Ballet - Puyi

I attended the ballet last night of the Laoning's "The Last Emporer" which was based on the story of Puyi.


The ballet was wonderful.   Below is the promotional video.



I was disappointed that there were so many empty seats in the theatre. 

I met up with two single older men (don't worry, I wasn't 'looking' and clearly neither were they.  One of them told me he attends performances at the QPAC 3 to 5 times a week.  Oh, to be so lucky.  Even consession tickets are expensive!

I was glad to escape the cold of Brisbane - 10 degrees below normal and it felt it.  I wore for the first time, the coat that the students had made for me in China - complete with the dog fur fringe on the hood!!

I was still so cold that I had to have the coat over my knees in the theatre.

To read a little about The Last Emporer of China, click here.

Puyi wrote his autobiography.  You can get it at Amazon.

About Oranges and Sunshine

I was fortunate to receive free tickets to attend the movie "Oranges and Sunshine" which is based on the story of Margaret Humpreys, a social worker in Nottingham, in the UK, who discovered that many English children were transported to Australia over a 30 - 40 year period, to a life in institutions. Margaret's book "Empty Cradles" tells some of the stories of those children so cruelly taken from their mothers.

 Many were told their parents were dead, which was in fact not true.  Various organisations with government approval (UK and Australia) were part of this horrible program that saw these children shipped to Australia in huge numbers, to a life of violence, drudgery, and for many physical and sexual abuse.

David Hill wrote about it in his book "Forgotten Children".  The truth is a very sad indictment on the treatment of these children, by religious and non-religious groups.

A search will discover many stories including those about the children at Bindoon, and other orphanages and there are details of the perpetrators of those cruel acts agains the children here.

The movie is excellent, and quite confronting at times, and tells the stories of several of the children, then adults, who related the horrific experience.  Some were reunited with their families.  It is a movie worth seeing, if not to learn the truth about some of our Australian and UK history.  Full marks to Margaret Humphreys who was able to help find some closure for those adults trying to come to terms with the horrific lives they had, when they were promised 'oranges and sunshine.'














I wrote a story about my mysterious knife here

Make my own movies?

I am currently looking at a program to create my own movies.  I have a plan and this program looks easy.  I am currently working with the free model - but no doubt will purchase.  I can see a number of possibilities with this. Check it out here.

Here's one I have just done - took me all of 5 minutes, and now I know I can do better ones.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Another Movie

I had procrastinated about seeing the Australian movie "Snowtown" because I knew the story - about a serial killer in South Australia, who hid the bodies in barrels in the vault of a disused bank in the town of Snowtown which is north of Adelaide.

I knew it would be gruesome and confronting and it was. I could use the word "dark" to describe it in more ways than one.  Dark in that the filming was done in poor light - no doubt deliberately and there were moments of blank screen as well, and dark in relation to the topic of the film that endeavoured to tell the story of these dreadful misfits, the lives they lead, and the crimes that were committed.

It is a movie that I would not recommend to anyone, other than perhaps some of my fellow Scriptwriting students to assess for themselves the value of the film.

What can I do with a Can of Crabmeat?

I bought a can the other day, and used it in one of my favourite recipes - Avocado and Crabmeat (I fill the hole where the big seed was, with crabmeat, and then cover with a cheese sauce and then bake it until the cheese has turned golden.)

However, not all the contents of the can were used.  It had sat in the refrigerator for two days, so I knew I had to do something with it.  I looked at a few recipes, but in the end decided to 'do my own thing.' My family hated me creating, because I seldom remembered the EXACT ingredients, etc. They'd tease me because they knew I could probably never recreate it.

I was going to make a quiche, but I chose not to use pastry - I could make it - usually do, as I am not a fan of pre-packaged stuff.  But I figured I could do without the extra calories, so I whipped up a couple of eggs, some pepper (some folk add salt but I seldom do), a spoon full of plain flour, the crab meat and some shallots and parsley, and a handfull of grated cheese.

It is in the oven cooking and should be great.  I can see it rising and am waiting for it to brown on the top.

So it is Crab Quiche (without the pastry) for lunch, and a variation of Maggie Beer's Chook Legs with Vino Cotto for dinner tonight. 

This past week The Courier Mail has run a promotion with a mini cook book each day.Famed cooks such as Jamie Oliver, Stephanie Alexander, Donna Hay, Matt Moran, Maggie Beer, and more have each contributed a small book of wonderful recipes.  I have them all.  Though I cook for only one, I can manage most, but am happy to vary things a little.

History remembered

Readers may know of my love of China - having spent just 3 semesters there in 2008 and 2010.  I have been to Tiananmen Square - not far from the awesome Forbidden City in Beijing.  My friend and I stood in the huge square and remembered what had happened there in 1989, on June 4th.

Many Chinese even now know nothing about it, and those who have heard about it find it hard to believe.  You cannot access any material about the massacre  on Chinese internet.  There is no reference to it in Chinese history books.

I still watch these videos in awe with tears streaming.  There are other videos on Youtube.  These two will tell you the story of what happened there, and how a government turned on its young people to show is might.

Australian Movies for Release in 2011

Australians have a love/hate relationship with Australian movies.  We have some very very talented movie makers in our country, a small population many of whom are besotted by American movies.  Our Australian film industry languishes – especially as there is more money available for investing in film and the publicity of such film in America than there is here.  One challenge is our small population – just 21 million people live here, and they are not all English speakers.

Still each year, we have our successes.  I like to encourage Australians to take a greater interest in Australian movies.  Here I list some of the movies due for release in 2011.

•  Wasted on the Young
•  Dreamland
•  Hail
•  The Eye of the Storm
•   Happy Feet 2
•  Mrs Carey’s Concert*
•   Here I am
•   Mad Bastards
•   Snowtown*
•   Griff the Invisible
•  Oranges and Sunshine*
•  The Reef

Three movies have been released or are about to be released, and I have marked them '*'  - Oranges and Sunshine is due for release next week, and I will be in attendance at the morning session.

I am not sure about seeing Snowtown - it is a story of a partiscularly gruesome series of murders in the South Australian town of Snowtown.  I will have to be in a very good mood before I venture into the theatre to see it - but I will.

Mrs Carey's Concert is in the theatres now, and I hope to see it soon.

There is also another movie not included in the list above about Cane Toads, which is due to open shortly.  Sounds rather fun and I will endeavour to find out more about that film.  Sometimes information about the films is not readily available until shortly before the film's release but I will endeavour to get more information. 

For more information read the longer article here.