A Walk Around Freo 1

I spent four days of last week a long way from home attending the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) conference in Perth. That's roughly 3800 km (2375 miles) from here by plane. Having freed myself from conference sessions on the last day, I decided to make best use of my remaining time there in two ways. First, I met up with old friend of mine who now works for the WA Department of Planning for a long breakfast - two hours in fact in a fancy eatery. There we discussed professional themes concerning the development of small regional communities and secondly the problems with current approaches to strategic metropolitan planning. We had a great time together and, better still, I might get an invitation to go back to Perth to talk to his department. This time I'd take Dot who bravely missed out on this trip.

The second element of my day was a trip to Freo. Freo is the affectionate name for the most attractive part of Perth ... Freemantle. This is where the city started in 1829 - the port on the coast. And it is a constellation of interesting architecture, scenic and historical attractions, and cosmopolitan culture and lifestyle. This and the next two posts chart my walk around this delightful place starting here with the roundhouse on Arthur Head completed in 1831. The day was beautiful (about 18C and bright sunshine, not bad for mid-winter.)

No! Just before that I'll start with the railway running alongside. Notice anything strange about it? Train buffs might interpret this correctly. The line has two different gauges: standard 4' 8.5" (the transcontinental line) and WA's local narrow gauge. So the port of Freemantle can be serviced by two completely separate operating systems.

Now to the roundhouse, probably WA's oldest building. It is in fact a fort with a gun emplacement, but I cannot imagine a shot fired in anger.

The view from the top of Arthur Head is good, though the mound itself is not high.

And here's the pop-gun in question.

The fort, if one can call it that, is now surrounded by modern and up-market residential apartments.

And on the other side is the Indian Ocean and the local yacht club crammed with expensive craft.

However, the harbour at the mouth of the Swan River is still a working one with a large fishing fleet. The commemorative wall on the left of this picture contains the names of sailors who worked the waters off-shore over the many decades of the last two centuries. And the two sculptures show fishermen in typical pursuits.

Most pleasure craft are white ... but not this one.

The water-front reminded me of a scaled-down Embarcadero with jetties and restaurants or entertainment on them - a real life-style precinct with at least two businesses claiming that they made the best fish and chips in WA.

Nearby I saw my first double-deck boat parking lot with all vessels quite clear of the water. And in the background there was the four-wheeled contraption that did the heavy lifting and unloading.

My amazement at that was soon dwarfed by this 3-4 level monster!

And close by there was, of all things, a Norwegian consulate with its flag flying. This seems a rather attractive  posting for a diplomat.

AS

Soccer in Belconnen

Yesterday morning, Bec and I took Max to his regular Saturday game and this year's photo-shoot of his team. The best view of the team that I took is attached along with two action shots where a lot of the players seem to be ducking for cover. Max was mostly playing back so he might not be in these picture. His team wore, of course, green and yellow stripes. It was a cold day, not more than 12C, and overcast. So the littlies had an incentive to run around fast. Note too the inclusion of girls in the team - which is allowed for a couple of more years in Max's age group.

By the way, the ball in the second picture was round! And the side lost, but they tried hard.

AS

Scooter Accident

I have an embarrassing admission to make! Two days ago I fetched Max after school finished at Macgregor Primary in Canberra. Max met a little friend and he asked me to take care of the scooter he used to ride to school in the morning while he walked and talked with his friend. Well, I decided to use the damn thing and gracefully set off downhill in the direction of a local creek and the bridge crossing it. The trip downhill was great fun, but on reaching the bridge I failed to notice a gap between the pathway and the bridge. On reaching the gap the scooter suddenly stopped, sent me hurtling over the handle-bar and led to hard crash landing on a rough concrete path. The result was multiple grazes, a swollen hand (twice its normal size), extensive bruising, and after 4 hours in a clinic and a hospital a diagnosis that I have no broken bones. This is just as well as I'm sitting in Canberra's airport awaiting a flight to Perth. OK, I only have realistic use of one hand - though mercifully two for typing! - but I'm coping.

