varekai

OH MY GOODNESS, VAREKAI! IT WAS SO OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD, AMAZINGLY AND SUPERBLY TERRIFIC!!!

of all the shows i've ever seen in my whole 30 some years of life, this has to take the prize. dare i say, it even trumps The Phantom of the Opera, which i thought was the best production i've ever seen.




the imaginary and gorgeous costumes and sets, the highly skilled acrobatic and artistic performances, the live and haunting music and singing,
the intimate small tent and high tech lighting, i felt like i was transported
to an imaginary wonderland. it was truly satisfying. the performers were very, very skilled. cirque du soleil is a human circus production, but don't be fooled. they are not your normal run-of-the-mill circus acts that you have seen as a kid, with a bunch of clowns and flying trapeze acts and torch blowers and stuff. yes they have comic actors,

and also contortionists, little kids acrobats, jugglers (have you ever seen a man juggle with his tongue?!), flying trapeze folks, and dancers and singers, and even a handicapped athlete who was great. even their contraptions are artistically designed. these are some of the greatest athletes as well as artistes in the world. i've heard of cirque for a long time and always wished i could see a production live. my dream came true.

i have such high respect for all who are involved in cirque du soleil. truly a world class act. (simon, josh, if you thought Alegria was very good, Varekai was even better. i have the dvd, you can come by my house to watch if you like).

i thought yesterday's was my last post but i just couldn't resist it today after watching Varekai. my whole trip has been the greatest orange poppy seed cake, with lots of poppy seeds, but Varekai has been the orange syrup topping or the cream cheese topping. in other words, it was the icing of the cake, the best highlight of the trip. thank you cirque du soleil! what a great way to finish my trip.

so goodbye Melbourne. you have offered me so much of what i love. hope to see you again real soon.

going home

*sigh* i'm leaving for home tomorrow morning. today's my last day. i still have one more show tonight - Varekai by Cirque du Soleil. am excited about the show, but i learn now not to have any plans on the last 2 days of my vacations, especially long ones, because i realize i just lose the mood and just want to laze around and prepare to go home. found myself going to sleep last night feeling a little blue about going home. am excited about seeing the family again, but sad that the travel will be over soon. i always love my travels

i actually thought it would be a good idea today to head out to the city earlier and kill time at the Queen Victoria Market, since i need to be there for tonight's show anyway. got all dressed up, took a train heading to the city, stopped at the next suburb for my last lamb souvlaki meal, and strangely after lunch just really felt like coming home instead. tried to shrug it off, hopped on the next train to the city, and changed my mind and hopped off the next stop and took a train home instead! thought i'd put in my last post before curling into my comfy bed and doona (aussie for comforter) for awhile. my husband says maybe it's because i've done it all. perhaps.
i wish i could teleport myself to tonight's show instead of walking to the station, take a train, then a tram to the Oval. oh well....


anyway, here's one of the best fruit i've ever tasted. fresh figs. straight off the tree at my niece's garden. i've only ever had dried ones, and i didn't like them. but look at the colors on these fresh ones. and they're really sweet and yummy, and oh so good for you.
they're packed with antioxidants and fibre. gorgeous.

now to bed for an arvo nap.

antipasto!

here comes the first of the food shots! we swam through this in a cafe in healesville. it's a huge antipasto to serve 2 persons, but it did right by the 4 of us. i have grown to love greek food! this antipasto has 5 kinds of dips - tzatziki, hommus, eggplant, avocado, garlic. served with torn pieces of foccacia bread and crackers. there's also 2 cheeses, smoked salmon, cold cuts and terrines, feta and spinach tart pieces, olives, potato salad and some other leafy salads.


guess how yummy it was?!!! i'm hungry thinking about it now. i think i'm gonna go get some food...isn't it wonderful that art if applied in food too? my photo doesn't do it justice. trust me, it was good!!!

the vineyard

march 29, the Yarra Valley vineyards. wished hubby was here 'cos he would have loved this so much. that's his cousin in the photo. australia as a nation is going through serious drought problems at the moment. it's hit some farming areas really badly. but as you can see, this area still looks great! there has hardly been any rainfall, and if at all, it's just been very light drizzles lasting for 5 minutes. in fact i just heard on the radio just now that the people are asked to pray for rain. wow! perhaps those from outside australia should pray for them for rain too. and this autumn hasn't been cold at all. it's only between the range of 9C-25C. hmm, global warming. i've decided my favorite temperature is 18C, distinctly cool yet no need for additional clothing.

