SYDNEY SHIPS

On February 20, 2007, tens of thousands of people packed Sydney Harbour's foreshore to witness a historic reunion of two queens of the sea. The Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Queen Mary 2 greeted each other with the sound of their whistles as the QE2 sailed past her sister ship docked at the Garden Island navy base.

The Queen Mary 2, one of the world's largest passenger cruise liners, majestically sailed through the harbour shortly before dawn, followed by a flotilla of boats and watched by thousands onshore. Too tall, at 23 storeys high, to sail under the Harbour Bridge and too long to berth at the International Terminal at Circular Quay, the $1 billion grand lady of the sea, on her maiden visit to Sydney, docked at the naval base.

In the evening, her sister ship, the QE2, was also welcomed by large crowds as she sailed through the harbour to dock at Circular Quay. As she passed near Garden Island, the QE2 sounded its whistles, prompting a similar response from her big sister and rapturous applause and cheers from those watching on the foreshore. It was a sight not seen in Sydney since the two ships' predecessors - the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth - greeted each other in the harbour as troop carriers in 1941.

The 345-metre-long QM2 weighs in at 151,400 tonnes and caters for up to 3090 passengers with the help of 1253 crew.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #17 - FUN & GAMES

In Melbourne there is always some fun to be had and numerous occasions where people let their hair down. Here are a couple of street performers who took their costumes to dizzying green heights of fashion!

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

The meme is only as successful as you make it be!

Please add your own GREEN post using the Linky tool below:

MELBOURNE FLOWER SHOW 2012

We attended the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show that took place Wednesday 28th March - Sunday 1st April 2012. This flower and garden show is still ranked in the top five flower shows in the world. 

2012 was the 17th year that this show took place in Melbourne, and it is regarded as the largest and most successful horticultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.   Featuring the best landscape and floral talent that Australia has to offer alongside an extensive array of garden retail products, the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show is a celebration of Australian lifestyle and our great outdoors.

Staged within the world heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building and surrounding Carlton Gardens, this prestigious Show is well established in the psyche of Australians as a "must see" event. We were not disappointed and we spent one whole day wandering around trying to see everything there was to see.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

JIM STYNES' FUNERAL, MELBOURNE 27 MARCH

James "Jim" Stynes OAM (23 April 1966 – 20 March 2012) was a prominent Irish Australian best known for his career as a professional Australian rules football player and administrator but also as a philanthropist, charity worker and writer. During his 264 game career with the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) between 1987 and 1998, Stynes become the only non-Australian-born VFL/AFL player to win the prestigious Brownlow Medal, which he achieved in 1991 and he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Stynes had a high profile in both Australia and Ireland as a result of his involvement in the Melbourne Football Club's ambitious international recruitment program (now known as the "Irish experiment"). Born in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, where he was a promising Gaelic footballer, Stynes made an ambitious move to Australia at the age of 18 following his side's win in the 1984 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship. Debuting in the Australian Football League in 1987, he played a league record 244 consecutive games between 1987 and 1998. He also represented Victoria in interstate football matches, and both Australia and Ireland in international rules football, a hybrid of Gaelic football and Australian rules football.

Following his football career, Stynes focussed on youth work using his profile to launch the Reach Foundation, which he co-founded in 1994. As a result of his work with young people in Victoria he was named Victorian of the Year twice, in 2001 and 2003, and with the expanded profile of Reach nationally, awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007. Stynes also served as president of the Melbourne Football Club from 2008 and was involved in fundraising efforts which brought the club out of debt. In 2009, Stynes was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma and continued to work during his treatment for brain metastasis. He died in March, 2012 and was honoured by a state funeral which was held at St. Paul's cathedral in Melbourne on Tuesday, 27 March 2012.

Melbourne Town Hall with the flag flying half-mast. St Paul's Cathedral in the back

The crowd outside the Cathedral

Federation Square opposite the Cathedral

The crowd outside Flinders Street Station

St Pauls Cathedral 

The Cortege leaving the Cathedral

The cars of the family and close friends following the hearse and proceeding through the guard of honour

Even a cocky decided to attend the funeral... 

Crowd in Federation Square, many wearing the Melbourne Football Club scarf

The Melbourne Football Club flag was flying

A lot of heartfelt emotion was evident, and this was one of the quietest crowds that I have experienced...

Crowd dispersing after the funeral is over

A rare site on Flinders St - traffic completely stopped and the street converted to a pedestrian mall! 

Vale, Jim Stynes! (Photo courtesy of ABC, taken by David Crosling)