We begin April in this town frozen in time. Retro ville. Up to date ideas have very little impact. Visitors are conspicuous.

Pin up retro fashions.  Until we see the iPhone! And the males.

Pit stop timed in nano-seconds. The team spends Sunday doing circuts.  Endro Karting out Sugarloaf way, Newcastle.

Pit control in combat with high speed as the machine roars out of the pit for another circut. After all, these karts have two rear engines. They carry a device that sends data back to control tower so that real time results are under constant review - adjust that fuel mix, lose a kg, brake harder at minmi corner....

NSW voters have just placed a number of new people in a job - that of member of parliament. Job description is taken for granted. Did we see qualifications, desirable aspects, experience, references?  Oh! those points are covered by Facebook and Twitter?
Renumeration about 136K for back bench plus generous allowances and expenses, progessing to about 280K to 362K plus.

Is it a sign of devine intervention?  Visitors to this blog among the elect? (parody) An out-of-world hacker has placed a visionary advert on the very end of this blog or is it the work of the mastermind secular corporation to which I am tied, so to speak. BTW, T shirts with themes about faith are not my thing. 

Japanese souvineer in cotton.

Sunday. Endro karting.
Young spectator, seems just over twelve months old, dressed as an adult and in the thick of it, in his father's footsteps.

Baby Boomers know a real passion when they see one. They have priorities right. National motorcycle club meet in Newcastle.

NSW voters have bestowed unconditional approval on a lucky brand name. Did character or policy enter into it? Is it a paradigm shift? Chaos is more interesting.
Could it be that voters in Newcastle associate Labor with difficulties that just go with the zietgeist no matter what, at a time we create a new narrative for the city?

Show Ride if you look closely
Earth Hour tonight 26 March 8.30pm. Switch off power and fire up the collective conscience!

McDonald's has supported Earth Hour since its introduction in 2007. They state they have initiatives and innovations to save energy with more information on their website.
http://www.earthhour.org.au/ to see more about Earth Hour which has gone viral after beginning in Australia.
It is said that energy consumption did not fall last Earth Hour in Newcastle. The weather was very hot and air con use was high.
In contrast, today is cool, breezy, humidity is low and rain showers have commenced as summer days just begin to fade away.

Earth Hour 26 March 2011.
Seeing the light in darkness.
Switch?  Switch governments?  New kid on the block, complete unknowns seek our vote. Guess they have to start somewhere and it's better than nepotism.

Earth Hour is on 26 March. Will fast food switch off?

A new era has dawned in Newcastle. Post industrial Newcastle. True grit activites around trades hall and industrial relations have ceased long ago. Old-guard labor politicans are marginalized. All that there is to do has been done.
Post industrial Newcastle, postmodern Newcastle verges on endless commodified lifestyle choice. Kick back and enjoy. Some enjoy new developments at Honeysuckle. 
Focus will be on overwhelming challenges and they include slick tourism. shopping centres, coffee culture, retailing, sport, shopping centres and coal. It is too difficult for government to grapple with messy vital institutions without resort to privatisation.
A prospective independent candidate will take on grand issues such as a level crossing and regulations around half a dozen prostitutes.  And problem drinking.

Earth Hour 26 March 2011. Switch off for an hour.

Conserve energy. We need to confront the true cost of energy. Energy should cost more to try and reduce consumption and reduce pollution. Leglisation needs support rather than protest. If protest is more a matter of defeating the government then choice of any old issue would do instead of that of carbon credits. It needs all the help it can get. But the government is into provocation.

Taxpayers don't presume to know all there is about medical science, by and large, they accept and respect what experts say and pay up taxes and pay a levy for medical care.  Taxpayers do not claim to know more than medical scientists. Yet, when it comes to climate we are all experts.  The issue is continually subverted and exploited.

State Premier, Kristina Keneally, electioneering in Newcastle today, noted for her indefatigable spirit, this time, in a meeting near the law courts. Later, secret womens' business includes the local MP for the Hunter: Jodi McKay.
Ms Keneally was born, raised and educated in the USA, married an Australian and moved here and has a youngish family.
Democracy is operative but a 'revolution' is mooted in the State election  on March 26.  Once it was ok to give the smaller political parties a vote as a 'poke' but now that unheard of change is mooted, things are different.
Tokens and largess are unnecessary. Sound innovative government is what counts. And a competent interesting premier in Sydney is a bonus.
Down with the harping uninspired nagging we hear from the leader of the opposition in Canberra who mightly deflates all the drive towards informed, hopeful, even expensive, change.   



