Would Uncle Ho Have Approved This?

Hi Folks,

I'm currently attending a conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam having a whale of a time - with new sites, sounds, tastes, and cultural experiences leaping out at every moment - along with a few frustrations. A group of four of us have just arrived back at our hotel for a bit of R & R after a day loaded with papers, discussion, academic arguments, and some really good food, but the journey home in rush hour was a bit of a nightmare! Our party had three Australians, including me, and a long time American friend, Holly Barcus, from Macalaster College, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. And after waiting perhaps 10 minutes we managed to hail a taxi and all crammed into at high speed. The journey was fraught to put it mildly because, although the roads have the usual lane markings and are punctuated by traffic lights, few road users seem to obey any of the road rules. Red lights don't mean stop; it's OK to travel one way streets in the wrong direction; vehicles have no lane discipline; any one can cut in front of you without warning; pedestrian crossings have no meaning; motorists will do U-turns on busy streets and risk colliding with other users and so on. Here I am, by the way, giving my keynote presentation yesterday courtesy of my Japanese colleague, Daichi Kohmoto, who once hosted me at his parents' house in the mountains bordering the Inland Sea area:

Worse still on the traffic front is the fact that something like 95 % of all the vehicles on the streets are not cars, but rather motor bikes. Yes, folks, that means that 1 in 20 vehicles is a car, truck or bus. And the bikes weave complicated patterns as they dash to overtake cars, turn corners violently, or ride between larger road users. Perhaps more horrendous is the number of people one can cram on a two-seater bike. The maximum I've seen is four ... or was it five? And frequently that includes young children and oldies sitting side-saddle. At one set of traffic lights tonight we even saw bikes something like 12 abreast awaiting a green starting gun!

Here are some images of the traffic chaos:

These pictures were taken off-peak so that the traffic was thin compared with tonight! And the pavements are also cluttered with parked bikes with owners asking if you'd like a ride somewhere - no risk of me doing that!

AS

A Quick Trip to Versailles

It's sure been a busy week or two ... and about to get a lot busier, but that's another story.

Anyway, Dot and I managed a quick trip to Versailles last week and rekindle old memories of a visit we made there something like 15 years ago. It's a wonderful place to visit and last week Versailles came to us in Canberra when the National Gallery of Australia hosted 'Treasures from the Palace'. Walking through the exhibition I also rekindled my memories of my schooldays back in the 1960s - yes, I'm really that ancient - when I studied French history, geography, culture and language. Indeed, when I left school I could probably write better in French than I could in English. So I came face to face once again with many images the Le Roi Soleil (or Sun King, alias Louis Quatorze), the ill-fated Louis XVI and his famous wife, Marie Antoinette (Hm, must be a relative of mine!), and the restoration Bourbons. When told about the revolting peasants (or was it pheasants?) the ill-advised Marie Antoinette was quoted as saying "let them eat cake"! The peasants eventually got their revenge when she and her husband had their heads separated from their bodies during the French Revolution. All this reminiscing reminded me that back in the 2000s I attended a conference held at Louis 14th's stables at Rambouillet, not far from Versailles.

The exhibition hosted many pictures, sculptures and furnishings such as ceramics, tapestries, carpets and chairs all sourced from Versailles. These are some of the images we saw:

I think this is a portrait of Marie Antoinette made while she was in one piece!

I wonder what birds they kept in this bird-cage? It couldn't have been budgerigars since Australia was only settled one year before the French Revolution.

No, they didn't transport the Hall of Mirrors to Australia, although it certainly looked real to start with. Only the candelabra made the trip.

But this photo shows a real dude who looks a bit like me - appropriately dressed for the occasion as usual!

 AS

Carol and Vivienne

My Cousin Carol and her daughter, Vivienne, recently visited Australia for two weeks from their homes at Poulton-le-Fylde  and Glasgow respectively. They travelled quite widely in the Eastern States - Victoria, NSW, and Queensland, visiting relatives in Melbourne, taking a break on the Gold Coast (where they unfortunately encountered the tail end of cyclone Debbie, which dumped upwards of 500 mm of rain (c. 20 inches) in 3 days) and meeting up with Dot and me and our mutual Cousin David and his extended family in Sydney.

We stayed for 3 days in the same Travelodge hotel as Carol and Vivienne located just to the south of Hyde park (yes, Sydney has one too!) and for much of that time went around together sightseeing - often using Uber taxis to transport ourselves from place to place cheaply and efficiently. This post recounts some of the things we did together.

We ate breakfasts each day at a different cafe in the vicinity of our hotel and, on the first morning, it as the Fat Man's Cafe just off Oxford Street (yes, we have one of those too!). The cafe and its neighbourhood had interesting wall paintings as the first three pictures show. I liked the third item in which a drain-pipe becomes a rifle - perhaps against my better instincts.

