Three old Grammarians in Shanghai, 8-13 October 2013

Shanghai's Pudong, taken from the 8th Floor Chinese Restaurant
at the Peace Hotel, 12th October 2013.  It's not always this clear!

Steve Padgham ("Padge") and his brother David have been going to the Shanghai Masters tennis for several years now, and loved it each time.  They invited me (Peter Forsythe, aka "Forse") along this time, and wonderful time had by all: terrific tennis with all the big players there, only Murray missing due to bad back, or bad knee, or something....
Padge and Dave have contacts in the tennis world, and Shanghai, so we had literally court-side seats.
Shanghai turned on some fabulous early Autumnal weather.  I'd not been to Shanghai for many years -- I lived there for a year in 1989-90, and the changes since then were quite phenomenal.  Overall, it gives the impression not only of a modern city, but also one that's run by people who know what they're doing. Just one example is the new subway, new since I was there.  It's just about as good as the one in Hong Kong, which I always reckon to the the best in the world.
Some pictures below.
Padge and Dave: feel free to add to this here, or in the Comments section!
All other viewers too, please feel free to Comment.
Cheers,
Forse.
LATER: Forgetting history.  The effectiveness of propaganda and censorship; a quick aside.
I was first in China in 1976, when I was lucky enough to learn Chinese courtesy of the Australian taxpayer (via DFAT), and later in the Oz Embassy. So I went through the fag-end of the Cultural Revolution, the overthrow of the Gang of Four, the June 4th 1989 Tiananmen "incident"...
While in Shanghai this time, and chatting with local folk, I asked them about these things.  In not one case did they know -- or had even heard -- of them.  Sure, these were the common folk, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and the like.  But no young German is unaware of the Nazi era.
Most recently the effect of China's propaganda and censorship machine was clear in the reactions to the Philippine Haiyan typhoon tragedy.  The online comments ran 90% against giving any money at all to them.  Because they have a spat over some South China Sea Islands, and all they've heard is the government line. China first committed a paltry and embarassing $US 100,000, later shamed into increasing it to $US 1 million (contrast that with the many tens of millions from the US...).
Here in Hong Kong the reaction to the Philippines tragedy has been much more caring and generous.
BTW: The best coverage of China in the English language mainstream media is our local South China Morning Post.  They have reporters based all over China and report, for the most part, openly and fearlessly.  While in China, the mainstream media is government controlled and there's no Facebook, no Twitter, no Blogger.  It's all rather depressing, really.
To finish on a positive note: The Third Plenum has just decided to ease the One Child policy and to close down the Labour Camps.  Two steps, one step...
Enough of that.  On to the piccies from Shangers...

Dave and Steve Padgham, at the Jing An Park, Shanghai

This is "old folks" day at the Jing An Park. Dancing, financial and health
advice from local authorities under the red brollies.

This was a fun and relaxed affair, in lovely
autumn weather.  This park was a tawdry and
run-down affair when I was here in '89.  Now it's charming.

Ladies dressed in Tang Dynasty clothes, for a film being made here

Padge and Dave relax in the tea garden, Jing An Park

Back at the Old Folks' fair; Padge contemplates if he should join in the dancing

Lleyton Hewitt, previous winner of the Shanghai Masters.
All the winners are cast in bronze in Terracotta warriors' garb

This is how close we were, right behind the cameras.  That's Nadal serving
in the background.  We figured out his pre-serve ticks: 9 gestures in all.

Padge in Pudong, looking back to the Bund

Oh my tha's hot!!
At the Dragon Phoenix restaurant, 8th Floor Peace Hotel.
It was every bit as good as I remembered from 1989.  Better.
Photo at the top of this post was taken from my seat.  What a view!

David's 60th at the Shanghai Restaurant he part owns: Sasha's
a real swingin' place.   Next door is Zapata's, also David's.

After the cake, a puff in the beer garden.  Loaded with fragrant
Indonesian herbs....

"Ooooh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm ok...."
Back in Hong Kong, the Padgies help me (Forse)
do a bit of drastic pruning of the banyan tree

Padge and I (Forse), headed off to Tai Po via cable car.  It's an old
fishing village, all on stilts.

Tai Po.  Some call it "The Venice of the East". Which, if  you discount the
palaces, the piazzas, the famous art, the cultural life, the statuaries,
the glassworks and the gondolas... it is.

