Yes, those are the Cartwrights from Bonanza in the very first picture of the August 2023 edition of “Mark In London and the World.” For those too young to remember the TV classic. The line above is from the seldom heard vocal version of the show’s opening theme. Keep reading to get the context.

As you can see, this second picture “ties the room together nicely” with this statue of John Cartwright that stands in the square in the middle of Cartwright Gardens a semicircular street on which the flat I have rented for this year’s London adventure is located. It’s not Clare Court, my beloved London home of the last several years but it is suitable for the purpose. It is actually a bit closer to “the Blessed Pancreas,” as my friend Sally and I call Saint Pancras International Train Station and very close to the home of my friends Tom and Jaquie.

These first few days have been filled with all the small things that need doing like food shopping, picking up essentials for the flat that even the best landlords don’t provide enough of (enough hangers, the kitchen gadget you can’t live without, the one thing you forgot from your home toiletry collection). Luckily, the Brunswick Centre, our local shopping precinct has all the stores one needs.

Needless to say, I also made haste to visit my favorite neighborhood haunts. Caffe Tropea in Russell Square’s beautiful park was one of my first stops. Not only was I greeted with the lovely Italian warmth of the Tropea family, but I was also reunited with a great group of local folks who have become my friends over many cups of coffee and tea at the tables you see in the picture above. In the last several days we have laughed and teased and talked about everything from politics to “the Royals” to TV and movies. It has been great to catch up with the gang.

In case you think that the unsettling state of America’s politics is not on the minds of our British “cousins” you are very mistaken. They are completely mystified by the continued support that a certain former President maintains. They don’t understand Ron DeSantis either. But, then again, who does?

I’ve also been happy to visit another local favorite, “Half Cup”, a great restaurant on Judd Street, with lovely murals on its walls.

It was a drizzly Sunday and I feared that the place would be packed, but I got there just late enough to miss the usual brunch crowd. I had an excellent meal, served by delightful staff. As I was eating, two young men sat next to me. I heard one of them say that he thought that another European country was like the UK, only nicer until he got to know the other country better. I leant over and said, I thought that Australia was like both the UK and the US, only nicer. I was wearing my Tasmania tee shirt. That led us to a chat about Australia and we ended up talking for about an hour. The first fellow was English, the other was Latvian. I told them of my long-time fascination with the Baltics because of the legations in Washington during the Soviet era. Somehow the discussion got onto environmental issues and of course, my nuclear past. There were nearly 50 years of age between us and there was something great about our connection. I am always energized and given great hope for the future when I meet intelligent young people who are engaged and well-read.

My first cultural excursion of this visit to London was to the British Museum where an exhibition called “China’s Hidden Century” is on. The museum’s webpage describes it this way:

“In a global first, the resilience and innovation of 19th-century China is revealed in a major new exhibition.

Between 1796 and 1912 Qing China endured numerous civil uprisings and foreign wars, with revolution ultimately bringing an end to some 2,000 years of dynastic rule and giving way to a modern Chinese republic. This period of violence and turmoil was also one of extraordinary creativity, driven by political, cultural and technological change. In the shadow of these events lie stories of remarkable individuals – at court, in armies, in booming cosmopolitan cities and on the global stage.“

While the exhibition contained some beautiful items (see the photos), I found it contextually disappointing. The first three photos are examples of the clothing displayed. The first is a coat of the child emperor. While they are beautifully made, I did not get a sense of the life of these people.

These Ming Vases are stunning, and their huge size did speak to the skill and craftmanship of the makers, but, once again, I wish there was more of the story about the rise and fall of the craft, how they were made, etc. Another reason that I had to include these vases goes back nearly half a century. A group of us rode home together From Oneonta State College, as it was then, for either Thanksgiving or the end of semester vacation. One of the group, Mindy, lived in Far Rockaway. We stopped briefly at her house when we dropped her off. Her parents owned two large, lovely vases that were displayed in a room just off the entry to the house. I immediately dubbed them the “Ming Vases”. We teased Mindy about them for the rest of our years together.

