Canberra's Multicultural Food Festival

Dot and I recently drove to Canberra to be with Bec and Max for several days. They developed a fascinating program for our stay, including three spectacular events that make up three consecutive blog posts. The first was our attending the city's multi-cultural food festival, which was enormous in terms of nations represented, the variety of domestic foods they offered, street and stage performances, the vast crowd of people attending, and the area covered by stalls and stages.

Our first impressions upon arrival mid-morning on Saturday were informed by the vast space of 'Civic' - Canberra's main commercial district - taken up by the various food stalls

And the massive range of foods available also rapidly became apparent. For example, I was taken by the Jordanian and Ethiopian cuisines shown here. How many of my readers have ever tasted these foods? Here's a picture of me enjoying the task of prowling around the stalls with Dot, Bec and Max in tow.

Two more unusual food stalls then came into view, representing the United Arab Emirates and Serbia!

And then I saw a stall, below, inviting one to taste Colombian food, an invite that I accepted - yummy!

How about trying some food from Botswana or Korea? By the time I saw these stalls, I had eaten quite a lot, including some from Iran. I wonder if I am about to get Coronavirus!!

Then I saw stalls serving food from Egypt and Lebanon.

That's enough about food. Equally interesting were the 'street performances'. These butterflies, or possibly beetles, attracted much attention.

Performers like these played instruments and music from their home countries, in this case South America.

And this choir seemed to be singing Christian music while, alongside the Korean food dispensary we heard some of that nation's famous drumming.







This drumming reminded me of a lovely drumming ceremony I attended long ago at a Buddhist monastery in southern Korea.

Then on a nearby stage we came across cultural performances from the Pacific region, including - if I recall correctly - New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

Finally, we wound up at a street performance provided by the Hare Krishna movement founded in New York in 1966. It's a branch of Hinduism and was formed to spread the practice of Bhakti Yoga and the love of God. So, we sat in silence while a group of young people chanted Hare Krishna for about 15 minutes ... perhaps not the best use of my time!

While listening to the repetitive chants, I discovered something I'd not observed before. While Britain contrived to exit the European Union, the youngster in front of me came up with hat that informed me that the EU was in the process of infiltrating Australia!!

And I have one final image to report. While most foods were prepared and dispensed in the stalls I have shown repeatedly, one provider came up with an up-market way of dispensing food. Tale a look at this massive limo whose side unfolds to act as a stove.

 Some nations must have a lot of spare cash!

AS

Should we reconstruct Noah's Ark?

After an incredibly dry 2019, Armidale has transformed into an emerald city after something like 250 mm (c. 10 inches) of rain in the first six weeks of 2020. And, last evening, I saw a lovely rainbow to the east of our house as the sun was setting.


This was the first time in many months that we had seen a rainbow. I thought about tracing the pot of gold where the end hot the ground, but Tuesday evening is my contract bridge evening and I hastened off to my game instead.







Two days earlier - last Sunday - I drove out to Wollomombi falls to see what I imagined would be a torrent of water cascading over the escarpment and crashing into the pool beneath, amidst clouds of spray. However, I arrived at the road leading to the falls just as a thunder-storm released torrents of rain. The road has to cross a narrow causeway over a little stream that's almost always dry. This time I joined a queue of stationary cars stationary awaiting the opportunity to cross, while another queue on the other side waited to escape. As you may know, I have an impatient streak. After a few minutes, I turned around as the torrent of water intensified and headed back to the Baker's Creek falls to the west. I'd passed the turn-off to those falls earlier when the weather was dry. Well, I was in luck. There was no rain despite looming dark clouds. But heavy rain over many days had caused a massive inflow of water to the falls. I was stunned by the thunder of torrential water and estimated that the water flow must have been ten times or more than I had ever witnessed previously.


The torrent is captured on the left and note the spray drifting over the landscape. Turning through 90 degrees one can see the gorge etched out by the creek over thousands of years on the right. Note the threatening colour of the sky.






