Cycling discovery: Ambergate Nature Reserve and Emperor Hirohito

Six ante meridiem.  The new cellphone alarm melody that I chose upon the evening before last is unnervingly peppy.  Today we had planned to go for a bigger bicycle ride; inland and away from the beach into a part of the Vasse region that I am unfamiliar with.  We broke our fast on toast and jam (homemade and bought from a little old lady at the local Vasse community markets last Saturday who tried her best not complain about how the authorities had recently told her that she had to stop producing jams and caked for sale unless she met the standards of a commercial kitchen) and saddled up for the ride.

Our route kept us away from most of the early morning traffic and we discovered a new source of farm-direct eggs (four dollars for a dozen at an honesty-box roadside stall out along Kaloorup Road).  The most significant discovery we made on our ride was the Ambergate Nature Reserve: 75 hectares of natural bush land, a small isolated remnant of what the whole plain used to be covered in.  There is a short bush walk that winds its way through the reserve so we will go back in the future to have a better look and explore the area.

I just finished reading H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and found it to be a surprisingly good piece of science-fiction considering it was first published in 1895.  I have moved on to a biography about Japan’s emperor Hirohito (b. 1901; d. 1989) who was also a marine biologist and published several papers, a lot of which seem to concern hydroids, whatever those are.  I’ll read on and see how far from objective the author can lean.

Close to the ocean and almost back home again.

Bike route 816698 - powered by Bikemap 

Tuesday morning bike ride

Just another day in Busselton.  We woke up to my cellphone alarm at six-o’clock.  After letting my brain idle for five minutes and blinking at the early-morning light penetrating our bedroom window at light speed, I peeled the comfortable layers of bedding away from me and made a few basic preparations for a morning bicycle ride.

Fortified with two Satsuma (blood) plums and a mugful of water, I wheeled my lightweight road machine out of the doorway and onto the street.  Quiet.  Cool.  Sharp sunlight.  A very gentle breeze chilled me slightly and I lodged it firmly in place as my main motivation to cycle hard so that I could warm up.  I headed out to the highway and crossed over it and then rode through the new housing estate to the pedestrian/cycle pathway that shadows the road to Margaret River.  At the Vasse General Store I took an unfamiliar road striking out left to the west.

I passed paddocks for grazing and vineyards for picking.  The road ran very straight, flanked by tall trees on either side that created a shady tunnel.  A conduit to somewhere.  I cycled until I saw a small old shack, dilapidated and rustic.  Perfectly rustic.  I took a couple of photos and then began the cycle home.  Another day in the world.  Another day of possibilities and perils.  And breakfast.

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Like an old song from the 1990s (or maybe it was the 1980s) normality has descended upon me and I find myself sitting in Busselton in Western Australia on a Friday afternoon settling in for the next four months.

My last post on Blogger was yet another report on a cycle excursion through the back blocks of Taiwan.  It has been months and months since I wrote the last post on this fine virtual journal.  I couldn't possibly go on without first explaining to nobody in particular why I may as well be writing about the life of a completely different individual.

I was living and working overseas for about five years, first in South Korea and then in Taiwan.  There are plenty of expatriates who have adopted these countries as their homes for the foreseeable future for reasons I can guess at; perhaps they just don't want to return to their own country; perhaps they enjoy a better standard of living in their host country; perhaps they have an ongoing relationship or have married a resident of their host nation.  These are all understandable reasons and I can empathize with the sentiments behind all of them.  However, in the case of Andrea and I, continuing to live and work as English teachers overseas became an unsustainable future.  These days the word unsustainable immediately brings to mind ecological and environmental associations.  Forests might serve as a useful metaphor for describing what I mean when I use the word unsustainable in reference to our lives overseas (then again, they might not; I haven't really thought this through).  For healthy forests you need a rich foundation (the soils) and an adequate ongoing supply of all the inputs that forests need (sunlight, water, air, etc).  Our roots reach into community to anchor us and keep us upright.  But community was something that we lacked and had a hard time establishing and maintaining in our host countries and we were also a long way away from our families.  And so our foundation was weak.  As for receiving an adequate ongoing supply of prerequisite inputs, we missed easy access to nature and natural environments; we yearned for the opportunity to explore our interests by joining local clubs and making new friends; we lacked for a deeper engagement with the society in which we participated, partly due to a poor grasp of the dominant language and also partly due to cultural differences.  We weren't getting a full and adequate supply of holistic nutrients that we needed to sustain us long-term.  Our forests looked okay at first glance but a closer examination would reveal that there were serious deficiencies and that the forest was not as healthy as it appeared.

