Spend A Little Time With Friends

I'll be working a fair bit over the next two weeks thanks to the Australia Day public holiday (which falls on a Tuesday this year, so most people will also take Monday off as well dammit), so I've made the most of the time at hand and spent it wisely for a change. That is, I've done things that were more productive than just sleeping or sitting around at home.

Yesterday, I had the gaping hole in my back wisdom tooth filled, after having the wind whistle through it for the past four months. Fortunately it wasn't a very deep hole, but it must have been a fairly extensive repair because I'm still a little tender on that side...
Because I don't have any private health insurance, I paid the whole amount out of pocket, for the privilege of having my mouth numbed and my tooth drilled. $140~ is a fair bit to pay for dental peace of mind, but it's worth it.

Today, I went to visit my friends in Warragul. I hadn't seen them since they moved back from the US, and I figured I was overdue.
We stopped for lunch; my friend insisted on paying for the meal, since she felt she owed me for the tickets to Dali I bought for her a few months ago. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to agree that paying $30 for three six-inch subs, plus drinks and snacks, was a fair price... slightly awkward scene in a queue as she negotiated something cheaper...
We then went back to her place, where her and her husband's cats decorated me with hair - I was wearing head-to-toe black, what the hell was I thinking?! - and we watched The Black Balloon:

The movie is excellent, and very confronting - and there were several scenes in it that I could relate to, and no, no-one in my family is autistic. My friend's husband pondered how Toni Collette manages to be in just about every Australian cinema release, and I said "She probably just has a good agent." j.k. she's awesome

We spent most of the afternoon discussing things, like how our jobs were going (not great, but it could always be worse) and what we were planning on doing with our lives. You know, the usual. But the best thing about spending time with them was that it gave me a chance to stop worrying about my own problems, and listen to others' - and of course offer support.

Then my friends had to go into town to chase up some homewares and do their grocery shopping; while they were checking out electrical goods, I snuck across to the Home Entertainment shop across the road and picked up some more music. I'm such a junkie for tunes, now that I have a half-dozen different MP3 players. Music Is Always Good.

Tonight, I'm going to give this on-line shopping thing a try... There are a few books that I'm having trouble getting through the usual channels - most of the bookshops I've asked have looked at me and gone, "Duh...?" but I suspect that's mostly due to the books being out-of-print or hard-to-find.

And I really ought to curb my spending, even though I've been doing just fine over the past few (busy, work-filled) weeks. Christmas seems to start a strange spending momentum in me; of course, having the stores reduce all of their stock after Christmas does not help much. ;)

I'll be good, I promise! In the meantime, thank you Katie and Randy for an awesome afternoon! Next time I'll bring the others with me (if they're available)!

Games Night

As I write this, my friend Andrew is playing with my sister's PS2... We have tidied up the house after an inspection, and we used the opportunity to have company over, so naturally we made it a bit of a games night.
We had a few rounds of Buzz!, which was one of the gifts Santa brought my sister last month. The game is itself loaded with innuendo, but it makes for a much more surreal game if you give your character a suggestive name, and have the game announce "NIPPLES is the Winner!"
Then, we had a play at SingStar for my sister's benefit, because she hardly gets the chance to bring out the mikes; sadly, I'm the only other one game enough to play along with her, and my singing is not the best.

We also tried to get a LAN thing going, but it took a few hours before all the bugs got sorted out. There were more than a few swear words flying back and forth before the system was set up properly, but in the end it all worked out, and a few rounds of Quake 3 were had.

I managed to finish M&L: Bowser's Inside Story yesterday, and now my sister is having a go at it after bugging me for the past week. Now, I begin the journey into LoZ: Spirit Tracks, which is a very strange game indeed. Most of the Zelda series have been based in a "middle ages" environment, but this one features, of all things, a train as the central plot device. What next, a motorcycle?

I go to the dentist on Monday, and hopefully go to visit my friend on Tuesday (assuming my car is up to the task); and then I'm back at work for another few days. Oh, rapture. Well, guess I'd better make the most of my free time!

I Should Be In Bed By Now

...but for some reason I'm not sleepy. Damn wacked-up sleeping pattern.

