The Year of Magical Thinking

Well, last Thursday we were treated to my kind of cultural experience. Tom Price may be 16,000 kms from the nearest city but because Rio Tinto is a big financial supporter of the Black Swan Theatre Company, based in Perth, we are occasionally visited by travelling productions from the city. This time it was Joan Didon's "The Year of Magical Thinking".

Now I'm the first to admit I had no idea who Joan Didion was before seeing the performance, but I was so impressed with the production that I did a bit of googling afterwards and learned a little more.

The play is a stage adaptation of Joan Didion's best-selling, Pulitzer prize-nominated memoir and is an exquisite chronicle of the terrible year during which she was forced to deal with her daughter's life-threatening illness and the sudden death of her husband, John Dunne. John died more or less instantly, and 18 months later, after making a partial recovery, Quintana, her daughter, died of acute pancreatitis, at the age of 39. They were a high-profile literary couple in the United States. Joan was a journalist, freelance writer and novelist and John, a novelist, screenwriter, and critic. His most notable films are "A Star is Born" and "True Confessions".

Helen Morse played the lead and only character. I could only remember seeing her before in the movie "Far East", but upon some more research discovered she appeared in "Caddie", "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and a few other films in the 70s an 80s. She was wonderful and had me fully enthralled for the entire 1 hour and 45 minutes.

She was accompanied on stage by a cellist, Melanie Robinson, who played the haunting music especially composed for this production.

It was a compelling performance and made me realise why I sometimes miss the big cities. I just love live performances of theatre, opera and dance. I know it's a cliche, but I wanted to be an actress when I was younger. I did a few productions at school and university, but really it was a dream that I didn't want enough. I saw how difficult a task it was when a friend from school did her drama course and appeared in only the odd advertisement or episode of a dreary Australian drama. But live performances are fabulous and the heady experience of entering the darkened theatre room and watching others perform in front of me is thrilling and 'magical'.

Thank you Black Swan and thank you Rio Tinto for making these things occasionally possible.

Swimming

At last the kids are well enough to use the pool, but I'm the one now with the flu. I have actually never heard of it, but I was told I had pharyngitis. All I know is it is a horribly painful sore throat; everytime I swallow it feels like I am swallowing razor blades. Coupled with the tiredness, I have had a slow week of it.


We have managed to get to playgroup twice this week. I've re-entered the fray and decided my 3-year-old needs some more stimulus than morning TV shows and the occasional play with friends. As it is, most of his friends have started kindegarten; he has to wait another 12 months to start because he was born after June 30. So we went to playgroup this week and he's having a great time. There was a special fun day on Thursday, with lots of slime, painting and sand play to get dirty with. More people than normal were there, so lots more children to play with too.


So it's the weekend again, and I've not managed another entry since last weekend. Hopefully something wonderful will happen this weekend and I'll have to jot it down for you to read. But for now it's back to "watching" the kids in the pool and, later, time for Friday night crime.

Tiger's Eye Pool

Tiger's Eye Pool

Have just returned from a short trip with the family out to Tiger's Eye Pool. We should have visited last week when we had just had lots of rain and when there would have been more water. Didn't stay too long as the march flies are out and they seem to make a beeline for me. They have a horrible bite and leave huge big sores on me. Fortunately, I'm not allergic to them like some in town. People have had to be hospitalised occasionally because their reactions are so severe. Who said we had to be worried about snakes and scorpions?

Speaking of which, thought I spotted a snake curled up in our eldest boy's bike helmet this week. We were on our way out to the shops and putting on our shoes out front and I looked down and spotted a small snake-like head poking out of the helmet. I bundled the kids back inside and called the local snake lady. She rushed around and after a little coaxing out of the hole, she uncovered only a legless lizard. Needless to say, I felt a little foolish but was also very glad it turned out to be harmless.

When we first moved into our new house, we also discovered a scorpion in the pool. Once again, fortunately it was dead, but it does remind me how very near nature we are and that it is their territory. I just hope we disturb them too much for them to come out when we're outside.

So I'm going to finish up and join the family in our pool now, which is pictured here. It's lovely, isn't it? The flame tree above it casts great shade and has recently been pruned so it doesn't make so much mess anymore in the water.

Little move, big break

Finally back online after so long. We moved house and who would have thought that to move a couple of streets would mean such a long delay in getting the telephone re-connected and internet back online. But it did and now it's all done, I'm happy to be back.

In the meantime, also, I have been down to Perth on two weekend breaks to visit the dentist and have another tooth capped. I think my dentist thinks I'm exaggerating, but I'm sure that soon I will have all my teeth capped and will be looking at false teeth in another ten years. It is a relief though to finally be able to chew food again.

There is so much to catch up on, but I did just want to post this little note to say I'm still going to persist with this and when I'm feeling a little bit more lyrical I'll be back.