Great Southern Land

I am so glad the holidays are here.

I'm not sure how long I was going to last at the current pace. We are installing an enormous web site (in December? Why not!), and the voluntary overtime is great fun, but just a bit wearing.

But it's Christmas now. I've had a long chat to brother in the next state, and Skype has let me see sister, bro in law & nieces in Germany. We did nutty things, like take the lappy outside to show our christmas lights. Ap made faces most of the time, and we carried an inflatable dalek (Py's present from an aunty) across the background.
Sometimes the 21st Century is just right.

It's been a marvellous Christmas. Midnight Mass at the Cathedral. Coming out at 1.30am with the bells pealing into the night. We have traditional stockings out for the children, and father Christmas made his rounds. Breakfast in bits & pieces, then The Present Session after that. Ar was first "Dad here's yours." A Santa suit. How very... red.

All the parents in law were here for our long lunch, which was outdoors in a lovely 34 degrees (93 Fahrenheit). We had had a touch of rain this month, so the garden was quite green and fresh. Good Australian champagne, wines, beers, even soft drink. Ap had made meringues, & christmas cake, supervised closely by my mother. Anything with marzipan is simply good, I say.

We finished up with a bit of cooking for the extended family party tomorrow. H's specialty is gingery chick peas from the Moosewood Cook book. A truly mellow day. A blessed day.

I hope you've had a good Christmas too. We live in a crazy age, but there's so much good around (really), and I hope you feel it, or add to it. If you can read this, you're luckier than most people.

I wish you well.

They were stars. My dancing three, they stole the show. The whole evening. And the funniest thing was, all the other parents said exactly the same thing about their children.

Seriously, the calibre of the dance was universally stunning. From the opening moment when 2 4-year olds were towed on little "clouds" across the stage, we were entranced.
The story of Eurynome is an ancient creation myth from Greece. Our dance teacher conceived of having "cherubs" demand a bedtime story from the goddesses/older dancers, so they describe the dance of Eurynome as she, erm, "gets to know" the serpent Ophion.
Commencing with the primal ooze spread across the stage, Ap & his gorgeous companions created a sinister, dark, obscure dance, which finished with the dancers oozing off the stage onto the front row of the audience! Definitely not the Nutcracker!
From the union of Eurynome & Ophion (Ap & a friend) comes all the creatures of the earth. Ar's group was the wind, then the birds. Py's group was the sea, later humans, but a highlight was when they came out as the insects. They were wonderfully comical as they explored the stage, then swarmed around. I just cracked up.

The overall standard was so high, the choreography (a lot of it made by the dancers themselves), the light & sound, this was nearly professional quality from the teenagers, & the younger ones show the promise. We are so fortunate to have such an inspired dance studio. No excessive make-up, just a few simple costumes, such a wide range of music, linked to great stories, & NO forced smiles. That's the clincher: almost every single child beamed genuine grace, confidence & joy. It was a joy.

This posting contains Debussy, & Wagner, so you've been warned.

Ap is performing Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk on thursday. It's from a beautiful piano suite called Children's Corner. They're for adults to play, but they have a child's playfulness about them.

One edition mentions a parody of Wagner's opera, Tristan und Isolde written in (the slow bit: da deee de dum - di di di, di di di). I found a Wagner highlights cd, played the first 2 minutes of Tristan's Prelude... & Ap & I laughed! Debussy is just plain cheeky at this point.

Have a listen; it's grand opera meets smoky little Paris cafe. Tip for players: Those isolated slow bars should be reeeeally slow & overdone, and make the quick triplets as cheeky as possible.

I love musical jokes like that. Britten wrote a version of God Save the Queen, and the trombones play "Roll out the Barrel" in the middle. Or maybe we're a bit odd to find it funny.

Sorry, having too much fun to get to the lappy (or any computer). A quick note to say, the dance concert is coming up again, with an Olympian theme! Actually pre-Olympian: the legend of Euronyme. Ap, Py & Ar are all in it up to their eyeballs; H has offered to design the poster, & I'm detailed to do the web site. When, I'm not exactly sure...