Nicole and Stuart - HelpXers

 Meet Nicole and Stuart, HelpXers from Manchester, who stayed with us for a week. Nicole is actually German, born in Spain and educated in England. They were excellent fun and excellent help - eliminating triffid-like thistles from the lower part of the boys' paddock; cleaning out a very filthy fishpond; weeding and doing assorted other jobs.  Nicole also cooked a very delicious lasagne and sour cherry cake.  We took them to Bangalow market which they enjoyed quite a bit and we also dined on the delicious wood fired pizzas at Cawongla Store.  From our place the headed to the Blue Mountains before ending up in Ballarat at another HelpX farm and then on to spend the rest of summer in Tasmania.  Then they were heading west.

An unusual visitor

 We had returned back to our place after a rather boozy lunch at our friends, Mel and EB who live ten minutes away in Upper Cawongla (well we are probably the only people in the whole world who have differentiated Upper and Lower Cawongla, but that's beside the point).  It was on one of those very hot November Sundays and it was still very hot when we got home around 5.30.  Waiting for us was our latest HelpXers, Nicole and Stuart (Nicole is German but was born and grew up in Spain and went to university in Manchester - studying tourism as it turns out - and Stuart was a Manchester lad). Anyway as we showed Nicole and Stuart their bedroom I noticed a rather large pooh like object on their carpet which I quickly picked up. Out in the lounge room I discovered another two.  Steve and I looked at each, mouthing the words 'we are not alone'. We started to notice the odd object knocked from the coffee table or low shelving and so we were certain that we had an animal of uncertain heritage sharing the house with us.  I had resigned myself to sharing the house with this critter and was lying peacefully on the lounge in recover position when a loud 'Kevin' bellowed from the cellar.  Steve had discovered the culprit....

a goanna a little over a metre long, had wedged itself behind our downstairs fridge.  Luckily it wasn't so wedged in that I wasn't able to gently persuade it to forgo the relative sanctuary of the back of the white goods and allow me to pick it up. It calmly allowed me to pose for photos for a few minutes before I liberated it in the garden near the chook pen.

Some November photos

Just a few random shots around the property in November

 Steve and I walked down into the stand of hoop pines that grow along the creek on our Billen Cliffs-side paddock one Sunday morning.  The air was cool and the sun was bright.  The creek looks lovely taken from this perspective I think.

 Lots of hippeastrums flower in October and November up here.  We have these orange ones that grow at our entry and some huge crimson ones that grow beside our water tank.

 After we had come back from our walk down to the hoop pine stand I met this beautiful creature slowly sliding across the lawn near the mango trees.  It wasn't in the least bit concerned about me as it made its way into the bushier part of Malte's garden and curled up under one of the cycads.

 Beautiful markings of the carpet python

 And of course November is jacaranda flowering time and because we have five large jacaranda trees the place looks stunning in purple.

Roger gets rogered

I usually ignore the phone if it rings during the day as it is almost always a call from some poor Indian person earning the equivalent of 50c a day from some call centre in Mumbai. But I decided to pick up. 'FIRE, FIRE' the words tumbled out of the ear piece and into my confused mind. 'What are you talking about, what do you mean?' I asked, dumbfoundedly.  'Get the fire brigade, there's a fire' and so with that last instruction echoing in my mind, from our friend Liam, I walked down to the kitchen to get the phone number for Bill, the local Larnook rural fire brigade chief, who luckily, lives down the end of our road. From the kitchen window I could see the flames leaping out of the dry grass along the McGuinness Road side of our paddock.  I rang Bill and rather incredulously described the scene I was looking at.  He promised to be up straight away and so I hung up and hurried outside just as Liam ran up the driveway looking anxious and worried.  Grabbing our fire extinguisher we raced down the road to be met with the scene in the photo above.  Roger was well and truly alight and at one stage, when the fire had melted through the plastic petrol tank, a surge of flames towered about 15 metres into the air. It was a tense moment.

 Bill arrived in his ute and very quickly determined he would need to go down to the fire station and return with the truck. In the meantime, he instructed me to ring 000. About 15 minutes later he arrived with the truck and soon got to work hosing the flames down.  Liam had already brought the longest hose down from the house and was extinguishing the flames on one edge of the fire.  Within 20 minutes or so we were joined by another half dozen Larnook fire brigade volunteers, most of whom were well beyond 60, who helped with the task of putting out the fire.  I was astonished as how quickly the fire took off and we were very lucky that it was a calm day with no breeze blowing.  But it had been very dry for a long time, the grass had browned off and there was plenty of pine needles in the grass which would have fed the fire.

