St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, where a dynamic recital on the pipe organ was given by student Jessica Lim who was Highly Commended, Junior and Intermediate Sections, Sydney Organ Competition 2008.

Today, the liturgy in Newcastle was highlighted by a setting composed by Greg Smith who is a musician and organist at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.
A professional organist is indeed a treasure. Their music takes away the potential stress that is inherent when congregation and music join forces although positive experiences are come upon.

William Hill and Son built the original 1866 organ for St Andrew's, with later additions and alterations by several other makers. Orgues Letorneau Ltee, Ste Hyacinthe, Quebec completed the most recent work in 1998. The organ was restored to display Blacket's (colonial architect) original highly coloured decorations, including an unusual wrought iron framework. The instrument has been moved from the opposite side of the building. Full compliment of playing aids including 8 general, adjustable crescendo pedal & 64 channel sequencer. Electric Action to drawstops. Mechanical Action to manuals. Manual IV and pedal: electropneumatic. Electrical coupling. Compass 58/30.

Aboriginal mythology is incredibly old and an Awabakal Dreaming Story reveals that (the landmark) Nobbys is a site of unrest.
A banished Kangaroo hides at Nobbys and when he gets upset and restless the rocks fall and the ground trembles. "The Awabakal people believe this is what causes an earthquake."
A series of Dreaming stories has been recorded about Muloobinba, the place of the sea ferns, now called Newcastle and are published in print and on CD by Aborigianl Multimedia Productions 2001.

The shared path to Nobbys is seen in use and has a turning circle at this end.
Nearby, the road to Horseshoe Beach is a parking ground for commuters and buses. The parking seems unrestricted.
Locals enjoy the simple pleasure of going to Horseshoe with their dogs or horses or to picnic on the greens. Parking will be impossible if the entire area becomes a parking lot for workers or utilities and services or for others.
Once again, with a post like this I am not into popularism. That is, if popularism (a kind of kowtowing to popular opinion) is the correct word as it is not in the Macquarie Dictionary while kowtowing is an entry!
PS It has since been discovered that the word populism does appear in a supplementary list in the Macquarie.

Celebrating the screen legends to mark Australia Day .
I'm never sure what to make of Nicole but she did quite well in the adventure movie Australia.

An extended family or mob, as they like to say in some contexts, of Aboriginal Australians gathered at a festival. I asked permission to take a photo. The weather was very hot and a long wait was ahead before the show got going.

Flower stall.


Mununja the butterfly as told by Don Bell with bilingual text and commentary by Chris Illert. ACT & District Aboriginal Council of Elders Association Inc. In the aborginal language of SE Australia. An extract reproduced for study purposes.

This work explains how it uses an alphabet of 18 characters comprised of 4 vowels and 14 consonants. In layman's terms it explains there's no e or o, nor consonants c f h j k p q s t v x z.

Horseshoe Beach, Newcastle Harbour, Nobbys in the distance.


From Mununja the butterfly as told by Aboriginal elder, Don Bell with bilingual text by Chris Illert. ACT and District Aboriginal Council of Elders Association. Inc.
The first story book in traditional Aboriginal language from South Eastern Australia.
Reproduced here to review.

West of Temple Bar Gap, Central Australia.
from the watercolour painting by Aranda aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.

My island home

In Kurri Kurri a mural or street art: Rothbury Riot by Chris Fussell. The background information is given in the lower image.

For the Chinese New Year a (xiao) concert at the shopping centre for The Year of the Ox.

A boxing kangaroo.
Next Monday is the Australia Day holiday and we are reminded by the authorities to celebrate, to join in activities and to make the day significant, to take a break.
By and large, Anglos take up partying and carrying on, for example, recently, the cricket fans were no way multicultural and there, I was no longer a minority.
All the same, in a general way to the small extent I know of, I like a multicultural community quite well.
PS I have been inaccurate above, because cricket fans are, to a small extent, a multicultural group.

We are fortunate to find the latest building at the Calvary Mater hospital to be as well as can be expected. The new traffic lights were switched on yesterday on this busy somewhat inconvenient road.
This building will probably house the emergency department. Adopting a very responsible tone I ask if the experts have allowed enough space inside for the ambulances to spend hours waiting in line? Is there enough headroom for an ambulance or will the whole thing be redesigned next year? Hope not.
I have to bring myself to write Calvary Mater when it was just Mater in the past. At this stage I really dislike the name Calvary Mater. While, I presume, loving care is intended, an image of dreadful suffering is not too far away.

In the Circus ring are skillfull gymnasts and full-on contortionists and more. The Moscow Circus offers very good entertainment and is here till next week.
Support for alternative entertainment is a worthwhile act.
PS. Only a fairly slender connection remains with Russia but it's good.

Preparing to win a bout.

"Start low, go slow, rise high, strike fire and sit down."
"Yes, we can." (Obama) (epistrophe)

With THE inauguration on air round 3am Wednesday it is unlikely I will be seeing it live.

In Hunter Street Newcastle.

...........at the end of the day.....

At the Picture Show the crowd, on the wharf, was watching every flicker on the screen and the screen was on a floating pontoon - where else? (Is the word floating redundant? Floating is used to be descriptive.)

The store, Miss Kansai, is into niche marketing with imports from Japan.

The Japanese language uses modified Chinese characters or Kanji and two syllabic scrips Hiragana and Katakana. Almost 2000 written characters are required from the school student.

A group of Priscillas (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) took the Elvis Express to the festival in Parkes. Parody was in mind.....I think!
Broadly speaking demographics reveal that more men than women are found in country areas.

The town of Parkes has had an Elvis Festival and the Countrylink Elvis Express was caught leaving Sydney with Elivs look-alikes and entertainment on wheels.
The town's alter ego is the Parke's radiotelescope which watches deep space and not forgetting its role in the moon landing according to that quaint movie The Dish.

Mark 7 40/60 Bofors originally on a WW2 battle ship now on a strip outside the Returned Services Club in Katoomba.

Charles Darwin visited these Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, according to a program on ABC Radio National. At that time he heard theories that these inspiring gorges were the result of erosion some 180 million years ago. After the sightseeing he sailed away on the good ship Beagle to see more of the country and he turned 27 in Hobart. Darwin's commemorative year has begun this 2009.
Our beliefs are full of contradictions. Evolution or creationism? A priority could well be a belief in non-violence in real life in the here and now and a stand against over-the-top violence in blockbuster movies.

A fantastic musical ship almost sails through the city streets and has a lively nautical crew who play on improvised gear which is derived from influences far and wide.

Audience, stray albatross and bats were simply 'blown away'.

What's going on? Is that a gas flame?

Warm weather at Merewether Beach, Newcastle. Reflecting on snowstorms elsewhere, freezing weather and when the gas heating fails.

South Africa won the test and their warrior captain (Man of the Series) took to the pitch in the last overs despite the sports injuries he had sustained.

The idea was to escape the heat wave on the plain by travelling to the 'hill country' but the temperature in Katoomba was round thirty degrees as well.

Cricket fans enjoying the Third Test at the SCG.

A Band from the Tongan Community in Sydney visited families to bring greetings for the New Year. In their back garden, the elders listened to the music and the singing and refreshments were offered. Tonga is a Pacific Island kingdom.

A Korean ten.

The spectre ship in the previous photos was like this several hours before darkness fell on New Year's Eve.

It looks like the James Craig, a barque, built in Sunderland, England in 1874 and since rebuilt or restored.