Ricks Rambles

How to remove unwanted automatic email addresses from Apple Mail

2017-03-07T17:09:00.000+10:30

Once you know how to do this you'll think, 'why didn't I think of it before?' There's always a solution to what you want to do on a Macintosh, but how you might think to do it may not be how the Mac software developers believe you should do it.

If you use Apple Mail on a Macintosh, as some dear to my heart do, when you create a new email and start typing in the To: field you might find several out of date email addresses for people who have since changed them.

To prevent them from appearing as suggested addresses go to Window in the Mail menu, Previous Recipients, and from there you can delete those pesky, persistent, outdated email addresses.

And why didn't you think of this solution in the first place? Well who would think to look in 'Window' to do that?

Side note - there are questions posted about Macintosh-related technical and how-to situations and there are Windows-related ones also, but the Windows-related ones seem to get answered online while the Mac ones don't. Why?

One short view of Climate Change

2014-11-10T22:11:00.001+10:30

Climate change and mankind's contribution to it through industrialisation is a complex topic and it's easy to get lost in detail and miss the big picture. I've completed a Diploma of Sustainability with a Carbon Accounting elective - there's a lot of detail about climate change if one wants to drill down into it but I don't think it's necessary. We can infer the problem from scientific observations and high level information.

Human beings need to take action to arrest climate change and protect this earth for our future generations.

I worked at Microsoft during its best years when it was the undisputed leader in the tech sector. The technology world has always changed fast and we learned that if you wait until all the facts were known about a topic before making a decision that would be too late - you had to work with the available information and make the best decision. Most times it resulted in a good decision. Most climate scientists (97%? - what a huge level of consensus) agree that global warming is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions, largely CO2. I suspect the remaining 3% of scientists won't change their minds no matter how much new evidence is disclosed. If I had a potentially terminal illness and 97% of doctors I consulted recommended a specific course of action to address the illness that would be good enough for me, I'd follow their advice and act on it.

The Precautionary Principle says that if Something might cause harm to the public or the environment and there isn't scientific consensus that the Something won't cause harm, then basically don't do it (I'm paraphrasing here). Sadly, governments don't seem to be very effective at taking preventative action which could save significant time/money/grief from expected consequences, instead they apply costly band aid remedial solutions once things do go wrong. Lots of examples supporting this. Minister, invest in preventative health measures?... naw, too costly so let the next government pay for the mop-up later. Impose penalties on major polluters for their greenhouse gas emissions? Naw, instead let's provide them subsidies and hand-outs as It Helps The Economy. Sad that you can't eat money.

Another barrier to addressing climate change is that it's global and human nature is to reap the benefits from a shared resource but not to look after it - that's someone else's responsibility. So who does look after the earth? We all should.

The earth's systems are closed loops. What is known as the carbon cycle or Greenhouse Effect is where carbon gets naturally emitted into the atmosphere and then reabsorbed from the atmosphere by the earth. If the emissions are below a certain level the normal carbon cycle can deal with emissions and the overall CO2 level stays manageable. The 'normal' carbon cycle is critical for life.

The developments from the Industrial Age have accelerated the carbon cycle through activities like burning coal and oil for power, propulsion and electricity that have been putting more carbon into the atmosphere than nature can safely reabsorb. The Industrial Age changed the world, generally for the better, but with consequences that weren't considered at the time. Developments from the Industrial Age resulted in the Enhanced Greenhouse Effect where the earth can no longer absorb the greenhouse gases that have and continue to be released at an ever greater level. As a result the level of atmospheric CO2 continues to rise. It's now the highest it has been in 800,000 years. Other greenhouse gases like methane, which are many times stronger greenhouse gases than CO2, are released from the consequences of other industrial processes like certain farming activities, and decomposition of organic material. Artificial refriderants have even higher Global Warming Potential than CO2 and methane. As the concentration of greenhouse gases rises in the atmosphere more heat released from the earth is reflected back to earth by the CO2 blanket. The temperature rises.

The scientists who we should be listening to tell us we need to reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions - now! The scientists and others saying the human-induced climate change is all hog wash would probably have been spruiking the health benefits of smoking cigarettes not long ago.

If someone claims that the rise in atmospheric CO2 is not caused by human activity they are either ignorant or disingenuous. There's money and fame to be made by being on the minority side of a big argument.

Internal combustion engines release CO2 as exhaust gases, and coal-fired power plants release CO2 in burning the coal. Consider the number of motor vehicles running around the world right now, and the number of coal-fired power plants in use or planned. Then remember the world's population continues to grow and a large part of it will demand higher and higher standards of living through growing affluence (buying a car, eating meat, building a bigger house, creating more waste.) Watch the accelerating growth of the middle class in China with its increasing consumption. Unfortunately, the Sustainability mantra of reduce, recycle, reuse doesn't appeal while climbing 'the ladder of success.' What to do?

Come-on Australian government, pull your finger out and show real leadership - you are in danger of being the laughing stock of the world with your heads in the sand (or up something else!)

If it's June this must be France

2014-11-09T19:48:00.000+10:30

We evaded part of Adelaide's 2014 winter by spending all of June in France with 3 nights in Dubai as a stopover.

Dubai: 30 May - 2 June
Highlights - a very, very expensive and indulgent lunch at Al Mahara (seafood restaurant within an aquariam) at Burj al Arab; 1 hour privately chartered water taxi tour of Dubai Creek.
Lowlight - 4wd Desert Safari trip (OMG/WTF to quote the kids).

Paris: 2 - 6 June
Stayed in lovely B&B 'Un Ciel a Paris' near Les Gobelins metro station, with Adelaide friends Vic and Rob.
Highlights - Segway tour of Paris; concert at Notre Dame cathedral; Musée d'Art Moderne & Contemporaine de Ville; dinner in theatre restaurant 'La Vieux Belleville' - a must do! Canal Saint-Martin boat tour.
Lowlight - none!

Nantes: (the afternoon of 6 June) to visit Les Machines de L'Île
TGV Atlantique train from Paris Gare Montparnesse - no air conditioning possibly due to striking SNCF workers, or it could have just been that way.
Les Machine de L'Île - a must see for parents with pre-teen boys. Beth was a little bored by it. Nantes looked lovely though!

La Rochelle: 6 - 9 June
Afternoon Coral Intercites train from Nantes.
Stayed at luxury B&B 'Entre Hôtes' with wonderful hosts and 'love-me' dog 'Happy.'
Highlights - A lovely, charming sea-side city, very attractive!; hiring bicycles for an afternoon pedal out of town - very bike friendly; lots of fun, good cafes to eat at; wonderful gelati that had people queuing for 15+ minutes to buy.
Lowlights - an impatient waitress who didn't have time for a foreigner trying to speak French; my lack of understanding that doing an international wire transfer from Oz to France would incur a 20 Euro fee for a 150 Euro transaction (read the small print!)

Bordeaux: 9 - 13 June
11:02am Coral Intercites train from Nantes delayed then again no air-conditioning once on board - lots of French people fanning themselves with stoic faces.
Stayed in B&B 'La Grenadine' a recently converted warehouse into B&B rooms, ours was an attic room with separate sitting room. Wonderful, thoughtful hostess Camille, very comfortable room (with air-conditioning!)
Highlights - Bordovino mini-van tour of Chateau Cantenac Brown, and Chateau du Taillon - excellent guide and experience; Segway tour #2 (see a lot of the city in a short period of time - beginning to feel cocky riding one...); easy to get around old city area on trams. Wonderful Miroir d'Eau, the world's largest reflecting water feature and so, so popular with kids and others to walk through.
Lowlight - CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain was quite weird..

Toulouse: 13 - 18 June
Our Coral Teoz train from Bordeaux was cancelled due to the SNCF strike but we were able to take one 2 hours later. Later SCNF workers picketed a government building down the road from our B&B but peaceful again.
Stayed at B&B in old Toulouse 'Côte Carmes' a lovely experience, wonderful, helpful hosts.
Highlights - seeing various exhibitions during the Toulouse International Art Fair especially Swiss artist Frank Gertsch's enormous paintings and prints at Musée des Augustines; hamburger restaurant A L'exces with wonderful, helpful, friendly owner; free Rio Lobo outdoor concert because the workers were on strike and didn't collect admission fees;
Lowlights - 'Let's Visit Airbus A380' tour - while trying to find the factory others advised us, 'set your expectations low and you won't be disappointed' they were right; Rick crashing off a Segway halfway into the 2.5 hour tour, kilometers from anywhere! Well enough to remount the Segway and get back to base then hobble back to waiting Beth. Masses of scrapes and bruises including very swollen leg. Got too cocky. Note, the French say 'chute' for crash.

Carcassonne: 18 - 21 June
Some nervousness while waiting on the train station platform for its imminent arrival when flare-carrying SCNF strikers walked across the tracks (but they kept on walking). Train from Toulouse to Carcassonne then short taxi ride from the Gare to the medieval walled city. We stayed in funky B&B 'Chambre Le Grand Puits' in the Orange room (and it was!) Very convenient and inexpensive accommodation.
Highlights - getting lost in the tiny walled city; lots of cafes to chose from; tour of the castle within the city (wow!). Watching France play in World Cup on big screen tv across from our B&B.
Lowlights - Having lunch in a pizza restaurant (Cafe Latin) that didn't actually serve pizza? Two hour 45 minute canal boat tour of Canal du Midi which would have been fun except for the unpadded wooden seats that had everyone squirming.

Aix-en-Provence: 21 - 28 June
Train from Carcassonne to Aix via Marseille. Stayed in rented house with Melbourne friends Gary and Sandy, and Sandy's brother and sis-in-law Mark and Wendy from Perth.
Highlights - Spending time with old friends, meeting new ones; half day trip to Marseille, red bus tour with half hour stop at La Virge, and 'Visages' (Picasso, Magritte, Warhol) exhibition at Vieille Charité former nunnery; guided walking tour of Aix 'The Old City' with knowledgeable guide (beware, pickpockets target tour groups); Jean Planque collection at Granet XXe Musée - knockout!; cooking class with Chef Ronald for dinner at our rented home; seeing impatient American woman rush into automatic toilet and getting locked inside during the cleaning cycle ('Halp! John, I'm drowning!!!' bahahaha!); half day escorted tour to Cassis & 3 Calanques; visit to Les Baux to see Croiseres Luminiéres projection show in underground quarry.
Lowlights - none.

Dijon: 28 - 30 June
Early morning TGV train from Aix to Dijon - don't forget there are two Gares in Aix, and the TGV station is about 20 minutes by car from downtown.
Stayed at Mercure Dijon Centre Clémenceau, somewhat tired hotel that doesn't deserve 4 stars. Less than helpful staff during our stay. Easy to get into the city by tram.
Highlights - walking tour of the city from the Tourism office; Musée des Beaux-Arts medieval and renaissance collection in renovated section of the museum - quite a knock-out and puts the modern and contemporary section of the museum to shame (but it is scheduled for an upgrade); takeaway food and wine for dinner in our room; more World Cup on tv.
Lowlights - none.

Paris to Dubai to Adelaide: 30 June arriving 2 July
TGV train from Gare Dijon Ville to Paris Gare du Lyon, then RER D train from Gare du Lyon to Gare du Nord, and RER C train to Charles de Gaulle terminal 2. Don't forget that your metro tickets aren't accepted for the RER trains. RER ticket cost 19.50 Euro, beware the scam artists at the CDG RER exit charging underticketed travellers 100 Euro to get into the airport.

CBA 'Travel Money Card' - Don't leave home without checking it...

