Stepford wife

An Apology before I begin. It has taken me a long time to get around to publishing this one, so it is about a week out of date. Also some of the photos have been taken with a mobile phone so the quality is not good at all. Sorry!

Dare I speak too soon... the weather seems to be changing. It does not seem quite as humid as previous days. My face no longer has that red sheen, and my hair seems to be much more controllable, no longer do I look completely like a wild woman... but nor do I really look like a Stepford wife, all groomed, slim and boutiqued. But having just had a 5 and a half hour spectacular lunch comprising of loads of my favourite sushi, lobster, prawns etc in a swanky hotel, I think I almost qualify. I met up with a friend, Bridget, from my life at Calwell High in Canberra from some 17 years ago. Bridget, like me, is currently between jobs so able to do the long leisurely lunch thing, something that we both decided we could get use to if only we could afford to!!

My nose is now pressed up against the windows of my apartment trying to read the name of the container ships that are steaming by, as today is the day that the Bahia Laura is due into port with our container in tow. A bit of a catch 22 as I cannot read the names without binoculars and my binoculars are on the ship! So I just watch them go by, praying that one of them contains my precious load, not that I know where on earth I am going to fit everything once it arrives... I seem to be settling into a bit of a regular routine. A bit of house work (yes that is a bit of a shock to the system) then off to Starbucks to get online to check emails etc. We still do not have internet. It seems that the cables coming into our building cannot support the speed of internet that we requested. So rather than actually telling us this in the first place and giving us the option of down grading or waiting an indefinite period until they could upgrade the cables, everyone just kept doing the typical face saving thing of saying "someone will ring you" which they did but with no answer to the problem. This went on for over a week until eventually the sales man who sold us the package admitted the problem and we agreed to downgrade in order to actually get it on in the house. So now we are booked in to have a technician come around on Monday afternoon, fingers crossed that we can then watch cable TV and use the internet at home. I can tell you that there is only so much Starbucks coffee you can drink in a week and as I have at least 1 visit a day sometimes 2 in order to get internet, I can say that I am pretty much over it all. I have also had to resort to a bit of stair running for exercise as we did not have our resident cards for all the facilities available in our estate. We were told they would take about 2 weeks to be processed and we were very excited when we opened our mailbox last night to find them lying waiting expectantly for us. Now the hard work for me begins. With all the gym facilities and swimming pools, internet in the house (I am assuming that all will go well on Monday) there will be no time at all to do any of the more boring tasks like housework!!!
Of course there is also the shopping to be done. Last weekend we found another plaza within walking distance of the estate, this one is 28 floors of shops, mainly furniture shops with both new and antique Chinese furnishings, a wonderful place to spend an afternoon browsing and imagining what fun it would be to furnish a large apartment with all the beautiful Chinese antiques, from ornate cupboards, heavily carved or stunningly lacquered to simple woven food boxes from monasteries in a past era that would make striking storage pieces. Red, black and gold are the prevalent colours and the smell of old wood, with underlying hints of incense fill our nostrils. Today we made the mistake of going to Causeway Bay to try to sort out mobile phones. Take a memo... try to avoid Causeway Bay and Times Square on the weekend as the crowds are unbelievable. Today being Saturday it was still relatively quiet compared with what I have been told it can be like on a Sunday. I suppose I will have to check it out one Sunday just to see how crowded it can get. As you can see from the photos it is not exactly quiet. Here we found 13 stories of shopping heaven!!! Richard has been given an apple mac by the school and he is having a lot of trouble getting it to sync with his phone so we are trying to sort out either how to get it to sync with the phone that he already has or find another phone that will easily sync with his mac, other than the iphone of course. Here we are back in Starbucks for the second time today as he tries to download some software which will sort out his problem. There is a lot of groaning, swearing and throwing hands in the air, so it does not look like it is going that well.

