I was fortunate enough to be on assignment with Scenestr once again on the Thursday the 11th of March.
Since the pandemic hit Brisbane I had been to three films and one stand-up show.
Now I was going to the theatre again to see Triple X, which had its season cut short a year ago due to COVID.
It was a privilege to be there to see the show’s return that had been promised by Queensland Theatre and delivered against some unprecedented odds.
At the end of the show the lead performer and writer Glace Chase appeared to be becoming emotional.
The show itself was wonderful, detailing a love story rife with laughs and pain and yearning.
What was interesting for me having not been to the theatre in a while was the measures.
We had to sign in on a Qld Government App at the venue. The menu was slightly altered to mostly packed foods and drinks.
And yet…
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
After the show and making plans to head off. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The fantastic threatre and set design.Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Opening night for ‘Triple X’ in 2021. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen and I at ‘Triple X’. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Looking out over the lobby before going into the show there was a sizeable crowd and nobody was wearing a mask because the current health advice was not to.
Then when we went into the venue it was a packed house with everybody seated together with no spare seats in between.
Again completely in keeping with the health advice but being aware of what was being experienced elsewhere in this world made our current circumstances seem a little surreal.
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We awoke Monday morning, checked out of our hotel, drove out of the basement and made our way to Newcastle.
Long term readers will recall, Karen and I stayed near RAAF Williamtown three years ago on a trip to Newcastle but did not go to Fighter World which was literally down the road. I was hoping to make amends for that on this trip. Driving out of Sydney on a monday morning was interesting. It seemed like we were perpetually in a school zone of 40kms per hour for the whole city.
Eventually we got out on the open road and made it to our destination.
We fuelled up at the same servo we had years earlier near the airport.
Many years ago a friend of mine from high school served at RAAF Williamtown. He told me there was a great cafe at Fighter World and so that is where we were lucky enough to have breakfast and he was right – it was excellent! As we ate jets flew past low level outside.
About to start the long drive home. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The Cafe at Fighter World. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Upon arriving at Fighter World we had noted huge crowds.
I wondered if it had something to do with the RAAF’s Centenary this year.
When we got to the front of the line we were handed a brochure and told to go in. I asked where we paid and the door greeter informed me that we had arrived on the annual open day. Admission was free.
Many years ago I went to the RAF Museum at Hendon in England which was just a smorgasboard of all kinds of aircraft types. There is nothing in Australia that can compare to Hendon but there is something a little special about taking in history that you feel belongs to you.
Like I said a friend of mine actually served in the RAAF, in my home city the F-111s flew overhead from nearby RAAF Amberley at Riverfire and did their famous Dump and Burn. Afterburners igniting jet fuel dumped to light up the night sky before the fireworks display. There was nothing like it in the world and here was the aircraft that did it – for me to see up close for the first time.
Early jet aircraft like the Meteors, Vampires, Sabres through to Mirage IIIs and then a bomber in the F-111 known affectionately as The Pig for its ability to fly low level.
For a while there we always seemed a little behind the curve, Meteors first flying in the closing days of World War II were sent to Korea by the RAAF and quickly found themselves outmatched by the cutting edge MiG-15 and switched to the ground attack role.
RAAF Sabres missed that war but served in the Malayan Emergency and were sent to Ubon, Thailand to fly air patrols during the Vietnam War at a time when the F-4 Phantom was a generation ahead of that aircraft. We leased some Phantoms in the early 1970s but had procured instead the French made Mirage IIIs which proved versatile if not terribly sophisticated.
Working through the teething problems of acquiring the F-111 in the early 1970s and acquring the F/A-18 Hornet in the late 1980s changed everything.
The Aardvark was a medium range bomber and state of the art – there was nothing like it in the rest of South East Asia.
The Hornet would go on to fly Combat Air Patrols over Diego Garcia during the war in Afghanistan and drop bombs in anger in Iraq.
Though a little outdated during the peak of their service in the RAAF, these early jet aircraft were still game changers and beautiful planes to see up close that served our nation valiantly over the years.
The first aircraft to break the sound barrier in Australia was a Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation built Avon Sabre A94-101 flown into a dive by RAAF test pilot Flight Lieutenant William Scott on the 21st of August, 1953 near Avalon Airfield, Geelong, Victoria.
Karen and I arrived on the look out deck of the museum just in time to see what appeared to be Hawk Jet Trainers fly past us low level. A real treat.
