White House Tour

We were very lucky to take an unguided tour of the East Wing of the White House. This was an organised tour by Deb's work and does not occur very often. The East Wing is the social, dining, reception and library area of the house. It has loads of history, lots of photos, paintings and artefacts. The rooms are still used (I think) as the signs says 'is' rather than 'was' used for things. They must be used when tours are not in progress. There is a red room, blue room, green room and the colours are pretty much that in those rooms.

I love Lincoln

   

The White House is the oldest public building in DC. Every President except George Washington has conducted the government of the nation here. President Madison was the first President to move into the White House in 1814. I also realised today that the Irish Pub we like in the city, James Hoban's, was named after the Irish architect who designed the White House. 

Great JFK

Reception Room

State Dining Room - seats about 140

North Entrance (our exit)

Last night we went to the opening night of the DC International Film Festival where 'The Dressmaker' was playing. It doesn't show here until Sept. The movie was sponsored by the Embassy thus some free tix were handed around. The Ambassador also introduced the movie. This was the third time we've seen this movie. And while there were laughs from the audience at our Aussie humour, there were only a few quiet giggles from the Aussies when dunny-bum got mentioned and  the iced-vo-vo made an appearance. There was after-party too and lots of great socialising was done.

If you've not seen the movie, you must see it - fabulous !!!

A bit of art culture

It's a busy week this week. Today one of my former work friends arrived in town for work stuff so we are catching up on the weekend for some shopping, eating and chatting. I will save the rest of the fun for the next few blogs. Today though, I went to the National Art Gallery. All the museums here are FREE which is just incredible. Mind you, some aren't but they are generally private. But the Smithsonians and Zoo are all free. Wow. I'm not a real arty farty person but I do like to wander around and at least try to fathom the wonder in the paintings. I didn't take a tour but should return for one because they usually tell you things about the painting that you don't get by just looking at them. I needed to google some paintings to understand them a bit better, plus I needed to sit down a while after walking the many rooms. So thanks again to wiki for helping me today.

For example, the 15th century portrait Davinci painting below is of Ginevra de’ Benci,  a Florentine aristocrat. The museum bought it for $5 million. The portrait is one of the highlights of the National Gallery of Art, and is admired by many for its portrayal of Ginevra's temperament. Ginevra is beautiful, but austere; she has no hint of a smile and her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer. A strip from the bottom of the painting was removed in the past, presumably owing to damage, and Ginevra's arms and hands were lost. Now, The Napolean 1812 painting...Piled on the desk are a pen, several books, dossiers and rolled papers. All this, along with Napoleon's unbuttoned cuffs, wrinkled stockings, disheveled hair, the flickering candles and the time on the clock (4.13am) are all meant to imply he has been up all night, writing laws such as the Code Napolan, the word "Code" is prominent on the rolled papers on the desk. This maintains his new civil rather than heroic or military image, though the sword on the chair's armrest still refers back to his military successes. The fleurs-de-lys and heraldic bees also imply the stability of the imperial dynasty.

A Davinci

Napolean portrait

Right, that's enough art class for today. How about we move to cars. There is an exhibition of Presidential cars during April. This was outside in National Mall - it's President Taft's steam car. It was the first official White House automobile. The only known survivor of the first four automobiles in the 1909 White House fleet. It was capable of speeds in excess of 60 mph, which President Taft enjoyed and encouraged.   I took this other pic of artwork in the gardens. It's a typewriter rubber - if you are younger than 30, you prob won't know a typewriter. It was just clever and caught my attention.

 

Finally a couple of selfies. The dogs were distracted by another dog so they weren't interested in posing nicely for the camera. And the other one is Capitol Hill of course. And check this latest Trump development. I remember seeing one in Chicago - he's like a pissing dog leaving his mark everywhere. A massive TRUMP sign on the old Washington Post Office - very sad actually. It's being developed into a massive hotel. I can't be sure but I'm not sure if tourists will still be allowed to go up top the clock tower - probably not.

 

Spies and Bogans

The weekend was cold, wet one day and sunny the next. Where the hell is spring?? We decided to go to the Holocaust museum rather than stay inside. Unfortunately we couldn't get into the museum. It gets so busy that you have to book during peak season or take the chance on getting one of the limited tickets on the day. We missed those tickets. Guess we'll wait until winter when there's no tourists :0  There is a sign outside the museum - makes you think very hard. If you can't read the small yellow words...
The next time you witness hatred
The next time you see injustice
The next time you hear about genocide
THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAW



So instead we wandered off to the International Spy Museum which was busy as expected. It was quite interesting and I am tempted to go back in quiet season so I can take my time to read and and look longer. The museum covers spy tradecraft, spies during the world wars and cold war era, lots of artefacts and has some exhibits back to the US civil war and biblical days. The museum has good activities for kids as they follow a mission and do things as they wander around. Some interesting artefacts are shown below.

