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Monthly Archives: January 2015

100 words – The suitcase lay open …

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in 100 word challenge, all about me, remembering / musing

≈ 2 Comments

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100 words

100 word challenge – this week’s prompt is … the suitcase lay open …

100words

We were taking a trip for our silver anniversary and as it turned out, for our eldest daughter’s engagement party. With a parent from each side of the world and dual passports, she’d moved to Sydney four years earlier.

“Mum, can you bring a few things over for me, please?”
“Of course.”
“Great, just the electronic drum kit and didge.”

The suitcase lay open ….. surrounded by clothes, shoes, metal scaffold, drum pads, kick pedal. Oh.

Who takes an original didgeridoo back into Australia? And a drum kit in bits?
The customs guy just laughed at us and waved us through.

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Join this challenge at https://jfb57.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-5/

Different bridges, different angles

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Amsterdam, architecture, day out, Ireland, London, photos, Seville

Whilst looking through recent photos I realised that I have unintentionally captured a few contrasting bridges.

Tower Bridge, London opened in 1894.

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Blackfriars railway bridge, London, originally opened in 1886 but has recently been refurbished and is now the worlds largest solar powered bridge with the railway station occupying the full length of the bridge. There are stunning views from the trains. Station and bridge re-opened in 2012.

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These are just a couple of examples of London bridges.

Further afield, The Peace Bridge, Londonderry, Northern Ireland was opened in 2011.

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This version of the “Skinny Bridge”, the Magere Brug, Amsterdam, Netherlands dates back to 1871.

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Puente del Alamillo, Seville, Spain was opened 1992.

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Back in 1985 – Australia Day

26 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, back in 1985, remembering / musing

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Australia, in 1985

This day in 1985 … I was celebrating Australia Day actually in Australia. There was local free entertainment. The evening was supposed to finish with fire works, but it was a total fire ban day, so no fireworks.

In hindsight, I spent too long in Melbourne, but I enjoyed it at the time. I was on holiday, comfortable staying with friends, getting a feel of Australian life and culture, meeting lots of friends of friends, welcomed into their homes.

I liked the city and spent days walking, exploring, Toorak, South Yarra, St Kilda, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kings Domain, Shrine of Remembrance, National Gallery, the Old Gaol. I enjoyed the architecture, buildings, art and history.

We visited local nature reserves, bush walks. I went to free concerts at the Myer Music Bowl.

We had a lot of barbecues, we cooked outside and ate outside. We didn’t do that in the UK back then. 

As a long-standing speedway and motorbike track racing fan, I went to a speedway meeting at the Melbourne Showgrounds. I wrote that it was a brilliant evening, the smell of the bikes, the excitement of the races, the novelty of sidecar races and the result of UK beating Aus / NZ teams.

Random comments that I wrote during these early weeks in Melbourne… 

Shops closed at lunch time on Saturdays. Only milk bars and 7 eleven stay open. (what about grog shops?) Some supermarkets stayed open until 9pm on Thursday and Friday nights. This was back in the day when there was no Sunday trading. 

There were some driving rules I was not used to. When turning left, if someone was coming from the opposite direction and turning right, you had to give way to them. You couldn’t park on the opposite of the road, facing oncoming traffic. Intersections in the city were different again, where you turned right from the left hand lane. You let all through traffic go first then turned. It sounds odd but it worked and kept the tram lines clear. This is unique for Melbourne city I think. In 1985, my UK driving licence was valid until I was seventy years old, without any renewal, but a Victoria licence cost A$30 for three years, while in Queensland a licence was only $5 for five years. 

The transport system was very good and tickets covered all forms, train bus, tram. Way ahead of London ticketing in the 80’s.

Houses were generally brick veneer, i.e. plasterboard houses with just brick on the outside. Sound travelled between rooms and to hang a picture you had to find an upright joist. There were some wooden houses too. 

As the kids prepared to got back to a new school year, after their long summer holidays, I packed up to go to New Zealand for four weeks. Return air fare from Melbourne to Auckland was A$ 440.

Exchange rates at the time 
£1 = A$ 1.4 
£1 = NZ$ 2.43

Happy Australia Day.

