More Dame Kiri

Just who does Dame Kiri think she is?

How could someone see themself as more important that Farnsey?

How could someone not like his concerts?

From Yahoo news ...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian firm is suing opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa for up to A$2 million (789,000 pounds) for pulling out of three scheduled concerts with pop singer John Farnham after she learnt his fans threw panties at him.

A Sydney court heard on Monday that Dame Kiri thought Farnham's live shows were "absolutely horrendous", according to the Australian Associated Press.

She had been scheduled to appear with Farnham in 2005 at Melbourne and Sydney concerts billed as "Two Great Voices", AAP said, but cancelled in March 2004 despite assurances by concert organisers Leading Edge Events that no underwear would be thrown on stage.

English-born Farnham, 57, is one of Australia's best-known performers with a career spanning four decades. But he lacks the international renown of New Zealand's Dame Kiri who sang at the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

Why would someone not want to appear on stage with the great Farnsey? I know I would love to perform a duet with him.

From the Sydney Morning Telegraph ...

KIWI diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is set to be the superstar witness in a Supreme Court trial in Sydney next week, accused of refusing to sing with John Farnham.The breach of contract case, which begins on Monday, will pit the opera great and her agent against Australian promoters Frank Williams and Eileen Newbury of Leading Edge Events, who were forced to cancel a series of concerts featuring Farnham and Te Kanawa two years ago. Tickets for the three shows, scheduled for the Domain in Sydney and Werribee in Victoria, were selling strongly with corporations, who rushed to buy tables at the concerts for $9500 each. Promoted as ``Two Great Voices,'' the naming rights alone were apparently set to bag Leading Edge Events $900,000. Te Kanawa's alleged no-show could cost the diva $300,000. At the time of the cancellation, reports suggested the Dame had complained Farnham was ``too chatty'' when performing on stage.

Malcolm Turnbull

Congratulations to Malcolm Turnbull on his promotion to Minister for the Environment.

It's always great to see a fellow man of the people with such a humble background succeed in life. I am sure he is also frugal and responsible in spending other people's money.

Top 200 Movers and Shakers

I have been shocked and disappointed by the attitude of The Mercury. Who would have thought that such a quality and highly respected tabloid newspaper could have published a list of Tasmania's Top 200 Movers and Shakers - The A List - and ranked Tim Franklin at a lowly number 132?

They didn't say that much about him either. This is a man who has met Prince Charles and probably Guy Sebastion as well! What more do they want?

But, nevertheless, I did learn something from the article. Apparently he used to be a DJ!

10th wedding anniversary

With the 10th wedding anniversary for the wife and I not too far away, she has been hinting at going overseas for a holiday.

Sounds very expensive to me. I can't see why we can't go back to the caravan park.

After doing a bit of investigation on the web, Fiji looks to be the cheapest option. There are big discounts on airfares and accommodation and it doesn't look like there will be a lot of other tourists around.

It looks like there are winners and losers in any coup.

20 / 20 Cricket

While I am not normally a sporting person, my daughter received a free ticket to the Tasmania v Victoria 20 /20 match on Friday afternoon. We turned up to the game and I got in for free on someone else's "buy one - get one free" ticket.

Fortunately rain washed out play so I got a $10 refund for my ticket and $5 back for the daughter's ticket.

Bargain! I am now far more interested in cricket.

Taste of Tasmania

Happy New Year to all my fellow frugal travellers on the discount road of life.

The Whitey Stuff is now into its second calendar year, but will probably be less frequent this year unless I increase the amount of regurgitation or plagiarism. But you never know.

Anyway, I took the wife and kids to the Taste yesterday. We went for the BYO option - vegemite sandwiches and a bottle of Matthew Lang Semillon Chardonnay 2006 - an adequate match. The year before I had picked up a couple of Taste wine glasses when someone on the table we were sharing with looked away, so we looked the part as usual.

We sat around at the table for a couple of hours and then watched all the buskers up until they started asking for money. Then we moved over to the Parliament gardens and I was quite impressed with the large TV they had there showing the cricket. While cricket doesn't interest me, it was free, so we stayed for a few more hours.

Given the thought of watching TV and not paying for the power, I was disappointed when we all returned later that night to watch McLeod's Daughters and the TV wasn't on. What a rip off.