RICHARD
MICHAEL MOORE
Confessions of a happy ‘drunk’ KATE MEIKLE
Rosy world of humble apples CEDRIC BRYANT
Giulia is no electoral loser LETTERS
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By Kathryn Vukovljak
RUNNING a successful digital marketing and travel business from her O’Malley home is all in a day’s work for Stephenie Rodriguez.
Specialising in marketing to travellers, Stephenie’s small but global female-led business, Mighty Media Group (MMG), won “Frontier” magazine’s Travel Technology Innovator of the Year award in Cannes in October for a campaign she designed, developed and deployed from her home office.
And her current project, online travel platform JOZU for Women, is due to launch in January to help women to travel better and safer.
“I’m a 20-year veteran in digital marketing, but I’ve been working in the travel retail, duty free, airlines, airports and hotel marketing exclusively now since 2009,” Stephenie says.
“I travel internationally more than I’m here, and there are so many times that I’ve been in hotels that are not female suitable, and there’s no way of knowing that beforehand – and men don’t tend to find the same things less palatable.”
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the US, married mum Stephenie, 47, says she emigrated to Australia in 1999 and moved to the ACT with her Canberra-born husband in 2013.
She says she enjoys the flexibility of being able to work from home and consult with global brands including Club Med, Oakwood Asia Pacific Hotels, and Cebu Pacific Air, as well as working with clients in the UK, US, Asia, Singapore and Finland and managing a small overseas team.
“I enjoy digital marketing, it’s a space that
isn’t dominated by females so there’s an opportunity to bring creativity into a place that’s highly technical,” she says.
“I think I sit in the middle between technology
and creativity, and I like being able to bridge the gap between real consumer needs, real business needs and technology that’s both present and emerging.
Tim Reardon in his Kambah distillery.
by Andrew Finch.
Page 25.
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“I get to learn things all the time and in many jobs you don’t get as stimulated. You also get to create things that have meaning, which is why Jozu is such a passion for me.”
Stephenie says Jozu for Women will use artificial intelligence and machine-based learning to help women plan their holidays.
“It is a big passion for me because I know it’s solving a particular pain point,” she says.
“Women make the majority of the travel decisions, whether it’s girls’ trips, family holidays or solo travel, and maybe they want to know about kids’ clubs, or if the hotel felt safe, or if it was beautiful and clean, but if their friends haven’t gone, who do they ask?
“JOZU is an online community, so you can create a profile and connect with other women, and our artificial intelligence, who’s female and called Jeni, is always listening and providing information in real time.
“For women, high service and high value is important, and JOZU can give surety and certainty that vacations are going to be awesome.”
Stephenie says that she and her client Accolade Wines UK won “Frontier” magazine’s Travel Technology Innovator of the Year 2016 in Cannes, for a campaign MMG created in Sydney Airport using digital, mobile, a game website, social media and ibeacons as part of an activation at Heinemann Tax and Duty Free store at the international terminal, airside.
“We’re delighted to win the “Frontier” award and, for me, the award has only solidified our agency’s position and our chops as digital marketers to be able to take JOZU for Women out into the market and make it a success.”
dose of dorin
The only thing worse than Abbott in Cabinet would be as his preferred Minister for Indigenous Affairs. This is the bloke who, in 2014, called Australia “unsettled” until the arrival of the Brits.
THE Americans say “politics is show business for ugly people”. Well, they got that right. At time of writing, the egregious Donald Trump had closed in on the battle-scarred Hillary Clinton who, we fondly hope, is poised to give him the thrashing he so richly deserves. But it won’t be the end of him. Trump has opened a can of very ugly worms and they will spend the next four years treating President Clinton the way they dealt with her predecessor – like some foreign interloper to be opposed at every turn.
In 2012 President Obama warned that America was becoming “ungovernable”; sadly, four years later his prediction is starting to look prescient.
OUR own political personnel are not much prettier. Last week’s threat by Tony Abbott that a Cabinet recall would end his destabilising campaign against Malcolm Turnbull was thoroughly unpleasant. The only thing worse than Abbott in Cabinet would be as his preferred Minister for Indigenous Affairs. This is the bloke who, in 2014, called Australia “unsettled” until the arrival of the Brits.
AND what of the execrable Bob Day, who scuttled away from the Senate after bankrupting his building business with massive contributions to his Family First party leaving hundreds of home buyers and tradies bereft?
Doesn’t get much uglier than that. Unless,
of course, you include Kevin Rudd’s vicious attack on Turnbull who spurned his quest for UN Secretary General. Rudd’s specious denial that he was the architect of today’s disgraceful Manus/Nauru refugee “solution” simply beggared belief.
THANK goodness our own local pollies are easier on the eye and ear. Neat, little Alistair Coe, for instance, named almost his entire team as front-benchers with the charming Korean-born Elizabeth Lee as shadow Environment and Disability minister. Even former leader Jeremy Hanson doffed his disguise as the friendly neighbourhood undertaker and smilingly promised full support for his “very, very capable and effective” former deputy.
THE Melbourne Cup was a pearler with Almandin just beating the aptly named Heartbreak City into second place after a fabulous battle down the straight. But spare a thought (or not) for poor old Sheikh Muhammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, with no fewer than five runners in the race and the best he could do was third. And this after spending a reported $1 billion over the last 18 years trying for a winner. Now that’s heartbreak city (so stop chuckling).
AT last the cricket season is upon us and the first Test at the WACA bolted from the blocks on day one as we skittled the Proteas for a measly 242 and ended it at 0-105 with David Warner’s mighty blade carving up their bowling attack. With a start like that, what could possibly go wrong? Oh well, that’s cricket.
GUILTY secret time: As an antidote to the awfulness of the American presidential campaign, we have been pigging out on the last season of that fabulous TV series “The West Wing”. It was always a bit Pollyanna but these days it feels like a fairytale about good people… remember them? But the big issues from 10 years ago – globalisation, abortion, race, climate, the Middle East – are exactly the same today! Now, that’s a worry.
robert@robertmacklin.com
JOIN US FOR MORNING OR AFTERNOON TEA
Are you thinking about downsizing? Do you want to know more about your local property market and preparing your finances for retirement?
Lendlease is proud to present the “Making the Move” free information sessions at The Grove Ngunnawal.
Enjoy a complimentary morning or afternoon tea, take a tour of the new modern display homes. Find out more about the new stage, future resort style facilities and the early bird rewards.
To help you make the right decision, you’ll hear from a panel of local experts with invaluable advice on:
• How to downsize with ease
• How to prepare your nances
• How to get the best price on your property
“Make the Move” right for you, choose from the following two information sessions
Morning Tea
Wednesday 23 November | 10.30am to 12noon or Afternoon Tea Thursday 24 November | 2pm to 3.30pm
The Grove Ngunnawal Community Hub 1 Monty Place, Ngunnawal ACT
By Danielle Nohra
“I’M too busy”, Maggie Gills said when asked whether she would be attending the Abbeyfield Australia general meeting in Melbourne, completely unaware that she was to be presented with a “rare” award.
That was in July, and treasurer of Abbeyfield Ainslie, Maggie, only found out three weeks ago at the local general meeting, where she finally received a “Certificate of Meritorious Service”.
“I didn’t expect it”, says Maggie, “the award isn’t given out often and no one received it last year.”
The award recognises Maggie’s service to the Abbeyfield community over the past 13 years through volunteering and, in particular, her founding support for Abbeyfield Garran, which is home for younger people with mild intellectual disabilities.
These days Maggie only volunteers at the Ainslie house, due to the formation of another committee and a passion to work with older people. In fact, if it wasn’t for her elderly aunt she may have never stumbled across this not-for-profit community house in the
first place.
“I got involved because I had an aunt in her 80s living on her own. I was concerned about her safety. One day, two men came knocking at her door and she invited them in! After that I saw
an ad for Abbeyfield and brought her to Canberra,” she says.
When her aunt moved in some committee members mentioned the need for volunteers, Maggie had just retired and had the time, so decided to con-
tribute. A few years later she became chairperson for the house.
The 10-bedroom shared home is independent living for nine residents.
Each “ressie”, as Maggie calls them, contributes a majority of their age pen-
sion and all of their rental assistance to cover bills, maintenance and meals. There is a live-in cook, who helps with some of the meals, but leaves at least one a day for “ressies” to prepare, urging them to remain independent.
Maggie says most “ressies” are reluctant to move in because they have never lived in group housing before, only ever with family, but once they’ve been there for a bit, they don’t want to leave.
One resident, Jean Seaman, says: “You’d need a shovel to get me out.”
Safety seems to be a main decider for some. Resident Lloyd Melhuish says: “Some years ago I had an elderly friend who died in his house. It was weeks before anyone had found him.” Maggie says that the “ressies” feel so much better being there, they feel a sense of security.
