Monday 20 April 2009

ink marks on a blank page Mon 20th April

I haven't looked through all of the old blogs( ink marks) to ascertain if at some time or other there was some waxing lyrical about where chez robbi is situated (Adelaiode, South OZ). Perhaps there is, but if so then it is back in the annals of and I shall refresh the memory buds anyway.Y'all just knew I'd say that now didn't you, ego tripper that I am. Adelaide being what and where it is folk who live here just mostly accept their lot. We live in a temperate clime, not enough rainfall at the moment but that might change. The city is ringed by hills, faces like most OZ cities, the sea. A great coastline as we are at the top end of a gulf (St.Vincent) plenty of great fishing ,water sports galore couple that with good weather with a smallish population then the recipe is set for a good mix. The population stands at about 1.2mill in the city/suburbs with around 800k living in the country.We have our unique problems of course, any homogenous lot do, but in the main we tend to get along with ourselves and others pretty well.

Adelaide was different in that it was specifically laid out by a surveyor,one Col.Light, settled by free men, plus land was divided up by a title which was unique in the world for its time. The Torrens title, named after the designer, gave unfettered access to a parcel of land in a suburb/subdivision, to the registered owner of that piece of land inviolate to be included on a Government register with the sole purpose of creating one title to ownership. This meant that it became a simple process to but sell or transfer land in one transaction and without re-surveying each time the land was sold. Boring? useful though.

Apart from this great method of flogging land we are reasonably well known for the wine we make, some of the best reds in the world and getting up there with the reds, lots of great whites too. To go with all this fantastic drinkable stuff there are about 800 or so pretty good restaurants in the city and suburbs with lots out in the country as well, especially in the wine region of the Barossa valley, Mc Claren flat,Limestone coast ,not to forget the Clare Valley. Not only do we make great wine, South Australia was the first to give women the vote, forward thinking lot are we not?

I have travelled over a lot of OZ, not all ,but a rather large portion.My own state of South Australia I have covered many times, lived in some of the really remote places. Even survived getting lost in the outback on a couple of occasions, so I know, admire,love it well. I have also been to many many countires all over the globe and will readily admit to being an Anglophile but whenever I return here just the smell of the place brings my legs to quiver. There is just something about Eucalypts that brings out the tears in me, which I suppose is why I live where I live.

Where I live is right on what is quaintly called the Linear Park at Paradise. My front door opens to the garden, a smallish road then the park, so on a water rushing day I can actually hear the river gushing along singing its song. The Linear Park starts at Athelstone right on the Hills Face and follows the Torrens River all the way down to the sea at Henley Beach, some 37kms of park. One reason it is called Linear is perhaps because the Park itself at the widest point would only be 750mtrs and on either side is a cement/bitumen path just wide enough for maintenance vehicles. As befits even the smallest of rivers such as the Torrens it trickles around gracefully with plenty of meander so there is actually a plethora of paths and parks for picnics,lovers to spoon,trysts to make and children to play. Funny quirky little things like a fully functioning suspension bridge such as one would see in a Tarzan movie and of course lots of Billy Goat Gruff bridges for children to look at trolls. We shifted from the farm then across to a Hills village then down here, so folk who knew us were at first horrified to think we would shift back to the suburbs after 30yrs of living like real people, until they saw the place that is. We ride our bikes on several different 5km rides each week, each morning at 0630 I walk up to the big road bridge on Darley rd and back, that takes about 35mins unless I get waylaid by taking pictures. Please don't think that I paint this word pic of my suburb because I want you to believe this is the creme de la creme of living , not at all , just suits me well really. I'm going to put a few pictures that I have taken this week up, you can judge for yourselves.

