Tinkerblue

Australian Bushfires

There are bushfires every summer in Australia,  you almost get used to it.  But not this year.

 www.smh.com.au

Fires are raging out control.  Not helping are winds at over 100km/hour and temperatures up to 46C.

www.smh.com.au

Over 100 people have lost their lives.  700+ homes are gone.  Not to mention the wildlife.

www.smh.com.au

Please say a prayer for the communities, for the firefighters, for everyone involved.

And they may have been deliberately lit.  Fire and police officers believe it may have been arson.  Our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd was quoted as saying, "What do you say about anyone like that?  There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder."

Just watching it on the news made me cry!

The google map shows the extent of the Victorian fires.  Green is safe,  yellow is controlled, orange is contained and red is going.

Beijing 2008 Couch Potato

One of my volunteers asked me if I was cheering for Canada.  AUSTRALIA!  Yes, I answered him in capital letters. 

Although as I've sat on my butt for the last 10 days I've cheered for Australia, and then in no particular order...Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Japan, Brazil, China, The UK and The USA.  How could you not cheer for Michael Phelps?   Even if his 8 golds came at the expense of some Aussies.

And yes I scream at the TV.  Just like Laura.  Hubby laughs at me, "You they can't actually hear you?" "You know you're not really helping them?".  Get over it! 

Yao Ming and 9 year old Lin Hao at the opening ceremony

The US men's relay team reaction to snatching victory from the French

Australia back in the green and gold.

Michael Phelps winning 8 gold

Australia on the podium

Reaction of the US men's gymnastic team being so excited at winning bronze.  Especially since most of the US had written them off. 

The Chinese men's gymnastic team in tears when they won gold

Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo winning his country's first ever medal - he broke his paddle celebrating

Anything with an Aussie in it

The thing about being an Aussie in Canada...

Is that it's costing me a fortune.  Both time and $$ wise.

I have an Australian passport. 

In Canada I'm what is called a landed immigrant or permanent resident.  I became a Canadian resident in 2000. The application fee was a few pennies under $1000.00.  I had to have a full medical including lung xrays, blood tests etc.  That was $100.00+.  Then I had to have a criminal record check for every country I had lived in for 6 months or more.  That meant Australia, Japan, The UK, Mexico and the USA.  Each country charged me $85.00 - $100.00.

Now that I am a permanent resident I have to have a PRC - permanent resident card.  It has to be renewed every 5 years.  It's only $50.00. Plus a set of passport photos.

When I travel to the US on my Australian passport I have to get a visa waiver.  It costs $6.00 each time.  But I can't enter into the US in a private plane, or boat only on commercial flights.  Which sucks when we live so close to the Washington State border, and Seattle is only an hours flight away as opposed to a 4 hour drive.

To be able to fly to Seattle in our plane I have to have a US visa, not a visa waiver.  A US visa is $131.00.  It's valid for 10 years - I think.

I spend a lot of time standing in queues or sitting in waiting rooms.  For visa applications, to have photos taken, to get a guarantor's signature, to pay fees, for interviews, to drop off or pick up the approved document etc etc.

My applications for renewing my PRC, US Visa and Canadian Citizenship.

For the longest time I refused to apply for Canadian Citizenship.  It seemed so final.  My family are in Australia, lots of my friends are in Australia, I'm Australian and in my head and my heart Australia is still home. 

So finally this year I did it. I applied to become a Canadian Citizen.  I will still be an Australian Citizen and I get to keep my Australian passport. 

I haven't heard anything about my application yet. So far I've filled in lots of paperwork. You know the thing.... list all the addresses I've lived at in the last 5 years, all the jobs I've had, every time I left Canada and for how long, all my medical details etc etc.  If they approve the application I have to sit a test and go for an interview.

Are you one of my Canadian friends? Can you pass the test? 

Wish me luck.

Sydney's Pubs: Liquor, Larrikins and the Law

larrikin n. Australian A person given to comical or outlandish behavior.

larrikin n. Australia & NZ old-fashioned slang a mischievous or unruly person.

Back on March we were all in town (Sydney) for Anna and Michael's wedding.  Hubby and I asked Doug to set up a tour/scavenger hunt of the historic pubs in The Rocks area.  Who's Doug? A very friendly, informative, easy going, and funny tour guide.  Hubby and I had been on one of his tours 2-3 years ago, and he was the first person we thought of to create an entertaining evening for a bunch of Aussies, Brits, Canadians (Did I get everyone?), ranging in age from 20's to 60's.

