Does this qualify as a mid-life crisis?
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And for that matter, are we too old for a mid-life crisis? For if we’re now at mid-life point, it means we’re going to live to we’re 116. So many questions, so few answers.
In the past fortnight or so we’ve trodden on some unfamiliar ground. In our official capacity we paid our annual visit to the Manning Entertainment Centre (MEC). This was for the Australia Day ceremony. For those unaware of these things, the MEC was opened three decades ago this year. Given our staunch opposition to its construction, this correspondent vowed never to darken its door. From memory (and it was a long time ago), we declared publicly the money would have been better spent building a new footy ground, or something. We’ve kinda maintained the rage in the years since, with the Australia Day ceremony usually being our only appearance at the MEC. It’s to be hoped council moves the function back to the riverbank next year, but that’s a column for another day.
So anyway, there we were, in the rarefied atmosphere that is the MEC. Then, just last Saturday night, we at another cultural icon, the Glasshouse (we think that’s what it’s called. maybe it’s the Icehouse, whatever), at Port Macquarie. MEC one week, the place at Port Macquarie the next. What is going on here?
We’ve spent the greater majority of our time here on the planet happily lurching between football grounds, licensed premises and occasionally race tracks. We would rather have been tarred and feathered than be spotted trotting in and out of the MEC, let alone the Glasshouse.
So this new trend is certainly disturbing. What’s next? A visit to the art gallery? We know it’s in Macquarie Street, because we walk past it on the way to the Manning Hotel, although we’ve never felt the urge to divert our journey and head into the gallery.
Yikes, will this lead to us heading to the MEC later this year to watch the Taree Arts Council production of Les Misérables? The fact that we even know that Taree Arts Council will be putting on Les Misérables is in itself a major concern. We deftly managed to side step Taree Arts Council’s previous Les Misérables performance, some 20 years or more ago and until our recent foray into places of culture, we fully intended to do the same again in 2018. But now we can’t be sure. Theses are uncertain times.
However, we’re sure we’ll come to our senses in the fullness of time, as politicians are wont to say.
It’ll be footy season soon enough. We’ll be back in more familiar territory – places of learning including the Jack Neal Oval, Wingham Sporting Complex and the Old Bar Reserve. That’ll ensure we avert our mid life crisis. Or at least we can only hope.