lifeasdaddy

Trying to explain slavery.

Edward wanted to know what slavery is.

I did not tell Edward all about my half of the presentation of Our Favourite Things About The Powerhouse Museum until last Friday.  Of course one of my favourite items is the Slave Medallion.

Then on Saturday and again on Sunday Edward asked me, "What is slavery, Dad?"

Here's how I tried to explain it:

- Slavery happened 200 years ago when some bad people kidnapped men and women from Africa and took them in ships to other parts of the world.  The bad people made the people they took work for no pay and sold them to other people as if they were a thing to be owned instead of free to make the choices we can about how we live.

- The slave medallion was used to advertise that slavery was a very bad thing and that it should be stopped.

"Is there any more slavery going on nowadays, Dad?"

- Well, there is.  There is not as much as there used to be, but there are still people being made to work for no pay.

[ I know there are some historical inaccuracies in my explanation, for example leaving out Caribbean slavery, but it was the best I could do at the time. ]

 

[ Photograph shows half-length portrait of two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CH[ILD] SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish, one carrying American flag; spectators stand nearby. Probably taken during May 1, 1909 labor parade in New York City. From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA -  Digital ID:cph 3a23285 ]

The Sydney Observatory. A great place for a family visit.

On Saturday we took a trip to the Sydney Observatory which is now a museum of astronomy and a division of the Powerhouse Museum .  Edward's cousins went there for a tour last week and told him about looking at the Sun through the big telescope.  He was keen.  It would also give me the opportunity to take some photos for my Sydney then and now ... photographic project.

We knew that the first tour would start at 11am, so Saturday at 10.20am was a good time to look for a parking spot in Upper Fort Street, and we got the closest public parking space to the Observatory.

I took a couple of important photographs for my project and then we went inside and read out some of the informational plaques to Edward along the way.

This one explains the time ball.

 

We went inside to the reception desk and booked ourselves into the 11am tour.  Usually the fee is $7 for adults and $5 for children (from 4 to 15 years) but because we are members of a museum with reciprocal visiting rights at the Powerhouse Museum, for us it was FREE!  

Then we entered and walked through the other parts of the Observatory viewing the range of exhibits.  These included historic astronomical  instruments including telescopes and orreries and explanations of some of the principles of optics.Here's the transit circle:

 

  Ed got a lot out of pressing the buttons on the interactive exhibits.  We also walked through the gardens and admired the outstanding views afforded by the position of Observatory Hill.

 

Then it was time for the 3-D movie show and the telescope viewing.

The movies on show were Bigger than Big and After Stars   both produced by Swinburne's Space Works.

The old-school 3-D glasses were obligatory, and wearing them added to the fascination for Ed.

Movies over and our knowledge of some facets of astronomy enriched, it was off to some telescope viewing led by our guide, Lisa.  We ascended the narrow stairs to the southern dome and saw the auspiciously named Meade LX200 EMC telescope.  I think this one is a 16-inch model, which is actually the same as used in the Meade company's own observatory.

 

 

Lisa mounted a small ladder and started to manually turn the wheel to open the dome.  You'll see here too a view of the cover on the end of the telescope.  Whilst I'm sure it is of the highest quality, it does look as though it was made by Playschool presenters out of cardboard and sticky tape.

 

 

We did not actually use the 16- inch telescope, we used a parrallel smaller telescope fitted with a filter. The filter on the telescope permitted direct viewing of the Sun, which would otherwise cause blinding to the viewer.  I can't show the view through the eyepiece, but I can give you a good view of the bridge framed by the dome aperture.

A tour of the  grounds of the Observatory Hill reserve even revealed a war memorial of which I had been unaware.  This one for the New South Wales contingent to the South African (Boer) War.

It includes this small artillery piece which was manufactured by Fried. Krupp in 1896 at Essen.

 

 

 

The visit to the Observatory sparked plenty of questions from Edward about black holes, pulsars and stars so today we borrowed some books on astronomy from the library.  Edward got straight down to reading them when we got home.

 

 

 

 

Here's the heritage listing for the Sydney Observatory which gives some good detail about the history of the buildings.
 

Gettin' ready for Christmas

For the past couple of years we have made a gingerbread house for our family's children to enjoy at Christmas luncheon and this year is no exception.  Edward has also been very keen to make a Nativity Scene, to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

The actual gingerbread components were purchased in a kit from Ikea. 

Gabrielle made some icing from pure icing sugar which doubles as glue to stick the pre-fabricated components together. 

