looked like a mortgage or divorce or something equally gruesome. Anyway, it was done. Whew! I checked the clock: 8.50am. As soon as the elevator doors opened I ran like the dickens. I took a stairway I thought was a shortcut and ended up in a back alley somewhere, panicked again and ran for the nearest opening. I shortly found myself on the sidewalks (sorry, footpaths) teeming with folks on their way to work. I ran and ran, dodging and weaving in between them. I got into such a groove that I almost missed the entrance to the garage. Hightailed it to the payment machine, momentarily panicked again when I couldn’t figure out which slot was for the card and which was for the money. Finally got to rights with just 2 minutes to spare: total parking damage: $36… wheeeeeeeee!

Getting out of Sydney was even easier than getting in, and I was out in the bush again in 30 minutes. Only this time it was daylight and I could actually see what I was driving in. Not stunning, but very pleasant: grassland, groves of trees, gently rolling hills – somewhat reminiscent of the Great Plains or Texas/Oklahoma/South Dakota. Oh man, and the best bit of the whole drive??

WOMBAT CROSSING signs!!!

No kidding!! If you click above – or sometimes the image will appear if you just put your mouse over the words – you’ll see a picture of the sign.

Halfway back I went off highway (in reality not even as substantial as Route 3). My objective: The Berkelouw Book Barn – recommended by a colleague. Wonderful old barn full of used books! I found a nice hard-bound volume of Shakespeare – 23 plays and some sonnets – for just $12. They had a great little café too, looking out over pastures and orchards. So I sat myself down with a delicious bowl of artichoke and potato soup and re-introduced myself to Shakespeare (its been quite a while).

Back on the road and returning the rental car by 2p. Back on the bike and home to make some dinner for later, then off to the office to email Slade and mortgage brokers with news of my success at the consulate. Back out to Australia Post to send the notarized, witnessed, dated and sealed documents (2-4 working days is the fastest I can get them to Boston short of getting on a plane myself – boy we are far away…). Back to the office to run through email then off to a late afternoon seminar. Then choir rehearsal. Then to the market for a few things. Diversion: I have to confess that although I finally gave up ice cream in moving to Australia, I’ve developed a dangerous weakness for fruit buns and the continental fruit loaf. Basically like cinnamon raisin rolls and bread.

And now I’m here at the Hippo Bar. You’d think I’d be tired, but I had some tea during the tea break at choir rehearsal. The bartender is good. I’ve been here about half a dozen times or so, and he already remembers me and what I drink. And I just saw him improvise this drink of pineapple, lychees, mint, apple juice and something else. Mashed all the fruit up together fresh with the mint. Very impressive.

Tomorrow night a bunch of us are heading out to a performance at the Street Theatre – a somewhat avant-garde performance space on campus. They also have regular gigs – I saw Jeff Lang there.

We’re going to see A Prisoner’s Dilemma. It’s funny how I can’t get anyone to come to Carmina Burana, but it looks like there will be eight of us going to this performance based on game theory – what a bunch of academics!

Well, I’ll give you a full report later. But it might be a lot later because I’m moving to my new housesitting gig in Hughes on Friday night and then off to Sydney for the weekend for the International Choral Festival. Wheeeeeeee…!

16 June 2008
21 Hackett Gardens
Turner, ACT

Okay, I’ve been trying to write somewhat journalistically here in this blog, to give you a flavour of my experiences. But I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately that you haven’t seen – part of the reason my posts have been a bit light. Some of it is creative writing – a story idea that came to me. I’ve been working on it a fair amount for the past few weeks. Some of it is writing the story part and some of it is just writing out ideas and thoughts and feelings and character development sketches and things like that.

When I haven’t been doing that I’ve been writing a fair bit about personal stuff -”journaling” I suppose you’d call it. It’s been four and a half months I’ve been in Australia, on my own, in a completely new place and a different professional environment. I’ve grown and changed so much, in so many ways. But most of them are deeply internal – changes to my world views and perspectives of myself and life. I wonder if any of you would notice a difference in me. I don’t know. But I feel different – more alive, more authentic, more mature. This isn’t to say that all the time I’ve been spending with you, my friends and family, I’ve been an immature, dead, poser… it’s hard to explain.

