Willem's Planet – Page 58 – a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010

October 25, 2022

Tuesday/ at the bookstore 📚

I spent a little time today at the used book store called Archives Fine Books, on Charlotte Street in the city.
I walked out with a book of British cartoons, printed in 1962.

October 24, 2022October 24, 2022

Monday/ the river ferry 🚤

I embarked at the West End and disembarked at South Bank.

**Orleigh Park** on the banks of the Brisbane River, with the ferry terminal just ahead on the right. Run, Forrest, run! I told myself. I was good that I did, because they closed the boarding gate just a minute after I had embarked.

The ferries are branded CityCat (Cat for catamaran?). There are 23 of these plying the waters of the Brisbane river, and 5 smaller vessels called KittyCats.
This one arrived at the **West End ferry terminal** just as we were departing from there.

The CityCat ferries are constructed locally, in Brisbane.
This vessel was launched in August 2020. Length is 27.2 m (89 ft), beam 7.95 m (26 ft).

Here’s the **Merivale Railway Bridge** with a double track. It opened in Nov. 1978, 43 years ago.
This rail crossing is the only one across the Brisbane River, and a bottleneck for rail transport in the metro area.
The massive **Cross River Rail project**, underway since 2019, is a new 10.2 km (6.3 mi) rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, which includes 5.9 km (3.6 mi) of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River. The first services are expected to start operating by late 2025.

The **William Jolly Bridge**— named after William Jolly, the first Lord Mayor of the Greater Brisbane City Council during the construction of the bridge from 1928 to 1932. (So no, not named after Willem/ William the Jolly Ferry Rider! ).

As bridges over the Brisbane River go, this one is new: the **Kurilpa Bridge** is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that opened in 2009.

Here’s the end of my jolly ride, at the **South Bank ferry terminal**, with the Queens Wharf construction project across the river.

The sun was out in full force today, here in Brisbane in Australia’s Sunshine State
(30 °C/ 86 °F).

I was in the West End where I spotted the ferry at the terminal there. I made a run for it and hopped on.

October 23, 2022October 23, 2022

Sunday/ Wynnam Mangrove 🌱

Wynnum Station is as close as one can get to the shoreline with the train. It’s a 15 min walk to the beach, and then another 10 or so to Wynnum Mangrove.

There are beautiful fig trees next to the footpath that leads to the Wynnum Mangrove boardwalk.

The boardwalk is about 500 m (546 yards) long.

High tide was still a few hours away when I was there this afternoon, so I suspect this area is under water at high tide. This intertidal zone along the shoreline is either flooded or soaking wet, and the vegetation tolerate the brackish water well enough to flourish.

A beautiful leaf, but I have not been able to identify the type of tree that it belongs to.

Hello beautiful bird! A rainbow lorikeet, one of six or so in a tree in the suburbs of Wynnum.

Here comes the train. I am on Wynnum station on the Shorncliffe Line. The train would take me to back Park Road station where I had set out from earlier.

It was time for me to make a run out to the Pacific Ocean*. (My brother’s car from Perth has arrived, and we will drive up north to the Sunshine Coast as soon as we have a sunny day).

*Technically, I was looking out over Moreton Bay and the Coral Sea, but it’s all connected to the Pacific Ocean.

October 22, 2022October 22, 2022

Saturday/ a day at the museum 🏛

There was more rain today, and so we checked into the Queensland Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.
Both of these are free to the public.

Queensland Museum

There has been expansive **voyaging and cultural interactions across the Coral Sea** (between what is today called Australia and Papua New Guinea), with seafaring craft like the model shown here. Evidence of human activity in the region dates back 6,500 years.

There is a large **natural history collection** on display on the third and fourth floor— of land animals, birds and fish.

There are 51 species of box jellyfish, large and small.
The one on the right is the infamous irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi).
From the display case text:
‘Although irukandji are the smallest of the box jellyfish group, they are the deadliest. Stings are recorded every year, with some victims needing hospital treatment. Nevertheless, only 3 deaths have been attributed to irukandji the last 100 years. Always wear a stinger-suit when swimming in tropical Queensland’.
P.S. I see Stinger Suit™ is actually a trademark for the nylon/ latex bodysuit. The models wearing the suit still have bare faces, hands and feet, though. Maybe I will keep things simple and just stay out of the water altogether.

Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art

**Kudusur (2017), artist Alick Tipoti**
The mural Kudusur (‘poling with elbow’) depicts the spiritual ancestors and brothers called Thoegay and Kang, extending their elbows and using them as paddles for their canoe.

**Under the Jacaranda (1903), artist R. Godfrey Rivers**
Oil on canvas. Purchased in 1903.
Brisbane is full of jacarandas, in bloom right now, like in the painting— but the tree is not native. It comes from South America.

**Dispela meri Lady Diana (‘This woman is Lady Diana’) (1998), artist John Kawage**
John Kawage is from Papua New Guinea, and used synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Purchased in 1999.

**Vertigoats (2021), artist Justene Williams**
It depicts a humorous questioning of the desire to ‘climb the ladder’ of the social and economic order.

October 21, 2022October 21, 2022

Friday/ lots of rain 🌧

It was raining today, and I took the No 454 bus from Queen Street Mall that ran out to Indooroopilly* to see some of suburban Brisbane.

*Derived from either the local Aboriginal word nyindurupilli, meaning ‘gully of the leeches’ or yindurupilly meaning ‘gully of running water’ (Source: Wikipedia)

I got off the bus just to go back and take a decent picture— instead of a drive-by picture through the soggy window pane— of the **Royal Exchange Hotel** at 10 High Street, Toowong. It was constructed in 1886.
The hotel’s pub featured in the 2007 film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. In 2013, The Guardian newspaper referred to it as a “cult film” inspired by “a typically Brisbane lament: the departure of people in their late 20s to Sydney, Melbourne, London or New York”.

October 20, 2022October 20, 2022

Thursday/ driving south, to Gold Coast 🏝

It’s a straight shot down south on the M1 Pacific Motorway from Brisbane to Gold Coast. The 110 km/h speed limit equals 68 mph.
The price of gas is roughly equal to what we have in the USA: AUS $1.77 per liter which is USA $4.23 per gallon.

Gold Coast is famous for its surf —and for surfing.

We took the train back from Varsity Lakes the very last stop on the Gold Coast railway line that runs up all the way to Brisbane Airport. Varsity refers to Bond University nearby, and the Lakes is a reference to the swampy terrain around the Nerang River making its way to the Pacific Ocean.

Here comes our train. We boarded and while we were waiting for the train to depart, the station attendant came through and did a perfunctory wipe-down of all the railings inside the train cars. ‘It’s the very last day I’m doing this’, she told us. (It had been a COVID protocol until today).

My sister-in-law and I drove down to Gold Coast this morning.
We had borrowed my niece’s car for a few days and took it back to her.
(The other family car had been shipped from Perth, and word is that it has arrived in Brisbane harbor).

October 19, 2022October 19, 2022

Wednesday/ Story Bridge 🌫

Story Bridge was constructed in 1940 and is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia. It is named after prominent public servant John Douglas Story.

The south end of Story Bridge rests on **Kangaroo Point**, the tip of a narrow strip of land just east of downtown Brisbane.

There is a promenade around **Captain Burke Park**, all around Kangaroo Point. I am approaching the Bridge from the southwest.

This is **The Rock (1988)** by artist Stephen Killick (epoxy paint on concrete). It featured in the World Expo ’88 in Brisbane and was later moved to this location in Captain Burke Park.

I made it down right to the river’s sandy edge, with steps down from the promenade path. Across the water under the bridge, is a microbrewery called **Felons Brewing Co**.

On the southeast side of the bridge, and looking towards the northwest.

There is a project underway to restore the below-deck steel on the bridge.

I was too tired of walking to walk towards the north over the bridge, so I took the bus! The bus is heading north towards downtown Brisbane.

And here’s the view from the spot where I had a bite to eat. This is the **Riverside Ferry Terminal**, looking northeast towards the bridge.

October 18, 2022October 21, 2022

Tuesday/ at the zoo 🦘

We drove north for an hour or so today, to get to the Australia Zoo.
The zoo was founded in 1970 by Bob and Lyn Irwin (parents of ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin of television fame) and is still owned by the Irwin family.