2014-07-28T22:28:00.002+09:30

We've used the Travel Money Cards for accessing money while overseas. You pre-load them with a specific amount of money in one or more different currencies then use it like a normal MasterCard or ATM card. Australia Post has a similar product as do the two big airlines in Australia. They are pretty common.

Once the TMC is set-up it works pretty well. But if you get one do check that it actually works before you leave home. The customer service rep at a close-by branch got our cards and set them up on the bank's system but she miskeyed an important number making the cards useless. It wasn't until we were overseas in the US and tried to use it that we discovered something was wrong. We were using cheap overseas cell phones as Aussie mobiles run on different systems than those in the US. The cheap phones we used didn't produce an audible tone when you pressed the keypad, so we weren't able to use the TMC touch-tone navigation system. Very frustrating and we complained to the CBA about it on return and they were very apologetic and implemented procedural changes to keep the situation from reoccurring. But it is cheap insurance is to check the card before you leave home.

Sobering reminder

2014-07-21T22:12:00.001+09:30

The last post of mine was about the mysterious loss of MH370, which still hasn't been found. The relatives of passengers and crew lost on MH370 haven't had closure on their loss. And now MH17, shot down over Ukraine. The news shows body bags days after the plane fell from the sky, and reports of looting by the pro-Russian separatists. Just terrible. A small consolation is that we know the fate of those who were aboard MH17. May they rest in peace.

Sculpture hired

2013-09-02T12:13:00.002+09:30

Each year ArtSA selects an indoor sculpture to hire for 12 months, to be located in the foyer of the State Administration Centre building. I've applied several times but the competition is always very fierce and mine wasn't selected. But that changed this year and I'm thrilled that my sculpture, 'In Case of Emergency, Break Glass' was the winning submission and it has been installed at the State Administration Centre foyer. Woo hoo! The foyer is open during office hours for a visit if you are in the area (Victoria Square in downtown Adelaide.)

Tip-toeing into Vegan Land

2013-08-04T23:28:00.000+09:30

Our youngest has recently developed a vegetarian eating habit, except for the occasional McDonalds, and invited us to join her for lunch in the city at a funky (my description) vegan restaurant.

Getting into the place was kind of like what I expect going through the wardrobe would have been in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - transported immediately from the familiar world into a disturbingly similar yet possibly uncomfortable one: you enter through what seemed to be a tiny unmarked wooden doorway off Rundle Street East End, up old wooden stairs, to another door at the top of the stairs. This door was closed and there were warning (my description) signs stuck on the door:

'New Staff Member - please be patient.'

and

'If you are in a hurry don't enter!'

and

'This door may be closed for extended periods.'

We bravely and ignorantly pushed through the closed door, deciding to take our chances with a new staff member no matter how slow he or she was today. We were in this experience with our beloved child, no matter how long it would take.

The decor inside was kind of in the style of rococo, I guess. Several large, heavily textural mosaic-framed images hung on the walls (wouldn't want one of those falling on my head while eating a vege-burger.) Interesting and precise hand-written menus on the walls that someone had spent more time than might be reasonably expected making. Is this, I don't know, 'vegan culture'? I had a fleeting memory about my days as a budding ceramic artist and the purists who wouldn't use clay that they hadn't dug from the ground and processed themselves. Sure we could all hand-write our menu signs. But I've got a computer and printer.

I don't know much about vegetarian food but I normally eat all my veggies, and I'd actually like to learn to cook vegetarian meals other than really unimaginative baked pumpkin blobs and things like that. Seriously. I do make a pretty mean spanikopita from a Greek cookbook that I stole from an old girlfriend, but that has cheese and eggs in it and I think vegan prohibits any animal products in the food. But it does taste good! Think lots of melted butter between those layers of filo.

I'm also known to make falafel in pita bread and learned that if one eats too many of them in one sitting that you'll soon be blasting loudly and noxiously from the backside. 'Everything in moderation' my dear wife would sensibly remind me. But I do love a good falafel in pita wrap.

So the falafel wrap on the hand-printed menu was my choice. I know falafel, and I like falafel. My wife ordered a different wrap. Youngest ordered a vege-burger - but without chips or Diet Coke.

Our food came-out pretty quickly in spite of the warning signs. I said to the server that I had the falafel wrap and the other wrap went to my wife, and of course that left the vege-burger through a process of elimination. The wraps were contained in Glad-wrap, which I thought would be an affront to vegan culture. Shouldn't they be in greaseproof paper or something a bit more eco-friendly? Brown paper? I don't know. My wife cut her wrap in half through the plastic, and I completely unwrapped mine. Big mistake.

The restaurant was a little underlit so I couldn't really see what was in my wrap but it was tasty. And oh so chewy. How can vegetarian food be so chewy? I tasted sultanas, coconut, alfafa sprouts - actually felt them more than tasted them as they are kind of hairy damp semi-crunchy nose-ticklers most of the time, something like blocks of butter but what turned-out to be avocado, and lots and lots of sunflower seeds. But did I find any trace of falafel in my wrap? No. Youngest child was wading through her vege-burger. Dear wife was enjoying her wrap saying 'this is unexpected'. I was chewing, chewing, chewing through mine while also watching it disintegrate in my hands. Shouldn't have unwrapped my wrap.

I got about 3/4 the way through eating my wrap, enjoying it but feeling a bit cheated that I couldn't find any falafel at all in it. But is one allowed to complain? Is falafel too expensive to use in a falafel wrap so instead it is padded-out with the rest of the ingredients? What if I upset the new staff member by complaining and she or he broke-down as it was the first day and the best effort possible and why was this customer being so unreasonable?! So I didn't. And I also thought that we had pushed our way into this tiny little restaurant despite the sign on the door and that perhaps vegan culture would have had us wait outside the door until invited in. We could have broken so many vegan rules without knowing it.

You know when you visit a foreign country and the customs are just different enough from your own that you don't know if some small, possibly accidental occurrence is just that, and not 'the way they do things here' that you make it out to be in your mind? That's vegan-land for me just now. I don't know my way around this place and what its rules are yet. What did that sign about the door being closed actually mean anyway?

Afterwards we paid for the meal - cash only of course. And like any group or amateur restaurant reviewers we dissected our meals while walking back to the car. I said that my wrap seemed to have a lot of coconut and avocado and sprouts and sultanas and sunflower seeds but not a bit of falafel which disappointed me, but that it was tasty, as my summary. My wife said that she was surprised that there wasn't a bit of avocado or coconut in her wrap but it tasted like a falafel dish, nice though. And youngest said she should have ordered a half serve instead of the full one.

Should have guessed it.

Best way to learn something - teach it!

2013-06-09T18:00:00.001+09:30

In early September last year I was asked to teach AutoCAD 3D to first year Furniture Design students at the Marleston TAFE campus here in Adelaide. The regular lecturer was on medical leave and I'd taught AutoCAD and Inventor to other TAFE classes, but never AutoCAD 3D. But what the heck, why not?!

There was a unexpected challenge for me as there was no coursework or lecture plan for the this 16 week long class. A bit of panicking was acceptable in the situation, but other lecturers at the campus were greatly helpful in loaning me AutoCAD 2012 books, and files and exercises from earlier classes. From those I was able to cobble-together enough exercises and lectures to be at least 1 week ahead of my students in the learning curve. And I'm always indebted to Terry, my former AutoCAD teacher at Panorama who lives and breathes everything AutoCAD or Inventor.

During those 16 weeks I learned a LOT about AutoCAD 3D. But it doesn't seem that the 3D functions of AutoCAD are the most widely used aspects of the product. My guess is that the AutoCAD 3D functions were included before individual 3D modelling and rendering products were more widely available, and that Autodesk would really rather that you used Maya or 3ds Max for generating surfaces, or Inventor for creating machines.

Despite that, there were 9 students who had to gain competency in the 3D functions of AutoCAD to be able to advance in their furniture design course. And I had the responsibility for getting them there.

They rose to the challenge. The final project that they had to complete was to design and model a pool table with balls on it, pool cues on the table or in a rack, and site them in a partial room with a two back walls and a floor. I thought they would appreciate this task as during lunch breaks they could regularly be found in the lunch room playing pool. To complete the task they had to add surfaces and texture to the objects, place at least 2 lights in the set, and make some high definition renders. The results were wonderful - imagination went wild and one young woman created a pool table with massive legs that ended on tiny supports on the floor. The great thing about designing objects on the computer is that they don't actually have to work. You can defy design rules, forget about gravity and mass, and have a great time!

It was a good experience. I hope the 9 students have gone-on and become designers of exotic, exciting furniture for appreciative clients.

Working for a famous artist

2013-06-09T17:36:00.001+09:30

About March last year I started working a day a week as the studio assistant for internationally famous Adelaide sculptor Greg Johns. Jamie, Greg's assistant of 13 years moved onto to other things and Greg asked me if I would take-on the role. I've got my own sculpture practice which is very different from Greg's, but what a great opportunity for me to work alongside someone with 30+ years 'in the business' of making art, and making a living from it for almost the same period. I'm a 'newbie' with only 9 years of professional arts practice under my belt.

So each Thursday you can find me at Greg's studio in the Adelaide Hills, welding and grinding and welding and grinding. Greg works mainly with Cor-ten rusting steel while most of my sculptures are made in mild steel, then painted. I've learned that rust is wonderful for a sculptor - if a sculpture gets scraped or scratched in shipping it doesn't matter because you can just leave it outside for a while and the damaged area rusts back 'to normal'. Also, with items that are to be painted you have to finish the surface a lot more than with a Cor-ten piece. I'm guessing that the matte finish of rust covers and hides surface detail much better than paint does - paint shows every imperfection.

Come-up and say hello some Thursday! See some of Greg's work.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Travel Money Card

2011-02-21T09:12:00.001+10:30

Before we left for Europe I organised a CBA Travel Money Card, which is a pre-paid ‘MasterCard'. It allows you to store money in several different currencies, can be used in ATM machines, and is widely accepted as a MasterCard credit card in shops. A big selling point is that it’s easily replaced if lost or stolen, and that if it is lost or stolen then your normal bank accounts can’t be cleaned-out by the thieves.

It was the first time we’ve used a card like this. On previous overseas trips we just used credit cards and our eftpos card.

Late last year the Australian Financial Review provided a useful review of many travel money card products including the American Express one, and the Travelex cashpassport. These two, and the CBA Travel Money Card made-up our short-list. From memory, the AMEX product was rated the best for our particular needs but I had concerns about whether the AMEX product would be as widely accepted as the CBA Travel Money Card product which is used as a MasterCard.

So we chose the CBA product for our trip.

Overall, the card worked as expected. There were a couple of stores in Italy where their card reader wouldn’t accept it so we had to revert to using a credit card for payment.

‘Recharging’ the card is straight-forward if you have a secure Internet access method as you have to log-on to your CBA Netbank account then do a bPay payment to the card. Or you can do it by telephone banking. Caution though: bPay can take up to 3 days for the funds to reach the Travel Money Card from your transaction account. Ah, the bank float: using your money for their profit!

At one point we worried that a bogus transaction might have been made on the card so I called the bank’s 24/7 international Customer Service Centre number back in Australia, using a pre-paid international calling card to do so.

You can also call the Customer Service Centre to check your balance, or go to the CBA website to check on-line what your card balance is. But you want to be careful that you are using a secure Internet connection in doing the latter as your user name, password and card number are required to check the balance.

