The Circus is Coming!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by borysSNORC

The circus is coming to town again and I’m so excited! I’ve become enamoured with the Cirque du Soleil for many years and I can’t wait to go again.

I first went to the Cirque du Soleil in 1997 in London with my friend BluddyMary. She had bought us tickets as a Christmas gift and being the uncultured swine that I was I had no idea what I was in store for because I had never heard of the Cirque du Soleil before. It was amazing – Alegria at the Royal Albert Hall. A once in a lifetime experience and I loved every minute of it. The building was amazing… I mean it’s the Royal Albert Hall!!! The show was amazing, there were some incredible little contortionists who twisted and turned themselves inside out until you couldn’t figure out which bit belonged to which artist!

But other than buying my Mum and Dad some tickets to a Cirque du Soleil production that was in town, I didn’t get to go again for many years. It was January 2008 when I got to see Dralion for my birthday with the full Tapas Rouge experience. Fancy nibblies, champagne, red carpet treatment and the most amazing seats right up the front. The show was fabulous – there was one particular act with two ‘lovers’ dancing together suspended way above the stage, using long strips of billowing blue fabric almost like they were extensions to the dancers bodies. They were so beautiful and sensual the way they moved together, it was absolutely mesmerising!

Then the next show I was fortunate enough to see was Saltimbanco last year in mid 2011. One of the most striking things about Saltimbanco was the skill, wit and vivacity of the ‘clowns’. I’m reluctant to call them clowns, they’re so much more than that. They’re fantastic mimes and have a great sense of comic timing and audience involvement. Saltimbanco was a show full of ‘wow’… ‘wow’ at the amazing things that the human body is capable of. The act that left the most indelible mark from that show was the trampolinists who were doing incredible acrobatics and running up walls that appeared to be several stories high! They were jumping back and forth with such speed and such agility and such amazingly tight choreography that I thought they would smash into one another!

And now Ovo is coming to town! Tickets were purchased just after Christmas and I’ve been looking forward to for months. I know nothing about it at all and have deliberately avoided watching any videos or listening to the soundtrack so it will be all new and interesting. And now the tents are going up over at Hamilton and so it’s only a matter of time! 🙂

Turn the radio up for that sweet sound

Posted on June 11, 2012 by borysSNORC

I woke up this morning, feeling rather ordinary… bit of a chesty cough, the start of a headache and a slight fever. I splashed some cold water on my face and looked in the mirror and thought to myself, “Meh, you’ll be right.” Not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed or overflowing with squirrel-esque enthusiasm, but I’ll start worrying about it when I actually look like the age stated on my birth certificate or if I bear anything more than a passing resemblance to my passport photo – whichever comes first. In the meantime, however, I think, “I can get through this!”

And by ‘this’, I mean the BIG day of Latin study I had ahead of me which at this point is simply not optional given the potentially horrendous end of semester exam I have to face tomorrow, which involves copious quantities of rote learned verb conjugations and noun declensions, not to mention things like interrogative pronouns, pronominal adjectives and demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, infinitives, imperatives, actives, deponents and all other no doubt important things I can’t remember! :S So I tried to tidy myself up a bit. Put on a bright pink jumper (people tend not to notice ‘that’ look around your eyes when you’re in bright colours) some jeans and sneakers. Packed up my school bag with all my Latin study notes, threw in my laptop, grabbed my keys and jumped in the car. Heading for Uni feeling only so-so, but trying sooo hard to pretend that I’m fine and just heading off to campus to study like any other poor sucker… err I mean student. So far so good.

Then from out of nowhere, the radio gives me a swift spiritual kick to the head in the form of Eric Carmen’s “Make Me Lose Control”. Now seriously? Who would credit Eric Carmen with being able to do that? Well, it came on the radio and without realizing it, I had done exactly what I was told and ‘turned that radio up’ as I zipped along in my little red Suzuki Swift down Macrossan Avenue and through McClelland Corner, which suddenly became a trip down memory lane of many other trips taken that way years ago in a little red Gemini! All the while Eric and memories of that hair serenaded me along!

Turn the radio up for that sweet sound
Hold me close never let me go
Keep this feelin’ alive make me lose control – Baby

When I look in your eyes, I go crazy
Fever’s high with the lights down low
Take me over the edge
Make me lose control – Baby, baby!

I was even vaguely amused and smiled to myself when it got to the bit where he’s belting out: ‘Jennifer’s singin’ “Stand By Me”, and she knows every single word by heart’ as it dawned on me that I had been singing along and knew all the words to this song by heart, even though I have not heard it for years!

And then the radio DJ came on with his forced levity which is oft accompanied by cringeworthy attempts at humour, and do you know what he says? Well, I’ll tell you. He says, in a typical smoothed out radio voice, “And that was Eric Carmen’s ‘Make Me Lose Control’ which hit the Number 3 spot on the US charts and hung around for about 13 weeks in the Top 40 waaay on back in 1988!”

You ever get that feeling that someone has just pricked your balloon, and you’re going ‘Ptbtbtbtbtbt!’ while bouncing all around the room like an unwanted leftover from a kids birthday party??? Sigh… Well, all of a sudden, I felt old and more than a little bit tired, and all my efforts to get up and go; got up and went! Thank you, 97.3FM.

Ha! Ha! You’re dead!