“I remember clearly one weekend, a lady didn’t come out for a meal so someone knocked on the door. There was no answer so they rang a committee member, who came, and found that she [the lady in the room] had had a fall.
“The ressies in the house look out for each other, they write in a diary when they leave the house so they know they’re okay.
“This place has really improved their social health. They’re not isolated and they feel safe.”
THE charity Opportunity to Do, which helps promote sustainability and self-reliance in poor communities, has raised more than $70,000 over three years from its charity garage sales in a Wanniassa backyard. The money has been used for a range of projects such as a community bank in Malawi, child
eye health screening in Kenya and a community piggery in Uganda. The next of its monthly sales will offer a range of kids’ clothes, books/DVDs, kitchenware, toys, craft/sewing supplies, Christmas items and bric-a-brac. It’s at 5 O’Grady Place, Wanniassa, 8ammidday, on Saturday, November 26.
“IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” is the theme of this year’s free Seniors’ Concert hosted by the Rotary Club of Canberra. Sing Australia’s Colin Slater is again organising the entertainment at Albert Hall, from 2pm on November 20, and afternoon tea will be included. Individuals wishing to attend should register with Council on the Ageing, at 6282 3777, by Wednesday, November 16, for catering purposes. Transport is available if required.
THE Harmony Choir will entertain members of the Gungahlin Day VIEW Club at the lunch meeting, at Versatile Restaurant, Gold Creek Village, Nicholls, from 11.30am on
Wednesday, November 23. Ladies and interested visitors are welcome. Call 6166 2874 to book before noon, Monday, November 21.
CHRISTMAS gifts are on offer amid the crafts, plants and foods at the All Saints’ Christmas Fayre, corner of Cowper and Bonney Streets, Ainslie, 9am-1.30pm, on Saturday, December 3. There will also be fun and games for kids, a history tour of the heritage church at 11.30am and Devonshire teas.
CAKES and craft will feature at the CWA’s Canberra Day Branch mini fete, in the CWA rooms, 8 Barry Drive, Civic, 10am-1pm, on Friday, November 18. All welcome.
Stan Grant in conversation
STAN Grant, pictured, will be in conversation with Prof Mick Dodson at Llewellyn Hall, 6pm, Tuesday, November 22, discussing Grant’s new “Quarterly Essay: The Australian Dream: Blood, History and Belonging” in which he writes that indigenous people back into the economic and multicultural history of Australia. Entry is free, bookings to anu.edu.au/events or call 6125 8415.
New Zealand
THE return of the Greens Shane Rattenbury to a cabinet position strengthens the LaborGreen alliance.
However, this time, he is joined by Caroline Le Couteur returning to the Assembly cross bench after a four-year break. The Greens Party, having won two seats in five-member electorates, now has the opportunity to work towards winning the fifth seat in each of the other electorates.
The Greens are effectively the counterfoil to the growing conservatism in the Liberal Party as they provide a philosophical approach that is further left than the Labor Party.
Rattenbury has, like his Federal counterpart Senator Di Natale, demonstrated the Greens are also prepared to be pragmatic. They have moved well beyond the notion of a protest party to one able to be in government making hard decisions.
Hard decisions hurt. Rattenbury suffered serious flak from members of his own party when he made the decision to support the kangaroo cull in the ACT.
However, the fact that he was so strongly returned in his own electorate and Le Couteur also won a seat, indicates that plenty of people accept the decision to
The appointment of Speaker Burch raises the issues about the importance of factional “jobs for the boys (girls)”.
take a cabinet position.
Interestingly, the Labor and Greens parliamentary agreement that has 13 key elements does not include culling under the heading of “animal welfare”.
With Rattenbury as Minister for Mental Health and Labor’s Meegan Fitzpatrick, not only as Minister for Health but also Minister for Transport and City Services, it would indicate that Labor has tapped one of their most competent on the shoulder as the (informal?) liaison point with the Greens.
When then-Chief Minister (and now Senator) Katy Gallagher signed the first of the Labor and Greens Agreements with Rattenbury, I wrote in this column about the primary challenge.
The argument was that it would be “about retaining strong, positive relationships within the cabinet while being able to air differences of opinion in the chamber of the Legislative Assembly and in the public arena”.
The electorate has rewarded both parties for
managing this relationship effectively. With the second Green on the cross-bench it should be even easier to effectively offer the differentiation.
At the time, I identified other examples including in SA, with independent Rory McEwen and the National Party’s Karlene Maywald under Labor Premier Mike Wran. Additionally, there was my own role as an independent minister in the Carnell and Humphries Liberal Governments from 1998 to 2001 that was strongly dependent on high levels of reciprocal trust with the right to be exempted on certain issues from cabinet solidarity.
The move at this election from 17 to 25 members will also provide an opportunity for much more effective governance. Members who are not in cabinet will now be able to provide a much more considerable contribution through their work on committees.
New members should be exploring the opportunities to make a difference, to raise issues and to question government through the well-established ACT Parliamentary Committees. The positive reputation of the Assembly committee system provides significant prospects for MLAs wishing to make a difference.
A more balanced Assembly facilitating an
even more effective use of the committee system could have been achieved had Labor taken a Nelson Mandela-style approach and supported Vicki Dunne to return to the role of Speaker.
Dunne had proven herself proficient and competent in the role over the previous four years and, by returning her to the position, Labor would have had one further backbencher in Joy Burch available to balance numbers on committees.
The appointment of Speaker Burch raises the issues about the importance of factional “jobs for the boys (girls)”. Are factional issues re-emerging within ACT Labor as the party continues to argue that factional differences and struggles have been put aside?
The 8th ACT Assembly is already shaping up to be incredibly interesting. With the extension to 25 MLAs, there is now a real opportunity for members to raise new issues, examine in more detail some of the challenges of our community, to sort out differences and to deliver an effective government with the people of the ACT as the priority.
Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health.
TWO developments in China during the latter half of October have offered a particularly sharp focus on China’s leadership and on some key dynamics in the Chinese Central Government’s policies.
First came the arrest and detention in several major Chinese cities of 18 employees of casino operator Crown Resorts – the centrepiece of the business empire of Australian mogul James Packer. The 18 include at least four Australians, one of whom is head of Crown’s global VIP “high roller” business, Jason O’Connor.
The arrests and detention are, above all else, an emphatic reiteration of China’s strict policies which make all forms of gambling illegal.
While investigative process is ongoing and expected to continue well into November, the broad consensus of expert commentators is that both the action itself and its timing are intended as clear statements of official Chinese stance and intent.
First, enough is enough: the courting of Chinese high-rolling “whales” by foreign operators of gambling enterprises will no longer be tolerated. The campaign directed for the past four years by supreme Chinese leader, ruling Communist Party General Secretary and National President Xi Jinping, aimed
Enough is enough: the courting of Chinese high-rolling ‘whales’ by foreign operators of gambling enterprises will no longer be tolerated.
at cracking down on corruption – especially by Party members and officials – and of illegal transfer of funds out of China has suddenly been endowed with a new and dramatic force.
This development –reminiscent in many ways of the detention, trial, conviction and imprisonment of former Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu some seven years ago – has yet to reach its conclusion, but will inevitably play a major role in reshaping some important aspects of the AustraliaChina relationship.
to anoint Party General Secretary and China’s National President Xi Jinping with the title of “Core” leader – a designation enjoyed by only three of modern China’s previous supreme leaders: founder Mao Zedong; moderniser Deng Xiaoping; and post-Tiananmen 1989 stabiliser Jiang Zemin.
Nineteenth National Party Congress in October-November next year will unveil the party team that President Xi will lead into his second term of office as the party’s, and China’s, supremo.
At a vitally important level, the outcomes of the coming year’s manoeuvrings within the Chinese leadership will, in essence, determine whether Xi Jinping can muster sufficient authority and power to prolong his own position beyond its currentlyscheduled finale in late 2022.
Secondly, the Plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party in the final week of October formalised the Party’s decision
The significance of Xi’s elevation into this company should not be overlooked or mistaken – most particularly given its timing: for the Party Plenum’s decision comes at a time when Xi is preparing to lead the eighty-nine million member party into a year of tough bargaining and manoeuvring which at the
Interim president of the new ACT branch of the Australia China Business Council, Peter Phillips is a former diplomat at the Australian embassy in Beijing. He is an ANU Asian Studies graduate and Chinese linguist. Anyone interested in joining the Council should email phillipsp1946@ gmail.com
THE Australia China Business Council (ACBC) has established a branch in the national capital, completing a nationwide network that now has branches in all of Australia’s six states and two territories. Key amongst the initial goals of the ACT branch will be to work closely with ACT and Capital Region business and government bodies in their efforts to establish and expand engagement with counterpart organisations in China. In this specific context, the ACBC will support moves by the Capital Airport Group towards the establishment of direct air services between Canberra and China.