The tree stump with a 'bug' was placed by the US intelligence in Moscow in the 70's to eavesdrop on military radar and communications of a nearby Soviet missile system. Pigeons were used to carry cameras to photograph ground area or to carry messages.

You would all know about the WWII German encryption machine, Enigma, recently seen in the movie The Imagination Game. While I have seen one of these machines before, it still captures my attention having studied its crypto coding algorithms and mechanical architecture. 

The museum also has a fabulous history and lots of artefacts on the most famous spy of all - James Bond 007. I'm a huge Bond fan and would love to return to completely absorb all the history. There were cars, Jaws' steel teeth, the shark, cars, costumes, bombs, missiles and other technology from the movies. And a photo with the Bond below was irresistible.

Now, the other photo, I'll give you one guess at why this intelligence agency crest caught my attention. It's for the Main Intelligence Administration RUSSIA (or GRU). Seriously, can you believe the Bat symbol is in their crest !!

 

Now you're wondering what Bogans have to do with this post title. We stopped by the Shake Shack (burger joint) to get a bite to eat. The counter guy asks if we are Australian and we said yes. He then asks if we are from Bogan? We both looked at each other and were going arrrh, uummm...so I said what, did you just say bogan? He said yeah. Well I said no, a bogan is like a (struggling to find the words an American would understand), like a dead-shit or a dag !  Not sure if he understood but he laughed. Maybe I should have said a Walmart customer. He said oh my god, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, there were Australians in here yesterday and they said they were from Bogan. We were all confused but safe to say, we said we were NOT bogans and we weren't offended. We had a great laugh over it. At first I wondered if he was referring to Bogan Gate (NSW) which was made famous in Dec 15 by a kid making a you tube video on his town. But apparently not. Who knows, maybe the Australians had said Brisbane and he thought they said bogan. 

 

We took a day trip to Great Falls Park where the Potomac River provides some spectacular powerful falls. It's about half hour drive away and VERY popular. Note the flood pole - I can't imagine how it would look with water up that high. There are several lookouts, a great area with lots of hike trails, picnic areas and you can take your dogs !! A canal was built alongside the river - the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal back in the late 1700's to stimulate trade. The C&O canal has a 184 mile bike path (from DC up to north Maryland) so we plan to ride this in segments and check out many of the historical sites of interests. There is another path that links all the way to Pennsylvania. You can view the falls from both the Virginia and Maryland sides. Kayakers play in the falls and we saw a few bravely paddling the rapids.

 

We have met a few more neighbours now. To make it easy, I remember there names by Norman Gunstan, Kevin Rudd and John Howard. Can't think of any for the wives but this is a good start. We have also started watching Outlander after many recommendations from friends. And we decided to have a go at 'Park Runs'. Well we have an exciting week ahead so you will have to wait to see what's in store when the next few blogs get posted.

Flat Tyre

Driving around to do the chores and I had the window down a little for some air. I hear this psss psss psss outside, like an echo off passing cars. At the lights I opened the door and sure enough, there is this loud hissing noise coming from the rear wheel. I was close to the parking place so I managed to get there safely before the tyre fully deflated. I had run over a fairly big chunk of steel.

 It was a biting cold day so I didn't look forward to changing the tyre outside. Procrastinating, I first went and did my banking and had to smile; they were so damn friendly and said have a lovely day. Little did they know what was back at the car for me. So I came back and changed the tyre quite easily. Next challenge was finding a tyre repair place. The servo next to Safeway where I shop was able to plug the hole which saved me getting a new tyre. They were very helpful too. Checkout the nasty piece below.

I have researched some meat pie recipes and bought my stuff. Plan is to make a pie on Thursday, pastry included. I can't seem to find short crust pastry in the shops anyway but I'm sure homemade will be nicer. I'll cook the meat filling in the crock pot so fingers crossed, this will be the start of something special.

Had a great day out with another new arrival. It was good to have company and nice to share stories of our moving-in week. Sad to say they experienced similar but different dramas - seems nobody gets an easy move. 

It is also Air Force week so there are lots of blue uniforms in town. I have seen a few familiar faces around and sometimes I feel like I haven't left Australia. 

Well Trump got a flogging last night in the Wisconsin primary. While this is a dent to his ego more than his lead, it still might be a turn of the tide. He was not a happy mop head today, lashing out everywhere like a sore loser would. So many people say they will leave America if he is President so where are these people who actually vote for him?  

