Autumn Scenery

Autumn is one of my favourite times of year with its great displays of red and yellow dotting the landscape. I've recently received several posts from various family members a friends in different part so the world, including the Netherlands and Japan, proclaiming the arrival of Spring with its picturesque cherry blossoms. I have to agree with their sentiments, too.

I went for one of my regular long walks the other day and, when high above Armidale, I witnessed the following scenes as I walked down a steep hill. We certainly have a beautiful townscape don't you agree. And, by the way Armidale's population growth has recently been among the highest of Australia's country towns.

About half-way down the hill this view presented itself.

And, at the bottom, I saw these images of suburbia. Our streets are lined with deciduous trees, so these scenes are replicated many times. This street is appropriately named chestnut street and the adjacent one also reminds me of my British origins. It's Arundel Drive!

AS

Tour de Rocks

I was out for an early morning walk last Thursday (11th April) when I came across a remarkable event. I saw a heap of bicycles scattered across grass on the Creek-lands near the Ex-Services Club and a crowd of brightly dressed cyclists. And, at roughly 7.30 am they were preparing for a 270 km bike ride in aid of charity from Armidale to Southwest Rocks on the NSW coast near Kempsey. This ride is apparently open to all interested cyclists who form teams to get sponsorship from family, friends and other organisations. All participants ride c 90 km each day and organisers provide meals and camping berths at selected locations en route. It's not a competition, but rather a social event.

Last year the ride raised c. A$260,000 ... which is quite impressive and I gather that the participants this year may number up to 370 riders and perhaps another 130 supporters! The bikes in question were mainly not road bikes, but had thick tyres like mountain bikes. This is hardly surprising as the Kempsey road has long stretches that are unsealed.

This is what I saw, and thankfully I had my mobile phone with me to take the pictures attached below. First we see a scattering of bikes on the ground.

Nest I saw an archway reflecting half an bike tyre.

Here we have the crowd of riders preparing for the start.

And they were addressed by one of the key organisers who explained the events protocols and organisation.

It was an impressive start to the event. I had two regrets. They would be cycling into a stiff easterly wind and there were rain clouds hanging around.

By the way, this item was actually posted from Hong Kong just 2.5 days after I saw the above event! Even at my age, life can be crowded! You'll find out more about my exploits here in subsequent posts.

AS

More Antique Cars

One of the active local social groups comprises those people owning and exhibiting antique cars. Yesterday, Sunday 7 April, I attended the twice-monthly farmers' markets on the creeklands, but what really caught my attention was the ever larger number of classic cars shown adjacent to the markets. Moreover, the vehicles on display attracted a big crowd of on-lookers.

And once again I was taken by the antique MGs and the single Morris car. This was because I suspected they might have been produced when I was working for the British Leyland Motor Corporation in Oxford back in the late 60s and early 70s. That's 50 years ago now - a long time has since passed. Back in those days I worked for a productivity division, whose job was to improve production efficiency. In this role, we spent quite a while down on the shop floor cruising around for ways of improving productivity. And, in performing this task we sometimes traveled to nearby factories producing the MGs and, in Birmingham, the Austin. A German-born uncle of mine always called them Aus-tin, which translates as made from tin - not a great advertisement. It's just possible that I saw one of yesterday's cars on the production line!

Here are some images of the cars I saw, some of which were rather grand in a way. Few were produced in Australia, except for the odd Holden. Let's start with the MGs, three of which were on display. I have a confession to make about this species. When I was a doctoral student at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, I went for a long ride in a drop-top MG northwards along the A1 towards Alnwick Castle, the home of the Dukes of Northumberland and on further towards Lindisfarne. It was summer and it was great with the top down and the wind rustling one's hair ... I had a lot more back then some 50 years ago. However, our speed was somewhat over the limit and I remember giving a gulp when we hit 100 miles per hour (161 kph). Fortunately, there were no police around and anyway I don't they had the accurate measuring devices for speed that we now have. And, of course, there were far fewer vehicles on the road.