It surprised me to find out that the pre-paid phone calling card starts charging for the international call as soon as the number starts ringing, not, as I’d expect, when the call is answered. This wouldn’t normally be a problem but when the ‘24/7’ customer service centre number isn’t answered for minutes, ringing, ringing, ringing, your pre-paid calling card balance quickly gets eroded.

This was quite frustrating that my call wasn’t answered within what I thought was a reasonable amount of time. I had to hang-up and call again after minutes waiting while the service centre number rang and rang and rang and rang-out. The costs incurred while listening to the phone ring and ring grew so much that I actually had to hang-up and recharge my calling card because of the length of time waiting for the Travel Money Card people to answer the phone.

Once my call was answered the service was fine. But I imagined how terrible it would have been if my card had been stolen and I didn’t have a way of enduring the unacceptably long delay in having my call answered as the phone card would probably also have been lost in my wallet.

It happened each time I called the service centre so it wasn’t just bad luck of calling at an exceptionally busy time.

The pre-paid international calling card I used was one from eKit, provided in the document pouch for escorted tours like the ones we did with Insight Tours in central Europe, then the Trafalgar tour in Italy. It’s easy to use, easy to recharge using a credit card, but probably not the least expensive option. My advice with the calling cards is to check the contract fine print to find when the charging starts – when you call is answered, or when your call starts to ring.

Paris, December 2010, long...

2011-02-17T14:03:00.001+10:30

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Stayed at the Minerve Hotel in the Latin Quarter. Small room but everything else excellent.
Returned to Paris CDG airport to retrieve Ms16's purse lost on our Melbourne-Hong Kong Cathay Pacific flight - impressive bureaucracy to overcome!
Lunch at Restaurant le Jules Verne on the Eiffel Tower despite 'the monument is on strike'?
Excellent Henry Moore retrospective at the Musée Rodin.
Very disappointing show at The Lido.
Exciting (for an artist) fine arts supply store in Paris called 'Adam'.
Killing a few hours at Musée du Louvre while Beth shops.
TGV train to Frankfurt breaks down, return to Paris...

THE GORY DETAILS

Paris was the second stop in our 7 week long European holiday after depositing youngest daughter ('Ms16') with her French host family from Macon, where she attended school for the duration.

We've been there a few times before and love the city despite small annoyances like unwanted attention from pick-pockets on the RER trains and the Métro. In past visits we stayed at the Familia Hotel in the Latin Quarter. It's a clean, friendly family-run 2 star hotel in a great location but our rooms have always been tiny, which isn't unusual for an old Parisian 2 star hotel.

This time we thought we'd splurge a bit and try their sister hotel next door, the Minerve Hotel, a 3 star hotel, and booked on-line. It too is a clean, friendly, family-run hotel and despite everything else being excellent, the room too was very small. It was advertised as a 'double classic' room on the Internet booking form, and it turned-out to be one of the two smallest rooms on our floor. As the hotel wasn't very busy, and rooms were available, having a larger room would have been nice. We'd stay there again, but would ask for a room large enough to open two suitcases.

Paris - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - with snow

Paris was cold. It snowed but not enough to disrupt our plans. But cold, cold, cold! We walked fast!

There's a wife in here somewhere...

In an earlier post I explained how Ms16 lost her purse on one of our flights to France. The Cathay Pacific ground staff found the purse and forwarded it to Paris CDG airport for us to collect later. I'll spare you the gory details but have to say that although I almost never get angry when dealing with a challenge, this was an exception. Usually it's my good wife who can turn-on indignation when required, usually resulting in resolution of the problem in her favour. This time she was consoling me!

It had nothing to do with the Cathay Pacific staff as they were great once they came on duty in the airport (if there are no flights in or out of the airport by a specific carrier then their staff aren't there until a few hours before travellers would normally be expected.) But trying to get assistance from an airport information desk woman was very frustrating as we walked here there and everywhere at her instruction trying to find a certain something. We could have been on an orienteering exercise! The Paris airport should acknowledge the perseverance that we had to demonstrate by awarding us merit badges, something like, 'I got my lost luggage back from Paris CDG!!!'

Continuing the tradition that we started in Lyon of eating well we had lunch 123m above the ground at restaurant Le Jules Verne in/on? the Eiffel Tower. I booked and paid a deposit via the Internet before leaving Adelaide. The deposit would be forfeited if we didn't show-up at our appointed time. The Métro got us close to the Tower, and as we walked the short distance to it, past all the Africans selling small metal Eiffel Towers, umbrellas, and tea towels, we saw signs outside the ticket windows saying the 'monument was on strike'.

The Eiffel Tower 'on strike'? Hunh?

I thought, 'great, our one day that we can do this and the darned thing is on strike. But how does a building or structure 'go on strike'? But it wasn't a problem as the restaurant has its own private lift which was running fine. As you'd expect, the dining experience was lovely, and quite memorable. Excellent food and wine, and Beth was very impressed with the place-holding plates set on the table then elegantly removed as our lunch-laden plates were delivered.

Lunch at Le Jules Verne, Eiffel Tower. With lapel pin..

After the meal we had to inspect our respective genders' toilets, on strong recommendation from friends who had been to the Jules Verne before us. Beth found them more impressive than I did, perhaps as there's only so much that an establishment can do in dressing-up the functional aspects of a loo. What impressed me, but not Beth, was seeing the structure of the Tower up close, including the pulleys and mechanisms of the lifts. Boys's stuff.

As we left the Eiffel Tower the French mounted police made a token raid on the Africans, sending the running everywhere, until two police cornered one of them and led him away to face the charge of selling really tacky crap in Paris. I expect the others were back at their spreads selling the little towers, umbrellas and other junk within 15 minutes of the police leaving.

Before we left Adelaide I bought a small lapel pin that showed both the French and Australian flags on it. Whenever I've been to France previously my American accent was immediately noticeable and sometimes resulted in others automatically assuming I possessed the worst characteristics of American tourists. I thought by wearing this lapel pin it would indicate that I was from Australia and positively predisposed to things French. Hah! That backfired! I first wore it when we had lunch at the restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon and later into the meal Monsieur Bocuse walked through the restaurant stopping at each table to meet and greet the guests. Except for our table where he looked at us then walked-onto the next table. Was it because we didn't down our utensils and rise to our feet to greet him quickly enough, or was it because his 86 year old eyesight misread my lapel pin as being British! Which could be worse than being American in France!

We don't know, and after politely requesting a chance to meet the great chef he did come to our table for a Kodak moment and handshaking. But that was back in Lyon.

I'm strongly leaning to the first explanation: that the lapel pin looks British rather than Australian, because of a separate experience at our next big lunch, at Le Jules Verne, where I also wore the pin as seen in the photo above. Once seated at our table a very proper English waiter in the restaurant came to our table and greeted us, saying something like 'Ah, very good to one wearing the colours!' apparently also mistaking the wee Aussie flag for the Union Jack. After all, it largely is the Union Jack. I think the now recurring public discussion in Australia about adopting a new flag is timely. And I have forever retired my misleading lapel pin.

One day in Paris we walked to some sights that we hadn't seen before like L'Hôtel national des Invalides where Napoleon's tomb is located. I'll certainly say that the French delight in 'monumenting' their heroes. But life goes-on despite famous tombs, and cold weather. It didn't stop these gentlemen from their regular boules meeting:

Outside Les Invalides - boules

The tombs inside are amazing.

Tomb within Les Invalides

Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb - Les Invalides

We weren't allowed to take photos of the Henry Moore retrospective at the Musée Rodin but it was a good visit. The Rodin bronzes in the gardens are great to walk through but we'd done that on a previous visit. The Moore retrospective included a recreation of his studio, showing works in progress. I'd never seen some of his very large plaster works from which the bronzes were taken. How he made the sculpts for the large, lovely bronzes never occurred to me. But having made 6 small cast bronze sculptures last year for an exhibition I've now got a better appreciation for the process.

Since our last Paris visit Beth really wanted to see one of the big dancing shows like The Lido, or The Moulin Rouge. So we booked a drinks/show package one night for The Lido on recommendations from Adelaide friends. They obviously saw a different performance than we did as ours was a major disappointment. I think it was their revue called 'Bonheur' that tried to show the best of all previous revues. Sadly, it was a 100 Euro per person flop, and we were sitting in the nose-bleed area seated perpendicular to the stage, sharing our table with (a lovely) couple from Vienna or Berlin.

The Lido show designer succeeded in creating a 'kitchen sink' production that just threw everything they had at the audience: 23 sets that included a 5 metre Indian temple, an 80,000 litre water pool, and even an ice skating rink! Add to that 600 costumes. The ice skater fell down, one of the female leads couldn't sing in tune, the dancers were out of step, and there was a guy who's speciality was juggling large bobbins on a string between two sticks - a little of that goes a long way!

As we sat side-on to the show our legs started cramping, and the two middle eastern guys sitting in the booth next to us wouldn't shut-up despite multiple glares from us. The only time they did stop talking was when the topless dancers came on stage. But, we can tick 'The Lido' off our bucket list. But there was a funny comedian who added some value to the experience.

Since making the small bronzes I developed an appreciation for using nice wax-working tools, which I haven't been able to find to buy in Adelaide. Maybe the larger cities sell them, but I wasn't able to find them on the web either in Australia. So while in Paris we visited a fine arts supply store and I asked about wax-working tools, which that store didn't handle. But the first store directed me to a wonderful store called 'Adam' near the Métro Jules Joffrin station, on rue Damremont. I was like a kid in a candy store - so many beautiful tools.

Loved it! 'I saved us so much money!' (I'm learning...)

I returned to Adelaide with some fine, stainless steel tools that I hope to use once the cooler weather returns and working with wax is practical in an un-air conditioned studio/workshop.

One cold and wet day Beth determined that she had to visit certain shoe stores in Paris near the Louvre, so while she exercised shop assistants I visited a part of the Museum I hadn't been to before. The last time we were there we did the tourist thing of running-in the see the Mona Lisa, took a quick piccy, then ran-out, having 'done' the Louvre. Well, not really 'doing' the Louvre but we did see one of their most famous paintings, elbowing away the mainly Japanese visitors there that day.

So I wandered through the Cour Marly off the Louvre's Richelieu entrance where so much monumental statuary is placed. Oh wow! Wonderful carved marble works from the 16th century. I loved the spaciousness of the setting - nothing was crowded. But the French seem to do that very well - majestic use of space in public monuments.

Cour Marly in The Louvre

While in the Louvre I had to visit the men's room and just before entering it a woman walked confidently out of it, smiled at me and responded to what must have been my questioning look by indicating that yes, it is a men's room, and that I should proceed. Then another woman walked-out as well and joined her friend. Again smiling at me as she shook the water off her hands. Okay, I didn't really wonder if they both spit while at the urinal, but it did remind me that Europeans are less hung-up on normal bodily things than Aussies, and certainly much more relaxed about it all than are Americans. It wasn't uncommon for a cleaner woman to walk into the men's while guys were writing their names in the urinals. No big deal. Not there.

And despite exhausting a shoe store assistant Beth didn't add to her luggage this time.

Our last task was to wake-up early enough to leave the hotel by taxi to get to the Paris Gare de l'Est, one of the 6 big SCNF train stations in Paris, to catch our TGV train to Frankfurt then a sleeper train from Frankfurt to Vienna. It had been snowing in Paris and I worried that the taxi would have difficulties getting to the station in time, but it wasn't an issue and we arrived about an hour before we had to. When travelling Beth is very tolerant of my oft repeated 'I'd rather be early than have all the stress from a late arrival,' comment. And I think that's one of the few things I can say to her that reliably generates a 'Yes dear' response. But only while travelling.