A key function of the ACBC is to observe and report to the Council’s membership on important developments in the Australia-China relationship and in Chinese government policies and decisions which bear directly on that relationship. In this context, the ACT branch of the Council will sustain close engagement and dialogue with the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, including specifically with Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye.
The executive chairman of Canberra’s Capital Airport Group, Terry Snow, is the branch’s foundation patron.
‘With
James Lunan leads a photo class.
PROFESSIONAL photographer
James Lunan will host a workshop weekend in portrait photography at the first workshop series to be held at Valhalla Lodge in Perisher Valley, November 25-27.
“It’s everything portrait from natural light to speed light, off camera flash, reflector techniques, posing and positioning subjects and editing images in Adobe Lightroom, “ he said.
Valhalla director Kylie Langford said that Perisher and its surrounds offered a wide variety of activities long after the winter crowds had disappeared.
“It’s always so peaceful up here and with the amazing landscape; it’s the perfect place for both learning and photography,” she said.
Bookings to Kylie at 9523 4885 or email info@valhallaperisher.com
NINE local charities are together selling Christmas cards and calendars at Tuggeranong Uniting Church, corner of Comrie Street and Sternberg Crescent, Erindale, 10am-3.30pm, Mondays to Saturdays, from Saturday, November 12 to Saturday, December 17. The charities are: ACT Rescue & Foster, Cancer Council, Cystic Fibrosis, Epilepsy, Frontier Services, Sharing Places, Canberra Legacy, Pegasus and the Uniting Church. Gift wrapping will be available from December 17 until December 24 at the Good Guys store, Tuggeranong Hyperdome.
Danielle Nohra reports
WHAT started as a school project for 17-year-old Farah Khairat led to her mother realising a long-time desire to write a cookbook.
But this is no ordinary cookbook. Firstly, its authors are Omneya “Minnie” Khairat, wife of the Canberra-based Egyptian ambassador, and their teenage daughter.
And, secondly, “Minnie’s Taste of Mediterranean Delight” is aimed at helping get food on the table for disadvantaged people back “home”.
Attaching a charity to the cookbook was another inspiration to publish and, to put it simply, Omneya says: “We can help people, so why not?”
Farah felt the same, and says: “Moving around my whole life, in between Australia and the place that feels like home – Egypt – I have seen social disparities and something like feeding your family is just so important.”
Family friends, Docklands Press, sponsored the project, allowing all proceeds to go to the Egyptian Food Bank. The authors say that the sale of one book feeds a disadvantaged Egyptian family for a week.
Omneya says “they did everything”, in regard to publishing. But behind the scenes Farah really got the pages turning. Busy in her final year of school, she crammed most recipe writing and photo taking into a threeweek holiday.
Omneya was also short for time towards the end, cooking four to 11 recipes a night for Farah to taste and take photos of!
Farah’s favourite to taste were the desserts: “I’m a dessert person. I love desserts”.
The cookbook is a compilation of 180 home-made, personal recipes created by Omneya, which features a few Moroccan ones.
More than 500 copies of the cookbook were sold at the launch in October.
“Minnie’s Taste of Mediterranean Delight” costs $25 and is available via email to egyptcanberra@gmail.com
Above: Cookbook co-author Farah Khairat with a copy of “Minnie’s Taste of Mediterranean Delight”.
Right: Farah and Omneya Khairat at the Hellenic Club launch of their charity
DR Harvey Karp, pediatrician and child development expert, says that half of all new parents get fewer than six hours of broken sleep a night – a level of sleep deprivation that causes the same mental impairment as being drunk.
If that’s the case, I have been tipsy for a lot longer than I’d like to admit! Especially after having my second child four months ago.
My two-year-old son took 10 long months to sleep through the night and when he finally did, boy, did sobriety feel good!
I felt refreshed, started exercising more with my new-found energy and felt I could get through a movie without snoring halfway through. I literally had a cold shower and stepped through the drunken haze!
Now I am back into the world of the new baby: midnight feeds, wonder weeks, growth spurts and teething is just around the corner.
If half of us new parents are walking around like drunken sailors, I wonder how it impacts our day-to-day lives.
Perhaps it’s time they brought in “new parent” plates, mandatory baby-on-board signage when we hop into our SUVs, the Wiggles blaring, kids wailing, drinks and crackers being passed to the back seats.
Other drivers should be well aware that we might be on the roads at a very early hour of the morning, but we might not have all our wits about us. We may not indicate as soon as we should or park our cars within the lines every time!
If half of us new parents are walking around like drunken sailors, I wonder how it impacts our day-to-day lives.
The new-parent plates would allow for our slower response times and distracted minds, hopefully reducing stress and prangs.
Also heightening the feeling of drunkenness is the constant swaying and rocking required to settle the baby. As if we didn’t need to feel even more woozy.
The good Dr Harvey is currently spruiking his new invention, the SNOO cradle. This $1600 baby bed automatically responds to your baby’s fussing by choosing the right mix of white noise and rocking most likely to soothe them back to sleep.
He’s put together all the scientific elements that babies need to help them and their tired parents rest for longer. It sounds amazing. But to be honest, I consider myself a happy drunk. And nothing quite beats those late night cuddles while rocking your tiny baby to sleep. And every night brings me closer to the end of the big night out that is new parenthood.
Does your business want to save money and be environmentally responsible?
MANY people do not share columnist John Griffiths’ view that Giulia Jones is a Liberal Party loser (CN, October 27).
Jones received the third highest number of first preference votes for the Murrumbidgee electorate in the recent ACT election.
Giulia is a keen advocate for women and family, and women appreciate her care and concern, helping make her a finalist at the recent Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.
Also in Murrumbidgee, Liberal candidate Peter Hoskins worked jolly hard door knocking electors, coming fourth in first preferences, only to be beaten because minor parties gave their preferences to Greens candidate, Caroline Le Couteur.
The ACT Liberal Party did not lose the election because of poor policies, weak leadership or bad candidates.
They lost because:
1. Canberra is a city of public servants
2. Malcolm Turnbull’s unpopularity as Prime Minister is flowing down to all branches of the Liberal Party.
Rewa Bate, Coombs
AFTER the devastating election result it was refreshing to read Michael Moore’s column “Why we have to get light rail right” (CN, October 27) and especially the comment: “It should be possible to preserve the trees that mark a major entrance to the city”.
More emphasis should be put on doing whatever is possible to preserve our natural heritage. I hope the right people are listening.
Jon Stanhope, where are you?
Suzanne Mitchell, via email
I WOULD like to raise awareness of the fact that the Arboretum building effectively closes at 4pm even in daylight saving and at the height of the holiday season. I was quite embarrassed, having paid to park till 5pm and with visitors just arrived from Sydney and trying to fit as much in as possible in a short time, to be told on going in at 3.45pm that we would have to leave at 4pm – we were literally shut out and had to negotiate the grass below the Arboretum building to get back to the carpark.
Surely, when this is such a magnificent tourist attraction, it could at least be open till 5pm or later in daylight saving and summer time.
I realise the wages could be a problem but, in our case, our friends were more than willing to buy things in the souvenir section but did not have time – not a good advertisement for our city. Where else do attractions close at 4pm? There is no sign in the carpark listing opening hours for the main building and they continue to charge until at least 5pm.
Lorraine
Barton, Farrer
THE voters for the Labor-Greens have shown their true colours and elected a government that has betrayed democracy, common sense, fair play and rational decision making.
The voter betrayers are also happy to see more debt at the expense of the rest of us.
Now, I am in favour of seeing an above-ground tram to help deal with congestion. Can we expect those same voters will now buy themselves a MyWay card and leave the car at home?
Russell Morison, Canberra Public Transport Alliance, Theodore
Actsmart offers a range of free programs for ACT businesses including: • support to implement efficient recycling and waste management practices • obligation free onsite energy and water assessments • rebates of up to $5,000 (on a cost share basis) to upgrade inefficient equipment
More than 1000 ACT businesses have already signed up to Actsmart programs.
‘We’re very organised and streamlined, with excellent time-management skills.’
BOOKKEEPING doesn’t have to be boring, says Deb Williams, director and founder of boutique bookkeeping company A Counting Edge.
She says that her team caters for all bookkeeping needs – with bucketloads of personality thrown in.
“We’re all very approachable and friendly, with outgoing personalities, a professional attitude, and our clients like to interact so they feel involved,” she says.
“We’re definitely not your average, ordinary, dull bookkeeping company!”
Deb says A Counting Edge, which has recently celebrated 10 years in business, likes to keep its clients for the long term and that their priority is investing in them so they can invest in their business.
“I take the same approach with my loyal staff, as I believe very strongly in working as a team,” she says.
“Kerrie Ogilvie and Pauline O’Neall have been with me since the start and I have been happy to grow and add Sarah Walter and Carla Udvardi to the team in recent years.