On Friday night we met up with Sujana, Tim and a friend of Sujana's for dinner in Soho. Soho is set high on the slopes of the surrounding hillsides near Central and is a popular place to go to eat as there are many, many bars and restaurants here. We went to the very popular Elgin Street, to the 'Bistro Manchu' which I have since heard is supposed to be one of the best Chinese restaurants that you can eat at, specializing in food from the north of China. So how to get there... we are of course keen on using public transport wherever possible. But the nearest bus and tube station is down the bottom hill, so it looks like being a long walk up. Oh well, we will at least build up an appetite. However that was not to be, can you believe it... there is actually an outdoor escalator here. In the morning it goes down the hill to transport all the workers who live in this area down to the bus and tube station and then from around 10.30am until just after midnight it runs up the hill to bring both the inhabitants home and the diners to their restaurants. There are twenty escalators and 3 moving side walks here running a total length of around 800 metres with a vertical climb of around 135 metres. The total travel time is about twenty minutes from the bottom to the top, but we did walk a bit while the escalators moved to shorten the trip. According to Guinness World Records, these escalators together form the longest outdoor covered escalator system. What fun, riding an escalator high up above the streets to get to your destination. Of course it is covered to provide some protection from the elements and before we knew it we were at Elgin Street and seated in the restaurant. The food was pretty fabulous, Richard said the lamb was to die for, unfortunately the smell of it was enough for me to know it was not going to be my cup of tea...pretty sad considering I am the daughter of a sheep farmer, but lamb is something that I can no longer stomach. After dinner we headed down to a recently opened restaurant called Soho 8 where we had a couple of drinks and did a very good job at sampling their dessert menu.


Our weekend continued with another night out on Saturday night. Again we met some other friends, this time Bridget and John at the Quarter Deck which overlooks Victoria harbour. The restaraunt was located in Fleet Arcade, facilities developed for visiting naval fleets. The menu of course was predominantly sea food, and the food was good. A gentle breeze kept us cool as we chose to abandon the airconditioning and sit by the water. Salty smells of the sea rode the breeze, providing us with a constant reminder of where we were, the neon lights of Kowloon providing the perfect backdrop. There was one extremely tall building being completed, apparently it is over 900m tall. Can you imagine a building that is almost a kilometer high. Now for all you budding physisists out there, perhaps you can tell me how they are able to get the water to the tanks in the top of the building when water only travels up as far as atmospheric pressure will push it and that is only about 14 meters. Also how on earth do you then flush the toilet on the ground floor without blowing the bowl up because of the water pressure of the water coming from the roof, almost 1 km higher than the toilet!!

The evening ended with an introduction to 'The Wanch'. This is a popular place to listen to live music as it is really one of the only venues that offer live music, and the reason that we have ended up here is because John organises the music side in his free time. It was a great bar with some interesting characters. We arrived just at the end of the first band, but in time to listen to an 'all Japanese' band with the lead singer a throwback from the Japanese glam rock era. His singing was not a lot to write home about but his mannerisms were mesmerising. The band itself were good musicians including an excellent harmonica player. A geat way to end the evening and we eventually rolled into bed at around 2am. Oh my god, two nights in a row of not getting in before 1am... it will be the death of me. Could I really be turning into a Stepford wife.

The Soaring Dragon

Over 100 drums of varying shapes, colours and sizes filled the stage, dragons being the common theme carved into the sides. A further 50 drums clung to the edge of the upper balconies and every one in the audience had a mini hand drum. Suddenly the doors opened and in ran over 60 children, many looking no older than 5. The show had began and oh... what a show it was. The drumming was deafening, the beat reached down into your very core as the children put their body and soul into their performance, a piece entitled Flying Dragons and Jumping Tigers. We were sitting in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China with a special concert combining the old and new styles of percussion music and featuring the Eight Mallets and the Red Poppy Ladies Percussion. It was pictures of the Red Poppy Ladies that really attracted us to the concert, but more about them later. All too soon the children had finished and run off stage, what a brilliant performance. Then entered the Eight Mallets, yes you guessed it, four men who obviously can hold eight drum mallets between them. Their first piece was based on traditional Peking Opera percussion music which is not necessarily to every ones taste. It is amazing how you can get such a different unusual sound out of instruments. Their second piece was this time based on the percussion music of the Tujia ethnic minority and did a great job of describing a group of myna birds playing in the water.

