Well I feel like I have spent the better part of the year planning holidays, being on holidays, and recovering from holidays. Having literally just arrived back from one – you will understand the extreme lateness of my annual newsletter this year. Lets just assume I postponed Xmas until January this year !!
I started 2002 recovering from a night of cocktails and dancing at my NYE Party. January gave me the opportunity to see long time pal Gina shine as the opening act for Wendy Matthews in front of an enormous crowd on the South Perth foreshore. Australia Day fireworks were celebrated with a picnic on the river with Mum and friends from Perth, Sydney and Sweden.
In February/March I took the first of my holidays. I flew off to Melbourne to meet up with new internet friend Katie. First I was able to catch up with former Perth friends SueAnn and Trevor, as well as Keith and Shane who were in Melbourne at the same time as me when we all went to see the Abba musical Mamma Mia. It was a great show marred only by the 20 minute panic attack I suffered when first trying to get to my seat. The Princess Theatre was built long before stair phobias came about apparently !! The next day Keith and Shane and I drove down to Werribee Mansion – the location for one of my favourite 80’s movies The Pirate Movie – filmed there 20 years ago. While in Melbourne I also went to see the Ned Kelly exhibition at the Old Melbourne Gaol featuring the largest ever collection of the famous Kelly armor. I then went to see Looking Through A Glass Onion and had the pleasure of meeting the star and subject of my website John Waters. Movies this month were Oceans Eleven and Kate and Leopold. I love time travel movies so this one had me hooked.
In April I went to see Jodie Foster’s movie Panic Room. There were scenes that actually made me leap so high I fell off my seat !!!!
At the end of May Mum and I were off to Sydney for 2 weeks. We stayed with Keith in Pyrmont and then housesat for him when he went on holidays. We went to see John Waters in Oliver The Musical not once but twice !! The sets were the most amazing I have ever seen in any Aussie production. The cast were superb. John made a fantastic Fagin. The entire show was unbeatable. The fabulous Amanda took us sightseeing many days in a row and I got to see parts of Sydney I had never seen before. I had the chance to catch up with friends I had made on The Bill website, and experienced the IMAX theatre a couple of times. Then I finally had the chance to see one of my all time favorite singers Chris Isaak in concert. We had pretty good seats and got to see him up close during his traditional “meet and greet” autograph signing after the show. I mentioned to his band that I had flown over from Perth and they assured me they would be back for an Australia Wide tour again real soon. The next day we went to see them perform again in a promo appearance at a big shopping mall. This time we had fabulous front row seats and were able to enjoy it all much closer up. On the flight home I watched a really sweet little movie called I Am Sam – it put several Beatles songs to really good use thru the film.
The day after flying home in June Mum and I went to see Todd McKenney in the big wet musical Singing In The Rain.
During the end of financial year sales I picked up a fabulous DVD/VCR player and have enjoyed searching for DVD’s of my old favorite movies to watch in a whole new light. This was followed by the immediate purchase of a new washing machine which obviously blew up to punish me for buying the DVD !! At the end of June I went to see Pirates of Penzance for the 3rd time in 18 years. Jon English swears he is retiring this time.
Then in July my computer packed it in and joined the washing machine in whitegood heaven – hmmmm or should that be hell – that’s where it deserved to go after losing 3 years of emails and hard work. My new mantra “Must Back Up More”.
In August I went to see About A Boy – a movie I could really identify with as it sought to explain that being single and childless was not an illness – it is a life choice.
In September I went to see one of the more interesting concepts in entertainment so far. The Man From Snowy River Event Spectacular was billed as a rodeo musical. It featured Steve Bisley as Banjo Patterson laconically strolling the arena narrating the story via his many poems, and country star Lee Kernaghan narrating via songs specially written for the show. It starred 40 horses who showed off their amazing talents. Most importantly it starred the piece of music that can bring tears to my eyes – the theme to the 1982 movie. To hear it being played as the horses re-enacted the famous mountain chase scenes was really quite thrilling. All that was missing was Tom Burlinson !!
