I heart Cats

 Hi there

I love cats so much.  If I see one down the street I go all goo-y trying to pat the animal.  And crooning to it in baby language.  So embarrassing if a passerby stares at me quizzingly.

But let's talk about cat videos on You Tube.  How come I look at one video that leads to me looking at 'just one more', which leads to three, then four, then one hundred...  Me, I thought I was just addicted to Diet Coke but now it seems to be cat videos as well.  All cats:  zoomy ginger cats, fluffy cats, tabby cats, tuxedo cats, snobby cats, and not forgetting the thoroughly mischievous Siamese cat (RIP, my beautiful StarGirl).

I am such a softie.

above: StarGirl and me, when she was just a kitten.

Musicals in Sydney

 Hi there

When I was in Sydney last week, I saw three shows:  

Back to the Future - the musical

Goodness, the special effects in this show were the best I'd seen in any musical.  The DeLorean car was definitely the star. At the end when Marty had to drive the car at exactly 88 mph to get through the time barrier whilst simultaneously Doc Brown was trying to get to the top of the clock tower, and all in the middle of  a lightening strike....?   Well, I would have one hundred percent sworn that the car was speeding, skidding along roads, turning corners, and not in a theatre at all. There was noise, and light, and rain, and darkness, and the speedometer registering the mileage neon-like to the audience.  And Doc Brown doing his thing up there on the clock tower....  And the car flew.   Wow.

above:  me, standing in front of an outdoor poster advertising "Back to the Future - the musical".  The poster is made to look as if the DeLorean car has crashed through it.

above:  Before the show has started.  No swishy curtain, just the title.

Calamity Jane - the musical

Oh, I so loved this.  Well, I've also loved the songs in the movie musical, though when I re-watched the movie a good 40 years later, I was stunned that it was so not politically correct in many places (see earlier blog).  Several lines of song and dialogue were changed in this stage adaptation to appeal more to modern audiences.

The show was in The Studio at the Sydney Opera House, a small venue that I believe had once been a storage area under the high dome.  The whole inside of the theatre was done up like a western saloon. The stage was really small and the cast did most of the acting away from that stage.  They walked, strode, argued, sang in the aisles and around the tables.  I was sitting right in the front row of the entrance aisle and just behind the tables and chairs.

above:  inside The Studio theatre at the Sydney Opera House.  Calamity Jane - the musical

above.  Side view of the Sydney Opera House.  The Studio theatre is under a dome.

Calamity Jane made her entrance, singing, and as she sang she shook hands with people in my row.  Including ME!   Then later on, when there was a sort of hoedown going on, the bar floozie pulled me up from my seat and we did a jig.  My attending senior improv classes had prepared me well.

A guy in a front table had a bartender part.  He had to read a line from a card held out in front of him.  And when he said "What's Your Poison?" to a cowboy, all of the audience cheered.

Here You Come Again

This musical is about a sad young man who's fave singer is Dolly Parton.  In moments of crisis she appears to give him advice and, my gosh, she sounded just like Dolly when she both sang the most-loved songs and when she spoke.  Perfect.

NB:  I've got to find out how to get rid of the automatic underlining and that bold print...

My Sydney trip, part 1

 Hi there

I returned yesterday from Sydney.  I went there to see "Back to the Future - the musical" and "Calamity Jane - the musical".  And when I got to Sydney I discovered that it was the second to last day for "Here You Come Again", a musical, with Dolly Parton as a main character. Because I'd booked at the box office and I would be attending  the next day, I got my seat for half price; I love this about booking Australian shows.  Oh, and more about the shows in "My Sydney Trip, Part 2"

So ...  it was very very very hot in Sydney.  Now, it has to be remembered that October is Spring in both New Zealand and Australia but in Sydney whilst I was there the temperature went up to 35c.  It never got lower than 24c.  On the 35c day, the temp hit an all-time-high for a day in October.  On the same day in Wellington, it was 15c.

And I got dehydrated at the start of my holiday.  Terribly.  With all the symptoms that go with being dehydrated.  I went to the pharmacy and was given some dehydration sachets and told to not eat anything for a day, except dry toast.  I couldn't access dry toast so I bought a packet of Cruskits from the supermarket instead.  And I drank so much water I thought I was going to drown from the inside. I figured the "not eat anything for a day" order was counting a day as 12 hours.  So exactly 12 hours later, I sat down to the Australian dish of grilled barramundi fish. Surely, barramundi was bland enough not to make me sick.  I had barramundi every day on holiday.  Sigh.

I felt all airy-fairy the whole time I was away.  I still managed to go over to Manly for a walk along my favourite path (turn left as you come out of the ferry terminal), but there were flies everywhere and I had to keep the walk short.  I guess fly breeding season is in the spring.