Above are two more examples of delicately crafted items that were presented, but without sufficient context. The second, a Mahjong Set, I also selected for my friend Gail who has in the last year or two become an avid player.

Excuse the poor quality of the photos above. The first is a lovely example of a Chinese watercolor executed to near perfection. The second is a depiction of a typical Chinese home of the period.

Throughout the exhibition there was narration from overhead speakers in Chinese. There was also limited text in English, accompanying the exhibits. It spoke in cryptic terms of the slow decline of the imperial system of governance, of the involvement of foreign nations, of military actions of other nations and of revolution. I thought that I might have heard the word Kuomintang spoken once in the Chinese narration, but there was no mention of the way that the revolution in China happened, only that there was a revolution after the emperor resigned. Similarly, one set of women’s clothing included tiny shoes that would have been worn on bound feet, no discussion of this custom was included. There was not discussion of the life of Puyi, the last Emperor, after his abdication, nor of the Eunuchs who raised him. I was left with a feeling that those who funded the exhibition controlled its content.

Finally, to end on a lighter note. I am gradually settling into Cartwright Gardens. While I do miss some of the amenities of Clare Court, I like having an oven to play with. To prove that point. Here is my first attempt at Centigrade cooking, banana bread.

The perfect opportunity arose for me to visit two of my favorite people in the world, college classmates Bob (better known as Duke) and Kathy Gallagher. Like me, they grew up on Long Island, New York (in fact, unlike me, they are true native New Yorkers, while I only arrived on the fabled Island at the age of two). Fate brought us all together at the State University of New York at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) (then the State University College at Oneonta or SUCO). Duke, Kathy and their older son Kevin moved to Mount Juliet, a suburb of Nashville, when his job moved them there. Two native Tennesseans, Megan and Michael joined Kevin in Mount Juliet. As the years have passed, our friendship has grown. We’ve seen each other at SUNY Oneonta Alumni weekends and at other occasions. So, when Duke and Kathy announced that they were hosting an event for Nashville area SUNY Oneonta alumni, I decided to find a flight and join them for the weekend. Here is an old photo of them from one of their renowned annual luau pig roasts that I now have to miss because I am out of the country when they occur.

Naples Airport Shuttle gave me a great ride up to RSW airport in Fort Myers, Florida. It turned out that the driver was another former New Yorker, and we had a great time chatting about our former and current home states. I’m not a big fan of “festival seating” so I have not flown Southwest Airlines very often. On this occasion, they were the carrier with a direct flight from Fort Myers, and they do offer the business upgrade that allows the opportunity for a somewhat less fraught seating experience. The flight was actually quite pleasant, but VERY full (and, luckily, I was near the front and wailing baby was at the very back).

After a quick drive back to Duke and Kathy’s beautiful home, where they had invited me to stay, we were joined by two more classmates Ken and Caryn (Iorio) Fichtelman, who drove up from the Villages, Florida to join the Gallagher’s event. I had met Caryn the day she arrived at SUNY Oneonta as a transfer student with her roommate and friend Lynn, who is a childhood friend of mine. Lynn and I are related through marriage (her cousin married my uncle). In Italian American culture, that makes us ‘practically’ family. Anyway, Caryn and Ken just happen to be two of the kindest people I’ve ever known and, as always, it was pure joy to see them again. Ken is a deep thinker. He and I engaged in some attempts to unravel the problems of the world over dinner at “Sam’s Sport’s Grille”, a restaurant on one of the lakes surrounding greater Nashville. Here is a picture of Caryn and Ken, another pig roast picture.

The day of the Alumni party dawned sunny and warm. Kathy had a wonderful breakfast prepared before I even got downstairs. Duke and I watched some English Premier League Soccer while Kathy got ready and prepared for a trip to visit another of our college friends who had just had surgery. We also caught some local news that included a feature on a small town about an or so from Mount Juliet. The town, Granville, TN, has an Andy Griffith Show and an I Love Lucy themed festival. Their town has buildings made to look like Mayberry and residents and re-enactors perform as characters from the shows. For the rest of the weekend, I tried to convince the Gallaghers and the Fichtelmans to join me for a trip to Granville for the ‘Mayberry Days.’ Here’s a picture from Granville’s Mayberry Days. The barber does look like Floyd, don’t you think?

