Halloween in Between

I have always poopooed Halloween Day but if you can't beat em join em. For the second time we have been invaded by a mass of winged beasts. This has to be a Halloween sign. I bought three packets of  chocolatey chews yesterday so we are all set. When the ghouls come a knockin we have something in the stockin.  As I type this, thunder and lightning are racking the van. The roof is being hammered with heavy driving rain, it is black outside and it is 8am.  I can see pools of water forming on previously parched grass.

Giant ants with Wings

Collendina Pools

Sculpture take 2

We were hoping for a bit of a beach day however the fickle Sydney weather has struck so we went back for another look at the Sculpture Walk. There were parts we skipped such as the indoor pavilion which had mini versions of the exhibits and more. These were available for a cheaper price such as a $32,000 steel fist going for a mere $2500 but much smaller. The rain came back just as we finished the walk. The strategy of avoiding the weekend crowds worked well however there were hundreds of school kids today.

Duuuuuude!

Mirage $26,000

Alternate Mirage

China Diner

We have taken a sojourn to Sydney but the work must go on. Debbie ran another Webinar last night proving once again that her business is completely mobile, although we could have used an HDMI cable to turn the TV into a second screen. There were 34 attendees who would never have known anything was different. Went to the China Diner after that which was right next door. Very tasty dumplings and cuttlefish fingers which I have never had before. The Adina Apartments are well situated for a visit to Bondi. It also has a pool and a spa down below.  25 yar ago I was here for the City to Surf, even bigger crowds then.

Giant Arrow Head  $45,000  Takihiro Hirata

Half Gate $55,000  We're in there.

Sculpture by the Sea

Made it to Bondi at about 11:00am. The temperature was hot at around 30 degrees but we new a storm was coming mid afternoon so we headed on out to walk our way to Tamarama and back before the rain came. I would recommend this as a good activity, as the imagination these guys use for their creations has to be seen to be believed. We have chased this sort of thing around the world and have many photos. The scenery is spectacular to begin with but when you add crazy art it is over the top. There were over 100 exhibits, the burned tree below is called "Ashes to Ashes" by Kim Perrier for $58,000, it is a Marry Stump with Jarrah Charcoal. The other is Wave No2 by Annette Thas only costing you $28,000. Have a close look at what forms the wave.

Burned Souls

Doll Wave

Let Lygons be Lygons

Before we went to Mars we went to another planet called Mercadante. The food was good. I guess you can't say Spaghetti and Meat Balls was out of this world because it was just in Lygon St. However S&MB is a rare thing. I have not found it in many restaurants. I was tempted by the Calzone which I tried once in Evian but it was huge then and the size here looked huge as well.

Wood Fired

Lygon St Limbo

When the sun sets over Carlton
And the moonlight floods the streets
All those pizza places and spaced out places
They all get on the beat

Sols aint Sols

Checked out "The Martian" last night. Ridley Scott just loves to do the space movies. The graphics are always getting better with each new film.  If ever you wondered what Mars was like this film will show it.  NASA says they can get to Mars in the next 20 yar.  That would be 20 x 365 days on Earth however on Mars the daily rotation numbers 668 times (Sols) for a complete orbit of the sun. Equivalent to 686 Earth days or 1.88 Earth years. So on Mars you only wait another 10.6 yar. Simples!

Do they make chocolate here?

Cox Plate

I went to Medical One to see the doc about a gooey eye that was steadily getting gooier. It just so happened to be Cox Plate day. I have had a racing day on my list to check out what goes on there having never been before.  The Medical One was besieged by anti horse placard wavers. Also the SES and Rotary were everywhere on the roads and the street was blocked off just past the doc's entrance. Puckle St was going off. Every café had the all day breakfast going and there wasn't a seat anywhere at 9:30 am and all you could see was suits and fascinators.  Having survived all this the doc said he couldn't do much for the eye and just to clean it out with saline. 

I should place a bet on 'The Cleaner'

herbie vs veggie

The garden evolvement continues with inclusion of a herb patch not to be confused with your full on veggie garden which seems to be all the rage with some restaurants where you always have to use the local produce ie go out the back and pick your own basil. Well we have some oregano, rosemary and thyme (sounds like a song lyric) in our patch however I don't think we have actually used any yet.

High level dog proof veggies

Herbs with water feature

St Fidelis

Just came back from a funeral. My old primary school was BOP's (now St Olivers). We played footy against St Fidelis. Everyone called them fiddlesticks. Its the first time I have been to that church even though it is nearby. Margaret Miller was 92 and died in her sleep.  I have never seen five priests conducting a funeral before and that included when the Arch Bishop came to Mr Waters funeral that time.  The Millers have monastic clout.
Turns out that St Fidelis was a German lawyer aka Mark Rey. I have no idea why you would change your name to Fidelis. But like a lot of other lawyers he was stabbed, as he was thought to be a spy.  Those Germans.  This all happened in the 17th century.

