Harry Potter and Hugh Laurie

So, this weekend in our wonderful world, Paul and I stayed in Sydney to do the two things you must do whilst in Australia: see an opera at the Opera House and go see a game of footie.

Friday night was our gala at the opera and of course it was phenomenal. We spent the evening with a few friends from Bain named Leo, Alison, Christy, and Tess, all from the US save Christy who was from Hong Kong. We had what we thought were nose bleed seats since they were a pretty penny to get. However, the seating arrangement was so good, that we could see everything pretty well! Good start to the evening.

We saw the opera La Traviatta which is the Moulin Rouge story, set to Italian. The set was so magnificent and was on a turn table I believe. Either way, the first scene was at the woman's house, and it was beautifully furnished. Think Phantom of the Opera and you're there. Then, it went into a fall outdoor scene, where every once and a while, a leaf would fall from a tree! How very intricate in detail. Then, it went to another garish scene which then led into the last scene at the woman's house again, but this time stripped of all the furnishings. The lighting was so well done, at one point, it looked like the morning sun in the windows of that scene! I of course was beside myself in awe. I also loved that the opera was subtitled with a projection above the proscenium. Quite helpful. So, it was a lovely evening at the opera.

Saturday, Paul and I just chilled around all day, waiting for our Aussie Rule footie game. Apparently, Australia has it's own version of rugby, so it is not rugby per say. Rather, just Aussie rules. Imagine that, Australia having it's own rules. Anyway, we went to the Olympic Stadium where of course the Sydney Olympics were held. It was so much fun! I was able to follow footie much better than football. The guys were much leaner and not trying to build their weight up to the size of a freight train. It was Sydney Swans versus St. Kilda and all the fans were passionately screaming out for their respective team. We wore our red proudly to show our support for Sydney. Except our red wasn't quite the tint of red we needed...I suppose it is the thought that counts. I later bought a shirt for myself. Our seats were pretty cheap and super close to the action and we couldn't get over how much fun it was. Our newer friends thought so too and it was definitely a night to remember. I think we might go see another game.

As for the title of the blog, all of us were on our way back home by train when a couple of guys came up to us and just started chatting. The guy I thought looked like Hugh Laurie told me spot on where I was from due to my accent. I quote "You are not from the South, and you speak to carefully to be from California, so you must be from the Northeast!". Awesome. The other guy had was having a great conversation with everyone and was really funny. Yet he kept calling Paul Harry Potter. This made Paul feel he needed his hair cut. I couldn't stop laughing.

Sunday, haircut for Paul! Haha...we pretty much just went to Centennial Park and relaxed all day. So worth it. One thing I have always loved about cities are their parks. They do not beat Mother Nature's wonders at all, but they sure do like to try.

Short post I guess to balance out last week's post, so you can relax and just look at pictures! I have two albums up, Port Stephens and Kangaroo Island. Next week will be fabulous. Great Barrier Reef. Can't get any better!

Hope all is well. Love and miss everyone. Cheers!

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