'Citing Stuff mk II

Sorry I hadn't posted this earlier, I've come down with a filthy cold and I could only get time to do it today.

Anyway...

Thursday

We got up and cruised off from our very comfy Margaret River apartment and went down to Augusta, where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We cruised to the lighthouse on the southwestern tip, but we were stuffed if we were going to pay to get in as we'd already done out lighthouse bit, so we took photos of it from a distance.

They don't encourage cross species mating at this lighthouse

This was the Shaguar being creative

This was me being creative (and slightly off centre)

After this we had a pleasant drive through the southwest to Albany, stopping off on the way at a little old logging town called Pemberton to explore their visitor centre. After that we headed off to do some nature exploration.

We got to the treetop walk near Albany in the Valley of the Giants, which was a 40m raised walkway. It was awesome stuff and heres some pics to prove it.

A view from 40m up

A tree with a burnt out centre and me for scale

Another burnt out tree with me inside it

A fat arsed wombat coming out of its burrow

These huge trees are estimated to be up to four hundred years old.

We got into Albany around 6pm, checked into our hotel, unpacked, relaxed then went to KFC for dinner. The Shaguar got a couple of bits of chicken and two small tubs of gravy to eat my large chips with and I got a meal deal thingy. They duly arrived and they'd given her literally a bucketful of gravy.

And she ate it all with relish admittedly over two days. We had a lovely quiet night in and slept like logs.

Friday

Got up and explored the town. The Shaguar was most interested in the op shops (surprise!!) while I wandered off and looked at Dog Rock.

Yes, in fact I travelled back in time to take this photo (nothing to do with the batteries in the camera being flat). We drove to the top of a local mountain and war memorial thingy and checked out the view and wandered down a local beach where there was no surf. Despite this, there was a class of people being instructed on how to surf, mostly by standing on their boards on the beach.

We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon and sat relaxing in the spa before having a quiet night in.

Saturday

We cruised back to Perth around ten in the morning and got in around 2pm and checked into the pub we were staying at in the heart of Fremantle. But the room wasn't ready, so we dropped off out bags, got a drink on the house and ordered a meal. It arrived, the Shaguar got Nachos and I got a Parma, and we munched down.

We wandered upstairs and our room still wasn't ready. We were given a meal ticket as compensation and went and explored the main drag of Freo. The Shaguar looked at rock shops, book shops and other discount stores.

After this and around midafternoon we wandered back to the hotel, where our room was finally ready and had a nanna nap.

That night we strolled the main drag, bought a stack of books, got some extremely scrummy gelati and enjoyed the life of Fremantle. We then went to bed but didn't get to sleep until late and unfortunately the Shaguar was kept awake a while longer by off tone belltower clock across the street that chimed every quarter of an hour (and a chainsaw lying in the bed next to her).

Sunday

Up and off to Guildford to stay at the historic (or hysterical) Rose and Crown Hotel in rather modern rooms which were quite comfy. We checked in after midday, unpacked our bags and rested, the Shaguar went for a quick swim then we headed to the Belvoir Amphitheatre to the Good Vibrations festival.

We explored where all four stages were in the venue and settled on going to the secondary stage, which was the Amphitheatre itself, to catch some acts. The amphitheatre was a beautiful place, with trees scattered through it and decent sized steps so that everyone got a good view of the stage no matter where you were.

There were masses of people packed into this particular section of the festival and we enjoyed the progression of acts. We saw Nightmares on Wax, who was a dub/dance act that had a few songs I knew, but none that really grabbed me. Following this, and throughout the day, as they dismantled the stage and set up for the next act they had DJs playing, who were actually pretty good.

Up next was DJ JS-1, who played a set of rock/hip-hop/dance and mixed it in an insane way. It was brilliant as he'd cut between AC/DC to ABBA to Herbie Hancock to Rage Against the Machine in the space of a minute. Then he was cutting the same section of a song back and forth between two turntables at insane speed before doing the same thing on one turntable using his foot. Once he'd gotten the crowd warmed up, he called "The Undisputed Beatbox Champion of the World TM" Rhazel onto stage.

