Making the National Press

I've been a little quiet over the last 10 days as I recover from our epic trip. However, I'm prompted to post this item by getting a big billing in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald on p4. At the start of last week I fielded a long discussion with an SMH journalist, Kelsey Munro and, lo and behold, a couple of friends told me at a dinner last night that they had seen my name in print.

I won't comment on the content but let you read the article yourself in the pictures below. You'll have to magnify them in some way!

Some of it repeats what I told Tony Windsor, our local federal MP, during the week. For our overseas readers, we had a general election a week ago and returned a hung parliament. The ALP and the Coalition (Liberals - read Tories, and the Nationals = Country party) have roughly equal numbers of seats and there are at least 5 or possibly 6 independents. Tony, as probably the senior independent, is in the role of King (or Queen) maker and, interestingly, he and I have been friends for a long time (over 20 years) and correspond regularly. Anyway, our conversation has to remain private, except that I pointed out the critical importance of quality infrastructure supply to let the bush reach its full economic potential. Nearly all the independents are rural-based, which makes my comments more important, and I expect that they are in a strong position to extract extra investment.

As an aside, this poll possibly marks the start of a massive electoral re-alignment in which the the major groupings will be assigned to the trash-can of history. Apart from the independents, most of whom are middle of the road and highly thoughtful discriminating about what they will support or reject, the big winners were the Greens whose vote soared. The independents are not fly-by-nights who scrape over the line, but wildly popular people with HUGE support. Katter (the seat of Kennedy in Far North Queensland), Oakeshott (Lyne on the NSW coast nearby to us) and Windsor (New England) all received two-party preferred support of c. 72-75%. They're there for the long haul.

Our politics may devolve into smaller groupings because the support bases of conservatives and the ALP are fracturing badly:

• religious, arch-conservative
• liberal-libertarian
• union-oriented, low income
• greens
• regional-independents

And these will have to combine in various ways to deal with the wicked problems (or social messes) confronting governments these days. These cover environmental management, urban planning, energy supplies, balancing the interests of city and country, immigration, population control, and so on. Each of these problems is difficult to resolve because many of the answers are unknown and alternative interpretations of events and processes are in conflict. The old left-right groupings are quite absurd and dysfunctional in dealing with these problems. Meanwhile, there are very few differences between all the groupings on the basic configuration of the market economy. So the major concerns of the 19th and 20th centuries are more or less D.E.A.D. The outcome of next week's negotiations will be riveting.

AS

Concert

Dot and I headed off to an orchestral concert this afternoon, the first in quite a while as we seem to be away a lot. The Armidale Orchestra presented quite an ambitious program including Chabrier's España, Mozart's piano concerto No 20 (K466),  Brahm's Rhapsody in B min (op 79#1), and Dvorak's 5th Symphony. And, they played exceptionally well, perhaps the best I've heard all 49 of them play. The conductor was a long-time colleague who used to be professor of politics and dean of the faculty of arts at a time when I was head of school, Graham Maddox.

The stunning element in the concert was the soloist for both the Mozart and the Brahms, who played brilliantly. Local soloists usually fluff a few notes and have problems modulating tempi and volume of sound, but this performer - James Maddox - was perfect in tempi and every aspect of control ... and electrifying in his cadenzas to the piano concerto where he used extant cadenzas written by Brahms (first movement) and Beethoven (final movement). However, I should point out that James is a professional musician who lives in Bonn (Germany), plays with a variety of German orchestras to critical acclaim, records CDs, runs music festivals, and so on.

By now you've probably guessed that the conductor is the soloist's father and James was no doubt enticed back to visit family and donated his services gratis. The audience wasn't complaining! In fact the applause among the excited crowd was long and deafening. We're lucky here to have such connections and access to good quality music at bargain prices. Our tickets only cost A$15 (or c. 8.8 GBP) each and that included program and refreshments.

Coming home-grown concerts include:

1. The Armidale Symphony Orchestra (September 5) - a recreation of the Proms
2. The Australian Youth Wind Quintet (September 7)
3. Armidale Choral Society - Haydn's Missa in tempore belli (or Paukenmesse) (November 14)
4. Armidale Symphony Orchestra - music inspired by the works of Shakespeare (subtitled The Food of Love) (December 5)

The music scene is certainly energetic because Musica Viva concerts featuring top international acts will be interspersed among these events.

