Long time, no post

So it's been, like, two months since I last posted; and there's been waaay too much going on to catch up - so here's the heavily edited highlights.

The missus and I spent two weeks in Melbourne over Christmas/New Year for a holiday and reconnaisance for the big move which is coming just after Easter.

We had a great time - with one of the highlights going to Carols by Candlelight at the Myer Music Bowl - mainly 'cause these guys were performing:

Yep - it's the Choir of Hard Knocks - after an amazing year including a Platinum album, sold out concerts at the Melbourne Town Hall and Sydney Opera House, they get to sing to thousands of people on national television. Awesome!

I've been accepted into La Trobe University to continue my law degree, so I'll pick that up in 2nd semester once we've settled in our new abode (yet to be finalised).

And over the Australia Day weekend we spent a couple of days in Canberra to witness this event:

Ladies and gents, I give you Australia's Local Hero for 2008, Jonathon Welch. It was a fantastic weekend - one of the most emotional of my life. Not only being present at the Australia Day Awards, but then attending a citizenship ceremony was a fantastic way to spend our national holiday.

Now, the focus is totally on getting moved to Melbourne - it's looming very large on the horizon and things are starting to fall into place nicely. The missus remarked that it's a bit like a really huge game of Tetris. Yep, and it's starting to feel like the pieces are falling REALLY quickly!

What a week!

It would be an absolute truth to say that the past week has been one of the most rewarding and hectic periods in my life (so far).

Singing at the Opera House

It's not everyday you get the opportunity to sing at the Sydney Opera House. It's even less frequent that you get the chance to perform in three shows on two days in two theatres. On Sunday 15th July at 2pm and 6pm in the Opera Theatre, and on Tuesday 17th July in the Concert Hall, I was among 100 very privileged choristers to join the Choir of Hard Knocks on stage for a finale that will stay with me, and I suspect the audience, for a loooong time.

For those who don't know, the Choir of Hard Knocks is a project administered by RecLink in Melbourne, and which was the subject of a 5 part ABC documentary aired earlier this year. The Choir Director, Jonathon Welch, is the most genuine and giving person I think I know, and I'm blessed to be able to call him a dear friend. He's taken a rag-tag bunch of homeless and disadvantaged people with little or no singing experience and turned them into a singing sensation.

I got the opportunity to visit the Choir at rehearsal in January, and the improvement in their skill since that time is phenomenal. Not only are they sounding wonderful (and better than some 'regular' choirs I've heard), they sing with absolute passion, enthusiasm and feeling that shoots you right in the heart. If I wasn't singing with them at the Opera House, I would've been in the audience, weeping throughout the performance as did my partner and friends.

Above is a picture of my choir backstage at the House.

Finished Object

I also finished a jumper I'd been working on for a dear friend of mine - being a Melbourne boy he appreciates the warmth of a handknit. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a decent picture of it - this is the best I could manage.

It's Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic in 8ply in Graphite - the pattern is Sue Flynn's Shawl Collar Jumper from "Australian Yarn Art".

Uni Results

And then, at 1am on Wednesday morning after the Opera House I log onto my Uni account and find out that I scored Distinctions for Legal Process & History and Legal Research. What a blast!

It's really reassuring for someone who hasn't studied for nearly 10 years to come back to it and find out that the amount of effort you're putting in is being rewarded - maybe this semester I don't need to work quite so hard. I think my other half would appreciate that...

Opera House Debut

One of my passions is singing and to feed that passion I'm a member of a community choir here in Sydney - we specialise in popular music, so there's no Bach or sacred music to be seen anywhere in the repertoire.

We've been invited to form part of a massed choir finale at the Choir of Hard Knocks shows at the Sydney Opera House in July - wahoo!!

The Choir of Hard Knocks is a wonderful group of disadvantaged and homeless people in Melbourne brought together by Jonathon Welch, who dead-set deserves a medal for what he's doing down there.

Anyhoo - that's why there's the counter at the bottom of the page. I've never sung at the Opera House, and now all of a sudden I get the opportunity to do three shows over two days in two different theatres.

Too cool for school!