Right now I'm struggling to get Windows Media Player to rip some CDs so I can listen to them via my new MP3 player.
It works perfectly fine for CDs printed en-masse, which would therefore have an entry in the media player's on-line database; this saves me time when it comes to labelling each track, because the software just looks up the CD on the Internet and fills out the necessary details.
It's just that not all of my collection are so easily found. Some of them are magazine cover discs, which usually contain an odd assortment of tracks by various artists. Since they are usually a limited edition, there isn't anything for WMP to find about them online - so what it normally does is find the best match possible (which is frequently totally WRONG).

What's worse is that the version of WMP I have won't actually let you correct the false tracklist unless you are connected to the Internet! WTF? If it can't find the correct listing, why the hell do I need to go through that menu anyway just to fix the problem? Silly design, I don't know... I just hope they managed to fix that problem in the next version.

...I've also been accumulating a bunch of new DS titles, partly because I scored some $$$ over the last month, and also because a lot of them were really cheap:

• Impossible Mission - I remember playing this game on the Commodore 64. I had absolutely no success in completing the game, mostly due to being crap at it the first time (not having access to the manual didn't help). I managed to complete the game this time around, thanks to the far better interface that the DS offers - the only complaint was the apparent bug that prevented me from getting extra powerups in the puzzle-screen room. :(
  
• Rubik's Puzzle World - this is a puzzle title based on the eponymous brainteaser from the 1980s. It features the actual Rubik's Cube puzzle (with the original 3x3x3 cube, but also a 2x2x2 and a 4x4x4 puzzle to solve) and a bunch of other cube-related puzzles and games.
• Arkanoid DS - this is an updated version of another game I played on the C64. And yes, I was pretty bad at the C64 version too, but Arkanoid was so damned hard... This version uses the touch screen instead of a paddle/joystick, which makes it much easier to complete. A review I read complained about the "dead region" in the gap between the screens, where the ball is invisible, but I didn't have a problem with this since there usually aren't any obstacles in that space for the ball to bounce off, so...
• Puzzle Bobble Galaxy - oh, dear, I really am into the retro-themed games, aren't I? I had to take a break from this game after a while, because when I closed my eyes I kept seeing bubbles and patterns from the game scattering across my vision... Seriously, it's a very weird experience, and it's usually a sign that I've been playing a game for far too long. (And it seems to be related to the puzzle-type games; apparently Tetris is good for producing this effect.) Anyway, it's a really fun game.
  
• Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll - having never played a Super Monkey Ball game before, this was an interesting introduction to the theme. I totally suck at controlling the spheres through the levels (and some of those bananas are in really difficult places), but I guess it takes practice and a delicate hand.
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - =D VERY HAPPY with this game! I was pleasantly surprised by the first M&L role-playing game for the Game Boy Advance - that, and Golden Sun: the Lost Age were both excellent titles to start my collection. However, the follow-up M&L: Partners in Time was rather lacking in the side-quests and secrets that distinguished the first title, and it made the game seem far too linear for most RPG fans. I am pleased to report that the third title is a stunning return to form, with recognition of what made SuperStar Saga such fun; plus new features (you get to play as both the Mario Bros. and as Bowser Koopa! Who gets to turn into a GIANT)!
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - is one I don't actually own yet, but I still have some $ to spend yet, so...
  

Looking at the above list, and at all my games in fact, shows me that I have a very narrow field of interest, as far as my taste in games is concerned. Maybe I can chalk it up to my advanced years, but most if not all of the games I own are retreads of older titles. I wish I could say that it was trust in a brand name, but sadly Sonic the Hedgehog has shown otherwise. and I shall be looking at this Project Needlemouse thing very closely over the next year
Perhaps I'm just concerned that the newer titles won't be as good as the older ones? Am I a games elitist? An e-snob, stuck in an historical cul-de-sac of gaming genres? Or... is it just because the only alternatives available in the local stores are titles like My Little Pony, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and 101 Game Compendium? ;)

At any rate, stay cool folks, and keep gaming!

More Kit Kats from Japan

Okay, catching up from this post:

This was what came out of the second parcel from my friend in Japan. More weird parallel-universe-y flavours of everyone's favourite chocolate wafer stick biscuit*!

