Friday, January 28, 2011

 

Australia Day 2011

Wednesday was January 26, Australia Day. The Oldies and I always try to do something special on that day and this year was no different. Actually, we started our surge of patriotic feeling a bit earlier in the year when we went to see the English cricket team play the Prime Minister's XI at Manuka Oval; the Po*s won. You have probably noticed that I have been very quiet about cricket this season. The reason is obvious; our team is being thrashed by the fiendish Po*s. They beat us soundly in the Ashes series and drew the 20/20s. At least we are winning some of the 50-over games. I think that the team needs help from a certain small bear. Anyway, back to Australia Day. First off, a real Aussie dessert for the night before - pavlova and beer. If you've never tried pavlova, make sure you do when you come to Oz. Then on the day we went down to the Yacht Club and settled under a big shady tree to listen to Aussie folk songs played by a band called Franklyn B Paverty. These guys are really good. I was surprised that Dad knew the words of nearly all of the songs. Maybe his convict ancestry has something to do with it. And what did we have for lunch? Fish'n'chips and beer of course, you can't get much more Australian than that.

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Garden Gnomes?

I've often wondered just what Garden gnomes actually do. Whenever I see one it's just sitting there in someone's garden doing nothing at all. Well, Scruffy, Milkshake and I decided to run an experiment to try and get an answer. We picked a beautiful spot near a path in a garden bed near the big duckpond on Hamilton Island and settled down to watch and wait. The only things that we saw were some people going along the path to picnic spots, a couple of lizards sunning themselves on the paving stones, and some small birds hunting insects among the plants. If that is the sort of thing that garden gnomes see they must have a boring life. I will stick to doing the things that our gang of three small critters do.

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Thursday, January 20, 2011

 

Dad Meets Peat

Now it's my turn to giggle at a photo. This one was taken on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and it shows the second before Dad met peat. Peat is a plant that grows in really boggy, muddy ground. It looks like grass but if you step on it you can suddenly sink into the muck. That's what happened to Dad. The tour bus stopped at a spot where passengers could photograph some spectacular rock formations. Some of the passengers, including Dad, decided that if they climbed to the top of this small hill they would get better photos of the rocks and the waterfall. The bus driver said "OK, but don't walk off the track". Well you can see what's about to happen. Most of the group is coming back to the bus, keeping on the path. Dad (that's him in the blue top and jeans) has stepped off the track to let the ladies past. Seconds later it went "Gloop" and he was six inches deep in smelly mud. Mum was laughing so much that she didn't take what could have been one of those photos that families use to embarrass somebody for ever after. That's my Dad, a gentleman at heart but rather stupid with it sometimes. As usual, you can see a bigger photo by clicking on this one.

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Noses

For some strange reason, Mum giggles every time that she sees this photo. When I ask her what's so funny she says "Just look at the noses". OK, both the aeroplane and I have round, black noses, but mine is small and cute while the aeroplane can hide behind it's big nose. The 'plane is a De Havilland Sea Venom and you can see it at the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide. Sea Venoms were Australia's naval fighters from 1956 to 1967. They were the fighter wing on HMAS Melbourne until they were replaced by Douglas Skyhawks. Fortunately, other Sea Venoms have been saved from the scrapheap and you can see one at most of the aviation museums in Australia. Of course, this small bear is unique and you only see me if you are at the same museum at the same time as me.

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Monday, January 17, 2011

 

Glastonbury Abbey

These are photos of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, UK. The Oldies visited the ruins during their big trip in 2007. The abbey started out as a small church sometime in the 7th century. It survived both the Saxon and the Norman conquests of Britain and by the early 11th century it was the largest, richest and most powerful monastery and church in Britain. It was destroyed during the reign of King Henry VIII. The ruins are really impressive, so the abbey must have been really spectacular. Back in 1191 a fire destroyed lots of the buildings and in 1191 the monks claimed to have discovered the grave of King Arthur there. Nobody knows for sure if they did, but it sure increased the number of visitors to the abbey and helped the rebuilding program no end. There is a sign in the ruins that marks the place where the grave was claimed to be. Some people say that the ruins are haunted. I don't know about ghosts, but here is a picture of a strange creature that Mum saw lurking in the ruins.

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Harbour Traffic

No doubt about it, the greatest thing about Sydney is its harbour. Every time we are in Sydney we go for a trip by ferry, usually over to Manly because that's where Mum's family came from, but also because it is the longest and roughest ferry ride. I like it when it gets rough. Some passengers go greeny-grey and hang over the side being sick for most of the trip, but my Oldies and I just don't get seasick. Sydney harbour is always busy so I get to see all sorts of boats on these trips. This one coming up to pass our ferry is a small coastal tanker. The Manly ferries are big ships in their own right and they are pretty fast, so the tanker as really hooting along. The wake it made set the ferry to rocking and Mum made me come away from the rail. She has this strange idea that I might fall in and get wet.......

