Milkshakes

I have never known a people to be so enamored with ice cream. Milkshakes, for instance. It's not like a treat for hot summer days. It's a drink to go with lunch. Maybe it's the 30 degree weather we should be having that forms this habit.

Iced coffee is 2 healthy scoops of ice cream with a some other stuff drizzled on top so you can call it "coffee".  It's mostly sugar.

Just so there are options you can also order "thickshakes". (I accidentally make these all the time because it most closely resembles the US idea of a milkshake. I figure they just get more bang for their buck.)

Anyway, it struck me today how quickly we went through 10 gallons of vanilla ice cream. It's not because we sell it as gelato.

Moomba for Labour Day

Moomba is Melbourne's Labour Day weekend festival. All weekend there is music from local and national groups and personalities, amusement rides and games, water ski competitions, festival foods, fun workshops, fireworks, the famous Birdman Rally, and the crux of the show: the parade. Music, fun and games lined both sides of the Yarra River giving plenty of amusement.

I went over on Saturday evening only to realize I'd missed the World Record attempt at the largest Bollywood lesson. Bummer. I did go on the Sea Circus funhouse twice. Not a bad tradeoff. Since I was keeping Simon and his youngest company, we focused on rides, playing games, and eating "chippies". That's what this festival is designed for so it made it easy to get into the spirit.

The fireworks were pretty impressive. Who can say no to musically-synced fireballs? Except the seven year old, of course, who only wanted to get back to the rides.

Melbourne's Yarra River full of Moomba Festival activities.

International Airshow

RAAF F18E/F Super Hornet.

Last weekend's big news was the 2011 Australian International Air show held at Avalon airport here in greater Geelong. Held every two years, the show features military displays of power, historic planes, international trickster personalities, and really, really loud jets.

I know this because I had front row seats, which was pretty amazing since I was leaning toward not going at all. Friday morning I was longingly gazing at an airshow flyer wondering for the millionth time if I was passing up the opportunity of lifetime. By Friday afternoon I was acting like a wide-eyed kid oo-ing and ah-ing over unmanned drones.

Unmanned drone.

Inches from Nikolai Timofeyev's plane.

Earlier that day I happened to sit on the right bench at the right time. Waiting to catch a train turned into a friendly chat with a gentleman who had an extra admission ticket to the show. We decided that we could help each other: he needed company, and I needed a ticket. I think I got the better end of the deal. We spent the rest of the day salivating over the military vechicles and frantically snapping photos as F-16 zipped passed and best-in-the-world pilots showed their stuff. We watched Matt Hall (Aussie with impressive moves), Kent Pietsch (South Dakota trickster), and the awe inspiring Nikolai Timofeyev, whose plane I was close enough to touch and who is touted as a "multiple winner of the World Unlimited Aerobatic Championship".

Here's a look at Pietsch attempting to land on a moving truck:

I also really enjoyed the historic planes. My grandfather would have flipped to see these WWII babies in the air. The announcer counted off how few Kitty Hawks (27), etc. were flying.



WWII fighters taking off with the You Yangs in the background.
Boomerang, KittyHawk, Spitfire (or Mustang?), Sea Fury.





The agile RAAF C-130J. J-version "goes further and carries more."

I'd have to say my favorite plane was the surprisingly graceful transport carrier. They are designed to get in and out of small places so despite their size the pilot was doing loops worthy of Top Gun. Suddenly that whale of a plane looked more like a dolphin.

Then there was the Connie at sunset burning fuel like a madman, but making it quiet a show. Of course I don't have a picture of that. (More on the Connie below.)

I do have this picture of me infront of a transporter. I tried out the rather uncomfortable seats while other people waited to get into the cockpit. It can fit two tanks. Cool! I touched everything I could get my hands on. The next time I see one of these it'll be in a museum.

View inside the transporter.



My friend and I also toured a few vehicles and chatted with the pilots. We spent a considerable amount of time with the pilots of the Avalon Helicopter, which will be retired this year after 35 years of service. I got to see it fly Sunday afternoon and got all excited like a little kid "I sat in the cockpit!" She was a big hunking Navy rescue chopper and made the other choppers, giving joy rides on the edges of the show, look like ants.






Westland SeaKing Mk 50 "Avalon", exterior.


