Fire works

 As Graffiti has pointed out, today was Australia Day. The day all good Australians celebrate the day the British took this country from the native people who already lived here. Earlier today there was a demonstration where some people paraded the Aboriginal flag and burned the “Australian” flag. People seem to have a real problem with flag burning when all it really is, is a piece of material. I presume it must represent something particularly special. I personally don’t have a problem with flag burning. But some people see it as a good way of getting up the noses of some other people.

 Today, of course, was a holiday and all over Perth, various places had fire works displays. There was the really big one in town, again, see Graffiti’s blog for a description of what happens there, yobbos, drunks, traffic problems, and lots of litter left lying around.

 I’m lucky. My local council has their own fire works display and it was great. No major traffic problems. Five minutes from home. Met up with some friends and we all brought some food to share. No yobbos, no drunks, no traffic problems and minimal litter left. Very pleasant evening.

 One of the nicest things I reckon is the fact that you are  so physically close to the fire works. It reminded me, and others, of watching fire works as a child and then sense that they were right above you. I also remembered that slight childhood dread that one of these bright sparkly things was going to come down on me. I was sitting there watching the fireworks, amongst the oooohhs and aaahhhss, and allowing myself to just see those shiny, sparkly lights envelope me. It was incredibly beautiful.

 At one stage, I looked up at a nearby tree. There was quite a breeze blowing and the smoke from the fireworks was blowing behind the tree. It looked like the tree was moving. Very odd sensation to see a tree that looks like it is moving. I mentioned it to the person sitting next to me, and he saw it too. So I wasn’t drunk or psychotic. A genuine optical illusion. Frightening and interesting at the same time. Frightening because for an instant, your eyes don’t quite believe what you are seeing. The logical part of you says “This is an illusion”. Another part of you says: “No it’s not, that tree is really moving”.

 So after some good food, some delightful fireworks (and I forgot my camera), we had some more chit chat waiting for the most of the traffic to die down (what there was of it), and then came home to my still sun warmed house from this afternoon (I also forgot my jumper and it got a bit chilly). If I had stayed home all evening, I would be complaining about how warm the house is. Because I’m feeling a bit chilly, I welcome the warmth of my house.

 So thank you the Town of Bassendean in Western Australia for an excellent fireworks display. And Graffiti, maybe next Australia Day, you might want to join my friends and myself for a very pleasant evening watching fire works without the yobbos, drunks, traffic and litter.

 Madeleine

Thursday, 26 January 2006

Two Intrepid Little Travellers

The year was 1967. Oh, I remember it well. That was the year I turned 21. At that time, I had a girlfriend who was born on exactly the same day and year that I was. So we had both just turned 21. She had her driver’s licence and had recently bought herself a car. And that car !! It was a little orange Fiat convertible. We felt like the most exciting, cool, young women in the whole wide world when driving around in that car (remember, we were very young). In Canada, at that time, you were not considered an adult until you reached 21. So we were now officially adults in the eyes of the law. We had wheels. We were young and indestructible. The world was ours for the taking.

We decided to drive to Quebec City from Montreal for a weekend. I’ve forgotten how long a drive it was, but probably longer than a new driver should be attempting. But as I said, we were young and indestructible.

So the two Intrepid Little Travellers set off on their adventure.

I don’t remember much about the drive except that we got their safely. Quebec City is very beautiful and full of Canadian history. We had booked ourselves a hotel, and once we checked in, we set out to see the sights. This young French Canadian guy, tour guide, made every attempt to pick us up under the guise of showing us around the city. We thought we were the bee’s knees.

I remember visiting the Plains of Abraham, the site where the British and French fought for sovereignty of Canada. If the British had not won this fight, then Canada would have been French rather than British.

Anyway enough of history, this is not a history of Canada, but a tale of Two Intrepid Little Travellers. After a long day out and about, the Two Intrepid Little Travellers headed back to their hotel for the night. On arrival, they didn’t really know what to do with themselves. They’d never spent the night in a hotel before. So they sat around their hotel room and wondered if this was what travelling was all about. Neither girls were much on nightclubs and drinking and were both a bit shy. They really had no ideas what to do in a strange city at night. So they sat in their hotel room, went to bed.

The day had been a bit exciting, but now what? What do we do tomorrow? The Two Intrepid Little Travellers realised that they were both homesick.

After a good night’s sleep, they looked around their hotel room. Their plans were to do more sightseeing and then to drive back to Montreal late that day. They were homesick. They didn’t know how to be Intrepid Little Travellers. They thought about going home. Then they thought of the embarrassment of admitting to people that they weren’t as intrepid as they thought they were. They debated over breakfast. They debated as they were backing up their luggage. They looked at each other, and went home.

Carole, if you are out there, contact me, will you.

