In Canberra February-March 2024

I have needed to get a few medical tests done so we have been in Canberra for a few days in late February/ early March.  I'll report on the tests as and when they happen.  

The Enlighten Festival will be happening as from Friday 1 March.  Part of this is a dinosaur event in the square between the Legislative Assembly and the Library.  They have been setting up, and I have marked 4 specimens in each of the next two images.  Which ones are dinosaurs?

4 is not a dinosaur.  2 and 1 are very well-known species of dinosaur.  3 is the location of the Legislative Assembly and I don't wish to be rude to dinosaurs.

2 is a thistle, and 3 is a Sabre-toothed tiger: neither of these are dinosaurs.  4 is again a dinosaur and 1 is again the location of the Legislative Assembly and I don't wish to be rude to dinosaurs.

In the evening of the 27th we went for the cardiology tests.  They seemed pretty comprehensive and we received a very detailed briefing from Dr Yang afterwards, explaining what he considered the problem and his recommendations for the way forward.  They are all OK with us, although his advice about reduced wine consumption is bad news for Rutherglen and McLaren Vale!

Frances had visited a 'memorial' for victims of thalidomide on the Tuesday morning and it sounded very interesting, so we walked there on the morning of the 28th.  These images speak for themselves.

As we walked to the memorial we noticed a very large flock of Cormorants.  They were mainly (220, counted in photographs) Little Black Cormorants, with an estimated 4 each of Little Pied and Great Cormorants and one Pied Cormorant (ivory bill clearly seen).  Here is a cropped photograph showing most of the flock on the way back.

As we got back to Glebe Park there was a long queue leading to a fenced off area.  This turned out to be a plant give-away organised by the City Renewal Authority.  I took a few photos but seem to have deleted them - mainly due to Windows presenting them as very large icons and not paying attention when removing the ones I had used!  We took our 2 each!  A very good initiative (and judging by the queue, a very popular one). Here are 3 of our 4 pots: the 4th is another marigold currently inside the apartment.

On the 29th, there was a pretty spiffy sunrise.  The 2 images were taken using different modes on my camera.)

A little later we had a visit from an abseiler doing good work a bit further down.  As I took the photo he asked me which floor I was on!

Sunrise on March 1 was quite colourful.

Early in the evening of the 1st we went to check out the fossil show in Civic Square.  These large puppets, controlled by kids, were quite pleasant.

Other puppets were walked around by staff!

I don't know how I managed to get this shot with no folk in it.  There were quite a few peple wandering around.

Back at the apartment some attractive clouds were evident to the North .....

.... the West ....

... and the North West.

A smallish demo, pro Palestinian from the flag, came past the apartment in the afternoon of the 2nd.

On the afternoon of 3 March we went and followed Choughs around Glebe Park.

For the morning of 4 March we went for a walk with an initial aim of going to the post office.  The Civic Square PO used to be 100m from our building but Australia Post closed that (presumably the staff there were found to enough time to be offering service to their customers, a state of affairs which was, and is, anathema to Australia Post).  Instead we walked 800m to the main PO in Allinga St.  (Service was pretty good there at 9:30 so they must be at risk of closure.)

En route we noticed some interesting installations as part of Enlighten in the Canberra Centre.

We proceeded on to various spots getting a little retail therapy as we went.  Our furthest point to Bent Spoke brewery in Braddon, opposite this rather magnificent mural.

My overall review of this walk, measured on Google Earth almost exactly 3km door to door, was summarised in a Facebook post as: 

"A possible entry in the "Age shall not weary them" column.

I'll start with a comment about age. We were in the Braddon Vinnies this morning and they were playing an interesting set of country music. I went and asked the counter person who was the performer? She whipped out her phone and Shazammed it. Doh: why didn't I do that. First indicator of old age.

So I checked my phone an couldn't find Shazam. So tried to download it but it would only update. Couldn't find it anywhere, Get home and there it was on screen 2. Second indicator of old age!

Called in at Bent Spoke and got a 16 pack of Freewheeling. I did manage to schlepp it 1.3km home but was feeling a little weary. I primarily attribute this to the weight of the beer but leave the possibility open to it being age."

 On the 5th we walked to All Saints Church.

On the 6th I spotted an unusual insect on the window next to my desk.

Observers in iNaturalist have identified it as a Pied Lacewing Porismus strigatus.

In the evening we took a spin around the main part of Enlighten which was very good.

The main business on the 7th was me having an MRI of my brain to see if that could shed light on my episode.  It was about as pleasant as that exercise could be: at least it was a short test: only 20 minutes.

After a very good Sri Lankan meal from Banana Leaf and a quite good sunset ...

... we walked over to Civic Square  to check the dinosaurs etc after dark. The fountain in front of the Canberra Centre was well lit.

So were the exhibits in Before Us.

While there was a lot of colour, the only movement of the exhibits was a few items like this, where performers carried things around.

We had hoped that the sculptures such as these velociraptors would have moved after dark.

The main point is that the kids seemed to be enjoying the event.

On the way back to the apartment we walked through the Canberra Centre to check their installations in the main walkway.  We had expected they would be more impressive after dark but as the place was still fully lit (albeit devoid of people except us) it wasn't.  Still pleasant.

The 8th of March was essentially pack up and drive back.