This was the best one to watch take off:

The announcer warned that if you thought the F-16's and F-22's were loud, hold onto your hats: this jet could ruin your child's hearing.



USAF B-1B Lancer, heavy bomber.



When it passed by you could feel the air vibrating through your entire body and were deafened by the enormous woosh of the engines. It was thrilling. I'm not big on souvenirs, but after that baby I had to buy a hat that said "Feel the Power". Oh I felt it.



Deafening whoosh!



I spent the rest of the weekend staring out the windows as jets flew past, until Simon had had enough,

"Didn't you just see those yesterday?"

Come on, man. Really. How can you get tired of watching a bunch of free-wheeling pilots show off their best stuff??

Here's a sample of the aerobatics... and noise:

I biked over with a picnic on Sunday and found a nice spot across the road from the airport to watch the action. It was fun to try and snap photos as the planes zoomed passed, sometimes just grazing the trees. Almost better than being there. But I'm still glad I got to go.

Gloster Meteor F8: 1945-1970's. Saw that yesterday.

RAAF BAE 127 Hawk?

Areobatic jets. RAAF F/A-18As from No. 77 Squadron.



Roulettes in formation, the Royal Australian Air Force's areobatic team.

RAAF AP3-C Orion, long range Maritime Patrol and Anti Submarine and ASW aircraft.
Didn't see that yesterday.



And what is that?
Southern Knights aerobatic team in their Harvard's?! (training aircraft since 1935)
Didn't see that yesterday either!

 

VH-EAG "Southern Preservation" Super Constellation, AKA "Connie", in the day time.
Historically, a similar plane model was part of the first civilian trans global fleet, operated by Qantas. This actual plane was a military transport vehicle for the US from 1955 - 1977. It was renovated at ridiculous expense to complete the Australian historical fleet. It is dressed in Qantas colors, with its pet name "Connie" replacing the company name.
It is one of the stars of the show. It operates with flames protruding from it's engines and is an impressive start to the evening show. It burns 500 gallons of fuel per hour. They had a less than stellar safety record, but were the first pressurized cabins making flight comfortable for civilians. One served as a presidential aircraft for Eisenhower.



I have to send an immense thank you to my new friend who saved me from missing out on discovering my inner pilot. I think dreaming was the theme of the weekend. Every child within earshot of those jet engines wanted to be a pilot and every adult wanted to do it all over again so they could give it a shot.



WWII Boomerang over the You Yangs.

 

1950's fighter planes in the air.
Gloster Meteor F8, DH Vampire, CAC 26 Sabre.



Sabre close up.



WWII Navy Sea Fury with Roulettes.
The Roulettes are the Royal Australian Air Force's aerobatic team.



Close look at a Harvard training plane.

Pilots say hi, on board a F-18.

  

Black Hawk.



From the French fleet.

The big boys.

Radar plane. There are 5 of these in the RAAF fleet.

Grainger Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner had a particular way of doing things. Her museum is unlike any other worldwide. Viennian fans and lace are displayed in the walls. A statue of  a pineapple is turned upside down in a random corner of her elaborately decorated courtyard. Mexican tile decorates walls next to Greecian sarcophicous placed under a custom made Frank Llyod Wright stained glass window. The whole museumis an ode to her interests and friends and place in society, which makes it a mash of old and contemporary and, refreshingly, very untraditional.

Gardner's museum was my favorite place in Boston. Everyone knew where to find me on a Third Thursday. You can imagine my delight when I walked into the Grainger Museum on the other side of the world and discovered a personality whom I instantly recognized.

As one of the few Austalians in the international music world Percy Grainger felt justified in meticulous documenting every fascite of his life and preserving it for the benefit of future Mulbournians. He was, in fact, a celebrated concert pianist and Australia's first world reknowned composer and arranger. Those in the music world will recognize his name associated with American big band arrangements and his celebrated classic Country Gardens. His music was classed as a "simple" due to its upbeat tempo, but admirers will tell you about his underlying complexity and play with polyphonetic tones.

He explored the physical world as much as the musical, finding practical solutions for contemporary 1900 problems. He designed clothing out of easy-to-launder towels and conceptualizing the sports bra almost 10 years before such undergarments existed.

