This was no 'dark night of the soul'. No way. Once, as a guest at World Youth Day this young man found this country appealing and has returned here to seek to stay longer.
He was happy among former acquaintances and the crowd at a trivia night fund-raiser for the next WYD in Madrid and for funds for the bushfire appeal.
Night theme. Another idea was that of the Newcastle Knights League team, but the photo could be anywhere.
This is blog post number 1019!

This bridge has extensive repairs yet the approach is still like a roller coaster and believe it is over the Hunter at Morpeth.
(This and other bridges have appeared on here before this, yet are not on the index. It needs sorting out one day.)

Just outside Vacy is an early example of an Allan type timber truss road bridge over the Paterson.
The smh Traveller writes: Vacy came into existence around 1828 as a private township of the Cory family from England.

Who is it that frequently report of discrimination and difficulty in finding employment? Older people, even when they make up a large proportion of society and the most famous figures in public life are authorities of great age both now and in times past.
Hey, seniors could join forces. Form an employment agency organized and run by senior staff to find jobs for older workers in a patronizing-free zone.There must be a way to set up some form of reverse discimination.
Seniors will seize the day!
Just imagine the alternatives to work: no way! The grey nomad lifestyle for the cashed-up? the obligatory round-Australia tour? obligatory lattes in Paris? ....well....it's not that bad......

Take the train or automobile to visit towns in 'the valley'.
Here at Paterson, on the Paterson River, is a Corn Staddle designed to store fodder in a dry vermin-free environment. Fry's Coaching Enterprise once served the Hunter Valley and Northern NSW with services for passengers, goods and mail.
It wasn't a coaching school as in education. Staddle: 1. The lower part of a stack of corn, hay, etc. 2. a supporting frame for a stack; a platform upon which a stack or rice is placed.3. any supporting base or framework. ME ,OE, Icel.(Macquarie Dictionary)

These roads often make the car go thump thump thump because of the depressions.
I believe, in the 1930s, economic stimulus and work gangs produced these roads to serve places all over the district. The roads are in small concrete sections with joins. They also become a measure of your car's comfort factor.

This is not specific to Newcastle - what's new about that?
We know that a vagabond in Sydney repeatedly wrote, in chalk, the word, Eternity, on the footpaths of the city and the copperplate word has become immortalized.

Our domains of life are guided by science and learning and our professionals strive for art as well as science for example in schools or in health care.
But are they really aware of the art of care? The art. Are they aware of common sense and humanity?
The art and spirit of a profession is of real importance. The inspiration and the renewal of professionals of all ages and calling towards the ideals of art and spirit should never be underestimated and dare one say even at the cost of science.

House for sale. Small dwellings like this are dotted around some suburbs.

The ads tell of back-packing and idylic days and nights in the great outdoors under the southern skies.

A British bushwalker has been found after more than a week in the wilderness at the coldest time and probably 'within stones throw' of the edge of town. His father flew in and joined hosts of people searching the area for this guy who luckily was used to cold weather and lived on leaves and bush food while he was lost.

The Blue Mountains has always been a traditional place to visit and one might have visions of snow covered alps and spectacular mountains but this country is not like that at all but is the scene of ancient gorges and rocky outcrops, of bushwalking down into deep remote valleys and bracing climate and olde world tourism as well upmarket destinations.

Smoking is banned inside the building.

Car Wash.

Some guys are walking a long long way to Brisbane due to their support for Reach Out, an organization concerned with support and well being described on this site here.

Waiting....waiting.....

A lot of people handed in their used plastic water bottles in exchange for a durable water bottle in response to an initiative by ABC Radio in Newcastle. Fun and creative arrangements were then made from the bottles and the lids and will be auctioned as a fund raiser. Bottled water is an unsustainable luxury and the waste is polluting.
The folk in the town of Bundanoon have decided to stop selling or using bottled water.

Thump thump thump...crossing the bridge or whatever it's called, north of Newcastle.

Bio: Marriage for an ex-Newcastle young woman means two celebrations here and in the US.
This bride studied at Newcastle University and her ability with the Japanese language led to her employment in Japan and then in the USA where she met her husband to be. They have settled in Australia and look forward to a cross-cultural future. The photo with shade maintains some privacy.

You may be able to see a baseball game in the photo. There is at least one baseball centre in Newcastle in Mayfield West.
As the crow flies, it is not far from the Wetlands.

Education, the latest industry, has hung up it's shingle outside the former offices of Newbold's Refractory in Mayfiled with a takeover by the university.

Newbold's held property in Mayfield with a Head Office and a Bowling Club and industrial plant for the making of furnace bricks or graphite refactories and crucibles, standard clay and silica firebricks and adhesives to supply industry throughout the country and for export.
Newbold came from Staffordshire and began brickmaking early in the nineteen- hundreds moving to Mayfield in 1918. The company was acquired by BHP in 1974.
Newbold was a keen gardener and his home, The Gables, in New Lambton, was a showpiece according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online edition.
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Change is constant and empires come and go. The big steelworks that once dominated the city have gone and the associated Steelworks Golf Club survives with a new identity.
The nearby BHP Billiton workshops and labs are said to be reborn as part of the University (nextdoor).
Is it more the case that when art, science and religion are in tension rather than in alliance that new ideas are stimulated?

July is the coldest month. Yesterday was unusually mild, 22C, sunny and very windy. The seaside wasn't crowded but some kite flyers and a surfer were in action at sunset.

APC Aussie 1 is visiting and is an accommodation and pipe laying barge launched last year. It has rooms for a lot of people and has a helipad.
The APC company is into on-site portable camps for developmental projects all over the country and has a web site here.