WHACKO - A GREAT WEEK IN TASSIE

thursday june 5

i stayed at donnie’s last night after the launch of the mildura living magazine. my article on sonja looked good, six pages with lots of pics, three of them mine with no acknowledgement and they managed to spell my name wrong on the byline!  although up the back on the social pages all the pics and info about my wentworth exhibition, they managed to get it right every time  :0\

It's great to have a first article published and lucky i had such a wonderful subject, the lovely sonja, with a big story to tell

the flights were fine, i’ve never seen such a thick cushiony sky full of cloud,  nonstop from mildura to melbourne.   i was feeling so relaxed about the trip i almost forgot to check in to my second flight. thank god the girl at the gate desk just printed a boarding pass out for me otherwise i wouldn’t have had time to get on the plane.

the TSO (tasmanian symphony orchestra) had a cab waiting so i went straight in to the rehearsal space, left my luggage and strolled over the road to lovely victoria dock to have lunch in the sun.  oysters and trevally with a champagne looking out onto the prettiest boats and old sandstone buildings.

 THE SEAGULLS ATE MY OYSTERS! i sat down at muirs lovely outdoor seafood restaurant and ordered oysters and trevalli.  when  i went inside to grab a shopping bag i’d left at the counter i returned to a plate of empty shells and i hadn’t even eaten one!   the lovely girls inside gave me another plateful  :0) 

then i headed back into the concert hall  and sat listening to magnificent music from swan lake and the peasant prince all afternoon.  it’s a wonderful orchestra

the concert hall in hobart - locally known as 'the tank'

benjamin northey takes off

actor andrew casey reads the text

                    

   this gorgeous

boy was being

naughty in the

back row with

his friend, they

were passing

a phone back

and forth and

laughing a lot

- very serious

in the 

performance 

though

the foyer

Kathryn joined me later in the day - i stayed with her
for a few nights, great to have time to catch up

Kathryn picked me up at 5 and we headed home to unpack and freshen up then we walked down to the waterfront to meet my printmaking hero barbie kjar – such wonderful images she creates.  nothing like i’d imagined her, in fact the complete opposite physically to the very dark strong featured women she depicts in her powerful work.  and damn it, i forgot to get a photo.

then home for dinner by the fire, a good end to a busy day full of travel and music.

FRIDAY  a busy day    first a trip to the radio station for an interview on Edge radio then into the concert hall at 9.30 to meet one of the schools before the first performance. they didn’t make it in time though so we went in for the concert.

KIDS KIDS KIDS  two packed performances in the morning and a sold out family concert at six - it was terrific

katy abbott

the composer explained

to the kids the whole

process of creating 

the score to the peasant

prince and demonstrated

with sections of the

orchestra.  the whole

thing was great

book signings - boxes of books were sold,  i was sitting there for half an hour before the evening performance and maybe 3/4 hour afterwards, a really wonderful experience in every way. the people who organised it all were lovely too.

the evening performance was introduced by christopher lawrence from radio national - we had a brief Q & A afterwards

 it was just wonderful, the combination of the words, images and music for the Peasant Prince part of the programme works so well and ben northey is such a lovely relaxed guy -  great at conducting and talking to the kids in a really personal way.  the music was introduced by composer katy abbott who explained her process of working out the various themes of the story and having the orchestra play them, different instruments demonstrating the same theme, violin, glockenspiel, horns, flute . . .   and my images were on a huge screen suspended above the orchestra.   the theatre was packed for the two school daytime concerts and one evening family performance, it was a great day full of energy and beautiful music.

Kathryn came to the evening concert, and katy abbott's ’s family flew down from melbourne. they must have been so proud of her, what a talent.

After the concert it was back to the waterfront to have dinner, we ended up outside at an italian restaurant called Moldino’s   - and had the best spaghetti marinara i’ve ever had.  the seafood here is spectacular.

SATURDAY   we headed down to the salamanca markets and spent a couple of hours there.  fabulous fresh vegetables at the hmong stalls and lots of interesting clothes.  then i caught the ferry to MONA and kathryn met me there in the car

a rainbow on arrival 

so much to see and what an amazing building  -  what an amazing vision

what a place, i was dead tired by this time and the 99 steps up from the ferry seemed like a kilometre but it was worth it. even without the fantastic artworks  the building alone is worth the visit and the location is perfect.  what a vision that david walsh had. i’m lucky that kathryn has worked at mona a lot so she really knew her way around. 

Dinner at home in front of the fire, i cooked an asian soup full of vegies from the market and we watched Children of a Lesser God – beautiful young william hurt, what a wonderful film that is.

SUNDAY

slept in !    loved it     then we headed into hobart and had a good brekky in the salamanca area. we both signed some books in a lovely book shop then i caught the ferry to bruny and loved the trip, standing on the top deck of the ferry watching the sun set behind me

in fuller's lovely bookshop 

Kris and Ray live in the most magnificent place, sweeping views across the water to blue layers of mountains and a lovely community of people who seem to gravitate towards the cafe kris and ray have on the point.  a wonderful location and it feels so good. it’s been great to spend time there, eat ray’s fabulous food and just take in the atmosphere of where they’re living.

dinner with 
friends,  food
to die for

lots of different little animals in tassie - this little fella was in the chicken coop

MONDAY.   Another day in bruny, i could easily live here.  ray cooked the most delicious swiss brown mushrooms on his own sourdough toast for brekky and i had a pretty relaxed morning, time out with a movie and helping kris with her knitting while they did breakfast at the cafe.  i needed just to not talk to anyone for a couple of hours, these few days have been jam packed full and i’m overloaded. it was just a nice day at the restaurant, a walk along the beach below, i visited one of kris and ray’s friends then got the ferry back here to hobart.  So good to spend time with kris and ray and see the wonderful place they have here, the cafe, the island and the community

TUESDAY  i’m heading home today, it’ll be a day of flying and i’ll collapse when i get to wenty.