Oh Canada!

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Dear readers,

In my last instalment I left you having left Brisbane and arrived into Sydney ready to depart Australia.  Apologies for the lack of updates for the past few weeks, I’ve been enjoying the trip, devoting my all my brain cycles to my adventures, and spare moments to catching sleep and relaxing.

After a very long Thursday (courtesy Air Canada), was met at the other end by long time friends, A and E.   Had to remember, or be reminded, to get in the correct side of the car for Canada.  Canada not being of the 76 countries that drive on the left.   Was entertaining for the A and E to watch my reactions to being taken in traffic in the front passenger seat for the first time.

Headed off to A and E’s apartment to freshen up after the long flight.  As A famously boasts, “Closer to the airport than the nearest hotel!”.   Their apartment has a birds eye view looking out over the Vancouver Airport.  The area of Richmond that they live in is being slowly developed and turned into apartment towers.   I’m slightly jealous of the view and that it would be a nice place to spend a lazy winters afternoon looking out of the window.

Of my Vancouver experiences, two stick in my mind.

The first was ringing at my bell tower in a foreign country [1] at the Holy Rosary Cathedral.  I managed to ring there twice, once for a wedding and once for service.   Unsurprisingly, ringers are not a diverse bunch, easily spotted lurking outside towers, and fit into some stereotypes.    That said I had a great time and would love to visit them again.

The second was a trip out to the Richmond Night Markets with A, E and Z.   We worshipped at the stall supplying Rotatos (potatoes cut in a swirl on a stick and covered in cinnamon).  Yum!   Wandered past lots of other delicious food smells coming from the other vendors.   Looked at the dozens of stalls selling iPhone covers and shaking my head.   It was a great market experience.

Sadly, I had to leave Canada for the rest of my trip into the the US of A and crossed the border at of all places, Vancouver Airport.   I think I get bonus points for avoid LAX 🙂

[1] No, Queensland doesn’t count.

South of the border one day, Queensland the next

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Arrived into Brisbane late morning on Saturday 4th August, it was great to finally get out of the chilly parts of Australia back into a nice, warm sunny part of the country.

First memorable experience of my time in Queensland was getting dragged along to a publicity sing for QUMS at the University of Queensland (UQ) Open Day.   Having participated in UWA Open Days I had some idea of what to expect.   Given it was a publicity sing and they needed all the voices they mustered, joined in and sung a lot of the usual songbook repertoire.   Several people were impressed at the sound tech controlling his rig with an iPad, and he was impressed with the volume that we made when we sang Bogoridtyse Deyvo.

I managed to also attend a couple of QUMS Rehearsals and Coffees during my extended stay in  Queensland.   The coffee at S place was enjoyable with lots of spirited post rehearsal conversation, scheming about BIV and working out QUMS fundraising ideas.  Hot dog, anyone?

Catching up with friends in Brisbane was also important.   Had lunch with R at the local golf club that is near his place, unfortunately in the electorate of that awful Campbell Newman person, but a good afternoon with chats about trains, choristers and beer.

The second lunch that was organised was going out to Brisbane’s Worst Vegetarian restaurant, the Norman Hotel, with I and colleague.  A nice T bone steak was consumed and a lot of very geeky conversation ensued and some discussion on careers.

I also got the chance to cook during one of my evenings in Brisbane.  I’ve grown quite fond of cooking bangers and mash.

Celebrated K’s birthday by heading out to dinner at Southbank.   The food was excellent and was the company.

Lots of ringing, rehearsals, service and even a quarter peal behind.  I’m looking forward to visiting more towers later in London.  I, K and M were excellent company during my ringing in Brisbane.

The second weekend in Brisbane was spent with a trip up to Mount Tambourine with S and K to eat lunch at the Fox and Hounds.   A very good faux English Pub 🙂   The trip also involved a wander around the markets, buying avocados, eating cheese, drinking beer and purchasing some very sinful fudge.

Packing and preparing for the overseas trip became the focus of the last few days in Brisbane.  I’m growing more accustomed to travelling with less, but there were decisions to be made about what ended up getting packed in the back pack and what got left behind.     This also meant the end of the driving trip across Australia, I’d covered somewhere around 7000 km (will need to check fuel records) over the length of the whole journey.    I don’t think I’ll undertake another long drive for a while again, although I’ll need to head down to Busselton for my school reunion when I get back to Australia.

Driving around Brisbane was much nicer than Sydney or Melbourne, just as long as you get the right exit and don’t disappear off onto the Inner City Bypass…. 25 minutes later ….. anyhow, hills are still exciting for a flat town person like me.

Woke up on the morning of the 16th August and took the taxi out to Brisbane Airport.   A mixture of sadness at leaving Brisbane with the excitement of heading onwards to Vancouver for the first leg of my international trip.  The trip down to Sydney with Qantas was uneventful but otherwise enjoyable.   I’ll leave off here and will continue to write about the next part of my trip in another post.

