This weekend was absolutely beautiful in Adelaide. Picture perfect autumn day. It was too good to waste so I cycled down to Himeji Japanese Garden, a Japanese-style garden on South Terrace.

I brought along my camera but didn’t spend too much time on it. The garden was particularly busy today. Families with kids running around, people dozing in the sun, some hipster guy who looked as if he was meditating for a couple of minutes before he started tapping away on his powerbook and even a bit of wedding photography going on too (I would have sacked the photographer, he was all “yeah, baby! Give me a smile there! Even the guys are looking good! C’mon now, grab her butt! Give me a bit of *smooching sound*.)

Anyway I found a nice big stable stone that was on the edge of the water. I brought along “Alamein, War without Hate“, a war history by John Bierman & Colin Smith. It’s about the North African desert campaign in World War II - Rommel, Monty, etc. It’s utterly fascinating. Bit of a contrast staring out at a peaceful idyllic pond while reading about death and destruction.

It was an extremely enjoyable afternoon actually. I must do it more often. It actually feels a bit decadent, being out in the open in a beautiful garden and just…reading. And I love cycling, it’s such an old school mode of transport.

Oh and did I mention I hang out at libraries, the museum and the art gallery on weekends?
And on Saturday I again snubbed the Mall for Central Market so I could make my spaghetti with home made meatballs and home made tomato sauce.

Also I am trying to use the computer less. I’ve always known the internet sucks up time arguably better spent in the fresh air, but I guess it is only now in my old age that I’m acting on it (’_').

Sidenote: When trying out some new WP themes, I noticed that WP 2.5 was out. So I’ve upgraded the WP install and happily, my RSS feed now works! I didn’t realise that the latest version came with a significant facelift so I dithered a bit thinking something disastrous had happened. It’s very web 2.0-ish. Very pleased.

See other photos from today’s expedition to the Garden here.

Yarrrr. Fancy.

These aren’t protected by wire. It’s a wonder none of them fall off. Wouldn’t like to be the person in charge if there was a heavy hailstorm.

All sorts of mythical beasts adorn the roofs of the Forbidden City. Dragons, lions, qilins and possibly other animals associated with good government, prosperity and longevity.

A monarchial/dictator system of government has been around for pretty much forever compared to more “enlightened” democratic systems. It existed to an extent in ancient Rome but that didn’t last long. I wonder how long democracy will last before some academic comes up with some other bright idea. Arguably that happened with communism and, hah, I suppose it would only work in a perfect world. All theory…

In other news, it’s blazing hot in Adelaide - 39 degrees. Went to this morning to volunteer for an Adelaide Festival of Arts event at the Mortlock library (one of those really old school ancient ones that look faaaaantastic) - Living Books.

From the blurb:

A library where the books are human beings! Borrow a fire fighter, a footballer or a government minister. Find out what it’s like to climb a mountain, play sport at an elite level, or live and serve in a war zone, not by reading a book but by talking to someone who has experienced it.

Discover the extraordinary capacities and experiences of ordinary people, and the courage and humanity of some of the remarkable people who live and work in South Australia.

Come into the historic Mortlock Chamber of the State Library on North Terrace, browse the catalogue, make your selection and then enter into a conversation with a Living Book. Themes include sport, politics, history, religion, the arts, sexuality, science and technology.

It was an idea that originated at a youth festival in Denmark. Municipal libraries pricked up their ears and they did their own events. Apparently it’s never been done on this scale before. This is the first year Living Books has been done at the Festival of Arts but due to positive reactions they will definitely be doing this everytime from now on.

Hopped back for lunch, went for a facial, got locked out of my apartment, then went off to the Bakehouse Theatre for “Pratchett Pieces II - The Radio Play“. It’s another Fringe event.

Blurb:

Bite-sized Terry Pratchett comedies performed as radio plays with live sound FX.

Original short stories written by Terry Pratchett. Adapted for the stage by Pamela Munt, and then for radio by Rod Lewis.
Directed by Rod Lewis

The Discworld is on the air with an outrageous collection of short stories by Terry Pratchett, performed in the crazy style of an old time radio show. THRILL to the action! LAUGH at sound effects created live on stage! SWOON over the real looks of those handsome heroes, leading ladies and worn out warriors who will stop at nothing to prove that they still have it!

Anything is possible in the outrageous world of aural illusion!

TWO INCREDIBLE STORIES

Our heroes tell us that in death, there is honour. We’ve been promised an afterlife worth fighting for. But when a fictional character meets his maker, can an author live up to the expectations of his medieval creation?

Then meet Cohen the Barbarian, who has spent his life fighting for a better future. But the Trolls under the bridge are overweight businessmen nowadays. The forests are chopped down, and there’s no one left to fight. Sometimes you can be too good at your job.
But can Cohen make one last stand for truth, justice and the Barbarian way?

It was pretty good, and very good fun watching make the sound effects live, like banging coconut shells together for horse hooves, 3 belts with little bells tied to the metal buckley end for the sound of horse harnesses, etc. In the above photo there is one guy on keyboards, 2 doing the sound effects, and 3 voice actors. They swap around too. At times I just closed my eyes because it was easier to “see” what you’re meant to be imagining.

