Train Travel

Last week when Roberta and I were returning from the Vic Market, I had my gigantic 1.8 metre painting as my other companion. Had to hold it upright, because of its size. It will hang horizontally once I find a space in Canada. The cottage is where it will go, I think. We'll see. Tom's gorgeous aboriginal art work will need a space as well... probably need to add a huge blank wall somewhere. Perhaps we'll have to build up!!??? Anyway, that's for the future.

A few people smiled when they saw the wrapped painting. Curious. The tram and the entrance to the tram was crowded, so it needed manoeuvring around the crowds. That done, I stood there, hanging on to it. One woman suggested I put it down horizontally, but I didn't think it would fit. And someone would probably trip over it. Then there wouldn't be any more smiles. A beautiful young woman offered her seat to an older man who entered the tram. He grumpily refused to notice. Of course he didn't need her spot. But then he couldn't figure out how to push his ticket into the ticket reader device, so he accepted her assistance. He is truly one of the few grumpy people I've met on public transit in and around Melbourne. We're probably getting positive responses because of our accents, as most people are curious. "Are you from Ireland?" Or, "Where in America are you from?" Or.... "You aren't from here, are you?" The ones who've met up with Canadians before ask us about Canada, without assuming we're "American". It's too tedious to explain Canada is part of North America, thus we're "American" as well. Gabe and Kai try sometimes, but the subtlety is generally lost on people.

On to Flinders Street Station. Negotiate picture down the stairs. Fortunately don't have to use the loo, or else the one hour train ride to Upper Ferntree Gully (UFG) would be more intense!

Train is waiting for us. On we go. More looks at the picture. I take a seat near the back of the carriage, and hold my wrapped companion up against the rear doors. People come and go. It's mid-afternoon on a Thursday so things aren't that busy.

About 10 stops down the line, an argument erupts between a couple... the man, a smallish, dark curly haired, blue eyed, young looking, rough guy marches to the back, loudly protesting that he doesn't believe the woman he's with. There have been a few of these moments on the trains, but usually later in the day, with more alcohol involved. Most people do not want to engage and are looking everywhere but at the man. They are airing their differences across the train car. She has told him we have to get off at a certain stop to take a bus, as there's an accident on the line... instantly the rumours float around. Someone's lying on the track. They have to remove the body. Could be. I recall hearing a muted announcement somewhere back along the line, but I can't remember. Off we troop. A person in a uniform herds us back on... the line is clear.

He taunts her across the carriage. See, you didn't know what you were talking about. She then walks over to his side, across from me, and tries to reason with him. For some reason I jump in with a comment that I heard an announcement as well. This settles things a bit, but then they have another loud discussion about where they will meet after her doctor appointment. She pushes 4 cigarettes into his hand, and tries to kiss him... he doesn't want to kiss her back. Enough, she says. I don't want to deal with my family. You wait for me outside the doctor's office in 2 hours. I'll see you then. More discussion, more trying to kiss him. Finally he kisses her back. By now I'm quite intrigued, but trying not to engage any further. She leaves. He sits down.

Looks at me and smiles. Asks me which train we're on -- the one going to Belgrave or Lilydale. I know it's Belgrave, so I fill him in. Where are you from then? Canada, I tell him. "Are there black people in Canada?" I ask him what he means by black... there are still quite a few people in Australia who refer to the Aboriginal people as "black". He is surprised to hear that Canada also has indigenous people, but he was wondering about people from Africa or the Caribbean.

Then, "Are things more dear there?" he wants to know. Some things are, some aren't. I give him my surface answer -- food is more expensive in Aus. Water costs less. The transit system is excellent -- Winnipeg's sucks. We have colder winters, so it costs more to heat our homes. This raises a discussion about where they live in government housing with their 2 daughters -- one a two year old and one two weeks. Where's your kids, I ask. With my mother. The girlfriend is on her way to the doctor, no kids in tow. We talk more about government housing in Australia. They've got a place in Rosebud, a spot we've come to love. I tell him about my interest in that area and that my big object is a painting of the foreshore along Port Philip Bay. That is interesting and now he shares more about his/their life. He has a broken hand, and illustrates a finger that moves around in the skin of his hand. (I KNOW everyone near us is listening... it's dead quiet!) He was caught driving without a license, so he was sentenced to 5 months community service. Broke his hand 10 pin bowling with a group of disabled adults. The judge isn't happy with him, because he can't do his community service until the broken finger is fixed. So tomorrow he has a date in court. But the surgeon who was supposed to fix his hand left for Ireland, so the operation has been postponed. More wiggling of finger which isn't really attached to his hand under the skin. I ask him if he's sure he broke it bowling or was it broken when it punched something? I don't know why I asked, but he just laughed. Thought I was funny. Apparently he spent a bit of time in jail 10 years ago because of a graffiti charge, so now the justice system is not happy that he was driving without a license.

