Jesus H. Christ.
Bloody got sick again. Another bloody round of the bloody flu. No fair.
Been laying on the sofa for days with a rug over me, a jar of Vicks to sniff and 4 seasons of Supernatural to keep me company.
The good news is, no-one's started world war 3 (unless I slept through that news bulletin) and I seem to be on the mend at last.
Got some pictures somewhere to blog but my enfeebled brain can't find them. Next week.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Fuckwittery
Muslims are welcome on this site. Koran-burning fuckwits are not. Burning holy books, whoever they belong to, is not on.
Just wanna make that perfectly clear. Whatever this Koran-burner does, no matter what the reaction in the Muslim world, that welcome still stands.
I am not a fan of behaviour designed to provoke another war, more dead soldiers in the current war, more dead civilians in war-zones, religious riots or unpleasantness or whatever in Sydney's streets or any streets anywhere on the planet.
We are all the same. Outbreaks of fuckwittery, whatever their motivation, all over the globe and through all periods of history, are proof of that.
Our differences are pretty minor and are there to be enjoyed. If you really need to make other people miserable to "improve" your life, it's time to bite the bullet and look at why your life is so shit.
This yes-no-yes-no Koran-burning fuckwit needs to be arrested and assessed by a psychiatrist. If he's got to make a fuss to enjoy himself, why can't he just join an amateur theatre like normal people?
Just wanna make that perfectly clear. Whatever this Koran-burner does, no matter what the reaction in the Muslim world, that welcome still stands.
I am not a fan of behaviour designed to provoke another war, more dead soldiers in the current war, more dead civilians in war-zones, religious riots or unpleasantness or whatever in Sydney's streets or any streets anywhere on the planet.
We are all the same. Outbreaks of fuckwittery, whatever their motivation, all over the globe and through all periods of history, are proof of that.
Our differences are pretty minor and are there to be enjoyed. If you really need to make other people miserable to "improve" your life, it's time to bite the bullet and look at why your life is so shit.
This yes-no-yes-no Koran-burning fuckwit needs to be arrested and assessed by a psychiatrist. If he's got to make a fuss to enjoy himself, why can't he just join an amateur theatre like normal people?
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Fucking flu
(Live from the sofa)
Jesus H. Christ.
No sooner had I left off writhing about in pain and an unseemly fashion than I was struck down by the Dreaded Lurgy. A proper Lurgy not the ManLurgy! Thought I'd escaped the lurgy this winter then some swine sneezed at me in the pub.
Several packets of antibiotics later and I'm out of bed again, my face has stopped throbbing and I'm no longer fondly contemplating an early death.
The photo above is not my sofa. It's Sorrento House at Empire Bay, remodelled and complete. Thank yer, Craig.
Got a stack of photos on the other computer of it in the building process, with its cladding off and its chimney stack showing. The other computer seems very far away. You'll have to hold yer breath.
Christchurch
Apart from mass attacks of gastro and nippy nights camped on their front lawns and stuff, the Kiwis of Christchurch got off pretty lightly compared to that Haiti quake which was apparently the same size. But they did have a nasty big after-shock. And I was gonna say something else about their quake but my brain has conked out.
"Devastatingly vicious" aftershock rocks Christchurch (SMH, includes video links)
NZ Herald: Quake articles, photos & links
Shaking Maps (NZ's quake watch site)
The quake on Wiki (includes NZ's quake history)
NZ is roughly the size of Japan or the UK (Britain) including all of Ireland or California plus half of Oregon. Its entire population is about 4,400,000 (Sydney's population is 4,500,000). Christchurch is NZ's seond largest city and has about 380,000 people.
Where the hell is New Zealand anyways? (mappage)
NZ from space (pretty)
Major towns & cities of NZ (Christchurch marked)
Vic floods
Some of those poor bastards who copped it in the Black Saturday bushfires are now under flood. Fucking hell.
New threat after floods: disease (includes video)
Bloody Blogger
The no-click weirdness continues on posts. It seems to lick in after a day or two so either be very quick making comments or make them on older posts like this one. I get a comments alert thingo.
Okay, that's it from me for now. My head is throbbing again and I'm desperate for my dinner.
Jesus H. Christ.
No sooner had I left off writhing about in pain and an unseemly fashion than I was struck down by the Dreaded Lurgy. A proper Lurgy not the ManLurgy! Thought I'd escaped the lurgy this winter then some swine sneezed at me in the pub.
Several packets of antibiotics later and I'm out of bed again, my face has stopped throbbing and I'm no longer fondly contemplating an early death.
The photo above is not my sofa. It's Sorrento House at Empire Bay, remodelled and complete. Thank yer, Craig.
Got a stack of photos on the other computer of it in the building process, with its cladding off and its chimney stack showing. The other computer seems very far away. You'll have to hold yer breath.
Christchurch
Apart from mass attacks of gastro and nippy nights camped on their front lawns and stuff, the Kiwis of Christchurch got off pretty lightly compared to that Haiti quake which was apparently the same size. But they did have a nasty big after-shock. And I was gonna say something else about their quake but my brain has conked out.
"Devastatingly vicious" aftershock rocks Christchurch (SMH, includes video links)
NZ Herald: Quake articles, photos & links
Shaking Maps (NZ's quake watch site)
The quake on Wiki (includes NZ's quake history)
NZ is roughly the size of Japan or the UK (Britain) including all of Ireland or California plus half of Oregon. Its entire population is about 4,400,000 (Sydney's population is 4,500,000). Christchurch is NZ's seond largest city and has about 380,000 people.
Where the hell is New Zealand anyways? (mappage)
NZ from space (pretty)
Major towns & cities of NZ (Christchurch marked)
Vic floods
Some of those poor bastards who copped it in the Black Saturday bushfires are now under flood. Fucking hell.
New threat after floods: disease (includes video)
Bloody Blogger
The no-click weirdness continues on posts. It seems to lick in after a day or two so either be very quick making comments or make them on older posts like this one. I get a comments alert thingo.
Okay, that's it from me for now. My head is throbbing again and I'm desperate for my dinner.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Still bloody crook
(Sick note #244)
Boring shit
Still bloody crook. Laying in a sunny window resting after all that writhing in pain last week. This being crook shit is fucking boring.
Weird shit
Everything works when I log in but when I just go to the front page of my blog I can't click on any of the links, not even the comments link. Never happens visiting anyone else's blog. Very weird. Far too weird to figure out right now.
Fun with links
Boganpedia (What bogans are)
Uncyclopedia "WARNING! This article is designed to offend.
If you are not offended by it, please edit it so that you will be in the future."
Boring shit
Still bloody crook. Laying in a sunny window resting after all that writhing in pain last week. This being crook shit is fucking boring.
Weird shit
Everything works when I log in but when I just go to the front page of my blog I can't click on any of the links, not even the comments link. Never happens visiting anyone else's blog. Very weird. Far too weird to figure out right now.
Fun with links
Boganpedia (What bogans are)
Uncyclopedia "WARNING! This article is designed to offend.
If you are not offended by it, please edit it so that you will be in the future."
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Sick Note #243
Argh!
Lovely winter's day in Woy Woy. Sun's been out all day. Could be outside running round enjoying myself. Instead, I've been groaning in bed clutching the guts since yesterday. My stupid poo tubes are having another hissy fit. I am not amused.
Gone
The wee house on the right is gone now. Couple of weeks back I think but I kept forgetting. Pity. Twin houses are fun. But Lefty's still there.
