Videos from around the region.

Over the past couple of months I have undertaken some work-related trips into the Snowy Mountains and decided to take some "on the road" video-clips.

I mounted my little Canon SD cam-corder on a special camera mount that sucks itself onto the windscreen, sitting just above the dashboard next to the A-pillar on the driver's side. It's quite unobtrusive, probably less so than a GPS unit stuck in the middle of the 'screen.

My journeys take me from Canberra to Cooma, Jindabyne, Guthega and return and also, on the other side, from Canberra out through Murrumbateman, down the Hume to Gundagai, to Tumut, Blowering, Talbingo, Cabramurra, Khancoban, Tumbarumba, Batlow and back to Canberra via Tumut and Gundagai once again.

So I've collected these recordings of trips since last December, editing them into smaller clips.

You can find them on YouTube by searching for hcrun (or Snowy Hydro) and, as a sample, here's a very quick clip from the trip I did on the 15th. & 16th. December.............



My photogenic grand-daughter

All images enlarge when clicked

I thought I'd kick off 2011 with a couple of shots of my grand-daughter, Matilda, who is blessed with not only a beautiful  face but also a four-year olds irrepressible energy.
But there were moments, on Christmas Day and again on Boxing Day, when she became almost adult in her demeanour and posture, as the following images will show:-

After finishing her Christmas pudding, Matilda contemplates what she will have next.
Will it be more pudding, or perhaps an after-dinner mint?  Hmmmmm.

The following shot was taken as she reclined on our lounge on Boxing Day, playing a game on her mothers iPhone.

Ahhhh, the wonders of childhood. Oh, to be four again!

Commercial television - YUK!!

I have become increasingly irritated..........no, that's not the correct term.....let's use "pissed off".........by commercial, so-called "free to air", TV.

This came to a head last night when I was watching a movie on Prime 2, or Seven 2, or whatever they call it.
The movie - if seen without commercial breaks - is one hour and twenty minutes in length.
Last night it took two hours - TWO HOURS - to see the whole thing.
That's 40 minutes of what (I learned today) is classed as "non-program" time.

I thought to myself that this can't be right - the station must be contravening the rules and regs that govern commercial TV broadcasting.

Uh-uh.
Not according to what I found after Googling "Australian tv content" and discovering a government site which lays down the law (AHHHHHA! HAAAAA!) regarding TV broadcasting.
 
I also learned - to my horror - that Australia has the greatest "non-program to program ratio" in the world.
There is some slight flexibility but essentially it averages at around 15 minutes per hour (lowest) that may be taken up by non-program material.
This material includes not only advertisements for products and services but also community announcements, station promotions and, when elections are on, party-promotions.

I was also pissed off by the fact that the first avenue of complaint takes one straight to the front door of the TV station about which you wish to complain!
To use an old saying, that's like complaining to your mother-in-law about your wife!

I'm fed up.
So fed up that I have decided that, irrespective of how attractive a program may be to my tastes, I am not going to watch it if it is on any channel owned and operated by Prime, TEN or WIN.
They can get stuffed.

Somewhat weird, but oddly fascinating!!

(Don't click on the image up there for a link to YouTube....it's only a screen capture!)

Someone sent me a link to this clip from a Russian TV show of the 1970s, which features a vocalist by the name of Eduard Khil.
The story goes, apparently, that it is a song about an American cowboy who is happy about returning home after some time on the prairie (or wherever). Sounds pretty innocent, doesn't it?

Well, not to the Soviet censors at that time - which was around 1966, when Eduard first performed it live, on stage, in front of an orchestra.
The authorities stripped the lyrics from the tune (even Eduard doesn't know what they were), so when he performed it, he was left with........well, watch it and hear for yourself and you'll understand why this video has become a YouTube cult clip.........
LOLOLOLOL-Eduard Khil

There is a postscript to this story.
Eduard is still alive (he's abut 76 now) and is amazed at the amount of world-wide interest in his old video appearance.
Here's a news report...........
News Report - 2010

I think that, at this time of the year, it is a suitable song to hum or go "lololol" to.
It's a happy song, which knows no political or ideological boundaries.

Sing on, Eduard!!!

"As Slow As A Wet Week....."

That saying has really hit home over the past week; we have had rain for five days in a row - something unheard of here in the Canberra region over the past decade.

The thing is....everything is so green. Grass is growing so fast that it needs to be cut again as soon as the mowing is done!

Shrubs, bushes and trees have more new growth on them than we have seen in years and flowers have gone berserk.