“We are constantly developing ourselves and ensuring all our qualifications are up to date, and we’re very organised and streamlined, with excellent time-management skills.”
Deb says the team recently had a great time creating its new website, where they dressed up in 1960s clothes, hair and make-up for photos in Mad Men-style sets to highlight how bookkeeping has evolved since the 1960s.
“I would like to acknowledge Marinko Markovic from Studio Sixty8. His creative inspiration and input into our website has successfully portrayed our business vision,” she says.
“Things have changed so much from the old-style manual ledgers to state-of-the-art, cloud-based accounting software and we wanted to show that, while having a bit of fun.
“With the benefits of cloud-based software such as MYOB and XERO we prefer to work securely and remotely at our offices at Fyshwick, as this is often more efficient for our clients.
“We can also work onsite and assist training staff if required.”
Deb says that she and her husband emigrated to Australia from the UK 28 years ago in search of the land of opportunity.
“At the time, it was quite the thing and everyone wanted to come and live in Australia,” she says.
“We loved it but it was a bit of a culture shock at first! It made me very independent, strong and confident very quickly – I had to learn a lot and really fend for myself.
“It made me who I am now, and I think the experience gave me the confidence to take the leap to starting my own business.”
Deb studied business management in England after leaving school, and when
she came to Canberra worked in both the medical and legal fields as an office manager. She said things started to change in 2000 when GST came into Australia.
“I had to become responsible for the GST at the office I was working in, and no one knew anything about it – I had to educate myself,” she says.
“For some reason I seemed to pick it up very quickly and really understood it and, at that time, an accountant I was working with, Charlie Morella from Corporate Accounting Solutions, suggested I start my own business.”
Deb says Charlie was very much a part of her business development and became her business mentor.
“He is my go-to person to bounce ideas off and constantly offers quality advice,” she says.
“A Counting Edge and Corporate Account-
ing Solutions have many mutual clients, showing the importance of the requirement to have a bookkeeper year-round and an accountant to do the tax work at the end of the year.”
Deb, who’s a qualified BAS agent, says that outsourcing the bookkeeping can be really valuable for businesses, as it offers increased privacy and a more reliable service.
“By working with a bookkeeping business you have the benefits of a whole team working for you, so you don’t have the worries of staff being away, which could leave you stranded,” she says.
“We are all qualified, professional, compliant and very approachable.
“Outsourcing can also help to keep the business’s financial position away from staff and provide an added element of confidentiality.”
Now based in modern, stylish new
premises in Fyshwick, Deb says A Counting Edge will look after all business needs, including GST recording, BAS lodgements, debtors and creditors and all payroll including SuperStream.
“We work with small/medium business owners and sole traders, and are dedicated to helping their business succeed,” she says.
“With regulations and compliance updates always changing, working with us means our clients always stay compliant.
“We focus on the fact that business needs can change – whether it’s staff, restructuring, redevelopment of business or growth. We’re always working with our clients to ensure we are an integral and valuable asset to their business.
“Bookkeepers are different to accountants – we are who you need to see on a regular basis, whereas an accountant can be seen at the end of financial year. We work alongside your chosen accountant.”
Deb says it’s always worth an initial chat to find out how A Counting Edge might be able to help.
“Even if the client may have let things go with their business and feels that they are all over the place, that’s okay. If they have piles of old receipts – no worries, we can sort them out, set up systems and get them on track,” she says.
“I love giving businesses help, and their reaction when they can clearly see exactly where the business is at. They know they can make good decisions based on the information and it gives them the confidence to know exactly where to take the business next.
“I absolutely love what I do and I never clock watch – in fact, it’s usually the opposite and I get to the end of the day and wonder where the time went!”
A Counting Edge, Unit 5/2 Yallourn Street, Fyshwick. Call 6162 0376 or visit acountingedge.com.au for more information.
ARTIST Tom Buckland won only the Children’s Choice award netting him $500 for his ingenious work of recycling called “Carpflute” at Queanbeyan’s Clearwater Sculpture Prize.
This is the perfect characterisation of what the infamous blight of Corflute
signs grew to mean to Canberrans in the all-too-recent ACT elections.
Had the $5000 prize been awarded over the border, CC’s certain Tom would have been a dead-cert winner, despite Sian Watson’s pack of prowling dingotype creatures taking the prize.
BUT Struggletown’s River Festival wasn’t without drama with plod being called after reports of a dead body on the riverbank. It turned out to be
Stephen Harrison’s coat-infused plaster, clothing and canvas print installation, titled “let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings”.
Apropos of nothing other than people apparently listen to audiobooks while running, here are Audible’s top five:
1. “Peter Pan” by J. M. Barrie, narrated by Lily Collins.
2. “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)” written and narrated by Mindy Kaling.
3. “Finding Ultra” written and narrated by Rich Roll.
4. “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, narrated by Edward Herrmann.
5. “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins, narrated by Clare Corbett, India Fisher and Louise Brealey.
AS we prepare to savour the joy of Labor’s election promise of having the Canberra we love, only better, CC is duty bound to report that the patient burghers of Hampton Circuit in Yarralumla are off to a great start in the electoral cycle.
Regular readers will recall a recent photo and sniffy reportage of the state of the footpath there, possibly the city’s worst, which seemed at odds with Labor’s policy promise to make the city age friendly with smooth footpaths. As if by magic, City Services has ironed the wrinkles from the pavement and there it is, a veritable vista of pavement perfection.
AND while on the subject of getting things done, there seems to be some progress since last week’s update on the tireless bureaucratic battle of pensioner John Wright, intimidated by a large, looming street tree and taunted by a stubborn directorate that wanted $6000 to take it away.
John reports getting a letter from City Services acting director-general Ben Ponton saying: “After reconsidering your situation and in light of the fact that the tree is not part of the formal streetscape, [we] will schedule the removal of the tree later this year or early 2017.”
“Your situation,” sniffs John, “Financial or that I have driven them to get rid of hearing from me? Who knows?” But a sensible solution all round.
‘It’s important to give my patients a wide choice of devices, which is why I’m not affiliated to any particular brand’
WITH more than 38 years in the field of audiology, Dr Bill Vass says that transparency within the industry and an ethical approach to providing care for his clients are his main priorities.
Dr Vass says the hearing industry has undergone a shift from service based to sales based, with less attention paid to the patient as an individual.
“This can be confusing for clients who may feel pressured into buying a particular hearing aid – and one which may not even be the best option for them,” he says.
“We see clients with hearing aids that don’t work for them and as a result they don’t wear the device.”
Located in a prime position within the medical precinct of Deakin, Dr Vass runs his own independent clinic where he provides specialist audiological advice and unbiased options.
“I believe it’s important to give my patients a wide choice of devices,
which is why I’m not affiliated to any particular brand,” he says.
Dr Vass says he takes a professional approach to his clients, as opposed to the “white goods” sales model that offers free hearing assessments or giveaways to lure customers in and then sell.
“Professional, independent advice about hearing loss and what may be done to help is more important,” he says.
As a long-time, active member of the hearing industry, Dr Vass – who graduated from West Virginia University with a Masters of Science degree in Audiology in 1978, and later obtained his Doctor of Audiology through Central Michigan University in 2007 – says he has strong views with regards to how clients are treated within the industry.
“The absence of professional advice can leave clients unsure of their rights and how to go about getting help,” he says.
“It’s very important that you know what you’re entitled to – for example, DVA clients and pensioners are entitled to free hearing aids, and you may not be told this by a provider with a sales focus.”
He says he believes in hearing as a service-based industry and in delivering the right outcome for his patients.
“I provide personalised, individual clinical care, with a professional customer service focus and thoughtful after-care process,” he says.
“It’s always been my message, as the last thing we want is people who need help avoiding hearing aids altogether or purchasing devices they really can’t afford or don’t need.”
Dr Vass Hearing, Suite 14, John James Medical Centre, 175 Strickland Crescent, Deakin. Visit hearingclinic.com.au
Four questions to ask your provider before you buy:
• What are your qualifications, experience and credentials?
• Are you independent?
• Are you locally owned and operated?
• Are you on commission?
• Over 20 years of service to the Canberra region
• Dr Vass is Canberra’s only independent Doctor of Audiology
• His clinical experience and knowledge make him uniquely qualified to advise you regarding solutions to your hearing problem Book an appointment today, phone: 6282 2717
THE southern suburb of Calwell is named after Arthur Augustus Calwell, a leader of the Labor Party in the ‘60s.
It is home for a variety of friendly and unique stores and services. Not only is it a place that brings people together with food and shopping, but it also offers services that teach life-long skills.
OWNER of C3 Family Bar and Bistro
Michael Morales says it’s a “tradies club that is family friendly”.
Children are certainly welcome and Michael describes himself as a “bigger kid” saying that he dresses up and dances along with the children at C3’s kid discos, which are held every eight weeks.
