war and peace

Bright and early today, off to take a tour round Parliament. It's a striking building, inside and out, modern architecture, opened in late 1980s. I rolled right up to front doors virtually... amazed that there was no security to speak of. Very different to home. Parked up in the underground carpark, and strolled in. Ah, security was inside, scanning bags, etc. But still surprisingly easy to get inside. Here, the emphasis is on giving the people access to their Parliament. The design of the place, literally sunken into the hillside, reinforces the fact that people are 'above' the Parliament... and you can literally stand on top of it on the grassed roof to prove the point. Embarassingly, as one of the early birds, I was first to get into the lift to the grassed roof area... and when the doors closed, the lift didn't move. And the doors didn't open. I pressed various buttons, before finally pressing the alarm. Security guard had to come and rescue me! Apparently I was supposed to use the OTHER lift. Who knew?

Tour was great - really fascinating, the parallels and the contrasts with our system back home, which was the foundation for what they do here, but again, the Autralian system seems so much more accessible than the stuffy Commons and Lords set-up at Westminster. The tour guide was a former barrister and we had a great chat afterwards.

Then I moved onto the Australian War Memorial - THE attraction for this part of the nation. It's a museum as well as the national focal point for remembrance. I visited on 12th November, but the previous day the place was really busy. Not only were they marking the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh mnonth, but of couse it's 2011 too. Alex and me had taken the kids to the Imperial War Museum in London just a few months ago, and there are similarities, but the whole ANZAC story is so much a part of the Australian psyche, it was fascinating to hear it being told by another excellent tour guide.

Wandered a bit after the formal tour - found quite a few Sinclairs among the 102,000+ names of the Australian war dead. Wonder how far back we'd need to go to find the connections to me? I also saw some stuff on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and it reminded me, in a really brutal way, of the horrific things I saw there just before Remembrance Day two years ago. I was quite shocked by how vividly it came back to me, and I sat and blinked back tears - yet again - at my own, tiny experience, of war and the bravery and sacrifice and futility and madness. The young, vital man who I saw die from his IED injuries. I sent him and his family my thoughts and sorrow.

Back out, deep breaths, and glad I'd been, but I needed an antidote, so took myself off to the pictures to see 'Anonymous'. More Shakespeare, kind of. The conspiracy theory that the man who wrote the plays wasn't old Shake-y but a nobleman, and bastard son of Queen Liz herself. Really good entertaining stuff, thoroughly recommended, and all the plays were in perfect Received Pronunciation - none of the fun of Aussie accents this time ;0)