The Sign

This book tries to combine global warming with religious fervour for the mother of all causes. But in the end science and technology was the creator behind the sign,  with hundreds of nanobots flying around.  Plenty of action as well, by the time the good guys got on top.  I might try to get Raymond's other book about the Templars.

Spa Time

After a year of non use we have plumbed the depths, fixed the aqua and warmed the waters.  We tried it last night without any real chemical preparation and the circuit breaker tripped, not that chemistry has anything to do with power supply.  So today we have properly shocked and sanitised the system. This should help to expel the winter aches.

Day 1 -  Just add water - 2013

Day 2 - Bubbles

Day 3 - Crowded

State Library

Last time I was at the State Library was in the RMIT Cartography days around the 1977 era. This place is huge and getting bigger. The art gallery left, then the museum left, so more space for the books. But not just books although there are now 4.4 million of them, mostly in Ballarat where they can be retrieved over night. There are still exhibitions, historical displays  weddings, lectures and you can also read a book.  But only for reference not for lending.  The tour lasted 90 minutes and that was trying to be quick.

Vacated Museum

Reading Room

Shakspere

NBN eight years in the making

This is the first post I am making after switching to the NBN.  It certainly was a minimum of fuss. Having existing fibre cabling from previous Foxtel services helped as they just plugged in the box tested it and left.  I did get them to put in a three way splitter which got the Foxtel going to other parts of the house.  I was generally happy with the existing Optus fibre. It is supposedly weather warn having been hanging from poles for 20 years.  This cable is underground and much faster in both upload and download speeds.  This photo uploaded in less than a second where previously there was a distinct wait before publishing the post.

The NBN Connector is on the left, new router is the white box

Tasman Glacier Fly By

I have been revisiting Google Earth and Google Maps.  I have previously mentioned the plotting of wayside points in GM using icons and photos as icons to show the route of your trip  A manual plotting of points provides a good result if you can find where the photo was taken. Prior to GPS co-ords being included in cameras, this was the only way.  With GPS comes the GM import option. You can load a representative set of photos to your Google drive and create an album for them.
In Google maps you have a one time only option to import a set of photos to a newly created layer in your map.  Sounds fine in theory but the GPS does not always work at the time the photo is taken. Also the import never takes them in the order you have placed them in the album.

This has consequences for any FlyBy sequence you are trying to establish.  Once the map is set, with all waypoints, photos and captions in place the export option can be used to create a Keynote file for use in Google Earth.  The order of progression can be adjusted in the KML file by using a text editor like Wordpad.  Search for your first waypoint using either its caption or a GPS co-ord. Cut the text between <placemark> and </placemark>  and position it at the top without disturbing any other code. *Note to Google developers to incorporate the time taken field as a sorting method to preserve the chronological order.  After some time the file is now in order.  Import the file into Google Earth and save it to My Places.  Now the FlyBy can be run to show your tour.   I have prepared a short one below where I have tried a physical interaction which takes some practice to appear seamless. I used SnagIt to record the show.

WayPoints View

Hen's a clucken

The Hens are off and running.  Lots of colourful decos and plenty of food.  There are two bucks here including the Alpha Buck (Rick) or should that be Rooster, accompanying the main hen (Laura). Elyce is doing question and answer games with some tricky answers. Later this will morph into a Hucks or perhaps that should be a Buens night for some more to eat and drink.

With the Rooster

The Ocean at the end of the Lane

I've read a lot of books. The word that comes to mind to describe this one is, weird. I'll make something up.  " I was listening to an old fashioned record when the table was knocked and the record came off the turntable. Not to worry, the record started singing through the hole in the centre. Then it asked for requests and I said can you dance as well and the record said I don't have any legs stupid."    You could slot these sentences anywhere in the book and you wouldn't notice.  It's not easy writing a book. You've got publishers, editors, critics to deal with.  Neil Gaiman is an aussie writer who has tried to remember his worst nightmares and write them down as a story 40 yar later.

Kanteen

This was an indoor outdoor venue placed right at the bike track in Richmond. It is not licensed and the cappuccino came in a small latte drinking glass.  However the shared burger was just what we needed and the chairs did not leave lines on your bum.  The view of the Yarra was OK but it never seems to have any other colour except brown. This place is named after the toilet key!

Kanteen

Como Landing

Herron Island

There was no way I thought I would be taking a boat ride today especially starting out on the bike but you never know where you might end up. We were  riding a new section of Yarra bike track on the south bank towards Richmond. We came across a small punt taking people over to Herron island for an exhibition of art, sculpture and baskets.  The boatman said we looked old so we could go across for free.  The art seemed a bit soso and not too many had sold and it was the last day after four months.  The sculpture always seems more interesting especially big outdoor versions.

Rocky Wings

Take a Punt

LeggoLand

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in Leggo lately.  I notice that Chadstone and Southbank have some sort of Leggo activity opening up. We rode to the International Leggo Show at the museum however the entry was via an appointment time session, so when we arrived at 11:30am we could not get in until 4:00pm.  Then they wanted $70 for the fee.  So we just snuck a look at some of the exhibits anyway and gave the rest a miss.

Ben Lexcen NOT

Another DumDum

Half Moon Bay

Called in here as we were driving past.  There are a lot of quiet beachy places hidden away. This one comes complete with a shipwreck. The HMAS Cerberus was scuttled here as a breakwater.  There is a restaurant and also a kiosk for fish and chips.  There are some photogenic sheds as well as the heavily eroded cliff.