The Alumni Event was held at one of Martin’s Barbecue Restaurants in Nashville.

Martin’s are a chain of Bar-B-Que restaurants with several locations across Nashville. The food and service we received at the Elliston Place location were excellent. Kathy and Duke did a great job and everyone had a great time at the Alumni party. We had alumni from the classes of 1968 through 2017, almost 50 years of Oneonta excellence.

After the dinner, Kathy and Duke took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour of Nashville. If you have never been to Nashville, you might be surprised to see a full-sized replica of the Parthenon.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but it was hard to find a picture that could be reproduced. That is John Thomas who was an important railroad man out front. There is quite a remarkable statue of the Greek goddess Athena inside, but I have not found a free picture of her to include.

We did make the mistake of deciding to go straight into downtown Nashville which is undergoing extensive extensive street renovations that exacerbated normal heavy traffic, along with the normal slowdown from donkey carts, the “bicycle bars” (drunkcycles), delivery trucks and buses, extended sidewalks and so on. The streets and sidewalks are jammed with pedestrians. Then there are the bachelorette parties.

Bachelorettes, many dressed like these women above, visit Nashville in large numbers and that Saturday afternoon was no exception. Apparently, no Nashville Bachelorette party is complete without brightly colored ‘cowboy’ hats. We moved very slowly. But we did see many sites. We passed close to the old Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Old Opry.

We also saw the very sad site of the terrorist bombing that took place on Christmas Day, 2020. A recreational vehicle was blown up on Second Avenue in Nashville. Over three years later, the damage has not been completely repaired. Imagine, then what it must be like for those living in war torn countries where such damage is ongoing. Here is a recent picture of a damaged building on Second Avenue.

We even managed to pass the Tennessee capitol. Nuff said about that.

Duke also showed us Holy Rosary School and Church where Kathy taught, their three kids attended and Duke, after being retired for about 15 minutes, is now volunteering as business manager. Regular readers know, I can’t pass up including a picture of a church.

The day kept getting better. When we got back to Duke and Kathy’s home, we were soon joined by Kevin, daughter-in-law Meg (yep, same first name as daughter Megan) and their two absolutely gorgeous little girls. A delightful cookout followed with the little ones entertaining us. Here’s a picture of “Great Uncle Mark” with these two little angels.

After Kevin and Meg and the Fichtelmans left, Kathy had to make an early night of it because she had an early flight on Sunday morning. While Duke and I stayed up to delve into the deep problems of life and deep meaning of music. There were adult beverages involved.

By the time I awoke Sunday morning, Duke had already taken Kathy to the airport and was back and ready to roll. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and watched the conclusion of Sunday’s English Premier League matches. We agreed on our favorite NBC Soccer coverage crew-Rebecca and the two Robbies.

Our next adventure was a trip to Opryland Hotel, the most elaborate hotel and conference center that I have seen outside of Las Vegas. Duke, having seen my many posts from the Naples Botanical Gardens and other gardens told me that he thought I would really like this place. He was right. Inside the hotel complex were what seemed like acres of trails through exotic indoor gardens. On the higher levels there were shopping plazas and restaurants and floors upon floors of guest rooms.

And then it was time for the final adventure. Not much of an adventure for Duke who had to schlep back to the Nashville Airport for a second time in one day. I get there and find that my 8:10 PM CST flight has a slight 10-minute delay. I hiked back to my gate, quite surprised at the crowds and lines at the in-airport restaurants and in the gate seating areas. When I got to the gate, the delay started to change back and forth, finally settling at approximately 30 to 35 minutes. The fellow sitting next to me showed me a map of Florida covered in storms so, I assumed that might be the cause of the delay. As time marched on, I learned that my plane had landed, and we were waiting for the planes in our gate and the adjacent gate to move so ours could get into the gate. At the same time, a small vehicle with a red light and siren came down toward our gate area. I later learned that a passenger on the flight going out of our gate before us, had been removed from that flight. We finally got the Southwestern call for the “A List.” When we boarded, an excruciatingly long process on Southwest, the pilot informed us that, the original cause of the delays of a number of flights was “an unusual odor” in another part of the terminal that caused that part of the terminal to be evacuated.” Apparently, it was much ado about nothing. I ended up arriving in Fort Myers closer to 1:00 AM EST than the 11:30 promised. Kudos to Naples Airport Shuttle whose driver was waiting for me and in great spirits. We had a lively discussion on the drive home to Naples. I recommend them if you ever need a ride from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, or Ft. Myers Airports to Naples. Thanks for reading this special edition of Mark in London and the World.

