Recent photos have shown the grand old shops that the Chinese traders opened in the early days. Here is a present day shopkeeper, Chinese, standing at the small door used after dark to provide security at his corner store. I didn't like to ask whether or not he had been robbed before this.
Bloggers are featuring the corner shop at present.

Club Phoenix won't take you to Mars yet there is probing and digging at Terra Mayfielelis.
The tracking stations on our side of the globe relayed to NASA the first images of Mars as they did with the Moon landing. Amazing work by NASA all done with a 15 minute delay.

Energy Australia stadium. Field of dreams (sic).
Dreams of funding are becoming.

Corner Shop and it's not in a theme park! Hundreds of shops were run by people of Chinese descent in this state of NSW after the gold rush days (1850s) when many Chinese migrated here.
From Powerhouse Museum.
The Chinese Cafe is found in every town, even the smallest town although this is changing.

Lava Lamp experiment! Is it a fizzer?
Method: into a small amount of water add food colouring. Add cooking oil to fill the container. Add a soluble asprin (or another substance that fizzes) and watch an amazing lava lamp show begin! (instructions from ABC radio)
Repeat, as desired, later on, when the action finishes and the fluids settle and clear, the oil may be recovered again. Green or blue could look best. Olive oil was used here. Don't use a tightly fitted lid.

A motorcycle trike with two persons was ahead on pit straight at Mount Panorama racing circuit in the country town of Bathurst.
The 6km track climbs up a mountain and back down again and is used for a calendar of full on racing events. Visitors can drive around there at other times at a sedate speed of 60kms.



Beyond what is probably Brock skyline is a sharply descending right hand corner where a descent begins. We must have been leading the pack - not.














A series of bends leads down to Conrod straight and top speed.

All sorts of cars would be found there before the races became more professional and the cars began to look and perform as if all much the same. The rivalry between Ford and Holden is perennial.

It's a bit of a stretch but think: films....WW2.... Steve McQueen..... famous chase....CAPTURE

Philatelic Tourisimo. Posties were brushing up on their riding skills. Australia Post uses almost exclusively, I believe, Honda CT110ccs, so, no wonder, Honda Australia (The Power of Dreams) rider training unit was busy with the class.

Even the supermarket shelves can take us to another time and place. The Willow Pattern is usually on sale and has immortalized the romantic legend of Koong-see and Chang who end as a pair of doves.
The design originated in England.
It is suggested it is based on a traditional Chinese tale. Other interpretations exist.
Blue and white motifs were usually found in Chinese works and wonderful ceramics have been produced there from ancient times as they have good raw materials (clay etc) and artists and I believe porcelain originated there. Pottery figures from the T'ang Dynasty (618-907) are recalled. The statues of females are very quaint and the figures of horses are outstanding.
Several centuries ago Europeans began collecting Chinese ceramics and started copying the designs and techniques! The Willow Pattern would have been all the fashion, I suppose.
The delightful blue and white Delft china of the Netherlands was another result. Trade and The East India company was influential in that regard. (This is not forgetting other contact between India, the Middle East and Central Asia and China began long before the 1700s. Even a fabled journey in the Arabian Nights was between Bagdad and China.

Arches and cloisters are in red brick in the old school, San Clemente in Mayfield. Additions to the building are beginning to take shape. I hope it will be a fine addition.
In heritage matters, we seem to aspire to an overall scheme in a development, a holistic approach, a unifying theme.
Any one feature cannot be inappropriately singled out in a group of buildings. In the city, it is not good enough to attempt development without cooperation between the owners when several are involved on a site.
The stakeholders have responsibility for the care of a site whilst it is transition and they could assume that responsibility without any ifs or buts. Why settle for neglect of the heritage?

Fletcher has seen change.

Corner Store. For the next theme day, an idea, unconditionally given to you! A store from the 1800s with Chinese storekeepers.
Republished. CDP Scan did not accept a future dated post.
Photo from the Powerhouse Museum.

From Huang Zhou, Chinese painter.

Sunset at the winery.

The Hunter Valley is wide.

These girls were seen on the sidelines at a rapturous concert. Their mothers were swooning over the talent on stage set in the muted-hazy-blue vineyards.

Pink finger buns for sale and paper dolls. Bakers Delight campaign.






Celtic tune heard in fine style from Il Divo to whom ever - (four tenors)

Por ti sere mas fuerte que el destino
Por ti sere tu heroe ante el dolor
Yo sin ti estaba tan perdido
Por ti sere mejor de lo que soy.........or.....

