What’s on this weekend? 14th and 15th March 2015

I haven’t been to Skyfire for many many years, but last weekend I did ride around the lake the morning after. The main area on the city side of the lake was pretty trashed with rubbish. I can’t say I was terribly surprised.

Skyfire from the Patrick White Lawn at the Library was simply perfect. Happy families having picnics and no ‘bogans’ around.
PLUS, easy to get away from the traffic jams, southward anyway.
My first Skyfire in 10 years, and now I’ll go back because it was such a lovely experience.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Skyfire -The only good thing was above our heads.
Rolled out the picnic blanket, had some fried chicken and began to enjoy the show. Choppers and planes, simply awesome. But as the sky grew dim, so did the intellect that surrounded us.
Firstly, some unsupervised ratbag kids decided that throwing sticks into the water over the heads of passers-by would be fun. Only took 10 minutes before some innocent bloke got sconed on the back of the head. Fortunately it was only a small stick, but it didn’t stop the pair from continuing with their shenanigans. I would have said something but nowadays you aren’t allowed to discipline kids, especially those not your own. I also didn’t want their aggression/attention issues directed at us. I could have got the police to have a talk to them, but it’d been half an hour since the last pair of crowd controllers had wandered past.
After shrugging that off, continued to watch in amazement at the number of people who loved to walk back and forward for no particular reason. When it came time to give the Anzacs a minute of our time, I could not believe my eyes. If “The Ode” shouldn’t have been enough to get people on their feet, surely the “Last Post” was a hint. NO. Around 10% of attendees had any inkling that some respect was due to the fallen. Whilst the bugle played [not quietly mind you], people continued to talk, take selfies, laugh and carry on like a bunch of hooligans. Then during the minute of silence that followed folks sat on their phones sending instagrams, dumb teenage girls high on sugar tripped over themselves and laughed, sticks and rubbish continued to be thrown into the water [and at us] and I wondered what exactly they were fighting to protect 100 years ago.
Perhaps it would have been better to let the Deutsches Reich take over the world. At least they were able to instill a sense of respect, honor and discipline to their people, young and old. I fear our faith in “freedom” has gone too far and simply letting everyone get away with whatever they feel like has resulted in a country with no sense of pride. All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.
I think next year we’ll watch the show from a safe distance in the comfort of our car, where there won’t be any noisy hooligans throwing stuff, rubbish will be placed in a plastic bag for disposal and I won’t have to spend and hour escaping through a narrow footbridge while putting up with dust and foul behavior.
As a last thing, why would you go to Skyfire and spend the 15 minutes of spectacular action looking at your phone?? Why did people go there to totally ignore the best part of the night? I just don’t understand…..

Pretty much every year I went to Skyfire I had similar problems and was completely over it.

Last year when I went, we sat on the Parliament House side of the lake – over on the concreted bit – and had no problems. Hardly anyone there, the people that were there were mostly adults and families, and we had heaps of room to move around. I’m not sure where you were but I assume it was over in the Stage 88 area?

I didn’t go this year because I had tickets for Judith Lucy, but if I go next year I’ll definitely be on the Parliament House side again.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Thanks for the support, we did enjoy it. I’ve learned to just let these morons not get you down and simply enjoy the spectacle. The finale was beautiful to say the least.
It’s just a sad thing to see people try to ruin it for others. I wonder if our grandparents thought the same of society when they were younger?

I’m sure people have always complained about the younger generation and some of the complaints no doubt seem silly in retrospect. But some are not silly. Having to find the first aid tent or go home early or losing an item of food/drink (as once happened to me) because a complete stranger thought throwing/whirling something around in a public place was ‘fun’ is not a petty generational difference. It’s just not the way for people to treat each other, regardless of age.

I’m glad the show was good!

wildturkeycanoe said :

Perhaps it would have been better to let the Deutsches Reich take over the world.

All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.

Do you have some valid points in there? Yes. But seriously?! Do you really think our society would be a better one under Nazi rule? By even suggesting this YOU are the one who is being disrespectful to those who fought for this country.

And “ALL we see”?! I know I see a lot of good in my kids and and in many other young people.
Trend? What trend? Oh wait, that trend where we are descending into anarchy. Right.

Anyway, using Godwin’s Law, I’m pretty sure that you knew that you’d lost this argument before it even began.

GardeningGirl said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Firstly, some unsupervised ratbag kids decided that throwing sticks into the water over the heads of passers-by would be fun. Only took 10 minutes before some innocent bloke got sconed on the back of the head. Fortunately it was only a small stick, but it didn’t stop the pair from continuing with their shenanigans . .

So this is a ‘thing’ now? Saw the same at Art Not Apart except not even aiming at the water, simply throwing high in the air over her shoulder as she walked behind her mother along the path near the boat hire place, narrowly missed a lady resting beside the path.

wildturkeycanoe said :

. . I fear our faith in “freedom” has gone too far and simply letting everyone get away with whatever they feel like has resulted in a country with no sense of pride. All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.

Agree, way too far. Everyone knows all about their rights but has no comprehension of responsibilities.

I’m sorry it wasn’t the relaxing happy community event it should be for you.

Thanks for the support, we did enjoy it. I’ve learned to just let these morons not get you down and simply enjoy the spectacle. The finale was beautiful to say the least.
It’s just a sad thing to see people try to ruin it for others. I wonder if our grandparents thought the same of society when they were younger?

wildturkeycanoe said :

Firstly, some unsupervised ratbag kids decided that throwing sticks into the water over the heads of passers-by would be fun. Only took 10 minutes before some innocent bloke got sconed on the back of the head. Fortunately it was only a small stick, but it didn’t stop the pair from continuing with their shenanigans . .