AS

A Sauna-like experience

The Finns are renowned for taking Saunas (pr. Sownas) and I took an enjoyable one in our hotel. I gather that it is usual to bake for half an hour before taking a cold shower or jumping into a frozen lake.

Well Dot and I have had comparable climatic experience. We left a very warm Finland, where many people seemed happy to divest their clothes - or most of them, and landed back in one of the coldest winters Australia has had in years. Today's temperature range in Armidale was 3C to 5C, but it felt colder with the strong wind-chill factor. It rained most of the day (but snowed up in Guyra). Still, that's better than Helsinki's Semites -20C in winter, and things will return to normal in the next few days (+15C forecast for Sunday).

AS

Helsinki

The last four days of our long trip were spent in Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Beck and Max stayed on in Finland 4 more days and are still there at the time of writing. After our late arrival at the hotel we took a very late breakfast. The contrast with our Mayfair accommodation could not have been greater as the Cumulus Hakaniemi Hotel had only been open a few months and was decked out in what one might term Ikea style - very modern and clean, with underfloor heating which we did not really need for reasons that will shortly become clear. Moreover, an excellent breakfast was thrown in free each day and fast internet access was also freely available.

It might have rained a lot in Britain where it was cool and cloudy a lot of the time, but Helsinki was hot and sunny and got warmer each day. On the first morning, we caught a water taxi to the Zoo where we spent much of the day looking at lots of animals. They were mostly cold climate species because Finland has severe winter weather. I liked the bears and the Amur Tiger the best. The last one was a very big cat indeed – bigger than a lion. There were also lots of mountain goats from Europe and a Mongolian Horse. All the walking made for a tiring day, especially with temperatures in the high 20s.

The pictures show a red panda, an Amur tiger and an aerial picture of the site with its netted enclosures.

The next day, Saturday 7th August, was even hotter. We took the tram to the market quay and from there a ferry to the fort called Suomenlinna, which is world heritage listed. It was a bit like Fort McHenry I saw in Baltimore and was designed by the Swedes to protect Helsinki from attack. It had lots of tunnels and bunkers, walls and other fortifications, guns and so on, plus lots of beaches. We could run freely over most of the fort and it was very large being scattered over some islands connected by bridges. The pictures show some of the gun emplacements and our party walking through one of the many tunnels.

The fort was captured on a few occasions, unlike Fort McHenry. The Russians took it and annexed Finland to Russia; and it was captured by Finns during the Russian revolution. It is now world heritage listed. We spent the whole day there before returning to our hotel late in the afternoon. in 2009, I lost my glasses at 3600m above sea level in the Alps and had to explain my loss in such odd circumstances to the insurance company. 13 months later, I lost my replacement glasses again, but this time at sea level at the fortress, but wasted a long time looking for them without success. In the evening we took the tram to the city centre and had pizza at a nice restaurant with outdoor tables.

Our Sunday morning targets were the aquarium and fun park which all four of us reached by tram. First we walked among the fish tanks, which housed lots of fish and plants in natural settings which looked great and were well-maintained. Then we went next door to the fun park which had heaps of scary rides for Beck and Max. Mummy checked Max's height and he was tall enough to go on nearly everything – the ghost train, halls of mirrors, slippery dips, bumper cars, water rides (where he got wet), roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, and so on. We left Beck and Max in their environment for the rest of the day and headed downtown to take some walks around Helsinki exploring the city's architecture and history. The picture shows Max driving his first car.

Helsinki is like many European cities in its high density apartment living, good public transport (including metro, an extensive bus / tram network, and ferries), clean and tidy appearance, strong street life - with pavement cafes, lots of small independent service businesses, considerable public art (statues, wall reliefs, sculptures, etc.), and masses of historical sites. Our walks around the city confirmed all this, but I cannot do the city justice with just a few photographs. In Helsinki's case, the picture is even more confused because of the country's history first under the Swedish crown, then under Tsarist Russia, and finally under Finnish independence from 1919. Each bestowed its own imprint on many of the dimensions of urban living just mentioned. For example, there are Lutheran and Russian Orthodox Cathedrals - pictured, but the the former has a statue of the popular (to the Finnish public) Tsar Alexander II in front of it.

Helsinki's collection of statues is immense, many of them nude, which is surprising because of the chilly climate. Then there are the political and cultural heroes, like Sibelius and the various literati who maintained, of forged, cultural independence.

Like many cities, Helsinki has also gentrified its inner areas, turning former industrial sites into offices and apartments, often within the shape of the old buildings. These are interspersed with modern and often attractive residential and commercial developments. Altogether, the imprint is quite attractive.

