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OMG are we newbies in the land of oz! the thing about dorothy clicking her ruby shoes may be a bit tiresome. but we’re really not in Kansasberra any more.

After five weeks in the lovely australian capital, this is pernille’s first working visit to sydney, the country’s commercial hub and largest city. we’ve both been to sydney before, pernille as a student at macquarie university for a year in the late 80s and i during a dive trip to the great barrier reef in 1990.

so hey, we know sydney, right? WRONG!! sydney’s grown up, while i’ve only grown a few inches (or kg) around the middle. sydney’s skyline has been transformed, while my hairline has receded down to somewhere around my shoulders.

we flew in friday night to have the weekend for exploration before pernille’s business schedule. we checked into our hotel, elevatored up to the 27th floor and began unpacking. at some point we went to the closet, glanced out the window, and BANG! there it was, the picture postcard shot above.

since then i’ve taken dozens of shots from the window at different times of the day. and these are just taken with an iphone camera. next time with the nikon!

the opera house is sydney’s iconic landmark, and among the most recognizable structures in the world. a sign out front notes that it is the youngest officially recognized world heritage site. and it is one of australia’s biggest tourist attractions. but there are NO TOURISTS! (except us) the entire continent is on COVID lockdown!

so when we wandered over for a close up peek, we had the place to ourselves. (except for the helicopter zooming above)…

…and a few ferry boats on their appointed rounds across the bay on a spectacular spring sunday in sydney, making for another picture postcard featuring the nearby harbor bridge.

make a 180 turnaround from the bridge and there you see the rapidly changing harbor skyline, including the hotel where we’re staying, which is actually a wimp among the steel and glass behemoths shooting up all around the shoreline.

it’s hard to believe in the midst of a global recession, but look closely at the photo. construction cranes shoot everywhere into the sky, looming like massive tentacles as the city dresses up for its next moment in the global spotlight three years from now. not only will 2023 mark the opera house’s 50th anniversary, but australia and new zealand will host the world cup of women’s soccer.

and here’s the best part. the opera house was designed by a dane. so denmark will play a big part in the celebrations, which are expected to attract a guest list including kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers. and guess who will be the danish ambassador? the perfect topper to that story would be if the danish women qualify for the world cup tournament.

there’s a lot more to that story, including that the original opera house design was initially rejected, partially because it was submitted to a competition as a hand drawn sketch on the back of an envelope. and also that the designer, juern utzon, never saw the final product in person. after a falling out with local officials, he walked away, never to return. but his genius endures.

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those tales, and the intrigue, are for another time.

but the real story of sydney isn’t the opera house; it’s the friends, the beaches, the parks, the birds, the vibrant atmosphere of this most loveable metropolis of five million people. it’s no wonder that in our book of australia’s 20 best places to visit, sydney is #1 (with a bullet), right up there with the great barrier reef.

we started our saturday morning with a visit to coogee beach accompanied by our old delhi friends chris and janaki kremmer and their son oliver. chris, an old ABC radio correspondent, advised early that the correct broadcast pronunciation is could-jee. after a quick bite at a cozy cafe, we were off to the water, which was a bracing 16 degrees celsius.

not too cold for a dip, though. the waves were ideal, and sydney native chris is an expert body surfer, so after a quick refresher course, we had great fun riding the waves (till we started to shiver).

after a decent interval rejvenating in the brilliant australian sun, pernille and i took off an a five km coastal hike up to the world-famous bondi (bond-eye) beach, where we were regularly reminded of one of the least attractive attractions of sydney’s craggy coastal cliffs; the rocks below.

lest we forget, among the main attractions for pernille the birdwatcher was sydney’s incomparable botanic gardens, just a 10 minute walk past the opera house from our front door. during two days behind the binoculars, she spotted 12 new bird species, bringing to 43 the total new species she’s identified since we arrived in australia.

here’s the bird of paradise, which is not actually a bird at all but a plant. the bird is actually a noisy miner, is probably mining pollen.

the highlight was the kookaburra pictured below.

laughing kookaburras are found all over eastern australia and new zealand. they’re terrestrial kingfishers. every aussie kid probably knows the old song, “kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. merry merry king of the bush is he.”

then the lovely lorakeets put on a show for us, bathing merrily in the botanic garden fountain

