The new Hunter Theatre at the Hunter School of Performing Arts Broadmeadow. 

A sign bowled me over, in perhaps, the largest newest shopping centre outside Sydney, namely Charlestown Square.

The shopping centre is like a space station in that humans scurry around totally indoors in long disorienting passage ways and sloping escalators, down down into the depths.
All of which is par for the course if outdoors were covered in two metres of snow or were lashed by desert sand storms but, hey, we won't have anything less than air con, no matter what, in our mild climate.
Hang the environment and energy use. Ignore the existing stock of empty shops available for reuse in the district. 
'Onya, Kate Blanchett!

An abundance of waterfowl, emus, mutton birds, wild ducks, pigeons and swans were once common in the area.

Plover with offspring - a single tiny chic shelters right under the adult bird some of the time while in survival mode during a patch of bleak, cold, rainy, windy, racey weather.

A second adult bird patrols in the vicinity and flies and chases away intruding birds and everyone else. The birds live on a school playground and were also shown here a few days ago 

Will this be iceboarding or snowboarding? 

These targets were on the move.  A pair of very frolicsome 'hounds' enjoyed fetching a ball and were making their way home from King Edward Park.

 

In King Edward Park. Fun sliding down a hill is still an ok thing to do on a warm Sunday in May. 

King Edward Park Newcastle.

Australian Aboriginal rock carving of great age. Figure with raised arms holding a type of boomerang.  Examples are seen not far from Newcastle.

Another economic stimulus project at St Philip's Christian College, Waratah and compared to others this hall is a behemoth perhaps a fitting description as behemoth is biblical for an animal, perhaps the hippopotamus (Macquarie Dictionary). Unlike some suburbs, this one absorbs developments on all fronts and little back streets coexist with activity and increase in thru traffic .
The hall is assembled tilt built style using a crane (what else?). A timeless characterless mass of concrete softened with landscaping.

Is there no room for an alternative design, here and there, for a new assembly hall? Will this decade of public buildings in the nation's schools be recognized for their winning style, or their heritage, in eighty years time? Is there no time or money for an architect to exercise imagination and make a building with a hint of flair that stimulates the learning environment?  Colour and texture.
As long as something, anything glossy emerges everyone is gratified.

School playground with a surprise, a Plover sits just metres away from the where the children play.  A second plover prowles around the territory which has been their home base for some years. Their home is marked by a stake and witche's hats.
Voice: noisily vocal (colloquially called 'alarmbird'), strident kekekeke...and single shrieking kek. The camera provoked a response. Habitat: margins of ponds and dams, grasslands of all types including some in built-up areas, occasionally on the shore.  Widespread, from central Australia to the east. 
No attempt was made to photograph while the school children were playing - you never know, one might get arrested for doing that.

A new assembly hall, part of the nation wide economic stimulus, makes a very useful addition to this school and is the first addition for some time.  It is the third design I've seen without conventional window openings and several reasons come to mind, one person said it is done to provide an extra safe area in an emergency. Who knows?  Sounds a bit extreme. 

Same as yesterday from another angle and an hour or two earlier.

'Dad's army' and dog watch at the doorway.

A brisk morning for a walk and while some of us were rugged up to the nines, one man was in shorts and a lightweight top. The logo from Aspen probably explains why. Seems particularly cold for May.
The headland, Nobbys, has a light house and weather station and an old ex-wartime bunker on ground level has a new lease of life 'guarding' the Port of Newcastle.

On SBS TV, Eurovision with the lookalike Streets ice cream symbol is a feast of lighting effects, fashion and hair styles and something of a window on what is current.
Moldova were the true madcap winners, witches and all, as was Estonia who were clever impressionists of the sureal.
Please stop American copy cat female divas who rave on - only in English. Macedonia was interesting.  France entirely lost the plot.
Terrible is a good description if the show is taken seriously.
Trivia: a Streets Ice cream sign, (it is tiny), is in the large photo heading the page. 

This morning I was on a cruise shadowed by a pirate ship ....

Just joking!

Thanks Blogger/Google techies. Glad Friday 13th is over? 

On the corner of Church Street, up from the courts, the once home of a member of the legal profession and family -  more of the 'old school'.

