The High Wood

The Chatswood to Parramatta Epping rail line opened a couple of days ago. One of the new stations (Macquarie Park) is right next to where I work so I decided to give it a go. I waited a couple of days so they could work the bugs out of the system (like the train that refused to start yesterday).

The railway has been needed for some time. The industrial park area in North Ryde has been growing apace. When I worked here seven years ago it was quite a reasonable drive. Now it is not at all reasonable so the train is a good thing. The original plan was to run it from Chatswood to Parramatta but it stopped when they got to Epping. This is a pity because it needed to connect with the west, not just link two north shore lines, but it is better than nothing.

The station is 10-15 minutes walk from where I work so it is a nice stroll (on a fine day). I can certainly use the exercise so that is a good thing.

Other than that, it is pretty much like a lot of other railways. It is nice and clean and very new looking. The tunnels are straight, unlike the older bendy ones under the city. It is running the newer carriages because some parts are too steep for the old ones. On the whole, it’s not too bad.

I’ve posted a few photos of Macquarie Park Station if anyone is interested. Also the Historic Electric Traction site has some photos of the line underconstruction which are worth looking at.

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Last night Pamela, Robert and I went to see the Flying Fruit Fly circus at the Parramatta Riverside Theater. Try saying Flying Fruit Flies three times quickly.

If you have never heard of them, they are a circus where all the performers are kids between 10 and 17. The FFF has a circus skills school and this is where they get to show off their skills.

They aren’t too bad at all. Occasionally you get a glitch where someone doesn’t quite manage the somersault through the two skipping ropes but they usually make it on the second try. This is fair enough for a mixed bunch of kids with different levels of skill.

Some of them are really good. My personal favourite was the guy upside down on a 30ft vertical pole who suddenly slides down the pole stopping himself by gripping with his legs just before his head hits the matting. His head wasn’t noticeably flat but he must have clobbered himself in practice once or twice.

So it was good but I have a serious complaint with regard to the way it connected with its audience, quite a lot of whom were young children. They wrapped a story around their skills (a perfectly legitimate and venerable device) but their choice of story was unsuited to their audience.

Basically it consisted of a young boy in the Outback. The first scene is his birthday party which is an excuse for some fun tumbling. However, then it all goes wrong, his father is killed in a bushfire and he ends up in the city – apparently with no-one to meet him off the train.

It takes off into fantasy at this point where he becomes a boy elephant trainer (whose father dies – this time of sickness) in a travelling circus. The circus is sold and he is the only one not taken on by the new owner. The circus people sneak him aboard the ship they are taking but the ship gets wrecked in a storm.

This was the first half. I’m not sure what happened in the second half because Robert couldn’t take it any more. He liked the circus bits but all this stuff about death of fathers and abandonment was more than he could handle and fair enough too. It wasn’t what any of us went to see.

I suspect the kids had a lot to do with writing the story. These are the sorts of concerns that interest adolescents and make good stories but they are not suitable for seven year-old kids – or at least not the subset of them to which Robert belongs.

It was a great pity. With a more cheerful story, Robert would have had a great time and gone home inspired to join a circus. Instead, we missed half the show and he had nightmares. I think I might have to write them a little note for next time.

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