Can Australia's population really not support a high-speed rail link between the larger capital cities? It is a great way to travel - the stations are often in the city or closer to it than the airports are; you don't have big delays in security processing; and populations are increasing, fossil fuels are decreasing, people don't indicate that they want to travel less, and trains are not as affected by adverse weather as are airplanes and airports. High speed train travel is so practical and easy. I 'loved' it when compared with commuter air travel.

Before leaving for Europe we bought Eurail passes and made some reservations for the TGV trains and sleeper trains that we knew we'd take. The passes save a lot of money, and can be very flexible in terms of when and where you travel, within some constraints.

But somehow we ended-up on a TGV train that had a fault. Our trip from Paris to Frankfurt via Karlsruhe developed a 'technical problem' that made it stop several times on the track. At first I thought it was weather related as it was snowing hard outside, but that wasn't the cause. After a few of these unexpected stops the conductor announced that due to a 'serious technical fault' (said in French - the English and German announcements didn't mention that it was a 'serious' fault, possibly because the conductor was concerned that the English and German speakers might have a heart attack on learning of the seriousness, or leap from the train in case it was to explode) our train was diverting to Reims from where we would return to Paris Gare de l'Est, leave this train, board a replacement TGV and continue our journey towards Germany.

Our sick TGV in Reims, sulking before returning to Paris.

It was on the TGV from Paris that we sat behind 'Sarah and Thomas' from Australia who had lost their luggage somewhere in the bowels of Heathrow and had packed everything in their suitcases including their Nokia phone charger. They were trying to get to Austria for a friend's birthday but the snow really disrupted their flights. So they resorted to taking the train. But I covered that in my post about Lyon. I'm over it now, I no longer need to feel smug for taking the most important things in my carry-on bag. Including my Nokia phone charger...

It took us three hours to reach Reims but only about 35 minutes to return to Paris. For some reason the train worked fine going in reverse but didn't like going forward. And sure enough, we got off our broken TGV, walked across platform 3 and boarded an exact replacement TGV train, sitting in the same seats on the new train that we had on the original. As compensation for the delay we were given bright red lunch boxes filled with, um, interesting long-life products some of which were tasty. We also received a form to complete to claim financial compensation from SCNF for the delay.

Mystery food parcel on replacement TGV from Paris.

Our replacement TGV didn't go to Karlsruhe then Frankfurt. Instead it dropped us off in Strasbourg where we had to run to catch a commuter train to Offenburg, then jump onto the German ICE (InterCity Express) to Frankfurt. We made it, but arrived very late afternoon in Frankfurt missing our city tour that we booked as we would have several hours to kill before boarding our sleeper train from Frankfurt to Vienna to join our first escorted tour, through central Europe for a week with Insight Tours.

More later, on to Vienna!

Lyon, France - December 2010, long...

2011-02-16T22:45:00.019+10:30

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Lyon was the first stop on our holiday, where we 'delivered' our youngest daughter to her French host family for a 7 week school exchange in Macon.
Learned our daughter's luggage was delayed at Paris airport on our arrival in Lyon.
Enjoyed a lovely lunch with the host family at Brasserie Georges in Lyon - a gastronomic institution specializing in offal.
Three Aussies dead tired after 36 hours of travel, but so impressed by such a lovely family hosting our daughter's visit.
Food impressions from Brasserie Georges and lunch the next day at 3 star Michelin restaurant Paul Bocuse. Yum, and Yum!
Hotel in Lyon - Grand Hotel des Terreaux in the Presqu'île, or 'peninsula' area - very comfortable; a nice stay. Later we stayed overnight at the NH Lyon Airport hotel, a modern, comfortable hotel, adjacent to the airport and the Lyon TGV train station.
A trap for newbies - check which train station you are leaving from.
How to get from one of Lyon's train stations to the other using the excellent Rhônexpress shuttle train - it has replaced the 'Navette' bus service between the two.
Two major churches visited in Lyon; one took 300 years to build, the other took 4 years to build. Spot the differences.
Beth locks herself in a restaurant toilet after sating herself on a Kebap, thrilled with her new boots Bought At A Sale!
Unexpected delight! Stumbling across the Roman museum in Lyon. Wonderful!
The Festival of Lights - oops, we missed it!
Next stop Paris...

THE GORY DETAIL

Our first stop in Europe during our 7 week holiday in December 2010 and January 2011 was in Lyon, while youngest daughter ('Ms16') participated in a French school exchange program for the 7 weeks in Macon, which is about 40 minutes away by train from Lyon.

Lyon, in the Rhône valley, is one of the gastronomic centres of France, with Macon is smack-dab in the middle of one of the country's major wine areas. That knowledge pleased me greatly! Beth and I were to stay in Lyon for three nights before traveling to Paris.

Lyon from Fouviére

We left Adelaide on 11 December, first stopping in Melbourne for additional passengers, then flying to Hong Kong where we changed Cathay Pacific planes for our flight to Paris. In Paris we collected our luggage, made our way to the Air France terminal and caught our one-hour ten-minute long flight to Lyon.

During our 36 hour long journey our daughter misplaced her purse containing all her important cards and cash that was to sustain her for the 7 weeks, but that's a separate story. Happily, it ended well. The Story of the Misplaced Purse.

In the days prior to us leaving Australia many parts of Europe were inundated by heavy snowfalls, which closed major airports for days. This resulted in a huge backlog of air travellers within Europe and people trying to get to Europe from overseas. We were lucky that the worst weather had moved-on before our arrival into Paris, so we faced no cancellations or flight delays along the way.

But there's always a challenge, isn't there? On arriving in Lyon we collected two of our three suitcases, but that of Ms16 didn't arrive. Have you had that sickening feeling caused by seeing the luggage carousel stop moving, you being the last person in that baggage claim area, and your suitcase has not appeared? Oh yeah.

We had some urgency in actually leaving the Lyon arrival hall as it's a sealed area that can't be seen into by people waiting to meet travellers. Ms16's host family was waiting for us outside the baggage claim area, so we worried that with no one else emerging from the closed baggage claim area they might think we missed the flight and leave the airport, with no easy way of us contacting them.

So Beth and Ms16 would leave the baggage area with the two bags that did arrive, and I would deal with the formalities of lodging a misplaced bag claim with Air France. Of the three of us traveling my French was probably marginally better than Ms16's at the time, but far short of Beth's linguistic skills. Seven weeks later Ms16 would leave me for dead with conversational French, as one would hope after spending that much time in a French school, where they speak French! My dear wife had studied French (and German) in university and for a while had considered a career as a translator. Don't you hate that? I do. As our French host family doesn't speak much English it made sense for Beth to meet with the host family and explain what was happening while I struggled by using my high school French that was modestly refined by working as a dishwasher in a French restaurant in Seattle. Go on, ask me to say 'cornichon'!

Being an over-prepared traveller I always, always, ALWAYS have a change of shirt, undies and socks in my carry-on bag just in case my luggage goes astray. This really annoys everyone else in the family. But I feel someone in the family has to think about what might go wrong and prepare for it. If I'd been on that plane in 'Lost' the series would have ended a lot quicker. Despite a very strong urge to say something to the effect of 'I told you so!' I had to bite my tongue and not gloat in this situation. Did Ms16 have a similar emergency change of clothes in her carry-on? In fact, did my wife? NOT!

The patient, multi-lingual Air France baggage manager explained that due to the huge backlog of air travellers, generated by the recent winter storms, many suitcases had not been sent with their owners and over time these bags were being on-shipped to their final destinations. Our flight from Paris to Lyon was supposed to carry 36 back-logged suitcases but only took 10. I wondered when I heard that how did we get lucky to own the only suitcase on the flight that didn't come with the passengers on that plane?

SIDE NOTE: We came across another example of the impact of being separated from your luggage while traveling later when Beth and I were on the TGV train from Paris to Vienna via Frankfurt. A young Aussie couple sitting in front of us, 'Sarah and Thomas,' asked to borrow a Nokia mobile phone charger as all of their luggage had been delayed in Heathrow and they were several days late for a friend's birthday in Austria. They didn't have a phone calling card and the battery on their mobile had long since died. Their Austrian friends who they were supposed to be meeting didn't know where they were or what was happening to them as they were out of contact.

You'd be proud of me; I was so good. Although I was tempted to say loudly, 'What, you packed your charger in your suitcase!? Are you serious!?' I did no such thing. They had probably heard if before, and yet another smug over-preparer saying it could have pushed them over the edge. I probably said something like, 'well, these things happen, don't they. But yes, we just happen to have a Nokia phone charger that you may borrow' [the one I always have in my CARRY-ON bag]. I TOLD YOU SO!

Once the formalities with the Air France baggage manager were done, and I left forwarding details of where my daughter would be for the next 7 weeks, I walked from the baggage area and met our daughter's host family. What absolutely lovely people; mum, two of their three daughters in-tow, dad, plus a very young daughter of a friend of theirs. Lots of very well educated French, but no English. Language. Even when I'm in perfect control of my faculties, rather than jet-lagged, brain dead and smelly from 36 hours of travelling, combined with the stress of dealing with a lost purse then a misplaced suitcase, I would have been proud in 2010 to say in French, 'This is a cat. I call myself Rick. I live in Adelaide.' Sadly, it doesn't get one very far in a foreign country with a vocabulary like that.

Before we left Adelaide we emailed our host family asking if they would be able to join us for a lunch in Lyon before we handed-over Ms16 to them. They booked lunch at the famous 'Brasserie Georges', a large, legendary restaurant in Lyon operating since 1836. Because of our delay caused by the misplaced suitcase we missed our 12:30 lunch reservation (the French would write 12H30, which I think is a very logical way of writing a time - it indicates unmistakably a time - half past noon in this case.) The maitre d' was proudly, supremely, busy and we were but mere diners come to bask in the culinary glow of this famous establishment; and the restaurant was full but turning-over quickly. So a beer at the bar killed some time until a table became free. I think maybe our French friends pleaded with him and might have said something like we were visiting Australian travel writers doing a piece on the best places to visit in Lyon, but as my French is not that good I can only guess.

There are certain dishes that Lyon is famous for and one of these is the tripe sausage, called the 'Andouillette'. It's a very big sausage, about the thickness of a cucumber or small watermelon, served at this restaurant covered with an aged mustard sauce. (This dish is serious business: read the Wikipedia entry - there is a committed club of French people who rate restaurants based entirely on the quality of their andouillette.)

Andouillette in mustard sauce - I dare you to eat it!

One of our group ordered the andouillette and politely offered small tastes to the Aussies who might not be familiar with Lyon specialty dishes. I tried it. I survived. Another of our group had what looked like a thick cut of a roast and again offered a taste to the Aussies, which I tried. I survived. I don't think I've ever had veal liver before. Probably won't again, despite it being the most tender meat that I've ever eaten. Go on, just call me boring and unadventurous when it comes to food. I will admit here for the record that I am not a keen offal eater. I've heard it before and I'll deal with it, I just don't care what I'm missing. So that's that. But I appreciated the offer to taste these Lyonnaise specialities

Lyon has a beautiful old part of the city, 'Vieux Lyon' where we stayed after fare-welling our dear jet-lagged but fed daughter. The old part is on a peninsula flanked by the Rhone river on one side, and the Saône river on the other. Both were running high from winter weather. And they very looked very cold.

Churches
Across the Saône river from the Presqu'île is the very old church, La Cathédrale Saint-Jean.

La Cathédrale Saint-Jean, built from 1165-1480

This Catholic church was built between 1165-1480. Can you imagine doing a ROI calculation today for a project like that? I'm guessing you'd almost need an act of God to get that past the investors. Sorry.

