Tina's wanderings around the world

I was wandering through a bookstore with a friend last night when we stumbled upon a favorite children's book of old. One that was one of my brother's favorites (and if he'd ever dressed up as Waldo for Halloween, it would have been a close likeness!). But this book was misnamed. Instead of the very familiar "Where's Waldo", the title read "Where's Wally". Wally. Wally? Whereupon I launched into a tirade of, "Oh, look at the Australians, always having to change the names of the originals because they can't be bothered to pronounce the full 'Wal-Do'." My friend's reply was that his name was Wally, and you silly American, stop repressing me! Oh, we'll wikipedia it, then we'll find out who's right. Damn it, Waldo.

I read a post on my favorite food blogger's website a month or so ago about a farmers market in Orange. Orange is a little town about 3.5 hours outside of Sydney, over the Blue Mountains and towards the interior of New South Wales. We haven't done a ton of exploring out that way, so we thought it would be good to head on out and see what's out there. We headed out Friday night after work, and when we started off on our drive it was unbelievably hot and muggy, a thin sheen of perspiration having been a permanent fixture all day. Luckily the storm clouds rolled in, and although it helped take away some of the heat, the humidity lingered. Soooooooo we kept the windows rolled down during most of the drive and made a brief stop at McD's for an ice cream. No road trip would be complete without a fast food stop! We rolled on over the Blue Mountains and made our dinner stop about 30 minutes outside of Orange at Bathurst, an old gold mining town. There was nothing super note-wor...

Last week was the beginning of our soon-to-be intense performance viewing schedule. I don't think we've gone overboard just yet, but oh you wait. :) So last Wednesday we went and saw our first STC performance (since I've been on staff). The Sydney Festival was going on, a big festival to celebrate the city of Sydney in summer. There was music, theatre, dancing, lectures, art exhibits and basically all manner of cultural activities held throughout the city in order exhibiting Australian artists. This year's theme was hope and renewal (no doubt to combat the GFC) and thus STC's festival show was called "Optimism", an adaptation of Voltaire's "Candide". (Held in the opera house. Woohoo, our first official "show" in the opera house!) Maria and Adam came along to take part in the inagural night of STC staff benefits. The show successfully walked the fine line between darkness and hopefulness. An apparently well-known Australian comedian,...