 

The United States of New South Wales

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This blog entry has taken some time to put together and write up as other things have been keeping me occupied and enough time for reflective thoughts and writing has been proving elusive.

Drove out of Sydney heading out into regional New South Wales with a mission to get to Parkes in one day.  This is only 400 or so kilometres.  On WA roads, it would be easily achievable and quickly.   I managed it however, but NSW does have a different idea of what a highway is.

Passed through Bathurst, on the way to Parkes, indulged my inner motor head and drove around the Mt Panorama circuit.   Head onwards to Orange and then continued to Parkes.

My GPS decided to take me the dirt track way to get to the telescope and managed to arrive about fifteen minutes before closing at the gift shop.  Took some photos, bought some merchandise and indulged the geek in me.  Collected some geeky telecommunications photos too.   I’m a bit sad that I arrived there several days early, I think it would have been a much more exciting time as the Curiousity Rover was landing.

Returned to Orange for the evening and caught up with J and her band of ringers at Holy Trinity.   A very fun ring with some practice of call changes.   J and her husband put me up overnight which I was thankful for.

It would have been remiss of me to visit Orange without going and seeing B M OAM.   Had a lovely cuppa with him and chatted about all things choral and IV, and then let him return to his home renovations.

Drove onwards and arrived just after dusk in Tamworth.   Found a motel to stay in, after some confusion with the GPS, and settled for the night.   The meal at the restaurant attached was notable for its blandness.

The next day started with a visit to the Big Guitar and was then onwards through Armidale, down the side of the mountain at Dorrigo to Bellinen, a cut across inland to Varley and then onwards to Coffs Harbour.

The motel at Coffs Harbour felt like something out of survivor, but it had a stove and I took the opportunity to cook for myself for a change whilst travelling.   In the morning, the Big Banana was visited and then onwards to Bryon Bay.

Byron Bay reminded me very much of Margaret River, however with something mildly wrong and much more exploitative of the tourist.  In quaint country town style I had arrived on the day of the Coffs Cup and some stores that I wished to use were closed.   Egads!

At K’s suggestion, went and wandered up to the lighthouse and looked out into the Pacific Ocean.  Wandered down the hill to the most easterly point of the Australian continent.   I then head back into town and found a nice BnB with the most blue room ever to stay for the night.

The next day was the final major driving leg of this trip to Brisbane, and crossing the border into Queensland.

Returning back to the topic of this post, one of my favourite bits of trivia about the east cost of Australia (as opposed to Western Australia) is that Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT were all part of New South Wales at some point in their history.

Driving around the east coast of Australia you can see this influence, both current and historic, of Sydney and New South Wales pervade the built environment and culture.

As I crossed the mountains outside of Sydney and got back onto the plane, the areas there felt like a completely different state.   Victoria, now in comparison, seems lost elsewhere in time.   Canberra and ACT seem schizophrenic, not knowing if they want to be New South Wales or Victoria.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the bits of Australia in between and may go and visit there again.

 

 

 

Crossing the coathanger

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Arrived Sydney late Wednesday afternoon into Paramatta.  Visited ringing practice at All Saints.  Lovely bells and a nice band, then headed onwards onto D’s place in Petersham.

Understandably snoozed a lot on the Thursday.    Friday, I first visited a contact who works for AARNet and touched based on a couple of projects that are under way and caught up with D and Q after they got home.

Saturday was catching up with geek friend, M.

A very good evening was had with L and A and their friend M.  M and her friend M also turned up.  Met A?.  A also dragged M along.  Lots of very yummy home made pizzas were made 🙂

Sunday was catching up with S and G for lunch, briefly met their son D.   Lots of change in their life with a new house and a change in employment situation.   The Sunday evening was spent with the cousins, who are always great company.

Monday night was ringing practice at St Andrews, and then Tuesday was getting back on the road again.

Crossed the harbour via the bridge and tunnel multiple times and got used to driving in Sydney… not that scary!

The woman from snowy river

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This slightly delayed post covers Canberra.   Delayed mostly from not having very much computer time over the past few days to reconnect back into the geeksphere.

Have now done a lot of the tourist things in Canberra – National Carillion, National Portrait Gallery, National Library, Old and New Parliament Houses, Royal Australian Mint and the very solemn Australian War Memorial.   There are still a few left like the place with the miniature things.

Enjoyed wandering around the Parliament Houses and looking at the architecture.   Shall have to visit again when the House of Representatives is sitting.

Rung for service at St Pauls in Manuka.  Nice bells and a sociable bunch of ringers, including a Canberra chorister that I already knew.

Went with S and L to a bonfire over the border in New South Wales for Sunday night.  Was a fun experience on a cold winters night and had lots of yummy Vegan food.

