Arrow and Jedda

My grandson calls me Arrow. He can't yet make a "gr" sound, and his early attempts to say “Grandad” sounded like “Ah-woah”.

His other Grandad Karel (Karl) is Czech. The Czech word for Grandad is Děda, which to an English-speaker sounds like Jedda.

So our grandson calls his two grandfathers Arrow and Jedda, which makes us sound like a couple of retired superheroes.

I quite like it

Double Header

Had a great afternoon playing in both Wound Up and Unwound Acoustic at The Gov.

Unwound kicked off the afternoon at 1.30 pm with an acoustic set, followed by Wound Up at around 2.20 pm with our mix of Rock 'n' Roll and 50s & 60s favourites.

The afternoon wrapped up with two of our Warrior friends' bands, Matuezi and Moss.

Three Gig Month

28 March Bunnings Car Park Caper
Loading up the car for another gig. But this one is different. I've been invited to play with acoustic ensemble Unwound at Bunnings Family Fun Day in the car park of their store in Woodville. We're on at 11.15 am. My first ever public acoustic show! Guitar: check. Set list: check. Excited: check. Nervous: check. OK, I'm ready.

15 March Club Cool
Loading up the car for the another gig this week. Today we are playing Club Cool in The Venue at The Governor Hindmarsh, Port Road. Our friends in rockabilly band Mystery Train kick the show off at 12.15pm, then Wound Up comes on at 1.30 for an hour of your favourite Rock 'n' Roll oldies and 50s and 60s hits.

8 March at Port Dock
Looking forward to playing some rock 'n' roll with Wound Up at the Port Dock Brewery Hotel on Sunday afternoon. We're on around 4.20, finishing off another great afternoon of music from Warrior bands in the Port.

Phil Eastick

It’s five years since Phil left us and twenty years since I first met him.

I like to remember that we first met because of music.

I was working in ArtsSA and Phil came in to do a consultancy on venues for live music performances. His new office was just across the corridor from mine and the first thing he did was set up his mini hi-fi system.

Our first contact was through the music drifting from his office. It was my kind of music, something from the UK 60s wonder years, and I was drawn in. We introduced ourselves and I commented on the music. I’d seen the band back in the day. Phil was interested that I was interested in it. We were still talking about stuff an hour later.

Our careers overlapped and criss-crossed for the next 15 years, starting in the arts area and moving through Ngapartji and then the Government’s IT and online services, where Phil’s vision was powerful and inspiring.

My word, Phil, they are still talking about doing some of things you envisaged way back then.

In parallel to our journey of exploration into using the online world to improve people’s lives, we were also on a quest to find the perfect coffee and the best cheeseburger in town.

We came darn close to the perfect coffee on many occasions. But we nailed the cheeseburger! It was in a very ordinary looking, old-fashioned café, long since gone, in the Renaissance Arcade where the Asian Food Court is now.

Our conversations, over coffee or cheeseburgers, usually followed the same pattern. After we’d dealt with the work issue of the day, the conversation would come round to music and musicians past and present, and the latest interesting and sometimes bewildering events in local and national politics.

Politics, music, coffee and cheeseburgers. It doesn’t get much better than that.

When I quit working for the government in 2004 and started playing in a rock and roll band, it was a great compliment that you came to see my very first gig at Fowlers Live. Later, when the band had evolved and got a bit better, it was an honour that you and the wise and wonderful Robin came to see us at the Blumberg Hotel in Birdwood. Both of you were so generous with your time and knowledge.

Now, when my band gets up to perform on the big stage at the Gov, where the celebration of Phil’s life was held, when I go into any of the many coffee shops around Adelaide where we used to meet up, when I wear something red, and when I see a cheeseburger, I remember Phil.

And I still laugh when I remember (and occasionally use) one his famous lines that he would sometimes say at the start of meetings, seminars and the like, when the facilitator goes round the table getting participants to introduce themselves and explain their role: “My name is Phil, and I drink coffee for the Government."

Rolling Stones

Astonishing show by the Rolling Stones at the Adelaide Oval.

I last heard them live in March 1971, standing outside the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London, near the flat of my then girlfriend. It was the Stones' absolutely, definitely, final, last ever, farewell concert.