Rhazel, using a microphone, can imitate the drum beat, sound effects and rappers or singers on a great number of songs. And he is seriously good at it. He had JS-1 play songs, then he'd imitate them perfectly using nothing but a mic. Despite a few problems getting the sound right he put on a great show and really got the crowd into it.

Following this was the reason why I bought tickets to this concert. The Jurassic 5 were up and let me tell you, they were well worth seeing. The crowd went nuts as they put in a high energy show, playing a great mix of their old and their new songs. The group are four MC's and a DJ and the amazing thing about them is, apart from being intelligent, literate rappers that put across a positive message (which is a rarity in the music industry nowdays), they have four different toned voices (from low to high) that fit together really well. And they can sing as well.

From the moment they came on stage they had the crowd in the palm of their hand, kept them entertained, made jokes and were obviously having fun together out there. They also distanced themselves as far as they possibly could from the direction the USA is currently headed, which also went down well with the crowd. The only complaint I had was the DJ was set too far back in the mix, so you couldn't easily hear what the backing track was or what he was doing unless he was solo, but other than that, I loved it. There's a rumour going around they could be breaking up soon, and if this is true I'm damn glad I got to see them before they did because they were seriously good in concert.

After this we extricated ourselves from the amphitheatre and wandered out and waited for an hour at the main stage for the Beastie Boys to come on. We claimed our spot, back and on one side of the stage and waited.

As we waited we were accosted by a drunk guy who happily chatted to us about the lack of coverage from his mobile in the local area (which is literally just on the outskirts of Perth- so pretty sucky). The Shaguar is with the same company and had being suffering the same problems throughout the holiday so she vehemently agreed with him. He continued his rant before being distracted and his mind wandering off back to the stage being set up. Then his brother came over, so the guy introduced us to him (although he didn't know our names). I was Tony and the Shaguar was Danza.

Then the B-Boys came on and did a best-of set list. It was great, they were fun but you could tell they were at the end of a tour. The keyboardist (I'm not sure if it was Money Mark or not) went nuts and at one stage even played the keyboard with his head while doing a handstand on it. They drank a bottle of Dom Perignon to the crowds health and even gave a shoutout to Fremantle and Rottnest Island. They played No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, Brass Monkey, Shake Your Rump, Root Down, Three MCs and One DJ, pretty much all of their big hits along with several of their instrumental songs off In Sound From Way Out, and finished with Sabotage (which was also dedicated to George Bush). A heck of a gig and a mighty fun day.

We raced off to the car after Sabotage and beat the rush of traffic and was back at the hotel around 11pm to shower and collapse before leisurely heading back home the next day.

'Citing stuff

And then there was life once more in moistie blogland.

Howdy all, I'm back at work having had a very pleasant eleven days off work. So what happened?

Prelude

Well, the Shaguar arrived on the Wednesday night, having driven the 4,000 odd km to Gero from Melbourne in three days. The third day she drove about 1,700km, departing around 5.30-6am and getting in at past 9pm that night. Needless to say she was knackered and proceeded to fall in a heap in my huge and incredibly comfy King sized bed.

I got up at seven and went to work the next day, but from all reports the Shaguar didn't surface again until 11.30am. Even then she was delerious.

I got home that night, packed my big and small backpack, then wielded the big stick over the Shaguar on just exactly how much we could fit into the car to go on holidays. That meant about two small boxes got left behind, with Sharons two suitcases, small backpack and multiple bags of shampoo/conditioner/other femaley type stuff coming along for a ride.

Friday

We left around 11am got in mid afternoon, checked in to our hotel, showered, got dressed and went to the Sparrow restaurant in Northbridge for some phenomenally cheap Indonesian food. We both had vegie spring rolls for entree, a nasi goreng (not the Chinese Emperor) between us, Sharon had a marinated steak doohickey and I had a chicken curry and we both had a can of drink. We were stuffed an it cost us $30 all up.

Following that we went and saw Roger Waters in concert. Let me just say it was absolutely 'effin brilliant. My personal favourite of the night would have been Time, in particular the drum solo at the start. Not far behind was Great Gig in the Sky, which was the Shaguars' favourite of the night. The woman who did it was just perfect.

Other highlights for me were Have a Cigar, Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb.

And just to rub it in, here's the set list.

FIRST HALF: In The Flesh, Mother, Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, Leaving Beirut, Sheep.

