Flood Event

After enduring one of the worst droughts Armidale has had in well over a century, we were delighted in the last three days leading up to Christmas to have had a major rain event. Over this period we must have had c. 32 mm (1 inch = 25 mm) in a series of major storms and loved every minute of it! And the intensity of the rain just yesterday - Christmas eve - led me think that Dumaresq Creek might have been in flood. So Rebecca, who is staying with us over Christmas along with Max, drove down to the creek to look for ourselves. And I was right in my assumption. This is what we saw:




















 Instead of an almost bone-dry creek bed with no stream-flow at all, we found a considerable flood event and fast flowing water. Footpaths were submerged and police were erecting barriers to prevent motorists trying to navigate a route through the water from one side to the other.

One of the recent surprises for me in recent weeks is that several other small rain events have markedly greened local vegetation. But now I expect struggling trees, shrubs and flowers to get a real boost.

Notice that the parkland on either side of the Dumaresq Creek is fairly green. Of course, places further away from the creek - like where we live - have been really struggling to stay green even with some light showers, but that has been worsened by the very high temperatures we've experienced.

The December average daily maximum is around 26 C, but this year that figure must have been about 32 C - quite an increase!

Armidale is now at level 5 water restrictions, which prevent the artificial watering of gardens except where households catch and store water from showers, clothes laundering, and dish-washing. Showers are nominally restricted to 3 minutes, but that could also mean 6 minutes every two days.

Hopefully, our summer will see a return to average - or better than average -  rainfall conditions and our lives can get back to normal. By the way, our adverse conditions are just about nation-wide.

AS

Quick Trip to Sydney

Just recently I had a quick day-trip to Sydney to meet up with an assortment for friends, colleagues and family. I had a lovely time meeting people but also wandering around Sydney's CBD. This is what I saw after arriving there at 8 am and catching the train into the city, alighting at 'Museum'. Since my first engagement was scheduled fro 10 am, I decided to walk around various well-known parts of the CBD. First stop was Hyde Park. I did a selfie and took a nice picture of the impressive skyline.
















Hyde Park has a lot of interesting sights, including fountains like this one.



A short distance away on George Street I saw, for the first time, Sydney's new tramway in operation and decided to take a ride.



The carriages are quite swish and modern and I headed to the front to get a similar view to the driver. As you can see, most cars, trucks and buses have been removed from that thoroughfare, leaving behind just pedestrians and the trams.

 Alas there was one thing wrong with the system. Pedestrians could walk faster than the trams because of lots of cross-traffic and the slow pace of the trains with their new drivers.

Still, I found it an interesting experience and a foretaste of getting rid of much of Sydney's traffic congestion.

Heading up to Circular Quay I witnessed many familiar sights, the ocean liner and ferry quays, the harbour bridge, and museum of modern art.



























It was also interesting to look back from the historic Rocks area - much dating back as far as the early 19th century -  towards the city's modern business core, which is home to towering office blocks.
















I also walked, for the first time, through Barangaroo, seen here on the left. I guess Dot and I won some of this because the whole district has been developed by the Lend Lease company in which we have a shareholding. After this experience, I took a walk through Martin Place, the very centre of the CBD. I was rather taken with this massive artificial Christmas tree adorning the middle of the pedestrian precinct. Then I headed into the Queen Victoria Building, a massive and rather old, but up-market, shopping centre. It has two magnificent clocks handing from the ceiling.


And there was another humongous artificial Christmas tree.
































I think you'll agree that this shopping centre, viewed on the left,  is much better crafted than the modern ones. Why did I keep on with my lengthy walk? Well, my 10 am meeting at Sydney's University of Technology was cancelled by most host for private family reasons. We chatted on the phone instead. My next meeting, which I will not report on at length, was with the CEO of Sydney's Centre for Independent Studies. This is market-oriented think-tank that I've supported for 40 years. But it now has a new CEO with whom I wanted to hold a discussion. And that went very well.

After that, I met my Cousin David, who lives in Sydney's up-market Eastern Suburbs. And together we went to a Stock-Broking company, Ord MInnett, through which I trade our Self-Managed-Superannuation-Fund (SMSF) investment portfolio. My long-time advisor was retiring on the day I arrived and I wanted to meet up with, and get to know, his replacement. The meeting went very well and I sold two shareholdings, while purchasing another..

After that, David and I walked around the city for a while before he had to head home while I made my way back to the airport for the return journey.

All up it was a great day out - profitable in meeting up with quite a few people and also, I hope, with financial outcomes!

AS

A Summer Soiree

Late yesterday afternoon I had the great pleasure of attending yet another brilliant orchestral concert held at our Music Conservatorium here in Armidale. . The performers were the Errol Russell Sinfonia of New England, but this little group of c. 21 players is very special. To start with they all play string instruments, except for the pianist / harpsichordist. Moreover, their average age couldn't be much over about 21!! In effect they're all students. At least two-thirds were women.

The conductor, Gwyn Roberts, was however at least 3 times that average age and a retired University of Queensland musicologist.

Here he is:

Some youth orchestras are a little scratchy, but yesterday's performance was superb. The works performed were top-notched, often dynamic and complex, yet the orchestra was perfect in timing, tempo, and impact. The program contained 5 works played without intermission:

Mozart's Divertimento in B Flat Major K 137, written when he was just 16 years old.
Marcello's Oboe Concerto in D Minor. This composer lived from 1673 to 1747, and was a                                 contemporary of Vivaldi.
Hindemith's Trauermusik. This work, written in one day on 21 January 1936, was an elegy to King                   George V who had died the day before! Hindemith, then just in his early 40s, was visiting                   the UK.
Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus based on a 16th century tune, dating from                     1939.
Palmer's The Ruritanian Dances.
Not heard of George Palmer? Nor had I until yesterday. He's about my age, born in 1946. He's a retired Australian High Court Judge and has become a frantic composer in his retirement - opera, choral works, chamber music and symphonies. The Ruritanian Dances were brilliant - dynamic, nuanced, tuneful, and so on. Try to listen to them! By the way, Ruritania is an imaginary kingdom in central Europe.