 And this is the result. One very burned out Roger. It seems that heat built up under the cutting deck and the friction of the blades against the grass ignited the grass or a spark created from the blades hitting a rock might have been enough to set the grass on fire.  It doesn't happen very often but Bill did tell me of a tractor driver from Casino who lost his tractor in a very similar way just a couple of weeks earlier.  We were just glad that Liam wasn't injured.

So we now have a strip of about 150 metres by 15 metres of very burnt paddock lined by singed fence posts and pine trees.  And a warning to never underestimate the immense power of fire.  And intense admiration and thanks for the volunteer fire fighters who give up there own time and often use their own vehicles to travel to fires when called upon to fight them. Thank you Larnook Rural Fire Brigade!  The happy news is that our insurer was very very good about it all and replaced Roger with a brand new version, which shall be henceforth named Roger II.

Reptiles observed live on roads

October: metre long red bellied black snake on Cawongla Road, about 10 minutes down the road from our place, heading east

November: major skink sunning itself on Kyogle Road near Donna Maree's place

Tally of animals dead on the road (Martin's Road)

October-Early November

Eastern Water Dragon - several

Majors Skink 1 - near the elephant ear dam

Pink Tongued Skink - same general area as above

Yellow Faced Whip Snake - one at the entry to Billen Cliffs, the other down the other end closer to our place

Common Scalyfoot - about two thirds along from our end

These were all found on my early morning walk.  Most were seen in October.

Chicago: Tsavo Lions and the Beginning of our Great Big American Adventure

Would you believe that the main motivating reason for including Chicago in our trip was to visit the Field Museum of Natural History to see these two lions from a place called Tsavo, Kenya, which were the basis of the movie, Ghost and the Darkness. It's one of our faves and we knew that the actual lions on which the film is based were mounted in the Field Museum of Natural History, and so that's why we decided to visit Chicago.  And we visited the Museum and we saw 'our' lions.  Lion manes vary quite a lot of the range of the lion and at Tsavo the males don't have any real mane development.
One of the other amazing highlights of this museum, among many, was also seeing 'Sue' the most intact and from what I remember, largest Tyranosaurus rex skeleton in existence.

 We spent the best part of a day at the Museum and then walked across the road to the She'd Aquarium, another world-class tourist attraction, where we spent the remainder of the day.

 Crabby Kim wasn't actually at the Aquarium, but she was on the wall of a used car yard about 40 minutes walk from the apartment we were staying in.  I went for a big walk the afternoon I arrived (Steve flew in later that night).  Not surprisingly, Crabby Kim, took my eye.

 Agh, so here's a single picture from the She'd Aquarium of some of the many sea jellies (used to be called jelly fish).  It seems that these animals are very easy to maintain and every Aquarium worth its salt (water) has to have a variety of these animals exhibited under different lighting conditions to give them red or yellow or blue hues.  They do make very interesting exhibits and photos, so at this moment in history where we have just become photography-obsessed, these animals are perfect.  Its very easy to get amazing images which of course can then be immediately uploaded to the social media platform of your choice and shared with your friends.

 We stayed about 15 minutes from the city centre in an airbnb apartment in this building.  Our apartment was on the third floor. We had the second bedroom in the apartment of a couple.  We hadn't used airbnb previously but stayed in airbnb places in New York, Vancouver and San Francisco, as well as here in Chicago.  The neighbourhood was very nice, the streets leafy and we were a ten minute walk from the subway into the city.

One of our highlights in Chicago was to meet up with our friends, Andrew (in the red singlet) and Lee from near Newcastle.  They were in Chicago as part of their trip, with Andrew's parents, and so we caught up with them two nights and had a great time.

 So what else did we do apart from staring at a couple of dead lions? Chicago is truly a beautiful city, perhaps not so much so during their harsh and long winters, but being there just at the end of summer was an absolute delight. The city has lots of fabulous parklands with amazing public art like Cloud Gate which reflected its surroundings so beautifully.

 And this is the view from underneath.  We took an open-top double decker bus around the city; we learned about the city's architecture from one of the best tour guides I have ever encountered on the famous Chicago architecture boat cruises; we ate our way through the equally famous Chicago deep dish pizza (which we both thought was a little over-rated); saw a play, 'Some Men' with Andrew and Lee; all that kind of thing.

Including going up the top of one of the tallest sky scrapers in Chicago, the John Hancock Centre, which gave 360 degree views of the city and across to four other states.  Other highlights were having a look at a Whole Foods store, which has an excellent commitment to sustainability, ethical consumption and treatment of staff; Boys Town, the gay and lesbian precinct, which was a ten minute stroll from where we were staying; and enjoying a glass of sparkling rose in Lincoln Park after a long day of sight seeing and wandering. So after four days in Chicago we caught the bus and the train out to the airport to fly to NYC.