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon.

ENCORE: The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2), Vera, Bring the Boys back Home, Comfortably Numb.

Saturday

The Shaguar and I caught up with my cousin Dave, his wife Tracy and their two month old daughter Kate for Yum Cha at the Golden Retriever (Century). They were in great form, in particular at starting to have a social life once more now that Kate was becoming more portable. Bub didn't even make a squeak the whole time we ate, and DID WE EAT! Ooooh, stomach dragging along the ground territory, it was.

After that we drove to Busselton, checked into our hotel then went to the Busselton Underwater Observatory. It involved a one mile walk to the end of what was in places a rather rickety pier. Once there it was a walk downstairs eight metres to the bottom of the ocean.

Lots of fun, and as a picture is worth 1,000 words and I want you to not be bored to death reading my blog, heres some photos to give you an idea of what we saw.

On the way down.

At sea level

One of the support pylons half way down.

At the sea floor.

Blurry Angel Fish

School of blurry Fish

Sunday

We did a gentle cruise towards Margaret River, stopping off on the way at Cape Naturaliste and we checked out the lighthouse. On the way up we saw the worlds first media tart Splendid Blue Wren. It loved having it's picture taken, giving us poses in many positions.

Then we climbed the relatively short 19m high light tower (built in 1904) which I suprisingly forgot to take a photo of and took photos.

A view over Bunker Bay

A view of Sugar Loaf

Then we cruised off to Sugar Loaf and had a look.

Mmmmmm, polydeformed rock. Just with the naked eye I could see at least two cleavage planes.

After this we cruised to the Ngigli Caves and had a look at some Stalagmites, Stalactites, Coralloids, Shields and Trays. It was quite a good cave with an upper and lower section. So here's some random photos from in the cave.




It was quite hard going in the lower levels of the cave due to the high CO2 content, but it was brilliantly set out with walkways and lighting displays that could be activiated by the viewer.

After this we went to Margaret River and settled in.

Monday

We did SFA. It's a holiday, so sue us.

The day consisted of a sleep in, wandering around Margaret River, with me buying another stubbie holder to add to my collection and the Shaguar exploring the local op-shops. We bought some really edible gourmet food, which included steak, coffee (for the Shaguar of course), chocolate and fudge. And let me tell you that the meat we bought was Japanese export quality ('effen $$$, but sooo worth it), so I'm telling you it was seriously good.

Then we siesta'ed and settled in to watch Foxtel and Top Gear.

Tuesday

We explored, going to a local olive oil production place that was marked on our tourist map. We cruised down a dirt track onto a thinner corrugated dirt track, despite the distinct lack of signage. We then cruised on thinking we'd missed it before it materialised with a big CLOSED sign on the gate. Sod 'em, I thought.

So we went to a small town antiques/second hand shop where the Shaguar happily perused while I checked out their collection of Harry Secombe, Kahmahl and Oompah band records.

After this we went to a local brewery where I sunk a beer and had a stare through an upper story viewing platform window at a dreadlocked worker poking at something in a vat with a stick. It's amazing how the merest association with beer can make even the most mundane tasks seem interesting. I wasn't really in the mood to drink to excess so we cruised home and relaxed once more.

Wednesday

A big day for "serious gourmet shit" as they say in the classics.

Despite to the previous days disappointing olive oil experience we cruised to another place and this time it came up with the goods. We had a most enjoyable tasting before settling on a big assed bottle of Big Nev. I can't remember the reason why it was called that other than it had something to do with the Spanish olives used in it which gave it a real olive taste. They also had parmesan and chili flavoured oils as well as four other types of extra virgin olive oil, which we tasted multiple times.

The Shaguar went nuts and bought an olive pitter, some bagged nuts, olive shaving cream for me along with the Big Nev.

After this we cruised to a winery which, in it's advertising blurb, had a "make your own wine and label" package. It was also the local coffee wholesaler, so the Shaguar was in seventh heaven and following a coffee and the purchase of a bag of white chocolate coated coffee beans, we wandered into to the winery shop to ask about making a wine.

They told us we should normally book, but they'd ask if we could be squeezed in. After a short break the serving girl came out and said the guy could squeeze us in. He came out (it turned out he was the owners son) looking pissed or stoned. Actually, from experience I'd say it was likely that it was both.