I didn’t realise there was a theatre company (Unseen Theatre Company) specialising in Pratchett plays in Adelaide!! Maaaaaan I’ve missed out on so much T_T

The more I dig, the more I can’t believe anyone could find Adelaide boring. Sure, entertainment doesn’t leap out at you but in some ways it so much more satisfying when effort is put into finding it.

Will be watching a colleague’s band play later on tonight too - if I’m still awake.

I went to Saldechin last year while moseying around Adelaide, waiting for an interview to start. It’s located in one of those old bank buildings. I really like the atmosphere inside. Sort of serene, with bucketloads of grandeur. Good fusion of tradition and modern style.

It sells traditional Chinese furniture (reproduction, not antiques, if the price and finish is any indication), Chinese teas and serves as a teahouse/cafe too. The dimsum (small selection) is apparently home made. After a bad run of baos and dumplings with mysterious gristle (and the whole China poison food and cardboard char siu baos news came out at the time), their char siu bao was refreshingly…homemade-tasting, I guess. It tasted good and not artificial.

On the weekends, the place turns into a club sort of place I think. It would be an alright place to hangout for the 30-something officeworker. (haha, I’m still too young for that……………………………… >_>)

Saldechin is located at 21 King William St, Adelaide.

This was actually completed at the start of 2008. The tram is now operational and is free from South Terrace to North Terrace. The extension replaces the 99B free bus. It’s pretty awesome and I’m sure is very convenient for those commuting using the tram line. I just wish it was a bit more frequent, or at least run according to the schedule. Because those trams DEFINITELY do not come every 15 minutes (or whatever the interval was meant to be).

East Timor Presidential Elections 2007 AD22, originally uploaded by agnesdherbeys.

Australian troops patrol in in Manatutu town, East of Dili during the days preceding the vote for President in East Timor. Prior to the voting day, several incidents happened in the area and required more presence and helicopter patrols.

Tomorrow is election day for Australians. Having been in Japan for the month and only coming back in time for election day, I’ve missed most of the associated circus act. Been trying to catch up (okay I only read the wiki but it’s a really good summary!!). Politics normally makes me go zzzzzzzzzz however my sense of patriotism towards Australia has guilt-tripped me into trying to make an informed vote. I mean, when can one really do something for one’s own country other than on voting day? Okay, so you could set up charities and organise… stuff but that’s not for the average person. Voting is arguably the only thing the average individual does for their country so the least one can do is make an informed choice…

It doesn’t mean it’s any less boring though!! Somehow even my law blogs have become absolutely riveting.

But to put things in perspective, just remember what voting is like in other countries…

We spent a surprisingly long time watching the giraffes.

Not least because we were wondering if they were going to do something very naughty (note right-most photo)
One of the giraffes was er, bumping the other giraffe’s bum…

Then I read the sign and realised both were male. O_O|||

Sometime later they just started sniffing each other’s bums >_>

From the zoo site:

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African mammal, and the the tallest of all land-living animals. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 meters tall and weigh up to 1,360kg. Females are generally slightly shorter and weigh less than the males. WIthin the first week of being born, a giraffe will grow one foot in height.

A giraffe can eat 63 kg of leaves and twigs daily. The giraffe will only sleep for 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period. This has led to the myth that giraffes cannot lie down and that if they do so, they will die.

The National Zoo is home to 2 giraffes, named Humbekhali (Hummer) and Ketanga.

This will be my last full-length post in some time. Flying off to Japan for a month tomorrow!!

(See other National Zoo entries here.)

Dingos!

The zoo keepers would walk around with dingos and anyone could pat them.

Birds

Apparently Linus Torvalds fell in love with the penguins at the National Zoo! There was a sign with a picture of Tux the Linux penguin at their enclosure which told the story. Aww.

From the wiki:

Torvalds claims to have contracted “penguinitis” after being gently nibbled by a penguin: “Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them.” Torvalds’ supposed illness is of course a joke, but he really was bitten by a Little Penguin on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium, Canberra, Australia. Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having had a great meal perfectly fit the bill.

From an interview with Linus on APC:

APC: You’ve been to Australia, and rumour has it that you were bitten by a penguin. Is that true? How did you find Australia, how many times have you been there, any favourite town or city? Was there any kind of activity like bush-walking and things like that which you really took to in Australia?

LT: I’ve been to Australia several times, these days mostly for Linux.Conf.Au. But my first trip - and the one when I was bitten by a ferocious fairy penguin: you really should keep those things locked up! - was in 93 or so, talking about Linux for the Australian Unix Users Group.

And I’d never go bush walking. Not that I mind the idea of poisonous animals (or the drop-bears), but simply because I’m just not into that whole outdoor thing. I tend to go to zoos, and I love walking around the strange creatures you have down there, but let’s face it - one of the biggest draws is that it’s warm and sunny there when it’s nasty and horrible in the northern hemisphere. I’m from Finland, so “warm and sunny” means more to me than it may do to some other people.

[...]