The white icing also gives a snow like effect.  Although snow has no physical relationship to the Christmas period here in Australia owing to 25 December falling in the middle of our summer.  However due to the British, European and North American influence on our culture the visual and psychological association of snow with Christmas is surprisingly strong.  Besides, it gives us something with which to stick the confectionery to the gingerbread.

It's a little hard to see in these photographs but the finishing touch is a small chocolate Santa Claus peeping out of the chimney.

The finished product is something that kids love, and it looks festive too.

Next, Gabrille and Ed made a Nativity scene.

These wooden clothes pegs become the figures.  A shoe box becomes the stables.

The manger is made from some light cardboard cut up and shaped into a box.

The clothes pegs have a piece of shiny pipe-cleaner like things wrapped around them to make arms and a couple of pieces of tinsel stuck on to make a beard for Joseph. 

Clothes are made from some scrap material.

To make a smaller figure for baby Jesus the bottom of one of the pegs is cut off to size.  His bedding is made from cotton wool, as is his blanket.

The gabled roof of the stables is made from an inverted vee shaped piece of cardboard topped off with the guiding star.

Some spiked leaves from a palm frond make up some greenery around the stables.

C'est voila.

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

H.M.A.S. Edward. Australia's newest submarine.

Kids just love playing with cardboard boxes and pretending.

For the past couple of years as my profile photograph in the top right hand corner of this blog I've used a pic of Edward sitting in a cardboard box.  Drawn on the outside is a Big Red Car.

Nowadays Edward is quite interested in submarines, so I thought I would make one for him.

Here's how to make a cardboard submarine.

I used a large cardboard carton which enclosed a table we recently bought.  I slit the carton along one length and folded it to create a flat base.  I drew the rough outline of a cigar shaped submarine  with conning tower on the parts of the cardboard sheet which would become the sides of the vessel. Then cut it out using a small pruning saw.  This is the best tool for cutting through thick cardboard.

Then I folded the sides upwards and secured them with tape across the top and around the nose area.  The back of the submarine was left open to give children easy access to the inside. 

A piece of excess carboard was rolled up to make a tube about 10cm in diameter for the periscope. In turn, the periscope was also taped in place.

Finally came painting.  As you can see, the classical cigar shape was emphasised with a black outline.  The writing is in red colour because that's Ed's favourite colour.  The green, red and yellow splotches are just to create some visual interest and break up the solid surface so it looks a bit less like a cardboard box from the outside.

The submarine was designated number B5 because it will be Ed's fifth birthday.  

H.M.A.S. was used because Edward understands they are the prefixes for all Australian Navy ships and submarines. 

And "Edward" - well all kids love seeing their names written on things.

As well as playing with boxes, kids also like making tunnels out of things, so by leaving the back of the submarine open and having the ceiling of the conning tower arching over the top a bit of a tunnel feel is created too.

A finishing touch is a tin foil cake pan at the top of the periscope to represent the lens.

Does Julia Gillard really believe the rubbish coming out of her mouth?

Last night CFK Childcare Centres Limited voluntarily appointed an administrator due to the company's dire financial straits.

Today on ABC radio's The World Today programme The Hon Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister; Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations; Minister for Education; Minister for Social Inclusion was interviewed as the Minister responsible for childcare centres with the education portfolio.

I was listening.

The transcript of the interview is not yet available on the ABC website, but there is another news item here which contains the quote I heard,

...Ms Gillard says parents should not be anxious.

"Can I say to those anxious mums and dads two things, firstly my department is in urgent discussions with the administrator so we can get the full information here for people," she said.

"Secondly, no childcare centre in this country can close without giving 30 days notice."

Let's just review Ms. Gillard's ludicrous statement again:

 

"... no childcare centre in this country can close without giving 30 days notice."

Oh, really Ms. Gillard?

So, a childcare centre run by a public company whose shares ahve been suspended from trading, whose board of directors have appointed an adminsitrator and is in such dire financial straits that it has been losing $400,000 per month won't close it's doors beause it has not given 30 days notice to the governement and parents.

Do you really believe that rubbish which came out of your mouth Ms. Gillard?

And so it goes. Edward learns the craft.

This is a photograph of the tool board in my father's workshop.

Most of the tools here are more than 50 years old, and few are less than 30 years old.  I was taught that if you look after things they'll last.  Dad's workshop proves it.

The skills I have in making, repairing and constructing were learnt at my father's elbow.

And now Edward gets his first lesson on sawing wood from his Grandpa.

Edward and Billy

Down at Mosman, near Balmoral Beach there is a statue of Billy the dog, who was well known as the companion to Inky the street sweeper from 1959 to 1978.

