Author: brianlaurance

ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Two Different Versions…. Two Different Morals

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house

and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the

summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has no food or

shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long,

building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the

summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands

to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is

cold and starving.

Channels 7, 9 and 10,the ABC and SBS show up to provide pictures of the

shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home

with a table filled with food.

Australia is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is

allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on the ABC with the grasshopper and everybody cries

when they sing, ‘It’s not Easy Being Green.’

The CFMEU stage a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news

stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’

The Archbishop of Melbourne then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the

grasshopper’s sake.

Prime Minister Shorten condemns the ant and blames Scott Morrison, John Howard, Robert

Menzies, Capt James Cook, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Tanya Plibersek exclaims in an interview on Today Tonight that the ant has gotten

rich off the back of the grasshopper and calls for an immediate tax hike on

the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, Labor in conjunction with the Greens draft the Economic Equity &

Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs

and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is

confiscated by the Government and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends

finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he

is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house,

crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the night, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now

abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorise the

ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighbourhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be careful how you vote in May, 2019.

I’ve sent this to you because I believe that you are an ant – not a

grasshopper!

November 1st Hunter Valley NSW
It is difficult to assess the merits of the various wine regions—-Napa, Margaret River, Sanoma, Barossa, Claire, McLaren Vale or the Hunter.
Each is unique and individual, but the Hunter is outstanding for its rural setting amongst the blue mountain ranges framing the entire valley. Precious little by way of bush settings in this largely agricultural landscape. The usual big wine names appear around every corner; Lindemans, Hungerford Hill, de Bortelli and Mt Pleasant puts familiar labels on liquor store shelves into their respective regions. Following the Hunter we have a big 50th anniversary gift weekend in the Victorian Yarra Valley.
Today we also spent a pleasant time at the Hunter Valley Gardens; a 600 acre garden that is a core attraction for many travellers to this region. Along with the ‘soft’ appeal of the overall bucolic feel this place is quite magical.
Graham is finally being released from hospital detention today Friday and tomorrow afternoon we leave for Melbourne.

View from verandah of Audrey Wilkinson 19th century vineyard.

 

October 21st Lautoka Fiji.
Ever since leaving Maui we’ve had seven lazy ‘sea’ days crossing this giant Pacific Ocean with a daily eye on the ship monitor following our progress southward across the equator. We began at 47.6 degrees north and because of our south-westerly direction the latitudinal markers were slower. But we reached 0 degrees and eventually transitioned to the South Pacific and the minor Fijian township of Lautoka. We spent a couple of hours mixing it with the locals, politely responding with an Aussie G’day to the innumerable proferrings of Bula—attention seeking Fijian for g’day—“ won’t you came and shop at my stall?”
The inevitable sharing of sniffs, sneezes and coughs took hold of Isabel about the same time and so the following day in Suva was for me alone, hunting down wifi in a city beset with bunting everywhere proclaiming Digicel with minimal impact; for no one had wifi.
Eventually, two kilometres from the centre of town an enterprising Indian restaurant came up with the broadband goods in return for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Self proclaimed political boss Frank Bainimarama took control because of the imbalance of Indian versus ‘Bula’ indigenous Fijians. He would do well press-ganging Kevin Rudd to introduce fibre to the premises in this Melanesian outpost.
Following another sea day, on October 24 we arrived early am at Mystery Island. The tiny little atoll will for us ever remain an enigma as the captain announced we had a medical emergency and we would be full steam ahead for Noumea to enable the transfer of the patient. So at a genuinely great rate of knots we high-tailed it away from Mystery island and headed for the New Caledonian capital……..but along the way we got diverted once more toward Lifou and at 4pm 3,200 passengers rubber-necked from every vantage point, attempting to view the patient.
After the successful medivac our cruise-liner headed once more for the open seas and the 12 nautical mile limit to satisfy the needs of the pokey junkies and shoppers of bling, golden chain by the metre and cheap Balinese watches.