On our last day, Monday 9th August, Beck and Max flew to Rovaniemi in Lapland on the Arctic Circle and a long way from anywhere. Their flight left just after 12.00 for the 1000km journey north and we had a day to kill before our own return flight to Sydney. This was mostly spent on a bus sightseeing trip, which was extremely well done and informative, or walking around the city dipping into famous buildings occasionally. We took lunch in a well-known cafe, Kappeli, just as the day before we rested at Helsinki's oldest cafe, Cafe Ekberg on Bulevardi, one of Helsinki's most up-market addresses. Finally we rested on Runebergin esplanadi - a lovely park in the city centre - watching life pass by before taking the tram back to Hakaniemi to retrieve our luggage en route to the airport.

I, for one, would love to return to Finland and travel much more widely in the country. I'm sure Dot would, too. Would any of my readers like to accompany us on the trip? We could take in Turku, a former capital, and other cities, Karelia, Lapland, and a trip across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn in Estonia. Did you know that Estonia, Finland, Hungary and parts of Russia have languages in the Finno-Ugric group? By the way, don't worry about understanding a language that has few links into other European languages. Most Finns, it seems, speak English, rather like the Dutch. It makes getting around rather easy.

AS

Three Days in London

About 4.30 pm on Monday 2nd August we arrived in London (Paddington) and caught a taxi to our Apartment in Curzon St, Mayfair. A single London taxi managed to squeeze in 4 people plus four large pieces of luggage and assorted backpacks. Fortunately, it wasn't a long journey and we soon found ourselves in our strange accommodation. Now Mayfair is the best address in London because it's very central to all the sights - the great London parks (Hyde, Green, St Jame's), Oxford and Regent Streets, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Sq. and so on. And we were parked almost opposite the Saudi Arabian Embassy with its armed guards. Moreover we had a huge amount of space: two bedrooms, a small kitchen, two bathrooms and a huge lounge. That's the upside. On the downside, our accommodation was rather shabby and in need of an urgent upgrade! Since the price was reasonable, however, we simply used the accommodation as a springboard for all our plans.

Our first full day in London was spent at the Tower, which Max found awesome. We went there by tube, which was also exciting for the little fellow as we had to change train lines twice and we had to walk through tunnels and use lots of escalators. Once we got into the Tower there was much to see and do. We walked on the walls; saw the traitors gate; visited tower where the Princes were murdered; saw the exhibition on torture; roamed around the white tower (keep) in the middle of fortress where we saw the weapons of war; saw the execution site of Anne Boleyn and others; looked at the ravens (birds) who live at the tower; looked at the Crown Jewels; saw the famous Tower Bridge with its lifting roadway; admired the Pool of London with its Cruise Liner and the Warship on which one of my distant relatives served; and finally ... and perhaps best of all ... saw a joust between two knights at the court of Edward IV and Queen Anne. Max was instructed in the use of swords and in jousting by attendants to the knights, and the whole thing was great fun for him. It took place in the Tower moat, which used to contain water but is now dry. We took masses of photos, including one of me talking to Queen Anne. I got the impression that Max was unimpressed by the crown jewels. The diamonds were too small!

The pictures show Max at the Palace and banged up in the tower, me consorting with royalty, and Max after the joust - both knights survived.

Wednesday, the second day, was also exciting for Max as it started with me and mummy taking him to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens. It opened at 10.00 am and was soon crawling with masses of kids, some with their parents and some with nannies. The playing equipment included a replica pirate ship which Max liked best of all. He made some instant friends and ran fast all over the ship, climbed its mast, and tried out the other play items. Admittedly, I wasn't overly enthused by the play equipment, but acted as official photographer. After about 90 minutes we had ice creams before catching the tube to the south bank and a taxi from there to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. We needed the taxi as it had started to rain heavily and had a fancy lunch at the gallery before I headed off to visit my brother, Phillip, and a long-time friend. So it was left to Max and Beck to roam the old power station and look at all the weird and cranky art exhibits. Max ended with a cool Tate Modern T-shirt at the gallery and they headed off to an evening meal at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mayfair (on Piccadilly). It was a fun occasion for Max, but very noisy for poor Dot who had joined the party after a day of sight-seeing. I ate at the Civil Service Club off Whitehall, which wasn't quite a swanky as it sounds.

