As you may have noticed I never did get around to doing a blog on the first anniversary of our discovering Australia. we have been really busy - it must be because it's the summer.
Our second Australia Day (or Invasion Day as the aboriginal people rightly call it) didn't quite live up to the magnificence of the first one... the thing is after being here a year we now have a benchmark to measure everything against. The reason for it not being quite as good was that some friends of our friends (friends of ours twice removed) have moved house... ergo we couldn't park in their drive... ergo we had to go down by train... ergo we had to sit on the opposite river bank (the rowdy one) and the view wasn't quite as spectacular because it didn't have the backdrop of the City Skyline as it did last year... the fireworks were still pretty breathtaking though. Next year I think we'll have a barbie. a couple of beers, watch the cricket and tennis on the telly and maybe light a couple of sparklers... in other words do what the (non ex-pat) aussies do. Bonza.
I know what your thinking... 'what has Harry the old romantic lined up for Wendy on
Valentines Day?'. Well, I didn't think I'd be able to top the fifty red roses, champagne breakfast and five star hotel that I didn't get for her last year so instead I sent her to Sydney for the week. She has actually gone on a 'conference', it's an odd sort of conference because on Wednesday she climbed Sydney harbour bridge (not certain whether it was part of the proceedings or she did it for 'fun'?). From the text messages I received - I get the impression that she enjoyed it... she said she didn't want to come down again, that may be because she didn't want to get back to Perth in time for Valentines Day.
By being in Sydney this week, Wendy managed to miss the second of her 'new' dance classes. She has joined a 'modern jazz and hip-hop class'. I believe my views on white folks doing hip-hop have been well documented previously so I think it's safe to say that she won't be bringing her hobby home with her. Luckily, unlike the norm, there isn't going to be a show for me to endu.. err enjoy. She really enjoyed the first class, even after she had worked out that she was twice the age of the next oldest pupil in the class.
I think Hattie might want to join the circus... she went to see Cirque du soleil with Wendy and loved it. She particularly liked the bit where a (planted) member of the audience got up and joined in with the acrobatics. If she goes again she will definitely try to join in, probably with the trick where one ballet dancer goes up on her points whilst supporting two other people on her shoulders and balancing the complete works of Charles Dickens on her nose. It sounded very good but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to go due to my 'clown allergy', that and the fact that me and George went to watch the cricket. The Aussies were taking on New Zealand in a One Day International at the WACA. As you would expect the day/night was filled with beer, colourful language and some rather dodgy facial hair... and that was just George. And as you know by now a sporting event just isn't a sporting event unless I get sat next to some annoying, loud mouthed, opinionated individual with a prop. In this case the said individual was a New Zealand supporter and the prop was an inflatable black sheep with a rather rude slogan on it... I would need to draw a diagram to explain it properly. To be fair to our antipodean neighbour he wasn't altogether unfunny, in fact some of his observations were really quite amusing the first time he made them... it was when he repeated them for the 43rd time that they started to grate a bit. He did also have the uncanny ability to produce fully inflated beach balls from thin air (maybe he should get a part in Cirque du soleil). In fact the Kiwis' (beach) balls, the sheep and an unfeasibly long beer (glass) snake held the attention of the majority of the 15,000 strong crowd more than the cricket did... even though it was a nail biting finish with the Kiwis scraping to a last ball victory - the bloke next to me didn't actually notice, he was comatose by this point.
The kids are now back at school after the 'big' holidays, they both appear to like their new teachers - especially George whose teacher is originally from Harrogate and has been having long chats with him about York and its history. He's also doing on a project on Normans - which is great because I can help him with it, there isn't much I don't know about messers Wisdom, Collier and Hunter (that was a rubbish pun even by my low standards).