They It is at Parks Bay, just across the water (and the railway tracks) from Woy Woy. Head out from Woy Woy going along Brisbane Water Drive towards Gosford. As soon as you get through the lights and past the pub, take a squiz to yer left and you'll see it as soon as you get to the railway bridge. Which is always sooner than you think it will be.
Local linkage
Winter floraland and the Bluetongue footy fixtures in this month's ferry newsletter.
Ta, Michael, for the heads up about the comments thingo disappearing from the last post. All my sidebar stuff is down the bottom of the page too. Fuck knows what that's about. I think that happened once before then came good. Anyways, I'm way too tired to work it out today. Comments are still working on this post.
I'm going back to bed with a hot-water bottle and the remote.
Lovely winter's day in Woy Woy. Sun's been out all day. Could be outside running round enjoying myself. Instead, I've been groaning in bed clutching the guts since yesterday. My stupid poo tubes are having another hissy fit. I am not amused.
Gone
The wee house on the right is gone now. Couple of weeks back I think but I kept forgetting. Pity. Twin houses are fun. But Lefty's still there.
Local linkage
Winter floraland and the Bluetongue footy fixtures in this month's ferry newsletter.
Ta, Michael, for the heads up about the comments thingo disappearing from the last post. All my sidebar stuff is down the bottom of the page too. Fuck knows what that's about. I think that happened once before then came good. Anyways, I'm way too tired to work it out today. Comments are still working on this post.
I'm going back to bed with a hot-water bottle and the remote.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Winter in the Paperbark Forest
(Random walkies in Woy Woy)
(The camera battery carked it, hence the low res mobile phone snaps.)
The Paperbark Forest is a wee sliver of bushland sandwiched between a suburban street and the golf course. It's official name is the Everglades Lagoon Wetland. I've been there before. It's one of my favourite bits of Woy Woy.
Wandered up to the forest mid-morning during the week.
There's been a decent bit of rain in the last week or so and the wetland's lagoons are fairly full. The ground is covered in leaf litter right to the water's edge and you can't tell where the mud starts and ends. Put a foot wrong and you'll end up on your arse. You gotta tread slowly from stick to fallen stick.
Had a bit of a wander about then picked a firm bit of ground to stand on, in a tiny clearing back from the water. Just stood there and looked and soaked up the leafy quiet of the place.
Small patches of light outlining the shadows on the ground of the big trunks, there was the plucking almost-cluck of a tree bird at the very edge of the lagoon, the high almost-honk reply from a dozen trees away. Over and over. They should just get together already and do brunch.
Mmm ... brunch ... Dug quietly in my pocket for a bar of chocolate, leant on a spider-free trunk and ate and listened.
The wetland backs onto the golf course and there was the faint sound of a golfball being sworn at. Eventually, the bloke managed to hit it and went off after it and the golf course disappeared from the aural landscape.
A chocolate brown butterfly with white-edged wings flittered about nearby and starlings or something twittered in the trees like twinks at cafe.
After I'd been still for a while, there was a faint rustling in the bracken under a cluster of trees. Some sort of wee beastie perhaps. Up near the edge of the forest, where it's sandy, there were a dozen small holes dug by small paws. Don't think lizards really hang out in wetlands that much. Could be wrong though. But there's definitely bandicoots on the peninsula and I know they like it sandy.
The breeze picked up again and two tall paperbarks moaned as they rubbed together as slow as Sunday sex. Above that was the soft silvery sound of the breeze shivering through the tops of the trees.
A whole stand of tall straight paperbarks had all grown leaning slightly in one direction. The longer I stared at them, I more felt like I was standing crooked. Started to get vertigo and had to look away.
In the drier ground, back from the lagoons, native violets spread out in wide patches. Just a few flowers so far, in the sunny spots, more at the edges of the forest where there was more light.
Long pale branches radiate out across the ground from the trees they've fallen off. Their shapes are flowing and take your eye across the wee clearings to where there's a lone baby cabbage tree palm or gun tree sapling.
A lone kooka gave that faint drumming ound in its throat they do before they laugh. Stood there patiently but it was only warming-up not actually laughing. It sounded like a teenager and I've heard them do that a lot. Maybe they can't laugh until they're adults.
In the spreading trunk of a big old tree, some kids had built a platform for a cubby-house. In the raft of branches laid overhead there were some sheets of newspaper and more sheets all around the tree like they’d been blown out or rained out. Guys, your cubby is in the middle a bloody paperbark forest. You sure there’s nothing better to make the roof out of?*
There was a cabbage tree palm every hundred yards or so. Along the edge of the forest, where it borders the lane, there was a thin line of casuarina trees and a gum every now and then. Other than that, the paperbark forest is all paperbarks.
Summer on the left, winter on the right
Paperbark Forest in summer
Bonus photo
Traditional Aboriginal uses of paperbark
Stuff
My favourite shop name on the peninsula? Acropolis Yeeros Chinese Takeaway. Menu includes, kebabs (kabobs to Americans), rainbow steak, chow mein and steak sangers.
Illustrated Ducktionary addition, courtesy of Ron in Fort Bragg
World wide walkies
Fabulous wilderness photos from Kansas
Local linkage
Some fresh this week, some a wee bit late.
Woy Woy at Wordpress
Fabulous fish and crab photos from a kayaker
Comment from old Woy Woy cinema worker on Stevo's model of same
Last chance to see, includes GPS & directions to the Woy Woy hieroglyphs
ACDC concert that never was
A year to the day (Roy Sainty finally found and buried, my sympathies to his family and best wishes to all those still missing a child)
Slightly eerie dusk photo of the beach
Fabulous photos from Empire Bay
(The camera battery carked it, hence the low res mobile phone snaps.)
The Paperbark Forest is a wee sliver of bushland sandwiched between a suburban street and the golf course. It's official name is the Everglades Lagoon Wetland. I've been there before. It's one of my favourite bits of Woy Woy.
Wandered up to the forest mid-morning during the week.
There's been a decent bit of rain in the last week or so and the wetland's lagoons are fairly full. The ground is covered in leaf litter right to the water's edge and you can't tell where the mud starts and ends. Put a foot wrong and you'll end up on your arse. You gotta tread slowly from stick to fallen stick.
Had a bit of a wander about then picked a firm bit of ground to stand on, in a tiny clearing back from the water. Just stood there and looked and soaked up the leafy quiet of the place.
Small patches of light outlining the shadows on the ground of the big trunks, there was the plucking almost-cluck of a tree bird at the very edge of the lagoon, the high almost-honk reply from a dozen trees away. Over and over. They should just get together already and do brunch.
Mmm ... brunch ... Dug quietly in my pocket for a bar of chocolate, leant on a spider-free trunk and ate and listened.
The wetland backs onto the golf course and there was the faint sound of a golfball being sworn at. Eventually, the bloke managed to hit it and went off after it and the golf course disappeared from the aural landscape.
A chocolate brown butterfly with white-edged wings flittered about nearby and starlings or something twittered in the trees like twinks at cafe.
After I'd been still for a while, there was a faint rustling in the bracken under a cluster of trees. Some sort of wee beastie perhaps. Up near the edge of the forest, where it's sandy, there were a dozen small holes dug by small paws. Don't think lizards really hang out in wetlands that much. Could be wrong though. But there's definitely bandicoots on the peninsula and I know they like it sandy.
The breeze picked up again and two tall paperbarks moaned as they rubbed together as slow as Sunday sex. Above that was the soft silvery sound of the breeze shivering through the tops of the trees.
A whole stand of tall straight paperbarks had all grown leaning slightly in one direction. The longer I stared at them, I more felt like I was standing crooked. Started to get vertigo and had to look away.