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

 

Geezers at Giza

Looking through my blog yesterday, I realized that there are lots of pictures from the Oldies' big overseas trip that I haven't shown you (they took over 12,000 but don't worry, I won't blitz you with all of them). Here they are at the pyramids at Giza. Giza is just outside Cairo and you can see part of the city in the background. Tourists have been visiting the pyramids for thousands of years. When the Oldies were there it was difficult to get a picture without hordes of people in it, but they managed somehow. There are hundreds of pyramids in Egypt, but these are the ones that everyone knows about. My old Geezers say that the pyramids look smaller than they expected, but they were impressed by the size of the stone blocks used. Just compare the size of the blocks with the people in the smaller picture. It must have been spectacular when the pyramids were new 4,500 or so years ago. They were covered in smooth white stone and would have really glowed. Over the centuries the stone has been taken away for other buildings, but I think that, even today, these are really impressive bits of work.

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A Duo of Dragons

Sydney aquarium is a fascinating place, full of amazing critters. In the tank in front of me are two sea dragons. Not only that, but they are two different sorts of sea dragon. The yellow one is a Leafy sea dragon and the one hiding behind the seaweed is a Weedy sea dragon. They are relatives of seahorses but can't curl their tails around things like seahorses do, so you often find them washed up on beaches after storms. These guys are about 25 cm long and they are much easier to see in an aquarium than they are in the wild. They live among sea grass and seaweed on the ocean floor and they are almost perfectly camouflaged. The Oldies have never seen one during their snorkelling trips, and they really try hard whenever they are over likely places. Even in aquariums they can be hard to see. You have to watch and see which bit of "seaweed" suddenly darts its head out to grab small shrimps or sea lice. Actually, dragons don't have teeth and their mouth doesn't open up. The mouth is like a vacuum-cleaner hose that sucks food in. The Leafy lives around the southern and western coasts of Australia, while the Weedy is only in the southern areas. I guess that's one reason the Oldies don't see them because the water is usually so cold that the snorkelling is shorter than when we go north to the tropics.

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Friday, January 07, 2011

 

Nightfall at Hamilton Harbour

One of the things that I like doing is watching the Sunset over the sea. It is even better if there is a harbour full of boats as well. This is one of my favourite spots on Hamilton Island. It is down in the business end of the marina where most of the tourists don't go, so it is easy to find a bollard or a post to sit on and watch it getting dark. I like to watch the pelicans and seagulls catching their last fish of the day and then fly off to roost for the night. Sometimes I see a really big fish being bought in by very excited fishermen. And sometimes I see interesting arguments between yachtsmen who are trying to fit two yachts into a space only big enough for one of them. You can see lots of interesting things, just sitting quietly and watching things finishing up their day. Can you see me sitting there quietly? Dad couldn't when he came looking for me.

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Hornby Light Again

Here's another photo of the Hornby lighthouse. This is the lighthouse on the clifftop at the South Head of Sydney harbour. You can see another photo and read more about it in my post of June 24, 2010. I think it one of the prettiest lighthouses in Australia. The walk to it from Watson's Bay has great views of the harbour and the ocean. There are a few steep bits but even the Oldies manage it OK. The old World War 2 searchlight hut is now used by lots of people as a picnic spot or as a place to sit in a bit of shade and watch boats.

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Tuesday, January 04, 2011

 

Sydney's Signal Station

This is the historic South Head Signal Station in Sydney. Way back in 1790, just over a year after the first settlers arrived in Australia, a lookout post was set up here to report on vessels arriving in Sydney. It was manned by the crew of HMS Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet. You can see more about the Sirius in my earlier post about its wrecking at Norfolk Island. To show the way to the harbour, a tall white post was put up for daytime and a fire basket was hung out at night. Later on, in 1818, Australia's first lighthouse was built nearby (you can see that on an earlier post too). Flags were used to signal the ships and the settlement. In 1840 this stone tower and attached buildings were built on the site. Today the old station is headquarters for the Volunteer Coast Guard. They don't need to use signal flags now to talk to ships, just radio. They do fly signal flags occasionally at festival times. You can see an old gun emplacement near the signal station. It was put there during the Crimean War in case the Russian fleet tried to enter the harbour. It is easy to visit the signal station and the lighthouse. If you are feeling like an energetic walk you can follow a path along the clifftops from Watson's Bay, or if you are like the Oldies you can get a bus right to the front of the buildings.

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The Parties Are Over

Well, it's over for another year. Christmas and New Year are completed, and what seemed like an unending round of visits and parties has stopped. Mum is back at work (for a little while; she retires soon) and Dad is starting in on all the projects that have been neglected for the past month. I am trying to get over my bear-hangover. I mostly blame Unka Mark for it. At least this morning I was able to look at myself in the mirror again. Still a bit glassy-eyed, but that's normal for small bears. Actually, if you ask me, I think I look fine. Now to find out where I left the bearoplane and off to terrorize insects.

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