Bob Evans rox the Clarendon

The sunday concert was simly GREAT. Bob Evans, lead singer of the obviously famous Australian band Jebediah, is not only a excellent musician, but also a formidable entertainer. Although the videos on youtube come across a little boring, live it was good fun to listen to the his songs.
The good thing about small venues is that you usually get to talk to the artists after the gig. Since Bob, whose real name is Kevin Mitchell, and Malcom who accompanied him on drums and piano (at the same time), were prone to drink (as good rockstars do), we had a good talk about Europe, drinks in general and odd jokes at the bar. what a night.

schneemusik

This weekend saw a drop in temperature from a summerly 27 degrees to 2 degrees with snowfall and heavy storms. Friday night the local live music venue held a concert of two young female singer/songwriters I had never heard of (Laura Jean, very good and Jen Cloher, rather boring), but their posters all over town were nice in an arty-and-crafty style. So I went and it was actually quite good (though not good enough to buy a cd afterwards). I rushed home after the show to get enough sleep because another dayride was booked for Saturday morning and I really wanted to go.




The storm intensified over the course of the night and in the early morning a sms from Kathy woke me, saying we were closed due to snowfall. Although it did not snow down here in the valley, I was quite pleased to finally get to sleep a little longer. Usually the weather would clear up during the day but this time it didn’t. It got worse, colder and even more wet. After I cleaned the house I remembered that the Jenolan Caves were holding concerts each Saturday and just this day it was the turn for Hungarian Gypsy Music. The concerts include a brief tour through one of the caves, which are usually quite expansive. Unfortunately, the concert was at its best mediocre, the two musicians (guitar&violin) had no connection whatsoever which was emphasized by both of them staring constantly on the notes in front of them. The music, usually melodramatic, lively and moving thus appeared clinic, cool and heartless. The tour through the caves was ok, but nothing extraordinary if you have been to a Tropfsteinhöhle before.

Even today the weather wouldn’t clear up, so yet another unwanted day off hanging around the house since there is nothing else to do. >At least tonight there is another concert in Katoomba.
lots of music and freaking cold for this weekend.

...Goethe...

Last Thursday, another sudden day off, since I was already dressed, up and awake, I decided to go to Sydney again, but this time with a mission. My initial plans to study German as a foreign language need concretisation, so I set out to get information at the Australian Goethe Institut in Sydney. The Institution to foster German language and culture all over the world is housed in a beautiful villa in a noble part of Sydney between Kings Cross and Bondi. A classical German Litfaßsäule greeted me on arrival, everything was clean, tidy and shiny new. Germany must spend a fortune on its reputation abroad. The girl behind the information desk was - who would have thought that - one of the plenty interns that kill time there, and of course, had no clue. As in every good administrative institution, the person in charge was gone to lunchbreak. While no one there seemed to be doing anything but surfing on the net, an older women passed by, judging by her pace obviously very busy and in stress. The information desk intern asked her if she knew anything, but she referred kurz und knapp to the internet computers on the upper floor. After pointing roughly in the direction of the stairs she ran off without good bye. I climbed the stairs overwhelmed by the cleanliness and sterile atmosphere of the whole building. In a freshly renovated bright room with glass doors leading to a spacious balcony was the library. They did not only have computers with internet free of charge, but all relevant German newspapers and magazines. From Spiegel, Stern, arte till Psychologie heute (!!!), they were all there. Looking through the oh so well known Sueddeutsche, I realized how bad Australian newspapers are. Drawn to the Sydney Morning Herald by the old style font of its name, its informative value is at best mediocre. Australia, a relative small nation so far away from almost everything, seems to be predominantly concerned with itself. While the dominant topics concern the cut back in child care, the general economic crisis and Baz Luhrman’s movie “Australia” to be released the coming Thursday, world politics takes a minor stance. The accidental drowning of 2 kids and their loving father was covered extensively with 3 articles filling a whole page (big format!), while the total amount of pages entitled “world” were 3.

another short Sydney escape

Another day off with no intention of wasting it in the small towns in my surroundings, I boarded a train to the big city of Sydney. I had a quest: finding a hostel for my sister and me for New Year. I walked all over the more interesting quarters, Kings Cross, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst but without success. Although I came across some interesting businesses:



Later, I met up with Anne to support each other’s shopping needs. As always, she ended up spending way too much money while I hardly tried on anything. Therefore I found the Australian Vice magazine which entertained me on the long train ride back, where Kattomba greeted me with thick fog.
Ps. As you might have noticed, my camera still works! Although I dropped it again today, it is fine and serving its purpose.

