The Dark of the Sun

Wilbur Smith is an all action type of writer although the obligatory love interest does break up the shooting, the train wrecks, the petrol tanker and the general mayhem. He was born in Africa, so these African yarns have a hint of authenticity when you think back to Idi Amin. It is a secondhand copy I found on the shelf with a penciled $4.00 on the inside. I try to slot some variation in between the SciFi run that I am on.  This book was made into a film in 1968 with Rod Taylor. After reading the book it would be good to watch the film but you can't go into the VHS store like you used to.

Mill Pond Rain

Had our first rain in 5 weeks but it only lasted 5 minutes and it is still in the 30's for temperature.  It made for interesting photographic fare though with a brooding sky and a grey sheet of very calm water. I went for a swim earlier and located two large shell fish. I thought they were clams however the edge was not the wavy form of a clam but was serrated and sharp.  I have made a mental note of the sea floor location and will go back with a camera.

before the rain

Brendon and Yu Yangs

Distant Rain

Ray

Spent 2 hrs on the beach in the calmest conditions so far. There is a pattern to the wind in the last 2 weeks.  It is very calm up to mid afternoon then around 3:00 the wind picks up.  Today I could see 5 or 6 metres to the sea floor. I spotted the biggest ray yet,  all black and just sitting on the bottom sand.  Some spear fishermen were coming so I tried to shoo the ray but he was too deep.

Ray

So calm

Shuffling Deck Chairs

Yes this is a game that happens on cruises all the time however this time it's the good ship Opal Water.  We have taken down Laura's old outdoor setting and placed a new one.  There were some severe dents showing in the old one after a weighty bookkeeper sat on them. We haven't put the table together yet.

Visitors

Old

New

Poison

That's 24 hours I don't want to do again.  I ate something that definitely did not agree with me. It came from a plate of seafood that was served cold so I need to be on the lookout for that sort of thing in future. I was reduced to looking out the window again but it is entertaining in summer as there are all kinds turning up here to use the beach.  These guys must spend a lot of time painting their dog.

Jumpin Jack Rabbit

We finished off the day with a visit to the Jack Rabbit Cafe which is your casual dining option. It is just as big as the restaurant and maybe the views are better.  We shared a cold sea food platter complete with stuffed olives.  How do they stuff the olive without leaving any cuts?  I'll sleep well tonight.

hens in a row

dancing in a paddock

Sunset with Cabin Cruiser

Geelong on Show

A perfect 24° day today.  We drove into Eastern Beach about 1 hr before the women's race was due to finish.  We parked within a Km and wandered down to the finish line. We smuggled in a couple of travellers each and watched the big screen until about 6km to go.  There was no real rush. It maybe different tomorrow.  The Festival of Sails was also happening so we got amongst the yachts as well.
I managed to get some bling as a 39th wedding anniversary present.  We came back with two big umbrellas and a water bottle as souvenirs. A good day out.

Arlenis Sierra from Cuba

Sarah Gigante

Sailing Away

On the Road Again

My six week enforced physicality shut down has ticked by ever so slowly. I have just come back from a short bike ride. I went 10km in a slow pace around the side streets of Clifton Springs.  There was added pressure in the nether regions which I was trying to prepare for but to quote Phil Liggett, I did not need to stop for a natural break.  Prior to this operation, it was far worse, the pressure was painful trying to ride.  This is all in good time as tomorrow I am planning a short ride to the Cadel Evans race so we can bypass road closures.  Sarah Gigante is riding today good luck to her.

At the end of this road there were no sheep, just new houses

ButterFish

In the past few days we have perfected the snorkel out into the deeper water.  We have been swimming with the larger fish and can observe them hiding under logs and foliage.  Each time we have been out there the spear fisher men have not, but we have seen at least 6 big fish being speared recently from our vantage on the sand. It is more interesting on the bay side of the peninsula compared to the ocean side .  We have talked to the spear men and they assure that there are a lot of these fish out there. We have also heard they are boney and not that good eating.

Seems they need a lot of Butter

Eastern Beach

We are starting off the wedding anniversary a bit early by having lunch at Eastern Beach.  We did not know there was also a mineral spring there with some quite tasty water, also cool on a hot day.  We ate at the Wharf Shed and right next to that are the SteamPacket gardens. These have been taken over by the Cadel Evans Road Race for both the start and the finish.  We imagined getting a room in the Novatel with a balcony overlooking the finish but I think the race has booked the whole hotel for riders, teams and administration.

