Post #146 21 July 2017

Gentlefolk,

This post covers events / activities in the first part of July 2017.

Next week we leave for six weeks in Indonesia (2 in Bali, 4 in Java). Then a week in Perth on the way home.  We haven't been to Perth for many years, and this was a good opportunity to see some friends there.  So my next post will probably be in October.

The highlight of early-July was the visit to Canberra by my ex-student Yu Zhi Chao (Charles) and his parents Yu Cheng Zeng and Niu Cai Qin. They stayed with us for 3 nights.  Visits such as this make you get out and see more of Canberra's attractions.

Other highlights in July, including international, were:

I concluded the last post wondering if Roger Federer would win Wimbledon?  Well, we now know that he beat Marin Cilic in straight sets. That was his 8th Wimbledon title, and his 19th Grand Slam. At the ripe old age of almost 36, Federer is playing superb tennis.  Amazing athlete and such a nice guy to boot. What a champion.

BBC announced that the next "Doctor" (as in Doctor Who) would be a woman, Jodie Whittaker.

The probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election intensified with the revelation that Donald Trump Jr (and others) met with Russians in June 2016. Republicans haven't been able to agree on a replacement for Obamacare. Polls show Donald Trump's approval rating as President down to 36%.

The Iraqi Govt announced the defeat of Islamic State with the re-taking of Mosul.  But ISIS still exists in countryside and in parts of Syria.

Australia's Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, presented his report to the Government on Australia's energy crisis. But conservatives within the Liberal-National Coalition expressed concern at coal's diminishing role.  In the meantime, electricity and gas prices in many parts of Australia rose by 20% on 1 July 2017. Ouch!

The dismal regular season of Super 16 Rugby came to an end. The Brumbies topped the Australian Conference (despite suffering defeats by the Reds and Chiefs in the last two games).  All the Australian teams were woeful this year - not a single victory against a NZ team! Tonight, the first round of the play-offs, the Brumbies take on the Hurricanes ... it will take a miracle ...

Here are some photos of July 2017:

I opened an account at the Kingston Branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) way back in 1968 when I worked for the Australian Chamber of Manufactures in Barton.  This branch closed on 30 June 2017, the fate of many small bank branches around the country.  The end of an era.  RIP.

The Indonesian Families Association (AIFA) had a lunch on 2 July to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the Moslem month of fasting.  The new Indonesian Ambassador, HE Kristianto Legawa, attended.  As it happens, both the Ambassador and his wife are Christians (90% of Indonesians are Moslems), but they actively support all community activities.

Lots of delicious Indonesian food, prepared by AIFA members, was available.

Yu Zhi Chao was my student in Qingdao; he then did engineering at the University of Wollongong.  His parents, Yu Cheng Zeng and Niu Cai Qin came to Australia for his graduation.  They stayed with us for 3 nights. We showed them around Canberra, Parliament House (above) and the War Memorial.

We found some kangaroos in the bush behind Ainslie.

The view from the top of Mount Ainslie.  It was a beautiful, clear, bright winter's day.

Teaching Vera how to make dumplings (jiaozi).

Delicious home-made dumplings.

Having dinner in our apartment.

On 12 July we took the train to Sydney, to say goodbye to Jolene Liampo who has been looking after Andrew & Caroline's children in Hong Kong and here.  She is a lovely lady, kind and thoughtful, wonderful with kids.  There are three trains a day between Canberra and Sydney.  It takes 4 hours to cover the 300 km.  Comfortable enough, but a bit slow (in China the journey would take about 1.5 hours by fast train!).  We caught the 7am train which arrived at Central at 11am, and then the 6.15pm return train. The train station is only about 300m from our apartment in Kingston.

An early-morning view from the train.  Heavy frost covered the ground. 

Jolene with Baby Jay, Vera, and Andrew with Little Eddie. We will miss Jolene!

Baby Jay is now 4 months old. She is gorgeous!!!!

Vera feeding Jay-Jay.  At this age all they seem to do is eat and poo!!

