A place of special serenity for me

P1020057

Apollo Bay

On the south west coast of Victoria is the little place of serenity

Nestled between the Otway mountains and the sea

A quiet fishing village in the cold of winter

I have ridden or sailed there innumerable times

Down the Great Ocean Road or over the Otway Mountains

In the safe harbour amongst the working boats

In a tent or a cabin

I listen to the roar of the surf, the winds at the edge of the roaring 40’s

or the silence of a fishing village in winter

Apollo Bay is quiet hamlet where I can take to the surf or walk through the giant forests.

Its a place that has offered me serenity and peace since I was just a boy, travelling here and camping in the dunes under a tarpaulin strung from my uncles car.

A place of peace and regeneration.

My home town – Melbourne, Australia

View of the Melbourne CBD across Hobsons Bay from Williamstown

Melbourne is my home town

A large sprawling modern city

A beautiful city in many ways.

A CULTURAL CITY

With a strong sense of the Arts

Offering major exhibitions

Both inside and out of the galleries

Projections onto the National Gallery wall

A Sporting and Multicultural City

Melbourne is a great sporting city,

Hosting an Olympic Games, ,the home of the Australian Tennis Open, Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne Cup, the Boxing Day Cricket Test, the MCG and the birthplace of Australian Football.

But it is community level football that in many ways captures the multicultural nature of Melbourne. Where the locals teams include the players with heritage from every continent – migrants old and new and indigenous Australians all in the game.

And on the sidelines the Lebanese mothers wear their Hijabs in the home teams colours.

Sometimes there is a special moment, a wonderful day , that makes one reflect on where you are, where you spend most of your time and the special things about it.

It was a early autumn day in Melbourne.

I had been waiting to find the time to go to the National Gallery to see the wonderfully curated exhibition of the works or Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei.

A free Saturday morning gave me the opportunity.

Then in the afternoon my son played footy in a team that embodies the multicultural spirit of Melbourne a team made up of local people whose heritage stemmed from Polynesia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and captain coached by an indigenous Australian.

As I stood at my sons game and ate a kebab wrapped in a European style bun, talking to the retired primary school teacher who had taught “80% of the kids” I reflected on how special my home town is.

The 1957 V8 Moto Guzzi race motor cycle – the Otto cilindri- Visits Australia

To celebrate the 95th anniversary of Moto Guzzi one of the few operational Ottocilindri in the world came to the small country township of Broadford.

Moto Guzzi 1957 Otto Cilindri at Broadford Bike Bonanza Easter 2016

The crowd milled around to hear the legendary bike speak

not speak – rumble

not rumble – roar

Roar to life as it did to awe struck crowd 60 years ago.

I wondered would it exhaust note sound different in Italian

The Italian mechanic who travelled with the bike was coaxing her to start

“iniziare per me bel bambino”

Whispering sweat messages to the temperamental latin lass

fine tuning the latin lovely

“Inizia per me bellezza italiana”

Spoken softly to the points as he caressed them softly

“Ho solleticare la vostra carburatore bene”

he whispered to her as he adjusted the carburetor

Then it was time to make her sing

“cantare per il pubblico la mia bella diva”

“cantare, cantare, cantare” he urged

But like all temperamental Italian divas perform she would not

The singing of otto cilindri was the spluttering of a quattro cilindri

Unfortunately on that Saturday she was not to sing

But like a true diva just before the curtain was drawn on the closing day of the Broadford Bike Bonanza she did sing the full aria of otto cilindri.

Unfortunately I had left before the lady sang.

This is her sound but unfortunately not recorded at Broadford

Classic Racers

Classic racers

At the Phillip Island Classic Event

Classic Racers on Manx Norton

: Manx Norton

One of the racers walked with a cane

but on his Manx Norton he thundered around the Grand Prix Track

unrestricted by age

by injury

by fear

the old bike roaring thunder down the main straight

Old Friends

Old leathers

Old bikes

each with their own yarn to tell

Sitting talking across the pits shed

Stripping off the leathers at the end of a hot day of the track.

The Philip Island Classic is an annual race event for historic motorcycles were teams from Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Ireland compete for the overall trophy.

The event attracts fantastic historic bikes both on the race track and in the car park.

Of course there were the amazing Vincents

: Vincent Black Lightning

The bikes that inspired Richard Thompsons Vincent Black Lightning a song about a bike and the tragic (not quite Shakespearian) death of lovers. In original street guise (above) and in full racing guise (below).