I had a quick walk thru of the Natural History museum. First impression was that it was not as good as others I've seen such as New York and Chicago. But, there is always something fabulous and here it was the very famous blue Hope Diamond. It is very blue and beautiful which the picture doesn't show.

It is one of the most legendary jewels of history, with ownership records dating back almost four centuries. Weighing 45.52 carats, its exceptional size has revealed new findings about the formation of gemstones.

The jewel is believed to have originated in India, and is known to have been cut from the French Blue (Le bleu de France), presented to King Louis IV. It acquired its name when it appeared in the catalogue of a gem collection owned by a London banking family called HOPE in 1839. Later it was sold to a Washington socialite who was often seen wearing it. Since 1958, it has been on exhibition at Washington’s National Museum of Natural History. The Hope Diamond has long been rumoured to carry a curse, possibly due to agents trying to arouse interest in the stone. It was last reported to be insured for $250 million. Credit to wiki for the info.

Two interesting photos.  One was a brand of condiment in the supermarket. Made me think of some former workmates from my EP team - I could see them attracted to this. And the other photo is a steel and aluminium tree - bizarre art I guess. 





And a couple of pics of the dogs on their wanderings through the forest. Cricket's not keen no water so we're teaching him to run across the creek. He's quite proud of himself when he does it and gets very growly and jumpy on the other side. Quite funny to watch. Macey is in her element and would happily sit in it all day.

   

President Jackson

     

Just opening with a few random photos. The dogs exploring the forest creek area and tugging over a rope. Yes, you can tell we are still waiting on our bedroom suite to arrive as we are still sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

The White House photo shows a beautiful garden with tulips and the statue of President Andrew Jackson. Here's some interesting history on Jackson - and of course, thanks to wiki for this info. 

Andrew Jackson was the 7th US President (1829–37) and appears on the US $20 note. Jackson's quick temper was notorious. His masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage. His most controversial presidential actions included removal of the Indians from the southeast, the dismantling of the Bank of the United States, and his threat to use military force against the state of South Carolina to make it stop nullifying federal laws.  The first recorded physical attack on a U.S. president was directed at Jackson on 30 Jan 1835 just outside the US Capitol when Jackson was leaving after the funeral of a South Carolina Representative.  Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Historians believe the humid weather contributed to the double misfiring. Lawrence was restrained, and legend says that Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane. Others present also restrained and disarmed Lawrence. 

 Lawrence blamed Jackson for the loss of his job. He claimed that with the President dead, "money would be more plenty" (a reference to Jackson's struggle with the Bank of the United States) and that he "could not rise until the President fell". Finally, he told his interrogators that he was a deposed English King—specifically, Richard III, dead since 1485—and that Jackson was his clerk. He was deemed insane and was institutionalised. Afterwards, due to public curiosity concerning the double misfires, the pistols were tested and retested. Each time they performed perfectly. Many believed that Jackson had been protected by the same Providence that they believed also protected their young nation. The incident became a part of the Jacksonian mythos. 

Went to a shopping outlet centre on the weekend. It's not the factory outlet that we know at home but rather, a massive huge big shopping centre with every clothes, shoe and label shop you could think of. It's like a mini suburb area. The variety of clothes and shoes is incredible - I wish the supermarket food aisles were the same. I'm sure my lovely niece will enjoy a visit to this place. We are learning the shop staff are quite slow, no sense of urgency. It is definitely noticeable compared to home. 

Funny story....went to bed late Sat night after watching the final episodes of Downton Abbey. Just managed to get to sleep then sometime after midnight, my mobile rings...we exchanged a few hellos (as if we were doing a comms check) and then I said I think you have the wrong number after I couldn't understand him. Phone rings again...lots of background noise, no talk so I hang up again. The phone rings AGAIN !!  

Me: hello

Him: I got you chinese delivery

Me: I didn't order chinese?

Him: I at front your house

Me: (shit what, panic, look out the front blinds) no, nope, you're not at front of my house

Him: but you order fry-rye, stir-fry and leemon cheekin!

Me: No, it's not me, you're not at my house and I didn't order chinese!! Maybe you dialled the wrong number?

Him: haarrrhhhh hmmmm - clunk hung up.

Who orders chinese at that hour anyway??

I seem to get a few random phone calls. Maybe I have an old number, being re-used. Without fail, every Thursday and Friday I get advertising texts inviting me to various clubs for the great drinks and entertainment. There's Layla's Bar with great eye-candy or some X-place with cheap drinks for ladies before 9pm. I wish there was a way to unsubscribe.