My friend was kind enough to attach labels to the packets to explain which one was which flavour; unfortuantely, they've all since fallen off. So, I had to do some puzzling out as to which flavour was which:

1. Apple Carrot flavour! Tastes exactly as it sounds! And not entirely bad at that, despite any misgivings you'd have about a savoury flavour in a confection.
2. Soybean Rice Cake?!? This one didn't taste that much different from a regular Chocolate Kit Kat. The flavour must have been too subtle for my tastebuds.
3. Cherry. A nice sweet flavour with a pink chocolate coating. There was some contest mentioned on the outer; I'm guessing this was released as a promo for some rock band, or something? :/
4. Plum Soda. As in, a plum-flavoured soft drink. Convincing and pleasant enough, even though I've never even heard of a plum-flavoured soft drink before I tried this chocolate bar flavoured like one.
5. Mango Pudding. Num num! Me likey!
6. These blue ones were flavoured to taste like something called Ramune Soda. No, I don't know what a "ramune" is. But the bar tasted like a 7-up, so I'm guessing it must be plain soda-flavour? (edit: Oh, I KNOW WHAT THIS IS!!! Ramune is a brand of soft drink that is popular in Japan, and the bottles are sealed with a marble embedded in the neck, like all soda bottles were before screw caps became popular. There are some Asian shops in Australia that sell them, and I've tried them before. They are very nice!)

Clicking this will lead you to the Wikipedia article about Kit Kats, and it includes a list of all the flavours of Kit Kat released over the world. Later, I'll include a photo of all some of the flavours we've had in Australia, for comparision. Aaand, here's what was in the first parcel Nova sent me back at the start of the year! Bon appetite!

* Unless you of course prefer something other than a Kit Kat. Your mileage may vary.

Merry eXcemas 2009!

Well, it's finally Christmas! How is it for you? I'm trying to be nice about it this year, even though I have to work again (which is fine, because I hadn't planned anything else for the day anyways).

We had a very ramshackle, scattered Christmas this year.
The main problem was that so many of us had plans for the end of the year, and it made it difficult to co-ordinate anything in the way of Christmas activities. The main issue was whether we would get to see our older sister before Christmas, as she lives about three hours' drive from the rest of us. As far as I knew (up to two days before the event) we weren't going to do the family gathering until after Boxing Day... so I took my time getting the presents wrapped up and sorted.

On the way home Wednesday evening, I called in to the shops to get some last-minute gift-getting done, when my phone rang. It was my sister, wondering when I was coming home so that everyone could do "the Christmas thing"! O_O;; So much for a minute's notice!

It all worked out well. I managed to give out the lion's share of the gifts that I had for everyone, and everyone was happy with what they scored. Not only was it the Christmas gathering, but it was also a celebration for my sister's birthday too... so we got to have some birthday cake as well! Which is always good.

My nephew got very excited during the evening, but isn't that expected of kids? It didn't hurt that he received a huge bag of gifts from his grandma on top of all the rest of the gifts we gave him. He really got into the unwrapping - in fact, he got so carried away that one of his presents wound up flung behind the TV cabinet! Getting a little too carries away, perhaps?
He also enjoyed the presentation of the birthday cake, especially the candle-blowing ceremony. After my sister blew out her candles, he insisted on having a go himself... and so, once he'd blown out the candles, naturally everyone else had to have a turn! My sister thought this was totally hilarious, so I think we have the makings of a new tradition right here. Oh, and needless to say, there wasn't much candle left on the cake by the end of the game.

I think I went a little overboard on the gift-giving this year. Okay, I go a little overboard every year.
The most extravagant thing I got was the Wii console for my Ma, but only because I'd been silly enough to suggest it as a gift idea back in September. Now she can get WiiFit in the comfort of her home, instead of slogging it out in the gym! (At least, she will, once she gets the balance board and other accessories to go with it.)
Everyone else I gave gift bags full of assorted stuff which I thought they would like. There were a couple of pricey things in there, but most of it was cheap (good-quality) stuff I'd found earlier in the year, a lot of which were off "Clearance" tables and things. The nicest thing I found (and almost kept) was a Mr Bean Teddy, still in its original packaging, which I found in an Op Shop of all places!
It's easy to get carried away with the spending at this time of year, which is why I generally try to get some preparation in before December rolls around. Of course, I was pottering around the shops on Christmas Eve, looking for last-minute catch up gifts like everyone else too, so I'm not gloating too much! ;P

I received some nice stuff too. Right now I'm listening to the Beatles Anthology, parts 1 and 3. I bought Part 2 way back in Melbourne, when my friend came over from Japan. I'm also trying to work out if this new MP3 player is going to start behaving itself -
oh wait, I just finished charging the battery, and now the computer is recognising that it's connected! Silly manual should have said that you had to wait for the battery to charge before it would work... X(
But yes. It wasn't so much the receiving that was the big deal, since I have heaps of crap lying around anyway... It was the giving, and the getting to hang around with the family, that was the most important part. After all the stuff that's happened, what with the bushfires, sick family members, work-related chaos, and general madness, it was nice to end this year on a more pleasant note.