New York I

 So let's start with a pretty well known icon of New York to kick off this post. We flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey then got a taxi-bus thing into our apartment in the West Village, just off Christopher Street.  During the eight days we were in NYC we caught up with our friends Bill and Andrew from Newcastle as well as our friend Micke from Kansas City, Missouri, and his boyf, Bryce.  We did so much! Saw so much! We took the Staten Island Ferry (which is free) which passes by the Statue of Liberty and gives

 such a stunning view back towards the city on the return trip. That's Freedom Tower, the tallest sky-scraper on the left. Right near there of course is the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which we also visited. Much of the Museum is in the space of the footings of one of the World Trade Centre towers. I think they had done a very good job with both the memorial and museum.
We took open top double deckers around the city and tried to experience as much of the city as we could. Not once though did we need to catch a cab - we found the subway took us everywhere we went.

 This was our apartment building in West Village which we found through airbnb. It was perfectly located, very quirky as you can see a few pics below, and it was fantastic to stay in a residential neighbourhood as opposed to in the centre of the city. Our daily routine saw us leave the apartment around 9am and spend all day looking at things and head back by around 5.30/6.00pm.  Then we'd have a quick shower, get changed and head out, usually to a show on Broadway. This meant walking the 15 minutes to Christopher St subway and catching the red line into Broadway which was about 20 minutes.

 West Village, Greenwich Village and Chelsea are fabulous neighbourhoods with lots of small art galleries, cafes, restaurants and apartment buildings. This one was covered in this fabulous ivy.

 I have to now admit that I was taken with the beauty of the Empire State Building.  I had never considered it in any way, architecturally, only that it was once the tallest skyscraper in the world. But it is such a beautiful art deco building and looks so impressive inside and out. We climbed to the viewing platform and had the most amazing 360 degree views of the city.

 Freedom Tower is also very impressive, as is the Chrysler Building which was Steve's favourite.

 When i look back on the trip, some of the fondest memories were fairly simple things or little discoveries that we made. So after we had spent some time admiring Grand Central Station we spotted this cafe adjacent to the station and decided to have lunch there. At first we were a bit put off because they just had a brunch menu and no lunch menu, but our meals were fabulous. Nothing fancy, I had a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers while Steve had a chicken cob salad.  But so nice. I had a couple of glasses of sparkling rose which also helped make the meal even more delicious.

 Such a fabulous place.

 Other great memories were spending time walking on the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway line that has now been transformed into open space with benches and gardens and spaces for people to mingle and people watch and cafes and places for local artisans and crafts to sell their work; another fantastic memory was getting a hair cut and shave (with a cut throat razor) at a barber's on Christopher Street....

 One of the great things about staying in an airbnb place is that you stay in someone's place and not a hotel room. So we stayed at some wonderful, quirky places that were so interesting.  This is our bedroom in our NY apartment, which was owned by this wonderful Argentinian photographer named Diego.  The place was filled with his photos and art that had been created by his friend.

 Times Square was overwhelming at times.  So many people. Really - so many people.  It was chaos and I think we arrived in a slightly stressed disposition to each of the shows we saw because we would never know exactly where the theatre was and always arrive later than we had anticipated. But so much energy, so exciting.

 About 15 minutes from where we were staying was the Stonewall Inn, which is the symbolic heartland of gay liberation.  It was here that patrons (including a goodly number of drag queens) resisted the regular police raid on the premises and a series of riots ensued over the following days, marking a turning point in gay liberation politics. We had a drink here on our first night in the city with Bill and Andrew.

And here we all are: Bill, me, Steve, Andrew, Bryce and Mike, all enjoying ourselves.  What a fabulous time we had and created so many wonderful memories.

New York II

 Our friends from Newcastle, Bill and Andrew, aka, Mr and Mrs White Trash, had introduced us on our first night in New York to the pleasures of the Boots and Saddle Bar, which was a few minutes stroll up Christopher Street from where we were staying. Miss Holly Day performed there on Monday nights and she was fabulousssssss.

 Our good friend, Micke, who is in between Steve and me, joined us in New York, with his partner, Bryce.  Mike and Bryce live in Kansas City, Missouri, and Mike has stayed with us at Larnook a couple of times. Here we are enjoying the fabulous High Line.

 I celebrated my birthday in NYC. This was my birthday lunch - check out the size of those frozen Margueritas!

 Later that night, after we'd seen The Book of Mormon, we headed back to our fave night spot, Don't Tell Mamma, where one of the wait staff who perform there, sang me (and two others) Happy Birthday, operatic style.