Gotta love the afro, and although you can't see it he also had the wispy porn mustache. He was also a funny bugger who was quite happy to show us around the production facilities and give us the tour. This was mostly because he told us with gusto that there was a bus tour due that he was avoiding because he was taking care of us.

The Shaguar chose a sparkling Shiraz (not Champagne TM- no, most certainly not!) from the fridge. It had it's tip which had the slug of added sugar frozen then sucked out in a funky machine, for which the Shaguar had to get kitted out (blurrily) in safety gear.




After that it was mixed with other wines.

Then our guide told the Shaguar to continue to top it up, top it up, top it up... then said "Whoa, dude! You've over filled the bottle. You'll have to knock the top off it."

So she did.

The guy who helped make up the wine told us he was also responsible for their spirit line. So we then had a tasting of limoncello, coffee and chocolate were all quite tasty. Given the Shaguar had already have several wine tastings previously she was bouncing off the ceiling. She then went nuts and along with her bottle of sparkling shiraz bought a bottle of Coffee liqueur and a bottle of Limoncello for me Mum.

After this we drove to a self serve organic vegie farm and picked the Shaguar a punnet of strawberries before retiring home for another relaxing night in.

Christ, this is taking a long time. I'll finish off part two tomorrow.

Tedium

Ever been stuck in limbo?

You know, that place where you know you've got lots of stuff to do, but can't get it started or finished because you're relying upon other people to get one crucial part of what you're going to be working on finished for you.

Welcome to my world.

Still, once things get done (finally) I'm going to be so busy I won't have time to scratch myself. HOORAY!

At least I have the Shaguar coming over in under two weeks and the two of will go on holidays for eleven days. I'll have to take some photos.

Brown Rivers and Brown Trousers

Greetings all! My sister has come through with the goods and sent a CD of the remaining photos of my time in Derby. So here is an second tome of what else I got up to in my time up north.

I went out and visited the Prison Boab, which was, despite being a place of significance for the local Aboriginal population, used by the early settlers as a place to incarcerate Aboriginals that had broken the law and I believe it was also used to hold Aboriginals that had been taken by 'blackbirders'. Blackbirders who were whites who captured Aboriginals and then sold them into slavery for the pearling industry in Broome. It's such a shame for such a beautiful and majestic tree (which could well be near a thousand years old) to have such a disturbing recent past.

And here's a better idea of what it looks like inside.

The names and initials you see carved on the outside are from when the site used to be an army and airforce base back in WW2, when the northern Australian coastline was being bombed by the Japanese. Bit of a waste of munitions if you ask me. The site was also a stopping off point for drovers driving cattle between Derby and Broome and thus there is the Longest Watering Trough In The Southern Hemisphere TM.

Other than that there was more time with the dogs. Here is what generally occurred in pictorial and descriptive form. As I was patting Lucky with one hand, Luci decided that as he wasn't getting enough attention (despite me patting him withe my other hand). So he decided he would climb onto me.

Being the complete attention whore that he is, he then decided that being patted with one hand wasn't enough, so he had to try to appropriate the hand I was patting Lucky with.

Unfortunately, Clare didn't catch a shot of Luci going A over T off the chair onto the floor.

Other than that it was swimming in the Derby pool (no photos of that- be glad) and exploring around town prior to heading out to the Fitzroy River with a woman that Clare works with, called Ness. She was heading out to visit her brother Neville and sister in law Jo at Udialla Springs Station and took us along for the ride.

On the way out Ness drove off into the bush and stopped the four wheel drive at a stand of paperbark trees in a sandy floodplain. I climbed out wondering what the stop was for when she wandered over too a tree, picked up a pile of paperbark sitting at the base of one and showed us a hole dug into the roots.

It would have been about twenty centimetres in diameter and about eighty to ninety centimetres deep and it was full of water.

Being a fairly warm day and having drunk a good portion of my water already I happily refilled my water bottle while Clare snapped away with her camera.

After that Ness took us to a waterhole where she threw in a net and caught some (yabbies, marin?) freshwater crayfish type thingies. Clare was much more brave than I and happily volunteered to pick up those caught and put them into a bucket. She duly got bitten not once, but twice by the first she tried with. Heres one of the nasty buggers in all it's glory.