Kurioses&Langeweile

On Saturday I had another dayride, this time down here in the valley. Though they were all beginners, in the end all of them liked cantering and we did a fair bit. I rode Cade, an arab-pony mix who kept joggling through the afternoonride, but made a good impression with the other riders.
Sunday was rather foggy, but the first day in ages I got up in time, even before I heard Lizzys car comming onto the farmyard. The “you have the day off” after her hello sent me straight back to bed where I slept through the morning hours. After a hearty breakfast on my favorite table under the tree, I let the others do the work and went to see the Blue Mountains Movie in the especially built wide-screen cinema, called The Edge. The movie was not very informative and took only 40min, so having no better things to do, I set out to explore Katoombas antique stores yet another time. Only this time I dared to take some pictures, although did not buy anyting
On the road to Lithgow I had passed by a eerie looking little old cemetery, and it was time to pay it a visit. Unfortunately it did not turn out to be as eerie as I thought – not even as old as it appeared. Deluded, I went home to light the fire and wrap myself in a blanket in front of the fireplace reading the weekend newspaper.

death of a camera (?)

Another day without bookings, so after taking care of our sick little beauty Wanda, I decided to finally go on a bushwalk. Up the road is the Shipley Plateau from where tracks stretch around the plateau and along the valley. It was hot but amazing, narrow tracks, often with steps carved in the sandstone, a creek falling down in drops over the edge and a steep descent into cool rainforest – amazing!
But, looking through this blog I had the impression it is a little bit impersonal, so I decided to post more pictures of myself. While trying to let the camera take a picture of myself in a very beautiful alley, I placed it onto a very rough stone…of course, what happened – it fell down on a rock in the water and now there is water inside the lens which blurs all the pictures! I hope, I can get that water out of there, but until that no new pictures 
(A little hint for a Christmas present though!)

Lady in my lap

extra für Mama: ein foto von Lady, der Katze, und mir bei einem gemütlichen Abend in der chaotischen Wohnstube.

Anne @ Werriberri

Anne had 2 days off and decided to make the journe out into the Blue Mountians to go horse riding with me. Since we only had one other ride in the morning, I had teh afternoon off and all the time and horses to take her for a ride. She really liked it, although we mainly walked and made friends with her horse Kilarney. After the rid eshe helped me bring out the hay with the Quad bike! Fun!Fun!Fun!
She stayed the night and we had dinner at a beautiful lookout. This morning Kathy texted em to tell me I had the day off. When I looked out in teh paddy, I found Wanda, the horse I have been riding terribly lame. We brought her in but could not see why she was lame. I called kathy who promised to have a look at her later on, so we had breakfast under the humming tree and then I drove Anne to Katoomba to get back ti civilisation.
Kathy came but could not find a reason for her being lame and so we eventually called the vet. Neither he had a convincing idea, but gave her an injection. I hope she'll be better soon.
photos to follow

my first dayride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Occasionally, we do so called Pub-Crawls, where you ride the whole day to a pub, stay there the night and ride again the following day to another pub. Eventually, some people booked a 2day pub-crawl last weekend. I have been longing to go on one since I started working there. Because we were quite busy saturday I got to go at least for sunday. It was amazing. The group consisted of 2 English-Australian couples, Kathys partner Stew (short for Stuart), two locals the others met at the pub the night before and me. It was amazing just to ride through the bush, off the beaten track (actually mosttime off any track at all), up and down the mountains. Kathy was following us in the back up vehicle and had fun 4wheel driving. Teh only setback was the view of a perfectly clean power plant in against the bright blue sky when we galloped up a very steep hill (it does not look that steep in the picture, but believe me, it was!)

I was riding Bella, the horse I rode on my first ride at Werriberri, a really sweet and sensible Stock/Qarterhorse.

escape to Sydney

Two days off and to make sure to have them off, I decided to escape the Blue Mountains and go back to the city. Anne had found a room which needed inspection and I needed to get out of my cowgirl clothes and do some serious shopping. Sobered up I took the train towards civilization. Since the weather was not the best I went to the Australian Museum, the Natural History Museum in Sydney. I had heard about it and usually this kind of museum is not only educational, but also great fun. Well, this wasn’t soooo much, but they had some funny stuffed creatures in teh dinosaur section. At least I got to see (and photograph) some of the animals I only hear around the farm at night.