i enjoyed the cheese and wine tasting immensely. we tasted about 5 different good wines, complimented by a cheese board with a variety of 6 cheeses, served with wafer crackers. the best of the lot was the goat's cheese soaked and infused in olive oil and black pepper. and it was crumbly like cream cheese. the taste, oh my goodness! and they had this homemade bread that had a crispy rock-salt topped crust and pillow soft inside... truly so good you can eat it on it's own. which we did.

what good view, what good food!

flower & garden art

well! so i'll be going home day after tomorrow! it's been 38 days here in melbourne so far, and i would have been here for a total of 40 days when i leave. and i have loved it! absolutely.

it's a lazy day in today. listening to a jazz radio station while i'm bloggin. also with the idea of going home being just a day away, i pretty much don't want to do anything else but just hang back, reminesce, and savor the last bits of it. i think i will always treasure this trip. it's great to have been able to do lots and gone to see lots of wonderful places and experienced wonderful enriching experiences, and have had lots of time to do it, unlike short vacations where you tire yourself out by trying to do and see everything at a maddening pace, then go home and feel like you need to recuperate from your vacation! i've had great food, seen great art, audienced 4 great art productions, seen beautiful vistas, had reunions with long lost high school friends, and experienced all these through the eyes of the Father. wonderful. complete. abundant. blessed. joy.

and more than half of my melbourne savoring is still not posted yet, which i will. this is really for me to keep the great memories of the trip alive.

march 28. i went to the melbourne flower and garden festival at the Carlton Gardens. there were loads of stalls for retail, which was not applicable to me since i don't live here. although, i did buy this unique hydration crystals, which works like our clumpy gooey water gel things for plants. except these ones look like lovely tiny crystal balls. i'll let you have a look when i go home and use them, hydrated.


then there was the 2nd feature of the show, which was garden designs and landscaping. most of them were very interesting, but this one captured my fancy the most. i couldn't capture the whole thing in one shot, so you need to visualised it a bit

in your mind. imagine your garden or courtyard or backyard with a soaking pool (check out the canoe designed deck beds!), and outdoor lounge next to it (with the fuschia sitting things). you can sit with

your friends and sip cocktails there while you catch up. to it's left is a little al fresco dining area where you can have your breakfast or tea. and, in front of the dining area, the outdoor tv lounge with a big screen and surround sound system. relax for a movie, or clear the place, pump up the music and kick
up a party! i can hear someone saying, "mosquitoes la!".










of course there was the parade of flowers. a sampling here.

one other favorite feature was the flower artistic designs and arrangements. check these out... a piece of art on canvas that's "painted" entirely with fresh flowers and grass, and an inspired floral bride's room.

so far

before i sign off for 5 days, let's see, the 'back dated' chronicles of my melbourne holiday has brought us to only march 27. i arrived on march 13 and it's now april 11. wow, i've been here for a month. felt quite fast. i'm sure my husband and kids will not agree.

i started out the 1st day of my trip(travel day aside), with a gung-ho 25 min walk to the next suburb where the nearest shopping area is, did a 3 hr browse in between, and ended with another 25 min walk back. i think i nearly ended my existence. that route never saw me on foot again. in between i also had wonderful home-cooked vietnamese meals (and i'm bringing the recipes home, so sam, more dinner party ideas for us), finished the whole of season 1 of heroes. you saw the mt dandenong experience, the aquarium, the zoo. browsed in the biggest mall ever Chadstone (seriously, would i only browse?). the japanese dress-up, wonderful greek food. also went to a food and wine festival where i tasted a spanish hot chocolate that is to die for! and of course the ice-cream, hmmm.....

had a peek at Williamstown where there was yet another art and fun festival going on. williamstown is kind of like a maritime town. i thought it was going to be like a boys town but it turned out to be very quaint and pleasant. sorry, i mindlessly didn't take any pictures. also toured St Kilda beach where it was so windy and after that my hair was all in one place, held together by sand and sea breeze. and had dinner at the legendary Lygon st aka little italy and even visited a local institution, Brunetti's, a quite out-of-this-world coffee, cakes, choc and gelato place. i'm sure you can visualise it just by it's name? husband would absolutely love this place. perhaps someday, hopefully soon, we can come together.

and of course, the occasional Bourke St Mall, and Brunswick St where the atmosphere is bohemian, retro and arty. kinda like the famous hippy Haightashbury of San Francisco, except that brunswick was not as big and buzzing as haight.