When I am down and oh my soul is weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then I am still and wait here in the silence
Until you come and sit awhile with me.....
.
You raise me up so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The exchange rates are good and the Australian dollar is strong at present and local tourists alone rejoice. (The pictured readout happens to be under adjustment)
Will our dollar go further with assistance in Burma?
No prominent statements mention Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (or Myanmar) since the disaster.

Mothers Day 2008.
Taking a city excursion on city rail, here part of the 'playgroup' is pictured. A faceless mother and co are full of life on a wonderful autumn Friday.

The road less travelled. This is getting very trite!

A suburban cat in a suburban jungle full of wild and and unruly vines. Monstera Deliciosa is well known and easily grown indoors or outdoors. It is a split leaf philodendron that is also known as fruit salad plant, Ceriman, Jiboia, Mexican bread fruit and came from southern Mexico. I suppose it would grow in Burma.

The fruit, like a green ear of corn, is ripe when the rind, made of small hex plates or scales, loosens and falls off to uncover pleasant tasting creamy soft pulp, in segments, a blend of banana and pineapple.
Don't be put off by the unripe fruit being sort of poisonous with sharp little crystals that burn the throat and are harmfull but these mostly dissolve as the fruit ripens. This calcium oxalate is also in kiwifruit ( or Chinese gooseberries) and in pineapple.

An unruly corner in the backyard plus some junk makes a good habitat for males, for insects and spiders, for lizards and possibly frogs while termites remain tolerated if they are lucky, not forgetting biodiversity and the ubiquitous cockroach must get special mention.

For more diversity, I vote for a female Dr Who and a fascinating male sidekick in the next series on ABC 1&2 Free To Air TV.

A before and after picture. Belinda lost heaps. The secrets of weightloss are revealed, in colour, at the pharmacy and I should join up.
Choose life. The constant never ending queue for medications is juxtaposed with the weight loss option. (Half the world starves while the other half are seriously obese.)

The big bucks and all the action is found in Hospitals, in Disease, in Diagnostic tools, in Drugs and Research. It is so much not enough.
Of course, the margins are fuzzy but health promotion and prevention is the way forward, the priority, the key.
The goal is health and well being rather than illness and a veritable fortune invested in disease. Funding requires a balanced approach.
Newcastle has a health promotion unit, I believe. The area has rather high incidences of disease.

The Chinese and others gave a rousing welcome to the Olympic Torch as it reached its destination in Canberra.
Just a jump to the left..... lets do the time warp again.... had we joined in the Long March?
As if uplifted by Bruch's First Violin Concerto, orchestrated crowds responded with song and flag waving. It was powerful.
Overnight, busloads of students from Sydney and Melbourne etc had arrived to witness the Journey of Harmony and naturally were full of fervent sentiments.
The Tibetan supporters were shunted to one side and a standoff was controlled by police who stood between the vitriolic shouters and the chanters.
My compatriots were few and far between and the air was tinged with alienation (or is that from Canberra itself) but one could enter into the spirit and chat with a number of the visitors; sip Chinese tea tasting; enjoy very very good singing from the Samsung Choir; see drumming and dancing by a clever Chinese troupe and leave before Shannon Noll took to the stage.
No, its not The Great Wall Of China!
























Above: Monash Student with sign. No mobiles?

7.35am/5 degrees C says the ABC Media: an early start was appropriate due to the spreading road closures for the relay to take place and for a day of exploitation.

For things Chinese, an old film, 55 Days At Peking, (now Beijing), for all its faults, has a sense of history and is entertaining - up to a point. Made in Spain in 1963 the celestial throne room still has a commendable air of authenticity. The grand tale of the Boxer uprising probably has its inaccuracies and revisionism yet gives us an insight into the glorious past. The first half is best, there is no sex and there is a type of violence and one scene is something of a predecessor of Kill Bill.

This English lass wears spurs and plays the bugle! English cavalry was in town. Isn't she terrific! The band was assembled for Anzac Day ceremonies.

A representative of the U.S. forces also seen after the march on Anzac Day in Canberra. The military were well turned out and their impeccable appearance contrasted with our casualness on this sunny yet somber autumn occasion.


Below is Ms Therese Rein (in black, centre) with her husband, Mr Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister leaving the war memorial.

Merewether Golf Club is set in the inner suburbs of Merewether and Adamstown. The district has a number of golf courses.