Floriade

We (Janet and I) had picked Fiona up on the Saturday afternoon and popped by U. David's for afternoon tea, which turned into an invite to dinner at Hurstville RSL, after which we went home. Forgot that Canterbury Bulldog fans were out in force and got stuck at Belmore, lucky for us we could make a detour.

With Fiona staying over, and Mrs Chan occupying the "Govinda" room, Kaylene volunteered to sleep downstairs with Mrs Chan and let me have her bed to sleep in. Being a Saturday night, there were a lot of late movements which kept me awake so I really didn't get a good nights sleep.

On Sunday 30 September, Lily, Janet, Kaylene, Fiona and I set off at just after 9am to go pick up U. David, A. Cath and Evan, before heading down to Canberra to take in the floral displays of Floriade which has the theme of Style and Design.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Floriade and they are celebrating this with a photographic installation throughout the park. The photographs have been selected from a competition where Australians were asked to submit an image representing each year that Floriade has been in existence. There are 24 images installed, but I didn't take any photos of these photos although I did see them.

The Floriade garden bed designs for this year were very colourful.

French Formal Garden: The French formal garden influenced garden design throughout Europe after gaining popularity in the 17th century with the creation of the Gardens of Versailles for Louis XIV. This garden bed features symmetrical plant beds in bold geometric shaps which are classic characteristics of this style.

 

Lipstick Kisses: Brightly coloured flowers within this garden bed form a series of lipstick kisses, which have come to represent glamour, celebration and feminine style.

Bubble Chair: The iconic bubble chair is an industrial design classic often used to symbolise the 1960s. The chair's 'space age' spherical design advanced the use of plastics in furniture design. This garden bed features a colour wheel behind a bubble chair to represent the broad spectrum of industrial design.

Hair Fashion: This garden bed represents self expression and individuality through personal styling. Streams of different coloured flowers depict a hairstyle- one of the many ways that individuals fashion themselves to create their own style.

Stiletto Parade: This garden bed features flowers in the shape of an iconic accessory, which has become synonymous with fashion and femininity, while representing the great effors made to express oneself through clothing and accessories.

Pop Top Hats: This design featuring multicoloured top hats is inspired by the 1950s pop art movement, symbolising the journey from old world style to mass culture trends.

Abstract Art: This garden bed uses a bold composition of colours, forms and lines to represent abstract art, which has had a strong influence on contemporary design and fashion.

All That Jazz: This garden bed design features a jazz trumpet with rows of colour depicting the music it creates. The design represents an era when free expression in music blossomed and broke tradition, changing the direction of popular music.

Psychedelia: This garden bed is inspired by the psychedelic designs of the 1960s and 1970s when artists and designers attempted to stimulate the senses with bold colours and shapes that depicted a distorted reality

Diamonds and Pearls: Over the ages, diamonds and pearls have represented classic feminine style - a sign of opulence and good taste. This garden bed design depicts a string of pearls with hanging diamonds.

Modern Design: This garden bed's pattern is characterised by clean, bold lines, representing modernism and its rejection of earlier traditional forms of art and architecture, which found inspiration in nature.

Martini Delights: This garden bed represents the famous Martini cocktail, which has come to evoke a sense of style and sophistication thanks to the suave fictional spy, James Bond.

Art Deco: The design of this garden bed features clean symmetrical lines that are typical of the Art deco style, which heavily influenced all areas of design in the late 1920s and 1930s. At its height, art deco represented elegance, glamour and modernity.


I drove the blue bus and by the time we got to Canberra it was just after 12noon, so we parked in our usual place, with the help of Fiona's disabled pass just near the entrance to the tunnel, and we had lunch in the park before the entrance into Floriade.  Evan had prepared a gourmet pasta salad, and A. Cath has made chicken wings, but no one had packed the chicken wings so we just ate the pasta. After lunch, packed the picnic stuff back in the car and made our way around the garden beds.

Finished around 5pm and I drove back again. Made it back to the Seeto's just before 8pm, where Bindy and Ken had been cooking dinner for us.  Tired and hungry, we ate was what put before us, which turned out to be a vegie curry, chicken tofu, char siu and siu yook and some vegies.

Darren Graduates

Today Darren graduates with a Bachelor of Business with Credit, and his parents and Mrs Chan have gone out to see him get his piece of paper from the University of Technology Sydney.

Mar Mar comes to "visit"?

Mrs Chan has recently had a heart operation and since Aug 17 has been staying at home with her daughters and sons taking it in turns to look after her, although it has been mostly Veronica and Mark with a bit of help from Darren and Kaylene and Frank. they have had to sleep over at her home.

Anyway on Friday (21/9) afternoon I got home from work to find Mrs Chan had moved in, not quite with everything, but she would be staying over a few nights to trial whether she would like it.

I've been sleeping in Darren's bed upstairs, so time to move back to my bed. Darren has moved back upstairs, although with Nathan and Sylvia away on holidays (Dubai and Bangkok), Darren has been sleeping in their bedroom. Mrs Chan is sleeping in the "Govinda" room.

It's coming onto a week now and I think she is getting on Janet's nerves, but we just carry on as normal. No special treatment, and she is free to come and go, although she mainly paces from room to room and sits and watches tv in the kitchen. Mark has set her up with the radio, so we also have a constant chatter of chinese radio at night.

