Christmas Day

Christmas day was no less hectic despite Max's departure for Tamworth and the coast the day earlier. We had three separate engagements, first visiting Dot's friend Jane and two of her three sons for morning tea and nibbles. After a weight raising two hours, we then moved on to Dot's cousin Bob's house on a property called Springmount about 20km north of Armidale.

There must have been 25 people or so at this waist expanding Christmas lunch. In fact, there was so much food, that the left-overs would have fed Napoleon's entire army during its retreat from Moscow back to France in 1812. The lunch itself was held in some splendour amidst Bob's collection of antique furniture and Christmas memorabilia. Of special note, was his collection of perhaps 20 mechanical Santas who say ho ho and other things while nodding cheerfully in one's direction. These were augmented by several nativity scenes (being good catholics), hosts of angels, and lots of mock vegetation in the form of wreaths etc. See the accompanying photo.

Finally, in late afternoon, we returned home for a recovery session prior to heading iff next door to our neighbour, Christine Hunt. She had all her tribe around, including Kassandra and Michelle who grew up with Emily and Rebecca. Dot and Dick had to reluctantly bow out of this third extravaganza on account of tiredness, but I ventured forth to play Boules (French bowls) on their lawn.

However, that wasn't quite all for Christmas Day. I had a Skype session planned for 20.00, but that went belly up when the program refused to operate and I had to download the latest version. Alas, Phillip and Brian were eating breakfast in Plymouth by the time I got it working and somehow we never reconnected.

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second coming

Five days after leaving Canberra, Beck, Max and Rob turned up in Armidale for 4-5 days. It was a boisterous and tiring few days with Max at the helm and each day started with him climbing into our bed at 5.30 am. He spent his time thereafter:
* hunting for spiders and other insects (and associated entomological work)
* playing in various parks (with ever hair-raising and unintended use of equipment)
* shopping
* bush walks
* watching videos, and
* beating us at his favourite game of matching pairs of animal tiles laid face down.
I played him four or five times and only won once. He also received a variety of presents and went shopping for a few more, though he didn't quite realise they were for him. Once upon a time, young kids were in bed by 19.30, but Max managed to keep going for an hour or so longer.

The picture show Max hunting for lizards, tadpoles, and yabbies (crustaceans).

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Christmas a Week Early

As I had a meeting with my specialist in Newcastle last Friday, we decided to extend the trip to Canberra to see Emily and Greg for the first time since they returned from the US and meet up again with Beck, Rob and Max. Absence from the last-named gives us perpetual withdrawal symptoms.

It's not normally a difficult drive from Newcastle to Canberra because it is freeway conditions for most of the way and I had acquired an e-tag to navigate the toll roads around Sydney. An e-tag means avoiding toll-booths by paying fees electronically as you speed past instead. On this occasion, it poured heavily for most of the journey and the heavy spray made driving a nightmare. Still, we managed the journey in less than 5 hours.

Saturday was a shopping day for Christmas presents, including taking Max to his favourite store: Socrates! Socrates sells mind-bending games and toys for children and he scored a plane which flies long distances when you launch it correctly. And, on Sunday, Max came with us first to the Australian Museum and then the newly opened national portrait gallery. At the first, he designed his own future mode of transport on a computer and this was automatically uploaded to a film about a city of the future which we then went and saw. He had the pleasure of seeing his own 'plane' orbiting this city with a picture of Max on the back! And, at the portrait gallery, he went around ticking pictures off a card as he viewed them.



Later that afternoon, we went to Beck's house and assembled Max's Christmas gift from us, a trampoline, much to his delight (pictured). That evening we had an early Christmas meal and opened some of his presents before going outside to wave some sparklers around. This rounded off a hectic day for the VERY happy little man!



Yesterday, in wonderful driving conditions, Dot and I drove the whole distance from Canberra to Armidale in a shade under 8 hours (plus stops for R & R). That meant a shade under 95 kph average for the 756 km journey - a long way! That's the fastest we've ever done the journey.



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Earth Studies Building

Today we celebrated the official opening of our new academic home, the reconstructed earth studies building. We staged a large party addressed by the Dean, Margaret Sedgley and the VC, Alan Pettigrew, pictured in the centre.

In fact, this was a culmination of four years of effort on my part starting in early 2005 when, as the incoming head of school, I found that UNE's Council had funded our school $3 million for a new building. I quickly worked out with the head of Facilities Management, Mike Quinlan (in the blue shirt), that this sum would buy about half of our needs if we constructed anew and thta it would be better to spend the money on refurbishing an existing building. I soon found the heavily underutilised Geology building and proposed moving there to UNE's then business manager Graham Dennehy. UNE usually doesn't move fast, but on this occasion the message came back in 24 hours that I had a great idea.

A year of architectural work then ensued, whereby a user's group met with design and construction professionals to decide upon the building's optimal layout to fit us all in and conserve the necessary teaching and research spaces. This bought together staff from Geology, Geography and Planning, and Archaeology, as well as Facilities Management in an effective working group. The resultant plans were approved by the users and passed Armidale Council (the Mayor was there today also). The work was sufficiently complete for us to move in mid-2008 and we have spent the last 5 months fine-tuning our occupation.

The outcome is very good and my colleagues are happy. Today, I received a strong round of applause when the VC noted my driving role in making this outcome happen, and I basked in the warm glow of a job well done!

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Horrible? Wonderful? Conundrum

I discovered this morning that two conferences in which I normally participate annually are end on. The first is being held by the International Geographical Union Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems (IGUCSRS) and the second by the Pacific Regional Science Conference Organisation (PRSCO). I'm the Australia - Pacific representative on IGUCSRS steering committee and have attended every meeting for the last 14 years on every continent except North America ... and Antarctica ... and I've also organised two of its conferences in Australia, the only country to have held two meetings. I'm an organiser of the second conference and treasurer of the host organisation, The Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Organisation International (ANZRSAI). I've also only missed one ANZRSAI meeting in over 25 years and was also President of that organisation during the 1990s.

What's the problem you ask? Well, one runs from 13 to 18 July 2009 inclusive and the other from 19 to 22 July inclusive. I also feel that I must get to both because the host of the former is a very good friend, Lucka Lorber. And I have to get to the latter to attend the AGM (as ANZRSAI Treasurer) and one of the best meetings in its field in the world. PRSCO attracts delegates from China, japan, Korea, south-east Asia in general, ANZ, Canada, the USA (including I predict at least three heavies in whose homes I've stayed in the US, Mexico, Peru and so on ... i.e. the Pacific rim).

