Australia

[Sideroxylon]

I used to work a stone's throw away from the first, in Merivale St.

 

[lionking]

Got all but the second. I knew the territory, but not the location. The expressway in 1 is an abomination, and as bad as the start of the Monash in Melbourne, right alongside the Yarra. If any of the urban planners in the 70s are still alive, they should be jailed at the very least.

 

[arthwollipot]

I only got the Maritime Museum, because I've been in that area many times. No. 2 I thought was a similar crocodile sanctuary near Cairns that I've been to once, a long time ago.

 

[philkensebben]

I've been to the camel beach a couple of times. God I miss the beach

 

[Akhenaten]

I've been to the camel beach a couple of times. God I miss the beach

Have you seen these couple of posts? They might serve for a little fix.

Bondi

Manly​

I was thinking about doing Bells Beach next.

 

[philkensebben]

Nice, but our beaches in WA are free of people

 

[Akhenaten]

Nice, but our beaches in WA are free of people

Yeah, South Australia too, but that's only because the noah's ate everyone that was silly enough to go in the water.

 

[Shadow the Poodle]

Ahh good old Lord Howe Island , we used to have to do special Lord Howe trainers in the C130 Hercules, it was the shortest sealed airstrip we used with a very entertaining approach over dunes at one end and the lagoon at the other. We were the biggest aircraft to get in , and had to carry fairly low fuel loads . Would spend the afternoon dooing circuits in both directions , then shut down , have dinner whilst waiting for it to get dark , then spend some time doing night circuits before heading back to Richmond , usually with Kentia palms and heaps of fish given to us by the locals.

 

[Akhenaten]

Ahh good old Lord Howe Island , we used to have to do special Lord Howe trainers in the C130 Hercules, it was the shortest sealed airstrip we used with a very entertaining approach over dunes at one end and the lagoon at the other. We were the biggest aircraft to get in , and had to carry fairly low fuel loads . Would spend the afternoon dooing circuits in both directions , then shut down , have dinner whilst waiting for it to get dark , then spend some time doing night circuits before heading back to Richmond , usually with Kentia palms and heaps of fish given to us by the locals.

Hey, cool bananas, Shadow! I had no idea you were in the the RAAF. I'm a former Army Aviator myself. We should share a few stories and make all the plebs jealous.

 

[Brian Thompson]

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to carpool to a three-day conference at Lake Arrowhead, California with two Australians I had never met before. They were both amazingly awesome people. So that's two more wins for Australia.

 

[Akhenaten]

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to carpool to a three-day conference at Lake Arrowhead, California with two Australians I had never met before. They were both amazingly awesome people. So that's two more wins for Australia.

Were they shy and retiring?

Most of us are.

Wouldn't say boo to a goose, in fact.





Cheers, mate.

 

[Shadow the Poodle]

Hey, cool bananas, Shadow! I had no idea you were in the the RAAF. I'm a former Army Aviator myself. We should share a few stories and make all the plebs jealous.

You mean like circling the entire South Island of New Zealand at 200 ft on a "Pilot Trainer" and the next day flying through the New Zealand Alps , around MT Cook , Milford Sound .Up the lake to Queenstown at 100ft then coming home via Norfolk Island and buying heaps of duty free cheap Lego . Or maybe doing the tourist circuit of Ayers Rock (Uluru) with the ramp and door open with people on the ramp . Or the same at the Bungles in WA , deviating off track to have a look at Wolf Creek crater on the way from Perth to Darwin.

Counter balanced with East Timor Evacuations and troop insertions , Bouganville and the Solomans , famine relief in PNG , Flood relief in NSW and Queensland , repatriating the fallen, Night NVG lowlevel scared witless . Medevaccing small kids so badly injured you could not see them for machinery.

And my favorite medevac story , picking up a soldier in Darwin who had "gone troppo" and bringing him to Sydney strapped down and heavily sedated, whilst refueling in Tindal we asked the medical orderly if there was anything likely to "upset" the patient, the reply was " loud noise", bit of a worry in the back of a C130 , needless to say we moved the crash axes up to the flight deck.

