Jemma Canberra 3 - Saturday

Bacon and Egg breakfast
National Gallery
Carillon
Mint
Arboretum
Telstra Tower
Dinner with David and Tina

National Gallery

Art is like.....
Coffee, Religion,  Sport, Politics & soup.
My way is the right way and if you don't like it....

The older I have gotten the less judgemental I have become when it comes to art.  No longer do I say things like this is "good" or that is "bad".

This is a close up of part of the "blue poles" painting.  Very controversial when PM Gough Whitlam bought it in 1973.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_11,_1952_(painting)

A lobster phone - I want one of these!

A very enjoyable morning for me anyway.  I would like to go back.

We also manged a morning tea in the cafe.





Carillon
It's a bell tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Carillon
A beautiful sunny day.  I was exhausted from being a tourist at the National Gallary.  Lay down in the sun and had a power nap.  Great!

Mint
The mint is a place where they stamp out the coins.  It's amazingly popular with tourists.
Jemma paid $3 to push a button and stamp out a $1 coin.

Arboretum - Met with cousin Carolyn & daughter Sarah (19ish)& cousin Peter.  The Arboretum is a place where they grow plants and apparently have outdoor concerts where everyone freezes.  We did nothing other than sit in the cafeteria and chat over drinks until we were evicted.

 Telstra Tower
 After the Arboretum we drove the short distance to the Telstra tower.  The intent was to see Canberra while it was still light, then see the lights of Canberra as the sun set.  It was a cloudless sky and that does not make for really impressive sunsets.

Frank Henry & Jemma selfie on the Teksra tower.

Dinner with David and Tina
At Sammy's in civic.

 

 

Jemma's Canberra Trip - War Memorial 2

It's Bastille day and the Warmo is into this in a big way.  Huge banners out the front.  Inside a lectern and flags were set up.  Out side a sign directing invited guests to a function.

An interesting point to ponder.  Right down Anzac parade there are monuments to various wars and aspects of wars that Australia has fought in.  For example there is a monument to nurses, to the Vietnam war.  Right at the top of Anzac parade in prime position there is a monument to Greece & Turkey.  Complete with flags flying.  Yet no monument to key allies such as the UK & USA.  

The Greek monument reminds me of the Greek economy.  It looks like it is falling apart.  Maybe that is intentional.

Jemma's Canberra Trip - War memorial

Today Jemma, Henry and myself visited the war memorial.  We looked at the newly refurbished WW1 display. Then we watched a dramatic presentation about "women in war".  This was a one person play where the main character was a nurse talking about what it was like to be a in WW2.  It ended with her dying on the ship home.

We looked for some Von Stieglitz names on the WW1 romm of honor.
We looked them up on this site
https://www.awm.gov.au/
That gave us the battalion and from there we could find the names on te roll.

This is the tomb of the unknown soldier.  Inside the room there are 4 large pictures.  One of a soldier, one of an airman, one of a navy officer and one of a nurse.  The 4 pillars represent each of these roles.  The 4 pillars in different shapes.  The air one is in the shape of a wing.  The nurse one is glass like the nurse memorial on Anzac parade.

Here we see Jemma looking at the "Eternal Flame"  This flame is gas powered and runs continuously to remind us of those who have died in war.

We walked down Anzac parade and looked at various memorials.

Overview of all the memorials
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Parade,_Canberra

Air force memorial.

Vietnam memorial.

From http://www.vietvet.org/aussimem.htm

Inspiration finds soaring expression in the 'roof' of the memorial space. Seven metres above the podium floor, suspended from the internal walls of the three stelae is a ring made from 24 sawn black granite segments, each supported by three suspending cables. Sealed within one of the segments (it is marked with a simple cross) is a scroll, upon which have been inscribed the names of the dead.
The whole array forms a beautiful cat's cradle of wires, granite segments and transparent but substantial shifting patterns of light and shadow. In this, the designers felt that the ring's "seemingly disembodied earthliness" would recall "the sacrifices made by the individuals who fought and died;" and yet, in its inspirational form, would effect a transcendence of the past, a denial of simple mortality.

Jemma & Frank - Ski Trip - Wednesday AM

The last day skiing.  Due to our 5 1/2 hr nightmare yesterday we have decided to take the ski tube.  Mind you they had their own 3hr delays.

Packed everything and checked out.  Drove to the ski tube terminal at Bullocks Flat.

Henry driving.

Queenslander!

On the ski tube
James et al are in the distance

Jemma

Black Rock 2

Black Rock 1

Thursday the previous week - I drove out to John Ness' place and picked up his trailer. Naturally had to rewire the lights. On Friday, Megan took the ute to day camp and picked up all this excess firewood.  Chris later transferred the wood to the trailer and so we had almost a complete trailer load of wood.

Friday afternoon we drove to Hervey Bay and stayed at Dave's house.
Saturday was a day trip to Fraser.
Sunday we managed to make it back home.

Monday we started packing and packed and packed.
2:25pm we finally drove out the gate

Jeruslem creek and Louis.

Chris

Louis

The old car battery from the Tiida and 40W solar panel.  It would charge at bout 1A.

Voltage seemed quite low though.  Ended up giving it half an our connected to the car.

Look dad.
Dog a hole.

2016 Canberra 1

Jemma and I are having a Father - Daughter adventure.
The first thing was the flight down.  Virgin had a better zoo class offering both in time and cost.  Then they had the option of bidding for a business class upgrade.  I decided on my bid by making the total up to half the business class seat which was about $800.

Frank Ticket	$255
Jemma Ticket	$255
Frank Upgrade to Business	$150
Jemma Upgrade to busines	$150
Total	$810
Price per person	$405

As we checked the baggage in the kind lady advised us that Business tickets entitled us to entry to Virgin's lounge.

Felt obligated to get max value.  Hot chock for Jemma and a coffee for me.

Henry met us at the airport and then we met Charlie, Melissa, Lucy & Jack for lunch.

Down town Canberra - Curry festival.

Henry's pool being checked out by Jemma & Charlotte