Our final day in London started with a long walk through Mayfair (including Berkeley Square where apparently, according to the song, nightingales sing) to Regent Street where one of the world’s largest toy-stores (Hamleys) is located. We spent two hours there visiting all 6 floors and Max had great fun trying out lots of toys. He especially liked a flying disc, radio-controlled cars, and the displays of magic. He liked the magic show so much that Beck bought him a set which he'll use back home to Canberra. I think he’d like to be a magician when he grows older. When we finished at Hamleys, we all went shopping in Oxford Street, but we didn’t buy very much. Dot and Max went to lunch while the other two looked at Selfridges and other stores. That had to end early as we returned to the hotel by 3.00 pm to collect our luggage and head to Heathrow, London’s main airport. We left on a Finnair flight for Helsinki at 6 pm and, because of the two-hour time difference, arrived there very late at 10.30 Helsinki time. So it was a quick taxi ride to the Cumulus Hakaniemi Hotel and straight to bed.

AS

Out of Sequence

I'm having a quizz on European weather. If you wanted a holiday where you're guaranteed a sun-tan and hot weather, where would you choose? Corfu? The Adriatic? The Costa del Sol? Lisbon? Note the UK and Sitzerland are not the list: the latter struggled to reach 20C while we there under persistent cloud; and the altitude rules a lot of Switzerland out of contention.

I bet you wouldn't add Helsinki to the list - it's roughly 60 degrees N. I certainly would be among you until I experienced yesterday and knowing what is forecast for today and tomorrow. Tomorrow, for example, the forecast is for 34C! This is close to the warmest temperature I've experienced on this trip. You could possibly do better than Helsinki in Finland in the these stakes. How about cities close to 70 degrees N, where there will be temperatures in the low 20s. This is certainly better than most of England. And they have heaps of sunshine - getting on for 18/19 hours per day.

Of course, the whole situation is controlled by events in Russia where Moscow has almost reached 40C and a large part of the country is in drought. That's one thing the Finns don't have to worry about. The country is afloat on water.

If there are spelling mistakes here it's because (a) I'm in a hurry to go to breakfast; and (b) the dictionary attached to my computer is Finnish.

AS

Four Days in Plymouth

This segment of the journey was also action packed, with few spare moments to relax. Our party divided in two for accommodation purposes, because Brian's house was already bulging at the seams with the arrival of niece Laura from Colchester and Phillip taking up residence for the night. So Beck and Max headed off for Lutton on the edge of Dartmoor to stay with Joanna and their second cousins Lucie and Hollie - a fine arrangement since the three youngsters became the best of friends (roughly aged 5, 6, and 7). However, all participants came together for the travel events of the next 4 days.

The first expedition took us to the port, the Hoe and an evening meal. The youngsters were not the slightest bit interested in the historic events played out there - Francis Drake playing bowls before setting off the defeat the Spanish Armada; the sailing of the Mayflower to set up the colony of Massachusetts; the devastation of the second world war; and so on. I thought Max might like to see the first Eddystone lighthouse now located on shore, but no ... horsing around was much more pleasurable along with watching kids diving off cliffs and a trip to an adventure playground - of sorts.

The second trip was to the Eden Project in deepest Cornwall. Over a decade ago production ceased in a china clay pit - a deep hole in the ground - ceased and entrepreneurial folk decided to create a botanical gardens - of a kind (look it up on the web). But their efforts were far more spectacular than that - creating tropical rainforest and Mediterranean Biomes housed in large geodesic domes. Other displays on ecological themes focussed on things like waste disposal and resources and, for the energetic there's also rock climbing - remember the quarry location. The set up was heaven-sent for 5-7 year olds whose time and lack of patience was absorbed effortlessly - great choice. En route we crossed the Tamar River with its suspension bridge and I K Brunel's famous rail bridge (the only one of its kind in the world). Max was interested in these, but possibly not Lucie and Hollie. One more thing. The Eden Project also had a large hall in which, on this day, families were constructing eco-homes and the picture shows the one we constructed of timber and cloth.

The next day, we went to Bigbury On Sea on the south coast of Devon to see the beaches, Burgh Island, and the surfing culture in that part of the world. The place was beautiful, but the weather less so as there was a lot of cloud. The bay, we were told, usually has waves to surf, but on the day we were there. The sea was flat and whole lot of blokes were huddled together at one of the beach just sitting on their boards with their wet-suits on. Remember it was cool weather and the English Channel is not noted for its warm water. Burgh Island is notable for being cut off at high tide by rising sea levels, but being accessible at low tide. Correction: one can get on and off at high tide by means of the remarkable vehicle shown here. The Hotel on the Island was used as a period piece in a Miss Marple film and the public house - the Pilchard Inn - dates from 1336.