Again the stage was cleared and 10 huge heavily carved red drums with gold dragons flying from the sides were rolled on the stage. Then 10 very beautiful, fit and toned young women bounced onto the stage, wearing black spandex trousers and bright red silk sleeveless chinese tops, their hair tied in ponytails to keep out of the way. And the drumming began. Ponytails whipped from side to side as they put their whole bodies into the music, no wonder they are so fit looking. This was not just about the sound of the drums, this was a whole body performance and boy did they know how to perform. The Red Poppy is the first all female professional percussion ensemble in China, based in Beijing. They are all professionally trained in percussion and armed with excellent musicianship and showmanship they certainly know how to excite the audience. Most of their music is specifically written for them and is thus a unique blend of folk and contemporary music styles which along with their youthful confidence has made them the new force in percussion music. The first piece they performed was based on music from all around Asia. The pipa and the zhudi from China set the mood in the opening passage with their Oriental touch. Then the thunderous rhythms of the Chinese dagu (large drums) broke the serenity by injecting vitality and motion before the uniform beats of the Japanese daiko came in, creating an air of magnificence. It was followed by the dance-like Korean samui nori of four instruments - the janggu (hourglass drum) kkwaenggwari (small gong) buk (barrel drum) and jong (medium sized gong) The exotic sound of Indian chanting and the sitar brought back the calm before various drum cadenza passages appeared, piling one on top of the other to push the music to a climatic close. In their second piece they each weilded a set of nunchuku (the joined sticks used in martial arts) which they twirled around hitting octagon shaped drums behind them placed high on stands and the large drums in front, the drumming movements choreographed to include martial arts, all the while not once hitting either themselves or each other! Click on the following link to see a sample of their work.

Red Poppy Ladies Percussion

After a crescendo of applause they left the stage for intermission and the stage was set for the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Wow it is amazing how different instruments can sound. During the tune up, if you closed your eyes you could be listening to any orchestra tune up, but once they started to play the sound was a world apart. The instruments in a traditional Chinese orchestra are completely different, yes they do have a string and wind section, but the instruments that they play look completely different. The strings ( violins, Cellos etc) have been replaced by their Chinese equivalent, what look like small cylinders with the neck and strings attached. In the smaller string instruments the bow is inserted inside the strings rather than played on the outside as with the violin. There are 5 different sections of these types of stings, looking somewhat similar except for the shape and size of the cylinder. Then there is a section of guitar/sitar shaped instruments, behind which you can see a mixture of wind instruments all very different from modern orchestras. And finally they are surrounded by the percussion section which did also include timpani (I can only assume that the timpani that we see in orchestras now actually came from China). Their first piece was called the Dance of the Dragon, and I have to admit that I was not so sure I was going to enjoy it but this proved to be so wrong. A new arrangement had been specially written for the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra with a new section featuring the percussions in the lead. The Eight Mallets joined the Orchestra enhancing the sound by adding the congas, bass drums and marimbas. It was the most amazing piece of music with a 6 minute cadenza passage for percussion having an amazing effect on the listeners. Bravo!!

Now for the 'Soaring Dragon', a piece of music written specifically for the Orchestra to play with the Red Poppy percussion group using multiple dragon drums. These dagu drums supplied the underlying rhythm. With crisp pounding rhythms and dynamic choreography, the female drummers struck the image of Chinese heroines. But the final piece was the piece the audience had been excitedly waiting for. Now it was our turn to perform and what a performance it was. 'Let the Thunder of Drums Roll' was the title of the piece, and it was written specifically for the Hong Kong Drum Festival, reflecting the many cross cultural features of Hong Kong. The conductor Yan Huichang spent some time teaching us how he wanted us to play our mini drums, all in Cantonese of course, but music crosses all language barriers so it was not difficult to work out what to do. Let the music begin.... Wow what a show stopper. We were lead by the orchestra, the children, The Eight Mallets and the Red Poppy, the pulsating power of drums almost lifted the roof off, every person in the concert hall giving their best and all held together so well by the conductor. The final applause was almost as deafening as the previous piece but even a standing ovation or two or three failed to drag out another piece from them, so with a pounding in our chests we left the hall.

If you wish to watch and listen to the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra then click on the following link. They are not playing any of the music that we saw but you can get an idea of the different instruments and sounds.

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra

Now time to navigate back to our apartment. First we needed to catch a ferry across to Hong Kong Island. The night scape, all neon and bright lights was amazing. Unfortunately I only had a little camera and no tripod so the photos are less than impressive, but maybe you will get the idea. Once the weather cools a little we will have to do this trip across the harbour again to Kowloon but this time armed with better equipment to get better photos. What a fitting end to a fantastic evening.

First foray on my own....

(Photos to be added, so stay posted. Sorry)

Today marked the first time that I left the Island of Ap Lei Chau on my own. I was off to Stanley to meet a friend from my earlier days in Peru. Sujana's parents live in Hong Kong and amazingly she attended South Island School, the same school that Richard now works in. She is here visiting her family for a week at the beginning of a new adventure for her, having quit her job to do some travelling around Asia with her partner.

