Greetings…from the future

Writing from the Sydney Airport food court (though what with the Subway and the McDonald’s, you can only tell you’re in Australia by the sign advertising “Coffee and Brekkie”) early Monday morning, Sunday back home.

The best thing about long flights is that it gives you a chance to get a whack of reading done. My in-flight reading list:

Thomas Frank’s The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. I started this before the U.S. election and it may be a moot point in the U.S., but anyone wanting to understand the motivations behind Stephen Harper’s seemingly suicidal inability to stop trying to destroy the Liberals – as opposed to simply trying to implement conservative policies and, you know, govern – could do much worse than this book.

Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. Newly updated (as of October) and very accessible book by this year’s Nobel Economics prize winner. Another piece of essential reading, this time for anyone who’s wondering exactly how we’ve ended up in the most serious global economic crisis since the 1930s.

Charlie Savage’s Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and deservedly so. Savage, a journalist with the Boston Globe outlines the ways in which Bush and Cheney have spent the past eight years attacking the very idea that the President has to follow the law. A sobering read, especially for those of us with high hopes for Obama's presidency, since power once claimed by the presidency is rarely relinquished. Takeover implicitly suggests that Obama should be judged not only on his actual policies, but on the degree to which he respects Congress and the rule of law.

Also started reading Stephen Clarkson’s Does North America Exist? Governing the Continent after NAFTA and 9/11. Clarkson’s work was one of the things that inspired me to do a PhD in North American relations, and 50 pages in he hasn’t disappointed yet.

(And since I’m blogging from the future, this tidbit of info might be of interest to all you Canadians: Prime Minister Hedy Fry. Who would’ve guessed?)

War Memorial

At the end of a long walk yesterday, I went to see the national war memorial. It's a pretty impressive building. The orientation of the memorial--set in direct line with the old Parliament and the new Parliament buildings across the lake from the memorial--reminded me of the National Mall in Washington. And like Washington, it's a long, dusty hot walk from one memorial to the next. But instead of pigeons and ducks everywhere as there are in Washington, there were hundreds of white and pink parrots screaming.

Gods and ghosts

The other exhibit that I wanted to see at the National Gallery was "Gods, Ghosts and Men" the first major exhibition of Pacific art to be held in Australia for nearly twenty years, covering Melanesian and Polynesian sculptural traditions of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand and the Marquesas Islands. It was a very interesting, sometime creepily eerie exhibit as the lights are dimmed and some of the sculptures have eyes that seem to be watching you. A particular favourite is made of leaves and bark and represents beings between the world of the living and the dead. One consults him before important decisions.

Aboriginal burial poles

Well, I was very excited about the National Gallery which the Australia Rough Guide described, wrongly it turns out, as having a large and rather magnificent collection of Aboriginal artwork. The collection is limited to one small room crammed next to the conceptual art display of metal shelving and crystal mirrors. It is quite an interesting exhibit: a hundred or so burial poles from different peoples representing all the Aboriginal people who died under Australian rule and who weren't properly buried. Bones are placed in these hollowed-out logs. The burial poles show animals and fish that are particularly important to that tribe of people. And the dots represent important physical or spiritual places. When I looked in the gallery bookshop I thought I missed an entire Aboriginal section but the bookstore clerk informed me that all the pieces I wanted to see were in storage.

Back from Australia! (the movie)

My plane leaves for Sydney and Canberra (via Washington and LA) in a few hours, but I figured I’d get a head start on my month in Australia via yesterday’s10 am showing of the latest Baz Luhrmann epic, the fittingly named Australia. At the very least, I hoped to add to my limited knowledge about the continent/country, my only previous knowledge coming from The Simpsons, Monty Python, Patrick O’Brian, Men at Work and Midnight Oil (does INXS count as an Australian band, or were they traded sometime in the 90s?).

I didn’t expect much, given the middling-to-nasty reviews it’s received. But, wow. It takes major stones to name your film after a country and, for my money, I think Luhrmann pulled it off. Roger Ebert calls it "exuberantly old fashioned," and he's exactly right. Its plot isn't exactly groundbreaking: Will uptight British aristocrat Nicole Kidman save her cattle ranch? Will she find True Love with the impeccably muscled Hugh Jackman? Will mean ol’ King Carney steal the ranch? Will the Japs’ bombing of Darwin ruin everything? And what will happen to the adorable young Nullah, half-white, half-aboriginal and outcast in two cultures? It's a big melodrama, and if that's not your thing, you'd best move on. As for me, I laughed, I cried, I decided to spend a month Down Under. 

It also didn’t hurt that the night before I’d seen the nearly unwatchable Quantum of Solace. At least Luhrmann knows how to assemble a film.

Australia’s been criticized for offering up one Australian stereotype after another (Kangaroos? Check. Aborigines with mystical connection to the land? Check. Parched landscape? Check. Exclamatory use of the word “crikey”? Triple check.), but I think this critique misses the point. Luhrmann’s isn't really talking about Australia's history, but rather its symbols and myths and archetypes, in particular the importance of a connection to the land. In the movie, both whites and aborigines are judged in large part by their sympathy for and understanding of the Australian outback. To get meta for a second, Luhrmann's Australia is a story about Australia's story. When you're working on that level, it's hard to avoid stereotypes. And anyway, you don’t go see a movie by the director of Moulin Rouge! expecting gritty realism.

We’ll see how the actual country compares. 

Gymea Lily

Here's one of my favourite plants from the botanical gardens. It's a gymea lily, described as " Sword-like leaves more than 1 m long surround a huge flower spike up to 6 m high, bearing at its apex a large cluster of bright red flowers, each 10 cm across." They're planted along roads in Sydney to cut CO2 emissions. And they're edible, or at least the fibres can be pounded into some kind of edible product. Mmm.