Oh Hortense I do know that not everything is perfect in Paradise. Look at all the trouble Mr Tom Koutsankanis got himself into as the Roads Safety Minister. Someone found out he had something like 58 tickets for speeding and running red lights etc and then told the newspapers. To make matters worse Horty he went on talk-back radio and said that he was speeding because he was very busy going to important meetings and the like. Tut Tut Hortense, very busy just didn't cut it at all with the good folk of Adelaide so he had to resign that portfolio. Shame isn't it that the honest people who actiually paid their fines, unlike him, they didn't get any reward as Tom did they, $148k per annum plus a driver , not bad for a young chap eh? We finishe the day off well did we not, took the g/kids off to Cocolat for some of their fine Gelato and that lovely young Barista chappie Thanth, made us a super little coffee. A great day !!

Wednesday 8 April 2009

ink marks on a blank page Thursday April 8th

Just a little bit of trivia to start the day. Some years ago Feng Shui got a bit of a roll on here, and possibly just about anywhere there was enough money to start up and run a Feng Shui business. Not that I am knocking it , not at all, as I have always believed that cultures such as the Chinese can teach us many ways to live a better life. Many years ago my maternal Grandfather had a great deal to to with the Chinese and worked in business partnership with them. He often told me of the degradation that Opium had caused the Chinese and laid the blame squarely at the feet of the East India Company and its practise of paying the Chinese in Opium and conversely enlarging the Opium trade. Australia played a part in this and an Australian diplomat and adventurer ,Morrison, was so incensed by the corruption and double dealing by some of his diplomatic colleagues he tried to stop this trade. He was also a bit of a wheeler dealer and womaniser himself and possibly was not quite the white knight he appeared on the surface. Grandfather painted such a dire picture of Opium dens, the joss houses, that I lived in fear of falling into one on the way past the local Chinese herbalist shop.
Have you ever been into a genuine Chinese herbalist? They are fascinating places and for a small boy with a large and vivid imagination simply worth all the trepidation of falling into an Opium den or Joss house just to visit. The shop we used (Mr Wu) was an Aladdin's cave full of dried shark fins, snakes and things in ceramic pots, stranges twisted roots, powders in large jars all to be weighed out on brass scales and wrapped in brown paper, the bill was totted on an abacus at lightning speed and written in a neat hand on strips of very light paper like a present day cash out strip. Mr. Wu, who appeared to be the apothecary, was a tiny man normally to be seen sitting on a high stool with a rattan back and gazing out of the window into the street as if he could somehow mesmerise customers into coming in. His parcels were always wrapped in brown paper and tied with a dark brown twine whilst his recommendations for taking the medicine were written both in Chinese and English on the left hand side with your name printed in large block letters on the right. Heavens knows why he bothered to write in Mandarin as to my knowledge there wasn't anyone in the family who could read the characters. If by any chance it was me who needed his potions and Grandmother couldn't come with me I would appear at Mr Wu's with a note from her, place it on the wooden counter top and repeat, in my piping little voice, exactly what Nana had told me. "Please Mr Wu my Nana says I am to ask you nicely to read her note and then ask me what is wrong" Whereupon he would leap from his chair ,read the note and then come around the counter and hold my chin in one hand and look intently into my eyes. He then would take my hands one by one and look very carefully at the back first then the palms,each of the fingers/nails. He would speak very slowly in measured very quiet tones "Missy Grace say you feel not well here,(poke) ahhhh so, that is feeling bad?"Sometimes he would look through my hair, take a few strands and disappear into the back of his shop. I could then spend time gazing in wonder at the various odds and sods on the shelves and hanging tied with that brown string all over the shop. What was I looking for, I never asked myself that, but quite possibly it was eye of newt, frogs tongues, bat wings or dried dragon blood, anything that a small boy might think he would find in a Chinese apothecary. Once, after reading a story about Brooke of Sarawak and the Dyak headhunters I ran to Wu's shop looking for dried and smoked human heads,alas none to be found, but it was fun to sneak into the shop when he was busy and look.


