The best laid plans of blog updates and descriptions can get overtaken by the reality and instantaneous-ness (?) of the opportunities offered by SnapChat, Instagram and Facebook to keep our friends up to date with what’s happening. The Eternal Weekend has been proceeding apace and we’ve had the chance to share some excellent adventures.

Today was a bit special.

Firstly: this morning we attended the AGM for the Newcastle University of the Third Age organisation and, following an invitation, I became a part of the Committee for this great organisation which really actualises the goal of providing opportunities for lifelong learning. U3A
relies on people with a skill, learning, disposition or capacity to invite curiosity, to present courses and learning activities for a cohort, in Newcastle’s case, of around 500 members: generally for a decade or two beyond retirement age. So, this was the first U: U3A

The other U is Uber; which launched in Newcastle at noon today, 14 April 2016.

I received an SMS at 8am to let me know that, after spending time getting all vehicle inspections done, police checks, identify verification and insurance and registration etc, today was the day where I could go online with the Uber app and offer rides.

After just a few hours and a number of rides, it’s obvious that there are plenty of people out there who love the idea of Uber.  It’s certainly a great way to provide a service and take part in a good example of the types of disruptive ideas which will challenge and also create a sense of achievement for the solution seekers.

Oh, and the fun of being an Uber Partner driver is that the Eternal Weekend doesn’t require interruption apart from those times where that will work.  That is; I only need to go online when I want to drive.

Seems like it needs a Kraftwerk song along the lines of “I’m the operator of my pocket calculator.”

‘I’m a glad arriver with my friendly Uber driver’

#dadjoke

Look forward to telling you stuff about our adventures in Europe coming up.  Please feel free to click where it says ‘Leave a Comment’ above and add your bit!

Quote of the day from Lynette, while cycling home after dinner with Katie: “This retirement’s not a bad caper.”

Not a bad caper at all.

Leaving Port Macquarie and FOTSUN behind we pick up the dog and head home in time to catch our breath and then cycle in to the Parry Street Hub end; with The Edwards Impossible Market , the Hunter Design School, and others nearby. The HDC had some fabulous examples of the work now being created by former students in a space which is a wonderfully refurbishment and repurposing of a light industrial space into a light and sympathetic canvas for the variety of work. The whitewashed beams in the overhead frame add to the feel.

Across the road, The Edwards had a good vibe working with the outside stalls on Parry Street and the inside space which has had so many uses since the opening of the bar for a range of community groups and other activities.

Outside, Georgina Grimshaw was doing a great job with her fully acoustic style: a guitar, her; hands and voice: Hand made music.

(Oh, and on the theme of ‘Hand Made Music’ you might be interested in Acoustic Cafe, coming up on Sun 20 December, 2-5 at Carrington; and Wed 23 Dec 6- 9 at Foghorn BrewHouse. #shamelessplug)

So good to see creativity and the maker movement ethos being demonstrated clearly.

Inside, another good female vocalist worked with a guy on drums and had a pro sound as we trailed through to the stands in the creative space.

It was then time to hit the bikes again and catch up with Katie for a relaxed dinner at The Star; where a new menu had some very tasty things for us to share, with bread with oil and dukkah accompanying baba ganoush. The Roast Pumpkin Salad was great and the Spinach, Feta and Pine Nut Arancini, along with the Polpette beef and pork meatballs in sauce all worked well.

Then, the chance to follow the oranges and pinks of the sunset home.

So, as we took advantage of one of the new crossings across the railway easement and joined the Throsby cycleway to lope along home, it would seem that Lynette’s assessment isn’t a bad one really.

Not a bad caper at all.

 

Just showered and settled on the balcony to reflect on Day One of Festival of the Sun, FOTSUN, 2015.

We’d put together an adhoc Spotify playlist for Day 1 acts this morning and Le Pie’s stuff sounded good.  Luckily we have some friends and family doing the Festival gig with us so were able to avoid the heat walk to get wristbands etc before heading along to the stage area. When listening to the playlist we knew that it would be well worth getting along to catch Le Pie.  She was excellent, and someone we’ll keep a watch out for. (See previous post)

A place in the shade gives us a collective base to work from, and to meet people in!

Following their great set, Bootleg Rascal happened to be passing and got into both a picture and a yarn with us about the touring they’ve been doing and other Aussie bands like the DMAs who we’d caught up with in Portland Oregon in June this year as part of the Tour de Brew.