 The Grand Hotel, accross from the court house, a post-legal retreat?

Advertising just washes over me. The big names behind the internet, Google, the Social media, etc don't use conventional advertising at all and get unlimited consumers without it. It is a new paradigm with a captive audience and as a virtual entity is worth billions.
 Pop-ups make an insistant form of advertising and give power - disappearance is just a click away - usually!

Flights and advertising. We live, in this country, with long haul flights. Maxium distance to most destinations. Perhaps this influences advertisements of first class flights that offer space to sleep in comfort. Quirky ads show two sitting on a vast bed chatting to an attendant. Or a cosy duo of stranges. How the other half live!  Those ads I can do without.

Part of the Court Houses in Newcastle.

Beethoven's Ninth, Fourth Movement. Choral.    Gotterfunken

Oh friends, not these tones!
Rather, let us raise our voices in more pleasing
and more joyful sounds
Joy
Joy
Joy beautiful spark of divinity
Daughter of Elysium
We enter, drink with fire,
into your sanctuary, heavenly daughter!

Your magic reunites
What custom strictly divided
All men become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.

Who ever has had the great fortune to be friend's friend,
Who ever has won a devoted wife, join in jubilation! ...
Joy all creatures drink
At the breasts of nature,
All good, all bad
Follow her trail of roses, Kisses she gave us, and wine, ...

Be embraced, you millions! This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, beyond the star-canopy
Must a loving Father dwell
Be embraced,
This kiss for the whole world!
Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium
Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,
Divinity.


prompted by program on ABC TV1. 
Mother's Day

Are they queing up to own a bike and join the parking in this laneway?

An illustration from the book Saraban A chef's journey through Persia, Greg and Lucy Malouf.  Each  'surah' with a decorative cut-out through which to glimps highly ornamental images as well as scenes from Iran and the people and food. 

Newcastle folk in Ellamorevale have debated at length an application to build a Mosque and raised objections about traffic problems and the debate just reached an important point at a time which conincides with the revisiting of extremists actions from the past, overseas.  Newcastle is not very multicultural in an obvious sort of way. Apart from the need for actions based on justice and good will, by and large, a multicultural presence is good for a community.

A farce has taken place in Pakistan as contradictory stories come out.  All's fair in love and war. How embarrasing for Obama and co.  Governments have gone insane. I'm ashamed. And the unsavoury Pacific solution for refugees is included in this rant. Also, where ever does the pronounciation come from that sounds like Muzzlems instead of Mooslems.  I wonder if those US daily shows, that don't reach here anymore, are giving the government heaps.

Belgian Shepherd dog.  My first sighting, ears look good, interesting face - my uninformed opinion.

Demolished.  The small family business, Stotts Mowers in Waratah has moved away and, probably, homes will take its place. 
The business was once well known and some thirty years ago could be seen taking part in city processions with a stunt in which a little lawn mower towed big heavy things along. Gender equality was there and the daughter was a competent mechanic.
The business had grown like Topsy with a workshop on the rear of the house.  Later, the house burnt down and the shed was reorganized.
Most of the homes in the vicinity have changed hands a number of times in thirty years. More and more, homes have only become an investment, a negotiable item, two incomes became mandatory, salesmen love the situation which inflates home prices and keeps many on a treadmill.

Sydney Junction Hotel vies with Hamilton Station Hotel on the far side ....of the railway crossing  (which some would close). 

Politics in the Pub is at Hamilton Station Hotel every month.

There's nothing left but to be totally virtuous after the latest 'good' news from the experts that alcohol specifically causes cancers. 

These are no waring tribesmen but exponents of traditional dance from the UK and celebrating at a festival.

Osama was far from the mind of festival goers  but one well known entertainer sang about current warfare and its futility and in a well meaning rendition frequently alluded to the Islamic deity and to Jesus.  

I am sceptical about political correctness but I wondered  if the lyrics and reference to the Islamic deity were against tradition. The audience were probably all WASPs.  All is fair game at a festival. And will the Chasers parody the current events in Pakistan?

  

Did David Attenborough say that our amazing life forms developed in the past 300 000 years?  Don't drive them to extinction during one single short generation - like now!
A flock of these vivid birds were busy on the roadside in town