Not so sure about Foreshore

It had been raining. We’d been warned that it would continue to rain. Everywhere, shops were sold out of plastic ponchos. I remained hopeful that the weather would clear and we’d have a great and just slightly damp day, while T2 remained a bit more sceptical. But, being Foreshore veterans, there was no way we weren’t going. And, we both turned about to be right about the weather…

I woke up the morning of Foreshore to go to a dreaded exam. There were dark clouds and it was spitting, and I was rugged up in a jumper and ugg boots. But, on the other side of the three hour time warp that is an exam, there was a miracle: sunshine! And heat! And the ground was relatively dry! Amazing. It was time to forget about the exam and put on some summer appropriate clothes!

Foreshore is a music festival which claims all kinds of fans with a number of stages, and a big open area. Some of the big artists this year were LMFAO, Gotye, Boy and Bear, and even Salt n Pepa! It was a line up to get excited about, and we’d bought out tickets mid-year. But, that’s not where the costs stop. Music festivals are synonymous with exorbitantly priced drinks and Foreshore is no different, so we had a few pre-drinks beforehand before heading down to Parkes with our tickets in hand.

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Jonathan Franzen at the National Library

I’d apparently lived under a rock for the past decade, because it wasn’t until late 2010 that I noticed a significant amount of worldwide media frothing with news of Jonathan Franzen’s latest work that my intrigue began.  Curiosity securely in place, I purchased an exorbitantly priced copy of Freedom at the 2010 Christmas sales and, after falling deeply in love with each exquisite page, I’d since devoured every other piece of his work I could get my hands on, including his 2001 work The Corrections and numerous articles at The New Yorker, growing ever more adoring.   It’s fair to say Jonathan Franzen has safely secured the title of ‘T1’s favourite author’: it’s not surprising that my excitement on hearing from the Riot Act that Jonathan Franzen was coming to the National Library on 14 September was palpable for weeks.