Fighter World was a real delight. We got glider planes for Karen’s nephews to play with and a whole raft of posters too that Karen picked up. On our way out an older couple had their posters fly loose across the driveway leading me and the husband to race off after them. They seemed in pretty good nick.
Not for the first time did I marvel at our RAAF personnel who served our nation. Plenty flew humanitiaran missions as well as in war time. Plenty lost their lives or had their health affected to keep those birds up in the air flying. There is a rich history preserved by the staff and volunteers at Fighter World that I was grateful to get to see.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
It was well past midday now so Karen and I started off again for Brisbane and home.
I didn’t want to stop at the same old places so on the way back I took a turn off the highway and ended up at a place called South Valla Beach. We parked and looked out over the ocean. A woman nearby in a car looked at me with distrust and befuddlement.
As if she was thinking, “What the hell are you doing here? Nobody comes around here to our place.”
Next we went to a cafe that was shut and parked around the back where there was a pharmacy.
I asked the pharmacist if we could please use his bathroom and he said yes. After we did they closed the shop.
Must have just got in.
As the drive carried on I got white line fever but Karen got thirsty. Husband and wives may know where this conversation led. There are a few twists and turns in such a conversation but in the end I parked outside a servo far off the highway as the sun was setting.
I did however get to see the beautiful area around the town of Grafton. It would be nice to go there sometime properly.
But the darkness didn’t last as long this time, the road didn’t curve and slant as dramatically as it did outside Sydney.
Familar landmarks that let you know you are close to home do make you rest easy for some reason. That’s how I felt as I crossed the border back into the state of Queensland.
My second holiday in twelve months came to a close with 213,556 kilometres on the odometer.
A new record 902 kilometres driven in one day.
That was a 1,785 kilometre trip all up, a jam packed weekend, a wonderful wedding with friends.
I feel very grateful and fortunate to have attended my friend’s wedding, to have enjoyed a night out in Sydney and a day at Fighter World.
-Lloyd Marken
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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The look out deck for watching planes go by. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Karen’s Grandfather is never far from thoughts when I spot a B-24 Liberator. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Dassault Mirage III at Fighter World. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Up close with the PC-9. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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The RAAF paid a price in Korea but they served ACopyright Lloyd Marken.
The wedding of my best friend to his bride was a wonderful affair.
I barely spoke to him on the day.
But I saw him smile. I saw people cry.
I met a lot of new people who lived and worked in Canberra and were in the life of the bride and groom in a way that I just am not.
They were amazing people to spend time with and get to know. I kind of fell in love with them and felt like I knew the bride and groom just a little better because of them. Just one more reflection of what I have always known that they are good people – the best people – my people.
The wedding took place at the Function Centre at the Taronga Zoo, there were not many people there but quite a lot for COVID, we ate a high tea and the food was really nice. It was a lovely day and a lovely wedding following a lot of anxiety and holding their nerve to get to the day.
I can only imagine what it felt like to have the day occur after everything that preceded it.
On my wedding day a million years before COVID, I had unexpectedly shed a tear the second I went to sign the registry. I think somewhere deep inside I thought, “It’s done.” or maybe I was just so moved by Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone being played.
The main entrance to Taronga Zoo. Not where we went. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Dessert options. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The view from the function centres where the wedding ceremony took place. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
There are three of us in this Band of Brothers.
We went to Scouts together as kids.
In our twenties we spent often a late night out, not partying or in the clubs but in lounge rooms watching old movies or in video game cafes and cinemas. Unpacking the mysteries of the universe the way young people do.
It moved very slowly, very organically but we all ended up working jobs, getting married and one of us is now a father.
Would you believe me if I told you that they’re still my best friends even if I barely see them now.
One afternooon not so long ago we were driving somewhere and I told one of them, “I sure do like being your friend.”
He answered, “Me too.”
Nothing else needed to be said.
So all three of us were in Sydney on Valentines Day and one of us got married to the love of his life, the best person in the world for him and the other two were there to celebrate that.
I’m fond of the expression the ties that bind.
I am not in their lives the same way anymore but somewhere in those nights in our 20s we became bound together and I still feel and honour that link.
Whenever I have needed them, they were there and whenever I am needed I will be there.
They’re my friends.
The best.
And I feel very grateful and pleased that now all three of us have met and married our best friends.
Now we turn away from the wedding and people who shall retain their privacy.
Karen and I headed out into the night to get dinner in Sydney Harbour on Valentines Day without a booking.
