Cricket, clouds and rehearsals

Views from a morning bike ride around Umbagong District Park and West Belconnen Pond.

'There can never really be justice on stolen land'

 

 

 

 

I haven't seen this lovely lady for far too long, so we caught up over breakfast burgers and eggs Benedict at A Bite to Eat.

Little b at A Bite to Eat

Rehearsals continue for Oh, What a Lovely War!  These scenes are from Hitchy Koo and The Biggest Profiteer. 

 

'It's the cutest little thing'

'Don't you ask me what it means'

Female ensemble taking a break

'You must understand, my dear fellow, that war is a political and economic necessity.'

'Do you stumblebums realize that there have been two peace scares in the last year?'

'We've six of the family at the front, sir.'

One of the perks of the job is tasting products to see if we will stock them. This is a range of vodka and gins from New Zealand, made with manuka, saffron, cardamom, rooibos and cacao.  

Sacred Spirits

We tried once more to go the cricket at the Manuka Oval, this time with more success. We saw a 20/20 between the Prime Minister's XI and England. England won, which was great, and we got to see David Willey hit 34 off an over bowled by Nathan Lyon. Now that really was spectacular: five sixes in a row, and then everyone booed the final boundary because it was 'only' a four. 

 

Clouds were gathering and a storm was forming as I went for an evening run. I took a couple of pictures on my phone and then played around with an app to make new images with painterly qualities and turned them into a collage. 

 

Enlighten Plus

As I take to the trails round and about, I am rediscovering my love of biking. Coming to a new area is a lot of fun, working out where are the best place to run and cycle. One of my newest favourite rides incorporates the Straight Line Border between the ACT and NSW. It skirts the West Belconnen Pond, on which pelicans nest, and it is so called because...

The Straight-Line Border

West Belconnen Pond

Nesting pelicans

Him Outdoors has joined me on some of these rides, from breakfast and coffee rides, to other, more strenuous excursions.

With Him Outdoors at Little Oink

At Lake Ginninderra

Him Outdoors has also been trying to rope in new converts to his team, draping friends' children in Burnley scarves and flat caps. Forgive them for they know not what they do.

One evening in the week we went to Enlighten. I've written about this before: it's a festival in which images are projected onto the face of some of Canberra's public buildings. Here they are:

Old Parliament House

Spider at Questacon

The National Portrait Gallery

National Library of Australia

National Gallery of Australia

These projections are a big thing in Canberra. Thousands of people flock to see them and they light up the town in more ways than one. However, none of the artists were paid. This is part of the 'artists should work for exposure rather than financial reward' argument. Excuse me, but that is utter crap.

All the other providers to the festival were paid for their work. If you value art, you should reward it as you do everything else in this materialistic capitalist society, and pay for it. If you don't, you will lose it. Artists need to eat and house themselves too. To belittle their contribution in this patronising way is shocking, shameful and unforgivable.