Here we are performong and enduring ritual - taking the harbour ferry to Manly from Circular Quay.

We saw a few yacht races en route, including some yachts turned upside down, and encountered a heavy swell when crossing between north and south heads. The ferry pitched and tossed to add fun to the trip.

And so to the beach after a stroll down the famous Corso linking the beach and ferry. Despite the choppy conditions, there were heaps of surfers in the water, some of them pretty good.

On returning to Circular Quay we strolled through the Rocks area - the site of Australia's first European settlement - paying particular attention to the interesting street market with a wide variety of stalls.

The following day we travelled to Darling Harbour for breakfast and a stroll around this entertainment zone. We focused much of the time on the Chinese Gardens, which I had never previously visited and they were excellent!

We were even given a bowl of food - little pellets - to feed the voracious carp in the pool. They fought each for the food, while I tried to be fair and scatter the food widely.

We next travelled to the Queen Victoria Building - a 19th century shopping mall lovingly restored and home to many top-end shops and services. It's multi-level as this image shows, has interesting clocks, and a pianist to add to the up-market atmosphere.

On our final day, we took a trip to another Sydney icon - Bondi Beach. Cousin David did the honour of picking us up in his spanking new Mazda at the hotel and accompanying us to the beach, not far from his home.

At the top of the beach a wall hosts dozens of interesting art-works - not graffiti - like these show here.

I rarely appear in my own blog, but here I am suitably attired for the beach. And below that, Carol posed for the camera with feline company.

As a storm was brewing we made a strategic retreat, though I don't think the prospect disturbed the surfers!

AS

A Dry Continent?

Australia has the reputation of being a dry continent and, indeed, we have sifting sand dunes in the Simpson Desert that resemble a Saharan landscape. On the other hand we can record some impressive rain events, one of which has just occurred. Tropical cyclone Debbie hit the central Queensland coast 2-3 days ago, accompanied by violent winds of over 250 km per hour. I doubt if many of my readers have ever experienced any storm over 100 km per hour, a figure 2.5 times that level caused massive damage to buildings, trees, crops, power-lines, high-priced yachts and other infrastructure.

But the rainfall received by the town of Mackay was staggering. In the last four days it has received 478 mm of rain (or 19 inches). That's almost two-thirds of the annual rainfall we receive here in Armidale or, if I remember correctly, the annual rainfall of the south coast of England. And, worse still, the system is heading southwards in our direction. As yet Armidale has no strong winds - indeed right now it's dead calm, but the winds are picking up on the coast close to the Queensland border. But it started raining about 2 hours ago and there are forecasts for up to 100 mm (4 inches) on the Northern Tablelands where we live.

My cousin Carol and her daughter, Vivienne, who live near Blackpool in Lancashire (UK) are currently visiting Australia - we're meeting up on Saturday in Sydney - and, guess what. They're staying now on the Gold Coast where maybe 200 mm (8 inches) is about to fall! It's not exactly great holiday weather. The figure at dawn today had already reached 85 mm and in the mountains behind it was more like 150mm already. I hope they've got webbed feet!

AS

Art Exhibition and Dinner

The nearby town of Uralla stages an annual art exhibition organised by their Rotary Club and we've been there several times in the past, even buying the odd picture. This year, as in the past, Armidale, Uralla, Walcha and other Rotary Clubs got together and organised a fund-raising dinner in the exhibition hall - a nice venue because we were surrounded by some great art-works, many done by locals, while we ate a delicious meal served by youngsters taking some sort of catering qualification and talked to people whom we had not previously met. These pictures provide some idea of the event's quality. Dot came along too, the first time she's attended a Rotary event as far as I know.

We were asked at the door to nominate our two favourite pictures one from (a) general exhibit and the second from (b) the young artists collection. My choice came down to the two pictures below, the first showing dragonflies on a pond - very impressionistic and the second showing the courtyard and doorway of a home on the Greek island of Mykonos in the Cyclades. The second struck me as very atmospheric and it was my first choice..

This next image shows two of my favourite pictures produced by pupils in years 7 to 9 (roughly 13 to 15 y.o.). They're the two large impressionistic items in the middle - and the bottom one had been given a gong by the exhibition's organisers.

And here's another exhibit that I liked very much. Alas, the most favoured images I gathered from the chatter around me were landscapes or pictures of farms and farm-houses or maybe images of country towns. Am I alone in eschewing the common place and preferring the unusual?

And here's where we were dining, taken shortly after the end of the meal.

My mantra on life is increasingly becoming: 'do something new'. I like to visit new places, countries, cultures, environments, technological developments, innovative businesses, social groups and so on. Thus, for example, Dot and I have just booked our first cruise with some intersting side trips. You'll find out where in the next few months.

AS