Journeys

Perhaps the biggest change to our lives since moving to Australia is the difficulty with which to travel.  It has been said a thousand times before, but Australia is a long way from anywhere, even travelling around Australia itself can pose difficulties.  Adding to these difficulties we now have Jessie and Goofy to consider whenever we want to go away.  When we went to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island for a long weekend last month it was the first holiday we had since we went to Darwin back over Easter.  This was a big change from when we were in the UK and would go away almost once a month.

It had been a long time since I had managed to get an ADO off work so as soon as I had one booked Barnadi went straight out and bought flights to Adelaide, what we would do when we got there he left for me to plan.  With Goofy safely dropped off at the kennel and a spare key left with friends who would look after Jessie while we away, we headed off.  Now Adelaide itself is not a big city, it's CBD a grid system similar to Melbourne but surrounded on all sides by parkland.  It is not a very tall city either with very few skyscrapers and lots of old historic buildings still intact.  For transport it only has a single tram line which takes you from the north of the CBD down to Glenelg a seaside suburb.  But although we spent most of that first day exploring the city, Adelaide itself was not our final destination.  We hired a car at the airport and driving down the Fleurieu peninsula to Cape Jervis where we caught the ferry across to Kangaroo Island.

Admiral's Arch: Flinders Chase National Park

Kangaroo Island located 112km south of Adelaide is Australia's 3rd largest island at 4405km2 it is roughly seven times larger than Singapore.  At the 2011 census the population of the island was calculated to be only 4417 people, at roughly one person per square kilometre it is a very sparsely populated place.  To the aborigines, Kangaroo Island is known as Karta "Island of the dead", and they haven't occupied the island in over 2000 years.

Seal Bay: Sea lions

We stayed in the small town of Penneshaw just off the ferry, it had a choice of two restaurants both of which closed their kitchens by 8pm a reflection of the low demand from the low population.  The highlights of the island however are not the restaurants but the wildlife and stunning geology.  Despite the name we didn't see any Kangaroos on the island what we did see though was a lot of sea lions, fur seals, tamer wallabies and pelicans.  Our first stop on Kangaroo Island was Seal bay, although Sea lion bay would have been a more appropriate name as it is home to a colony of sea lions.  Like Philip Island and the penguin parade, the beach is protected and so the only way to see it is to go on a tour with one of the park wardens.  We arrived at 9am on the dot and so were just in time to join the first tour of the day with only a small group of 5 Singaporean tourists joining us.  The sea lions were so cute and their similarity to dogs, both in appearance and behaviour made us feel a deep sadness that Goofy couldn't be there with us.  Our next stop was another couple of hours drive away, did I mention just how big Kangaroo Island is?  Right on the most south westerly tip, within the Flinders Chase national park lies a stunning extremely windswept stretch of coastline.  The highlight being a walkway that leads you down under the cliffs and through to the Admirals Arch where a group of New Zealand fur seals struggle to bask on the exposed rock face as giant waves threaten to wash them back out to sea.  The wind was so strong that as we made our way down the board walk it was hard to breath, but the view at the end was more than enough compensation for the discomfort of getting there.  The wind, the waves and the rocks, all coming together in a way that words cannot do justice to.  Only a short detour away was the next unimaginatively named geological formation, the Remarkable Rocks.  These rocks lived up to their name, a strange collection of misshapen boulders left behind remnants of a long extinct volcano. That night we brought a couple of bottles of local wine and a large family sized seafood pizza and sat on our balcony to watch the sun set over the sea.   On our second day on Kangaroo Island we took a walk up Iron Rock Hill, just outside Penneshaw and found a nice little shop in American River where we had a brunch of fresh oysters and abalone.  We couldn't do much more as the ferry was booked just after lunch to give us time to get back up to Adelaide and our flight home.

Remarkable Rocks: Flinders Chase National Park

It was good to be home again and see Jessie and Goofy.  We had needed the break so desperately and it was a good trip, but even though we knew they were both in safe hands it was still a real struggle to cope with leaving them behind.  Jessie, being a cat, coped with the separation with out any obvious upset, she still got fed and fuss and that was enough.  Goofy was not so happy, whenever we bring him home from the kennel he is always a little quiet and withdrawn for the next couple of days and whimpers a little when he sees you.  It broke our hearts to know that in just a couple of weeks we would be sending him back there and this time for considerably longer.