 

[Akhenaten]

Right then.

It's taken me a while to organise this. Much to our surprise, my daughter and I somehow managed to take over 500 photographs between us at the concert and it's taken a fair bit of sorting, culling, cropping, adjusting and general fiddling about to get them into shape for posting.

Try as I might though, I couldn't bring myself to discard any more, so we're left with 105 pictures. My apologies to the dialup people, but I hope it's worth the wait.

Because the lighting was varying from second to second between 'a yard up a chimney' and 'surface of the Sun' it was a bit flukey to get a nice shot in some cases, but I've left some of the lesser quality ones in anyway, the better to present as broad an overview as possible.

I've been to an awful lot of shows over the years, and seen many more on TV, video, etcetera, but nothing I've ever seen tops this. It was jaw-droppingly awesome from start to finish.

Enjoy.

This is the Southern, or non-Kylie end of Rod Laver Arena, about 30 minutes before showtime.
At the lower left are the computers and controllers that make the magic happen.

The main stage area is behind the blue curtainy things at the left.
The area between the catwalks is called the 'Splash Zone'. Very Expensive.

It seemed a fair bet that this bit was going to do something interesting.

I've been to Rod Laver heaps of times, but surprisingly never noticed the Greek temple at one end of it.

Support Act was Gypsy and the Cat, whom some of you may have heard on the wireless.
They played about five or six numbers and were quite good.

There was a short intermission after Gypsy and the Cat finished up so we could have a little drinky.
When we came back in this ginormous night light was the only thing left runnng.

Then this appeared out of the darkness. "Ooh!" I said.

And then there was Kylie.​

Mere photos can't really do justice to what was actually going on here, and I'm sure nobody wants to read a screenfull of my breathless descriptions, so I'll cheat a bit and insert a YouTube so you can get a bit of a feel for the way it all worked. Take special note of of the rear-projection screens behind the temple facade - they ran throughout the show and would have been worth the price of a ticket all on their own. This clip is actually from the concert in Denmark near the beginning of the tour in February, 2011, but it's identical to the Melbourne show, which doesn't seem to have appeared on the intywebs yet.

The things you find in giant golden seashells . . .

I should be so lucky. Perhaps if I invested in one of those fancy helmets . . .

Aphrodite

The two girls behind Kylie provided backing vocals for her throughout the show and they were sensational.
The song they were singing here was 'Wow!' (from the album 'X').

The figures in the background were animated and marched across the screens in time to the music.

Two of these popped up out of the floor and a couple of athletic-looking Greek
dudes pretended to play the introduction to 'The One' on them (as one does).
I guess you could call them Harpies, although most people probably wouldn't.

If you're going to sing 'Illusion' then why wouldn't you do
it while rising up through the floor on a golden Pegasus?

I'd swear that horse is bigger than the space it came up out of.

I suppose when you're a goddess you can do these things.

Giddyup!

Just like The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Handel's Solomon, only much better.

Kylie was actually singing 'I Believe In You', which worked much better than opera would have, I think.

Giant seashells, flying horses, golden chariots - sure beats walking.

Just the thing for popping down to the shops.

Things like this kept the viewers amused when Kyles ducked out for a minute to change outfits.
This was during the introduction for 'Cupid Boy' (from the album Aphrodite)

This was at the end of a big medley of songs including "Spinning Around" and "What Do I Have To Do?"

Eight of these amazing-looking ladies wafted out onto the
catwalks during the introduction for "Everything is Beautiful"

While the White Ladies went on with their wafting this bloody great head rose up
from the back of the stage and Kylie and this dude appeared from . . . somewhere.

The whole show was a bit like that - stuff appearing and disappearing all over the place.

It was quite surprising how the stage could go from being just little Kylie, all on her pat . . .

. . . to a whole heap of stuff happening in just the blink of an eye.​

 

[Akhenaten]

Sorry about the focus. A bit of camera shake, I think.
Anyway, These girls came and lay in a circle around Kylie.
I can't recall if they were the Wafting Ladies or not . . .

