Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Miners, Carleton, Sophie, Steve & lunch

The miners walked out of the mine before dawn this morning. Thank fuck.

It was torture waiting for them to be rescued so imagine how they must've felt spending two weeks down there a kilometre underground with a fucking great rock poised over their heads.

Just before I went to bed last night the probe had broken through and the miners could see it. When I got up this morning there was footage of them walking out of the mine lift (elevator) at about five this morning. Their mate Larry Knight is being buried this afternoon.

Carleton

You may also have heard that one of our well known journos Richard Carleton dropped dead on the job. He'd just asked a question of the mine manager down at the Tasmanian mine rescue. "Before [the mine manager] finished his answer, Carleton turned to his crew's camera, walked about eight metres, and collapsed." He didn't look crash hot that day but who would after being up at all hours covering a story like that. Poor bastard.

Sophie

Five-year-old Sophie Delezio is still in a stable condition in intensive care. She's the poor sprog who was badly burnt and lost her feet in 2003 and run over on Friday. She's got a lot of injuries and will be in hospital for a while. When she recovers from this lot of injuries she needs to have more operations relating to the burns. Jesus.

Steve

Okay. Let's have some good news for a fucking change. Steve (Fat Man Walking) is a star. The media are all over him like a rash and his inbox is clogged with people who want to walk the last few miles with him as he finishs his walk across America.

The latest from Steve's site:

"May 8, 2006

Want to walk to NYC with Steve?

Meeting Place: Leaving from the north walkway of the George Washington Bridge at 6pm on May 9th.

MEDIA ADVISORY May 8, 2006 Steve’s honored by all of the attention his quest to walk across America has gathered from the media...

...he walks across the Bridge and into New York City tomorrow. Contact: Melinda Cataldo mcataldo@att.net"

It's the 9th here already, Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully he'll be on the news tonight at the end of his epic journey from California to New York. Onya, Steve. Knew you'd make it all the way.

Lunch

Meanwhile, in Woy Woy, it's another blue blue day. Bitey cold last night, down to 1 degree celcuis (33.8 Fahrenheit) then another day of warm autumn sun. Went down to Ettalong and had a pie for lunch in the park.

Ettalong Beach
(ig version)

A busy Tuesday at Ettalong Beach. Wagstaffe on the left, Barrenjoey Head on the northern beaches of Sydney on the right.

Old shop on Broken Bay Road Ettalong
(Big version)

Nice old shop on Broken Bay Road behind The Excrescence.

Might be Inter-War Free Classical (circa 1915 - circa 1940). Not sure. The tethers on the veranda roof are gone from shop fronts by 1940.

Banksia flowers
(Big version)

Banskia flowers and seed cone. There's plenty of blooms still out this autumn. It was the same last year with the same warm sun we're having now. Beautiful.

Ettalong Girl Guides hall
(Big version)

Smart colours and the trees on the Mountain behind it. Pleasant old building in a pleasant setting.

Ettalong was settled in the 1830s and this hall was built in 1954. Doesn't look it. I would've said 1930s at the latest so there yer go.

It was a nice warm gentle walk in the warm gentle sun. Just what the doctor ordered. Will have another dose of the same tomorrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photos. But it was so hard to enjoy them after hearing about Sophie. I wanted to leave a kind word on her forum but it's closed now. The poor girl. I hope she recovers and that the rest of her life is safe.

Anonymous said...

Nice hall. They might have used recycled windows from earlier houses.

Spike said...

Haily - Dead right. Poor little bugger's been through enough for one lifetime.

Writer - Yeah, I was thinking that too. There's a fair bit of that goes on on the Coast.