It had been over a year since we last returned to the UK, the longest time since we had moved out to Australia nearly 3 years ago.  I was feeling incredibly homesick by the time this trip came around.  Once again the timing of this return home was decided by a wedding, although purely by coincidence the trip also coincided with the birth of my best friends first child.  With stops in London, Bath, Burham, Lavenham and Cambridge this was also the longest trip home we had made since we emigrated.  We managed to catch up with so many people this time, including a lot of people we had missed on previous visits.  When returning to Bath my homesickness was at its strongest, in some ways it felt like we had never been away, but there were changes too, some little, some not so little.  From speed limit reductions in Oldfield park to new housing developments along Lower Bristol road Bath was not the same as when we left.  It is not just the place that is changing, but also the people, I jokingly said to my best friend David, that since we moved away it was like our friendship had been put on fast-forward, skipping through all the day to day stuff and jumping straight to the big stuff.  The second time we returned to Bath was for his and Kirsty's wedding, the next time they had just bought a house together and this time we had arrived just in time to see their new born baby daughter.  When I think of Bath, I miss the place so much and of course I miss the people even more but I know realise I could never move back there.  Just like Barnadi and I, Bath and all of our friends have moved on, they are all on their own journeys, things haven't just been stuck on pause while we were away.  It is the memory of my time in Bath that I am homesick for and this recent trip has confirmed that the Bath of today is a completely different place to the one we left behind.

Self Regulation

It's that time of year again where accountants across the country get very very busy.  It is a legal requirement in Australia for everyone to do a tax return at the end of the financial year which, as far as I can see, is because the Australian Tax Office (ATO) is completely incapable of doing its own job.  The ATO  is not the only big organisation in Australia which is set up to be a regulating body and yet delegates a lot of that responsibility to the very people it is meant to be regulating.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the Australian equivalent to the MHRA or FDA and it is responsible for regulating all therapeutics available for use within Australia.  Well that's the theory, there is one big exception, natural, complementary and alternative medicines.

There is a common misconception that because something is "natural" it is safe, this is far from true a look at any number of poisonous plants and animals in the world makes this abundantly clear and yet this concept of natural equals safe is behind the TGA's decision to allow manufactures of these natural, complementary and alternative medicines to regulate their own products.

A recent audit of the TGA's self regulation policy showed that 90% of the listed products that went though this process were in violation of regulatory requirements.  These violations included mislabelled products, poor quality and misleading claims unsupported by any evidence.  These results are shocking but not to be unexpected when you consider that these products are made to make money, the manufacturers of these products only goal is financial gain.  Whether intentional or accidental, violations are inevitable when you allow the manufacturer of a product to then regulate it.

What I find most disturbing about this set up is these products are listed by the TGA as if they were properly regulated and this gives the general public the impression that these products may actually have been tested to ensure they are both safe and efficacious when the truth in the majority of cases is completely the contrary.

Australians are world famous for their laid back attitudes, but there has to be a limit.  When an organisation that is set up to be a regulating body, whether that's the tax office or the TGA, then it needs to do the job itself.  Self-regulation may save the organisations time and money, but it is open to abuse and in the case of the ATO it could cost the government millions in lost revenue and for the TGA it puts the general public at risk of serious harm.

Only a game

Melbournians are in general extremely passionate about their sport, more obviously so than any other Australians.  A clear example of this is in the number of AFL teams that originate in Melbourne.  Out of the 18 teams in the premiership 50% are Melbourne based teams.  It is not surprising then that they take events such as the world cup very seriously.  A little too seriously for my own personal liking, I have never understood how people can become so obsessive over what is essentially a hobby.  Still I have managed to avoid it impacting my life too much as Australia got knocked out quite early on, and local interest quickly waned.  Still with Wimbledon and the Tour de France still going on, I have plenty more to avoid.

One such way I have found to avoid watching or hearing about sports that do not interest me, is to play games that do.  Last weekend after a lot of umming and ahing I finally gave in and decided to buy a copy of my favourite board game, Ticket to Ride.  I had been struggling to justify the $80 price tag, with Barnadi telling me I would have no one to play it with anyway.  Fortunately Barnadi was quickly proved wrong as in the week since I acquired the game I've managed to have two board game nights.

For those who have never heard of the game, Ticket to Ride is a strategy game where players compete to build trains routes across a map, in this case, of Europe.  This is done by collecting enough cards of a matching colour to link two cities.  Points are awarded for each route laid, with extra points available for completing specific routes which are available on ticket cards, points can be deducted for any ticket not finished before the end of the game.