But there's a bigger problem. IGUCSRS is being held in Maribor and PRSCO in Surfers Paradise. Before you run to your atlases, I should point out that Maribor is in Slovenia (just north of the Adriatic) and SP is, of course, only 400 km from where I live here in Armidale. The destinations are separated by something like 18,000 km!

Nice problem. What would you do, assuming both are afforable? It makes getting to Darwin for the 2009 Planning Institute of Australia meeting look a doddle.


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Plympton

I hope that Brian and Daphne get to read this brief missive. We've just returned from Adelaide where I spent four days at a major international conference. Dot and her brother, Dick, came along for the trip too, but spent the days out and about in the Adelaide region visiting wineries, galleries and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, I was confined indoors at the Australian Wine Centre in the botanical gardens ... which wasn't so difficult to take.

I took part in a panel session, delivered a paper and chaired a session, which about the most that anyone did. The organising groups were the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association (of which I'm Treasurer) and the Australian Research Council Research Network in Spatially Integrated Social Science (ARCRNSISS). I'm also a member of the latter, which paid my travel, accommodation and registration fees! So, I had a good bargain.

What's all this to do with Plympton? Well, after the last conference session I took the tram from downtown to Glenelg on the Gulf of St Vincent. That's unremarkable, but half-way down the the 10 km to the beach I was stunned to find myself going through Plympton, which doesn't look anything like its UK namesake. In fact, the tram stopped at Plympton South and Plympton Park. Does anyone know how Plympton (OZ) came to get its name?

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Screwing

I have just spent an exhausting weekend screwing ... IKEA furniture. The job was easy enough; it's just that there was so much of it to do. Part of the problem was the fact that I bought so many doors to front the bookshelves. They involved some heavy screwing, especially of the hinges and then the adjustment screws.

It's just as well I had this job to do, mainly indoors, because the weather was awful. A fierce low pressure system, with the lowest central pressure I've ever measured on my barometer, was parked off the coast and created gale force winds that shredded leaves and branches off our trees. It was also 'freezing' cold here at about 13 degrees C compared with our normal temperatures around 23. These conditions were mild compared with those down south. In the Snowy mountains it ... snowed ... the heaviest falls of the year including winter and further south there were floods. Last week parts of Queensland had two successive storms with the power of a hurricane and something like 200 to 250 mm of rain. We had a lot of rain, too, but only about 75 mm (3 inches).

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Addendum to year one.

As an addendum to my last post (that's not a pun), today was officially Octidi, Vingt-neuf Brumaire in the French revolutionary calendar, and my morning tea was held at 4.38. That might seem an odd time in the morning to hold an event, but I'm operating on the revolutionary time system where there were 10 hours in a day and 100minutes in an hour!

By the way, I banned cake from my event because Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said about the starving French peasants: "let them eat cake". I didn't want to bring bad luck on the participants because Marie lost her head shortly afterwards in year 2.

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Year One

On 22 September 1792 the French monarchy was abolished and replaced with a republic. The French calendar was also amended on this day to be year one. The calendar also had twelve months, each divided into three ten-day weeks called décades. The tenth day, décadi, replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity. This arrangement left five or six extra days, which were placed at the end of each year. Each day was divided into ten hours containing 100 decimal minutes made up of 100 decimal seconds.

These innovations did not catch on and were scrapped within a decade. However, the time has come to revive at least one aspect of the French republican calendar. Today, 19th November 2008, I proclaim the end of year one under Australia's Armidale Calendar and there will be festivities to mark the occasion. Today marks exactly one year since my cardiac arrest and my first birthday party today celebrates a year of survival and recovery. There will champagne and caviar and cake to mark the occasion in the Earth Sciences tea-room at 10.30.

Emily very kindly sent me a first birthday card to celebrate this august occasion, though the picture on the front didn't quite match my chronological age and status! However, It's the thought that counts and I'm happy to receive such cards belatedly from anyone. So, I now embark on year two and only hope that this new epoch survives longer than the original republican calendar. Alas, I can find no way to revive a full decimal calendar despite the obvious productivity increases that would emerge from having a 10 day week with only one day of rest.

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A Meeting with Martin Luther King

This is my third posting of the day. While dining out on Brisbane's South Bank the other night with colleagues, discussion turned to 'famous' people we'd 'met' or at least had been in the presence of. I brought the house down so to speak when it was my turn to talk. The most famous person I'd met was ... Martin Luther King ... and the meeting was much more than the passing of two ships in the night, so to speak.

This story also ties in with the launch of QE II because both events were of the same vintage. MLK was in Newcastle (UK) for the award of an honorary doctorate after his award of the Nobel Peace Prize, and asked to meet some 'students'. I put up my hand immediately and, as treasurer of the student union, I was 'selected' along with another. This led to about 40 minutes alone with the great man ... and he was a GREAT man ... discussing the ins and outs of the struggle for economic and social improvement among America's black population via the civil rights movement.

It was an inspiring story, and one that I've followed for my entire adult life. MLK was eloquent, lucid, thoughtful, and quietly spoken on the outside, but obviously focused and determined, qualities at the core of his undoubted success. Perhaps Obama will carry on from where he left off and cement the rise of the US's minority groups to full participation on the centre stage.

My university days were inspiring because of such events. Does anyone else remember such historic and vivid occasions from their university days?

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Showing my Age

An uncomfortable milestone passed by this evening. The QE II has just gone into retirement after a distinguished service mainly on the Atlantic route. Well, ships are pensioned off every day, so what's the big deal?

A lot, as it happens. To start with, I was at the launch of the QE II on Clydebank over 41 years ago!! I had some Naval Architecture friends and they pulled strings to get invitations to the launch. They received one more than they needed and I was the lucky recipient. So, it was off to Scotland for the day and my vantage point was spectacular. I stood next to the drag chains attached to the hull about mid-ships and under the towering vessel.

I can remember the launch in great detail ... wouldn't you? It was also accompanied by a considerable degree of official falsification!!! The Queen said "I name this ship the QE II" and there was a large groan from the crowd because "Winston Churchill" was the pre-race favourite. The groan was edited out of the TV replay. Then ... nothing happened. As if in protest, the ship refused to go down the slipway for 10 minutes whilst workers near me desperately tried to free her. Then, slowly she acclerated down the slipway until the drag chains halted her progress towards the opposite bank of the river Clyde. Strangely, the news clippage showed the bottle of champagne hitting the bow followed immediately by the ship sailing!!!

