The world's most stunning libraries

 

St. Florian Monastery Library Sankt Florian, Austria

Built during the late Baroque period, this library is one of the oldest and most impressive libraries in Austria. A total of 108,000 of the library’s 150,000 volumes date back to before 1900.

 

Trinity College Old Library Dublin, Ireland

The Old Library was built between 1712 and 1732. The main chamber, called the Long Room, houses 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. It is nearly 65 metres in length.

 

State Library of South Australia, South Australia

Located on North Terrace, the State Library of South Australia has a collection focusing on South Australian information. The Mortlock Wing, with its mansard roof, is in the French Renaissance style.

 

"Riverbend" Library, Nelligen, N.S.W.

Built in the early 21st century in the DIY-style inside an old garage - click here - , it is the most impressive library within walking distance of the Nelligen bridge and holds a large collection of books on travel, linguistics, philosophy, and Australiana, as well as many German books and novels by my favourite authors and DVDs of all my favourite movies.

 

Driving Miss Bronny

 

After three weeks of political bleeding, Tony Abbott has forced the resignation of Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who already earns a $350,000-salary, over her extravagant use of taxpayer-funded entitlements.

The scandal began three weeks ago with revelations that the Speaker had spent $5,227 on a helicopter to ferry her 60km from Melbourne to Geelong for a fundraiser last November. A series of other questionable ­expenses followed, such as spending a thousand dollars a day on limousine hire instead of using her Comcar. But the tipping point came at the weekend when it was revealed that Mrs Bishop had also spent $6,000 on a charter plane to fly her from Sydney to Nowra, using the same charter company commissioned for the chopper, linked to a close friend of Mrs Bishop.

Of course, these arrogant pigs with their inflated views of their own importance and their exotic entitlements all have their greedy snouts deep in the taxpayer-funded trough. As Barnaby Joyce said in defense of Bishop, "If you start throwing rocks there won't be a person left in the parliament ... If we're going to go on a shooting expedition we'll be getting rid of good politicians on both sides of the house very quickly."

I've heard some wonderful oxymorons in my time but none better than 'good politicians'. As for nobody being left in the parliament, what a wonderful idea!

 

Collective nouns

 

One of the craziest oddities of the English language is that there are so many different collective nouns that all mean "group", many beautiful and evocative, even poetic.

I mean, you couldn't get more evocative than a damning of jurors, an incredulity of cuckolds, a murder of crows, a misbelief of painters, a parliament of owls, a bloat of hippopotamuses, or a superfluity of nuns, could you? (For more, buy yourself the book "An Unkindness of Ravens")

Just don't mention the word 'swarm'. The British prime minister David Cameron just did when he spoke of "a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean". and the Thought Police immediately jumped on him for forgetting that he was "talking about people and not insects" and "dehumanising" them.

What a bunch of - no, not grapes - wankers!

 

German by chance, Australian by choice

 

There's a story of a conversation Bill Clinton had with Edward de Bono when they were both in Hong Kong. Bill asked Ed his opinion of what in an ideal world the perfect nation would look like.

De Bono replied, "It would have an ethnically diverse population of twenty to twenty-five million people. English would be the national language. It would be religiously and economically liberated, have a democratic form of government and a vigorous free press. I'd locate it somewhere along the Pacific Rim. It would have a young history and an optimistic outlook. And a generous climate that lent itself to encouraging all its people - rich or poor - to enjoy the wonderful free gifts nature has to offer".

"Sounds wonderful", Clinton wistfully remarked. "What would you call it?" he asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't change its name", De Bono replied, "'Australia' will do fine".

Apocryphal or not, De Bono is right and I, like him, love Australia. I'm not saying it is perfect. We, too, have to put up with lying politicians, nasty neighbours, occasionally stifling bureaucracies, sometimes even bad weather, but nothing could ever persuade me to return to the northern hemisphere.

I am German by chance, Australian by choice - and happy with both.

 

Wonderful memories of a wonderful time

 

Yes, this, too, is Australia and I am fortunate enough to have lived and worked there in 1977, well before Ted Egan made this documentary.

One of my favourite writers is Somerset Maugham. At the end of his long life, he wrote a book called "The Summing Up", which sets out all his life lessons. It's nowhere near as good as his many short stories, some of which were adapted to the screen, but it does contain the wonderful conclusion that 'there is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is there is very little about which one can be certain'.

I agree with him as I'm certain about only one thing: that I wouldn't want to have missed the close to fifty places in more than a dozen countries that I've lived and worked in (not to mention the many others I flew over real low ☺).

They make for wonderful memories, some of which I've since tried to recapture. Such as my return to Thursday Island in 2005. You can read about it in this travelogue.

And if that's not enough, here are some old photographs: click here.