Big Africa

The world has a new map, a more realistic map for actually showing the size of various continents, and while I know things in African are big, very big, the continent is much larger than depicted on the old Mercator Map.

Wow!

West Timor

I have my reasons for checking out West Timor as a friend is there doing good works, that is volunteering. 

In the 1980s I was an activist for independence for East Timor. I lobbied, I wrote letters and attended protest meetings. Members of the Indonesian Army who controlled the island killed five Australian journalists in cold blood, as they were reporting on the battle for an independent East Timor. The five journalists became known as the Balibo Five. The Indonesian army was ruthless and lawless.

I kind of of have a personal connection to Shirley, the widow of one of the murdered journalists Greg Shackleton, who was helped in her older years by Ray in his volunteer role. She was a great activist to bring the murdering members of the army to justice, and as a advocate for an independent East Timor. 

I don't know why the island was divided. Under Portuguese rule then later Dutch rule, the island was Catholic in East Timor and Protestant in the West Timor. Indonesian independence in 1949 saw the central Indonesian government take control of the whole island, but those in the east weren't having a bit of this and fought for its independence. Many died in the battle and at one point Australian troops and others were there as a peace keeping force.

In 1991 we were living in our house in Glen Iris and with Ray at the wheel after a night out clubbing with friends, we had nearly reached home and I turned on the car radio for perhaps the 1am news, and I learnt that Indonesian troops had massacred at least 250 mostly young people at the East Timor Santa Cruz cemetery.

The massacre was witnessed by two American journalists and filmed by another from Yorkshire, England. The film was cunningly smuggled out from Indonesia to Australia and free for the world to see, and it was shocking.

It took until 2002 for East Timor to become an independent county, and later claim a share of the oil revenue from the Timor Sea.

Shirley Shackleton, widow of Greg, died in 2023 at the age of 91, and with a tribute from the President of East Timor.

After news of death came at the weekend, Timor Leste's President Jose Ramos Horta posted: "God bye Shirley. Thank you forever. Forever we will remember you. Your soul rests with us in Mt Ramelau". If you are interested, you can read this newspaper OB. 

So now East Timor, Timor Leste is an independent country, and Shirley was awarded The Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste. While she has won plaudits for her writing etc in Australia, oddly she hasn't received a government honour, such as a Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM. The Australian government covered up details of the deaths of the Bilabo Five, and still does so.

Err, this was supposed to be about West Timor, but I became side tracked with memories.

West Timor is marked as Indonesia, which of course it is. There is an odd little bit of isolated East Timor displayed on the map, and I have no idea what that is so. I will investigate when I do write about West Timor. 

Here is the location in relation to northern Australia, quite close.

Monday Mural

With Sami as the host, here is my Monday Mural effort and as I said in advance, they are murals in Melbourne's Hosier Lane, a popular place for topical murals, with few lasting very long. 

The LA Rams mural seems like a last minute effort. Oddly most of the murals in the lane at the moment are in black and silver. Within an hour after the game the team was at Melbourne Airport, ready for home. The team was here for barely twenty four hours. LA has never seemed like a place I would like 

Good point.

The mural for the San Francisco 49ers is terrific. 

Sunday Selections

Well, here we are, another week gone and it's time for Sunday Selections again with River at the helm. 

Mine aren't random this week but show an impressive sound and light show I saw at Melbourne Town Hall. I was there for about thirty minutes in total. The action was on the main floor of what I guess is the Town Hall ballroom. As I was leaving, the door person asked if I enjoyed the display and I said yes, and she then directed me to the stairs to climb to the balcony. I've been up there before. She asked if I could manage the stairs, and there our relationship cooled, as I felt like slapping her. I exaggerate, and there was a lift which I noticed later.  

From the balcony I had an overview of the display. But first a photo of Jass I took around the same time. 

I am not sure which photos were taken from above and which were taken at ground level. No matter. You get the idea. The music was themed to whatever the lights were doing. 

The music was loud, and it needed to be to create the atmosphere.

It was a little unsettling at times, as I heard the sound of Martian laser guns that I remember from the 70s or earlier.

Slipped in was some music from the movie ET, a film that made me cry. I just searched for ET and a question people had asked, 'Is the movie ET a true story?'. God help us. 

The ballroom is quite lovely.

Melbourne Excitement

It was hard not to get excited this Friday as in front of 100,000 spectators the Los Angeles Rams lost to the San Francisco 49ers, and without knowing the scoring system, it sounds like a score 7 to 27 is a decisive win to the 49ers. A trouncing perhaps.

This made Melburnians very happy. The US football team, the 49ers had been in Melbourne for several days before the match, acclimatising to the weather, around a cool but ok daytime average of 15/59 this week, and of course the time change. The team made itself popular by being out and about around town, spotted my many. Melbourne chalked up great respect for the team.

This contrasts with the LA Rams, who arrived the day before the game, and we never got to know them. All about hearts and minds, and don't forget that.

I suppose it was a coincidence that the match was played on 9/11, or 11/09 here, probably 8/11 in the US. Now that vile creature #47 is claiming he was carried from the site by firefighters, without any trace of evidence that anyone can find. But he is not spoiling my post. 

The match was a great spectacle for our city, although there are only guesses about what it cost our State of Victoria, AU$15 million to AU$45 million. It is, psst, commercial in confidence. I have the view that taxpayers are entitled to know. 

Sister and Bone Doctor arrived at 3pm the evening before to stay the night. They went into town to soak up the atmosphere, and returned at 5.15 for drinks and nibbles and I had invited HH up to meet them for the first time. They were super impressed to learn about her son who was an international Australian Rugby Union champion player, and her daughter's son being a worker at Hobbiton in New Zealand.