On my way to work each day I pass this garden at the junction of three streets near Ainslie shops. I have never seen it so dense with the rambling roses. In fact, I never realised that it was a rose garden until recently!

(click on image for full-size)

A Grand Day Out

Quite recently I had reason to travel to Cabramurra and Khancoban, via Cooma.
The weather was superb - a beautiful late-spring day with hardly a cloud in the sky.
I left home at a bit after 7:00 AM and headed out along the Monaro Highway and, after Cooma, the Snowy Mountains Highway and the The Link Road to Cabramurra and then Tooma Road & the Alpine Way to Khancoban.
The recent excellent rains have turned the landscape from brown to green. A beautiful sight.

Not far from Bredbo and just about where the Queanbeyan - Cooma railway line first crossed the Monaro Highway.........

After Bredbo, heading towards Chakola

Near the Numeralla River, at Chakola

The long straight (Billilingra) that runs for about 4.5km over the crests and dips

On the other side of Cooma and I turned onto the Snowy Mountains Highway.....one of THE best driving roads I've ever had the pleasure to travel.

This last shot was taken as I approached the turnoff from Tooma Road onto the Alpine Way, about 5 kms out of Khancoban.

The return trip took me through Tumbarumba, Tumut and Gundagai, where I joined the Hume Highway.
By the time I arrived back home - around 7:00 PM that night - I was very tired but it was a wonderful drive, with hardly any traffic until I hit the Hume at Gundagai. But at least by that point I could invoke cruise control and relax somewhat.

What's happened to Michelago?!

About 50 kms south of Canberra is the village of Michelago. There's not much there and I would imagine that most residents would commute into Canberra for work.
The railway line to Cooma used to pass through Michelago....well, it still does but no trains run on it.
About 15 years back the old railway station was restored.

An annual fair was held at Michelago to which a steam train would operate from Canberra.

On the way back to Canberra from Cooma the other day I decided to stop and see how the place was going and was saddened to discover that the station and its surrounds had fallen into disrepair and was unkempt.

(Click on images for full-size view)

A very sad sight, with the station buildings not maintained, the track overgrown and the surrounding gardens and park gone to hell, with picnic tables and bench seats barely visible in the undergrowth.

  

What's happened to Michelago? The whole place looks dowdy, uncared for and forgotten.
There used to be an air of civic pride there a decade ago, so what has brought about this decay?

A sorry state of affairs.

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) - some photos.

As a promotion for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, several very large sculptures were crafted out of stainless-steel and mounted on Centrepoint Tower in the retail heart of Sydney.

There were three figures: an athlete in the starting blocks, a gymnast and a basketball player in a wheelchair (representing the disabled Olympians).

At least two of these creations are viewable at the AIS.

The basketballer sits outside the entrance to the Visitor's Centre and the gymnast is a little further down the road, outside the entrance to the two indoor swimming pools.

I had reason to visit the AIS this morning as part of my job and took the following photos, which I thought I'd share here.

Please note that if you click on the small image then a full-size version will open up.

This is the main entrance to the campus and is the first thing that the visitor sees when alighting from a coach or walking up the path from the carpark............

Just to the left, and slightly behind me, is the basket-baller....... 

But that shot doesn't really do her justice.....and gives no idea of the scale of the structure.

The next shot does, however...............

You can gauge the size of the figure by the two people walking towards the camera just at the base of the mound on which the sculpture is located.

In addition, the traditional bronze sculpture of the two figures on the plinth - one doing a handstand on the other's up-stretched arm - whilst larger than life, are dwarfed by the stainless-steel figure.

The next shot is of the bronze.......

This sculpture has been in place for many years and is a favourite of all those who view it.

As mentioned above, further along is the gymnast, outside the pool complex........

Here she is in a close-up.

A beautiful creation, very nicely detailed, even down to her hair being tied into a bun........

I'll close this blog entry with my favourite shot taken today.

A storm was building in the west and I captured it as the background to the basket-baller.

(The giant anchoring/tensioning arms in the background  support the roof of the Arena, an indoor-event building which hosts basketball and also other forms of entertainment.)

My "home office", 1981 version

Thirty years ago - May 1981 - and my interests and hobbies were somewhat different to those that occupy my spare time these days.

I was into designing and constructing rubber-powered model aircraft to what was termed "Peanut Scale" (still around today).

I also had recently gained my Amateur Radio Operator's license (Novice level), with the callsign VK2-VNV, having graduated further into the hobby from the CB stage, which had only been legal in Australia for about 5 years.