There is a lot of graffiti along the train lines, and often there's an eruption of tagging along the roadways... recently all the signs in Ferny Creek were tagged with ugly black marker. Nothing creative. Creative would be interesting, but the ugly black stuff is just like the crap that was all over the West End in Winnipeg. Boring. Nothing like the creative "Bring me the head of Pierre Trudeau" I saw in Vancouver in the early 80s... the West didn't half hate that man!

We chat a bit more, and then he realizes he's missed his train stop. By now I'm quite interested in his life story, but don't want him to get in any more trouble than he's in... He shows me a picture of his little girl, and mentions she looks like him... not "strong featured" like his partner. Indeed, the partner is strong featured, and the little girl is very gorgeous with curly hair and blue eyes. Another stop goes by, and he gathers himself together, but not before showing me the letter from the plastic surgeon. He's really hoping the judge will believe him. So am I. I hope the judge believed him. I hope he doesn't spend more time in jail. I hope he and his girls can be happy. They are in Rosebud. He's going to do more fishing he tells me. From the pier. We stood on that pier on Black Saturday and watched the fairy penguin zooming around. I tell him that. We are fortunate. I hope he will be a lucky man.

He leaves. Roberta and I look at each other. Another guy pipes up from a few seats away: "Is that your surfboard?" So Australian... again I tell the story of the painting. Then, "What's better? A New York pizza or an L.A. pizza?" I'm not sure what he's asking, so I reword. NY or LA? Pizza? I suggest a pizza from NY. Good answer. He and his parents travelled around the world about 15 years ago and he still remembers the amazing pizzas he had in New York. New York state, that is. Spent time near Niagara Falls on his travels, and upstate New York. We discuss my childhood, near Niagara Falls, Ont. Did he cross the bridge? Of course. It's the better side, I suggest. We laugh. Back to pizza talk. Then he tells me his father is now 80 and his mother, who is from Mauritius, is 55. Well, your dad got lucky, I say. Yes. "He's a 10 pound Pom. Met my mom when he was travelling to Australia." The 10 pounds refers to the cost of travelling to Australia for British subjects after WWII.

Australia had a policy in place to increase the population of the country, and they encouraged British subjects. That's also the time Europeans of non-British background were recruited. And that's when the first cappuccino machines hit the Melbourne area... I have this as a fact from a woman I met in the city. She was serving coffee from a company who had been in Melbourne for 51 years. The people who started the coffee importation business were originally from Italy. There was apparently no good coffee to be found.

We finally neared UFG, and his friend piped up -- where were we living? How long are we here for? I told him Ferny Creek... where, he wondered? Turns out he's just down the street from us, on Clarke Road. Our stop arrived, and we all got off. The painting fit in the car, and off we went. It's now resting in the house, waiting for some more packing up before I take it to Pack and Send in Rowville.

Thinking about spring (I may be pushing it)

Well, believe it or not, we regularly experience all 4 seasons in one day. I'm guessing that's the prelude to spring. Thunder, lightning, hail, rain, sun and clear sky, and back to some gigantic wind storms. Must be getting ready to move into another season. This morning we walked to school in humid conditions, and the sky was breaking into blue above us. An orange and green lorikeet greeted us along the way. Two of these birds visited us at home last week, inquisitively looking at us, almost as if they were trying to talk to us.

