Well once again the year has rushed by and I find garish Xmas decorations appearing in the city streets and really bad Xmas songs (and even worse Band Aid remakes) being played ad nauseam on the radio. Where does the time go ?
I began 2004 sitting on the balcony with friend Christine, sipping drinks and wondering yet again why the City of Perth doesnt bother to help its residents bring in the New Year with some fireworks. For all that they spend on Australia Day - surely a few pretty bursts in the sky at midnight on NYE wouldnt hurt the budget ?
It was a hot start to the year and I regretted not getting an airconditioner installed earlier. I dragged the warm air blower into the loungeroom, put on a wet sarong & spent my time off work watching endless dvd's, namely my new collections of Battlestar Galactica & The A Team !!.
I spent 7 lovely cool January days in Melbourne. What a relief to get away from the Perth heatwave. Was able to have great catching up days with old school pals Julie and Sue Ann. Christine joined me later in the week and we enjoyed front row seats at We Will Rock You (yes the addiction continued from 2003. Christine & I also managed to celebrate the Chinese New Year (moving into my year of the Monkey) and Australia Day between various shopping expeditions, the museum (visiting Phar Lap), and a great underwater Titanic film at Imax, before flying back to stinking hot Perth.
In February I welcomed the return of old school pal Laurel after 11 years in the UK. It has been a joy renewing our old friendship. By mid Feb the abysmal summer had gotten the better of me and I started getting quotes for ducted aircon. Feb 18 was the killer of all days. After several days hovering around 40c (and nights struggling to get below 30c), our precocious and pathetic power company decided to ban the use of power - yes thats right - power. So there is the entire city, sweltering, kicked out of their offices, left to their own devices on a hot humid day. I spent the day in the wonderful Piccadilly cinema who chose to keep one cinema and one aircon running. Enjoyed Love Actually twice and tolerated Cold Mountain once. By the end of that week a cool change blew in and I enjoyed an evening in Freo with Swede friend Carina and partner Paul. We were entertained by the jazzy songstress Gina Williams at Kulcha.
Feb ended with Fleetwood Mac in concert at the WACA, not my favourite gig of the year. Love their songs but not all in a row all night !! Next day to start March off it was David Bowie at Supreme Court Gardens. Excellent seats nice and close. He was pretty darn awesome. Would have loved to have heard more of the golden oldies but I guess it would have been a 4 hour gig to fit them all in. I had the blissful aircon installed during that week and ended the week with a front row possie at the Meat Loaf gig at the WACA. He was his usual powerhouse rocked out self. Always guarantees a great show and never fails to fulfill.
April saw Ben Elton bring his fab musical We Will Rock You to Perth. I attended opening night and enjoyed front row seats followed by a big party in the Ruby Room. I enjoyed the show a further 4 times - centre front row each time bar one when I could only get centre 2nd row! The final show on July 4th included an appearance by Ben and lovely farewell speech followed by drinks with the cast.
July saw the return of John Waters and his Looking Through A Glass Onion show. It was nice to catch up for a chat and to see the show a few more times. Its always such a moving story, with smatterings of humour to avoid getting too sad. And with the wicked encores everyone leaves on a total high.
August brought us the Olympic Games over in Athens. I honestly dont think they were that memorable. Yes our swimmers won everything, rowers fell asleep, and KFC eating cyclists won gold, but the opening and closing ceremonys were as boring as watching cockroaches breed and it was embarrassing to see so many empty stadiums during the events. August also saw myself and my coworkers traumatised by the loss of a good friend in a tragic balcony fall. Margie always lived her life to the fullest and I dont believe there was anything she hadnt achieved.
October, a time to ignore birthdays that bring me even closer to 40, and a time to get on a plane to see THAT We Will Rock You musical again !! This time it was the opening night in Sydney. A star studded event indeed, that saw me rubbing shoulders with Australian Idol contestants, stars of my favourite tv shows like All Saints, talented faves like Ben Elton, and true idols like Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen. An unforgettable night - plenty of photos on my WWRY website.
I had a lovely few days in Sydney catching up with pals Keith, Shane and Amanda. I woke on my final day with a full blown flu and had a very uncomfortable flight home. Also heard the sad news that Christopher Reeve died on 10 Oct age 52 - a truly inspirational guy whose loss will be felt across the world.
Doped myself up with cold and flu pills long enough to see Chris Isaak in concert and to have a catch up with his band afterwards.
In November I relived my teens at an Idols of the 80's gig. Featuring my personal fave hunk of 1985 Brian Mannix from Uncanny X-Men, along with the guys from Psuedo Echo, Kids in the Kitchen and Real Life.
Decembers plans - well at this stage I have no Xmas plans other than to enjoy my aircon and dvd collection ! I will be in Sydney for NYE helping Keith celebrate his 40th birthday.
You can always find out what I am up to via my website. The address is nice and easy now
WWW.KARINA.ID.AU From that page you will always be able to find my web diary, my photo albums and the links to the various fan sites I run for my favourite actors, singers and musicals (ok just that one musical !!!). Many of the pages have guestbooks where you can leave messages for me during the year.
Apologies to those who I usually send fireman calendars
to at this time of year. The rock musical addiction & up
and coming trip to Sydney has left me too broke to post
them all out this year. I hope you know I am thinking of
you tho - and if I get a calendar for myself I promise to
scan it for you all !!
I hope everyone has had a fabulous 2004 and I wish you
a happy holiday season filled with love and joy. I hope
2005 brings all you wish for and more on top of that !!
I look forward to more travel, friends, concerts, shows,
hmmmm more money would be good !!!!
Love and hugs from