I rather admired these much older vehicles, which reminded me of pre-second world war vehicles (1939 - 1945), when vehicles still harked back to the days of horse-drawn carriages. My father always talked about the 'coach-work' of the early vehicles he owned during the early 1950s.

Then there were several American vehicles of the kind I remembered from the 1950s, which had huge bonnets and massively long tails (or boots) for luggage. Our modern SUVs are much more compact, but offer more carrying space.

And this one actually flew the Stars and Stripes.

I had to take a photo of this little gem, partly because it was produced in the car plant across the road in Oxford from where I worked. It's a little Morris mini and the first car I owned was like it. I drove it long distances with several trips between Brighton and Hove, where I spent my youth, and Newcastle in the North-East. The road distance is about 560 km - or a little longer than the distance between Armidale and Sydney. However, back then the main roads were poor and one had to navigate quite a few towns - including London. So long journeys took quite a while.

AS

Historic Film-Show

You are about to find out why hoards of enthusiastic people were swarming around Armidale's mall. We were about to watch one of the great movies of the 20th century. But you'll be amazed when I tell you that the film in question was released 98 years ago! Eh? That takes us back to the era of silent movies, which explains why, sitting alongside the screen, there was a keyboard! Silent movies were usually accompanied by 'atmospheric' music to enhance the action on the screen and, last Saturday, the performer was the head of Armidale's Conservatorium of Music.

He introduced the film in question - The Kid - and explained its origins and the key actor, one Charlie Chaplin! Apparently, this film is rated in Chaplin's top three ... and it's also  his earliest as a director. The facilities looked a little crude -  a laptop computer, the equivalent of a home projector, and a folding and somewhat transparent screen. This is what we saw:

Our pianist on the left.

The introduction on the right.












The film is about a distraught woman who abandons her baby, which is found and raised by Charlie. Somehow he makes this sad start into a hilarious comedy, which had our audience exploding in laughter.  The surrogate father himself lives in a slum and is surrounded by dodgy neighbours ... and pretty incompetent police.





















Our accompanist again.

And a close-up view of Charlie and the young Kid.










The film lasted an hour and it was a huge success. I'm now looking forward to a repeat event in 2020. Hopefully the organisers will see fit to run another Chaplin film.

By the way, doesn't Armidale have a vibrant cultural life!

By the way, if you're interested is finding out more about the film go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kid_(1921_film)

AS

Armidale Festival of Light

This is the first of two blog posts of an interesting event last Saturday 6th April in Armidale's pedestrian mall. Starting the early afternoon, artists created pavement designs in the mall, and then towards dusk the mall slowly lit up with some brilliant lighting effects. Dot, I and her friend Jane reached the scene of the action at about 5.45 pm just as the light effects commenced and we walked through a large throng of people admiring the pavement designs and lighting. Here's what we saw, starting with the pathway designs:

A nearby wall has just been re-painted with a lovely design.

And we found a group of kids composing a wall painting.

Walking through the mall, we noticed a stage and seating in the front and, not knowing the program in detail, I wondered what was scheduled. You'll find out in the next post!

And many of the women were attired in interesting designer clothes.

After a quick meal in a local hostelry, we emerged into failing daylight at about 6.30 pm. And we began to marvel at all the lighting effects. For example, many trees were festooned with coloured lights that oscillated from one colour to another.

Likewise, our historic and now heritage listed court-house and the nearby post office 'vibrated' with elaborately changing colours.

And, as darkness descended, the seats were taken up by a large number of expectant people.

Some trees were illuminated with bright spotlights. And the court-house kept on changing colour as we sat alongside it.

And the newly renovated Art-Deco Tattersalls Hotel was also dramatically illuminated

In short, the beautiful illuminations enthralled the huge number of residents awaiting the 'show' about to start.

AS