In the drier ground, back from the lagoons, native violets spread out in wide patches. Just a few flowers so far, in the sunny spots, more at the edges of the forest where there was more light.
Long pale branches radiate out across the ground from the trees they've fallen off. Their shapes are flowing and take your eye across the wee clearings to where there's a lone baby cabbage tree palm or gun tree sapling.
A lone kooka gave that faint drumming ound in its throat they do before they laugh. Stood there patiently but it was only warming-up not actually laughing. It sounded like a teenager and I've heard them do that a lot. Maybe they can't laugh until they're adults.
In the spreading trunk of a big old tree, some kids had built a platform for a cubby-house. In the raft of branches laid overhead there were some sheets of newspaper and more sheets all around the tree like they’d been blown out or rained out. Guys, your cubby is in the middle a bloody paperbark forest. You sure there’s nothing better to make the roof out of?*
There was a cabbage tree palm every hundred yards or so. Along the edge of the forest, where it borders the lane, there was a thin line of casuarina trees and a gum every now and then. Other than that, the paperbark forest is all paperbarks.
Summer on the left, winter on the right
Paperbark Forest in summer
Bonus photo
Traditional Aboriginal uses of paperbark
Stuff
My favourite shop name on the peninsula? Acropolis Yeeros Chinese Takeaway. Menu includes, kebabs (kabobs to Americans), rainbow steak, chow mein and steak sangers.
Illustrated Ducktionary addition, courtesy of Ron in Fort Bragg
World wide walkies
Fabulous wilderness photos from Kansas
Local linkage
Some fresh this week, some a wee bit late.
Woy Woy at Wordpress
Fabulous fish and crab photos from a kayaker
Comment from old Woy Woy cinema worker on Stevo's model of same
Last chance to see, includes GPS & directions to the Woy Woy hieroglyphs
ACDC concert that never was
A year to the day (Roy Sainty finally found and buried, my sympathies to his family and best wishes to all those still missing a child)
Slightly eerie dusk photo of the beach
Fabulous photos from Empire Bay
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Tribute to Vaughn Bode
(Random Woy Woy walkies)
This is Cheech Wizard. He was the best-known charater of Vaughn Bode. He's on a Bode tribute wall in a lane off Alma Avenue in Woy Woy.
(Locals, Alma Ave is the wee street of small factories and stuff off Trafalgar Ave next to the fire station at the shops.)
Bode was an American artist who did underground comics, graphic design and graffiti. He died in 1975 at 33. His most well-known character was Cheech Wizard.
Part of the Tribute to Vaughn Bode wall.
The green creature on the left might be Razzberry, the offsider of Cheech Wizard.
Left end of the mural. Rest of the mural.
My favourite.
Bonus photos
Other murals & (good) graffitti around Woy Woy
Gallery at Bode's homepage (on his son's site)
Bode on Wiki
Cheech Wizard & Razzberry
Other tributes to Bode
Local Linkage
The local ferries crowd has their new newsletter out with the footy ferry and timetables and stuff. Go here.
Nice bit of info about Rileys Island from a bloke whose family was one of its many owners. Ta, mate. (Scroll down to Duncan's comment.)
Righto, that's yer lot for the week. My ride is here.
This is Cheech Wizard. He was the best-known charater of Vaughn Bode. He's on a Bode tribute wall in a lane off Alma Avenue in Woy Woy.
(Locals, Alma Ave is the wee street of small factories and stuff off Trafalgar Ave next to the fire station at the shops.)
Bode was an American artist who did underground comics, graphic design and graffiti. He died in 1975 at 33. His most well-known character was Cheech Wizard.
Part of the Tribute to Vaughn Bode wall.
The green creature on the left might be Razzberry, the offsider of Cheech Wizard.
Left end of the mural. Rest of the mural.
My favourite.
Bonus photos
Other murals & (good) graffitti around Woy Woy
Gallery at Bode's homepage (on his son's site)
Bode on Wiki
Cheech Wizard & Razzberry
Other tributes to Bode
Local Linkage
The local ferries crowd has their new newsletter out with the footy ferry and timetables and stuff. Go here.
Nice bit of info about Rileys Island from a bloke whose family was one of its many owners. Ta, mate. (Scroll down to Duncan's comment.)
Righto, that's yer lot for the week. My ride is here.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Winter weather watch
(Random winter walkies)
Last week in Woy Woy.
Saratoga from Blackwall Point. Go down Blackwall Road from the railway station. When you get to the mountain, go left and left again at the carpark sign.
This week in Woy Woy.
Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island from Ettalong Beach. Get the ferry from Palm Beach or go down Blackwall Road from the station then Memorial Avenue, straight ahead through the first roundabout, left at the second one (into Bourke Road) and park when you get to The Excresence.
I'd better piss off quick. Off to a nice sunny barbie. Will have a sausage sanger for yer.
Last week in Woy Woy.
Saratoga from Blackwall Point. Go down Blackwall Road from the railway station. When you get to the mountain, go left and left again at the carpark sign.
This week in Woy Woy.
Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island from Ettalong Beach. Get the ferry from Palm Beach or go down Blackwall Road from the station then Memorial Avenue, straight ahead through the first roundabout, left at the second one (into Bourke Road) and park when you get to The Excresence.
I'd better piss off quick. Off to a nice sunny barbie. Will have a sausage sanger for yer.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
The wattles are coming
(Random walkies in Woy Woy)
It's clouding over, blast it. It was a sunny winter's morning here in Woy Woy. Froze my bloody nuts off yesterday with the icy wind, and that was only a short scuttle from car to home. Bloody lovely sun though. All warm and toasty.
The golden wattles are starting to bloom. Not sure which wattle this one is. It blooms first round here anyways. The local wattles, A. prominens AKA Gosford Wattle and Coastal Wattle AKA Acacia longifolia or A. sophorae come in a month or two. Acacia pycnantha is the national wattle, the one on our $5 note and the old 2 shilling stamp and the 41 cent stamp in 1990 and under the roo and the emu on the coat of arms thingo.
Wattle-gasm at my Flickr
I've been spending my mornings in a sunny window, covered from head to toe in beanies and rugs and uggs. July's the coldest month in Strayla.
10 questions
A bit of entertainment from Device dear
1. What's your earliest memory?
Not getting to wear a fairy skirt at kindy. It would've looked fabulous with the cowboy hat.
2. What was the last thing you ate?
Breakfast. Boring I know.
3. Would you support a comeback by Steps?
Yes. No. I'll get back to you on that.
4. What is your dream car?
MGB
5. How tall are you?
5 foot 10.
6. Margaret Thatcher vs Queen Elizabeth II: Who would win and why/how?
The queen because no-one's fiercer and the corgis are pretty feral.
7. Mama Cass died choking on a sandwich. What sandwich filling would you happily choke on?
Jared Padalecki.
(Sasquatch & Jenny-bean
8. Has a pick-up line ever worked for you? If so, what was it? If not, what was the worst reaction?
Never used one. *slinks away*
9. You find yourself inexplicably cloned, barely wearing something sexy, and gagging for it. You would, wouldn't you?! Just out of curiosity, or maybe for some other reason?
Would definitely do it. Purely in the interests of science of course.
10. How did you find this blog? Go on, indulge me!
You made some terribly witty comment over at Glitter for Brains and I clicked you.
Local linkage
Flemings, one of those little old local supermarkets, is no more. Woolies have built a large flash two-storey job on the other side of the road, hedging in the library, and Flemings is empty.
Michael's photo of Flemings-as-was
Straylya-wide linkage
Orphans and other former inhabitants of children's homes, the Forgotten Australia site is collecting "personal histories of those who were placed in children’s homes – a voice for those who were inside and a chance for others to understand." It's a National Museum of Australian thingo. Some bloody disturbing but very powerful material on that site.