I didn't linger long because I could see the rain coming and I just reached my car as the skies opened. And the downpour was, I think, the most intense I have ever had to negotiate. Usually I drive the Waterfall Way, as the coast road is named, at c. 100 kph, but I had to reduce speed to c. 40 kph to give my wipers a chance to clear the wind screen and avoid an accident.

By the way I have a 20 second video of the waterfall with the roar of water audible. I can copy it to you if you ask nicely! In addition consider this. If rainfall continues at this rate for the rest of 2020, we'll receive something like 2125 mm (85 inches) compared with the usual 750 mm (30 inches).

Hmmm. Ark construction might take off as people seek to secure their future homes. And the government might want to build arks to populate them with the remnants of many different species of plants an animals driven to the verge of extinction by drought and fire. Maybe that thinking is overboard in Armidale. We live at c. 1012 m (3320 feet), so we're not likely to go under-water any time soon. And, were that to occur, most of humanity would be drowned!

AS

Saumarez Farmer's Market

For many years, Armidale has had its markets in the mall on the last Sunday in each month. They're still going even today, but with a declining number of stalls. That outcome may reflect growing competition from farmer's markets which commenced maybe 10 years or so ago. The initial event was held on one Sunday each month different to the market in the mall - Armidale's main shopping street- until recently. Then, a little while back, the farmer's markets went to twice a month on the first and third Sundays, both held in a park alongside Dumaresq Creek - the main waterway through the centre of town. And, today, for the first time, a third farmer's market opened up on the second Sunday of the month. This event, unlike the others was hosted out at the Saumarez mansion, a National Trust property located to the south of our city.

It wasn't an auspicious day for the opening event! After months of drought, January saw a monumental rainfall of c. 180 mm (or over 7 inches). And this climate shift has moved into February with further impressive falls of c. 55 mm (over 2 inches) in the first eight days. I couldn't resist taking these two cloudscapes looking north from near Saumarez just arriving there. It wasn't raining at the time but, as you can imagine, rain was imminent at any moment.

Despite the impending weather, many people drove out there to, like me, survey the scene. Here' a mobile coffee wagon parked in from of the homestead.

And here was the first glimpse I got of the market stalls as I walked into the grassy area next to the homestead's restaurant. Normally, this area is a car-park for visitors

And this was the view of the remaining stalls as I swung left through 90 degrees. I was saddened by the overall small number of stalls compared with the established markets down-town. At a guess, the number would have been only c. 40% of the usual total. This outcome, however, may reflect both the advertised heavy rainfall and it being a first-time venue. Perhaps the sizeable number of people who turned up is harbinger of success into the future. It's certainly an attractive and historical location, and the Saumarez managers are trying hard to popularise the location.

As usual at these kinds of event, one of my favourite stalls was present: 'Fe Fi Fo'. This sells delicious French-style pastries and I couldn't miss the opportunity to buy Dot an almond croissant and me a little pastry with cherries embedded in it. I was alone as Dot preferred to stay at home this time.

Altogether, it was a pleasant experience. So, I shall return.

AS 

Australia Day 26.01.20

After looking at stacks of hay - see previous post - I turned to the main task of the day, celebrating Australia day by attending the Armidale Regional Council's awards and citizenship ceremony at the town hall. Unlike previous years, the event was poorly attended, which surprised me to some extent. But thinking about it, I found a couple of reasons. This Sunday, the last in month, provided an alternative and simultaneous attraction, namely Markets in the Mall. Also, of course, this is summer holiday season in Australia and the town has been very quiet for the last 3 weeks as many residents are on the road, especially to the coast.

While awaiting for the ceremony to commence at 11 am, we were entertained  by a brass band, pictured here in a corner of the town hall just in front of the stage. Many of the performers looked young and they played a lot of traditional Australian songs like 'Waltzing Matilda'.

Then the leaders of the ceremony took to the stage on cue. They included the mayor, Simon Murray, in traditional robes on the right standing next the Council's General Manager, Susan Law.

Together, they summoned the very young choir, now seen standing on stage, to sing the national anthem: Advance Australia Fair. Interestingly, the sang both verses rather than usual one that everyone knows. We all sang the first, but most of the audience, including me, didn't know the second verse and kept quiet!