Back then (1981) we had been living in the Blue Mountains, some 60 kilometres west of Sydney, for just over 4 years, having moved into our new home at Winmalee in 1976.

Our daughter (Lauren) was 6-months old and I was using the third bedroom as an office/spare-room. This was in the days before personal computers, mobile phones, CDs, DVDs and the internet, so other than what you see here and our Onkyo stereo hi-fi and a colour TV, the only other techno item I owned was a portable Canon typewriter.

I recently came across this B&W photo when I discovered a roll of 35mm negative film when cleaning out some drawers in my present "home office" and, with the ability of being able to scan film and slides on my Epson V330 scanner, I popped the strip in and came up with the result seen above.

I can't even remember taking this photo (and others on the strip.....of my daughter and the model aircraft seen in this photo).

The camera was either a Nikon EM, which I still have, or a Praktica, which was replaced by the Nikon. But it was so long ago that I cannot recall which camera I was using in 1981.

The subject matter is interesting:

On the wall is a global map which gives the compass directions from my location so that I can aim the big rotating beam antenna (on a mast outside the window behind the curtain on the left) in order to achieve the strongest signal strength when transmitting and receiving. The rotation is controlled by the unit on the left in that centre cubby-hole.

To the right of that is a cassette tape unit with which I recorded received and transmitted calls, just for checking and logging.

On top of the shelf sits the Kenwood TS-120V modular outfit, comprising transceiver (left module), a matching speaker unit and, on the right, the antenna tuner sitting on top of my old USB/LSB/AM CB radio.

Atop the transceiver is the microphone next to the Kenwood world-time clock (which is right here with me on my current desk) and, next to that can be seen part of the Williams Bros plastic 1/72nd. model of a Gee-Bee racer from the 1930's.

Sitting on the desk is the Peanut Scale (13" maximum wingspan) flying model of the Fokker DVIII which I had just completed, painting by hand the individual lozenges for the camouflage-pattern that you can see on the fuselage and wheels.

I drew the construction plans up myself from three-views in  an "Aircraft Illustrated" magazine, seen on the desk next to the model and accompanied by my cutting pad, steel ruler and assorted utensils.

The ashtray is no longer around as I gave up smoking 12 years ago and they all went into the garbage.

This old image brings back some lovely memories.

The radio gear has long gone; I sold that in 1985, after we moved here to Canberra in '84.

The models have gone too but the magazine I still have and also the Kenwood clock, still in perfect working order.


Here are two pix from that same film strip.
The first is a close-up of that model Fokker DVIII.

I crafted everything that you see, with the exception of the wheels and propeller, which were from Peck Polymers, in California.
The pilot's head I carved from balsa wood.

This second one is of my daughter having a bath.

She was a pretty sweet kid.....most of the time!

Spring has sprung......well and truly here in Canberra.

(Click on any of the photos for a much larger image).

In what must be the best start to Spring that we have had for many years - maybe a decade or more - Canberra has literally flowered as the deciduous trees burst into blossom and the flower beds go berserk.

In our garden we have several Camellias - three red and two pink.

This one - outside our back door - has exploded into flower, with so many buds that the branches are leaning over so far that negotiating the back steps is an OH&S hazard!

The photo above shows the shrub laden with blossom and this is three weeks after it started to bud. There seems to be no end to the production of flowers and the poor old thing (about 26 years-old now) can't support all the flowers and is dropping them not long after the buds open into full flower-hood.

We have a continual pink snowfall and I am having to sweep the porch and path every morning before going to work and every evening after returning home!

Not that I am complaining, mind you.
With Canberra's water-supply dams at a ten-year high (79.9% today; this time last year they were at 45%), spring rains, green grass and flowering trees and shrubs, it is very, very welcome.

In our front yard we have a beautiful English Elm that has been a feature for about 20 years.

This afternoon I took this photo (above) because this is the most magnificent display of seed-pods I have ever seen on it.

I expect the summer foliage to be quite dense this year. The birds love it and it provides excellent shade across the front garden.

The next photo was taken two weeks ago when our Prunus Elvin - or "fairy-floss trees" (as the kids referred to them) - were smothered in blossoms.

Even the local school-children and their parents were stopping to look at them as they went past.

Yep, it's a wonderful thing to have our yards, parks and gardens looking so nice after many years of drought conditions.

It will be very interesting to see whether the same sentiment can be expressed at the end of summer!