FLY Me To The Moon

Phoebe and I went to the Regal at Graceville and watched "Fly Me To The moon"

Everything about this film is a conspiracy.

Complete with a black cat and government men in dark suits and sunglasses, it's portrayed as a chick flick love story but it's actually a documentary about the back up plan to fake the moon landing.

No one in this film is who they seem to be. Even the bad guy from the government agency, who we incidentally don't get the name of, is compromised and this of course leaves them vulnerable....

We get a hint of why people have kept this story hidden - threats of retribution, clandestine agreements with TV stations, behind the scenes shenanigans with politicians to secure funding and of course copious shredding of documents. 

Go see this film and understand the real back story to the moon landing. You may wish to leave your phone at home with a CD playing just in case....

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mon 22-7-2024 War Memorial

MONDAY 22

A contrast to the lightness of yesterday's visit to parliament house. Today we visited the war memorial.

Quite a somber occasion. I didn't feel like snapping pics. It's awful stuff. I think my reflection is that my freedom today is because of the sacrifice of those people in the past and the protection presented by the armed forces people of today.

I think my challenge to those who 'oppose war' is "why then do you lock your doors"?

 

 

 

 

Canberra- ToDo list

CANBERRA

Walk up Mt Anslie

Drive up Mt Anslie

Black Mountain tower closed. 

War memorial ticket Monday 

Warmo extra shed - closed. 

National Galley - ✔  

National portrait gallery 

Walk around the city shops.

Parliament house. - ✔

Old parliament house

High court

+National museum

Archives

National library 

SUN - Parliament

SUNDAY 21
Two strategic visits.  Parliament house and the Royal Gundaroo Dump.

In keeping with the cathedrals of old, parliament big and impressive to emphasise power.  Contrast with a fun fact from the tour - apparently the idea of the grass areas on the roof was to symbolise that the populace could party on above while the leaders, debating laws below, were reminded that they served the people rather than lording it over them. 

On a serious note, I know we love to bag our pollies but I've huge respect for them and the institution.  On our way in Phoebe and I discussed that when we were young, we felt confident that the country was in the good hands of our elders. No we are older,  the same age of our polies, we realise they are human with all of the failings that that entails.

The second and [almost] as important was a trip to a real dump. Complete with piles of rubbish. 

Lots of fun working together with Phoebe to take this photo.  The pillars at the front give it depth

Huge empty space in the car park

Front hall

The senate chamber

Tickle the cat

The flagpole is huge - really hard to photograph it.

Royal Gundaroo Dump

Dinner with Michael, Ian & Peter

 Saturday night dinner was at the Canberra yacht club with Michael, Ian and Peter.  Henry stayed home as he was crook.  The weather of the day and into the evening was cold, windy and drizzly.

Great to chat with the cousins.  The depth of experience was very interesting.  

CBR - SAT 20-7-2024 Henry's Place

 Henry is crook with a cold that he probably caught from me and Phoebe.  This excused us from park run.

Phoebe and I took Henry's car to Anislie shops and bought 3 croissants and a loaf of un-sliced white bread from the hot bread shop.  Outside, It's cold, windy and rainy so it's nice to warm and relaxed inside the house.  Phoebe made omelettes for her and me.  Henry settled for just a croissant. We are now just chilling.

2024 Perisher Ski Notes

 

8 DAYS ON SNOW

Tried to take 8 of everything:
8 pairs of Ski Socks and 8 pairs of undies - Good
8 polo shirts - Some were stay dry and others cotton.
I like polo shirts because the pocket gives me somewhere to put my glasses.
In hindsight would have been better to have more stay dry Tee shirts even if no pocket as one can use the top pocket in the ski jacket.

GLOVES
I took multiple pairs.  Back in Brisbane I bought a nice new pair.  First day on the snow and I managed to drop one off a chair lift.  Bought another new pair in Jindabyne for $25.  I wore these for the rest of the week because there is noticeably more internal padding and that meant they were warmer. I made some string things to tie them to my wrists. At night I would turn them inside out as much as possible to help dry them out.  I guess that if they are not waterproof they will get wet from the wet snow and if they are waterproof they will get wet from sweat. 

LONG PANTS
I took 1 pair jeans and 1 pair of dress pants.  Only wore the jeans.  One belt was enough.

DRESS SHIRTS
I took 2 long sleeve dress shirts.  Did not use.  Each night for evening meal, wore the next days Tee shirt.

JACKETS
Spray Jacket - not used
Puffer Jacket - Used every morning and every evening.
Columbia liner - Not used.

HANDKERCHIEFS
Lots and lots and should have taken more.  Had to wash the slime out of some of them after a few days.