Despite the heat, the mood stayed chilled. Lots of young people having fun: groups in fancy dress, sunscreen offered on arrival and shade tents around the site. This is a festival which doesn’t seek to get bigger but creates a relaxed vibe.

It’s still chilling then; as the punters come and go, to see them corralled in single file past dogs, sniffing at each one and showing much more interest in some before sitting beside them.

Later, Thundamentals connected with something most of us wish for:  “Take your fist and make a peace sign with it.”

Nothing seems to say Summer quite like FOTSUN: Festival of the Sun, at Port Macquarie. We haz chairs and a place in the shade. Le Pie showing lots of capacity across the spectrum, and her backing band leaves space to hear what’s happening.

After an hour or so at Nobbys this morning we checked the coffee from The Empire Coffee Co with a couple of take-aways and found that the beans from Dropbear Coffee Roasters certainly led to a nice cup of coffee. Time for a few hours going ‘old school’ and reading the actual paper papers spread out on the deck!

Last night and today have been busy ones for community events in Newcastle.  Last night, in Civic Park, the Christmas lights were ceremoniously switched on and then today the park was overtaken for the Olive Tree Markets.

We decided to wait until a bit later in the day and took advantage of the Throsby Cycleway to cycle down to Pacific Park to check out Sunset Gather. While it was awesome to be cycling on such a lovely afternoon, the usual summer Nor-Easter made it a bit of a push into the headwind in some places.

As always, we’re reminded of the great access that the Throsby Cycleway gives us to the harbour and the beach and the city. The ‘missing link’ along the Throsby Wharf completes it as one of the nicest bicycle paths we’ve ridden in many cities here and internationally. Walkers are generally courteous and considerate provided that a polite ring of the bell lets them know that you’re passing.

Inaugural Sunset Gather Markets 5 Dec 2015

We cycle up past the Customs House and chain up our bikes in Pacific Street itself, just near the Food Trucks and pop up kitchens turning out all sorts of interesting fare. Was good to see food trucks themselves; reminiscent of Portland, Oregon. It’s so exciting to see people like Alice from Uprising Bakery partner with the Cheese Mongrel to produce a tasty treat of bread topped with cheese scraped molten from the face of a half cheese round heating on an improvised rotating cheese heater. Nearby, Doughheads continued to sell, along with a number of other local vendors.

We also dropped in to see our friends at Mim Concepts and marvelled at the resurgence in macrame and the number of ideas for gifts.

VanderAa onstage at Sunset Gather Markets

Then, it was into the natural ‘amphitheatre,’ under the roots of the huge fig, to chill out to the guitar, vocal, percussion box and beat-box vocals of VanderAa: two very cool guys who have some very nice groove based originals happening and then pulled off a great cover of a Chet Faker song.

Chilling in the afternoon sun

As the sun slid slowly to the west, a new, hopeful generation of proud Novocastrians chilled and enjoyed the vibe: I know we did!

Holly Who then took the stage, with Holly on vocals and a 5 piece band. The crowd swelled and there seemed to be a very relaxed atmosphere amongst the variety of people gathered on the grass and under the trees.

And then; cyling home up the harbour and creek with the wind at our backs was a magnificent way to say farewell to the day as the dark of night rolled over.

Somewhere close, we can hear the sound of fireworks and the sounds of Saturday night partying. Not a bad day at all really.

Beautiful morning. Perfect for a sit and a think, a walk and a drink; then home.

Nobbys Headland and beach: 5 December 2015

Ready for the next set at the Honeysuckle hotel

So, as of this afternoon, 4th December 2015, we are both beginning the Eternal Weekend: adventures in retirement.

We’re hoping that this blog can maintain a record of the things we find to do along the way.

Friday in Boulder was raining and uninviting for bike riding or walking so we decided to take a drive off into the mountains and enjoy some of the other parts of Colorado.

We headed West, along the Boulder Canyon, with Boulder Creek rushing down the canyon full and lively. The colours of the different trees as they show off their summer freshness against the granite is wonderful to see.

Somewhere out past Nederland, as we headed toward Estes Park on the Peak to Peak route, we pull into a small roadside village and buy a couple of bottles of water.

We look around and think it’s probably a good thing that neither of us feels like using the bathroom.

It’s a great drive through spectacular scenery and was good to do.