**Australia Zoo** is an hour north of Brisbane, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It’s been 16 years since the tragic death of Steve Irwin, the famous ‘Crocodile Hunter’ from television.

**Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis)**, the largest extant species of lizard and endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang.

**Dingo (Canis lupus dingo)**. The dingo is an ancient lineage of dog. ‘Their genome is substantially different from modern dog breeds, suggesting the canines have never been domesticated in the past’, says newscientist.com.

Here’s ‘Mossman’, a 13-ft **saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)**. Mossman was a troublemaker in the rural town of Mossman near Cairns— and subsequently caught and relocated to the Australian Zoo.

Look but do not touch. A **dyeing poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius)**, this exotic creature is found in the rain forests of Guiana and Venezuela. They are highly toxic if consumed, and just touching them will cause a numb sensation on the skin.

The taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus)— probably Australia’s most famous venomous snake. They are large, fast-moving, highly venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. They defend themselves with a number of lightning fast strikes.

Come and get it! Feeding time for these short-legged, muscular marsupials that are called **wombats (Vombatus ursinus).**

A **rose-crowned fruit dove (Ptilinopus regina)** in the large bird enclosure.

An **eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)** in ‘chill mode’ in the kangeroo enclosure.

At the far end of the kangaroo enclosure there is a handful of trees with **koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus)**. Do not say koala bear, since they are not bears: they are arboreal herbivorous marsupials. The game wardens keep an eye on them and see that they have a fresh supply of eucalyptus branches to munch on.

Here and there in the park, there are life-sized dinosaur models, very artfully done. **Spinosaurus** (this one is nesting) roamed around 97 million years ago in what is now North Africa. They ate fish and crocodiles and lived for up to 100 years.

I love this **Pterosaur**. These creatures lived 228 million years ago, along the coasts of Europe and all the way down to southern Africa, and could become up to 150 years old.

October 17, 2022October 17, 2022

Monday/ Central Station

I took the train to the city to check out Brisbane Central Station today.

Here comes my train: the northbound train on the Ferny Grove Line approaching the Park Road Station.

Four stops later gets one to **Central Station**. There are 6 platforms for the 6 lines that serve the city and its suburbs. I had just stepped off the train.

Inside the **main hall of Central Station**: a pretty standard train station hallway with information screens, ticket counters and a few places to get something to eat.

The **Ann Street entrance** and the original 1889 building for the Brisbane Central Station.

**St Andrew’s Uniting Church**, at the corner of Ann Street and Creek Street. Designed by George David Payne and built in 1905 by Alexander Lind & Son.

**Anzac Square & Memorial Galleries** is located just across the street from Central Station. This is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dedicated Memorial Queensland, in honor of First Nations servicemen and women in Brisbane. The memorial is brand new, and was unveiled in May of 2022.

A little further on is **Post Office Square** with stores and a food hall below street level. The main Australia Post post office is across the street. I endeavored to buy some 2022 issue Australian postage stamps, one set with Australian dinosaurs on and another set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but they were out of stock on both counts.

These interesting geometric window pane patterns are on the **Brisbane Club Tower** nearby.

There is coffee everywhere in the city, and a few Starbucks locations as well. I thought Starbucks had withdrawn entirely from Australia, but there are still 50 or so locations in the Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney areas.

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022

Sunday/ Queen Street Mall

I took the No 120 bus to the bus terminal under the Queen Street Mall in downtown Brisbane today.

The **Queen Street bus terminal** is reached by tunnels under the Queen Street Mall. It’s best to check with Google Maps to make sure you wait at the right place! (and Google’s Platform 1-E is the same as Platform 1e on the signs).

There was a flea market on **Brisbane Square** today. That’s the **Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane** in the distance.

The art deco façade of the **1929 York Hotel** was preserved when the Myer Centre at the Queen Street Mall was constructed in 1982.

Another building, that of the **Hotel Carlton** (constructed 1891), was preserved, along with its beautiful wrought iron railings.

These kangaroos are at the corner of Queen Street and George Street.

Walking along George Street, and looking up at the **W Hotel** (front, opened in 2018) and **The One** condo tower (at the back, opened this year).