So this is a ‘thing’ now? Saw the same at Art Not Apart except not even aiming at the water, simply throwing high in the air over her shoulder as she walked behind her mother along the path near the boat hire place, narrowly missed a lady resting beside the path.

wildturkeycanoe said :

. . I fear our faith in “freedom” has gone too far and simply letting everyone get away with whatever they feel like has resulted in a country with no sense of pride. All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.

Agree, way too far. Everyone knows all about their rights but has no comprehension of responsibilities.

I’m sorry it wasn’t the relaxing happy community event it should be for you.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Skyfire -The only good thing was above our heads.
Rolled out the picnic blanket, had some fried chicken and began to enjoy the show. Choppers and planes, simply awesome. But as the sky grew dim, so did the intellect that surrounded us.
Firstly, some unsupervised ratbag kids decided that throwing sticks into the water over the heads of passers-by would be fun. Only took 10 minutes before some innocent bloke got sconed on the back of the head. Fortunately it was only a small stick, but it didn’t stop the pair from continuing with their shenanigans. I would have said something but nowadays you aren’t allowed to discipline kids, especially those not your own. I also didn’t want their aggression/attention issues directed at us. I could have got the police to have a talk to them, but it’d been half an hour since the last pair of crowd controllers had wandered past.
After shrugging that off, continued to watch in amazement at the number of people who loved to walk back and forward for no particular reason. When it came time to give the Anzacs a minute of our time, I could not believe my eyes. If “The Ode” shouldn’t have been enough to get people on their feet, surely the “Last Post” was a hint. NO. Around 10% of attendees had any inkling that some respect was due to the fallen. Whilst the bugle played [not quietly mind you], people continued to talk, take selfies, laugh and carry on like a bunch of hooligans. Then during the minute of silence that followed folks sat on their phones sending instagrams, dumb teenage girls high on sugar tripped over themselves and laughed, sticks and rubbish continued to be thrown into the water [and at us] and I wondered what exactly they were fighting to protect 100 years ago.
Perhaps it would have been better to let the Deutsches Reich take over the world. At least they were able to instill a sense of respect, honor and discipline to their people, young and old. I fear our faith in “freedom” has gone too far and simply letting everyone get away with whatever they feel like has resulted in a country with no sense of pride. All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.
I think next year we’ll watch the show from a safe distance in the comfort of our car, where there won’t be any noisy hooligans throwing stuff, rubbish will be placed in a plastic bag for disposal and I won’t have to spend and hour escaping through a narrow footbridge while putting up with dust and foul behavior.
As a last thing, why would you go to Skyfire and spend the 15 minutes of spectacular action looking at your phone?? Why did people go there to totally ignore the best part of the night? I just don’t understand…..

Funny how when I post comments like this I am called strange and offensive names.
Skyfire is how Andrew Barr entertains the growing bogan population in Canberra.
If you feel out of place there then don’t go.

Skyfire -The only good thing was above our heads.
Rolled out the picnic blanket, had some fried chicken and began to enjoy the show. Choppers and planes, simply awesome. But as the sky grew dim, so did the intellect that surrounded us.
Firstly, some unsupervised ratbag kids decided that throwing sticks into the water over the heads of passers-by would be fun. Only took 10 minutes before some innocent bloke got sconed on the back of the head. Fortunately it was only a small stick, but it didn’t stop the pair from continuing with their shenanigans. I would have said something but nowadays you aren’t allowed to discipline kids, especially those not your own. I also didn’t want their aggression/attention issues directed at us. I could have got the police to have a talk to them, but it’d been half an hour since the last pair of crowd controllers had wandered past.
After shrugging that off, continued to watch in amazement at the number of people who loved to walk back and forward for no particular reason. When it came time to give the Anzacs a minute of our time, I could not believe my eyes. If “The Ode” shouldn’t have been enough to get people on their feet, surely the “Last Post” was a hint. NO. Around 10% of attendees had any inkling that some respect was due to the fallen. Whilst the bugle played [not quietly mind you], people continued to talk, take selfies, laugh and carry on like a bunch of hooligans. Then during the minute of silence that followed folks sat on their phones sending instagrams, dumb teenage girls high on sugar tripped over themselves and laughed, sticks and rubbish continued to be thrown into the water [and at us] and I wondered what exactly they were fighting to protect 100 years ago.
Perhaps it would have been better to let the Deutsches Reich take over the world. At least they were able to instill a sense of respect, honor and discipline to their people, young and old. I fear our faith in “freedom” has gone too far and simply letting everyone get away with whatever they feel like has resulted in a country with no sense of pride. All we see now is rampant narcissism, disrespect for anyone and anything and if it continues on this trend, society will break down into anarchy.
I think next year we’ll watch the show from a safe distance in the comfort of our car, where there won’t be any noisy hooligans throwing stuff, rubbish will be placed in a plastic bag for disposal and I won’t have to spend and hour escaping through a narrow footbridge while putting up with dust and foul behavior.
As a last thing, why would you go to Skyfire and spend the 15 minutes of spectacular action looking at your phone?? Why did people go there to totally ignore the best part of the night? I just don’t understand…..

Those Chiko rolls by Monster were pretty damn good!