Anyway, I followed the QE II's career with some interest and I'm mollified by her new career in the Gulf as a floating (?) hotel. The downside of all this is that it reminds me of my age. Ugh! Forty-two years is a long time.

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IKEA IKEA

There are many benefits of living in a small community, but some deficits. One is access to stores like IKEA selling inexpensive but practical and well designed furniture. On Monday and Tuesday I had to attend a research meeting at Griffith University in Brisbane just up the road from that city's IKEA outlet and I decided to combine the two events.

It would cost my research grant c. $450 to fly me to Brisbane (via Sydney) so I decided to hire a 1 tonne Toyota Hilux truck for the same price and drive it to Brisbane. Indeed, the 5 hour road trip is about the same or even less than the equivalent air trip after adding in all the time waiting in air terminals and getting to the various airports!

After our meeting ended at lunch-time yesterday, I and a colleague (Jim Walmsley), whose son Adam works with IKEA in Brisbane, went to the showroom and bought 16 flatpacks of shelving and other items. I'd done my homework and had the codes and prices of all items, so finding them was easy. Loading them on the truck was more difficult and I needed help from Adam to do that as some of the packs were fiendishly heavy.

After that, it was home James driving a now very heavy vehicle 1000m up several mountains back to Armidale. The vehicle did this willingly and with only one mishap. One of the straps holding the load snapped spectacularly, and I combed the road for a while looking for the remains. This wasn't a freeway but a winding back road I was taking as a short-cut. Fortunately, the other strap held and the weight of the contents ensured they did bounce over the edge. I did the 460km trip in a little over 5 hours, not bad when half the trip was in the dark.

Now I have assemble the contents, but that awaits the weekend.

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Tan Kok Yang's Visit

For two days last week we hosted Tan Kok Yang (family name first), one of my successful doctoral candidates. He's now a successful Singaporean businessman working in the field of Urban Noise, but did his PhD on the Singaporean housing market.

We had a good time together, and among the places we visited was this Aboriginal rock art site at Yarrowyck, just west of Armidale. Here's TKY taking photos of the site at the base of a rock overhand part way up Mt Yarrowyck. It was an enjoyable way to spend time!

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In Response to Public Demand

I've been asked to put up a picture of me in my Obama 08 T-shirt. I can do better, with pictures of me wearing both the T-shirts I own.

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Picked the Winner

I'm rather proud of myself for having picked the winner of the US Presidential election 9 months ago! Last February, I backed Barack for the presidency on the back of his educational standing, world view, eloquence, and refreshing approach to policy as a Washington outsider. I held to this view throughout the campaign and stand vindicated. Indeed, my reading of his fascinating autobiography, Dreams from My Father, served to confirm his standing in my view.

In anticipation of his victory, I wore my Obama 08 T-shirt to work today, and around town this afternoon. It was an eerie trip through the shopping centre as people approached me with thumbs up, slaps on the back, a hi-five, and encouraging remarks!! These came after about 3 pm as the results became known. In fact, I felt a little like Obama himself. I also found his acceptance speech in Chicago a marvellous piece of oratory and suspect that he could be in the same league as Lincoln. Hopefully, he will not end up as Lincoln as some fanatic decides to terminate his life prematurely! And that reminds me that I had the privilege of a private audience with Martin Luther King 6 months before his assassination. Seriously, I met with him and one other student for 40 minutes alone in room over 40 years ago and we discussed the US civil rights movement and its tactics and strategy.

King and Lincoln are two of my heroes and I'd hate it if Barack ends up the same way. Everyone has interpreted his win as heralding a seismic shift in US foreign and domestic policy, a view that will surely be correct if his presidency realises full potential. The remarks stem from my deep understanding of US politics, economy and society shaped over the last 50 years through the study of at least 12 presidential elections, numerous visits to North America, and dozens of friends and acquaintances. Indeed, I've visited the US five times in the last four years or so!

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Back to Winter?

This Spring has been rather wetter than usual and at times decidedly cool. The last few days have been dull and overcast with occasional rain, but today brought what we call English weather. It's blowing a gale and rain is lashing down from a dark grey sky, which is unpleasant. It's also feeling cold, though the forecast is for 21C, not bad for what would be early May in the UK. Although we haven't had one yet, there have been severe thunderstorms north of us towards the Queensland border. Beck, is driving through that region today en route for Toowoomba and we'll see her tomorrow afternoon on her way south.

However, this weather has its up-side, apart from making the farmers happy. The grass is green for miles around and many of the local rivers are flowing strongly. Also, we're in the traditional bush-fire season, but there's no hint of a fire around here.

Talking of tomorrow, one of my former doctoral students is turning up in Armidale to see me. Given that he's a Singporean business-man runnning a private consultancy in acoustical engineering, he's likely to find the weather depressing. I hope it clears up for him.

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Magpie Nesting Season

Australia has magpies, but they're a different species to the UK bird of the same name. Ours are large and quite unafraid of humans ... and cats ... as this story shows.

Magpies are black and white currawongs, one of the birds to benefit greatly from 220 years of European settlement. Thye're everywhere and don't seem to have too many enemies. They also sing beautiful songs.

That's the good bit. One of their less endearing habits is to attack humans fearlessly during nesting season, which is in full swing now. And their preferred target is (drum roll) a cyclist. They're extremely territorial and a cyclist entering their territory is fair game. Now, there's a spot at the junction of Elm Avenue and Trevenna road at the entrance to the university where a family has taken up residence and I am attacked every day at the same spot. Usually, one of the pair of adult magpies dives me repeatedly, clawing my helmet and trying to knock me off. I can take this most of the time, but they raised their skills to new heights on Tuesday (yesterday).

The clever little balls of feathers decided to attack me simultaneously, coming in low instead of from a high tree branch. I can take one attacker, but it's much more difficult to fend off one from each side and both coming from behind. One of the birds didn't just claw at my helmet, but scratched my face. I arrived at work 5 minutes later dripping pools of blood! Some even ran down my clothes making a mess.

What would you do? I complained to the occupational safety office and got a quick response. Yes, the birds are an acknowleged hazard. Could they be captured and moved? No. Could they be eliminated? Yes, if I wanted that! It's now up to me. What would you do? Kill the parents and leave the youngsters or eggs in the nest? Or take a longer and hillier route?

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Do you like bees?

There was great alarm and interest just outside the building where I work when someone spotted this;



It seems that a queen bee decided to quit her existing hive and took her harem with her. En route, they decided to take up residence in some poor bloke's 4WD just outside my office. This picture was taken by our German student at midday and I rushed out to see the event ... but didn't go too close just in case they preferred me to the car.