Basil and Marcus oversee our gardening work

REVEREND TYRELL MEMORIAL SERVICE - WEDNESDAY 4 APRIL Sad passing of Reverend John Tyrell The Reverend John Tyrrel, Chaplain, senior Master and much-loved teacher at Canberra Grammar School from 1951 until 1981 died early on the morning of 29 March, 2012. He was 95. A Memorial Service will be held at 2pm on Wednesday, 4th of April in the Chapel of Christ the King, Canberra Grammar School (40 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill). All are welcome to join in this celebration of a singular life. Enquiries to community@cgs.act.edu.au or 6260 9700. Canberra Grammar School Monaro Crescent Red Hill, ACT, 2603 Australia +61(0)2 6260 9700 Email Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble reading this email? View it on your browser. Do you know someone who might be interested in receiving this? Forward to a friend

Our Don gets a Gong

MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA 103 Mr Donald Geoffrey PHILLIPS, 80A River Street, Cundletown NSW 2430

For service to business through roles with Regional Development Australia, to vocational training organisations, and to the community of Taree.

Chair, Regional Development Australia, 2007-2009; Chair, Mid North Coast Committee, 2007-2009.

Convenor, Chairs Reference Group, Area Consultative Committee, 2006-2008.

Member, Small Business Advisory Group, Australian Taxation Office, since 1998; Representative, Commissioner's Professional Excellence Forum, 2001-2004.

Chair, Mid North Coast Area Consultative Committee ,1999-2008; Member, 1993-2008.

Member, Manning Valley Businessmen's Association, since 1985.

Member, Taree Chamber of Commerce, 1982-2007.

Board Member, Manning Regional Development, 2000-2002.

Chair, Northern Rivers and North Coast Sustainable Region Advisory Committee, 2005-2009.

Board Member, Manning, Gloucester and Great Lakes Business Enterprise Centre, 1991-2001; Chair, 1993-2001.

Director, Taree Indigenous Development and Employment, 2008-2011.

Board Member, Valley Industries, since 2008.

Member, Taree Indigenous Employment Committee, 2003-2006.

Member, Manning Valley Vocational Education Committee, 1990-1998.

Board Member, Skillshare Training and Employment, 1988-1993.

Member, Rotary Club of Taree, since 1983; Coordinator of Youth Exchanges, for many years; Trainer, Youth Driving Awareness programs, for many years.

Board Member, Hunter Rural Division of General Practice, since 2007.

Deputy Chair, Manning Valley and Area Community Transport Group, 2006-2009; volunteer bus driver, since 1995.

Volunteer bus driver, Storm Retirement Village, since 2006.

Member, School Council, Manning Valley Anglican College, since 2009.

President, Taree Historic Motor Club, 2003 and 2004; Secretary, since 2008; Member, since 2000.

Treasurer, State and Federal, National Office Machine Dealers Association, 1993-2000.

Awards/recognition include:

Centenary Medal, 2001.

Well done Don. Where do you get the time??!

Clive Davidson and Don Phillips meet up on Kimberley trip

Don and Marjorie Phillips with the Captain of M/V Orion

I attach a few photos from our recent expedition cruise on MV Orion to the Kimberley's. To our surprise and delight we shared the experience with Don Phillips and his wife Marjorie pictured with the Captain.

The cruise left Broome on 4 July and steamed each night to the next locality for a 'hard' days sightseeing and exploration using the ships Zodiacs and guided by an amazing group of enthusiastic Expedition Guides. All in all an amazing experience and certainly very different from the normal "cruise" experience.

Seeing this region from the sea is very special.

Next item on my "Bucket List" is Antarctica and you will be pleased to hear that Christine and I are off to Mawson's Hut and Antarctica on 2 December as part of the Centenary celebrations for Mawson's trip. Also on MV Orion.

Cheers
Clive

MV Orion

Up close to a pod of bottle nose dolphins

Mitchell Falls

A completely new meaning to "Sand Bar" 

Brahminy Kite

King George River Falls

View from the top of the King Geo River Falls

Salty eyeing off some tourists

Bungle Bungles

More Bungle Bungles

Wandjina Aboriginal art gallery

John Nicholas and Mark Hodgkin over England

A Sunday Jaunt

Mark Hodgkin emailed John Nicholas with a Blast from the Past. We hadn't seen each other for 38 years yet live about 15 minutes apart by Tube. Friendship is weird how you can step back into it over distance and time.

