I only found out today that many public art pieces at the enormous Expo site in Shanghai were in fact created by a Brisbane company. It does work around the world, all managed from Brisbane. They won an award last night, that's how I found out. Go to
http://uapmarker.com.au
to see the Expo works plus other sites around the world where this energetic Brisbane company is operating.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Chile to India then to Scotland
Terrific news about the miners this week in Chile. Remarkable tale, with more to come. Fascinating to watch and listen to the people associated with the rescues.
The 19th Delhi Commonwealth Games have finished. I only watched the opening and closing ceremonies for all the colour and movement, with the coverage with commercials on TV being too annoying to watch on a regular basis. Glad they went off without any major hitches, but worth A$15b? Not at all sure!
Next up its the Scots with Glasgow 2014 - it won't be as colourful or noisy, but it will be well run and focused solely on sport. They also know how to have some fun. Good luck Glasgow!
The 19th Delhi Commonwealth Games have finished. I only watched the opening and closing ceremonies for all the colour and movement, with the coverage with commercials on TV being too annoying to watch on a regular basis. Glad they went off without any major hitches, but worth A$15b? Not at all sure!
Next up its the Scots with Glasgow 2014 - it won't be as colourful or noisy, but it will be well run and focused solely on sport. They also know how to have some fun. Good luck Glasgow!
Rain, rain, go away....
This picture (above) taken today in the Central Highlands of NSW.
Over 5" of rain (154mm) fell on Sunday night and early Monday leaving floods across Brisbane. The pictures above and below are of a road I use to go to work. There was gridlock everywhere on the Northside of Brisbane with significant roads cut. I spent 35 minutes going just one block from my house before I turned around and drove back home. The rains have returned, but not as heavy, and the winds have picked up and the temperatures have gone a bit chilly (Queensland chilly, not Europe chilly). Similar rain at Uluru this week has seen the Rock smothered in white rushing waterfalls. Oh, it also snowed today in parts of NSW and Victoria. Mid October? Crazy!
Sad news
Last Sunday was the 8th anniversary of Mum's death - a somewhat sad day, but what a brilliant (almost) eight years I've had since then with Rene. At 8:30pm the phone went and a friend of mine, Neil, from Canberra rang to say that his partner of seven years had died of a brain tumour. He was just 65 and had recently retired from the Commonwealth Public Service. Rene and I introduced these two fine fellows after Easter of 2003. Neil at that time was in Toowoomba and Gavin in Canberra. We met Gav in Canberra on a brief Easter holiday and then mentioned his name to Neil when we returned. Neil moved to Canberra in February 2004 whilst we were in The Netherlands. Earlier this year they were two days off leaving on a much anticipated trip to Europe when Gavin had an episode that warranted a trip to the doctor. The news wasn't good. His funeral is in Canberra on Monday. I didn't sleep much Sunday night.
Funny commercials
Air New Zealand has done it again! After some positive and negative reviews, an ad campaign has gone viral on the net. These ads never go to air on TV, but thousands of people have viewed them on line. I love them! There's also a Virgin Atlantic one which is pretty good too. Oh, Rico has his own Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=121207391268744&ref=mf
with a very funny 'interview' included - clever guys, these folk over at AirNZ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HLxzevh3NQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZLBY3lYtsQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIUvssYKfzY&feature=channel
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=121207391268744&ref=mf
with a very funny 'interview' included - clever guys, these folk over at AirNZ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HLxzevh3NQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZLBY3lYtsQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIUvssYKfzY&feature=channel
Parity reached (briefly)
I mentioned last weekend the dollar nudging parity with the Greenback? Well, this morning it briefly broke through the barrier, but retreated a slight amount - currently A$1 = US$0.994c.
Sunday 10 October 2010
Dollar
The Australian dollar has almost reached parity with the Greenback. This week it broke a 27 year old record - established in the year the dollar was floated. It touched (briefly) US 99.7c.