Organised a dinner gathering on the Monday night at a cafe called Cream.  N, K, A, C, G, M, R, P, S, D, L, S all turned up throughout the course of events.  Introduced M to P and I’m sure they’ll enjoy going for motorbike rides and honing their ninja skills.  S came with myself, L and S to get soy fried ice cream elsewhere in Canberra.  It was a great experience to introduce completely (for values of Canberra) separate friends to each other and have them get along.

Departed Canberra and headed off to Jindabyne.  Saw snow again in the distance (I’m progressively getting closer…) and caught up with D.  Had some excellent Indian, chatted about life, IV and floristry 🙂    Continued heading onwards to Sydney but that is for another post….

Walking ’round the rainy city

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This was about my eight visit to Melbourne (as far as I can remember/work out) and I’ve finally worked out the zen of the city.  This time was different, I had a car and was able to drive around the city.

Melbournians seem unware of the impact that geography has on their perceptions of their own city and desire to look outside it.   One thing I noticed was that the distances that I was travelling were tiny by Perth comparisons but similar travel times.  Everything seemed close and easily reachable.  Melbourne being a large city also has everything.

Being able to see this is difficult if you are only travelling on foot or public transport.  It is reflected in the nature of the roads and traffic of the city.

I’ve got a lot more rants about Melbourne driving, but I’ll spare you ..

I left today and drove to Albury.  Saw the cultural change the moment I crossed the bridge over the Murray.

Really enjoyed my time at IV.  The Berlioz was special, the Brahams a wonderful challenge.   Looking forward to AIV and the Rachmaninoff Vespers.

I’m onto the next major phase of my trip – the meandering via Canberra and Sydney up to Brisbane.  Looking forward to that too. Need to catch up on some of the administrivia of life over the next couple of days post IV.

It’s cold outside…

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Have arrived safely at choir camp for the Intervarsity Choral Festival.  The drive out of Melbourne from Caulfield was not as complicated or as stressful as I had anticipated.  It was very strange having passengers in the car again.  The back seat was packed tightly with people making corners and potholes fun 🙂

The welcome party for the festival was in the costume theme,  “Ice Age”, and there were a few good outfits.  Lots of people struggled with the theme to get a good outfit.  I came wearing a wolfs mask, the anonymity of the mask was fun although it did freak folk out a little bit.

It was cold overnight and below zero outside.  My car had not just frost, but a layer of ice on the outside.

It is being a very different IV for a few reasons, all positive.  I’m reminded of the Sydney University motto (roughly translated as “Stars may have changed but we remain the same”) on their crest, however, this time it is me that has changed and it is good.

And so it begins….

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Have arrived at the Queensbury Hotel for registration for the 63rd Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival.  The delightful madness that is the intervarsity chorister is infectious.

It has been a year since the last festival.  Both myself and this crazy bunch of people have changed.   I think a lot of my changes are positive and given the loud racket this mob is making as they say hello to each other again, I think that much is equally true for them.

This years festival is about twice the size of the last one with almost 200 registrants, with over 60 freshers.   The SUMS freshers have already discoved the answer to the question 🙂 Lots of old familiar faces too. 

Signing out from registration …. Mark

Crossing the border

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I am now in Victoria, and am only a few days from the start of the Melbourne Intervarsity Choral Festival (MIV).

Crossing the border was uneventful.  Didn’t even need to use the passport 😛    Was amused to see the stobie poles stop and then change to regular wooden power poles.

Tonight I’ve stopped in Port Fairy.  Had some very lovely Thai Green Curry from a resturant called Lemongrass.

In other news, found my lost SD card.   It now has a fresh alpine scent after putting it through the wash and then taking it out of the dryer *sigh*   It appears to have survived (SD card at least) intact.  Now to make some hasty backups.

Great Southern Land

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Left Adelaide (the middle east[*]) heading on a slow three day journey to Melbourne (the far east[*]) via the coastal roads and towns.  Tonight I’ve ended up in Robe, and staying at the wonderful Guichen Bay Motel.  Inexpensive, with excellent food and friendly owners, I could extol how nice it is at least for a quarter of an hour.

Crossed the Murray at around midday.   Like the Nullarbor, another Australian rite of passage achieved.

The contrast of the country south east of Adelaide (The Coorong) compared to the outback on the way to Woomera is noticeable.  The roads and the population reflect this.  I’m really glad that I’m making the journey via this route.

Tomorrow is the border crossing into Victoria.   I’ve been thinking today on how the states of Australia differ and their respective cultures.  I’m also looking forward to catch up with folk at IV and others later in the trip.

Tonight however is trying to catch up on the dreaded email, as I’m still needing to write to folk to organise later parts of my trip.

Safe driving,

Mark

 

 

[*] definitions that Perth folk use to describe the eastern states of Australia