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A stressful day

24 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in 100 word challenge, all about me

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

100 words, home

100 word challenge – this week’s prompt is …and then I smiled…

100words

The day started full of frustration and stress.
My view of the world was a little out of kilter.
With a last minute appointment, I entered the room, taking in the dim lighting and candles.
I laid face down and tried to focus my mind on the calming music.
I noticed the aroma as the cool oil trickled onto my back.
Warm hands spread the liquid over my spine, neck and shoulders.
Strong fingers and knuckles kneaded my bunched muscles.
Physical tensions gradually eased, muscles relaxed.
I put our house sale situation back into perspective …. and then I smiled.

Join this challenge at https://jfb57.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week164/

In a row – photos

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in creativity, days out, one with nature, photography

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London, photos, still life, trees

Todays “photo a day” prompt is “in a row”. I had several ideas whilst out on Monday, wandering around London. Also today pottering about at home. Here are some of the photos. I decided to post the top one to my Pad group. I love these prompts that make you look at the everyday world with new eyes.

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Back in 1985 – bush fire and gold rush

17 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, back in 1985, days out, remembering / musing

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Australia, in 1985

This day in 1985 …. I was in Ballarat

The temperature had peaked at 42 degrees in Melbourne earlier in the week. Wow, that was hot. Not humid but hottest I’ve ever been. You just want to move from one air conditioned place to another, house to car to shop. It’s exhausting.

I got the train to Ballarat, an interesting two hour journey that travelled though an area caught in bush fires recently. Some logs were still burning, red hot inside. We saw a house that luckily was still standing, despite the fire circling it on three sides. A long strip of fertile earth with this house at the end was surrounded by charred black earth. Seeing the after effects bring home the magnitude of these bush fires.

Ballarat has beautiful Victorian and Edwardian buildings and gardens, being the site of the world’s largest deposit of alluvial gold.

Sovereign Hill is a reconstruction of Ballarat in the 1850’s at the height of the gold rush. There are tours of a gold mine, gold panning, open diggings, tents and cottagers that miners would have occupied, furnished for the times. There is a huge township, with Main Street, shops, workshops, demonstrations, blacksmiths, coach builders, wood turners, bakers and others. It was a thriving town with all the key buildings, fire station, post office, bank, gold office, theatre, hotels. There are stage coaches to tour the whole site. All staff are dressed in period costumes, providing a fascinating day out and a real step bank in time.

When gold was discovered, the town’s population suddenly rose by forty thousand, so the army was brought in to keep order, or try to. At one point, convicts from Tasmania were recruited into the Victorian police force to keep control of the mines.

Ballarat has a very different story to our British history of the same era. This felt more like the “wild west”, pioneers and a distinct history.

This trip was the real beginning of my gap year travels. Doing my own thing, deciding where I wanted to go, what I wanted to see and just getting up and doing it.

Back in Melbourne, I got three films developed for A$36 with three replacement films. Now, in 2015 we forget the old ways, taking photos but waiting days and spending money to discover if any of our photos were actually any good. Oh bless digital and smart phone technology.

(My 1985 photos are packed up in storage, so these are internet images but as this is a historic place, these current images are just how I remember it.)

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Gold-Panning-Business

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Nature in 100 words – plus random photos

16 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in 100 word challenge, creativity, one with nature, photography

≈ 3 Comments

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100 words, animals, flowers, trees

Today’s photo a day prompt is “nature”. So here are a few random photos that I’ve taken in our garden recently or whilst on local walks.

Also, another “100 word challenge”.

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The joys of nature in winter are …

Cold crisp days, sunshine, wispy clouds and blue skies. Also clear night skies, perfect for star gazing and watching meteor showers.

Frosts, which emphasise the natural patterns all around us.

Trees free of their summer leaves, plants that provide winter colour and new growth hinting of spring.

Birds that visit our garden, other creatures that live here permanently.

Sunrises, sunsets, long shadows and silhouettes.

Grass that grown despite our attempt to cultivate and tame.

The sound of birdsong, wind rustling the branches. Rain falling, rippling in puddles and our pond.

9th

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23rd

14th

16th

12th

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A day at The Old Bailey – misconduct, assault and murder.

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, photography

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architecture, curiosity, day out, London, photos

What a fascinating day.

We went to The Old Bailey today, to observe the proceedings from the public galleries. We didn’t know what specific trials were taking place. Online information simply stated the case number, the defendant’s name and courtroom number.

We walked around the outside of this iconic building, on the site of Newgate Prison, taking the attached photos. It was a lucky fluke to have blue skies for a short time, as we’d left home in the rain and it was raining again when courts adjourned for lunch. The public galleries are open daily between 10am and 1pm, again between 2pm and 4pm.

