Dramatic Landscape Change

Don't worry! Despite the above title, Armidale hasn't been swamped by a sea-level rise. Nor have we suffered an earthquake.

But I was out for an early morning walk today when, at 10 minutes to 7 am, I came to the junction of Stony Ridge Road and Blue Wren Road 2.5 km or so north of our home. And, as I looked out from my high vantage point northward across the fields I noticed that two major features of the landscape had disappeared completely. One was Mount Duval, c. 1400 m (c. 4600 feet), shown here. The second omission was the Guyra plateau, which has approximately the same altitude, but rising to c. 1550 m at  Ben Lomond (5000 feet).

The next two pictures, taken with my mobile phone, show (a) Mount Duval and (b) the Guyra Plateau. In this first image can you see anything that looks like Mt Duval above? No you can't.

And here's a view of the Guyra plateau.

What's gone wrong? The answer is easy. You're looking at a thick smoke haze from bush-fires still blazing in the world heritage listed sub-tropical rain-forests lying to the north-east of us. Despite some decent rain in the last few days, the fires are still blazing and, today, the N-E winds were blowing the smoke directly at us.

This didn't seem to bother this pod of kangaroos I saw from the same vantage point:

And here's me with the Guyra plateau somewhere behind. If the 'roos looked quite at home in the smoke, I was becoming worried as the wind began to pick up and the smell of smoke became stronger. So I picked up speed as I headed for home, a journey that still lasted nearly 30 minutes. Perhaps I shouldn't have been out at all. Many of the walkers I see almost daily were absent today as they hid indoors!

AS

An Exciting Musical Event

As I've said repeatedly, Armidale has a rich musical life, a view that an event we witnessed this weekend corroborated. Between 1975 and 1982, the University of New England was host to the New England Ensemble, a chamber music quartet. Believe or not, this group of young performers from a small rural town had many successful overseas tours throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas, often playing at top musical venues.

Alas, members of the quartet went their separate ways and left town but, surprisingly, they have recently reformed after a lapse of 40 years. And we were privileged yesterday to listen to this brilliant group whose skills appear unaffected by the passage of time. The picture below shows the quartet: Robert Harris (viola); Andrew Lorenz (violin); Wendy Lorenz (piano); and Janis Laurs (cello).

Their program was extensive and received rapturously:
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. K.478   (1756-1791)
    Johan Severin Svendsen's Romance in G. Op. 26                         (1840-1911)
    Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No 2                                    (1833-1897)
    Ernest Bloch's Jewish Song                                                           (1880-1959)
    Rebecca Clarke's Chinese Puzzle                                                  (1886-1979)
    Enrique Granados' Intermezzo from Goyescas                             (1867-1916)
    Gaspar Cassado's Los Requebros                                                  (1897-1966)
    Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet in C minor Op. 60

The dates in brackets reveal a wide range of epochs when the works performed were written. That was one of the nice things about this event - a wide variety of musical styles. However, the first and last items represent the pinnacle of piano quartets and were much more lengthy than most of the others.

I wonder if there's a correlation between listening to 'classical music' and playing contract bridge! I saw enough players from our bridge club to have a 4-table event and I suggested to several of them that when we attend future concerts we should bring along decks of cards to play bridge during the intermission! Perhaps that's a bit fanciful because I noticed that most of the bridge 'clique' were snappily drinking wine.

Just one final reflection. If you have a look at my last few posts you will see that retirement can be enlivened by a wide variety of experiences, issues, events, and so on. Dull moments are a rarity.

AS

Water Water Nowhere and Plenty to Drink!

As I've mentioned previously, Armidale is having possibly the worst drought in a century, although as I write this there is a massive thunderstorm approaching! And it did rain overnight dropping just 3 mm on our garden. We're turning creative, however in our supply of water for personal use or even the garden.

For example, earlier today Dot and I discovered a massive trail of ants through our dining area and kitchen all leading to our pantry. We soon found out why when we cleaned it out and discovered that a tine of fruit had somehow leaked and the little critters where lapping up the juice. So we cleared much of the lower part of the pantry eliminated the ants and discovered some embarrassing contents. For example, we found 3 cans of beer, two have a use-by date around 2014 and the other going back to 2007!! What do you do with out-of-date beer? We'll, I fed it to some dying shrubs, assuming that they would prefer to drink beer rather than have no water at all - which is mandated by our current water restrictions.

Well, some people around our town are so desperate for water that they are resorting to things I've not seen before. For example, many of our farmers are not connected to town water, especially those further away from Armidale. Normally this is not a problem because (a) they have large water tanks on their properties to capture rainfall via the roof; or (b) capture bore water from underground aquifers. In a drought, neither approach works - even the aquifers are not topped up by water filtering in from above.