Web-wide linkage
Lee over at Glitter for Brains got to 1,000 posts last month. That's staying power.
Buggered if I know how many I've done. Got 598 posts on the counter for This isn't Sydney (this one) and maybe a couple of hundred at Woy Woy Walkies
The Doctor
Add your vote to the eternal question: Tennant or Baker?
The Doctors Who
P.S.
Ta Stevo for the heads up with the dashboard thingy for widening. Fiddled with it for a bit but the bastard only widened one bit. Will give it a kick up the khyber another time.
It's clouding over, blast it. It was a sunny winter's morning here in Woy Woy. Froze my bloody nuts off yesterday with the icy wind, and that was only a short scuttle from car to home. Bloody lovely sun though. All warm and toasty.
The golden wattles are starting to bloom. Not sure which wattle this one is. It blooms first round here anyways. The local wattles, A. prominens AKA Gosford Wattle and Coastal Wattle AKA Acacia longifolia or A. sophorae come in a month or two. Acacia pycnantha is the national wattle, the one on our $5 note and the old 2 shilling stamp and the 41 cent stamp in 1990 and under the roo and the emu on the coat of arms thingo.
Wattle-gasm at my Flickr
I've been spending my mornings in a sunny window, covered from head to toe in beanies and rugs and uggs. July's the coldest month in Strayla.
10 questions
A bit of entertainment from Device dear
1. What's your earliest memory?
Not getting to wear a fairy skirt at kindy. It would've looked fabulous with the cowboy hat.
2. What was the last thing you ate?
Breakfast. Boring I know.
3. Would you support a comeback by Steps?
Yes. No. I'll get back to you on that.
4. What is your dream car?
MGB
5. How tall are you?
5 foot 10.
6. Margaret Thatcher vs Queen Elizabeth II: Who would win and why/how?
The queen because no-one's fiercer and the corgis are pretty feral.
7. Mama Cass died choking on a sandwich. What sandwich filling would you happily choke on?
Jared Padalecki.
(Sasquatch & Jenny-bean
8. Has a pick-up line ever worked for you? If so, what was it? If not, what was the worst reaction?
Never used one. *slinks away*
9. You find yourself inexplicably cloned, barely wearing something sexy, and gagging for it. You would, wouldn't you?! Just out of curiosity, or maybe for some other reason?
Would definitely do it. Purely in the interests of science of course.
10. How did you find this blog? Go on, indulge me!
You made some terribly witty comment over at Glitter for Brains and I clicked you.
Local linkage
Flemings, one of those little old local supermarkets, is no more. Woolies have built a large flash two-storey job on the other side of the road, hedging in the library, and Flemings is empty.
Michael's photo of Flemings-as-was
Straylya-wide linkage
Orphans and other former inhabitants of children's homes, the Forgotten Australia site is collecting "personal histories of those who were placed in children’s homes – a voice for those who were inside and a chance for others to understand." It's a National Museum of Australian thingo. Some bloody disturbing but very powerful material on that site.
Web-wide linkage
Lee over at Glitter for Brains got to 1,000 posts last month. That's staying power.
Buggered if I know how many I've done. Got 598 posts on the counter for This isn't Sydney (this one) and maybe a couple of hundred at Woy Woy Walkies
The Doctor
Add your vote to the eternal question: Tennant or Baker?
The Doctors Who
P.S.
Ta Stevo for the heads up with the dashboard thingy for widening. Fiddled with it for a bit but the bastard only widened one bit. Will give it a kick up the khyber another time.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
In with the cool kids
Straylya is now officially one of the cool kids. We now have a girl Prime Minister.
Went to bed last night with K-Rudd stating rather tensely that he was PM and PM he was bloody well going to stay, and woke up to the sound of Our Julia being declared winner of the overnight power struggle.
Um, okay. Yeah. Righto. Sorry to see you go, Kev. Ta very much for the Sorry and getting us out of the GFC recession so quick. Better luck next time. Hello Julia.
Gillard takes up PM role in Parliament (video)
Gillard becomes Australia's first female prime minister as tearful Rudd stands aside
Rudders...not proud of blubbing (poor love, more video)
How world reports Gillard's ascension
Poo Tubes re-visited
As Stevo pointed out, I forgot to mention the dunny cart man when I blogged the Poo Tubes.
Read all about him:
Talking Heads
Dunny cart lanes
Pommy Town
Ettalong - vastly different in the 40s and 50s
(By the way, Stevo, the new blog format is looking good.)
Great Woy Woy Tea Cosy Showcase
No photos sorry, Erica. But a couple of mates send this report: popped round from pub, had a scone with jam and cream (yum), looked at the tea cosies (very nice and, um, warm), enjoyed the winter sun, returned to pub.
Where the bloody hell am I?
Still crook. Absolutely buggered. Utterly lacking in motivation to do more than totter round the block a few times and collapse back on the sofa.
Seeing a lot more of the telly than I usually do. Very much enjoying Dirty Jobs, Breaking the Magician's Code and that one with Stephen Fry where he stands on a sandbar at the beginning. And Good News Week and Dr Who of course. Long time Dr Who addict. And when the fuck are they gonna put Supernatural back on? I need my Padalecki and Ackles fix.
Anyways, I'll be back when I'm back. I'll pop round my blogroll before then but. Takes less energy.
Ta very much for all the nice get well comments.
Went to bed last night with K-Rudd stating rather tensely that he was PM and PM he was bloody well going to stay, and woke up to the sound of Our Julia being declared winner of the overnight power struggle.
Um, okay. Yeah. Righto. Sorry to see you go, Kev. Ta very much for the Sorry and getting us out of the GFC recession so quick. Better luck next time. Hello Julia.
Gillard takes up PM role in Parliament (video)
Gillard becomes Australia's first female prime minister as tearful Rudd stands aside
Rudders...not proud of blubbing (poor love, more video)
How world reports Gillard's ascension
Poo Tubes re-visited
As Stevo pointed out, I forgot to mention the dunny cart man when I blogged the Poo Tubes.
Read all about him:
Talking Heads
Dunny cart lanes
Pommy Town
Ettalong - vastly different in the 40s and 50s
(By the way, Stevo, the new blog format is looking good.)
Great Woy Woy Tea Cosy Showcase
No photos sorry, Erica. But a couple of mates send this report: popped round from pub, had a scone with jam and cream (yum), looked at the tea cosies (very nice and, um, warm), enjoyed the winter sun, returned to pub.
Where the bloody hell am I?
Still crook. Absolutely buggered. Utterly lacking in motivation to do more than totter round the block a few times and collapse back on the sofa.
Seeing a lot more of the telly than I usually do. Very much enjoying Dirty Jobs, Breaking the Magician's Code and that one with Stephen Fry where he stands on a sandbar at the beginning. And Good News Week and Dr Who of course. Long time Dr Who addict. And when the fuck are they gonna put Supernatural back on? I need my Padalecki and Ackles fix.
Anyways, I'll be back when I'm back. I'll pop round my blogroll before then but. Takes less energy.
Ta very much for all the nice get well comments.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Poo tubes
(Where the fuck have I been all this time?)
See that red circle at the left edge of map? Just along that road a bit are the sewerage farm and the tip (garbage dumping place). I woulda put them into the map exactly where they were but it was either do a new map with an extra bit down that side then have a nice long lay down or post this map and actually fucking update the blog already.