My first game night was on Wednesday when Mona came over for a game or two or three.  Despite getting confused between Budapest and Bucharesti she still managed to beat me twice, but as all good losers know it is not about the winning.  It was just a good feeling to be playing again after so many years without.  For my second board game night Gene, Cameron and Kirsten all came over for dinner and a game.  Barnadi was working so I attempted to cook, by making a fish pie.  Again the night was completed with three games.  I managed to walk the first game with a very convincing win, but by the second game I did a Mona, miss reading my main mission and losing a whopping 21 points, allowing Gene to storm ahead and take the game.  By the third game I think the wine had been flowing a little too much and it was the lowest scoring game of the night.  It was Gene's turn to do a Mona as he got confused between Erzurum and Smyrna, allowing me to make a sneaky win.

I am sincerely hoping that at least one or two people will become regular visitors for a game, I might even be organised enough to remember to make a pudding.  Then I can justify expanding my board game collection with games like Bohnanza.  Not that I ever hope to have a collection big enough to rival Martin and Laura's library of games it does make me feel a little less homesick.

Jessie enjoying a game

A Wet Weekend

After the warmest May on record, winter has finally hit Melbourne hard.  Strong bitter southern winds, bringing lots of rain and flooding to many parts of the city.  On the plus side, it means we can put our new ducted heating system to the test, and so far it has passed with flying colours, well worth the investment.  The rain did not stop us taking a day trip up to Daylesford this weekend to visit Barnadi's friends Leah and Evan.  The trip was rather spontaneous in its complete lack of planning, we had been taking Goofy for a walk when the rain began.  Cutting the walk short we headed back home, but Goofy had hardly had enough time to stretch his legs, so we got in the car, planning to drive to Bundoora park where we could let him off the lead a bit and he could have a run around.  Before we even pulled out the driveway Barnadi suggested we make a day of it and head down to Williamstown, this sounded like a good plan to me so instead of driving to the park I took us up onto the ring road.  It was here Barnadi changed his mind again, we hadn't seen Leah and Evan for a while, and last time we drove up to Daylesford to visit them, the house they were building by the lake was still far from finished.  It seemed then that a visit was well overdue and we got off the ring road at the Calder freeway and headed north-west. 


Trentham Falls

On the way we stopped briefly at Woodend to buy a bottle of wine and a small house plant, it was rude enough of us to turn up uninvited, but to turn up empty handed as well would have been unforgivable.  We stopped again at a little place called Trentham, every time we had been to Daylesford before I had seen the little brown sign to Trentham falls and thought I would like to go there and yet we never quite managed it, until now.  Just of the main road a potholed little driveway lead us to a small car park, surprisingly busy for such a miserable day.  From the car park it was a surprisingly short 70 metre walk down some muddy steps to the viewing platform.  An impressive cascade over columnar basalt cliffs, made all the more impressive by the rain we were now enjoying.  Once we had our fill of falling water, we got back into the car and made the short final leg of our journey into Daylesford.  We weren't the only uninvited guests to turn up that day and Leah miraculously managed to throw together a delicious impromptu lunch.  After lunch Leah took us on short walk to the Mill Market where she had a stall selling vintage items, Evan stayed back tasked with baking some scones for tea.  By this point poor Goofy was getting rather fed up, what began as a trip to take him for a walk had ended up with him being tied up outside in the rain most of the day or stuck in the back of the car.  The walk to the market at least gave him the chance to feel involved again, and the walk back via the lake gave him the chance to get even wetter with a quick swim. 

Mill Market

Along the pier a there was a buzz of activity as three boys were busy tying balloons along the railings, lighting candles and setting up a stereo.  On quizzing one of them about what was going on, it transpired a friend of theirs was about to propose to his girlfriend, and they were helping to make it as romantic an occasion as possible.  Our thoughts were with that couple as we headed back up to the house and the rain once again came down, the heaviest it had been all day.  Would the girlfriend still agree to walk around the lake in this weather?  Would the candles still be alight, or the stereo work?  Would she see the romantic side, being dragged around the lake in the cold and wet?  I guess we shall never know.


Fed up Goofy

Despite his modesty Evan's scones were perfect, and went down exceptionally well with a hot cup of tea.  It was just what was needed to thaw out after the chilly walk by the lake.  Realising Goofy had had enough, cold, wet and muddy as he was, we decided it was time to say our farewells and head back home again, where we could give him a thorough wash.

Solstice

The winter solstice brings the longest night, but also sees the return of the Light in Winter festival in Federation square.  This years centrepiece was an installation by UK architect Asif Kahn named radiant lines.  Also located around the square were home made shrines, totems and some creepy puppets by the Indonesian Papermoon Puppet theatre.  The solstice also marks the one year anniversary from our move to Bundoora.  It may have only been a year since we moved from Northcote to our house, but it feels like a lifetime ago.  Lodgers have been and gone and our two beautiful children arrived. 

