Innumerabilis

Adelaide has three major universities – University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, and Flinders University. While UofA and UniSA both have campuses in the city (and also elsewhere in SA), Flinders University is located outside the city. Its grounds is a lot bigger than the other two since it is not constrained by space. Today, the Malaysian Student’s Association at Flinders U is having a Mamak Night and we’re going there to eat. =)

Kind of looks like the engineering/science buildings in NUS – 70s building, function over form.

The university is on a hill so you can look down into houses below.

Climbing a tree. =)

There’s a lake in the middle of the campus.

Port Adelaide lies north of the city of Adelaide, and is an historic maritime area. Today, I went to Port Adelaide with Tony. I had done some research, and there were some things which I had in mind, such as the seahorse farm, lighthouse, maritime museum and dolphin cruise.

First up was the seahorse farm. Petting a seahorse, what’s not to like about that? Unfortunately, it cost more than we expected (I thought it was free), and no cameras allowed? Nah, just a quite snapshot of the entrance, and we’re off to the next destination.

Next up was the lighthouse. Entry to it is free if you buy the maritime museum ticket, which we did.

The old machinery can still be seen in the lighthouse.

The view from the top of the lighthouse. There was a school group on a trip today.

The original lighthouse lamp.

The maritime museum was next. Their main attraction is a life-sized replica of a boat. Visitors can climb onto the boat and visit all the sections of the boat.

The maritime museum is not all about the past, though. There is some decidedly modern apparels in its “swimwear through the ages” exhibition.

They also have a collection of working old toys/amusement machines.

At the basement of the museum, there is a section chronicling the immigration of people to South Australia. South Australia was a free colony (i.e. all the immigrants were not prisoners), unlike other parts of Australia which started as penal colonies.

There’s a recreation of the condition on the boats that took months to sail from Europe to Australia. It was a cramped and uncomfortable conditions that the poor immigrants had to endure for months – the richer ones of course got the better class of cabins and sailed in luxury.

Anzac Day is a day in Australia and New Zealand where they commemorate those who died in service during the wars. There are ceremonies/parades all over the country, from the big cities to the smallest village. The day is a public holiday, shops are supposed to stay closed till after noon to allow the people to attend the ceremony.

I decided to watch the parade. Unfortunately, not many people were interested in such stuff, and the early hour (it starts at 9.30am) didn’t help. In the end, just Song Ping and I went. It was a fantastic experience, to see so many people lining the roadside where the parade takes place, and the clapping that started from the very first marcher and never stopped till the last one had finished. From the young, the old, and even infirm participants who were pushed in wheelchairs, one gets a sobering sense of perspective about how the ravages of wars cut across all generations.

There were veterans from the recent Afghanistan/Iraq war, but also veterans who fought in Singapore and Malaya during the Japanese occupation. Some of the earlier units had only a few veterans left alive, but even if there was just one left the unit flag is present, held by boy scouts.

They also allow relatives of war veterans to march in the parade. The relatives wear the veterans’ medals on the right side; the left side is only for the person who received the medals personally. Unfortunately, the many relatives in the march probably means many veterans have died.

The sense of pride, honour and sadness invokes a unique blend of feeling. The drizzle that started in the middle of the parade, and the fact that no one left the roadside for shelter, adds to the sobriety of the event.

More pictures available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/innumerabilis/sets/72157624459376647/