The yellow bits are the main road, the grey bits are the shops, the row of black dots is the railway line, the other dotty bits are the main beaches and the green bits are parks and reserves and wetlands. And the blue lines are creeks. Unless they're really straight in which case they're drains that used to be creeks.
Round the streets of Woy Woy and all the other places I walk, I see council workers fixing roads, electricity company workers getting branches off powerlines after the wind, Telstra workers putting in new phone lines and fiddling about down holes with PMG covers, the garbos in their truck picking up the bins, and stuff like that.
All stuff that makes a town tick. It happens all around us every day and we hardly notice it.
But we'd be stuffed without it. Civilisation is supposed to be 2 hot meals from breakdown. I reckon it's more like a week with the sewerage backed up. Gazundas and latrines just wouldn't cut it in urban society. We'd be rioting in the streets.
Anyways. This post was inspired by something I overheard on the train from a bloke who laid sewerage pipes for a living. He was talking specifically about Woy Woy and other local towns. This is the gist of what he said:
Where you've got yer older suburbs and towns, like Woy Woy, you've got an older sewerage system.
Under a given road there's a sewerage line and into it empties the sewerage lines from each house.
All well and good.
But then you get one of these places where some developer knocks down an old house. The old house had one sewerage line servicing one or two loos (toilets), a couple of adults, 2.4 kids and the Christmas influx of aunts and uncles and cousins. Up they all get in the morning, flush the loo and off to work and school.
Now that house is knocked down and half a dozen units are slapped up in its place. Half a dozen units each with one or two adults and maybe the 2.4 kids and the Christmas influx of aunts and uncles and cousins. That's 6 to 12 adults, 2.4 to 14.4 kids and 6 Christmas influxes of aunts and uncles and cousins.
And up they all get in the morning, flush the loo and off to work and school. Except the main sewerage line under the street, the one that carries it all away, hasn't usually been upgraded to carry the extra load.
So, in conclusion, old streets have narrow poo tubes. And there's other stuff like water pipes bringing clean water in that can be pretty old and need flushing out and replacing etc. We had that recently in Woy Woy. I escaped the worst but Stevo copped it.
The point of this post is just to say ta to all the blokes (and chicks) who fix the poo tubes and so on.
Collection of Lost Things
All my old St. John's photos
I've been collected again. Over at a fun Aunty project called Lost Places.
It's essentially my Gone set of photos writ large and with the whole country doing it. Pop over for a gander.
Local linkage
Craig wants to hear from locals about Empire House at Empire Bay.
Fabulous and fabulously named collection of Woy Woyan and Gosford area memorabilia and photos at Gostalgia. Ta very kindly for the linkage, Michael. Hope to fuck I got your link right this time.
Where the fuck have I been for the last 2 months?
Crook. Sick. Buggered. Stuffed. Bit of trouble with my own poo tubes. Gross symptoms. Let's not go there.
Spent most of it sleeping it off then, for the last couple of weeks, dozing on the sofa with the remote. Saw that thing where that guy died wheelie-bin surfing down Kingsview Drive/Lone Pine Avenue (the high steep bit is Kingsview, the long straight bit is Lone Pine) and watched 16-year-old Jessica Whatsit sail in through the heads after a lone trip round the world in a pink boat.
Still crook but managed a shuffle round the block every day this week so things are looking up again.
Okay. That's zonked me out for the day. Off back to the sofa with a blanket and a nice big cuppa tea. See you again soon-ish.
See that red circle at the left edge of map? Just along that road a bit are the sewerage farm and the tip (garbage dumping place). I woulda put them into the map exactly where they were but it was either do a new map with an extra bit down that side then have a nice long lay down or post this map and actually fucking update the blog already.
The yellow bits are the main road, the grey bits are the shops, the row of black dots is the railway line, the other dotty bits are the main beaches and the green bits are parks and reserves and wetlands. And the blue lines are creeks. Unless they're really straight in which case they're drains that used to be creeks.
Round the streets of Woy Woy and all the other places I walk, I see council workers fixing roads, electricity company workers getting branches off powerlines after the wind, Telstra workers putting in new phone lines and fiddling about down holes with PMG covers, the garbos in their truck picking up the bins, and stuff like that.
All stuff that makes a town tick. It happens all around us every day and we hardly notice it.
But we'd be stuffed without it. Civilisation is supposed to be 2 hot meals from breakdown. I reckon it's more like a week with the sewerage backed up. Gazundas and latrines just wouldn't cut it in urban society. We'd be rioting in the streets.
Anyways. This post was inspired by something I overheard on the train from a bloke who laid sewerage pipes for a living. He was talking specifically about Woy Woy and other local towns. This is the gist of what he said:
Where you've got yer older suburbs and towns, like Woy Woy, you've got an older sewerage system.
Under a given road there's a sewerage line and into it empties the sewerage lines from each house.
All well and good.
But then you get one of these places where some developer knocks down an old house. The old house had one sewerage line servicing one or two loos (toilets), a couple of adults, 2.4 kids and the Christmas influx of aunts and uncles and cousins. Up they all get in the morning, flush the loo and off to work and school.
Now that house is knocked down and half a dozen units are slapped up in its place. Half a dozen units each with one or two adults and maybe the 2.4 kids and the Christmas influx of aunts and uncles and cousins. That's 6 to 12 adults, 2.4 to 14.4 kids and 6 Christmas influxes of aunts and uncles and cousins.
And up they all get in the morning, flush the loo and off to work and school. Except the main sewerage line under the street, the one that carries it all away, hasn't usually been upgraded to carry the extra load.
So, in conclusion, old streets have narrow poo tubes. And there's other stuff like water pipes bringing clean water in that can be pretty old and need flushing out and replacing etc. We had that recently in Woy Woy. I escaped the worst but Stevo copped it.
The point of this post is just to say ta to all the blokes (and chicks) who fix the poo tubes and so on.
Collection of Lost Things
All my old St. John's photos
I've been collected again. Over at a fun Aunty project called Lost Places.
It's essentially my Gone set of photos writ large and with the whole country doing it. Pop over for a gander.
Local linkage
Craig wants to hear from locals about Empire House at Empire Bay.
Fabulous and fabulously named collection of Woy Woyan and Gosford area memorabilia and photos at Gostalgia. Ta very kindly for the linkage, Michael. Hope to fuck I got your link right this time.
Where the fuck have I been for the last 2 months?
Crook. Sick. Buggered. Stuffed. Bit of trouble with my own poo tubes. Gross symptoms. Let's not go there.
Spent most of it sleeping it off then, for the last couple of weeks, dozing on the sofa with the remote. Saw that thing where that guy died wheelie-bin surfing down Kingsview Drive/Lone Pine Avenue (the high steep bit is Kingsview, the long straight bit is Lone Pine) and watched 16-year-old Jessica Whatsit sail in through the heads after a lone trip round the world in a pink boat.
Still crook but managed a shuffle round the block every day this week so things are looking up again.
Okay. That's zonked me out for the day. Off back to the sofa with a blanket and a nice big cuppa tea. See you again soon-ish.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Hairy maps of Tassie
Rambling
This is actually a sick note but I thought I'd enliven it with a title from a visitor to the Ducktionary. When you get a stats thingy on yer blog, you can go in and have a gander at how people got to you and what search terms the random visitors used. Like "hairy map of Tassie".
Ducktionary's visitors' favourites:
tracky daks
guest of her majesty
sausage sanger
And, in a short-lived burst of energy, I added The Illustrated Ducktionary. From little things slightly bigger things grow, to misquote Kev Carmody.