Cerberus has a 100m exclusion zone

Beach Colour

Moon Scape

Lobster Cave

This place gets a lot of advertising. The latest push seems to be via gift vouchers. Buy a $100 voucher and get another $100 voucher free.  Debbie was given a voucher by her bookkeeper colleagues last year. It took an hour to get to Beaumaris but we were ready for that. It seems only one of your two vouchers can be used per booking.  We just had to go with seafood being a lobster cave so we got the whiting tails with a barbecued lobster tail and prawns on the side. It was a lot of food and they kept bringing complimentary dishes like a tapas starters and also cake and port.

Side dish of lobster,prawns and rice

The Cave

Campari Cafe

Another of the many eateries in hardware Lane.  This one is largish with a rooftop bar so any one in party mood can stay up late.  We had a pizza to share for lunch. Not sure about the car park next door but the sun was shining.  Bike parking is tight but there are some posts nearby.

Get Camp pie here

Cold South facing apartments

Wild Colonial Boys

Rode back to the old treasury building to check out the Bushrangers. The Kelly gang were the main interest but Jack Duggan and Mad Dan Morgan were also on show.  Had a closer look at the gold vaults and picked up my gold license.  There was a section on Alma Tirtschke and how Kevin Morgan got her hair analysed thereby posthumously pardoning Colin Ross of her murder. The ride in to town was via Rathdowne St with a short cut through the Exhibition buildings. There is a bike lane most of the way.

Gun Alley

Gold

License to Riches

Villa Romana

The walk down Lygon St can be an ordeal if you don't have a destination in mind.  It's the hesitant stroll that the spruikers hone in on. We were strolling, not sure which doorway to turn into. Fortunately we didn't go that far before we found Villa Romana. I can recommend the Penne Polpette for its homemade meatballs. The french waitress in the Italian restaurant was different. We are now up to date with all things taylored.

Debbie Laura Geoff and Jill

Roman House

Mockingbird

I saw this film years ago but now that I have read the book I can see now how Boo would defend Jem and Scout, his "friends from afar" even though he had never met them. Mockingbird's are like Lyre birds in they mimic what they hear so you wouldn't want to kill one. It's all in the book!

True Colours

They might be in their 70's but Debra Harry and Cyndi Lauper and can still belt it out.  I think the Lauper show came out ahead of the Blondie show.  The volume seemed to be getting steadily louder by the end of the night. Or am I showing my retirement age.  The restaurant we used last time is completely demolished as part of an upgrade.  That didn't start us off to well as we only had the venue's crappy chips for tea.  In the end the Cyndi original songs won the day over the distorted Blondie offerings.  We had good seats compared to the Sting concert.

Girls just having Fun

Collendina Report No 346

The burning off continued all along the bay shores. Annoying when smoke starts to obliterate the sun which was later in the day. Before that the snorkel started slow but the water was clear.  We saw a large pod of 20 or so big eyed fish with small wing like dorsal fins.  They were some sort of sea bass. On the way back we saw a large jelly fish puffed out in all its slow moving grace. It was a Haeckel's Jellyfish.There were no tentacles but it did have a central tail.  The Carney's cooked us up some Asian style noodles and fish last night. Very Tasty.

The warty lumps have stinging barbs.

Collendina Report No 345

It seems Facebook has a habit of regurgitating stuff on an annual basis in the name of reliving the past.  As it turns out today is the 3rd anniversary of official retirement.  This is in fact now a count up from retirement, changed from a countdown to retirement. Not that anyone is particularly counting down.  The Beacon Point side of the Bay was shrouded in smoke today. It must have been controlled burn off day as we noted five columns of smoke on a separated time scale.  The snorkelling was interesting as always.  We went in before the sun was covered and had very clear water.  Many different kinds of fish hiding in the grasses. We had not seen dead rays before but this time there were two and they were both belly up on the bottom.  The shipping report includes two major bulk carriers in and out of Point Wilson. The Falcon Triumph was heading to Melbourne and the Federal Island had come from Philedelphia.

The Federal Island with smoke haze

Collendina Report No 344

The Daylight changes are more noticeable down at the van.  The sunrises and sets are are wandering further north as well as the high tides being really high, such as 1.6 metres yesterday at 5:00 pm.  We took a high vantage on a Dune Throne and watched it unfold.  School's out but there is not that many people here at the moment.

Sun rises are heading left

Home Hotel

We have used this hotel previously but this time we ate in the lounge.  The decor is old world dark wood charm inside but a really decent sized car park out side which was better than back in Warburton where we couldn't a space anywhere.  Launching Place is where they used to put the boats into the Yarra to get goods to Melbourne.

Home Sweet Home Hotel

The Ada Tree

The Ada tree is a mighty big tree. I was last there in 1981 all of 36 yar ago and it has probably grown 5 metres since then.  It is currently 75 metres tall and the leeches know that humans congregate in the vicinity as I flicked off 14 of them but only two latched on for a bite.  In 1981 my family was there with me but there were no raised board walks then.  The walk was 12 kms return from the new Federal Mill site.

Old Bogey 1981 - Brian, Leanne Roberts

Ada bush Debbie, Kai, Leanne,Neil 1981

Boiler

Blood Sucker