Close Encounters of the Amazing Kind - Chapter 4

One Sunday afternoon, June 6th to be exact, Rick and I pondered what we should do for the afternoon. It was a cold, dull and overcast day and showers erupted periodically. We had been to a Lutheran Church in the morning to hear a Bach Cantata, and we were invited out for dinner in the evening to some Australian friends who had previously been on exchange in Canada. Was there time and inclination to fit in yet another thing? Always!

So Rick and I decided to explore a tourist attraction here in town close to our house – the Melbourne Zoo! It has been described as a " window to the world's wildlife'. It is spread over a vast mount of green space,

so we had to do a lot of walking to see all the animals.

We had read in the paper that the female tiger had given birth to quadruplet baby tigers, so that was our first port of call. It was an amazing sight – two of the babies liked to spar with each other, while the other two were more sedentary.

The Melbourne zoo houses a whole pride of elephants.

It had recently also boasted of its new baby elephant, Mali, so that was, of course, next on the agenda. We were not disappointed!

Thereafter we wandered here and there through the zoo, looking at a variety of birds.

The hot and humid butterfly house was our next definite stop.

The zoo also has a very impressive African animal exhibit.

Did you know that each zebra has its own distinctive stripes and that each giraffe is marbled differently? We saw animals that were familiar to us, but still always impressive.

We saw animals that were new to us, like the fairy penguins, the Pygmy hippopotamus or the peccaries. Alas, although we watched it swim, the elusive platypus still could not be captured on film!

We saw endangered species, like the orangutans and the gorillas.

Alas, in real life, the gorillas were all sleeping! The orangutans were all so cold, that they mostly huddled under covers in their area. There was a special forested area for the tree-top apes and monkeys, mandrills and lemurs.

It was here that I came across a white gibbon sitting up on a branch. I made a monkey sound to him and he responded by looking intently at me, and then he scooted right over to me as far as he could along the screen. I moved next into the glassed-in monkey viewing enclosure, and he followed me there stopping directly in front of me on the other side of the glass, hanging with one hand onto a railing, but putting his other hand onto the glass right over my hand, as if he wanted to touch mine. All the while he looked at me as though he wanted to communicate with me. If I moved my hand, he moved his as well. It was so touching, another close encounter of the amazing kind. People around in the enclosure just couldn't believe it! It was the highlight of my visit to the Melbourne Zoo.

"Karin's Komments" on Music in Melbourne: May/June

We are taking in a lot of the musical scene of Melbourne. There are concerts of every genre, in every possible venue from town halls to our neighbouring coffee house. There are also special events that come up annually, like the “Melbourne Jazz Festival”, which offer up a myriad of concerts at venues throughout the city. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) was part of this jazz festival, and on May 8 the orchestra performed in an alternative theatre called the “ MALTHOUSE”. The conductor was none other than our own former conductor of the WSO – Bramwell Tovey! I teach the two sons of the publicity manager of the MSO, so he graciously offered us tickets for the evening. How could we refuse? The concert itself was more like our Winnipeg New Music Festival, with all the music being contemporary in sound and style.

Repertoire KATS-CHERNIN Zoom and Zip TOVEY Pictures in the Smoke BIRTWISTLE Panic ROUSE Bump

Featuring Bramwell Tovey conductor Amy Dickson saxophone David Jones drumkit

Need I say more? But for those who are interested, I will elaborate. Each number featured a different family of the orchestra. In true Tovey style, an “informative” talk preceded each number. The audience was small and we were seated close to the front. During one such introduction, Tovey caught our eyes, and thereafter kept looking back over to us. Had he recognized us? At the end of the concert, we went to meet him, and he was absolutely shocked to see us there. He gave both of us a great big hug, and chatted with us as if he were our long lost friend!

Melbourne city is divided into many different precincts, and many of these areas also present local concerts. They even sponsor their own representative amateur orchestras that rehearse and perform regularly. Rick and I were invited to perform with one such orchestra call the Stonnington Symphony.We played a concert with them on May 29 that was part of the “Stonnington Jazz Festival”. We did the Four Last Songs by Strauss and Satie’s Gymnopedie among other selections with the Australian jazz pianist/composer Tony Gould. I was asked to sit in the second desk of 1sts. The violin that I brought along here is not of a high quality and sounds very closed plus I have not managed to practice regularly out here, so I had my work cut out for me. All in all, the orchestra plays at a very high calibre, and the concert was a great success. The concert took place in the local Malvern Town Hall, and the audience sat around at round candle-lit tables with a glass of wine at hand. How cool is that?

Many musicals are also mounted in Melbourne. We have already made some lovely Australian friends, and went with one such couple on June 2^nd to see the musical “Fame”. The venue for the show was the old Regent Theatre, which is a refurbished movie theatre from the 1920’s. It is an opulent theatre. The foyer has a huge chandelier hanging down from a high vaulted ceiling The ceiling and walls are elaborately carved, and gilded almost to the point of excess. The auditorium is gigantic with three levels of seating. Where we were seated, we all got to sit in our own individual leather chair with ample leg room! The show itself was over-amplified, which tended to distort some of the music, but the dancing was superb! A good time was had by all.