After catching a good half dozen, and from what I was told, quite large beasties we went to head off in the four wheel drive. Ness turned the key. Nothing. Tried again, the starter kicked in. Still nothing. We're parked down by the river in a one way track. So we need to do a three point turn prior to getting on what is (thankfully) a downhill track to give it a push start. This is when being a big bastard comes in handy, so a quarter hour of puffing and exertion later we've turned it around, got it rolling downhill and got the engine to kick over. Ness kept the revs up from then on to make sure the car didn't conk before getting to the homestead.

Once we got to the homestead, which despite looking like a corrugated shed, was quite nicely appointed inside with huge fridges, air conditioners, fans and a comfortable dining table to sit around and chat. Apart from running a cattle station and wrangling two young kids, Jo and Neville also run a Kimberly guided tour company, which allows you to name your destination(s) and itinerary. It can be found on http://www.uptuyu.com.au/

After a while of socialising, having a cold drink, putting care packages away in child safe cupboards and the fridge we packed the eskies and fold up chairs and cruised to the Fitzroy River for a picnic.

Now, for those of you who have never been to the north in Summer, it's the wet season. Thankfully it hadn't rained much over Derby while I was there, but it has certainly been raining elsewhere and the Fitzroy was rising. Jo and Neville said they had a picnic at the river the day before and when they arrived the sandbank they had sat on had all but disappeared underwater.

With the extra water flow came a stack of mud and debris, making the water brown, hence the title of the blog entry. The brown trousers wasn't due to dust on our travels or anything as benign as that. No, I shall go into that in a little more detail later. But first, a picture of the beautiful Fitzroy River.

Anyway, we settled down to a nice feed with our chairs in the river, keeping cool.

As we sat there, over the space of a couple of hours I could feel the water level of the river rising on my calves. Then I started getting an itch in the back of my neck. The higher the water level got the worse the itch got. After a while I just had to get out of my chair, sit on the bank with my feet in the water and watch the river flow past.

I'm sure anyone who knows me can attest I'm certainly not a bushman, but I've heard from numerous sources that Saltwater Crocodiles are found right along the length of the Fitzroy River. And it is when the river is flowing at its strongest that they're at their most active in moving up and down the length of it. I also know that they're patient buggers and will happily observe and stalk their prey, often waiting for them to return and hiding nearby until they're ready to strike. Given Jo and Neville had been picnicking there the previous day, this did little to quell my discomfort. I also know they can appear, seemingly from nowhere, in quite shallow water.

Now, I know I may sound paranoid here, everyone else seemed quite unfazed by it and everyone being quite vigilant. Reason told me to defer to their superior knowledge and experience, but it was near impossible for me to ignore the primal centre of my brain screaming at me to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WATER! BIG MONSTER LIVE HERE! SHARP TEETH! OOONGAWA! OOONGAWA!!

So I happily sat on the bank of the river.

In fact, Neville mentioned that when his son was born a few years earlier, a four metre salty had appeared around the area we were picnicking and stayed for the duration of the pregnancy. It left just before he was born. One of his Uncles (a local elder) said this was a portent and that his son's avatar is the Saltwater Crocodile. Another Uncle (also a local elder) said "Saltwater Crocodile?! SHOOT THE BLOODY THING!".

A little bit of a conflict of opinion there, methinks.

Anyway, no sightings, no people suffering the fate that many predicted would have likely been Steve Irwins demise and a pleasant picnic by the Fitzroy.

Come New Years, Clare and I hitched a ride to Broome with a local doctor who had come to Australia from India, seeking a new challenge having worked for several years for the Sultan of Brunei. He was a lovely man and had many interesting stories to tell and he and Clare chatted away happily in the front of the car about mysticism, spirituality and eastern philosophy.

At one stage or another, everyone would have encountered someone in their life that just doesn't know how to drive a car. Well, this was one of those times.

In the end I forced myself to doze off to sleep as I got tired of grinding my teeth as we jerked our way around corners or raced up at speed behind other cars, then slowed to a crawl and followed them for a good five to ten minutes before he realised he could just overtake them in a trice in his brand new, top of the line Ford. Despite Clares subtle and not so subtle hints that if he wanted too, she could drive, he was quite happy to do so all the way to Broome.