Then again, there are still six more days to go until 2009 is done... so maybe I'm talking too soon? :/
At any rate, I hope all my friends and readers* have a Great Christmas (if you do "the Christmas thing") and a Happy 2010!

*Yeah, both of you!

Oh yeah, I have a blog to look after!

Hey folks.

Sorry I forgot about the blog for the past few weeks, but my job has been occupying a lot of my time - plus there have been some other developments that needed attention:

• My uncle passed away in November. He had been unwell for some time, and was living in a care home, but he was admitted into critical care in late October after his lymphoma started affecting him badly. He spent about six weeks in hospital. For a while, he started to get better, responding to treatment and gaining weight, but it unfortunately didn't last. He was a quiet, kind and generous person, and we will all miss him.
• One of our pets has been diagnosed with FIV (which is like HIV but for cats). He had been looking unwell for the past few weeks, with a skin condition that made his fur look shabby and start to fall out. He has been treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories which seem to be helping with his skin problems, but we are unsure what will happen after he finishes the course of tablets.
  
• We lost a key member of staff at one of the places I work, and so I have been stepping into the breach until we get a suitable replacement trained up and ready. It's kind of screwed up my plans for the rest of the month, but we cannot foresee this sort of thing, and we can only go with the flow. sigh...
  
• I turned 31 this week. There was no special fanfare this year (unlike last year's three-party extravaganza) because let's face it, 31 is NOT a milestone year. It is however a prime number, in case you wondered.
  
• Aaaand, of course... the horror of eXcemas is close to hand! And, once again, it looks like I'll have to work over the Christmas period, and once again my family is unhappy that I will be spending yet another holiday season away from them. :P

All up, it's been a rather chaotic couple of months, and I'll be glad when everything settles down again. In the meantime, I have a housebound cat and too much work to deal with.

See you in January, most likely!

Another Parcel Received

A quick note, while I'm here:

Nova, I received your package with gratitude! I will post a photo of the yummy contents as soon as we've tried them all. (No, this post is not about drugs.)

Regards,
Neb

PS. What on earth happened to your blog?!

Neb's Big Day in the Big City, Part Five

Skip to Part One of this topic by clicking here.
Otherwise you'll be reading this all back to front and that would be silly, now, wouldn't it?

We had spent so long waiting to get inside the exhibition that a minor problem came up - none of us had eaten a solid meal for nearly five hours. We had brought snacks and nibbles, but we had expected to go somewhere for lunch afterwards; we hadn't anticipated the long waiting time to get into the Gallery.

One of my friends has trouble with her metabolism; she needed to eat something immediately, or else she would likely faint. I did not want to leave her on her own, so I gave her a muesli bar that I had in my pocket, told her to eat it and wait outside for me, and I would try to find my other two friends in the exhibition to tell them we were going to wait outside for them.

Sounds like a good plan, right? Er... didn't quite work out that way.

First, I had to find either one of my friends. Simple enough in theory, but I had to:
a) find at least one of them in a huge crowd of people, most of whom were walking in the opposite direction
b) do it quickly, since I had someone waiting outside for me
c) try to have a good last look at the art, while I still could, and
d) try not to look suspiciously like an art thief. Silly, I know, but remember, there were several small and valuable pieces of jewellery in this exhibition as well, and I happened to be wearing a jumper with a big pocket in the front!

I have no idea how I managed to get around without getting arrested. I managed to walk back and forth across the entire exhibition space, several times, all the while looking agitated and distracted. I caught the eye of several of the security staff, and tried to look apologetic - I'm sure many of them paid close attention to me... or was it my imagination?
Anyway, I finally found one of my friends, who had no idea where the other person was - big surprise. I passed on the message, told them not to worry and take their time looking at the art, and promptly said my goodbyes to Dalí. Until next time...

