Saturday, June 09, 2007

Hello from Melbourne!!

Hope you have all had a good couple of weeks since the last update! We are both very well, Charlie has started work and is loving it!! Everyone who works there is very nice and its a really cool shop so everything is great!! I'm currently managing my shop as my manager has just had his second baby (Well, technically it was his wife, but you know what I mean...) This means Ive actually done a full 5 day week of work, which is my first in about 8 months.... Nasty! I also got caught on a tram without a ticket, normally they let you buy a ticket if they catch you on the tram without one, but I obviously got a prick and he busted me, from what Ive been told its about $150 fine which you get in the post, but you can normally challenge your first one as your name wont be in their fine system and you can say you have been traveling on the trams for years and had just not bought your ticket when the inspector boarded the tram... Wish me luck.



The moon was very low in the sky the last night, it looked very cool above this old building called The George.


This is the very busy intersection near our apartment, its pretty noisy at night, but we have gotten used to it, looks pretty cool though!


I got my tripod out and got a cool shot of the moon while it was so low, its pretty hard to focus on the mood, but I think it looks great.


Another concert? Not Quite, It was my day off today and guess who was in town giving a free talk?


The Dalai Lama. or to give him is full name:
"Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso" Which means "Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom"


To be completely honest, I didn't really know too much about the Dalai Lama before I went, I knew the obvious stuff like him being the current leader of the Tibetan Government (Which is in exile, in India) and is trying to sustain the Tibetan way of life of his followers while under persecution from China, but that was about all. I'm more of a believer in science than religion, and I was expecting him to be very religious and trying to convert people to Buddhism, but I was actually pretty shocked about how unbiased he was with his views. He talked about everything from the turmoil in the middle east to homosexuality and even the way humans treat each other on a daily basis. I was kinda expecting him to be saying stuff along the lines that we should all just get along and live in peace, yadda, yadda, yadda, but he was a total realist, some of his views were so spot on it kinda shocked me, the only other person I can compare him to is Noam Chomsky, who's a bit of hero of mine. Lets just say I was suitably impressed.


It was held in The Princes Park, which is an Aussie rules oval, and there was close to 20,000 people there and best of all it was totally free!


When he talks he is quite animated, and is actually very funny.


Hoping for an Autograph?


For a 71 year old he is extremely fit, he had arms like a Connemara man!


After his talk he took a few questions from the public, for one of the questions he explained that not one Australian government official or politician would meet with him. Why I hear you ask? Well, China is at the start of a major economic surge (that will see them become the worlds most powerful economy in about 8yrs time), their need for raw building materials is massive and the only country in the world who can (and is) supplying it is, you guessed it: Australia (which is like one massive mining pit), and they don't want to upset China by talking to the Dalai Lama who would probably ask some pretty hard questions for Australia to answer. So basically, china need Australia, Australia certainly needs China, and the tiny problem of Tibet gets ignored by the Australia Government, Cue Violins....

Sorry if the above rantings have bored you, here are some pictures of buildings in Melbourne.

This is the commonwealth banks building, its bloody massive and in the mornings catches the sun rising and looks amazing (Ill get that picture some other time)


Some small street.


This is the exhibition hall, its pretty cool looking.


I have no Idea what this is, is a very weird colour, its looks like its made from Chocolate...


These are actually 2 very boring looking buildings, but if you put it into black and white and turn the camera at a funny angle then it looks all arty.....

All righty then, its a pretty small update this time, but an interesting one (I hope) We also got tickets to another concert in August, this time its a band called "Hot Chip" Ive seen them before but it was at a festival and this time its in a tiny club so it should be brilliant!!!

Lots of love
Sean "I love the Internet" Burke & Charlie "Touch my Chocolate bar again and Ill kill you" Ratcliff

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