The House(s) of Fran_mart

This covers our visit to the main Enlighten Festival site in the Parliamentary Triangle (or whatever the stupid NCA want to call it now).  At first it will just be my photos. We had intended to park at the Royal Canberra Croquet Club but some friends we met there with croquet in mind said that there was parking very close to the site.  So after a couple of good malleting efforts (winning my first game 7-6 with a jump shot!!!) we took the Pajero over to the National Library carpark.  As it was not yet dark (1915 hours) we had time to assess the food carts ... ... and put ourselves outside some very good prawn dumplings.  We strolled up to Old Parliament House (aka Museum of Australian Democracy) noting en route that the rose garden is totally buggered: I don't think it has been weeded, watered or pruned for at least one year and possibly more.  Shime NCA, shime.  Some of the few roses had been repositioned on the statues   of  Dame Dorothy Ta...

This post covers our visit to 'Lakes' on 2-3 August 2021.  This kept us within Victoria so road works were to be expected. That lot were OK as there was actually work going on.  A later section, of about 3km of "traffic hazard" marked down to 40 or 60 kph, was not acceptable and ignored by everyone.  Obviously Rural Roads Victoria have not absorbed the meaning of one of Aesop's Fables . A 3 minute delay happened at Cann River where some Police checked that we were not breaching the Health Reguations.  This was no surprising and a good idea as one road block covered both Princes and Monaro Highways.  Our situation was non-standard but the officer worked it out quickly and was very pleasant and sensible.   Down the road a bit (just before Nowa Nowa) an unusual looking vehicle tagged on behind.  I couldn't initially work out if it was a Police car or not but rigorously obeyed all speed limits.  Eventually I was able to become certain it was....