Tag: vacation

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 – 

St Patrick’s Ireland

On By cjx07sterIn TravelLeave a comment

 

A fishing port in Ulster somewhere

Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: “The Voice of the Irish”. As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.

The Atlantic wind rushes up from the sea at the slieve league cliffs on the west coast of Ireland.

The special gravity of ANNORA - NARIN Donegal

I spent the night at the ANNORApub drinking Guinness with my friend John, his brother Aidan and sister Nora [who owned the pub].  It was raining and cold and we got there late.  It was dark and we were somewhere on the northwest coast of Ireland in Narin Donegal, a place and county I did not know.  I think the Irish gravity is strange.  I was fascinated by the settling of the Guinness in the glass.

C'est Finis

I could watch it rather than drink it.  The settling took some 5 minutes but it was magic to watch.  Very good for the blood pressure.  Pure Genius.

Still the genius of Patrick was to be able to bring the cross of Christ to the Druids of  the land, who brought him up apparently, and convince basically all of them to become Christian. Not only that, but do it without any bribes and such. The friendliness of the Irish when they get together, is what going to Ireland is all about.  The birthday party I went to, lasted 3 days, and the guiness watching event in Narin was the last of the 3 days.  The first having started in Ballycastle over to the east.

Not far from the Giant’s Causeway in county Antrim is Ballycastle,  a little town with a racecourse I remember, cause that is where the party was… not necessarily started.. but went on most of the freezing night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since going there, the Global Financial Crisis hit and I still marvel at the way Irish people can handle these things, and not get so bothered.  I tell you there is something strange about the gravity in Ireland which allows the people and the beer to be so poetic inclined, and to look on life in an unworried way, sensing when humour and craic is required to understand situations without logic.

The Irish world of tourist and locals were passing by in Dublin the day before I left.  It was October and everything on sale. I reflected on what a place was Ireland, since Patrick came, and was glad that I had attended a call, albeit a 3 day birthday party across the top end. One of the friendliest weekends ever spent.