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Monday, April 5, 2010

Canberra in Pictures



Hello ScoFans!

Before I wrap up the week in Canberra by showing you the pictures taken post conference, I'd just like to thank those of you who told me I'm never allowed to travel again. I said late last year I don't like travelling, one of the girls at work was trying to send me to overseas, and now if she ever tries again I can print of your comments and say "I think you'll find my readers won't allow me to travel. And they know what's best for me, right?"

That being said, next years conference is in New Zealand, which for those of you who don't know it's the very eastern part of Australia.

So let's recap my sight seeing part of the week.

Thursday

I caught a taxi out to the National Film and Sound archives. When we got close to the building the taxi driver kept asking me for directions and I'm like "Isn't it your job to know where we're going? I'm from Melbourne. I don't know where anything is"



I think I've mentioned "Picnic At Hanging Rock" around these parts before. It's a great movie, and those costumes were the highlight of the NFSA for me.

Then I went back to the Parlimentary Circle type area and checked out Questacon first, and then walked around Old Parliment House and Parliment House.

Oh, and I saw your mum at Questacon. What, she didn't tell you I said hi? *Bam!*


That's old Parliament House. From the front and across the road.




That's Parliament House. See how there's the grass hills up the side? Well you can actually walk up there and stand on top of Parliament House, which I think should be mandatory for every Government building.


There's the view from the top of Parliament House, looking away from the city.

In Canberra there is also a gift we receive from the very generous United States. It's a cement eagle sitting on top of a tall pole. Really, thanks guys, it's exactly what we needed.


That's the Eagle there. That tall skinny one.


And that's me there, giving a bird of my own. You're welcome.

Friday was pretty quiet. Mum and dad came up late in the day and we went and got tickets for the art exhibition that was on at the National Gallery. The paintings have traveled here from France or somewhere like that, and it's caused all sorts of chaos. These are a few pictures from the line on Saturday morning (we got there and 9:30 - it opened at 10)


That was what was in front of us. It goes up around the bend there.

That was behind us. We'd started moving by this point, because the thing we were behind in the other picture we've now moved past.


That's my dad, knowing his place and giving me the royal treatment I deserve while I was tweeting about having to wait in line.

And yes, I am wearing two long sleeved shirts only to roll the sleeves on both of them up. It might be impractical, but it's a style.

It took us two and a half hours to get inside, and when we did we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I've downloaded from the Internet my favourite of the ones that were in there for you to look at.

There were Van Gogh's, Monet's and Picasso's, but it was "Rest" by Vilhelm Hammershoi I really liked.

The other thing I found amusing was Edouard Vuillard did a portrait of Felix Vallotton which looked like this..


And Felix said "As if, that doesn't even look like me dickhead" so he painted his own portrait..

I think the first one is more accurate. With the blurry face.

On the Sunday we went to the mint and learned how to make coins, before making our own coins. It's actually pretty easy.. you just put $3.00 into the machine, press a button and BAM!.. a dollar comes out.

On the way home we stopped at the "Dog on the Tuckerbox"


There are a few stories about why there is a tribute to a dog on a tuckerbox here.

The first, and the one my mum heard growing up, is that the dog was waiting for the owner at the pub, but the owner died inside and didn't come out. The dog sat by the owners tuckerbox (lunch box) waiting for him to return, and refused to eat or move until the dog died as well.

The second, the one written in the poems around the dog, describes a very bad day the owner was having. It gets to lunch time, the owner thinks "Great. Some food and a break", only to come back and find the dog shat in the tuckerbox.

Which one is true? Who knows?

What I do know is there was some of the best graffiti I have seen in a bathroom ever at the bathrooms here.


Thanks, because until now I'd thought he was a pretty nice guy.



Wise words. Perhaps too wise for a bathroom wall in the middle of nowhere.

So that's it, my Canberra trip all posted about. I'll throw in one more pic of me as a freebie because the other two weren't great.

There I am standing on PH with Dad. I rolled one lot of sleeves down, it must have been cold.

Anyway, that's it from me. The cats are pretty close to the hawks and I have to see how this ends.

16 comments:

  1. These are great! I dream of visiting New Zealand one day!!!

    I loved the art! I loved how you're "pointing up" to show us the Eagle. LOL!

    Every set of photos cannot be complete with the good 'ol bird!!

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  2. That line is longer than the ones we stood in at Disny World. I would have enjoyed the paintings much more than what I dealt with.

    How can you stand to wear 2 long sleeved shirts in the hot sun?

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  3. Love the pics! Way to combine blogging and education. And thanks for the Scoman pic - now I can sleep at night.

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  4. Van Gogh....Monet....Picasso....sounds delightful!

    Yes...a Duck can have culture even if she is a sassy mouthed thing...

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  5. Cool. My favourite bits were the grass going over the parliament building, the dog on the tucker box stories and everyone's paper hats while queuing outside the National Gallery. I want one.

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  6. Ah these are great!! Seriously, looks like a great time!!

    "Oh, and I saw your mum at Questacon. What, she didn't tell you I said hi? *Bam!*"

    I really have to pee and my sudden burst of laughter that came out when I read this line almost caused me to pee my pants at work. Not cool Scoman. :)

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  7. Ahhh, so there's Scoman! very nice to finally see you.

    And God, I hope this isn't the only way I will see Australia! my hubby and I are dying to go.

    Being the Surfer and Triathlete he is it only makes sense to head out that way, right?

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  8. i freaking love your dad. ahahah simply because he gave you the royal treatment. ya know, it simply means that he supports twitter and therefore he's my favourite man so far. (you're my favouritest - i dont care if that's even a word, cuz hey, i'm a doctor, i'm sure the word exists somewhere in one of those medical textbooks)

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  9. Ah, I finally have a face (vaguely) to put to the name.

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  10. Thank you for all the pictures and even better for all the descriptions. There's a very similar dog outside a pub story with a celebrated dog grave that I vaguely recall from a trip to Scotland years ago.

    The picture of the line outside the art building reminds me of a family trip years ago to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts where my sister famously (well, famous in our family, at least) wrote in a guest book under everyone else's words of praise and various oohs and ahhs, "Needs more benches."

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  11. Ahhh Canberra. I miss it :( How did you go with the rectal scan - I mean security getting into Parliament House? It was anal raping the day I was there! There again John Howard was still in power then - and everyone wanted to off him!

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  12. Canberra is pretty, that's the capital city right? But I wanna visit Sydney again though, meet you if possible. Then I wanna go to Gold Coast. Heard it's super pretty.

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  13. omg that picture of you tweeting while your pops is holding the umbrella... well done, scoman.

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  14. Thanks for the wise words from the bathroom wall. and your welcome for the Eagle, not so much for the other bird.

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  15. oh wow - so much to comment on! I love the pics! (except for the bird one) -What??- Very nice of your dad - can't believe he humored you with that!!

    lol about the BAM! dollar and your momma joke - laughed and then shook my head because I couldn't believe I laughed.

    Hope you're having a lovely day!!

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  16. woah id be so tempted to go all picnic rock on that costume

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