Kazza the Blank One

Back to the Future

For Christmas David and Kellie gifted us tickets to see Back to the Future - The Musical.

David had called a few weeks back to make sure we were free for the day, although didn't indicate what it would be about, or how much of the day. Just the whole day. So while we were free, we weren't quite mentally prepared for a day trip to Sydney with only a few days notice!

Awake from ~3. Hurray. We headed off just after 8. I wanted to be slightly early to give us time to find lunch (and as a buffer in case of accidents on the Hume or M5).

We stopped in Goulburn for breakfast. Except I'd forgotten we were going to do this so I'd already had breakfast, so I just had a hashbrown.

The flags were at half-staff to mark a day of reflection after the Bondi massacre.

I thought this was cute

I'm still getting used to all the new tunnels under Sydney. They sure do make getting into the city a whole lot easier!

Anyways. Parking was super simple, only $14, prebooked in the Wilson carpark just up the road.

Arrived at The Star and grabbed some very yummy dumplings from Double Chin Eats for lunch, and some stoopidly expensive Magnums from City Essentials for dessert (shoulda gotten real ice cream and would have if I'd seen it beforehand).

We wandered up to the doors at maybe 12:35 and they opened them up not long after. Someone behind us in the theatre told Stu they loved his tshirt :)

So we were pretty much the first in the theatre. The only problem was, we were right on the end. So we stood up for much of the next twenty minutes so we wouldn't have to jump up whenever anyone else arrived in our row.

So the show.

It was pretty fun. Didn't know any of the songs of course. Well except for Johnny B Goode, Power of Love and Back in Time at the end :) The show actually kinda reminded me of a Carnival theatre production with the ensemble cast. The dude who played George McFly totally channeled Crispin Glover, he was pretty cool. They had to make a few changes of course for it to work on the stage, but the special effects and stagecraft were pretty awesome. We both enjoyed it. And because we had end of the row seats, when they said "Make like a tree and get outta here" we totally could :)

A change must have come through because it was almost pleasant outside (as opposed to the searing midday heat). So we wandered down to the waterfront to have a look around. We totally need to go to the Maritime Museum some time. And go out on the James Craig. I haven't been inside the museum since about 1991 - after we won the Americas Cup and the museum opened and had Australia II there for a while.

And then we headed back to the car, fighting with the car park to figure out how to get back to the car, and headed for home.

Via a pitstop at The Scottish Restaurant at Sutton Forest for a light early dinner.

NFSA

Just a few other photos from the National Film and Sound Archives museum

That's not a knife! It's only a prototype!

Garden of Ausstralin Dreams

I first went to the National Museum of Australia with my parents way back in 2001 on the way home from our trip to Victoria. The museum had only just opened at that point.

When I saw the braille all over the place, the first thing I did was translate it (what I could see of it).

The Wikipedia article for the museum talks about some of the words on the sides of the buildings, and here's some of my pics of them

This is "Resurrection City", and also "mate" which is all over the building (from 2001)

What's this meant to be? Totoro is my neighbour?? From 2025

But what cracked me up, and they haven't fixed it in twenty three years, is the misspellings.

Instead of "Garden of Australian Dreams", they've spelt it "Garden of Ausstralin Dreams".

And then whoever did it must have been on drugs, because they repeated it, but spelt it "aaggrgdn of ausstral?n"

Hopeless.

And noone's mentioned this on the internet before. Go figure.

Also this cracked me up - 23 years of tree growth!!

December 2001

January 2025

National Museum of Australia

We arrived at the museum a bit before 14:00 on a Friday. School holidays though. So I took the first parking spot we saw. Which was wayyyyyy up the northwest end of the car park (literally the second last spot). As it turned out, it was the only free parking spot we walked past (there was one other one that was instantly taken by someone). Glad I grabbed the one I did, otherwise we'd have been driving around for ages and ages trying to find a spot.

The Garden of Australian Dreams

Atrium

FJ Holden (1955) and Propert "Trailaway" touring caravan (1956)

FJ Holden Special Sedan (1955)

Muttaburrasaurus

Jewellery made from Australian gold

Garden of Australian Dreams

Bicycle used by Tony Armstrong on his search for extraordinary things

Fluorescent art

The problem with this museum is it's one of those "choose your own adventure" museums which I HATE. Firstly we walked right past the main entrance because we were distracted by the view of the Garden of Australian Dreams. Like how bad is the design when it's possible to miss the main entrance?? So ended up a side entrance. Then tried to find a toilet. Saw a sign that said go downstairs, so had to hunt around for that. Came up back up and went to the Pompeii exhibition which was pretty good. And then we went for a bit of a wander. But we stoopidly didn't pick up a map. Which meant you have no idea if you've actually seen everything or not. Hate hate hate hate hate. Decided not to spend another $40 to see the Kimberley VR movie. And didn't find the ABC van we saw in 2001. The British Museum (the old bit) is still my favourite museum - everything is laid out along lines so it's easy to get around and not get lost and feel like you've missed stuff.