I left my office an hour later and forgot to check out the scene. I suppose they were still there by late afternoon.

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Oh to be in Armidale

It has been a magnificent Spring in Armidale, with just the right combination of rain and warmth to make the garden looking its best .. with the added bonus of a little bit of TLC from Dot and me. The early introduction of daylight saving in a welcome experiment has given us opportunities to work late in the garden. The local birds are also having fun as we keep topping up Emily's thatched bird feeder hanging high in a tree. It brings flocks of finches into the garden and lots of parrots from the big King Parrots to eastern rosellas.

One bush in the front garden which has struggled to survive is a wonderful azalea, but this yet it has blossomed spectacularly as the picture shows.

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A trip to Narrabri

It's a little while since I made a posting, but not because of a dearth of things to say. I'm just so busy I don't know whether I am coming or going. Two weeks ago I was in Sydney. This week I, Bernice (my grant partner) and our project manager Ron Reavell headed off to Narrabri for a couple of days to attend an unusual conference. Narrabri is on the Namoi river, a major tributary of the Darling system, about 3.5 hours drive from here. That's roughly equal to 350 km and that takes you into another world. To the west, the landscape is as flat as a tack ... a world of large farms, research institutes and a very large (5 km long) array of telescopes. To the east is Mt Kaputar, a not so little pimple of 5200 feet (1600 m).

And what took us to Narrabri? It's home to the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre (CCC CRC)who've just funded us to the tune of $200,000, and we were invited to a research showcase of project's they've selected. And it was my pleasure to talk about our proposal and what we've done already to profile economy and society in the 19 local government areas with a strong cotton presence. This isn't particularly strange, but our audience was. To start with, 98 out 100 projects are hard science and our attentive (?) audience consisted of plant geneticists, chemists, hydrologists (cotton is mostly an irrigated crop and plays havoc with drainage and stream flow), environmental scientists, climatologists and others. It's the first time that I've addressed such an audience, but I was able to lace the presentation with some heavy statistics that some of them might have appreciated. I gave the presentation and nothing fell over, which was good.

I dressed up for the occasion, which meant jeans and a shirt rather than shorts and t-shirt which is my normal academic gear. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when I got there to find that I was wearing club uniform. Just about all the scientists looked like me! As an aside, I'm reminded of a strange statistic. The location in Australia with the highest per capita concentration of PhD degrees is not Sydney's eastern suburbs or north shore, nor Armidale, but Narrabri. That's because of all the agriculture research stations and the telescope!

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Summer Time

Normally Australia moves on to summer time at the end of October, but this year the government is introducing it 4 weeks early as an experiment. That's fine with me because I prefer extra daylight in the evening.

I presume that the UK is still on summer time for a few more weeks, so the time difference is now 10 hours for a while until that becomes 11 in November.

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Taken for a Ride

Have you ever been really frustrated and infuriated? A colleague and I had just flown to Sydney for a day last Wednesday and we decided to hire a cab to get to Sydney University for our meeting. We got in and the vehicle itself was fine as we told the driver where we wanted to be.

Nothing odd about that, but the response was odd! "Where's that?", said the driver in somewhat halting English! Well, Neil and I glanced at each other in astonishment as SU is one of Sydney's landmarks and it's very close to the city centre. The traffic was heavy during the morning rush hour and what followed next was frightening. Our driver got out his street directory and proceeded to drive with it balanced on his knee and a finger flipped the pages and as he scanned them. The other hand was on the steering wheel much of the time, except for when he wanted to adjust the GPS.

As we alighted at our destination in one piece I was tempted to make a rude remark like the following: "I know you arrived in Australia last Sunday, but what time last Sunday?" But I stopped in my tracks. He probably wouldn't understand what I was saying and probably wouldn't follow local humour. Thankful to still be alive, we wandered off into the campus.

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Max Was Here

I'm in recovery mode after Max, Beck and Dot departed for Canberra earlier this morning. I'd forgotten how demanding and tiring a 4 yo can be especially when they're as energetic as he is. He constantly wanted to play in the park, build LEGO (we supplied 5 kits in a week and he, perhaps I should have said I, constructed everything from spacecraft to racing cars and a truck), water the cats (sorry garden), have books read to him, look for spiders and snails, hide from us, visit shopping centres and so on. We used to push about in a stroller at our speed, but that's been discarded in favour of running ahead of us as fast as he can go ... which is fast even by my standards.



The reason for the visit was Beck's residential school in connection with her Masters of Resource Management It was only a 4 day school, but they spent 6 full days with us and 7 nights. They flew up late on Sunday 14th September after Beck's team won their division in the Grand Final earlier that morning. I didn't know that her team was sponsored by the Croatian community ... she's an honorary Croatian! Max missed out on this triumph, preferring to go to a birthday party instead. Today, they departed by road on a 10.5 hour drive to Canberra as Dot wants to visit Floriade ... the city's Spring Festival. She'll be back here next Friday, just before Emily and Greg get back from the US. They're leaving Yellowstone today (Oz time) for the comforts of Hawaii.

Yesterday, we took Max to Armidale's SLEX (Sustainable Living Expo). You don't have ot be a genius to work out what this is all about and it was quite an interesting way to spend a morning, not that Max was interested in any of the exhibits except when they offered free balloons.

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Concert?

We were due to attend a Musica Viva concert in Armidale last night (Saturday 13th), but things didn't quite go to plan ... and it wasn't my fault! Two of Australia’s rising musical stars, Feng Ning & John Chen joined forces to perform the piano - violin works of Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Dvorak, and Wieniawski. Feng Ning’s first prizes in the Michael Hill (New Zealand) and Paganini (Italy) violin competitions have led to invitations to perform across the world. John Chen became the youngest-ever winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2004 and competed in the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.

They performed magnificently ... what we heard of them because we arrived in time for the interval and missed the Mozart and Beethoven! Unfortunately, Judy, who bought the tickets, was convinced that the performance began at 8.00 and we were booked in then to a restaurant in town before heading out to UNE's Madgwick Hall. Alas, the concert began at 7.00 and we missed the first half.

The performances of the Dvorak, Debussy and Wieniawski showed excellent control and subtlty in works of considerable difficulty and we were shell-shocked that we had missed so much. Alas, there was no way to get half our money back!

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Added Pictures

I've beefed up some of my recent posts with appropriate (?) pictures of the places mentioned.

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Tara

On my last half day of freedom before returning home, I had a choice of a dozen different destinations, none too far from the airport lest something go wrong! I mean far in the Australian sense, not Irish!