One other serious reason for not wanting to remain any longer in Taiwan was that we would like to be able to start a family and be able to provide good support for children.  Being an English teacher might pay the bills and allow DINKs to have some fun but it's not a career move that provides a good foundation for a family.

So we finished our contracts with our respective schools and came to Australia to start the rest of our lives.

There's a lot more to say about all this but it will have to wait because I have a dinner date with destiny.

Ciao

The World Games in Kaohsiung: Sumo

The sumo competition was probably my favorite event, of those that I saw anyway. It was surprising in as much as the spectacle at hand differed markedly from what I can not but help imagine sumo to be. Not all the competitors were male and not all of them were Japanese or Asian. Some of them didn't even look heavy. I remember the indignation (we imagine) suffered by one of the smaller competitors when, after the match was started by the referee, his opponent simply picked him up without a great deal of effort and placed him down outside the ring, winning the match; that got quite a reaction from the crowd.

The spectators: (from left) Tim & Lei, me, Andrea, Andrea's sister Erin, Lee, and Dan.

Before the bouts could begin there was an opening performance of sorts involving Chinese dragons and a whole lot of drumming and cymbal-smashing. Note the sumo ring or dohyo, built to specifications laid down during centuries of sumo wrestling in Japan.
(for a link to a decent site with loads of information (more than you want) about the dohyo and other aspects of sumo, try this one): http://www.tangoll.com.hk/Sumodohyo.html


Traditionally, women weren't allowed into the dohyo for any reason at any time. Apparently, women's sumo isn't considered authentic by most Japanese and women are prohibited from competing beyond amateur events. However, the World Games includes a full men's and a full women's competition and so would be seen as an amateur competition by those closer to the traditions and legacy of sumo wrestling in Japan. For more information you can check the Wikipedia page and follow the relevant links within.

Note in this photo the referees and the other contestants. The role of the sumo referee (or gyoji) is critical and bound up with the history of the sport. From the sample of female sumo wrestlers in this photo you can get an idea of how the contestants in this competition might differ from those that the word sumo tends to conjure up. You can see representatives from Taiwan (TPE), Hungary (HUN), Australia (AUS), and Italy (ITA).


The usual roles are reversed here as a diminutive Russia takes on a Ukrainian behemoth. This just seems a bit unfair.


Australian sumo wrestlers? What would Australian sumo wrestlers look like if they existed? Well, they do exist. Two male and two female sumo wrestlers appeared at the tournament. Sadly, they were all knocked out in the first round of eliminations. This guy actually looks like what I imagine an Australian sumo wrestler would look like if I could imagine it. It's kind of weird. Sitting behind him on the right is a wrestler from New Zealand (NZL). I noticed that the Australians and New Zealanders were pretty comfortable with each other. The guy about to wrestle in this shot ended up out of the ring and must have hurt his foot because he had trouble getting back up the small set of stairs into the ring again to finish the bout with the obligatory bow. I got emotional when the New Zealander helped him up. All those jokes about New Zealanders having sex with sheep were just jokes.

A classic bout between one of the Egyptians (I think) and the guy from Taiwan (I think). This bout lasts longer than most. I love the way that one helps the other at the end. I'm getting emotional again, but we're talking about men fighting each other so it's okay for me to get emotional, being a man and all.