Madeleine

Thursday, 5 January 2006

I’ve had a couple of PMs re how to put images into comments, so here goes. This is how I do it. I am sure there are others out there who have other ways of doing it, probably better ways. I’m a beginner at this stuff.

Remember, it must be exact. If you leave out any component, it won’t work. So copy and paste to make sure you don’t leave out any little, comma, space, bracket or whatever. Each of them says something important.

You can use images from anywhere as long as you have a URL. I often do a Google Image search and use one of them. You can use images from your gallery, someone else’s gallery or the internet. You cannot use images from your hard drive. They have to be on the internet somewhere.

Find your image
Right click on the image
Click on properties.
You will see this window.

Highlight and copy the location (the location not the address).

In your comment, type: <img src=“paste your image location here”>

Your image location is surrounded by “ and “.

The whole line in enclosed in < and >. So the whole sentence will look something like this:

<img src=”http://images.google.com.au/images?q=tbn:WuVv3pzwjc0J:http://ratcage.com/tv/mash/images/mash-cast2.jpg”>

with the http location being the one for your specific picture,

All the locations tend to be quite long so they will go down a line and look like you’ve got a space when you don’t.

Finished.

When you put it in your comment, preview it before submitting and make sure you’ve got everything perfect and it is working. Remember that every space “ and > has to be put in exactly right.

Thank you SrWilliam. I cheated and took it from him and he doesn’t even know that I did it.

Any questions, don’t hesitate to comment. If I’ve made any mistakes I apologise and will change any as I find them out.

Madeleine
Sunday, 22 January 2006

Train trip

 Today a friend and I decided to do something different. Nothing terribly exciting, just different. So we hopped on a train and took ourselves off to Fremantle. A port suburb in Perth where all the “in” people hang out. Lots of coffee shops, pubs, fashionable clothes, and a market.

 I go there occasionally. It’s a fair distance from where I live, but the idea of going by train sort of tickled my fancy as something different. Train trip down totally uneventful and probably easier than driving and finding a park.

 When we got off the train and started to walk, we spotted a sign that reminded me of blogstream. Here it is:

 As we walked a bit further, my friend said “Let’s go into this shop”. Well what a treasure trove that was. Something we rarely see in Perth any more. A shop full of bags of goodies; nuts, spices, coffee, even corn flakes. You take a scoopful or two and then pay for what you buy. There was a sign that said: “Minimum purchase 50c. So if make sure you get your money’s worth.” All the prices and signs on the bins were made from cardboard and hand written. Apparently the shop has been there for years and I’ve never seen it.

 All groceries (and most other items), in Perth, are usually wrapped in plastic and impossible to open. These were just in open barrels waiting for each customer to make their choice. And the smell. In one corner, you could smell the various spices as you walked around. Another corner was all the different coffee smells. Again, something unusual in Perth in today’s plastic wrap and don’t buy germs society, there are no pleasant smells.

We decided to stop and have a coffee and watch the world go by. Sticky date pudding was on the menu. I’d never tasted it. So we shared a sticky date pudding with two lovely large lumps of ice cream on the top, and caramel sauce all over the plate to scrape up with your spoonful of ice cream and pudding. Delish !!

We missed the markets. By that time it was closing time. So off we headed back to the train station. We stopped at a park bench and I took this photo for you guys overseas.

  I had a fight with a ticket machine and my friend was impatient. Come on, come on, we’ll miss the train. My money flies out onto the ground. My friend stuffs some more in my hand, most impatient.  Hurry up! Hurry up!

 We caught the train, standing room only. Train still didn’t go. More people got on. By the time the train left it was packed. All sorts of people wearing the same blue shirt. Next station, more people got on, more blue shirts. By this time the train was crammed. I moved further away from the door and a young lass gave me her seat. Problems being short on public transport, is that many of the things you hold onto are too high to be of any help.

 So there I sat, the train got more and more packed. People started talking to each other. There was an air of excitement on that train and lots and lots of blue shirts. In the course of the conversations I began talking to a younger woman beside me. She was English, over here on holiday, and was quite taken by the camaraderie on the train. I explained that I suspected there was some sort of sports happening and that the train would clear at such and such a station.

 The feeling on the train was really exciting, friendly, and open. Probably the first time I had ever experienced such a feeling in a crowd. At one station, someone shouted “there’s a wheelchair trying to get on”, and everyone shuffled and shifted and made room for the man in the wheelchair.

 And yes, I was right, there was a sports happening, and the train cleared at such and such a station. Interestingly enough the mood of camaraderie continued until we got off the train. Two young men, myself, and my companion chatted until three of us got off at the same station.

 I like days that start off with: “I want to do something different today.”

Madeleine
Saturday, 21 January 2006