AS

Dance Nation

Two days after his 9th birthday, Max had another celebration to undertake. He had volunteered to perform in a dance festival along with something like 400 kids from most, if not all, of Canberra's primary schools. This took place in an expansive auditorium in the city's convention centre and, apart from lengthy introductions from a variety of big-wigs consisted of a series of portrayals of Canberra's history and role over the last century. This year, 2013, is the centenary of the city's foundation.

The show was scheduled from 6.30 to 8.30, and we thought we'd have a long wait to see Max perform. Well, the show went an hour over schedule ending at 9.30, which is rather late for primary kids. But Max's school, Macgregor, performed first. I took some grainy photos, which are shown here, before the host announced that photography was banned! So I'm glad Max had his turn first. I also took the photos from a darkish auditorium into bright stage lights, which didn't make for clarity.

Max appears in the first three photos below.

And the final photo shows action from another school, which I took illegally!

All the kids did well and some of the dancing was quite professional. But most of the music was mostly of a raucous rap-dance type with the sound turned up full volume. Fortunately I still have some hearing left!

AS

A Little Sushi and Sashimi

Max's birthday nosh occurred this evening, a day after his nominal birthday. And for the second time that I recall he chose to go to a Sushi bar. We went to a really nice place at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Belconnen and it was full of customers. The main attraction I suppose for Max, apart from the strange and good quality food (anything Japanese), was its delivery by "train". The restaurant has a long and eventually circular conveyor belt covered in tasty dishes which customers lift off as they pass by. Well, it was great fun and I had both sushi and sashimi (raw fish) items along with Misu soup, sliced ginger and a touch of Wasabi. Max even had a taste of tripe without knowing it. You should have seen his face it was explained what he had just consumed!

You can see some of the dishes consumed piled up in front of Max and Bec!

AS

Shaggy Dog Story

Yesterday was Max's 9th (birthday, not Symphony). And Dot and I bought him an innovative birthday cake - in fact, a shaggy dog whose hairs were made of chocolate, the sort of treat Max would really like. Well, here's the dog with 9 candle's inserted in its back:

These were duly lit, but us not by Max:

And, of course, he then blew them out with a grin on his face amidst a chorus of "for he's a jolly good fellow".

The sequel was not quite so edifying! There was heated exchange among us about how to dismember the poor animal. Some were for a beheading; others wanted the guillotine to fall in the animal's mid-rift or rump, and I think I suggested cutting him up lengthways. Anyway the dog was cut in the middle and tasted delicious.

AS 

Family Reunion

Saturday 22 June 2013 saw a rare family reunion in Sydney and the common thread lay in three Burling sisters: Laura, Dorothy and Hazel in age order, but now all deceased. Laura became matriarch of the Patricks family most of whom still reside in the Armidale district, though Pat now lives in Sydney near Dot's brother, Dick, and both were at yesterday's gathering. That, incidentally, was held on Darling Point,one of Sydney's best addresses.

Dorothy senior, Dot's mother, became the matriarch of the Hillard family and, of course, both Dick and Dot junior attended the reunion ... along with me as appendage. And Hazel became matriarch of the Stapleton family and her two sons, Doug and Ian, were also in attendance. Indeed, Ian - an architect by profession  and his wife, Maisie, hosted us yesterday.  Doug runs one of Australia's leading mohair goat studs in the NSW Central West, and he was accompanied by his wife Rosie who had the distinction of graduating from my department at UNE shortly after I arrived! Indeed, Doug holds a doctoral degree from UNE so that institution was well represented at the gathering.

Well that disposes of our generation - all eight of us with ages ranging from the low 60s to the mid-80s. The next generation was perhaps less well represented. Doug and Rosie's two kids ... well, now young adults, Michael and Catherine, attended, though neither has their own family. And Ian and Maisie's daughter, Alice and her husband were there or course. On our side of the family, only Bec could attend because of course California is a long way to come for a weekend! Rob and Max came too, along with Alice's children who are just a little younger than Max. So 6 of our generation showed up, bringing the total to 14, and the three youngsters made a grand total of 17.