We simply don’t have the opportunity, usually, to see these types of landscapes right there in front of us.

Eventually, we get to Estes Park and find a nice riverwalk along the stream with a number of cafes and bars to choose from.

We were keen to add Boulder to our Colorado trip, as we’d heard about its prevalence of startups and reputation for innovation and creative approaches to things.  In addition, it came up really high in the search for cycle friendly cities and interesting food and beer choices in the USA.

Our trip South from Fort Collins to Boulder was uneventful, with just a remark on the IBM complex on the way in and the Google Boulder offices as we approached the city from the East, along Pearl Street, which goes on to be the main street downtown and forms the famous Pearl Street Mall.

We’re booked into another AirBnB right in town but arrive early and spend some time wandering up the Mall and getting a feel for this part of Boulder.  Our apartment was ready by now and we checked in and got set up before heading down to the Mall for one of the “Band on the Bricks” gigs; starting at 7pm and ending at 9pm.

So, picture this: a stage is set up halfway along one of the blocks on the mall and a dance space left in front for about twenty metres and then rows of plastic chairs sit waiting for those wanting a less ambulant music experience.

Then, a few metres behind this, is a fenced enclosure: not overwhelming,with fences only about 1.2 metres high. Inside this space, about 40 metres by 20 metres, there was a bar at the end away from the band with a couple of nice craft beers on tap and some basic wines. It was a bit like some other events, (e.g. Bluesfest) where you buy drink tickets and use these at the bar. As a guide, a pint of a very nice local IPA was US$5 – can’t go wrong with that!

The band was great: one of those combinations of musos who’ve clearly been playing a long time and had every band member helping out on the backing vocals and a very good 70s 80s rock vocal as lead. Down in front, the dance floor was pumping; with a bounce of baby boomers. Welcome to Boulder; just what makes this place so popular?

A look around the city environs answers one question: it’s a naturally beautiful place to live. Not far from the main downtown area, wonderful scenery awaits, with the FlatIrons and vistas of granite and fir.

A drive up Flagstaff Hill provided another answer as we watch cyclist after cyclist either concentrating on a cadence while stomping in low gearing up this huge hill, or crouching to maximise aero-dynamics on their return from the top. People here have a reputation for fitness and an interest in wellness across the spectrum from mind to body.

There has been a range of influences, from the planning of the city, the establishment of the Chautauqua, the location of key establishments nearby, the influx of sixties hippies and alternate lifestyle people and the location of important elements of global companies like IBM and Google, along with the 30000 students and then associated faculty at the University of Colorado. For us at home, think Byron Bay at a time where it, and the surrounding hinterland, became a haven for creative people working at realising ideas in an environment which also offers a quality of life. Then, overlay this with a sense of connectedness and community permission giving to have events like this where there was no starkly visible security presence but a shared commitment to everybody being able to enjoy the event their own way. The dominant legacy of this group was clear at the Band on the Bricks. And, there didn’t seem much wrong with a bunch of people who would be seen as seniors enjoying life and beaming with the gladness; interspersed with their children’s generation.

Maybe the fact that Colorado is one of the first states in the USA to legalise and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana to people aged over 21 has something to do with it?

It has evidently pumped millions more than expected in taxes back into state education and the state budget. And, it has clearly created a vibe at events like these which seem to buzz along on a collective carpet of goodwill. We had a ball despite only recognising a few songs amongst two full rock sets. It’s clear that there are some well known US artists and bands that we don’t necessarily get to hear about down under. The crowd knew all the songs and words too.

It seems that the weather also has ideas about how we might get around in Boulder. We’d planned to use the B Cycle and set off to grab our bikes at a rack nearby. (Similar system to the Boris Bikes in London, Velib in Paris etc) After one bike with a slipping seat, we were caught by the rain and managed to stumble upon the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and pay our $1 at the door to muse about in spaces with installations and perspectives; some fine cut maps of famous places and a discography of thematically matched shapes in remnants of 33 rpm vinyl records.

Our next B Cycle hire saw us off on a ride to the West End, only to be quickly docking bikes and heading for cover at a Brewery. Fancy that. From the West Flanders Brewery it was only a short walk to the Walnut Brewery.

Walnut Brewery, Boulder. CO

West Flanders Brewery, Boulder: not a bad shelter from the storm.

More to come about Boulder and the mountains to the West…..