Author Archives: reine

Hobart coffee adventures

Went to Hobart for work for a week, which was the perfect opportunity to explore the city and see how the specialty coffee scene has evolved since my last visit in 2017!

A lot of cafes don’t open until 7 or 7:30AM so my choices on weekdays were quite limited, but I still I found some nice ones! Staple Coffee was one I kept returning to; their bagels and croissants are really tasty (and cheap?! A coffee and bagel/croissant was only around the $12 mark!).

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Elgar’s Violin Concerto + Shostakovich Symphony No. 12

I feel like in the last decade, I’ve done so much that I thought I’d never actually do in my life. Going to a classical concert is one of them! Once again I have Twoset to thank for that inspiration. I really want to actually have a better understanding of the violin, something I never cared about as a kid. This concert caught my attention because I feel like I would enjoy the intensity of Shostakovich. I’d never heard any of Elgar’s stuff before but the sample I heard sounded interesting.

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La Bayadere

I guess I’m a ballet enthusiast now? I really enjoyed watching Swan Lake and Echoes of Van Gogh last year and was looking into this year’s lineup.

La Bayadere, it turns out, has a very high degree of technicality and it was super impressive! WA Ballet’s interpretation is different from the original, and I enjoyed the plotline. I think I was holding my breath for most of it, especially during Act II, The Kingdom of the Shades, the arabesque train down a slope!!! Omg! All the ballerinas were trembling, it must have been so intense! I have so much respect for the strength of ballet dancers!

This time I also paid some attention to the orchestra too, I feel like part of the magic of ballet is also that the conductor is watching the ballet in order to make sure the orchestra is in sync. So cool!

There’s nothing quite like the intensity of watching live performances!