Contemplation Chair

Geelong in a Bowl

Notice the special fencing with legs on the crowd side

Barefoot Investor

We have been giving this book away of late but not actually reading it ourselves. Just about everything in there we have been doing for years.  His pet hates are credit cards, any kind of fees and property investment.  His go to moves are Superannuation and Managed Stock Market investing.  As usual with these types of books, a whole lifetime of strategies is laid out in 250 pages.  When I got to the retirement section, his idea of life in retirement is way short of mine eg no overseas travel.  But then again he is trying to do it using the pension and therefore only requiring you to save $250000.  I have dabbled with shares and still have some but if I had known about an automated share portfolio like AFIC when I was 21, I would have tried it.

Slipcase revisited

I got thru the rest of the photos in this book.  It had some surprises like sticky tape attached to many towards the end. Also some pockets had up to 10 photos shoved behind each other. In the end there were nearly 300 photos in it.  I have divided them in half to make two 21 minute films. Unfortunately I could not plug the USB into Nana's TV last week.  There are a few highlights here.

Ocean Grove 2003

Always some Clowns

Tough Guys

Easy Rider

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I looked up a few things reading this book, such as in the title, the canticle is a musical chant. There is a lot of latin and I just skipped over it. This book won the Hugo in 1961. It is declaring the futility of war and uses a religious theme to do it. Again not a new theme but back then he must have been one of the first. Leibowitz is just your average engineer but he drew some blueprints for circuit diagrams which survived the nuclear end of civilisation. He was killed by a mob as a typical type who started this mess. He became a martyr to a new order charged with preserving any technical info that may have survived.  So 600 yar later the story is picked up and then again later still until eventually in 3781 we are back, colonising planets but also continuing the nuclear destructive cycle.       This book came from Aquinas Collage Library copy no 24 and still has the classic yellow pocket for the date stamp card on the back cover.

Party Favourites

You can't keep a good 87 yar old down. Keeping track of the clap is impossible.  When the women are talking babies what can the blokes do, play down ball or go over to the neighbours lawn and start some Finska.  It was getting a bit crowded in there anyway.  The new bird bath looks like it had been there forever.

baby talk

broom stick down ball

The Sadies

Illegal Street Finska

Bird Bather

Day Trip to Elevated Plains

The Carney's have moved in so we traveled via C141 thru Daylesford and Hepburn Springs to their new place at Elevated Plains.  It is a big house on 3 acres only 8 years old.  Along the way we stopped at Anakie to try the Workshop Cafe.  We spied this cafe last time thru there and is a good half way stop after 1 hr. I drove for an hour on the way back so I shouldn't have any issues driving distance now.  Jenny put on a good spread for lunch and ten of us could fit on the deck around one table.

Quirky Decor but good food

The Big Deck

The dam is more for fire fighting but is evaporating

Swim Partner

Debbie has tried her first swim from groyne to groyne (with goggles and flippers).  There was hardly any wind with very smooth water but over cast.  It's like swimming across a desert as the sea floor is all dunes and volcanoes. She went the whole way on her first go. Why haven't I been doing this earlier that was fun? There was hardly anyone on the beach, although we did talk to a 30 yar local who has frontage onto the shore line next to the Dell.  She says she is always getting into councils ear about maintaining the area. They have lost 15 metres of their land due to erosion.

Calm

Close Up

Green Slipcase

This large album of photos has just arrived from Nana Beryl's.  It seems to be a mish mash of all sorts of trips, occasions and gatherings.  I have made a start on digitising the whole thing.

BrickWork

A swimming venue?

Northern Territory?

Green Thumb Update

The veggie patch is continuing to erupt.  It seems when you grow your own there is no size limit. Also careful inspection needs to be made as stuff can be hidden away even though they are huge. The benefit is now coming thru in the cooking phase. There was a big cookup yesterday of zucchini slice, trays of them.  I have only ever seen Roma tomatoes that are grape size but these are heavy in your hand like an apple.  The stuffing of zucchini flowers as a dish, seems like a TV show stunt, as you kill off the chance to grow the zucchini.

Eat that

Colourful

Red Roma

Food to go

Under water

We cancelled our snorkel today as the clouds came in but it was still quite warm to go over for a swim. And it does not mean we can't get some underwater photos.  On closer inspection it seems that the conditions currently are allowing for  a complete coverage of the bay floor with egg like structures. Debbie is going I'm crushing eggs under my foot. So we took a much closer look. The photos show there is something but they seem to dissolve when you lift them to the surface. They don't pop like bubbles but if it was air how does it form on the sea floor. 

Spores

Invaders - we cleaned up at least 20 of their cigarette butts