This will hurt me...

Stick with me mate, and we'll go places...

Little planes zipping about give the kiddies and I such pleasure. We see them here and there, and it never fails to amuse. I snapped this little bloke re-enacting the bombing of Guernica just outside our backyard! The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner , by Randall Jarrell From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Authors note: "A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man, a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the foetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. The hose was a s...

I'm so cool my goosebumps have goosebumps.

Fern Glade, home to the elusive platypus up there in Burnie, throws some great reflections on the water both morning and afternoon. I always like it when you struggle to tell where the water starts and the riverbank ends. This place used to be teeming with a subspecies of Emu (hence "Emu River"), that I fondly call "Mini Emus". They killed 'em all though. Every last one. Bastards.

The Burnie Surf Life Saving Club headquarters has been done up somewhat since I left town. The addition of a fish 'n chip joint in particular has won Henry's approval.

It's long overdue, I know, but here I present to you the gang all enjoying the Don River Railway! NOW IN HIGH DEFINITION!

Theme Thursday already? All right, squint really really hard at the view from Nutgrove Beach, and you'll see a windsurfer on the left, and a BELL on the right. Or maybe it's a BELL on the left or a windsurfer on the right. Look, one of them is a BELL and one of them is a windsurfer, take my word for it!

Aside from the multitude of fossils and the abundance of crabs, Wynyard's Fossil Bluff is an excellent place to forage for rocks.

Almost one year on from a previous post , the Diamond Princess is back, and some blokes are fiddling about below! It's the main problem with these big tourist vessels: wealthy passengers are so haphazard with their diamond tiaras and lobster claws, always dropping them over the side and scratching the Duco. Some poor mug (or two) always ends up each morning down with a can of paint and a roller, touching up the marks. Tut tut . That's the problem with the inconceivably wealthy, no respect!

Rebel without a clue?

I'VE GOT IT! I'm sensing that Henry and Ezra have been drifting away from me. They're always wanting to go to the park, the beach or the pool; seemingly anything to get out of the house and away from us. I never realised that it is the poor quality of the ciggies and drink that I lay out for them. Nothing but high end Rothmans and Johnny Walker Blue Label from here on in!

One of the exciting things about a visit to Seven Mile Beach is the aeroplane landings. Any visit longer than half an hour, and you're guaranteed to see a jet come in to land. It really is the bees knees.

And yes, people, his skin is indeed as smooth and as soft as it looks...

I've mentioned Fossil Bluff in Wynyard once or twice before, and I realised that I'd posted a lot of the beach, but not many of the Bluff itself. Thus, I thought I'd best post the remaining shots in a bunch and be done with 'em! For the uninitiated, a bluff is a "steep headland, promontory, riverbank, or cliff". The interesting thing about Fossil Bluff was formed as glaciers flowed as they were melting and reached areas of depression they slowed down, and dropped the rocks they were carrying. Over time, mud covered the rocks, which became a mudstone conglomerate. You can find granites, cherts, quartz, jaspers and agates in the tillite. Thus we have a sandstone Bluff - with layers of fossils encased in the stone - laying on top of the tillite. As you walk around the Bluff (at low tide) you are able to see where the sandstone and tillite meet. You will be glad to hear that the Bluff plays host every year to hundreds of drunken and randy teenagers. I remember it...

In ye olden dayes Henry, you used to be able to buy two beautiful Polynesian girls for a handful of seashells. We don't like in ye olden dayes any more.

10 Murray is a magnificent beauty in the morning. It seems that the powers that be have delayed her demolition in the face of spirited opposition! Perhaps we will bask in her glory for a little while longer. Time for another Sunday Top Five! Off the top of my head, I'm thinking about my Top Five Songs With The Word ' LOVE ' In The Title. 1: Where Did Our Love Go? , The Surpremes 2: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away , The Beatles 3: Will You Love Me Tomorrow , The Shirelles 4: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love d Me , The Smiths 5: Love Is the Drug , Roxy Music [Honourable mentions include: Love , Truth and Honesty by Bananarama; Love Is the Key by the Charlatans; (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love , and Understanding , Elvis Costello & The Attractions; Can't Help Falling in Love , Elvis Presley; Love the One You're With , Stephen Stills; You Love Us , Manic Street Preachers; Slave to Love , Bryan Ferry; Hot Love , T-Rex; and I'm A...