Well we hadn’t been told what the plan was after the wedding.
Despite driving my car to Sydney I had no interest in driving around Sydney.
We caught a cab to Taronga Zoo and now we caught a cab to Circular Quay.
Unlike the cabbie earlier who couldn’t find the lobby of our hotel, this guy knew his stuff and made sure we saw the city right as we headed to our destination.
In 2008 I had stayed a week with the groom in Sydney not far from Circular Quay.
It was an amazing week and Sydney had been such an amazing place back then but Circular Quay was not quite how I remembered it.
We went and got our obilgatory shots outside the Sydney Opera House that was cordoned off with security guards.
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I decided we would head to Darling Harbour even though that is where we ate three years earlier.
We still didn’t get to Star Casino this time either, my Dad took me there to have a great meal in 2003.
I headed back up to the jettys wondering what the hell I was going to do.
I saw people boarding a boat and trampled down the jetty and introduced myself to the Captain.
I told him I didn’t know how this worked but I was wondering how I could get to Darling Harbour.
He informed me that he was a privately chartered boat but pointed me to a sign and said I could use the number on it to order a water taxi.
I was about to thank him when a head popped out from behind him and asked where was I headed?
I told him Darling Harbour.
“That’s where we’re headed. Hop on!” he told me in what I think was a Lebanese accent.
I looked at Karen and we hopped on that boat.
The man didn’t want any money.
And that is how we came to sail out over Sydney Harbour at sunset for free.
In a handful of minutes we were in Darling Harbour, all our problems solved and a memory to last a lifetime thanks to the random generosity and kindness of a stranger.
Don’t give up on the human race just yet.
Our saviour. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Sydney Harbour at sunset. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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A pair of stowaways. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Passing under Sydney Harbour Bridge. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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I say this as a proud Queenslander, you have to give it to them.
There is something special about Sydney Harbour.
When we arrived in Darling Harbour our fellow passengers jumped off and were gone. The guy who offered us to hop on board said to his friends he’d already paid for the trip.
We thanked him but they were off.
Karen and I now had to figure out where we were going to eat. I’m not going to lie, we went into a few places after checking out the menu only to find they were booked out.
Then we reached the Cyren who were churning through couples having dinners. They told us, if we were happy to wait, they would give us a table as soon as one was available. We weren’t the only ones and sure enough minutes later we were ordering a seafood basket and a Greek salad.
I had a dinner in Darling Harbour on Valentine Days with my wife.
Afterwards we caught a cab back to the hotel.
It had been a big day and the drive home awaited us tomorrow.
We did look out over that harbour again though.
We were here and it was so beautiful.
-Lloyd Marken
Sunday morning in Sydney. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Descending down to Circular Quay. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Sydney Opera House. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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With lowered restrictions, Sydneysiders were out and about. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Obligatory tourist shot. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Sydney Harbour minutes before we would be sailing across it. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Centrepoint Tower. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The Australian Maritime Museum with the new Crown Casino in the background that was in the news that week and improved the skyline according to our generous fellow passengers. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
HMAS Vendetta. Brisbane has a frigate. Sydney has a destroyer. Both have a lighthouse ship. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The restaurant was not hurting for business. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen preferred the Greek salad she had but kindly posed for the photo. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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People lining up outside Cyren restaurant. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Callback to the Newcastle post. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
We went to Fort Scratchley the only Australian military fort that ever fired its guns in anger.
We also ducked in to Sydney and ate at Darling Harbour.
The drive to Newcastle on Saturday and the drive back to Brisbane from Newcastle was the furtherest I had ever driven in a day.
Now I planned to drive further to Sydney in one day.
I had taken the Friday and Tuesday to give me a buffer of a day to prepare and recover in between the trip and being at work.
We didn’t get away early on Saturday morning but off we went with the odometer reading 211,771 kilometres.
About to set off on our journey. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
I haven’t travelled very much but this would mark the third time I was driving down the east coast of New South Wales.
In 2012 I drove to Port Macquaire to meet coincidentally the bride newly dating the groom for this wedding. A lot of the highway was being worked on at the time and constantly the speed limit was set at 80kms per hour.
In 2017 it was a lot smoother going to Newcastle.
In 2021 there was no question where the first stop would be and sure enough we stopped at Ballina.