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Thanks to Trip Advisor, we knew food, drink, electronic gadgets including mobile phones were not allowed in the building, so we left our phones at a reputable letting agency across the street, for a £1 fee. After queuing outside for a while, family members were allowed inside first, then we followed, going through security checks at the door. We did not get to see the beautiful ornate Grand Hall, we used a back entrance with access solely to the public galleries, a plain ordinary staircase and corridors.

Once inside, courts are arranged on three floors. Court officials advised what trials were in session and were happy to answer general questions. Initially, there was only one court occupied, so that is where we started. Throughout the day, we observed three different trials and followed the proceedings for an hour or more, in each courtroom. The process is slow, precise, exact.

Trial A – misconduct in public office
This courtroom was a hive of activity, presided over by a judge in wig and red robes.
Facing the judge were three rows of seats for legal counsel, occupied by eighteen people, twelve gowned and wigged.
The dock was on the back wall, facing the judge. Three men sat in this glassed area, along with a security man.
The jury, which consisted of six men and six women, mixed ages, sat at right angels, near the front of the court.
There were five people in the press seats, also on the side wall, towards the back.
Our view from the gallery was high-up, facing the jury. We had sight of the witness box below us, but not sure what else was beneath our seats.

We heard the prosecution counsel set out their case. The evidence included various news articles published by The Sun newspaper back in 2007 and the amounts paid to informants. We learned afterwards that there were in fact, six defendants, each having two counsel representatives, hence the crowded courtroom. The defendants were either public officials or journalists and the trial related to the “phone hacking” investigations of “Operation Elveden”.

There was a constant rustle of paper and pages being turned, with each counsel having half a dozen thick binders of paperwork in front of them. Jurors shared one binder between two. There were separate files of colour coded timelines, all referred to by page and line numbers. Counsel and the judge had laptops too. After a while, we left this court room to see if other trials had begun for the day.

Trial B – indecent assault
The court had similar setup, this time with a female judge in black gown but only two counsel with an assistant each. There was much less paperwork involved in this trial.
The jury again consisted of six men and six women.
We heard the defence counsel question a protected witness, who sat behind a curtain. The defendant was a doctor while the witness was one of his patients.
The judge took more notes and interrupted several times to clarify points for her self and for the jury. There was detailed questioning back and forth to emphasise points in the witness statement and clarify anomalies.

Trial C – murder
We joined this trial after lunch. Same courtroom setup, male judge, four counsel and four assistants.
The jury in this case consisted of eight men and four women.
We heard the prosecution counsel question a witness, the murder victims widow. As she was a foreigner, all questions and answers went through a translator. Expecting slower progress with the translation process, we in fact learnt a lot about the murder incident in the hour and half we were in court. At one point, we were asked to leave, along with the jury, for a short break while legal questions took place. Again there was limited paperwork, but pages with layout of the murder scene, pictures of specific rooms and the murder weapon were referred to. This witness will return tomorrow for cross examination by the defence counsel.

It was a very interesting day, some trials more absorbing than others. I had sympathy for the jurors on the first trial. Once outside the Old Bailey when we were free to talk about the day and what we’d seen and heard, the trials occupied our discussion for several hours over lunch and our journey home.

I did jury service twenty five years ago, in a local court, on a drug smuggling case at Gatwick airport. The trial only lasted four days and i remember a lot of waiting around, initially to be called into a trial, to go through jury selection, then wait to be discharged mid way through the second week. I found it intriguing and the jury decision making process to be thought provoking. Twelve of us had sat thought the same trial, heard the same evidence and questioning, but had picked up different highlights and priorities. The ensuing debate was enlightening, even thought we eventually agreed on a verdict.

My experience of jury service was before the internet or today’s technology. I was amazed at the information I was able to access on the internet within a couple of minutes, on the defendants and the three trials that we viewed today.

Trial by jury was established in the UK in 1215 with a clause in the Magna Carta, determining the premise of “innocent until proven guilty” and “lawful judgement by his peers”.

An unusual free day out, highly recommended.

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Back in 1985 – First impressions

11 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, back in 1985, remembering / musing

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Australia, in 1985, quotes

This day in 1985 … I had been in Melbourne for a couple of weeks, staying with friends, relaxing, catching up and enjoying the holiday mood.

My first impressions of Australia ? …..

