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SALZBURG,
AUSTRIA:
Gruess Gott and warm greetings from high up in the icy mountain
Alps of this winter wonderland in beautiful Salzburgerland where
I am attending the 41st annual Grossarl Forum of Guild Scouts for
about the 30th time. Here
we have former scouts and guides from many countries especially
around Europe including some from the former Soviet eastern bloc. En
route here I visited Bogota the capital of Colombia in the northern
part of South America via Buenos Aires flying Qantas across the
south Pacific for nearly 14 hours and arriving just ten minutes
later at 11am after leaving Sydney at 10.50am! We
had a long Christmas Eve departing Sydney in the morning and still
arriving in Bogota almost 24 hours later at 6.30pm Christmas Eve. Christmas
and New Year in Colombia is something different again and well worth
the experience plus we had a special birthday party December 28
for Daniela Eichmeyer the number one daughter of Ulrike’s four
girls and one son. Arriving in London via Madrid was different again with a wide range of weather (please don’t mention or blame global warming and man-made climate change! And get me started again!). * * * BUENOS
DIAZ amigos – good morning and greetings from Villa De
Leyva high in the Andes in Colombia, South America where I have
visited en route to Europe for several special events. First
event was the special birthday of Daniela Eichmeyer eldest daughter
of Ulrike on December 28 and second was to witness the opening of
Daniela’s BluGelato ice cream parlour with home made products
manufactured on the premises. Eat
your heart out Chris Karas! In
case you don’t know our Sports Editor Chris K is our national
ice cream eating champion beating all comers to date. *
* * VILLA
DE LEYVA is an historic town founded 436 years ago by Herman
Suares de Villabos and has now been declared a national monument
by the Colombian authorities so in many ways it is still today as
it was all those years ago. All
the streets of the old town are cobble stoned and the buildingswhitewashed
with a large cobbled plaza in the centre of the town which is quite
unique for South America. Today
Villa De Leyva has a population of nearly 14,000 but the numbers
swell especially at weekends by visitors as it is a most popular
destination for locals and overseas tourists as it is only about
a three hours road journey from the capital Bogota and at 2143 metres
has a constant pleasant 18 degrees temperature. *
* * FESTIVALS
FEATURE
with the Festival de las Cometas (kites) in August which attracts
thousands of competitors and spectators and the Festival de Luces
(fireworks) in December to compete with our New Years Eve displays.
Also
famous locally is the museum of El Fosil which features the 120
million years prehistoric marine reptile up to 12 metres resembling
an overgrown crocodile and similar to a specimen found in Australia. This
shows that Villa De Leyva was immersed by the sea before the Andes
mountains were formed. Certainly well worth a visit even if it is
a long way from Sydney but now Qantas has resumed flights from Sydney
to Buenos Aires and a connecting trip to Bogota via Lima in Peru
it is not so difficult as previously. Well done Qantas. *
* * COLOMBIA
IS named after Christopher Columbus even though he never
set foot on Columbian soil. Alonso de Ojedo who travelled with Columbus
on his second voyage of discovery from Spain landed in Colombia
in 1499. The
legend of the fortunes of El Dorado a mythical kingdom of gold prompted
a Spanish gold rush of sorts with three groups battling for supremacy
in conquests over the Incas and Aztecs. In
1550 King Carlos V of Spain established a court of justice in Bogota
and brought the colony under the control of the Viceroyal of Peru.
Spain
ruled until 1819 when the independence fighter Simon Bolivar defeated
the Spanish army and the Republic of Gran Colombia was founded.
However in 1830 Gran Colombia split into three different countries
Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. *
* * BOGOTA
IS often referred to as the cocaine capital of the world but
that is changing apart from the mass media headlines of kidnapping,
street shoot outs and guerrillas a thriving country with a rising
middle class is emerging where the streets are safer than many in
Sydney these days. Bougainvillea
balconies abound even in the city where modern skyscrapers mix with
low level housing and motorways that could teach our RTA traffic
engineers a thing or two. Bogota
is situated just north of the equator with a population of nearly
seven million and a total national population of 44 million. Colombia’s
climate is delightfully tropical along the coastline and eastern
plains but pleasantly cooler in the highlands. Spanish
is the national language although there are 65 indigenous extras.