Looking out from the entrance at the **Brisbane Magistrate offices** off George Street.
The aluminum and concrete artwork was installed in 2009 and the artist is Daniel Templeman.

**The McDonnell & East Ltd Building** at 414 George Street is a former department store, and now a heritage-listed building. It was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and built from 1912 to 1928 by Andrew Gillespie.

Here’s the **Albert Street Uniting Church**, holding its own against its concrete and steel neighbors. It was designed by George Addison and built in 1888-89 by Thomas Pearson & Sons.

A pair of kangaroos on **King George Square**. Mama kangaroo has a joey in her pouch (a baby kangaroo is called a joey).

Here’s **Brisbane City Hall**, inaugurated in 1930. The building design is based on a combination of the Roman Pantheon, and St Mark’s Campanile in Venice— and is considered one of Brisbane’s finest buildings.

I made my way back to the **Queen Street Mall**, standing under a large steel and glass canopy and contemplating if the two colors on the historic old building complement each other well enough.

Here’s a **Tesla Model 3** slipping into a parking garage nearby.
I thought BUZINGA might be Australian for Yowza! or something like that. All that a Google search revealed is that Buzinga is a cutting-edge software company in Melbourne.

Here’s a classic **Queen Victoria** statue, this one keeping watch over the grounds of the **Queens Gardens Park**. Victoria’s reign of 63 yrs (1837 -1901) has been eclipsed only by the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Taking a closer look at the **Queens Wharf Tower** construction project nearby, at 1 William Street. It is scheduled to open in 2023.

October 15, 2022October 15, 2022

Saturday/ the saga of the lost luggage

To MR WILLEM
Hi sir we are sending a msgs to let you know the progress of your missing luggage unfortunately the number you had provide is unreachable please give us a call 0481011572 .
Regards
Swissport

I made the phone ring off the hook at that number, sent an email back on Friday. No response.
The courier showed up this morning with one bag.

Off I went to the airport, when my phone finally rang. Swissport Baggage Service. They have my other bag, working on a courier that could deliver it between 1 pm and 5 pm.
Well – you’re too late, I said. Your logistics had failed me multiple times. I’m on my way to the airport to retrieve the bag in person.

The TransLink train, departing Park Road Station, after I had stepped off with my luggage in hand.

I love the chromed (?) benches at the station and the simple, straight-forward information station next to it.

Looking down on the station after taking the lift (Australian for elevator) to get me across a set of tracks to the other side of the station.

October 14, 2022October 14, 2022

Friday/ the South Bank

We took the bus this morning to South Brisbane and South Bank, on the banks of the Brisbane river.

Inside the **Route 125** bus on the way to the **South Bank** bus station. The TransLink Go card that I had used on the train yesterday, is good for buses and ferries as well.

This is **Street Beach** on the banks of the Brisbane River. The sand is trucked in from the a beach on the coast! The green is a large swimming pool. The brown above the green is the Brisbane River.
The prominent skyscraper in the middle is **1 William Street** (42 floors, opened in 2016).
The construction project to its left is **Queen’s Wharf Brisbane**, scheduled for completion in late 2023. It will contain high-end residences (around US $2 million) and public spaces and entertainment venues.

The **Clem Jones Promenade** runs along the river, with a green space and magnificent fig trees providing shade for warm summer days.

This is the **Nepalese Peace Pagoda** nearby, that was built in 1988 by craftsmen from Kathmandu for the Brisbane Expo 88.

Looking northeast towards the downtown skyline. The **Victoria Bridge** (concrete, constructed in 1969) is on the far left. The skyscraper on the left is ‘**The One**‘ apartment (condominium) tower that had opened earlier this year (82 floors). The **Queen’s Wharf Brisbane** construction project is on the right.

The intersection of **Queen Street & William Street** on the opposite side of the Brisbane River, at the Victoria Bridge. The periwinkle, yellow, orange and lime green buildings are part of a public square called **Reddacliff Place**, named in honor of prominent Brisbane architect Trevor Reddacliff (born 1942, dec. 2005).
The **Treasury Building** on the right, was constructed in 1930. It is now the home of the Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane.

The **Australian white ibis** is found across Australia, and I have already seen a few of them here in the city. They eat frogs, fish, crustaceans and —scraps of food that humans may have discarded on the streets.