When I left the house at 10 a.m. to head to the library, I drove through a thick fog, especially at the top of One Tree Hill Road. I took Nicole's shoes to school so she didn't have to run around in socks. To diminish the amount of mud, they are asking kids to leave their outdoor shoes at the door. Some kids don't mind running around in socks, but others want their footwear. Glad to oblige! The grade 5 and 6 students were in the multi purpose room (reduced by about 1/3 in size because of the new construction), rehearsing for the production. Apparently there are surprises in store, but I'll have to wait until it hits the stage. I'm still sewing some costumes -- they discovered I am a whiz on the sewing machine, so I've been taken up on my offer to sew. Today's bag of sewing is a set of headbands for the mermen... nothing like equal opportunity in this production. I'm also working on a few quilt ideas, but they're waiting a bit as I finish the last few costumes that were handed to me. My other sewing exercise was to make some "happy bags" (or happy sacks, according to Gabe) for the kids. In Winnipeg, I made some cotton flannel "bags", filled with wheat grains. These can be heated up in the microwave and applied to any sore muscles, tired little bodies, or just to warm things up! Here I made some out of the fleece I've been using for the quilts, and they're now filled with bird seed. We are hoping to attract more of the colourful birds to the yard, so I bought some bird seed to scatter around. It makes a good filling for the happy bags as well. Smells a bit like some multi grain bread when you heat it up in the microwave.

One of the other things the kids did in the first 5 weeks of this term was take dancing lessons - called "First Steps", I believe. The woman teaching the course is a fabulous dancer, and introduced the Ferny Creek kids to at least 4 or 5 different styles of dancing. And they danced with partners as well, so I think we will be seeing some great dancing skills in the future! I'm wondering if the proposed 2010 Wiebe reunion at Vic Beach should include a disco??? I think it would be a great idea...

Things are really blooming, but most leaves on the non-native trees are not yet breaking out... I'm taking the camera out tomorrow or Friday to catch some of the new blooms. Tom's sister sent me a gorgeous slide show of images of Aussie flowers, which I'm going to try to add to the blog. Don't know if it will take a Powerpoint preso. Will have to figure it out.

Brussel Sprouts

I had to add a little comment about brussel sprouts (more on the food theme). Earlier this week we watched an Aussie show called The Farmer Wants a Wife. It revolves around a group of Aussie farmers who are looking for love. Being out on a farm, they sometimes find it hard to meet women. I guess they haven't heard of internet dating!!... or perhaps it hasn't worked out.

The first opportunity they have to find a possible date is a speed dating exercise where they meet with 10 women, and have a 5 minute chat with each. For some crazy reason, several of the farmers (all male this time -- in the last series, one of the farmers was a woman) mentioned brussel sprouts. Might make it harder to meet the woman of their dreams!

Margaret Atwood's book Curious pursuits: occasional writing is being read on ABC's Book Show by someone other than Margaret Atwood. It's painful at times, because I'm enjoying Margaret's wit and acerbic comments, but the voice of the reader is completely wrong. To bring the brussel sprouts theme back in, she did write about brussel sprouts in today's episode! I think someone is sending me a message... Roberta and I are just going to head down the hill to go grocery shopping.

Food, glorious food (and the end of winter?)

Winter is winding down. It's obvious in the blooming and blossoming plants and trees. Daffodils (obviously non-native) are poking their heads up all around. Snowdrops have been blooming for a while. The native trees are producing the spiky blossoms that are typical of the local flora. We've been spending a happy week with Roberta, enjoying a variety of sightseeing trips, recipes and market visits. Today's visit to the Victoria Market (following a trip last Saturday) was to pick up a painting I'd purchased on Saturday. Intimidated by its size and the packed trains on Saturday following several footy games, I decided to leave it with the artist, and return by myself on a less busy day to bring it to Ferny Creek.

The painting is bigger than I'd remembered, and today was windy, so a few times I thought I might sail away. Of course it elicited a variety of comments on the tram and train, and quite a few people had smiles on their faces as they saw me with the 2 metre long (it's actually the width) painting. It's a scene of the foreshore along Port Philip Bay, near Brighton. We are totally in love with the beach in that area and when I saw the painting I threw caution to the wind and wanted it. How we will get it back to Canada is another story that will happen later. Today's journey was to bring it from the Vic Market to Ferny Creek. The artist was singing when we got there -- troweling paint onto another picture. His week was slow, he said. So did the other merchants in the market. It's the cool, windy weather. Then Roberta bought a triptych from him and we acquired a variety of fruits and veggies from the market stalls. A new item for me is quince (see picture above). I've been hearing about it and want to try it. The smell of the fruit is intriguing -- something between and apple and pear with a layer of citrus or strawberry. Hard to describe. It's a lot of work to prepare, requiring peeling, poaching for 2 to 6 hours, and then it's ready to eat. We'll see how it goes!