I guess this is why I haven’t been sharing that writing with you. It’s been an exploration – a dialogue with myself. And some of it has been uncomfortable – it often is when you really try to take a good hard look at yourself and the habits of mind you’ve developed that are getting in the way of the kind of person you want to be. It isn’t so much that I’m afraid to show you that side of me. I think it is more that I’m constantly changing and evolving and if I said something about who I was or how I felt on a given day, I might not remember to also tell you when that changed again. But maybe that’s part of the challenges of life and relationships. A lot of times we don’t want to reveal where/who we are unless we are absolutely sure we’ve sorted it all out and are entirely confident in the result (or whatever it is we are about to say). But then we just keep not saying anything because we think we’re not done with the figuring out yet. So we say harmless things, easy on the heart and brain things. And we continue to feel distant from one another and sometimes embarrassed or ashamed of our true thoughts in some subtle way.

I’ll never forget a funny little piece of wisdom from The Messiah’s Handbook in Richard Bach’s barnstorming follow up to Jonathan Livingston Seagull – a book called Illusions. The Messiah’s Handbook was a guidebook for a reluctant messiah and was full of little nuggets. This one, for whatever reason, just reached down into my toes and turned me inside out when I read it. “Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world, even if what is published is not true.”

I remember thinking very hard about it when I first read it – slowly making my way through a few levels of meaning. And at the end of that thinking was a very peaceful, energized and confident feeling, which I inhabited only very briefly. But it was enough to give me a bearing, a point on the horizon to sail towards. It isn’t really that I’m all that much closer to that point now. It’s more like I’ve got it clearly in view more often, or rather that I lose sight of it (in fog or storm or other distraction) less often that I used to.

So there’s a very mild little bit of some of the stuff I’ve been thinking and writing about and not posting. But there’s another reason I’m not posting. It isn’t that I don’t trust you to keep my honest musings safe, but the web is a funny thing. People find you. People who don’t really know you make judgments about you that can affect your professional environment. I just said that I am navigating towards a place where I would not be ashamed if anything I say or do is published around the world, even if what is published is not true. But it isn’t always only me that I am responsible for. In particular, I have colleagues whose fates are entwined with mine. Where do I draw the line? Where and when can I decide that they too ought not be ashamed. There has to be a point where my respect for their own view of their public reputation outweighs my desire to be fully open and unrestricted about myself. Where is that line? How do I know when I’m about to cross it?

So think on that for a bit. Would love to hear your perspectives.

16 June 2008
My office
Acton, ACT

Bus Depot Markets Lunch photos

Yesterday we had a great trip to the Old Bus Depot Markets for lunch. I’m pressed for time right now so can’t write the full story, but I went with a few people from work. And for now you’ll have to make do with the photos.

The short version is that they were much cooler and more artistic than I was expecting, and the food options were great: Laotian, Ethiopian, Argentine, Crepes, AND a Taqueria where I got a burrito!!! Boy I miss Mexican food. It wasn’t the greatest burrito ever, but for me, who is used to eating them at least a few times a week and haven’t had one in four and a half months, it was heaven!

More soon…

11 June 2008
My smelly office
ANU

Latest news is that some critter appears to have died in my ceiling over the weekend end and my brand new office is now my very rank and smelly office… a total bummer. Work order allegedly in to have them come and get into the ceiling to find the thing and remove it. But facilities does not have a reputation for being particularly timely so we’ll see. In the meantime I’ve purchased a can of air freshener – though it only works for about an hour at a time.

6 June 2008
21 Hackett Gardens
Turner, ACT

Whew! I’m spent. Gloriously spent. I’m not sure I even have enough energy left to write – not just physically, but my brain is spent after concentrating so hard to get everything right: the notes, the tempo, the volume, the words – oh, the damn German Latin words…! it was so hard to remember the words, particularly when so much goes so fast. Speaking of the words, I was a little peeved that nobody bothered to tell our soprano soloist (or maybe she ignored them or forgot) that we were singing German Latin – she sang all her bits in Italian Latin (she’s singing “fah-chee-ehs” when we are singing “fah-tsee-ehs” – for “facies”).

But where was I? ah yes, notes, tempo, volume, words, and coming in at the right spot at the right time. There were a few errors of that type tonight – noticeable ones from one person or another. Really too bad about these, and I felt badly for the folks who made the mistakes because they really stand out. Way more embarrassing than singing the wrong words or even the wrong note when everyone else is singing – because you are hanging out there on your own for everyone to hear. I also thought there were a number of times when the choir was out of sych with itself or the orchestra. And in half the pieces everyone seemed to forget the difference between pianissimo and forte. But… it was still a full-on physical and emotional experience to sing it. Wow! And the audience seemed to really love it, as they applauded for ages. It’s a pretty dramatic piece in general and probably overcomes these kinds of faults fairly easily as there is always very shortly something exciting to distract you from the error.

