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 Hi there again! This time I'm reporting on 4 major experiences I've had over the last three weeks or so up to mid-October 2023. Firstly, I'll show some images of Armidale's old courthouse which was open to the public on 24 September. This building has been vacant for years while Council tries to think of ways of using the premises.

Next, I'll show you the meet-up with friends that occurs every thursday at 10.30 am at a popular local cafe called the Goldfish Bowl (GFB for short).

Then, on October 1, Dot and I attended a brilliant Jazz concert in a local theatre. It stunned us.

And, finally, I travelled to Sydney to attend Cousin David's 80th birthday party and catch up family members I now rarely see.

The courthouse is quite an imposing building in the main shopping centre. And the image on the right shows it maybe 70 years ago.

Today, one of the impediments to broader public use is the furnishing of the large courtroom as shown in the 2 pictures below.

At this moment in time, we're not close to finding a use for the premises.

The GFB is the meeting place of maybe 10 blokes on Thursday mornings ... even through the winter months ... and we usually sit outside in the adjacent courtyard. On most days we get somewhere between 4 and 6 of us talking on a wide range of national and international issues. The chatting is lively and often provocative!

On Sunday October 1st, Dot and I headed to the Armidale Playhouse wondering what sort of Jazz music we would receive. The experience was amazing. The main participants were a mother and daughter, with the former a pianist and the latter singing great songs. Amazingly, the mother was a great pianist and works at our conservatorium of music. Even more amazingly, the daughter lives and works in London (UK) where she is a highly regarded musician!

She, also, could beautifully strum a guitar.

Here they are together on the stage.

Mother and daughter were also, however, accomanied occasionally by usual Jazz musicians.

All up it was a great evening. Let's now turn ro David's birthday celebration. I flew to Sydney on 6th October and David kindly picked me up at the airport. He took me home for lunch and, later in the day, I partnered his wife Shlomith in a bridge game on-line. However, I slept for all 3 nights while in Sydney at his daughter, Sharon's home fairly close by not to far from the famous Bondi beach. This picture ... if I get things right (!!) was taken at Sharon's home and shows from left to right Harry - her son, Sharon herself,  mother Shlomith, and then her sister Shelley who had flown in from Melbourne.

  

On Saturday the 7th, David and I didquite a lot of walking around various parts of Sydney's rather posh Eastern Suburbs. But it was Sunday the 8th that was the focus of the weekend - David's 80th - and Sharon hosted the event in her lovely apartment. Of course, there were the usual recognition items like a balloon and a cake.

There was heaps of delivious food for the c. 16 or 17 of us invited guests - family and friends. I'm not good at counting numbers on such occasion so I just hope I'm correct - or close to!

We sat outside to celebrate the occasion - Sharon's lovely home has a covered balcony as well as, believe it or not, an outside garden.

And, here at last, is a picture of the gentleman in question - David seated on the left and greatly enjoying the occasion.

I can't resist showing the picture below, which I saw - as far as I can remember - for the first time. I  hope I'm not wrong in claiming to be in the picture which must have been taken something like 65 or 70 years ago in the UK. I hope David can work out the names of everyone there!

That's enough for now. Even at my age ... 78 ... life can be very interesting and diverse. And our little town is amazingly rich in things to do. Right now I'm wondering if I should attend a highly unusual musical event. Have you ever been to a performance of Japanese drumming!?

Catching Up After A Busy Season

It's a while since I made a post to my Blog, which partly reflects my ageing but the wide range of experiences one can have even for someone aged 78. This particular post reflects on 5 experiences I had during the first half of September. The first concerns a farewell party to a former bridge partner of mine - Manfred Junge. The second looks at an early surge in Spring flowers around our garden. Thirdly let's look at Armidale's transition to an elecrtic scooter hub!! After that, I'll report on my invitation to attend a National Summit in Canberra!! And, immediately after returning from that I attended a brilliant performance of our local orchestra playing a range of music.

Let's start with our sad gathering to remeber Manfred.

It was at the Bowling Club and was attended by heaps of friends and relatives who gathered to discuss their memories of him. Of course, given his name, you would be correct in guessing his birthplace - Germany

Secondly, Spring arrived early because of an extremely mild late winter when temperatures even reached 20 C.

 

About the 10th September, Armidale awoke to a big surprise. Something like 300 + electric scooters appeared out of nowhere and were deposited all over town including the entrance to our street. Our local council acquired them from a company called REAM and slowly they're attracting a lot of attention and use by our younger residents. I'm going to have a go at riding one shortly! Apparently they can travel quite fast.

Next comes the national summit I attended in Canberra. The entry fee was A$1,000, but the Regional Australia Institute with which I have been associated for over 20 years allowed me in for nothing, though I did have to apy to fly to Canberra and back. Fortunately, Rebecca put me up at her home and I was driven to and from the event in town by her over the two days.

Maybe 70 or 80 people from all over the country and working for all 3 tiers of government - national, state and local, or for business interests, or people engaged in research like me, attended this excellent meeting.

Here's the leader of ther oppsoition, Peter Dutton organising a session.

