Category: Australia

A Bridge in the Fanfare for the Workers of Sydney

On By cjx07sterIn Art, Australia, Engineering, Music, TravelLeave a comment
The Sydney Harbour Bridge

It’s made of iron and rivets and paint. Tons of it.  It crosses the beauty of Sydney Harbour and spans two sides of the emerald city of Sydney, NSW.  It’s orientation catches the light of the sunrise to the east and frames the perfect sunsets in the west.  When you cross it at night the light zooms up from below to catch the strong arch, home to thousands of bats and insects which fly around up there.  The Australian flags fly at it’s zenith and seem to state something for the nation of Australia.  You see flags are a rarity in Australia, compared to the USA, where everyone has one.  In Australia only important buildings have a flag to fly.  Up on the bridge there are flags flying on the great creation of the workers 80 years ago today.  Dr John Bradfield’s original idea and masterpiece developed from around 1900,  it opened on 19th March 1932 amid much fanfare.  Notably in true Australian style, someone stole the show on a horse and cut the ribbon with his sword.

Today 80 years on the sun was shining in the morning, as I crossed the bridge on the train.  It is the feast day or St. Joseph patron saint of the worker. It took about 100,000 man years of work to create it. No computers calculating the odds, no adding machines, it was all done on slide rules and rooms of drawings and sketches all calculated down to the point where expectedly the two  sides of the bridge met.

Of course everyone has seen the bridge, it really gets a birthday every year on New Year’s Eve when it acts as the mounting bracket for thousands of fireworks to help celebrate the new year.  Yes, although originally set up to carry traffic linking the two sides of Sydney Harbour, the bridge has developed into a performance space for the common man.

As I was crossing, looking up into the arch this morning, musicians from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra were scaling the bridge and getting ready to play.  It was their anniversary as well I understand.  A fitting choice of piece being Aaron Copland’s “A Fanfare for the Common Man”.  This piece was in fact originally commissioned by Eugene Goossens whilst he was conducting orchestras in the USA, who eventually became the first permanent conductor of the Sydney Symphony.  I like the piece, I wish I had heard it, but the wind and the rain probably carried the sound to where only the seagulls and St Joseph and maybe Dr John Bradfield, who conceived the design and who made it his own quest in the early part of the 20th century.  Happy Birthday Sydney Harbour Bridge !!

— See report on the bridge fanfare – 

Water-berry World – A reflection

On By cjx07sterIn Australia, Existentialism, Love Story, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

First Fragment – I am He.

I was on the mobile hooked into a conference call to the guys in Boston, while I was on the way to the airport.

“What’s that ?” I said.  I looked out the train window and through the gloom and sheets of rain coming down, I heard “……could…….be……………..never…………..when……………manufacture……Shanghai..”

“You know guys there is something wrong, I don’t know if it is the rain or what, but could you get closer to the mic.” I said

“Chris, if you just mute your ….., you should be able to…er” – came back

“OK OK. I think you said mute… but I don’t know how to mute the phone, it’s a blackberry” I said

I looked at the blackberry, water all over it, in my wet hand, with my suit still dripping water on the floor, sitting forlornly in the grey of the train light.

“Sure  just ….. top of the phone…   mute key – just…. when you want to talk … press …. you’ve …..” I think it was Sam who said that.

OK  – fumbling around with the phone – found the mute key pressed it a couple of times…

da-dink – di-da, seemed to toggle a couple of tones…

As I re-joined the call,  I settled down a bit, listening to the boys at the other end of the line.

Outside the world was rapidly darker into the morning.  The train was moving, slowly. I still had time though. We passed the old disused car yard near Redfern. Torrential spouts of water were there flowing down out into the concrete as we passed by. A lady standing by me, was quietly looking past me, with a kind of I’m ok, but there is something really bad happening just outside.  Naturally I thought first of the rain, no, perhaps the blackberry, but since I was on mute, it could not be that.. I turned back to close focus and saw what she saw.

Second Fragment – I am She

The rain was really coming down, and as the train pulled in, I had run to the first carriage off the stairwell.  The doors opened as the announcement was made.  My coat was ok, but my hair was all wet through from seconds crossing the gap.  I got in, but all the seats were taken.  Wet people. No one with newspapers any more. iPhones and Tablets instead live breaking the news.  So I took off to the left, just outside the toilet, where there is a gap.  There was a guy in a suit, fiddling with his blackberry, trying to listen, and talk and had obviously chosen this uncomfortable location, so he could use his phone.  He had some strange bags, a normal looking briefcase, and a big heavy carbonate case with Fragile stickers and Security cleared stuck all over it.

The doors closed and we were rolling.  I looked over at him, he was talking and listening, but mainly looking out at the weather.  Water was dripping off his suit, onto his blackberry with it’s little blue light winking as a reflection in the window.  I thought on his profile, also reflected in the window.  It might be good to get to know him then.  Perhaps I could say Hi.  He was on the phone though.  I pulled out my phone and thought.. Perhaps I could just take a picture of him for later.  Dumb idea.  I pressed the bluetooth setup and scanned around the area.  A phone name came up – Ferdinand – could it be his phone ?

The rain was coming down fast and noisy outside the carriage.  He was having trouble hearing and was fiddling around with the ‘mute’ key, perhaps learning how it worked.

I looked carefully at his suit, it was made of a nice material, but all covered in water, and dripping down.  He seemed totally oblivious to the water though, listening and laughing on the phone, with his hand and phone still water all over them.

OK, so I took his picture, it was easy, he didn’t notice me at all, even though I could have reached out and touched him, his wet clothes and hair perhaps. Never mind, I could find him again one day, I had his bluetooth id and I had a photo, even though it showed him laughing all wet and scary. I quicky renamed the image ‘Ferdinand’ so I could remember.

Just then I leaned back on the window, the rain gushing down from the car sheds, and all over the concrete outside the train.  I looked over at him and he glanced at me, and then looked outside through the window.  His eyes got all close focussed and an astonished look on his face.  I quickly glanced down at my phone, with his picture on it.  I started blushing and smiling, I couldn’t help it when I realised that he saw, his picture on my phone reflected in the glass behind me.

Photo Attribution : Foxyfemke : Flickr under CC licence

remember after the rain and the dams deluge divides

On By cjx07sterIn AustraliaLeave a comment

it’s been a while , the drought in writing is belied by the flood waters sweeping through towns like rivers to an inner ocean of calm australian response.

It’s sunny here today in sydney but still you see in the morning light convective waves of vapour rising up the trunks of the trees.

we are lucky to have dams which even now can’t catch all the water but which water the have will keep us alive for 5 years of drought – which will follow. And the dams have no choice but to deluge the towns downstream.

Wagga wagga is cut in two. Its bridge some 30 ft up , no match for the mighty murrumbidgee.

Bathurst is cut in two – its bridge no match for the muddy macquarie, sending its loamy catch all the way to the darling river – where it will travel long long way down through the inner sea to the bight.

So our memory is divided by the deluges which turn up every generation – there will be before and after the 2012 flood just like the ’55 flood. children who have never seen one find out the drama of it and all before is erased and all after will be new.