After visiting La Cathédrale Saint-Jean Beth found a boot shop With A Sale On! Stand-back.

Because our bodies were still on Adelaide time our stomachs weren't synchronized to the French dining hours, meaning that we missed the lunch hour (well, actually, 'we' shopped through the lunch hour ONLY OUT OF NECESSITY because Beth's old boots were hurting her feet. And There Was A Sale On!)

The only place in Vieux Lyon that was still serving food was a Kebap shop on Rue St Jean and that was good enough for me. The meal was inexpensive, filling, and tasty. Nothing special to report there. But my dear wife did succeed in locking herself into the toilet while I was paying the bill. I could hear a banging on a door and initially didn't think I had any personal investment in it. But it persisted, and my wife still hadn't returned. So Monsieur grudgingly went-off to rescue her. Apparently she made the mistake of turning the lock too far, or so she was told. And the French phrase book was useless - you'd think there would be an entry for 'Excuse me, sir, but my wife has locked herself in the toilet!' But no such luck.

Later we compared notes and wondered if it might be how they trap women before drugging them and selling them to an eastern European sex shop. But we moved-on quickly from that idea. Maybe there is a market for captured wives of middle-aged men. I don't know.

Atop the hill overlooking Vieux Lyon is the 'new' church, the Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére. One wouldn't guess by looking at the two different interiors that the Basilique was built much later than the Cathédrale Saint-Jean. I'd like to joke that you can do wonderful jobs with enough paint and gold leaf, but that would be detracting from the wonderful workmanship in making the Basilique.

Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére, built from 1872 to 1876

This 'modern' Catholic church has a lot of similarities to Sacré-Coeur in Paris. It is very impressive inside, but you'll have to go see for yourself.

Better ROI on this one.

When we came out of the Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviére it started snowing, and got very cold, which we weren't used to. A short walk 'down the hill' from the Basilique is the most amazing Museum of Roman artifacts, the Museé Gallo-Romain de Lyon-Fourvière. Quite a name, but what a treasure it was finding this place. I'll admit that we entered it mainly to escape the cold and snow, as neither one of us is especially interested in Roman ruins, but didn't this place delight us! Firstly the building architecture is stunningly powerful.


Entrance of Museé Gallo-Romain de Lyon-Fourvière

And what's inside the museum is impressive. We spent a couple hours there, more than enough time to thaw out. But a real treat was seeing the restored Roman amplitheatres outside the museum. Beth was easily talked into singing a powerful rendition of 'The Hills Are Alive' from the Sound of Music. You had to be there.

Sing girl, sing!

She sang to a most appreciative virtual audience! I thought, perhaps she just needs the right opportunity like this, after all, look what happened to fellow Scot Susan Boyle. This could be the break.

Hotels
Friends recommended staying in the Presqu'île, or 'peninsula' area, between the Saône and Rhône rivers. It provides easy walking distance to Vieux Lyon (old Lyon), which is a must-see. We consulted several resources including our Rough Guide book, TripAdvisor on the web, and travel books borrowed from our local library and stolen from friends. We were very happy staying at the three star Grand Hotel des Terreaux in the Presqu'île. It's not far from the Hôtel de Ville (which was occupied. That's a joke...) We booked a larger room, a 'Corbeille', thinking that we might appreciate the extra space after a long trip from Australia. The hotel advertises sound-proofed rooms and they certainly were - because our room was so quiet I thought for sure that no one else was in the hotel yet it was actually quite busy. The only sound I heard was from our strange bathroom sink that insisted on gurgling loudly whenever water ran through it. It was a strange drain. The hotel's website calls the facility a 'hostel' but I think that's a typo in their English translation because it certainly is a 'hotel'. Three nights at this hotel was most enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Later in our trip we had a need to stay overnight near the Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station (adjacent to the LYS airport) after arriving late in the evening from Milan, and the NH Lyon Airport was highly recommended. It's very new, the room we were in was very modern and comfortable and we were very happy there. The room rate was good value but I wish I'd asked how much the full breakfast cost before we ate it - it was fine but at 24 Euros each the breakfast for two cost about half of what one night's accommodation there did. There are lots of less expensive places for breakfast in the LYS airport located just across the road. But the hotel was great.

Food
We treated ourselves to lunch at the 3 star Michelin restaurant Paul Bocuse. Very expensive, very nice. Monsieur Bocuse greeted all the diners during the meal, stopping at each table to shake hands and have his photograph taken with the guests.

Planes and Trains
A trap for new train users in France is to be aware that in many French cities there are at least two train stations, the local station that is generally located very close to the heart of the city, and the TGV station that is some distance from the city. We were nearly caught-out by this while staying later in Aix-en-Provence when we arrived at the city train station for our travel to Nice, and only then read on the ticket the we were actually leaving from the TGV Aix-en-Provence station, some 17 km and 25 minutes away by taxi. And we had 45 minutes until our train left. We made it, but only just.

Another bit of advice, your TGV carriage is identified not by the number painted on the side of the car, but by the generally obscured small LED screen by the door. Check the train layout display on the TGV voie (platform) to save yourself a mad rush to the correct carriage.

In Lyon there are two main train stations, Lyon Part Dieu in the city, and Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station quite a way out of Lyon. Travel books like the Rough Guide say you can get between the two by taking a bus shuttle, a 'navette', between the two stations but the bus has been recently replaced with a great rail shuttle service called the Rhônexpress.

The Rhônexpress is a smart-looking red two-carriage train/tram departing every 15 minutes or so and taking a guaranteed 30 minutes or less to make the trip from the Lyon airport/Lyon-Saint Exupéry TGV station to Lyon Part Dieu, or vice versa. Before boarding you buy the tickets from a dedicated vending machine near where the Rhônexpress stops either at the airport TGV station or near the exit of the Lyon Part Dieu rail station. It cost about 13 Euros one way in January 2011. Students pay less (we found-out after buying all our tickets...)

Festival of lights
Sorry - we missed it by a day but did have a lovely view over Lyon from the illuminated ferris wheel. Maybe next year.

We both agreed that Lyon was as attractive, if not more so, than Paris. Maybe because we've been to Paris a few times before and it was our first visit to Lyon. But Lyon is well worth a visit, and allow yourself at least a few days, if you can, to get a feel for the place.

Onward to Paris...

Kudos to Cathay Pacific!

2011-02-07T17:08:00.000+10:30

Sometimes a business pleasantly surprises me by providing more than excellent service. It's easy to complain when someone doesn't provide a good service, so I think it's just as important to say something when something really good happens. Cathay Pacific certainly surprised us with exceptionally good service during our recent travels to France.

During what turned-out to be a 36 hour long journey from Adelaide to meet her French host family from Macon, our sixteen year old daughter lost her purse somewhere on our 11 December 2010 flights from Adelaide to Melbourne then Melbourne to Hong Kong. After Hong Kong we flew to Paris then Lyon, where the host family met us. Ms16 was to be their guest for seven weeks while attending a French school in Macon as part of a international school exchange program. We were escorting her through the challenges of international travel to Lyon.

Losing her purse was heart-breaking as it had her cash in Euros for her stay in France, Australian cash, her travel money card, EFTPOS card, school ids and many other treasures. All but the older school IDs were replaceable but not without a hassle. Luckily, her passport was not with the lost purse.

We were at the Hong Kong International Airport when she saw that her purse was missing, while the three of us were waiting to board our next flight from Hong Kong to Paris. We thought the purse might have been lost at Melbourne Airport's international transit lounge so tried to report the loss to the Victoria Police, who turned-out to be uncontactable from an international phone at about midnight on a weekend. How does one dial '000' from Hong Kong to reach Victoria Police from an international call? It wasn't a life-threatening event so we didn't try calling 000, but neither did we have any luck contacting a 'real' Victoria Police phone number that we could call from an international phone, as it was only attended between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. The lesson here is to plan any future losses or non-life threatening emergencies so that they fall within that 12 hour window.

Melbourne Airport had closed-down for the night and the phone number we found through Google for them was answered by their automatic call directory service but frustratingly passed repeatedly back to the initial message. I did hear, '... to speak with an assistant press 9...' so I pressed 9 and heard again after a short delay, 'Welcome to Melbourne International Airport. For xxx press 1, for yyy press 2, to speak with an assistant press 9.' It seemed that I was caught in endless loop pressing 9! No luck there.

I was able to telephone an actual person at the Australian Federal Police but she referred me back to Victoria Police because lost property wasn't within the AFP's jurisdiction.

And we weren't sure where the purse was last seen, whether it was in Melbourne Airport, or on the Cathay flight. I thought our chances were better if the purse had been lost on the plane rather than in the airport.

So Beth and our daughter reported the lost purse to the Cathay Pacific people in the First Class Lounge, which was the first official Cathay Pacific station that they could find in the huge HKIA. The Cathay person noted the details and said they would give us an update when we reached Paris. Which we thought would be that they didn't have any luck locating the purse.

We had 13 hours to worry about the lost purse as we flew from Hong Kong to Paris. Difficult to sleep under the circumstances.

At the Paris airport arrival gate the ground staff paged us and said that the purse had been found but that we had to see someone else for further information. This was unexpectedly good news! But we still didn't know if there was anything still in the purse.

After completing immigration formalities at Paris airport we found the correct baggage services counter and we were given an inventory of the contents of her purse. Amazingly, all the contents were still inside her purse. But while we were now in Paris, the purse wasn't - it would arrive on a later flight so we would have to come back to the airport to collect it. It wasn't expected until the next day. It would have been very helpful if the purse could have been forwarded to Lyon, but that wasn't possible. It would have to be collected from the Paris airport.

The baggage services people contracted by Cathay Pacific gave us a printed sheet with reference numbers to quote when we came to collect the purse. I was to learn later how important that specific piece of paper, not simply the reference number, was to be in reclaiming the purse.

When we told the baggage services people how surprised we were that first of all the purse had been found, and then that all the contents including the cash was still there, they said that it was very unusual for them not to return lost items completely intact to their owners. The airline obviously takes a lot of pride in being able to claim that, and with good reason.

So, much relieved, we collected our baggage from the Cathay Pacific arrivals hall to make our way to a different terminal where Air France would fly us to Lyon from Paris.

So, well done Cathay Pacific! Very impressive service! Thank you!

P.S. TRAVEL ESSENTIALS: a phone card to make international calls from a payphone.

P.P.S. I will write separately about the ordeal to actually retrieve the purse later, requiring us to deal with and overcome formidable French obstacles put-up by different Paris CDG airport personnel! Having dental fillings without anesthetic would have been more pleasant.

Great phone for travellers - Nokia C-100

2011-02-04T17:57:00.000+10:30

We recently traveled to Europe from Australia for 7 weeks and I didn't want to take my normal Aussie 'smart phone' in case I inadvertently ran-up enormous data charges by using my carrier's very convenient, but not cheap, Global Roaming service. Global Roaming allows you to make and receive calls and texts while using your normal phone account in a different country. Except for some reason, and dispite our carrier claiming that you could, we couldn't use Global Roaming with our Aussie phones while in New Zealand early last year. And yes, we had 'turned-on' the Global Roaming service through our carrier's website.

I had heard horror stories from friends who took an iPhone or equivalent smart phone that uses data services with them and they returned to Australia to be greeted by phone bills costing thousands of dollars.

