On Saturday we walked down again from Bondi to Coogee Beach, which is a very nice trip with beautiful views over the beaches and the ocean. We planned to see the outdoor exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea”, which was interesting, so we will write a post about that later.

Between Bronte Beach and Clovelly Bay the road goes through a cemetery. When we saw this for the first time, we were so amazed that we almost had to laugh about the situation. It is a bit absurd, if you see men without T-shirts - headphones plugged in their ears - running over the hills, showing their sweated bodies. Or happy families walking through with small children as if they were in Hyde Park.

No doubt the Waverley cemetery is located on one of the most beautiful places; on the hill sides, ending at the high cliffs that are suddenly rising out of the ocean.  The view is spectacular with only the sound of birds and the ocean.   Just a few people reach this part of the walk from Bondi, only the families in the neighborhood, the sweated joggers and the persistent tourists.

Because it was All Saints` Day  - and we could not visit the cemeteries like we are used to at home - we made a small detour from the prescribed road and we walked around a little bit on this cemetery. Most of the graves are over 100-150 years old, they look very similar in their appearance, shape or colour, and the fact that most of them have not been visited for a long while. You don’t find there colourful flowers or candles that you can see at home around this time. Either there are no flowers at all or there are tiny little yellow daisies - spread by nature - as in a `still life`.  Here, or at least on this cemetery, it is no habit to bring a visit. The sight however is beautiful, and if you have been here a few times, you will also get used to the running people.

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A little while ago we wrote a post about the Pinnacles Desert located in Western Australia. We showed a few pictures, but because of technical reasons we were not able to upload a movie. To make up for this, here is our first video!! We hope you will like it …

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Last Monday I got a ticket for a concert in the Sydney Opera House. It was the third concert I have visited here in Sydney. The weather was nice and warm, the sun was brightly shining and we had a very good time with friends. The way from Circular Quay to the Opera House is always very nice and uplifting, but now -because it was really warm, or just the time of the year - you could find a lot of flies or at least they found you, and did not want to let you go. The OZ-flies stick to your clothes, to your face, and you are not able to chase them away.

Like everybody else who lives here, we could tell you a lot about the Opera House. On one hand it almost feels as a kind of kitsch, but on the other hand you only can love it. You know, I can not imagine Sydney without this building. We like it in the sunshine or in the evening in the floodlights. Either nearby or from far away, so from everywhere it is very eye-catching. The only time when it was a little bit disappointing to us, was when we had such a close look, that we could touch it. Then we realised that it is a large monument, built in the sixties and made of concrete and covered with bathroom-tiles.
Arriving at a concert for the first time also makes you a bit disappointed, when you see that the entrance is under the big stairs. It is dark there, and you can find more concrete inside too. But if you reach the lookout point and the windows, you will have a spectacular view over the city. That is the Sydney we love very very much.
So about the concert…This is my personal experience, and I really do not want to say any bad things about the Opera House. But there is a high risk that you will meet a lot of tourists wearing jeans and T-shirts, sometimes you can see a cyclist as well. It is one of the most famous opera houses in the world, so maybe a lot of people - who generally do not use to go to concerts - go to have a nice experience. Especially, if the program contains a famous work like Vivaldi`s Four Seasons.
The ensemble Europa Galante`s performance was passionate and enjoyable. I do not know why, but every time I was here, I felt that no matter how old and sad the music was, it always seemed very modern and happy in the Sydney Opera House.
The musicians played very well, and maybe it could have been a very nice concert too, but unfortunately it was not. And it happened just because of the public and the Opera House `policy`.
People who do not use to go to concerts clapped their hands when they were not supposed to, and the ensemble had to wait for them, more than what was convenient. But the thing that I really can not understand is why the Opera House ushers let people in when there is a short pause between two pieces. It is evident that they will not find their places in the dark, especially if it is so easy to sit on the wrong seat. This is what happened on Monday too. People coming late started to explain to others that they were sitting on their seats, and it was so annoying and disturbing during the concert.
But of course difficulties continued after the interval. People sitting behind us were chatting too much, too loud sometimes, but I did not believe when they started to sing or lilt the Four Seasons. That was the moment I could not be astonished any more. It was like a real parody and I almost had to laugh about the whole situation.

I think this was only an accident-concert, where also the finale was a bit weird, but hopefully it is not the trend here.  Maybe it happened because the ensemble and the public were not enough in harmony.

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On the day you arrive in Australia, one of the first things you notice are the different birds, different plants and trees and even a different smell in the streets. If you have grown up here, you probably are used to all of this, but for the rest of the world the Australian birds seem large, beautiful, maybe a bit aggressive, but especially loud, very loud!

You never know what you can expect, because the only birds looking familiar are the pigeons and seagull, the rest is almost undiscovered territory. Any sound can be related to anything.

One of my first impressions kept me awake for quite a while. It was literally the first day I moved to Australia and I did not have a place to live yet. I stayed in the lodge of my work, which is in a nice suburb of Sydney with many trees. Early in the morning I woke up, still with a jetlag, suddenly realising that the place is surrounded by monkeys! Now this is kind of weird: you are in Australia, so you can expect kangaroos, koalas, dangerous snakes and spiders everywhere, but no monkeys.

The next morning someone made sure, that there are indeed no monkeys, the sound was from a kookaburra. How do you say? You have to repeat this several times and ask how to spell the name of this bird. The sound of the Kookaburra is getting familiar now, you can hear it almost every day and I actually like it, but still the first thing that comes to mind is “monkey-bird”.

Try to say: “Oeh-Ah-Ah-Oe-Ah-Oe-Ah-Oe-Oe-Oe-Oe-Ah-Oe-Ah-Ah-Ah”.

Now repeat this several times as fast and as loud as you can with a high voice and put in a few more “Oehs” and “Ahs” randomly.

This is more or less the sound of a kookaburra, now if you want to check how you are doing, or you are reading this in your office, and you feel a bit embarrassed to making yourself look like a fool, here is an example of the kookaburra sound.

The kookaburra is very popular animal in Australia, and is “used” in many places. There are post stamps with kookaburras, and the Australian men’s hockey team is better known as “the Kookaburras”.

• For more information you can see Wikipedia.

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