8 November 2014

Gentlefolk,

This post is a mix of stories. Read on ...

Gough Whitlam, a remarkable man, farewelled

Gough Whitlam 1916 - 2014.  In December 1973 he was ridiculed (Whitlam's Folly) for approving the purchase by the National Gallery of Australia of  Jackson Pollock's  "Blue Poles" for $1.3 million. But he was ahead of his time and had the last laugh - some experts say it is now worth close to $100m!

Thousands filled the Sydney Town Hall and public spaces around Australia on 5 November 2014 to farewell Gough Whitlam.  Seven Prime Ministers attended the memorial service; from left (seems an inappropriate word): Malcolm Fraser, Julia Gillard, Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Paul Keating.  

Noel Pearson spoke eloquently about Gough's vision of  equal opportunity for all Australians.

Multi-award winner (including 2 Oscars) actress Cate Blanchett also spoke at the memorial service. Although she is a generation behind me, I was surprised how her words resonated with me. Gough had a wide impact.

Seven Prime Ministers in the 40 years since 'The Dismissal'.

Name	Date of birth (age in Nov 2014)	Elections contested
Malcolm Fraser	21 May 1930 (84)	1975, 1977, 1980, 1983 (lost)
Bob Hawke	9 December 1929 (84)	1983, 1984, 1987, 1990 (Keating replaced Hawke as ALP leader & PM in 1991)
Paul Keating	18 January 1944 (70)	1993, 1996 (lost)
John Howard	26 July 1939 (75)	1987 (lost), 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 (lost)
Kevin Rudd	21 September 1957 (57)	2007, 2013 (lost)
Julia Gillard	29 September 1961 (53)	2010 (Gillard replaced Rudd as ALP leader & PM in June 2010. The following election resulted in a hung Parliament, but she was able to form a minority government. In June 2013 Rudd replaced Gillard as ALP leader & PM)
Tony Abbott	4 November 1957 (57)	2013

Western Sydney Wanderers, ACL champions

A fairy tale: from establishment just 3 short years ago, the Wanderers scaled the summit of Asian football.  Without doubt Australia's greatest sporting achievement of 2014.

47 countries belong to the Asian Football Confederation.  In 2002 it started a re-vamped Asian Champions League (ACL, similar to UEFA in Europe). 32 clubs compete in the group stage. The winner gets $1.5 million and goes on to compete in FIFA's world club championship in December.

The most successful clubs have been Pohong Steelers of South Korea (3x winners) and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia (2x winners, 3x runners-up).

Adelaide United reached the final in 2008, but were beaten by Gamba Osaka.

To great acclaim here, Guangzhou Evergrande won the championship last year, the first Chinese club to win the ACL.

Congratulations on an amazing effort, Wanderers.  Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi.

Crowned Champions after beating Al Hilal in Riyadh; first Australian club to win the Asian Champions League. 

Winners are grinners. 

Wonderous coach, Tony Popovic

The A-League seems to be going from strength to strength in Australia. A record 106,000 fans attended matches last weekend. In our travels it is obvious that soccer really is "The World Game"  - it is played and enjoyed all over the world - good to see it catching on in Australia too.

...

Visit to Bin Hai University

Last weekend fellow Aussie Graham Kendall showed us around Bin Hai University (青岛滨海学院; pinyin: Qīngdǎo Bīnhǎi Xuéyuàn) located about 6 km from our campus.    It started as a Vocational College in 1992, and was upgraded to university in 2004; now has an enrollment of close to 20,000 students.

Unusually, Bin Hai is privately owned, but of course accredited by the government. Generally, kids who don't do well in the National College Entrance Exam, but whose parents are well-off and can afford the relatively high fees, end up at such private colleges.

Graham described Bin Hai's strict regime - for example, students are only allowed off-campus on Sundays.  Can you imagine that?  He said the students hate it, but their parents love it!

The Administration Building at Bin Hai, with its big dome, is a landmark around Huangdao.

Graham showing us his "4 wheeler" which he uses to get around Bin Hai campus. The campus covers 64 hectares, and is quite hilly in parts.

Some of the student residential buildings on campus.

Bin Hai's founder has established an impressive museum on campus, featuring a wide range of stuffed animals as well as a collection of semi-precious stones and fossilised wood.  Two students (English Majors) showed us around the museum.

One of the monkey displays.

...

We caught up with Fu Xiao, who was my first Liaison Teacher when we started teaching at the China University of Petroleum in August 2009. She spent a year in Minnesota on a teacher-exchange program.

...

How are our offspring faring? Very well indeed.

The Roberts Family, after experiencing some car trouble, is back on the road and meandering down the coast of Western Australia.  They should arrive in Perth next week.  Check their amazing adventure travelling around Australia HERE   (robertstour2014.wordpress.com)

Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park, offered great snorkeling. From left: Sid, Tom, Nate and Kurt. 

Jen captured the famous "Staircase to the Moon" at the beach in Broome.

In mid-October Andrew, Caroline and little Eddie moved from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.  They are enjoying the vibrant atmosphere of The Big Dumpling.

Fast Eddie at 7.5 months.

Can only imagine what Hong Kong subway commuters thought of this Halloween apparition!

Eddie inspecting one of the Occupy Central protest sites.

Vera visited Hong Kong in November to catch up with our latest grandson.

Andrew met Eric Schmidt at Google's Hong Kong office 7 November 2014.  Pink is in?
Eric Schmidt was born in Washington DC on 27 April 1955. He went to Princeton and then UC Berkeley (MSc & PhD).  He was CEO of Google from 2001-2011 and is now Executive Chairman.  Co-authored best seller "How Google Works". The Schmidt Foundation supports various environmental causes. He is an advisor to President Obama on science & technology.

A student filmed this in one of my Western Culture classes yesterday.  Isn't this 'motion-picture' effect amazing?  

...

Well, folks, that's it for this post.

Keep well, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Saturday, 8 November 2014