Great Manly Debate Part 2
Michael popped up to the look-out at Gerrin Point for us. Well, slogged really. There's outdoor stairs and crap and we've been having a parting shot from summer over the last week or so. Hot sunny days. Thank yer kindly, Michael, for services to Coasties.
Michael's Gerrin Point photos
To get to my point
So anyways, this sick note. I am buggered. Too much pain lately on top of too much family-related angst. Have been up this morning since fucking 4 A-fucking-M. Again.
It's now fucking 10AM and I've been slaughtering typos and deleting circular sentences and random irrelevancies in this post for about 3 hours. Might be time to give up and lay on the sofa for a week with a stack of DVDs. Call it two weeks, just to be on the safe side. Which is ... the start of April. Might be back before that but don't put money on it.
P.S.
I am not nearly dead, ta for asking. I get emails from lurkers every now and then asking if I've got something fatal. Much appreciated emails BTW but don't worry about me popping off.
This is actually a sick note but I thought I'd enliven it with a title from a visitor to the Ducktionary. When you get a stats thingy on yer blog, you can go in and have a gander at how people got to you and what search terms the random visitors used. Like "hairy map of Tassie".
Ducktionary's visitors' favourites:
tracky daks
guest of her majesty
sausage sanger
And, in a short-lived burst of energy, I added The Illustrated Ducktionary. From little things slightly bigger things grow, to misquote Kev Carmody.
Great Manly Debate Part 2
Michael popped up to the look-out at Gerrin Point for us. Well, slogged really. There's outdoor stairs and crap and we've been having a parting shot from summer over the last week or so. Hot sunny days. Thank yer kindly, Michael, for services to Coasties.
Michael's Gerrin Point photos
To get to my point
So anyways, this sick note. I am buggered. Too much pain lately on top of too much family-related angst. Have been up this morning since fucking 4 A-fucking-M. Again.
It's now fucking 10AM and I've been slaughtering typos and deleting circular sentences and random irrelevancies in this post for about 3 hours. Might be time to give up and lay on the sofa for a week with a stack of DVDs. Call it two weeks, just to be on the safe side. Which is ... the start of April. Might be back before that but don't put money on it.
P.S.
I am not nearly dead, ta for asking. I get emails from lurkers every now and then asking if I've got something fatal. Much appreciated emails BTW but don't worry about me popping off.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Bullimah Beach & the Great Manly Debate
(Bouddi/Killcare walkies #6? 7? Technically it's #2 of the Killcare walkies but Hardys Bay and Killcare look like one small suburb when yer walking them and they're both on the Bouddi so let's go ahead and call it Bouddi/Killcare #6 or 7.)
Lovely day today for walkies and photos and I'm stuck inside with an aching gut and a pile of work I'm ignoring. Been off sick for days.
Bulimah Beach. Tiny wee beach, as you can see, tucked in between Putty Beach and Gerrin Point on the Bouddi peninsula. Or the Bouddi, as she is known locally. That's bood-eye not bood-ee and bood rhymes with hood not food.
Where the top photo's taken from. Beach Drive (lower) and Grandview Crescent Putty Beach/Killcare. Technically, the suburb is Killcare but who wants to live at a suburb name when they can live at a beach name?
Had a trot round the streets of Putty Beach/Killcare. This is every-street walkies I'm doing after all. Like anywhere with views, there's plenty of big pricey houses looming along the view streets but, like everywhere around Woy Woy/Brisbane Water, there's plenty of the nice quiet old places left.
Just for pretty. Hill-top above Grandview Crescent Killcare/Putty Beach.
This nice quiet old place looks to me to be the perfect place to walk home from the beach to.
After a nice long day messing about at the beach, you'd plod along the road in yer thongs, lairy beach towel over yer shoulder, head down and a fine crust of salt still drying on yer skin. Along the road with the banksia trees all along one side, up a bit of a hill, through a lane, round a corner and there's home ahead of you. Cool shady veranda with its scatter of old dogs and deck chairs. There's icy cold lemonade in the old Kelvinator and and there'll be chops and mashed potatoes and peas for dinner to finish off a splendiferous summer's day.
Heaven.
Bonus photo: On the beach (sand, surf, peeps, dogs, `nother view of Bullimah Beach)
Is it is or is it ain't?
This is a close-up of the view photo from the Putty Beach post. Much more detail at this size. I got a new camera but it's only a PLC (pissy little camera) with 10MP res so this much detail means the thing is pretty close.
Hmm. Look at that wee faint headland to the left of the big clear one. Didn't notice that bit before.
So, is this big cliffy bit Manly/North Head or the Careel Headland or Long Reef? Opinions vary.
Okay, opening up the map of Sydney. Getting out ruler to check out this "Manly is only 30 kays" (18.64 miles) business... Hmm.
Bangelly Head (Careel Headland Res) is tall enough to be the close one. Long Reef is long but would not be visible from the Putty Beach angle. Manly is tall enough and cliffy enough and sticks out far enough but has gotta be the wee faint headland furtherest away.
Looks like it's Careel and Manly. Michael and Steveo win this debate and the admiration of their peers.
`Course when Michael goes up there to see what it says at Gerrin Point look-out, it might be a whole `nother debate.
Manly stuff
While we're on the Manly/North Head subject, we may as well have a gander at some links and a factoid.
In WWII there were fortifications up there. North Battery on North Head had two 9.2 inch Mk X guns, the Shelley Battery (Shelly Head, Manly) had one QF 12 pounder gun and, across the other side of the mouth of the Harbour, the Signal Battery on South Head had two 6 inch Mk XI guns.
Manly Ferry photo, factoids & video
North Head Quarantine Station (outsides & insides of buildings)
Quarantine Station factoids
Old photos of the Quarantine Station (And old rock carvings made by the quarantined)
Manly (harbour side) factoids & photos
Manly Beach (north side) photos & factoids
Enjoy. I'm off to lay with my feet in the sun and an icy cold lemonade in my hand.
Lovely day today for walkies and photos and I'm stuck inside with an aching gut and a pile of work I'm ignoring. Been off sick for days.
Bulimah Beach. Tiny wee beach, as you can see, tucked in between Putty Beach and Gerrin Point on the Bouddi peninsula. Or the Bouddi, as she is known locally. That's bood-eye not bood-ee and bood rhymes with hood not food.
Where the top photo's taken from. Beach Drive (lower) and Grandview Crescent Putty Beach/Killcare. Technically, the suburb is Killcare but who wants to live at a suburb name when they can live at a beach name?
Had a trot round the streets of Putty Beach/Killcare. This is every-street walkies I'm doing after all. Like anywhere with views, there's plenty of big pricey houses looming along the view streets but, like everywhere around Woy Woy/Brisbane Water, there's plenty of the nice quiet old places left.
Just for pretty. Hill-top above Grandview Crescent Killcare/Putty Beach.
This nice quiet old place looks to me to be the perfect place to walk home from the beach to.
After a nice long day messing about at the beach, you'd plod along the road in yer thongs, lairy beach towel over yer shoulder, head down and a fine crust of salt still drying on yer skin. Along the road with the banksia trees all along one side, up a bit of a hill, through a lane, round a corner and there's home ahead of you. Cool shady veranda with its scatter of old dogs and deck chairs. There's icy cold lemonade in the old Kelvinator and and there'll be chops and mashed potatoes and peas for dinner to finish off a splendiferous summer's day.
Heaven.
Bonus photo: On the beach (sand, surf, peeps, dogs, `nother view of Bullimah Beach)
Is it is or is it ain't?
This is a close-up of the view photo from the Putty Beach post. Much more detail at this size. I got a new camera but it's only a PLC (pissy little camera) with 10MP res so this much detail means the thing is pretty close.
