The Hills Are Alive....With The Sound of Hedwig......

Whazzzaaa..........

What a weekend!!!! Went up to the Blue Mountains with Matt last weekend and what a superb weekend it was. Blue Mountains has this event once a year called Christmas in July and we decided to go check it out. Because Sydney is so fricking cold during July, we decided there's nothing like going to a colder place to build up our resistance to cold. We were expecting snow on the streets, colourful chasing lights, snow sleighs and elves running around, and we might even get to harrass Santa for that bloody homeloan we were after.....

Boy, were we disappointed..........

Katoomba looked like....well, Katoomba. Packed with tourist buses, strange faces and K-Mart. The only thing that made it look like there was a major Christmas festival on was the poorly painted plain banner that read "Yulefest" hanging on top of the Carrington hotel.

We tried our best to contain our disappointment. This was how our conversation went.

Matt : "Hmmm...its not that cold"

Me : "Oh, not really, it is slightly chilly"

Matt : "Now which way do we go....."

Me: "Let's get out of the station first, I feel lightheaded, not much oxygen on high land"

Matt: "Ok"

Me : "Doesn't feel very Christmassy does it?"

Matt: "Maybe there's more decorations outside"

Me : "Wah lah, look at that beautiful banner on top of the hotel"

Matt : "Yeee...is that it?"

Me: "Can we go find the hotel, I need to go, I think"

Matt : "Ok"

Me : " Its not that bad"

Matt : "No, its not, maybe it gets better at night"

Me : " I meant my need to go, its not that bad"

Matt : " Oh, ok..."

And we trodded off to find the Clarendon. When we got there, the room wasn't ready, so we left our bags and decided to explore the main street. Had lunch at this 1940s milk bar called the Paragon which made its own chocolate. Would have bought some if the prices weren't so touristy. But we had a good lunch there. Except of course we forgot to ask them not to put beetroot into our burger. I know what they say about beetroot being good for ya, but I cannot envision myself ever eating a muddy tasting vegetable that resembles a piece of flesh dripping with blood ripped off from some serial killer's victim's inner thigh. Not a fan of olives too (rat droppings).

Ok, then we went to K-Mart....I know, what kind of a holiday is this??!!!! But we were looking at LCD TVs, some going 102 cm going for $2999, will get that one day, when Powerball beckons.

Next, it was off to Liqorland to get some grog. Being the cheapos that we were (remember, we are afterall the purveyors of fine box wine), we got 2 bottles of New, longnecks of course, and skipped back to our hotel. Strange we only drank 1 bottle, and it was a struggle too. I thought maybe we aren't really in a party mood, and probably wouldn't drink much that night......how wrong were we.....A nice Christmassy dinner and 3 bottles later, I was slurring like a homeless Abo in Redfern (ok, I know this is not a very politically statement, but I'm not racist....really....I just hate every race equally [line borrowed from Matt])

Then there was the show.

I must admit I have never cried so much at a musical before, let alone one that I haven't heard much about. I was contemplating renting the movie to see what the fuss was all about, but decided against it. Matt loved the movie, he last saw it in San Fran, so he was naturally quite hyped about it. Me, I was like, "ok, we'll go watch it...."

I was blown away, its not a typical big budget musical, not much of a set. But it was brilliant! A great mix of comedy and drama, all played through a series of great rock songs and poignant storytelling. I was crying buckets in the last few scenes (and my friends can atest that I am not usually a drama queen), and Matt was happy to see me cry (now you know he's a bit sadist). I felt the character and the struggles she went through. And the songs were GREAT! Not a fan of heavy rock, but this I highly recommend. Its coming to @Newtown in Sydney, check it out if you can. And I go on my kneels and worship iOTA in the lead role. You could tell from the fact that he was so emotionally drained by the end of the performance that he put his heart and soul into it. And its his first foray into musicals too! I hope he at least gets a Helpmann nomination. And Yitzak rocks too! And I'm gonna check out iOTA's albums now. http://www.iota.com.au/

Our experience was heightened with us sitting in the front seat, next to the lovely couple Louise and Tony. At first we were quite quiet, you know, me and Matt trying to act shy and all that. But we warmed up soon enough, and found out that Louise is an expert orgasmic wine taster (and no, she didn't do a Meg Ryan at our table) and Tony is a British Lite Beer Guzzler...perfectly complementing the 2 box wine experts, although we were quite posh that night and only drink bottled wine. All I can say was were glad we were not sitting at the long table in the middle of the room with some mature aged people (I say again I am not age-ist). They mustn't have known what they gotten themselves into. The room could have been a casino that night with their poker faces all round. We overheard them at breakfast the next morning saying "we should really find out what we are walking into next time." Hahahah...nope, this is not a musical about carpentry or gardening.....(ok, I think I'm being rude here now, I will stop)

All I can say is, go see it!

http://www.hedwig.com.au/