Yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day, so no work for Tony! (He had Monday off as well, a lovely 4 day long weekend).
On Monday night, Amelie and Caitlin went to a Girl Guides sleepover at the hall. This was Millie's first sleepover not with family - I was vaguely anxious all day Monday but did feel better knowing that Caitlin was going to be with her. I think the hardest part for me was that Tony took the girls on his way to baseball (I still don't have my car so couldn't take them myself) so I said good-bye to Millie at home, and that felt weird, I would have liked to safely deposit her there myself. Tony rang me to say the drop off had gone well though, so I was reassured a little.
LiAM and I had a lovely quiet evening at home by ourselves, watching Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds DVDs (this is my favourite of the Yu-Gi-Oh series that I've seen - marginalised and disadvantaged kids fighting back against the system that is oppressing them) and playing iPad games and reading my book (Lament by Maggie Stiefvater - it was amazing, one of my favourite authors and possibly the my favourite of hers that I've read).
Yesterday morning was similarly quiet, with just me, Tony and LiAM, then we went and picked the girls up at 10am. They had had a great time, although Millie was a bit sad at bedtime and had wanted to come home. Caitlin helped her settle and she slept well. They had made fairy wings and other fairy related pictures and watched a few movies and enjoyed themselves a lot.
From there we drove up to Mum and Dad's, where F & J & T had been staying for a few days. Nice to play with the baby and catch up in person with F, we've spoken on the phone a bit lately but not seen each other much. We went for a walk to try to get T to sleep, and the kids played with the red train track. Caitlin and Dad wrote some books about trains and other subjects and pretended they were an old married couple - it got quite hilarious at times. We played the piano and the keyboard, LiAM watched youtube videos, Dad and J and I talked computer and iPhone stuff, Mum and I walked around and looked at her garden, J played with his drone with video camera - just a relaxing family day. F & J headed home around 2, and the girls and Dad and I went down to have a quick look at the Yea photography show before they closed for the weekend. Some great photos there and enough inspiration to think I could enter something next time. We raced back to be home in time for the Melbourne Cup - Tony had organised a sweep amongst us all so it was quite exciting - Dad, F and T won all the money. After the race Caitlin and Dad got out the bikes, C was able to ride Mum's bike easily, and they went down to the rail trail and did an 8km ride! Mum and I cooked dinner and we ate outside on the balcony, played some more piano and book games and with some of the toys that were there, and headed home about 8.30. The girls were asleep by the time we got home, LiAM watched a couple more youtube videos then everyone went to bed.
Showing posts with label exhibitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exhibitions. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Les Miserables Exhibition
Yesterday was a rather busier day than the one before! I was scheduled to drop my car off in Ringwood to be repaired, so decided that seeing as I was halfway to the city, Caitlin and I could use the free tickets we won to see the Les Miserables From Page to Stage Exhibition at the State Library.
I met R in Coldstream and dropped LiAM and Amelie off to go home with her to spend the day playing with V, and Caitlin and I continued on to drop the car off. We got a courtesy taxi to Ringwood Station then caught the train into the city. We had a funny moment when I tried to eat the hard boiled eggs I'd bought with us and couldn't crack the shell... I decided to eat something else for then and try the eggs later (and they cracked easily when I tried them later in the afternoon).
Getting off the train at Melbourne Central, Caitlin and I both felt like tourists from the country - there were so many shops and people and things happening - we've been to the city lots in the last few years, but I think we just weren't expecting it to be that crazy right at the railway station, and it was a bit overwhelming.
Neither of us had been to the State Library before, and I would have like to see it without the scaffolding all over it - but it was very impressive inside and now I want to go back and hang around in the book areas.... The Exhibition was great, we both really loved it. It started with a history of Victor Hugo and pictures and descriptions of Paris in the time that he was alive and when Les Mis was set. They had a scanned copy of the original Les Mis manuscript and some pieces of parchment he'd scribbled notes on, and the quills he wrote it with - very exciting. Lots of history then of productions of the story in all forms and many countries, including one of the costumes that Russell Crowe wore in the most recent movie. I really really wanted to touch it (and Caitlin was the same with the costume worn by Helena Bonham Carter - as she'll always associate her with Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter, so it felt like only a couple of degrees of separation from us to Harry...) but we restrained ourselves and took notice of the DO NOT TOUCH sign. It was cool to be standing that close. We laughed at seeing pictures of Hugh Jackman as Valjean, as Hugh is popping up all over the place for us at the moment, and Anne Hathaway as Fantine, since we'd watched Ella Enchanted 3 times the day before... We listened to a French version of 'On My Own' and looked at some of the original lyrics-in-progress of I Dreamed a Dream (in English) and the scene where Marius and Cosette meet (in French). Then we moved into the fun part of the exhibit (as we hadn't already had a lot of fun). This part was about the musical production and had lots of costumes, props, and interactive bits. My favourite was the 25th Anniversary Concert being shown on a massive screen above the stage, and especially Lea Salonga singing 'I Dreamed A Dream'. Caitlin's favourite was being able to dress up in real costumes from previous Australian productions of the musical. She spent about half an hour dressing up and could have stayed longer if we didn't have a train to catch...