Tonight, 43 years later, the two of us were finally able to be inside the stadium and see them in the flesh at last.

Kentucky Fried Possum.

Thanks to Michael Delahaye, author and journalist, for this story and photo. Michael says,

"There was an almighty explosion with blinding light around 01.30 this morning in Kingswood, Adelaide.

The little critter had climbed the Stobie pole opposite our house and bridged the live wires.

The transformer at the top of the utility pole was blown apart, sending bits of red hot shrapnel across the street - which set fire to a neighbour's fence and resulted in the appearance of not one, but two fire engines. And a dozen neighbours in fashionable night-time attire…

Requiescat in Possum?"

Long Way Round

There is a fountain in the corner of the square at the heart of ancient Amalfi. Backpackers and budget-conscious travellers sit on its steps, filling their water bottles from the drinking spout and eating the bread and cheese they have bought nearby. 

Ann and I are sitting 10 metres away at a table on the terrace of a nearby restaurant, sipping white wine while waiting for our lunch to be served.

I nod towards the people sitting round the fountain and say, “That was us once. It’s taken us 45 years to travel the 10 metres from there to here.”

We went the long way round.

New Adelaidia Web Site

I’m excited about the new web site http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/.

Presented by History SA (of which I’m a Trustee), Adelaidia is an interactive way of finding out about and engaging with our city’s past and present. It tells the stories of the city’s people, places and events, the city streets and the buildings and monuments that line them, and the events that enliven them.

And we want your help to tell the story, to share your stories of the city, your favorite images and your responses.

Warriors SA AGM

Ian addressing the AGM

It was an honour to be re-elected as Vice-President of the Weekend Warriors Music Club (SA) at the club’s AGM today.

Weekend Warriors is a club for recreational musicians and singers to meet like-minded people, form bands and ensembles, find gigs and perform live.

If you’d like to join a band for fun and have opportunities to perform live in a range of gigs and venues, please visit www.sawarriors.org.au.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Rees Photography.

Quiet Night in Birmingham

On this day, 50 years ago, late on a Friday night in downtown Birmingham, UK, my dad and I were coming out of the AGM of our fishing club.

Stepping out into the normally bustling Friday night city streets, we wondered why everything seemed so quiet. There was hardly any traffic and small groups of people were huddled on street corners, talking together quietly but intently. It was very strange.

Dad asked someone, “What’s going on?”

The reply: “Kennedy’s been shot”.

James Nash House Gig

Just returned from an enjoyable gig with Wound Up at James Nash House to help celebrate World Mental Health Day.

What could be more authentic than playing rock and roll in the gym?

Thanks to the patients and staff for making us welcome, feeding us a great lunch and helping us put on a good show through their support, encouragement and, importantly, their dancing.

Tall Ships on Fathers' Day

The Dutch Tall Ships left Port Adelaide on Sunday 1 Sept en route to Kangaroo Island. I was a guest on the racing yacht Alliance which accompanied them on the first part of their journey along the South Australian coast.

Thanks to Skipper Jim for the invitation and to the crew. I took many photos of the magnificent Tall Ships. This one shows the Oosterschelde (left) and the Europa off Glenelg.

Istanbul

Blue Mosque

Our hotel is in the old city, just a few hundred metres from the Blue Mosque. From the terrace of the rooftop restaurant, we looked straight down at the floodlight mosque on a velvet night under a full moon, with the Bosphorus beyond and the lights of the new town in the distance on the other side of the river.

Just after I took this photo, the muzzein started the late evening call to prayer, and the call was taken up by another over to the left. The two voices interwove, complemented and improvised off each other in way that raises the hairs on your arms and back of your neck.

Borrowing an e-book

I just “borrowed” my first e-book from a library.

South Australian recently introduced a “one card” system. That means you belong to a State-wide virtual library comprising every municipal and community library in South Australia. Your one card gives you access to all the resources of all the participating libraries.

My clever wife was instrumental in getting the system established.

But wait, there’s more. It also gives you access to a library of e-books. You can browse or search an on-line catalogue, find an e-book and “borrow” (or reserve) it. It downloads a copy to your computer or handheld device and is accessible for a set loan period.