Michael takes time out to transform himself into a DJ for the night.
Adults can also enjoy a sing and a dance at regular karaoke and live music events!
C3 Family Bar & Bistro, 1 Webber Crescent, Calwell. Call 6292 8900.
JANE Hiatt felt ripped off that the Kumon education company came to Australia the year after she finished school in 1983, but now Jane owns her own centre in Calwell!
Offering maths and English subjects, Kumon is designed to encourage independent learning by providing students with worksheets, to be done for 20-30 minutes each day, which allows them to figure out how to solve problems on their own.
Jane says: “It’s difficult for children to retain information in the way we are schooling at
the moment.
“Kumon is about mastering topics. Through this, [people of all ages] become more confident in themselves and they’re more confident to try new things.”
Jane says she has found her calling and wants to keep running classes, twice a week, until she is in her 80s.
EVERY few weeks the centre manager for the Kingswim School in Calwell, Jess Kiah, hears stories about students using their skills for good and says there is a recent story that is more special than most.
“One of our students saved someone’s life,” Jess says.
A seven-year-old boy, who has nonverbal Autism, was sailing with a friend who suddenly fell overboard.
“He threw the boy out a rope, laid on his tummy and pulled his friend in. Those are skills we teach here,” Jess says.
According to the medics at the scene, had the rescue been left to someone else on shore or in another boat, it would have been too late and the child would have drowned.
“At Kings Calwell we teach swimming as an education not a sport,” Jess says.
“Learning to swim from a young age equips you with valuable life skills that can save the life of not only yourself but people around you. “
Kingswim, 15 Webber Crescent, Calwell. Call 6292 0073 or visit kingswim.com.au
LOVE My Look Boutique has just celebrated a year of providing unique fashion.
Store owner Teresa Maguls says the boutique gives women a unique and friendly shopping experience, offering designer-label fashions, including sample ranges and the opportunity to buy pieces before they are available in other stores.
“My motivation is being able to offer women of all shapes and sizes the ability to feel good in what they wear,” says Teresa.
Love My Look Boutique is open Monday to Friday 10am-6pm; Saturdays, 10am-4pm and Sundays, 10am-2pm.
Love My Look Boutique, Calwell Shopping Centre. Call 0456 216152.
LOOKING FOR LADIES FASHION AT REASONABLE PRICES?
• Size 8 to 28
• Day wear to Special Occassions
• Designer Labels
• Mother of the Bride or Groom
• Accessories & Art on Tights
• Bags • Fascinators • Scarves
“Come in and find that unique something that will make heads turn!”
Shop 9, Calwell Shopping Centre 0456 216 152
Next to Vinton Hot Bake
THE Calwell Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank is anything but traditional with 80 per cent of all profits going back to the community.
Senior branch manager Damian McNamara says: “We are owned by the local community and we are for the local community.”
The money circulates back into the community through grants and sponsorships.
Some local charities and community programs supported by the bank include Theodore Primary, the “Fearless Comedy Gala”, Menslink and the Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter.
“In the last 13 years we have given back over $1.2 million into various groups across Canberra, including sporting groups,” says Damian.
Charities aside, all the services of a major bank are available, including home loans, business banking (commercial finance, leasing), personal banking, insurance (home, car and travel), financial planning and superannuation.
Damian says Bendigo Bank offers customers the ease and convenience of internet, phone banking and a mobile banker who can visit your home or office.
One thing that is not as common at other major banks is the manager’s ability to approve home loans.
“Usually managers can’t but at Bendigo they can. That is, if customers meet certain requirements,” he says.
Calwell Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank. Call 6291 3385 or visit bendigobank.com.au
THE owner of Coffee on the Go, Nick Soulias says the store isn’t just about the food.
“We want people to feel welcome and we want lonely people to make friends,” he says.
“I enjoy people, we are a people person establishment. We have elderly widowers who come in and we want to form relationships with them and anyone else who eats at the cafe.”
Diners have the choice of gluten-free meals, vegan ones as well as meat for the meat-lovers!
Nick says that it’s not a franchise.
“We make everything from scratch and we support local businesses by using their fresh produce,” he says.
7 Webber Crescent, Calwell. Call 6291 0022.
SINCE taking over the Calwell Takeaway just two years ago Katie and her husband Manni Tsiagalis have sold large amounts of hot chips, which seem to be the favourite amongst customers, especially on Fridays, the busiest day of the week.
During the summer the shop will be open between 8am to 8.30pm, and until 9pm on Fridays. Katie says that customers are welcome to call and order their food. That way, all they need to do is come in and pick it up, no waiting necessary.
“We make everything fresh on the premises and we have great customer service by our friendly staff,” she says.
Calwell Shopping Centre, 15 Were Street. Call 6292 8911.
CELEBRATING Elise Thorton’s 10 years of ownership, Capital Chemist in Calwell will embrace four weeks of wellness in the lead up to the big birthday bash.
After watching people for 18 years who are sick but shouldn’t be, Elise has embraced a personal passion to promote “real wellness”. Leading up to the birthday, the chemist will make information available on four topics; skin, pain, tummies and healthy minds. They are also giving away eco shopping bags filled with chemical-free “goodies” and each time customers shop with these bags they will receive bonus points that can be used for discounts.
Our physiotherapy clinic will help you learn to work with your body to restore mobility. Our clients typically find their movement is vastly improved, without the need for surgery.
• Hydrotherapy • Exercise Therapy • Work Cover approved
Phone 6291 0045 or 6293 3413 Email stride@stridephysio.com.au • stridephysio.com.au
Two locations Ochre Medical Centre – Calwell Shopping Centre Tuggeranong Indoor Sports Centre at The Southern Cross Club
Elise says: “A lot of people are looking into alternative health and we have a lot of information and training to work together to give the best outcome for our customers’ health.
“We look at our customers’ medications, nutrition, stress management, alternative medications and can refer customers on to local alternative practitioners.
“We are all about helping our customers and giving them the best service.”
Capital Chemist Calwell. Call 6292 8200 or visit Capital Chemist Calwell’s Facebook page.
STRIDE Physiotherapy is located at the Ochre Health Centre and is a multidisciplinary practice helping people with injuries, pre and post-surgical rehabilitation, mobility limitations and chronic pain.
Stride Physiotherapy is also connected to local sports teams, looking after the Lanyon Football Club, Vikings Baseball Team, South Tuggeranong Softball Association and the Valley Dragons Junior Rugby League Club, providing players’ pre-season screenings, advice and treatment during the season.
Principal Walter McIntyre describes his approach as patient-centric.
“We talk to our patients, we don’t rush, we take time to understand what they want to do and set realistic goals,” he says.
“We target rehabilitation towards the patient’s needs at the time.”
Walter also offers hydrotherapy treatment and Clinical Pilates exercises to help with chronic pain and injuries.
“I use my knowledge and training as a physio to adapt the Pilates exercises. People aren’t likely to do exercises when the movements irritate them, so I design and adapt it to suit the patient’s mobility.”
Stride Physiotherapy, located at Ochre Health Centre. Call 6291 0045 or visit stridephysio.com.au
By Helen Musa
CANBERRA’S venerable National Capital Ballet School is leaping into action with a production of the fulllength “Don Quixote” soon.
Veteran Australian Ballet professional Colin Peasley will dance the title role of the errant knight, aided, so NCB director Zara Bartley tells us, by “a very handsome local horse” to play the Don’s faithful steed Rocinante. Peasley, a principal of the Australian Ballet since 1962, is known both as a character dancer and an inspiring educator in the world of ballet.
Visiting international ballet stars, Joy Womack from the Kremlin Ballet and Ukrainian-born Russian dancer Oleg Ivenko, will perform the principal roles of Kitri and Basilio and also run master classes open to all dance students from Canberra and the surrounding townships.
“Our Canberra born-and-bred dancers… are very passionate and excited to be sharing their passion with the larger community,” Bartley says.
By Helen Musa
NOVEMBER seems very early, even by Canberra standards, to be celebrating Christmas and earlier still considering most Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas Day around January 7.
Not at all, says British composer, conductor, producer Antony Pitts, just 10 months into his directorship of the Song Company, which he took over from Roland Peelman, as he embarks on a tour of the final concert for the year, “An Orthodox Christmas”.
“We’re not nearly as early as the shops,” he reminds “CityNews”.
And, as for the idea that everything has to revolve around December 25, Pitts rejects that, pointing out that there was a considerable lead up to the birth of the Christ child, to say nothing of the aftermath, including “what Herod did” and the holy family’s flight to Egypt, all grist to the musical mill.
When it comes to vocal music, he believes nothing is quite so “gorgeous” as the Orthodox tradition, something to challenge a choir as sophisticated as the Song Company.
