Independent Boys and International Botanists

The morning mission for the boys and me was to see the Sydney Opera House on a tour.  Mission:  failure.  We arrived when there was a performance or two, so no tours.  The best we accomplished was a close up, and a trip to the bathrooms.  These bathrooms, though, were worth it since they were clearly as designed as the rest of the building.  As you can see from this photo, the sinks are one solid piece of porcelain, maybe?  And it has been gently cast in the form of a wave.  Each trough of the wave is a sink "basin," and the water runs off the back as if it is heading for a collision with the back-splash.  We will go back--obviously if I am impressed with the washroom sinks, I just have to see the rest of the building.  We have plans for the next three days, so I can't hope to return until Sunday, our very last day in Australia.

Entering The Rocks, with school children on the green for a lesson.

We walked from the Opera House through Circular Quay to The Rocks and saw The Rocks Discovery Museum.  The Rocks are the oldest area of Sydney.  Various municipal governments have tried to "clean up" the neighborhood at various times in its history.  Probably unfairly, it has been thought of as a poor neighborhood, but evidence from excavations really make it seem as though it has always been working class at worst, and perhaps never an actual slum.  Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge took some of the buildings of The Rocks down, and again in the 1970's urban renewal tried to rebuild the older neighborhood.  Fortunately, protestors prevailed, and the area is home to many artists and quaint little shops today.  We enjoyed the museum since it took such care to explain the urban archaeology.

We returned to Circular Quay and boarded a ferry to take us around to Darling Harbour.  The ferries are great.  They are a fast way between shore points in the city, but the best part is that the views are spectacular.

Luna Park in North Sydney (the other side of the Harbour Bridge. Does that face look kid friendly to you?

We went to Darling Harbour (yet again, for the third day in a row) because Mark had invited me to dine with the botanists.  That meant the boys were on their own.  I set them up for a showing of Transformers 3D at the eight story IMAX, bought them lunch, and gave them still more cash for dinner and a potential game of laser tag.  In the photo they are eating Subway.  Yes, you can take the boys out of the country, but you can't always take the country out of the boys.  They did also play laser tag, and of that shocking amount of cash, they returned 80 cents.

I had a splendid evening.  There are 30-40 participants at this meeting.  Mark gave his talk today, and I was able to hear it.  Great job and interesting discussion from the other members.  Then they were photographed, and I got to be one of the photographers:

We headed around the garden on a very selected tour to see specimens from the Apiales group.  These plants have more subtle flowers than most people are attuned to.  In North America, most members of this group are not woody, but in a botanical garden, you can see species that are tropical and trees or shrubs.  When you walk through a garden with a group of botanists, you go slowly.

Finally, we all had dinner.  This group is very international so it was very fun!  There are scientists from South Africa, Russia, France, and Australia, of course.  It's not uncommon for an individual to be international all by themselves-- so born in China and works in the States, or born in the States but works in France, or born in New Zealand and works in Australia. Most of the scientists have traveled for research purposes, outside of their residential country.  This group has been trying to meet every three years,somewhere in the world, for the last twelve years or so.  They give me the feeling of being at a college reunion.  It was a very convivial group.  I may maneuver to become a tag-a-long from now on.

In spite of the good cheer, I can also wax philosophical about everyone being together here.  It is not necessarily easy to get together when everyone comes from distant parts of the world.  Whichever botanist organizes the trip loses time from his or her regular work to do so.  There is no doubt, though, that being together is very useful.  One way that it helps is by giving students a wider group of contacts.  Many of the participants are PhD students or post docs.  The other way that it is helpful is in giving everyone a chance to hear about how work is progressing prior to publication, which can take a long time.  I think the best part, though, is that when you are sitting with a group of international botanists, it is clear that the plants belong to all of us. 

The scientists looking at a specimen.