Priests and Beasts

Kitchen Kulture

The renovation history has rolled on over the years. I have uncovered some photos from when we first moved in. Kitchens are the hub and we have spent $'s on keeping that area up to date.  When we arrived in 1980 I think it was more of a trough than a sink in the kitchen. Iteration kitchen two became an all wood affair, the mission brown approach. Iteration three is now your stone bench tops and lighter self closing self cleaning kitchen. The photos below are all taken from the same spot.

1980

1984

2014

Food Truck's

What is the collective name for food trucks?  What if you have two groupings of food trucks in the same street. That might be confusing like at 518 High St and 520 High St but they are not next to each other. One is in Preston and the other is in Thornbury about 4kms apart.  They could be a menu of food trucks or maybe a circle of food trucks. The food was good for a truck. We tried the Yum Cha truck and the Slider Truck.

Overhead beer

Where's the noodle truck?

Steiglitz Retiree's Ramble No 8

It was 14 April 1984 when I did a 12hr Rogaine in the Steiglitz area. That day we travelled 26km! Yesterday was a mere 9 or 10 km in 3 hrs.  Munster, Flying Dutchy, Brownlow, Sixpac, Franster and Hostyle wandered around the gold fields but we did not find any gold.  It is mostly a ghost town with only the Court House, the Drapers Shop and a hall plus a few houses left.  It is dry open forest with lots of grass trees ( Xanthorrhoea ).


Open Sunday Afternoons

Hug a Xanthorrhoea



Low Profile Tyre

While driving to our walk yesterday we had a tyre problem and had to swap it with the spare. The spare looks like it came off a wheel barrow! The low profile tyres are meant to be safer in their road hugging ability particularly in the wet, but how long were we driving on it while it was flat? The damage to the tyre is a complete shredding on the inside rim.  We had a Volvo in Germany and the dash came up with a message about low tyre pressure. ( The international phone SIM was handy here as we had to translate the message in the car).  From now on when we "Start the fires we'll kick the tyres"  to make sure they are not flat.

On this day we had driven 80kms

Auction Madness

Interest rates have just jumped .2 %  because Westpac wants to and the other banks are going to follow. Rates are at rock bottom and the only way is up over the next few years, so does that mean a slight drop off in housing prices?  Well five doors down from us was an auction today. We got back from our walk just in time for the result. The house is nothing fancy. Needs a bit of work! It's a weatherboard with an iron roof that leaks! This is where the work is. You'd have to think under a million. Wrong!  The auctioneer was literally dancing in the street. Multiple bidders would not let it alone. For at least 45 minutes he kept coming to the third and final bid. So it went for $1,520,000.00 that is around 40 times the price we paid in 1980.

Auction tip - install an Aussie flag!

Plovers Return

The Plover signs have gone back up although I have only seen two plovers so far. Last night there were whippet like dogs almost catching birds but not quite. Dogs have to be on a leash at all times from now. We tried the Finska in soft sand yesterday. This severely restricts the migration of the pins. High tide and strong wind was not the ideal conditions to try.

Nest D - fourth nest ?

Soft Sand Finska

Hans Christian Andersen

We crossed paths with another literary giant in Denmark by the name of Andersen. I happen to have a copy of his fairy tales but I must say I don't think they are all his fairy tales.  Well the vast majority are his but I cannot think why he would need to copy some of the ideas from "The Arabian Nights" into his book of tales.  He has got plenty of his own ideas such as "The Ugly Duckling" , "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Little Mermaid" so why dress up a flying carpet as a flying trunk or have a Tinder Box instead of a lamp with a wish granting dog, instead of a wish granting genie? 
  After Ali Baba  stole his first batch of gold from the thieves, his wife wanted to measure it, so she went to her sister-in-law to borrow a measure. The sister-in-law placed suet in the bottom as she was curious to see what was being measured hoping some would stay stuck. In the tales, Little Claus borrowed a bushel measure from Big Claus.
 "What can he want with it? Big Claus thought; and he smeared some tar to the bottom of the bushel so that what ever was measured might stick to it.  Both of these resulted in coins being stuck to the bottom of the container.  Today you'd be in court contesting royalties but in those days I guess they didn't care.

Tattletale

Collective Nouns

Famous ones include "Murder of Crows" , "Parliament of Owls"  and a "Knot of Eels" but what is the collective noun for scars? For I am now collecting more scars.  I have a few ideas like a "Dermatology of Scars" or a "Pirate of Scars"  (after watching Black Sails) but the winner has to be a "Chest of Scars".  And I have the chest to prove it.

