A pirate to remember

Whilst in Shoal bay this shop sign caught my eye. Unfortunately the Shop had gone out of business prior to my arrival yet obviously the sign remained. The sign caught my eye due to my love of Movies and in particular my love of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Shoal Bay

It was during our stop at Shoal Bay that we managed to catch up with a small amount of history on location we were visiting and treaking around. Port Stephens is larger than Sydney harbour and has a narrow entrance between two striking hills of volcanic origin. The harbour is mostly shallow and sandy but contains sufficient deep water to accommodate large vessels, the Queen Mary docked there during World war 2.

Port Stephens were named by Captain Cook, when he passed on 11 May 1770, honouring Sir Phillip Stephens who was Secretary of the Admiralty and a personal friend of Cook. It seems Cook's initial choice had actually been Point Kepple and Kepple Bay, but instead he used Kepple later.

The area surrounding Port Stephens has mostly rather poor soil, and had limited agricultural potential. For this reason, no large towns developed there historically and it was never developed as a significant port.

This is why it remains unspoilt to this day by industry.

The major city and port of Newcastle developed at the mouth of the Hunter River , about 50 kilometers south of Port Stephens. A number of small towns developed around the port as fishing, holiday and retirement communities. Since the 1970s, with improved road access from Sydney, and the increasing popularity of coastal retirement lifestyles, there has been major expansion of these towns.

Tomaree Head

Whilst the rain remained we visited a few more locations along the eastern end of the bay. At the furthest eastern point on the Sothern side of the bay is Tomaree Head. There is a timber walkway to guide you from a muddy pothole riddled car park through the native bush land and down onto the white sandy beach. At each end of this relatively short beach stand some impressively sized mountains as if guarding the beach, they block vision to anything beyond the beach you are standing on.You can however see the small Islands off the eastern coast that are used by local sightseeing businesses along with fishermen, whale watchers and diving expeditions. Our visit to the beach saw only two other people, this I would put down to the poor weather rather than the beach itself.

Fingal Bay

As previously stated the rain made the first few days of this trip a little average. We did still pop out and check a few of the nearby sights out. At the point of Port Stephens is a beach and a lookout known as Fingal Bay. Fingal bay, whilst quite small has a few beautiful sights. at the point of the headland stands a Whale watching perch with a few rocky islands in front of it. We did not stand in the pelting rain for too long as the numbing sensation that was coming over our skin due to the rain coming in at sixty degree angles prevailed over the desire to wait in the vain hope that maybe we would see some form of aquatic life. Even through mud, rain and what felt like hail i still found the location somewhat amazing. It may be worth my while to return when the weather and marine life behave a little more favorably.

Four day Get Away

Another trip just competed with no official cause or need, I received a four night stay in a resort located in Nelsons bay on the banks of Port Stephens as a Birthday gift and ducked up mid week to take full advantage of it. Throughout the duration of this trip we traveled to several locations around port Stephens however for the first half of the trip the weather was mildly miserable yet we still made the effort to get out see the places and get some great photos.
I will add a heap of images and some details about where we went and what we saw over the next few days.

Wicked

Today I depart for Nelsons bay and had thought I would be Blogging about the up coming trip but I find myself distracted. Several weeks back I committed to buying a ticked to the Broadway musical known as Wicked.

The last time I sat in a live Musical performance that was not held by my high school was over twenty years ago. I distinctly remember as a small child not knowing what was happening, simply displaying behavior similiar to a small kitten, clapping and cheering and loud noises, gleeful songs and bright lights. As a result I had this misconception in my mind that I struggle to keep up with the story line of musicals. In hindsight this is mildly ridicules as keeping up with a Gilbert and Sullivan performance is hard at the best of times but when your five years old its dam near impossible.

I was pleasantly surprised as I sipped on a twelve dollar cocktail and ate my six dollar packet of M&M's that I not only was able to keep up with the story line of the Musical but that I really did enjoy it.

I enjoyed this for two reasons. The first was the number of people attending. My sister had organised this event through the church and had over forty people attend. A combined event with people from all aspects of the church community came together, People from Cube, Neon, Musical School and the church congregation. This was fantastic to see.

Secondly was the musical itself,without spoiling the plot or the sheer awesomeness of the show I will try and do it some small form of justice here on my blog.

Any form of entertainment is successful when you as the viewer are sucked in, your subconscious believes for a small period of time that you as the viewer are there experiencing what the characters are experiencing. I'm no professional in the arts but I feel this is done by by playing on your emotions and senses.
I believe that a musical is even harder then a film to get the audiance to that point of believing they are there experiencing it but this musical does it. You walk out of the theater and you find yourself shocked that people aren't breaking out in song or leaping around the room like idiots.

An amazing set that would have taken hundreds of man hours, costumes, hair and makeup that would cost a fortune, visual effects, life size dragons and surround sound all made this performance amazing, coupled with an amazing story line, brilliance comes in many forms but to think up a story line that surrounds a childhood classic as solid in history as the Wizard of Oz yet does not damage the classic story in any way is pure genius and I would highly recomend it to any one, even if your not a musical person, its well worth it.

A past trip recalled

Several Months back I travelled south with many members of my Church Community, I touched on this trip briefly with a few posts a while back but did not give the trip too much air time on the Blog. The trip was only a few short days but was fantastic for getting some of the tuff questions out and the nitty gritty for some of the cube members when it came to getting past the sugar coated side to Christian Faith and really got down to what its all about. In two short days I’m off on another trip and am hoping for more of the same in depth questions. Here is a shot you tube clip of the trip to Shoal Haven put together by my father.