To get to Stanley required the catching of 2 buses. First to Aberdeen where Richard stressed I was to get off as soon as I crossed the harbour bridge. This I dutifully did, then after taking the footbridge overpass, waited on the other side of the road for any bus heading for Stanley. I ended up on a mini bus rather than the double decker buses as this was the first to arrive and it was too hot to stand around waiting in the sun. Stanley is situated on the south eastern coast of Hong Kong Island and has a long history as it was one of the largest indigenous settlements when the British first arrived way back in 1841. Now it is well know for it's market, waterfront promenade lined with bars and restaurants, which is where we had lunch and of course great views out to sea. However it is the trip to Stanley that makes it worth while. For the price of a bus fare (less than $1US) you get the most amazing views, if not a little white knuckling as the bus navigates narrow, twisting mountain roads that cling to the edge of the island. The first beach we came to was Deep Water Bay, a quiet little inlet with a beach flanked by shade trees. Repulse Bay was the next bay and it is obviously home to the rich and famous, as the hills around the beach are strewn with luxury apartment blocks surrounded with trees and with out a doubt some of the most spectacular vistas you could find. Again the beaches here are public and I imagine it would be a great spot to people watch especially if you knew who you were looking for. As I am not so fond of the beach, spending a weekend with thousands of others on this beach is not really my idea of fun. And apparently they even have sharks here, so that has turned me off even though many of the beaches have netting and lifesavers.

I arrived in plenty of time to enjoy a stroll around the markets. I managed to walk around the entire market and not buy a thing, OK that is not quite true, I did buy a map book from the book shop there, but as that was an essential buy I think I did well. But do not worry, I certainly took note of what I could buy at a later date!!

Hot, Hot, Hot....

Today the clouds are beginning to part and the sun has actually poked its head out to greet me. No rain so far, such a change from the constant downpour of the past 4 days. I was really beginning to wonder if it was every going to stop raining. Now I am curious to see how quickly washing dries. Oh how I do miss an out door area to dry clothes where they catch the gentle breeze and come in all smelling of sunshine (at least that is what happens in Australia..) I now know where the term "looking like a Chinese Laundry"comes from. Everyone hangs their clothes to dry out their apartment windows. I am so worried that they will fall and float down the 34 floors to never be seen again. And who wants my undies fluttering around their head. But with the sun shining I am about to attempt to do the Chinese thing, and hang some things out the window on the outside clothesline. This means opening a window right up and hanging half out 34 floor up to reach the clothes line! I never thought I would be doing this, but here goes..... I did it!!


Horns from the ships pulsate up to the apartment drawing me to the window to watch the scene below. I do not believe you can ever tire of watching the harbour life. From the living room I can see down onto the harbour, out to sea, a couple of estates on the left of the main Island and then nothing but mountains and trees. It is hard to believe that you are actually in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Everyday container ships make their way past... could that be our shipping arriving? I could easily become the nautical equivalent of a train spotter.

It is now 10pm at night and the temperature is still a sweltering 31 degrees Celsius. I feel like I am wrapped in a hot wet blanket, it is so hard to get your core body temperature down as it is so humid that sweating offers no reprieve. At the moment the temperature only varies a few degrees from lows of 27 to 28 degrees to highs of 33 to 34 degrees. Unlike the locals I still look very much like the import, constantly sweating and flustered looking with hair that refuses to be tamed no matter how much product and hot implements are applied. I imagine that one day I will blend in, one day surely my body will get use to this weather and I will begin to look cool, calm and collected like so many others appear to. The heat, humidity, and the scent of incense rising on the breeze from someone's apartment below leave me in no doubt that I now live in Asia.

Typhoon in Hong Kong

As I write this water is battering against our new apartments windows as a level 3 typhoon warning is hoisted. We have been given the keys to our apartment early so have started moving the luggage across. Shopping in Ikea saw us the proud owners of a bed that will be delivered on Wednesday, and a sofa which will unfortunately not be available until the end of the month, We have to move out of the serviced apartment on Tuesday, so Tuesday night will see us testing out the existing single beds as our bed will not be there. We have checked the length of them to discover that they are just long enough for us to stretch out on. Richard had his dreams come true and has purchased a 42" flat screen TV. It will of course fill the apartment, but it is what he has wanted for so long so we will have to deal with it. It is due to be delivered on Tuesday. I am looking forward to seeing just how easy it is to get things delivered, whether they actually turn up on the day and hour specified unlike Peru where you could be waiting for a couple of days. We also needed to sort out internet, cable TV, and telephone. After checking out a couple of possibilities we finally settled on the one that gave us the fastest Internet and then we had to try to agree on the stations we wanted on cable. Things got a little too techo for us when they started talking about our land line and what telephone we wanted. I had assumed we would have a run of the mill telephone, but no it is the state of the art one with a screen that you can watch TV on or video conference with others with the same type of phone. Video conferencing is completely free with those on the same provider as are all local phone calls. Line rental is around $20 so it is definitely a bargain. Again some confusion set in when looking at possible mobile phone options. Richard wants to get an iPhone to go with his new mac (he insists it will all sync a lot better with his new mac book but I think being gadget boy he just wants to upgrade and pass on his older technology to me). He is going to have fun choosing a plan from the many of offer. I however will just be getting the basic which is around $10 a month and gets me 1800 minutes of calls!!!!!!

