Pedestrian safety.

One difference between my Aussie family and me is our understanding of the role of pedestrians and drivers. In BC when a pedestrian approaches a highway at a crosswalk they first look to the left, then the right and then to the left again before crossing the street. The assumption we make as pedestrians is that we have the right of way and that traffic will stop. 

We teach our children to stop and look both ways, we also teach them to cross at marked crosswalks or at lights whenever possible. The law is on our side as well, if we attempt to cross a road and a car does not stop the driver could be in serious trouble even if we are not hit.

In Australia at least in the state of Victoria, the driver has the right of way and a pedestrian has no expectation that a driver will stop if the pedestrian tries to cross the road. I found that hard to get used to, first I had to learn to look to the right, then to the left and back to the right before stepping out. I also had to make sure that there were no cars close unless I was at a light. 

Pedestrian right of way appears to be a foreign idea to my Aussie friends. When we were in Rye, which is on the Mornington Peninsula we were staying at a house that was across the road from the beach. The road was heavily used and the speed limit was 70K along the stretch we had to cross. There were no crosswalks and no lights within at least two kilometres, so we had to dodge traffic to get to the beach. 

At least twice during our stay, the owner of the house, stopped traffic after we had been waiting along with about 10 other people to cross the road. He went out in a break in the traffic and held up his hand and the traffic stopped or at least slowed down so we could get across the road. Each time he was surprised they had stopped.

I am sure that in many parts of the world, the idea that the driver is king and pedestrians have no rights is also in place, but I love what we do here and found that I like the idea of a pedestrian having some rights as important. My Aussie friends thought it was a strange idea, and have grown to live with and accept their own unique way of looking at the role of the driver and the pedestrian.

Bush Fires in Australia

There has been a lot of news lately about the weather in Australia and the devastation caused by the fires, in some states in the country. The danger of wildfires cannot be understated, but the resilience of the Australian people is amazing.

We spent most of our holiday in the high country in the Alpine region north of Melbourne, which as the crow flies is close to the New South Wales Border. When we were there was a fire in New South Wales and a fire near the northern border of Victoria and the fear was that the two fires would merge and create a mega-fire. That did happen and the fire was still burning when we left, but at the time no homes were in danger.

The fire danger and the number of fires were so bad that the government of the state of Victoria declared a state of disaster for the whole state. This was meant to give the government more power and to help reassure people, which I am sure it did. However, it did cause some unintended consequences, one of the edicts under the state of disaster was that all childcare centers would be closed. The idea was that if there was a fire danger parents should be with their children. A good idea, except that many people could not go to work because they had no childcare, so this created economic uncertainty and hardship in areas that were not affected by the fires, but were still under the state of emergency.

Fire Warnings were a part of life where we were staying. In the last week of our visit, it was very smokey, hot, and humid. My daughter and her mate received a number of warnings saying that they should leave now. They joked about the warnings telling us that there were several levels of warnings which started with Act and Watch, which meant do nothing,  then the next level was, “You should leave now” then the warning after that was, “Leave now or you will die”, and the last warning was “You can’t leave, take shelter and hope for the best”. The Australians in the area I was staying had a certain distrust for the government and government overreaction and said they would only leave when they received the third warning. They also said that they believed the government was overreacting to the fire dangers. They explained that in the fires a few years ago, the government did not act quickly enough and a lot of people died. They understood what the government was doing, but they likened the warnings they were receiving to the story of the "boy who cried wolf." They said that many of their friends did not trust the warnings and they were afraid that they might not leave when the needed to leave.

There were two fires close to us, one was, as the crow flies about 50K to the north and one was about 45K to the east. The fire that was to the north, had to climb up the mountain, go through a multi-million-dollar ski resort and then down the mountain to get to us. The area coming up the mountain had also been burned out a few years ago so the fire could not move quickly. My Australian friends and family were very confident that the state would not let the ski resort and the million-dollar homes are destroyed.

The other fire also had to go over a small mountain through two towns and cross a river through the grass to get near us. It was very slow-burning. It was under control within three days of starting.

The biggest cause of the fires appeared to be dry lightning, although watching the press it appeared that arson was the cause of some of the fires. Of the thousands of fires that started when we were there, only about 178 were attributed to people. The police had arrested and charged about 89 people with arson while we were there.

