The Wealth Games

Guess it's over, call it a day, sorry that it has to end at all. What a fantastic experience Melbourne achieved over the Commonwealth Games. The city fairly buzzed with excitement and activity, from the slightly obscure but dazzling Opening Ceremony on Wednesday 15 March (no dramas with the Ides of March for us!) to last night's party-like Closing Ceremony presided over from afar by our incomparable Dame Edna. The MCG looked magnificent as an athletics arena, it's hard to imagine it now for football and cricket. The new stand gives a superb view of the ground, though is perhaps not ideal for the less fit or those with a fear of heights! The Yarra river and the fish were a resounding success, attracting thousands of people each day and especially at night to see the hourly 'son et lumiere' display. Public transport worked extremely well, despite our doubts when so many trains were late or cancelled in the months leading up to the Games. The Cultural Festival events in the Alexandra Gardens and Arts Centre precinct were a wonderful addition to the sporting events, and showcased our many talents and wonderful facilities. Even the weather was brilliant! It really was Marvellous Melbourne at its very best. A highlight for us personally was the athletics program on Friday night at the G. There were several outstanding performances, records and gold medals to Aussies, but perhaps the greatest cheer was for the Papua New Guinea runner in the final of the Men's 3000 metre Steeplechase. Three Kenyans fairly quickly established their places for the medals out ahead of the pack, with the man from PNG bringing up the rear. By the end of the race, the winner had lapped the Papua New Guinean but he gamely continued on, finishing his race to a standing ovation from the whole stadium. It isn't always about winning.

But while the city basks in the undoubted popular success of the Games, perhaps its time to reflect on this supposed 'common wealth' of nations. It seems that we here in the Lucky Country have a disproportionate share of the wealth, with some of the participants from other less fortunate countries not even able to afford team tracksuits. Is the Commonwealth still relevant and worthwhile, or is it now an anacronism? The Queen certainly didn't win over many fans at the Opening Ceremony, with her glum expression and seeming lack of enjoyment. She smiled only once, but then after all for her it was just another day in the colonies, she is nearly 80 and it was well past her bedtime, so perhaps we need to make allowances.

So where to from here? We have the Grand Prix in Melbourne at Albert Park next weekend, then we'll segue into Easter in mid-April, followed shortly thereafter by Anzac Day on 25th April, before we really have to face the reality of gray skies, shorter days and the onset of winter. By then the Games will be just a memory, but for many of us, a wonderful one.

Port Fairy Folk Festival retrospect

Well the 30th Festival has come and gone and what a fantastic weekend of music it was! This year we weren't able to book accommodation, so dusted off the 30 year old tent and joined the many other hardy festival goers under canvas both day and night. After a very long and trying journey to Port Fairy on Victoria's south west coast, with a detour to Forrest in the Otways to collect our festival chairs, we finally arrived at the Gardens Caravan Park around 9:15 p.m. on Friday 10 March. Tempers became very frayed when Sir Sean (so-called because of an apparent resemblance to 007 Sean Connery!) discovered he'd left the mallet at home and had to hammer the tent pegs in with his boot, the car jack and any other implements he could find in the dark! The application of a hot baked potato soon restored blood sugar and tempers, and we enjoyed a late night concert with Graeme Connors.

The Festival is a very well-organised event, with so many musicians to see in a very wide range of venues, from the five stages in the Festival Arena to small church and school halls and the streets of Port Fairy. New musical highlights for us included The Wailin' Jennys, (a superb Canadian acoustic trio), Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies (Northern England), Gerrry O'Connor & Gilles Le Bigot (amazing fiddler from Ireland and guitarist from Brittany), Chris While & Julie Matthews (England), David Francey (Canada), and Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion (USA, grand-daughter of Woody, daughter of Arlo Guthrie). Familiar favourites included Eric Bogle (an oldie but still a goodie), Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys, Bruce Mathiske and The Bushwackers, with lead Dobe Newton being the PFFF Artist of the Year for 2006.

It was a weekend of total immersion in the music, with the biggest problem being the choice of what to see. The Festival organisers this year had some theme concerts showcasing several artists, which was a great way to sample their music. The one 'issue' for us is the continuing use of low beach chairs, which festival goers carry from venue to venue. In theory this allows everyone to have a good view of the musicians, in practice people spread out and actually take up more room than a normal height seat. Perhaps it's time to rethink this tradition and provide fixed seating in all the venues? Then we wouldn't all complain of PFA (Port Fairy Ar#e!).

Musings ...

What's in a blog, or what is a blog? Hmmm, I've been pondering this since setting up this blogsite just for the experience. Depending on your point of view of course, it could be a:

Brilliant
Link to the
Online
Generation

or a

Boring
Load of
Old
Garbage

Serious observers suggest that bloggers can form online 'communities of interest' sharing important information with like-minded inhabitants of cyberspace. (A Boring Lot of Geeks in other words.) Others see blogs as personal diaries and/or soapboxes. Whatever. But a blog is also an opportunity to act out roles and to express views one may not actually hold. So having said that, I can now say that we Baby Boomers are getting right into blogging, move over Gens X, Y and Z, coz we still rule the world!

OK, having got that off my not-very-ample chest, now it's back to the important stuff like fashion. This week has been Fashion Week here in beautiful downtown sunny Melbourne, and we're told that this season Black is Back. Hello-o. When has black never been fashionable in Melbourne, it's our colour, our wardrobe staple, our trademark, our signature! Trinny and Susannah, where are you now when we need you most. A couple of years ago designers tried to persuade us that brown was the new black, and ended up with warehouses full of unsold drab brown garments.

So what is it about fashion that sucks us in? We're subjected to a barrage of advertising trying to separate us from our hard-earned dollars in return for the latest greatest clothes, accessories, furnishings, useless household gadgets, books, CDs, DVDs, iPods etc etc. The wheels of commerce relentlessly try to seduce us, and we can justify throwing out perfectly wearable clothes on the grounds that we're keeping someone else employed, mostly in the Third World, and the 'deserving poor' are also benefitting from our castoffs. But our appetite for all things fashionable also derives from our western cultural heritage and conditioning. We need to belong, to conform, to fit in, and at the deepest level to be loved. A new garment can be a panacea, a way of keeping the angst of living at bay, albeit temporarily. Clothes are also a way of expressing our individuality and our personalities. So yes Red is definitely my favourite colour coz it's passionate, fiery, vibrant, and warm. And yes today I'm wearing all red, and most of it is at least five years old!

Must dash, time to splash on some fresh lippy!

RoseRed