lifeasdaddy

My Christmas Music album from iTunes

We put up our Christmas tree the other day, and realised that our Christmas music available on CD is a bit drab.

I decided to put together a new album for the family.  Here it is:

The Little Drummer Boy - Burl Ives

O Come All Ye Faithful - Harry Connick, Jr.

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Burl Ives

Jingle Bells - Diana Krall and the Clayton - Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Pat Benetar.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Little Richard

Christmas Hitchhike/We Three Kings - Marvin Gaye & The Beach Boys

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town - Faith Hill

Silent Night - Carpenters

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Bette Midler

The Christmas Song - Linda Ronstadt

Winter Wonderland - Ray Charles

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Billy Gilman

WW Two vet Mac Gregory featured in Signals magazine.

As I mentioned here and here, my friend Mac Gregory has had a long association with the ship's bell of USS Canberra which is displayed in the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Signals Magazine of the ANMM has recently invterviewed Mac about the bell, and his naval career.  See the article here.

Then and Now: On the wallaby track & The Grannies

On the wallaby track, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

This photograph is one of my favourites from the Powerhouse Museum's Tyrrell photographic collection which is viewable not only at the Musuem's website, but also on flickr. (follow the links above).

Here we see some swaggies "On the wallaby track" which means there were itinerants searching for work as they walked from place to place on Australia's country tracks. The pic is probably taken in the 1890's and is from the studio of Charles Kerry.

A swaggie was considered an honest worker, and often worked in excahnge for meals from the farmhouse or cookhouse. A swaggie should not be confused with a sundowner, which was a man who turned up at a farm around sundown when work ceases asking for a meal, but who would leave before sunup the next day and therefore could not be asked to make good on the meal with some work on the property.

As I was driving along this afternoon I saw these five ladies walking along, each with backpacks, walking staffs and drink bottles.

Modern day swaggies?

They kindly consented to having their photograph taken - and I told them they could see it on this blog by this afternoon. If one of them would care to contact me and give me their names I shall more accurately caption the 2008 photograph. At the time, it didn't seem right to ask each of them to spell out their names for me.

They did a bit of chiacking about getting their pic taken to compare to the swaggies, and suggested I should title the pic as The Grannies!

Centrepiece for Royal Buffet, 1954

Centrepiece for Royal Buffet, originally uploaded by Old Parliament House.

To celebrate its 75th birthday, Old Parliament House called for people, from across Australia, to send in their pictures and stories of the House. The response forms a remarkable collection that tells an unofficial history of this Old Parliament House, and many are now displayed on Flickr as part of Old Parliament House's Photostream "In The Picture" .

This photo was entered by Anthony Scarth ‘The cake was a centrepiece for the Queen's Royal Tour banquet in 1954. Every one of the roses’ details were hand made and finished. Arthur Mueller was a marvellous pastry chef. It took at least 10 weeks to make and was made mostly by Arthur and I helped.’

Mr. Scarth's pride of workmanship is plain.

There's something about working on or in some of our iconic buildings.

The most recent issue (June 2008) of "About The House" magazine has a feature about the 20th anniversary of the opening of the new Parliment House building including interviews with many of the people who built it. Undoubtedly it was one of the high points of their careers.

Interesting to reflect too that 54 years after this photograph was taken Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabth II is still going strong.

My boyhood hero: World bantamweight boxing champion Lionel Rose.

World bantamweight boxing champion Lionel Rose in training, 1968, originally uploaded by National Archives of Australia.

Citation NAA: A1500, K18448

Lionel Rose won the title by defeating Fighting Harada in February 1968.

I remember watching the fight on television. We lived in Pascoe Vale South, not far from Essendon where he trained in the gym of his trainer and mentor Jack Rennie. What brought Rose even closer to home was his friendship with Maurie Greene who owned the butcher shop 3 doors down from our place in Anderson Street.

Mr. Rose was a regular visitor to Maurie's house behind his shop, as they were good friends and used to go on shooting trips together. I have vivid memories of Mr. Rose driving a huge (by then Australian standards) American car in and out of the laneway behind our place.

He wore army surplus greens for his hunting trips, and used to stop and chat with my brother and I. He would also sign autographs for we kids, and others in the neighbourhood who heard he was there. He also sometimes came into the shop run by my Mum and Dad, and Dad remembers him as a nice, quietly spoken man.

After his victory over Harada the enormous trophy, which was much bigger than I was, went on display in Maurie's shop and I remember my Mum taking me to see the trophy.

Like many pugilists Mr. Rose later fell on hard times - but he was my boyhood hero, and I still remember his kindness to my brother and I.

I've just looked up a photograph of the trophy, and it was every bit as big as I remember, here it's pictured in a Moomba parade float:

Mr. Rose was King of Moomba in 1973 and Australian of the Year in 1968.

  

Another Melbourne memory:  The headquarters retail store of the McEwans' hardware store in Bourke Street used to have a walk of fame, somewhat like Grauman's Chinese theatre, where famous Australians or visitors to Melbourne would be persauded to leave imprints of their hands and feet in cement.

Lionel Rose left his hand prints by pressing his clenched fists into the wet cement.  Later, I and I'm sure many Melbourne boys would go there and press our fists into the impressions to see how ours measured up to those of the great boxer. 

I understand that now that Bunnings have taken over the store that these have been moved to a wall inside the Bourke Street store.  I'll have to try them for size the next time I'm in town.

Added:  Here's a nice piece written in 2005 by that most Australian of writers Barry Dickens with whom I share a hero.

The big gun of Mosman

A couple of days ago we met our friends Alana, Sean and young Luca at a cafe on a headland above Mosman.  It's an amazing park with an amazing view. 

Set on a site which was once an artillery emplacement used to protect Sydney and its harbour it has been refurbished to provide studios for artists and a setting for a sculpture park.

As a homage to the site's military past there is also a preserved inoperable 6-inch Mark VII coastal gun on display.  According to historical surveys, the two World War II era Mark VII guns were moved from this site to South Head so this one must have been retrieved for dramatic effect.

In this picture at left we see the 6-inch Mark VII gun which was manufactured by the venerable British armourer Vickers.  The "6-inch" statistic relates to the internal diameter of the gun barrel, and hence the external diameter of the projectile shell.  The shell weighed around 100 pounds (48 kg) and the range was about 15 kilometres.

This photograph above gives a better idea of the gun's tactical field of fire, although this was not the exact position of the gun emplacement.  Sydney heads, the entrance to Sydney Harbour can be seen in the distance, North head at left, South Head at right.

Edward has seen the big gun before, but it still acted like a magnet to him.  Not so much because he has an interest in things military like his Dad, but because it is just so big.  And because it now has a fence around it - just making it so much more attractive to a young boy.

Ed also took some time out from military history to give vent to his artistic side and appreciate some sculpture.  Not so much from the aesthetic aspect as the athletic.

lifeasdaddy - Talking on the hose 'phone

Saturday was nephew Thomas' 4th birthday party.  Ed's overseeing the present opening here.  He loves wearing this yellow jacket, and calls it his "fireman's jacket".

Today we stopped over at Thomas' house to collect somethings and the boys spent a bit of time talking to each other using a garden hose telephone system.

lifeasdaddy - We have friends ...

Continuing the motoring theme of the past few days. My friend Volf pictured on his motorcycle.  Sitting not riding.