Polish adventures Part I

As we arrived in Canberra, I thought back to my last visit to the nation's capital - Australian Youth Orchestra Season 1, 2009. I have never arrived in Canberra by plane; looking out the windows, one may suspect they are in a fairly small country town. The airport is quite new-age, different wings and what not. Our flight was short (45 minutes) and uneventful, thought that's probably what you want in a flight! It seemed like we'd only been in the air for a moment before we were starting our descent!

We were greeted at baggage collection by a driver (note: no hat, no gloves) bearing a sign with our names (Yes, "Ms Chua". I am rarely ever greeted as such!). I may never ever have somebody wait at the airport with a sign for me again. He offered to take our bags as we went to teh car - a large Mercedes-Benz van with so much leg room and huge enough for me to almost stand up inside it! So this is an embassy vehicle! I noticed that its plate was blue, and rather than being an ACT plate, or even federal plate (I did not know these existed such a thing until recently), it bored 'Capital State'. Yes, royalty indeed. On our way from the airport, we passed the Royal Military College Duntroon, which was an expansive and impressive compound. I couldn't help but wonder whether the lakes across from the college were used for milirary exercises or not! The crisp air and the beautiful blue sky, sun shining, made the bare trees look like a picture from New England rather than Australia.

As we turned toward the main part of Canberra, New Parliament House appeared as the dominant scenery ahead of us. I suppose this is what people think of when they come to Canberra - a city of government officials and public servants. We passed the buildings of the Australian Federal Police (think a bit like super-new, shiny centre for fighting crime) and the National Archives of Australia. Many of the foreign embassies are located in close proximity to each other. Along the same street as the Polish embassy are the embassies of the USA, India, Israel, Germany and Sweden. Our lovely driver pointed these all out to us. The Chinese is the largest, the USA the 2nd. It is interested to see how each country has tried to outdo the others, each building looking like a symbol of its country's architecture - the US of New England (complete with red bricks actually imported from the USA!), with guards staunchly protecting it, British colonialism in India, and the distinct presence of communism of a bygone era of the Polish embassy. The lines are all very clean, straight, and there is a sense of austerity. When we walked in, we were greeted by a friend, though fairly concise, woman. The Polish ambassador and his family live in this large building that also houses a reception hall (in which we played), offices and guest rooms. In an earlier era, there were far more employees on site; now, only about nine. The driver also tends to the gardens and does all sorts of jobs around the place. He pointed out that the entire land area is about one hectare, and well-monitored by security cameras.

The hall we played in is like a reception hall, capacity about two hundred or so. They were setting up - dressing some tables with tablecloths and ironing them, arranging flowers, working out the state and lighting and other details. I experienced the Polish sense of humour, and attitude. The man who was overseeing all these arrangements pointed out all sorts of problems: "So, we have this little problem with the lights....", "And this little problem with the noise in the kitchen...", and continuing to point out the flaws of this performance arragement, but ending with a smile and shrug, "But this is what we have".

Present at this concert were members of the Polish community in Canberra, the Polish ambassador, the Finnish and Turkish ambassadors, a former Austrlaian ambassador in Poland, and the Archbishop of Canberra & Goulbern, who is the uncle of my colleague, the violinist! Good thing we only found out who all these people were after! A reception was held after about an hour of music and poetry readings in English and Polish. Along with the wine and juice on offer, standard too was vodka! We met lots of lovely people who really enjoyed the evening. The Finnish ambassador particularly enjoyed the music, as did her husband, who kissed both of our hands! We met the Polish ambassador, and many members of the Polish community.