October 12, 2022October 13, 2022

Thursday/ I am down under 🤸🏻‍♂️

My phone’s lock screen looks different now (the green dot is Brisbane).

It’s Thursday here in Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia.
The traveler made his two connections but his checked luggage did not.
The connection in Auckland was trouble, because we left San Francisco 90 minutes late. I had to make a mad dash for the gate in Auckland to make the final connection to Brisbane.

Ready to depart from **Seattle-Tacoma airport’s Terminal A**.
At the top right of the picture is the new skybridge for international arrivals.

Here’s the trouble, at **San Francisco airport**. The check-in desk is getting swamped, because a large number of passengers **with bar-coded boarding passes**, had to have their documents & New Zealand visas checked one more time (my boarding pass did not have ‘TRAVEL READY’ printed on it). The computer system failed, and processing one passenger would take 5 minutes. I showed the agent my NZ visa on my phone, and the system could not pick it up. United Airlines— and New Zealand— SURELY this is not the first time you fly passengers from SFO to New Zealand. Why has this not been fixed?

Sunrise over the south **Pacific Ocean**, from 38,000 feet up.

Here’s beautiful and spectacular **New Zealand**, on our final approach into **Auckland International airport** on the North Island.

Auckland international airport. I know I’m late, but I still wanted to snap this picture of the Boeing 777-200 that had flown us across the Pacific Ocean for 13 hours.

The late arrival into Auckland international airport made me run all the way to the other side of the international terminal at Auckland airport: a good 1/2 mile.

The final leg of the trip from Auckland to Brisbane. We are still crossing time zones in the western direction, but now gaining two hours back. So the Seattle +19 hours at Auckland became Seattle +17 hours in Brisbane.

Here’s New Zealand Air’s **Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner** bird that left Auckland, at the gate at Brisbane.

The Airport Line stops at Brisbane International airport’s domestic terminal and at the international terminal. I took the train to Park Road Station south of downtown Brisbane to get to the apartment that I will stay in (next to the one my brother and his family had rented).

October 11, 2022

Tuesday/ at the airport ✈️

I’m in the United Airlines lounge across from gate A10 (in Terminal A) here at Sea-Tac airport.
I have a short layover in San Francisco— if my Airbus A319 is going to pull up at the arrival gate by more than 30 mins late, I’m going to have to hurry up to board the flight to Auckland. (Looks like an on-time departure here out of Seattle, so it should be fine).

Unfortunately there is no view of tarmac from inside the United lounge here at gate A10. Check out these vintage photos mounted on the walls, though. The ‘Mainliner 300’ is the name United Airlines gave to the Douglas DC-6: a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958.

This picture of a United Airlines ‘Mainliner 300’ over San Francisco is probably from the late ’40s or early ’50s.
‘Streaking across the continent at an average speed of 6 miles a minute, United Airlines’ great new Mainliner 300, the Douglas DC-6, on March 29 established a new coast-to-coast record of 6 hours 47 minutes 13 seconds for commercial planes’ — from a newspaper report in 1947.

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022

Monday/ packing my bags 🇦🇺

Here we are in October of 2022, and the time has finally come for my first post-Covid international trip. I have one bout of Covid (in June) and five vaccine shots under the belt. And I have my flu shot for when I come back to the United States.

Yes, I am taking my vaccine card, and I have a QR-code for it on my phone, but neither New Zealand (a transit stop) nor Australia (my final destination) require quarantine, health forms to be filled out or even proof of vaccination. Nada.

I will certainly take my mask to the airport and onto the airplane, so that I can put it on if I feel uncomfortable, or if I have to go to the confined space of the airplane lavatory.

I leave tomorrow night (Tuesday), with stops in San Francisco and in Auckland, New Zealand. Final destination Brisbane, Australia. My flights will take me west and south, across the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean and across the international date line. There’s Hawaii to the left of the flight path (top image), and then it’s on to New Zealand’s North Island for a stop at Auckland. Then on to Brisbane, in Australia’s state of Queensland.
[Images of Earth generated by Google Earth]

October 9, 2022October 9, 2022

Sunday/ Georgia’s senators

Here are Georgia’s two senators (both Democrats), working the crowds at this weekend’s Atlanta Gay Pride Festival.
Looking sharp !