i will pick up again with the melbourne flower and garden festival when i get back from camp.

japanese art

on my second weekend here, march 24, the lazy saturday morning brought us to an absolutely yummy souvlaki lunch at orexi's (and i'm going there for lunch in a bit before i head off to 5 days of soul survivor food). for aud7.50 you get an "ang moh" size portion of what looks like a 1/2kg heap of gorgeous tender grilled chicken (or lamb if you prefer, or both!), topped on a huge flat turkish bread and generous amounts of crispy lettuce, fresh tomatoes, onions and greek yogurt tzatziki. oompa! btw do we have any greek food at all back home?

after filling our tums till i was about to hurl, we headed off to Docklands, which is another waterfront area in the city where various events and festivals are usually hosted. it was the Osaka Festival this time around and it was very colorful. there was hawker style jap food, origami activity, a stage for music and parades, tea cremonies, and the highlight of the day

- free dress-up-in-a-yukata-and-snap-photos-like-crazy

booth. a yukata is a summer kimono, which is a lot lighter but as beautiful and as breath-restricting around the waist as the traditional thick kimonos that we know of. the last bit is to adorn your freezing toes in one of these little kittens, and then you have your little personal parade infront of a camera, trying to remember to walk daintily like little japanese women instead of flopping around. nothing i've ever done before. it was a lot of fun
and everything looks so pretty

question

nothing on art, but just a burning question - can someone tell me why the toilets and bathrooms in australian homes DO NOT have locks on them?

i keep fearing someone will "catch me in the act"!

this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine

march 21. melbourne zoo. i was wanting to whiz in and out of the giant maze-like aviary at 2:30pm 'cos it was super hot and i was way beyond stinking. (it was hot in my early days here. 33 degrees! now it's mostly autumny 20's). i'm not much for birds, but this little guy caught me in mid-stride. it was just sitting there, quite hidden by leafy trees, but knows enough that he's very pretty and that just being will do. it's almost like he's singing, "this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine. this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine. this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine. let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. hide it in the treetops, no! i'm gonna let it....". couldn't help it but had to stop 'tho sweaty just to hear him sing.

here's a little one who knows who he is. and it didn't matter if he was in an extra-large-cage man made sanctuary, he is free when he learns that he just needs to be who he is created to be. the beautiful and absolutely lovable and worthy creature that he is. we could learn from this lot. lofty men who suffer from low self-esteem, daily struggling to find himself a place of reckoning in this world. if only we'll take time, and courage, to look inside to find that this little light of ours is indeed created and birthed within us, and it's beautiful and absolutely lovable and worthy.

"look at the birds. they don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. and aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" - jesus christ. boy, i still have so much to learn.

art is for playing and for learning

fish art

have you seen a shark egg before? not until march 20 for me. the one on the left is mrs xx shark's piece of art. she has to wait for a year to see her baby? a longer time than we take. well at least she doesn't have to carry a ton of pregnancy weight around.

so this display is at the melbourne aquarium. i was amazed to not only see shark eggs for the first time, but to see that they came in different odd shapes and sizes. this one of the port jackson shark looks like a rubbery piece of seaweed intertwining and spiralling itself around the baby shark to protect it. then there is an opening at one of the ends la. not very pretty, but quite beautiful.

the one on the right are just a bunch of starfish in an open touching tank, just lazing around below the shimmering waters. my photography's not the least bit professional, but it'll do for my kids to see this sunshiny piece of ocean art.

someone's piece

this is a piece done by an unknown artist on a part of the walkway along Southgate, which is a buzzing commercial waterfront area right next to the yarra river. it's where i end most of my days in the city, with a yummy gelato in hand from trampoline, whose parade of gelatos looks like a beautiful food artist's pallete. southgate is kind of like that famous stretch in shanghai. what is it called again? i think most major cities have one, recalling those i've been to in cape town, rio de janeiro, hong kong, phnom penh, singapore, sydney, bali, even kuching.

there are numerous art pieces like these all along the sidewalk, usually surrounding lamp posts. they're all done in pastels, i think. and they're beautiful.

this is someone's art. a piece of someone's life generously given for the fulfilment of another. an expression of one's life and play. tho we're strangers separated by oceans at most times, our lives get to intertwine. after all, we're just a huge brotherhood of mankind, born by the same Father, who gives us a beautiful playground. if only we would play nicely together...

