Le Fils à Jo

What an exciting day I had!!! My ultimate destination - the Verona @ Paddington, to see Le Fils à Jo as my second offering in the French Film Festival (fff)., but on the way I encountered a few adventures..



First off was a squiz at a film crew who were taking shots of some sailors from HMAS Sydney on the steps of the war memorial in Hyde Park. I was interested in the fake sad-looking poppies he was shooting through. Bet they come up a treat as glorious bright alive-looking poppies in the foreground in the finished product.

Next I popped into the Australian Museum to see the Nat Geo Wildlife Photography Exhibition. My fav was a photo of a fox in the forest taken by a German photographer Klaus Echle( German artists/photographers seem to be the flavour of the month with me atm). He described how he visited the forest for 6 months to build up a rapport with the fox before he photographed it ( Hello, Little Prince)
. I love the light in this photo and the perspective from below and the fact he must have used a wide angle lens here, so he must be very close to the fox - a beautiful photo. There were many many spectacular pics, most notably from some very young talented photographers, but this one spoke to my heart:-)


Next I had a very quick squiz at the dinosaur exhibit, before continuing on my way up Oxford Street to the Verona.


The objective of the day was to see Le fils à Jo. Jo's son plays rugby ( hello, they made this movie for me!!) Unfortunately he's not so great on the rugby field much to the disappointment of his father ( an ex rugby star). There's a sub plot similar to The Castle( big corporation tries to take over rugby field), and a bit of a love interest. There's plenty of backslapping and rugby camaraderie and feuding on the part of the dad and his ex team mate. There's quirkiness and humour and friendship and love.. I and the other 2 patrons thoroughly enjoyed it!

Then it was a pop in next door to Berkelouw books where I had a lovely time browsing , drinking coffee and exploring the upstairs 2nd hand section.
Then back down Oxford Street,( feeling O so cosmopolitan and sophisticated adventurer of the world ( yes delusional, I know) where I came across bookshare -
a bookcase set on the footpath where people can leave/take any books they'd like to share.. What A Fabulous idea - book recycling. I found a copy of Open ( Andre Agassi's autobiography.). I was ecstatic - had been meaning to read it for a while.

Staggered on downOxford St in the pouring rain and so to home - it had been an exhilarating, grand day out!!

Gallery Visit No. 1

I had a day in town , ate lunch with Timmy, then headed over to the Art Gallery to catch Picasso before it leaves. Glad Chris and I hadn't gone to see it in Paris ( the Picasso museum being just around the corner from our hotel, as it seems a lot of it was over here. Am not really a Picasso fan, but was glad I went for educational purposes.



There was some sort of Police anniversary celebration day going on when I got to town.


I walked up Martin Place..(thought these were odd (German flag) colours to use for a surf carnival banner advertisements, but I did like the coordinating flowers.

No pics in the exhibition, so here are a couple from around the gallery:





and heading home back towards town. (financial district - Deutsche Bank, RBS, Amp buildings)

A little bush walk on a grey day to stretch the legs

Took a short walk across Bongin Bongin Bay, and up onto the Mona Vale Reserve Headland.



It was a grey day, but felt good to be out and lovely to paddle my feet. The water (at the edge) is warm still from the summer.

A movie, a stroll around the harbour and noodles

We went to see Hugo pre the Oscars as it was much hyped with nominations. Having recently returned from Paris, I was in looove with the cinematography. Barry,not having recently returned from Paris,was not so much, although he did appreciate that this is a visually stunningly beautiful film. Plot may have been a little slow.
We went to our favourite cinema -the Orph.

The plot, in case you don't know, is the story of Hugo Cabret, an orphan living in the walls of the Gare du Nord and maintaining the station's clocks. There a are a lot of images much like this!

We followed the movie with a stroll around the harbour @ Kirribilli. We saw the Radiance of the Seas leaving the Overseas Passenger Terminal and executing a nice 3 point turn in front of the Opera House!

and had a bit of a squiz at Luna Park..well the gates, anyway.

We finished the day meeting Tim and Millie and Megs at Ryo's Noodles for dinner. This place is famous with the asian community..There are apparently always queues all the way down the street. T & M queued for us for half an hour..we swanned up for the last 10 mins.





Fortuneately, Tim knew what to order!

Another concert

This time, a girlie night out with Joan, to sit on the lawn at the zoo and see Marina Prior -- last seen in Phantom of the Opera a million years ago.. We were too late to see the animals..except this lonely male Asian elephant..- I took this, then as soon as I had returned to sit in the queue, a security guard walked past and the elephant blew a huge dust cloud of dirt all over him from it's trunk. I was so glad it hadn't done that to me, and so sorry I missed that shot!!!



The concert was strange, very brief, and the sound was very peculiar.. way too loud and tinny, but the evening reinforced my knowledge that the animals have the best views in Sydney. Do you think they appreciate them? Do you think they look at the sun setting each night behind the Harbour Bridge and feel privileged? Anyway it's lovely.. gives the zoo that unmistakable Sydney feel!:-)