All is calm, all is quiet

Went walkies along the western side of Brisbane Water, looking from Brisbane Water Drive across at Green Point and Saratoga and beyond to Kincumber and Avoca Beach and Killcare.

The gentle winter sun shone down, the ducks and heron-type-thingies browsed in the shallows, the commuters wished they were out on the still quiet water.




Wading and snapping. The heron-type-thingy wading sedately with that gawky knees-up walk they have. No idea what this one was eating but he didn't seem to be finding much of it. The ducks were finding plenty, poking their beaks into the sea grass and snapping their beaks in a satisfied way.




What ducks eat. Seemed to be wee creatures in the sea grass or the sea grass itself.




There's very nearly more boats than people around Brisbane Water. These ones looked scrumptious in the soft fading light.

Bonus picture: You wouldn't be dead for quids


Spider bites it



This is Gorgeous. Well, her body anyways. She's dead now.

She was my pet/flatmate. She moved in a couple of months ago, when the nights started to get cold. She hung out in the kitchen during the day and watched TV together and she slept behind a picture in the living room. We chatted when I made my morning cuppa and stuff.

Then a couple of days ago she disappeared. It was too cold outside so I knew she hadn't left. I found her body yesterday. She'd died of natural causes I think and fallen down behind the dish-rack. I buried her under the geranium.

Dark week

From blue blue winter skies to dark dark winter skies. Pissing down again as we speak. It's been a dark wet week in Woy Woy. I've been having the lights on at three in the afternoon.



Boy duck.

Went to Empire Bay when the sun was still with us. Had fish & chips on the foreshore. Bloody lovely day for it.




Girl duck.




Beautiful warm winter sun on water and shore.

And a couple of planes making weird contrails in the distance. See them? Above the boats. They looked like they were over Sydney.


Still missing

Can't find any fresh news about the Woy Woy bloke who went missing last week. They found his surf ski and life jacket and paddle off Saratoga but no sign of him, poor bastard.

Map

Full article at The Australian


Dementia walkies

Regular walkies helped a Dear Old Thing survive when he got lost in the bush last week.

"Dr Fulde believed Mr Ludbrook's regular long walks would have been crucial to his survival.

"Big time. People who walk serious distances - not just the 20-minute stroll with the dog, which is also good - do well in situations like this.

"His heart would have been able to deal with the stress much more easily that the average lounge lizard.

"In the end, that's what hypothermia does - it leads to heart attack - and having a healthy heart from lots of walking protects from heart attach as the patient cools down."
...
For decades, Mr Ludbrook's neighbours had become used to the sight of him walking the streets of Fernhill."


There you go. Us walkers are on the right track. Even when we're demented.


Full article at SMH

Warm winter sun

(Random Woy Woy walkies)



Bloody cold in the wind a couple of days ago, with the gusts up off the snow. But other than that, we’ve had days of blue blue winter skies. The warm winter sun has been glorious. Perfect for walkies and photos.

This picture is from Booker Bay Road Booker Bay. That’s Booker Bay in the foreground and Rileys Bay across the water there.




Taken from the same place. Note the wee cut-outs of cats along the jetty there. They seemed to be working. It was the only jetty with no duck shit on it.





Look at that red. Glorious. It’s been down to 1 degree (about 3 Farhenheit) overnight. Some years it doesn’t get that cold and, if you want a good red on your poinsettias, you gotta put them in the fridge. They’re not native to Australia.

The Rip Bridge

Took me a lot of walkies to get all the angles I wanted on this landmark. Here they are all in one go.




The Rip Bridge from Guyra Street Booker Bay. My favourite view.

It's called The Rip Bridge because it goes over The Rip, which is a bit of fast-flowing water in the narrow bit between the Woy Woy peninsula and Daleys Point. When the ferries go through it their engines have to strain a bit and a kayaker can paddle as fast as they like on The Rip and get nowhere.




Where it is.

The Rip Bridge is a Brisbane Water landmark. You can see it from all the way up Brisbane Water Drive as far as Point Clare. It's one of the busiest bottlenecks on the Central Coast. And when the big fires in 2006 closed the F3 motorway, the fire trucks had to come down the eastern side of Brisbane Water and across the bridge to get to The Bays next to Woy Woy.




Daleys Point end of the bridge. The road that goes over it is called Maitland Bay Drive on the Woy Woy side and on the bridge itself, then it changes its name to Daley Avenue, then at the roundabout at the top of the St Huberts Island ramp, it changes its name again to Empire Bay Drive. This takes some explaining when giving directions to lost tourists.




Just behind the railing about the middle you can see a bit of The Rip. The ridges in the background are the western side of Brisbane Water. The two mangrove islets in the left middle are nameless. St Hubert's is the island on the right (houses) and behind that is the hill of Saratoga.




Fishermans Bay, where the moving speedboat is, and Rileys Bay. Looking east-north-east from the bridge.



Booker Bay from the Woy Woy end of the bridge. Money lives in Booker Bay. It didn't used to.




The Rip Bridge from Blackwall Mountain. Orange Grove Road in the foreground. The houses at the left end of the bridge are at Daleys Point.




Thar she blows. The Rip Bridge from Daley Avenue Daleys Point.


Bloody idiots

There's been a spate of bashings of foreign students of Australian universities. Bashing foreign uni students is a fucking stupid idea. Particularly in a recession. They bring a shitload of money into the country.

International students (what uni's call foreign citizen students) pay around three times the money an Australian citizen pays to go to uni. So if a B.A. costs a citizen 20,000 it costs an international student 60,000. If a medical degree costs 60,000 it costs an international student 180,000.

They pay higher fees which means the uni can afford to stay open to educate Australian citizens when the government is taking shitloads of funding from education to spend on wars. (Former Prime Miniature John Wanker Howard, this means you).

They pay for accommodation. This is money into the local housing market.

They eat. This is money into the local shops.

They phone home. This is money into the local telephone companies, the same phone companies you use.

They go places on buses and trains. This is money into the local bus-drivers' pay packets.

Think you're doing Australia a favour bashing international students? You're doing it an injury. Grow a brain, numb nuts.


Right! I'm off for the long weekend. Running a mere 24 hours late and with a premature case of title="Ducktionary">shagger's back. Argh.

Have a good one, Straylya.