I’m talking about the migratory birds that visit Sydney and most other areas of the Eastern Australia to raise a family, or in the case of the cuckoos, to have other birds raise their families. These visitors include the koel, channel bill cuckoo and dollar birds. Each of these species has a characteristic song that reminds us that another summer is approaching, but their chorus is sometimes almost lost in the cacophony of that other summer resident the cicada.
This year these migrants are a good metaphor for the year that has almost come to an end for the Ralph’s of Woorarra Avenue; we’ve had welcome visitors from overseas who have flown long distances to get here; nearly all of the family has flown interstate, overseas or both; and there has been plenty of opportunities to eat and the local food and drink the local nectars.
New Year’s day in Sydney was one of the hottest I can remember reaching just over 40 deg C in the shade of our back deck. Fortunately we were able to seek refuge in the cool water of the pool before a most refreshing Southerly change brought relief. While we were hot and uncomfortable our thoughts often turned to our first visitors of the year who were due in a few days from Calgary where the January mean temperature is -8.9deg C and the average minimum is a chilly -15.1deg C. What would it be like, we mused, to endure a 55 deg C ambient temperature change in a 24 hr period.
Fortunately the cool change of January 1st persisted for the arrival of Melanie (Jacqui and Nicky’s half sister – now there’s a story!) and her husband Dave on January 4th , from Calgary the capital of Alberta Canada. In fact it was embarrassingly cool walking, wrapped in long sleeves, along almost deserted beaches under leaden skies to show our visitors the sites from Long Reef headland.
Mel and Dave stayed with us for more than a week and we had a great time showing them around Sydney and the nearby countryside introducing them to family, friends and other feathered, furred or finned natives. We learnt much about Canada and the many great things we take for granted that were invented there. A good natured competition developed where we attempted to outdo each other with facts and figures about our respective countries. But we Aussies had to admit defeat when Dave pointed out that Trivial Pursuit had been invented by Canadians in 1982; what chance did we have?
Non-trivially we had a fantastic time with Melanie and Dave. I’m sure that Basil’s (father of Jacqui, Nicky and Mel) wicked sense of humour, sharp intellect and quick wit are obvious characteristics of each of these women.
Not long after Mel and Dave took off for WA with Nicky to continue their Australian tour, Jacqui and I hopped into the mighty Honda Hybrid and headed north for sunny Gin Gin and a long overdue visit to Jacqui’s mum Jo and her partner Jim. And what 2,500km road trip would be complete without visits to close friends along the way. Our ex-neighbours Gillian and Alberto always happily provide a bed in Casa Blanco near Coffs Harbour, great company and food that is worthy of a few Michelin Hats at least and this time was no exception. Albeto (below right) has spent much of his life at sea as a Chief Engineer - one of the reasons he is still called "Chief" by his family and friends.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you are thinking about Googling Gin Gin. Don’t let summer lethargy keep you in your seat, crank up that computer, fire-up Google Earth and get it to fly you to Gin Gin Queensland Australia so you will have some idea of where Jacqui and I spent a very relaxed and enjoyable few days with Jo and Jim. You will see the mosaic of sugar cane fields and the meandering rivers that irrigate the cane before emptying into the sea near the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. But there is plenty that Google earth won’t show you including the tropical humidity, the cane toads and the warmth of the hospitality we were offered during our stay. Selwyn (on left with Banjo, his dog, who died of snake bite later in the year), is a cane farmer who grows sugar cane near Jo and Jim's.
On our way back to Sydney we were treated to more hospitality at old friends Malcolm and Leslie on the Gold Coast and Sue and Steve in Uki . I would have liked to include a beautiful image of Mt Warning taken from Sue and Steve's backyard, but on the morning we left Uki for Sydney it was shrouded in mist.
Travel for the rest of the family was kicked off by Lachlan who was sent by Accucom, the company for whom he works, to Sri Lanka for a week of “work”. Accucom have a contract with the Mormon Church to install wireless networks in 300 churches around the world, one of which is in Colombo. Luckily for Lachlan he had the job done in a few days and was then shown around the more scenic and less strife torn parts of the island by his Mormon hosts – not bad work if you can get it!!
By the time Easter arrives (and it was late this year wasn’t it) all our migratory birds have headed north, but Jo and Jim travelled against the flow and decided to make the trip to Sydney from Gin Gin. They stayed with us for a week and we had a great time in what I consider to be the best time of year for Sydney’s weather. Jo and Jim (below), used to more tropical climes, brought out jumpers that had not see the light of day for some years.
2006 will go down as the year when Jacqui got so extraordinarily mad about the slaughter of native animals on our local roads that, with a few good friends, she mobilised significant community support to do something about it. A presentation to the Administrator of Warringah Council prepared by Jacqui and her new found animal activist crusader Connie Harris, resulted in a committee being formed that looks like having enough political clout to have something done to save our native animals. What is needed is to fence off the Wakehurst Parkway and Mona Vale Road and to provide alternative animal crossings – underpasses for the wallabies and overhead ropes for the possums. It remains to be seen whether the political masters of the Roads and Traffic Authority will come to the party with the necessary cash to make the changes happen. But, with a State election in March 2007 and a constant stream of letters to the editor of our local paper, stranger things have happened. Jacqui and Connie (below) were invited to give a paper about their work on road-kill along the Wakehurst Parkway at the annual forum of the NSW Zoological Society.