At this point, a guy came on stage and recited (a) some traditional versus and (b) some, I gathered he had penned himself and focused on local community events.

Then came the ceremony where the mayor bestowed Australian citizenship on numerous people from all over the world: Asia, Europe, the Americas, etc.
























Then a local master of ceremonies took over to handle various community awards, Citizens for this that and the other contribution to life in the Armidale Regional Council












 The young girl below won the youth award.





Right at the end of the event, a group of 'firies' were invited. These are the people who have played a lead role in fighting the numerous bush-fires in our extensive region. None was close to damaging Armidale, but they had to be controlled to prevent environmental disasters and the smoke haze we endured. They were given a tremendous round of applause.






Thereafter people retreated from the auditorium with me in the lead!. I had to get back to Dot who hadn't been feeling the best today! I'd attended the ceremony alone.

AS

Hay Run

As you will have heard just about anywhere on this planet, Australia has just witnessed its worst drought event ever. My home-town of Armidale, NSW, was one of the worst hit areas and in 2019 we only received about one-third of our normal rainfall. Moreover, the back half of the year from July to December saw very little rain at all.

Needless to say, most local farmers have had to reduce stock levels. This is especially sad as New England, our region, is a premier livestock grazing region, focusing mainly on beef-cattle and sheep - for both wool and increasingly sheep-meats. Charitable organisations have put great efforts into helping our local farmers and yesterday, 25th January, we saw a mammoth hay delivery event. You might find what I'm about to say unbelievable, but it is true! No less than about 170 trucks carted hay in a convoy up the New England Highway from Singleton in the Hunter Valley - c. 300 km away - to Armidale.

We were told that the convoy would probably arrive between noon and 12.30 pm. So, Dot and I along with several others went to the end of our street, which joined Erskine Street which was the route the trucks were going to take. Here we are awaiting the great event and there's a view eastwards down to the nearby traffic lights where council staff lay in wait to control the lights to let the truck through efficiently.

Alas, the convoy was late and eventually arrived at 1 pm. I couldn't be there for the simple reason that I was playing contract bridge with my usual Saturday partner just a little way from the above intersection. Never mind! I took my usual early morning Sunday walk down towards Armidale show-grounds where the trucks parked, the hay was unloaded, and farmers would later to arrive to collect their allocation. At one of our nearby motels I came across this guy who had his allocation aboard and was about to head home.

The I took a wrong route and when I attempted to cross Dumaresq Creek, which flows through the centre  of town, I found it in flood! So I retraced my steps home and took one of cars instead. Isn't it ironic that the hay arrived after we have experienced one of the wettest months in a long time. Our home rain gauge is now showing about 180 mm over the 26 days so far!! That's over 7 inches of rain. Well, we now know that seasonal weather patters are returning to normal, which augurs well for 2020. Since we have a summer maximum of rainfall we'll not reach 80+ inches for the year.

Armed with our Rav4 4wd vehicle, I crossed the offending creek without getting washed away and was stunned with what I saw. Despite many vehicles having offloaded their hay - I saw one or two departed for home - the showground was awash trucks of hay, as these pictures show.

Here's a truck with the name of the convoy on its side! It's an odd name: BURRUMBUTTOCK, about which I know nothing. You may have noted that Australia trucks tend to be enormous. And, out west in remote locations, it is common to see prime movers like the one shown here towing not one, but three, trailers.

As you can see, our show-ground is massive, as is typical of many country towns. And, when I found an open entrance to the area, I could see many of the trucks and their contents parked neatly in long rows. Impressive isn't it! Let's hope that the dispersal of the contents well. I do not know the outcome because these pictures were taken at c. 8.30 am.

Look at the colour of the sky! Well within two hours fluffy clouds began to emerge and I expected heavy rain. Guess what! By 5 pm when I began typing this we heard a few claps of thunder and another downpour commenced. If this goes on, we'll be back to mowing our grass twice a week.

AS