**Sen. Raphael Warnock** (53) on the left, and **Sen. Jon Ossoff** (35) on the right.
Sen. Warnock is running against ex-football star Hershel Walker (60) in what should not even be a close race (Warnock leads by 4% or so in the polls). Walker has zero political experience, and is an anti-abortion rights candidate accused of paying for a former sexual partner’s abortion in 2009 (she has the receipt and a get-well card from him).
Sen. Ossoff will be up for reelection in 2026.
[Photo posted by Jon Ossoff @ossoff on Twitter]

October 8, 2022October 9, 2022

Saturday/ one month to the mid-term election 📃

The 2022 mid-term election is one month away.

Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House, Democrat) said on The Stephen Colbert Show recently that the Democrats will keep the House.
Karl Rove (political consultant) concluded in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that ‘The three most plausible scenarios are a 50-50 Senate, 51-49 Republican or 51-49 Democrat. A 52-48 Senate either way is possible but unlikely’.

It’s not just about control in the House and Senate, though.
Some gubernatorial races (for governor of a State) are neck-and-neck, and if 2020 Election Outcome Deniers (Republicans) win those, it could make for serious trouble in the 2024 general election.
In Arizona and Georgia, the Republican gubernatorial candidates say they would not have certified Biden’s win in 2020. (The incumbent Republican governors both did.)

The cover of The New Yorker magazine 4 years ago, after the 2018 mid-term elections.
The artist is Barry Blitt. The description was ‘Welcome to Congress: Newly elected, diverse group of Representatives come through the door into a colorless line drawing of current white male members of congress’.
We still need more women to vote, more women to become representatives and senators, and of course: we still have not had a female president in the United States.

October 7, 2022October 7, 2022

Friday/ bridging the gap

If you’re going to fly on long-haul international flights again after Covid (and I will, soon), you’re going to need noise-canceling headphones for your phone or tablet.

I ditched my last device that still had a headphone jack, last year —a very old iPad— which left my wired Bose headphones stranded, disconnected. Apple has fancy new wireless noise-canceling AirPods out, but why spend $275* if you still have perfectly fine headphones?

*That’s including sales tax. The over-the-ear noise-canceling wireless Apple AirPods Max come to $600. I will only buy a pair of those ‘when my ship has come in’, as they say.

Here is what I went with instead:

The USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter will have to do it for now ($8 on Amazon). Eventually I might upgrade my noise-canceling headphones to wireless ones. Headphones like these last a very, very long time if you take good care of them.

October 6, 2022October 6, 2022

Thursday/ lookin’ out my front door 🚪

Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I’m singin’
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
There’s a giant doin’ cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancin’ on the lawn
Dinosaur Victrola, listenin’ to Buck Owens
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
– From Lookin’ Out My Back Door, song by Creedence Clearwater Revival from the album Cosmo’s Factory, released 1970.
(A dinosaur Victrola is an old record player with a horn speaker).

The last thing the contractors painted this afternoon was the porch. They cleaned up right after that and left after we did our final inspection together.

Here’s the repainted Timid White at my front porch, with the same sturdy gray porch paint that I had before. I may have to add another ‘obstacle’ in front of the steps. That one blue ribbon with WET PAINT written on it may not be enough to deter the mailman and other visitors before it’s too late!

October 5, 2022October 6, 2022

Wednesday/ tennis in Astana 🎾

This week’s ATP 500 tennis tournament is hosted by the city called Astana. And where in the world is Astana, would you say? It’s in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, and called ‘the world’s weirdest capital city’ by CNN in a 2012 story.

Tennis only became a significant sport in Kazakhstan due to the crusade and a labor of love by billionaire Bulat Utemuratov, in a campaign that had started 15 years ago in 2007.

Matthew Futterman writes in the New York Times:
Using almost entirely Utemuratov’s money, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation went on a building spree, investing roughly $200 million — nearly a tenth of his estimated fortune — to construct 38 tennis centers in all 17 regions of the country. It trained hundreds of coaches and instructors and imported some from Europe. It subsidized lessons for young children and adolescents who can train six days a week for $40-$120 per month. The best juniors receive as much as $50,000 to pay for training and travel.