Buying a badge

I had a little talk to the guy diligently selling  "Vietnam" badges.    Or, rather, I lent him my ear for a couple of minutes.  He was quite happy to tell his stories, but he wasn't much of a listener!  Just for the record, he was an infantryman in 1 RAR.
 
And I'm not sure that I like the design of the badge (but I didn't tell him that), although I assume that it represents the Long Tan cross.

The Flag

What happens to the Union Jack and even the Australian flag if the Scots vote for independence   (and here)?  There was an article in the Australian about this (sorry about the paywall), but the essence was that if Scotland became independent, then logically the St Andrew's Cross would be removed from the Union Jack.    Then the issue would arise as to whether a consequential change would be made to the Australian flag.    Of course, this is all entirely speculation at present and involves several layers of "what ifs" ......

The article in the Australian suggested that the Australian flag could end up looking like the flag on the far right.  Well, maybe, but doesn't the blue background come from the St Andrew's flag?    Why would this be retained?   The stripped down Union Jack - assuming that this came about - would presumably have a white background because the two remaining components,  St George's cross and St Patrick's cross, both have white backgrounds. 

One possibility would be to take the opportunity to change the Australian flag, but the big question is, to what?   Please, let's not move away from the present flag until we know what we'd get instead.   And for the record I don't much like the design being promoted by one group (left).

The Memorial Service

We attended a memorial Service for a long-standing member of the Church congregation.

About 150 people attended, and although the setting and format were traditional, many elements were, as happens these days, characterised as a celebration of her life, complete with reminiscences, grandchildren playing the cello and singing as well as Frank Sinatra recordings (and others) being played.  And then the refreshments afterwards spilled over into the worship space. 




All somewhat different from the orthodox tradition.

Pomen

Baba's 40 day pomen took place on Saturday.   It was in Melbourne to enable those who had been unable to travel to Canberra for the funeral to be present.  However, a contemporaneous service at the graveside also occurred. It was advertised in a couple of the Serbian-language newspapers.

This is an important service.  Literally, "pomen" means "memorial service", but the significance of the 40 days is that the Orthodox Church teaches that there are two judgements. 
The first, or “Particular” Judgement, is that experienced by each individual at the time of his or her death, at which time God will decide where the soul is to spend the time until the Second Coming of Christ.  This judgement is believed to occur on the fortieth day after death.

The second, General or “Final” Judgement will occur after the Second Coming.





Candles were also lit for Baba on the day by family members at this small church in Montenegro.

Images of Scottish Australia

The main reason for our stay in Ballarat was to visit the the Art Gallery of Ballarat's display For Auld Lang Syne:  Images of Scottish Australia, from First Fleet to Federation.

The exhibition comprises an extensive collection of materials, ranging from paintings, books, charts and photos to artifacts, bagpipes and even goblets.  It commemorates the contributions of Scots to the discovery and early exploration of Australia through to their contributions in areas such as industry and the artistic world.    Even Mary MacKillop had a Scottish heritage!

There isn't very much about the role of golf, but I didn't regard that as much of a loss.   However, it did have David Syme and Simon Fraser looking at each other, notwithstanding their reputed fall-out over protectionism.

At the entrance to the display is an explanation of the new Ballarat tartan!    This features prominently on the publicity.    It has only recently been officially recognised, but apparently new tartans can still be accredited.   The colours in it are grey for the basalt Ballarat is built on, blue and white for the Eureka flag and yellow for the gold mined in Ballarat.   Overall, it's a bit drab, but perhaps this is rather appropriate for this part of the world.

28 June

As reported quite widely, 28 June 2014 (Saturday) marked the centenary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by Gavriol Princip.   I am no historian, but while this may have been one of the events in the lead up to World War 1, it was by no means the only factor involved, as discussed here and also here.

Latin Bridge

For Serbs, the day is also of significance, as it is Vidovdan. (St Vitus Day) .

Plaque marking the spot from which the shot was fired

Sahrana

We went to Canberra for Baba's Sahrana.   The service took place in the church at the Serbian Monastery and the interment was in the cemetery in the Monastery grounds.  The forecast rain didn't eventuate and overall the send off was as she would have wanted it.

