Distractions, reflections

On a family vacation, there’s somewhat less irony in following lunch at a fish market to watching fish in an aquarium.  We rode the bus back to the city centre and walked west towards the harbour.

Looking south from the pedestrian bridge, the proximity of the Sydney Aquarium to the elevated roadway underscores the increased value of the real estate by the harbour.

At the Sydney Aquarium, entry for the family was through the shark’s jaws.

Like many aquariums, there are displays behind glass, like the Eastern Water Dragon.

Less common in aquariums is the tunnel in the oceanarium.  We took a long ramp down, leading to areas below harbour level.  It’s cool and placid down there.  We waited a few moments, and a shark swam overhead. Read the rest of this entry →

On the first morning after a long trans-Pacific flight, the fish market is good tourist destination.  Earlier is better.  The Sydney Fish Market is a short walk west from the bus stop in Pyrmont where we got off.  After passing under the Western Distributor elevated freeway, we found low building around a big parking lot.

The first store we encountered was Deep Seafood Cafe and Oyster Bar.  We were still early for lunch.

The lobster and shrimp might have been attractive to most people, but half of our family is allergic to them.

We walked over a few more doors to De Costi Seafood, which also had displays full of shrimp.

Getting service from behind the sneeze guards requires some service.

The blue swimmer crabs were on feature. Read the rest of this entry →

With a 2009 conference in Australia, our family planned a once-in-a-lifetime vacation.  We would spend almost three weeks in the land down under, beginning with seven days in Sydney.  To reduce the possibility of misconnections with Eric returning from Beijing, we had him travel from Toronto so that we could all leave together, five days later.   Airport check-in was slightly complicated as we discovered that Noah’s electronic travel authorization to enter Australia had not been processed properly with the rest of us.

Air Canada suggested that we board the flight from Toronto to Vancouver, and get the e-visa just before boarding on the next leg.  At the Maple Leaf Lounge at YVR, the airline had to try the online application multiple times before achieving success.  In the meantime, we were still catching up on being a family of six again, and enjoy the complimentary food and beverages.  During the layover, our sons had time to taste all of the snacks, and sampled the variety of beer, wine and liquor (offsetting for my many years of non-consumption in airline transfers).

Vancouver to Sydney is about 15 hours on the plane.  Crossing over the international date line resulted in us completely missing Canada Day.  I did my usual strategic sleeping and watching movies.  The flight wasn’t completely full, so we rotated into two-seat sleeping positions.  From my previous trips to Australia, I expected the aircraft disinsection procedure just before landing — flight attendants on a 2-minute walk down the aisle with insecticide aerosols — and recommended that our family stay with heads under blankets until they were done.

The airport in Sydney is south of the city.  Our hotel was north of the city, across the harbour.  We bought tickets for the airport link and a 7-day orange travelpass for trains, ferries and buses.  From the airport terminal, the first train took us to Sydney Central station.

We had left Toronto on an early summer evening flight to Vancouver, connected outbound from Vancouver almost at midnight, and boarded Sydney trains just after rush hour of a southern hemisphere winter morning.  I drew attention wearing summer shorts and sandals.  Donning a jacket and socks wasn’t quite warm enough, so it would be long pants for the week in Sydney.

We would ride the CityRail Northern line frequently in the days to follow.  Sydney’s transit maps are relatively straightforward. Read the rest of this entry →

Leaving Tennessee, Jennifer and I were on different flights to Chicago, but met up at the connection for the same final leg to Toronto.  Jennifer had crossed the Atlantic from the UK not only to visit with G.A., but also to stop by Waterloo to plan the ISSS 2010 meeting.  With Allenna, visited the Wilfred Laurier University campus.  It’s a compact site, as viewed from the residence across the street.

Since the university tour only took to midafternoon, I suggested that we do some sightseeing.  The Grand River by the Elora Mill Inn is scenic.  We drove south over the bridge from the centre of the village to oversee the mill.

We walked a little farther west on the south bank for a better look of the dam.

Looking east, there’s some traditional-looking buildings on the north side, and the Metcalfe Streeet bridge.

Viewing the gorge itself requires driving back north over the bridge, and west to Victoria Park.  There’s a long set of stairs down to the level of the water.  The stairs curve, so only part of the route is visible from the top. Read the rest of this entry →

When G.A. Swanson released the news that he would soon been passing on, a group of us quickly scheduled for a visit.  Convening at the Nashville airport, Jennifer flew in from the UK, I flew in from Toronto, and Gary drove down from Kentucky.  We rode together to Cookeville.  Paulette had been visiting G.A. to help out, and hosted us with a welcome in a show of southern hospitality.

I first met G.A. at the 1998 ISSS meeting in Atlanta, which I’ve cited to many as the single best educational experience of my life.  G.A. had encouraged me, as well as Jennifer and Gary, to become more and more involved in the systems community over the years.

We spent the evening catching up on news, and reminiscing.  In his home, the photographs and souvenirs of world travels suggested not only a man who was known internationally, but who might also have been a Southern rebel in his youth.  The next morning, we moved a few things around to take G.A.’s car to the university.

While I first met G.A. in his role as ISSS president in 1998, he had long been a professor of accounting at Tennessee Tech since 1982.  His office was in the College of Business at Johnson Hall.

We helped G.A. finish cleaning out his office.  He had sent in his last paper for publication, and said that he wouldn’t be needing any more references.  In the inner room were years of books not only on systems research, but also on accounting.

G.A. had a complete archive of systems research.  Jennifer packed up some of the old artifacts that are hard to find. Read the rest of this entry →

Having reoriented myself from Takeshita dori, we crossed Meiji Street to a landmark I remember — the Birkenstock Store.  It’s in a flat iron shape, with the street forking off.

The fork on the east side is Harajuku Street.  I remember walking down this stretch and thinking that the buildings didn’t seem very interesting.

One or two intersections up, looking to the right, is a strange building at the end of the street.

Design Festa Gallery always amuses me, with the nearly-random pipes on the front facade of the building.

Since I’ve been to the gallery before, I decided to start on the upper floors for a change.  The murals on the stairwell walls are entertaining.

We were greeted by two Japanese girls, who asked us to rate our favourite student paintings of the day. Read the rest of this entry →