Family Matters

So far in my exploration of, and documentation about, Costa Rica has focused on things. Perhaps it's about time to shine a light on members of my extended family enjoying, perhaps celebrating, Emily's birthday. Only I have featured in my essays so far.

Let's start with Emily and Rebecca enjoying a mass pool-side work-out involving dance movements to music led by by  the gut in charge below.















The proceedings were watched by Dot sunning herself on a nearby seat. And the dude below looks like Flynn enjoying himself in the pool.











Here's Greg playing table-tennis with Ella, a game which attracted participation from many members of group.
















What better of relaxing at our resort than swinging in a cane chair, as Ella is doing here?

Emily and Flynn both seem to agree with my observation!
















A lot of time was also spent on the beach, which hardly surprising given the high humidity and great warmth of our location just 10 degrees north of the equator. Sea temperatures were also very warm. Here's Flynn running towards the Pacific ocean with his enormous floaty ring.









 Both kids loved the water!






And here they are admiring what looks like a Lemur. However, I can't recall whether it was alive or, more likely, stuffed! Something's amiss! Oh! I know what it is. The final member of our party hasn't yet appeared in my pictures. Apologies, Max. Here he is accompanying his mother, Bec, in the warm waters of the Pacific.









AS

Some Central American Wildlife

My second essay on our stay in Westin resort in Costa Rica concerns local wildlife - both animal and vegetation, which we saw around the resort itself and nearby, and also on a boat trip we took along a river with tropical forests on either side. I'll let my pictures do most of the talking.

Let's start with coastal vegetation alongside our resort. And, below, the view from our boat as we glided up-river through tropical forests.











On the right you can see one of the numerous lizards on a tree branch.



And, the next view on the right reveals a small crocodile floating in the water. Another, below, lays still on the river bank















On the right, a large lizard, maybe an iguana, nestles on a tree branch. And below that, a bird of prey sits on a tree-branch awaiting a meal to reveal itself.

 And on the left can you spot what looks like a camouflaged lizard lying horizontal on a branch?

Below, another lizard suns itself at our resort.

And yet another scans me warily on some rocks near our rooms at the resort. while below something like a raccoon plays on the grass.

Such animals populated the trees around us in abundance and always made for interesting conversation.










Also around in great numbers were monkeys swinging from branch to branch in our surrounding tress.

All up, surrounding nature provided us with a great experience.








AS

A Trip to Costa Rica

Back in late July and Early August, Dot and I travelled yo Costa Rica for a very special event. Emily celebrated her 40th birthday in style at a lovely US - owned resort called Westin Playa Conchal. I spent 6 nights there, although Dot only managed 4. That was because she flew there from Sydney via Los Angeles and I flew in from London via New York and Miami. Alas for Dot, she missed a connecting flight in LA through no fault of her own while arrived on schedule. I left one day after everyone else because I had trouble connected with Qantas in Dallas!

Anyway, the resort was lovely: well appointed in terms of variety of accommodation, the landscaping of grounds teeming with local wild-life, great facilities within the resort for entertainment - eating - swimming and so on, beautiful beaches with a variety of water sports, and great trips to places in the resort's vicinity.

We'll start by having a look at the seascapes surrounding the resort followed by a quick look around the resort itself. Playa Conchal translates as a beach made of sea-shells. And here we're on the western (Pacific) side of Costa Rica (or rich coast). The scenery was certainly impressiveness.

Recognise this dude? It's me.











The water sport included Kayaking and jet skis as some of the pictures show.  I really liked the latter.











The lagoon on the right was not only picturesque, but was home to crocodiles!




We spent quite a lot of time on these beaches swimming, hiring the water equipment run by various local entrepreneurs, or just lying there in the sun.

The pictures below show something of the facilities inside the resort. Many paths connected the fine accommodation to the various attractions and we spent a lot of time in the numerous and extensive pools with Emily and her family, Rebecca and Max, and me also. Other facilities included the likes of pool tables.










The resort also boasted a well-maintained and beautifully landscaped golf course, but none of us to my knowledge used that.



















The resort also entertained us a night with such shows as this one revolving around fire. The fire was variously eaten or played with artistically.

Other show involved circus performers or musical presentations.

