Rail crossing at Paterson. Must inner city trains in Newcastle persist with tradition and inflexibility? 
Instead, if they crawled along and exercised some give and take and utilized traffic light controls then we could co-exist, after all, one only level crossing poses a big problem.
Sure and begorrah, with give and take, multiple crossing could be opened all along the rail line in our Central Beguiling District.
A city in Queensland had the rail lines, sans fencing, running down the middle of the street!
Leave it to the experts?  Don't think so. Objectively, the monorail in Sydney is an eyesore, now it may be pulled down again using up the state budget on something nothing.

Hope no big accidents occur, particularly today, to overtax the hospital system as my husband is having surgery done.  However, we do need a fair go all round.

Update. Good value was had from the hospital, it appears. More long and costly procedures have become mainstream - we are rather fortunate that way... I think?  Make it last that way!

The secret agent chanced upon a tete-a-tete.

what the secret agent saw in the garden plot.

Wedding party.

  Awaiting photographs. 

Brick laying.  A skill we take for granted? Then Hawkesbury sandstone used to shore up the river bank and in stairs to access the water.

Some days the Hawkesbury would be alive with people on devices towed by power boats.

 A short and a long route link Sydney and Newcastle. If inclined choose a long route via Lower Portland and have refresments there for it takes hours, is a 'goat track' and has thousands of real bends, half of which are hairpin bends. Or take the train.   

On the banks of Hawkesbury River, south between Sydney and Newcastle.

the farmer in the dell....hi-ho the derry-o, the farmer in the dell....

I'd call this building Art Deco syle.  At Beresfield.

Forget Bali, here is tourism without the hype down by the riverside in Indonesia - our northern neighbour.
Wrote this trivia and minutes later came swiftly 'back to earth' after going to Yahoo which had a report about an Indonesian zoo FROM HELL. Rightly or wrongly my opinon is that animals are simply not their thing, are not part of the domestic Indonesian tradition, are not commonly indulged in and have a low priority which has consequences.  But who can say? 

Choose sustainablity?  Fairfax press reports that a Harvard study published yesterday points to health benefits from cutting back on consumption of red meat.
And on page one we are told that carbon emissions have hit a new record and have risen to their highest level since modern humans evolved (CSIRO, Bureau of Met).
Take the hint.  Choose life! 
At first, no new record was found of a meat study published yesterday. What if it was only a re-hash of old research? Never. Eventually the Harvard site came good and updated or whatever .     

To its credit, a state school organized a weekend of Fair Trade debates and stalls pertinent to the fringe who are into sustainability.
Hare Krishner nosh was appropriate.  Of course, the carbon footprint of vegetarinism is a step in the right direction as well as its other benefits.
I'm big on good intentions but conversion to sustainability remains a work in progress.  That and other issues take forever and ever to resolve, such as justice for piece workers who machine our well known clothing brands and the stall in the picture is drawing attention to their conditions. 

Newcastle's answer to The Parthenon! 
Hellenic Community Centre, Hamilton. Are the old Greek community members counting their blessings in this country as compared to the current times in their homeland, but then, money isn't everything.
The building is way out of proportion to the Orthodox Church next door.

'Bollywood' in Newcastle last year
The university plans to enlarge the inner city campus.  Like the developers, will they make demands about the city rail link, hello, has it come to their attention? The traffic problems associated with 'back to university week' would be eased if they tried various measures instead of everyone kicking off 9am Monday.
A special high speed internet line serves the university and some other entities in the city have very high speed, I believe. Bring it on.
How long before international students begin to reject this and that?  They are expected to 'jump thru hoops', costly hoops designed on a global scale to extract cash and are often repetitous hoops. But think of the success stories.
The previous MP for the city copped a lot of flack over the rail line etc etc.  She lost the seat and all those problems have become a non-event for the new member.
He cops it sweet. Is the new member a long term citizen of Newcastle, did he ever figure in the past in local citizen action and debate, can't say, after all, such is not a prerequisite and can be adopted when it suits.
    

Sports Day, another time another place. Today it's pouring. Magpies are singing in the rain.
I suspect school children over 5 years in Newcastle never ever wear a rain coat. A fashion habit.  But then grown ups don't wear raincoats either.

Locals probably do no more and no less than the prevailing local standards. 
Educational outcomes are flavour of the month and teachers are targetted.
What if nurses were put in a similar spotlight? The conversation is about complexity - waiting times, statistics, hand washing (!).  Instead of that, we have the big little things that count for a lot, the hands on care in touch with lived experience as a work in progress.
Seek out ability to think outside the square and give high priority to sanity as a unique approach to services and look into providing enough staff to do all this in our institutions.

City lane.

 'Bin there done that.

Vocab: Bin...rubbish bin...trash can....garbage bin...wheelie bin.

In memorium.

Latest installation outside the art gallery!  Livesites and irony in Laman Street.
                           Newcastle area is very lucky when it comes to bad weather.  Over the past year at those times when extensive parts of the state had very high rainfall and floods, well, Newcastle enjoyed sunny days. Never the less, the summer has been relatively damp and generally blissfully cool. 

A line of strollers (prams) outside school where young mothers are enrolled in alternative school classes.  A creche is provided.  Hope this service is not 'too precious' and it is a positive step as it has links with a church school. 

Sno-Rose Private Hotel.  Surely this is the only one of its kind in Newcastle.

In seventy years time, what issue will surface and be seen in retrospect as a hugh injustice?  It is always a good thing 'to think outside the square'.  Examine how we act.

It is revealed that newborns were taken from unwed mothers without their consent as women tell of their experiences in the 1950's, 60's and 70's in church run institutions and in our public hospitals.