I attach a few pictures of the event taken on my mobile phone as I forgot my proper camera. Fortunately I kept a steady hand and the photos are fairly good, though not as good as the food, which was excellent. Just look at the wonderful deserts, for example. The banquet took about 3 hours from start to finish.

AS

Donating my Body to Medical Education

It was examination time today in UNE's medical school and, like this time last year, I was asked to be a patient for medical students exhibiting their skills in diagnosis. I was asked to do this because of my cardiac condition and installed defibrillator. Anyway I agreed to donate my body for them purpose, though I'd be a lot less receptive to the idea if the students were practising autopsies!

There wasn't too much to my task. A doctor had an 8am briefing session explaining what I and the students had to do. Then 6 students came into the room one by one at 25 minute intervals and were told that I was (a) 68 years old (well not quite, 67 and 364 days) and (b) I had a cardiac condition. They then had to diagnose as much about me as possible from a cardio-vascular angle: blood pressure, heart-beat, pulse, condition of heart and other organs (without opening me up), state of eyes and mouth, condition of arms and legs, chest soundings, and so on. I got the impression that bed-side manner was also being assessed along with ability to use the instrumentation quickly.

The medical school supplied me with a highish bed on which I had to rotate position at the students' requests and the bed could be tilted as needed. So I was prodded and poked for something like 3 hours. I was wearing just jeans a T-shirt and provocatively I wore the one I bought in Helsinki with the hero of the Finnish  epic poem (the Kalevala) Kullervo riding a motorbike wearing a helmet with horns on it. Anyway, the students didn't have enough time to work out if really am a bikie and anyway the T-shirt was mostly off as they worked around my torso.

After each investigation the student involved was asked to comment on my condition to the doctor doing the assessment. I could overhear some of the discussion and some was quite accurate. Two students, however, didn't manage to notice my defibrillator! During this stage I was fortunately able to read my Kindle and in particular Stanislslav Lem's amazing 1964 book Summa Technologiae - a futuristic look at the world and the forces, scientific and social, driving it. He intended it to be a counter-point to Aquinas' Summa Theoligica written in 1265-74 some 700 years earlier. So, I learned much this morning earlier, like in around 4500 AD the energy use by humans on this planet is likely to reach 1/10,000 of the energy emission of the sun! But by then we'll be racing around the solar system and its neighbours in rockets waited on be legions of robots.

AS

A Near Collision

This is a very short post. I was riding my bike rather fast out in the country the other day. Fast was about 35 kph (22 mph) down a dead straight road. I was stunned when a grey Kangaroo jumped in front of me crossing the road. Fortunately it was very fast and I slammed on the brakes so we missed each other. I wonder what would have happened had we collided. By the way, the 'roo scarcely gave me a glance.

AS

Mobile Neighbourhood

We've known for some time that the homes on either side of us have been on the market, but will not go into the very personal complexities of why they were sold. All I can say is that Dot and I are innocent of bringing about the changes!

Well we heard about 6 weeks ago that our long-term neighbour of almost 40 years, Christine, was departing and that the property had be sold privately to a cousin on her husband to be, Steve.

The home to the west of us has been on the market a good few months with lots of people viewing what real estate agents euphemistically call a renovator's dream. The place has been empty for getting on for some 30 months  after its previous owner, Victor, died (of natural causes I may add). It was the subject of a probate battle between two claimants! Anyway, we heard from Victor's sister yesterday that contracts had been exchanged.

Well, blow us down if (a) Steve's cousin moved in yesterday and (b) our new neighbours to the west started to move in today. Two in two days! And in a street containing just 7 houses. I have calculated that the 7 homes have been here for about 287 years (7 x 41) and that they have had collectively 14 owners during the time. That means that ownership of any one of the 7 houses in the street changes hands on average about every 3 years and any single house will change ownership once in almost 21 years.

Here's a challenge for you. Given those statistics, what are the odds that any one of those houses will have new owners move in on either side a day apart? You'll have to allow for the fact that the two end properties can only have one new arrival next door at any one time. The winner, who supplies the first correct solution received, will receive a free week's accommodation with us.

AS