Happy Holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Cam & I have done our 4th installment of Christmas Cards, and this one is tricky...Half of it is Cam & the other half is me. MANY people have guessed incorrectly, can you tell who is who? I'll post the answer in the New Year.

We are headed to Sydney for the holidays and I will have some more photos then. Lots has happened since the last post, you can imagine. We've been to Sydney 2X: to say Happy Naming day to Andia (our Goddaughter) and a conference in Batemans Bay (S of Sydney 5 hrs).
Here is a shot of Andia, daughter to Cam's twin Toby & Yalda that Cam took. They've moved to Chicago & are braving the winter madness!


We also went on a few hikes/adventures, saw a rodeo, worked, mailed out Christmas cards, and Cam traveled to central Australia to do some archaeology. The rodeo was very similar to seeing a county fair in Houghton, you get to see folks that you would never run into on a regular basis, including clowns. The skill to ride these animals & catch them is pretty great & the greasy food hit just the right spot on the damp evening.


Cam also got to go to the U2 concert with Steve in Sydney (I didn't know about the concert & had booked my flight home & thus was unable to see one of my favorite bands, grrrr). I am still so jealous, but at least I got to see Chicago all those times at Blossom.


Before signing off to bed, C & I have been working on photos in the dark. Our recent shot is taken in between beer & a movie on a Dec Friday night. We saw "The King's Speech" which I would highly recommend, probably on video. We took this shot trying to time the lighting just right for the long exposure. If you close your eyes, you can hear the crickets too. Have a great night & end to your 2010!

FLASHBACK: Burra - CU land

Burra was the home to a massive copper town in South Australia and responsible for saving the state. The Cornish were massively influential in its history, and were particularly responsible for building the engine houses like this one on the left. Burra in fact is the home to the most Cornish engine houses in one location, outside of Cornwall. At least that is what I think.



Cam took this picture of the bottom of one of the flues that would draw air through a huge underground system.

Because they were miners, many of the workers built their houses in the creek bed, into the hillside. These huts were built out of mud and timber and generally held up to working except for the floods. These 2 have been reconstructed for tours.

Burra, like many places in Australia, had a prison. Cam tried his hand at an escape. Did he succeed (well, you can probably guess)? Stayed tune to our next adventure back to Sydney.

FLASHBACK: Burra - CU Aussie Style

Leaving Broken Hill, we headed towards Adelaide & spent a bit of time in Peterborough and Burra.


Peterbourough had a number of trains that were around the town, preserved and standing strong. It was the location where one type of gauge of track changed to the other one (each colony had its own gauge). We had a spectacular lunch there.


Approaching Burra, we drove over the creek that had a tendency to flood from time to time. This photo contains some of the historic buildings included in the district that has state significance. There was hotel in Burra that we stayed at during a blackout where power was cut for a few hours. Everyone ended up at the bar, including us. Just like the old days.


While walking around on a historic tour in town, Cam snapped this photo for his Mom. We haven't yet printed it for her, but I think she'll see it here.


Coming from Houghton MI, Cameron & I really felt at home while passing through Burra. Even though we were a bit like the bloke in the middle (out of place).

Next post will be historic part of Burra including the mines!

I GOT A JOB - really!

Hey all,

This is going to be a short post, but the good news is I got a full-time job. I'm starting on Monday and hope to see a contract soon. The Unley Museum will be my home and as curator I'll be in charge of people visiting, opening the museum, and working with the local council.

Sorry for lack of photos, haven't spent 1 day there yet. More from flashbacks.

-E

FLASHBACK: Day Dream Mine, Outside Broken Hill

Cam & I had a great day after the conference hanging out in Broken Hill & spending some time at the sites we stumbled across during the conference. The best was the Day Dream Mine, out near Silverton (where the Mad Max mobile was located.

Our tour included this cute little pup who was awful hot in the direct sunshine. I don't remember what his name was, but lets just call him 'Pete.'

I've been underground in a handful of mines, mostly in Michigan and Minnesota. This one, was much more interesting that most. The ceilings were very low, there were hand made signs telling you of escape routes, and it was family run.