Out in the foyer, my friend had wolfed down the nut-bar, but still needed something substantial to eat. She didn't really want to buy something from the Gallery cafe, as it was kinda pricey, but I'd promised my friends inside the show that we would wait for them inside (since I still had their train tickets).
In the meantime, I went to the Gallery shop to try and hunt down some posters and stuff, and bought the Liquid Desire program. At least that way, I could appreciate the art in my own time, and preferably without a bunch of people standing in front of it. ;)

After waiting about fifteen minutes, we decided, bugger it, let's eat something here. We sat and ate, with a view of the exhibition's exit so that we could catch our friends on the way out.
After another few minutes went by, with no sign of our art-bound friends, I tried calling their mobile phones to check their progress - no reply. Instead, I received a message from my sister, who had spent the afternoon with her partner enjoying the view from Southbank. They were at Federation Square; what were we doing now?
I replied: "We just came out of the show, and are waiting for X and Y to come out. Did you want to come over to the Gallery and wait with us?"
Their response: "Yep! See you soon!"

Ha ha ha. Nice and simple, right? Not quite. You see, the Gallery had thoughtfully extended their opening hours to allow all the extra people who showed up a chance to actually see the art. Unfortunately, they had sold the last tickets at about 3.30pm, and after 5pm, they locked the entrance doors to the public. We could get out, but no-one could get in.
I had not realised this. And soon, I saw my sister through the water-wall, but there was very little I could do to actually get to her.
She: "Are you coming out? It's freezing out here!"

Oops.

So now, we had to:
a) wait for our friends to come out of the show (who were expecting us to be waiting for them inside the foyer, and were not answering their phones), and
b) get out to our friends waiting outside. Oh, and let's not forget
c) get to Flinders Street Station in time for our train home!

Hahaha!!! Remember, back in Part One, how I said I could start to relax? Well, I stopped relaxing right about now. {=(

I checked the timetable, and realised that our train would not leave until well after the Gallery had closed, so all we had to do was wait out the front, and eventually the last two stragglers would get the hint. At this point, I regretted telling them to "take their time".
And it was getting cold outside.

Naturally, it all worked out in the end.
The last two members of our party were among the last people to leave the exhibition - trust them to get their money's worth! It turned out, both of them had brought their mobile phones with them, but they were in their bags, which were in the baggage claim room... X|
But they finally came out and joined the rest of the world, and we all made it to the station on time.
I managed to take a few quick photos of the city on the way to the station:

The rest are in my Nature Photos Album (which I'll admit is stretching the definition of Nature a bit, but I'll fix it up later, okay?).

On the way back home, we stopped by our friend's place for a bowl of Post-Dalí Soup and Banana Bran Muffins (with Compulsory Tea. My friend is British, you know).

And, that's it!

I would like to thank the following for their help in making this trip of a lifetime possible. Is so a trip of a lifetime! Well, it bloody well felt like it.

• Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala, for producing the art, and giving us a reason to go and see it.
• The National Gallery of Victoria, for hosting the Liquid Desire exhibition. Also, for staying open the extra time to allow all the other late patrons a chance to see this beautiful art.
  
• The staff of NGV, for being incredibly patient and putting up with hundreds - no, thousands of people over the last few days of the show. I heard from many sources who went to see the art that it wasn't merely the last day that was so busy. There had been a huge crowd of people as far back as the Tuesday before! Eeep. No wonder they all looked a little frayed at the edges! Credit plus to all of you.
• V/Line, for getting us to Melbourne and back on time. Beats driving there and back, that's for sure.
  
• My co-workers at the shop; thank you very much for covering my absence, though you probably didn't realise why I'd taken the day off. I didn't want to have to drop a Sunday shift, because I know how hard it is working a weekend with the limited staff we have at the moment, but it seems that everyone else I know has the notion of the weekend being free time! Who comes up with these crazy ideas?!
  
• My friends Katie, Trish and Andrew, for experiencing the art with me. I know not all of you thought it was worth the trip, but trust me - you would have regretted not coming to see it. Next time, we'll not leave it to the last minute, okay? ;)
  
• Krissy and Drew - sorry you didn't stick around! You missed some awesome stuff. But I knew you couldn't stand around in a queue all afternoon (not entirely sure how we managed it ourselves), so I'm glad you guys made the most of your day. Also, sympathy for those who wanted to come, but had to pull out at the last minute.
  
• Ma and Ray, for minding my nephew for us, so Krissy and Drew could come up and see Dalí with us. Well, you know how that turned out. ;D Next time, I'll honour my promise to steal a Renoir for you. And by steal, I mean "buy a print of".
  
• Everyone else in the queue, who would probably have to be the most well-behaved and patient crowd of people I've ever seen, and indeed been part of. It proves to me that Art really does civilise people!