My turn to feed Jay-Jay.  

Niniek (Caroline's mother), with Little Eddie.  He is developing into a great little boy; loves "The Lion King" which he insists on us reading to him 2 or 3 times a day.

My sister Angie Ulrichsen flew to Europe for a holiday.  Saying farewell at Canberra Airport, from left: me, Aniko Carey, Vera, Angie, and Peter Carey. Singapore Air now has direct flights from Canberra to Singapore. 

On 20 July we had lunch with Graham Kendall who has been teaching English at Bin Hai College in Qingdao (about 5km from our former university UPC).  He is back in Sydney for the "summer vacation" - will return to Qingdao next month, in time for the start of the new academic year. Vera and I are in Sydney for a week to look after Little Eddie and Baby Jay while Andrew and Caroline participate in a trade display in Melbourne.   In a few days we fly to Bali for the start of our 6 week tour around Indonesia.

Here are some photos taken around Sydney.  The first three show the "Welcome Wall" - names of immigrants  - at the Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour.  Twenty years ago Vera & I had the following subscription put on the Wall "Akos Olah and Edeltraut Goerner and family".

The entrance to the Chinese Garden, near Darling Harbour.

Interesting architecture at the University of Technology Sydney.  Good to see something out of the ordinary.

The facade of the building in Surry Hills where Andrew and Caroline live in their apartment. It was an old church hall, and the developer had to keep the facade when they converted it into apartments.  Very convenient, about 300m from the South Concourse of Central Station.  They are adjacent to Prince Alfred Park.

Surry Hills is an old part of Sydney.  Many "workers cottages", as shown in the next three photos. By Australian standards it is "crowded", but nothing like Hong Kong or China.

A photo of St Mary's Cathedral, the main Catholic church near the centre of Sydney, taken from Hyde Park.  About 25% of Australians call themselves Catholics.

...

When I started this post I wondered if there was enough material to make it meaningful, but I needn't have worried.  We actually live fairly busy lives.  An advantage of keeping a blog - makes you look back and reflect on the things that took place.

Three other events are worth mentioning.

The first was an "author's talk" at the Asia Bookroom by Madeleine O'Dea. She spoke about her book published last year "Art, resistance and the making of modern China".  Madeleine went to Beijing in 1986 as a stringer for the Australian Financial Review.  We lived in Beijing at that time, and many of her comments about China in the 1980s resonated with us.

On 13 July I had dinner with a group of teachers from ANU College (Margie, Fiona, Kelsey, and Jasmin).  They asked if I was going to apply to teach another Access Intensive English course in November / December / January?   I dunno; just can't get too enthused.  Will have to decide soon.

The third event was my talk to U3A on "Some aspects of Chinese Culture", 10am - 12 noon on Tuesday 4 July 2017.  I focused on rather esoteric questions, such as: "Why does one see so few old people in China?";  "Why doesn't the game Chinese Whispers work in China?"; "Are there left-handed Chinese?"; "Why do many young Chinese admire Jews?" 35 U3A members attended and we had a lively and interesting discussion.

...

That's all for this post.

Next week we are off to Indonesia.  It is unlikely that I'll have time for any posts during our trip, so the next post will probably be in October 2017.

Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
Sydney, Australia
Friday 21 July 2017

Post #145 16 July 2017

Gentlefolk,

I complied the following article for the newsletter of the Alumni Association of the House of Representatives (HoR).

Quote

HoR Alumni Newsletter,  “Where are they now?”  Alex Olah

I hadn’t seen Jim Pender for some years, but ran across him recently when we were fellow students at a U3A course on “Unusual Borders”. 

Jim said that he was helping to edit the HoR Alumni Newsletter, and asked me for a contribution.  I protested that I’d only worked at Parliament House for a few short years.  But Jim was persuasive, so here goes.

In April 2001 I took early retirement from the Australian Trade Commission (AUSTRADE).  While I had thoroughly enjoyed my career, including several overseas postings, after 30 years it was time to move on.  I wanted to do something different and interesting, but wasn’t sure what.