Otters

The otters were cute too, of course. We got there just after the keepers tossed them their food. It was pretty fun watching them wash the hard-boiled eggs in the stream before cracking them open and eating them. After they had devoured the eggs they proceeded to shit in front of us (yeah, one in one out eh? Very efficient!!). They would do it one at a time, facing their nesting box with their backs towards us. The otther would lift up its hind legs in quick sucession - right, left, right, left - its tail swished from side to side in time with the change of legs. And then wet shit would come flying out D:
It was like a very messy dance >_>

I came back later after checking everything out but they were already all asleep in the nesting box >_<

No "otters holding hands” video for me ._.

Here’s the blurb on the otters from the zoo site:

The Asian Small-clawed Otter ( Aonyx cinerea) is the smallest otter in the world.
When fully grown, these otters measure approximately 0.9m from nose to tail tip, and weigh up to 5kg. They feed
on fish, frogs, crabs, crayfish and shellfish - but they’ll eat just about anything they can get their little claws on.
The Oriental Small-clawed Otter lives in extended family groups with only the alpha pair breeding and previous offspring helping to raise the young.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, pollution and hunting in some areas, the Oriental Small-clawed Otter is now listed as near threatened.
The zoo is home to 5 otters, named Oscar, Mustache, Big-Lips, No-Lips and Omar.

(See other National Zoo entries here.)

The snow leopards are sooo cute. Their fur is very thick and bushy, expecially the tail Very beautiful animals. Although the initial reaction was somewhat dampened when we saw both shitting in front of us XD

Unfortunately it was very hard to get a clear shot because they were enclosed in plexiglass (badly scratched and foggy) and cage. I tried my best, but the photos still look foggy.

From the zoo site:

The Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia or Panthera uncia), is a large cat native to the mountain ranges central and Southern Asia. Well known for its beautiful fur, the snow leopard has a soft grey coat with ringed spots and rosettes of black on
brown. The fur turns white in the winter.

The life span of a snow leopard is normally 15-18 years, but in captivity they can live up to 20+ years. Snow Leopards weigh and average of 40-55kg.
The total estimated wild population of the snow leopard is between 3,500 and 7,000 in the wild with 500-600 in zoos.

The National Zoo is home to 2 Snow Leopards, named Shiva and Bhutan.

Cheetahs

The king cheetah did look pretty awesome. Both animals were so sleek and fast~~
They were so nimble and light footed it looked as if they weighed nothing.
You can go in an pet the cheetahs for a rather substantial amount of money (goes towards zoo projects I guess)
But then probably I’d be pretty nervous about going into the same enclosure as a cheetah >_>

From the zoo site:

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is an endangered member of the cat family. It is the fastest of all land animals and although its fastest speed is unknown, it can reach speeds of more than 105km/per
hour in short bursts of up to 450-500 meters, as well as being able to accelerate from
0 to 110km/per hour in three seconds (faster than most ’super cars’).
Cheetah sizes vary and range between 45 and 60kg. Males are usually slightly larger though
it is almost impossible to tell male cheetahs from females, based on their size and weight.

The National Zoo & Aquarium is home to 4 cheetahs: Tanzi, Robi, Shasa, November and
1 King Cheetah, named Jama. Jama is one of only 25-30 King Cheetahs in existence and
maybe 2-3 in the world that can be interacted with by members of the public.

Cougars and snow leopards

From the zoo site:

The Cougar (Puma concolor) or Puma is the largest of the ’small cats.’
The cougar has the largest range of any wild cat in the world. The cougar also has the largest range of any ‘New World’
land animal; spanning all the way from Yukon in Canada to the Southern Andes.

The cougar’s life span is estimated at being between 8-13 years. They grow to around 8-9 feet in length and weigh an average of 45kg (female) and 70kg (male). Cougars have an impressive leap ability of approximately 18-20 feet (vertical) and 30-40 feet (horizontal). Cougar numbers estimate 30,000 - 50,000 in the wild.

The National Zoo & Aquarium is home to 2 cougars, named Cree and Cheyanne.

Didn’t manage to get decent photos of the tigers, lions and tigon (which are crosses between tigers and lions. Did you know if a tigon/liger is responding to a tiger it will do it with a tiger call, and if it’s to a lion it wil do it with a lion call? How cool is that?)

The Tigon is a hybrid cross between a female lion (Panthera leo), and a male tiger ( Panthera tigris).
Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots from the
mother and stripes from the father. Tigons weigh an average of 150kg.
A female tigon (Noelle) born in 1978, shared an enclosure in the Shambala Reserve
with a male Siberian Tiger called Anton, in the belief that she was sterile.
In 1983, Noelle produced a ti-tigon named Nathaniel.
Male tigons are sterile while the females are generally fertile. Because fertile ligers
and tigons are only female, a liger and tigon can not reproduce.

The National Zoo & Aquarium is home to a male tigon, named Asta.

(See other National Zoo entries here.)

There were quite a number of primates at the zoo, including a troop of black capuchins.

From the zoo website:

De Brazza’s Monkey (Cercopithecus neglectus), locally known as swamp monkeys, and are
often found in wetlands in central Africa. De Brazzas have cheek pouches in which to carry food
while they forage. They have a life-span of up to 22 years.