Our last full day in Melbourne came much too quickly. It’s funny, one the one hand, I think, we both wanted to get out and get started, but we also sort of wanted to enjoy having the luxury of time since tomorrow the starter’s gun on the marathon trip would begin. We did get going and headed to the first of three places. Steve had not been well enough to join me on our first day in Melbourne, so he had not enjoyed the Queen Victoria Market in full-swing. It is open all week and we took a quick tram ride up so that I could show him the things I thought he would enjoy (and I wanted to see if we were close enough to find the city’s small but historic and previously notorious Little Italy). We both enjoyed the market and even found a pretty authentic Italian caffe where my few words of Italian when ordering confused the Austral-Italian clerk into assuming that I was Italian and not a watered down half-breed Italian-American poseur. But that happened at the Queen Victoria Market and we figured out that Little Italy was pretty far and mostly just a street filled with small restaurants, so we gave it a miss.

With time marching on, we took the tram back down toward the train station and walked over to the Immigration Museum. This nation that is trying so very hard to honor is First Nations and recognize them as the custodians and true holders of the lands on which all the structures and commerce of this modern nation exist is also keenly aware, not only of its impact on the Aboriginal and Island peoples, but also of the unique and continuing contributions and continually growing and changing makeup of Australia’s immigrant population. Telling the story of this unusual exercise in continuously building and binding a nation together with millions of moving parts that change constantly is what this museum tries to do.

The museum has some fine exhibits for teenagers and young adults who often feel that they are apart from the society they live in. The interactive parts of these exhibits let these groups explore and express these feelings and then see and hear in the form of short video presentations the real stories of new immigrants who arrive in Australia and must learn or improve their language skills (a requirement for permanent status), find jobs, often while studying for career skills, make friends, worry about family at home often in countries at war or under repressive governments.

The look back at the history of immigration to Austria was also fascinating, so many familiar strains to America’s story, but so poignant, none the less. There were joyful stories of family reunifications and poignant one of young brides who had exchanged photos with men, married them by proxy, then been so shocked by their new spouse’s actual appearance that they did not want to leave the ships that had brought them from Europe to their new homes. The Covid era immigrants told tales of losing jobs and having to use up savings. One young man spoke of how remarkably kind and generous his neighbors were in offering help during those dark days. This, to me, is why Australia has been so successful in absorbing so many new people into its society. Here are a few more pictures.

The afternoon was hot, and we both were feeling the heat, so we settled upon a final visit across the Yerra River to Southbank to see if we could find one of the short river cruises that ran most days and get one last chance to enjoy the incredible skyline of this part of urban Melbourne but also see a bit of where its future might be and where its industrial heavy lifting went on. We found a good cruise that carried us with a pleasant group of folks on a one-hour tour that showed us plenty of eye-popping architecture. It gave us an appreciation of the challenges of building on soil that must be heavily reinforced, and I was reminded of the courage and gambler’s fortitude that builders and real estate developers have to possess. These pictures aren’t the greatest, through the windows of a tour boat, but they give you an idea of what we saw.

Above, the building with the square windows on the left is the Seaquarium where you can fish with the sharks. It is opposite the Crown Casino and Resort where, I guess you can risk your money rather than risk losing your body parts to another kind of shark. The second picture shows buildings with “on river” yacht parking. There was quite a bit of this privileged parking available and many abodes with great river views. I hope that the fancy homes were lived in year round.

