Sunday, June 11, 2006
Goodness, this is difficult to keep up with. Well, it will be a good exercise in summarising.
So, I got up at around 8.20. Actually, it was more like 8.30. I had a dump and had a shower. Then I put some clothes on. Then I went into the kitchen for breakfast. I think I had cornflakes with milk that morning. I normally have cerial - you can buy a box from the shop quite cheaply and it lasts a long time...
Just kidding! So after Melbourne I visited Canberra. It's one of these relatively new, planned cities and apart from being the capital, doesn't have much going for it. I did like the overall design which has a high level of symmetry. The city is built around a massive lake. Parliament house is on one side of the lake, and radiating from this are 3 imaginary axes. For example, one axis cuts through the old parliament house, bisects a row of all the flags of the world, goes across the lake, straight down a long street, straight through the war memorial and ends at the peak of a hill outside town. However, I sort of got the feeling that something was lacking - money? vision? - when the city was being built. There just aren't enough interesting things to fill all the space. Looking at the street plan I saw one area which looked exciting: a point surrounded by concentric circular roads, and perpendicular roads radiating out in all directions. I went to look at this, thinking it must be a prestigous area and a focal point for the city. What would I find: dramatic buildings, sweeping public spaces, fountains. . . Instead I found a series of car parks, and the central bit looked like (and indeed, was) the centre of a roundabout.
The lake was very nice, though, and I set off to cycle round it. One thing that struck me was all the parrots, parotkeets and that sort of thing, just casually living in the wild in the trees all round the lake. Before, I'd only seen them in zoos or cages. By the end of a long day I'd only got got half way round (after making some stops, of course) so I cut my journey short and cycled over a bridge back to the city centre.
The best attraction there was the spectacular new parliament house (above). I went in for a look around. To my delight, a session of Prime Minister's questions was on, and I was told I could go in and watch it. So there I was, a few minutes later, sitting in a room with all the top members of the Australian government, something I hadn't expected. There was some reasonable banter going on and it was quite fun. But the only person I recognised was John Howard. I was willing him to get up and speak, but he resolutely sat there looking bored. When he finally did, it was to ask to leave. Most of the talking was being done by the treasurer, Peter Costello. It's likely he'll be the next Prime Minister, but I don't like him: he has a slightly droning, nasal voice.
Well, I should go to bed, but I'll write about Sydney soon. It shouldn't take me longer than...oooh...2 or 3 months?