He hasn’t chosen music from the Orthodox liturgy, but rather music informed by Eastern
European, Greek and other Orthodox connections, joined by old favourites and selections from “The Naxos Book of Carols.”
In particular, he expects the carols to be upbeat, really well-known and “rousing”.
The centrepiece of this pre-Christmas performance will be “Behold!”, a newly-commissioned work by Australian composer Anastasia Pahos starting nine months earlier than the “silent night” in Bethlehem, traversing the visit of the Three Wise Men, Herod’s attempt to annihilate the first-born and going so far as events in the Book of Revelation.
Pitts is having two bob each way and will also incorporate Arvo Pärt’s pre-Christmas “Magnificat”, “A Carol for Christmas” by Ivan Moody, “O Holy of Holies” by Antony Pitts himself, “Reges Tharsis” by
John Sheppard, “The Lamb” by John Tavener and a new arrangement of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by Jonathan Pitts.
Pitts says the “huge cultural transition both in lifestyle and in place” experienced since he arrived from England with his family around Christmas last year has been balanced by the welcome he has been given by Australians.
He’s talked at length to his predecessor Peelman, now director of the Canberra International Music Festival, and says he expects to be back here with the company for the 2016 festival.
“An Orthodox Christmas”, Wesley Uniting Church, 8pm, Wednesday, November 16. Bookings to songcompany.com.au
By Helen Musa
IT’S not often you get to meet a musician quite as cool as Dave Eggar.
For not only was the cellistcomposer-arranger a classical prodigy at the Juilliard School, but he wrote the music for the movie “War Horse”, has done arrangements for the new Norah Jones’ album and, of particular interest to this writer, worked in Mindanao using music for conflict resolution.
While in the Philippines he’s met the formidable Senator Imelda Marcos, been blown away by the Manila rap battle “FlipTop” and become an expert on the subject of women dancing in Islam.
But it was the jam sessions in the remote province of Bukidnon, used as a powerful form of negotiation, that really impressed him.
Eggar has been in Canberra performing and doing music workshops, all because of his connection to the ANU’s “Pokémon Prof” Kenneth Lampl, (“CityNews”, August 3) who taught him that as a cellist he could push the boundaries into jazz and much further.
Eggar seems to have taken that advice and a quick glimpse at his bio shows him equally at ease with Bach and DJ Spooky.
“I’m 38 now but I’ve done a lot,” he says in considerable understatement.
Probably best known for the cello opening in Coldplay’s song “Viva La Vida”, he’s played with the Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Joshua Bell, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Andrea Bocelli and Harry Belafonte
With degrees from Harvard and the Juilliard, Eggar is not just a music man. “I love words,” he tells “CityNews”, “I love working with songwriters, I just love the text.”
He’s no stranger to theatre,
Cellist-composer-arranger Dave Eggar… “I’m 38 now but I’ve done a lot”.
either, having also worked in “The Way of the Rain”, an original music theatre show he created with Bylle and Robert Redford, Will Calhoun and Chuck Palmer. He also scored the film “Blind” featuring Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore.
Given his virtuosity, it’s no surprise to learn he grew up in a classical music family with a pianist mother and an illustrious career as a boy soprano. Setting his sights at age six on a production of “The Magic Flute” (the one with sets by Chagall), at the Metropolitan Opera, he announced: “Mom, I have to do this”, chose the “Queen of the Night” aria for audition and, weirdly, got the part and several more, including a ballet with Sarah Jessica Parker.
“Then my voice changed,” he sighs. “So it was back to cello and piano.”
It was at this pivotal point that the precocious young musician headed to the Juilliard and met Lampl, who helped him unravel one of the mysteries of the American music scene.
“Classical music is not easy in America, it doesn’t fit with the American psyche, but Ken was cool, he was a jazz guy.”
Gradually Eggar learnt how to do jazz as an improvised thing. He answered an ad from a folk-rock singer looking for a cellist, through him met NYC songwriters, toured Texas, played in the back blocks of the Appalachians, and went everywhere but Australia, until Lampl emailed him, “you should come”. He did.
In Canberra he’s been doing workshops with faculty members Lampl, Natalie Williams, and Chris Sainsbury, and has been enormously impressed by the enthusiasm of the music students he’s met.
“After Juilliard I had no preparation for recording, here they’re getting a grounding,” he says. Eggar has a few simple words of advice for them: “There’s nothing special about me, I just work hard; put your knapsack on your back and get out there.”
By Helen Musa
PHOENIX Players continue its reputation for performing lesserknown musicals with its Canberra premiere of “Spring Awakening”, a coming-of-age musical from Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play that follows the lives of three young German students who are struggling to break loose from parental authority and childhood restrictions. ANU Arts Centre, November 11-26. Bookings to phoenixplayers.com.au
AN unusual performance that fuses the late Rosemary Dobson’s poetry with music played on early instruments is coming to Smith’s Alternative. Dobson, a famous Canberra resident, recorded eight of her poems during the ‘70s and these will be read alongside music by Bach, Vivaldi, Elena Kats-Chernin, May Howlett, Phillip Bolliger and other pieces that reflect aspects of the poems. At 76 Alinga Street, Civic, 4pm, Saturday, November 19. Bookings to smithsalternative.com
PIANIST, writer, editor, composer, broadcaster and festival director, Penelope Thwaites, will be back in town to celebrate the release of the box set “The Complete Grainger Music for Four Hands, Two Pianos” and will team up with friend and pianist Wendy Lorenz to present Grainger’s “Fantasy on Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’” and Thwaites’ suite “A Lambeth Garland”. Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 5pm-7pm, Sunday, November 13. Bookings to trybooking.com
THE Jewish International Film Festival will be in Canberra for
the first time screening 15 films at Dendy Civic over the weekends of November 10-13 and 19-20. A highlight will be the first ACT showing of the locally-made “Monsieur Mayonnaise”, a take on German-born Australian entrepreneur George Mora’s amazing life. Bookings to jiff.com.au
ENTERPRISING classical guitarist Matt Withers will present the winners in his composition competition along with a new work being composed by Rob Davidson, of the University of Queensland. At the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion, National Arboretum, 1.30pm, November 13. Online bookings only to trybooking.com
“DYNASTY of Song: Garcia, Malibran and Viardot”, Art Song Canberra’s final concert for 2016, will be performed by soprano Karen Fitz-Gibbon with Alan Hicks at the piano. At the Wesley Music Centre, 3pm, Sunday November 13. Tickets only at the door.
AARWUN Gallery’s annual art auction will see works by everyone from Wendy Sharpe to Norman Lindsay going under the hammer at Federation Square, Gold Creek, on Sunday, November 13. Doors open at 9am, bidding from 10am. All welcome.
THE tragic farewells of Marc Antony from Cleopatra and Dido from Aeneas will be at the centre of “Black Pearls”, Adhoc Baroque’s program of rare treasures from the later Baroque period. At St Paul’s Manuka, 5pm, Sunday, November 13. It’s free, but with exit donation. Bookings to try booking.com
By Dougal Macdonald
“The Light Between Oceans” (M)
IN 1925, a rowboat containing the body of a dead man and a living girl baby washes ashore on an island off WA. There, returned soldier Tom (Michael Fassbender) keeps the lighthouse (director Derek Cianfrance casts the one at Cape Campbell, NZ, in that important role.)
Tom and wife Isabel (Alicia Vikander) who’ve already learned the hard way that they can’t be confident of having babies, decide to tell the local community that the infant is their own, born early.
A happy family enjoys a satisfying lifestyle in an idyllic location. Lovely stuff, but not effective material to sustain a film that runs for 133 minutes. Baby Lucy grows up playing with the tiny silver rattle that Tom found with her on the rowboat. Around that tiny happenstance, novelist M L Stedman crafted a story that Cianfrance adapted into an exploration of powerful issues. For in a perfectly logical way, the story introduces Hannah (Rachel Weisz) still, after fewer that six years, grieving for the husband and child she had lost.
Here’s a situation that a novelist in the Victorian era might have pushed to the brink of disaster before making up his/her mind whether to return the moppet to her birth mother or leave her in the loving care of the woman who reared her as her own. In coming to resolution of that intimate, small-scale and heart-rending dilemma, the film guides real-life situations through legal and moral tensions and anxieties that build almost to bursting point before choosing a resolution that will or won’t please you, depending on which side you decide to support.
The film’s a weepie, but for the best of reasons,
a totally suitable vehicle for intelligent, compassionate viewers to mull over, endure and come away from well satisfied.
At Capitol 6 and Palace Electric
“The Accountant” (M)
WRITER Bill Dubuque has given director Gavin O’Connor admirable material for this intelligent crime actioner.
Don’t waste time researching the autism spectrum for explanation of the obsessive behaviour of Christopher Wolff (Ben Affleck giving a rock-solid performance) whose memory and mathematical skills have, in adulthood, made him a total whizz at multiple-value sums and just the man to explain why the financial performance of the robotics company built by Lamar Black (John Lithgow) has in recent years gone against the established pattern.
