Fun Stuff: June 2022 Archives
3.6.22
A couple of months ago there was a thing on the Riot-ACT asking for submissions for people's memories/experiences of the Queen's visits to Australia. I sent in a couple of photos I took of her on Lake Burley Griffin in 2011.
Anyway, I got an invitation for an afternoon tea at the National Capital Exhibition to celebrate the launch, so thought why not.
No idea who this is, does anyone know?
Roslyn Hull and Sally Barnes
Notice anything wrong with this photo? Neither did we until we went to try and find it, and realised they'd printed the photo backwards!! But the story gets even funnier. That tree was stolen a couple of days later!! They had to replace it. The replacement tree was pulled down earlier this year. Check out the story!
And here's my contribution (which we had to go back and find because we missed it the first time).
Backdated.
Since I was in Sydney anyway, we thought we'd go see Vivid. My first time since the first time in 2018. Going on a Friday night wasn't ideal, because crowds, and we had to wait about 3/4 hour for the Goods Line laser show. And I'd been on my feet most of the day so my ankles were *aching* by the end of it. It was still pretty cool though. And there was even a ferry ride. Let's not talk about how I thought I was going to lose all my Canon photos because the memory stick had a spaz. But I think the lock switch was almost engaged which confused it. I was able to get all the photos off it no problems.
Backdated.
I'd never been to Cockatoo Island before. Neither had Tony so off we went. Transport NSW information was completely hopeless and we ended up asking a human for info on the ferries. But the ferry ride was quite pleasant.
On the island we went into the visitors centre to get a suggested itinerary.
Then went for a wander.
We did the convict precinct first
Then out the back to see the old docks and the old Manly Ferries
Then into old machine rooms
Then wandered back to the wharf
While we were waiting at the wharf (alliteration much?) we saw the dude from the visitors centre and said yeah two hours is not nearly enough time haha. Then he told us not to get on the next ferry cause it was a "slow" one, and wait for the one after. The printed ferry timetables did not have this. Hopeless.
I miss these things. These are the Collaroy and Freshwater Manly Ferries.
So this past weekend was ABC's Classic 100: Music for the Screen. I missed a chunk of it on Saturday morning because I was at work, but listened to the rest of it. Fortunately I didn't miss too much Saturday morning.
Of note: Hans Zimmer definitely had more entries.
But.
John Williams well and truly got the top scores. He had FIVE in the top eleven!! Amazing!!
He had Jaws at 57, Superman at 55, ET at 42, Indiana Jones at 11, Jurassic Park at 8, Schindler's List at 5, Harry Potter at 4, and Star Wars came in at number 1. The Mission dropped down to third this year, and Lord of the Rings was second.
Titanic was 45. I actually thought I'd voted for this, but apparently I hadn't - whoops!! I'm glad other people did! Love Actually was 53. I didn't even think to vote for this, but was so excited when it came up. Babe was 24. I love the music from Babe, but the main thing I like is actually written by Saint Saens, not Nigel Westlake, so I didn't count it. It feels like cheating :) Zorba the Greek, another piece I like, was 20. I didn't think to vote for Shakespeare in Love, but sadly that didn't make it.
These were my votes. Eight of them came up! Proving that I like popular music haha. I strategically *didn't* vote for Star Wars (I had to drop *some* John Williams to get a few other things in!!) knowing that other people would.
Harry Potter (John Williams) #4
Jurassic Park (John Williams) #8
Jaws (John Williams) #57
Indiana Jones (John Williams) #11
Superman (John Williams) #55
Star Trek (Jerry Goldsmith) didn't place
Gladiator (Hans Zimmer/Lisa Gerrard) #19
The Man from Snowy River (Bruce Rowland) #33
The Princess Bride (Mark Knopfler) #59
The Hunt for Red October (Basil Poledouris) didn't place
Back in April the little brother came up and we went to the Canberra Airport Open Day. We debated waiting at Brindabella Park for the more "interesting" planes to land, but decided against it and waited at Majura Park. None of the advertised planes (except the 737) were there, so we thought we'd see *something* land. But after waiting and waiting nothing arrived, so we went and joined the (by then very long) queue to get in.
As it turned out, most of the advertised aircraft didn't bother to turn up. No Connie, no Hudson (it did a fly-by later but never landed), no Grumman Tracker, no DC-3, no Caribou, no Orion. It was pretty disappointing.
There were only two planes you could get onto - the Qantas 737, and a FlyPelican British Aerospace Jetstream 3212EP. We decided to go on the 737 first up. But because we'd waited so long for something to land, we were late getting in, which meant we had to queue for an hour to get on the 737. Then we wandered around a bit and got a quick lunch (just a sausage sandwich) and queued to get on the FlyPelican Jetstream 32. And there we sat. For THREE F#$%ING HOURS. There's only one door on that little plane, so no flow through. So one group would go in at a time and stay for however long they felt like (the staff weren't moving people along at all). So some would stay for a few minutes. But one group we saw spent like fifteen minutes in there. I was fuming. But we stayed because there was literally nothing else to do. The only other planes there to see were a few little general aviation planes and a couple of helicopters. We saw those right at the very end of the day after we finally got off the Jetstream. We saw all the air shows while queuing. All in all a pretty frustrating day.
Qantas Boeing 737-800 VH-VXQ - Retro Roo II Livery
FlyPelican Bae Jetstream 32 VH-OTE
Paul Bennet and Glenn Graham Aerobatics
Air Force Roulettes
Lockheed Hudson Mk III
Link Airways Saab 340B+ VH-VEC
Helicopters
Robinson R44 Raven II VH-ROG
Robinson R44 Raven II VH-YTM
Eurocopter EC-120B Colibri VH-VCC
Bell 206L4 VH-HEH
Light Aircraft
The Runway
What was cool about the day was getting to wander up and down runway 12.
Other Stuff
A human butterfly entertaining the crowds
Border Force dog
Me sitting on the runway while waiting to get onto the FlyPelican plane
Another entertainer