La Cage Aux Foles

Tonight Megan and I went to the theatre. We saw La Cage Aux Folles at the [Melbourne ] Play House.

 

As with anything French,  the actual pronunciation bears no resemblance to the lettering. In this case it is pronounced :

Lacarsche o folls.

 

The basic story line is straight boy with gay parents who own a gay cabarat announces he is engaged to a girl who is the daughter of a homophobic well connected and powerful politician.  At first the family pretend to be a normal heterosexual family but then it, off course, falls apart and the Politian  blows his stack and later is sort of setup / blackmailed into supporting the marriage.

All-in-all a great show.

 

It does a great job of looking at the emotions of the various characters and the sacrifices they make for love.

Boy - endured ribbing during his teen years for having gay parents.  Initially demanding and appears self centred but turns out to be a good lad in the end.

Father - Has to ask his trans lover / the boys mother in terms of the person who brought him up - to disappear for a day.

The Natural mother who we learn throughout the show is very selfish and has not involved herself in the boys life lets him down again by not turning up at the last minute.

The homophobic politician - Who makes proclamations but when confronted by the media changes his tune / compromises.  Then at the end we see him in drag (didn't understand that....)

The politicians wife who has accepted a submissive role lets out her pent up emotions in song and begins to resist the father and support the daughter.

The trans lover / mother/ wife fellow who has to deal with his feelings.

The daughter who finally stands up to her father and sticks with her boy even a all this unravels around her.

 

The other interesting thing was the butler / maid who was fantastic.  It showed the degree of confidence that the producers and the main characters have to allow such an effervescent minor character on stage.   

 

Most absolutely uncomfortable seats though. Got a sore lower back and had to use Megans shaul rolled up for lower back support.

 

Walked home along the river then over a bridge and under flinders street station.

HOTY Sunday 2

Started breakfast.
Met Rob who had missed out on Sat night
Mark's wife Julieanne reminded us of St kilda markets.
Took togs.
Boarded train to stkilda.
Ate.
Swam
Walked out the pier.
Tram hone

HOTY Saturday night

HOTY finish

After we crossed the finish line,  we sat bunched up in a queue that extended a few hundred meters up stream.  We would slowly move up and eventually did a U turn and then moved slowly back to the landing.

Melbourne landings are different to Brisbane ones. We have floating jettys.  They have sloping boardwalks.

The boat was lifted out of the water and placed on a rack with the other 219 boats. We  

Head Of The Yarra

I went into this year's HOTY feeling distinctly under cooked.  The race its self ended up pretty good. Obviously we could have done better but given the instability in the crew and the haphazard training I was quite pleased with the row.

 

In particular we kept reasonable rating and timing and power.

 

Personally I think that to do better we need to have the same 8 blokes in the boat much more regularly and a good cox and coaching and land exercise and some long hard rows. Doable but would need dedication and a way to handle the inevitable requirement to react to subbing in reserves.

 

...........

At the HOTY black tie dinner, each crew had to do a short speech.  I quickly drafted this on my phone.  The spoken version was ad lib but covered most of the points I think

 

This was our second head of the  Yarra.  GenD had quite a disrupted start to the season but it has come together today.   Apparently we got the same time as last year despite losing two rowers and our cox to higher crews.

 

I would like to thank, club captain Greg  & also Steve coaching us.

 

Thanks to Gary who took on board locating a cox and who with the assistance of Rob connected us with Patrick.  Patrick has the ability to feel what is going on an the boat and has to confidence to focus a group of men of his fathers vintage.  In the weeks leading up, Patrick managed to pull our timing together and get us balanced.

 

Thanks to our wives and partners who have supported us through the season.   With Moral support today and through the season  as well as taking care of getting the kids to school and so on while we rowed and had coffee.   

 

Rowing is the ultimate team sport.  In todays race our stroke Jeff set a consistent rhythm and we all locked in to that. The race was rowed as one team. 

 

Well done guys for a great race and we look forward to next year.

No Limits Dinner

Dan has been attending a youth group program at our church. This was the end of year graduation dinner.

Thursday - Aunty Marys Funeral

A leisurely   toast and marmalade for breakfast.

Showered suits and photos.

Then the four of us drove to 9:30 chapel service at? ??.
It used to be the Wandsborough family church where Ken & Mary were married. Now owned by a funeral company.

Back to Annette's place behind 92 Boundary rd for tea and banana bread.

11:00am at West Pennant Hills Anglican Church for the Thanksgiving service.

Lots of people. A nice service. A huge morning tea described as  a light lunch. Serious sugar.

Back to James place for a snooze on the couch.   Drove with James to pick up Charlotte.  She is in her last year of primary school  (gr6).  Tonight their family + Henry are going to a music concert.

5:45 Henry & James dropped Lewis & I at Epping station. We bought tickets and boarded the 6:00pm train to Central. James had advised us to get the express which we did. Only a couple of stops to Central. Changed trains to the airport.  Checked in.

7:00pm Bought a beer.
Killing time.