On Monday I spent the entire day cleaning the apartment before beginning to unpack. I also had some time to begin to check out what is available in our estate. We are living in South Horizons on the island of Ap Lei Chau which is to the south of Hong Kong Island and connected by a bridge. Apparently this is the largest estate in Hong Kong, trust us to pick the most populated place. The population density of Australia is around 2 people per square kilometer, the average world population density is around 47 people per square kilometer, the population density of China is around 120 people per square kilometer so can you guess what the population density of Hong Kong is? No one I have presented this problem to has even got close. It is close to 7000 people per square kilometer. Now keep in mind that around 75% of Hong Kong is wooded with the entire population of around 7 000 000 living on the remaining 35% of land which is situated basically around the edges of the island and you soon realise that in reality there are a lot more than 7000 people per square kilometer of livable space. Our estate has 33 tower blocks, each tower is 42 stories high. There are 8 apartments per floor. Now you do the maths. If there are an average of 3 people living in each apartment (as they are 3 bedroom apartments then this is likely), then that means there are around 1000 people living in each tower. Multiply this by 33 and you get 33 000 people living in an area that Richard insists is around 1/4 of a square kilometer. Sounds horrific doesn't it, but so far it does not seem nearly as busy as it should. Most people use public transport so there is not a lot of traffic going around the ring road, just a lot of buses that are clean, air conditioned and extremely regular and on time. In the centre of the estate there is a 4 storied shopping centre with a large supermarket, food hall, restaurants, speciality shops, beauticians and hairdressers, a couple of coffee shops including a Starbucks (yes we are already well known here!!) medical centre etc. There is even a market with lots of cheap stalls, and also a wet market where you can buy your fresh meat, fish and vegetables. The fish is so fresh that it is still alive. They store all the different fish in plastic buckets, still swimming around. You can apparently get them to kill and gut it for you if you want. I will look into this a little later on. The estate also has numerous out door swimming pools and one indoor pool with spa and sauna, a couple of fitness gymnasiums, tennis courts, badminton courts, table tennis facilities, a golf driving cage and a golf putting green, (Richard is very excited!!) basketball courts and a foot ball pitch. You hardly even need to leave the place!! And we get a lovely view of the entrance to Aberdeen harbour and the South China sea from all the bedrooms and living room windows.

Monday night 6pm and everyone had begun to baton down the hatches, locking up shop and securing whatever possible as typhoon warning 8 was hoisted. Now it is time to stay inside in safety. All day there has been a steady flow of boats returning to their moorings in preparation. The harbour is full. Typhoon Koppu is spinning around the ocean south of Hong Kong collecting velocity on a steady path towards land. If the wind direction stays the same we will not receive a direct hit. The sky has opened up and it is literally bucketing down. And this is still not what they would call black alert rain. I cannot imagine how much rain must fall to qualify a black rating. The wind has definitely picked up, you can feel movement in the building as it is buffeted by the force of the wind or is this just my imagination. By morning there is plenty of evidence that a typhoon has passed by. The harbour is full of litter, trees have been uprooted. Friends who live in Stanley report that the pier has been destroyed, whole granite slabs uplifted. By 10am Tuesday morning the warning has been lowered to 3 meaning that now we are free to leave our buildings and head off to work. School has been cancelled for the kids, but if the staff can make it in they should try to do so. It is a good opportunity to get some planning done without the distraction of children. So by late morning Richard heads off to work. Whilst the typhoon has passed the wind is still very strong especially around our apartment where it is obviously being funneled and on leaving the building I was nearly blown off my feet. Our lovely door man struggled to hold the door open for me as I set off to the shops to get necessary supplies, with hair blown in every direction and tightly grasping my top to actually keep it from flapping around my face.