All of Australia was not burning, but because there were fires near Sydney in New South Wales and around Melbourne, which also has a large population, the smoke was a problem for many, including us.

We were affected by the smoke during our stay as it closed down the visibility so we could not see the stunning scenery of the Alpine region we were in, and when we left, we were delayed for three hours at the airport because the smoke made it difficult to fly.

The people of Australia have another month to go before the fire season is over, the wild weather and rain hitting parts of the affected areas are helping, but the danger is still there and will be for a time. I would recommend that if you want to help give to the Australian Red Cross.

Australia

We left for Australia and arrived two days later I love the idea of travelling forward in time but the 14 hours on the plane were not pleasant. Not bad, but still if one was claustrophobic the trip would have been hell. When we arrived, we had little trouble getting our car.

My son had advised me that when I rented a car, I should choose the most popular and cheapest model on the list. I did that and by the time we arrived at the rental agency, all of those cars had been rented out, so we were offered an upgrade for free, which we accepted. So we got a slightly bigger car, with more seats and more luggage room.

The tactic may not work every time, but the last four times we have done this, at popular, national car rental agencies we have received an upgrade. It has not worked when we went with local car rental companies.

The last time we were in Melbourne with my son, we did not have google maps and we had to rely on my ability to navigate, needless to say, we got lost and took three hours to find our way out of Melbourne and on the Hume Highway on our way to Mansfield. This time thanks to Apple and Google Maps we had no problems. This time we went through the backcountry for about an hour before we connected to the Hume highway. 

The scenery on the way reminded me of Kamloops area of BC. We stopped at a town called Yea for a pit stop and some food. Yea, like all small towns in Australia, has public toilets that are accessible and free for locals and tourists to use. I have never found a dirty public toilet in any of the small towns I visited in Australia. Canadian towns should take note.  

On the way to Yea, we drove along the Whittlesea road through a small town called Flowerdale which is in the foothills of The Great Dividing Range, and in the upper catchment of the Goulburn River system. We passed through some beautiful farmland and rolling hills as we travelled.

After resting in Yea, we drove on through more beautiful scenery as we moved into the high country past Mansfield to Sawmill Settlement.  Sawmill Settlement is a very small community of fewer than 90 people so everyone knew we were coming and as we entered the community there was a sign that welcomed us to the community.

We entered Sawmill Settlement to see and we stopped to read our warm welcome,  and then we drove to my daughter and her family home and arrived at about three o’clock after a very pleasant drive. 

I will talk about the rest of the trip and the fire situation that faced many of the areas we were in a subsequent post. Right now I am trying to get over my Jet lag.

Listen to the children

My grandson, who is 8 years old has a passion for skiing and his goal is to be in the Olympics in 2026. He is good at what he does and has no fear, as you can see from the picture below. He placed 18th in his country in his age group which included children from 15 to 8, so he has potential. As I watch him practice and strive for perfection I realized that as a senior I could learn from him. Children can teach us many things if we watch and embrace their ideas and techniques. Here are a few techniques that I learned from watching him that will help you take your game, or your life in retirement, to a whole new level:

1. Once a day playfully imagine that you're already living at that new level. He uses his imagination to see himself doing better, and he listens to others who give him instructions to become better. Finally, he practices what he imagines and what he has been given instruction for. He does this every day, either on the slopes, in the gym, or on the playground. When he fails he does not quit, he tries again and again until he gets it right. 

2. Frequently speak in gratitude as if you've already arrived. When my grandson did not win a recent competition because he was competing with children who were at least 6 years older, he just said, "That's OK, I will win it in two or three years." He sees himself as a winner and acts as if he has already arrived. However, he is still 8 years old and plays with his friends and plays other sports such as Aussie Rules Football, Cricket, swimming and Horseback riding

3. Here is something I wish he did, but he does not, I think that he should occasionally do something he never would have done at the old level. He knows he is good, but he does not brag or self-praise, he does like it when others praise him, and his mom and dad, do not pressure him but do reward him when he does well. When he does well, I sometimes will click a few times with my thumbs under my arms and do the chicken dance, but he never sees me do it.

We can learn from children if we allow them to lead us, one child who is motivating others is Greta Thunberg, who has started an international youth movement against climate change. The Swedish teenager first staged a "School Strike for Climate" in front of the Swedish Parliament in August last year. Her strike has inspired students from around the world, of all ages. As we move on with our lives, we need to listen and learn from the children.