i believe, and have discovered, that art is not for the elite few. art is not only found in galleries, or theatres, or philharmonic halls. we are surrounded by art. it's in the experience of life. the clothes i wear, the toothbrush i use, the pc i'm blogging on, the beautiful cup of latte my bro-in-law is sipping (and photographing). it flowed from an artist somewhere whose creative brilliance was given by the Great Creator Himself.

so, i am an artist. not necessarily of paint and brushes. but at this moment, blogging is my art. i am playing and creating a sort of life force if you will, and a positive one i hope. perhaps one day in the near future, i will also be an artist of paint and brush, or of the opera, or of the flamenco!

what art have you seen or done in life today?

where's the giant

is there a giant in mt dandenong? 'cos there sure is a giant's chair! i'm not sure why. forgot to read the story behind the giant's chair. anyone sitting there gets a great view of the dandenong ranges. God's art in display. God's play in exhibition. and we get to enjoy this bit of art in life.

i imagine an elusive gentle giant, keeper of the mountains aka mr dande nong, who sinks into his favorite chair at the break of dawn to enjoy the view, with a latte or a vegemite sandwich in hand. (that reminds me i must try the institutional vegemite sandwich while i'm here. don't think i'll like it tho). and he goes into invisible mode at the sight of the first soul, and watches with a smile on his face, as little ones like me get to play on his favorite chair. imagine how small i look in that chair.

perhaps, mr dande nong himself, is God...?

fire engine

so i've been in melbourne for more than 3 weeks now. aah...the lovely autumn weather. and the colors of orange, red and yellow. but there's also a special and pleasant burst of...whites! autumn weddings in australia, when it's not too hot nor is it too cold. i've seen 5 weddings already in just 3 weeks. and all in the lovely gardens here. this is an interesting one up in mt. dandenong where i was on march 17. amidst the beautiful greens and the flowers of the gardens, and the beautiful people around, there stood a majestic structure in glowing red - a fire engine! no, there wasn't a tragic fire or a cat up in a tree. the fire engine was the royal carriage for the king and queen of the day. most original i've seen by far. none of the usual rolls royces or beemers or mercs or volvos.




guess who's the fire fighter? or was it just the groom's (or the bride's) childhood fancy?

happy good friday

so what am i doing on good friday, here in melbourne? let me see...the easter weekend is a major public holiday here. it's a four day weekend, friday till sunday. strange that i'm not in church, where i usually am back home this time of year. however, did have my little moment of worship and contemplation back in the magnificent st paul's cathedral in the heart of the city yesterday, surrounded by beautiful icons, high finely architectured ceilings and lovely stained glass windows. chatted with the Almighty in my journal.

"it's the mystery of the universe. you're the God of holiness, yet you welcome souls like me" - matt redman. you did all this simply because i am your child. one of your own. it's simple. if i was in a situation where the only way my own children could live was if i perished, would i be willing? i would think that i would say yes without a doubt.

so, thank you Father, for your heart that's for me. and thank you Jesus, for being willing.

and today, i tried the art of blogging. not bad for a late "e-bloomer".

reborn

finally, i'm starting a blog, in melbourne no less. strange, but strangely nice. i kept saying that i will not blog, since everybody does it, and i don't have the time to, but at this point in my life, i'm up for anything new, any sense of adventure. and while you lot of expert bloggers may find this old school, i'm a total novice.

some call this mid-life crisis, i call this being reborn. 'cos that's what it feels like to me. i'm a wife and mum of 2 little ones. been stuck in a very conservative and "un-mainline" job for 10 years, after an exciting 5 years of advertising. i had forgotten myself, my passions, and my dreams for too long. thus it called for a long extended leave of 6 months, which i may extend up to 1 year. can't imagine not working for a year. it feels wonderful. i could get used to this. but the money bit makes me a bit nervous though...but God has been providing so far, so i should trust him to continue providing, provided he's ok with me doing this.

so this is where my come-up-against-a-wall journey has brought me to. self-rediscovery to find my true self and doing it justice to let her live again, reviving my true love for the arts and daring to let-it-rip and pursue it with zest and as though i'm not getting any younger (which i'm not), and just paying attention to life where for the longest time i've let it pass by me with speed.

i don't intend for my blog to be a daily journal, but rather pages of my savoring the art of/in life
, and for other art enthusiasts to help me in my exploration of it, and also for it to be somewhat of a support group for new art enthusiasts like myself.

after all, as i've discovered, life is art
, and i've just been reborn