 We scaled the dizzying heights of the Empire State Building earlier in the afternoon.  A most auspicious way to celebrate a birthday.

 While we were in New York another friend, who I had never met, Andy, was going to be there as well, with his partner, Nigel.  Andy is Irish but lives in Sheffield. We had a fabulous night eating the best meal we had in NYC at the Don't Tell Mamma restaurant before adjourning to the piano bar for more drinks. Andy and I had met online about 15 years ago.  I'm a little drunk and Andy looks a little uncomfortable, don't you think?

 Steve, Nigel (who is a vet) and me at Don't Tell Mamma.

 We met this lovely couple who were sitting next to me but alas I have forgotten their names. They bought us drinks and joined in with us laughing and skylarking as we do.

 Waiting for the show to start.

My bro, Brett, had told us we really needed to see Les Mis while we were in New York, if only to see the latest Jean Valjean, the rather handsome and very talented, Ramin Karimloo. So we did. After the show, we did what we never do, and that was wait at stage door for the cast to come out.  I decided to see if I could get my program signed by Ramin for Brett, which he kindly did. But then I thought, as he worked his way down the line of fans, that I would wait for him at the very end and ask him if he would pose for a selfie for me as well. I was as nervous as all get out...

Shows We saw in New York

Good show queens that we are, we made sure that many of our nights were spent worshipping at the numerous temples of colour and movement in Broadway. Our first show was Pippin - which proved to be one of our favourites, even though I only knew a couple of songs and really knew zip about the musical. It's a re-jigged version that has only opened in the last couple of years and is now set in a travelling circus. We liked it so much we saw the touring version in San Francisco (Lucille Ball's daughter was playing Pippin's grandmother; the actor who played the very first Pippin when the show  opened in the 1970s was playing Pippin's father; and the actor who originated the 'new' Pippin was playing Pippin, so it was a no-brainer. Loved it the first time. Loved it the second time.

 Kinky Boots is based on the movie of the same name and features a score written by Cindi Lauper. There were some fabulous moments in the musical and the score is fabulous - but I can't remember a single song.  Some absolutely fabulous singing, dancing and costuming. The night we were there the producer and his boyfriend were sitting with about 20 of their friends a couple of rows away from us. I know this because the friendly woman from Los Angeles who was sitting next to me with her husband was curious as to why this guy seemed to know so many people and why so many seemed to be near-worshipping him. So she did what any sassy LA woman would do and went right up and asked him at interval.  And then came back very excitedly to tell me.  He actually invited her and the husband to the after-show party but she didn't think it was right of her to intrude.  'Let us go instead', we both yelled at her...well inwardly anyway.

 This was my favourite musical and we saw it on my birthday.  It is hilarious, completely without any due regard to political correctness - and in parts pretty confronting.  There are topics and themes that are featured in this musical which you would never expect in a million bibles to be featured. And it's full of fresh faced earnest and friendly young men, so why wouldn't you fall in love with it. Among my many favourite memories is the 'Spooky Mormon Hell Dream' sequence and song. Say no more....

 This was Steve's favourite and my second fave. A typically lavish Disney production that is just spectacular. The costume budget alone would have been more than the budget of a small nation - and it even had a magical flying carpet.  Now I know musicals aren't everyone's theatrical cup of tea but imagine if you were a little kid seeing the magic of this piece of live theatre - and just being complete let and utterly entranced by it.

 We saw this on a whim. This was the only show where we bought 'half-tix' for. We saw a matinee on a Saturday and we both agreed that the production appeared pretty tired.  Perhaps also I was comparing it unfavourably to the movie - I love the movie - and clearly the movie was more visually spectacular than the stage show is.

 Our final show was Les Mis, which has also had a remake.  I enjoyed it as I always enjoy this musical and the new led backdrops that feature some of the illustrations taken from Victor Hugo's novel were marvellous. Steve felt the actor playing Jean Valjean, the amazing Ramin Karimloo, was too young for the part, but I didn't think so.  But then again maybe I was biased because we actually waited at stage door for the cast to come out and I managed a selfie with Raman.

 And after most of the shows we headed around the block to this fabulous piano bar called Don't Tell Mama. Our friends, Jase and also Damien, had both told us we had to go there and we were very glad we did. The staff who work there as waiters are all musical theatre performers, or other theatrical types, and so they perform little shows of about 20 minutes each throughout the night.

 A guy plays the piano the whole night and sometimes there will be performers from other shows who will come in and do a number or two.  We would charge ourselves with delicious cocktails and enjoy the night of fun and singing.