Can we panic yet?

So this is it, we're all going to die!

Naaaaah. Not this time, not next time, not even the time after that.

"The first influenza pandemic was recorded in 1580 and since then influenza pandemics occurred every 10 to 30 years." says Wiki. So if they happen every 10 to 30 years and we're not all dead yet, it's probably not worth panicking.

All the news programmes keep talking about the 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions of people all over the world. But yer gotta remember we got antibiotics and shit now.

How the flu virus works

Influenza pandemics and how they work

1918 flu pandemic

Officials say don't panic (includes video of thermal scanner in action)


Australia still clear of new virus

"The areas with the most number of possible cases are South-East Sydney and the Illawarra with 20 and Northern Sydney and the Central Coast with 13. There are 12 each in Sydney's West and the Hunter and New England."

Notice that's possible cases not actual cases. Possible cases includes people with a bit of a sniffle, people with yer bog standard annual flu and man flu.

"Dr Grant encouraged anyone with symptoms such as fever, coughing and a runny nose whic began within 7 days of returning from an overseas holiday to contact their GP, local public health unit or to go to an emergency department, especially if they had been in the USA, Canada or Mexico."

Full article at SMH

Swine flu: a beat-up or a real fear?

The lighter side of swine flu


Masks

The word is to get the "fitted respirator masks known as P2 masks" and make sure they fit tight. No gaps to allow the germs to wiggle in through.

Full article at SMH


Wash yer bloody hands

That's what all the medical types are saying will help slow it down heaps. That and don't bloody well cough on people. Tissues were invented for a reason.


The shipping news



Codock II AKA the Cockatoo ferry

Wooden ferry fans, Bets of Central Coast Ferries says "The SARATOGA is getting a spruce up and a bit of engine maintenance this week so the trusty old CODOCK II is purring along on the run."

Timetable info


Local wildlife

Snakes on a beach

La Nina

It just stopped raining. No, wait, it's starting again. Been raining all night and all day. No danger of flash floods I hasten to add. Even it pissed down for forty nights and forty nights here it'd drain off toot sweet into the estuary.

This La Nina business is very nice what with the rain and everything after the drought and the relevant gods should note that I am not complaining about the rain but it is crap weather for walkies and photography.

Thus we are looking at some old photos today and a couple that are just for pretty.




Historic photo of some blokes and a dingy at Woy Woy Bay about 100 years ago. Why the bloke in the 3 piece suit is wearing a 3 piece suit on a dingy expedition is beyond me. I s'pose they did that sorta thing back then.




Ocean Beach (Umina) postcard from 1924. Flogging the unsophisticated charms of Woy Woy's Ocean Beach to Sydneysiders. Nothing remains of those 2 boarding houses or the bus and the Umina Post Office now ekes out an existence in the back of a chemist.




1930s Woy Woy from Woy Woy Bay. Notice how many houses there aren't. Now the Peninsula's covered in houses. Here they're pretty much all clustered around the station.

The station is the wee white building at the end of that long jetty sticking out onto the low-tide mud flats, this side of the tracks.

The biggest building, pale roof, on the left of the road, is the old 200-seat cinema where the Woolworths supermarket is now.

The road heading towards the back of the photo from about a third of the way across from the left, is Blackwall Road on its way to Blackwall Mountain.




Umina Beach (lower left) and the Bouddi Peninsula (right) from Mount Ettalong.

Follow the beach up from the left bottom corner until it gets to a sharp bend. Follow the sand bar out to the right from that sharp bend. That's the big sandbar the ferries have to avoid as they come across from Palm Beach.



We're looking here across from Daleys Point to Blackwall Point (left, houses on Orange Grove Road) and Blackwall foreshore. That flat-topped pine tree is at the end of McMasters Road and Blackwall Road runs parallel to and behind the foreshore.

Leonora Avenue

(Davistown walkies #4)



Low tide, slouching photographer. Nice place to sit for a bit though. Davistown foreshore at Leonora Avenue, looking west-north-west to Saratoga's Mount Pleasant.

Lovely warm sun today. Blue sky, not much breeze. Wandered about gazing at other people's gardens for a bit then sat under the trees on the foreshore having a bit of a doze. Very pleasant.



"ERNA ANGELS KINNS
'NAN'

Yes'sirree!

Sit awhile and rest your feet
Enjoy the scenery from this seat
For where you are now I loved to be
By the water beneath this tree"

Thanks, Nan. Much appreciated.

There's another memorial seat at Umina Beach. Bob Da Silva's.



Leonora Avenue house seen from Nan Kinns seat on the foreshore. There's 4 houses in Leonora Avenue listed in my hist list as "'Emoh Ruo' et al. ...6-12 Leonora Avenue Davistown ... c.1915, 1920".

I love these houses with the closed-in verandas. They're the business in a waterfront situation. This one's not in the best nick though. Looks orright in the photo but in the flesh it could do with a bit of work.



I like this park. The fact that you can see right across it to the boats on the other side appeals to the kid in me. It's on the knob of Davistown, the bit of the foreshore/Illoura Walk at the elbow of Malinya Avenue.



Lintern Wharf and Rileys Island from Davistown foreshore, Daleys Point in the middle background and the two wee hills of Yattalunga in the left background.


Bonus question, or answer, or whatever

Found this:


(Embiggen)

Nice big picture of the Codock II AKA the Cockatoo ferry leaving Woy Woy Wharf. (Previous post on her)


Okay. I'm off to have a nice lump of carrot cake and a cuppa tea on the balcony. Is autumn the best or what?