So far, Frank and Jane visited on Sunday afternoon (23/9), and Mary and Alan popped in on Tuesday (25/9) afternoon. The other daughters haven't visited although they have called her on the phone, or should I say she has called them.

Not sure if this is going to be a permanent arrangement, but will have to see.

Burwood Festival

The Burwood Festival this year had a stella line up of talent that included acclaimed "So You Think You Can Dance?" and ARIA chart-topper Timomatic, as well as Young Talent Time winners, Lil' Banditz Krew and runner-up Georgia McCarthy.

This year we spent more time just enjoying the entertainment. Only had a quick look around at the stalls. Most of the classic cars had left by the time we got to that section of the park.

We thought we'd picked a good spot to watch the acts at the main stage until Timomatic came on, then the crowds just doubled and most of them were standing on the chairs of getting on each others shoulders.  We managed to get some chairs to stand on but still couldn't see much of the stage...just had to make do with listening.

Cirque du Soleil: Ovo

On Saturday 15 we (Lily, Janet, Kaylene, U. David, A. Catherine, Evan, Ken and I) went to see Cirque du Soleil under the Grand Chapiteau, The Showring at the Entertainment Quarters.

We left home around 2:15pm and got to the Seeto's just before 3pm..but they weren't ready yet so had to wait a bit.  Bindy was home with Ange prepping for dinner that night.

Anyway, traffic was fine until we hit ?? near the old Ikea.  Then it was crawling and we had to be in the big top by 4pm.  We got in by the skin of our teeth.

"Ovo takes you through a day in the life of insects. A non-stop riot of energy and movement, the show is a headlong rush into a colourful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love."

A love story between a lady bug and what we all thought was a flea but is a "foreigner" plays in between the acrobats and their amazing performances. I loved the dancing slinky "Carimbo of the Creatura" and the high jumping Crickets bouncing of walls and tumble turning down the stage. The Flight of the Scarabs was high flying aerobatics and the opening act of the Antsy Ants was fantastic.

Saturday, September 15, 2012
Showtime: 4:00pm
Site Opens: 3:00pm
The Grand Chapiteau opens 3:30pm
Cost: $135 per ticket ($129 plus $6 fee)
Seating: Door 1, Row O, Section 201, Seats 1 to 8

After the show we had dinner at the Seeto's.  Bindy had cooked seafood paella, beef with 3 veg, garden salad and oven baked fish. Got to meet Tao (Alan) who was here attending lectures at Uni, and was leaving the next day.

Justin's 23rd Birthday and Festival of the Winds

On Sunday 9th we had the Seetos over to celebrate Justin's 23rd Birthday.

We had taken Fiona out on Saturday, but as Justin was working on Saturday, we decided to have his celebrations on Sunday night, so Fiona went back home on Monday instead.

Spent the morning baking a chocolate cake and making egg tarts, while Janet made fruit and custard buns with the help of Ken and A. Cath when they arrived. Because I had to wait for my tarts to finish baking we couldn't go to the festival any earlier. Also we wanted to avoid the crowds.

Also as it was the Bondi Festival of the Winds on that day, we, (Evan, Ken, Kaylene, Fiona and I) went out to Bondi to take in the kites and beach atmosphere.  Still a bit chilly, but at least the sun was out.  Had missed most of the competition kites, but there were still quite a lot floating in the skies above Bondi when we got there around 3.30pm. With the help of Fiona's disabled parking pass, we skipped having to feed the meter, and managed to get a parking spot close to the Bondi Pavilion. As it was, all the disabled spots were fully occupied and there was no parking to be had streetside. We were lucky enough to spot someone leaving.

After Bondi, Ken took us to a Reserve to show us a site he had in mind for some wedding photography.  We stayed to watch the sun set and take some silly photos.

By the time we got home, dinner was still not ready, Lily, Janet and A. Cath had gone shopping at Costco and Aldi, so it was all hands on deck to get dinner on the table.

Also went out to dinner on his actual birthday on Wednesday night to Hong Kong Noodle, although I think the name has changed. Just the family with Mrs Chan. After dinner we went home for cake. Lily bought a passionfruit pavlova roll from Costco to trial - very sweet, but was better when eaten with fresh strawberries.

Strathfield Spring Festival & Father's Day

Sunday 2 September 2012

Walked to Strathfield Park with Lily and Kaylene to catch Reece Mastin performing at the Strathfield Spring Festival. I had wanted to catch the vintage bus which you could hop on at Strathfield station for a gold coin donation, but it probably turned out quicker to walk.

Bought a sugar cane drink, but resisted buying food as we had just eaten lunch before heading on down. Bought a silver ring for $5, real or not it fit my finger.

They had the usual food stalls, prices for gozlemes are now $10. Even the potato on a stick is $5 - you could buy a bag or two of potatoes for that price.

Watched a Taikwondo group perform - brought back memories of my early Go-Kan-Ryu karate days.

Met up with Mare, A. Joy and a friend from the States, Kim (also bestie of Lyn Chan-Soo). Walked around a bit, checked out the kids section and then it was time to head home as we were invited over to the Seetos to celebrate Father's Day.