So farmers and others living out of town have to resort to other means of water capture and an increasingly popular one is to import water from places with a good supply either by railway wagons or by road tankers. We heard a couple of days ago about a convoy of road tankers coming to town, but I thought little about it. Well, this morning I took an early walk and suddenly I saw a line of such vehicles parked outside one of our many motels. So, this process of water salvation was really taking place! And here's the evidence:

By the way, this is a colour photo, not black and white. Much is grey because of the wet road surface, the widespread cloud cover and bush-fire smoke blown in by an easterly wind.

As I finish this piece, it is now raining heavily and this, as suggested by rain radars, could go on for another 90 minutes or so.  Wow! We're getting lucky for a change. But our luck may end in an unexpected way. We're off shortly to a classical concert performed by the New England Ensemble and I doubt if any of the works were written to include thunder and lightening.

AS

The Happiest Refugee?

Last night, Dot and I attended a comedy act at the University of New England's Lazenby Hall along with a reputed 800+ other people, It was delivered by a now famous immigrant refugee, Anh Do. He was born in Vietnam in 1977 and fled Vietnam about the end of the war there with his parents at a very young age. After graduating with a combined business and law degree at Sydney's University of Technology in 1999, he turned his multiple talents to other exciting things, becoming a great portrait artist, an author, an actor appearing in many Australian TV shows, a dancer - runner up on Dancing with the Stars in 2007, and comedian. That's one hell of an achievement given his start in life!

Anyway, his appearance in Armidale last night was as a comedian and the large crowd in Lazenby Hall roared with laughter as he recounted his family history and its adaptation to life in Australia. He's yet another example of how Australia has successfully embraced multiculturalism and how migrants here have, given the chance, adapted to our way of life. The show must have lasted 90 minutes and started with a fellow comedian who also drew applause from the audience. But Anh's soliloquy must have lasted something like 70 minutes and riveted the audience. Mostly, it was him telling jokes ... aided by some visuals on a large screen behind him.

I took a few surreptitious pictures with my mobile phone, albeit in 'plane mode to cut out incoming calls. That was aided by the fact that Dot and I were seated in the front row of the side gallery, more or less out of sight of officials. Here's the hall filling up with people.

And here's the first comedian warming up the audience. I think the picture behind him is of the Mekong Delta just out of Saigon. It looked familiar to me as someone who has travelled a good few kilometers along this famous waterway.

This shows the start of Anh's comedy act.

And here he is in full flight. Given his birth date, Anh would now be 42 years old.

The TV program of his that I enjoy the most is the one where he invites well-known Australians into his artist's studio to discuss issues of the day with them while he paints their portrait in canvas. His pictures are brilliant and I'd love him to do one of me!

All told, it was an excellent night out!

AS

Smoke Haze

We're having the worst drought in living memory and nearly every day Armidale has been affected by smoke form bush-fires located up to 100 km (60 miles) away. Things are fine, except for lack of rain, when the wind is the right direction - blowing towards fires when the smoke travels away from us.

Yesterday, when temperatures were in the mid 30s C (over 90 F) we saw SW winds in the morning and fairly clear air. Then, around 2 pm, the wind suddenly shifted to the ESE, a direction stricken by bush-fires, and the town was enveloped in really thick smoke. Many people stayed indoors and the town became very quiet.

Then, at 6 pm, Dot and I had to head for an evening meal organised by our Rotary Club (North Armidale). The meal itself was amazing and cooked by apprentice chefs at our Technical and Further Education (TAFE) college. Several of the trainee chefs had just returned from South Korea where they were taught the culinary treats of that nation. And our 4-course menu was entirely Korean: initial nibbles, an entree dish including 'banana prawns', meat dishes and then desert.

Alas, I forgot to take photos of the event ... the food was so good and I ate all mine with chop-sticks. One thing I didn't forget was to take pictures of the setting sun over the TAFE college. It was blood-red, though unfortunately the pictures below didn't quite catch the colour I saw. If you look below, the sun comes out mostly white, but is circled in red at the edge. Believe me! The sun was entirely bright red!

I went for an early morning walk today and, again, the rising sun was bright red - as shown below - but seemingly larger and brighter.

Fortunately, the wind today has shifted to the north and the smoke effect is diminishing. By the way most of the east coast of NSW has been affected by smoke from massive fires - even in some of Sydney's up-market suburbs. The drought is almost nation-wide, except for parts of Tasmania and Victoria's coastal regions.

