Back from Emerald City

I’m back in Brisbane after a fun-filled weekend in Melbourne. And I simply must say this – Wicked was fantastic! I absolutely loved every single moment of the musical and would really like to watch it again if I could. Why can’t they come to Brissie?!

I also have to add that I’m quite proud of myself because I didn’t get sucked in to buy all the musical merchandise. It was tempting and extremely hard to resist. Everything was decked out in green when we walked through the grand entrance of the Regent Theatre. It was almost like we’d walked into Emerald City. There was a bar with a green fridge and they were selling ‘Ozmopolitan’! Instead of the usual orangey pink, it was luminous green (and I really mean luminous!) in a cocktail glass that lighted up in…yes GREEN! I was squealing in excitement and pointing to all things green but Pen didn’t really share my excitement for the merchandise it seemed.

And I tried so hard to talk myself out of buying this!

Back to the musical – I was really impressed at how the story just flowed seamlessly into Wizard of Oz. I quote an interview with the producer; it was really as though the camera was tilted to another angle to show us what was happening concurrently to the familiar events in Wizard of Oz.

One thing that struck me the most was a particular line from the Wizard. He said, “To bring people together, we need to create a common enemy!” That thought stayed with me even after the musical was over and it made me think about how true that was. It dawned upon me that sometimes our ‘enemies’ may not always be as evil as the media makes them out to be. Just like how Elphaba isn’t all that bad! I’m talking about this from a political point of view, of course. Anyway, I digress. Just some food for thought I guess.

Probably not a surprise to you but I also managed to squeeze in some time for shopping and also to hunt down the best breakfast in town. We (or me rather) decided to drop by Chapel Street this time as I didn’t get to visit the area on my last trip. H’oooooh! It’s a really long shopping strip and I don’t think we even got close to the end of it. We might have lasted a bit longer if it wasn’t for the horrendous weather! Can you believe it, the moment we set foot on the street, it started bucketing down and the both of us had to seek shelter under my little orange umbrella. I was wet and cold and not really in the mood to shop at all.

It certainly wasn’t the best weekend to be in Melbourne (it was freezing even though it was only March!) but having the chance to watch Wicked in third row centre seats made it all worth the while! And who could pass up the opportunity to spend time with the most patient husband in the world?

Outside our apartment

The pool and spa area

Breakfast at Degraves Espresso - down one of Melbourne's famous alleyways

I was craving for Eggs Benedict, naturally!

And Pen was craving...well...everything!

Shopping at Chapel St despite the gloomy weather

Going to see Wicked!

And of course, always lovely to catch up with Lou and Nick whenever we're in town. We were at Brunetti, best dessert place in Melbourne and I dare say Australia!

In a nutshell

I’m guilty once again of not updating my blog as frequently as I’d hoped to. It could just be a matter of time before I start ‘twittering’ here instead of writing actual paragraphs. Sure hope not!

Anyhoo, I’ll spare you the lengthy details and just give you a glimpse of what happened over the last few weeks or a month and a half by the looks of things!

In a nutshell, Pen went to America for almost a month in Feb. I was moody and lonely – drowned my sorrows in books and dvds. Pen finally came back bearing loads of presents for me including a new Coach bag, Kate Spade wallet, Fossil watch, a CD, book and some magazines. I was happy again – purely because I was privileged enough to enjoy his company again of course! Actually I’m exaggerating. It was not that bad. I managed to catch up on some ‘me’ time. It’s not every day I get to read for hours on my couch/bed and drive Shadow to work.

A couple of weeks ago, Pen took me and his dad for a V Australia staff open day to tour the new long haul plane scheduled for the Sydney-LA route. See pictures below! The queue was soooo long and we waited for almost 40 minutes before setting foot onboard. I had to keep telling myself while standing in the heat that I was there to support Pen and all his hard work. Actually, you’d think this would be the perfect opportunity for a Mexican standoff between me and the plane – after all, it kept my husband away from me for months (if you add up all the long weeks he’d been away in the past two years)!

Group photo while waiting to get on the plane

Talk about national pride - I look like some patriotic Aussie. Nice shot by Pen though.

Here's a first look at the retro-looking seats in economy class. I had to hold my shoes as we weren't allowed to wear them onboard. Instead, they made us put our footwear into clear plastic bags.

Ahh...premium economy seats. Pen went to the ends of the earth to search for the reading light on my right. I was his guinea pig at some point when he brought the lights home - had to test them out to see if they were bright enough for reading. The husband seemed to think the bookworm at home would know best.

And being the geek that he was, Pen insisted I took a photo in front of the... what's that called again? Engine?

There's also a photo of me lying down in the business class seats but thought it wasn't ideal for public eyes. Haha. Looks like flying business class will soon become a reality for me. Pen said the staff rate was only $1,400 return to LA! New York, here we come!

In other news, I’m leaving for Melbourne this Friday evening to catch ‘Wicked’! We’ve booked ourselves into a semi old-English looking apartment called Somerset Gordon Place! Look at the photo gallery, it’s so pretty. Fingers crossed it’d be a lovely weekend hey?