The very next day we returned to Lifau (Oct 25) and then another little island Mare (Oct 26) both being attractive to the snorkelling set and very little else.
So we simply continued to enjoy the ship-board life, which is not too difficult and helped in our recovery from the colds that by now had afflicted us both.
Sunday October 29
Around 5.30am this morning we had the feeling our floating palace was near to destination and from our balcony the Opera House was coming into view…..aaghh! the harbour bridge, and Circular Quay……we had arrived home into Sydney.
Disembarking was a breeze, pick up our luggage, onto a waiting coach to take us to Central Station and a train ride to Gordon and there was Julie waiting to pick us up.
Graham took to the local hospital yesterday in need of emergency treatment, but today is back to his chipper self and staying put for a couple of days—— so we’re off to Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley by ourselves tomorrow for a few days.

So not inclined to pen a new post for the blog simply because you’d read so many of our lives at sea——but this is a brand new experience for us on Royal Caribbean’ Explorer of the Seas. Hardly a zimmerframe or motorised scooter to be seen; rock climbing walls, mini golf, video games arcade (10-17 year olds only) Johnny Rockets burger joint and a surfing ‘flow rider’ for the daring.
Whereas cruising is our holiday wont, this ship is a brand new experience for us, the grub is very good in served in uniquely different venues from that we are used to and after an early lunch every day we have choir practice at 1.15pm
So far we’ve learned an ABBA medley and I Will Follow Him from Sister Act. What an absolute hoot! All the blokes (bullfrogs) up the back with altos and sopranos in the front either side of us.
We told everyone how good it was so now there’s hardly any room for us all. (About 70). The first couple of days out of Seattle were difficult because it was rough and that makes singing a tad difficult clinging on to the carpet with your toenails, while practicing the knee bending bobbing the men have to do while singing ‘take chance—take a chance —take a chance— take a chicka chicka chance’ what a bloody hoot!
We will be performing in the main theatre on two occasions before 1250 audience.
Woooooha me Mama Mia!!!
The showtime each night has been really excellent (2 shows either 6.30 and 8.30 or 8.30 and 10.30 but definitely no rushing dinner to get to a show. There’s also an ice rink and they put on ice spectaculars twice on an afternoon over two days to give everyone a chance to see the show and kids and the brave have access to skating times each day.
We’ve used our balcony for a couple of days now, with temperatures 26-28c.
Oh yes! There’s no over-jolly cruise director pushing his barrow over the tannoy every 30 minutes. On Princess the C.D’s seem to be injected with a gramophone needle dipped in Concorde fuel.
Just doing words alone today on day 6 and adding pictures and uploading the post tomorrow in Hawaii. And because we cross the international date line we are credited with this being a 23 day cruise not 22 days arriving into Circular Quay Sunday the 29th.

 

Dropped our bags at the ship a little after 10am and then returned the car to find we did 3,352 miles or 5,394. Kms.

Just after 12 noon we progressed thru the passenger cast of thousands and boarded the ship with a couple of pics below of Seattle and another of Mt Rainier in the background.

 

 

Day 25 of our 50 day holiday overseas.
I am writing this in our room at Ramada on the edge of a very busy Seattle. Victoria the capital of British Columbia is quite small and our apartment for 3 nights was brand new and located in the centre of the CBD, but without parking, but we managed to get a spot outside the front door and fed the meter.
At the nearby Unsworth winery they were totally oblivious to a Barry Unsworth and like the former NSW premier they too had never heard of Penfold Grange.
After the winery we re-visited the little cafe out over the water at Mills Bay and followed it up with a tour of the city taking pictures of the surrounding waterways looking across to the USA and Mt Baker which you can see, although it is over 100 miles away.
From tomorrow (Friday) we will be on the Explorer of the Seas and out of wi-fi range until we arrive in Honolulu on Friday week and Mauii the following day. Probably swallow our pride and get a coffee fix at Starbucks along with emails etc.
(I have made it my life’s ambition to teach the SB’s baristas how to make a long black. An ‘Americano’ in an 8oz cup, two shots and only fill with water to the half-way mark. Works every time with crema as proof of success.
There has been a development in our trip across the peaceful sea; for KimJong-un is planning to detonate an hydrogen bomb above the Pacific, sometime soon. While we have dodged mad terrorists in Edmonton and Las Vegas it seems we may have a Pyongyang moment before arriving home.
All our love and see you soon…
P.S. we arrive in Sydney 6am Sunday October 29 and we’ll get off about 9am.

