Multicultural Festival

Over the weekend there was a mulitcultural festival in Canberra, lots of tents selling food and beer, and a few stages with entertainment ranging from very good to cringing in the way that local dance groups can be.  It was all rather good.  I'd never really though of Canberra as being that multicultural.  Having grown up in London and seen how diverse Sydney can be, Canberra isn't that multicultural in, say percentage terms.  But it is very multicultural in the sense that there are many, many different cultures represented, which is good.  From pacific islanders, to the indian subcontinent, from west africa to the baltic states, there were a lot of tents from a lot of countries.  It could well be to do with the very transient population Canberra has, with all the public servants, students and embassy staff (which is where I guess a lot of the cultural groups come from) a lot of the population of Canberra is generally not from Canberra, its hard enough to find natives!  It was a good fun evening and involved for me:
Kebab thingys from a Macedonian Stall (there were two Macedonian stalls!), dumplings from a Korean stall, beer from a german stall, a bun from the Lithuanian stall, curry from the Ghana stall, beer and biscuits from the Sicilian stall and pancakes from a Dutch stall.

Tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty!

Stornoway

I don't know whether I knew about Stornoway's mini-tour of Australia before or after I saw this poster in probably the coolest place in Australia I've been too, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne (think the Cowley Road but ten times bigger, sunnier, and with actually successful independant shops).  But having seen it, I kind of had to go and see them.  Stornoway are the best band to emerge from Oxford since Radiohead, and are one of my favourite bands.  A group of Postgraduates (mostly) from Oxford this four-piece (or five-piece or six-piece depending on the occasion and the need of either a violin or trombone - they were a five-piece with the violin this evening) have slowly been gaining fans and momentum for a couple of years. 

They're part of the folk-indie movement that seems to be popular in the UK at the moment, but that would be no reason to be put off by them if thats not your scene! I've seen them twice before.  The first time was at the Sheldonian Theatre with MC (who'd seen them when they were very fresh in Balliol MCR) where they performed with the Oxford Millenium Orchestra as their support act, a fairly genius decision.  At that stage I wasn't too aware of their songs and felt that they were somewhat carried by a very partisan audience, but there was no doubt they were talented. And Zorbing was an amzing tune that I couldn't get out of my head.  Not to mention its a love song about being in the Oxford bubble (or that's what I reckon). A performance on Jools Holland followed and fame almost beckoned but it didn't quite seem to burst into life.

The second Stornoway gig I went to was the closing down sale of independant video and comic book store videosyncratic. It was cramped and short but good. Their album soon followed and got great reviews and some sales.

With MC visiting Australia for a month and located in Sydney it felt like a good opportunity to go and see them again, this time being a fully fledged fan, knowing their songs and stuff.  I was blown away by their performance.  It was amazing. A fantastic gig that I and the entire audience loved. Their frontman Brian Briggs has got over his crippling shyness and replaced it with an endearing witty reluctance.  They've perked up some of their songs to suit a live gig rather than CD, and as a result their singles feel much better (I thought originally that they wouldn't find success as their singles wouldn't be particularly radio friendly).  Stornoway have raised their game, risen from talented musicians to a proper band and gave probably the best gig by a band I've seen since the Coral (consumate professionals).
And they were pretty taken aback too, I don't think they'd expected such a reception or even such a large audience so far from home, it was much bigger and better than their LA gig MC went to (thereby probably being the only person to have seen them on three continents!).

Then this morning came this: http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/2011/stornaway-win-xfms-new-music-award
Winners of Xfm's New Music Award.  Xfm is the best indie station in London (probably the UK) and their award to the best debut album from the last year is rapidly becoming prestigious since its relatively recent inception.  Last year's winners, The XX went on to win the Mercury Music Prize, the top UK music prize.  Hopefully Stornoway are about to get the success they deserve, they are brilliant and you should give them a listen!

They finished their gig with an accoustic version of  "We are the Battery Human", a song which I hated at first, then grew to tolerate, and by the end of their three minute encore to an enraptured audience, I loved it.

Cyclones

So last Wednesday we got the remnants of the previous week's cyclone, in a pretty epic thunderstorm.  Luckily it hit just as we were getting into the cars to go home from the local frisbee league which me and my friends have joined.  Its was pretty fierce, but something which I'm pretty used to in the UK.  We occasionally get the remnants of hurricanes in the UK, the ones which track up the east coast of the states eventually make it to us.  Obviously not hurricanes or hurricane force winds by then (usually takes a week or so) but still a pretty big storm.  I would not have wanted to be in Queensland last week.  And I suspect, given the climatic state, we might not have heard the last of the cyclone season so far.