So much for art, hey? But, I still have to see this painting, so...

Someday...

Neb's Big Day in the Big City, Part Four

...or, What I Thought Of The Dalí Exhibition.

I remember that the first thing we saw was video screens depicting the countryside where Dalí grew up. The strange, weather-eroded stone grouping that clustered around the fishing village were the inspiration for many of Dalí's landscapes. It was nice, but I wanted to see some art, not some rocks! Get a move on, people!!!

And then we realised: we had spent the entire afternoon queueing up for the show, so we'd got stuck into the "single file" mentality. Naturally, once we were in the show, we could wander around at our leisure. So, we did!

The gallery was full of people, so I had to peek over everyone's shoulders and admire the artwork from a distance. Most of the art in the first room was from Dalí's early period, which I recognised, but wasn't really interested in - until I saw Self-Portrait with Raphaelesque Neck.

And then it hit me - I was finally looking at an actual Dalí. Wow.

I went onward, and saw paintings and works that I'd only ever seen in glossy picture books, but now, they were real. They were beautiful. They were... absolutely tiny!

Seriously, though. This one!: Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops in Equilibrium on Her Shoulder. In a book, it looks like it would be at least the size of an A3 piece of paper, right? It's been painted on a block of wood smaller than a postcard.
But jeezus, the detail. You had to peer very closely to make out all the texture he's bothered to put into it. You would have to wonder why? but then realise that that was how he worked - he would not be satisfied with anything less.

I got to see so many other artworks that I knew. It was like running into old friends.
Hey, there's Memory of the Child-Woman - long time no see! Glad to hear you've been allowed back after all that trouble that came up the last time you were here.
Oh, did you get to see The First Days of Spring? And look, there's Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms The Skins of an Orchestra! And - hey! - welcome, Slave Market with Apparition of the Invisible Bust of Voltaire! We're so glad you could come...
Yes, I know - the titles of the paintings are, well, surreal. That's kind of the point, though, isn't it?

Even though it wasn't the complete collection of Dalí works (and how that would be possible to assemble I could never imagine), there was so much to see within the exhibition. The layout curved and twirled around, as it progressed through Dalí's styles and trends. One section had his earlier works, the next would have sketches and sculptures, and the next would have screens showing film projects for which Dalí had scripted scenes. Dalí's vision extended over many different media - he wasn't just a painter or sculptor, he was an artist.

Here's some more of the stuff that I liked:

• Lobster Telephone - hello? :D
  
• Destino, a movie collaboration between Dalí and Walt Disney! It was originally conceived way back in 1945, but was only completed in 2003 due to technical and financial reasons. (It was almost part of a Fantasia movie, but was instead released as a cinematic short.)
  Click here to watch it. I won't embed it directly, because I don't know whether the link will still be there later on - copyright reasons, and all that.
• There were also a selection of Dalí's jewellery designs on show. They had a display of his animated jewel piece The Royal Heart, which was a ruby-encrusted mechanism that would beat much like an actual heart. They only showed that as a video, because the original is so fantastically fragile that it would probably break if they'd brought it over.
• They also had some footage of 3-Dimensional holograms of Dalí and Gala that he had created. The other one they had was of Alice Cooper with a snake(!). Oh, and they had also set up a display of one of his stereoscopic paintings, which turned into a 3-D image when looked at in the correct way (much like the Magic Eye pictures from about ten years ago). I didn't get time to see that one, because there was a queue for the viewing apparatus, and I'd had enough of that lining-up rubbish for the day!
  
• The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory was there. In fact, it would probably be the most recognisable of Dalí's artworks, next to the original work it was based on. I know one of my friends really wanted to see the "soft watches" for some reason. Actually, so did I - but I really wanted to see the first one, too. Well, I guess I'll have to take a trip to New York to check that one out!
• Near the exit was The Ecumenical Council, which was HUGE. It was as large as you would expect a painting with that much detail to be - it was practically a mural. But a highly-detailed, labour-of-love, probably-took-years-off-his-life mural.
  
• And right near the exit was Dalí's final painting, The Swallow's Tail. An understated work, but beautiful nonetheless. He survived until 1989, but after his beloved Gala died in '83, he lost his passion for life. This painting was made in the year after her death.
  

I spent less time inside the exhibition than I spent waiting to get in, but I would have done it all over again in a heartbeat. Actually, no, I would have organised my time a little better and gone and seen it all a lot earlier... but, you have to learn about these things. ;)

Anyway, one more post to go!

