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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Filthy dirty filking

(Random hung-over, Christmas-party fueled whingeing & filking*)



O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum

In New South Wales at Christmas time
You come out in December heat

O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum

With petals red and orange too
Only after pollination

O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum


There's also Cerapetalum gummiferum which is the same until you get up close and see the leaves are arranged differently. And the gummiferum is pretty tall and "during World War II it provided the butts for all rifles made in Australia". Huh.


Off to my fourth Christmas party this week this arvo. May not survive. Normally I avoid office parties like the fucking plague but I called in a lot of favours this year and the payback is showing up as stand-in date. The next person to offer me a mince pie is dead.


Local linkage

Bike bunnies do Umina

Dickhead factor rockets during school holidays


Woy Woy as was

Love the photos and stories of old Woy Woy in the local rag. Woy Woy Steve is back writing them again and Fred Landman and Keith Whitfield are regulars and I've got one from June 2009 by Bruce Richards.

Sometimes the old buildings they talk about, old cinemas and milk bars and so forth, are gone now and sometimes they're just re-invented but I can usually see where they were or their remnants are. Adds a whole new depth to my walkies to have personal histories tied to the streets and buildings of my town.

Keep writing, guys.


Christmas story re-visited

How the angel got on top of the tree (click 'n' scroll)


Want my thingy in yer whatsit?

I'm off for Xmas. Off away from the madding crowd to a place where the bush turkeys roam free.

I'll be back ab-o-u-t ... Let's call it mid January. The 16th. Yeah.

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Have yerselves a merry little Xmas.


* Filking ain't really dirty. I mentioned it to a Dear Old Thing one day and she reacted like it was a very naughty swear-word and now when I say it I get a naughty little thrill. It's that thing where you replace some or all of the words of an existing tune with your own words, like I did with Oh Christmas Tree. Go filk yerself (with links).

Drive-by

Wagstaffe Wharf Mulhall Street Wagstaffe

This is a drive-by posting. Been out all day and about to go out again. I am a wee bit drunk.

Anyways, there was another bloody dust-storm today. My throat's as dry as a dead dingo's donger and that's after all the beer and some hideous cask wine. Will have a furry tongue in the morning.

And I am fucking hating this evil early summer crap.

That is all.

And the photo is there because everyone likes it.


Local lickage

Coast not perfect but we love it, Pulse survey finds

Yattalunga finished

(Yattalunga walkies #2)


View to Tascott/Point Clare, practically the same as Yattalunga views

The bell-birds were sounding their loud clear single notes in the bush at the end of a long side street. They like it on the upper slopes of the ridges and it’s a joy to hear them as the last rumble of a truck on the main road dies away and the only sounds are those of the bush and a distant circular saw.




I plodded along. The sun was warm on my back and I was tired. I fell into an ambulant doze, lulled by the lazy regular bark of a bored dog.




Davistown Road is the main road through Davistown, Saratoga and Yattalunga. It's well populated, lined with houses and it’s a busy road, by Central Coast standards. But right up the top, just before it joins the even-busier Avoca Drive, there’s a couple of sleepy paddocks of horses. I love that.

Down on the water, on Mundoora Avenue on the other side of Davistown Road, the old green house near the jetty is Gone. There's a new house in its place, a 2-storey job jutting up there right by the water.

This walk completed my walkies in Yattalunga. It’s not big, a small suburb of five streets on the neck of the Saratoga/Davistown peninsula. But I walked the first half of it more than 18 months ago, January 2008. That was when Our Heath (Heath Ledger) died, poor bastard.




That's Yattalunga circled in red on the right. The dotted lines are ferry routes.

The nicest way to get to Yattalunga is to get the ferry from Woy Woy to Central Wharf. Just get off when the crowd gets off to go to the Davo, then walk straight up Davistown Road.


Bonus photo



With the tilt of the roof going up, this is definitely the front of this wee fifties house. But where's the bloody door?