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and a stately black swan preened for us in front of her (rather bored) cygnets. teenagers, most likely.

perhaps the most fun of all was the beaky pelican, who kept a watchful eye but allowed us to get within about 10 feet for this intimate portrait.

sunday’s highlight, however, was a reunion with old delhi wallahs hamish and penny macdonald, who introduced us to their drop-dead gorgeous daughter laura (it seems all lauras are beautiful), and also to centennial park, another bird paradise in another fantastical sydney neighborhood.

before leaving the city we also took a ferryboat ride across the bay to the suburb of manly, where one might imagine an organization for young women being called the manly girls club. i could be mistaken on that.

we would be remiss if we didn’t mention our australia sporting adventure. we’d been tipped that there was a big aussie rules football match saturday night, so we asked at the hotel where we might find a sports bar where we might soak in some atmosphere while learning the basics of this uniquely australian sport. the hotel staff weren’t sure of the location of a sports bar, but they told us of a pub just across the way where they had big screen TVs tuned to the games.

We headed over, found the place a bit quiet but the pre-game blather was on TV, so we sat down and ordered a beer and a bite. we thought it was a bit odd that the scoreboard had the initials “NRL”, and as the game began we noticed that they had scrums, just as in rugby. but hey, what do a couple rookies like us know? if they say this is aussie rules footy, who are we to argue?

in any case, the game turned out to be a real corker. the competition was furious. in the end, one team called the ‘rabbitohs’ defeated the other team, called the ‘eels’, eliminating them from the competition. shame that, though eels are kinda slimy.

when we finished dinner, we went back to the hotel and turned on the TV. as we scrolled through the channels, lo and behold we discovered another station with a different game, which was in fact australian rules football. now we’re hooked on both. it’s easy to see why aussies are mad about their sports.

there’s so much more to tell of this eventful weekend. it’s only the first taste of what will surely be many visits to experience the magic here. but it’s time to go.

to be perfectly frank, however, we must admit, sydney, that you had us at the beaches.

ciao! until next time.

just looked down at my watch/calendar and realized that we’ve been in the can-berra for exactly a month today. and speaking of cans (and can’ts), and cats and dogs, (yes, dogs) and birds, we have some news. but first the important stuff. the cans.

OK. and bottles.

the truth is, pernille and i, two beerficionados, have been cast adrift in a land where we know next to nothing about the brew scene. so what else is there to do but taste them all, culminating in a big three-day beer-kend. this past few days was the three day labor day weekend in australia, so after a few weeks of this-and-that beers, we had a chance to get down to some serious sipping.

at one point yesterday, pernille said, “i think we’re steadily getting there”. the truth, however, was closer to “unsteadily”.

our conclusion: there’s a great craft brew scene in the neighborhood. pernille is most fond of the dark ales, particularly the white rabbit, which is a hearty quaff, but won’t knock you down. i have a few top picks, “pirates life” being the sentimental favorite because of my past life as a real pirate. (long story going back to my youth in el paso). but the one that has captured my taste buds may be the bent spoke crankshaft IPA, which has just the right mix of hops and octane, weighing in at a pleasant 5.8% ABV.

and now for the news. we bought a car over the weekend. one piece of advice, though. it’s not a good idea to have beer tasting and car shopping on the same weekend. we either bought a toyota land cruiser or a range rover discovery. i only hope we didn’t buy both.

not to worry, though, because the car won’t be ready for delivery until next march or april, so we’ll have time to sort it out. we could have had it in february, but it would still have been a 2020 model. we opted for the 2021 because of the added resale value, even though it means waiting an extra few weeks.

in the meantime, they’ve given us a rental vehicle at a dirt cheap price. it’s a skoda, a czech-made two-wheel drive SUV called a carcass, or a carcan, or some clever SUV name like that. pernille has taken to driving it like a duck to water, but i’m having issues.

when i went to drive it for the first time this afternoon, i got in, sat down, and realized the steering wheel was on the other side. did i feel like an ass? of course not! i pretended that i just had to check the glove compartment, then got out and calmly walked around to the driver’s side. of course i was in the garage so nobody could see me, but it was the principle of the thing.