June 6 - 9

There are many musical happenings offered throughout the city each day of each week. We would only barely scratch the surface of everything that is going on in Melbourne, were we to attend a concert each night. But that is what we tried to do this past week! No wonder that I am so far behind in keeping our blog up to date!

• Our week began on Sunday when we went to a Lutheran church in the morning to hear the Australian Chamber Choir sing a Bach cantata and a Bach motet. The choir was accompanied by a small orchestra playing on period instruments.
• Next we heard the Australian Chamber Orchestra play Schubert's Unfinished and the Brahms First Symphony on Monday night. This group is made up of youthful players who are led by their concertmaster. They travel throughout Australia and are a very proficient and exciting group.
• Then on Wednesday night we were invited to a wine reception/dress rehearsal with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to hear their complete ballet rendition of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. It was like a Maestro Circle event in Winnipeg, complete with oysters, proscuitto rolls and lamb egg rolls. The orchestra was hugely augmented in size, sounding very precise and powerful. It was conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, none other than the former conductor of the Toronto Symphony!

That was the end of our musical adventures this past week, as we then embarked on our next travelling adventure to the north area of our state of Victoria. It is the start of the rugged arid outback region, as you will learn about in a future blog!

"Karin's Komments" on Australia's Game of "Footy"

Australian Rules Football, affectionately known as “Footy”, is the national craze around Australia. Everyone from young to old has a favourite team for whom they root. (Only it is not polite to “root” for something out here, as it implies something sexual.) The correct terminology is to “barrack” for a team. People are passionate for their team, donning scarves, hats, jerseys and socks in their team colours, flocking each weekend to their home matches. Most of the people actually purchase memberships for their team, and can enter the stadiums through a special entrance. The members must wear a collared shirt and closed shoes, if they wish admittance. Most Australians seem to know every player and every statistic imaginable about every team member. Some player on some team is always committing a misdemeanour of some kind, and it causes the staffroom to be abuzz with commentary about it! It is also the talk of the train in the morning and headlines the front page of the newspaper at night!

Now it doesn’t really matter for which team you barrack, but it does matter that you have a team for whom you barrack. Everyone at school tried to win me over to their team at some point when I first encountered them, extolling the virtues and merits of why I should choose their chosen team. They would quietly take me aside, and I in turn would usually tell each one that I was barracking for their team and then they would go away happy! Now in my heart, I barrack for no one team in particular, but it became increasingly clear that choices needed to be made. So Rick decided to throw his hat to the Essendon team because they are nicknamed the “Bombers” and I chose the North Melbourne team, because they are the home team of the area in which we live. Since we have made our choice, everyone has left us alone - probably because the two teams we picked are at the bottom end of the rankings!

There are sixteen teams in all who play one another each weekend from April onwards. The most surprising thing for me was that most everyone in Melbourne is in some kind of tipping pool, betting on the outcome of the weekly games. Even some of my Grade 2 students are avid betters! So, when I was asked to join our school’s footy tipping, I thought it would be great fun for the $22 cost! I had no idea about anything, so one of the teachers offered to send me a Grade 6 student to assist me. Sometimes 2 or 3 students come to see me on a Friday morning, but one young “bloke” comes regularly with the newspaper’s sports section in hand. He discusses the odds with me, pointing out what the broadcasters are predicting and telling me whether or not I should consider an alternative choice; he might inform me of an injured player and how his absence might influence the outcome of the game. In all seriousness, he looks at where the team is in the standings, where the game is being played and how many games they have won recently against weak or strong teams, and then we decide on how to tip. Results are accumulated, and to date, I am among the highest scorers in our school league. One week I even scored 8/8! It is a hoot! Not bad for someone not knowing anything about the game!

The Holy Grail in Melbourne is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Now membership in the MCG is a very serious and prestigious matter out here. Parents enrol their children at birth, so that they can become full members at MCG by the age of eighteen and it is a great honour when the son or daughter finally becomes inducted into the membership! So, any games played at the MCG are considered very special indeed. When Rick was away (I know….I was supposed to have been working on report cards), I was invited to go to a game at the MCG with some friends, Ron and Maureen Sanderson, that we had met in Tasmania. Thus my first introduction to the footy game in the MCG was on May 15 - Melbourne versus West Coast Eagles! We had a great time on a beautiful day. Australia is famous for its meat pies, and a footy game is not complete without eating one of them, so that’s what we did!

Then on June 5, Rick and I were again invited to the MCG to attend a game with other ITF exchange teachers.

This game was Melbourne against Carleton. It started off as a cool overcast day, but then developed into a miserable rainy and wet afternoon, and we needed rain gear so as not to get soaked. I bought a Carleton team raincoat, but most all the other ITFers bought Melbourne ones. Although I looked as the odd one out, Carleton team emerged as the strong winner of the game and I had ultimately chosen the correct team raincoat! We still had lots of fun, both at the game and at dinner thereafter, catching up with everyone and seeing how their exchanges were working out.

Yes, Australians love their Footy! But if the truth be told, Australians are mad about all sports, whether it be car racing, horse racing, cricket, tennis, football or soccer (as is now the case for the next month with the Australian Socceroos team at the World Cup in Africa). At least three channels carry every soccer match that is being played! Some Australians have even taken two-weeks of holidays, just so they can watch the soccer games. They sleep all day and watch TV at night! Crazy, eh?