This past fortnight I travelled with it at A$1 = 6.5 yuan and S$1.30 making overseas travel the most inviting proposition for many Australians in decades. In Shanghai I bought at the corner shop across from our hotel two Magnum ice creams, a 1.5L bottle of water, 600mL bottle of orange juice and a small box of tissues for 19.80 yuan - that's about A$3.20. For me, shopping in Shanghai was like I remembered Singapore 33 years ago.
This past fortnight I travelled with it at A$1 = 6.5 yuan and S$1.30 making overseas travel the most inviting proposition for many Australians in decades. In Shanghai I bought at the corner shop across from our hotel two Magnum ice creams, a 1.5L bottle of water, 600mL bottle of orange juice and a small box of tissues for 19.80 yuan - that's about A$3.20. For me, shopping in Shanghai was like I remembered Singapore 33 years ago.
Rain, rain, rain!
It has done little else here these past few days. Odd weather pattern, so different from the usual. The Sunshine Coast has had 250mm+ in one day and the rain isn't going away any day soon. Here in Brisbane we've had 60+mm Thursday and 45+mm Friday, plus Saturday and today it continues to rain - but not quite as heavily. Three years ago our water storage was at 17%, today it is 100% and overflowing.
Saturday 9 October 2010
Shanghai Expo 2010
Because of the back to front way Blogger publishes, the end of my short trip to China is pictured first - go figure! Oh well, the trip ended last week with two nights in Singapore to reduce the drag of a long journey. I hadn't stayed in Singapore for 11 years, so there were new things to see. Went up the world's biggest wheel at night to see the splendour of modern Singapore. The location of the Singapore Flyer is on reclaimed land - some 100sq km of extra land in Singapore since my first visit in 1977. They have plans for a further 100 by 2030. I wasn't going to buy anything (having spent up big in Shanghai) but while my friend Kay was shopping for a watch, I wandered into a men's shoe store and came out with a beautiful brown pair of Italian shoes - OK, the Australian dollar is really strong right now and they were a bargain. There were no wide fitting shoes to be seen in Shanghai.
This church is in 'Culture Street' Duolun Lu, Hongkou District, and was built in 1928. Great Virtue Christian Church sits beside our hotel, in an historic part of old Shanghai north of The Bund.This area was once the American Concession and merged with the British Concession to form the International Settlement. By the 1930's it had become a Japanese enclave and was home to many Leftist writers and artists.
This bus is at Expo, but a route exists on the main Shanghai side of the river where it runs across the city in a dedicated route. These are electric, but don't have large batteries with long charges - these are super capacitor buses which drive along dedicated routes stopping at bus stops that have something like a pair of metal skis overhead. This is an electric rail. The bus stops for 30 seconds, picking up and dropping off passengers, and while it is there a T bar pops up from the middle of the roof and gets a super charge of electricity strong enough to take it a maximum of three stops. This is a joint project between Volvo and Sunwin. At Expo they had regular electric buses with long life batteries travelling through the river tunnels, but this super capacitor bus was the first time I'd ever seen one in operation - most impressive.
Shanghai is very progressive and modern. The streets are clean, spitting and smoking in the streets was rarely seen, and a spirit of happiness and harmony seemed to prevail to these Western eyes. Crowded? Well, 20 million in a small area leads to crowding and of course the familiar chaos on the roads, but nothing seems to falter - I witnessed one minor accident between a cyclist and a scooter (lots of shouting and witnesses looking on silently) and no vehicles appeared to have dents or scratches. Amazing when one considers the apparent chaos of cars, scooters, bicycles (few) and buses all going in every direction possible at the same time.
A large Railway Union Australian man we met at Expo said that as a taxi tried to go across his pedestrian crossing lines as the little man was green, he turned and sat on the bonnet of this taxi until his wife had crossed - he just looked at the driver, and the people stopped and stared too. This guy was tall and built like a dunny! I'd love to have seen it. The pedestrians have to dodge the traffic, even when the lights say 'go'. Interesting experience!