When you’ve finished, you can “return” it to the library with the click of a mouse (or tap of your finger). That deletes your copy and releases the e-book back to the catalogue for the next borrower. If you don’t return it, then at the end of the loan period, it vanishes from your device. Brilliant.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

Several people asked me what it meant when I tweeted “Rudd and Turnbull on qanda. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”.

QandA is of course the ABC TV talk show on which both former PM Kevin Rudd and former Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull were guests on Monday 19 November 2012. Although on opposite sides of the political spectrum, it was interesting to see how two individuals holding some strongly opposing views could still have a civilised and rationale debate and even find some common ground.

My Tweet was triggered by a question from an audience member who asked the two popular adversaries why they didn’t join forces and set up their own political party.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra is an expression from the Tamarian language featured in the Star Trek episode “Darmok”. It captured my interest with its exploration of the relationship between language and meaning.

The Tamarian language does not use vocabulary, syntax and grammar to communicate meaning. Instead it uses historical references, literary allusions and metaphor. Thus, although the computers can translate the words that the Tamarians speak, they can’t translate the actual meaning. To understand what the Tamarians are saying, i.e. what they mean, you have to know that culture’s history, legends, mythology, folklore, allegories and possibly their holy stories.

During this episode, Captain Dathon, a Tamarian, and Captain Picard are stranded on the surface of an alien planet El-Adrel where they are in danger of attack from a vicious creature. Although the translator devices can render the speaker’s words accurately, neither can understand what the other actually means because of the different ways in which the two languages work.

When Capt. Dathon offers Picard one of two daggers, uttering the words, “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”, Picard thinks he is challenging him to a duel. In fact, Dathon is alluding to a myth or legend about two heroes, Darmok and Jalad, rivals or enemies, who find themselves in a perilous situation on an island called Tanagra, who have to cooperate in order to defeat a monster and survive. Thus, when Dathon utters the expression "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra", he is saying “Let’s cooperate”, or “Let’s join forces to fight the creature”.

The sequence of scenes where it gradually begins to dawn on Picard how the Tamarian language works and he begins to understand and tentatively communicate with Dathon, is a minor masterpiece of filmic storytelling and acting.

Dathon is fatally injured in the battle with the creature. As he is dying, Picard tells him in Tamarian-type language the parallel Earth legend of Gilgamesh, where former foes Gilgamesh and Enkidu combine forces to deafeat the monsterous Bull of Heaven at Uruk and, like Dathon, Enkidu sacrifices his life for the greater good.

Picard returns to his own ship, and using Tamarian metaphor, begins to recount to the crew of the alien ship what happened between him and Dathon. One of the Tamarian crew exclaims: “Sokath, his eyes uncovered!” an allusion meaning something like “He understands”; “At last he gets it!”

Thus: Rudd and Turnbull on QandA. Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk. Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

Syngas Follow-up

Back in September last year, I wrote a post about a submission I had written for Syngas, which won them R&D funding for field trials for the collection of waste biomass for use as a potential supplementary energy feedstock.  Afterwards, I edited the Report of the field trials.

The client has since created a renewable/clean energy subsidiary company to progress this work and has recently published this short film about the field trials. Stay with it through the introduction and brief powerpoint presentation to get to the live footage of the on-farm trials.

It’s great to see the fascinating work they did with the funding that my submission helped win for them and to actually see the activities and outcomes that the Report described.

Time Flies

When I was born on this very day not so many years ago, a pint of beer cost eleven pence. A loaf of bread was four pence ha’penny and a pound of butter cost one shilling and four pence.

King George VI was on the throne, Harry S. Truman was President of the United States and Ben Chifley was Prime Minister of Australia. The Governor-General was Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Thomas Playford IV was Premier of South Australia. Clement Atlee was Prime Minister of Britain and Winston Churchill was Leader of the Opposition.

You could buy a three bedroom house for £1,365 and an average car for £372, a bit more than the average annual wage of £348. A gallon of petrol cost two shillings and a penny ha’penny and 20 cigarettes were one and ten. The Australian pound was worth 16 UK shillings. One UK pound would buy $4 US.