Ahhh another stab wound

Finska

Beryl has given me a Finska set. This is a game where you throw a lump of wood at other lumps of wood. There are 12 numbered cylinders standing upright and you score best by knocking down just one, preferably with a higher number.  There is an issue with who starts. as they seem to have an advantage with the first throw, as the cylinders nicely grouped. From then on they migrate all over the park. After the first session the pins are looking rather battered.

Bowling ?

Bannockburn

A small town just off the midland highway but the main street was buzzing. Cafe Sorell has a good selection on the menu. We were putting the finishing touches on a walk around Steiglitz next week. This is classic open walking country but there are some prickly growths. Plenty of bird life as well including Kookaburras.

Bush Chimney

Plough Hotel

Its over 100 yar old and was as rough as bags but the inevitable refurb and renovation has transformed it into a restaurant like feel. Their prices are high for a pub and if you are having a birthday then $50 to cut a cake is a bit much.  Especially if you get two cakes. What if we had devoured the other person's cake?  At least we got the $50 cakeage fee taken off.



Impostor cake & Real cake

Uberration

Seems to me UBER has a new product that is more efficient.  Governments have been caught out because they overcharge for taxi licences.  They can't have it both ways. This is not a new idea, GOV ride sharing schemes were always being promoted back in my MMBW days. UBER does that. There are lanes on the road where you can only drive with more than one person in the car. UBER does that. Keeping cars to a minimum and reducing gas emissions is a priority, UBER does that. Governments will start removing the rip-off licence fees soon, which should calm taxi drivers as well. How about this - what if taxis could also double as UBER cars when they are not busy.

Ancestor Note - Jack Welsh

The conversion of old photos to digital continues and this guy Jack Welsh who is Debbie's grandfather is a bit of a character. He had time for a lot of stuff but it seems his family was not part of his interests.  He worked his way through shearing sheep, waterside worker and on up to Secretary of the Milk Distributors Association. He travelled the world studying milk issues but before that had time to become the state light weight boxing champ three years in a row.  As well as a football career where he captain coached Geelong West to four premierships and then played at North Melbourne for 2 years in 12 games kicking 2 goals and wore number 27.

JW boxer on the left

JW sleeping in the shearing shed

Arabian Nights

When we were traipsing around Trieste at 38°  I found a reference to Sir Richard Burton and how he lived out his days writing and translating works into English. As it turns out we walked right past the house (ruin) where he did this work. Such titles as Kama Sutra, the Perfumed Garden and 1001 Arabian Nights were translated by him. Also he wrote about epic journeys like when he was disguised as a pilgrim and got his way into Mecca in the 19th century.
I was given a copy of the Arabian Nights in 1964 which I have just reread. They are all in there Ali Baba, Sinbad and Aladdin. It is wordy and awkward but there is no mention of Richard Burton only the guy who did the illustrations. RB died in Trieste in 1890 and they buried him in a concrete Bedouin tent.

Cloth Bound edition

Concrete Mausoleum

Garden of Plants

My car has returned from a stint of borrowing and I found a huge bag of plant food still in there from before the borrow.  However I can declare that the garden is finished. No more plants to buy or ornaments or watering system components. (As long as nothing else is stolen.) The amount of work that has gone into this project has taken months but now there is only the lawn mowing, edge trimming, weed pulling, weed poisoning, hedge maintenance including initial shaping  and placement of a Bustle in the Hedgerow, as well as three sided cutting (there will need to be a tool for this). 

Somewhere in Italy?

Budding hedgerow

I have made fudge

This needs to be declared castaway or survivor like when the flames were lit. I just used the gas stove but fudge has been made. I have diligently followed page 200 of the manual but the only thing I did not have was a 20x25cm slice tray. The photo in the book shows incredibly machined blocks of fudge that you could build a tower with. I have a spreading mass that does not reach the sides of the tin. Tomorrow's proof will be in the eating.

Photo has been fudged.

Moonah Links

At least I found where a bunch of retirees hang out but golf is not really my thing. I did have a few lessons once and I was told I hit the ball a long way. There are retirees so wrapped up in golf, they have to live at the course. This place has got houses all over the course. And if you can't live here then there were some old timers who filled a bus in Tassie with their golf gear, drove it onto the boat, then made their way down Mornington to this hotel, next stop is probably 13th beach via another ferry.  The hotel had good sized rooms and the breakfast was as good as any you'll find in Europe.

Moonah balcony Sunset

Breakfast Honeycomb