Pica Pica

Went to Spotlight the other day. Got some embroidery silk to re-string my mala counters:

But that’s just for the sake of a picture. We also got a make-up mirror – one of those with a magnifying side and a plain side, with a light for the face. Amongst the instructions was:

• Do not use while asleep.

Errr…?

It’s a couple of months since my 60th bash, but you might find this amusing all the same.

We had (dark) red and (ivory) white flying balloons at the party. There was some helium left. So after everyone had gone, we tried a few things out. That sad old song “Skibbereen” seems particularly moving when performed with a lungful of helium.

After all those years when learning to dance seemed like a great idea to do “sometime“, Sarah and I went to an introductory tango session on Saturday, and are fired up to have lessons at Patio de Tango.

The teacher was really reassuring, and started at the very beginning: first, just stand there. Then progress to shifting your weight back and forth from one foot to the other. Later we progressed to walking forward, using first one foot, then the other! And so on.

At this stage I just want to stress that this is Argentine tango, not ballroom tango (or the “dreaded slow-slow-quick-quick-slow” as it seems to be known).

Let’s face it, if you are going to see in the new year with fireworks, Sydney is the place to do it. This year we were kindly given tickets to a spot in the Botanical Gardens – here was our view as we settled to watch the parakeets, swallows, bats, moon and helicopters as we waited for the show.

For pictures of the fireworks themselves, go to the paper:
SMH picture gallery. They were spectacular!

They also have a video.

Us with Khandro Thrinlay Chodon (see Khachodling) and Tenzin Palmo (see Dongyu Gatsal Ling) at fundraising dinner.

The Tuesday session at Kelly’s stopped operating earlier this year. Partly as a result, in September we started a session at the Riverview Hotel in Balmain on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. Thanks, Sarah, for this idea!

Anybody who is particularly interested that can find out more through the session’s group at Yahoo.
It’s the nature of sessions to be unpredictable, but the first two nights have been successful, so here are a few pictures.

A general view of the pub, which you can see is “old-style”. This one was taken before the first session actually started.

New South Wales, to its shame, has an astonishing number of pokies.
The pubs and hotels depend on them for income, and the Hotels Association has made large contributions to the governing party to maintain the system of large “boofhead” pubs through an expensive licensing scheme. The State government also has become financially dependent on the large rake of it gets from these machines. Nobody likes to talk about the broken lives that pay for all this. Anyway, this pub has, I am proud to report, possibly the pokiest pokie room you will be likely to find:

Some of the players on the second evening:

And here is another view:

A star visitor on the second evening was Ruth Boylan, who had been teaching at the Gundagai festival:

And finally, another view of some of the players, lit by flashlight. This does not give such an atmospheric view, but you can see more clearly!

So far, so good!

3 April 2007. Back upstairs again in Kelly’s on King, Newtown, Sydney.

I don’t need to make many comments about most of these!

Thinking about it..

Playing and thinking:

Playing:

Even more playing:

A contributor to thesession.org/who escaped the picture three weeks ago:

More and more playing:

A slightly different angle:

Even less comment:

The audience was enthusiastic:

Not playing, dancing (though we want a harder surface):

The landlord says “Well, it is an Irish pub”:

A few bits of news.

Way back we visited “The House”:

… for dinner and breakfast:

I did find a new home for Harry and Goggles:

Christmas in Australia 2005:

That Christmas Day was hot:

There was our wedding:

… with reception:

… and guests:

… and Sarah’s father:

A holiday in Fiji:

… same place:

… to sing a bit:

… and relax:

A walk in the grounds of the lunatic asylum:

This is not a lunatic:

Even some real bush:

One day we had lunch with the Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile):

A new home in Leichhardt:

With a lot of rubbish to clear out:

Ten seconds to pose all 5 of us:

Speeding on, UK November 2006 for Trudie’s 90th birthday bash. First I caught up with Polly, seen here in her office:

Caitlin likes to pose:

Robert, of course:

Their dad Kevin:

… and their mum, Ginny of course:

I took a breather at Marpa House:

… before getting to the bash:

My brother’s family were there:

Jill made a speech:

… and Trudie made a speech:

Which brings us up to this last Christmas – same place, waiting for same ferry to go for Christmas lunch:

… again:

Then for no particular reason, one of the two local cockys:

The back yard with Christmas lights:

This a more usual appearance:

And bats in the park (which is nicer than having them in the back garden):

My latest foray into trying to keep you informed (don’t bother with this if you are using dial-up):

Sometime in 2006 it put up some overdue snaps. Here is a link to them on my website: 2005-2006.

I only did one update in 2005. Here is a link to it on my website: 2005.