I guess like most families we've outgrown several mobile phones and as I'm somewhat of a hoarder I don't usually throw them out - um, recycle them, I mean. Every couple of years we seem to update our phones as our mobile plan changes over. So we had a few phones lying around in different states of usability. But they were locked to our Australian carrier. It wasn't difficult to unlock most of them and it didn't cost anything to do so because they were out-of-plan. So our kids each got one of the recently superseded phones, unlocked so they could use overseas SIMs in them while they were traveling (separate to us), and I needed another phone that I could use for Beth and me while we were traveling.

I was in Officeworks for another reason and saw that they carried a few unlocked, 'purchase outright' phones for sale. Officeworks was selling this cute little unlocked Nokia phone for something like $59.

What made me buy this Nokia C-100 instead of less expensive phones was mainly because the C-100 supports two SIM cards in the phone at the same time. There are two different SIM carriers within the phone. You can't use both of the SIMs at the same time, you have to switch between them. Having two SIMs in the one phone let me keep my Aussie post-paid SIM card and use a pre-paid 'Mobicarte' from French carrier Orange for most of the calls and texts, and switch between the two through a couple of easy button clicks to 'Activate' the other SIM.

Why would I want to do this? Well, I was able to daily check for any messages sent to my Australian phone then respond using the French account as that was cheaper to do, and it became very handy when we were traveling in Italy and my Orange pre-paid Mobicarte was out of credit, but we couldn't purchase a recharge until we got back to France. (Don't get me started about trying to purchase a recharge on-line...) Using my Aussie SIM I was able send texts or make calls from that account to let the kids know we were still around. Sending texts using the Global Roaming did add significantly to my Aussie phone bill when we got home. But it was like a communications safety blanket.

Here's my very informal review of the C-100.

Likes:

It has an extremely easy-to-use calculator in the phone, lots easier than any other phone I've used. Handy when my wife couldn't remember what the AUD/EUR exchange rate meant when considering buying those wonderful shoes/bags/purses/coats/jumpers...
It has a built-in flashlight (torch) that was handy in preventing broken toes caused by crashing into furniture at night while searching for the toilet in a different hotel room every second day or so. Night time in some of those rooms was very dark!
It is very easy to switch between the two installed SIMS - there's no need to turn the phone off to activate the different SIM.
All my contacts were on the Aussie SIM, yet I could access them while using the French SIM. But I had to have the Aussie SIM activated in order to edit the contacts (like when I needed to add the international prefixes onto phone numbers that I needed to call or send texts to.)
It's very small and easy to carry around.
The battery life was excellent! Probably because I was mainly using it simply to receive and send text messages.
And come-on, looking like that, who's going to steal it? Pickpockets ran away when I flashed it at them.

Dislikes:

My major complaint about the C-100 is that the keypad is very loud, giving a substantial 'click' sound each time a key was pressed. Not a problem for me, but potentially annoying for people close by while I was texting. Or a wife trying to sleep while I'm wide awake and checking my messages (I was told it wasn't just 'potentially' annoying in this case.)
The screen is quite basic and small.
It's not a very 'fast' phone; more expensive phones operate faster but for the price I paid for this phone it is a very minor gripe.
The central 'button' inside the navigation buttons doesn't actually do anything, unlike my 'smart' Nokia. This just took some getting used to.

Well there you go, the number of 'Likes' outnumbers the 'Dislikes', so it must be a good phone.

Now I think I'm kind of hooked on a dual SIM phone when travelling. And I'd certainly recommend this little Nokia if your needs are similar to mine.

Enjoy!

Hey Big Guy, feeling invisible? Put-on some funky clothes!

2010-09-28T17:12:00.000+09:30

I was in Sydney last week for the quarterly NAVA board meeting. On Thursday, the day before the meeting, I walked to my hotel following my typical museum-hopping path starting at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay then to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in The Domain.

Like most major Australia cities Sydney has an impressive collection of larger-than-life bronze statues commemorating war heros, kings and queens and other notables. But these pieces have been there so long that they have basically become invisible to Sydneysiders. They are largely un-noticed except by the pigeons who use them as some of the only non-spiky landing places in town.

Last year a Japanese artist called Tatzu Nishi, as part of Kaldor Public Art Projects, installed an 'intervention' using the two huge bronze equestrian statues flanking the main entrance of AGNSW. It was a wonderfully enjoyable temporary work of art and I had a great laugh while enjoying it. You can read about this work, called 'War and peace and in between' at the Kaldor website: Kaldor Art Projects - Tatzu Nishi

The article on Kaldor's website says Nishi's work focuses on 'making the everyday strange' and in doing so many people noticed and 'saw' the AGNSW's bronzes for the first time. It was a wonderful introduction to them.

So while walking to the AGNSW I saw another large bronze sculpture that had been changed:

King Edward VII - Dressed for Success!

The good King was wearing a natty hat and his horse was sporting striped fabric socks! As the upcoming weekend was the Grand Final match for several Australian football competitions and codes I wondered if pranksters had dressed the statue in football attire, but quickly determined that wasn't the case as today's teams, no matter what city or suburb they represent, don't wear big feather-capped hats in play.

This is off-topic a bit but it's a good place to diverge; did you know that the orientation of a statue horse's legs is sometimes thought to indicate how its rider died? Supposedly, and Snopes.com may disagree with this, 'both legs raised mean that the rider was KILLED IN BATTLE, one leg raised means the rider died LATER of wounds caused in battle, and all four legs on the ground means the rider died of NATURAL CAUSES,' says answers.com.

King Edward VII - close up. Nice hat, dude!

So I had a closer look at fancy-pants King Edward VII and saw that this was part of Sydney's 'Art & About' program and that several statues had been dressed-up by local artists.

The Bard and his audience hadn't escaped the treatment:

Too fun, William Shakespeare ready to party!

Well done Sydney, and Sydney artists! I hope locals and visitors to Sydney will enjoy these fun works, and perhaps notice what might have been invisible until now.

Do you think we could get-up something like this in Adelaide?

NAVA - The National Association for the Visual Arts - Australia's Peak Visual Arts body

No longer a Roller Derby virgin, but not yet a whore

2010-09-28T16:10:00.001+09:30

Sunday! Adelaide! The Royal Adelaide Showgrounds! Roller derby grand final bout!

Warm-up on the track

My good wife humors my sometimes strange, odd-ball interests. I think you gotta try different things. My wife isn't so sure.

A few years ago the whole family bundled off to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre to fulfill my Fathers' Day request to see Monster Truck Madness. I'd never been to one and thought it would be fun. It was fun for about the first 20 minutes at the most, but after that we all thought for how long can we put-up with motorcycles going around and around and around a dirt track, jumping high into the air again, and again and again and again. And the attraction of utes, pickups and station wagons sporting huge tyres and bodies jacked way off the ground with absolutely no mufflers or sound reduction was just lost on us. Regulars to Monster Truck Madness brought their own ear muffs. Smart people. We made do with the free foam ear plugs that the AEC provided, provided possibly to pre-emptively nip in the bud any potential ear damage law suits.

I can't remember whether it was one of the kids, or my wife, or both, who too soon after the show started asked, repeatedly, 'can we go now?! Please?' It dawned on me that it might have been a good parenting strategy keeping the kids there - it might provide a mental inoculation for them against any future relationships with young men whose life interests are limited to cubic inches and octane ratings. Time will tell whether that's correct or not.

Now just saying, 'Monster Truck Madness', in our household has become verbal shorthand representing a tirade of concentrated abuse commenting on Dad's absurd choices of entertainment that are inflicted on the family. Saying it is always accompanied with eyebrow raising, sighs and head shakes. But hey, we did it. Never again, but we did it.

So this past weekend in Adelaide there was an event of major significance for an elite bunch of amateur female athletes - the Adelaide Roller Derby Grand Final. And yes, it was the result of yet another Fathers' Day request that attend. It was a double-header event, the first event was to determine 3rd and 4th places, and the second bout was for 1st and 2nd place in the league.

Our kids aren't dumb though. Certainly too darned smart these days. I didn't have any success in convincing them to join us for another cultural exploration this time at the Roller Derby. Although the Monster Truck Madness event happened several years ago that memory seems to have been burnt-into in their brains, so any new and out-of-the-ordinary event that Dad proposes is immediately viewed by them with suspicion and caution.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was growing-up in Seattle I sometimes saw on our black and white TV a crazy, fast-paced 'sport' where men skated around and around an oval, banked track, really crashing into each other. Sometimes skaters would be bumped off the track and over the rail. The pace of the sport, the 'rock'em - sock'em' action, the graininess of the black and white TV, it was strangely irresistable, and it was called 'Roller Derby'.

Instead of our loving kids joining us for the Roller Derby our friends, who I'll call Ron and Katherine, came meeting us at the Showgrounds. The doors were to open at 2pm and I had already bought tickets on-line, so we agreed to meet for what I expected would be a quick and efficient trip into the venue. As we walked from the carpark we did wonder if people ahead of us knew something that we didn't, as lots of them carried deckchairs with them. But I kept saying that more people were without chairs than with them so we'd be okay.

Patient crowd waiting to get in.

We turned the corner to see a long, snaking line of Roller Derby fans queuing to get into the hall. Quite a long line in fact, but they were very well-behaved and patient fans. At different points along the queue there were Derby girls on skates and in uniform - I'm not sure if 'girls' the correct term; are they called Derby 'players'? Help me out here - answering questions and guiding people to the entrance.

A Wild Hearses' skater

Kudos to all the players and how well they organised everything. They did a great job.

But in the queue there were lots more people carrying deck chairs. Humh. More about that later.

It took about 20 minutes to get inside the venue through the snaking queue. Bags were being inspected at the door to prevent booze and other prohibited items from being brought into the hall and that slowed-up the process somewhat. But it was a lovely Adelaide spring afternoon and the sun was shining so it was not unpleasant queuing outside to get into to hall.

For those not familiar with the roller derby competition in Adelaide, it isn't played on a banked track as it was on TV, but on an oval marked-out by tape on the floor.

The rules seem pretty simple and the MC explained things well: two teams compete at a time on the rink; each team has 4 skaters who are the 'blockers' and together the 8 skaters form the 'pack'. Positioned a little way behind the pack is another skater from each team, wearing a lycra cap with a white star on it over their helmet. These two are the 'jammers' and their objective is to skate through the pack and lap all the other skaters. Each skater that the jammer passes counts as a point for the jammer's team. The game consists of two 30 minutes halves but there's another clock for the the 'jam' period, which was 90 seconds long per jam for this bout. The 'jam' is when teams are able to score points. The 'Lead Jammer' can call-off the jam at any time to prevent the other team from scoring points.

While the rules seem pretty simple, they are actually very detailed. I didn't understand how the penalties worked but that didn't distract from the watching. I don't know if the Adelaide competition uses them but you can see the rules of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association at http://wftda.com. The amount of official whistles being blown during a jam seemed to rival that of netball, which is another sport that I don't fully appreciate the subtleties of. The number of times the referees blew their whistles is significant, but I don't want to spoil your experience by telling you what they mean - you'll have to see for yourself.

The chairs that lots of people were carrying... All those chairs. Once inside the hall we saw why Derby veterans were bringing their chairs. 'Cuz the hall didn't have much in the way of formal seating, that's why! There were maybe 4 small grandstands inside that seated about one tenth of the whole audience. The rest had to stand or sit on the chairs that they had brought with them.

Lots of people, notice all the brought seats...

The event was sold-out and people who didn't already have tickets were being turned away, and if you were late getting-in, as we were, it was basically standing-room only. But considering that the tickets only cost $13 then I don't think there's much room to complain about the facilities.