Well it was a beautiful monkey anyway. Looked like it had very silky fur. Doesn’t look like it belongs in a swamp XD

De Brazza’s Monkey

Black-Capped Capuchin, (Cebus apella), also known as Tufted Capuchin, or Brown Capuchin, may live either a solitary life, or in groups of 2 - 20. A well-known characteristic of this species is that it uses stones as a tool to open hard nuts. First it lays the nut on a large, flat stone, after which it hammers with a smaller stone until the nut is opened.

Black-Capped Capuchin

Yar, see, the zoo keepers toss in soft drink bottles filled with straw/chaff in which some pellets of food are mixed in. The cap of the bottle has a little hole drilled through, wide enough for the monkey to stick its finger in. They know there’s food inside but it’s a bit of a puzzle for it to get the food out. We were watching this little guy while we were eating the sushi lunch Ada packed for us. He was just poking and poking at the hole, getting chaff all over himself XD (you can see the bits of yellow powder stuff all over his fur). He was very patient and when we left he had gotten out most of the chaff…

Of course the smart way is to unscrew the bottle top >_>

Another bunch of capuchins in another enclosure handled things differently. One of them pretty much unscrewed the lid right away, and was tapping the bottle against a rock so that the chaff/pellets came out faster (smart guy!). The other was bashing the bottle against a rock in the hope that it would break apart. It didn’t, so by some fluke he got the lid unscrewed but simply shook the bottle to get the chaff out, which isn’t as efficient…

Anyway, it was quite interesting watching the monkeys try to get food out XD

(See other National Zoo entries here.)

When I was in Canberra I also went to the National Zoo and Aquarium with Ray and his housemates.

I love going to zoos
Whenever I travel I like to visit the local museumsm art galleries and definitely the zoo. I do such cliched touristy things ._.

Part one: the aquarium and reptile enclosure!

Lobster, lion fish, anemone in the centre piece really huge marine tank, hermit crab

Olive python, rhinocerous iguana, tree frogs, baby alligator.

Actually I forgot to note down the names of all the reptiles. However the zoo website lists some animals they contain. A quick search on google image search identified the animals I had taken photos of. The internet is so awesome >_<. And so are my custom searches >_< (for the record I have eBay, eBay Australia, Google Image Search, Google, Google I'm Feeling Lucky, Flickr, Youtube, Wiki, Wiki Travel, and 4 currency conversion shortcuts...)

(See other National Zoo entries here.)

The last time I was in Canberra I decided to visit the National Botanic Gardens. I didn’t go the last time because it was summer and in 40 degree heat, it really didn’t bear thinking.

Ray and I tried practicing our photography (particularly portraits) there so that we could take nice photos in Japan. I really don’t think we’re up to scratch yet >_<

(Also I think Ray has the height advantage :@. Somehow the portaits look better when the lens is angled downwards :@)

We were walking past this bridge when we saw 2 people staring at something in a tree. We didn’t pay them any attention at first but the guy turned to us and said: “Those are tawny frogmouth owls. They are very rare.”

So we stopped and looked at them and took many photos.

As they were shuffling off another group of tourists rounded the corner from the opposite end. Eye contact was studiously avoided but I managed to catch the eye of the last person. I said: “Those are tawny frogmouth owls. They are very rare.”

Don’t I sound so knowledgeable?

They are also known as morporks btw. Yup, that’s the bird on the Ankh Morpork coat of arms…
And IIRC, their call sounds like “more pork!”

Aren’t they cute?

After that we went to the Telstra Tower, which is what passes for a tourist attraction around Canberra.
Being the tightarses we are we didn’t pay the fee to take the lift to the top of the tower and just mooched around the base for a bit.

Telstra Tower

Cockatoos near the oval and tennis courts at ANU

One of Ray’s friends is a postgrad chemistry student at ANU, and I invited myself for a tour of the Chemistry Research labs!
Come on, when are mysterious liquids bubbling in test tubes not interesting?!

His research was mostly to do with proteins and proteins structures and identifying them … I think ^_^;;
Well let’s see how much of the tour I’ve remembered…

First they put some e. coli bacteria together with nutrients in a flask and put it in this machine which jiggles the stuff up and downreally quickly. E. coli is a very hardy bacteria and grows in almost anything. Human skin cells also produce protein but it’s a bit trickier and you have to be more exact. E. coli can also be manipulated rather easily.

It kind of looks like milk from the outside but that’s just the white forth on top. The liquid below is kind of amber-ish in colour. It smells like vegemite apparantly.

The mixture is then put through a centrifuge which spins the tubes round really fast. It separates out the liquids. After the protein bits are extracted it is put through a…

Pressure cell press. Liquid gets put in a thick 100% stainless steel tube thing and then into the machine. It is compressed to up to 800 times atmospheric pressure (where the red line is). After which it is put through a…

Purification process. It’s in a cold room to keep the mixture stable. The liquid is put through the top and it goes down, down, down through this liquid/solid thing (a jelly?). All the other crap is absorbed away and you get a purer protein mixture at the bottom.