Largest ethnic group is Mestizos which comprises Spanish descendants
born in Colombia. Currency
is the Colombian peso which uses the $ sign and currently $5000
(pesos) equals one Australian dollar. So it’s still good value
for the Australian tourist/visitor. *
* * SPEED
HUMPS. Eat your heart out Mick Lardelli AM former longtime Mayor
of the City of Ryde. During
the mayoralty of the said Mayor Lardelli Ryde Council was plonking
in speed humps left, right, centre and anywhere else and digging
up and spoiling the new sealed roads I was responsible for during
my earlier time on Council. Well
here in Villa De Leyva we have some speed humps that would even
send Mick Lardelli green with envy. Riding in a Jeep we had to come
to an almost complete halt to pass over them they’re so enormous. A
local lass told me we call them “a big fat policeman laying
down – with his girlfriend on top of him”!! *
* * TODAY
WEDNESDAY
January 14 I am actually now high up on another mountain top covered
with snow across the Atlantic from Colombia in the Austrian Alps
south of beautiful Salzburg in the village of Grossarl at the Scouts
Guild Forum for a week long meeting. En
route I called into London and caught up with my twin brother Dr
Peter Arthur Booth and family including wife Maggie and two daughters
Bregitta and Amber and families. Eldest daughter Debbie is living
in Oz near Canberra with hubby Graham and daughters Eva and Zoe.
*
* * NEXT
WEEK
I will be back in Oz in good time for Australia Day and looking
forward to catching up with you all then. * * * ANDY
JOHNSTON
and his child bride Maureen celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary
party this Saturday at Brush Farm House Eastwood. Thanks
for the invitation but I will be out of circulation this Saturday. Our
association goes back quite a while when Andy was an ALP Alderman
on Ryde Council before he resigned from the party and later joined
Ivan Petch’s independent team where he again served with distinction. Andy
was an assistant principal of TAFE and I later found out that we
both went to Sydney Technical High School about the same time so
he can’t be all bad! We reminisced the other day about the time many moons ago I was doing an investigative report on a new shop opening at Sager Place called Joe’s Chicks who proposed installing money operated entertainment machines which had become highly controversial among the locals and one of the young people I quizzed said his name was Andrew Johnston, aged 16. Well the same Andrew Johnston Jr now an RAN officer based in Victoria is one of Saturday’s organisors with his brother Geoff Johnston. Sorry I can’t catch up with you again Andrew Junior but best wishes to you and all the family for a happy and most successful 50th wedding anniversary party. *
* * Wedding
Bells Lane Cove MP Anthony Roberts weds the lovely Alicia Bush this Saturday January 17. On behalf of TheWeekly Times team I extend congratulations and hearty best wishes to the bride and groom for the future filled with happiness and joy. * * * GOOD SAMARITAN of the week award goes to Jenny Solomon who came to the aid of a lady shopper at Gladesville who fainted in the street from low blood pressure and cared with some others including JB until the ambulance arrived. After treatment Jenny drove Mrs BW home in the lady’s own car and arranged for a friend to collect her to return to her own car and shopping. Well done Jenny.
DAVID
LUTZ heads this week’s Birthday Honours List blowing out
the candles today on his birthday cake while Allan and Bernadette
Horrell celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. John
Stanton shares tomorrow Thursday January 15 with Jason Berther while
Jessica Frazer and Pat Rutherford share Friday July 16. Two
memorable wedding anniversaries are celebrated Saturday January
17 being Charles and Victoria Kilby with 21 years and Joe and Anne
Bolton with a notable 57 years. Victoria Kilby backs up next day
Sunday with a birthday celebration shared with Siegi Haas married
to Ruth in Vienna and Hanne Roslind wed to Roar in Roskilde Denmark. Neita
Matthews OAM blows out the candles on her cake next Wednesday January
21 same day three notable wedding anniversaries not least of all
my twin brother Peter Arthur Booth and his child bride Margaret
Barnier wed at St Philips Eastwood in 1957, and Peter Thomas Menton
and Eleanor Landayan Menton in Manila in 1978 plus Peter and Helen
Sullivan 22 years ago. Happy daze all. *
* * BUMPER
STICKER:
You Must Pay for Your Sins! If You Have Already Paid, Please Disregard
This Notice. *
* * Keep
Smiling! |