The Australian Pavilion at Expo stood out for a few reasons: a) we didn't have to queue - just show our ID that we were Australian, b) it was the only pavilion I saw where Nationals from the country spoke in Mandarin to the locals - both in the queue to get into the theatre, and the jollying up of the audience once inside - oh, and both were mature Aussie males -, c) the displays entertained and engaged many spectators at the one time (large theatre) and finally d) the only presentation where spontaneous applause broke out from the audience.
Indigenous art was on display, but sadly few Chinese stopped long enough to read and soak up the detail. Impressively presented.
Above and below are just two examples of the large public art on display outside the pavilions. The area of expo spread across both sides of the river, with ferries, bridges and tunnels connecting them. there were free electric buses going through the tunnels as well as a Metro line with a station terminating in the very middle of Expo. Since 1997 Shanghai has built 12 Metro lines, with three more under construction.
Queues - many, many queues! We were warned, and yes, it still was a surprise - not so much the size of the queues but the rudeness of the Chinese. Pushing, shoving and obvious skipping in front of you is something the Japanese don't do, and neither the Taiwanese, and I think in HK they don't either, but in China the manners of queuing are little known or understood. We shared the site with 577 000 visitors on the first day, and as 'little' as 370 000 on the third, and some queues were as long as 4 hours - we never queued longer than 20 minutes therefore we didn't enter the bigger, flashier pavilions. Some required a free ticket issued from machines near the gate, but we were never there early enough to bother trying to get one. On the third day I even elbowed twice people behind me, and I have no idea if they were male or female - all I know is that I'd had enough. NB The next expo is in Milan - now, I expect style and manners plus a great show for the public. Our Brisbane expo in 1988 was fun - lots of street performers, shows and fireworks every night. Shanghai had none of that. Yes, shows were on, but seemed to be booked out early or not on general view. No fireworks (none!). Seriously, expo was a giant business convention - and boy! the Chinese were doing business BIG TIME.
Our local street was calm (see below) with no pushing or jostling, and courtesy from everyone there. I loved Shanghai, and the streets were busy but not without order. The locals were all courteous, and of course we had our fair share of photos taken with locals and visitors alike. Foreigners are not thick on the ground so we often were stared at, usually discreetly.
If you click on the picture above, you can see two old ladies just sitting and chatting. Shanghai has old and new side by side. Liked it a lot.
There are statues along the road, usually slightly larger than life. Many hundreds of locals live everyday life surrounded by an enormous modern city, yet a step aside into Duolun Lu brings a whole different world.
My friend Kay (above) chatting with an elderly gentleman.
We went on a river cruise along The Bund and saw the fabulous modern skyline. It was wet, hence the somewhat milky photos, but it was still most impressive.
Below are a couple of pictures from a garden preserved in the middle of old Shanghai.
The tea rooms in the gardens are famous, even having entertained Queen Elizabeth.
Kay, below, sitting in front of yet another banquet. This was a lunch in a very smart expo restaurant. Delicious, yet capable of feeding four - it was a set menu for two.
The best pavilion we saw was on the smaller site on the city side of the river. Put on by the Shanghai Museum, it featured the theme 'footprints of man' whereby it covered across four enormous floors the relics and remains from a cave 2500BC up to 17thC Netherlands.
Italy and Greece featured (of course) with a marvellous rendition of Troy (below).
From our 17th floor room we looked down upon 'Culture Street'.
The Australian Pavilion at Expo stood out for a few reasons: a) we didn't have to queue - just show our ID that we were Australian, b) it was the only pavilion I saw where Nationals from the country spoke in Mandarin to the locals - both in the queue to get into the theatre, and the jollying up of the audience once inside - oh, and both were mature Aussie males -, c) the displays entertained and engaged many spectators at the one time (large theatre) and finally d) the only presentation where spontaneous applause broke out from the audience.
Indigenous art was on display, but sadly few Chinese stopped long enough to read and soak up the detail. Impressively presented.
Above and below are just two examples of the large public art on display outside the pavilions. The area of expo spread across both sides of the river, with ferries, bridges and tunnels connecting them. there were free electric buses going through the tunnels as well as a Metro line with a station terminating in the very middle of Expo. Since 1997 Shanghai has built 12 Metro lines, with three more under construction.