After this process you can do lots of stuff with the protein. They are always inventing (expensive) new machines to prod the proteins with!

For example you can put them in a…

Note little colourless plastic boxes piled up on right side of photo on shelves

Little plastic box and try to get protein crystals. It’s apparently very difficult because only very certain proteins can crystallise. I asked Peter if I could have a look at the boxes through the microscope but he said it’d probably be very difficult to find a box that didn’t contain duds (he wasn’t involved in doing protein crystallisation at the time, having already done that in his Honours year). He did show me a chart with photos of protein crystals though, and they were pretteeee.

Another thing you can do is put them in this huge-ass magnet that has like 800 times the earth’s gravitational pull. The ?800 MHZ magnet is even housed in its own little building outside because otherwise it starts attracting keys and whatnot. You can’t go into the inner room with any metallic stuff and its serviced with plastic tools.

It’s like 30 million dollars AND frequently breaks down!

You go upstairs to the second level deck, put in your test tubes of protein samples then it gets lowered into the magnet. The magnetic force aligns the protein strands and whatnot, and then you read the output on the …

Computer in the outside room.

The magnet isn’t invasive and leaves the proteins much as they are. After testing they are taken to be stored in liquid nitrogen or something. Hey never know when you may need them again eh?

You can only get into the magnet building with a keycard, and you have to sign up ahead of time to use it as there’s always a queue.

I also had a quick walk around the organic chemistry labs, which generally does research on a much smaller molecular level than Peter’s protein research.

Super powerful X-ray machines for photographing structure of molecules

pH meter

Machine that tests for compounds

Commonly used in drug testing, this machine tests for all sorts of compounds. As you can probably tell, this system is a bit… haphazard. The sample is injected into this hole (the black circle which is just above the clampy thing holding the diagonal metal tube) then passes through some metal coils. It then mixes it up with the different solvents in the manky cardboard box on the left. The output is then shown on the computer on the right. You can kind of see a network hub balanced on the machine just above the big glass bottle of solvent. The metal tube clamped at a diagonal angle is a like a mini liebig condenser IIRC.

This is Peter’s old desk/workbench.
Actually there’s still a sample of old nutrients for the bacteria there (the bottle that has dark amber liquid it that looks like urine, on the first shelf up on the right, next to a little white box with blue markings on it). It’s made out of yeast which is probably why it smells a bit like vegemite…

But anyway it’s probably really old…and yet you can still feed it to e. coli. See? No wonder those chem students love using e. coli.

So after that I went to the Moreno-Ocampo lecture (”The New System Of International Justice In The Wake Of The International Criminal Court”) at the ANU Law School. It was presented by Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the First Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It was pretty interesting. There are all sorts of human rights abuses that just aren’t well-reported on in mainstream Australian news!

The ICC basically brings justice to the fore as a restraining force on human rights abuses internationally (the others are just political might and er….more war). It also promulgates what amounts to an international criminal code and defines what human rights abuses are, eg genocide. And if these crimes occur and they are of sufficient magnitude and the signatory state it occurs in doesn’t do any action to prosecute such crimes, the ICC can intervene to bring those responsible to justice. Read more about it on the wiki.

It was brought into force with the passing of the Rome Statute on 1 July 2002 and can take action against any crimes that took place after that date. (Personally I think they should have made it 4 July just to annoy the Americans.)

Very interesting man although unfortunately I lost about 30% of what he said due to his thick accent >_<

The question time at the end was pretty interesting too even though there were some stupid questions, one from an American (Q: don't you think the new policies in place (ie defining mass civilian casualties as a crime) prevent troops from protecting themselves adequately? A: Well, we think that killing lots of people is a bad thing that should be avoided.) and another from a try-hard.

Australia is a signatory to the Rome Statute. Alot of Asia (including China), much of the Middle East, Russia and most notably the US (who has publicly said they would never send a citizen of the US to the ICC) are not signatories. Read more about the US and the ICC here. And don’t blame Bush, it started with Clinton.

As of August 2007, 104 countries have ratified or acceded to the court, including nearly all of Europe and South America, and roughly half the countries in Africa.

Japan will become a state party on 1 October 2007, bringing the total number to 105. A further 41 states have signed but not ratified the treaty; the law of treaties obliges these states to refrain from “acts which would defeat the object and purpose” of the treaty. In 2002, two of these states, the United States and Israel, “unsigned” the Rome Statute, indicating that they no longer intend to become States Parties and, as such, they have no legal obligations arising from their signature of the statute.

The ICC are pretty selective with the cases they prosecute. Take for example a simple murder in a house. Normally the police would come and ask the neighbours if they witnessed anything. But imagine the number of witnesses involved when it comes to large scale human rights crimes that pass the “magnitude” test. So generally they will only prosecute certain events, and try to cut down on number of witnesses too. However this selection process only prosecutes the most damning cases and guarantees a 100% win rate for the prosecutor.

Anyway, all in all a very educational day!

After that I rounded it off with dinner at Milk and Honey with some old law school mates! Yum.