In my journal I wrote about the clear blue skies, the space, wide streets, the trees, the temperatures, sunshine, 29 degrees, but then chilly the next day at only 19 degrees. The weather changes within hours.

Houses were mainly detached single storey buildings in reasonable sized wrap around gardens, often with verandahs. They all had fly screens at the doors and windows. Back gardens were secluded, with barbeques and covered patio areas. There were lemon trees in the gardens, with fruit on them.

(Remember this is a twenty something English girl writing this, who had only travelled to Europe a couple of times.)

I was taken to Healesville Sanctuary and I saw my first real life koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, dingoes and possums. We went to lovely gardens up in the hills, with lakes and black swans. We had picnics on the banks of the Yarra River, we had lots of barbecues in the back yard. We visited the Mornington Peninsular, beaches and stunning views.

I went sightseeing in the city, trams, art galleries, Fitzroy Gardens, Cooks Cottage, I enjoyed walking around.

I relaxed with my friends and their kids, went swimming, to the movies. I enjoyed browsing the shops, comparing and getting used to new concepts of milk bar and drive in bottle shops.

There were 5 tv channels, four of them commercial channels. ABC seemed relatively familiar, one channel showed mostly ethnic and foreign language films. The other three had so many adverts. Programmes like MASH or Happy Days were shown every day, with a few minutes show, then ad break even before the opening credits. So many ad breaks.

Album charts this month included Madonna, Wham, Sade, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Duran Duran, Alison Moyet, Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie.

Films of the time – Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Indiana Jones

Meanwhile, Western Europe was covered in snow. Rome had first snow in fourteen years. I was happy to be in Australia and not struggling through the snow in London to get to work.

I was enjoying my first January summer and making plans for the coming months. I loved Australia from my first hours in the country. Little did I know that it was the beginning of a life long connection. It was different, exciting, beautiful but had the comfort of the English language.

One thing I need to mention from the flight that I didn’t cover in the previous gap year post….
“Oh, and the toilets in Dubai airport, genuine stand up and aim ones, with special tiles for your feet position. Amazing.” (I’ve obviously come across these several times since, including our bank offices in India, but it seems I was quite amused by my first encounter.)

favourite place

Gibraltar – The Rock, the apes, stunning views and a long walk.

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature, photography

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

animals, Gibraltar, holiday, photos, trees

Gibraltar is odd, fascinating, stunning but just odd. As a British Overseas Territory, there are the familiar red phone boxes, red post boxes, familiar shops and banks in the main street, there are British Bobbies (policeman on the beat), but the sound is Spanish, the sky is too blue to be Britain and the prices are in pounds and euros, even £1.80 bus fare, and they drive on the European side of the road.

We drove a couple of hours from Seville, initially through flat plains, then hilly regions, but the Rock of Gibraltar stands out on the horizon from way back.

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Gibraltar is a tiny piece of land, only 2.3 square miles, surrounded on three sides by sea. It is obvious why the British don’t want to give the territory back to Spain, who ceded it “in perpetuity” back in 1713. At the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and with views across to North Africa, with The Rock rising vertically on the north face to 1,398 feet, it has obvious strategic advantage and oversight of all shipping entering the Mediterranean ports.

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We parked on the Spanish side and walked across the border, to avoid the queue of cars crossing the frontier. The only road going into the territory and city centre traverses the airport runway. We had to wait while a plane took off, aircraft having priority over traffic and pedestrians.

The city, ports and marinas nestle on the west coast. A cable car takes tourists up this sloping face of The Rock, to the nature reserve that covers forty per cent of the territory. The views from the accessible summit of The Rock are wonderful, while some areas remain out of bounds military regions.

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The Rock is home to several hundred Barbary macaque monkeys. They are curious, used to the tourists but are still wild animals and warning signs are clearly on display. The monkeys happily pose for photos but are opportunists if visitors have obvious food with them.

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We walked back down through the nature reserve, via the Apes Den, the Queens Gate, The Moorish Castle, via cannons and entrances to the thirty miles of tunnels used as defences throughout history. Other paths went via the Mediterranean steps, St Michael’s Cave and Trafalgar cemetery. It was a long walk, which killed our middle aged knees at times, but a lovely way to appreciate the flora, fauna and views of this fascinating place.

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I hope to visit Africa one day, but if I don’t, at least I have seen the tip of the continent from this tip of Europe.

Africa in the distance, below the clouds

Africa in the distance, below the clouds

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