As I finish the final touches of this, Mr Internet man has arrived. I am about to go on line!!! Yeah!!!! Connected with the world once more, oh what a wonderful feeling.

Oh no, the news is not good. There is a problem with the cabling. They have had to leave with only the phone connected and a promise that someone will phone later!! I need Internet!! After some investigation it seems that they have run out of cable connections in the building and will be sending someone to try to fix this within the week! Another week without Internet will be almost unbearable, but of course there is wi-fi at Starbucks, so looks like I have every excuse to go there on a daily basis!

Now for some good news. I am sitting here watching 2 men put together not just my new bed, but the new sofa that we were told would not be arriving until the end of the month. So now we have something to sit on to watch our new TV even if we still do not have cable!!

On my way to Hong Kong

Thursday morning saw us on the road before 8am. I now have a terrible head cold so the trip over the mountains caused some problems with my ears. I am beginning to wonder if they will ever equalize. It is a bit of a worry as tomorrow I have to fly. The trip was quick and we met Aunty Meg and Uncle Bruce with plenty of time to spare at a lovely restaurant overlooking the sparkling waters of La Perouse, Sydney. What more could you ask for, a fantastic view, sunshine, chili char grilled octopus and of course great company. We spent a leisurely few hours over lunch and soaking up the warm atmosphere, such a change from chilly Orange. After farewelling mum and dad and catching up with my cousin Andrew I found my self back in my basic little room in the Formulae 1 hotel just by the airport. I am booked to catch the 5am bus to the International terminal in the morning.

After a 4.30am get up, I was soon checked in and then of course time for the obligatory duty free shop. I flew Cathay Pacific and fortunately for all of us the flight was almost empty. This meant that we all had at least 2 seats each, some even had 4 seats. As it was a day flight with only 2 hours time difference I was in no need for a sleep so was happy with my 2 seats. The leg room seemed more as well but that could have been something to do with the actual outside of the seat not reclining - only the inside of your own seat reclined. A much better system so that you do not have someones seat pressing into you.

We circled over Sydney in the early morning light then headed over the blue mountains. The early morning sun painted the cliffs along the ocean orange and then bounced of the ancient sandstone cliffs that are such a prominent part of the plateau that makes up the Blue Mountains. Soon Orange was visible nestled below Mt Canobolas with Lake Canobolas sparkling in the distance. Beyond Orange the soil began to visibly redden as we headed inland and north. I suppose this is what they mean but the Red Centre. Stretching for 1000's of kilometres, streams meandered across a vista of brown desert, flat and treeless.There were a number of dry lakes to be seen however there seemed to be water in a lot of the rivers winding through the dry interior, so it must have been raining somewhere. Pockets of hot air thermals rose to greet us bouncing us over rough dirt tracks replicating what could be seen below.

Before I had a chance to get bored of the vista, we seemed to be about to cross the the Gulf of Carpentaria definitely in the Top End now. You suddenly realise the isolation of the communities out here as you can be literally hundreds of kilometers from your nearest neighbour. I watched an episode of Australian Story the other day where they were talking to a couple who were working with Aboriginal communities in an attempt to improve their education. In such isolation this is no easy task and flying over this area certainly brought the problem home. There is so much that needs to be done to boost education and health in these communities. It is amazing how generous we can be with the plights of those living in other countries suffering from extreme poverty, yet here it is in our own backyard, untreated, unsupported, ignored. There are Communities with over 90% illiteracy rate and preventable health conditions like scabies, trachoma, diabetes, and malnutrition are common. There are classrooms without teachers and medical centres without doctors. Of course the extreme isolation does play a big factor but there has to be more that can be done. These communities are really becoming the forgotten people.

The closer we get to Darwin the sheer number of tiny dirt roads criss crossing the land increases and tendrils of smoke lazily unfurl, evidence of communities becoming more frequent. Suddenly the dry sandy delta meets the sea then the plane turns back across Australia towards Darwin. Take a memo, must travel to the top end. It took roughly 4 hours to get from Sydney to the top of Australia, a total distance of approx 4500km. Now it is time to enjoy some of the Cathay Pacific entertainment as we pass over the islands of Indonesia. Hong Kong and my new life draw closer.

On the road to Canberra to visit with Molly Monster and Archie Rascal.