We explored the town, checked out the old pearling dock that has now been overgrown with mangroves, stopped off at various friends houses for a visit and paid a visit to a local microbrewery, Matso's (short for Matsomuto's- a Japanese pearler who settled in town in the '50s and founded the business). I happily drank a schooner of each beer they had on their menu in the space of an hour. Here's a picture of me admiring the local artwork (the caption on the picture is "Now that's a nice Ginger")

New Years was a fun occasion at the ninety year old Sun City indoor/outdoor cinema. Quite a decent crowd was in attendance as local indigenous musicians, The Pigram Brothers, put on quite a gig. I would recommend their folksy/country/melodic rock to anyone. Excellent stuff. There are seven (!) brothers in the band and throughout the night numerous family members (including the support band made up of various teenage Pigram children) got up on stage and sung and played.

I only drank a couple of beers on the night, having done my dash earlier, but Clare got happily sozzled, starting with St Angus (which coincidentally was the name of the Pigram kids band) brandy, a half bottle of white wine and later, the demand that I buy her a couple of beers.

Throughout the night Clare introduced to a stack of people, many of whom even she didn't know, and I even got up to dance under a threat of Clare crying if I didn't. Upon producing the second beer that Clare marched me to the bar for (not really, but I'm enjoying telling the story) I turned around to discover she was gone.

I looked over the crowd (everyone in Broome is short) and couldn't spot her anywhere. So, knowing she would be up the front dancing, I headed in that direction, scanning the crowd. I stood on the edge of the dancefloor with a beer in my hand and couldn't see her anywhere until finally I spotted her.

She was most certainly up the front.

She was standing on a podium at the front of the stage, right next to the band, dancing away to her hearts content, oblivious to the world around her. She was also thankful for the beer.

Anyway. We got home late after I drove everyone home. Trying to get four drunk people out of a venue after a good night is like trying to herd cats.

Clare was surprisingly mildly hung over the next day and we happily pottered around town. She showed me her previous abodes, and by mid afternoon had to leave for Derby so she get back before the sunset. I watched Happy Feet (not a bad lighthearted movie, good storyline and Australian made. I'd recommend it) at the local cinema before flying out that night. No wonder I was tired when I got back home.

The Frog took a Log on the Bog

Wotcher all!

I'm relaxing in the warm and humid climes of Derby. I've been doing little other than relaxing, reading under the air conditioner and eating, so I can feel myself expanding. I got in to Broome on Saturday to exit the plane to a smouldering humidity which, after the cool climes of the airplane and Perth, made you feel like someone was sitting on your chest. It was also still fairly warm, and remained that way until we completed the drive back to Derby.

On the drive to Derby I was on Brahman watch, just to make sure a stupid yearling didn't decide that it would be a good idea to run out in front of the car at the last second. Thankfully, we didn't see any, but we did see about five King Brown snakes warming themselves on the road. They generally got out of our road, except for one who was not quite so lucky who was sitting right over the middle of the road.

We arrived to a hot house and two excited dogs.

Since then it's been quiet relaxation, with occasional gorging on some delicious meal Clare cooked up and the odd wander around town in Clares little buzzbox. And if you really want to know what I'm eating, heres one we prepared earlier.



This was the pre-Christmas roast, which was scrumptious, and which I'm still eating. Even now as I type. Then for Christmas Clare cooked up a marinated turkey breast, stuffed with roast pine nuts, capers, apricots and spices. That was damn nice as well, and again, I'm still eating it now.

Other than eating I've been kept entertained by reading and playing with the dogs.


The one on the left is Luci (pronounced Loo-chee, short for Luciano), the one on the right is Lucky. They're very cute, and having a human pay them attention is the single most exciting thing that could possibly ever happen to them.


But one cannot stand the other getting attention when they're not. So patting one of the dogs will inevitably end with the other forcing their way in front of the other and pushing them out of the road. Then it's a lickfest for my attention. My knees and elbows have never been licked so much in my life (not through want of trying). After this the dog not getting attention will roll over and start biting the other on the legs, dragging it to the ground. At this point, I've become redundant as the dogs will proceed to wrestle each other for at least the next five minutes.

