plonq | G'day

On today's Folklorama stop was the New Zealand/Australia pavilion. We knew that this was going to be a fairly popular one, so we decided to try and get there a bit earlier than we had for some of the others. Additionally, we were going to be meeting

phar at this one, and we wanted to be there when she arrived. As luck would have it, she walked right by us as we were getting out of the car so neither party had to search much to find the other. There was already a substantial lineup when we got there, and by the time they let us in the line had more than doubled in length. Good thing we arrived early!

As soon as we entered the building our first two priorities were to 1) secure good seats, and 2) get food.

atara planted herself in a couple of good front seats and put on her best scowl to deter anyone from trying to steal our chairs while

phar and I went on a quest for dinner. As I had expected, the fare was good, but unimaginative. We settled on a couple of sampler plates that included the tiniest lamb chops I have ever laid eyes on - in fact I daresay these chops likely came from a sheep foetus rather than a fully-developed lamb. They had a nice flavour, but I had no idea you could get them so small. The plates also included a meat pie that would almost feed a full-grown smurf, and a couple of ANZAC (sic) biscuits. The "biscuits" turned out to be greasy coconut cookies that were really good - the highlight of the meal IMO. (Edit:

atara says they tasted more like ginger.) When I saw the size of the portions I also ordered a "Sausage Sizzle" on the side (which turned out to be the same thing that the Alpine pavilion had been serving under the name of "Bratwurst" yesterday). We finished off with a couple of good deserts which consisted of some lamington cake (very nice) and some Pavlova (pictured right). It's a bit hard to tell from the picture, but the Pavlova was just a mound of baked meringue with whipped cream and fresh fruit on top. Both deserts were very pleasant.

The emcee was an ex-Winnipegger who went from being an ex-Australian to being a current Australian again after spending seven winters here.

I can't imagine why somebody would want to leave Winnipeg for Australia if given the chance, then again I can't figure out why somebody would leave Australia for Winnipeg in the first place. Heh. I've been asking myself those kinds of questions for the last ten years, but I guess it looks like I'm here to stay for awhile. Anyway, the bulk of the stage show consisted of re-enactments of Australia's animals. It was fun watching the painted aboriginal dancers loping around on stage to the hypnotic thrums of banged sticks and a didgeridoo acting like emus and ostriches and the like. All through each act the leader of the dance troupe (an expatriate Australian now living in Austria) narrated, giving us such tidbits as, "The kangaroo is very lazy, and likes to lie around in the grass, scratching his belly." The young performer pictured on the left was very cute doing his kangaroo thing. He was also quite good on the didgeridoo.

By far the highlight of the show was when the main didgeridoo player (pictured at top) came forward and gave us a primer on the instrument. He described how they are made (traditionally termites do most of the work), and then showed how they are played, first describing, then showing the technique used for each sound. He made it look so simple, right down to the whole circular-breathing technique. I've noticed that most people who are good at their craft have a knack of making it look easy. He demonstrated one of the sound techniques by playing out a thrown boomerang on the didgeridoo. To be honest, everyone was so taken with his accent that he could have stood up there and outlined all the reasons why we were an audience of wankers and we'd have probably applauded. Is there anyone out there who doesn't like an Australian accent?

They rounded out the last of the Australian performances with a special dance they'd developed just for the Winnipeg audience. They called it the Mosquito Dance. It consisted of lots of smoke, and people running around waving their arms and swatting. The disappointment of the night came when the emcee announced that the Maori performers had been forced to back out on the pavilion at the last moment. He performed a couple of Maori routines, but it just wasn't the same without the native performers in their traditional costumes. Ah well, I can always watch Whale Rider again (and insert a plug here for the movie. Go rent it.)

Overall it was a good pavilion, and the three of us enjoyed it quite a bit. It was not as good as the first three that we've been to so far this year, but as with the others it is worth a visit. I now conclude this review with a bonus picture of my cat.