A couple of weeks…okay, months, ago (I was slack), I was moseying around Rundle Mall in Adelaide on my last Friday night in Adelaide. Which turned out to not quite be my last Friday night there, actually, but oh well.

Anyway under the Gawler Place canopy there were a couple of dweeby white hiphop wannabe guys huddled around a boombox blasting out old school hip hop music, bopping their heads, working up the courage to do some break dancing I suppose. I did see one of them do some half-assed moves but then he quickly stopped and they went back to head-bopping. I did hang around for a bit to see if they would do any more but it was obviously taking them too long to work up the guts to do anything. I came back about half an hour later and happily they were finally doing quite a bit of dancing and surrounded by a crows, to boot!

There was now a group of Africans and Asians too. The Asians were mostly Koreans I think and some Vietnamese. Must have been overseas students; and the Africans were probably part of the large intake of Somalian refugees Adelaide received recently. Something like that. Well all probably recent Australian residents at any rate.

And a member of each group would take it in turns to have a brief stint in the centre of the circle. It was sort of challenge-y, but like a muuuuuuuch lamer version of Run DMC v Jason Nevins’ “It’s like that” (Aaahhh…old skool hiphop. Sure does bring back memories.) At one point one of the African boys knocked the beanie off of a whiteboy and I got excited because I thought there would be something exciting to see at last, but then everyone got disgustingly placatory.

Oh well, the dancing wasn’t great but watching the crowd/group dynamic was interesting. And even though the groups didn’t have a shared language, they managed to communicate alright through body language. The common language dawg, o’ hiphop brutha! Yo!

Yeah.
(>_>)
(<_<)

Mouseover for captions

We were admitted before the Full Court. It was presided by Chief Justice Doyle along with Kelly and Anderson (or was it White? Oops) JJs. His Honour the Chief Justice did a bit of an opening speech and a closing one too. It was rather nice.

But as there were only 17 or so of us it went by pretty quick. Couldn’t have been more than half an hour. I’m just relieved it’s finally all over =_=. The application for admission process is really annoying >_< particularly if you live interstate!!

We had arranged for counsel to move for our admission ahead of time, and also prepared a brief for them. I asked Roger to move for my admission of course!

So the process was like this: Everyone bows as Full Court enters (this is the “All rise…” bit). CJ makes a short speech, each counsel in turn stands up to move for admission of each admittee. The admittee stands up at the same time once his name is called. Then CJ says “he/she is so admitted”. After everyone goes through that process then the first half walks up to the bench and takes the oath (or affirmation), one at a time. After that each person signs his name in the practitioner’s roll, bows to judges then walks back to seat. When that was all done CJ gave a short closing speech. Then “all rise…” and bow to judges as they leave.

Whoo~~…

My niece and I moseyed around a bit till lunch time - went to watch a bit of a murder trial, examining the witnesses bit.

We had lunch at the Star of Siam, which is the local hangout for Adelaide lawyers, with one of my classmates. Forgot to take a full table photo. Oh well.

So anyway I’m finally admitted
It’s been a long road…I’ve wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was uhm…12? So it’s been 10 years o_O

I couldn’t have got here without the support and help of so many. First and foremost God, and then my parents and not least of all Roger who gave me my first real taste of the law.

I met Julian Morrow from the Chaser!! Saw him at the new food court in Chinatown in Adelaide’s Central Market. He was in town for the Festival of Ideas. I don’t watch it religiously (extremely dislike having when I watch tv dictated by the tv station) however I have watched some eps. So actually I didn’t recognise the guy till my niece spotted him and brought it to my attention (she’s a Chaser fan). He was very nice and thanked us for our support (er…whut me? Not really at the time >_<). But just cause he's so nice I'll go and watch all the Chaser I can get my hands on on yt!!

The Chaser’s War on Everything is an Australian comedy show put together by this bunch of guys and includes skits, parodies and pranks. They are really quite funny and the humour is oftentimes smart and intelligent (especially the political ones - fav!).

There’s lots of Chaser clips on yt - the ABC doesn’t mind people uploading clips (how cool is that!) and they also have eps/vodcasts available for download from the official ABC site. Aaaah…public broadcasting~~

I can’t resist including some clips dissing United Statians:

I first heard the following off the radio in Adelaide on the way to te airport. When I got back to Melbourne I googled it and copied and pasted it off here.

It’s actually one of those emailed things that go round and round. Snopes says that it’s been around since at least 2000 and has since been adapted for Canada and South Africa. Although I do think the one for Australia is the original (the humour fits better). It’s linked to countries hosting the Olympics.

It actually got posted as the faq for the Asian Patent Attorneys Association 54th Council Meeting (2007) in Adelaide!! Ok it did have appropriate responses in brackets but still. Actually being used in an official capacity now huh?

The questions below about Australia, are from potential visitors. They are reputed to have been posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are supposedly the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a sense of humour.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it’s only three thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not… oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? ( UK)
A: You are a British politician, right?

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It’s a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It’s called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)
A: No, WE don’t stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you’ll have to learn it first.

Since I had to go back to Adelaide to lodge my statutory declaration for admission to practice ($#@!%@#$^# still annoyed about it) I decided to go to the Himeji Japanese garden on South Terrace.