Painting in the exhibition

We started at the Justice and Police Museum.  Why? Anna, the bride to be curated the exhibit...Sydney's Pubs: Liqour, Larrikins and the Law.  I hope everyone was paying attention there will be a test later.  Really.

So what exactly does a pub tour entail?  Lots of drinkong?  Well, there was that but also a mix of trivia, useless information, historic facts, funny tidbits, stairs, friendly competition, bribery, more stairs, ploughmans lunch, laughs and yes, lots of beer.

Glenmore Hotel - A Sydney icon established in the early 20's, with a rooftop bar with awesome views of the city and the harbour.

At the 160+ years old, Hero of Waterloo there is a tunnel running from the pub cellar to the Harbour. It was used for rum smuggling and involuntary recruitment of sailors. A fellow might have a few too many, be chained up in cellar until a Captain came (see photo below) and dragged him through the tunnel, then awake next morning at sea shanghaied aboard a ship.

The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel claims to Sydney's oldest pub.  It has it's own brewery.  My favourite is a beer called Three Sheets.  Three sheets in the wind being an old sailors term for very drunk.

A poster in the bathroom at The Lord Nelson promoting Anna's exhibition.

The Australian has had a license continously since the early 1800's.  They also serve great pizzas and after the tour we came back here to eat pizza.  But not your ordinary pizza, gourmet Australian pizza - Pepper Kangaroo, BBQ Emu, Saltwater Crocodile, Roast Duck, Moroccan Lamb, and Australian Sausage.  My favourite were the pepper kangaroo and the Moroccan lamb.   

We finished up at The Mercantile Hotel.  We had another beer while Doug added up our trivia/scavenger hunt scores and accepted some last minute bribes. 

Did you know?

• Pubs had tiled floors and sometimes the bottom 3rd of the walls was tiled to make them easy to hose down (men peeing, blood from brawls etc)
• There was a rail under the bar that men could loop their belts around so they wouldn't fall down

A great night out with friends, old and new.

I Love a Sunburnt Country

My Country was written by Dorothea MacKellar in 1904 while she was living in England and missing home, Australia.  One of the most popular verses in the poem is:

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

The wide brown land for me!

Most Australians can quote the first line of this verse (it's actually the 2nd of 6 verses). In the 90's Bill Bryson authored a book using a play on the iconic line I Love a Sunburnt Country.   In a Sunburned Country became a best seller but received critical reviews.

I read it and for the most part I liked it.  As an expat Aussie, parts of the book made me laugh, and parts made me cringe.  It's not a life changing book, but maybe it will make you want to visit or go back a second time.

In the meantime here are some more images of My Country, from our recent trip.

Blue skies and gum trees

Penguin crossing

The Hazards, Tasmania

Wineglass Bay, Tasmania

Sydney Harbour Bridge, ferries - part of the public transportation system in Sydney.

Sydney Opera House and another ferry.

Sunset, Wynard, Tasmania

A Taste for It

A Taste for It by Monica McInerney.  Ms McInerney is Australian, and even lived in Tasmania for awhile, so that makes me partial to her books. A Taste for It is a novel about travel, wine, friends which makes it a hit with me.  I read this while we were in the Hunter Valley for a friends wedding at the Tamburlaine Winery.   It was a good choice for a wedding weekend.  A quick, easy read.  Not life changing, but fun.  3 out of 5.  Summer mind candy, as Kelli would say.

Hubby and I enjoyed our weekend in wine country, although it's not quite as much fun when you can't buy crates and crates of wine.  Canada Customs only allows us to bring one bottle each home without having to pay big $$$ in taxes. It didn't stop us from tasting many, many wines, cheeses, gelato, olive oil, dukka and the beer.  It was definately a gourmet weekend.  Good thing we didn't have to roll far from our hotel

The wedding was beautiful.  The ceremony took place in the vineyard on a gloriously warm and sunny day.  Anna looked gorfeous in her dress, which I think she made.  I remember hearing a story of Anna beading the dress on her morning train commute.  The ceremony was stunningly simple.  It was all about Anna and Mike. 

Home

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews.

Julie Andrews is one of my favourite actresses/actors.   This books covers her childhood years, and starring as Eliza in My Fair Lady on Broadway and in London.  (Audrey Hepburn played the part in the movie).  Did you know her mother and stepfather were alcoholics, or that she found out when she ws 14, that the man she thought was her father was not?  Did you know who voice covered 3 octaves?  That she was part of a vaudeville act with her parents?