My trip started on a high note when I went to pick up my very compact hire car to find that I had been upgraded to a Mitsibishi Outlander 4WD with all the bells and whistles you could ever want. Just goes to show that living in a country community has its benefits as the owner of the local Avis car hire is both a distant relative and family friend. He also insisted that I keep the car for an extra day but only paid for the three. Who am I to complain?

So armed with lots of CD's and some carrots to munch on (I have become addicted to lovely sweet, fresh, crunchy, yummy carrots) I hit the road. First town, Cargo a mere 4 miles from where I grew up. Now the main street only boasts a shop/post office, the village hall and the pub. Next town along is Canowindra, famous for its dog legged main street and for being one of the centers of ballooning and of course for being the place that I went to High School. Canowindra is set on the Belabula river and the surrounding countryside lay large and relatively flat covered in all the different shades of green interspersed with bright yellow canola crops. You could be mistaken into thinking that the drought was at an end until you look closely at the size of the crops. I had to keep reminding myself that I was seeing the landscape in the winter and not summer as I usually do. Being the beginning of spring, new born lambs pranced around their mothers, flocks of black faced sheep lay in the sunshine and surprisingly I caught the odd glimpse of the long necked regal profile of Alpacas sitting like sentries guarding the sheep. What a wonderful reminder of Peru. The sky seemed huge, it is amazing how little you actually see of the sky living in the city. Here it goes on for ever and is the most deepest shade of blue. I have never seen skies like Australia anywhere else in the world. It is something to be seen to really understand what I mean.

Before I knew it, Cowra loomed ahead. Cowra is best known for having a Prisoner Of War (POW) camp there during WWII. This camp housed 2000 Italian POW's on one side and 2000 Japanese POW's on the other side. The Italians were model prisoners and they did not even really need to be guarded. In fact most of them worked on the farms around the countryside and came and went as they pleased. It seemed they were just happy to be in sunny, warm Australia after the cold muck of the war. The Japanese however were a different kettle of fish. They were not happy to be there at all. It wasn't just having the POW camp that made Cowra famous as there were a number of these around the country, it was the fact that there was a mass break out from this camp by the Japanese. Many kamakazi Japanese believed that being incarcerated was dishonorable and not good karma so one night they staged a suicidal mass break out in an attempt to return to Japan. They soon realised they were in the middle of no-where and rather than returning to the POW camp preferred the more honorable route of committing suicide and were thus found hanging the next day from sheds around the district.

I decided to take the low bridge over the Lachlan River and passed by massive pylons covered with beautiful modern Aboriginal Art and then set of for the slightly longer drive to Boorowa. On the way the landscape became a little more hilly. Now I needed to be a little more vigilant with looking for kangaroos as it was approaching dusk, the time that roos are on the move. I have first hand experience of being hit by roos bounding across the road without a care in the world, and I can tell you that in my experience the roo often comes off better than the car. They are one huge piece of muscle and can thus leave a pretty big ding in the car. But instead of roos all I saw was huge flocks of white cockatoos converging on the surrounding paddocks in search of recently planted grain. I am sure the farmers were less than impressed but they were certainly a spectacular site, white against verdant green.

It was an easy drive to Boorowa only meeting the odd car and huge double trucks and of course the policeman waiting patiently by the side of the road with his speed camera waiting to catch an unsuspecting speeder. I was lucky that a couple of cars met me just before the policeman and flashed their lights warning that a policeman was waiting around the corner. Of course I wasn't speeding so did not need to be warned!! Boorowa... now what is it famous for? Well for me it is famous as the place that my car has broken down far too many times. And I am not just talking about one car breaking down, but virtually every car I ever drove on this road. This road is the one that I regularly travelled as I lived in Canberra for about 12 years, having studied at the Australian National University and then continued working there. As Boorowa is almost exactly in the middle of the trip between home and Canberra and really there is not a lot there, it is the worst place to break down in, and I have had to leave a couple of cars there to be fixed and had to get someone to drive a long distance to pick me up. So it is always with trepidation that I begin the drive to Boorowa. I am sure it really is a nice little town, in fact it is also the place that we choose to meet with family sometimes being the middle point, so we have had some fun days and some very cold days, meeting the extended family in the local park for a picnic lunch. Dad also assures me that they do the best scones, jam and cream with real homemade jam!!

