1 day left!

Ouch. So it's finally come to this: tomorrow will be my last full day in Sydney, and it'll be filled with nothing but rush, rush, rush! I still have so many things to do, and so little time to do them in! I still haven't finished with clearing my junk and cleaning my room, I've still got a whole mountain of library books to scan and return, I've still got to take care of all the official stuff that's left, and I have a final lunch gathering with what's left of my friends!

But anyway, this time I thought I'd blog about my experience at the Sydney Opera House last Saturday! What a great day: I went a little earlier so I'd be able to relax and not panic, so I arrived almost a couple of hours (maybe even more) before the actual event was scheduled to start. But I had a good time, going around and snapping some pictures:

I visited the beautiful toilets quite a few times (they're seriously one of the prettiest I've seen!), and also dropped into the souvenir shop to pick up a few random items. And then it was time for the pre-concert briefing at 7.15 pm, so I followed the crowd and ended up listening to some guy talk about the music we were about to hear, with glass of chardonnay in hand (AUD$8, but ooooh, it was so fun cos everyone was all posh with their dresses and glasses and all!). And then at 8 pm it was time to enter the Concert Hall and enjoy the wonders of the Tchaikovsky Spectacular!!!! Seriously, the moment you step inside, you can almost feel the excitement and thrill in the air, cos the first thing you hear is the sound of the orchestra tuning their instruments, and the anticipation gave me goosebumps! Cameras and the like aren't actually allowed inside the Concert Hall, so all pictures below were taken illegally, muahahahahaha!

I put away my trusty Pentax when the music started though, so there are no pictures of the actual performance. The repertoire for the night (with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra being led by conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy) started off with Finlandia (not by Tchaikovsky, but by Sibelius, who wrote the piece when they were under Russian rule or something, and since Tchaikovsky was Russian, well, I'm sure you see the link), then moved on to the highlight of the night, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, which was performed superbly by James Ehnes, the solo violinist. Then it was the break, in which I tried to go to the toilet but to no avail cos the queues were just so long: I ended up getting James Ehnes' latest CD and getting his autograph!!!! Then it was back to the Concert Hall, and time for the Sleeping Beauty! Ah, I felt so happy when they played the famous waltz, at one point in time, I just leaned back in my chair, breathed deep, and took in the whole sight and sound. It's still kinda hard for me to register the fact that I'm here in Sydney, at the grand Opera House, catching a concert. Now that was a mega achievement.

And that's it, people. I'll have one last blogpost tomorrow, and then then next post after that will be written from Malaysia. Sad and happy, but oh well, c'est la vie! Cheers, people!