It’s a smallish garden and is a bit of a fusion thing I reckon. The style is more or less Japanese but some Australian plant varieties are used too. I love how it’s just tucked away and no one really knows of its existence. Bit of a “secret garden”.

Location: South Terrace (near Glen Osmond Road intersection) Adelaide, South Australia.
Opening Hours: 8.00am to 1 hour before sunset, 7 days per week (brochures available on site)

Hit the jump for more photos.

Fusion chigai-dana

I went down to the Art Gallery today to see a visiting collection of Egyptian artefacts on loan from the Louvre. The exhibition was entitled “Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife”

Admission fees are $18 for adult, $10 student. I’m still a student till the end of May so I get the discount, yay

It concentrated more on the artwork (obviously), and as I’m more interested in the gruesome aspects of mummification (did you know they pulled the brain out through the nostril with a piece of wire? I mean, how much can you get out at a time?! There must be an almighty mess. Would there be much leftover in the skull? How would you know when it was “clean”?) it didn’t appeal to me as much. It was worth my $10 student fare though. I read each and every placard to get my money’s worth! -extremely knowledgeable in egyptian death art now-*

Apologies, no photos. There were too many people/security guards milling about.

I had a quick look around the other exhibits too but didn’t want to get too drawn in because I’d end up reading all the signs!** Even though I’d be bored out of my brain I would still end up spending the whole day there.

I went round to the Asian gallery too. It’s actually really tiny and has NO Chinese stuff! Aww come on. Chinese art and culture basically influenced whole region! You could at least have some token painting or something…

About half of the exhibits were Japanese artefacts*** and the other half were south east asian in origin (Cambodia, Thailand, etc -not interested-). There is probably a disproportionate amount of Japanese stuff because well… people (and one of them is Sir Samuel Way - after whom the District Court building is named after o.o) donated Japanese stuff.

Well anyway! The most interesting exhibit of the day for me was this huge screen painting entitled something to the effect of ‘Scenes of Kyoto’. It’s made up of two screens - east Kyoto/right screen and west Kyoto/left screen. Each screen is made up of like 4 panels. It’s from the Edo era and has shops, some temples (Kiyomizu, Tenryuji), the Gion temple district shops and people going about their daily life.

Picnic set

A wide cross section of people are depicted too including nobles, peasants, shopkeepers, samurai. It probably aims to show one the splendour of the new imperial capital (IIRC, the placard said that the screen was painted not long after the imperial capital was moved to Kyoto - from Nagoya I’m assuming). Personally I think the idea is a bit of a ripoff/ “heavily influenced by”^ the 16m long Qingming Shanghe Tu (Spring Festival on the River).

The Chinese one had way more detail . It didn’t have half its canvas covered in bleeding gold-leaf clouds that’s for sure! Yup, the Kyoto one had half the screens covered in clouds. What a cop out. It’s like the artist discovered it was going to be a monumental task painting the whole screen so he filled it with clouds. But I suppose it will never be in the same league as the Chinese one (which is a legendary masterpiece) cause it was a low-cost painting or something I guess.

Anyway I still like it cause it was fun to look at (maybe spent 5 mins looking at all the figures and stuff). No photo because there was a security guard keeping an eye on me at that point.

Another favourite was the picnic set. It’s so cute! You can imagine eating out of that under the Sakura. The sides of of the holder thing that holds all the bento boxesactually have carved holes. I assume it’s so you can thread string around the boxes and through the holes to keep the wine jar/boxes in place. I want one ._.

The other photo is of a fusion chigai-dana. It was constructed in the Meiji era, when there was demand for Japanoiserie by Westerners. The motifs and details are Japanese, however the way it is constructed…as in like… in the macro sense? …are Western. Like you wouldn’t generally get a chigai-dana that is constructed in that way. It’s all a bit busy - google chigai-dana and compare.

* Haha, not really.
** This is probably related to my habit of reading magazines from cover to cover, systematically starting from page 1. I get obssessive compulsive about things like this.
*** Such as katana guards, Kannon sculptures, bits of pottery, etc. I was hoping for proper paintings but save for the screen as decribed above and a handful of kabuki prints, no go.
^ Well okay I’ve seen a couple of Japanese paintings which depict a large town area and include lots of people doing stuff. I think there was one of Yoshiwara (old Edo pleasure quarters) where people were, indeed, doing *a lot* of stuff (the building roofs were not painted in…). And that isn’t exactly the same as painting a realistic aerial view of a metropolis.

Oooh.

Shin Tokyo is a store specialising in anime, manga and game related goods. To the best of my knowledge it’s the only store of that type in Adelaide. (Other stores sell manga too but they are mainly comic book stores which sell western style comics too.)
They were originally located in the Railway Arcade on Hindley Street but they’ve since moved to the old David Jones basement next to JB Hifi, where a camping supplies store used to be.

Well, okay actually it happened 2 months ago - I asked the guy, who is very friendly btw and didn’t mind me taking photos of the store and in fact when I was taking photos of the pocky in the front counter display case he was puzzled and came round to my side to check what I was photographing and asked me what was so interesting about what i was photographing XD - but I only noticed the store today.