SLOPPY JOE
I took 2.  Used the grey one most days to keep warm.  I don't think I used the black one.

BEANIE
I took 3.  Blue, and two black.  Both the black ones have vanished.  I think 3 is a good number.  Take at least 2.  Should not do black though. Too easy to loose black stuff. Maybe a red or Maroon one.

NECK WARMER
I took two.  They can double as beanies.

GOOD
Long USB-C Lead
Torch
Toothpaste & Toothbrush.
Bottle of Vitamin C.
Codral Cold Tablets - Was crook and these helped esp at night for the first few days.
Running shorts - Only didnt use because too sick to do park run.
Cash - I only used a $20 as a tip after a glass was broken at a restaurant.

 

NOT USED
Columbia jacket liner
Long sleeve dress shirts
Long dress Pants.
Black sloppy joe.
Cash - except $20.  Should have put $1 in my pocket for Dickson woolies trolley. :)

SKI BOOTS AND SKIS

Skis: 172mm Volkl - really good

SkiBoots: 29.5 Dabello - Right size but I think these had had a long life as the padding was crushed and my toes got cold.

ACCOMMODATION
At "The Station"
This was the lowest cost option BUT no toaster and not allowed to cook in the room.  I ponder, I suspect that we could have paid more to stay elsewhere and cooked at home for about the same cost.  

Eating out was not only expensive but also there was no evening down time.  No time to relax, drink schnapps and blog or play cards.

The station was clean and spacious.  Had a kettle and a fridge.  Not being allowed to cook, meant that we could not do hot chocolates so I bought powdered milk and chocolate powder.  

It also had no plates, bowls, cuttlery.  Henry had brought this (I did not realise until the last day).  We bought china mugs at Woolies in Jindabyne. 

 

FRI - Last Day Ski

  FRIDAY
Very very windy,  Blue Cow closed early.  Left early 1:30pm

6am and Henry's alarm woke us.
Go go packing up.
7:20 we returned the key at the station.
Hurried to catch the train.  zipped past a white Camry that was not too pleased.  Eventually after all this hurry, we concluded that we had actually gotten an earlier than planned train.  Met one legged border (see below)

Sat in Jax.  Walked Phoebe to her lesson.  The wind blew an absolute gale.

Phoebe reported there was some discussion as to what group she should be in.  One option was with a young instructor who took a group up the V8.  Apparantly too much for some and one girl in tears.  Phoebe elected to go with another group and they went to the learner area.  She skid on ice which was scary enough.

Frank, James & Henry took the V8 to the top of front valley and worked our way across to the Mt Perisher tripple.  Three runs down Mount P.  Very windy and cloudy at the top but snow over ice so really nice skiing.  On the third go, we broke off and skiid to Leichart which had quite a queue.  Met Zoe, Jeff & Bruce (whoever they are).  Did a couple of runs and then took the Bull Wheel run across to the top of front valley. 

11:30 lunch in Jax.  Phoebe was a bit stressed from her ice experience and had consumed a chicken pie and arrived at the table at Jax with a bowl of hot chips.  H & F had Kebabs. 

After lunch Phoebe and I walked to the ski tube terminal to take the train to Blue Cow and James and Henry set out to ski to Blue Cow.  The plan had been for Phoebe to continue practicing in a low pressure environment and Frank would join H & J for a last few runs. 

James and Henry reported that as they got off the Interceptor there were signs said it was closed.  They skid down and took the T-Bar up.  At Blue Cow, a rope had been placed to stop people going down.

As Phoebe and I alighted the train, we were accosted by Henry and told to get back on the train.  It appears that James and Henry had stationed each other at each end of the train in order to catch us.  Luckily they caught us because we got seats. 

We took the train all the way to Bullocks Flat.  Henry kept James company in James car and Frank and Phoebe shared Henry's car.  One stop at Cooma to return skis.  In Canberra, we went to woolies and bought ingredients to make spag bog.

 

Phoebe snapped this sunrise at "the station".  It contrasted with the actual weather experined on the mountain which was blowing a gale.

 

 

 

The weather was atrocious.  This is the top of Mount Perisher.

On the train down to Bullocks flat, Phoebe did not want to return her skis.

Packed in at Blue Cow after the the mountain closed.

Ski Tube on the way home

On top of Mount Perisher.

TENACITY
Every now and then one has an inspirational encounter. Today, on the train,  I stood next to and spoke to a one legged snow boarder.  If I lost a leg,  I reckon I'd end up staying home and depressed.  This fellow had only snow boarded once several years ago so effectively had to learn to snow board with a prosthetic leg.   It's also a testament to engineering where some fellow in the USA set about developing prosthetics for action sports.