. . . because I got a bit distracted when this happened.

That wheel thing is rotating, by the way. It was an awesome effect.

Kylie sang a jazz version of 'Slow'

It's a great song, although she could have just
stood there and it would have still been impressive.

Well, I would have been impressed, at any rate.

Goddess.

It must be terrible to be shy.​

I think I'll cheat and throw in another YouTube because that bit was just so amazing. This clip is from a live TV broadcast of the London show.

Who would have thought you could make a dress out of scrunched up CDs?

Kylie is singing 'Confide In Me' (from the album of that name)

Followed up by 'In My Arms' (from 'X')

You wouldn't lose her in the crowd while she was wearing that, would you?

Yup, the blue lights work.

Another "Whoa!" moment.

'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'

'Lookin' For An Angel'. Well sure, that's gonna happen.

Wait, what the . . .

Riiiiiight.

Now there's something you don't see every day.

Just . . . Wow!

The song was 'Closer'

I don't think those last few needed any captions

 

[Akhenaten]

The eagle angel has landed.

I'm not too sure exactly what this part was all about, but Kylie and the angel seemed
to spend quite a bit of time making sure they were in exactly the right position. I think
they might have had to fill in for a bit while the flying machinery was put into reverse.

In any case, Kylie started on the next song - 'There Must Be An Angel (playin' with my heart)'.

Some might say Annie Lennox did the song better, but as a fan of
both girls I'll just say that they each have their different strengths.

Kyles does pink better than Annie.

Look out, Kylie! Behind you!!!

OH&S is everywhere. Still, I imagine that microphone would give someone a nasty bump if she'd dropped it.

This would have been a much better shot if she'd stood still for a second.

Happy in her work.

I'm fairly sure they were onto the next song by now, but I can't remember what it was.

100% pure Kylieness.

No angel for the return trip back to the stage.

This was touching, poignant and hilariously funny all at the same time.
The song was a ballad called 'If You Don't Love Me', but every time Kylie
sang those words at least half the audience called back "But we dooooo!

She cracked up laughing a couple of times and had to stop.

Back into Pop Mode.

'Better The Devil You Know'

They had a whole Canivale thing going on here.

A conga line, even.

Kylie doing her impression of an Emu.

Still the girl next door, in many ways.

Singing 'Your Disco Needs You' a capella.

You've come a long way, Charlene.

Suburban Princess.

She seemed so tiny on that great big stage when she was on her own.

Off she goes. Bye Kyliiiiiie!​

But wait . . .

There's more . . .​

 

[Akhenaten]

Ohnoes! A water main has burst!

Or not.

Everyone's all, like, "Fountains? They have fountains??!!"

Kylie sings 'On A Night Like This' and pink water erupts out of the catwalks.

And blue water.

LOTS of blue water.

Someone pressed the button marked 'Do Everything'.
Now we know why it was called the Splash Zone.

Kylie looks like she's getting ready for a dip.

These people just started appearing from . . . somewhere. Magic, I presume.

They were certainly a friendly bunch.

This guy reminded me of Dave Lister.

As if you hadn't guessed, the song is 'All The Lovers'.

I want a fountain like this in my front yard.

Remember this from when we first came in?
We were thinking it might do something?

We was right.

Hard to believe this is a tennis court.

These suspended girls actually rose up out of the bottom level of the fountain.
Dog knows how they got to be in there in the first place.

They dropped down and picked up some boys to play with.

Just hangin' around

Cirque du Soleil, eat your heart out.

Diva

 

[Sideroxylon]

Akhenaten, I thoroughly enjoyed that. Some great pictures there and loved your comments. Thanks for doing that for us.

I've never seen anything like that either. Looks like money well spent on a great evening.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Wow!

An amazing show. Thanks for sharing the experience with us, Akhenaten. Good job!

 

[arthwollipot]

Awesome. Just awesome. If you don't mind me asking, how much were the tickets?

 

[amb]

Sob! All those beautiful legs, and I missed out!! sob.