Umina in the news but not in a good way

Umina Bunnies coach Adam King and player Jason Eldridge were two of the blokes nicked for the exploding auto-teller thefts.

The Bunnies' home ground is at the oval between the Umina Beach SLSC (Surf Life Savers Club) and the caravan park down there on the beach. The Bunnies are a league team.

The other Umina Bunnies is the netball team. Chances are they won't be in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Footy stars accused of ATM attacks (link is to Sunday Telegraph so it also contains lolly wrapper porn and a swearing cat, enjoy!)

Palmers Lane

(Bensville walkies #5, because I called #4 '#3' and it wasn't.)



It was a cold very still quiet day when I walked Palmers Lane. Even the birds were quiet. It was still winter then, just a couple of weeks back. My nose was cold. It was good weather for walking.

We're looking north-north-east here. Palmers Lane is at right angles to Hastings Wharf. That looks like Shelly Beach Road Empire Bay in the left of the photo and the southern tip of Davistown, same as can be seen from Hastings Wharf.

Palmers Lane is right on the border of Bensville and Empire Bay. The houses on the east side of the road are in Bensville and the houses on the west side are in Empire Bay.

There was only a few houses on the west side. They were half a dozen small houses in what looked like a former paddock up near Empire Bay Road.




The bottom half of Palmers Lane is not sealed. Getting down to the water involved thrashing through the bush beside the road for a few minutes.




Lovely old house, what we can see of it behind those hedges, in Palmers Lane. Called 'Alpha' or 'Alphaville' and built about 1900. I'd give you a more accurate date but I can't find the fucking hist list it's on. The bastard was right here at the computer yesterday.

This house marks the spot where the sealed road ends and the lane continues down to the water.




Sheep in a paddock next to 'Alpha'. They looked like goats at first but I think they're just long-eared sheep.




Bustling Downtown Palmers Lane. This is the busiest part of Palmers Lane. There are no shops. The white sign says "No Through Road".



It's starting to look a lot like springtime. Golden wattle beginning to bloom at the top of Palmers Lane.

There are actually three streets at Palmers Lane. The other two are Allawa Close and Rachel Close. People who live at Palmers Lane can zip along Empire Bay Road north to Kincumber to go to the shops or south-west and over The Rip Bridge to the shops at Ettalong on the Woy Woy peninsula.

Mappage

Bonus photo


Local linkage

They nicked those ATM exploders at last. Those buggers what blew up all those auto-teller bank thingos. One of them was a Woy Woy bloke.

Article at Aunty

Have yerselves a good one. I'm off for a barbie and a shag.

Salty bits

(Bensville walkies #3)



Down a quiet suburban street to the saltmarsh. So many streets lead down to the water and to wee wild places around Brisbane Water and here in Woy Woy. You'd be daft to leave.

This is North Street. It's one of twenty streets that made up Bensville. (Street map next week. Map of where Bensville is.)




The low red plant might be samphire. Even though it's red it's not ruby saltbush and it's not austral seablite. The trees are casuarina. They like it by the water.




The low red plant and the spiky reed. Both of these are also at Woy Woy, on the waterfront at Brick Wharf Road.




Peaceful and quiet in the warm winter sun.




I disturbed some dozing ducks. They paddled away slowly. That's those reeds or rushes or something again there in the foreground. You don't want to go wandering through them. Sharp as buggery.

That hill in the background is Davistown or Saratoga. Hard to tell from that angle but they're both on the same peninsula anyways.


Local linkage

Deepwater Plaza mural finished at last. The bastard is bloody tricky to photograph. Bad spot re light and as soon as you get the camera out every bus on the fucking peninsula comes thundering past. Oh the humanity!

Nice Umina Beach & wildflower photos - Umina resident on Flickr


Taking the piss

Jensen Ackles lip-synching to Eye of the Tiger (full clip)

Ackles gives good giggle. On yer, mate. Oh and can I lick yer boyfriend? Please?