Queues - many, many queues! We were warned, and yes, it still was a surprise - not so much the size of the queues but the rudeness of the Chinese. Pushing, shoving and obvious skipping in front of you is something the Japanese don't do, and neither the Taiwanese, and I think in HK they don't either, but in China the manners of queuing are little known or understood. We shared the site with 577 000 visitors on the first day, and as 'little' as 370 000 on the third, and some queues were as long as 4 hours - we never queued longer than 20 minutes therefore we didn't enter the bigger, flashier pavilions. Some required a free ticket issued from machines near the gate, but we were never there early enough to bother trying to get one. On the third day I even elbowed twice people behind me, and I have no idea if they were male or female - all I know is that I'd had enough. NB The next expo is in Milan - now, I expect style and manners plus a great show for the public. Our Brisbane expo in 1988 was fun - lots of street performers, shows and fireworks every night. Shanghai had none of that. Yes, shows were on, but seemed to be booked out early or not on general view. No fireworks (none!). Seriously, expo was a giant business convention - and boy! the Chinese were doing business BIG TIME.
Our local street was calm (see below) with no pushing or jostling, and courtesy from everyone there. I loved Shanghai, and the streets were busy but not without order. The locals were all courteous, and of course we had our fair share of photos taken with locals and visitors alike. Foreigners are not thick on the ground so we often were stared at, usually discreetly.
If you click on the picture above, you can see two old ladies just sitting and chatting. Shanghai has old and new side by side. Liked it a lot.
There are statues along the road, usually slightly larger than life. Many hundreds of locals live everyday life surrounded by an enormous modern city, yet a step aside into Duolun Lu brings a whole different world.
My friend Kay (above) chatting with an elderly gentleman.
We went on a river cruise along The Bund and saw the fabulous modern skyline. It was wet, hence the somewhat milky photos, but it was still most impressive.
Below are a couple of pictures from a garden preserved in the middle of old Shanghai.
The tea rooms in the gardens are famous, even having entertained Queen Elizabeth.
Kay, below, sitting in front of yet another banquet. This was a lunch in a very smart expo restaurant. Delicious, yet capable of feeding four - it was a set menu for two.
The best pavilion we saw was on the smaller site on the city side of the river. Put on by the Shanghai Museum, it featured the theme 'footprints of man' whereby it covered across four enormous floors the relics and remains from a cave 2500BC up to 17thC Netherlands.
Italy and Greece featured (of course) with a marvellous rendition of Troy (below).
From our 17th floor room we looked down upon 'Culture Street'.
Kay had left early on the first day at 6pm but I stayed on for a further three hours and saw quite a few pavilions where the queues had subsided. The folk below were singing songs of farewell to the many guests wearily trudging towards the public transport awaiting. The bus home was just 2 yuan (about 30c) and lasted half an hour. very efficient service.
Some night views of expo. Somehow I couldn't capture the brightness and radiance of the lighting, but rest assured it was very bright and extremely colourful.
The Chinese Pavilion was very impressive, and most of it was hidden beneath the main structure underground.
Sexy tango in the Argentine Pavilion (from the wine bar above the floor).
The Netherlands Pavilion was a disappointment - quite impressive to look at, but it missed the mark by not addressing the issue of large crowds. Called 'Happy Street', it was a spiral walk through Holland, but the rooms (houses) on display sometimes just had a few items in them with little explanation, or a slit in the window where only two at a time could look in to see what was going on. With the immense crowds it was a waste of time trying to look in the slots - and as for the theme 'Better Cities, Better Places', apart from a dredging tool and some water management things, I couldn't see the point of it. Maybe a Dutch person who was there could fill me in on it?
UK Pavilion (above) and the Danish one (below). Didn't (couldn't) go into either. The Little Mermaid looked larger than when I last saw her in Copenhagen.
