SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE: AUSTRALIAN STYLE

Tina Picotes in front of The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, Australia. It is one of the 20th century's most famous and distinctive buildings.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the building was formally opened on 20 October 1973 after a gestation beginning with Utzon's 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government's decision to build Utzon's design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation.

The building and its surrounds occupy the whole of Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and close by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Though its name suggests a single venue, the building comprises multiple performance venues which together are among the busiest performing arts centres, hosting well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by more than 1.2 million people. Performances are presented by numerous performing artists, including four resident companies: Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, more than eight million people visit the site annually, and approximately 350,000 visitors take a guided tour of the building each year. The building is managed by the Sydney Opera House Trust, an agency of the New South Wales State Government.

On 28 June 2007, the Sydney Opera House became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

More information: Sydney Opera House 

One of the great things about Sydney is that it has a great acceptance of everyone and everything. It's an incredibly tolerant city, a city with a huge multicultural basis.   

Baz Luhrmann

IF...? PREJUDICES? NO, THANKS. REAL INFORMATION.

Yesterday, The Poppins said goodbye to Australia. It has been a wonderful experience with lots of emotions and new partners. They’ve visited all the country and enjoyed new and old cultures.

Today, The Poppins have just arrived to San Francisco in California where they have a new mission. Before this, they’ve reviewed Second Conditional and some new exercises about plurals and countable and uncountable nouns. 

More information: Second Conditional

Moreover, The Grandma explained some controversial stories where prejudices were present and they weren’t good. It’s difficult to have an opinion about a story paying only attention to the official channel. There is sometimes another explanation which you can obtain off the record seeing and analysing these little details that we don’t see in the first moment.

The Grandma is very excited to be in San Francisco again and she wants to visit some old friends from Berkeley University and think about her old hippie friends who wanted to change the world and created one of the best folk music generations.

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. 

They have the power to make the innocent guilty 

and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. 

Because they control the minds of the masses.

Malcolm X

CUBA OR SCOTLAND? THE DREAM CONTINUES...

Cuba

Yesterday, it was another fantastic day for The Poppins. Núria Poppins returned from Scotland and she’s with the family again. She explained her experiences there and they were very interesting.

Next, the family continued the English classes with Have to and some exercises about connectors. 

The Grandma knows that some exercises are more difficult than the recommended level but she prefers “to suffer in class not in the exam”.

More information: Have to vs. Must

Later, The Grandma tried to create a linchpin between England and Australia for one hand and Spain and Cuba for another, connecting them under the same storyline: stupid wars, innocent victims and colonialism.

Finally, The Poppins talked about some personal stories which had a relation with Scottish postcards. They were different stories about Costa Rica, children and new technologies, Andalusia, rock music, Torredembarra, the importance of light in pictures or beautiful castles from the Middle Age in Scotland to the new human ones in Catalan lands and an important reflexion: what’s the meaning of a lighthouse in the middle of the sea?

The Cuban people have an amazingly strong and unbroken spirit.

Wim Wenders

MEMENTO MORI: TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS

Time passes in moments... moments which, rushing past define the path of a life just as surely as they lead towards its end. 

How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen, to consider whether the path we take in life is our own making or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed.

But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?

Dana Scully, All Things, The X Files

The Poppins continue in Australia. Today, they’ve visited the Australian ancestors’ cultures and have listened to their stories with emotion. The Grandma has thought about her friend, Dana Scully, who did an interesting reflexion about time and second chances in life.

 We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. 

Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… 

and then we return home.

Australian Aboriginal saying

CONNECT IDEAS: CREATE A PLOT

Richard Castle & Kate Beckett

Today, The Poppins have continued their Australian travel. They’re visiting the most exciting places of the whole world. Australia is a paradise and the family enjoys it every day.

The Grandma has had an introspective day. It’s something normal when she’s far away from her home. She has been explaining some stories to her family, all of them with the same connection: no surrender against difficult moments.

The family has practised how to create a good plot with a good structure and connectors which offer the most important things in a text: cohesion, coherence and adequacy. It’s not something easy but it’s something necessary to write a good composition. The Grandma is a fan of writing and she continues the advice of an old friend, Richard Castle, who always says that “there’s always a story”.

By the way, Núria Poppins is still in Scotland and she’s going to join the family next week.

 Because if you don't even believe in the possibility of magic 

you will never ever find it.

Richard Edgar Castle

AUSTRALIA: A NEW HOPE

Today, The Poppins have arrived to Australia. All the family is going to spend some days in this country except Núria Poppins, who is still in Scotland for personal reasons.

First, the family has been talking about how they feel about policy system, which is disappointed, but they have hope in some organizations like Red Cross or CRAM, which work hard every day to improve our lives.

Finally, the family has decided to continue its travel into Australian lands and they’re visiting the most spectacular places and discovering the most incredible facts.

 

You must never so much think as whether you like it or not,
whether it is bearable or not;
you must never think of anything except the need,
and how to meet it. 

Clara Barton, American Red Cross Founder 

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: WHAT'S THE PRESSURE

Today, The Poppins have revised some new grammar like Prepositions of Time and Place, Too and Enough. They have been doing some exercises about Social English they have been writing about to search Nessie or not. 

It has been an intensive day because tomorrow, they’re preparing their songs to participate in Eurovision.

More information: Too & Enough

They have been talking about Salvador Dalí and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle two geniuses who changed painting and writing with his surrealistic pictures, the first, and with his fantastic character of Sherlock Holmes, the second.

More information: Prepositions of Time & Prepositions of Place

Next, they have been talking about security in the cities and strange situations which haven’t got any explication or meaning and about the importance of having as information as you can in all the aspects of life to try to have more possibilities of success.

Finally, they have discussed about kinds of pens and their advantages and disadvantages.

Tomorrow, the family is going to prepare Eurovision and they’re talking about the next travel to Australia.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. 

Herman Melville