Canberra - Concert and Snow

Categories: sightseeing, friends, concerts

Date: 14 August 2008 07:38:13

Excluding Sunday night's "adventure", my Saturday evening and Sunday were exceptionally pleasant. The reason for my drive down to Canberra was to attend Semele's Canberra Handel Choir concert to raise funds for the Ghana Health and Education Initiative.

A superb concert, as they all have been [I think I've travelled down to see them all]. This concert had a theme of "Light and Dark": the first half were songs of laughter and joy, while the second-half had songs of mourning, of war, of loss. A favourite from a previous concert, Crown with festal pomp the day, made a re-appearance, and I got to hear a good many numbers from works such as Saul, Jephtha and L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato for the first time.

Semele had a solo which she sung beautifully; unfortunately my photographic skills, or lack thereof, made her blurry in the shots I took:

I got to have breakfast with Semele and her talented pianist BF the next morning which was wonderful. Great to catch up, chat, and have a good many laughs.

Before leaving Canberra City, I took a stroll around Glebe Park, which, while bare in winter, did have a corner of bright colours. I also, the night before, enjoyed a nice dinner at Sammy's followed by a delicious hot chocolate and dessert at kokoblack. I love chocolate cafés: please open one of your stores up here kokoblack! I also got to walk past my favourite set of traffic lights: yes, that may be sad, but I love the fact they are enclosed in silver metal rather than the usual traffic signals.

Before I left Canberra, I headed out to Lanyon Homestead [more about that tomorrow or over the weekend]. A place worth seeing.

Travelling on my own, and with the temperature getting increasingly cooler, what else is a fellow to do but watch the temperature? So I did...1.5 degrees as I drove the backroads to Goulburn, through Tarago and Lake Bathurst, then 1.0°C, then snow. Then 0.5°C and quite heavy snow. And winds. Then down to 0°C. Either my car's thermometer doesn't go below 0, or the temperature remained at 0. I had not seen the snowflake(*) symbol before on my car, so that was an interesting new thing to discover about my car seven-and-a-half months after I bought it: once the temperature dips to 4°C it pops on.

It also snowed in Goulburn, where I had a late-afternoon snack, and ducked outside to take a few photos. I then continued on, a little bit on the freeway, but then off on the backroads, though to Penrose. I enjoy drives along the back roads: some nice scenery, often interesting places, and you can take it a bit easier most times [unless you have someone up your rear...then I pull over and let them past].

Cemeteries have always held a fascination for me. I was pleasantly surprised to read, and find that I was not the only one!, this entry on Fr Daren J. Zehnle's blog in which he comments on his love of cemeteries, particularly as places to ponder on life, and its brevity, as well as places to pray. I too find this, as well as finding gravestones and tomb monuments fascinating in themself. I pulled off the road into Penrose Cemetery and had a look around. A quick look, as the temperature remained below 3°C, then got significantly cooler as snow, or sleet perhaps, started falling. A very peaceful place.

[(*) edit: thank you Kerensa; it *is* a snowflake, not an icicle as I had written; must've bumped my head as I fell down that hill -- or else, as a resident of a (mostly) warm country, I claim ignorance of cold things. ;) ]