Boy from Oz

The "Boy from Oz" musical last night at the Rod Laver Arena was simply brilliant! Phill and I paid $99 each for the tickets, which were the cheapest we could get. The seats were not bad at all but angled in such a way we were seated at the sides and couldn't see the action straight on but there was a big screen so we saw the close-ups there. Hugh Jackman was great - acting, dancing and singing! The musical basically retold the life story of Peter Allen, a much loved Aussie artist, who was mentored by Judy Garland, married Liza Minnelli, divorced her, came out of the closet and finally passed away due to AIDS (apparently, that's what people said) in the early 1990s.

The songs they used were mainly those that Peter Allen composed and sang himself. It was especially touching when the ensemble and Hugh Jackman sang "I Still Call Australia Home" (theme of a Qantas ad a few years ago).

At the end of the production, which was almost 3 hours (including a 25 min break), Phill and I looked at each other and remarked that it was worth every cent we paid for. And we agreed that if we had the money, we'll love to watch it again the next day.

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Before we took the coach ride at 1pm back to Mansfield, Phill and I fitted in another dim sum lunch (we had one on Friday afternoon). When we arrived, there was a long queue snaking outside the restaurant. And I enquired if we still had to queue even though we had a reservation and yes, we had to. It took us about 25 minutes before we finally got our table. And fighting for time, we ate our favorite dishes - sticky rice, century egg porridge, sweet soya beancurd soup, etc - fairly quickly and asked for the bill at 12.10pm. It took a while cos it was full house and by the time we got out, it was 12.25pm and we hurriedly went to pick up our bags and to the train station.

Time really flies when you're having fun.....I look forward to our next trip to Melbourne, which may be next year instead.