I went to a music festival in the centre of Perth on Friday, the average age of the attendees was 20.543333 recurring (if I hadn't been there it would have been 18). There was plenty of alcohol consumed, there were quite a few herbal cigarettes being puffed on, and there were a lot of (us) youngsters crammed into a confined space... but there was no loutish behaviour (as long as you don't count balding, middle-aged men leering at attractive young ladies as loutish behaviour). I would quite happily go again next year (if they lift the restraining order)
In contrast, on Saturday, me and Wendy went to see Leonard Cohen at Sandalfords Winery, the average age of the attendees was 63.1471 (if we hadn't been there it would have been 101). There was plenty of the local vintage consumed, and then they consumed some more, and then more and then decided to talk all the way through the performance. These winery crowds are all the same. The woman behind me was saying how great it is to hear live music... yes it would have been. Don't get me wrong, Leonard Cohen (and the supporting musicians) were brilliant and there were several warm and fuzzy moments (including when he did a very creditable cover version of that x factor song that was the christmas number one) but without the constant inane observations from the (mainly) women behind us... it would have been up there in my top three gigs of all time (it might even have nudged in front of Michelle Shocked, at Bradford Uni circa 1992 - although Michelle was wearing a particularly fetching black and white cat suit that evening so she probably would have just held onto third spot anyway)
I can confidently predict that unless the Wedding Present, The Pixies or Billy Bragg come to play at Sandalfords I can't see myself going to another winery gig.
That's all from me for now... I will leave you with my recommendations of five great tracks to play as an accompaniment to a romantic valentines evening...
1: Otis Redding - Try a little tenderness, 2: Roxy Music - In every dream home a heartache (but don't listen to the lyrics too closely because its about an inflatable doll), 3: Mazzy Star - give you my lovin', 4: Morrissey - The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get, 5: The Nolans - I'm In The Mood For Dancing (which my ipod claims I have played 5 times, I refute those claims - it's 4 at the most)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Melbourne bush fires
Quite clearly there are no jokes to be had from the tragic events that took place in Victoria last weekend but I didn't want to just ignore it as it has had such a massive impact on the country, even over here in the West.
I was talking to a senior manager at FESA (Western Australia Fire and Emergency Service) today who said that there is a fire danger index that runs from 0-200, and he said that this afternoon in Perth (with the temperature at 35 degrees) the index was 37 and the fire risk was very high. Last Saturday in Victoria the index was pushing 300, it totally bust the scale and there was absolutely no way to stop the fires spreading so fast. The tragedy is that the people in the region are used to dealing with bush fires, they get them so often, but this was a firestorm that was moving at about 80km/h. It was on top of people before they even knew it was coming.
The terrain is a bit different over here in the West, it's a lot flatter, and therefore the bush fires move a bit slower but we certainly aren't immune from them.
We had a big fire (or so we thought at the time) a few weeks ago that destroyed 10,000 hectares (football pitches) of Yanchep National Park and a nearby Pine Forest. It took two days to get it under any sort of control and the smoke reached us in the suburbs about 20km away. It is of course no accident that we live in a built up area (like it's no accident that we are 5 minutes from a pub and a Chinese restaurant), neither us fancied the country because of the fire dangers, and the fact that there are even more snakes and creepy crawlies than we get now.
Don't think that we are complaining about the weather, it's very pleasant having a summer where you can plan to go out and the weather lets you. I also appreciate that people in the UK are having a particularly cold winter - I'm thinking of sending a couple of cartons of table salt to Gloucestershire city council to help them clear their roads.
Hope you are all keeping warm and safe.
H
I was talking to a senior manager at FESA (Western Australia Fire and Emergency Service) today who said that there is a fire danger index that runs from 0-200, and he said that this afternoon in Perth (with the temperature at 35 degrees) the index was 37 and the fire risk was very high. Last Saturday in Victoria the index was pushing 300, it totally bust the scale and there was absolutely no way to stop the fires spreading so fast. The tragedy is that the people in the region are used to dealing with bush fires, they get them so often, but this was a firestorm that was moving at about 80km/h. It was on top of people before they even knew it was coming.
The terrain is a bit different over here in the West, it's a lot flatter, and therefore the bush fires move a bit slower but we certainly aren't immune from them.
We had a big fire (or so we thought at the time) a few weeks ago that destroyed 10,000 hectares (football pitches) of Yanchep National Park and a nearby Pine Forest. It took two days to get it under any sort of control and the smoke reached us in the suburbs about 20km away. It is of course no accident that we live in a built up area (like it's no accident that we are 5 minutes from a pub and a Chinese restaurant), neither us fancied the country because of the fire dangers, and the fact that there are even more snakes and creepy crawlies than we get now.
Don't think that we are complaining about the weather, it's very pleasant having a summer where you can plan to go out and the weather lets you. I also appreciate that people in the UK are having a particularly cold winter - I'm thinking of sending a couple of cartons of table salt to Gloucestershire city council to help them clear their roads.
Hope you are all keeping warm and safe.
H
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