And another politician is here leading another discussed theme.

Here's some of the audience listening to the proceedings attentively.

Most of the time however, the audience was seated aroung circular tables in the posh hotel near Parliament House.

We were served great food for 2 days! All up, I was very pleased to attend.

And the fifth theme I mentioned previously was my attendance at a marvellous musical performance of, surprisingly dance music by some of the great composers of the last 3 centuries. The excellent orchestra performed in our old town hall to an enthusiastic local audience. The two pictures show the performers on stage and a selfie of yours truly and the rivetted audience.

So, I am having  a great retirement with lots of interesting things to. That's the way things should be.

AS

Yet another classical music event

Only  short while ago, I acknowledgef some wonderful musical events here in Armidale. Well, just two days ago I attended yet another brilliant orchestral event. This time, it was out local symphony orchestra delivering a wonderful experience, albeit with the aid of two young extra-regional guests. One was Robert van Gend who conducted the event and the other was his brother Johnny who was the marvellous violin soloist,

The program was itself very interesting. First on the list was was Mozart's Overture from La clemenza di Tito dated 1791. Secondly, there was Henryk Wieniawshi's brilliant Violin Concerto #2 in D minor dated 1862. And thirdly we were entertained by Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade for Small Orchestra in A Minor dated 1898.

Not only were these works great choices, but they came across beuatifully aided by a wonderful conductor and an excellent local orchestra - with participants from many different countries.

I took a couple of pictures of this lovely event on my phone and here they are:

The second picture here shows the standing violinist standing close to his relative conductor

Endless Classical Music events

I haven't made many posts to my Blog recently, but that in part reflects a very busy lifestyle. However, I'd like to report on the amazing number of classical music events delivered here in Armidale. This is what is happening in August alone.

On Thursday 3 August, I attended one of the most impressive piano recitals I've ever heard at Armidale's Conservatorium of Music. How many towns across the world with a population of only 25,000 have such a facility?

A young Australian bloke, Konstantin Shamray, performed 5 separate works as follows:

Bach's Italian Concerto in F Major

Liszt's Sonetti del Petrarca

Liszt's Paraphrase de concert sur Verdi's Rigaletto

Ravel's La Valse and

Prokofiev's Piano Sonata #8 in B-flat major.

His performance was brilliant and we discovered that, although he's based in Adelaide, he's performed with major orchestras across Europe. 

Then, last Saturday, I went to another amazing musical event delivered to a rapturous audience. There were only two brilliant musicians standing on the stage! One - Robert Jackson - was a Cellist and the other - Keith Power - a Pianist, this time both local! Once again, their performance was perfect adn rapturously recevied. The 3 works performed were:

Menedlssohn's Sonata for Cello # 1 in B Flat (1838)

Gyorgy Ligeti's Sonata for solo Cello (1948) and 

Sergei Rachmaninoff's Sonata for Cello in G Major (1901)

And this coming weekend, the Armidale Symphony Orchestra is perfoming at our University of New England's Lazenby Hall. The works wil be Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito Overture, the stunning Wieniawski Violin Concerto no. 2 in D minor and the enchanting Vaughan Williams Serenade for Orchestra in A minor. 

That's 3 major concerts in 17 days!!

Sorry, I have no pictures of the performances! Taking them is dificult seated in the front row!

AS

Big Chill Festival

On the same day as the concert just presented, there was another major event in Armidale - the Big Chill Festival. This celebrates the on-coming winter with two interesting dimensions. On the one hand, there are various bands playing popular music and some of the young people in front of the music stand were dancing to it. The other celebration is the presentation of interesting foodstuffs and drinks mostly sourced locally. The BCF started on the day before -  Saturday and I bought an expensive ticket (A$75) covering both days. I enjoyed listening to the music performed by high-class bands / soloists and also walking around the food and drink contributors and sampling their often very good wears. As usual, my phone was busy collecting pictures of what was going on, some of which are attached below.

AS

Peter and the Wolf!!

Armidale has a huge number of orcgestral concerts each year and 2023 is no exception. A week ago on Mothers Day I had the privlege of attending a wonderful concert presented by the Armidale Symphony Orchestra. Their contribution was brilliant. I often wonder how a small town of just 25,000 people can deliver such high class classical music performances.

On this occasion, the last piece played was Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Apart from the music, the peformance had a narrator who explained to all the young children attending what the music was explaining about the story.

The second majpr work also blew me away. Beleive it or not, it was the world premier of a Piccolo Concerto called "The Wanderer". Moreover, the  composer, Matthew Pinter, was actually the orchestra's conductor! So our little town niw has a major composer. The Piccolo player, Lamoma Nightingale, is also a champion of new Australian music and plays with our country's leading orchestras. "The Wanderer" explores the New England countryside around and was warmly received by an enthusiastic audience.

An the first work on the agenda was no less than "Overture to Egmont" written by someone called Ludwig van Beethaoven. This work was written 213 years ago, but commemorates a sad event 455 years ago when the Spansih executed a Dutch nobelman Count lamoral van egmont.

Here are some views of the proceedings.

AS