Anyway, I meant to post this last week, its a comparison of the size of Cyclone Yasi to other parts of the world.  Pretty amazing. It is the entire size of the storm system though, the actual central destructive part is about UK size rather than Europe size (as also shown by the BBC) but that still pretty amazing.  Interestingly enough, most of the rainfall actually came from the stuff behind the cyclone as it came over.  Strange.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/how-cyclone-yasi-compares-around-the-world/story-fn7ik2te-1225998762870

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12347702

Some thoughts on Australian Nationalism

So with Australia Day firmly out of site in the middle of last week, it seems like an interesting point to talk about the strange creature that is Australian nationalism. Of the group of us that went to the concert and BBQ and fireworks over Australia day only two of us were Australian, one of whom was a girl visiting Canberra from my lab back in Oxford! We're a very international group, though my housemates are all Australian or Kiwi.

Australians are very proud of their nation and what it has achieved. Helping others is a strong part of the Australian psyche, from the State Emergency Services which are run by volunteers and help out during bushfires, flooding, cyclones etc. In the wake of the natural disasters across the country in the last couple of weeks, "helping fellow Australians" has been a common phrase as has the "Aussie spirit".

Being "UnAustralian" is a term bandied around quite a lot, from things as trivial as whether you eat Australian lamb or not on Australia Day to more serious things like looting in Brisbane.  Its quite an interesting concept coming from a place where being unBritish means not queuing properly or apologising profusely for something that isn't your fault. They also take a lot more pride in Australian made produce.  Partly because so much of it is Australian made, especially foodstuffs which is almost all from this country.  Australians almost see it as their duty to buy products made in their country as a way of keeping Australians in business and working.  There's a nationwide community approach in this country that doesn't exist in the UK. Although I've never quite understood why those countries with the strongest national fervour and desire to help their fellow countrymen tend to also be quite conservative in their political views. The "I can give money to help people but the government can't take my money to help people approach" currently being played out by the enormous donations to the Queensland flood appeal combined with the somewhat of an uproar over the idea of a Flood Levy of extra taxes on the wealthy for a single year to cover the costs rather than budget cuts to services or a few extra billion dollars of government debt. Australian politics being as wonderfully spiky as it is has both sides of the arguement calling the other unaustralian!

The Australians have somewhat of a chip on their shoulder, being so out of the way location wise they've always felt they have to stick up for themselves, promote themselves, make some loud noises.  But with the global economy shifting ever eastwards the Australians now find themselves ever more important on the world stage, they've survived the GFC better than most, and now have parity with the US dollar, slowly realising the ups and downs of a strong economy (poorer exports, cheaper imports).

There's been some talk about how the Ashes defeat doesn't mean as much to the nation as previous ones.  Whereas back in the 80s the last time England won down under it was a big event, now the Australians aren't so fussed.  Beating the Poms is now longer such a matter of national pride. Sure its important and the thing the sportsmen aim for, but it doesn't affect the national mood so much.  This country is starting to feel all grown up. Having said that I have heard stories of the consumption of beer in Australia rising and falling with the fortunes of the Australian cricket team, but this may just be an urban myth.

Further to all this there is something of an acceptance of foreigners as being Australian.  As a nation of immigrants, the definition of being an Australian is not something of birth or of race, but of living.  When there were public interviews "Hi, who are you, where are you from, are you having a good time", carried out as part of Australia day, the response towards a couple of foreigners who revealed they had been living in Australia for a couple of years was one of acceptance, of them being an Australian.   Again though this is reconciled with quite a large anti-immigration lobby and sentiments.  Perhaps there remains a touch of unspoken racism lingering on from colonial days when certain ethnic groups were favoured in official immigration policies and later unofficial practices.  But no country is without their contradictions and it would be silly to take too much to task over the combination of welcomeness and political conservatism. Perhaps this is a Canberra thing, which copes with having such a large transient population anyway in students and public students, but I reckon its probably Australia wide.  The sentiments seem to be to bring with you the best of your country and to accept the best of theirs. That having Australian values and living in Australia is what makes you Australian.

I've been here for five months now, I guess it really won't be long before I too am partly an Australian, if I'm not already.

Australia Day

Wednesday was Australia Day, the day in which all Australians celebrate being Australian and being in Australia, not a difficult concept. It started a couple of days before Monday night when their's a special public lecture given by a prominent Australian, (or in this case a Brit, Michael Parkinson).  On the Tuesday afternoon there's the Australian of the Year Awards at which the best Australian of the last twelve months is given some applause.  Nobody had heard of him (he did some charity work apparently) and he proceeded to spend the next day and a half conducting interviews bashing the countries flag, anthem and head of state.  Good choice me thinks. Following this there was Australian superstars The Wiggles who gave a kids concert and this was followed by a more grown-up concert featuring several Australian acts of varying quality and lots of clips and presenters congratulating everybody for their Aussie spirit in the face of the floods. I went along to the second concert on the lawns of parliament (which is a cool place to have it) post sailing (where we got a good view of some planes flying round in circles, deliberatlely)

Parliament in the dark

Bad camera phone shot of the stage.

