New England Festival 2019

New England Festival

The New England Festival - previously known as the Armidale Autumn Festival since its launch 27 years ago- has undergone a name change to better embrace the whole region. 

The beauty of autumn and amazing colours of our region will be further celebrated with a new event, the Colour New England Street Arts Festival on Saturday 6 April. Council is supporting this community driven initiative to give our local artists centre stage - the visual artists, musicians, theatrical performers and artisans. 

New England Festival - March 16

This year's theme - International Heritage of New England

 

 Really?

27 years of successful Autumn Festivals so you thought you needed to change it, Really?

 Anyway, Here we are again with high hopes that this is a change for the better!

The shorter parade route meant that we were around the parade and back at the beginning before half the parade had started!

And they left us baby sitting the local member of state parliament.. Dangerous move!

 "Can we have money for a car museum please Mr Marshall"

 

Here's a first.

Medieval knights sword fighting on the Jessie and Beardy street roundabout. 

Then instead of the previous years when we end up in the park.

We ended with a display in Beardy street, outside Richardson's arcade.

 

It was lunch time everyone was hungry, only 6 food stalls with long queues,

Anyone with kids took off to the carnival rides in the park.

The crowds dispersed, we were stuck out of the way and no one really came out of their way to look at the cars. 

So we dispersed as well, and all got to go home early!

  

 

Christmas 2018

 "Cruel, cruel Mum, we will report you for Christmas cruelty to doggies"

Merry Christmas everyone..

A bit late with this post - been a bit busy and hot! 

 And this year I made all the staff Christmas stars.

I made 50 of the jolly things... I'll have to find something easier for 2019.

(The above and below photos are of my messy office)

And of course Christmas always means Birthday as well

 Rose and I share a Birthday, so we lunched out at Merilba Estate at Kingstown.

 https://www.merilbaestatewines.com.au/

 

Yummmy, chocolate desert. 

 And finally, some photos of my Christmas village.

Didn't bring it out last year as we were in Europe.

  

And I have seriously run out of room for anymore houses...

And sadly those were the last photos from my old faithful Canon SX30. It stopped letting me download photos from it and stopped zooming, and the lens was getting stuck...

However I have a replacement camera in mind, what this space.

Bill Bailey at the Sydney Opera House

 Graham and I spent a few days in Sydney in late November to see Comedian  Bill Bailey at the Opera House.

We stayed close to Darling Harbour, so got to make good use of the new light rail, the building of which is causing major disruptions throughout the city.

Hopefully, when its finished it will be even better, as the part we travelled on was fairly well used. 

We had a walk around the new Barangaroo headland.

 

Below is a great pic of what it looks like from the air... No I didn't take this pic, but its very pretty isn't it!

We stayed in an apartment on the corner of Prymont road and Prymont Bridge road, so a bit noisy, and I don't think we'll stay there again as I will explain at the end of this post.

Below are the views from the roof top BBQ area, be great on NYE.

On the following day we visited the ANZAC memorial in Hyde Park. 

 

I haven't been there since I was a child, possibly on a school excursion.

I was going to say its just been refurbished, but its actually just been completed.

Anzac Memorial completed after 84 years, ready for armistice centenary

Original sketches of the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park in the 1930s reveal a rather different building to the one we know today.

Stand at Liverpool Street looking north into Hyde Park and the intention was that you would have seen four levels of cascading water. That was the original concept design of Bruce Dellitt, the memorial's architect. Then came the Depression and the finances dried up.

Now, more than 84 years later, that vision will be realised, apparently on budget and despite the fact that, on Friday when the Herald was given a private tour, the memorial was still a busy building site.

Completion will be in time for the centenary anniversary of the armistice of World War I on November 11 which will be held, not as usual at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, but at the completed memorial.

 By Tim Barlass 6 October 2018 , The Sydney Morning Herald

 Below: Maybe, still not finished... Or they have realised that they need a pool fence to meet local government regulations!

Above is a photo from the New Hall of Service which has soil from 1701 place names from every NSW  location that had an enlistee.

 

 And we then walked via Hyde park to the State Library, which was great.

If your interested in art, books, and local history go and have a look, its just had new galleries opened.

And, we would have gone to the Oyster Bar, but it was packed! On a Tuesday! Decadent Sydney..

 

Anyway, Bill Bailey was of course fantastic... Very funny.

 Okay, something else funny.

Well you may ask why I have a picture of an unmade bed in my blog.

Well, I woke up on the first morning to find myself so tangled in sheets that I was nearly strangled!

And we had not had any alcohol the night before, and there was no rampant love acts either...

When I asked Graham to take an end of a sheet, so we could remake the bed, this is what we discovered... they had obviously run out of king size sheets so had put 2 smaller sheets on the bed which didn't reach the end of the bed!!!

AND WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS OKAY!?

Yes, we complained.. ++++

And it was fixed, with many apologies, very quickly. 

The oven was dirty as well... not going back there.

Edith's now a walking baby....

 "Don't walk behind me;

 I may not lead.

Don't walk in front of me;

I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend."

Quote- Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. Albert Camus
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_camus_100779?src=t_walk

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. Albert Camus
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_camus_100779?src=t_walk

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. Albert Camus
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_camus_100779?src=t_walk

And she's off...

Here are some photos from last weekend's afternoon tea.

 Sean's been busy building a toddler gym

And there's been some rain so everything is greening up.

 

Scout likes the gym as well.