Pompeii exhibition at the National Museum of Australia

This came up some time last year and I thought it would be good for the mother type person and me to go see.

So we did!

Statue of Apollo

Statuette of Venus

Carbonised bread

Situla (storage vessel) encrusted in lapilli (dried lava stones)

Statuette of Minerva

Nymphaeum

Alabaster hydria (water jar)

Casts of people and a dog formed by the pyroclastic ash. The bodies decomposed leaving an empty shell in the solidified ash.

Garden scene fresco

Fresco of Pegasus, Bellerephon and Athena

Herms (carved pillars) featuring Bacchus as an old and young man

Gold necklace

Every fifteen minutes Vesuvius erupts. The big screen at the end of the room and the screens along the sides of the room all show the event

Pumice stones raining down

So yeah it was a pretty good exhibition. Tony and Jo went the other week and said it was crazy busy so I was expecting it to be bad, but it actually wasn't too bad. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Pharaohs exhibition in Sydney. Kellie said the Egypt one in Canberra was also a lot better than the Sydney one. Maybe they just don't oversell the tickets in Canberra, but also you didn't have the nonsense of audio tours where people would just stop in front of stuff and not MOVE. Hurray for Canberra! heh

2025 begins

So after the New Years Eve fireworks we should have gone straight to bed. We didn't. Rage came on, and as in previous years they play a lot of nostalgia music. It was too much effort to go get ready for bed, so we just sat there watching. For like an hour. Whoops!!

So a very late night. Of course I woke up at like 5:00 anyway, because that's what I do. So pretty much a zombie day.

Did some Lego and Dotz in the morning. Cooked up some cheesy hash browns.

Did some house tidying in the afternoon and might have also tidied up some of the back yard a bit.

Finished our Christmas Eve feast leftovers for dinner. Death in Paradise 11.5. 19:30 is bed time right?

Thursday. Went to bed early but took forever to get to sleep. And then woke up early. Was NEIL at work all morning. Had a little bit of time to look at the quality script, but it was mostly staring at my code wondering what the stuff I did last year actually does. Picked up the car from servicing, but it still has the engine light on. They didn't actually fix anything, they just suggested booking it in for more work. Hurray. Pizzas for dinner then Death in Paradise 11.6.

Friday. Took forever to get to sleep. Again. Sigh. Did sleep in til 6 though. Not much in the morning, mainly just NEIL. Then went off to pick up Mum at Jolimont. Had some lunch first, then headed out to the Museum to see Pompeii, which was actually pretty good, and not stoopidly crowded like I was expecting it to be. Dropped into Chrissie's on the way home but noone was home. Had a look through all Mum's recent holiday photos, then Stu got Chinese delivery for dinner. Dumpling Inn didn't show up online so he got it from Quan's Kitchen which was actually pretty decent.

Then watched Heaven is for Real with Mum.

Saturday. Took forever to get to sleep. Restless night, awake *a lot*. Sigh. Did some house tidying in the morning, then All The Cooking. Put on a roast of epic proportions, including *two* potato bakes!

D/K/S arrived and there were many noms

And we did presents and photos and stuff while lunch was cooking

All the feast!

Roast pork, scored with my new Coles meat knife (I probably over-scored it, so it was hard to separate the skin from the fat), home-made apple sauce, gravy, blue cheese potato bake, regular potato bake, sweet potato/brussels sprouts (forgot the hazelnuts)

David and Mum and I then played a game of Monopoly for Sore Losers

It's quite a different game play from regular Monopoly. It's faster, not so monotonous, but also more annoying (if you're not playing Mr Monopoly). We also played a little bit of Disney Trivial Pursuit. Well we didn't "play" it but picked out cards and just read the questions to each other.

It was a lovely day and I had a lot of fun. Great catchup with everyone.

The great little-red-bauble hunt

D/K/S left around 19:50 then I just collapsed. Much to the chagrin of the Mother Type Person who wanted to keep playing games for hours. But after several crap nights sleep and an entire day of People I was well and truly done.

Sunday. Went to bed super early. Still a somewhat restless nights sleep, but did sleep until 6:40. Looked at holiday stuff with Mum, then dropped her at Jolimont. Came home and collapsed in a heap. Stu and I both exhausted from a weekend of people. Had a quiet afternoon of cleaning the kitchen, putting away Christmas decorations and Dotz.