Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day in Australia and so of course our thoughts turn to Mom. I've chosen some photos from two different sets for today.

The black-and-white photos below were taken around 1965. Dad and Heidi would remember the verandah outside the lounge that many years later became the bar! In the second photo, that's Timmy Nash and me, with Mom, Dad and Jessie Kathleen Margaret Ireland Sater aka Ganan (Mom's mother and our maternal grandmother). Jessie was born in 1900 so she would be about 65 in this photo.

These photos below were probably taken about ten years later, around 1976. Mom loved her daily swim -- and may well have been remembering these days when she always talked about having a swim in later years.

Happy mother's day to all mothers!

Beer SpecTAPular

Our friends Susara and Anton are visiting from Pretoria, and we have been sharing a whole range of different Melbourne experiences. Last night was the start of a beer festival and the opening event was the 'Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular', a celebration of craft beers and brewers. There were beers on tap from 60 microbreweries in Australia and New Zealand, and food from a number of Melbourne restaurants.

Susara and I are not madly keen on beer but we kept Smuts and Anton company -- and besides, it was held at the Royal Exhibition Building. It's a lovely building. It was built in 1880 during the gold rush (yes, Melbourne had one too). Now it's one of the world's oldest remaining exhibition pavilions and has World Heritage listing. As you can see from the photos below, it's very pretty both outside and inside.

There was a live jazz band and a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night!

Birthday Arnold

Arnold Etter -- father to Rene and Marcel, and our paternal grandfather -- was born on 7 May 1896. That's 116 years ago today!

Here is a selection of the photos that I now have. Rene and Yvette have shared what they remember about them. We think the photo on the left was taken around 1915. Thanks to the photographer's branding, we know it was taken in Weinfelden, a town north-east of Zurich. Weinfelden in the Appenzell, as is Herisau, where he was born. The photo on the right is a later one. Our guess is that it's around 1920. Look at that wonderful moustache!

This photo was taken around 1940, at The Hill, where the Etter family lived a few years after they arrived in South Africa. That's Dad on the left and Rene on the right of their father. According to Rene, he built this German baby glider plane out of balsa wood and silk, painted with thinners and cellulose to tighten the silk. They would go out on to the Heidelberg Road to fly this plane.

These photos were taken (by Rene) around 1945, at The Hill. It was at this time when Yvette met Rene and his family. Yvette says she remembers Arnold pruning the fruit trees on the property.

This photo was taken at a dinner party in the later 1950s. Yvette says this is how she remembers Arnold: exhaling his cigarette smoke very slowly, savouring it to the full.

This is the last photo that we seem to have of Grandfather Arnold. It must be around 1960, because Heidi is about two or three in this picture. I love the attitude and the clothes!

Food, Food, More Food

Dusty and 'Neats' (Anita) took Don and I to lunch at a restaurant separated by dancing fountains from the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world. What an amazing spread which took us a good few hours to eat.



Burj Khalifa - not only the tallest building in the world (828 m), but also the most number of stories in the world (160).



Starters of parma ham, buffalo mozzarella, prawns, calamari, octopus, fried brinjal ...



And main courses of more octopus, salmon, scallops, lobster, prawns ...

Dubai Sky(scraper) Views

We are staying on the 15th floor overlooking Jumeirah Beach.

In the distance we can see Dubai's famous Palms with the Atlantis Hotel in the mist.

The beaches are beautifully white and the sea crystal clear and very warm. Daily the temperatures soar to 40 degrees C.

Paragliding is very popular along these beaches. So too is parachuting.

Aprons and Hammers

This is a new restaurant in Dubai in a real douw, moored at Jumeirah Beach overlooking the bay.

The specialty is buckets of crab, prawns, and mussels caught in the UAE waters. Once the mandatory aprons are on and tied, the selection of tools arrive including hammers to break the crab legs and claws, as well as long thin hooks to prod and scoop out the most succulent crab meat.

Oh ... and the chef happens to be a South African ... !?

The mussels were as good as those in Ballito and after hammering the crab claws we were rewarded with amazing flavours.

MTB Warriors

A birthday present for Don from Jono, the Honda Mountain Trophy which is 2 day mountain bike stage race in the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site, was quite a challenge.

Jono, Tennille and Don conquered the 75 km on Day 1 and another 45 km on Day 2 ... and arrived home with smiles, sore butts, stiff legs, full of mud and a love for this tough sport.

Dad, was mountain biking such a popular sport when you were cycling?

Funny Faces

The Phantom of the Opera has nothing on Don and me ...

Bali beaches

Bali is full of beautiful beaches. We had lunch at Sanur one day, on the east coast. I love the brightly coloured fishing boats, poised like spiders on the sand.

We are staying for three days in Jimbaran Bay, in the south. Jimbaran Bay faces almost due west, so is famous for its sunsets.

This photo sums up a typical day in Jimbaran Bay.

Jimbaran Bay is also famous for the seafood from the local fish market. The fish market is a twenty-minute walk from our hotel along the beach. After we watch the sunset in the evening, we walk along the beach to the restaurants next to the fish market. It's very relaxing ... and it builds the appetite. (I'm taking the photo of the restaurant tables from the water's edge. That's sea spray on the camera lens.)

Bali monkeys

The Sacred Monkey Forest deserves a post on its own!

Balinese Hinduism has a strong element of animism, which is evident in the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud. This is a forest, and temple, where hundreds of long-tailed macaques live the good monkey life.

The funniest part of the experience was when about ten monkeys dived into a pool and splashed about, screaming and shouting like incredibly raucous children. They were chasing each other and jumping off the branches you can see in these photos. It was hilarious.