Warm winter sun

Glorious walkies weather on Thursday and Friday. I was trapped inside doing evil work stuff but it's the same weather today and I'll soon be out under the sun with my shirt off and a steak sanger for my lunch so it's all good.

Views from a bridge

Booker Bay from The Rip Bridge

Look at that water. Still as. There was a cold cruel wind yesterday but otherwise it's been days and days of still blue skies. Magic winter weather.




Hardys Bay from The Rip Bridge

I love the swirly patterns on the water. Some of them are obviously boat tracks but the big patches seem to be made by the sandbars. Which we have heaps of. Which is why we have the Great Dredging Debate

Ettalong knob/Booker Bay sandbar

Somewhere in my increasingly large photo archive at Flickr is a nice view from the mountain showing most of the sandbars. Can I find the bastard? No, I cannot. Didn't tag the effing thing properly, did I!

The Rip Bridge from Hardys Bay (plus photos of Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay)


Stupid health

I ain’t on death’s door or nothing. Just not terribly sprightly at the moment. Had to have more tests last week. Dr says I’m to stay off the booze for a year, a whole year for fuck’s sake, and go easy on the pizza and bacon.

So I’ve chucked out all the bacon and bought myself a T-shirt that says “designated driver”. Sigh.


Local linkage

First one is Woy Woy hero bunnies at Biker Bunnies.


Second one is some keen bushwalkers have bunged up a new local freebies website called wildwalks.com.au.

They've got “various walks in the Brisbane Water and Bouddi national parks including Warrah Trig, Patonga, Maitland Bay and Staples Lookout.”

It’s got some good local photos and some chat about each walk and you can print out a map to take with you. Holding it up the right way is yer own responsibility.


B day

Shit. I've spent so much time on the first B of the day I'm in danger of missing the second.

Saturday is B day:

Blog
Barbie
Booze
Bonking (if my sex drive is at home to visitors)

(Tuesday is soylent green day.)

Back

(Get to the pictures already!)

I'm officially back from my annual month off.

I was unofficially back on the 8th of Feb to blog the Victorian bushfires. And thank yer on Victoria's behalf to all those readers who clicked through to the donation sites from TIS.

A couple of days ago the tally for cash donations was $138 million. The donations in the first few days were mainly up around $100 a go, so a lot of that is from us 20 million Australians. But the rest of it came from outside Australia. Thank you, world.

Blood donation sign-up (for burns victims) or ring 13 14 95. Give money online to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal or at 1800 811 700.

If you missed the broadcast of the national day of mourning, go to ABC iView or YouTube.


Gosford walkies



A weekday morning in the heart of Bustling Downtown Gosford. Looking south along Mann Street from the footbridge that goes from the railway station to an arcade with a bookshop down the bottom and offices up the top.

The wee bit of grass you can see on the edge is the wee park outside the station and any sunny weekday will find half a dozen drunks there. The blokes in the green shirts are council workers not drunks.

The squat brown brick building at the end of the park is the tourist info thingo. You can get a nice map or three there.

That very tall pam looks like a Cabbage Tree Palm which is a local native plant.

Just before those matching tower blocks in the background is Jephson's Corner. (You can't actually see it here so don't strain yer eyes trying).

Also on Mann Street are the sturdy Hotel Gosford, the lovely Art Deco funeral parlour, the yummy little old sandstone church, and the pleasant war memorial across from the Blackett and overlooking the wharf.




Gosford is at the northern end of Brisbane Water.




Couple of old shops in the main street of Bustling Downtown Gosford. The one on the right is dated 1934.




Gosford Wharf on a weekday morning. The ferry is the Lady Kendall II. It's the biggest ferry on the estuary. It does tours with a lunch thrown in. Popular with the tourists and a nice ride from what I hear.

The Lady Kendall II is not to be confused with the Lady Kendall, the wreck of which was raised at Koolewong in 2007.

