Icons!

I'm feeling nice and spammy today.

Some icons I've just made:




Because poking fun at Wayne Bennett's lack of expression is compulsory on the day we're going to win the Grand Final. It's a Queensland thing.






Some icons of the Queensland Ballet - which I will be reviewing soon *g*

Favourite Books - First Line Meme

Pick 5-10 favourite books. Post the first line of each book (obscuring names if need be). Challenge your friends list to guess the books.

Guess the books from their first lines!

1. "Felicity! Look - there's Malory Towers at last!" cried Darrell. In the Fifth at Malory Towers - guessed by sangerin

2. "Can I have another jelly sandwich?" Clue - Children's story by a prominent author

3. "Covent Garden!" D____ cried, leaping to her feet as the train slid to a standstill and the doors opened. Clue - one of the Drina books

4. For the first fifteen years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other's existence. Clue - a classic set in Brooklyn during and after WW2

5. Home, my soul sighed. Justice Hall - guessed by lizbee

6. H_______ P________ was a highly unusual boy in many ways. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - guessed by lizbee

7. Panic was my first reaction to the multiple choice options which lay on my desk in front of me. Looking for Alibrandi - guessed by baggers

8. "Harvest is ended and summer is gone," quoted A_____ S______, gazing across the shorn fields dreamily. Anne of the Island - guessed by laidar

9. The F_____ sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. Ballet Shoes - guessed by sangerin

10. It was a cataclysm. That was the only word for it. Clue - A Brisbane story


Ficlets for anyone who guesses correctly *g*

Aladdin - the Queensland Ballet

So, yesterday was the second last QB performance on my subscription this year.

Aladdin used to be part of 1001 Nights - a longer performance by the Queensland Ballet - all choreographed by Francois Klaus. Aladdin was picked out and reshaped as a children's ballet - and boy were there a lot of children there to see it.

Impressively, since the dancers were performing the difficult and athletic . . . with Attitude last night, yesterday afternoon's performance was headed by the principal and soloists. Rachael Walsh is always good - and she made a nice Princess Jasmine (which impressed most of the little girls in the audience). The real stars of yesterday's performance, though, were the male dancers.

Zachary Chant played Aladdin with a lovely playful manner, and Timothy Brown had just the right amount of pantomine as the magician. My two favourite dancers were also great - Adam Blanch was a little subdued (for him) but lovly as the genie, and Alex Wagner was a wonderfully sulky Vizier's son.

The corps were good - though one of the trainees looked like she was unsure of the steps - she stood out to me since I once attended a dance vacation school with her. Most impressive was Claire Phipps, the introduced story teller, who helped explain the story to the children.

This wasn't a grown up ballet - there was a pantomine feel to the piece, and some of the movements were oversimplified. But it was great fun - and I was among the people gasping when the genie arrived on the flying carpet.

The tickets are cheap at $25 each, and if you know a child who enjoys dancing, take them along. It will be showing at matinees in Brisbane until Saturday.

Fic: Restraint - Mary Russell

This is entirely Liz's fault. I blame her. Completely. Also, it's my first Mary Russell fic, and I'm not completely happy with the Mary voice, which is much more difficult than it looks.

Title: Restraint
Author: MelWil
Fandom: Mary Russell
Reviews: Welcomed

( The stone house is filled with silent echoes. )