Wednesday is Australia Day proper and we clebrated in true Aussie style, with a BBQ and listening to Triple J's Hot 100 (a music countdown of the best 100 songs of the last year on a decent radio station).  Both of which I believe are actually compulsory on Australia Day, and failure to do so would be punishable by law if it weren't for the fact that the Police also have to be having a BBQ and listening to the radio.

We then went for a walk down to the lake, which was actually a bit of a stupid idea because it was so hot and even an afternoon walk was hot and sweaty and not that pleasant, so we eventually found a space overlooking the lake and sat under a tree.

 Sailing on the lake

 The Carillion, a big set of bells, and a nice lakeside setting, with mountains behind.

 Then we headed round to Commonwealth Park, also on the lake, for the evening's festivities, which included some rowing races.

 And some dragonboat racing.

 All in the the very centre of Canberra (the big circular thing is the Captain Cook Memorial Jet, noramlly a fountain when its on)

 And it got dark

 And there were fireworks, and very good ones too, using the settings of the lake and the bridge and Carillion well.  Not loads but enough to keep you interested and very well done.  A very very good display. And a good day all round.



Stal Polishing

Previously on "My PhD", we went to Tumut to get several stalagmites cut.  Then we drilled little pieces out to analyse them on the Krystalloflex to check whether they were calcite or aragonite and also sent some samples off to be dated.  Over these couple of weeks I'm spending a few afternoons polishing the slabs we cut out the middle of the stalagmites.  This involves a polishing device which rotates different grade polishing things (or some such technical explanation, its late and I'm tired).  Its attached to a hose so fires high pressure water at the same time in that water and electricity mix that makes me nervous.  There are seven grades of polishing to get the slabs level and get rid of bumps and scratches and then to polish so that they are nice and smooth, and shiny even when dry.  It takes ages.  These three pieces took two and a half hours to polish both sides.  Its quite tiring because the machine is uncomfortable to use and the hose isn't that well connected so it occasionally comes off and sprays me in the face and gets me soaking wet.

 This is what the stal slabs look like before:

And this is what the stal looks life afterwards.  Actually it doesn't look much better in these pics I'll admit.  But it really is easier to see all the deatils, theres contrast and the layers are much sharper, and you can see more sub mm structures.  All of this is very good.

So we now can analyse the stal structure in more detail, we can tell better where things are going on such as changes in structure, hiatuses in stalagmite growth.  Having a level smooth slab also makes it easier to drill consistent powders down the middle when we get to that stage.  What I need now are some dates so I can work out exactly which of the collected stalagmites I need to use.  Unfortunatly this bit is outsourced to Melbourne. And so we wait.

England beating Australia, its just not cricket.

Every year there's a one-day cricket match held in Canberra as part of an away team's tour against an Australian side picked by the Prime Minister.  Its called the PM's Eleven, oddly enough.  So every four years its England, and post Ashes, I thought it would be a great oppourtunity to see some of the stars who have retained the ashes (It has been so much fun being in Australia the past couple of months and mocking all the australian cricket fans!) and spend a day watching some good cricket, with some friends. BH, an australian cricket fan and I went along with BF and EG (a German and Canadian respectively) to teach them the fine game that is cricket.  We've been indoctrinating EG for a few weeks and he actually now understands the rules and whats going on, and, dare I say it, even enjoys cricket!

The England team contained a few of the victorious ashes group, especially the batters since some of them only had to bat six times during the entire ashes series!! And also gave the one-day bowlers a chance to stretch their legs.  The PMs eleven is usually pretty similar, a few young guys trying to make their mark, a couple of the older experienced cricketers and a few of the one-day team warming up for the upcoming series.  So it was a damp but still warm (and very hot in the bursts when the sun did come out) day and a good time was had.

 Dignitaries in the middle, tossing coins for a laugh.

 The start was delayed by 45 minutes due to rain

 Australia bat first, setting a modest total with wickets falling reasonably quickly after a good opening partnership.

 KP fielded on the boundary near us on occasion, but wouldn't autograph any of the kids bats between balls or overs.  Grouchy sod.

There was another rain delay, and another later on.

Collingwood took an excellent catch in front of us. Here he is being all captainy.

Brett Lee was playing for the Aussies,

 An English batsmen looking suprised at a rare decent Australian ball.

 Runs!

 In the end, a comfortable victory, with wickets in hand, the run-chase was carefully timed and executed well.

The PM, Julia Gillard makes a speech or two during the awards ceremony.

Of course, since then, the sun has returned, it has been hot and sunny and England have begun losing at cricket again.  The true Australian summer has finally arrived!!!