Of course, they did the obligatory "lets see what it was like if your candle/light went out" too. Cam even volunteered to hold the drill bit while our guide was going to demonstrate how they would hit it (the lights were on at this point).


Our time to spend in Broken Hill was winding down, and a few more stops & walk around was all we could muster in before hitting the road again in April.

Up next on FLASHBACK: Burra, SA.

FLASHBACK: April & Around Broken Hill

Broken Hill had some remarkable buildings, this clock tower epitomized the verandas built along the main street. You can also see one of the government buildings with its tower in the background.


The mining landscape was visible from everywhere in Broken Hill, especially the waste rock piles. A visitor information center, restaurant, and memorial are located on top of the major one.


These last two shots are just artistic ones with portions of the Broken Hill landscape that inspired Cameron and me. Cam took this shot with a reproduced hoist, while the last one is just of the largest ANT I've ever seen. The moon made for the perfect eyeball.

City 2 Bay & Central Chinese Markets

Its been a while for a post about what's going on with Cam & I right now, so here's one that covers the last monthish of time. Two weekends after I got back from Sydney, Cam ran the City 2 Bay 12 km charity run. Thanks to everyone who donated - he raised close to $300 for a charity that helps homeless women through educational classes.
He was able to run the entire thing with only a little bit of training. There were LOTS of people (30,000) running or walking and he says that he'll do it again next year. Here's a shot of Cam at the beginning of the race in his yellow t-shirt and a smile.

And here he is waving in the back with only 1km or so to go. He did it in about 73 minutes (that's official time) and placed 7086. That's about 7.5 miles in just over an hour & by the end, he really hit his stride. I tried running that last km with him, but he was just too fast.

We've also been going to the central markets, right in Chinatown of Adelaide. Fresh produce abounds along with yummy cheese, cheep food from Malaysia, China, Japan, and Korea. We typically go on a Friday night, grab drinks, dinner, & groceries before things close at 9pm.


Right outside the market near our bus stop is the main theater in town, Her Majesties. Cam set up a night shot & even caught another bus flying by through his shot.

FLASHBACK: April Broken Hill Part 1

After such long travels in the car, we finally reached the location for the conference: BROKEN HILL. We took about 400 pictures during less than a week, but I will spare you all of them except about a dozen over a few posts.


Be patient, many of these will include industry! Broken Hill was the most famous mine in Australia.

Mostly we went to former industries, but were able to get into a portion of Perilya, the on-going mining operations. The image to the left is from part of the plant built under art-deco architecture.


We also checked out a local sheep station, which was home to many bathtubs used to collect the sparse drops of rain water.


One evening, we headed to a sculpture garden to watch the sun set while sipping wine. It was breathtaking and particularly colorful.


We also went to the infamous Silverton Hotel current home to Mad Max's wicked cool car.

Next FLASHBACK will continue in Broken Hill.

FLASHBACK: April Trip & Dubbo Zoo

C & I got out of the car & onto a bike for a quick trip around the Dubbo Zoo. This was an interesting zoo with huge more natural containment for the animals. There were two very friendly turtles.

We got to see lots of animals, especially those from Australia. This echidna was difficult to capture, but check out this shot!


The absolute CUTEST animal there was a little rhino. While mom went for a munch, the little girl decided she would have a snack too. Cam caught her out peeking underneath mum's tum.


Of course there were lots of birds flying overhead following us on our bikes. This one paused long enough for a quick shot.

I learned something the other day about people from Afghanistan who brought camels to Australia. Many were abandoned in the outback and are still there today. The population is quite significant, and several were in Dubbo too.

We got to see a whole slew of animals hanging in the African Savanna (giraffes, hippos, zebra, and more) come running in for dinner. It was amazing to watch them all charge for the troughs. I enjoyed seeing which animals realized there was food & the time it took each group to reach the hay. Next FLASHBACK will be in Broken Hill!