The store is pretty big, bright and well organised and the variety of stuff is not bad.
They carried the most popular titles, which is like pretty much the whole catalogue from US distributors such as Viz, Tokyopop, etc. There was Bleach shogukan (no nyanko though……….-sob-). They also sold the Wii o.o

Pricing is what you’d expect from an Australian distributor of US-licensed goods.

All in all, not a bad place. The only store servicing anime otakus in Adelaide. Friendly staff. I hope they continue to do well (and that the higher rent on Rundle Mall won’t kill them).

ANZAC day, national Australian holiday was celebrated yesterday.

From the wiki (because I’m too lazy to write my own stuff and hey, this is perfect):

ANZAC Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.

…

During the 1920s, ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders who died during the war. The first year in which all the States observed some form of public holiday together on ANZAC Day was 1927, By the mid-1930s all the rituals we today associate with the day - dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly two-up games - were firmly established as part of ANZAC Day culture. With the coming of the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives of Australians lost in that war as well, and in subsequent years the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include Australians killed in all the military operations in which Australia has been involved. ANZAC Day was first commemorated at the Australian War Memorial in 1942, but due to government orders preventing large public gatherings in case of Japanese air attack, it was a small affair and was neither a march nor a memorial service. ANZAC Day has been annually commemorated at the Australian War Memorial ever since.

Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as an occasion of national commemoration. Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing, across the nation. Later in the day ex-servicemen and women meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centers. Commemorative ceremonies are held at war memorials around the country. It is a day when Australians and New Zealanders reflect on the many different meanings of war.

…

Although Australia’s official national day is in fact “Australia Day”, many Australians have now come to regard ANZAC Day as the true national day of the country. Despite federation being proclaimed in Australia in 1901, many argue the “national identity” of Australia was largely forged during the violent conflict of World War 1

Hit the jump for my impressions on my visit to the Australian War Memorial.

And this is just for Ray

ANZAC Day is a national public holiday and is considered one of the most spiritual and solemn days of the year in Australia. Marches by veterans from all past wars, current serving members of the Australian Defence Force, and cadets, are held in capital cities and towns nationwide. The ANZAC Day parade from each state capital is televised live with commentary. These events are followed generally by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL Club, often including a traditional Australian gambling game called “two-up”, which was an extremely popular pastime with ANZAC soldiers. The importance of this tradition is demonstrated by the fact that though most Australian states have laws forbidding gambling outside of designated licensed venues, on ANZAC Day it is legal to play “two-up”.

I visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in November last year. It was a fascinating place. (Official AWM site here. You can browse the galleries too.) There was a big museum sort of section on all the conflicts Australian soldiers have been involved in. I was surprised how big it was. It definitely looks much smaller on the outside. Because we went there near closing time I didn’t get to see the whole airplane section, but meh (not so interested war technology). I am more interested in the human side of things and the displays that concentrated on the soldiers themselves I found quite moving.

Surrounding the walls on the outside are plaques with the names of the fallen in all the wars Australia participated in. It’s really verrrry depressing how much space World War II took up. Families of the dead place poppies besides their names. The earlier the war, the less dense the poppies get. So for example in the Soudan war (Sudan?), the start of the board, there are no poppies. But Iraq has a disproportionate amount of poppies. Who will remember those soldiers in time to come?

My favourite exhibit was probably the one about Ypres. Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. During World War I, Ypres was the centre of intense and sustained battles between the German and the British Empire forces. Because it was in a strategic location 3 battles were fought there, the third one, aka “The Battle of Passchendaele” was the largest and most costly. 448,000 Allied forces shoulders were killed and wounded while 260,000 Germans were killed and wounded.

The Allied commander’s strategy was sort of like…go hard, go long. (Sort of like Pratchett’s Lord Rust) Torrential rains and the swampy land that was torn up already by heavy British preparatory bombardment turned the battlefield into a sea of liquid mud in which an unknown number of soldiers drowned. The “Battle of Mud” became a war of attrition.

The Allies gained only a few kilometres. World War I ended only a couple of weeks after. It was a senseless battle that served no purpose but claimed so many lives.

Will Longstaff’s ghostly “Menin Gate at Midnight” (1928) was the exhibit that really stood out to me, and is my favourite. It is displayed in a darkened alcove. I remember standing there practically mesmerized by the painting, holding back tears.

This tiny thumbnail really does the painting no justice. In the midground there are ghostly soldiers marching to Menin Gate along the road to the battlefield that many will never march back across. (Menin gate is one of the landmarks of the town and still stands to this day in the modern city of Ypres.) A scattering of scarlet-red poppies, which represents blood and is used to this day as symbol of remembrance, blooms on the foreground.

The beginning and the end

ANZAC Day is a day to remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Remembering those who have given themselves in the senseless sacrifice is not to glorify war, but to remember the horror and destruction it causes. One would hope that we would learn from history and never again repeat the same mistakes.

Unfortunately, “history repeats itself” is too accurate an idiom.