That's Iguana Joe's on the left edge there, of Iguana-gate fame.


Footy* ferry

Ferries to Mariners games at Bluetongue.

Departs:

Empire Bay (on request) 6:15 pm

Davistown–Central Wharf 6:20 pm

Lintern St Wharf 6:30 pm

Saratoga– Veterans Hall 6:35 pm

Woy Woy (on request) 6:45 pm

Arrives Gosford Wharf app 7:15pm for a 8:00pm game.

Other ferries timetables

Lady Kendall II tours


Local linkage

Nice old local photos and stuff at the Mahony family history. Scroll to the bottom for more photo links.

Nicked the link off of Our Steve who got it off a bloke who read his local history piece in the local rag. (3 degrees of bloggfication.)


* Footy at the Ducktionary

Live and sweaty

Way too hot for swimming in the unshaded ocean. Under the railway bridge would be a good shady spot if it weren't for the power boats zooming through every 5 secs.

Boats going under the bridges are heading into Woy Woy Inlet, Woy Woy Bay, Phegans Bay, Horsfield Bay and Correa Bay (Deadmans Bay as was).



In 1934 a kid was taken by a grey nurse shark at either Phegans Bay (top red cross) or Horsfield Bay (lower red cross).

There's a local story I think about every time I go over the The Bays. In Horsfield Bay in 1934 a kid by the name of Roy Inman got taken by a grey nurse. Promised his mum he'd come out of the water after one more jump off the jetty. He jumped and the shark took him and had a go at his sister.

Only the history books and the Dear Old Things seem to remember it. Sharks are not even a blip on the radar in Brisbane Water these days, not to us landlubbers anyways.

The Peninsular News

Woy Woy Steve's shark and skeleton tales

Jimmy Little's tales of sharks and Barry the milkman


Meme thingo

Volunteered to do a list thingy (from Device dear). No idea why as I am crap at these things.

Dreadful news from a mate.

Drank a well dry due to this dreadfully hot weather.

Dean Winchester and her wot plays Rita in Dexter do not grow less delicious.

(Straight guy readers need not be alarmed, this Dean link does not contain snuggling.)

Um...

Dying for another storm to hit and take away the muggy.


Pop over and see Woy Woy Steve's excellent bushwalkies photos.

Lost my copy of the local rag, Steve, with yer latest article in it. You are becoming quite the journo.


Oh yeah

Nearly forgot to say I'm giving you a lick and a promise tonight 'cause I'm off for the weekend. Happy Straylya Day.

P.S.

Woy Woy will once again be the scene of lantern parades, fireworks and live bands and dancing. Be there or be square. See the local rag.

Back

X marks the spot. Clouds over Woy Woy. They look like con trails but I didn't see any planes.

Found these laying about in my photos folder. Took them late last year. No good for photos today. Very overcast.




Low tide off Blackwall foreshore. That bit of sand is a tiny tidal islet and smells hideously of pelican shit.




Rip Bidge and Orange Grove Road from the aptly named Bay View Crescent. Which is the only road on the mountain. The other one is just a short acess thingy for the council workers.




Meandering path going up Blackwall Mountain. It's not too steep if you follow the paths. Makes a pleasant bushwalk.

Views from the lookout


Did yer miss me?

I had a good Chrissy and New Year's, thank yer for asking.

New Year’s smelt like jasmine and beer and BBQ sauce, a heady perfume. My sex drive popped in for a visit. Strolled in like it had never been away, beckoned to a couple of old fuck-buddies, had its wicked way with them, then pissed off again. Leaving me clutching my beer with my mouth open.

The visit was due to spending two whole days watching that pair of spunky lust bunnies in Supernatural and talking about all the strange that’ll be coming to town for Mardi Gras.

And how the fuck did I miss this photo?

Okay, they're not starkers or nothing but that is worth all the photoshopping on the internets. Think I'll have a little lie-down now.