Radiant Lines

Having children, even non-human children can become very stressful at times.  Poor Goofy took quite ill last week vomiting twice and loosing all appetite.  For a whole day he didn't eat a thing, but he was still drinking water and wasn't showing signs of dehydration so we didn't take him to the vet, but it was a close call.  By the next day he begun eating again, but only small amounts of plain rice.  He is now back to his normal naughty self, which although frustrating is a great relief.

Goofy is not the only one who has been sick.  Barnadi caught the flu very badly this year and had to take a whole week off work which is completely unheard of for him, he has now vowed to get the flu jab every year from now on.

The arts

Our spate of cultured nights out to the opera did not stop at two.  After the Turk in Italy we went to see Carmen, the most famous of the operas we saw and this was followed the next week by La traviata.  La traviata might have been the lowest budget but they had a novel set design, involving laying the back drop canvas on the floor and suspending a large mirror over the stage.  A trick that worked really well for the big party scenes, but didn't quite work so well in the country house where the lead male actor looked like he was sleeping on the walls.  The opera season has now ended, so we will be returning to plain old musicals for future theatre excursions, the King and I, showboat and Guys and Dolls being just some that we are planning to see.

At the start of this year I set myself 5 seemingly unobtainable goals, and yet I have now completed one.  As a child I was always writing stories, but a life as a pharmacist following guidelines and evidence based medicine had pretty much killed my imagination.  I had an idea for a story or two buzzing around my head, but never found a way to get them out.  Then one day earlier this year inspiration struck, the first day back at work after white night, Cameron and I were having a conversation.  It started with a single phrase.

 "The Camerosaurus and the Peppermint princess made their way through the aftermath of the battle between the White knight and the peoples of Swanston"

And from here a whole story grew, and as of today the first draft is now complete.  Ironically enough this original phrase no longer features anywhere in the story.  Now begins the long and painful journey of editing, something I have never had that much patience with.

The Dogs B*****ks

Having Goofy de-sexed was a lot less traumatic than Jessie.  That is not to say it was without risk, as all surgery carries some risk.  His recovery was much quicker, he was a little wobbly on his feet for the next couple of days, but otherwise he seemed unfazed and it wasn't long before he was up to his normal naughty tricks.   While exploring around the new University Hill development in Bundoora he ran off after a mob of kangaroos and disappeared without trace for a good 15 minutes before we found him again.  We left him at home in the garden whilst we went to the opera, and he reached his head through the catflap and pulled through and shredded a new rug.  He's not always naughty though, he joined us at the Indonesian Street Festival at Victoria market and won a free Javan bandana for his dancing.  A busy week for a dog who is meant to be convalescing.  His stitches are now out and it is like nothing ever happened.




Dancing Goofy

We have been very cultured this month, going to the Opera twice in as many weeks.  The first was a Tchaikovsky work, Eugine Onegin.  I had never heard of this opera before, and it was an extremely melodramatic tale of a young man who rejects the advances of a girl and dances with her sister.  The sister's boyfriend just happens to be his best friend, but jealousy makes him challenge Onegin to dual.  Pride forces Onegin to accept and so he ends up shooting and killing his best friend.  He then goes a little off the rails and travels around aimlessly for a few years before returning to St Petersburg where he finds the girl he rejected at the start of the opera is now married to the prince.  He decides now that he wants to make a go of it, and she tells him where to go.

The second opera could not have been a bigger contrast.  The Turk in Italy by Rossini, but modernised, well brought into the 1950's, a ridiculously riotous romp tracking the love life of an Italian woman, bored of her husband and sleeping with pretty much every man in town.  When a Turkish boat lands she goes straight after the womanising Selim.  Selim himself has another admirer a concubine that had fallen in love with him.  After much farcical partner swapping and mistaken identity the woman finally reconciles with her husband and the Turk returns home with his concubine.  The whole situation is constantly being overseen and manipulated by a struggling poet looking for a good story to write a play about. 

Slightly less cultured than Opera last weekend was Eurovision time again.  As Sam and Athina are currently crossing the border between China and Kazakhstan, they were unable to join me this year.  Instead Cameron came over and I cooked a Lasagne for dinner.  This years entries were much better than last in my humble opinion and I couldn't decide on a favourite between Hungary, Ukraine and a few others.  That's not to say there weren't a few duds  Belarus with the Cheesecake song and Poland with the butter churning.  Still it was no surprise when the Austrian bearded lady Conchita Wurst won, with her song about a phoenix, an allegory for her own sex change.