The most popular band that year was The Ink Spots, the most popular singer was Perry Como, the most popular song of the year was “Love Letters” and the best musical was “Annie Get Your Gun”.

In that year “Foundation Day” was renamed “Australia Day”, Trans Australia Airlines made its first flight, the movie The Overlanders was released starring Chips Rafferty. The first Tupperware was sold in department and hardware stores and the electric blanket was invented.

The first meeting of the United Nations was held in London and Project Diana bounced radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon and proving that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the space age.

Also born that year were Bon Scott, Tim Fischer, John Hewson (former Federal politician), Alan Jones (racing driver) and John Bertrand (yachtsman who skippered Australia II to America’s Cup Victory).

On the actual day I was born, Ho Chi Minh, future President of North Vietnam, left Paris after being forced into signing an unfavorable agreement with France, nine men who escaped from Stalag Luft III received MBEs in Britain, and Reuben Fogg was born, although it would be some years before we eventually met.

Bikes for Humanity

Sponsoring my daughter in the Sydney City2Surf Run to raise money for a great little charity "Bikes for Humanity".

They send shipping containers of bikes from us (when we upgrade) to people in Africa who can use them to get to study or work or to lighten the load of carrying stuff.

We just moved the river aside...

Some of the Tunnel documents

“So we just moved the river to one side, built the motorway tunnel through the river bed, then put the river back on top”.

It was the Project Manager speaking, explaining the basic concept for building a motorway tunnel underneath the major river in Singapore – a sort of engineer’s poetry.

The actual project was of course huge and took several years to complete. It generated masses of paperwork and it is strangely absorbing to edit the reams of reports and follow-up documentation.

Speech at Daughter's Wedding - 17 March 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ann and I would like to welcome you all and thank you for joining us today to help celebrate the wedding of Megan and Aron on this beautiful autumn day in Adelaide.

We’d also like to give a special thank you to the friends and family members who have worked to help make sure that today’s ceremony and this reception have gone smoothly and successfully.
Particular thanks to those friends and family members who have travelled long distances from interstate and overseas to be here with us today. We are particularly pleased to welcome our visitors from New Zealand, with a special welcome to Aron’s Grand-mother, Chris Coleman.

And a very special welcome and thank you to Aron’s mom Linda who has come down from Darwin and to his father Carl who has travelled here from Switzerland.

I’m delighted that the newly-weds’ parents are able to be here together today.

When a child looks at a parent, they see, hopefully, someone important to their lives but separate from them.

But when parents look at their child, they see part of themselves. When their child is happy, they are filled with joy. When their child is sad, their hearts break.

As Ann and I watched Megan grow, we experienced a whole range of emotions with her.

And we were always ready with some advice, guidance and support if she wanted it – or if we thought she needed it, whether she wanted it or not.

Everything from cleaning up scratched knees, and questions about why the sky is blue, through school and study, and how to build web sites, to the best way of handling customer relations and creating strategic plans.

And we watched her grow and mature into the confident, professional woman she is today and of whom we are very proud.

And during those years, from time to time she would bring home a boy – and that was fine.

Then one day she brought home a man. And that’s when a parent realises that things have changed.

And Aron was such a man - confident and mature himself, well-established in both his social and professional life. This was a serious contender.

For a while it was a bit like the old bull and the young bull, wary and weighing each other up.

But I’m glad to say that Aron showed himself to be a man we could like and respect. And we were delighted and honoured when Aron, in a very traditional way, asked Ann and me for permission to ask Megan to marry him.

Although that delight comes with a slight pang, when you realise that you are no longer going to be the number one go-to person for support and advice.

But there are many, very welcome compensations - like gaining another member of your own family, and bringing two families together.

That is why Ann and I and Rebecca are delighted to welcome Aron as a member of our family, and why we are happy for Megan to become a member of his. Through Megan and Aron’s marriage, our families are brought together and both gain.

We hoped you like the symbolism of having the ceremony in the New Zealand section of the Botanic Gardens, then walking through the South Australian section to the Reception.

And so, on behalf of Ann and myself, I ask you to raise your glasses and join us in wishing the bride and groom happiness in their future life together.

Ladies and gentlemen: The Bride and Groom.