 With quality similar to images from an unhinged Scandinavian art house movie it was fitting that City Hall clockface assumed a new distinctly greenish tinge to match an eerie lunar presence, observed when the luna body was as close as possible to our planet on last Sabbath.

Earth Hour is making its mark in this community and has gone viral.
 Lights out on March 26!

Earth Hour plus
26 March 2011

Ready for Earth Hour  March 26 ?

Newcastle Show 2011

Night lights. The same moon that shines on everyone is especially bright yet is still only a speck on the left, looking eastward. The local paper stated  moon rise as 6.27 am and so on which is difficult to reconcile with this.
Earth Hour plus is approaching.

As time goes by we witness the winds of change and it can all be a bit amusing to do an about turn. Exciting stuff that elicits a smile and 'that's nice, dear'.
It might be family members who declare they are gay and establish relationships - 'lovely girl...lovely new home you have there'....and you lend some support to gay activism.
Divorce and states of togetherness when adults and children choose a name to run with. It's guess work when it comes to names. 'Hello dear, nice to c u again'.
Eternal rituals around rites of passage are replaced by innovation while the etiquette is guesswork. Flexibility is good.
Youngsters could not imagine the about turn that has occured nor the amount of change that some conservative oldies laugh or bemoan.
Family lob home with a new partner, opposite in many ways - culturally, racially, politically - a tolerant 'that's nice, dear, we must celebrate' and celebrate we do with gusto.
New found paganism adds a dimension to old time beliefs. What's most incongruous, outlandish, challenging is taken in its stride by old and new alike.
It's all out there, what may have been called fornication in the dark ages, is pushed wholesale by national FM youth radio - that's cool, no worries!
Nowdays we enjoy choice.

Arthaus

Rescue services

Fortunately we have good medical services. At every opportunity X-ray and absolutely magical  imaging devices are used. Radiation from all this is at acceptable levels, seemingly. The technology may have improved that way.  We were marginally covered up before a dental x-ray but not anymore.

Prank....wrapped in cling wrap and ancored to a pole plus a packet of marshmallows tucked in....with friends like that.....!

What about the electronic age? Do a search for one political party and up comes the opposing party instead.  Try and discover where today's political stunts will take place in Newcastle and nothing jumps out. But then,  I'm not very literate about instant information.

Disco.
Another rant.
Over time our rag trade gradually changed and our shops became filled with stock from Asia. Local manufacturers became non-existent. Clothing became very plentiful, affortable and styles changed. Synthetics ruled.
Earlier on, dare I say, most of this imported clothing looked 'common' and exploited new ways of using up fabrics, such as interlock ad infinitum.
All of which to a large exstent took over from the fabrics, colours, sizes and garnments which we were accustomed to and that used different craftmanship.

Naturally, Asian manufacturers were not nuanced about our traditions. They had their own distincitve style of clothing which influenced what they made. In detail, their fashion was at odds with ours. However, imports, good and bad, came to dominate the lower and middle end of the market and shape our entire wardrobe. As well, a revolution has occured in what we wear and casual is in.

Fashions for tiny children undergo change but the overseas producers have a lot to answer for. Vivid colours and new styles are acceptable on little kids but overdone clumsy styling swamped the market.
The idea of delicate childrens' clothing, in scale with a child's size and make-up via colour and light weight fabrics was totally alien to the eastern producers.
To dress toddlers in elaborate formal wear like mini versions of adult-after-five was once totally alien to us.  The aim to dress as adults also begins in the first twelve months, for example, jeans or army fatigues and sport shoes. Little babies do battle to take their first steps in giant-sized clumsy laceups.
Older teens wear very brief casual clothing any old place, such as university campus. Dressing for the occasion is not popular but there is room for certain alternative fashion on campus but an upcoming professional careers usually demands conventional standards of dress.
Thanks to levels of undress and the slut look, the old fashioned can better imagine how some cultures react to our standards and reject our lifestyle instead of seeing our positives aspects. 


However, the message gets thru and designers are employed so that better styles emerge from Asia in line with our traditions and sizes. But, of course, taste differs enormously and conventions are up for grabs.   
  

TAFE Hunter Street Campus Art School on a quiet weekend.

The hype that surrounds English language learning is well established and is embraced far and wide at any cost. Paradoxically, benign cities, such as Christchurch, NZ and Sendai in Japan have met with disaster and risk involving English Language Schools, students and teachers (many from the English speaking world) to say nothing of the wider untold disaster. 