I had invited HH to join us for dinner in town but she had tickets to see the stage show musical Pretty Women with a friend. We three dined at the Swiss Club in town and soaked up the atmosphere in the city.

Next morning was an early start as they needed to be at the football venue by 9.00 and we went out for breakfast first, at around 7.30. That totally turned my normal morning upside down, and my arthritis kicked in with a vengeance. I try not to take painkillers, but I did Friday morning.

Eventually by midday I felt ready to go out again, where I visited Hosier Lane to check out the NFL murals. I'll post them Monday.

A woman boarded the tram as I did, with two young boys. She looked familiar. Here is an edited text of what I sent to HH. The woman on the tram was our neighbour for a couple of years.

I boarded the tram below to travel to the city today and a woman got on at the same stop with two young boys. She looked familiar. I thought is it or isn't it? I was guessing the age of the boys and it added up. I was going to get off at Flinders Street to take photos of the NFL murals in Hosier Lane, but they left at the Arts Centre. I made a last minute decision and jumped off too. I still wasn't 100% sure, so with her back to me I called out S. No harm if it wasn't her. She spun around and sure enough, and funny that we mentioned her the other day, it was S and her boys R and D. She has lost weight and looked pretty good. I had a chat to her for a few minutes and then the boys began to get restless, so they went off to visit the Gallery and I caught the next tram to Flinders Street. She and T are living in Mount Martha, and he is working in Emergency at I assume, F Hospital. He was at the NFL match, having caught a bus from F at 7.00 this morning and they were all staying a couple of nights in the city, perhaps nearby. Of course she didn't know about Ray's death so I filled her in but there wasn't much time to chat.  

Anyway, it was a nice little catch up.   

After the match Bone Doctor went back to Geelong Station by train, to take Jo's car home. Sister arrived back here around 5.00 and Jo is in town with friends as I type and she will come here and then Sister and Jo will drive home.

Phyllis has cooked butter chicken, rice and Kosov is heating some roti for dinner and there is enough to share with Sister. 

I suppose we all know a bit more about NFL now, and what we used to call Gridiron, has been a great success. Probably just a one off though, although we will remain 49ers supporters if we ever hear any news about them.

Photos from the evening before:

Flinders Street Station.

               

A shiny new thing

I found a new barber and the shop looked quite smart. It would be $5 more for a haircut, but I am an adventurous soul...in some areas. Alas, it is popular and was booked out.

I returned to the one I had been going to for a year or more, which wasn't bad when I first visited but it has deteriorated. I never see the same barber twice, and the last two different guys have been quite rough with their buzz cutting machines. 

As I was looking into the mirror in front of me, watching the reflection of the passing parade of pedestrians outside the salon, I spied something unusual about a passing tram. Was it our sole new operational G Class tram? 

With the reflection confusing me about direction, I did eventually work out it was travelling one more stop to the Flinders Street terminus. 

My unsatisfactory haircut finished and as I left the salon, the tram was starting off from the terminus. I can still walk briskly if a situation requires it, and so I did and caught the tram. I rode the tram to Victoria Market, and caught another tram back.

There isn't a figure available for how much a new tram costs, in this case 100 new trams bundled in with a new depot, maintenance facilities, etc. The figure for 100 new trams and the aforesaid costs is AU$1.85 billion.

So, what did I think? Just wonderful. It was smooth, quiet and felt quite luxurious. It is better insulated from the tracks, the aircon noise wasn't noticeable, the internal passenger information displays were very well thought out. The only fault I noticed was some internal panel rattle as the tram crossed other tram tracks at right angles. 

Some trivia for you, in spite of spinner Adam Chandler (I'm disappointed in you Adam) fronting a video suggesting Melbourne has had a great mix of tram lettering numbering, not really. In order from the early 20th century, we had V Class, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, and we skip F Class, to G Class. OK, there was an L Class thrown in too, but really, it does not need super intelligence to guess why F Class was omitted. The thing is, had Yarra Trams or Department of Transport just admitted it wanted to avoid F Class for the obvious reasons, it would have been refreshing honesty, we'd have a chuckle and move on.

Externally it is a bit weird looking, but we'll get used to it. I took these photos after I left the tram. 

For the more nerdy of you, modern trams pull a lot of electricity from the substations via the overhead wires. These trams have batteries which the tram uses to uses to even out power draws. New substations were not required for these trams. 

The Fluff

We missed Jass' birthday, and we have missed the day she found her home with us by four days. Jass' idea of a great birthday celebration would be no food for the day, just treats. We have reduced the treats because she kept nagging for them, in the way that cats do.

She is a strange cat, but perhaps not as strange as I think. While experienced with cats in past, they could come and go as they pleased through the cat door. I can't even if I remember if they slept inside. They found the radiant lounge room heater very attractive, as did our dogs, and during winter, at times they would all be curled up in front. Cats like the radiant heat and don't appreciate the overall warmth that air conditioning gives. Jass is obviously a fully indoor cat, although she can spend time on the balcony but at the moment, she finds it too cold. 

Anyway, when she arrived last year, there was no superfluous shedding of fur. This year, she is dropping huge tufts of fine and soft underbelly fur. Individual hairs float around everywhere. 

If trodden into the carpet, Rover struggles to pick it up and a manual vacuum is needed. There might be five clumps daily. 

I gather is this is a winter coat of soft underbelly fur that is shed. But isn't it curious that she didn't have such underbelly fur at the same time last year, given she was probably in a colder environment than she is here being warm for 16 hours a day, and hardly that cold for the other 8 hours.

Here is Jass displaying her soft underbelly fur, welcoming a belly rub, but at your peril. The claws and the teeth will immediately become active. You can see a bit of her fluff on the carpet on the bottom left of the photo. 

Anyway, all good and no regrets.