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Ships and Expeditions and Stuff
I actually got to go out today. As in outside, with actual humans. [Waves to Rob and Leece.] We visited Fremantle, our port city, about an hour away from my Perth suburb. Great weather but not too warm. While waiting for my friends, I got to see 100-odd Harleys, Nortons and Indians decked out with pink tinsel and other bright pink and fluffy decorations, doing a ride through Fremantle to publicise breast cancer. At first I thought hmm, that's about the gayest looking motorcycle club I've ever seen, but as Leece pointed out, there weren't enough rainbows for that!
I got cultured; well, as cultured as I get, by visiting the maritime museums, the older one with all the shipwreck stuff [thanks to the East India Company] and the other one with all the stuff after that, with lots of ships and info about expeditions and war...and stuff. There. Culture :-) Way too much to absorb properly in a couple of hours, for sure, but every time I get to a museum I do pick up small bits and pieces I did not previously know.
These include viewing a map of our coast with a drawing of the French eagle clutching a banner with "Nouveau...."" - damn, it's gone, I didn't write any of this down. Might have been Nouveau France? I'd call that proof positive that the French had designs on our western coast. Had a certain ship made it home after surveying it in 1818, France might occupy a third of this continent today. It's hard to say whether that would have been any better than us being here, but the French did have a certain unique style. Corroboree with singing and castanets [Aboriginals and French explorers together] would have been something to see. And hear. The museums certainly feature a lot more about the Aboriginal people and their side of the white settlement story than they did when I was a kid, or at least what I remember as a kid. I wasn't a voluntary museum visitor then like I am now.
If I knew more of that history I'd be tempted to have a go at that what-if; say the Uranie had made it home and this ended up as a divided continent? Think of Britain and France without the Channel to keep them apart? Might have a go anyway if the brain obliges. Wouldn't hurt to do some reading. My mind is on what-ifs right now. I just finished reading Mary Robinette Kowal's <The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky which are absolutely brilliant, a what-if a meteor hit Earth in the 1950s and caused the American space program to rachet up to speed much faster than it did, with the incentive to found space colonies before climate change makes the planet uninhabitable? I don't want to spoiler anybody and this isn't really a review, just a "go read these books!" They are full of the mores of the 50s and all their limitations, particularly about women in the space program, hell, about women doing anything which made me think a lot about the Hidden Figures movie and that I really need to go read that book too.Anyway, this has been a pretty decent weekend because of that. I did have to visit my mother yesterday and help sort out various things. She's got helpers who show up three days a week but they're only there for half an hour so things pile up. M was horrified when she caught one about to put a brightly coloured item of clothing in with the whites laundry. Apparently the person just "piles it all in together" with their own laundry but geez, you'd think the aged care service would check this kind of thing.
I then proceeded to thrash M at Scrabble, which makes me a bad person, I know, but when my opponent has already gotten a great score with the Q AND a seven-letter word, I'm not going to go easy on them even if they are 87 and not long out of the hospital.
Hoping things go all right next week. I very much don't want to go back to work after my five day break, but I guess if I manage not to be too insomniac, that'll be a triumph. November is usually a fairly heavy month so I really don't need to have any more difficulties maintaining health. My stupid brain thinks if it doesn't let me sleep, I'll get off having to go to work or something, but no, I don't let that happen.
I've worked out that really the only thing to do is act like it didn't happen and try not to get upset about it, which I used to do. I call it international travel mode, when one can do a lot more than one thinks, sleep or no sleep. I have to focus very narrowly on what needs to be done, drink a lot of coffee, then go home and collapse the next night. I figure my brain will sort itself out eventually. I hope.
I got cultured; well, as cultured as I get, by visiting the maritime museums, the older one with all the shipwreck stuff [thanks to the East India Company] and the other one with all the stuff after that, with lots of ships and info about expeditions and war...and stuff. There. Culture :-) Way too much to absorb properly in a couple of hours, for sure, but every time I get to a museum I do pick up small bits and pieces I did not previously know.
These include viewing a map of our coast with a drawing of the French eagle clutching a banner with "Nouveau...."" - damn, it's gone, I didn't write any of this down. Might have been Nouveau France? I'd call that proof positive that the French had designs on our western coast. Had a certain ship made it home after surveying it in 1818, France might occupy a third of this continent today. It's hard to say whether that would have been any better than us being here, but the French did have a certain unique style. Corroboree with singing and castanets [Aboriginals and French explorers together] would have been something to see. And hear. The museums certainly feature a lot more about the Aboriginal people and their side of the white settlement story than they did when I was a kid, or at least what I remember as a kid. I wasn't a voluntary museum visitor then like I am now.
If I knew more of that history I'd be tempted to have a go at that what-if; say the Uranie had made it home and this ended up as a divided continent? Think of Britain and France without the Channel to keep them apart? Might have a go anyway if the brain obliges. Wouldn't hurt to do some reading. My mind is on what-ifs right now. I just finished reading Mary Robinette Kowal's <The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky which are absolutely brilliant, a what-if a meteor hit Earth in the 1950s and caused the American space program to rachet up to speed much faster than it did, with the incentive to found space colonies before climate change makes the planet uninhabitable? I don't want to spoiler anybody and this isn't really a review, just a "go read these books!" They are full of the mores of the 50s and all their limitations, particularly about women in the space program, hell, about women doing anything which made me think a lot about the Hidden Figures movie and that I really need to go read that book too.Anyway, this has been a pretty decent weekend because of that. I did have to visit my mother yesterday and help sort out various things. She's got helpers who show up three days a week but they're only there for half an hour so things pile up. M was horrified when she caught one about to put a brightly coloured item of clothing in with the whites laundry. Apparently the person just "piles it all in together" with their own laundry but geez, you'd think the aged care service would check this kind of thing.
I then proceeded to thrash M at Scrabble, which makes me a bad person, I know, but when my opponent has already gotten a great score with the Q AND a seven-letter word, I'm not going to go easy on them even if they are 87 and not long out of the hospital.
Hoping things go all right next week. I very much don't want to go back to work after my five day break, but I guess if I manage not to be too insomniac, that'll be a triumph. November is usually a fairly heavy month so I really don't need to have any more difficulties maintaining health. My stupid brain thinks if it doesn't let me sleep, I'll get off having to go to work or something, but no, I don't let that happen.
I've worked out that really the only thing to do is act like it didn't happen and try not to get upset about it, which I used to do. I call it international travel mode, when one can do a lot more than one thinks, sleep or no sleep. I have to focus very narrowly on what needs to be done, drink a lot of coffee, then go home and collapse the next night. I figure my brain will sort itself out eventually. I hope.
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No Channel, but there is the Nullabor and other deserts - several of which were discovered to be rich in various valuable minerals rather late in the piece.
So territorial conflicts are possible - but only at the end of near-prohibitive supply lines (even now).
So I can see it working somewhat like a battle over a series of islands, but both sides have got long and vulnerable supply-lines to defend in order to be able ... hang on! That is sounding familiar!
And all of this only after the discovery of the Golden Mile, and the resulting expansion of mineral exploration in the region. Flaring again when massive ore deposits are found in the far North.
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anyway, will store away for later use when properly conscious. Didn't get to sleep till around 3 am again. Sigh.
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What if the Albany Noongar had been resistant to the influenza and had established hunting reserves? A strong Albany with the Europeans supporting its Noongars need for boodjar would have been a strength for the English side of the continent, and might have decreased Perth's lead for prominence.
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I love shipwreck stuff. I guess it's an extension of the 'abandoned places' fascination for me. And getting inspired to write is always wonderful :)
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