My week in pictures: March 2019

Monday, March 25, 2019

Peace Park and Ride

As if Christchurch hasn't suffered enough, as it attempts to rise from the rubble of the earthquakes of a decade ago, the city has just become the latest site of hideous extremist attacks. Two consecutive terrorist shooting attacks occurred at mosques during Friday prayer: 51 people were killed and 49 were injured. The gunman live-streamed the first attack on Facebook.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, was asked what people could do in the wake of increasing right-wing terrorism. She replied, "Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities". She continued,

"Our values provide a guiding light in our darkest hours.
We stand together in representing diversity and inclusion. They are us.
We stand together in kindness and compassion. They are us."

To the killer, she said, "You may have chosen us - we utterly reject and condemn you."

In solidarity with the New Zealand Muslim community, Kiwis and Canberrans gathered at the Nara Canberra Peace Park in a memorial vigil to share grief, despair and anger while paying respects and honouring life. It was emotional.

Later in the week we celebrated the wedding of Louise and Chris. Her bouquet was beautiful (as is she) and was made from hops (as she is not).

Louise with her hoptastic bouquet

Apparently these are hot cross buns. Can anyone spot the trade-descriptions error?

Buns

We headed off to the Snowy Valleys for a bike race, which involved carbo loading the night before in Adelong.

Apparently it's not rained in this part of rural NSW for four years, but the morning of the bike race...

Him Outdoors was doing the big ride, while I did the mere 26km. This meant I could take photos of him and the start and finish.

And here he is with a post-activity beverage from Tumut River Brewing Co.

Monday, March 18, 2019

Wagga Wagga and a Shave

I had a work trip to Wagga Wagga - scoff all you like, but the food at Carlo's Cafe was excellent.

Calamity Sue with chicken & waffles

I came across this Sandakan Memorial on my morning run. I have been to Sandakan and Ranau, and I have been touched by the story of the prisoners of war, and those who tried to help them ever since. If you read the inscription below, you will be too. It was quite a shock to see this on a sleepy back street among the municipal bins.

The sculpture illustrates the route of the death marches, indicated by a bronze ribbon slashing through a topographical representation of the terrain, and is in memory of the men who enlisted from the Southern region of NSW. We will remember them.

The opposite of that sobering moment was at the conclusion of the day's work when we went to The Thirsty Crow for some beer tasting. I encouraged Calamity Sue to try the Vanilla Milk Stout, one of my favourite Aussie beers. I think she liked it...

Obviously, I did not take the below picture, but I saw it on the internet and I wanted to save it because I think it is adorable.

When we returned to Canberra, Calamity Sue was participating in the World's Greatest Shave charity event to raise funds for the Leukaemia Foundation. Lovely Bonkers' First Born and Emma Cake wielded the scissors and the clippers - they partitioned the hair into segments so that it can be made into wigs for those with cancer. Calamity Sue is brave and beautiful, and she looks amazing with long or short locks.

Emma Cake also made a cake (fairly unsurprisingly), which was one of the prizes in the raffle. There was also plenty of food and drink and music - on the way back from Wagga Wagga, we had compiled a play list of several hours' worth of tunes that mention hair, no matter how obliquely (F*ckin Perfect by Pink; I'm looking at you).