The Australian Pavilion had one of the few outdoor entertainment areas on the site. I caught a couple of sets from an Australian group whilst enjoying a pie and a can of 'cold' VB - often in Shanghai the beer wasn't truly cold, but it was at the Australian Pavilion.
See the little people below the Chinese Pavilion? Now you realise how enormous it was.
The United Arab Emirates was an impressive sweeping shell. When we tried to get to see inside on the third day it was closed for the morning because of a visiting dignitary.
Remnants of old Shanghai still are evident, like this street on which the former British Embassy is situated.
New Shanghai sits across from the old. Pearl Tower (above) and the interior of the restored Peace Hotel (below) straddle both sides of the river. Both are equally impressive.
A gallery in what is known as the French Quarter. Now it is a bustling precinct full of shops, galleries and history.
Not everywhere in Shanghai is crowded. This is a most attractive street in the French Quarter.
#108 (below) on the left hand end of this terrace row is where the very first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held. An old lady sat outside knitting and watching, and when troops arrived, the members all left from a side exit into the nearby lane.
Along with every city in the world, there has been a lot of smartening up of the local areas, and this park was one of countless green vistas within the city.
I went a little crazy in the silk factory and bought two single silk filled doonas for our beds plus woven silk covers and pillow cases. Throw in two silk shirts (dark navy) and I contributed greatly to the economy of Shanghai.
If single silk worms create a cacoon the fibres can be extracted into single threads and woven - my shirts are made from these - but should two silk worms create the one cacoon, these fibres are mixed up and can't be extracted for spinning, therefore these cacoons are used to make silk padding that fills doonas as well as padded jackets. The picture above is of ten cacoons pulled apart, and below the workers pile one on top of another until the desired weight or thickness is arrived at. Both my doonas are 1250g, so you see a seriously large number of cacoons are used in each doona. These doonas are sold by weight, not dimensions.
The fibres are free of dust - great for allergy sufferers - and don't require quilting because the layers don't move inside the cotton cover. The doona is warm in winter and cool in summer.
The factory was an old one, but the products were very new and up to date.
My travel agent here in Brisbane is from Shanghai. He is the man photographed below. His sister (above) lives in Shanghai. He was in the city with a tour group from Townsville plus another group of students from Brisbane. He assisted us in joining the others from time to time to do extra things that were fascinating in our short time in Shanghai. Visiting a pearl factory/shop was something I'd never think of doing, but I found it fascinating.
We had just arrived that morning from Brisbane and (below) we are already socialising and having a hot pot banquet with new friends. I was quite adept at using chop sticks, but occasionally my hand tired by the end of the meal and I resorted to a spoon.
We end at the beginning - this is the MagLev train from Shanghai Airport. It could travel the 33km to the city outskirts in 8 minutes at speeds of near 470km/h, but every second train runs slightly slower, and ours never exceeded 301km/h. It's still amazing to think you travelled on a train that uses magnetic levitation to lift and propel it along the tracks.
Some night views of expo. Somehow I couldn't capture the brightness and radiance of the lighting, but rest assured it was very bright and extremely colourful.
The Chinese Pavilion was very impressive, and most of it was hidden beneath the main structure underground.
Sexy tango in the Argentine Pavilion (from the wine bar above the floor).
The Netherlands Pavilion was a disappointment - quite impressive to look at, but it missed the mark by not addressing the issue of large crowds. Called 'Happy Street', it was a spiral walk through Holland, but the rooms (houses) on display sometimes just had a few items in them with little explanation, or a slit in the window where only two at a time could look in to see what was going on. With the immense crowds it was a waste of time trying to look in the slots - and as for the theme 'Better Cities, Better Places', apart from a dredging tool and some water management things, I couldn't see the point of it. Maybe a Dutch person who was there could fill me in on it?
UK Pavilion (above) and the Danish one (below). Didn't (couldn't) go into either. The Little Mermaid looked larger than when I last saw her in Copenhagen.
