This will hurt me...

A tiger snake's-eye view of cranky Hanky and co down Eaglehawk Neck way... Watch out Henry!

Evening falls. Then gets up again. East Derwent Highway, Geilston Bay. April 2011. Sunday Top Five and today's top five is brought to you by the city of Batmania Dutergalla Melbourne ... Five Things On The Agenda For Melbourne Over Easter ! By the time this list appears, I expect that we shall be part way through this list already… Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Aquarium Melbourne Museum Royal Botanic Gardens Scienceworks We also have an extensive list of all relevant eateries, shops, retailers and hot dog stands to keeps us busy. As you can see, we like to combine our fun with our learning . I usually like to finish these trips with a questions to answers ratio of 20:1, which strikes me as a healthy sense of our own knowledge.

A handful of seaweed, a footy, an unfettered idea and positive sense of self/ What more could you possibly ask for?

Back when we had more sand in the sand pit. Backyard, Geilston Bay. December 2010. We have a full agenda on our hands for the big Melbourne trip: the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Museum, ScienceWorks, the shops the shops THE SHOPS . I’m not sure that we’ll even have time to squeeze in a spot of sand pitting… [I married] by Lorine Niedecker I married in the world’s black night for warmth if not repose. At the close— someone. I hid with him from the long range guns. We lay leg in the cupboard, head in closet. A slit of light at no bird dawn— Untaught I thought he drank too much. I say I married and lived unburied. I thought—

I think that Jen has spotted this Wally pretty easily...

Police HQ. Corner of Liverpool and Argyle Streets, Hobart. April 2011. Three books this week, and all rather good. Reading in the Dark is Irish poet Seamus Deane’s first. The novel is set in Derry, Norn Iron Northern Ireland and explores the fractured nature of identity, religion, memory and family. Indeed, a working title could well have been Secrets and Lies … Narrated from the point of view of a young Catholic boy, the novel is constructed from a series of vignettes that are dated and run in chronological order. However, the heart of the plot includes a number of unspoken family secret events dating back to the Irish Civil War and the bloody partition of 1923. Of course, such a setting presents some decent grist for the mill of a novelist. Thankfully Deane makes the most of it. This is a heartbreaking novel, all the more so when you realise that it could just as well be called a ‘memoir’, as events mirror Deane's upbringing. It can get a bit confusing at times, but that happen...

Wouldn’t you just love to be that lamp post?

A crime has been committed. De Bomford Lane turn off, East Derwent Highway, Geilston Bay. April 2011. If you think that Hobart is some serene and peaceful idyll filled with blissful and benign sprits floating around gently hugging each other, THINK AGAIN ! I couldn’t possibly comment on the perpetrators of the heinous act I’ve photographed above, but I suspect that it might have something to do with the kind of internecine war commonly found in groups like the Cripps , the Bloods , Mara Savatrucha , Sureños , the Hells Angels , the Babysittters Club and the Muppets . The local hardcore exxxtreme posse is the notorious Risdon Vale Boyz . Note the nerve-jangling utilisation of a ‘ z ’, as this flagrant disregard of the correct plural suffix indicates an exxxtreme challenge to established authority. You see, the breakdown of society begins with importer syntax and sentence construction, it continues through car theft and wilful destruction of authority, and into the kind of anarchy that ...

I mentioned Long Beach Playground earlier today (a.k.a. the ' big park ')... Well, here is handsome Henry himself coyly strolling along that very walkway.

Mussels, seaweed and a mountain. Little Howrah Beach, April 2011. You can get a reasonable sense of Hobart from Little Howrah Beach. On the right, you can see Bellerive Bluff on Hobart’s eastern shore. Look closely and you will see the triumphant light towers of Bellerive Oval, home of the all-conquering Tasmanian Tigers.™ Behind that, and across the Derwent River Estuary, you can see Hobart’s western shore nestled in the foothills of what eventually rises up to Mount Wellington, which tends to dominate the vista of the city (except on cloudy days). You can see the Sullivans Cove and Hobart’s waterfront area at centre-right of the picture, with the imposing flourishing meagre scant spattering of large buildings sitting just behind it. Shifting further left you’ll see Battery Point, Sandy Bay, Lower Sandy Bay across to Taroona on the left of the image. At the extreme left you can just about see Long Beach – home of the ‘ big Park ’ – which has featured prominently on the blog, as th...

Two brave souls test the waters down at Opossum Bay. This one was taken back in February, and I shudder to think about how cold the water is right now!

A centre of learning. Campbell Street, Hobart. February 2011. Another busy morning has seen me miss the deadline for the first time in a while. We’re all going to Melbourne on Thursday. Whatever will we do?

I am so happy that the scourge of angry robot dinosaurs has been wiped from the face of the Earth…

Their own cross to bear. St Johns Park, New Town. April 2011. Sunday Top Five day and what possible top five could top The Top Five Churches That I Have Been Into And Find Firmly Stuck In My Mind ? As a person of no faith [and believe me, at this point I have no faith in anything at all…] you know that a church must have something going for it to either have me going inside, let alone remember much about it. Nürnberg Frauenkirche , Nürnberg. Seriously, how could you go past a church where the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned? St. Vitus Cathedral , Praha. A spooky number located inside the castle, we were fortunate enough to see just towards the end of the restoration of the façade out front. Notre Dame de Paris , Paris. Jean de Jandun nailed it in 1323: “that most terrible church of the most glorious Virgin Mary, mother of God, deservedly shines out, like the sun among stars..." You really do have to see it to believe it. St Paul's Cathedral , Melbourne. A testament to the w...