The US Treasury Department, a rather pro-active agency, also interested by what’s going on in the company and why, has assigned the task to soonto-retire senior agent Ray King (the insufficientlypraised J.K. Simmons) to find out who’s squirrelling away big lumps of company money.
We know it’s Christopher, who has survived a childhood marred by other kids picking on him for his unconventional obsessive behaviour. As an adult, he’s acquired the skills necessary for surviving in prison, learned to defend himself effectively (including becoming very, very expert with small arms up to about 50-calibre) and made best buddies with an older man (a nice performance from Jeffrey Tambor) who has briefed him about working for the mob and where ill-gotten loot is stashed.
Anna Kendrick as the assistant assigned by
Lamar to help Christopher dig out the records and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as the treasury staffer who’s performing similar tasks for agent King add flavour to the dramatic mix in a film that needs no major brain exercise to deliver agreeable escapism. At all cinemas
ENGLISH writer/director Andrea Arnold’s film has a sketchy plot, a mainly pickup cast of young adults and a running time of 163 minutes.
“American Honey” is actress Sasha Lane’s debut film, playing Star, its central character.
Much of the action seems unscripted. Characters are defined more by implication than hard detail. Society has not so much rejected them as they have rejected society.
Crossing middle America in a rent-a-bus to the next small town where they will fan out in twoperson teams to sell magazine subscriptions, singing is about all that’s available to break the monotony.
The film is about young people who have rejected family, community, society, morality. They are liars, tricksters employed to extract money from housewives, oil-rig workers, anybody living barely one economic rung above theirs. It’s depressing as hell. Those kids enjoy the unrestrained lifestyle. And that, together with its propinquity with reality, is why putting a social illness front and centre and defying society to cure it merits a look. At its end, Star is lucky to be neither injured in a hospital bed nor pregnant. We wonder what her future will be and fear it will be the same as her past.
At Dendy
YOU have got to admire a man who can boast: “These days I’m buying wine by the thousand litres.”
This is not some alcoholic superhero, but the owner of the only licensed distillery on a residential block in Australia, nestled into suburban Kaleen.
Tim Reardon sits very comfortably in his new skin as part mad scientist/inventor, part marketer. These days he is a corporate refugee dedicated to making and selling his own backyard product.
“I love what I do”, he says.
He’s been buying wine in bulk and distilling the product of the grape and other liquids since December last year and seems to be having a lot of fun. He trades under the name Canberra Distillery and is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his craft. His place is like a cross between the Australian suburban dream and an adult Willy Wonka factory built around the processing of grog rather than chocolate. Reardon makes and sells two types of gin, a coffee liqueur, a vodka and Canberra Fog.
When we have a chat on a windy Canberra Saturday, it’s Canberra Fog that most interests
His place is like a cross between the Australian suburban dream and an adult Willy Wonka factory built around the processing of grog rather than chocolate.
me, as it has a real connection with local wine production. It’s an ouzo/sambuca style of aperitif, featuring licorice and aniseed flavours, that’s distilled from Murrumbateman shiraz. Reardon collected a number of recipes that had been handed down in migrant families following the completion of the Snowy Hydro project, by trawling the internet but largely by listening to people’s stories, particularly the bloke who came to install his sliding doors. What a metaphor for the forces of change.
Reardon has taken these recipes and melded them into his own variant, combining the distilled shiraz with a mix of herbs and spices that, just as with Col. Sanders, is a tightly held secret.
The result is a sweet concoction that has a licorice and mild spice front palette and burnt toffee flavour that lingers slightly. It is a taste as far removed from the original shiraz as a Canberra residential setting is from the commercial distilleries pumping out large quantities of ethanol, the main type of alcohol that is in the
beverages we consume.
Canberra Fog is clear and smooth but it gets its name not from the mist it produces in the brain after a couple of shots but from the foggy appearance it takes on when you chill it. This effect is generated from the oils in the herbs that are blended in the product, making the bottle look like it’s captured heaped clouds.
In a good year Reardon plans to buy 5000 litres of wine; this is wine that would have been unlikely to make it to the table so the producers benefit as do consumers with home grown, made-from-scratch spirits.
Wine is a favoured product to distill because it retains more sweetness through the process when compared with, say, sugar syrup. It is this sweetness that Reardon captures so well in Canberra Fog and in other liqueurs he plans to make, but which are only just on the drawing board. He’s done what so many of us would like to do: turned a hobby into a job, undertaking something he is passionate about.
COFFEE Lab bills itself as a place where artistry meets science. The place has heaps of coffee paraphernalia to prove that it takes its coffee very, very seriously. Special brews. Special roasted blends of beans. A massive new coffee machine. You get the drill.
But Coffee Lab is much more than a place to get a caffeine hit. It’s a place to indulge in a little (or big) breakfast or lunch. The good news, if you’re hanging about Civic on the weekends, is that the Coffee Lab has new trading hours, which includes Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. And the kitchen is now dishing up dishes until 3pm.
I was up for breakfast, having wandered through Braddon and on my way to Civic (Coffee Lab is smack in the middle, on Narellan Place, opposite the large open-air car park).
The place was pumping and the outdoor seats, all covered in sunshine, packed out. So I found a spot at the huge wooden, communal table, grabbed a newspaper from the pile available for customers and settled
“No Ragrets” … generous serve of bacon layers the bottom of the dish and on top are two poached eggs smothered with a hollandaisetype sauce mixed with a barbecue-type sauce. Photo by Andrew Finch
with a barbecue-type sauce.
The eggs were cooked to perfection – not too hard, not too runny. The bacon was perfectly smoked (might be a bit too heavily smoked for some). The hash brown crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and the kale a healthy green element.
Despite my best effort, I couldn’t plough through the entire dish, but thoroughly enjoyed what I ate.
Other options for breakfast include interesting dishes such as avocado rolled in black and white sesame seeds, marinated feta, chilli flakes, alfalfa and lime served on multigrain sourdough ($15.50), and garlic smashed into multigrain sourdough toast with seasoned heirloom cherry tomatoes, basil, pesto, garlic chips and cheese balls ($15).
folks with mighty hearty appetites.
be offered a coffee and enjoyed every sip. However, I had to concentrate on getting someone to take my breakfast order and then again to follow up on when it would be coming. Slow is the operative word here.
I was quick to
The breakfast menu, available all day, offers simple options such as fruit toast ($9) to hearty meals for
I was intrigued by the “No Ragrets” ($17), partly attracted to the smoked Pialligo Estate bacon. The generous serve of bacon layers the bottom of the dish. It’s surrounded by kale. On top is a house-made, corn-meal hash brown and on top again two poached eggs smothered with a hollandaise-type sauce mixed
Coffee Lab has a big counter area to the left as you walk in the door, but there is table service. The décor features loads of wood and rustic elements, and greenery here and there. It gets plenty of natural light through the massive windows that line the front of “the lab”. It’s got a relaxed vibe. Not at all pretentious. Just full of beans.
Coffee Lab, 26 Narellan Place, Civic. Call 0419 129957. Open seven days.
THE humble apple has been grown, it seems, since the time Eve gave Adam that apple, from a tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.
The apple Malus pumila (syn. M domestica) is possibly the earliest fruit tree to be cultivated from its origin around Kazakhstan and China.
Its earlier origins are the wild crabapple, Malus sieversii, which can still be found growing in those countries.
Another famous apple story is of Swiss archer William Tell. In 1307, Gessler the bailiff of the Court of Habsburg demanded all citizens doff their hats when he passed. Tell refused and was arrested. To get a reprieve from execution the bailiff suggested that Tell shoot an apple off his son’s head, which he did.
Then there’s Sir Isaac Newton who, when an apple fell on his head in Cambridge, England, sorted out the theory of gravity. While that apple tree died, another was propagated from the original and planted in the same spot in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens.
Many other stories abound about the humble apple, one of the easiest fruits to grow and must rank possibly No. 1 as the most popular
fruit grown worldwide. Apples are ideal for storage over long periods, with varieties from early to late maturation. In the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent, UK, there are more than 4000 varieties grown.
The names of cultivars are possibly more interesting than any other fruit. We generally only see the more boring apple names in supermarkets, but apples were often named after their breeders and some go back several hundred years, such as “Burr Knot”, “Millicent Barnes”, “Cornish Gilliflower”, Hocking Yellow”, “The Rattler” and the delightfully named “Lady’s Finger of Lancashire”.
In Canberra, we have a collection of early varieties of apples at Owen Pidgeon’s “Loriendale Orchard” at Hall. Its apple harvest festival is held each autumn.
If you are going to grow just one variety of fruit, then make it an apple with dwarf varieties and tall, slender “Ballerina” apples taking up almost no space in a garden.
DO trees go to sleep after dark?