Roberta has been intrigued by the great recipes and food ideas in the supplement to the local rag -- the Herald Sun. She suggested I add the link to the taste.com.au supplement that appears weekly. http://www.taste.com.au/ You might want to explore a few recipes on this site. The self raising flour used here is so easy. I figure it's basically a tsp of baking powder to a cup of flour, but if I find out a different ratio, I'll correct the information.

We tried another variation of the lamb shanks recipe last week, this time with Moroccan seasonings, which include paprika, cumin and turmeric. The idea came from a lamb tajine recipe in Moira Hodgson's book It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. Ingredients for this slow cooked lamb recipe include cumin, coriander, turmeric, sweet paprika, onion, garlic, olives. We used lamb shanks instead of boneless lamb. Either would do just fine. And yesterday, wonder of all wonders, Tom suggested a quiche. Usually it's difficult to get him to eat quiche, but now the idea was his. Without questioning it, a quiche was produced for our evening meal! Now I just have to wiggle some creme brulee (burnt cream) past him!

When we were in the Barossa Valley a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting Maggie Beer's farm and kitchen for a cooking demonstration. This food writer and television presenter has some great recipes and resources on her web site as well -- it's worth a visit, even if it's in cyberspace: http://www.maggiebeer.com.au/home/

Settling Back In

We're back in the misty Dandenongs. We were lucky to have 3 weeks off .. a bonus or side effect of Tom's private school schedule. Gabe, Kai and Nicole missed one week of school, and re-entering school when their Canadian friends were hitting summer holidays was somewhat difficult. They have settled back into school, their 3rd term here, and are preparing, en masse, for the big production scheduled for the end of this term. The school is planning to stage a musical called "Kids at Sea" (or Sinbad Sails Again as per Matthew, the principal). Nicole is going to be a sultana (in pink pajamas as the song goes), and Gabe and Kai will be mermen. Costumes are being sewed, and this is something I can do to assist, so have been sewing caftans for the background mermen. Every child in the school gets a role unless they don't want to be in the production. I was happily sewing away on Friday, listening to Valentina Lisitsa playing Chopin etudes (one of the bd gifts that arrived here in Ferny Creek) when the kookaburras started cackling away... must have enjoyed the classical music!

Mind you, the birds are quite noisy these days, so they may be nesting, or preparing to nest. Kookas are loud when they are defending their territory, and they are likely defending their territory prior to nesting. Many native plants are blooming. I saw a tulip tree in bloom the other day as well, so I'm thinking the longer daylight hours are having an effect. If you want to see how we ushered in the winter solstice, check the Belgrave lantern parade pics on the right side of the screen. We've also been enjoying some great Aussie movies -- check out the trailer for 10 Canoes on the right side. Yesterday's (Saturday) excursion was to the Victoria market in Melbourne. We joined Aline and Roberta on a shopping expedition -- great bargains were to be had, including Uggs reputedly direct from factories. And where there weren't bargains, we looked, considered and made a few interesting purchases. I purchased a painting which will likely prove to be a challenge to mail back. Let's see how Aus and Canada post handle this one. Roberta and I will go back on Tuesday to pick it up and give her some more time to check out this artist's work.

I've been uploading pictures to the photo album as fast as I can, and will provide the usual commentary. The first set of pics to view are road pictures from the Stuart Highway... from Adelaide to Alice Springs, a journey of approximately 1200 kilometres. The pictures of the Lasseter Highway, a side trip from the Stuart Highway, will follow.

http://picasaweb.google.com/brigittewiebe/TheRoad#

Days of Wine and Roses, and Dingos, and Kangaroos, and Wedge Tail Eagles, and the long roads of central Australia

If you're still reading after that title, you will get an idea of what we did on the last holiday. We made it back to Ferny Creek on Saturday night, and everyone is getting settled back in school. I picked 2 Wpg friends up at the airport today, and they are figuring out their trip around Australia. So we'll only see them for a day or two now, and more when they get back.