My choice was inspired ... as was the weather. The destination was Tara, a location possibly recessed somewhere in your minds ... as it was in mine. I associated Tara with legends of Irish culture and a seat of power. And so it proved. The Hill of Tara is in Meath, towards Cavan in the north. And hill it is by Irish standards, with vast vistas from the top. To the northeast lay the River Boyne, site of the famous battle where William of Orange cemented his hold of Ireland at the expense of James II and, I might add, the Catholic congregation of Ireland. To the west lay the flat and boggy lowlands of the centre, and distant in the south were the Wicklow Mountains, all bathed in sunlight.

If those views and associations were beautiful and inspiring, the events at Tara were much more so. First, I should explain, there is no village or township at the site. Indeed, it is 'barren' save a church apparently associated with St Patrick's role in Ireland. Perhaps I'll qualify 'barren'. The area is a field covered in sheep, but not just any old field. The site has been occupied for 5000 years, and that passage of time has left it covered with processional trenches, barrows, monuments, and a mass of sometimes intersecting defensive positions: mounds and ditches.

This was a, possibly THE, cradle of Irish and Celtic civilisation, where kings were crowned, territories administered, rituals devised and enacted, and the dead honoured. And, the nearby church served as an interpretative centre. There, I saw a short 20 minute film which impressively recreated the life and culture of Tara over all those years ... the first church I have been in that had electrically operated blinds on the windows and an automatically unfolding screen! By the way, the blind at the end covered an exquisite stained glass window.

So, my trip to Ireland lasting just 7 days came to a superb end. Dot doesn't know this yet, but I'm taking her back there before long to share in the magical scenery and sometimes quaint culture. Certainly I learned a few words of Gaelic like Baile (town) which explains Bally this and Bally the other! I also leaned the words for slow down, caution, give way and stop ... necessary in a part of the world where English is relegated not just to second place but abolished from signage altogether.

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Maynooth and Dublin

You may not have heard of Maynooth about 25 km out of Dublin, but now have in a big way. I arrived in this little town on Wednesday (two days ago) to give a seminar at the branch of the National University of Ireland there. To my surprise, my accommodation was in university accommodation housing what I presume is a Catholic Seminary ... at least in part. There was a huge chapel, about the size of some cathedrals and enclosed cloisters adorned with the pictures of various bishops, cardinals, and other senior clerics My room was apparently reserved for the Bishop of Cashel, who visits periodically, and therefore suitably grand. I was told, but this unconfirmed, that John Paul II stayed in that same room when he opened facilities at the university early in his Papacy!

I took the opportunity to have a day off and travelled into Dublin on a commuter train. 'Day off' might not be the right term, because I walked for almost 8 hours during the day and must have been doing some penance because it wasn't till I got to Connolly Street station for the return trip that I realised I hadn't drunk anything or eaten since breakfast. Perhaps that's because the journey of discovery was riveting.

I 'did' the regeneration of Dublin's docklands, the banks of the Liffey, the length of O'Connell St and perused its role in Irish history, the shopping district (Abbey, Henry, Mary, and other streets), Parnell Square, Jameson's Distillery, and a host of grand public buildings. Oh, I also spent some time in the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art and viewed sundry statues including a marvellous one of James Joyce. Dublin is an evocative city and I learned much about Irish history in the process.

For once, the Irish weather was kind and I actually saw the sun!!

AS

Connemara

This is a truly wonderful place and recommend a visit soon. It's a place where a large and variegated sky (with hues in many shades of blue, white and gray) meets the sea and vast expanses of rock dotted with cottages, sheep, jetties, and wildflowers. Interspersed lie great lumps of rock protruding into the sky. The roads are narrow ... often track, but in this place it adds to the fun.



AS

Achill Island

I spent today somewhere new again. This time it was Achill Island on the west coast of Ireland, near Westport in Co Mayo whwere I'm staying a couple of days. Being Ireland, it poured with rain! But being Ireland, the coastal scenery along the edge of the Atlantic was absolutely magnificent ... in fact overwhelming. Mountains like Slieve Mor (672m) plunge straight into the ocean and have massive sea cliffs. I can recommend this destination to all!



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Stately Homes

Much of this week was taken up with visiting a range of stately homes in the Plymouth area.

Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele built a new home in his deer park at Mount Edgcumbe in 1547-53, but it was heavily damaged by bombing in the Second World War because it is across the Tamar river from the Plymouth Naval Dockyard. It was restored by the 1960s!



Cotehele is a Tudor house, located on the banks of the Tamar, with superb collections of textiles, armour and furniture, set in extensive grounds. It was built between 1485 and 1539 and is older than the first site. Both houses are connected with the same family.

Finally, we visited 'Antony' at Torpoint in Cornwall. This hs been home to the Carew Pole family and the Pole Carew family (yes, the names got reversed over time!) for a mere 600 years and we caught a glimpse of THE Carew Pole wandering through the house. He was dressed almost as casually as me and not like a peer of the realm! The house, however, was a 'new' one constructed in the 18th century.

Perhaps I should mention a fourth residence. When we visited Padstow to see Joanna, Martin and the kids camping there at McDonald's farm, we took a side trip to Port Isaac, and came across a curiously familiar Cornish fishing village, although I'd never actually been there in my life. The familiarity comes from being a fan of Doc Martin, the BBC television series about a country doctor. The show is filmed at Port Isaac and we saw the house and thew sloping street where his surgery is located!! It was amusing to read that the locals are up in arms over the TV series - a fourth series is coming soon - because it has 'ruined' their charming lifestyle by encouraging lots of visitors ... including us and many others.



It's a pity I can't post pictures of these either! But I'll try to make amends whwen I get home.

AS

Joanna's 30th

I returned from Spain on an EasyJet flight from Barcelona to Bristol, and although the flight was delayed an hour, I still made it to Brian's house in Plymouth for the party last Sunday 10 August.

It was good to meet some of Martin's relatives who were there and Aunt Hazel, who is almost the last of her generation still alive. And, of course, Lucy and Hollie were noisily in the audience. In fact, I'd have posted a picture of the happy mum and her kids but for the fact the hotel wireless system wouldn't let me. So, that's another time!

We were still eating the remnants of the cake 5 days later as I prepared to leave for Westport in Co Mayo, Ireland, from where this posting is being made.