Inside the hall was a most wonderful collection of humans. Yes, I'll say it now and be done with it, there was a large and visible lesbian representation, there was an impressive collection of tattoo art on lots of people, but it was also quite the family event. Lots of young kids were there with their parents, no matter what orientation their family consisted of. Everyone was having a good time just being themselves. The event had broad audience appeal.

Everyone except my dear wife and Katherine. They hated it! In fact, they bailed-out before the first bout finished, heading home while Ron and I stayed-on. When asked how much she enjoyed it on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst, Katherine said it rated a '2'. But for comparison, a '1' for her was having been in a hurricane! Oh dear. Better cancel some of those season tickets.

But Ron and I thought it was great fun. You had to let the experience wash over you and just go with it. We did and we enjoyed it. We got into the spirit and were cheering loudly and shouting encouragement to the teams, and groaning at crashes and heavy body checks.

I actually 'know' one skater from the Road Town Rollers, one of the teams who were in the grand final match; I tweeted @TrickseyBeltem before going that we'd be at the match. It was a buzz to see someone I 'knew' competing in the bout and Ron and I said a quick hello to her before they started the championship match. Probably the last thing she needed while trying to concentrate on the imminent match! But I know a star!

The Road Train Rollers from their pits

But congratulations to TrickseyBeltem and the Road Town Rollers for winning against a tough Wild Hearses team for the championship. Tricksey is an impressive jammer! She blasted through the packs. (I've probably just made every Derby player ROFL at my so inappropriate words. Sorry y'all, please forgive me for I'm just a out of shape old white guy but who had a good time on Sunday.) And for the record the Mile Die Club beat the Salty Dolls for 3rd place.

Fearsome Rollers buzzing with an-tici-Pation!

What did I enjoy about the Roller Derby? Lots! The skaters took their match seriously but seemed to have a lot fun as well. When Ron and I were standing by the RTR's team area after wishing TrickseyBeltem good luck, trying not to look too much like a couple of creepy old-guy stalkers, the skaters coming off the track were sweating heavily from giving it all out there. Their 'uniforms' were imaginative and just a wee bit slutty. There was lots of torn fishnet stockings worn, and over-the-top make-up. The skater names were humorous plays on words and all innuendo but representing the toughness of the sport. It is a very physical sport and we saw some impressive crashes on the track. Except for one time everyone quickly got back to their feet following the collisions and tumbles. One skater had to be escorted off the track after a fall and might have hurt an ankle or knee so we hope she recovers quickly.

I forgot to mention that there was an excellent rock and roll band playing before, between, and after the bouts. When the track was clear of skaters a group of quite talented rock and rollers danced for us all. At the back of the exhibition hall were a number of lovingly restored hot rods on display, with polite signs requesting people not to touch or climb on the cars.

The wonderful band

The whole day was somewhat of a blast from the past and evoked nostalgic memories for me. It should have all been in black and white.

Ron and I agreed that the Roller Derby had the formula right for growing in popularity. A week ago there was an article in the Adelaide Advertiser's weekend magazine about roller derby, with several skaters in uniform on the front cover.

Would I go back to see another bout? Absolutely! It was good entertainment. But I think I would take a folding chair with me. And I do think one of my kids would actually be very good at it, but I dare not say that, do I. #kissofdeath!

Do arts funding bodies reinforce elitism?

2010-08-15T20:58:00.000+09:30

On the 14 August ABC Radio National 'The Music Show' podcast 'Arts Policy and the 2010 election: Who Cares?' the musicians participating in the show explained that they wanted their music to be accessible to a broad audience.

This got me thinking about being a visual artist and being knocked-back a few times for arts grants. There's a learning curve to writing these grant applications and I've done a few now but never with success. My most recently rejected grant application effectively said that my artwork wasn't 'conceptual enough.' A fellow artist and friend who is an absolutely gifted portrait sculptor had his grant application rejected because 'the artwork is too dated' and not in demand.

There's often criticism of the visual arts for being too obtuse, too cryptic, too hard to understand, too elitist. And I wonder if that's partly to blame on the arts funding bodies who seem to reward artists working like this.

Of course the funding bodies have to manage the difficult situation of receiving more applications than can be funded, but why do they pick the artists and artworks that they do? If their objective was to make the arts more accessible rather than appealing to a small, elite audience, then couldn't they take a different approach to funding decisions?

And no, I haven't given-up hope yet of winning a grant! Have I told you about the new cryptic, obtuse, elitist series of works that I'm developing...

When the 'long tail' gets it wrong

2010-08-15T20:45:00.000+09:30

One of the benefits of having friends who are more technically literate than I am is that I can learn exciting new phrases like 'short head' and 'long tail.' But I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to believing that everything shiny and new will redefine how we do things.

For example, not long ago I was chatting with good friend Fang about social media contributions from the 'long tail', which is basically 'the great unwashed' of a population, while the 'short head' is the term used to define the small number of leaders in a population. That's a pretty woofy description so see Wikipedia for a more accurate description of 'short head' and 'long tail.' My use of 'long tail' in this context relates to social networking communications like blogging.

I wondered how we as consumers and users of information from a broad source of authors who blog, tweet and upload videos can be comfortable that the information is correct. The answer was that the long tail is self-policing and that inaccuracies are quickly found-out and corrected.

As I do, I was listening to a podcast while in my workshop progressing my current art project and an interesting segment came-up from the July 28th National Public Radio (NPR) 'Technology Podcast'. One of the segments on this podcast related to an African-American woman in Georgia named Shirley Sherrod who had been fired from her job as a State Director for the United States Department of Agriculture.

Sherrod was fired from her job because of complaints about a speech she made that appeared to include racist comments. However, what actually happened was a conservative blogger called Andrew Breitbart uploaded to YouTube an edited version of Shirley Sherrod's March 2010 speech which made her appear to be a racist when recalling her conversation with a white farmer in 1986 who faced losing his farm.

Conservative Fox News picked-up the story from Brietbart's post, and in very short time the outraged mob was calling for her resignation. The people demanding her resignation included the NAACP, and her then employer the USDA. She did resign due to the harassment she was subjected to. Once a topical or controversial issue gets promoted on the Internet, whether it is true or not, it can spread far and wide with incredible speed. A video clip of a government employee making what seems to be racist comments would have attracted a lot of attention.

When the 43 minute long unedited version of her speech was seen it was apparent that Breitbart's 2'38" version uploaded to YouTube was edited to change the context of Sherrod's speech and make her appear to be a racist. After the unedited version of the speech was made available Sherrod was cleared of the racism charges, apologies were made to her, her old job was offered back to her, and even President Obama called her about the issue.

The white farmer she spoke of from that 1986 conversation credited Sherrod for helping save his farm. At the time she worked for a public advocacy firm and gave him valuable assistance. The farmer stated that at no time did he feel Sherrod was a racist.

For more detail about this sad saga see Wikipedia.

To me this is a cautionary tale about accepting anything from the Internet at face value without applying critical review of it. Of course people who blog don't always represent the truth in their posts, and YouTube is not immune from manipulation. But recognising the truth isn't always easy.

Simply because a post, tweet or video doesn't originate from a biased, manipulative old media organisation doesn't make it pure and accurate. We can be manipulated and taken just as easily in the web 2.0 and social media worlds as we can with the old media model. The facts did emerge that Sherrod wasn't a racist but not before she faced harassment and organisational pressure that forced her to leave her job.

The importance to check facts before jumping to a conclusion still exists even today. I'm reminded of my Dad saying, 'you can't always trust what you read in the newspaper' and if he would certainly say that about information found on the Internet.

My little corner of the Great Big Internet

2010-07-25T22:56:00.000+09:30

After my initial scorn of friends who were early converts to Twitter I started using it, and wouldn't you know it, I actually enjoy doing so. In an earlier blog post I've written about my Twitter awakening so I won't repeat it here.

In my early days of using Twitter I was very precious about who I was following, but I've relaxed a bit now, and as a result I read tweets written by a variety of people. And poor souls, they suffer through mine!

Last month I watched more than my normal dose of soccer while the World Cup was being played in South Africa. An added dimension to it was keeping an eye on the Twitter #wc2010 stream while watching the game. As the game was broadcast live it was in sync with the Twitter feed. A disadvantage of living in Adelaide when most of Australia's television shows come out of Sydney or Melbourne is that we are normally on a 30 minute delay here from the east coast. So when popularly Tweeted shows like ABC TV's 'Lateline', or 'Q and A' are showing in Adelaide on the tv the related tweets are half an hour ahead of what we are seeing. It can be a great way to spoil a surprise, or it can also be a great way to look like one has ESP and impress the kids by forecasting what is about to occur on the telly.

Sometimes despite the 30 minute head start I'll throw-in a tweet or two about something I find interesting on one of those shows, knowing that someone in the eastern states might think we are a bit slow in the head here and can't process information very quickly. But we're not as slow as those folks in Western Australia! They are WAY behind us! (Haha and love to all my WA friends.)

While watching the World Cup and following the Twitter stream of #wc2010 I saw lots of different Twitter users from around the world, tweeting in their native languages. It was like being in a global village as so many different nationalities were simultaneously tweeting about the same action occurring on the soccer field.

But last week I realised that the people I normally interact with through Twitter are very much like me, (with some exceptions) generally white, middle-aged, middle-class, and mainly living in Adelaide. The Internet is global, but my world is local.

Then this week I was watching a TEDTalks video by Ethan Zuckerman 'Listening to global voices' where he discusses that very same situation: a global internet but how our involvement is generally on a local basis. It was interesting to hear him say that Nicholas Negroponte's 'Bits vs Atoms' concept may not be correct. He used the example of being able to easily buy bottles of Fiji Water (atoms) in the United States, but not being able to easily find news about Fiji (bits.)

It seems that despite the promise of the global internet and all that it brings, maybe we very much live in our own neighborhood. In real life, and in the virtual world.

I'm going to watch Zuckerman's TEDTalk again and may write more later.

Small business mentality running Australia?

2010-06-06T14:38:00.000+09:30

The more I think about it the more it appears that our beloved Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has brought a small-business management style to running Australia, and it doesn't seem to be working very well.

He's broadly accused of being a micro-manager, and doesn't canvas his own ministers and cabinet on items of importance (like deciding to cancel the Emissions Trading Scheme). His delegation skills to others in his cabinet don't seem too effective, and his availability for his own ministers is reported to be pretty woeful (Minister Conroy of the ill-fated Mandatory Internet Filter policy supposedly could only grab time with the PM to share some significantly bad news for the government by getting on an airplane with Mr Rudd.)

While I admire many Labor objectives and ideals, their execution of policy seems to be very hamstrung. Perhaps some of the upcoming Labor stars could be seconded to big-business management roles where accountability, efficiency and profitability are important... Nah, dumb idea... Forget I said that.

Australia needs more than a small business manager as its elected leader.

Are our Australian major political parties trying to 'out stupid' each other?

2010-06-02T00:14:00.001+09:30

What's going on? Would somebody please tell me? 'Cuz it's not making a lot of sense to me right now.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the Labor Party that he leads, appear to be hell-bent on self-destruction. They came into power replacing a tired Liberal government that was badly out of touch with the electorate and have squandered the trust and support of the Australian people in very short time. PM Rudd seems to be demonstrating the emotional immaturity and incapacity for task completion of a primary school student. The Labor party lurches from one disaster to another: the rushed home insulation scheme that had fatal consequences; upgrades to school without logical financial safeguards in the system; introducing a big tax on mining 'super profits' AND then declaring an 'emergency' to allow $38m of tax payer funds to be used for an advertising campaign promoting this new tax. Regular flip-flops on policy including significant ones like the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - from the government's own CPRS White Paper Executive Summary document: 'The Australian Government believes that acting on climate change is essential' - well, maybe not really, truly essential? Breaking election commitments, and squandering the little good-will left for the Labor Party. What the heck?!