Leaving the library the sun had come out (it had been cloudy and cold when we arrived) and there were people all over the lawn in front of the library, having lunch in the sun. Caitlin was quite overwhelmed with the number of people around, it was very very busy, even more so than when we'd arrived. On the way to the station we grabbed some sushi (for me) and Subway (for C), and a natural icy pole (just fruit and water and sugar) from a guy at a pop up store. Back on the train where we ate our lunch then looked at all the photos on Caitlin's camera, including lots of her in costume from the Exhibition (if I remember I'll add some here after she downloads them). It was a wonderful girls day out and I'm so glad we managed to squeeze the Exhibition into our very busy month.
Amelie and R met us at the bus stop in Yarra Glen, we had a snack, then R took us up to Guides. I went back to R's place where LiAM was still very happily playing with V - they were playing the Wii at this point and had had a great day together. They'd all spent time at the park and had a big walk and run into some friends - including Amelie's new best friend who she'd really been hoping to see this week. The girls went for a walk at Guides as well so Amelie was pretty exhausted by the time she got back.
Tony came and picked us up from R's and the girls from Guides, then finally home. We put on the DVD of the 10th Anniversary Les Miserables concert (which I bought at the gift shop) and watched that throughout the evening in between jumping on the trampoline, playing on iPad, cooking a roast for tea, doing some work on the computer. This version was quite remarkable and we all kept coming back into the lounge room to watch particular songs - I'm very happy that I bought it! It has Lea Salonga playing Eponine and doing the best version of 'On My Own' (my favourite) that I've ever heard - just blows me away every time.
Everyone was pretty tired after our big day and settled to bed pretty easily. I had a bath and felt much more relaxed and crashed pretty quickly myself.
I met R in Coldstream and dropped LiAM and Amelie off to go home with her to spend the day playing with V, and Caitlin and I continued on to drop the car off. We got a courtesy taxi to Ringwood Station then caught the train into the city. We had a funny moment when I tried to eat the hard boiled eggs I'd bought with us and couldn't crack the shell... I decided to eat something else for then and try the eggs later (and they cracked easily when I tried them later in the afternoon).
Getting off the train at Melbourne Central, Caitlin and I both felt like tourists from the country - there were so many shops and people and things happening - we've been to the city lots in the last few years, but I think we just weren't expecting it to be that crazy right at the railway station, and it was a bit overwhelming.
Neither of us had been to the State Library before, and I would have like to see it without the scaffolding all over it - but it was very impressive inside and now I want to go back and hang around in the book areas.... The Exhibition was great, we both really loved it. It started with a history of Victor Hugo and pictures and descriptions of Paris in the time that he was alive and when Les Mis was set. They had a scanned copy of the original Les Mis manuscript and some pieces of parchment he'd scribbled notes on, and the quills he wrote it with - very exciting. Lots of history then of productions of the story in all forms and many countries, including one of the costumes that Russell Crowe wore in the most recent movie. I really really wanted to touch it (and Caitlin was the same with the costume worn by Helena Bonham Carter - as she'll always associate her with Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter, so it felt like only a couple of degrees of separation from us to Harry...) but we restrained ourselves and took notice of the DO NOT TOUCH sign. It was cool to be standing that close. We laughed at seeing pictures of Hugh Jackman as Valjean, as Hugh is popping up all over the place for us at the moment, and Anne Hathaway as Fantine, since we'd watched Ella Enchanted 3 times the day before... We listened to a French version of 'On My Own' and looked at some of the original lyrics-in-progress of I Dreamed a Dream (in English) and the scene where Marius and Cosette meet (in French). Then we moved into the fun part of the exhibit (as we hadn't already had a lot of fun). This part was about the musical production and had lots of costumes, props, and interactive bits. My favourite was the 25th Anniversary Concert being shown on a massive screen above the stage, and especially Lea Salonga singing 'I Dreamed A Dream'. Caitlin's favourite was being able to dress up in real costumes from previous Australian productions of the musical. She spent about half an hour dressing up and could have stayed longer if we didn't have a train to catch...
Leaving the library the sun had come out (it had been cloudy and cold when we arrived) and there were people all over the lawn in front of the library, having lunch in the sun. Caitlin was quite overwhelmed with the number of people around, it was very very busy, even more so than when we'd arrived. On the way to the station we grabbed some sushi (for me) and Subway (for C), and a natural icy pole (just fruit and water and sugar) from a guy at a pop up store. Back on the train where we ate our lunch then looked at all the photos on Caitlin's camera, including lots of her in costume from the Exhibition (if I remember I'll add some here after she downloads them). It was a wonderful girls day out and I'm so glad we managed to squeeze the Exhibition into our very busy month.
Amelie and R met us at the bus stop in Yarra Glen, we had a snack, then R took us up to Guides. I went back to R's place where LiAM was still very happily playing with V - they were playing the Wii at this point and had had a great day together. They'd all spent time at the park and had a big walk and run into some friends - including Amelie's new best friend who she'd really been hoping to see this week. The girls went for a walk at Guides as well so Amelie was pretty exhausted by the time she got back.
Tony came and picked us up from R's and the girls from Guides, then finally home. We put on the DVD of the 10th Anniversary Les Miserables concert (which I bought at the gift shop) and watched that throughout the evening in between jumping on the trampoline, playing on iPad, cooking a roast for tea, doing some work on the computer. This version was quite remarkable and we all kept coming back into the lounge room to watch particular songs - I'm very happy that I bought it! It has Lea Salonga playing Eponine and doing the best version of 'On My Own' (my favourite) that I've ever heard - just blows me away every time.
Everyone was pretty tired after our big day and settled to bed pretty easily. I had a bath and felt much more relaxed and crashed pretty quickly myself.
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