In July 2005 we took a photograph of Ed with Billy and again today, three years later.  How quickly they grow up.

The statue of Billy is by Denis Adams, according to Mosman Council, however the artist is much more likely to be Dennis Adams..

Fun @ the Powerhouse Museum

Last week Edward asked to go to the Powerhouse Museum, which if I had to categorise it, I'd say is a museum of technology, science, decorative arts and design.  So today we made the trek to Ultimo and met up with Ben and Lauren and Edward's cousins Thomas and Eloise.

We especially got Ed excited about visiting the zero gravity simulator  which is part of the Space exhibition.

The Zero-G simulator is comprised of a stationary platform upon which the astronauts (kids) stand surrounded by a cylindrical shaped mockup of the inside of a space station.  The cylinder slowly rotates to simlulate a space like experience.  To the astronauts, nothing much seems to be happening, but when you walk out onto "earth" again, it is quite disorientating.  Thankfully there is a rest area, which I suggest you use.

On the way to the Zero-G experience, then kids also had the chance to be photographed looking like space travellers as they stuck their heads through the painted backdrop.  An oldie, but a goody.

Later the boys had the chance to dress up in astronaut costumes.  There were alien costumes too, but they didn't have the same attraction.

Apart from these obvious novelties, they had some great fun in the Experimentations area which displays pratical examples of some of the fundamental physics of electricity, light, and magnetism.  In this pic, Edward is using a hand cranked generator to power a toy electric train and send it around a small track in the enclosure.

I know that when Ed said last week that he wanted to go to the Powerhouse Museum, he had in his mind seeing the steam engines on display.  The museum includes on permanent display Locomotive No. 1, which was the first steam locomotive in Australia.  Made in England by the Stephenson works, it was transported to Australia by ship and put into use in 1855.  I see from the nameplate data, that it was in fact No. 958, as far as they were concerned.

There is also an engine built in 1882, Locomotive No. 1243 on display and Edward was able to stand on the footplate and operate a few controls.  the display is interactive, and as buttons are pressed the voice of a driver or fireman explain the workings.

There's a section called Zoe's House, which is a contruction and building activity for kids aged 3 - 6.  Ed, Thomas and Eloise all loved this.

The Powerhouse Museum is well set up to light the imagination of children, and as you can see has lots of things for them to do, see, and in which to be invovolved.

But there's also rareities to interest military historians like me.

This enigma machine is part of an exhibition, and was used to create coded messages by the German Army in World War II.

Breaking the codes made by these machines was a turning point of World War II.

There are two other known specimins of these machines in Australia.  One is held by the Australian War Memorial, and one held by the government information security (cryptological) agency Defence Signals Directorate; although both are owned by DSD.

To see inside an Enigma machine, you can check this series of photographs (not from the Powerhouse Museum)

The children all enjoyed taking a break in the courtyard cafe which has some state of the art play and climbing activites, including this giant climbing frame which can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, including this 40ish man who could not resist climbing to the top. 

I managed to control the climbing impulse.

Now, it wouldn't be a visit to a museum if we didn't manage to find an error in a curatorial plaque, and here's the result from today.

There's a display about the work of violin maker William Auchterlonie (perhaps part of the famous golfing family?) and the plaque says that," This page is open to 1924, the year the violin on display was made."

But it is clearly a page from 1934. 

He had been using a day-to-a-page diary from 1930, and the day for that page, Tuesday January 28th, 1930 is crossed out.  Auchterlonie's note begins, "Started in 1934 Beginning of November ..."

SUMMARY:

Edward asked to return to the Zero-gravity simulator, and the engine Locomotive No. 1243 - so I guess they must be the best things in the museum today.

Edward sees his first circus show under the Big Top.

You never forget your first circus.

Today we took Ed to the Big Top at St. Ives showgrounds to see Weber's Circus.

This is the real deal.  The arena is releatively small - which ensures that every seat has a great view of the action, although some may be slightly obscured by the solumns holding up the tent.

The local government doesn't permit the use of animals, but in every other respect there is a full range of top circus acts.  Solo trapeze, aerial steel ring, clowns (non-scary), contortionist, tightrope walk, juggling, dancers, aerial silk act, multiple hula hoops, and an honest to goodness wheel of death.

Edward's attention was captured for the nearly 2-hour show. 

Something he will never forget.

He told me the popcorn was good too.

The circus strikes the big top tomorrow, and then goes to give shows at St. Mary's and Liverpool.  See if you can get along there.  Tell them Bob sent you.