Hmm. Look at that wee faint headland to the left of the big clear one. Didn't notice that bit before.
So, is this big cliffy bit Manly/North Head or the Careel Headland or Long Reef? Opinions vary.
Okay, opening up the map of Sydney. Getting out ruler to check out this "Manly is only 30 kays" (18.64 miles) business... Hmm.
Bangelly Head (Careel Headland Res) is tall enough to be the close one. Long Reef is long but would not be visible from the Putty Beach angle. Manly is tall enough and cliffy enough and sticks out far enough but has gotta be the wee faint headland furtherest away.
Looks like it's Careel and Manly. Michael and Steveo win this debate and the admiration of their peers.
`Course when Michael goes up there to see what it says at Gerrin Point look-out, it might be a whole `nother debate.
Manly stuff
While we're on the Manly/North Head subject, we may as well have a gander at some links and a factoid.
In WWII there were fortifications up there. North Battery on North Head had two 9.2 inch Mk X guns, the Shelley Battery (Shelly Head, Manly) had one QF 12 pounder gun and, across the other side of the mouth of the Harbour, the Signal Battery on South Head had two 6 inch Mk XI guns.
Manly Ferry photo, factoids & video
North Head Quarantine Station (outsides & insides of buildings)
Quarantine Station factoids
Old photos of the Quarantine Station (And old rock carvings made by the quarantined)
Manly (harbour side) factoids & photos
Manly Beach (north side) photos & factoids
Enjoy. I'm off to lay with my feet in the sun and an icy cold lemonade in my hand.
Monday, March 08, 2010
Putty Beach
Back again. How was yer February? Hot (Straylyans)? Snowy (Mericans)? Hello, Melbourne, that big hail all melted now?
New computer's buggerising around, by the way, so this won't be a very talky post.
Through the banksias and pigface to the sand.
Putty Beach is an ocean beach. That's the Tasman Sea right there.
Ettalong Beach is an estuary beach but Putty Beach is on yer actual coast proper, on the edge of the Tasman. Which is between us and Kiwiland (New Zealand) and at the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean. (Mappage at end of post.)
Anyways, it's a beach. From it you can see Barrenjoey Head, where the lighthouse is. Squint a bit and you can see it in this photo. White job with a bit of red.
You can drive to Putty Beach from Ettalong, over The Rip Bridge, along Empire Bay Road, right into Wards Hill Road, right into The Scenic Drive, round two hairpin bends, left into Beach Drive and down to the carpark at the end. You can a bus there from Woy Woy station. In the Christmas holidays, you can get a ferry there, the old Cockatoo ferry.
A few people told me that big cliffy bit there on the left is Manly/North Head but it looks way too close to me. On the other hand, I got no idea what it is so maybe they're right.
North Head is one side of the mouth of Sydney Harbour. The Manly ferry (the biggest of the Sydney ferries) goes across to the inside part of North Head, the Manly part. It goes fairly close to the mouth of the harbour and when the sea is really big the Manly ferry gets cancelled. (Mappage at end of post.)
Putty Beach, Hardys Bay, Barrenjoey Head, which way to Sydney.
Manly, North Head, Sydney Harbour and which way to Woy Woy.
More maps
American readers note that this is a thong. Now you can see why we giggle when you talk about wearing thongs on yer bums (butts).
Random linkage
Links I've been meaning to link to for yonks. Don't even remember what half of them are. Consider them a lucky dip.
Ferries of Sydney (ferries, obvs)
APSCCG (native plants photos & factoids)
The sport of A-to-Zedding (some to do with maps?)
Cactus Bones (pretty pictures)
Bloody sidebar is still in semi-exile at the bottom of the site. Fucked if I can find the code for how to get the bastard back where it was.
New computer's buggerising around, by the way, so this won't be a very talky post.
Through the banksias and pigface to the sand.
Putty Beach is an ocean beach. That's the Tasman Sea right there.
Ettalong Beach is an estuary beach but Putty Beach is on yer actual coast proper, on the edge of the Tasman. Which is between us and Kiwiland (New Zealand) and at the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean. (Mappage at end of post.)
Anyways, it's a beach. From it you can see Barrenjoey Head, where the lighthouse is. Squint a bit and you can see it in this photo. White job with a bit of red.
You can drive to Putty Beach from Ettalong, over The Rip Bridge, along Empire Bay Road, right into Wards Hill Road, right into The Scenic Drive, round two hairpin bends, left into Beach Drive and down to the carpark at the end. You can a bus there from Woy Woy station. In the Christmas holidays, you can get a ferry there, the old Cockatoo ferry.
A few people told me that big cliffy bit there on the left is Manly/North Head but it looks way too close to me. On the other hand, I got no idea what it is so maybe they're right.
North Head is one side of the mouth of Sydney Harbour. The Manly ferry (the biggest of the Sydney ferries) goes across to the inside part of North Head, the Manly part. It goes fairly close to the mouth of the harbour and when the sea is really big the Manly ferry gets cancelled. (Mappage at end of post.)
Putty Beach, Hardys Bay, Barrenjoey Head, which way to Sydney.
Manly, North Head, Sydney Harbour and which way to Woy Woy.
More maps
American readers note that this is a thong. Now you can see why we giggle when you talk about wearing thongs on yer bums (butts).
Random linkage
Links I've been meaning to link to for yonks. Don't even remember what half of them are. Consider them a lucky dip.
Ferries of Sydney (ferries, obvs)
APSCCG (native plants photos & factoids)
The sport of A-to-Zedding (some to do with maps?)
Cactus Bones (pretty pictures)
Bloody sidebar is still in semi-exile at the bottom of the site. Fucked if I can find the code for how to get the bastard back where it was.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Grab Bag
Quick snippet. Normally I don't blog in Feb. It's my annual blogging holiday.
Winter wonderland
From the safe distance of an Australian summer, this snowstorm business in Pommyland and Europe and America looks rather fun. I loved the story of the train passengers stuck in the Chunnel for 18 hours with nothing to eat but packet sandwiches and fruit loops. And the thing where Washingtown has been shut down by massive piles of snow is quite entrancing for this snow-virgin sweltering away in Woy Woy. `Course the Washingtonians and Chunnel users might see it slightly differently.
Must pop over very soon to my fellow bloggers and see how they're enjoying it.
Local linkage
Trawler at Woy Woy (nice arty snap of Woy Woy Channel)
Pop across to Stevo's for some excellent local WWII snaps and info. Love that old landing barge at Brooklyn, ta mate. Also, that Woy Woy Theatre graphic you did is the one that was where Woolies is now right? Looks great.
Michael puts his new camera going through its paces at the Rumbalara Res look-out. My favourite is the misty one of Lion Island.
The Biker Bunnies are hard at it again on the Gossie to Woy Woy on the cycle path with some nice scenery snaps.
Bivoir always gives good photo. Check out Umina Beach in HDR.
Caitlyn and the knocking shopper: the tale of a lonely brain cell.
Photo of Ett jett, the Ettalong jetty on Ferry Road, the wharf from which you catch the ferry across to Palm Beach. The fact that the ferry wharf road is called Ferry Road leads to confusion amonst non-locals trying to get back before the last ferry goes.
Non-local: "Excuse me, where's the ferry road?"
Local: *points* "Go along there a bit."
Non-local: "What's it called?"
Local: "Ferry Road."
Non-local: "Yes, thanks, but what's it called?"
Local: "Ferry Road."
Non-local: *cries*
Add in an accent and/or a tenuous grasp on English and you end up escorting the poor dears down far enough to point at the sign.