AS

And so to Barce

The last day in Spain paralleled the others in exhaustion and exhilaration! It started with a two hour drive back to Zaragoza, yet another three hours walking the city, and a quick trip to Barcelona by train. Some train! The 320 km via Tarragona took about 1 hour 40 minutes and you can probably work out the average speed including stops was up around 200 kmh. The top speed reached was a round 300 kph, but all one heard at that speed was a gentle swish. The train did not rock and just glided through space while the passengers lounged in comfortable seats. It sure beat flying.



Late afternoon I was out and about Barce's streets and underground. The latter was extensive, cheap and convenient. I really only had time for two destinations before buying food for a meal in my hotel overlooking the spectacular Catalonian museum and the former Olympic site. First, I joined thousands of others cramming the Sagrada Familia, the world's most famous incomplete church and possibly the world's best known piece of architecture. I concur with these assertions and I would also have to say that it's an architectural masterpiece of astounding proportions. Whatever your religious views, visit it while you're still alive and you will not be disappointed. I lingered in awe much longer than I anticipated.



After God came Mammon. It took the form of La Rambla, a 2 km sequence of streets leading from Spain's equivalent of Nelson's Column to the Catalonian Square inland. The figure atop the column - much higher than Nelson's - is the city's favourite son, Christopher Columbus, and he gazes out over the harbour towards the Mediterranean and across the modern World trade Centre. La Rambla was a mad-house last Saturday evening. Although not good at estimating crowd numbers, I'll have a go. Perhpas 200,000 partying people were strewn across the 2km of street, visitng bars and restaurants, theatres and an opera house, all kinds of shops including those with a sexual orientation, and soaking up street theatre. It was difficult to make progress through the tide of often scantily clad humanity. At least I had a sort of shirt on and my shorts were roughly around my waist, but many of the men didn't and the girls left little to the imagination!



And so my hectic visit to Spain drew to a close. What a time! And I'd definitely like to go back. Any takers?

AS

And in the Other Direction

We went for another three days to Teruel, also in Aragon. This was a pleasant and sizeable country town of about 30,000 people - and almost 2.5 x the size of Jaca. It was also lower and warmer, and in the middle of a farming region. Once again, it was replete with historic buildings, pleasant squares, and scenic walks.

I will always remember one field trip to nearby regions, however. Towards Madrid the landscape became dry and deeply etched, with abandoned farms, fields and houses creating an air of depression. However, the region contained some exquisite gems and I'll note two of them. The Albarracin Cultural Park had some rock art dating back to c. 6,000 BC ... rather old ... in a craggy landscape. And the town of Albarracin was magical. It is a National Monument dating back to Moorish times over 100 years ago and containing a virtually intact and unspoilt medieval settlement. It also occupies a magnificent site high above a huge meander in the river which acted as an impregnable defence. Just to make sure, the town has two sets of almost intact walls to keep out invaders snaking across rugged hill-tops.

Within these walls lie scores of attractive houses and public buildings dating back hundreds of years, lots of little shops, squares with cafes, and cobbled streets. Everywhere the visitor turns there are gorgeous views, as scores of photos I took attest. If you get the chance, pay it a visit!

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Jaca

The first three days of the IGU meeting were held in Jaca. I will not bore you with the papers and their discussion, except to say that mine was delivered without mishap on the first morning. Indeed, I gather that I had simultaneous translation into Spanish.

Jaca became a whirl of papers, long (2.5 hours) lunches, early morning walks around the town to take photographs, and late night banquets. The Siesta postpones evening meals until after 9.00 pm, and so I found myself going to bed at 12.00 and getting up at 6.00. This became wearing after a while, but the contrasting high of touring an historic city (known to exist in 1000) and spectacular landscapes was a substantial antidote.

Jaca is on the edge of the Pyrenees and near the Gallego river system draining the high (3,300 metre) moutain range. Despite the heat of the valley (30+ degrees) snow lingered on the peaks. We spent a day in the mountains admiring the scenery, and inspecting the resorts and facilities (apartments, chalets, chair-lifts and other paraphernalia. The cool air was welcome, and no doubt a relief to the cattle and sheep on the high pastures. If my knowledge of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy is correct, the farmers would earn all their income and more from subsidy!!

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Arrival in Zaragoza

After an uneventful late afternoon flight from London (Stanstead) a week or so ago (2August), Ryanair deposted me in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza. The city, whose name is a corruption of Ceasar Augusta, lies in Spain's Aragon region. It was nearly dark on arrival, so I caught a taxi to my hotel and flopped into bed. After all it was an exhausting day, what with loading furniture to take to Elly's new House in Surbiton, driving there from Poole, and then heading off clockwise around the congested M25 to find the airport in question.

I had most of Sunday in Zaragoza to myself prior to catching a bus to Jaca late in the afternooon where I was to attend a week-long meeting of the IGU Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems. So, I set out early to avoid the later afternoon heat typical of northern inland Spain. The city centre was suprisingly interesting and historic, but compact despite the city's population of about 700,00 -the fifth largest in Spain. With a Roman name, it was not difficult to find Roman remains, inlcuding part of the wall and what appeared to be an amphitheatre under excavation. The banks of the broad Ebro river were green and pleasant to amble along, or even take a rest. But the Catholic Church provided many of the focal points of interest. The cathedral called Nuestra Señora del Pilar ("Our Lady of the Pillar") was monumental in every sense: size, decorations, and frescos - one reputedly by Goya.

While walking around, I encountered several markets, with one next to the bull-ring looking like multiple garage sales and attracting thousands in search of a bargain. Nearby, a large castle or palace called the Aljafería is one of several Moorish remains in the city. 'Remains' is probably not the right word, because the castle houses Aragon's parliament! It was also the site of Verdi's Il Trovatore. Something strange happened at about 2.30 pm and I recalled a similar event experienced in Lisbon several years ago. Slowly the streets emptied and by 3.00 I was one of very few people resembling mad dogs and Englishmen!! In short, it was Siesta time ... something I couldn't get used to all week.

As the evening came on, I met with about 20 colleagues from all over the world at Zaragoza's Delicias Station. First to greet me was someone familiar, my colleague Neil Argent all the way from the University of New England!! We were followed by many other nationalities: Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgian, French, Slovenian, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Turkish, Czech, Moroccan and so on. The wonderful thing about these conferences is the mixing of nationalities in a friendly way. By the way, Delicias was a wonderful piece of modern architecture housing some very modern trains capable of 300 kph en route to Barcelona. Two hours later, we arrived safely in Jaca.

AS

A Whirlwind Week

I just can't slow down, however ill I've been, and this week is testimony to this. On Monday, I left home on a 31 hour odyssey to Poole and Plymouth in the UK prior to taking off tomorrow for Zaragoza in Spain. Despite the long trip and 9 hour time shift I was running around all day on the Tuesday and Wednesday was even faster paced.