My birthday pressie to myself this year was a digital camera – what a fabulous new toy !! October also brought us the devastating news of a bombing in Bali. So many people in Perth were affected by this tragic event and so many in other states.
November was time for a flashback to the 80’s. I went to see old faves Kids in the Kitchen and Psuedo Echo in concert. It was fun hearing all the old hits again.
Late November and it was time for another holiday. First Sydney pal Amanda came over to see Perth for the first time. We visited some vineyards and spent a day on Rottnest Island. This was the start of my “Chris Isaak Holiday” hereafter referred to as CIH !! It started with his Perth concert which was the opening night of his Australian tour. Fantastic 2nd row seats made for great viewing all night. It was also fun to discover the band remembered me from the first meeting in May.
Then we flew to Sydney. I stayed with Keith again and this time he wasn’t on holidays so we were able to actually catch up ! We went to Australia’s Wonderland with Shane and had a great day out on all the scary rides and had a good laugh getting old fashioned photos done. I was able to catch up with friends from The Bill website again and we had lovely meals in Star City and Chinatown. Then it was down to Canberra for the next instalment of the CIH. I started my day with a 5am hot air balloon ride over our nations capital. What a glorious way to spend 90 minutes. Its something I will definitely do again one day. Later that night it was centre front row for Chris’s concert and the thrill of watching my friends get up on stage to dance with him. I declined with the excuse that I was official photographer !!!
Then it was back to Sydney for a few days of shopping and R & R. The bushfires put a halt to several planned visits to friends but I will definitely be back in Sydney soon. The CIH continued with two Sydney concerts. Front row both times. Yes I got some great photos and if I work fast you may get the website link with this newsletter ! Also found the time to squeeze in a visit to the huge Star Wars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.
A spur of the moment decision saw me change my flight back to Perth into a flight to Brisbane with new friend Juliet instead. I was having way too much fun on the CIH meeting the band and making new friends and enjoying the music to go home and back to work. So it was off to BrisVegas for one night and one concert. Then down to Coolangatta for 2 nights in a beachside apartment. What an ordeal just to get to the Tweed heads concert. A huge storm, apparently the worst in 26 years, hit the coast in the late afternoon. First I was trapped in an elevator for 20 minutes after it fell several floors when the power went out. Then the storm blacked out the entire Gold Coast for many hours. As many of you know I suffer a bad stair phobia – this didn’t help when I had to get down 16 flights of stairs in the pitch black darkness of a concrete stairwell !! The things we do for music. Fortunately the concert was great – despite it being held in one of the more tacky venues I have ever seen in Australia !!
Then it was a flight up to Townsville for the next concert. I have never been further north than Brisbane on the east coast so this was indeed an adventure. It also gave me the chance to pay surprise visits on my Uncle Col and my Pop. I simply stated “I was in the neighborhood” !!
Then it was off to Cairns for the final Australian concert – and for the band – the final concert of their world tour. I played tourist and took a ferry to Green Island with new pal Susan, where we met Cassius, the 100 year old largest crocodile in captivity. Man he was huge.
The final concert of the CIH was fantastic. I had a nice position against the stage directly below Chris. Later many fluffy cocktails called Jaffa’s were consumed to farewell the band back to the USA, and finally a chance to meet the man himself properly, before several longs flights back home to Perth.
I got home to find there was less than a week till Christmas – hence the lateness of this letter and the lack of christmas cards and presents. My apologies – I have cancelled Xmas shopping until January !!!!
I wish you a very happy holiday season and lot of joy and happiness in the coming new year.
Please take the time to visit my websites when you have a chance. The Bajaclub one will have all the holiday and concert photos added to it by christmas !!
www.JohnWaters.info and www.TomBurlinson.homestead.com are the Official Fansites that I run with permission from both actors.
www.bajaclub.homestead.com (my homepage where all my photos live)
and don’t forget to email me on karinajoy@xxxx.com
love and best wishes
Karina xxx
