I sure had the time of my life yesterday, when I went to see Dirty Dancing at Crown Theatre! All the songs from the original movie were featured, and the cast did an awesome job with the script, the dancing and the stunts! Especially the dancing - that was totally impressive :) I was really tempted to do some dancing myself, but ermmm...that was in a semi-formal setting, so probably not the best idea! Either way, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and am glad I managed to catch the show! I was humming Hungry Eyes from the show when I walked out, and the song (I had) the Time of my Life was stuck in my head for quite some time too!
Pictures from the main entrance of the theatre, as I was walking towards the doors. There were 4 different versions of the Dirty Dancing poster...but guess what, they had a pink theme to them! And pink happens to be my favourite colour!
The famous lift scene (OK no spoilers there!) from the musical and movie - a very iconic scene indeed. We were totally ecstatic when we saw this scene during the performance. The theatre was filled with people from all walks of life - and there were also plenty of music/dance enthusiasts like myself.
Giant poster near the entrance - I had a picture with the poster, and it dwarfed me completely. Thank goodness I didn't wear pink, or else I'd be completely camouflaged (I wore yellow).
Hanging out at the main lobby before heading in. I bought my merchandise, and needless to say - I got a copy of the playbill (programme). One more playbill to add to the collection! I've got The Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Dirty Dancing (from yesterday), and I'm pretty certain I have Love Never Dies too. Next target? Cats! After a long, eight-year wait (yes I am being totally honest here), I finally get to see one of my favourite musicals! One more tick off the list. I've got plenty of musicals that I'd wanna see, and I hope to see some of them in New York itself.
No cocktails for me (as I was going to drive home later in the day and I have a self-imposed zero alcohol 'policy' when I drive), but I did enjoy shopping for merchandise.
And that was how I spent my weekend - watching Dirty Dancing! One of the best weekends ever.
OK let's move on to today's post - the last post for the Sydney series, in fact. I just realised this series took a long time to complete...but ah well, we are already there!
First up - Hyde Park - in the heart of the Sydney CBD. Hyde Park is situated in the heart of the city, and is very near the Australian Museum (featured later in this post), St Mary's Cathedral (also featured later in this post), Hyde Park Barracks and the Supreme Court of New South Wales, amongst others. Hyde Park is also famous for its tree-lined paths (fig trees), and there's also a war memorial on one end of the park.
Weather wasn't too good so we didn't spend much time outdoors (we chose to go to the Australian Museum to avoid the rain instead). But here're some quick snapshots of Hyde Park, including the famous Archibald Fountain and the Sandringham Gardens (a small area within Hyde Park itself).
Part of the CBD from Hyde Park. The tallest building/tower here is Sydney Tower, an observation tower that offers panoramic views of the city. Sydney's CBD has a mixture of modern and heritage buildings.
St Mary's Cathedral, just across the road from Hyde Park, consecrated in 1882. There was a Good Friday Mass going on in there, so we didn't manage to go inside. The cathedral is built with Gothic-inspired styles, and is one of the largest cathedrals around in Australia.
And...across the road from St Mary's - the Australian Museum, the oldest museum in Australia. It houses lots of artefacts, ranging from bones to rocks/minerals...and is famous in terms of natural history and anthropology. The museum has been hosting exhibitions since 1854.
The interior of one of the main halls within the museum. The sides were lined with exhibits of invertebrates and vertebrates, and the hall below houses skeletons arranged in lifelike positions (we went to the upper floors first before having a look at the skeletons). The exhibits were lifelike and really fascinating, and really reminded me of the days where I was studying zoology as an elective.
Dinosaur exhibit - one of the most popular exhibits within the museum. There were replicas of fossils, and lots of different dinosaur species featured, including T-rex of course. It kind of reminded me of one of the museums in the UK (I vaguely remember visiting one of those museums when I was 10, but I don't recall much).
I developed a strong interest towards rocks and minerals when I was 12, and even contemplated studying about them in uni, but eventually went for clinical psychology. Nevertheless, rocks and minerals still fascinates me...12 years later. So - this area here was definitely my favourite within the museum, as I was able to fully enjoy all the beautiful crystals, gemstones and rocks featured. Some of the crystals were kept in their original state, while others were cut into beautiful gemstones (which weren't set into jewellery). I'm glad I can still identify the different 'cuts' that were featured on the gemstones. And I was particularly intrigued by the beautiful colours on display.
Speaking of which, check out that beautiful opal in the 'Gemstones' exhibit (second pic from here). I love opals - especially black opals and fire opals.
Extensive display of minerals in various cabinets, with lots of different crystal formations.
More display cabinets along the corridors (one floor down from the 'zoology' corridors mentioned above). I had lots of fun touring this area! And I was reminded of a particular exchange between two characters (a musicologist who looks at rocks and its tonal quality and a zany near-genius girl who has been to multiple universities and has accumulated a whole lot of knowledge) from the screwball comedy What's Up Doc? (1972) - one of my favourite movies. Everytime I watch this movie, I laugh so damn hard. It is absolutely hilarious, especially the crazy screw-up scenes!
Musicologist (Howard Bannister): "I was just testing this specimen for inherent tonal qualities. I have this theory about early man's musical relationship to igneous rock formations. But I guess you're not really interested in igneous rock formations..."
Zany Girl (Judy Maxwell): "Not as much as I am in the sedimentary or metamorphic rock categories. I can take your igneous rocks or leave 'em. I relate primarily to micas, quartz, feldspar. You can keep your pyroxenes, magnetites and coarse-grained plutonics as far as I'm concerned!"
Last stop of the day - the skeletons exhibit on the ground floor. There were skeletons of fish, reptiles, and of course, humans. And there was a giant skeleton suspended on the ceiling. Some of the skeletons were arranged in lifelike formation. Check out the man on the horse!!
Back out into the streets after leaving the museum - there were posters advertising for Les Miserables all over. Les Miserables just happened to be playing in Sydney when I was there.
A couple of days later, when the weather improved (a lot!), we headed to Darling Harbour to have a look. Darling Harbour is situated really near the CBD too. Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum is situated here, and there's also an army museum here. There were also plenty of shops and cafes around. It was really, really crowded when we got there...but we did have a good stroll around the precinct. We even crossed the famous Pyrmont Bridge - a swing bridge spanning the Darling Harbour. The bridge has one of the largest swing spans in the world, and is now used as a pedestrian bridge. There's a control tower somewhere in the middle of the bridge - that controls the swinging mechanism.
Ending off this post with some Movenpick ice-cream - it was my first time trying Movenpick ice cream, and oh gosh, it was awesome! It was quite warm on that day too - so this came in handy!
And that's it for the Sydney pics. I'll be posting more Western Australia pics soon - I just got back from a trip from down South, and had a really awesome time! :)
Till then - catch y'all soon!