The wine and roses were in the Barossa Valley, which we experienced with Lesley, one of our new friends from the bus tour to Alice Springs. Lesley, an Australian who lived in the Canadian arctic and on Vancouver Island for many years, welcomed us to her new home north of Adelaide. Lucky for us... it's just on the edge of the Barossa Valley, so we were able to visit 3 wineries (Burge, St Hallam, and Orlando at Jacob's Creek). Lesley had scones for us on our arrival (yes, once again I managed to get lost, so we were late getting to those fresh scones), took us to Maggie Beer's for a cooking demo and tasting, and served a picnic lunch (quite late in the day because I got lost on the way to Lesley's) on the grounds of the Orlando info centre at Jacob's Creek.

http://picasaweb.google.com/brigittewiebe/BarossaValley#

From the Barossa, we drove up to Mildura, home to more vineyards, including Lindeman's and Wolf Blass and orange and olive groves amongst other farms. The farms are green thanks to irrigation from the Murray River, which was actually flooded in a few places, due to the huge rains they'd had the week before. That river winds a very sinuous path through northern Victoria and southern NSW. Yes, I know Australia is in drought, but the storms that hit Adelaide when we were there were intense, and there's more water than we expected in the Murray.

In Adelaide, we walked on the beach (Brighton and Sea Cliff) in between rain storms. At the Brighton pier, we met a local "oldie", who warned us away from his little terrier blend because the dog was grumpy. Grumpiness was due to the fact that the man wouldn't let the dog jump off the pier. Apparently this is normal for the dog, but because of the stormy weather, the man didn't want to climb down the ladder (I'm guessing it was at least 7 metres to the water from the top of the pier) to retrieve the dog. So the dog marched back down the pier, dissing everyone with his grumpy face, wearing his winter coat! All he wanted to do was jump from the pier.

Mildura led us homewards, back to Ferny Creek. But I've started at the end of our adventure, so I should move us to the beginning, which started with a drive to Adelaide 3 weeks ago (had to leave a few days later than we planned because the starter motor on the car broke), and then a tour group up into the centre of Australia.

What we managed to see probably is about 1/10 (or less) of central Australia. Alice Springs and Adelaide are about 1500 km apart, and it's another 1500 or so on to Darwin. Now we wish we had somehow managed to get ourselves up to Darwin, but we'll have to save that for another time.

We joined a group of exchange teachers and local Adelaidian (if there's such a word!) Australians on a bus tour up to Alice Springs via Woomera, Coober Pedy, Yulara (the resort that is home to Ulurua and Kata Tjuta), King's Canyon and King's Creek Station, and ultimately, Alice Springs. Our bus drivers/hosts were David and Sonia Camilleri who operate Banksia Tours. They've spent years in central Australia, so were able to offer their knowledge and lore. They provided meals, or the Exchange Teachers group organized meals in the more "urban" settings, and our accommodation varied from a caravan park in Woomera, to an underground hostel in Coober Pedy, to tenting in Yulara and King's Creek Station, to a motel in Alice Springs. From Alice we went back to Adelaide, where we stayed at the home of another exchange teacher, from Sidney BC, a very generous offer on her part. That gave us time to visit a few galleries and museums in Adelaide, and check out the Central Market for the second time -- specifically, eat at the Asian food stalls of the Central Market. From Adelaide we went on to Lesley's... see above... now you're going in a circle.

I'm going to talk about our experiences on each leg of the trip, but thought I should quickly get this message out to let you all know we are back in FC, safe and sound.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day

We aren't leaving until tomorrow morning, so we can wish you all a special holiday tomorrow. I hear the weather hasn't been the best, with huge wind storms in Manitoba, and rain in Ontario... probably it's perfect in BC! The wind is gale force today, knocking down a few little trees in the yard. The possums were skittering around on the roof last night, blown back and forth by the wind. The door was rattling in its frame, much to Nicole's distress.

We've celebrated my birthday, got the car fixed (starter motor burned out ... boo), removed a "nyle" (nail) from the tyre and fixed that, found an orthodontist to remove Kai's loose retainer, and now we're ready to go tomorrow morning. On to Adelaide, perhaps stopping in the Barossa Valley tomorrow evening. Sounds good wine lovers? Then on to Alice Springs on Saturday morning. Love these school hols! We're loaded up on talking books, ipods are charged, I've decreed when we're stopping for coffee, and we've got some good driving tunes courtesy of Top Gear Australia ... what more is there?

Maple leaf bickies were provided for classmates, the crossing guard at the school, neighbours, and us! Enjoy your celebrations in Canada.