By now dusk has laid its mantle over the countryside and as the trees have thickened by the side of the road, it really is the witching hour when it comes to the need to be aware of roos. But I was lucky to see none, at least none that were alive. There was a lot of evidence of roo activity by the number of carcasses on the side of the road, obviously hit by trucks travelling by night. Trucks come off a lot better than roos when they are hit. Many local vehicles have what we call “roo bars” on the front of their vehicles, strong metal bars so that if you hit a roo with the front of your car you are more likely to survive the hit, though the roo is usually not so lucky. I did not have a “roo bar” so was being very careful. Before I knew it I had passed the sign welcoming me to the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra. However you would never know that you were in the Capital City of Australia. My sister lives in the other side of the city and believe it or not, I drove across most of the city and did not see a single house until I was a couple of hundred metres from Kristin's house.

Canberra is the largest inland city in Australia, yet appears to be more like an extremely large park with a city hidden inside it. Each suburb is divided by paddocks, forests, lakes etc so whilst being in the middle of the city it can seem as though you are actually in the country. Along the route I took, I could see street lights perched high above the trees but the houses were completely hidden by the thousands of trees that make up Canberra. I read in Bill Brysons book “Down Under” (a book that I highly recommend reading) that Canberra had 10 000 acres (about 4000 hectares or 40 km²) of parks, now if you compare that to the size of Central Park NY with 768 acres and Hyde Park in London with 340 acres, you begin to realise just how much parkland there is! What is also interesting about Canberra is that there is not one city centre but four, Civic, Belconnen, Woden and Tuggeranong.

So how did Canberra get to be like this? Apparently in the early 1900's both Sydney and Melbourne were fighting over who was going to be the capital city of Australia. So rather than chose between the two, someone decided they would build a city between Sydney and Melbourne and that would become the capital, and thus in 1913 Canberra was born. NSW gave a parcel of land that was definitely not much good for farming for the capital to be built on, rather a long way from anywhere and not even by the coast. Canberra is an entirely purpose built, planned city designed by two architects from Chicago USA and set around a huge man made lake. The entire road system is circular instead square gridded which causes many a head ache for visitors as they find themselves literally driving around in circles. As the centre of Government, it is viewed as a public service town and because of the deliberate and controlled planning it is often thought of as heartless and sterile. But I always found it a pleasant city to live in, for me it was more of a cross between a city and the country and thus I was more at home. The leafy suburbs and open wooded areas invite the native wildlife to gather in abundance and it is not at all uncommon to see kangaroos and wallabies in the heart of the city! Bicycle paths meander throughout the whole city linking suburbs and keeping riders away from traffic. It certainly is a great outdoors city with plenty of sailing, rowing, running, riding, and sports of every persuasion. I have spent many a day watching my niece Tahlia play either soccer (football) or futsal (indoor soccer).

But I am not really here to enjoy the sites of Canberra but to visit family, especially my nieces and nephews. Unfortunately (or as it turned out fortunately) Molly aged 1 and Archie 3 years old both had a serious cold. Now I say fortunately as this meant that Archie was happy to sit quietly on the lounge and snuggle, being read copious stories with a particular bent toward Bob and Builder and anything that had diggers and animals in it! A stark contrast to the otherwise very busy and often defiant little boy who tares around the house getting into anything and everything possible. It was so nice to be actually able to sit quietly and cuddle. However as the days wore on and he got progressively better, he also got more active and by the time I left, Archie Rascal had definitely emerged.

A taste of Orange @ Bondi Beach

It was a cold damp morning, barely hitting 2° on the thermometer as I took the dogs down to the dog run to be locked up for the day. This was definitely not on the top of their agenda, swapping a warm house for a damp cold run for the day, but what else were we to do as we were going to be out for the whole day. We were bound for Sydney where Mitchell was playing in a big band in the Pavilion at Bondi Beach. For the past couple of years Orange has been promoting it's wine and food along with it's music at Bondi beach.

So after filling the car with a drum kit then squeezing in we set off. By Lithgow on the edge of the Blue Mountains the temperature had shot up to around 3° when we pulled off for a coffee. The group of bikies that had arrived at the same time were certainly not finding the ride that pleasant with the low temperatures. But as we got closer to Sydney the weather started to warm and by the time we were actually at Bondi Beach the mercury had crept into the mid 20's. The beach was packed with sun worshipers and wetsuit clad surfers bobbed in the water waiting for the perfect wave. We soon found the rest of the family members who were joining us for the day and set off to explore the stalls. There were at least 25 vineyards present and after selecting lunch of a venison wrap accompanied by a nice red malbec I settled down in the sun to listen to the big band. Surely life could not get much better than this, sun, good food and wine and music all at iconic Bondi Beach.