A few days later Margaret Swieringa, Secretary of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade contacted me.  She explained that the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee was finalising an inquiry into “Australia’s relations with the Middle East”.  A staff member had resigned unexpectedly which left them short; she asked if I could draft the chapter on trade? 

I ended up spending, on and off, about five years at APH, working for various Committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. I loved working in that grand building; and found the whole place fascinating and stimulating.

The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Sub-committee was Hon David Jull, MP and the Secretary was Cliff Lawson.  I ended up drafting two chapters: Chapter 6 on Trade (50 pages) and Chapter 8 on Social and Cultural Links (25 pages). It was a scramble getting it done; the report on the Middle East was tabled in August 2001. 

I was then assigned to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (Chair: Petro Georgiou, AO MP and Secretary: Trevor Rowe) which was holding an inquiry into the conduct of the 2001 Federal Election.

I had been comfortable dealing with trade-related matters but this was a completely new area for me.  It quickly became apparent that on this Committee the Members were more knowledgeable than the staff, and Mr Georgiou, especially, was an expert.  I really admired Trevor for the way he handled a challenging work situation. That report was tabled in June 2003.

I then moved to the HoR Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Chair: Kay Elson, MP, Secretary: Ian Dundas) which was holding and inquiry into future water supplies for Australia’s rural industries and communities. We were in a prolonged drought, the Murray River was in dire straits, and access to water was of great concern to irrigators and environmentalists alike.  Another fascinating subject.  The report was tabled in June 2004.

My time at the Senate included two particularly interesting inquiries.  The first was for the Economics References Committee (Chair: Ursula Stephens, Secretary: Peter Hallahan) which was looking at the links between Australia’s current account deficit, the demand for imports, and household debt. I had to dust off my old economics text books. The report was tabled in October 2005.

The second was for the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission (Chair: Hon Ian Macdonald, Secretary: Jonathan Curtis) which was inquiring into the manufacture, importation and use of amphetamines and other synthetic drugs in Australia.  Wow! Heavy stuff. That report was tabled in February 2007.

I enjoyed my time at APH very much. Such diverse, interesting subjects (steep learning curves!); stimulating environment; seeing the political process at close quarters; and working with so many great people. 

Then my wife and I decided to do something completely different: to teach English overseas. We did TESOL courses and in September 2009 started work at the China University of Petroleum (www.upc.edu.cn).  Altogether we had six years at UPC, first at the Dongying campus, and later at the new Qingdao campus. 

We finished teaching in China in July 2016.  It had been a wonderful experience, but I was about to turn 70 and we thought it would be a good time to return home. For those with an interest in China, have a look at my blog (alexolah.blogspot.com) which describes our life there (see posts before July 2016, when we returned to Australia).

Readjusting to life in Canberra has had its moments, but we are now feeling fairly settled.  I taught a 10-week intensive English course for foreign students at the ANU earlier this year.  All 18 students were from China, so I felt quite at home! 

What's next for this Little Black Duck?  I’m hoping to do more courses at U3A, and to play a bit of golf, but other things keep getting in the way (eg grandkids in Brisbane and Sydney).  We will spend the next few weeks travelling around Indonesia.

I feel blessed to have had three interesting and rewarding careers: one major, two minor, all good: AUSTRADE, Committees at APH, and teaching in China.  Won the trifecta!

I’m hoping to get to the Alumni end-of-year function this year, if we are here.

Best wishes, alex olah

Canberra, Sunday 16 July 2017

Unquote

Compiling this article made me think back to the time I spent working at Parliament House - what a great experience that was!

We are off to Indonesia soon.  Don't think there will be much time for blog posts, so I'm hoping to do one soon (tomorrow?) on events in the first half of July.  Then it will probably be October before I post again.

As I complete this post, Wimbledon Mens Single Final is about to start.  Can evergreen Federer beat Cilic?  Hope so, he is amazing!

Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Sunday 16 July 2017