Not looking its best, long ago, the post office in Mayfield was built some distance away from the pubs and shops. So it moved closer to the shopping centre. The police station, next door, seemed to expand into there then the police dept moved out leaving the building deserted for a long time, or so it seems. Now, new tennants are rumoured.

The Embassy. The cafe is a relic from the days of timber 'stalls' with a table and bench seats and other features altered beyond recognition. Hunter Street, Newcastle, near Darby Street. Past generations of Greeks were in the cafe trade. Web translation follows.

Η πρεσβεία. Ο καφές είναι ένα λείψανο από τις ημέρες της ξυλείας ' stalls' με έναν πίνακα και πάγκων τα καθίσματα και άλλα χαρακτηριστικά γνωρίσματα άλλαξαν πέρα από την αναγνώριση. Οδός κυνηγών, Νιουκάσλ, κοντά στην οδό Darby.

 

International Women's Day. Local woman, the Hon. Jodi McKay MP member for Newcastle with candidates for State Election on the twenty sixth of March.

What fun! Every girl's dream: a recipe!  And very tasty.
Rolled Turkey Breast with Cranberry and Pistachio Stuffing.

1 turkey breast. 250g pork mince. 2 rashers smoky bacon, diced. 1 chpd onion. 2 crushed cloves garlic. 1 egg white. 2 tblsp cream cheese. 1 tblsp each chpd tarragon, parsley and thyme. 6 allspice, crushed or 1 tsp allspice powder. Half tspoon orange zest. 2 tblsp marsala. quarter cup cranberries. half cup chpd pistachios.

Preheat oven to 180. In a small saucepan saute onion, garlic and bacon. Add marsala and cook for one minute. Take off heat.
In food processor pulse the mince with cream cheese and egg white until it looks a little smoother and combined. Add this mince-mix and the onion-mix to a bowl. Mix together with herbs, orange zest, allspice and cranberries.  Set aside in the fridge.
Lay the turkey breast skin side down.  Slice a 2cm thick breast fillet parallel to the skin with a fillet knife to create a lage flat piece of turkey.  You should have enough breast left to do this again.
Beat the pieces of breast with a mallet or rolling pin until thinned out. Trim to a rectangular shape. Lay the long end facing you. Sprinkle pistachio nut on the breast. Make a sausage of the pork mince stuffing and lay it along the breast too. Roll-up away from you as tightly as possible, using the skin to help wrap it up tightly.
Place some butter under the skin and wrap in a tight foil log, tucking in the sides. Do the same with the other piece of breast.  This one won't have any skin so rub butter around it before wrapping it in foil. Bake these on a tray for 40 minutes.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before opening. Remove the skin before serving sliced into little rounds. Eat hot with vegies or enjoy cold.
By Emily Crisp published in Sunny Days. Dec2010-Jan 2011 Issue 38. Newcastle Hunter and Central Coast.

Charlestown Square Shopping centre, in fine style from the GPT property group, has been revamped and doubled in size with major and minor retailers and Reading cinemas installed.

In the past months the countryside has meet with several vast natual disasters akin to those experienced by far less affluent countries. These events might lead to a better understanding of struggle. Instead, just the opposite, a few want to cut back on our overseas aid budget. But a special tax is devised to assist victims.

Here is a unique shop front. Left standing in Lambton by sheer luck, I suppose. What a shame when it could be modernised and given the tile treatment just like Marianne Fashions nearby.

Ex-post office, Hunter Street, Newcastle has become a gallery: Front Room Gallery, next door to TAFE Hunter Street Art Centre for budding artists.
The post office shop is in Markettown shopping centre.

         No distance out of town and postal services are found in a multipurpose store.
From experience, books (say, a techncial edition not readily available in this country) or spares, arrive within a week from overseas after purchase on-line for lower cost than local.
The wonders of email are heralded with good reason. But look at all the email communications that are on-auto and state 'do not reply' and the contact page that is a one way thing.  E-mail is not necessarily the method of choice between business and outsiders.
There is no expectation that a professional would engage in email correspondence but even email to a specific department about upcoming arrangments, for example, and other pertinent instances, free of raves, are lucky to elicit a reply.

Adamstown Post Office 2289 with postwoman.

For Sale again,  a mail exchange of some sort operated for a time in Hudson Street, Hamilton.

Junction Post Office moved from the corner of Union Street to a nearby shopping centre in which it changed from one spot to the current shop.