Mum at the Mills Bay cafe (model dressed by Talbots) her favourite store.

 

Barry who?

Panorama toward the east and Mt Baker

A good shot of Mt Baker over 100 miles away. What superb weather!

September 29 – October 2
All the sunshine left us on Friday morning so we headed to Granville Island which is essentially a market area with a great section for kids (especially Grandpa) and a sandwich in a crowded market food court looking back on the city and thought Walmart for a rainy afternoon. Finally found it, bought $5 Lotto ticket and high-tailed it back to our apartment with parking 10 stories underground!
Saturday we walked a couple blocks to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the final day of the Monet exhibition and standing in line we met a couple of women who were from Bateman, the next suburb over from us in Winthrop.
After Monet we rubbed shoulders with the well-heeled shopping in Nordstrom before heading for home to prepare for Whistler the next day.
Sunday returned to our usual extremely sunny days for heading north to Whistler—past mile upon mile of Douglas Fir trees down to the waterline of the massive inlet of the sea. We were left struggling for adjectives to best describe the wonders around every corner. Whistler in sunshine and no snow is a bit like the Todd river in Alice Springs; the affluent (of all ages) either riding mountain bikes at break-neck speed down the mountainside or sipping Chardonnay under the umbrellas. But what a great day with the return journey equally breathtaking.
Monday with the sun still shining we deposited our apartment key at the local 7/11 store lock-box and made for horseshoe bay and the ferry to Victoria. ($22 to make a reservation plus about $80 for our car and load) so we opted for the cheap-arse option and easily squeezed on saving $22, enough to buy local Victorian B.C. ‘Wine Time’ or ‘Screw Me’ Pinot Grigio for the following few days.
The ferry trip is very professional, abundantly comfortable and panoramic views of land, sea and sky all round. Over an hour’s drive down to Victoria so we pulled into Bridgemans restaurant on Mill Bay; a classic Canadian restaurant over classic Canadian fir-tree lined lake. It was so good we plan to return again on Wednesday after visiting Unsworth winery in the same area.
And there you have it! For today we were at Butchart Gardens from 9am ‘til 1pm and then travelled around the Victorian city centre.

 

Touch each picture to enlarge.

Thursday September 28, 2017.
Reached Vancouver mid-to-late afternoon yesterday in time to shop for risotto and move into our apartment on the fifth floor of Robson St in the heart of the CBD.
And this morning the sun was shining again and we took in as much of the city as we could for showers are forecast for tomorrow.
To the initiated Stanley Park is as beautiful as ever—but for us it is quite a sensation. Wack in $3.50 along with your car licence number and you can spend all day in any of the tens of carparks near the best vantage spots. Gorgeous trees and jewelled waters sparkling in the sunshine do make for a magic day. But lo, rising out of the middle of the park is the giant Lion Gate bridge across to north Vancouver and you wouldn’t ever know it was there!
Leaving Stanley we made our way to Gastown in the city’s old part. Travelling along a dump of a road I asked the navigator if we were actually in Gastown. “Yes” was her reply until a few streets further over we eventually reached the hub with the statue of Gassy Jack the steam clock and all.
Being such a perfect day we also took in Chinatown and plan for dinner in our apartment tonight.
Tomorrow Granville Island, but it may mean getting spray jackets out of the bottom of the suitcases; especially if we make our way there in an aquabus.