Two of the works played had soloists. The oboist in the second work, James McKay, is University of New England student about 23 years old. He was excellent. And Sophia Mackson, who played solo violin in the Dives and Lazarus, is just 18 years old. If I'm correct, here she is standing close to the conductor.

And, standing on the left is James McKay.

 Aren't we a lucky community?

AS

Images of Cairns

Last week, in early December, I attended a regional science conference in Cairns, North Queensland. Getting there from Armidale was quite a lengthy process as, first, I had to fly south for an hour to Sydney (c 500 km) and then wait for roughly 2 hours before flying another 3 hours northwards back over New England (c.2000 km). Interestingly, I could see lots of bush-fires burning like the two pictured here. I guess I'm looking northwest somewhere over northern NSW or southern Queensland.

On arrival in Cairns I checked where I was staying for three nights - the Shangri-La Hotel, which lies on the waterfront next to the boat harbour. It was a glorious location surrounded by a heap of nice restaurants. Nearby were the docks from which catamarans departed to explore nearby reefs and islands. In fact, the c. 150,000 people in the Cairns region are heavily dependent on the tourist industry and the local airport is directly connected to many southeast nations. That was also obvious from the large numbers of Asian citizens in the hotel and nearby streets.

Here we are coming into land at the Cairns international airport. Although it did not rain during my visit there were quite a lot of clouds hanging around, especially to the mountainous west - home to the Atherton Tablelands.









This is the quite imposing entrance to the Shangri-La. The hotel had great dining and pool facilities and the bedrooms were large.











Nearby decking alongside the harbour was lined with great, but a little pricey, restaurants. A group of us, all staying at the Shangri-La, sampled some of the fare provided.










Near the hotel I saw a large number of people dancing to the music of a rather loud band, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.












The harbour was populated by a massive supply of top-end  yachts and cruisers. I kept on trying to think how such a community as Cairns should have seemingly bigger and more numerous vessels than Sydney!

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the Cairns region has large-scale and I guess profitable agriculture and other resource-based industries.

The Cairns region is also huge. The Cairns district added to Cape York measures something like 900 km north-south and 500 km east-west (or 560 x 310 miles). OK, the population is very thin, but perhaps the surrounding economy is strong.












As I noted earlier, many companies vied to take holiday-makers on cruises to see the great barrier reef or islands. Others offered diving trips.

The vessels they had - see above and left - looked pretty impressive. Below left is the view from my bedroom over a mini tropical forest. Don't forget that Cairns is only 17 degrees south of the equator. On my morning walks I could admire the mountain-backed coastline. Note that the waters were also pretty calm - no surfing waves because they are intercepted by the reef system.




















At low tide I loved to see the constellation of birds preening themselves on the sand - including many pelicans.

The sea-front was also a take-off point for helicopter trips up the coast and out to the offshore islands and the reef. I was sorely tempted to take a trip, but conference meetings and sessions took up my spare time.








The sea front also a had a good range of attractions like this pool where, in the heat of the day, people - young and old - chilled out beneath a variety of fountains.










There were sculptures like the one above and remnants from the second world war when the locals feared they were on the front-line of Japanese invasion. That invasion now occurs of course. but the arrivals are tourists.
















The seafront also had some interesting pieces of architecture, like this building.


That's all for now. The trip there and back, plus the conference sessions, lasted just 4 days!

But it was a great time!

AS

Acacia Quartet

Two nights ago I had the very good fortune to listen to a concert given by Australia's highly regarded Acacia Quartet at Armidale's Conservatorium of Music. The quartet's four members are not only quite young and highly accomplished, but have worked in many different countries over the years, including some of Europe's leading orchestras and ensembles.

The performers were Lisa Stewart and Myee Clohessy (both Violin), Stefan Duwe (Viola) and Anna Martin-Scrase (Cello). Their enjoyment of the occasion was exemplary and infected the audience. Here they are at the beginning of the program:

Their program was also an interesting mixture. I loved Mozart's string quartet in D minor (K421, 1783) - beautifully nuanced. Dvorak's quartet in F major (Op 96, 1893) was just as inspiring. In part that is because one of my favourite symphonies is his 'New World' symphony written while in the USA while director of the National Conservatory in New York. Amazingly, the string quartet borrowed themes from the symphony ... or was it the other way around? The quartet was composed in rural Ohio while he was visiting a Czech migrant community there, a visit he really enjoyed.

And now for the cat among the pigeons. The third work was warmly received, but I guess none of my readers would have heard of the composer. Her name is Alice Chance. She's only 25 years old and an Australian. And the work was called "Sundried Quartet", an appropriate name given that we're in the middle of perhaps the worst drought ever. More strangely still, each of the 4 movements was named after a plant or vegetable. I can recall the last two: Aloe Vera and Tomato. Just as interesting for me was the date of composition: 2019. The first two movements were first played mid-year. The third had its debut in c. September and I gather that the last movement dates from just recently. In the next picture, the ensemble is taking a truly deserved bow.

So this was an interesting and high class performance, demonstrating yet again, Armidale's credentials as a music, drama, and fine arts centre.

AS