i drove carefully to the grocery store, realizing that my depth perception and reaction times are not what they were when we lived and drove on the left side of the road in india 30 plus years ago. but i can still handle it. at least to the grocery store.

coming out with a load of groceries (and beer), i opened the car door and lifted the heavy bag onto the floor so as not to have a beer accident in case sudden braking were necessary, as happened to disastrous effect a couple months earlier in our son karl’s brand new car in the US. but as i lay the groceries down, i noticed some suspicious pedals. and sure enough, when i looked up, there was the steering wheel, no more than four inches from my face. driving in australia is going to take some getting used to.

fortunately, there are no photographs of these incidents.

the good news is we’ve had great running weather, and there’s a spectacular mountain ridge park a block away, and on the other side of the mountain, a 10 minute walk, is a gorgeous lake that is 27 km circumference, ringed by a deluxe biking trail.

but there are hazards. not only did i trip over a root and fall last week, scraping the skin off the palm of one hand, but yesterday as i was trudging (running might be a slight exaggeration, especially up the slopes), suddenly there was a wild eruption. without realizing it, i’d stumbled on a pack of kangaroos resting in the forest. as if on cue, they shot to their feet in unison and bounded away, scaring the bejeezus out of me. and of course the galloping herd went straight toward pernille, who was running in another part of the forest, giving her a good scare, too. two for the price of none.

meanwhile, our pet magpie has become a constant companion at our window.

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she’s a lovely girl, but thinks she should be an indoor pet. she’s ridiculously personable, and sings to us all the time. it’s hard to tell what the future of this relationship may bring, but for now she’s the “canberrable lightness of being” in our australia experience.

what happens when we get a puppy is another story. it’s premature to speculate when that might be, as the spokeshuman would say. but we’ve got feelers out for a possible border collie mix. border collies are very popular here, and for good reason. they’re among the most intelligent of dogs. the big question is, how well do they get along with magpies? this could get interesting.

next we’re off to sydney for a long weekend. pernille’s got meetings with the staff at the sydney office, and we’ve got plans to get together with chris kremmer and hamish mc donald, two old pals from our india days. more adventures ahead.

and oh yes. pernille reminds me it was a land rover discovery. i’m so lucky to have her to share this experience with.

there it is. pernille officially becomes the danish ambassador to canberra at precisely 11:00a.m., september 29, 2020.

she presented credentials to the governor general, david hurley at a formal ceremony at government house just over a week after we exited quarantine.

it was a grand day and a grandiose event, complete with a military band and a presentation of arms. the new ambassador even ‘trooped the line’, an old british military custom.

the weather was ideal, and event was a spectacle of the first order, scripted with military precision from the moment we were collected at the residence by a protocol officer at precisely 10:50 a.m. until we were deposited back at the embassy, at 11:27 a.m. that’s exactly 37 minutes. herewith the script, for your amusement and edification.

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and so it came to pass that at precisely 11:00 a.m., not 10:59 or 11:01, pernille handed over the credential documents and went from being the “HOM (head of mission) designate to official representative of denmark in australia. Then, following exactly 10 minutes of tea, she with the governor general and me with lady hurley, we proceeded to the garden for exactly four minutes of photographs.

the photographer, quite a pro, had the riser and fill lights in place. our appointed places were laid out in attachment C of the program, and the snap-snap was done in a flash, so to speak.

then, precisely at 11:17 a.m. the governor general and mrs. hurley bade us farewell and disappeared back into the residence, presumably to change back into jeans and t-shirts and resume watching their favorite daytime soap operas. (or perhaps to plan australia’s next military invasion)

but for pernille, it was off to review the troops.

after the playing of the royal anthem (pernille testified that it was well done by the band), she reviewed the troops. then, at exactly 11:22, we were escorted to the crown rolls-royce and bade farewell.

the lap of (old fashioned) luxury, this car provided the ultimate in early 20th century comfort. no USB port, no sat-nav, but a chatty driver who told us we were sitting in the exact seats that once held the famous fanny of princess diana. no joke. the real princess di, and presumably the never-to-be-king, prince charlie.

then back to the embassy for more photos with staff. the crown car, by the way, arrived in the embassy driveway precisely 11:27 a.m.

then inside the embassy for a bit of refreshment. (notice the champagne flutes), which went on without schedule till the refreshment had been consumed.