The section about spiders and other scary (and venomous!!) creatures living amongst us freaked me out to be honest. Most of them had I seen around the house. They had some funny looking dinosaurs and extinct species, and I was happy to find out that Dinosaurs had bigger feet than mine. Another more shocking than informative exhibition was about skeletons.



Later in the afternoon I went over to Mosman where Anne lives and works in a café. She had finished work and together with Anna, a co worker from South Africa, we went after saying Hi to her roommates straight on to have dinner in the early afternoon. The meals in the Pub were rich (yummy gambas!), the wine was cool and we were happy celebrating Annes day off the day after. After three bottles in two, we somehow managed to get back home and went to bed immediately.


Fresh and sober we woke up quite early today morning and went down to Manly to have breakfast by the beach. After a few hours of successful shopping, we spread our towels over the bright white sand and watched the surfers, and eventually got lulled into sleep by the waves (our toe tips told us it was still way too cold to do a surf course). Another coffee in the afternoon and the paper with the detailed analysis of the American election prepared me for my 2 ½ hrs train trip back into the Blue Mountains.

Melbourne Cup @ Blackheath Golf Club

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day. Traditionally, Australians go crazy for this horse race; down in Victoria it is even a state holiday. People dress up, gather together in fancy places, bet, eat and get drunk. Kathy invited us to the local golf club, so Lizzy and me put on our best frocks and heels and were picked up by Kathy and her partner Stuart in his lemon yellow 1960s Holden. Having no clue about the horses, Lizzy and me got a 3$ mystery bet, needles to tell you that we did not win anything. Down at the Golf Club we were the youngest, but got sweet pink sparkling wine as a welcome drink which put us in an excellent mood. We got another bottle and listened to the various games the organizers staged to pass the time (here too, luck was not with us and we did not win anything of the attractive prices among which were various six-packs of beer specialties). But, as it is custom, we drank a lot, devoured an ambitious seafood buffet. The race itself started at 3pm and lasted only a few minutes, and in the end we were too high spirited to bother losing our 3$. Lizzy and me went back to the Valley and rode the Quad bike in the paddies.

Catherine Britt in concert

Post from sat, 1st November
Catherine Britt playing in Katoomba was an event I couldn’t possibly miss. Not that I had heard of her before, but I hadn’t been to a concert in a while and country music is always worth some bugs – if only to watch the people there. Luckily, I resisted the desire to put on my boots and hat and put on a more urban outfit. The Clarendon, praised by the Lonely Planet as the ultimate live music venue in the region, turned out to offer a rather familiar atmosphere: They offer packages that include dinner before the concert, so the hall was filled with tables and still munching people when I entered. I sat with Shane, Hilary and her parents. The stage was the size of an average small town theatre, with a curtain painted on wooden frames around it. The carpet on the floor and the many small tables that filled the room made me expect rather a stand up comedian than a concert, but then the one and only Catherine Britt entered the stage. Long blond haired and rather chubby than skinny she had put on a tight a short dress covered with pailetten and some ¾ leggings paired with incredible high heels. Only her guitar reminded of country music, her songs being initially more drawn towards pop. In the course of the gig she got better and country-er, in the end giving the obligatory “yeeeeha”s which made it a unique experience after all. Unfortunately, the tables restricted the audience to head-nodding and toe-shaking.

Gardening Day

the weather is a bit unstable these days, so kathy woke me up this morning saying we were closed because ther was a big thunderstorm comming. It remained rather sunny down in the valley. Since all the rides were cancelled, I got to do some gardening. Tomorrow will be closed too because it is Melbourne Cup Day. Melbourne Cup is the most famous horse race in Oz, and actually a national holiday down in victoria. Everybody goes crazy about it, dresses up, goes to a party and gets drunk ;-). We are at the Blackheath Golf Club with Kathy, her family and some others working at Werriberri; Lunch starts already at 12am, so it`s gonna be a long day! SInce I am having Wed&Thur off, gardening was the only thing to do to get me at least half a day pay this week.
Anne has found a room in Sydney and I am going over to check it out - and to get out of the horse stench and into some more urban environment. yeah!
teh weekend was ok, concert fine, Rhododendron Festival stupid and too rainy, working quite busy. Photos to follow.
sorry, but I gotta run to the german class now! hope to update this post when I get back fromt eh city!
xxxxxx