In July the planets must have arrived at some special alignment or another unusual astronomically rare concurrence had occurred as we were able to get the whole of the Ralph family together on the one day in one place. The event that managed the impossible was the celebration of Judy Marlow’s 80th birthday (Judy is Jacqui and Nicky’s stepmother). Judy lives in Scone in the upper Hunter Valley, about 3½ hours by car from Sydney; the kids drove back to Sydney after lunch at the Quince Restaurant while Jacqui and I stayed overnight. Our return trip to Sydney, through the frost dusted Barrington Tops National park, was something we will long remember. Judy (on left below) talks to close friend and fellow Scone resident Ian Simon's over lunch in July.
Youngest son Rohan finished his HSC in 2005 and earned enough marks to enroll in a Bachelor of Agriculture at UWS. Don’t ask me why a city born and bred lad would have a yearning for life on the land - maybe because he thoroughly enjoys visiting his cousin who lives on a rural property near Queanbeyan – but he does, and I think he will really enjoy the course when he actually starts in 2007. For 2006 Rohan had another agenda: earn some money during the first half or 2006 and then spend it by travelling to and around Europe with school friends during the second half of the year. He left on 28th July and returned just over 4 months later. By all reports (you try getting an 18 year old to talk to his parents!) he had a great time. Anja and Rohan, below, constantly remind me not to take life too seriously.
A day after Rohan left we were pleased to catch up with our school friend of old – Rodney and his two children Matthew and Eleanor. With other ex-“Narrabeen Academy for Young Gentlemen” graduates Geoff Oldroyd, Stephen Miller and Neil Strange and their wives and children we had a great night catching up on the more than 20 years since Rodney left to live in the UK. Looking at Rodney I did realise how harsh the Australian sun is on skin - I could swear Rodney hadn’t aged more than a year since he left!
More travel by the family included Lachlan spending 3 weeks in Korea (Lachlan's Korean sunset image below) to do more work on wireless networks for the Morons and Ian was lucky enough to be invited by HP for a few days in Singapore looking at new technologies and Anja spent a weekend in Melbourne – just because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
While talking about Anja she has now finished the first qualification of her Architecture course; a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture. Her current thinking is that she does not really want to be an architect – but she is quite interested in the construction/project management side of architecture – so after some time away from university and a bit of travelling she may do a few business or project management courses before launching herself into the world of “serious” work. I wish I had thought as carefully about my career at that age! Anja, below centre, with friends.
Besides Singapore I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Cairns for a conference on educational computing. Cairns city council has removed all the mangroves from the foreshores, replaced the mud with sand and constructed a long boardwalk for tourists like me, the net casting fisherman and his friend I snapped one afternoon after a day of conferencing.
The best part of that trip was the weekend I spent with another school friend from the “Narrabeen Academy” – Leon and his wife Catie. Leon and Catie have just moved in to a fantastic new house near Atherton in the Atherton Tableland west of Cairns. It really is another world once you climb up the range away from the humidity of the coastal plane. Not far from Leon and Catie's house is the curtain fig tree - not your average backdrop.
As I mentioned earlier Lachlan spent a few weeks in Korea and the last thing on my mind was that I would be travelling there too! But stranger things have happened and after a phone call from a friend and academic at the University of Canberra I found the we (4 of us in all) had received a grant from the Australia Korea Foundation to spend a week looking at educational computing in Seoul. The trip was pretty intense, but we learnt plenty about school and university education in Korea. For me that phrase that sums up a student’s academic life is this one: 5 hours fail – 4 hours pass. Translated this means that if you, as a student studying for the Korean university entrance public examination, get 5 hours of sleep each night you will fail the exam, while a student who sleeps for 4 hours or less will pass. Our translator told us that she survived on 3 hours sleep each night. What sort of life is that?
Korea has a long history and the contrast between the old and the new near the centre of Seoul served to remind me of this.
Jacqui and I visited Korea a in 1979 while Karen, my sister, was working in the Australian Embassy there. One of our enduring memories of that visit was of the national dish of Korea - a pickled cabbage called Kimchi. Made from cabbage, chilli, garlic, radish and herbs we had eaten plenty but never seen it made - until my recent visit where I came across these ladies who were making kimchi outside their Buddhist temple.
Flying for 10 hours to get to Korea is no fun, but I did have a flight – bought for me by Jacqui for my birthday – that was 40 minutes long and a lot of fun. I flew in a float plane from Pittwater to Sydney Harbour and return on a beautiful spring day in September. We really do live in one of the best places on the planet.
If you have managed to read this far I have to congratulate you – what I thought would be a one page quick overview of the year has become if not a novel almost a short story. As Christmas approaches we are hearing about severe bush fires in the Snowy Mountains, Victoria and Tasmania. Sydney’s dam levels are well below 40% and over 90% of NSW is in drought. With crossed fingers we approach the bushfire season which can be close to home as evidenced by the image below, taken from our front verandah a few months ago, of a fire on the other side of the Lagoon.
We wish you all the best for a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.
Ian, Jacqui Anja Rohan and Lachlan