As soon as I learned that Percy's European success was facillatated by John Singer Sargent, I felt sure Grainger and Gardner had made contact. Surely Sargent (a close friend to Gardner) would have insisted these characters, who were definitely cut from the same cloth, meet. I wasn't surprised, then, when a friend who works at the Gardner Museum confirmed that there are several pieces of corrspondence between the two in their collection. When I shared this info with the Grainger curator he was unduly excited. Grainger spent most of his life in the US and had a home in White Plains, NY. Yes, it's cool that they interacted, but it's not astounding that someone in New York knew someone in Boston. The excitement, the curator informed me, stemmed from the prolonged search for a Grainger connection to Boston. I just presented him with the perfect opportunity for collaboration.

Go me.

photo courtesy from : http://www.grainger.unimelb.edu.au/collection/

An Afternoon at Serendip Sanctuary

I mentioned the Serendip Sanctuary in an earlier blog. The other afternoon I took my bike for a ride and went exploring inside the sanctuary's gates. It only took a couple hours to walk the prescribed trials, but it was an afternoon I'll remember.

By far the best part were the walk-through enclosures. It was just you and the animals with no fences in between. I liked the kangaroos. They were all nervous looking young joeys and an older chill kangaroo (i.e. harmless). I was literally 2 feet away from them. I bent down to have a little chat with the joey, but the old fella snorted at me. I got the message and moved on.

Next was the Brolga enclosure with a territorial male who didn't seem to like me walking his perimeter. Again, I got the message and moved on. They should really tell people to go in groups on this thing - I would have felt less vulnerable in a pack. I went quicker through the next enclosures and only stopped to wonder at the amazing looking tawny frog mouth - who I have just at this moment realized was in defensive mode: see caption in the picture gallery.

See, this is exactly what I was thinking while I was walking around the sanctuary. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into and I'm walking around by myself. I suffered bull ants bites because I stopped to look at the map directly on top of an ant colony. When you walk over top they all come storming out to find the meaning of the disturbance and aren't afraid to show their displeasure. Within seconds my sneakers were covered in ants and they were heading up my legs. Lesson learned. From then on I looked down before standing still.

On the other hand, I was glad to interact with some of the natural scenery. The palm trees dotting Geelong are not native. The grass is imported from Mexico. The picturesque trees of Melbourne are native to England. The Victorian country side is covered with padlocks. A stranger would never know Victoria's natural habitat unless you know where to look. At home, I remind people about Mark Kurlandsky's comment in The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. Looking down from the highways around North Jersey and Manhattan you can glimpse the remains of New York's wetlands.

At the sanctuary, I was glad to have the same glimpse of untamed Geelong. The sanctuary seemed zoo-like with its animal enclosures, until I walked to a more remote area of the park. I saw a sacred ibis in full flight. How amazing. This is a bird I've seen before, but they are always grounded or stuffed. At Serendip, the birds and animals live naturally. I was 5ft away from a group of emus. I have no idea if this is too close for safety, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The Weather

Last week I wrote this blog in my ever-present notebook, but never got around to posting it:

"I was walking through stiffing, oppressive heat at 9:30 this morning in long, black, synthetic, non-breathable pants. The glare from the sun made me squint even though I was wearing sunglasses. The dry heat sucked precious moisture from my body and my mind was fuzzy from the 30 minutes I'd spent outside. All I could think is that this is a hell of a country to try and live a European life style. We should all be wearing shorts."

This week Melbourne and the rest of Victoria is battling floods.

Hot, cold, rain, hot, cold, rain. I'll tell you, this is some crazy summer weather.

It's a small small world

You know what's fun about Australia? It's a small town kind of place.

The Torquay Pub is the only place to go for a proper evening out in Torquay. Everyone goes there for a drink on the weekend. Even the big time celebrities. I took a taxi ride up after work to meet some folks and arrived about midnight. I instantly got introduced to 4 members of the Essendon Bombers - a power house of Aussie rules football. At home, this is like hanging out with the Philly Eagles. Pretty cool.

Note to self: Preseason starts soon. I'll be looking out for Sam Lonergan (#14), Mark McVeigh (#10), Angus Monfires (#6), and Andrew Welsh (#12), my buddy's new drinking buddies. 

Image from http://www.essendonfc.com.au/main.asp