Adelaide nights

We dined at Celsius, in Gouger St. Our table was in an an alcove with a gauze curtain so we could see but not easily be seen. The Louis chairs could make the setup feel a bit like a scene in Rick's Café in Casablanca circa 1942 except for the modern art work. The food, including salt and pepper squid, lamb sweetbreads, and kangaroo steak, was also a work of art.
Adelaide is called a city of churches but in our neighbourhood 3 public building clock towers in 150 metres outnumbered the sole church.

Adelaide stopover

We came to Adelaide by plane and plan to stay one night. A stroll through the main shopping strip (Rundle Mall) to forage for lunch was interrupted by rain, so a sandwich in the food court and return to hotel sufficed. Adelaide architecture still has a delightful 19th century quaintness that distinguishes it from other State capitals. Below is the Beehive Cormer.

Afterwards a stroll through the City Botanic Gardens. Too early for a great show of flowers, but of interest was an Amazonian night water lily, which attracts beetles and enforces bed and breakfast before releasing them. Also a pavilion restored, it proclaims, with largesse procured by the Hon Paul Keating. We admired the succulent garden outside. We shared a coffee with native pigeons (they watched while we drank), considered a vine flower enveloping a Moreton Bay Fig, and marvelled at a palm flower.
On our way back we encountered a Boer War memorial: as far as we know the only one in Australia solely dedicated to this Colonial enterprise.

Melbourne's oldest public building still in use

With open days for many Melbourne public buildings last weekend, it could not be said that the oldest of them all attracted the longest queues.
2013 is the 100 year anniversary of the demolition of St James' Old Cathedral in the position from which it once commanded Port Phillip in 5 acres of grounds on Little Collins and William Streets. Next year the congregation can celebrate the reassembly of the stones and furniture and the re-opening on Batman and King Streets near Flagstaff Gardens.

The foundation stone was laid in 1839, and the then landmark building greeted the first bishop, young (41) Charles Perry, on his arrival in 1848 with his wife Fanny, now better remembered as Frances as a result of her hospital work.








Above is an early photo of the reassembled building. The original had an octagonal tower:

An appealing dignified modern Georgian bluestone and local sandstone basilica architectural design both outside and in, with a flat ceiling and excellent acoustics, plainly wasn't large or marvellous enough for Marvellous Melbourne, and the centre of ecclesiastical gravitas shifted to something in medieval gothic sandstone on Flinders and Swanston in the fourth quarter of the 19th century.


We were in the congregation for St James day following the open day. The congregation were entertained to learn that one churchwarden, Edward Oxford (renamed John Freeman), had been an exile from Bedlam, where he was previously long incarcerated after an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria.

 

A small choir comprising some of Melbourne's experienced public choral singers (who regularly gather here on roster) rendered music and words carefully integrated into the congregational worship with very singable hymns and traditional Church of England liturgy. The preacher's message well captured the chequered history of the building as a parable of the transitory essence of human existence that nevertheless points to Eternity. A substantial feast at morning tea was surrounded by memorabilia of 174 years.

German wine tasting

We had the pre-lunch opportunity to sample a range of German wines, in good company, with a helpful commentary.
Some decades ago I had visited what was then West Germany in company with a friendly academic who welcomed me to his home in Würzburg (near what was the East German border),




and in the nearby vineyards through which he conducted me I learned about Frankenwein, always supplied in their distinctive Bocksbeutal:

with the most used grape being Müller-Thurgau.

In those days German government efficiency classified and registered each wine as tafel or qualitätswein, with their prädikats (if they qualified): kabinett, spätlese, auslese, eiswein. So the title on the wine bottle could extend over a couple lines (Year-Maker-Region-Variety-Quality-Predicate).

 Marketing imperatives these days have simplified all this information (though it is still discoverable).

Our tasting this week did not include any nostalgic favourite from the Franken region, but we experienced white wines from Rheingau, Nahe, Rheinhessen, Pfaltz, all modern style trockene (dry) wines with flavours ranging from flinty to tropical fruit, and to my mouth more attractive than Australian rieslings, as well as a legendary sweetish Kabinett from Doctor Bernkastler, and a pinot noir also from Pfaltz.

NGV Monet's Garden

THE NGV winter blockbuster is another case of professional excellence by our Melbourne Gallery. 

It is not a huge collection but the pictures and wall commentary give an outstanding insight to Monet and his art.
The later paintings give a moving understanding of his eyesight affected by cataracts, and the measure of improvement surgery made.

We were particularly impressed by the multimedia display after the pictures, and the large media surround tour of a day in his house and garden.

Musée Marmottan goes high onto our visit list.

 We hope to see their next exhibition

Afghanistan's Hidden Treasures in Melbourne

 We visited the Melbourne Afghanistan exhibition and were very impressed with the quality of the artifacts on view. The workmanship of ivory, glass, and bronze of Indian Persian and Greek influences was breathtaking, as was the sheer quantity of gold on display. With so much destruction and looting in that recently benighted land, many cheers for the people who saved these treasures from the raiders and destroyers.

A quibble-we felt the Museum put the exhibition into an inadequate space and did not provide appropriate flow lines for the crowds. After we stood in a queue for one exhibit for quite while one of the attendants pointed out that we could scoot in the back of the flow and cut in. So we did, but felt guilty... Moreover we encountered some selfish behaviour.  One blonde was being given a private tour by an imposing apparent Afghani. They stood close in front of each exhibit and entirely prevented the rest of the crowd from looking until moved on by request. Another very large lady hugged each exhibit case in turn while making copious notes on an outsize clueboard. The magnificence of the display and the story of its rescue from marauders deserved better from the Museum.
(Museum website images)

Criteria for travel insurance

A discussion among colleagues recently touched on the subject of the increasing cost of travel insurance for overseas trips. One participant said that insurance for a 3 week trip to Spain and UK had been quoted at $1700. Others commented on the pickiness of companies about pre-existing medical conditions and age.
For our next planned trip to France, booked and paid for many months ago, we have decided to rely on the complimentary insurance available on our bank premium credit card (if we pay for the air fares using the card). This is a matter of risk management.
The excess per claim is $250.
For us the main risks in order of worry were:
1. Cancellation of trip or hurrying home because of events concerning very aged relatives. This was a risk spanning 9 months. The policy seems to cover the risk without regard to their age, but pre-existing medical conditions are an exclusion. We did not even contemplate applying for waiver for their medical conditions, so there would be plenty of scope for resisting a claim.
2. Getting ill ourselves.
We have nothing to declare by way of existing illness. Coverage seems unlimited and there is no cut off for excessive age of travellers.
3. Loss of or damage to our travel gear.
 Cover conditions seem reasonable.
4. Liability from our hire car.
While we have taken the normal insurance cover/waiver from the hire care company, the complimentary policy covers any excess up to $2250. There is also legal liability cover of $2,500,000.

While we did not undertake a major survey of what better insurance could be bought, especially in regard to item 1, we concluded that the extra benefit/risk ratio would not justify the additional cost above the complimentary policy provided through the card purchase.
Perhaps one day, as there are more aged travellers tending to have long lived relatives, some insurer may create (at an economic price) a separate "Don't you worry about that" policy just to cover the old folks at home.