Checked out another great place to eat yesterday - Uncle Julio's (mexican). Very yummy - I really like mexican. Did a bit of wandering around the street shops and I went into Ice Breaker (the NZ active wear place, like Katmandu). As always, the Australian accent drew attention. Everyone's first guess is NZ but at least it's close. Anyway, the conversation flowed and the girl tells me she thought Sydney was the capital of Australia, she never heard of Canberra. Crikey, Sydney wishes !!

Still haven't seen the Batman movie yet so it's only my priority list this week.

Haircuts and Magpies

Finally, we got haircuts. I'm a bald badger but it will grow back. We'll go back again so it looks like my audition for Chewbacca roles are no longer a destiny. Have to share Deb's funny story though....

Got a haircut today. The hairdresser's attempt at small talk was hilarious. She asked if I found the food here different. I said there is a lot more places that sell hamburgers and hot dogs, she said "that's right, you Australians eat magpies don't you"? What the, um, 'no' I said that's a native bird. She said, my friend has an Australian boyfriend and he said he eats magpies all the time. It's a type of pie. Oh, I said, you mean meat pies! Phew!!!

I'm actually drooling looking at the meat pie...I must learn to make some. I'm sure it will be a real treat at Deb's work.

Up early this morning for a run in the city. Here's my show and tell pics.

  

I know, you're sick of white house photos but, it was a rare opportunity with no crowds. The other pic is a police motorbike - it's a Harley Davidson. No wonder these guys look cool on their bikes. It reminds me of the cop TV show back in the 70s called Chips - the California Highway Patrol. Man, those guys were hot in their tight pants. Anyway, the police were out early because there is a big nuclear security summit this week and every man his dog are in town. There are street closures and lots of police presence.

We went to our first movie the other day - Eye in The Sky. Good movie, worth watching. There are two cinemas nearby. One is like Palace Electric at home with a bar and stuff inside. The other is like the Hoyts cinema. I am hoping to see the Batman movie tomorrow. Scary though as we came out of the cinema to news reports that a gunman had been shot at Capitol Hill. He was shooting near the visitor centre. Not sure of his reason but I don't think anyone was killed thankfully.

I'm pleased to report that one of our postcards arrived at home to the kids next door. We got a photo of two very happy little vegemites. It has taken about 6 weeks to get there so hopefully the others will now reach the other lucky people we sent them too.

Well, going to make a banana cake for the folks across the road to say thanks for their little welcome treats the other week (and to return their container). I'm also lined up to make a Philly cream cheesecake slice on Friday for D's work. Here's a nice pic to finish the post. The dogs love sun baking and the morning sun is gorgeous in the lounge. Lovely Macey !!

Cherry Blossom Easter

It's that special time of year - Cherry Blossom Festival time. They are quite pretty and draw crowds from everywhere. This festival commemorates the gift of the Japanese cherry tree on 27 Mar 1912 from the Mayor of Tokoyo city to the city of Washington. He donated the trees in an effort to enhance the growing friendship between the US and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations. Thanks to wiki for that !

We rode our bikes into the city and got amongst the mass of people wandering around - it was chockers. We've never seen this many people here before so wonder if this is a sign of tourist season coming. We can ride our bikes on a bike path most of the way into the city. The first section is on road but, the road is closed to cars on weekend so we get a car-free ride into the city. A very scenic ride too, about an hour each way.

Deb took Cricket for their first run together. I was worried that he wasn't used to it and to be careful with him. They ran for 8k and Cricket pulled the whole way. He didn't puff at all. Poor Deb fell onto the lounge when she got home but Cricket, he backed up with walk with me and Macey. Yep, he's definitely a working dog. No need to take it easy on him apparently.

 

Every Easter gives me special memories, especially of my sister who is no longer with us. When I was a small kid, I woke one morning to find paw prints in the dirt outside our back door, something like the picture on the left. OMG, for about one minute, I was in a trance, a shock...the Easter Bunny IS REAL, these are HIS prints. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. And then I realised they were put there by my lovely big sister - it was a nice thing, and I never forgot it. Many years later, my sisters and I did the same thing to my young niece and she too, had that brief special moment where the Easter Bunny was real. Happy Easter to all the believers out there. 

Our Easter Sunday was uneventful. We were both pretty tired from the big day out yesterday and had a lazy day at home. I did some quick food shopping and it was incredible that there was not one Easter egg in the supermarket. I've seen them in other shops and think there were a few in the past week or so, but today it was completely empty of choc eggs. So Deb ended up with a Kit-Kat for Easter ! I hope you all had a lovely Easter with family and friends.