And, although I can't show the restaurant areas, they were numerous and we could sample a wide variety of great fayre that was abundantly provided. Let's just say that the time passed pleasantly and quickly!
AS

I'm back again

I'm aware that it's a while since I made my last post to this blog, but so much has happened in the last three months that I'm running way behind in my essays on life's experiences. Well here's a short tale to kick things off.

I love Spring for the simple reason that it's a season of renewal and expectations for better things to come - summer for instance. And its a picturesque season with lovely plants coming into bloom. One such plant is our front garden azalea pictured below ... although there are many others.

Looking at this picture reminds me of a dicey Limerick I know. I like this form of poetry because of its terse and often risky format, so here goes:

There was a young man from Australia

Who painted his ar.e like an Azalea

The colour was fine

Likewise the design

The Aroma, that was a failure

Oh well, that's done. Anyone got another risky Limerick to share with me?

Perhaps I should add a few more pictures of plants now in full bloom in our garden, lovingly tended by Dot. They are, in order, roses, banksia, poppies, white May, rhododendron, ?? (please supply an answer), lilies, another unknown, and two more forms of bottlebrush!

AS

Stunning Concert

I keep on raving about Armidale's strong musical life but the stunning events keep on coming. Yesterday afternoon was the next in a long line of occasions, and this time the performers were the Armidale Orchestra and the works performed where grouped under the spectacular umbrella of "in a galaxy far, far away'!! So the concert was all about space music.

One other thing blew me and Dot away. This was the size of the orchestra. It had over 60 excellent performers and remember that our population is only 25,000. On a pro-rata basis, Sydney could recruit an orchestra 12,000 members strong! String players totalled 25 (in 5 categories from violin to double bass), wind 29 (12 categories from flute to tuba), percussion 5, plus performers on harp and piano. And the conductor was brilliant. He was Russell Bauer, recently appointed CEO of our New England Conservatorium of Music (NECOM), and a composer in his own right.

SO what's 'space music'. Well, the first part before the interval comprised two works ... a selection of planets from Holst's 'Planets Suite'. We heard Mars (the bringer of war), Mercury (winged messenger), Jupiter (bringer of jollity), and Uranus (the magician). And the second work was by Russell Bauer himself and called 'A New Frontier'. Its themes evolved around (a) the crash of Skylab into Western Australia in 1979, (b) a tribute to 7 astronauts killed in an explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, and (c) an anthemic tribute to Australia's new Space Agency.

By the way, heading to this concert our car began to play 'Mars' somewhat prophetically. And what stunned me was that the Armidale Orchestra's rendition was every bit as good as the CD!

The second part of the concert was not exactly 'classical music'. Rather it contained 3 pieces by John Williams, who writes film scores - many extremely well known. Russell, by the way, re-scored them for a symphony orchestra and they came across brilliantly. The films in question are exceptionally well-known: Star Wars; and Steven Spielberg's ET The Extra Terrestrial. From Star Wars we listened to two components - the hugely well-known opening fanfare and Rey's theme. And from ET we heard the bike chase and the departure.  Of course, the rendition of this music helps explain the amazing number of young kids in the audience! Many were under the age of 10! Good luck to them.

And another surprising part of the performance was the visuals provided. For each of the planets we had a huge screen portray the planet as through a large telescope ... and details about the planets' masses, spin rate, time taken for one orbit of the sun (by the way Uranus has not had one full orbit in my entire life-time), surface temperatures, and number of orbiting moons. However, those images were minor compared to the final item, ET. Here the screen actually showed the sections of the film dealing with the bike chase and departure. The chase allows ET to escape detention by police and security agencies helped by ET's friend - a young boy. And the tear-jerking Departure shows the space-ship returning to collect ET and the sadness of the young kid and his family who had looked after ET. The orchestra's renditions were perfectly timed with the images on the screen ... I don't know how. But the audience was blown away and gave the conductor and his orchestra a standing ovation at the end. It was a wonderful afternoon out.

My photography of the event was terrible for the simple reason that I was trying to enlarge images and take them fast as my hand shook. However, I append some anyway. Here's the orchestra and the screen showing data on Mars.

And here's the space-ship arriving to collect ET, the being it accidentally left behind followed by a poor image of ET, whom you can just make out!

AS