Winter wonderland
From the safe distance of an Australian summer, this snowstorm business in Pommyland and Europe and America looks rather fun. I loved the story of the train passengers stuck in the Chunnel for 18 hours with nothing to eat but packet sandwiches and fruit loops. And the thing where Washingtown has been shut down by massive piles of snow is quite entrancing for this snow-virgin sweltering away in Woy Woy. `Course the Washingtonians and Chunnel users might see it slightly differently.
Must pop over very soon to my fellow bloggers and see how they're enjoying it.
Local linkage
Trawler at Woy Woy (nice arty snap of Woy Woy Channel)
Pop across to Stevo's for some excellent local WWII snaps and info. Love that old landing barge at Brooklyn, ta mate. Also, that Woy Woy Theatre graphic you did is the one that was where Woolies is now right? Looks great.
Michael puts his new camera going through its paces at the Rumbalara Res look-out. My favourite is the misty one of Lion Island.
The Biker Bunnies are hard at it again on the Gossie to Woy Woy on the cycle path with some nice scenery snaps.
Bivoir always gives good photo. Check out Umina Beach in HDR.
Caitlyn and the knocking shopper: the tale of a lonely brain cell.
Photo of Ett jett, the Ettalong jetty on Ferry Road, the wharf from which you catch the ferry across to Palm Beach. The fact that the ferry wharf road is called Ferry Road leads to confusion amonst non-locals trying to get back before the last ferry goes.
Non-local: "Excuse me, where's the ferry road?"
Local: *points* "Go along there a bit."
Non-local: "What's it called?"
Local: "Ferry Road."
Non-local: "Yes, thanks, but what's it called?"
Local: "Ferry Road."
Non-local: *cries*
Add in an accent and/or a tenuous grasp on English and you end up escorting the poor dears down far enough to point at the sign.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Snakes and snoozing
Back at last. There was computer issues and some other offline crapulence which was really boring so we won't go into it. How was yer Chrissy?
Discarded snake skin. Found it under the holiday house. Apparently it’s a diamond python’s skin.
It’s very cool. Got no idea how to turn it inside out though, without ripping the bastard to shreds.
Saw a live snake too. One like this (Wiki photo). Red-bellied black snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus. Very sexy. Not a snake to go feral and bite the cautious admirer but very sexy.
The rest of my holidays was more snoozing than bushwalking. The weather was all over the shop, pissing down one day, back to normal stinking hot summer the next. I vegged out on the veranda and watched the brush turkeys and their chicks.
Photos & factoids
This poor little bugger died not long after this shot. Thought he was going to make it for a while there but no. He kept nearly getting to his feet then collapsing again.
He’s a baby brush turkey and he was mauled by a cat or something. Cats are not native to Australia so most of the native animals have no defences against them.
Buried him under the house and put a rock on top of him so he wouldn’t get dug up again and scattered about the place.
There was a brush turkey’s incubation mound further down the hill so maybe there was another chick that made it.
Roosting in trees
Immortalised on local bus-stop
Single Brush Turkey Seeks Same
Since I got back, the weather has been shit for walkies. Up around 34 (95-96F) one day, dark as night and stormy the next.
Haiti
Poor bastards. Bloody poor country, as corrupt as fuck, war, 3 hurricanes in the last 4 years (about that) and now the place is totalled by a massive earthquake.
So it's a bit off when those christian types were refusing aid to some people on the grounds they were of the voodoo religion.
The throw-away lines on the news about Haiti being the “home of the zombie” weren't terribly helpful either. Might be a bit smarter to point out that yer actual proper Voodoo/Hoodoo/Voudon/etc. zombie has fuck-all to do with the movie zombies.
Real zombies are people willingly taking part in a religious ceremony. They are spirit-ridden. They invite a good spirit into their body for a little while for religious purposes.
They aren’t green and oozing and they ain’t interested in eating your brain.
And while we’re on the subject, the voodoo dolls are bullshit too. They sell them for the tourists in New Orleans (and fuck knows they could use the tourist dollars, poor bastards) but they’re a Hollywood thing too, whitefella misinterpretation and invention. Sticking pins in dolls was something done in Europe many moons ago.
I loved and that Big Brother/zombie apocalypse piss-take on SBS but I do not enjoy my ABC making the sort of random statements I expect to find on bloody channel 9 or 7.
Now where’s my blood pressure meds?
Zombie linkage
Proper zombies
Haitian Voudon at Wiki
Voodoo Brings Solaced to Grieving Haitians
Living Vodou (podcast)
Louisiana Voodoo
Lucky Mojo (Hoodoo, similar to Vodou & Voodoo)
Movie zombies
Shaun of the Dead (rom zom com par excellence)
White Zombie
Bloody Ian Fleming
Dead Set (Big Brother vs the zombie apocalypse, on SBS)
Right. I'm off to set up base camp on the lower slopes of Mount Inbox.
Discarded snake skin. Found it under the holiday house. Apparently it’s a diamond python’s skin.
It’s very cool. Got no idea how to turn it inside out though, without ripping the bastard to shreds.
Saw a live snake too. One like this (Wiki photo). Red-bellied black snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus. Very sexy. Not a snake to go feral and bite the cautious admirer but very sexy.
The rest of my holidays was more snoozing than bushwalking. The weather was all over the shop, pissing down one day, back to normal stinking hot summer the next. I vegged out on the veranda and watched the brush turkeys and their chicks.
Photos & factoids
This poor little bugger died not long after this shot. Thought he was going to make it for a while there but no. He kept nearly getting to his feet then collapsing again.
He’s a baby brush turkey and he was mauled by a cat or something. Cats are not native to Australia so most of the native animals have no defences against them.
Buried him under the house and put a rock on top of him so he wouldn’t get dug up again and scattered about the place.
There was a brush turkey’s incubation mound further down the hill so maybe there was another chick that made it.
Roosting in trees
Immortalised on local bus-stop
Single Brush Turkey Seeks Same
Since I got back, the weather has been shit for walkies. Up around 34 (95-96F) one day, dark as night and stormy the next.
Haiti
Poor bastards. Bloody poor country, as corrupt as fuck, war, 3 hurricanes in the last 4 years (about that) and now the place is totalled by a massive earthquake.
So it's a bit off when those christian types were refusing aid to some people on the grounds they were of the voodoo religion.
The throw-away lines on the news about Haiti being the “home of the zombie” weren't terribly helpful either. Might be a bit smarter to point out that yer actual proper Voodoo/Hoodoo/Voudon/etc. zombie has fuck-all to do with the movie zombies.
Real zombies are people willingly taking part in a religious ceremony. They are spirit-ridden. They invite a good spirit into their body for a little while for religious purposes.
They aren’t green and oozing and they ain’t interested in eating your brain.
And while we’re on the subject, the voodoo dolls are bullshit too. They sell them for the tourists in New Orleans (and fuck knows they could use the tourist dollars, poor bastards) but they’re a Hollywood thing too, whitefella misinterpretation and invention. Sticking pins in dolls was something done in Europe many moons ago.
I loved
Now where’s my blood pressure meds?
Zombie linkage
Proper zombies
Haitian Voudon at Wiki
Voodoo Brings Solaced to Grieving Haitians
Living Vodou (podcast)
Louisiana Voodoo
Lucky Mojo (Hoodoo, similar to Vodou & Voodoo)
Movie zombies
Shaun of the Dead (rom zom com par excellence)
White Zombie
Bloody Ian Fleming
Dead Set (Big Brother vs the zombie apocalypse, on SBS)
Right. I'm off to set up base camp on the lower slopes of Mount Inbox.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)