I arose on Wednesday at 6.00 for a brisk (fast?) run-walk to Bournemouth Pier and back. That took an hour for the c. 8 km. Phillip and I then spent the morning walking on Brownsea Island in Poole harbour, which is the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney's. The island is famous having been where Baden Powell set up the scouting movement and it was still crawling with lots of young people camping out in not-so-good weather. The island is notable for its wildlife and we had the luck of seeing a red squirrel on one of its last refuges.

We had to run to catch the ferry back to the mainland and lunch with cousin Eric and his wife Sue. They have moved to Christchurch (near Poole, where Phillip lives) and it was good to catch up with them again. Believe it or not, our previous meeting was in Canberra, Australia last April! After lunch, I met briefly with a long-standing friend, Richard Snow, who also lives in Poole, before Phil and I departed to play a game of bridge that evening at the Christchurch bridge club, one of the strongest in the region. Well, Phil hadn't played for two years and we'd only played once before many years previously. Unsurprisingly I had to learn his system (ACOL) which I hadn't played for years. With this background, I hoped we would come in the top half of the field. Well, we won with a 63% score, roughly 3% ahead of second, north-south. That was some achievement!

After a sound sleep I went for another walk over the same course before driving with Phil to Plymouth, a 3 hour journey over crowded roads. The reason for the visit was to go to Opera in the Park ... an extravaganza at a local country house on the edge of Dartmoor. That was the theory! In practice it was bucketing with rain much of Thursday and the event was transferred to a tiny church in Cornwood ... also on the edge of Dartmoor ... just a few km from where my niece, Joanna, lives at Lutton. Moreover, it's the church where she was married five years ago! One defect with the church as a venue was the columns holding up the roof! The other was its inability to accommodate the 400 ticket-holders because the pews held <300!>

Now to the performance. It was Verdi's Rigoletto, performed by a local amateur group augmented by some talented professionals. I thought it was well done, though the set was strange. Instead of 19th century dress, the setting was Mussolini's fascist Italy and Il Duce himself put in an appearance. For the record, there were two Australians in lead roles! After a quick visit to Plymouth's aquarium this morning and a trip to the Hoe (where Drake played bowls before going out to beat the Spanish Armada), it was off to Poole. Luckily we had time with Joanna's two daughters, Lucie and Hollie. Come to think of it, perhaps I had better keep quiet about this part of the trip when I get to Spain!

AS

Frost-bite Pairs

Today, I participated in my first bridge tournament in the our new club-house and since my cardiac arrest. The club had its first Frost-bite pairs trophy over two sessions starting at 9.30 am and going through to 5.30 pm. I partnered Barbara Gates, my usual partner at the club, and for our first session together against top regional competition.

Well, we came third out of the 30 pairs taking part, so it was a good day's work. But it was also a great social event, with several pairs visiting from Tamworth (110 km away) and excellent catering by the house committee. The hands were really tough and were generated randomly by the dealing machine I donated to the club. The machine also generated hand records - good for showing where we went wrong!

AS

Out of the Frying Pan ...

We arrived home 9 days ago after our, very warm, sojourn in Baltimore to the chill of an Australian winter and the heat of an 8 day visit from Max with his mother, Beck, in tow! Max is a one-man whirl-wind, a bundle of energy and curiosity, precocious in his ability to inquire and mix with others, and amazingly worldly wise. So the visit was simultaneously tiring and inspiring, with a lot of the burden falling on Dot.

Beck, herself, was here to attend a residential school for one of the units in the Mater of Natural Resource Management program she is taking part-time. As a result, she spent 6 working days at UNE, three of which were a field trip into the coal mines of the Hunter Valley. I was also committed to various meetings at the university, which left Dot to amuse Max. Fortunately, it was school holidays and various events were conducted in nearby shopping centres to amuse the kids of working parents, and Max spent quite a while modelling with play-dough. Fortunately, too, the weather was mostly fine and he frequented various parks with their play equipment. He also spent quite a while watering the garden (and the house), but not the cats who had the good sense to steer clear.

And, of course, we had to buy him toys, scoring two Leggo kits, one a transformer with a million small bits to put together and another humanoid. He has this fascination with robots and strange beings, not to mention dinosaurs. So I spent a lot of time assembling Leggo - one set we bought was for 7 year olds which he couldn't assemble but had heaps of fun using once I had done the job.

Now the house is deathly quiet and the cats have come in !! I think I'd rather have Max around.

AS

Washington Here We Come

We always wanted to see the sights of Washington, but, apart from a quick streak through the centre 10 days ago, we left our visit to last. As usual, it was a full on day and crammed a lot in, with the result that Dot nearly expired in the heat.

We drove to the outskirts (at Greenbelt) and caught the green line subway to the centre. Succession we visited the:

sculpture garden

Smithsonian's Natural History Museum (with dinosaur skeletons and reconstructions)

Washington Monument

Jefferson, FDR, and Lincoln Memorials (and some war memorabilia in between)

Mall

White House (for look from the outside) and the nearby White House museum

Capitol Building (again from the outside), and

Smithsonian's museum dedicated to native Americans

These monuments and buildings are no doubt familiar to most of you, so I will not spend time describing them. Most live up to reputation and expectations, partly because the US is good at managing its ceremonial spaces. Dot had not seen the sights previously, but I was able to update and enrich my impressions from 4 years ago when I spent time at George Mason university at Fairfax in Virginia ... just outside Washington.

Then we retraced our steps as far as Arundel Mills (a huge shopping mall where we opened out wallets later in the evening). Dinner came at 10 pm! I have to say that Em and Greg's GPS system was wonderful in navigating a mass of freeways. The machine provides a bird's eye view of the terrain you are travelling with the roads superimposed and updates position and distance continuously. It also talks to you about impending turns and the best lanes to take!

AS

Independence Day

Last Friday was Independence Day, 4 July. Time has flown so fast that I've made two posts on other matters since then, but I would amiss not to report briefly on the national holiday.


In practice, we didn't do much that day apart from have some rest, go shopping, prepare for and attend a party, and position ourselves for the finale ... the inevitable firework display. Some heavy showers during the afternoon left us (a) wondering whether the event would occur and (b) whether the barges carrying the fireworks would be relocated. In the end, the rain held off and there were two barges at different locations forcing us to rotate on the spot to witness them all. Our party including several of Greg's Australian colleagues.

I include a couple of pictures of the fireworks.



