Let's start with the seed of an idea

I had a super bitchin’ weekend

Friday night I went with my mum to see Made to Move, which is the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s current season. Before the show, we were walking up the street to the theatre and who should happen to be there but Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy? This was the second time I’d seen them out and about, and also the second time that I was too much of a chicken to ask for a photo or an autograph.

The performance itself was abIsolutely fantastic.  The first piece, Anatomy of a Passing Cloud, was a really contemporary ballet, set to Pacific music. I hadn’t really seen anything like it before.  Also, hot damn, those penchees!

Of Days was gorgeous, and in quite a similar vein to A Song In The Dark; which I generally think of as my favourite short work.  Both make a lot of use of shadows, and have minimalist costuming and music. Watching it, I had a bit of a moment where I was all “Why is art so amazing?”

Bier Halle would have been my favourite ballet of the evening, though.  Sir Jon Trimmer was fantastic, and all the dancers somehow managed to have a blend of virtuoso technique and brilliant comedic timing.  It was the most fun I can remember having at the ballet.

Come Saturday, it was time to take off my ballet hat and put on my intrepid biologist hat. We were going on a terrestrial ecology field trip to figure out a research idea. It was absolutely gorgeous out there, however I am now sporting a rather fetching sock tan.

We did an awful lot of walking, listening for birds (and trolling each other with bird calls), identifying plants and invertebrates, and generally being bio geeks.  Animals we geeked out over included:

• Tui
• Fantails
• Kereru
• Puriri moths
• Geckos
• A fake kokako
• A stingray

Of course, we had to go for a swim on Saturday evening, because beaches are the best.  I must make a note to myself to swim regional parks more often, because they’re so much more pleasant to swim in than grotty polluted beaches.  Other enjoyable free time activities included a Trololol song singalong, and a Les Mis singalong (we were staring up at the stars, so naturally “Stars” happened).

The one low point of the weekend was having to have a statistics lecture while we were there.  This was on Sunday morning, though it was originally scheduled for Saturday night.  I’m not sure which would have been worse; Saturday night stats, or Sunday morning stats.

We arrived back in town around 5pm, but my busy weekend was not over yet! It was Wai’s 21st, which, as expected was an absolutely lovely occasion. Friends, family, food… is there a better combination to be had at the end of a busy week? If there is, I haven’t found one.

And now, I must go and read some things about forest fragmentation.

So I saw Gillian Murphy dance the lead in RNZB’s Giselle this evening.

You should be jealous.  That is all.