The Australian Pavilion had one of the few outdoor entertainment areas on the site. I caught a couple of sets from an Australian group whilst enjoying a pie and a can of 'cold' VB - often in Shanghai the beer wasn't truly cold, but it was at the Australian Pavilion.
See the little people below the Chinese Pavilion? Now you realise how enormous it was.
The United Arab Emirates was an impressive sweeping shell. When we tried to get to see inside on the third day it was closed for the morning because of a visiting dignitary.
Remnants of old Shanghai still are evident, like this street on which the former British Embassy is situated.
New Shanghai sits across from the old. Pearl Tower (above) and the interior of the restored Peace Hotel (below) straddle both sides of the river. Both are equally impressive.
A gallery in what is known as the French Quarter. Now it is a bustling precinct full of shops, galleries and history.
Not everywhere in Shanghai is crowded. This is a most attractive street in the French Quarter.
#108 (below) on the left hand end of this terrace row is where the very first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held. An old lady sat outside knitting and watching, and when troops arrived, the members all left from a side exit into the nearby lane.
Along with every city in the world, there has been a lot of smartening up of the local areas, and this park was one of countless green vistas within the city.
I went a little crazy in the silk factory and bought two single silk filled doonas for our beds plus woven silk covers and pillow cases. Throw in two silk shirts (dark navy) and I contributed greatly to the economy of Shanghai.
If single silk worms create a cacoon the fibres can be extracted into single threads and woven - my shirts are made from these - but should two silk worms create the one cacoon, these fibres are mixed up and can't be extracted for spinning, therefore these cacoons are used to make silk padding that fills doonas as well as padded jackets. The picture above is of ten cacoons pulled apart, and below the workers pile one on top of another until the desired weight or thickness is arrived at. Both my doonas are 1250g, so you see a seriously large number of cacoons are used in each doona. These doonas are sold by weight, not dimensions.
The fibres are free of dust - great for allergy sufferers - and don't require quilting because the layers don't move inside the cotton cover. The doona is warm in winter and cool in summer.
The factory was an old one, but the products were very new and up to date.
My travel agent here in Brisbane is from Shanghai. He is the man photographed below. His sister (above) lives in Shanghai. He was in the city with a tour group from Townsville plus another group of students from Brisbane. He assisted us in joining the others from time to time to do extra things that were fascinating in our short time in Shanghai. Visiting a pearl factory/shop was something I'd never think of doing, but I found it fascinating.
We had just arrived that morning from Brisbane and (below) we are already socialising and having a hot pot banquet with new friends. I was quite adept at using chop sticks, but occasionally my hand tired by the end of the meal and I resorted to a spoon.
We end at the beginning - this is the MagLev train from Shanghai Airport. It could travel the 33km to the city outskirts in 8 minutes at speeds of near 470km/h, but every second train runs slightly slower, and ours never exceeded 301km/h. It's still amazing to think you travelled on a train that uses magnetic levitation to lift and propel it along the tracks.
Shanghai was amazing, and I really loved the city and its people. I'd love to explore more of China, but I'd never bother going especially for an Expo - it was a disappointment after the one here in Brisbane. We Australians know how to enjoy ourselves. We know how to throw a party and invite the world. We realise that there is a multi dimensional approach to celebrating life and living. Look out for the next expo in Milan in four years time - I'm guessing the Italians know a thing or two about celebrating life!
Prostate Cancer Fund Raiser
September in Australia and NZ is officially 'Blue September' with money being raised for the fight against prostate cancer. I organised a sausage sizzle and morning tea plus a raffle targeting the staff at Brisbane International and we raised $2000 for research. Three fellow Airport Ambassadors (above) are cooking the 'snags'. This all happened on Friday September 17, two days before I flew off to Shanghai. It was the first time the Ambassadors had ever done anything outside of our regular shifts and it was a great success. We targeted Customs, airline staff, baggage handlers and even taxi drivers - in fact anybody who worked at Airport. As a group we've often raised money for a worthy cause, but it has always been within our group. This was our first venture out into the airport community - and it was a wonderful success. My thanks to everyone who made it possible, a terrific group effort.
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