Fradam

I’ve completely moved into the new place, and it is still quite startling how close everything is:

- Coles and Woolies about a block away

- 3 Asian grocery stores within walking distance

- An Indian grocery store that is as far as the Woolies!

… and work is about a 20-25 minute walk away. That’s right, I now walk to work! It’s quite a pleasant experience. The first morning was spent adjusting to the veritable cacophony of traffic all around me. It has been a while since I’ve been walking in the midst of that. Since then, I’ve got my MP3 player working, listened to my Beatles collection, discovered some quiet routes that make awesome avenues for prayer, had my MP3 player die, solved some maths puzzles, attempted to gain eye contact and smile at random strangers that I go by, been reading Velvet Elvis and found a new time of the day to call my parents. Best of all, I’ve found a great time of the day to do absolutely nothing; just clear my thoughts and attempt to walk. Walking.. I’ve really missed it.

I used to think of myself as quite the pedestrian.. Woody and I once walked to uni. It was for the purpose of collecting our student cards as I recall; so we walked 3 hours, and spent about 10 minutes on the grounds. Another day, I walked across a reasonable portion of the Northern Beaches - Sammie estimated it was about 30km after looking at the route on the map. There used to be a lot of walking. As life became busier however, the walking seemed to vanish.. which in hindsight seems quite sad, as it is only when experiencing it again, do I realise just how much I needed it. A little bit of space to just step away from the world and be calm. What perhaps is most surprising, is to be discovering this when I am closer to the city than ever before, literally thrust into the heart of a busy busy suburb full of busy busy people, and surrounded by an environment that compels activity. Yet, there is peace.

Today’s walk home felt like I was in Malaysia during the rainy season. The air is warm and sticks to your skin; slightly overweight droplets of rain scatter themselves inconsistently around the place. The sky is tinged by metallic overtones; scarring of industrialisation peeking out between the hazyness of a smog-like substance that causes the horizon to become blurry and indistinct. After a day of missing my home country, the only thing to do when experiencing this, was to laugh. And sing one of those songs made for singing in the rain.

The intoxicating aroma of young rain had wafted into the apartment by the time I arrived home.. an errant window no doubt had been welcoming it in. I loooove that smell. So much so, I decided to simply sit outside and enjoy it for a while.. let it soak in. Mmmm.

After witnessing two cars bump heads, I came back inside and watched an old favourite - Singing in the rain - come on, after a day like today, why not? I’m laughing at clouds!

It was a scorching morning. The mercury exceeded 40 in some parts of Sydney, and the prospect of a beach wedding in the afternoon seemed quite appealing providing there’d be a swim involved. I contemplated bringing an umbrella along to shield me from the sun. However, soaring temperatures are generally chased by storms, and yesterday’s wild weather was no different…

A memorable wedding. That is what David and Ula’s wedding will forever remain to me. It wasn’t that it rained. It was how it rained. The first drops landed as Ula first came into sight of the ceremony. A thunderclap signaled her first step onto the aisle. By the time she took her place, the little ceremony was awash with water. Words were indistinct from that point onward; Hannah, Tara, Claire and I huddled under a tiny umbrella and deduced the order of the ceremony by watching where the microphone went. It was possibly the shortest ceremony in history - topped only by Spaceball’s “short short version”; the celebrant was somewhat aware that the crowd was getting soaked. The key words did ring out however - “I now pronounce you..”. I wish I got to hear their vows though.. sniff.

Hannah, Claire and I went back to Claire’s place to dry off a little before the reception. Apparently the rain cloud had been centralised to the ceremony; two suburbs over was reasonably dry. Almost like Claire for the reception: she had a whole new outfit! Hannah blow-dried a lot of herself off. I tipped out the puddles that had formed in my shoes, and proceeded to blow-dry my socks and shoes for the next 20 minutes. After watching this process, Claire suggested borrowing a pair of her dad’s socks. Hannah followed this up by suggesting putting them in the dryer for a while. Sigh, why do all the best ideas come after my patient blow-dryer efforts! Thanks to Hannah for the photo:

The reception was close to home; North Curl Curl SLSC. Many memories of that beach.. and it was all round an awesome night. The speeches hit interesting notes - the father of the bride at one point questioning if the couple had done the right thing in deciding to get married, David speaking Polish and of course, a reference to that infamous party at Lena’s. So incredible seeing how far we’ve all come as people who were once little people.

All in all, a wonderful evening was had. I truly love weddings, and the fact that it rained in this one only served to highlight it in my memory of great moments of life. Yey for love!

So, summer has finally drawn to a close: I refused to wear more than a t-shirt yesterday as my own little element of defiance against the elements. Apparently La Nina is to blame for:

- the wettest summer in over 5 years
- the coolest summer on average in over 10 years
- the least amount of daily sunshine in over 15 years
- not a single day over 31 degrees (first time in over 50 years)

Well… and the destruction of many a roof in many parts of Sydney. On the plus side, the dams are up over 65%, which is incredible too, and we’re finally off El Nino’s back.

Somehow in the midst of all this rain, I went to 3 big concerts. Rather than come on here and gush after each concert “THIS WAS THE BEST CONCERT EVER!!”, I decided to wait till I had seen them all, and then at least I could compare between them.

So, first up was Lionel Richie - 7th December 2007 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Charlotte and I got to the Entertainment Centre in time to catch half of Marcia Hines opening for him. She was incredible; I’d not heard her sing before, and I’m a big believer that judges of talent reality shows should still be able to do what they judge… she certainly did. It mostly consisted of covers, but her voice did not disappoint. She was an appropriate opening act, being a contemporary who sang in the same style and passion - acknowledged by the crowd of 7146 with much support.

There was a roar when Lionel took the stage. He’s not quite 60, but could easily pass for 30. I mean, he really did look good. Stylish, slick, and moved so well too!

His rapport with the crowd was amazing - I think he was surprised that there were this many fans here in Sydney! But he gave us all quite the show. He received an ovation after nearly every song, and welcomed it with what I’ve now discovered is a signature hand flourish (ask me to demonstrate the next time you see me). I sometimes forget just how… smooth he is. In singing Endless Love (a song traditionally done with Diana Ross.. I secretly hoped he’d bring Marcia back on for it), he serenaded the mostly female audience and had most of the crowd swooning. Afterwards, he consolidated his position with the male minority - “Guys… you know.. I’m not fighting with you guys - I’m just warming them up for you. You’re the one taking them home!”, which naturally elicited much mirth.

Of special note was a Commodores medley he performed in the middle Three Times a Lady, Easy and a few others - and as a special treat, it turned out that one of the other original Commodores was in the stadium! So Lionel got him up on stage - I think it was Ronald La Pread - and they played a few songs together. So unexpected!

Most of the songs were cast in the same style as their album counterparts - so on a pure sound level, the songs were mostly the same. Having said that, feeling his passion exude from the stage definitely made a difference in the songs - the emotion of some of the particularly stirring songs like Hello for example, was quite moving.

The concert closed with his biggest hit, All Night Long, and it was on that note did we leave the Entertainment Centre, heading to Manly for a birthday night out and proceeded to party all night long, wearing our Lionel shirts, and proudly basking in the afterglow of the experience that was Lionel.