Sydney Festival First Night 2008

Yesterday afternoon I went up to Katoomba to meet with the ladies of one of my book groups (Read Astray we call ourselves) for our Christmas lunch. We went to the Avalon, the restaurant we went to when Karen and Dan got married. It's our third year there and the only disappointment is that the menu has not changed a jot in that time - I guess they are working on the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' principle and that's fine, especially where their exquisite dessert menu is concerned. We had a lovely afternoon eating yummy stuff and talking books and travel and stuff.
It was very wet and misty in Katoomba. The Avalon has a huge picture window, usually with nice views, but we could barely see 30m at times. It was still wet when I got back down to Springwood and thought it might put off our plans for the evening but when I arrived home it was to be told we were still going out. I had time for a quick change of clothing then headed down to Sydney with Sharon, Janet and Steven. (Ian and the boys didn't want to join us and Ishbel had her mate Zanny over to play).
It was the first night of the Sydney Festival http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/firstNight.htm and Sharon had enticed me with the promise of a ceilidgh on Macquarie Street.
We walked through Hyde Park where a swing band was going to be playing. A dance floor had been laid all around the fountain at the northern end but it was too early for them to have begun and we continued down to Macquarie Street. There a latin American band was playing - all the tunes sounded the same to me - and three couples were due to get married before the Scottish band, Shooglenifty, were due to play.
We then headed down to Martin Place where the young folks were enjoying a rave. We noticed how it was all young people going in to the crowd down there and only old people coming out!! Just as "Romeo" came on, singing Talking Heads style, and I started to enjoy myself, the others, not wanting to take any chances, decided we should check out the Domain so we headed back east again.
Paul Kelly was playing at the Domain and that was good. He was followed by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Steven, Sharon and Janet all enjoyed that but I've never got the Beach Boys thing so it wasn't the highlight of my evening. We left there and got back to Macquarie Street just in time for the last (very good) two songs from Shooglenifty. They were great and had an Aboriginal digeridoo player playing with them too. An interesting mix of music.
After something to eat at a Japanese restaurant (my first time in one) we headed back to the car park and home. We got back after 1am and then I was up and out with Robbie to be at RFS training by 8am.