P.S. Don't tell me it's just good photoshop! I can never spot good photoshop and then someone tells me when it was allegedly taken one of them was in Siberia or dead or something and I just get cross.


Argh

Cane toad found at Umina

"Once established cane toads can spread quickly. A female cane toad can deposit up to 30,000 eggs at a time, and may lay several times over the summer season.

Cane toads can be identified by their dry, warty skin and their large glands located behind the ears.

Cane toad sightings in the Central Coast area can be reported to the local NPWS office at Gosford on 4320 4200."

Cane toad factoids & photos


Tattoo aces interview

Tattoo gets island reef job (includes video)

Ta for the heads up from the mystery correspondent.


Local linkage

Stevo's models of old Woy Woy buildings. I particularly like Noonan's as she was, and the old cinema which was where Woolies is now.

Miniature train spotter's blog (Woy Woyan)

MyDoona's Monologue ('nother local blogger)

Great texture photos from Umina Beach

Straylya Day sail past wants you and yer boat

Cockatoo ferry running to 25th January

Australia Day at Woy Woy - Anderson Park (beside the ferry wharf) 2pm - 9.30pm (last year's, Straylya Day at the Ducktionary)


International Fairy Bread Appreciation Day



For Suzanne's and Vangaman's kids.

Fairy bread is the favourite party food of Australian kids and gentleman who prefer gentleman. IFBAD was last week.

Instructions

All the leaves are green and the sky is grey

I have been working my arse off this last couple of months. Have not even walked for a whole month. Hideous state of affairs. Must remedy. Holidays coming up and I'm trying to wangle a whole month off in which to have rest and walkies and rest and stuff and rest. Meanwhile, Woy Woy is blooming with summer flowers.



Jacaranda and Hakea

Jacarandas are an exotic species (imported and not native to Australia). Gorgeous trees. Currently looking fabulous against the Woy Woy skies. An aerial photo of a town when these are flowering will instantly tell you where the older areas of the town are.

Hakea (or possibly grevillea) is a native species and a popular garden bush. Couple more looking spiffy on a black background here.




Christmas bush

Ceratopetalum gummiferum. Native species. Coming into full flower now, hence the name Christams bush.

Close-ups




Lillipilli hedge. A native species, Syzygium smithii. Not flowering but leafing. The leaves on top go red in spring and summer.

The flowering gums (native species) have finished flowering and those noisy lorikeet bastards have buggered off to greener pastures. The giant cacti are budding (exotic species).

Woy Woyan flowers both native & exotic

All the native flowers posted since I started tagging plus Winter floraland for added seasonal confusion.


Local linkage

The duck problem (Ta for the link, Ian.)

Excellent mappage and link to war stories from Steve. Had no idea the war came so close to the NSW coast.

Kite-surfer airlifted from Ettalong Beach. Looks like he came ashore at the end of Barrenjoey Road near those 60s flats. Poor bastard. Sorry I missed the chopper landing at Ettalong but.

Girl priest raises Woy Woy's PCF (Playground Coolness Factor).

Buy one get one free ferry tickets on the Codock II AKA Cockatoo ferry from the 27th.

A few of my favourite things

These are my favourites of my own photos. Been meaning to show you these for a bit. Hold yer pointer over a photo to see its title.
















































Took yonks to trim that lot down from 30 to 13 pictures. I've taken heaps more good pictures than I realised.


Rumour has it

Apparently some tool wants to build a 7-storey building in Peaceful Downtown Hardys Bay.

That would be fugly.


Local linkage

Some interesting local photos at Blu Ocean Imagery


Onya Stevo

Woy Woy Steve has got himself in the local rag again. Full page article on the hieroglypics up at Kariong. Read all about it.

There's also a snippet from him about the gateway to the lost Egyptian civilisation at Kariong and an older post about the hieroglyphs and other local strangeness.