On Sunday we had a bit of an historic event take place. The Athlone Power Station cooling towers were on schedule for demolition at 12pm sharp. As it happened it all went down 4 mins early! with much aggro to lots of folk. DH went to a golf course near there to get some good shots and a video. I never went as I heard on the news they were expecting 4,000 odd people to turn out to watch the event and opted to stay at home. DH never got the vital shots.. as like everyone else, wasn't expecting anything to happen at that moment!. But I have found a link with the whole thing video'ed if you would be interested to see it, the write up on the link is very much the feelings of Capetonian's in general . The Towers were considered to be unstable and had to go so there is no question it was the *right thing* to do.

These Photos are ones John took. You can see a whole party event going on.


Before Photo:

Vimeo Video

This one is from Vimeo , it is nice and clear!

News Item Video

A link to a video on a news channel, it comes on shortly after the advert it is only 1.57 long. Video taken from the air

You can see what the weather looked like!!

I thought this image with the red tent was nice! photographically that is, this he took from the place he was standing looking back from the towers!

Going , going, gone!

That is quite amazing Dawn!! DH took some great shots, too. Definitely agree with you about the one looking at the red tents side on. It is very good.

Like how the men standing around have beer in their hands. Looks very Australian. What a shame that the couple, who won the trip in the helicopter, didn't see the actual demolition because it was early. Funny thing is that the woman teaches at Sans Souci Girls HS. There is a Sans Souci in Sydney. Such an unusual name, too.

Thank you for another very interesting topic, Dawn.

Forgot to ask you to thank your DH for taking these great shots, Dawn.

Joy! I shall pass your thanks off to to him , thank you! Yep southern hemispherians know how to celebrate with the beer eh! .

As a matter of interest I found a book in the second hand book store called 'Sisters of the South' the forward was written by Alfred Stirling, Australian Ambassador at the Hague, and former Australian High Commissioner in the Union of South Africa, it was written in 1951. It is a most interesting book being a book that reveals the links between South Africa, Australia and New Zealand from as early as 1787. It is obviously an old book being written in 1951, so is now history.
I guess a quote from Alfred Stirling in his forward sums up the whole book.. ...

being

Quote
"The stories here are of ships and the sheep and the stars; of trees and fruits and flowers; of wine; and war; of grim starvation and blessed success; of peace and plenty, great endeavours and faith in the days to come." Unquote

The ship stories are especially interesting, the whole book is a light hearted approach to the history of the time.

Dawn!! A demolition of a landmark site would, definitely, need to be celebrated with a beer or three. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] alt="" />

Hadn't heard of Alfred Stirling & I doubt Bruiser has either. (He is in bed so can't ask him ) The book certainly does sound very interesting, especially as it ties all three countries together. No doubt it would have a delightfully old-fashioned quality about the writing, too. Both NZ & Oz have more than their fair share of sheep though the numbers in Oz have fallen slightly. Does SA have a history of sheep, as well??

You do seem to have this wonderful knack of finding treasures in secondhand shops, Dawn.

I just found this link:

He seemed to have had a pretty vast experience in the international field. Could be? as he was out of Australia fulfilling ambassadorial roles most of the time, never became well known in Australia?

I can see you and I are on the same page so to speak when it comes to old books.... they are fantastic, a lovely delightful read usually. Yes Joy! we do have a fair amount of sheep farming usually up in the drier desert region called the Karoo, we talk about Karoo lamb. We sometimes get the pleasure of New Zealand lamb in the Butchers here. Beautiful flavour, quite sort after here if I remember right. But it is usually frozen, and gets bypassed sometimes.??


Alfred Stirling

Thanks Dawn, very interesting, I hadn't heard of him by the way!

Thanks for that link, Dawn. Guess one of the reasons he is not well known, particularly in NSW, is that not only did he spend much of his life as an overseas diplomat but he was also a VICTORIAN!!! New South Welshmen profess to not know much about Victorians, as they don't really want to know, unless, of course, they have to.

NZ lamb is different to the Aussie lamb. What is called lamb here is known as hogget in NZ. Hogget is a yearling sheep & the lamb in NZ must be younger than that. You hardly need to carve it when you roast a leg of lamb. It is soooo tender. Eating lamb is/was mostly from Romneys in NZ, here it is mostly from wool sheep, merinos.

Sorry to wander so far offtrack, Dawn.

Joybells wrote:Thanks for that link, Dawn. Guess one of the reasons he is not well known, particularly in NSW, is that not only did he spend much of his life as an overseas diplomat but he was also a VICTORIAN!!! New South Welshmen profess to not know much about Victorians, as they don't really want to know, unless, of course, they have to.

NZ lamb is different to the Aussie lamb. What is called lamb here is known as hogget in NZ. Hogget is a yearling sheep & the lamb in NZ must be younger than that. You hardly need to carve it when you roast a leg of lamb. It is soooo tender. Eating lamb is/was mostly from Romneys in NZ, here it is mostly from wool sheep, merinos.

Sorry to wander so far offtrack, Dawn.

You're right on track Joy!!

Yes here it must be under a year old to be termed as lamb too I think!. It is sometimes called lamb by some people when it is over the year but back in the late seventies we could buy what they called mutton and that was a full grown sheep. They were tasty, not as tender but full of flavour, cheaper than lamb and you can't buy mutton any more ?? Mind you I don't like them when they have too much flavour, a lot of people buy either a whole lamb or a half lamb as it is cheaper to buy that way and then they freeze it. People also have them on a spit at parties as it is easier to cook on a BBQ than lots of bits and pieces. We do have merinos here, I don't know a heck of a lot about sheep farming here but know it is not as extensive as NZ and Aus for sure.
The taste of NZ lamb is distinctive to us, they tell us it is what they are fed ?

What we used to have as lamb in NZ was much younger than the stuff sold here in Oz. Think it was still drinking milk with some grass. Don't know what happens now.

Here lamb has become rather expensive. Sides of lamb were a budget way to provide meat for a family but not now.