Baba Rosa

Baba (S's mum) died on 10 June.   She was 89 (would have been 90 in September).

Although her passing is, of course, sad, she had a fair innings for a girl born in Bosnia who was taken to a labour camp in Germany during the war. She came to Australia as a refugee in 1950 on SS Nellie, where she spent time at the Uranquinty migrant hostel before making a new life in Melbourne, Christmas Hills and Canberra. 

Her funeral will be in Canberra on Saturday.

D Day - 70 years on

D Day, the day on which the Normandy landings ("Project Neptune") commenced,  occurred on 6 June 1944, seventy years ago.  As is well known, this was the largest ever seaborne landing.

I don't underrate the historical significance nor the challenging logistics of the operation, but I do think the extent of Australia's participation in it needs to be kept in perspective:  there were about 3000 Australians involved.

The context,  as Wikipedia tells us,  is that 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day, with 875,000 men disembarking by the end of June and presumably there were many more involved with the air and naval support (I see that most of the Australians were in these areas).

I do find it interesting how particular historical events are commemorated, and others are hardly mentioned.   Perhaps it's understandable that we don't hear much about one of the great turning points in the war, the Battle of Stalingrad, but there are probably other events that also remain in the background (the Battle of El Alamein comes to mind).  Presumably,  an element of selectivity is inevitable when thinking about historical matters, but it is interesting to reflect on how the "selection" process operates.

Mothers' Day

We had a lovely Mothers' Day lunch at the College Lawn in Greville St Prahran.    The food was good, the little extras the venue provided to mark the day were a nice touch, the atmosphere and service couldn't be faulted  and of course the company was great.  We must remember this place
- if only the parking wasn't such a pain!

We're now off to Western Australia for a week, so I'll do my best to post some reports from the West.

"Dear Neighbour...."

It's quite common to get a little note in our letterbox, along the lines of, "Dear Neighbour, we're having a party, we won't make much noise, but apologies if you do hear something....". 


All very nice and civilised I think.   But never an invitation to join in!

St George's Day

In the Orthodox (Julian) calendar, last Tuesday was 23 April  and the feast of St. George, the fabled dragonslayer and patron saint of many Serbs.

According to the legend, St George came upon a kingdom beset by a foul, plague-breathing dragon. To appease the dragon, they began to give it a daily sacrifice of livestock, and later even their children. When the saint came along and killed the dragon, the grateful citizens embraced Christianity.

In Serbian folklore, the feast of St George is the beginning of hayduk season - guerrilla resistance to Ottoman overlords that had conquered Serb lands in the 15th century. The season traditionally ended on the feast of Saint Demetrius (Mitrovdan), 26 October.

 
We attended Nata's slava, as St George is her family's saint.   As usual, there was lots to eact and drink.   A lot of self-restraint was needed!

  

Queen's Inn

I attended the annual Queen's Inn dinner at Queen's College, where the speaker was Justice Marcia Neave.

I have to say that the College under the leadership of the present master, Prof David Runia, seems to be travelling impressively (at least, from what I can see, from afar).   In particular, it appears to have successfully handled the transition of Melbourne University to the so-called "Melbourne Model".  This involves professional entry degrees all being post-graduate.   In the case of law, this is the JD.

For Melbourne's colleges, with their traditional focus on under-graduates, this has required a bit of a step-change in order to appeal to a greater range of post-graduates.   We were told that, this year, Queen's has 10 students in residence undertaking the JD, which seems quite good.




Justice Neave's speech was directed at the mostly under and recent-graduate audience, and appeared to hit the mark.  Her main themes were women in the law (basically, they started from a long way behind, there's been progress, but there's still more to be done) and some reflections on her life in the law.  She also reflected on the fact that more people are graduating in law than will ever work as lawyers (see my post here on this aspect). 

EDIT:  For completeness, here's my post on this dinner in 2012.

The Salvos

After enduring some delays on the trip in as a result of the massive train disruptions that morning, I attended the breakfast launch of the Salvation Army's Red Shield appeal.   550 people were present in the Sofitel's Grand Ballroom.   Obviously a worthy cause, although it's clear that the Salvos run an impressive operation and are well-connected in the business community.   They are also clearly quite particular about their "brand" (have you ever seen a scruffy Salvo officer?)