The fourth trip absorbed the kids pretty well, though the weather wasn't kind. We headed off to Padstow, a hip place on the north coast of Cornwall for some shopping and sight-seeing. Heavy rain closed in which suited the former, but not the latter. Max scored a red hoodie with his name on the back and he was then wearing exactly the same gear to the girls.

After lunch in a lovely pub, we headed off to a secret destination - secret to Dot but none of the other adults in the party - Brian and Daphne, me and Joanna.

We travelled to Port Isaac and, in a quasi-sadistic way, were wonderint how long it would take Dot to work out where she was. The attached pciture provides a clue.

Actually Dot worked it out fairly fast! She's a great fan of Doc Martin and Port Isaac is the setting for the drama. We were able to identify his surgery, the cafe, the pharmacy, the school and so on, apart from the lovely coastal walk and the picturesque remainder of the village. Unlike Looe and Polperro, Port Isaac is refreshingly small; but like them it's over-run by tourists. This proved a high-note of the day for the adults, though Max was much more interested in fossicking for gems among the gravel and sand of the harbour.

And on the fifthday we had a morning spare before we caught the 12.55 train - which was invariably late - to Paddington. So we went over to Lutton for a walk around the small village and through the Devon countryside with its great views across to Dartmoor  and its surrounds. This is hunting, shooting and fishing country with forests containing deer and grouse owned by landed gentry living in large houses. It all ended in sombre good-byes among the 3 little cousins, a meeting up that will probably not re-occur in years given the distance between them.

The train journey to London is best forgotten. It started late and got later, mainly because it was crowded, storing luggage was difficult, and it spent considerable time in rugby scrums at railway stations. We four ended up in different parts of the same carriage; the buffet car was a long way away and its contents emptied fast; and walking up and down corridors was like a hurdle race. I've travelled th route many times, but this was possibly the worst.

AS

A Bournemouth Sojourn

Dot, Max, Rebecca and I have 10 days in the UK and these are nearly over. Things are so hectic that I've barely had time to open this BLOG. The first three nights were spent in Poole, the next four in Plymouth, and the current three days in London. After our long journey, the first day in the Bournemouth area was quiet and relaxed. In the morning we met up with my long-time friend and his wife, Jean at Phil's apartment in Poole. Their daughter, Helen, then appeared with 10 month old son Jenson. This was particularly good for Max as he had someone to entertain and play with - and judging by Jenson's expression and Max's enthusiasm the chemistry worked.

Late morning we headed off to nearby Christchurch for lunch with Cousin Eric, his wife, Sue and daughter Laura. Alas for Max, no children of his age appeared, and his was rather restrained by the surroundings in which we nattered fast and furious about the past, present and future. Beck paired up with Laura, and I found much in common with Eric especially. He is into film-making and is much better at it than I am. After a lovely lunch, most of us headed off for a quick tour of Christchurch, somewhere I'd never previously visited, It's very historical and one place we visited was recorded in the Doomesday Book. Max became much more interested in seeing the castle and its surrounds - he's becoming quite an expert on keeps and that sort of thing.

Then history gave way to an hour on the beach, though not under best conditions. The beach had a mixture of pebbles and sand, to which recent storms had added a layer of seaweed debris. The weather was also cool, a feature continued in Plymouth.

Then it was off to a Poole restuarant for an evening meal and an early night! After a fast early morning (6.30am) walk from Canford Cliffs (Poole) to Bournemouth Pier (about 7km return), we had to book Dot on a bus to Exeter, and do a bit of banking and shopping (in Poole) before heading off to the great attraction of the day, Corfe Castle near Swanage. Max loved this as it was much larger and better preserved than the castle at Christchurch. He was able to run around, climb walls, and take part in a historical quiz about the castle and its grounds. The return journey took us via Studland Bay to the chain ferry across to Sandbanks at the entrance to Poole harbour - another feature of interest to Max. Better still, the ferry was delayed by the sailing of a car ferry (Cotentin) to Brittany in France and it sailed close by.

The next morning saw us depart for Plymouth by car, with Dot on the bus to Exeter because of excess luggage and persons that the car could not accommodate, but this is for another post.
AS