Manly Food and Wine Festival

A hazy Friday night with Vish resulted in the consumption of a large amount of beer and a two am Taxi ride to MacDonald s. The night was planned as a catch up with a mate I met on road trip and turned into a bit of a bender. The night ended up watching a variety of stand up comedians and lying around at home feeling overly bloated and significantly pissed.
The following day was planed to duck into Manly for an all day breakfast at about one in the afternoon. Upon arrival we realised not only that manly Councils parking rates were obscene but that we had chosen the most populated place on the North Shore that day.

Our event clashed with the Manly Food and Wine Festival. The overcast weather did not keep the punters at home, three weeks of monsoonal weather, followed by the first hint of a partially dry day seemed to attract everyone to Manly. Rather then lodge a formal complaint that this event had distorted our planned hangover remedy of scrambled eggs in the early afternoon, we just got into the atmosphere and drunk up. All sorts of Wine samples from across the state were on sample for a small fee along with some fantastic cuisine from local business. Adopting the theory that the longest lines were for the better products we managed to get ourselves a feed of Thai and some somewhat impressive deserts and the long waits were well worth it.
The Festival attracts people from all across the state and the local area of Manly was absolutely packed with people, a brilliant event for the local businesses and as fate would have it we both stumbled across it by accident. I did have a 21st to attend latter that day, It was a very long weekend.

The Most Spectacular Woman in the World

I was reluctant to throw the title in here, as i felt the opinion may be somewhat bias it was at this point i came to blatant obvious that blogs are bias and in fact only really operate on bias opinions of the author. So as the author of this blog I can safely say that she is the most amazing woman in my life (with the exception of my Mum, I think that’s assumed)
Sophie is currently the woman I love and recent relationship matters have shown me just how much crap she quietly puts up with. In a manner similar to a love sick school boy I want to tell the whole world (well ten blog followers, one of which is Sophie) how wonderful I think she is. People of many faiths claim to be able to converse with the spiritual realms and interact with angels, I have no desire to do so I already have Soph.
She is a woman who stood by me when I announced I was planning to quit my job, volunteer and travel. Many of my travels have included her as she packs and heads off with me, I don’t think this is such a huge sacrifice for her as she seems to enjoy the places we have seen and worked in together. She has unconditional support for all the church programs I adopt or create and is always the first person to participate in any of them.
Without divulging to deeply into the personal sides of the relationship , I have fortuitously fallen in love with someone who has the patience to cope with me and has the ability to keep up with the demands a relationship with me has and seems to have the time of her life doing so. Who could ask for more?
It has now become apparent when writing this that I do not actually tell her any of this, that’s something I shall remedy.

Our Eyes Keep Telling Lies

One of my favorite music groups who seemed to be a little unknown. The group is the Ells, you will recognise some of the music from the Shrek soundtrack but here is one of the pieces i like performed live.

A Visit to Black Sunday

A cold and damp Tuesday night in Sydney is as good a reason as any to pop down to one of Sydneys spectacular sights, Bondi Beach. Our planned route proved useless as Sydney council works seemed to have blocked off multiple lanes on the Harbor Bridge to sit, drink warm coffee and smoke rather then actually repair anything so we diverted through the city center. Arriving in Bondi with hoodies pulled tight to reduce the windchill factor, we wandered up across the walking bridge and took a glance up the main drag. Approaching ten in the evening on a weeknight, the area was still very alive with people sneaking a late night feed, sheltering from the rain on the way from the bus stop or just enjoying the coffee and ice cream available from the beach front shops. We ducked into a pizzeria for my lady friend to use the facilities and whilst I waited I ordered what would turn out to be an average cup of coffee (at that time of night you don't complain).

The pelting horizontal rain had temporary subsided so we scurried across the footpath attempting to dodge puddles and small streams that had formed across the pavement. We paused on the kerbside to wait for the passing traffic when I was taken back by the effect the lights from the shops behind us were causing in the water pooled across the road. As uncomfortable and annoying as winter and torrential rain for weeks at a time can be there is some amazing sights caused by it at the same time if you take a moment to take them in.
For the next half hour or so the rain held off, so some quick photos of the landscape and the downpour recommenced so we scurried back to the car to head into the CBD for some more photo opportunities.

Upon returning home I did a little bit of research on the area. My research consists of Wikipedia however I did find out that on Bondi Beach on Sunday February 6th 1938, 5 people drowned and over 250 people were rescued after a series of large waves struck the beach and pulled people back into the sea, a day that became known as Black Sunday. Just a little bit of History there for you.

The Ball Keeps Rolling

I'm not one who understands or has the patience for politics. People who argue and state things that they may not actually agree with yet feel the need to state in order to keep favour with the general public are not worth the air they breath in my view. I am well aware of the need for politicians in our society but throughout my time I have had dealings with several over multiple issues in the past and have not once had one come forward with the goods promised. I was pleasantly surprised when the link to this video arrived in my in box. It was titled

"Last night, at 9:15pm, the Act to End Poverty was moved through the House of Representatives!"

Of the hundreds of politicians the road trip came in contact with three seem to have the courage and voiced up for our cause. The video is the three politicians moving the motion (i believe that's the correct terminology) through the house of representatives. After these three finished speaking the motion was passed. The motion has now passed in both houses of parliament. Whilst this does not equal the completion of the campaign it was such a massive steeping stone. Its difficult to lay out in words my feelings right now but as Vishal Sood said to me last night.

"I was an active member in a campaign that was passed through both houses of parliament"

That's got to be worth some form of bragging rights.

The Act to End Poverty is moved through the House of Representatives from Peter Willis on Vimeo.