Back to Grandfather. Over years he made many Chinese friends and along the way developed a love of Chinese architecture, artifacts, including the Chinese way of doing business. He used to tell me that if you do 'good' business with a Chinese on the shake of a hand then years later you will be able to do the same business with his son and his son and their cousins and their cousins relatives. The Chinese played a big part in the development of early Australia as thousands of Chinese came here in the gold rush days to work the emerging goldfields and create business such as market gardens in the mining settlements. Melbourne, which was at that time the richest city in the world, became a hub for the Chinese immigrants as did the provincal cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. Many Chinese also landed in the port of Darwin and stayed there to make a vibrant and busy culture. Gowdowns became during that early period a feature of the wharves in Darwin and much trade was done in trepang,beach-de-mer,shark and pearl shell to many Asian countries. Grandfather was a part of all this and I have been fortunate in being able to keep some of the artifacts and antiques he collected or was given over his years in dealing with the Chinese traders.

For us who live in the Southern part of OZ sometimes we forget that at the tip of our country (Cape York) it is only 20 nautical miles to a foreign country which is part of Asia. In 2007 I stood right on that very tip and if you look at a map of OZ you will see that Cape York goes to a point. Well I can vouch for that as I stood right on that tip and looked down into the crystal clear water I could see the tip of OZ. The helicopter I had hired landed some 60metres from the actual tip saving us a three hour walk and a massive climb down (and back up)from the normal landing site. That time ,(hour or so) I spent there was in retrospect an extremely cathartic experience, as not many folk actually get to go there for to drive from the nearest settlement is ,if the road is passable, about a four hour trip and then you have at least another three hours of strenuous walking and climbing.

Yes Hortense I do know that our esteemed leader can speak perfect Mandarin and that he is great mates with everyone who is anyone in China. Me?, you also know that I have a few words of Mandarin, don't look like that, I do know that there are some of those phrases I could never use in polite society. Being friends with the Chinse is wonderful stuff Horty but I don't think that our Defence Minister should have had his business trips paid for by that lovely Chinese lady who seems to know every top General in the Peoples Army. He also rents an apartment from her when he is Canberra too, possibly gets a cheap deal I would think. Do you think he asked her what all the echoes and beeps / whistles were in every room whenever he discussed Government business? Oops! best I stick to stuff I know lots about, like the wonderful selection of Gelato at Cocolat we had Saturday morning after the moving picture show. Wasn't such a bad movie either, 'The Boat that Rocked', not Gone with the Wind or anything but it was great fun. Nope,I'm not going to apologise for leaping up from my seat and singing along with the EasyBeats to 'Friday on My Mind'. Oh, and I wont mention that you sang along with the Supremes either.
Great day it was Hortense and I thank you heartily for being the you that you are,"gonna have fun in the city, be with my girl she's so pretty,I'll be right tonight, toniiiiighhhht, for I've got friday on my mind, na nah nuhhnahhh na nah....i've got friday on my mind"

Thursday 2 April 2009

ink marks on a blank page Thursday April 2nd

Some of you ,after reading this, will possibly be left with a feeling that I am over critical of my fellow humans. That I must put my hand up for if so labelled, not really the way that I see myself but one really cannot make an arms length judgement of self that is exact and to the point of being as how others view. Goodness that was long winded ,convoluted and pompous was it not, but something that had to be said, clearing the decks . Follows next why I have said the above.



Today marked the first major day of the G20 talks in London. What scenes did we see on our television news? Thousands of people demonstrating in a violent and anti-social manner screaming out slogans such as "Down with money" and the like, folk by the thousands pinning police officers up against a wall and a loon high up on a building trying to set fire to it. I well remember the violent anti Vietnam demonstrations, the Weathermen bombing and others of the same anti establishment ilk all around the globe doing exactly the same thing. As serving Navy during the early part of the time of Vietnam I was apalled at the treatment returning soldiers here in this country got from the general public as they marched through the streets of Sydney. People were right in condemning the Vietnam war and I do uphold the right to protest as all in a democratic society should have that right, all peoples should be able to exercise their right to protest at what they see as unjust and cruel. However I do not see where violent anti-social behaviour can be justified in any protest as in my opinion being violent just plays into the hands of those right wing elements who seek to contain the right to any protest.

