Sparx Plugz

This is the spark plug that worked in the lawn mower that mowed the lawn around the swiming pool that the 1936 Australian Olympic Swimming team did their last practice in before sailing for Berlin... and you can tell all of that from the dandelion seed trapped in the cobweb...

Rose Hipz

Graffiti

Saw this on the wall in Leura on the last day of our Sydney holiday. Leura is lovely but this was rather appropriate. There are some very nice shops selling lovely stuff, which was all very expensive and probably not particularly useful...

One Paver Short...

Well the internet connection went AWOL yesterday and I was too tired after doing the paving that I didn't get around to doing anything about it. Well it has taken two years to get around to finishing off the last bit of paving between the top of the stairs and the back gate. But now it all done; except for one paver... grrrrrr!
Other excitement is that the beer that I posted about the other day... one of the bottles exploded! What a mess. Just hope the rest don't follow suite! Looks like I will have to drink the rest in a hurry...

Neptune Vs THE VINE...

The vine is taking over... aghhh... help! It is that time of year again and the Garden suddenly throws off the winter blues and explodes into life. We will be having to seriously sort out the reticulation system though as it is drying out soooo quickly. It is hard to believe that it was such a wet winter when the ground is so dry so quickly.

Check out the Head on this one...

Sorry for the slightly Benny Hillesque title. This is the current brew and it is pretty snapin'. It is a Bock and is actually almost exactly the same as the one that I posted a lot earlier in the year. It is about 3 weeks young. I actually have a Christmas brew bubbling away behind me at the moment. The new brew is a Dark Larger with Chocolate Malt! My brother brought over a Double Choc Stout recently which inspired this current brew. I doesn't actually have any chocholate in it at all but hopefully it will have a thick and chocolately finish by the 25th!

Out & About

Hmmm missed out yesterday as I went out in the evening to see the Australian Chamber Orchestra. It was, as usual, excellent. The second half in particular was amazing. I really think that I much prefer the ACO by themselves then supporting a Soloist. Probably just me but once they get rid of the soloist they seem to relax and really cut loose, as they did last night with the Hydan and particularly the Rameau. Once Tognetti starts to crouch down and sort of dance about he seems to lift the whole orchestra and they just take off... It will be interesting to hear them do a Pink Floyd piece in Feburary! Had lunch with Janet which was lovely to see her again. Brought back memories of the four or five years when, with Nick, we had lunch at Primevera. Oh and the picture. Well this is fairly recent, monday morning and by pushing the contrast and brighness it brings out some interesting colours in the branches... well maybe!

A Better Panorama

After a fair bit of fiddling around we ended up with this which is sort of better in that the color and hotspot/atmospheric backscatter are better but the close up image mosaic is not as well aligned... hard to get everything isn't it...
This picture actually gives you an idea of what I was trying to capture... The ship being rebuilt and the submarine, the fish farm in the forground and the Port Authority building at the back...

Fremantle Harbour

This was Fremantle Harbour this afternoon on the way home. I took the Polo for a bit of a flog and went out to the end of the South Mole and on the way back I could see this old boat that was being restored. It all looked a bit incongruous next to the submarine, the Museum and the cargo ship. The Mosiac isn't the best. A few artifacts are coming through. I have been investigating a newer tool for making mosaics that does a better job of the "hotspot" issues. It is horribly complicated so I haven't yet had the time to work out how to drive it!

Taking Root...

Well had the new car for a day now! I took a photograph to post but it didn't come out very well but this one did... There is a building in the West End of Fremantle that has been a facade for as long as I can remember... and I can actually remember this building being like this from when I was at high school so we are talking an awfully long time ago.

Everglades

This is a picture from our Sydney trip. We spent that last few days in the Blue Mountains and on the last day, before we took the car back, we visited Everglades. It is truely stunning. We were very lucky to be there at the best time of year. It is really quite unique in being a quite European garden but with the ability to grow a lot of plants that wouldn't normally be able to grow in Europe with a completely spectacular backdrop of the Blue Monuntains National Park. The chap that owned it then donated it to the National Trust really did an exceptional job and I would like to think that if I had the obsecene amount of money that he did, I would use it to make some thing as lovely as this then leave it for future gnerations to enjoy. The arch in the picture is interesting in that it was from a large Bank in Sydney that was taken down and moved to the garden. If you get the chance I can certainly recomend a visit...

Loud Shirt Day

I entered the Loud Shirt competition at work today... the chap in Yellow won (I did add the lens flare). Not a good photograph I'm afraid, well it has me in it and I didn't take it, so it stands to reason that it wasn't going to be good... and I really wanted the $75 prize money as well...

One Year Ago Today!

Well this is what I was doing last 17th Nov. This is the place where we went for a meal that night in Aberdeen, Scotland. I don't remember that much except it was cold, we were with a chap from the Huston office who hadn't been outside the US before, the food was very indifferent and it was very, very, very smokey. However it was strangely gothic and the Grandfather clock perched high up amused me... (easily amused I know...)

Output Transformer

Here is the Output Transformer for the Valve (or Tube if your American) amplifier that I am building. I had a chap around the other day that is a serious Audiophile and he was more that somewhat worried about my choice of transformer as these are actually quite cheap at around $25. For a proper Single Ended amplifier I should be looking at something like the these transformers, which are over 10 times the price. I am sure that they are better but I seriously suspect that the laws of diminishing returns kicks in... The mouse looks particularly grubby dosen't it?

On the Market

Sad but true... the days of Morri being the vehicle of choice are dwindling... He will soon be replaced by Chicken, a VW Polo, also Blue as Rose pointed out, so we won't need to change the Blog description! So if you are interested have a look in the Quokka under vintage...

Car Boot Sale

The boyz were in the car last weekend while Rose was cleaning it then they decided to open the back (it is a station wagon) and sell their "art" to the unsuspecting public. This is Ben's rather special version of the Statue of Liberty. Almost certainly a bargin at $10...

Helmet Man

I always liked this picture from while were in Sydney and visted the Art Gallery there. It is a lovely Gallery and has some fantastic stuff. The newer sections on the lower floors are really well worth the visit and the boys both enjoyed the few hours we spent there. This photo shows Declan peering through a Henry Moore - Ben is walking past just behind...

Declan's Snail

Declan has been going to Cubs for a while and came home the other evening with this picture that they did. I rather like it so here it is for you all to check out...