The Royal Horticultural Society’s “The Garden” noted recent studies on silver birch in Austria and Finland that show the tree rests its branches after dark. This follows circadian rhythms similar to sleep patterns in animals. Researchers used lasers between sunset and sunrise to record drooping by as much as 10cm.
It appears the drooping is a passive result of the loss of water pressure in plant cells; in other words, the trees are saving energy.
• “Ballerina” is a suitable apple tree for limited space.
• Stop codling moth grubs travelling up apple tree trunks by placing a band of heavy duty cardboard coated in any sticky substance.
• Hang codling moth traps in the tree now.
• The best book on growing apples in Australia is “All About Apples” by Allen Gilbert (Hyland House).
• The Horticultural Society’s spring exhibition and rose show will be held at the Wesley Church Centre, National Circuit, Forrest, noon5pm on Saturday, November 12, and 11.30am-3.45pm, on Sunday, November 13.
• The wet winter has left the ground soft and ideal for maple seedlings to germinate. Other than picking them out, which is impractical with the numbers, spot weed with glyphosate using a narrow paint brush. Unless on paths or open areas, don’t spray as it will kill
Joanne Madeline Moore
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
Monday’s Full Moon highlights hiccups in your financial management. So aim to be less extravagant, and much more cautious with cash and credit. Expect a super chatty week, as the Mercury/Mars connection provides plenty of opportunities to sharpen your communication skills, both in person and online. With the help of diplomatic Venus (and your heightened persuasive powers) strive to anticipate and smooth over work-place hassles before they actually happen.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20)
Monday’s Supermoon (in your sign) encourages stability in partnerships, but that doesn’t mean you have to get stuck in a boring rut. Attached Taureans – spice things up with a sexy text or a romantic rendezvous. Single Bulls – look for love with someone who is passionate and loyal. And be emotionally honest with yourself. Feeling guilty about relationship problems in the past won’t help the current situation. Let bygones be bygones, learn from your mistakes, and move on.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)
With the help of the Full Moon, use the power of your fertile imagination to get to the bottom of a problem that’s been bothering you. Plus listen to the wisdom of your inner voice… it will point you in the right direction. Communication is the buzz word on Tuesday and Wednesday, when you seek out work colleagues, friends and acquaintances (in person and online). It’s not what you know – it’s who you know. So make the most of your networking skills and current connections.
CANCER (June 22 – July 22)
Sensitive Crabs are often over-emotional and teary around the time of the Full Moon but this lunation (on Monday night) is in earthy Taurus, so you’ll feel more emotionally grounded than usual. Work matters and group activities are favoured this week, as Mercury and the full moonbeams boost your conversation and networking skills. Someone may question your plans for the future though. So it’s time to ask yourself: “Am I full of big dreams but short on practical details?”
LEO (July 23 – Aug 22)
With the Full Moon illuminating your career zone, find ways you can inspire others and shine more brightly on the job. It’s also the perfect week to spruce up (or redecorate) your work space or home office so it increases your creativity and boosts your productivity. You’re feeling positive about a current challenge and your sunny smile has the power to lift the mood of those around you. But sometimes there’s a fine line between being optimistic and unrealistic. So keep it real Leo!
VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)
You’ll feel more experimental than usual, as the Full Moon activates your adventure zone. But you may encounter problems with a stressed relative or a neurotic neighbour, as you misunderstand each other’s motives. So try to unscramble your antennae and articulate your true intentions. It is a wonderful week to shake up your usual routine; display individual initiative; discuss current issues; or cross important tasks off the to-do list. Then you can relax after a job well done.
LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23)
Librans love to dress up and are the fabulous fashionistas of the zodiac, but don’t just focus on your outer appearance. Monday’s Full Moon encourages you to appreciate and nurture inner beauty as well. Mercury is moving through your social networking zone (until December 2) which means others are sitting up and taking notice of what you are posting. Make sure you communicate clearly and carefully, so there is no room for confusion. The weekend is wonderful for love and romance.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21)
Monday’s Supermoon shines a spotlight on your relationship skills. Don’t have any? You’d better get some fast, as you turn up your natural charm and sex appeal and turn down your jealous and possessive streak. The Scorpio Sun encourages you to approach scary challenges with plenty of passion and resilience. Be inspired by birthday great, painter Georgia O’Keeffe: “I’ve been terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)
You’re keen to be in charge, as Monday night’s Full Moon lights up your job zone. But are you being the boss – or just plain bossy? Strive to utilise your leadership skills in clever and creative ways, that bring more stability to your work situation. You’ll be in freedom bunny mode on Tuesday, when you’re keen to do your own thing, free from onerous responsibilities and restrictions. It’s also a good time to discuss a diverse range of topics, both in person and online.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)
This week’s Full Moon favours romance, friendships, socialising, entertaining and networking as you mix and mingle with a wide range of people. But be careful how you communicate with others on Friday. Otherwise your confidence could be misinterpreted as cockiness, and your calm approach mistaken for coldness. Attached Caps – strive to be extra romantic with your partner on the weekend. Singles – if you’ve had your eye on someone special, prepare to pounce in style!
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)
The Full Moon heralds a house move, home renovations or domestic dramas. Whatever happens, strive to get the balance right between your public life and your family responsibilities. If something outdated needs to be changed, do something about it. Mercury and Mars encourage you to shake up the status quo with your words and actions. Inspiration for the week is from birthday great, actress Jodie Foster: “Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.”
PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)
Are your aspirations ambitious enough? There’s no room for false modesty or passive procrastination this week Pisces! The Full Moon stimulates your thought processes and encourages you to come up with a cracking plan, and then stick to it. It’s also a terrific week to talk and text; socialise and circulate; plus be proactive in work situations. The weekend favours romance, creativity and spirituality. Singles – love and the internet are linked, so join a quality online dating site ASAP!
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2016 Daily astrology updates at twitter.com/JoMadelineMoore
The Indian Subcontinent has something to delight every traveler. It is a rich kaleidoscope of culture, customs, religions and cuisines. From the stunning beaches to dense jungles, from desert landscapes to bustling markets. It is an area that is so full of colour, smells and sights, it offers a complete sensory overload and will take your breath away!
The Indian subcontinent includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and while not technically correct, Myanmar – as there are so many similarities in cultures between the regions.
Across
1 Which elementary particle is present in every atomic nucleus? (6)
8 Name the Australian physicist, and governor of SA 1971-76, Sir Mark ... (8)
9 The principles of which early Greek geometrician are still widely used? (6)
10 What do we call the expected loser in a competitive situation? (8)
11 Name another term for “ethnic”. (6)
12 What is Ireland called by poets? (4)
13 Which society limits membership to those of genius intelligence? (5)
16 Which term is applicable to religious denominations? (5)
19 What is the ship’s prison called? (4)
21 What is an aggregate of nations, ruled over by a powerful sovereign? (6)
22 Which fabric consists of a warp, used for wall hangings, etc? (8)
23 Name the long pin for putting through meat while being cooked. (6)
24 Name a game of chance played at a casino. (8)
25 To withstand something, is to do what? (6) Down
2 What is another name for a meat roll or galantine? (7)
3 Which type of movies began in 1927, with “The Jazz Singer”? (7)
4 What is an alternative term for a small rounded mass or lump? (6)
5 In which human organs does blood undergo corpuscular changes? (7)
6 Which term implies a relationship to the heart? (7)
7 What are marks of disgrace as on one’s reputation? (7)
13 What designates anything that is kept secret? (7)
14 To puzzle completely, is to do what? (7)
15 What are bottomless gulfs called? (7)
17 Which train travels at high speed? (7)
18 Which word describes goals to be reached? (7)
20 Name a hot spring that sends up steam etc, into the air. (6)
At Active Travel we offer our guests a wide selection of adventures and experiences which include a tailor made experience in which you as the traveler set the dates, accommodation style and activities or perhaps you may prefer a group tour where you can join up with other likeminded travellers as you explore the region.
We feature rail journeys, including local transport to the luxurious itineraries on the Maharajas Express, we have a selection of cruises on the Hugli, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers as well as the house boats on the Kerala Backwaters or yacht through the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar.
If you prefer something more active then we can take you high in to the Himalayas in Nepal, India or Bhutan, a land with over thirty five annual festivals and one of only a handful of countries which has a ‘Minister of Happiness’.
The Indian Subcontinent is so remarkable! The fascinating history stretches back to offer some of the oldest customs on Earth, all evident in the fortresses, temples, palaces and shrines which you can explore and the many festivals which you can become a part of.
TOP TIP: Want to learn more about this magnificent area? Come along to our information night on Tuesday 22 November. Please contact us to RSVP.
November is the perfect month for planning your trip to the subcontinent. Active Travel currently has a range of discounts specifically for this destination including 10% off selected river cruises, 15% off many group tours and much more!