These are two of the many bridges over the river that are very low to the water. I think but cannot recall if this is what the guide told us, it had something to do with cost when the bridges were built. It was interesting to go under them. The second bridge is the Sandridge Bridge. Here is a description from the Melbourne Playgrounds website:

“Years ago in a previous incarnation, the Sandridge Bridge transported thousands of new arrivals from Station Pier to Flinders Street Station and new lives beyond. After a lengthy stint as a ramshackle eyesore, it was relaunched in 2006 as a pedestrian bridge and work of art entitled: The Travellers. As the towering steel sculptures slowly slide across the Yarra (three times a day), they literally and figuratively represent the journey made by migrants from all over the world and celebrate their many contributions to the state. Meanwhile, the sculpture fixed to the river bank represents the existing Koorie community and their enduring presence.

There are glass panels between the figures which list the originating countries and number of Melbourne immigrants.”

For a full description and pictographic representations of all the sculptures check this page provided by the Melbourne government: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/travellers-fact-sheet.pdf.

After the cruise, we returned to our hotel. After a couple hours of rest, we each decided that a light snack was all we wanted that night and I invited Steve up to my enormous room (all that was available was a family suite when the snake in the grass would not fix the A/C at the holiday flat). to help me finish off a bottle of Glen Fiddich and have one last toast to our time in Australia. We had started having a wee dram or two in Sydney and continued on the first night or two in Canberra, before Steve started to feel less than tip top. Once he was back on form, we were able to complete our journey and our enjoyable discussions and putting the world to rights.

And so, our Australia adventure ended in the International Terminal of Melbourne’s airport, still smiling and still friends. I have done most of my international travel on my own over the years, but I couldn’t have asked for a better, more reasonable companion than this friend of 45 years.

A few final thoughts on Australia. When the “Doctor Who” series returned to the air in 2005, it did a number of episodes that involved the concept of parallel universes with each universe slightly different than the other. This was one of the thoughts I had in my first days in Australia. Clearly, it was neither America, nor England, two societies that I understand. After all, I am an American and have spent a great deal of time in England. Australia can seem to an American or, I suspect a person from England, like something of a parallel universe. So much is the same, but there are small critical differences. They took all of the good stuff and improved on the rest, one might say.

They out “L’Enfanted” Pierre L’Enfant and created a national capital that looks like something James Rouse might have dreamed of as a second project after he finished Columbia, Maryland. The streets are wide, the official buildings are large, the Parliament is stunning. The two legislative chambers are worthy of a great democratic tradition. Visiting this small city and its Museum of Democracy in the Old Parliament House, seeing and hearing the history of how this nation has persevered and become stronger showed me that there are many ways to be a strong democracy.

People in Australia were unceasingly friendly and showed little of the stress and anger that both Steve and I had seen and experienced in our work lives, he in the private sector and me in my public sector career. “No worries,” was the answer to everything. People seemed genuinely sorry if they could not make your wish come true.

But, of course, there are always some things in the parallel universe that aren’t as good as the things in your own, right? I think each of us would have to decide that for ourselves the way Steve and I came down on opposite sides on the Vegemite debate. (Sadly, he is wrong, I am right and even brought an unfinished jar of the low-salt version home).

Australia is not without its problems. Housing prices are very high, and many first-time buyers find it is hard to get onto the housing ladder. The two main political parties, Liberal (to the right) and Labor (to the left) have very different ideas about where the country should go in the future and how it should get there. In fact, the evening news programs often echoed the kinds of political issues that American politicians and political parties face all the time.

While I have praised their overwhelmingly positive approach to immigration and resolution of past treatment of the original peoples of the continent, there are tensions and concerns that remain and could become more significant in the future. They also face, as we all do, a future filled with environmental uncertainties. The July 2019 to March 2020 bushfires that burned 18 million hectares (approximately 44,448,000 acres) were only the most recent ones to hit the country. Vegetation was lost, a billion vertebrae animals were estimated lost. These fires happen at some level every year depending on how dry a year the continent has. So, Australia must plan carefully for its future, and it seems to consider all of these issues in its planning for new buildings and the reuse of existing ones.