Home. Where is home?  Home is where your heart is.  Home is where you hang your hat.  We've all heard the cliches.  But where is home?  In the last 18 years I've called the following places home: Tokyo, London, Sydney, Cuernavaca (Mexico), Carnation (near Seattle) and Vancouver.  I never used to get homesick, but the older I get the more I feel it.  This quote has never been more true...Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.  ~John Ed Pearce

So where is home?  It's Hobart, Tasmania.  And we just spent 3 weeks at home.  It flew by way too quickly.  I'm already counting down until we go home again. In the meantime here's a few memories that I'll share...

My little brother, Shaun

Bicheno, the coastal town where we spent many, many summers as kids.

Wineglass Bay.  Hubby and I had lunch down on the beach, then hiked up the hill to the lookout.  Stunning isn't it?

Clothes drying in the backyard - I miss the oddest things.  See how dry it is?  The drought, I do not miss. 

Y = Yothu Yindi

Yothu Yindi is one of my favourite groups.  They are an Indigenous Australian band. 

(Mushroom Music Australia)

Their first hit single was Treaty off the album Tribal Voice.

Treaty was written in colloboration with two other great Australian musicians, Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil.  In 1988, then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, promised that by 1990 there would be a treaty between Indigenous Australians and the Australian Government.  Treaty was written in the early 90's to protest the failure of that promise.

Their sound includes traditional aboriginal music, pop and rock.  They incorporate typical rock instruments - drums and guitars and traditional aboriginal instruments - clapsticks and didgeridoos.

with Carlos Santa (www. yothuyindi.com)

T = Tasmania and the Tasmanian Devil

My home state.  The smallest state of Australia.  The only Island state.   

Tasmania was discovered in 1642.  The first whte settlement was recorded in 1803.  Before that the Tasmanian Aborigines are believed to have lived there for over 35,000 years.  Unfortunately disease, and persecution took their toll. The last full blooded Tasmanian Aborigine, Truganini died in 1876.

Over one third of the state is designated as National Park or World Hertiage sites.

The population is approximately 500,000.  The size is 68,332 sq kms or 26,383 sq mi.  It is approximately 200km's or 125miles from Mainland Australia.

The most well known native Tasmanian animal is the Tasmanian Devil.  It does not look like the Warner Bros cartoon. It actually looks like this.

Tasmanian devils are a protected species and additionally are listed as vulnerable for extinction. The Devil Facial Tumour Disease, (don't look if you are squeamish) is a devastating disease that is sweeping through the Tasmanian devil population.  It was first noticed in the about 10-15 years ago, I think.  Most studies indicate that the devil population has been reduced by as great as 90%!

Would you like to help save the Tassie Devil? 

You can make a donation at Save the Tassie Devil.   

Or you can buy a special edition Taz (He's the Warner Bros version of a Tassie Devil) complete with Tasmanian Passport. 

Or you can buy a copy of Alice Hansen's childrens book, A Devilish Tale. Alice has pledged a minimum of $3000.00 from sale proceeds to the Save the Devil Fund. 

You can even adopt a devil through the Healesville Sanctuary in Melbourne.  The sanctuary is working with the Save the Tassie Devil program by caring for an "insurance" population of devils that were sent to the mainland to avoid the disease. For $50.00 AUD for get a years adoption package with a photo, certificate, fact sheet and newsletter.

S =

Short = that's me.  5'4".  I am the shortest in my family.  My brother is over 6', my Mum and Dad are both around 5'7".  My maternal grandparents are both tall.  My paternal grandfather was very tall.  My maternal grandmother is tiny.  I don't think she is even 5'.  I get my lack of height from her.  Dave is 6'3" and his parents and sister are probably around 5'10".

Shaun = my "little" brother.  3 years younger than me, a foot taller and several pounds heavier.  We're friends as well as siblings.  I miss him lots.  He scuba dives, skis, works for my dad.  They are both plumbers or Mechanical and Air Conditioning Contractors.  Right now he's building a boat.

Sydney = one of my favourite places in the world.

I love the fact that some Sydneysiders actually commute to work on the harbour ferries.  I did for about two weeks. 

Here's a pretty iconic photo of Sydney - courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica

When we go home to Australia to visit my family, hubby and I always spend a few days in Sydney.  Next year we are going to do the Bridge Climb.  We have walked across the main deck, climbed the pylon, driven across in a car, rode across in a train, but we have never done the climb.  It's a litte pricey, but this time round we are doing it.