Nevertheless, I felt that I and the choir could both have done better. I don’t know how much better though. There were seven choirs, including some very casual community choirs. I don’t know if the motivation is there on behalf of all participants to be really disciplined. They are singing for fun (and this includes a couple of people who are clearly completely tone deaf). And the conductor didn’t push us as hard as I think he could have. As my first foray into singing in 20 years its been great. But I already finding myself assessing the SCUNA choir to see if it is going to be rigorous enough for me. Its a perfect place for me to start – get my voice back and then see if I can get into something that pushes for higher quality.

But the whole thing has been a blast – even dressing up in my elegant black dress with pearls. I never get to dress up. And my funny little tenor posse – about half a dozen young guys, mostly under 30 I expect, goofing around between pieces but singing their guts out when its time to be on. There are plenty more tenors of varying ages, but I seem to have fallen in with this lot and they treat me half the time like a pal, the other half like a den mother, and the other half like a mascot. We are all the tall people so we are in the back row of the tenors. But I also think we are among the strongest and so it’s great to stand up at the back with these guys and just trumpet our stuff out over the heads of the others and out into the cavernous space of Llewellyn Hall.

David is very young, probably early 20s, and just finishing his honors undergraduate degree in physics at ANU. He’s the tallest by far at probably 6′5″, with boyish good looks and a big broad smile and laughing eyes all the time. Stephen is older and a little more serious, with a gentle face and peaceful eyes and strong desire to sing well, like me. I think Stephen and I are the most sympatico – perhaps in maturity, if nothing else. His girlfriend sings alto, he’s always on time, and he always has something interesting and friendly to say. Dominic is the drama boy and troublemaker of the bunch, with his long shock of purple hair draped over his right eye down to his chin, his otherwise Flock of Seagulls hairdo and his goth eye makeup. He’s got a bitter and boisterous sense of humour, but he has a strong and accurate voice that mostly leads our little posse. There’s a few other cheery blokes that comprise our merry band of tenors and I hope we can all stick together in Sydney in a couple of weeks.

It’s been a glorious semester of singing with the Sydney Opera House still on the horizon. Next semester we’ll be doing Faure’s Requiem. I don’t know the piece, but whenever I mention it to someone who does, they get all dreamy-eyed and clasp my hand and say something like, “Oh. Oh. It’s beautiful, just beautiful. Oh.” So that should be good.

Okay I’m officially exhausted now. Good night!

Caryn, the tenor

2 June 2008
My ANU office
Acton, ACT

Just a quickie to report on some great Canberra musical experiences this past weekend. Aside from eleven hours of Carmina Burana rehearsals, on Thursday night I went with some friends from work to check out Andi & George – a local Canberra musical and party institution. Andi is the female front-woman, a beautiful Fijiian with fantastic voice. George is her counterpart, an earthy guitar player and singer as well. They were joined on this occasion about about nine other musicians and singers from floutists to bongos to a three-piece brass posse. They played outside of The Front cafe (which some of you old-timers may remember from my very first post of photos) and gathered an enthusiastic and fun-loving crowd of easily a couple of hundred – clearly overwhelming the poor community of Lyneham. It was much more of a party than a “gig” as Andi & George (et al.) were leaving to tour Australia (and had even parked their vintage 1968 tour bus out front. The music was sometimes sloppy and a little tipsy but somehow it made it all the more fun. You can find some of my not so great photos here and listen to some of their tunes (Man Alive is the type of funky, party stuff they were doing on Thursday) and see more photos on the Andi and Goerge myspace page (scroll down on the right hand side and click on the Andi and George CD launch to see photos from a different event at the Front, but much the same atmosphere). The whole attitude and atmosphere reminds me of Babaloo in JP – a rambling cast of musicians characteristic of JP, a local musical institution and always a party, whatever musical shape they are in.

Then last night – Jeff Lang. Oh man! what a guitar explosion. I’ve never seen anyone play guitar like that. A sort of folk, blues, roots power play. Mostly slide guitar stuff and some of the most amazing picking and playing. I was really quite blown away. Here’s the Jeff Lang MySpace page which has music (Lubbock Texas live is a pretty good example of what I heard last night), and the Jeff Lang website.