I know that not everyone can make a journey like the one I have taken. I hope my blog has been enjoyable to read. If you get the chance, consider a trip to visit our cousins “down under.” If you can’t go that far away, see if your community has a Sister City and consider volunteering for the committee. You may get a chance to visit it, you may get free lodging with a family there, and you may get the chance to welcome a traveler into your home in return. I made lifelong friends in Normandy that way. But that will be a story for another blog, perhaps during my planned return to London later this year. Thanks for following my pal Steve and me to Australia!

On Wednesday, we had stopped at small gift shop in one of the little lanes that slip in and out of Melbourne’s bigger streets. Steve had noticed an interesting shop there on a previous day and wanted to find a particular item. While the incredibly nice owner didn’t stock it, she did re commend another shop in a multi-story mixed retail and office mall right next to the lovely Novotel hotel we had decamped to when the A/C situation had not been resolved in our accommodation and it and I were becoming impossible to live with.

Well, we found another nice shopping mall with many very upscale shops, but we couldn’t figure out where this “all-Australian made” shop was. We took an elevator up to the third floor and found ourselves in a warren of specialist doctors and solicitors offices. So, we went back down again, and tried another elevator and again, seemed to enter a Dickensian world where we expected that we might me the learned Messrs. Jarndyce and Jarndyce and their way to the Assizes. But we did not lose faith in our quest and continued down passages and found our way to the establishment. We found a delightful young lady to help us and several souvenirs to bring home. As we were preparing to leave, she mentioned that we might consider leaving by an alternate route to admire some stained-glass windows that had been left in-place in a stairwell used mostly by tenants of the building, but open to all. Below are 4 of the windows we saw as we walked down the three floors of steps.

This was just another example of the “cool stuff” we encountered during our days in Melbourne. Speaking of cool stuff, as we were on our “walkabout,” we noticed two more pieces of public art in the CBD.

As you can see, the first one was being enjoyed by some shoppers and I have not found any information on it. This art piece was commissioned by the Grollo – Ruzzene Foundation to commemorate Italian Immigration and all migrants, to Australia. It is called “The Reuniting Family. I was absolutely touched by it and its universality.

To close off the early part of the day, we crossed the Yarra River again found our way to Marvel Stadium, where what we and our Aussie cousins call soccer and their version of what we call football is also played. Visions of finally purchasing my Australia Sockeroos tee shirt danced in my head.

Foiled again, upon arriving at the entrance level of the stadium, we found it undergoing extensive renovations and the stadium shop long gone! We did find a place to buy a bottle of water, though and had a good think and a bit of a chuckle about our pick first and review the information later approach to “spur of the moment” choices. On our way down to a nearby tram station to take us back toward our hotel, we did notice a couple of impressive views across the river from the stadium.

There is always something worth looking at in Melbourne, even if it is not what you expected to see.

We had decided to make time for a bit of an afternoon rest since my deal friend Lesley who hails from the Edenborough Scotland region, but settled in Normandy, France had arranged for us to meet her friend Lita, a local lady from a Melbourne exurb. Lita had once been a member of a local government Council and had met Lesley when she worked for Caen City. For those who have not heard the tale, I met Lesley when I first started working on the Alexandria, VA-Caen, France Sister City Committee. As Lita and I will both attest, you meet Lesley and very quickly become part of her extended family and start making connections. Lesley and her two incredible daughters are certainly part of my extended family today.

Lita was a charming, funny, enjoyable and generous dinner companion that Steve and I both enjoyed. She met us at Kenzan Japanese Restaurant and the food there, like the conversation, was fantastic. We had some great laughs and I think both Steve

and I learned a bit more about Australia and Australians and I learned something more about single parents of adult children as that is something that my two dinner companions have in common, very successful adult sons. Lita and I agreed that we would love it if we could all meet next time in Normandy. I think I’ve convinced Steve that he needs to get there too, though I know it has been on his list. Sorry for no picture of the three of us, a bit too much Champagne I suspect. We’ll get one with Lesley next time we are all together!