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Miami Beach(s) is(are) on the ocean side of a 20 mile long series of islands, separated from the mainland by Biscayne Bay. A series of causeways provides access, from the city, by car or local bus.

 

We took a local bus, allowing us the opportunity to get a better look around. The way over was interesting. Various cruise ships have a provisioning base here and there are many marinas and private pleasure craft, as well as container handling facilities. There's lot's of money being made.

There's an historic area at South Beach that's been saved from the high-rise development and is preserved as a 'special architectural zone', featuring the art-deco architectural style: 'The Art Deco Historic District'.


According to the website: "The styles of the 1920s and 1930s remain vibrant in the Art Deco Historic District in Miami Beach, home to the nation’s largest concentration of the sleek and bright architectural style. The district, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, contains some 800 designated historic buildings, though some of them represent other modern architectural styles from different eras of Miami’s history."

At the rather grey beach there was little or no surf and most people sun-baked - deliberately. The air was hot, humid and oppressive. I unbuttoned my shirt - the closest I was prepared to get to joining the prevailing skin-fest. 

We spent another day in Miami, wining and dining and so on, before calling an Uber to drive to Fort Lauderdale.

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Travel

Cuba

 

 

 

What can I say about Cuba? 

In the late ‘70s I lived on the boundary of Paddington in Sydney and walked to and from work in the city.  Between my home and work there was an area of terrace housing in Darlinghurst that had been resumed by the State for the construction of a road tunnel and traffic interchanges.  Squatters had moved into some of the ‘DMR affected’ houses.  Most of these were young people, students, rock bands and radically unemployed alternative culture advocates; hippies. 

Those houses in this socially vibrant area that were not condemned by the road building were rented to people who were happy with these neighbours: artists; writers; musicians; even some younger professionals; and a number were brothels.  

Read more: Cuba

Fiction, Recollections & News

Bonfire (Cracker) Night

 

 

We children were almost overcome with excitement.  There had been months of preparation.  Tree lopping and hedge trimmings had been saved; old newspapers and magazines stacked into fruit boxes; a couple of old tyres had been kept; and the long dangerously spiky lower fronds from the palm trees were neatly stacked; all in preparation. 

Read more: Bonfire (Cracker) Night

Opinions and Philosophy

Australia and Empire

 

 

 

The recent Australia Day verses Invasion Day dispute made me recall yet again the late, sometimes lamented, British Empire.

Because, after all, the Empire was the genesis of Australia Day.

For a brief history of that institution I can recommend Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Scottish historian Niall Campbell Ferguson.

My choice of this book was serendipitous, unless I was subconsciously aware that Australia Day was approaching.  I was cutting through our local bookshop on my way to catch a bus and wanted something to read.  I noticed this thick tomb, a new addition to the $10 Penguin Books (actually $13). 

On the bus I began to read and very soon I was hooked when I discovered references to places I'd been and written of myself.  Several of these 'potted histories' can be found in my various travel writings on this website (follow the links): India and the Raj; Malaya; Burma (Myanmar); Hong Kong; China; Taiwan; Egypt and the Middle East; Israel; and Europe (a number).  

Over the next ten days I made time to read the remainder of the book, finishing it on the morning of Australia Day, January the 26th, with a sense that Ferguson's Empire had been more about the sub-continent than the Empire I remembered.

Read more: Australia and Empire

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