(Remind me to say something later about this 'emergency' and the Federal Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy's stupid mandatory Internet Filter plans.)

Then on the other hand we've got 'the Mad Monk' Tony Abbott as leader of the opposition. Promising to reintroduce draconian policies from the bad old days should the Liberals win the election. Threatening to cut some of the actually potentially useful Labor policies like the National Broadband Network. But wanting to introduce paid parental leave by increasing taxes on business. (Increase taxes on business? The Liberal Party?)

Kevin Rudd, leader of the party that represents Australia's 'Working Families' and whose party members rise to public service 'greatness' through the union movement factory, has a personal wealth of $56 million. While Tony Abbott, leader of the pro-business, pro-capitalism, pro-small government Liberal Party has a personal wealth of just $1.1 million. Forgive me for another what the heck?!'

It doesn't surprise me that recent voter sentiment polls show primary vote support for both the Labor and Liberal parties is diving, with the Greens being the beneficiary of the two major parties imploding on themselves. A once crazy thought, 'Vote Greens' in the lower house, is not looking that crazy anymore. Greens leader Bob Brown was wise in correcting a reporter who said 'undecided voters might vote for the Greens' when he said something to the effect that it was 'thinking voters', not undecided voters who would be voting Greens.

Liberal MP Chris Pyne and Labor Minister for Human Services Chris Bowen were actually shouting at each other during Fran Kelly's ABC Radio National Breakfast show last week. If all they are going to do is shout at each other then political debate between the two major parties is completely useless to the public. There's nothing constructive coming from these point-scoring demonstrations. Question Time in federal parliament has often been unruly and embarrassing to listen to, but unfortunately these current political 'debates' outside Parliament lack the scolding voice of the Speaker of the House who pulls in line unruly politicians with growled 'Aw-dahs!' Now our elected representatives can, and do, just shout at each other!

And we pay the salaries of these people?

Someone I follow on Twitter said that if Malcolm Turnbull returned as the leader of a Liberal Democrat party he would absolutely sweep to victory at the upcoming election. Labor appears to be incompetent in running the country, and the thought of the current Liberal party running the country scares the crap out of a lot of people. Turnbull would probably have a lot of support.

Back to 'emergencies' and the Mandatory Internet Filter: I join a lot of other people who are absolutely against Child Pornography, AND who are absolutely against the government's planned Mandatory Internet Filter, for reasons that I've written in an earlier blog post. Being against the filter does not mean that one is for the bad things that it is supposed to, but won't, stop.

Now what's got me even more steamed-up about this Internet Filter plan is how easily it will be for this government, or any future one, to declare something on the internet to be potentially damaging or dangerous to Australians and therefore move to censor it without public scrutiny or debate. And I'm not talking about how to make bombs, child pornography, or other items that are currently labeled as 'Refused Classification' material and are therefore unlawful to sell or distribute within Australia. But despite the official banning of these kinds of items they are still available and accessible. I'm worried about living with a government that feels threatened by what its citizenry writes or says, and then acts to control it by censorship.

Following the terrible 9/11 attacks many countries including the US, the UK and Australia implemented powerful anti-terrorism laws that reduced personal freedoms in the name of national security. In Australia someone could be arrested and detained for a long time without trial or charge if they were thought to be a terrorist or contemplating a terrorist action. This person arrested and locked-up would not be able to tell their family or friends what happened to them, and anyone who divulged information about the detainee would be violating this new law and would face serious penalties. Australia still has most of these anti-terrorism laws.

A country's citizens seem to be happy to quickly give-up hard won civil liberties and civil rights when they are in fear. And our government did a pretty good job scaring people enough that we allowed these laws to be passed.

So the current Labor government declares an 'emergency' because the minerals industry has the temerity to mount a concerted and well-funded advertising campaign against the Resources Super Profits Tax, so the government can spend $38 million of our funds for an advertising campaign selling us why the RSPT is a good thing for Australia and how the minerals industry is telling lots of lies.

This is an emergency? This is justification for the government to break its own guidelines about advertising? I hardly see trying to sell the proposed benefits of the RSPT to us to be as big an emergency to Australians as, say, Swine Flu was when emergency advertising expenditure was previously used. But maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture or something. Or just maybe the Labor government simply failed again in trying to sell us another policy (the RSPT this time) to the public and is in an absolute panic as it tries to post-sell another badly explained policy.

I see this government's action as another strong reason why the proposed Mandatory Internet Filter must not be implemented. They just can't be trusted to do the right thing.

And someone please tell me what are we going to do with our two major political parties in Australia as they seem to be trying to 'out stupid' each other.

What husbands don't want to hear...

2010-02-21T20:00:00.000+10:30

Someone said that the three words a husband doesn't want to hear from his wife is, 'I've been thinking...'

My good wife has spent the day moving furniture from one room to another, requiring emptying every item of furniture that was to be moved - taking the CDs from a tall thing, moving all the glassware and cookbooks from an even taller thing resulting in every bit of shelf space covered by something - it was like at my workshop before a big clean; and taking all the paintings/prints from each wall. Move all of it from one room to the other | stand back and think about it | then move it all back to where it was. Perfectly valid process, I thought. I'm learning, after nearly 3 decades of being married, that sometimes you just have to go with the flow, no matter where it seems to be going.

It was funny though, and it reminded me of my dad telling me one of his Army basic training stories where they had to dig a hole, then move the hole to another location. A perfect analogy, I thought. And watching all the activity was exhausting!

But I'm learning: the answer to 'I've been thinking...' is, 'I can make that!' Which scares her almost as much.

Mastered a new task! Opening the pool salt bag! (I'm so happy!)

2010-02-04T11:07:00.000+10:30

You know when someone does something that looks so easy, and then when you try it you make a complete hash of it? It was like that years ago in Melbourne when I decided that I was going to learn to windsurf. It couldn't be too hard, could it? Lots of people did it. Well, I did get to be competent enough that I could stand-up, turn the board around (both tack and gibe) and get back to shore. But it was a major lesson in humiliation. Beth still has a photo of me falling-off the board, head and upper torso in the water, bottom and legs sticking straight-up out of the water. Funny what one's partner decides to keep, isn't it?

Learning to back a car trailer was kind of the same but with the added pressure of it being a masculinity indicator - a bloke can't go to the tip and then not back the trailer to the edge of the pit to throw-in the junk. Worse would be having to unhook the trailer and manually wheel it to the edge, then reconnect to the car later. Oh! The stories that would be told over a cold brew later, 'didja see the wanker with the green trailer today? I bet his mum still wipes his bum!' Ha-ha-ha...

But I can back the trailer and I don't disgrace myself at the tip. One would hope so, as a holder of an articulated truck driver's license that theoretically enables me to drive semi-trailer, it would be pretty ugly if I couldn't. Has anyone developed a Wii or xBox game that teaches how to back a trailer? What about an iPhone app? You could change the colour of the car, decorate the practice backing area to make it look like a shopping mall carpark or something... maybe not.

Back to the present! Something I've always wanted to know how to do was to open a feed sack, or salt sack, or any large sack at all that is closed by stitching on the top. The cool way to do this is by tugging on the strings that results in a wonderfully satisfying almost uncontrollable unzipping of the bag. I've seen it done so many times, mainly in a rural setting like around horses or other animals. And it's not a gender specific knowledge - I've seen more women do it than men. Not sure what to make of that so I'll just walk away.

Why? We had to have our swimming pool resurfaced. The fibreglass gel coat died and was flaking-off making a real mess and stuffing-up the automatic pool cleaner.There were all these dirty looking black spots where things were growing under pin-hole cracks and fissures in the gel coat. A guy who came with high recommendations did what appears to be a lovely job grinding-out the old crap and recoating the pool, and we refilled it once we got a permit from SA Water.

Our pool uses a salt water chlorinator, and that needs salt water to work. At this point, perhaps until the new desalination plant goes on line in Adelaide, SA Water supplies fresh water through the pipes. We needed salt water in the pool. That meant buying 10 x 20kg bags of pool salt from our friendly pool supply shop. I don't know why pool shop people don't wear all their gold and diamonds when working in the shop. It must get really tiresome going home from the shop looking all daggy like they are 'regular folks' then dressing-up and getting on the glitter that I've paid for. They aren't fooling me - they probably make more money than plumbers do! 'Pool salt' from a pool supply shop costs a fair bit more than pool salt from the hardware shop. I can only guess that in the warehouse each special, expensive Pool Shop Pool Salt bag is kissed by 10 virgins before being sent to the pool shop.

So I had 10 bags of salt to open and I didn't want to repeat the normal process of hacking the top of the bag in frustration after trying what seemed every variation of string clipping only to find the string won't budge. Before leaving the pool shop with my very special bags of pool salt I asked the guy who tests the water samples if he knew how to open bags by unzipping the string. He shook his head and said the foreman on the cattle station he owns does it but he keeps well away from the animals so he didn't know. No one else did. Perhaps they are't as well-off as I thought; maybe they don't buy their diamonds in feed sack quantities yet.

One of my best friends is Google. It doesn't argue with me. It doesn't sit in my chair. And it's always there for me, just about. Except when Mr HP has a bad day. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right search term to get my answer but I finally did at www.motherearthnews.com which has a brief and very effective explanation about how to orient the bag, and which loop to cut, which strings to pull when, and voila the bag throws itself open at you.

So I literally get 10 out of 10 today - ten bags attempted, and ten bags successfully opened with nary a fuss nor cuss. Ah, the simple joys in life - mastering a new small task.

Will I tell the pool people about my success? You bet. Will I tell them how I did it? Not sure yet - might see if I can negotiate a deal or something. Don't tell them about motherearthnews.com, okay?

Halloween in Adelaide - a bit of a fizzer...

2009-11-01T21:30:00.002+10:30

What's happened to the wonderful costumed kids who used to visit each 31st of October to trick or treat? Last night we had only 3 kids in 2 groups ring the bell. Leaving us now to eat a lot of chocolate.

What's happened to the scary ghosts, the monsters, the fairies? Have they all grown-up and gone to parties where something stronger than Freddo Frogs is consumed?

We gave it a shot though - the kids carved a wonderful 'jack-o-melon' as I was too late to buy a whole pumpkin. The idea of gluing together a few pumpkin segments from Coles didn't really excite me.

But eldest daughter celebrated Halloween in Ashland, Oregon and texted that her trip to US is now complete, having Halloween'ed in America. I knew she would love it!

A small joy - podcasts and raking leaves...

2009-05-31T15:02:00.004+09:30

I catch-up on my favourite podcasts when I'm doing yardwork.

People walking by our place might wonder what's going on as I laugh to myself from some wonderful turn of phrase in News from Lake Wobegon, or they might see my head spinning from the techno world of Dave, Mike, Kent and invited guests at the Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show on The Podcast Network.

There's Amanda Smith from ABC Radio National's Artworks, and Phillip Adams shoving guests around on LNL. What short story is being read at The New Yorker's fiction podcast? Health Minutes with Dr Norman Swan, By Design, Dr Karl, Sunday Profile with Monica Attard... lots of friendly voices at ABC Radio National podcasts.

Our claret ash tree drops a LOT of leaves, so I caught-up with a LOT of podcasts recently! But what a wonderful combination - the old world physical delight of raking leaves combined with the 21st century technology of MP3 playing.

Now if only the council would come around and take away these leaves...