Posted on June 15, 2009 by borysSNORC

Once upon a summers eve many moons ago, I told my Dear Old Dad that I wanted to go skydiving. He said "Great! I want to do that too!’ Enquiries were made and alas we hit a road block… one had to be 16 years of age to legally go jump out of a perfectly good aircraft. "That’s okay," Dear Old Dad said in a placating tone "We can wait until next summer and go jump for your birthday." Dear Old Dad could be pretty cool from time to time. 🙂

An unremarkable year passes and summer starts to roll around bringing closer the sixteenth birthday in question – "Hey Dad! Still want to go skydiving with me?" Without hesitation, Dear Old Dad says "Sure thing! We should start looking around to find out where they jump from and how much it’s going to cost." Enquires were made and a company and jump plan decided upon… now just to wait out the few weeks until My Sweet Sixteen. Yay!

It was during those few weeks that not one, not two but three separate incidents sparked headlines across the BrisVegas newpapers all sprouting headlines of dead, or damn near dead, parachuters… investigations into preparedness, failing equipment and general safety procedures ensued.

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday dear Borys! Happy Birthday to me!

To Dear Old Dad the week of my sixteenth birthday – "Hey, I’m sixteen and all ready to go jump!"….. "Weeell," said Dear Old Dad, "I’m not so sure this is such a good idea after all…." Enthusiasm dampened somewhat by the recent headlines, the planned Daddy/Daughter Sky Diving Extravaganza got ‘postponed’… indefinitely. Bummer.

It has happened to me a few times actually that whenever I’ve considered engaging in any unusually risky sporting or recreational activity that it seems suddenly there will be a spate of news items relating to accidents or deaths associated with the particular endeavour du jour which has resulted in ~~a few slight changes in plans~~ abandoning potentially reckless but crazy fun stuff…. bungee jumping and black water rafting come to mind.

Feels like it’s happening again… only this time it’s getting a motorbike license… I’ve always wanted to get a bike for some reason ever since I was about 18 or so – not sure why… pretty sure it’s irrelevant. Anyway… I don’t know if I’m physically strong enough to handle a bike atm but I realized I’ve been putting it off ever since I was about 20 because of ‘my bad back’ and well I’m not getting any younger or stronger and I kinda feel like I’ve gotta give it a go you know? So a couple of weeks ago I think "Yep, I’m going to go down to the nasty Qld Transport office and get me a motorbike learners even if it means I do have to temporarily hang out with the hairy unwashed miscreants that work there!!"… But then a few days after that sound decision making process played out – some idiot motorcyclist goes careering into a footpath right behind me and today poor yale had a traffic incident involving a rather unfortunate and possibly suicidal dog while on his bike…

and now I can hear Dear Old Dad’s wise words ""Weeell… I’m not so sure this is such a good idea after all."
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A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age!

Posted on May 31, 2009 by borysSNORC

Some food makes me feel like I’m a little kid again. I’m not sure why but when you have it… it just reminds you of some of the simple little things you’d have as kids. I have a list (as all good little OCD-like nutters do) of foods that remind me of being a kid –

Watermelon slices – seed spitting competitions
Spaghetti jaffles – ‘I can’t be bothered cooking’ sunday night fare
Dumplings – cooked in stew… stodge stodge and more stodge
Beetroot sandwiches – nothing else, just beetroot
Vanilla slice – one Mum used to make with Saos
Plum pudding – every christmas I can remember
Country Captain – bizarre chicken dish Mum used to make
Tomato soup – with white bread on cold rainy days
Mangoes – stolen from someone’s tree, juice going everywhere
Sweetcorn on the cob – grown in Mum’s garden every September
Luncheon sausage – cooked on the BBQ out camping
Roast pork – fighting over the crackling

I’m sure there’d be heaps more if I thought about it longer… strangely enough the only ones that have transferred into my own cooking repertoire are the spaghetti jaffles, mangoes, the tomato soup and the sweetcorn! Don’t go near the rest if I can avoid it 🙂
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And that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic.

Posted on May 19, 2009 by borysSNORC

I saw this going around a couple of weeks ago on intial viewing I thought this meme was a bit redundant for me. I have a tendency to speak my mind, in fact if you take some people’s word for it… it’s pretty damn hard to shut me up on topics that I have strong opinions about.

However I have realized that there are things I should like to say to certain people in my life that thus far remain unsaid and I was reminded of an elegant quote –

"The bitterest tear shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone"
(Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896).

Being so forthright, honest and outspoken as I have just claimed to be, I don’t really ever want to be in that position if you know what I mean. So I have pretty much flogged this meme from just about everyone… including Avitable, SnackiePoo and the fabulous Faiqa of Native Born fame… and I will have a go at trying to limit myself to merely 10 items.

Ten Things I Wish I Could Say or That I Should Say to Certain People:

1. While I know I disappointed you from time to time, I hope you were proud of me in the end.
2. Your acceptance of me as the flawed creature that I am is quite simply the most important thing in the world to me.
3. You let me down when I was at my lowest and I needed you the most which demonstrates how little you think of me and how selfish you can be.
4. It’s time to move on and make decisions for yourself based on what YOU want rather than based on what others want.
5. The way you compartmentalize your life makes it hard for people to trust you and your inability to be more open and honest hurt very deeply.
6. I don’t have time for your petty crap, I have so many problems of my own that I’m barely keeping my head above water.
7. I’ve made my own life choices and am happy with them so please spare me your sanctimonious lectures.
8. I’ve tried as hard as I can to salvage our relationship but after a decade of trying you still won’t meet me half way so I’ve given up.
9. It would be nice if once in a while you got your head out of your own arse long enough to ask me if I’m okay.
10. I hate asking for your help almost as much as I hate needing it.
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