I have had an interesting couple of days and have been working furiously on getting all the trivial little details of my current website project out of the way so I can get shot of it altogether.

Hence no blogging…

I have learned the hard way that doing a site for a friend is fraught with problems and after a particularly heated meeting on Thursday night where I found myself feeling all the same stuff I thought had gone with the passing of the year I felt it best to get my head down, get the site to a place where I am happy to have my name on it and then pass it on.

In spite of the trauma it is a good lesson (or 4) to get out of the way early…

If you are the designer …
1. Don’t do contra deals… you will still end up on the losing end of the bargain.
2. Be very clear about what you are offering to do.
3. Don’t take criticism personally.
4. Don’t get invested in the project even if you and the client are friends, it’s just a job.

This is insane, like telling a perfectionist it doesn’t have to be perfect… that’s the drama, if I want my name on his site as the designer… it has to be just right!

ed. removed bitter and twisted post

I’m aware I could be overreacting. But in a meeting where there was no dialogue, instead, a monologue of changes required and no room for discussion I felt like I was right back where I started with the loss of my ‘voice’ in my old job.

So … if you don’t hear from me in the next couple of days … you’ll know I am still obsessing…

Words Fail me… so here are some penned by someone else who saw the show the night before…

I was a little excited … Miss Lisa will testify to just how excited… I couldn’t sit still all day… couldn’t stop doing the happy deeleea shuffle which looks a little like the dancing baby dance from Ally McBeal…

But less cute…

The Opera House was abustle with punters for Harry… and for Tosca… it was easy to tell them apart… tuxedos versus stonewash… Champagne versus Chardonnay … or lager. The venue is, of course, sublime… despite the pink upholstery (bet you can’t read about THAT in your Lonely Planet guides…), the crowd appreciative… and relaxed.

And Harry?

Sigh…

Easy on the eye? … Check!
Easy on the ear? … Check!
Easy on the funny bone? … Check!
Easy on the wallet? … Well no… but worth every penny!

I am no jazz aficionado, I appreciate it enormously, as I do most great musicianship, and lyricism. Harry’s voice, particularly in his low register (singer speak) is drool inducing and quite frankly the man has soooome sex appeal. Satorially beautifully turned out and thoroughly able to keep up with the Aussie sense of humour Harry had it all on stage last night. I can’t believe it was all over in 2 hours. Well worth the wait, and completely over too soon. His band, particularly as they got all “New Orleans” in the middle of the show were incredible too…

Sigh…

I have to confess I came pretty close to trying to secure tickets for his turn in the Hunter Valley on Saturday night… Of course $120.00 would be much easier to justify for Harry than it would for Australian Citizenship… However… I reneged deciding that it may be possible to have too much of a good thing…

I thought our international readers may wish to get an inside look at Australia Day, as celebrated by Miss Lisa and me down at the Sydney waterfront …

We spent the afternoon together down at the Rocks the foundation stone of Sydney City. Man alive, what a place to observe people if that’s your thing!!! It is a beautiful place to hang out … great shops… great cafes… great atmosphere…So this is what went on down there… (hang on… the Harry Connick Jr post will come next…)

We arrived at Wynyard by train and walked up George Street towards the Rocks and were visually assailed by large numbers of young blokes wearing green and gold and Aussie (pronounced Ozzy) flags. Every other person had little Aussie Flag tattoos or paper Aussie flags, made popular at the 2000 Olympics and generally the whole Circular Quay/Rocks populace were out to have a good time and wear their Aussie hearts on their sleeves.

The drinking Establishments were overflowing with beer and beer drinkers, the noise getting louder as the afternoon wore on. Talk about Cockatoos!!!!

It was “Country Day” at the Rocks which was amusing if you can bear Country Music for a whole day … every street corner had a different performer with various degrees of depresso lyrics and nasal twang… Nice… If you like that sort of thing…

Miss Lisa and I made a couple of purchases, Mint choc chip ice cream for me, and coffee for her from Santos which could have sparked some early fireworks when they neglected to inform punters that “they don’t serve takeaway coffee on weekends and public holidays” bad form… at least bad form for not making a point of noting it on their signage… We queued for 25 mins to find this out… and of course, they relented and served Miss Lisa her coffee… I think it was the look on her face (I could see it from behind her) that made them relent… talk about fireworks potential!!!

After some shop browsing we went to the MCA for a look round at what makes for Modern Art these days. Now, Miss Lisa is an interesting choice to visit this kind of exhibition, being a bit of a classicist, but it was an entertaining 40 minutes as we checked out the works of Bridget Riley and Lee Bul. I think her [Miss Lisa’s] most astute of observations was the one that went something like “Oooh very Ikea” … I am sure Bridget would be so thrilled to be compared in such a way … It’s a great museum… and greater because it’s free… Just gotta love govt and big business support of the arts… It may in fact, be all that T*lstra is good for…

After our my legs had started to fail… (walking is so overrated) we decided it was time to dine … and what better place to eat than City Extra that most quintessential of Sydney eateries… 24 hour a day cuisine … I felt later, as though I should have had pie and chips (it was Australia Day after all), instead of fish and chips for dinner. Still the food was good and the people observation opportunities were numerous as every kind of person walked past us at Circular Quay.

Anyway… this is the first time I have really marked Australia Day with the rest of the general populace. Last year we had an Australia Day dinner at my place with all the usual suspects (Surf, Tez, Kaff, Skeet et al) where we had an Australia Day quiz … but we didn’t even drink beer… This year was much more traditionally celebrated and I feel all the more closer to my Aussie compatriats than I did before …

Last year I had planned for this Australia Day to be the day I take the pledge but the Aussies are safe for another round as I can’t yet justify spending $120 for the opportunity to vote and to spend another $120.00 to get another passport…

Anyway, Waitangi Day is just around the corner so look out for another shamelessly patriotic post from this Kiwi girl. I have to say, the Australians are much better at celebrating their “day of national pride” than the Kiwis are… Of course, the usual suspects may be invited round so I can redress the balance next weekend…

Tomorrow, January 26th is a day off from work… for the purpose of celebrating Australia Day… I figured our International Readers (love you all) may be interested to know why it is quiet in the neighbourhood… the cockatoos are all out slinging shrimp on barbies and drinking VB or Tooheys…

Or they could be going to Harry Connick Jr concerts. *insert – happy deeleea dance*

• Australia's national day, Australia Day, on 26 January, marks the date in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip, of the British Royal Navy, commanding a fleet of 11 ships, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Cove). Phillip formally took possession of the eastern part of the continent for England and established a settlement, now Australia's largest city, Sydney.
• Australia is the only nation to occupy an entire continent. Its land mass of nearly 7.7 million km2 is the flattest and (after Antarctica) driest of continents.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people totalled 265 378 at the last census, nearly 1.5 per cent of the population.
• Australia is an independent Western democracy with a population of more than 17.6 million.
• Four out of 10 Australians are migrants or the first-generation children of migrants, half of them from non-English speaking backgrounds. In 1991-92, East Asia contributed 41 per cent of settler arrivals.
• Australia's national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, is a revised version of a late 19th-century patriotic song. It was declared the national anthem in April 1984, replacing God Save the Queen, which was designated the royal anthem. In the same year, Australia officially adopted green and gold as its national colours.
• The flag of Australia is the only one to fly over a whole continent. The small Union Jack represents the historical link with Britain, the large seven-pointed star represents the six States and the Territories, and the small stars form the Southern Cross – a prominent feature of the southern hemisphere night sky.

Shamelessly filched from here!

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