In 2017 we parked at the Bunnings car park and made our way across a road with no traffic lights and heavy traffic to grab something to eat from a bakery/cafe. This time we parked in their car park and didn’t have to cross the road.
It was a perfect beautiful temperate sunny day in the morning at Ballina.
We went into the Wicked Delights Bakery, I spotted a bread role and asked what was on it and they mentioned salami and some condiments. It was soooooooooooooo good. I think I had a jam and cream doughnut too or something.
After we had finished eating I waited a while the person there served someone else and told her this was the place to always stop going down the coast.
I had waited to be able to thank her.
Anybody who goes on road trips knows the joy of eating at such places and how their reputations tend to travel.
The best place to grab a feed on the way down the coast. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Tivo Magic at Ballina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The Big Prawn at Ballina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Last time in 2017, we stopped for KFC at Coffs Harbour but I didn’t want to hit all the same places again on our second trip.
Then ended up on some turn off road around Taree for a bathroom break.
I was keen to drive on and reach our destination as soon as possible. It was getting late.
Somewhere near Taree. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The weather changed on us.
We drove through rain.
Sometimes cars passed us, sometimes I tore up the passing lane myself on those wet wet roads with the rain so thick that visibility was poor.
It was getting dark but still light as we drove along road cut into mountains around Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The indication we were about to reach Sydney.
Karen activated google maps as we entered Sydney traffic. One of the wipers had reached the end of its usefulness. It was the one on the driver side. It was still raining and visibility was now at an all time low as I made my way to the hotel but made it we did.
The odometer read 212,654 kilometres.
The most kilometres I had driven in a day – 883.
I had been sucked in by the photos on the website, I’d checked other things but I saw that window looking over Sydney Harbour, looked at the price, looked at the room and thought yeah that will do.
The rooms were nice even though full length window in the bathroom that would facilitate some kinky acts if you didn’t pull down the draw sheet.
The carpark was underground and looked suitable for shooting a horror film.
Karen in our room. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
If one of those lights starts flickering I’m bolting. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Tivo Magic waits patiently in the dungeon. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
On the other hand after we checked in, we went down to the restaurant in the lobby as we fast approached 9pm and were given a table last minute by the excellent staff. Our meals were delicious, I’m not a big pork belly guy but I loved the one I ate there.
I had checked in with the groom and a third great friend who were staying elsewhere in Sydney.
I looked out over the Harbour.
Tomorrow my friend would get married to the woman he loved and Karen and I would be there.
Karen and I set out on a very warm summer’s Saturday to the Queensland Maritime Museum (QMM).
The QMM was set up in 1971 at an old dry dock.
I remember going to it around the time of Expo ’88 as a kid. The showpiece of the museum was an old anti-submarine warfare frigate named HMAS Diamantina. You can imagine how exciting it was for an eight year old to walk across the planks, the bottom of the dry dock metres below. Climb down step ladders and walk along railings in the guts of an actual naval warship.
HMAS Diamantina had not long been retired at that point having served decades before coming the maritime museum in the early 1980s.
4.5 inch guns that shelled Pacific Islands in the closing days of World War II. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
HMAS Diamantina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The underground pumps of the dry dock. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Ella’s Pink Lady. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Bofors anti-aicraft guns. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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HMAS DIamantina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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HMAS Diamantina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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Years later as a young university student studying a journalist subject across the river at QUT I went across and looked for someone to interview.
I found a volunteer who had served in World War II with Z Special Force and had previously been a coal stoker on corvettes in the navy.
He had lied about his age to join, he had also been working in a munitions factory before his service.
He was in his early 80s then, having spent his life working many jobs and beating cancer, with the sprightly energy of a toddler he danced on his feet.
His life and stories were fascinating, but he never talked about the combat he may have seen.
If I can find the old assignment, I will post it here with his name. For now of him I took back in 2003.
There was another R.A.N. veteran who volunteered at QMM at that time who had served in the Korean War. He told me of a stop over at Okinawa during their voyage north. He told me how the trees had still not grown to a proper height years after the battles on that island.
These were the kind of people who kept the Queensland Maritime Museum running and still do.
In 1974 Brisbane was flooded and so was the museum situated on the banks of our river.
In 2011 Brisbane was flooded again, volunteers came down and repositioned the ropes to ensure that is the water in the dry dock rose HMAS Diamantina was not damaged by crashing into its own dock.
Expo ’88 came and went replaced by Southbank. The city and the area changed but HMAS Diamantina and its museum remained.