That, (the above)was the main thrust of this week blogging on Ink Marks,but as the G20 ended with very much an accord and with a degree of hope for the future I deleted most of my write in favour of just letting the status remain at quo.



The second point about human behaviour I would like to touch on is this; Trends and counter trends. Or: What the heck is happening?



The robbi is unfortunately a slow learner, by that I do not mean that life has to bludgeon itself around my head to push in a few facts. Nope, not at all. One of the terrible shortcomings I have is that I see lots of things as black and white. Take sunglasses for one, they are meant to shade human eyes from the sun , true? Yes I do have a pair, somewhere in the house is a pair of hugely expensive precription sunglasses with special lenses that make everything crystal clear and are ground to my special requirements so that I might drive with them and read, although not at the same time. That they are very rarely worn is not because I don't go out in the sun, I do, but I found that I still needed to carry my normal glasses in case I wanted to go into a building or someones house. That means having to carry two pairs of glasses ,being the robbi that I am carrying two pairs is really asking for one pair to be left on a park bench or summat. Plus of course the cars that we have always have tinted windows anyway so that negates most of the need for sunglasses. The point I am slowly coming to is; as I look about me I appear to be the only human not wearing sunglasses. Whole families wear them from the littlest toddler right through the ages. Sitting in the movies the other day most of the folk coming in to sit down had them on top of their heads,some actually wore them and only took them off to perch said glasses on top of the head as they sat down. needless to say I started to think that I must be missing something and got to worry. Monday this week the answer came in the form of a cartoon strip in the morning Murdoch. Garfield occasionally talks to a ball of wool, this Monday morning the ball of wool said to Garfield "I'm cool" Garfiled to ball of wool" You are a ball of wool, how cool is that" the next panel showed the ball of wool saying "See!", wearing a large pair of shades, Garfield agreeing that said ball was now 'cool'. Ergo, shades =cool. The point I ask myself is,what then is 'cool'? Am I somewhat out of a loop because I don't wear shades, does that make me a non-person?
Many years ago(44actually) I was laying on the lawn in front of the Adelaide Uni waiting for the love of my life and reading 'MAD' magazine. It was the paperback version 'Son of Mad' and I was laughing out loud to the extent folk walking past were looking at me with disdain and clucking ,"possibly drugs Henrietta, you know what these Uni types are" The panels I was laughing at were a 5 or 6 page cartoon of artsy folk going to a party and being fawned over because they were wearing dyed ,hand knitted jackets and trousers that had been made from sea grass. my memory can't extend to anything else about the strip except the couple in question eschewed any knowledge of TV saying it was passe and everyone else nodding sagely whilst rushing to switch of the myriad TV's around the rooms.I also think that some of the really cool guests had dreads as well whilst the two mentioned just kept putting down all those not wearing sea grass. Reading MAD was obligatory for me, they had a way of looking at life that seemed so much how this is what it will be in the future. Was I 'cool' in that I read MAD and therefore 'knew' ? The medium is the message ,everyone will be famous for ten minutes. Looking down a telescope the wrong way seems to be how society is going, life is a microcosm of itself and no longer are we content to let it just unfold it has to happen right in front at breakneck speed.

You see Hortense even you are subject to this creeping malaise that is society. Just now you were badgering me to go to a moving picture. When I looked at the trailers for the films you picked I could see that these were not for me. Yes Horty being the sort of chap that I am I would go to a film not of my choosing just to please you, sometimes. They do have to have a few redeeming qualities Hortense, not just because Viggo whatshisname is a gorgeous hunk, the film has to be summat I can sit through. You are on holidays and there is plenty of time for film,why don't we go for a pleasant bike ride instead? Then tomorrow we can go into Cocolat and peruse the film list whilst snacking on a lovely Gelato, sound a plan Horty. Indeed it are, let's do it!