Water Dragon Lizards

Hi all,

It's a beautiful, sunny day!! I spent all morning and afternoon wandering around the enormous National Botanical Gardens. Those who don't like gardens (like Blayne) would find this excruciatingly boring but I found it so relaxing. And as there are poisonous snakes like the brown snake, potentially dangerous. I was a little paranoid about snakes and spiders. There was a sign warning of brown snakes and giving the advice to back away slowly from any sightings but I didn't see any snakes. I did see a lot of eastern water dragons. For such a grand name they are rather small little lizards with long tails. They like to sun themselves on rocks. I learned that they will eat almost anything and can spend 90 minutes under water. Above is a picture from the garden's website of a water dragon. I got lots of pictures of the water dragons but the parrots were too fast. They just swoop from tree to tree screaming at each other. It sounds really awful.

I spent two hours wandering around by myself and then went on a guided tour with two other Canadians, a British garden fanatic and two Aussies. The guide, Peter, pointed out which plants were used by Aboriginal peoples as food. One plant is mildly toxic/sedative to fish. Aboriginals used to throw a branch into water and then wait for the fish to become intoxicated/sedated and then retrieve them. The garden created a rainforest using an existing dry gully. They added thousands of mister sprinklers and planted fast-growing trees to add cover. The result is an enormous rainforest that replicates rainforest plants from Tasmania to Cairns. For those who are interested, there are over 600 varieties of eucalypts (eucalptus) but koalas only eat two varieties! I walked from the botanical gardens along Lake Burley Griffen where there are paths all along the lake.

Canada is definitely not getting the full Cadbury-brand line of chocolates. At a grocery store near the hotel there is an enormous line of chocolates that I've never seen in Canada or the U.S.: Jamaican rum and raisin, Turkish delight, lemon cheesecake, bosenberry shortcake, and creme brulee. Some may know my obsession with a finding good no-fat, no-sugar yoghurts. Australia has some pretty fabulous yoghurt selection: peach cheesecake, mango tiramisu and berry brulee.

I'm off to find somewhere interesting for dinner. I did find a good wine-bar with wine flights.

Now Down Under

Hi all,

I've arrived. The trip was a bit long and grueling (30 hours) but at least I had three seats to myself so I could stretch out and sleep. {Blayne: The X-Files movie is desperately awful; I was cringing that poor Skully and Mulder had to endure such a pathetic plot that involves organ trafficking and two-head Russian dog experiments. Skully and Mulder are also lovers but without a spark of passion.}

The first interesting bit of Australian trivia I learned upon landing. The Aussies take quarantine very seriously. All international planes are sprayed with (an apparently) non-toxic spray designed to kill any microbes that enter the country. The flight attendants also spray the interior of the plane, all on the orders of the Australian Quarantine Department. Apparently the spray is WHO-approved but I say people holding handkerchiefs against their mouths. But the beagles that sniff all arrivees and their luggage are just adorable. They all wear little red shoes for some reason.

My Quantas flight from Sydney followed the coast for a bit--so many secluded beaches!!--and then it headed inland. The vegetation is a dull green and reminds me of the landscape in the B.C. Okanagan. The dirt is bright orange, yellow and red! And in the taxi from the airport I saw flocks of pink parrots. The taxi driver explained that Australians try not to kill the prettiest parrots--the rosellas and the kings (I think) but apparently the grey parrots are pretty stupid and fly under moving cars. The taxi driver has accidently killed several recently. I can hear the parrots screaming right now as I sit in the Internet cafe. The weather is great: over 20 degrees. I arrived at the right time since it snowed in the mountains last week in a freak storm that killed a lot of fruit and veggies.

Tomorrow I'm off to take a look at the Aboriginal art at the Australian National Gallery and also tour the National Botanical Gardens. I'm particularly interested in spotting water dragon lizards that run on their hind legs when they're scared. As well, I want to see all the bats that come out at night and cruise through the garden.

Cheerio

Leaving the frozen north

Hello all,

It's very easy to leave frozen Ottawa so I'm all packed and ready to go. And perhaps never come back! 

We'll be blogging as we travel throughout Australia so you'll be able to keep up with our adventures. Here's a preview of the travels to come: where: I'll be in Canberra from November 24 to December 4th. Blayne will arrive in Canberra on December 1st so we'll have some time to explore Canberra in between my meetings. From Canberra we take a bus to visit my uncles Vit and Valdi in Mollymook. We'll spend a few days in sleepy Mollymook with its beach and winery and then we're off to Sydney on December 8th. We'll stay in Sydney until the 13th but we do plan to spend a day touring wineries in Hunter Valley outside of Sydney. 

From Sydney we leave for Melbourne to visit Blayne's cousin Navin and his uncle Charles and aunt Petty who'll be in Melbourne at the same time as us. And keeping with our theme of exploring Australia's wineries and wine regions, we plan to take a side-trip to a winery outside Melbourne. After relaxing in Melbourne we head to Cairns on December 17th where we'll go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef before it is completely destroyed. And then we're off to Brisbane to visit my relatives and spend Christmas with them. A no-turkey, no-snow Christmas! I'm not sure if there are wineries around Brisbane, but if there are, we'll find them. We end our trip in beautiful Sydney again! And then we'll have to be deported because we'll refuse to leave. 

Stay tuned! Blayne is promising to live-blog his 30-hour flight until he gets to Canberra, or until his computer or mind gives out.