Orchestra Magic

On Saturday evening last, my sisters and I were at the Joan Sutherland Centre in Penrith to witness the Penrith Symphony Orchestra in full flight. I had never been to an event of such quality as an adult and was totally "blown" away by the magic of the night. The atmosphere was electric as we waited to be ushered to our seats and as the lights dimmed I sensed that I was in for a first class performance.

The program was of the highest order and included a world premiere of a work by the Composer Paul Connelly. It was titled 1813:The Crossing of the Blue Mountains and depicted the scene beautifully. One could imagine horses, and bush and explorers as the music wrote the script. It was received with great gusto and was totally deserving of such praise. The second was a Concerto No 3 in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 30, of Sergei Rachmaninov and was performed by Roman Rudnytsky. Words could not give credit to this great pianist. He played a full thirty minutes without a break with highs and lows and much gusto. When he received his applause he was very humble and after three sets of applause entered the stage once again and played a small piece for Piano only which only made his performance more magical. It was was inspiring.

The third piece was the symphone No 9 in E Minor, Opus 95 "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak and was truly a lovely way to end an evening.

I would love to attend again. The next concert that I would like to go to there is Handels " Messiah " and it will be performed in December.

I capped the weekend off by staying with my two sisters overnight. A truly lovely time.

Scrapbooking retreat

I have just had the most wonderful experience with a group of nutty ladies at a retreat centre at Meroo, New South Wales. There was much frivolity, friendship and love going on all around, including an amazing amount of challenges put up by the design team, and lots of other personal challenges, like staying up until the latest possible time, and scrapping madly to the non stop background music. What a hoot. Made new friends and excited to renew friendships from other retreats over the last few years. Thanks to all those who participated we had a wonderful Ball and I have never laughed as much as we did that night. Laughter is a great medicine. Looking forward to my next retreat already - just have to check the pocket strings a little first. ha.

Excitment

Having all kinds of fun getting ready for a scrapbooking retreat at Meroo. Have been there before and its such a lovely place. It should be a hoot as there will be events over the three days to keep us going. Scrapbooking challenges and lots of other little incidentals that go along with these great events. Can't wait to get going. Hope the weather stays clear for us all and hope everyone has a good time.