Come to my shed

This morning John, who owns the flat we're in, popped round to ask if I'd like to come to his shed. This is not as sinister as it sounds: shed, in this context, means something close to hobby and craft club. John's is a woodworking club, where he and others, including women, make, and collaborate on,  wooden artefacts. His house contains several that he has made himself - tables, bowls, that sort of thing - all from local pine and cedar, as well as anything else lying about. The quality is very high, but pride of place goes to a model of Cologne Cathedral, made by a German guy and his wife. This contains stunning detail and moving parts. The picture does not really do it justice, but gives you an idea

They actually made two, one of which John has, the other raffled by the club, raising. $1000. The man who won it, took it home, only for his wife to say 'that's not coming in here', so it's being re-raffled.

Anyway, we were already committed today, but we've agreed to go next week.

Today we drove down the coast to Bermagui, a little town 100km to the south of here, accessed via a rickety wooden bridge. There's a small marina there, and nearby a Marine Park, plus quite a lot of holiday properties and eateries. You don't pass through very many inhabited places to get there, but there are road signs pointing to small towns with names suggestive of aboriginal origins: Lillii Pilli, Illawang, Noggarula - you get the idea. 

The pic shows Mrs A at the bay.

Tomorrow, we're going to Owen's school fete (Owen is Glenda's 11 year old grandson, who lives with them). This is a biennial event, and apparently quite a big deal in the area, so we're looking forward to that.

Canberra

We're staying at the Mercure where, it turns out, under its earlier name of Olims, Pat's friend Glenda married Trevor 20 years ago. Small world?

This is the Federal capital, in its own territory (ACT), itself wholly within NSW. Selected in the early 1900s as a compromise between the rival claims of Sydney and Melbourne, it is built around Lake Burley Griffin, after the American architect who designed the city. Like most Aussie cities there is plenty of space and parkland, and mainly low-rise buildings. Unusually for a national capital, it has no international airport: any visiting dignitary has to fly into Sydney or Melbourne, and transfer.

Here's a thing. Imagine if Tesco charged you £1 for a trolley but only gave you 10p back. Canberra airport charge you $2 for a luggage trolley, and will give you 20c back if you return it to where you got it from. Most people don't bother to take it back at all, but leave it in the car park, reckoning that 20p is a reasonable fee to have someone else do it for them. So the car park is littered with trolleys where once people happily retuned them to the designated bay. Brilliant.

Spent a couple of hours going round the very impressive Australian War Memorial, in memory of the hundreds of thousands of Aussies who have died in various conflicts. I knew they'd fought on our side in various European wars but I had no idea they were so close to being invaded themselves, by the Japanese. Darwin was bombed several times and even Sydney was shelled from the sea.

We picked up the hire car and drove down to the coast, a two and a half hour journey. Maximum speed limit anywhere in NSW is 100km/hr, or about 65 mph, and given the roads are good and largely empty, it's very frustrating. Speed limits are enforced enthusiastically, with severe penalties so it's best to play safe. Canberra is quite high and there are hairpin bends with limits of 25km/hr, and it's almost impossible to go that slowly. 

Fire is an ever-present danger here, evidenced by the blackened trees along the road. Most trees here are eucalyptus, which burns a treat. One species, the white gum, when stressed, sheds limbs. Whole branches just fall off. So if you see a harassed looking white gum, don't stand underneath it, would be my advice.

First glimpse of the sea about 5pm. More anon

Saturday, came down to breakfast to find 200 blonde airheads in full squawk in the lobby. Turns out there's a skin care conference on. As the elderly Aussie in the queue for the unhealthy breakfast choices muttered darkly " hubby won't be getting his tea tonight". The spirit of the 50s alive and well in South Australia, then.

We ate at an Italian last night, outside given the weather had improved. At the next table were a man and woman, with passers-by pausing to wish him good luck for tomorrow. One called him Mr Parnell so, guessing that might be his name, I googled him when we got back. Turns out he was Mark Parnell, the first Green representative in SA to be elected to the State Legislature, whose term was up and was hoping to be re-elected. Obviously his main support base is the festival-attending, Italian-food-eating demographic.

Went to the zoo this afternoon to see the giant pandas. The picture shows Wang Wang, the male of the pair, who conveniently strolled across to me when he saw the camera.

Tomorrow after lunch we're flying to Canberra, for one night, after which we're driving down to Surf Beach. More anon

Adelaide

We arrived here Friday morning having flown overnight from Singapore. No sleep en route as the guy in the seat behind us coughed all night, so not feeling on top form.

First impressions of Adelaide: everyone seems very young, something I've commented on before in Australian cities. The Aussies welcome migrants, and have pretty much renewed their gene pool over two generations. Downtown, where we are, is a grid system, with free trams. Our hotel is in a pedestrianised bit, and the Adelaide Festival is about to start, so there's a lot of bustle going on. The bad news is that it's cloudy and rain is expected later.

It's a small(ish) city of 1.2 million, and dates back to the 1820s when it was founded as a colony for free migrants, as opposed to convicts. Fans of Aussie place names, where they name something after it's most obvious feature (the Great Sandy Desert, for example) will enjoy the local attraction Mount Lofty. In WA there's a Lake Disappointment, which is nice, as well as a Shark Bay, which must do wonders for the holiday trade.

There's a zoo, which we may visit tomorrow, which has the only giant pandas in the Southern Hemisphere. I'll post a pic or two if possible - wifi here is free but sooooo slow....

Singapore

Well we arrived here last night. We're staying at he Park Regis, just for the night.

Today it's 32 degrees, as it usually is. We're pretty much on the equator here so there are no distinct seasons, though the humidity varies from very high, to even higher.

If you ignore the climate you could be at home. Everything, literally, is in English: street names, road signs, the adverts on the side of buses, all in English. Which is odd, because of the 5m people who live here 75% are ethnic Chinese. English is spoken by around half the population.

Nominally a democracy, the same party has ruled since independence in 1959. No doubt the trains run on time, but crime is almost non-existent. Possibly this is because of the fierce punishments imposed. For example, littering is punishable by beheading. (If it's a first offence. Do it again and you're really in trouble.) Or possibly it's because everyone has a job and a roof over their head. Who can say?

We're only here for a few hours, so we're going to check out the orchids* at the Botanical Gardens, by recommendation. This evening we fly to Adelaide, where we arrive tomorrow morning. More exciting news anon.

*Did you know the word orchid derives from the Greek 'orchis', meaning testicle?

Here we go again

On 6 April 2010 I said that would be my last posting. Well, I lied, because today we're been to see Jolene in Flight Centre and booked to go back next year. Last time Trevor was in England I lent him my Spinal Tap DVD, and I need to get it back.... So on 11 March we will fly Singapore Airlines to Adelaide, with an overnight in Singapore, for a few days mooching about. Then a flight to Canberra where, after a night's stay, we'll pick up a hire car and drive to Bateman's Bay (NSW)where Glenda and Trevor live. We'll be there a couple of weeks, renting an apartment across the road from their house. After that, we'll drive to Sydney, drop off the car, and stay a couple of days. We had thought we'd take in the Blue Mountains but in view of the fires we're giving that a miss. We fly home from Sydney, again via Singapore, arriving back home on 9 April. There a still a few bits and pieces to sort out, but that's the bones of it. I'll be posting whenever I can find some Wi-Fi, and have told Trevor I want to go surfing again. More exciting news in due course.