Went to a recital by the “Bel a Capella” choir – a friend of ours is an alto in the group and they were doing a set of christmas carols in the chapel of St Scholastica’s convent in Glebe. All I knew was that we were going to a choir recital (which was cultural to the max for me, indeed). To discover it was christmas carols in a chapel – well – lets be honest, I’d not really have chosen to come on down and listen if I’d stumbled over it in a “What’s on” listing :)
Fortunately, the collection of pieces provided a good balance between the cheesy western “modern” stuff and some really great numbers with complex harmonics and tonal work. It turned out to be a fun event, even if the wooden pews meant one’s bum was numb within a few minutes…
Of course, the best part of the whole thing was when we scooted off to the Toxteth pub (aka The Toxic) for a few rounds and munchies after it was all done. Our friends, a number of the other choir members and Russell, their director, were there. At this point, all semblance of “formal” culture were thrown out and the real culture began :)
The real culture lasted until the point that the group at the Toxic broke up, leaving Kitt and I in search of a taxi to our next event. Fortunately, the culture remained with us as we hung out with still more friends at the Woolloomooloo Bay Pub. Much laughter and general catching up over booze and pub-food was had. A great end to the trip, topped only by the taxi driver trying to kill us a couple of times on the way home (when told of this via frantic SMS, my friend Cassie responded with “Welcome back to Sydney” :)