now, it’s on to other capitals to which pernille is assigned as denmark’s representative. this is the real hard part of the job.

pernille must present credentials to the heads of state of new zealand (probably the governor general patsy reddy), as well as the island nation of fiji (which has a president). she is also likely to have to visit several other small south pacific island countries, because each of them has a vote in the UN general assembly and denmark is a candidate for one of the rotating security council seats in 2024.

the campaigning has already started, so this may mean visits to such island paradises as samoa, vanuatu, tuvalu, tonga and maybe even nauru, which has a population of about 10,000 and only receives about 200 tourists in a normal year, but still has a vote in the UN general assembly just as much as the P-5 permanent security council members. so it looks like we’ll have to keep our bathing suits (costumes) packed as soon as the COVID restrictions are lifted.

for right now, however, i’ve got to wrap up this everlong blog post and go see what she’s cooking up for dinner.

tomorrow’s her birthday, so tomorrow night we’re heading out to a highly recommended (by a delhi-wallah) indian restaurant. then friday night it’s tacos, prepared by el paso’s highly-touted chef pedro. truly OLD el paso.

they say what goes around comes around. c’mon tacos.

the aussies do have a sense of humor. at least that’s what we thought when we came across this historical marker along the lake in our neighborhood the other day. it’s like a sign saying, ‘on this date in 1926, we started pouring raw sewage into the river.’

now i could be wrong. to be honest, i didn’t do my due diligence as a journalist and even bother to read the fine print (or even the headlines). if i had read it, i might have found that this is an architectural and engineering triumph or some such, so better to be a good journalist and not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

the kangaroos have already stopped being a novelty. they’re everywhere, lying around under trees, cluttering up the golf courses.

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gotta say they seem very sweet, and unperturbed by passing humans, but the natives warn they do have a vicious kick. the main concern everyone tells us about is having one hop out in front of your car while you’re scooting about at 100kph (or 130, which is 80mph). such encounters are so common that auto insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for roo hits.

Sister cities

out walking in the neighborhood the other day we discovered the beautiful beijing garden nestled alongside the lake. turns out beijing and canberra are sister cities, and the chinese built this stunning arch to commemorate the friendship between the two peoples. the entire garden is a work of art.

it’s quite fascinating to learn the crucial role china plays in australia, and how a disruption in this ‘friendship’ is affecting normal life here. first, an authority on the subject told me today that there are now 1.2 million first generation chinese living in australia. that’s in a country with a total population of 25.5 million. my source, who is a senior china expert in the australian home ministry, says that number includes hundreds of thousands of chinese students who have come to study in australian universities, many of whom have chosen to stay on.

of course china is the big player in the indo-pacific region, and is working hard to increase its influence by many means, not all of them above board. australian and other officials have expressed concern that china is taking advantage of free press and free speech laws in western countries like australia to keep up a stready propaganda stream aimed at ethnic chinese in australia. this is in great measure to keep them in touch with the government narrative, thereby preventing them from being influenced by local news and information sources. at the same time, beijing works hard to prevent its own people in china from hearing news from outside, thus keeping a lock on the domestic narrative.

we’ve also discovered that supply lines from china have been slowed noticeably, causing a scarcity of chinese goods that stock the shelves of australian stores. for instance, we discovered a severe shortage of trek bikes when we went shopping today. treks, like many big brands, are all made in china. the slowdown is clearly china’s retribution for australia’s aggressive posture in demanding that china be forthcoming about the source of the corona virus. beijing reacted furiously after canberra led the international push for an investigation into the origin of the virus

the weather’s been colder the past week than during the two weeks in quarantine. the low tonight is expected to be -1 degree celsius, or about 30 fahrenheit. so we’ll expect ice cubes in the pool. even so, the afternoons have been gorgeous, nice swimming and running weather. the local say the canberra mountains are green this spring in a way they haven’t been for a long time. they say the winter rains have been the best they’ve been in decades, after something of a drought. so the place is blooming beautifully. we who don’t know any better think it’s just going to be lovely weather all the time, but we’ve been warned that in a few months, it’ll be 45 degrees celsius, or above 110 degrees fahrenheit. great fun.

now back to the sewer.