The child abuse issue was addressed head-on (remorse, never again), which of course is the only viable approach, although not every institution affected seems to have fully grasped this.  

Interestingly, it was said that the the Salvation Army's support in Australia is strongest in Victoria.  I wonder if there are historical reasons for this?

Anzac Day

We watched bits of the Anzac march on TV, as well as portions of the ceremonies at Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux.    The march in Melbourne seemed to take longer than in previous years;  perhaps the nice weather had something to do with this?   I participated in this once, but don't feel any urge to do so again.

It does seem that a great deal of effort (and hence, presumably, expense?) has gone into arranging the overseas ceremonies (lots of dignitaries and so on), and there's more on the way.    I leave it for others to pass judgment on whether it's all a bit over the top.

Easter

It was Easter Sunday.  In accordance with the Western tradition there were lovely flowers at the Church, and later in the day, in the Orthodox tradition, we cracked painted eggs!

Moomba

Years ago, we sometimes went for a walk around the Moomba fairgrounds and we have memories of these occasions as being relaxed and carefree.   We were always impressed by the rides, which of course we never went on, but seemed to involve amazing will-power and fortitude.

We had a spare Sunday afternoon, so impulsively we set out to  re-live the experience.

Well, the amazing rides are still there, as is the water skiing, but the crowds seemed much greater than in years past!    They weren't quite as bad as White Night, but that's not saying much, and the sun was out so it was hotter.   It just wasn't quite the same!

So after a short walk, we retreated to Southgate, where with a passably civilised coffee, we had a pleasant interlude, looking out over the river and engaging in a spot of people watching.

Child size ride!

Olympic Sports

Well, the Winter Olympics are over.    It's interesting that, every time the normal Olympic Games, or the Winter Olympic Games, occur, we often end up watching sports that we just don't bother about the rest of the time.

Yes, they're usually fast-moving and entertaining, but so often the rules and scoring systems are just a mystery!

And just how do people start off in sports like bobsledding, curling and so on?  Perhaps these sports are encouraged in Nordic countries, yet we find Australians participating at an elite level in events that we rarely hear about and for which there would seem to be few, if any, facilities here.
















True, some of the skiing and bobsledding events are indeed truly amazing, and the ice hockey is fast and furious, and, yes, these sports are not often televised at other times.   However, even if they were, would we actually watch them?

I guess it doesn't matter if the "pull" of these sports, at Olympic standards, is that we know we're watching them at the "elite" level, and perhaps that in itself is enough!
 

White Night (2)

I hadn't planned to go to White Night, but at the last minute I thought, "There's a train in a few minutes", and headed off.   Well, the train going to the city was packed but I merely thought, "Oh, well".   But it was a sign of things to come!

I got off at Melbourne Central, and walked - well, struggled - down Swanston Street.  People everywhere.  Notice the crowds in a number of  the images in this report.







There were quite a few performers, mostly on small stages or in small areas, quite interesting, but the word "busker" comes to mind (especially when at least a few of them had bags for donations!). 

Most people seemed in good humour, but I'm afraid that being mixed up in an immense crowd is not, for me, conducive to the enjoyment of relatively small scale performances. The lights on Flinders Street station and along Flinders Street  were impressive, I must admit. I was left wondering whether people just like to be part of a big crowd, at unusual time and on roadways normally occupied by traffic?   And eating fast food (good supply of that)?

Flinders Lane

I didn't get as far as the Arts Centre, but headed instead for the train at Flinders Street.   There were crowds here as well, and there was no way I could get onto the first train, but moved to the end of the platform and managed to board the next.  I was impressed that. when I got off the train, I noticed that an extra train (not on the timetable) was following, and waited until it arrived.   It, too, was full even though it wasn't going to the end of the line.   Nice to see Metro being a bit responsive (although, on reflection, given the number of people that were hoped for, ought not more trains have been provided?). 

Extra train to Moorabbin

And, by the way, when thinking about all that electricity that was used,  perhaps the people who gathered in the streets will be participating in Earth Hour on 29 March?