________
By the way, most of these links are courtesy of Olga's Gallery and Virtual Dalí. The rest are random links and Wikipedia entries, but feel free to explore those if you wish.

Click for Part Five

Neb's Big Day in the Big City, Part Three

While we were waiting, we overheard that the Gallery was going to keep the exhibition open until 7.00pm, instead of closing it at 5.00. I thought that was very generous; it would have been very difficult to keep the people who had bought their tickets from rioting when they suddenly closed up!

So, we were now in the entry line. It moved a lot quicker, and curved politely around the ticket line - which we could see slowly disappearing as the last customers were let in. I would have liked to have been the very last person in that queue; how lucky they would have felt!

Eventually, we turned round a corner, and saw this:

"Not long to go now!" we all cooed. (Waiting in a line made us a little coocoo by this stage.)

We turned another corner, and there was the entrance to the exhibit. And looking at it now, it resembles more a nightclub or restaurant than a gallery - "Hey! Let's meet up at Dalí's, I heard they do a great fried egg and bacon!"

After three exhausting hours... we were finally inside the exhibition!

Aaand... I have no photos to show you of the inside.
Well, of course not. The Gallery had strict rules against that sort of thing, what with copyright issues, licensing agreements, flash photography damaging the artwork, and so on. My friend got busted trying to take a snap of something with her camera phone, though - naughty girl!

I can, however, seek out links to the paintings and exhibits that I loved, and I shall do that in the next post.
Suffice to say, for now, that it was amazing. And well worth the wait and expense.

Click for Part Four

Neb's Big Day in the Big City, Part Two

So, where were we? Oh, yes. Still in this fugging queue.

I should point out that this second queue wasn't even the entry line; it's only the line for paying admission. If we'd expected this, we would have sorted something out a lot earlier, but... what could we do?

Wait. That's what we could do. Apparently, that's what 15,000 other art patrons did over the same weekend, and I suspect half of those were in the queue with us...

Luckily, we'd brought our cameras into the gallery. I snapped a few shots of the gallery interior, just because it was a nice place to be (and we would be there for a few hours anyway):

This stained-glass cathedral roof inside the gallery was designed by Leonard French, and is apparently one of the largest stained-glass ceilings in the world. It's really stunning to stand beneath it, and I suspect it helped calm the mood of everyone in the line - we hardly heard any complaint from the people around us. (except for one guy who had medical problems and was very unhappy about being forced to stand for such a long time)

This was one of the central courtyards that was redesigned when the entire NGV had a facelift a few years ago. Doesn't look like much, but you can see a lot more catwalks and passageways across the third level. Perhaps not in this photo, but from other angles you could see them, and you never used to be able to reach the third floor. Anyway, it looks nicer now.

After the first hour or so, we started to question this whole "looking at priceless art" idea. We knew that the gallery had advertised the close of ticket sales at 3pm, and it was slowly dawning on us that we were unlikely to get to the ticket counter by that time.

My sister and her partner were with us - oh, did you forget? My sister wanted to come along with us, because she couldn't get to see it on her own terms (due to my mysterious illness) - and they were pretty sick of queueing by this stage. Given the choice of sticking around and waiting, or leaving the queue and enjoying what else Melbourne had to offer, they made the choice to bail.

I felt bad about that, because I knew they were very keen on seeing the Dalí artworks. But I understood their decision to leave and enjoy themselves, as they normally don't get the free time to do what they want - what with looking after my nephew, work, theatre stuff, and so on, it would have been foolish to spend a rare day off waiting in a line...

Meanwhile, the rest of us made the choice to stay. I had set my mind to it - I was GOING IN, even if I had to go all Clark Griswold on the Gallery and DEMAND they unpack the fricking works of art from their carry cases and HOLD IT UP until I'd had my fill... I. WAS. GOING. IN.

After TWO HOURS, we finally managed to grab our tickets (and guarantee access to the show)! And we were so relieved.

Until we remembered, of course, that there was a whole 'nother queue to wait in... sigh
I realise that this is a thoroughly boring post, but I promise you, we do eventually get to the good stuff. Stick around...

________
(btw, just for giggles, here's what happened to someone else who decided to go and check out some Dalí in the company of the harshest critics. I mean, WTF? Who brings babies and infants to an art gallery?! Needless to say, our visit had nothing like this happen.)

Click for Part Three