AS

Bridge Success

Our team of four contract bridge players spent something like 13 hours playing the game over the two days of last weekend (9th and 10th November) combating 12 opposing teams. The 13 table teams event had fewer participants than usual for some unknown reason, but the competition was as stiff as usual. Our team announced its standing from the very first round after which we were second and we held on to that position for most of the two days. And, at the end, we were still second. That won us a cash prize of $300 to share between us, or A$75 each. Given that the entry fee was $80, that meant we nearly broke even. Mind you, the Armidale Bridge Club (ABC) provided us with free drink - including wines and beers - and brilliant lunches and other nibbles. Perhaps the most stressful part of the tournament was trying not to consume too much delicious food.

Ours Spring teams is a regional tournament so there quite numerous players from such places as Tamworth, Glen Innes and such coastal locations as Coffs Harbour. Our team included myself and Ed Hahn playing the Precision system - we play that regularly together once a week. The other pair, Bas Bolt and David Cohen, came from other tablelands clubs. Of the four, it seems I was much the oldest. Here we are receiving our prize-money presented by Glenda Parmenter, ABC's President, after playing altogether 108 deals over the weekend. Left to right we have Bas, Glenda, Ed, me and David

The winners had two local members, both of them GPs. They're Brian on the left and Eric Baker third from the left. Their captain Gerald Dawson is from Glen Innes, but I don't know  Sarah Strickland's home base.

In retrospect, we had our worst result against the winners and had we won that we might have come first! Watching on while the presentations were being made were various contestants in the lovely club premises we own. However, I should point out that my camera was tilted and the club floor is horizontal and not sloping!

This event over, it is now my duty to construct some wicked deals for the club's Christmas party a little over a month away. Dressed as the Devil, I don't play. My job is to make club member's life a misery! I won't say just how in case some of them read this blog post. I'm the one gets fun out of the event. Despite my nauseating deals somehow or other I usually get something like 16 tables in play, three more than we had for last weekend's Teams tournament.

One final thing! The tournament director kept track of the relative performance of each of the 26 pairs playing. Ed and I were pleased to come a fairly clear second!! The winners had a 'modified datum' of 138.8, we had 107.3 and third was 95. The worst MD was -166, which means that this anonymous pair had a terrible time losing most deals.

AS

Armidale's Multicultural Festival

Armidale must be one of the most multicultural places in the whole of Australia judging by the festival we attended last Saturday. And this covers both ethnic origins of people and the fact that our community is highly welcoming of people from around the world.

To celebrate this multiculturalism, the Armidale Regional Council, coupled with the University  of New England (UNE) sponsored a three-day event designed to bring everyone together. This included a breakfast out at UNE, a Bollywood film festival, an international food evening at the creeklands - coupled with stage performances involving music and dance, and so on. Dot and I decided to attend the food festival with its accompanying stage performances. So, at around 5.45 pm we headed down to Dumaresq Creek. The first an most obvious thing of note was the flags of many different countries draped around he venue. In fact, I counted nearly 60 nationalities represented including the rather obvious Union Jack in the second photo. We wondered how Council managed to lay its hand on so many until we realised that UNE flies the flags of every nation providing students to the university on each country's national holiday.

Apart from the flags, the second most noticeable thing was the wearing of traditional dress by our overseas visitors, whether Islamic, or coming from many parts of Asia and Africa. And, as you can see below, there were playground facilities for kids like the inflatable jumping castle and slide. I was surprised by the large number of youngsters in the audience, both locals and from refugee communities like the Yazidis (or Ezidis) who driven out of their Iraqi homeland by Islamic State fighters.

The next thing of note was the huge range of ethnic food-stalls, each housed in a kind of tent. We joined a long queue of people waiting to collect free paper plates, bowls and cutlery, which were supplied after the magical hour of 6 pm when all the food-stalls opened up. Interestingly, all the food was free and must have been funded by Council and UNE. No wonder the event was popular! It's not often one gets a free lunch or tea. Better still was the massive range of ethnic foods to sample. Nations represented I think included: South Asia (e.g. Pakistan, India, and Nepal or Bhutan); Southeast Asia (e.g. Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam); East Asia (e.g. China and Japan); West Asia (e.g. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey); Europe (including France); Africa (I recall South Africa); and even Latin America. Here are some of the 'tents' each displaying one of the nations mentioned above. Has any reader ever eaten Saudi, Iraqi or Pakistani food??

Dot and I ambled around filling our plates with samples of food from a wide range of countries and we agreed that they were delicious. And we ate our meals standing up - many of the seats were taken by the large crowd.