John joined Mark for a couple of pints at his local, then went back to his place for steak and wine. And quite a bit of talk. John remembers stuff Mark doesn't and Mark remembers stuff John doesn't. Somewhere in between we remembered some stuff simultaneously.

Then Mark suggested we go on a jaunt with his old friend Paul, who is a very nice bloke (and also has an original Triumph Bonneville). This photo is Paul with plane.


He is standing at the wrong end of his Beechcraft D17S Staggerwing , the first true business aircraft designed in the U.S. in 1932. Pauls' beautifully maintained specimen was built in 1938. The interior looks like a Pontiac of that era.The windows wind down, and there are 1930s automotive door handles. You can put four men in it plus full fuel and some luggage, and its 450 horse power 9 cylinder Pratt and Whitney radial engine makes it fly. It was a dream of John's to fly in one, and then . . .

Paul and John ran the office:


While Mark managed the main cabin and the photography:


You can tell the cabin is spacious, because Mark isn't very short.

We flew south from Paul's home aerodrome Popham, over Portsmouth on the south coast to the Isle of Wight, then past Osborne House and Cowes and back over the Solent and the yachts to the mainland.Then up the Beaulieu River over Buckler's Hard, where several of the ships in Nelson's fleet were built, including Euralus, Swiftsure and Agamemnon, and into the New Forest towards lunch at Old Sarum, at which low cloud sent us retracing our steps. So we went instead to the famous wartime airfield of White Waltham, west of Maidenhead, for lunch.

After lunch we posed (note the difference in height and stature):


Then headed off westwards at about 2000 feet above sea level over Berkshire (past Andrew Lloyd Webber's house, Highclere Castle etc) and into Wiltshire. We passed the ancient stone circle village of Avebury:


And nearby and even more ancientSilbury Hill, a mound built 4750 years ago and topped off by the Romans:


And then flew past the house of John's Ancient Aunt, whose origin is lost in the mists of time:


Then home to Popham:



It's amazing how much of southern England you can cover in a couple of hours at 140 knots.


John Nicholas is the Founder/President of NovaPangaea Technologies which is active in producing technologies to overcome Peak Oil. More information can be found at their web page at http://novapangaea.com/

Robert Fisher e-mails in

Hello guys,

If we are to start expounding on all of our travels and exploits, I must advise everyone of our recent trip to Iceland; not sure if any of you have been there before, but what a brilliant place (especially for a geologist like myself); I will attempt to upload, as time permits, a series of photos of this adventure; 2 weeks there was not enough, but we did charter a plane on our first day and fly the entire SW quadrant where much of the action occurs in line with the mid-ocean ridge spreading centre which cuts through that part of the Island. We drove the ring road around the Island, but we were spared the action of any volcanic activity during this trip, but plenty of seismic activity. I will say though the women are gorgeous and always interested in new blood on the island; they are known to be quite aggressive; We followed this up with a week in London where I had managed to acquire centre court seats at Wimbledon for the men’s quarters and semi’s; something else to cross off the bucket list; they did not offer me a wildcard to the men’s senior event unfortunately!!!!!! Then off to Europe where we did a river cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna and back home through Switzerland and Northern Italy; 6 weeks of great travelling.

Strongly recommend Iceland as a destination; not sure I would like to spend winter there however.

That is all for now; I will be in Merimbula at Xmas followed by a few days in Mollymook, so would not mind catching up to those in the area if possible.

Take care

Rob Fisher

Peter Forsythe's Cape to Cairo trip

Peter's blog with lots of photographs and interests is to be found here.

Rick Frith and David Edmunds Flying photos

Abeam Spring Creek Gulf of Carpentaria


Dave and Rick flew their light aircraft to the Gulf and back.
Rick also adds some photographs from an earlier trip he did to the Kimberleys


Vapour trails with shadows 6500 feet above Nyngan

Undara Lava tubes


Flying Doctor base Georgetown

The boys land at Longreach

Leichhardt River Gulf of Carpentaria

Landing At Ayres Rock Kimberley trip




Landing at Cape Leveque Kimberly trip

Kimberley trip...Horizontal waterfall