Ambel and Chat

I’ve had a thought for a new detective show. It’s called Ambel and Chat and features two high powered businesswomen (Sharon Ambel and Mirinda de la Chat) who meet up for regular two hour ‘catch-ups’ during which they invariably wind up solving murders that happen while they walk.

A little thing that happens in every episode can be a phone call that Ambel takes from her husband (who the viewer never sees) about his relationship with his boss. There can also be the occasional guest appearance from Lisa Lou, International Woman of Mystery, who is always being flown off to all corners of the globe on troubleshooting missions to do with major feminist issues. Or staffing levels in Big Pharma.

They could be a sort of 20Teen Charlie’s Angels with attitude rather than Hollywood glamour and no need for the invisible patriarch.

I reckon it could run and run and run…

Today saw us heading over to Mosman bay to catch a ferry to Circular Quay. I’ve never been to Mosman Bay before and I can say it’s a pretty amazing spot. There’s a park for lead free dog walking, there’s the ferry (clearly), a bus route to the ferry, non-metered parking, gorgeous views, lots of boats…and the list goes on. In fact, Mirinda almost immediately made plans for us to move there.

Mosman Bay

After a coffee on the dock, we boarded the ferry and headed for the Quay. The trip instantly made Mirinda very homesick. It’s like I’ve told her: Because Sydney is our home town, when we spend any time in the city, it’s only natural we should feel a sense of loss and a desire to return. It happens to me every trip because I spend (at least) a day wandering around. It wears off, I told her. (Though that was after she’d made a list of the pros and cons between Sydney and Farnham.)

The plan today was for Mirinda to meet up with Sharon and for them to wander around for a two hour catch-up. In order to precipitate this, I went to the Australian Museum in William Street.

Now, it’s been a long time since I visited the museum.

I reckon it was probably sometime around 1968 and on a school excursion. I used to walk passed it quite often, particularly when Wildridges sent me on small jobs that side of the city.

It would be fair to say that, while the building is (essentially) the same, a lot has changed. It’s a lot more airy and light except upstairs with the dinosaurs…which is odd. And the exhibits tend to follow a trend. There’s also a lovely spread out Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander section which was interesting. It’s also the only place I’ve found a boat this trip.

Bark boat

This was made by stripping a massive great bit of bark off a red gum, folding it slightly and generally forming it into an extremely flat boat. I wouldn’t fancy hitting the high seas on it as it really is quite flat. Still, it’s amazing for all that. As an environmental technology that the Australian Aboriginals developed from available sources, it’s very clever because once it stopped being useful, it could just be left. And the trees would grow back the bark so the source was renewable.

Flutterbyes

The museum isn’t very big but managed to keep me interested for an hour. I thought the shop was okay but could really do with some more interesting postcards and, perhaps, a book on the museum itself rather than Australia’s Top 50 Explorers…though that looked interesting. But, as I said, it was a great way to wile away an hour.

I managed to find a Starbucks on the way back to Circular Quay then headed down to meet Mirinda and Sharon ahead of intercepting a galloping Lisa who was coming from a meeting. I then left them to catch a ferry to Manly while I headed back to the car.

After they’d made it back to Mosman we all headed for Lisa’s where Jack had prepared dinner for us all (and the kids) and we had a delightful few hours talking politics and Bogans and Avalon and the benefits of seeing Tony Abbott up the shops all the time.

But tempus fugit and so, eventually, we headed off into the night, dropping Sharon off at home on the way (and briefly saying hi/bye to Jud) before driving back to Dural.

Museum Gaz says Hi

A very full day.