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And on the Second Day was Fallingwater

On the Sunday we pushed on further into western Pennsylvania to the region of Ohiopyle on the banks of the Youghiogeny River (you'll never guess how to pronounce those). The target was Fallingwater. This is not any old house, but one of the finest pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture built in the 1920s for a wealthy merchant of Pittsburgh as his rural retreat. The house is spectacular in every way: its design, furnishings, functionality, innovation, and blending of home and environment in great harmony.

I have visited FLW's family compound at Spring Green in Wisconsin and seen his brilliant Taliesin. This was equally as good and constructed in a beautiful landscape alongside waterfalls over which the home is built in cantilever fashion. The furnishings were mostly FLW originals in good condition, along with art works from around the world, including excellent Japanese woodblock prints like the ones we have at home.

We took an official guided tour which was excellent as we delved into FLW's thinking and innovation. This was a spectacular day which included travelling across the ridges and valleys of the Allegheny Mountains on one of the country's most scenic roads. After touring the house and grounds we lunched at Ohiopyle and walked the banks of the Youghiogheny (yokageny).

The pictures show the house (and Emily) and the Youghiogheny.

Gettysburg, 1863

The historians among you may connect the place and date given as a pivotal event in the US nation. Last Saturday marked the 145th anniversary of the Union's defeat of the Confederacy, and we travelled to Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania for a historical reenactment of three battles.

This was no small event. Both the battle and the reenactment took three days, though we participated in only one. We booked seats in a large stand to witness battles and other events over more than three hours. The number of troops on the field in front of us totalled over 12,000. Yes, you read that correctly, and many were on horseback, including General Custer who later met a sticky end at Little Bighorn. They were accompanied by artillery, including canon and mortars, all of which made very loud bangs and sent synchronised clouds of smoke and dust into the air at 'landing points'. The battlefield itself was close to the actual sites, but not precisely at them, and consisted of open fields and woodland in a gently rolling landscape. And, of course, the troops were all dressed in period costume. This made the reenactment very realistic.

In addition, there were hundreds of people dressed in period costume walking about a kind of tent city which comprised residential estates and shopping centres. The participants were of all ages from babies to the very old and portrayed all social classes from labourers and the military to professional people and Negroes (slaves, servants, etc.). The 'shops' sold all manner of traditional merchandise and souvenirs. My collection of T shirts expanded to include a special souvenir of the day. There were also detailed expositions of drumming and piping, and of the weapons of 19th century warfare including early mortars.

All in all, it was a wondrous day and I, Dot, Emily and Greg greatly enjoyed ourselves. The pictures show canons firing, General Custer on horseback, and a crowd scene in tent city.

AS

Two Days and Four Hours

Last night, we arrived back in Baltimore after one of the fastest and intense visits to the big apple. The journey up and back took just 2.5 hours in both directions on Amtrak at speeds of up to 200 kph and that was interesting in itself as we went through Wilmington (Delaware)Philadelphia, Trenton and Newark. Many of these cities have hectares of rust-belt factories slowly crumbling away and many of the houses lining the railway tracks were none too flash.


We did the usual touristy things in New York like the Empire State Building, Central Park (three times), 5th Avenue, Wall Street, Battery Point, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, the subway (many times), Times Square at night, the Met, Macy's Dept Store, and a Broadway musical - Xanadu. That's some two days. We were in and out of taxis and the subway many times and sampled numerous diners whose speed in meal delivery was awesome. It's really true that the larger the city the faster the pace of everything!





Did I like New York? The answer is a resounding YES ... at least in the bits we saw. We met up for a few hours with Kassandra and Michelle who were our next door neighbours in Armidale from birth. They are roughly the same age as Em and Beck and played together frequently. Kassy is now a businesswoman in Sydney running a flourishing design business. And Michelle was visiting for 5 days (the same as us) from (drum roll) Brighton in England where I was raised! How's that for coincidences? One of the things I really liked was the tremendous hustle all the time with millions seemingly on the street together. I loved the quiet of Central park and the huge buzz of Times Square at night. I can recommend the stage performance of Xanadu, though the film sank without trace 20 years ago. There were lots of jabs at Olivia Newton John and references to Australia!

Let me know when you're tempted to visit and I'll try to be there.





AS

Mount Vernon

Last Sunday we travelled down to Washington ... in fact just outside the city on the banks of the Potomac ... to Washington's home at Mount Vernon. He was a farmer ... indeed, slave owner, as was Jefferson and we heard a lot about his development of the property, his military and subsequently political careers, his family, and life at the times. It was a fascinating day and well presented by the managers of the property, a private foundation. Americans are getting very good at historical presentations. Indeed, we're off to Gettysburg on Saturday for a re-enactment of the famous civil war battle there and one of the best political speeches ever, Lincoln's Gettysburg address. His mere 64 eloquent words were among the most inspirational in history.

Mount Vernon is the equivalent to a UK stately home, only much more downscale and frugal. One can view most of the rooms and outhouses, but famous works of art are barely visible and the furnishings are mostly modest. However, Washington's achievements were grand compared to most of the English aristocracy, and therein lies the magic. Mount Vernon itself is in a beautiful setting high on the banks of the Potomac, as the picture reveals.

Late in the afternoon, we visited the Arlington national ceremony and visited some of the more famous grave sites, including JFK's, his brother Robert's, and the tomb of the unknown soldier where we witnessed an elaborate changing of the guard. It's some cemetery as several hundred thousand lie buried there and it lies close to the banks of the Potomac.

AS

Annapolis

Dot, Emily and I have just returned from a magical trip to Annapolis, the state capital of Maryland, learning a lot of new information on the way. For example, it's one of the oldest places in the US and once its capital, with the current state capitol building also having served as the national capitol instead of the building of the same name in Washington DC. Annapolis has many streets of old buildings and lots of great and surprising views around corners - a bit like in Cornish fishing villages.

We took a trip on the harbour and saw many beautiful period and modern waterfront residences. And, just to the east of the centre lies the massive US naval academy - the nautical equivalent of West Point. Members of the public can walk thhrough its precinct after presenting photo ID and the guard on duty was amused to see three Australian driving licenses. The campus was spectacular, housing what amounted to a cathedral sized church with (real) gilt dome and a memorial chamber at the Bancroft residence which would not have looked out of place at Versailles!

There were lots of interesting shops, including one where I bought a tin of 'Embarrasmints' with one George Bush on the lid. We also spent part of the time in a Starbucks coffee shop talking liquid refreshments and also sheltering from a huge storm. So, all-in-all it was a great day out.

AS