And while we were doing that, performers took the stage to show off national music, songs and dance, much of which was new to us. Not to be entirely out-done by our overseas visitors, one Australian sang country-music songs.

We stood and listened to some performers as they were bathed in the bright light of the setting sun - a fitting end to a very enjoyable event. One of the things I like about Australia is that it is so multicultural that there is much less pressure on migrants to conform to early colonial behaviours and outlooks acquired from Britain and a lesser extent Europe.

This 'international openness' was expressed in another way yesterday when Australia signed off on a new international trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with 14 other countries. Apart from Australia, other countries included: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, and Japan. This massive grouping of nations includes (a) 50% of the world's population and (b) c. 30% of global GDP. So, while parts of the world are increasingly disengaging from global integration and going it alone, we're heading in the opposite direction - networking regionally with countries of very different cultures to our own. Why do it? This constellation of countries is defusing conflict, boosting economic growth, and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The 21st century has been billed as the Asian century and such strategies as the RCEP are boosting that assessment.

And I'm feeling that I'm leading a very interesting life in this small town of ours.

AS

More Classic Cars

Every so often, the farmers' markets held on Armidale's creeklands are accompanied by a show of classic cars. This was the case last Sunday and I'm showing some of the great exhibits. I guess I'm taken by these classic and even vintage cars because prior to coming to Australia I worked in the British motor industry at the British Leyland Oxford factory where Austin and Morris and vehicles were produced. Believe it or not, the works where I was located also produce the steel bodies for Rolls-Royce! The fittings were inserted elsewhere.

It's amazing to me that our thinly populated district can bring together so many excellent vehicles. Since Australia did not produce cars until after the second world war, all older than that would have been imported. I seem to recall that the vehicle on the left in the first picture is a Porsche.

Can anyone tell me the manufacturer of this vehicle? I should have made a note!

This is a typical American vehicle of the 1960s with boots and bonnets big enough to land a helicopter!

If I'm right the vehicle below is an MG, made at a factory I visited as part of my work. On one trip in an MG we motored down a main road reaching 160 kph (100 mph). Fortunately for my driver there were no police around.

Definitely American

I once owned a mini, but not this up-market mini-cooper.

AS

Two Birthdays

On the weekend of November 2nd and 3rd 2019 I attended two remarkable birthday parties. The first occurred mid-way through the Armidale Bridge Club's usual Saturday afternoon game, which I was also directing. And one of the regular players was Olive Tilley who was also celebrating her 99th birthday. The occasion was broadcast widely and attracted 10 tables of players that afternoon. At around 2.30 pm I called a halt to the game and the following pictures describe what then occurred.


Here are the balloons that decorated Olive's table - she was, as usual seated permanently North-South.
















And on the right we can see Olive seated at the table where the cake was ready for the cutting. Rather than have 99 candles, there were two candles shaped as 9s, which - below - she tried to set alight, something eventually achieved.















All this was eagerly watched by the afternoon's players and, once the candles were blown out we eagerly awaited the slicing of the cake, which turned out to be delicious. The organisers of this party did a great job.



As far as I know, Olive had no family members at this event. Remarkably, our 99 year old bridge super-star still wins occasional sessions and drives herself alone to the club in her Maserati ... or similar.








The following day, Dot and I attended another party held in a local pub .... the Railway Hotel. This time the guest of honour was Austin Tilbrook, who turned 90. I once had a German-born Uncle Henry who said that Austin meant Aus Tin. Once translated from the German this turned out to mean 'made of tin'. I asked Austin about the meaning of his name and he refuted the German version, saying that his name was short for Augustine.

This was another well-planned humming event attended by masses of people, many of them Rotarians from our club, Armidale North. If Olive had around 40 for her party, Austin had at least that number taking up a whole room in the pub. We were served with excellent, abundant and free finger food. Austin also stressed he did not need any presents, although he acquired a stack of birthday cards, one from Dot and me. Here he is on the left addressing the multi-age audience that included what I presume to be great-grand-kids.

Balloons were abundant.

And here's Dot on the left chatting to one of our Rotary members, June Dangar.

While Austin decried receiving presents he acquired a huge one ... but by a kind of accident. A highly respected, and prize-winning, local artist supported Rotary financially by offering to paint a portrait of a local member across northern NSW. There was a a contest among many Rotary clubs to gain the portrait for one of their members. Our club won and then held a raffle, which I entered, to see who would get their portrait painted. Austin won, and the result was unveiled in Sunday afternoon at the pub. As you can see, it was a great job.

Hint: will one of my family members arrange for my portrait to be unveiled in time for my 90th anniversary which is only 15 years or so away!

AS