After 16 year old Jessica Watson sailed around the globe, her 10 metre long ship became part of the collection at QMM.
Floods, recessions and the Global FInancial Crisis all came and went but when COVID hit all of sudden the huge workforce of volunteer of over 60s could not do their work and attendance was also affected.
The financial situation of the museum radically changed and quickly.
You could also donate money to helping them keep open which I did and when they opened their doors in late January I went to buy tickets but they were sold out.
So um I bought them the following weekend and we went.
Scale model of QGSY Lucinda. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Personal effect from the 19th Century QGSY Lucidna. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
A painting from the collection at QMM. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
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The museum was a little different then I remembered with some new interesting stuff and slightly younger volunteers. We could walk the deck but to COVID restrictions we could not go below decks on HMAS Diamantina. I also got to see Ella’s Pink Lady up close.
I took a lot of photos and put a lot of thought of where they were placed in the narrative of the review. The review was featured on the Facebook site of the Queensland Maritime Museum.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
I wish the Queensland Maritime Museum all the best, it is a wonderful Museum that should be ensured for generations to enjoy.
-Lloyd Marken
My city. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen and i onboard HMAS Diamantina. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Many years I was walking through the city on my way to work in the lead-up to ANZAC Day.
There was a gentleman big jowled sitting in a wheelchair selling badges.
On his cap was stitched 105 Field Battery.
I noted that 105 had been at the battle of Long Tan.
“Long Tan was the last action I was in,” he told me.
I thanked him, I asked him to pick a badge out for me. He chose a slouch hat with the feather that denoted the Australian Light Horse. Our calvary that charged at Beersheba in World War I and now rode armoured personal carriers.
I wondered if he had a relative that served in the Light Horse and that is why he chose it.
But I did not ask.
We said our farewells and walked on to work.
The gunners at Nui Dat rained down hell on the Vietnamese at Long Tan. Over three thousand rounds in three hours from their L5s. Without them the vastly outnumbered 6RAR soldiers would have been overrun.
At one point they were ordered by the Australian infantry to fire on their own positions, the situation so precarious.
Here was a man who had been there.
He had a story.
I wondered how many people passed him that day oblivious to this fact.
I wanted to hear his story.
We owe a lot to our vets but how often do we even recognise them?
I imagine it was the same for Captain Tom Moore for many years.
A hero in our midst unheralded but loved and known and appreciated by those in his community.
That all changed last year.
A simple goal on his part to use his walker and do some laps of his garden to raise some money for other heroes galvanised a nation to action and lifted morale in the most of desperate of times.
It was never what he did that was the big deal – it was what he got us all to do through the simplicity of his actions and beliefs.
We were and are in trouble – so ask yourself what are you going to do about it? What can you do about it? Where is the help needed most?
Captain Tom Moore had an answer to all three of those questions and got to work.
The fact that a veteran of war raised funds for those on the frontlines of saving lives and risking their own in hospitals and health care centres across the country was wholly appropriate.
One old hero spurned to action yet again for our current health care heroes of today.
His old Regiment gave him a medal and an Honour Guard as he finished his final laps. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew over his house for his birthday. The Queen knighted him.
But perhaps his greatest honour and at the heart of his legacy is 1.5million people donated to his NHS Fundraiser and over 39 million pounds went to our health care workers.
One and half million people did something inspired by him.
Countless more too indirectly, prompted to take action even if it was in support of another charity or through another mechanism other than fundraising.
You of course already know where this is going.
Captain Tom Moore was admitted to hospital on Sunday and passed away on the 2nd of February, 2021 from COVID.
He was 100 years old.
It had been less than a year since he completed the 100th lap of his 25metre garden on the 16th of April, 2020 way ahead of the deadline of his birthday on April 30th.
Medication that he took for pneumonia meant he could not be vaccinated. Somehow the fact that a hero of the COVID pandemic who could have passed from a whole range of natural causes at such an age was cut down by the virus quietly angers me.
But Captain Moore faced the foe we are all facing with dignity and grace and courage.
One last example of inspiration.
One more act of courage from a man who had lived his life well and a soldier who had never failed to answer the call to action and to do his duty.
His daughters Hannah Ingram-Moore and Lucy Teixeirareleased a statement full of thanks to everyone but in particular our health heroes who they wrote, “unfalteringly professional, kind and compassionate and have given us many more years with him than we ever would have imagined.”
Back to the Drawing Board Productions 