Show & Tell

Last weekend Daniel came to visit and we Did Canberra. As a result, this post is going to be quite long and full of pictures of no interest except to the people involved. You have been warned.
Extra warning for Dad: Note, very few of these photos contain people.

D arrived last Friday, which provided an excellent excuse for me to use some of my flex and come into work late (after I picked him up at the airport). On Friday we partook in the traditional activities of impulse purchases of expensive things (but expensive things that I need, like a microwave and super fantastico ginormous electric frypan that you can cook cakes in!) and sitting around the lounge room playing with our laptops. Just like old times.

Saturday saw the beginning of the real tourist action. We went to Mt Ainslie and looked at Canberra. All of Canberra. I won't include the photo though as I've put a similar one in an earlier entry (see below). After Mt Ainslie, we visited the War Memorial, which is bigger on the inside, and really, really cool. They have a minature Japanese sub there with a big hole in it and everything. Unfortunately, after hours of wandering around the Memorial, we were too tired to do any further real touristing, so we drove to Tuggeranong (aka Tuggers) to show Daniel where I worked and how much it looked like Forest Lake. I'm afraid I don't have a photo to confirm this similarity, but I shall endevour to get one for the non-believers.

Sunday saw Daniel and I going alone (Dale opted to stay at home sleeping - although he complained when we got back that we'd left without him, he was quickly subdued when we told him where we'd been).

The day began at New Parliament House:



We opted to take a free tour, which began in the Great Hall (or something like that). There is a big tapestry on the wall of some significance (although I can't remember what). The tapestry is
based on a painting, but, in order to date the tapestry, the tapesters added a white blur which represents Halley's comet (which presumably passed by in the same year that the tapestry was made). I didn't get a picture of the tapestry, but here is a picture of the original painting. Note the absence of Halley's comet in the upper left corner.

I learnt a lot of interesting and (Daniel assures me) not entirely accurate things about Australian government while on the tour. I won't regale you with them here, but here is a picture of the House of Representatives (green) and the Senate (red) where the politicians do all their voting for stuff. Apparently the colours (red and green) are based on the colours used in their British counterparts, but we were a bit rebellious and used different shades of green and red, opting for colours which occur in the Australian bush. Aren't we wild?




Following the tour, we took a trip up to the roof to check out the view. If you really want, I can show you the pictures, but they're not that great. Really. Don't get me wrong, the view is great, the pictures just didn't turn out all that fantastic. I also found some chairs that I think I would like to have in my dining room (when I get a dining room).

(Dad, note the inclusion of Daniel in this photo to satisfy your urge to have people in photos.)

I also took the obligatory photo of the flagpole from directly below:

Following our tour of New Parliament House we walked (yes! with our feet and everything!) down to Old Parliament House, which is very, very different to New Parliament House. Where New Parliament House is all shiny marble and polished wood and expensive artwork, Old Parliament House is all corridors and offices and eighties decor. New Parliament House is a lovely building which the tour operators show to the public while the politicians work away behind the scenes. At Old Parliament House you can actually see where it all happened. New Parliament House is nice, but old Parliament House has atmosphere. To give you an idea of the difference, here's a photo of the Senate at Old Parliament House:

As you can see, it's a fair bit more crowded (which pretty much sums up all of Old Parliament House)

Ok, Blogger is starting to play up now (I don't think it likes me having all these photos in the one entry) so, if it's alright with you I might just continue this in a new entry.