FLASHBACK: April Trip Australia

The next group of "flashbacks" will feature our road trip from Sydney to Broken Hill to Adelaide and back to Sydney. We arrived to Australia back in April & drove to an ICOMOS conference (International Committee on Monuments and Sites). It was C & E and an open road...


This was the perfect way for us to get to know our new car (thanks Tony & MaryEd) and appreciate our new home. We ran into a bunch of bugs - I would call them grasshoppers, but here they swarm & are referred to as "locusts." We rigged up a screen to protect our car & were mighty thankful all these didn't get sucked in.

We stopped in the Blue Mountains, at a most breath-taking place. The lookout was known at Echo Point and there were a group of formations from stone nicknamed "The Three Sisters" although there really are 7 (4 are shy). I thought you could see for miles at this place, but I was in for a deep appreciation of just how huge this continent really is in comparison to what I pictured.


All these pictures were taken by Cam & it appears that he took control of the camera (and I got to be in a bunch). We snapped this one at a gold mining site near Orange with two new buddies.

And now the night sky falls on the open road...the scenes we saw & the amount of space visible gliding along at about 60 mph was more than I can describe in words. The curve of the earth was visible, exact outlines of individual branches against a fading sky, red dirt and white stones. The further into the outback we drove, the closer we got to Australia.

Boats, Rings, & Kites in Sydney

My time in Sydney just shot by, but I had a blast. Early mornings sharing the sunrise with both MaryEd & Tony and then a ferry boat ride to a train before transferring to another train was well worth the effort. Its hard to see, but Tony is in the above shot, right in front of the boat's name.
Before leaving Sydney, I found a beautiful opal from Lightening Ridge and after conference with the purchaser (Cam) I went and bought it with Tony. Its almost 1 C, which is quite large for an opal. I absolutely love wearing it.

Cam & I never made it to Bondi Beach, the famous beach in Oz. I heard about a KITE festival at the beach & thought that sounded like fun. So, Yalda, Toby, Lachlan, & I all headed out there for an awesome day. We flew kites, I sang "Let's go fly a kite!", we ate awesome food, and we had a blast. I got a kite that was a red octopus, but it looked more like one of the Pac-Man ghosts with really long strings.

There were hundreds of kites, and quite a good wind (as you can see above). Toby was quite skilled at untangling the string especially once we got home.

I think everyone had a really good time, and thanks to Lachlan who snapped a bunch of wonderful photos.

Let's, go fly a kite.
Up to the highest height.
Lets go fly a kite & send it soaring.

Up to the atmosphere,
Up where the air is clear!
Let's all go, fly a kite.

Sydney Sider - Sort Of

So, its been a while since my last post, but that's because I'm in Sydney for a bit of work (over a few weeks). Its some cash & extremely exhausting, but I'm surviving and learning a bit about Aboriginal archaeology. I thought I'd post some photos of my adventures for one & all.

We are wet sieving our dirt at the dig, which includes spraying water through what was excavated and picking out the little bits of stone, artifacts, pottery, etc. Here's a shot of me trying to stay dry during this process. To date, we haven't found much, but we have learned a bunch about the geography and landscape.

This shot is of our whole site, at least where we are excavating. The staircase in the back goes up to a lunch room and the sieve is off the photo to the left, kind of behind the photographer. Each AM I wake up at 5:30 to be on site by 8. We work till 4 & I normally get home just after 5:30. Its exhausting, but will be good on the resume.

While here in Sydney, I met up with Tim (Cam's pall from school) and we checked out some of the building statues around the city. This one was complete with an owl!

Yalda (Toby, Cam's twin) had a baby shower & we had a fun time. Here we were playing the fun game of guess how big Yalda's tummy is. That was 1 of 4 games and although Yalda was very good at guessing the number of nappies (diapers) and almost won the left-right game, she had lots of presents.
Seated (right to left) are Yalda on far right, Natassia (host), Shokufeh (neighbor & friend), Michelle (Cam's cousin), MaryEd (Cam's Mom), and Sara (also pregnant). We had a great weekend and I'm having a fun time in Sydney.