I also strolled Circular Quay, looking for a place to get a good bland meal.  Couldn't find a place.

above: Sydney Opera House.  Photo taken from The Rocks area. The poles are not poles.  They're palm trees. Or they could be New Zealand cabbage trees, I know that several seaside resorts in the United Kingdom have planted our cabbage trees and pretended they were palm trees.

Photo taken from Nick's Restaurant at Darling Harbour.  First time in my life a waiter has whipped out my serviette from under the cutlery on my table, shook it open in one theatrically grand flourish, then elegantly dropped the serviette into my lap.  Great drama.

Back to the Future - the musical

 Hi there

I'm back to my future after a week in Sydney where I went to see "Back to the Future - the musical".  I just got home about half an hour ago.  The plane landed at midnight.  I will write more about my trjp tomorrow.  Look after yourselves...

Scones and Muffins

 Hi there

When I was a kid, I loved scones.  They had to be my Mum's scones, straight from the oven.  Every Saturday lunch-time, after a big roast dinner and the oven was still hot, my BFF Shirley and I would impatiently wait for those hot scones.  I mean, it was the ritual: Saturday roast, followed by buttered and jam-y scones, and then the Saturday afternoon movie in town, or down the road at the Rivoli or the Ascot picture theatres.  Mum always said that scones had to be eaten the same day, otherwise they would turn into bricks.  So ... we hoovered them up with alacrity!

Then ... scones went out of favour. They were considered too peasant-like.  I mean scones had to have been around for a few thousand years, right?  Newer ideas were on the New Zealand horizon.

Muffins were the next big thing.  Not British muffins, but more the American kind.

"Wow," Shirley pointed out authoritatively, "muffins are like that new yoghurt stuff; they're great, but an acquired taste."

Muffins are so entrenched now, it's like they've been around forever.  Forty years ago they certainly trumped scones.  

Until ...  scones made a resurgence.  Now, both scones and muffins are the under-glass options on any cafe counter.  A bit boring, perhaps, as often they're the only choices at hole-in-the-wall kiosks.

But, ahh, the variety of scones that are now around...  Love them all.

Above: scones, stock photo

 

It's Not a Bucket List

 Hi there

Before that bucket list movie came out, I was mentally storing up a list engagingly entitled The Little Things I Can't Do and Wish That I Could. Or alternatively, My Genie Wishes, just in case I ever do meet a genie.

This list is sort of the lesser cousin of the bucket list.  There are still a few items that I have not been able to complete.  I don't think I ever will -

1    Play the piano.  To my regret, all I mastered - at age 12 - was "Home on the Range" and "God Save the Queen" before I threw a tantrum, swearing to run away from home if I ever had to go to one more piano lesson

2    Do up zips that are at the back of my dress.  Where's a lady's maid when I require one?

3    Be able to put in my pierced ear-rings without looking in a mirror.  I envy my friends.

4    Take on the lead role in a Broadway musical ...    I am totallly aware that I can't sing a note

5    Be able to hook up my bras without having to do them up in the front, then whirl the bra around to my back to finish the operation - I get so contorted. 

6   Using willpower to never put on weight...     Don't snigger.

                 

Franchise Shops - Skechers and Uggs

 Hi there

Photo: stock Skechers advert

In 2014 Skechers shoes got a shop in New Zealand.  It was in Auckland.  I went up to Auckland on holiday and discovered the store.  It was positively crowded with customers grabbing shoes.  I hadn't even known Skechers existed - 

I fought my way through the crowd.  I gushed to a shop assistant, "Oh, I love these shoes.  They are ... coloured!"

They were a light blue court shoe.

And so wonderful to walk the hard floor in them.  "Ahhh, the comfort...."

But could I really be seen in blue shoes?  Out in the real world?  Yes!!!  

Goodness, how daring of me to step out in blue shoes, instead of plain old ordinary black, navy, or brown.  Very few people wore colour on their feet in those days.

I have been wearing Skechers since I chanced upon that first store in Auckland.  I still buy coloured pairs.

Today, there are Skechers stores everywhere.  I first noticed this franchise takeover a couple of years ago when I was wandering through Sydney.  It was a surprise to see a Skechers store on practically every city block.

The Skechers franchise epidemic has also hit New Zealand. 

But ... isn't there a saying about familiarity bringing contempt?

I hate to say the magic words, 'Too many..'  But are there too many Skechers shops in 2025?  Have I been so bombarded by so many stores that they're not meaning anything any longer to me?

And .... there's a second shoe franchise snapping hard behind Skechers' heels:  UGGS?   UGGS shops are beginning to spread through New Zealand.

Both firms, please be careful.  You could be flying (walking?) too close to the sun...