Other than the dogs, I've been watching the cricket during the day (although I'm going to go for an explore today as Clare is in at work) and being impressed by the wildlife around at night. Just so you know, this is the neighbourhood.



And these are some of the visitors we've had.

Here's one of the many gecko's that sit on the windows and eat the bugs attracted to the lights on inside the house.


Then theres the Shower Frog, that lives in the s-bend of the shower. It comes up through the plughole every time you take a shower in an effort to avoid the water flowing down the drain.


I unfortunately didn't think of taking a photo of the Green Tree Frog that popped up through the lav and curled up on the wall in the corner of the room (edit: We've just had two appear on the back door, so here they are).


It also shat on the cistern, hence the title of this blog. This particularly friendly feller then wandered down the corridor in the middle of the night and ended up climbing into bed with me. Well, under the mattress, as I discovered the next day when I put it away for the day.

Well, Clare is coming home for lunch and I'm going to head off and explore in the afternoon, so I'll sign off for now. Just as a closer, heres a picture of the two of taken on Christmas day.

Water and TOIL

Had a good watery week. I went to a town about 300km south of home to help some local natural resource management officers place observation bores around areas where groundwater is expressing at the surface and killing trees. We're monitoring changes in the water table with the planting of masses of trees. They're mostly pines, unfortunately, but they're the most favoured plantation timber and once established they suck up massive amounts of water and do a good job of stabilising the water table.

The next day I cruised north for another meeting. This time it was with a group of natural resource management officers to target specific areas in combatting salinity. I found out some highly interesting information on areas currently suffering the effects of salinity. Much of it is associated with clay and shale outcrops, which naturally store a lot of water, but do not transmit it easily.

With all the extra water that has been added to the ground since clearing in the 50's, 60's and 70's, the water is starting to come to the surface in these formations. It is not always saline, but as it evaporates off, the salts in it naturally concentrate and bingo! You've got a salinity problem.

After that I did some inspections of water sources and of a cattle feed lot. Fun stuff. I love getting out in the field. And you know the best part? I've clocked up the extra hours that give me three days off over Xmas without having to use any leave!! WOOHOO!

Had a BBQ with a mate who is going to South America for a year. Lucky bastard. I gave him some tips on places to go.

One week to go before the Xmas holidays! Hoo-bloody-ray! Broome and Derby, here I come.

Flog and food

Played a round of nine holes yesterday with eight other guys from the office. We had a damn good time, with Johnno hiring a cart (he's got a dodgy hip) and carrying around an esky- as well as mine and his clubs. It was a pretty dangerous game, as everyone was taking their shots at pretty much the same time, so you had to be aware of the potential to get smacked in the back of the head by a golf ball.

Played my best hole on the par 5 fourth that doglegged to the right. I hit four of the most beautiful shots of the day that went a mile. Unfortunately, they all bounced off trees and ended up about ten metres from where I played my original shot from and I took about ten shots on the hole, but I really struck the ball well.

I also managed the furthest tee shot on a dead straight par 4, thanks to Steve lending me a higher tee and his bloody mammoth one wood (which, unsurprisingly these days, was metal).

As the round went on my game deteriorated. Be it due to me being unfit or through me thinking too much about my shots. Maybe it was due to the six pack of Coopers I polished off by the ninth. But it was a fun day out.

Last nights Xmas dinner was a fun occasion, too. We had presentations, with Johnno scooping the awards for running over a pet duck at a local nursery. The food was darn nice, as I had the potato and leek soup for starters, followed by the lamb shank and mashed potato for entree (and this was seriously delicious- I really have to learn how to cook these) with a porterhouse steak and vegies for main. This one I was a little disappointed in as it was a little chewy and didn't feel like it had been cooked properly. Then I ate about one bite of a sticky date pudding for desert before giving it to another of my workmates to finish off.

Surprisingly, I drank very little and ended up home early as I collapsed in a heap after a busy day. I slept very well last night.


By the way, does anyone know how to subscribe to other peoples blogs, or link yourself to other bloggers? I'd like to be able to get a list of people I know online and see what they're doing, and know when Swamp Boy and Gator Girl, volcboy or whoever else post their next installment on their blog. By the way, volcboy, what is the link to Jacko's blog?