In Kurri Kurri a mural or street art: Rothbury Riot by Chris Fussell. The background information is given in the lower image.

For the Chinese New Year a (xiao) concert at the shopping centre for The Year of the Ox.

A boxing kangaroo.
Next Monday is the Australia Day holiday and we are reminded by the authorities to celebrate, to join in activities and to make the day significant, to take a break.
By and large, Anglos take up partying and carrying on, for example, recently, the cricket fans were no way multicultural and there, I was no longer a minority.
All the same, in a general way to the small extent I know of, I like a multicultural community quite well.
PS I have been inaccurate above, because cricket fans are, to a small extent, a multicultural group.

We are fortunate to find the latest building at the Calvary Mater hospital to be as well as can be expected. The new traffic lights were switched on yesterday on this busy somewhat inconvenient road.
This building will probably house the emergency department. Adopting a very responsible tone I ask if the experts have allowed enough space inside for the ambulances to spend hours waiting in line? Is there enough headroom for an ambulance or will the whole thing be redesigned next year? Hope not.
I have to bring myself to write Calvary Mater when it was just Mater in the past. At this stage I really dislike the name Calvary Mater. While, I presume, loving care is intended, an image of dreadful suffering is not too far away.

In the Circus ring are skillfull gymnasts and full-on contortionists and more. The Moscow Circus offers very good entertainment and is here till next week.
Support for alternative entertainment is a worthwhile act.
PS. Only a fairly slender connection remains with Russia but it's good.

Preparing to win a bout.

"Start low, go slow, rise high, strike fire and sit down."
"Yes, we can." (Obama) (epistrophe)

With THE inauguration on air round 3am Wednesday it is unlikely I will be seeing it live.

In Hunter Street Newcastle.

...........at the end of the day.....

At the Picture Show the crowd, on the wharf, was watching every flicker on the screen and the screen was on a floating pontoon - where else? (Is the word floating redundant? Floating is used to be descriptive.)

The store, Miss Kansai, is into niche marketing with imports from Japan.

The Japanese language uses modified Chinese characters or Kanji and two syllabic scrips Hiragana and Katakana. Almost 2000 written characters are required from the school student.

A group of Priscillas (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) took the Elvis Express to the festival in Parkes. Parody was in mind.....I think!
Broadly speaking demographics reveal that more men than women are found in country areas.

The town of Parkes has had an Elvis Festival and the Countrylink Elvis Express was caught leaving Sydney with Elivs look-alikes and entertainment on wheels.
The town's alter ego is the Parke's radiotelescope which watches deep space and not forgetting its role in the moon landing according to that quaint movie The Dish.

Mark 7 40/60 Bofors originally on a WW2 battle ship now on a strip outside the Returned Services Club in Katoomba.

Charles Darwin visited these Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, according to a program on ABC Radio National. At that time he heard theories that these inspiring gorges were the result of erosion some 180 million years ago. After the sightseeing he sailed away on the good ship Beagle to see more of the country and he turned 27 in Hobart. Darwin's commemorative year has begun this 2009.
Our beliefs are full of contradictions. Evolution or creationism? A priority could well be a belief in non-violence in real life in the here and now and a stand against over-the-top violence in blockbuster movies.

A fantastic musical ship almost sails through the city streets and has a lively nautical crew who play on improvised gear which is derived from influences far and wide.

Audience, stray albatross and bats were simply 'blown away'.

What's going on? Is that a gas flame?

Warm weather at Merewether Beach, Newcastle. Reflecting on snowstorms elsewhere, freezing weather and when the gas heating fails.

South Africa won the test and their warrior captain (Man of the Series) took to the pitch in the last overs despite the sports injuries he had sustained.

The idea was to escape the heat wave on the plain by travelling to the 'hill country' but the temperature in Katoomba was round thirty degrees as well.

Cricket fans enjoying the Third Test at the SCG.

A Band from the Tongan Community in Sydney visited families to bring greetings for the New Year. In their back garden, the elders listened to the music and the singing and refreshments were offered. Tonga is a Pacific Island kingdom.

A Korean ten.

The spectre ship in the previous photos was like this several hours before darkness fell on New Year's Eve.

It looks like the James Craig, a barque, built in Sunderland, England in 1874 and since rebuilt or restored.

These good-humoured tourists celebrated New Year in Sydney twelve hours ahead of their folk in the UK.

Another tourist ritual is centred on Bondi Beach. Come and join the thongs!

Eleven hours ago: aftermath of the New Year fireworks in Sydney.

Dixon Park Beach and Bar Beach in the distance.

The Korean language is not pictographic but has 40 written Hangul characters which are said to cover the phonetics very effectively and date from the 15th century when devised by King Sejong. Written Chinese characters were used prior to that time. Consonant and vowel are typically joined to form a syllable. The text is probably read from left to right.

The word order is of subject object verb with the verb put strictly at the end of a sentence.

Various means of expressing respect are important and many forms are used according to the age and social status of the speaker and of the addressee or when speaking about the elder.

Only 250 Korean family surnames are used but within which finer categories are identified. Brides do not necessarily adopt the groom's name and introductions or arranged marriages are probably the done thing when consideration is given to the role of the clan (or so I believe, disadvantaged by not understanding Korean, as it is fairly difficult to understand very much about a society at all unless one can speak the language).

Although it was early on Christmas Eve a long line was waiting to buy seafoods.
I took some photos and decided not to wait but go to another shop which had a small queue but found it only took cash so some of us went to the ATM nearby but it proved to be out of action. On returning to the neighbourhood supermarket a few k's away, which was ultra-busy, a queue had formed at the seafood counter there but thankfully, service was fairly fast. It will be a fishy Christmas along with other mainstays and other indulgences. Happy Christmas!!

At Fort Scratchley. From another angle.


Bahasas Indonesia

A Sweet Symbol
A popular symbol of Christmas
Is the simple candy cane.
Its shape is the crook of the shepherd
One of the first who came.

The lively green peppermint is
the regal gift of spice.
The white is for purity
The red is sacrifice.

The narrow stripes are friendship
And the nearness of the Child's love
With eternal, sweet compassion
A gift from above.

The candy cane reminds us all
Of how our creator cares.
And like his Christmas gift to us
It's meant to be broken and shared.

This Christmas candy sentiment, albeit North American, had never been heard before and is from a church in Newcastle. The sweet itself originated in Europe according to Wikipedia.

At the old Fort Scratchley, Newcastle. Battery Observation Post.
(Have since cleaned the lens)



Q&A: Mana yang banyak?
Mana yang sedikit?
(Kupu-kupu - cute word!)