This will hurt me...

I ain't gettin' on no scooter.

'er indoors outdoors. Bellerive Esplanade , Bellerive. January 2013. A tricky Theme Thursday this week: CONFESSIONS. CONFESSIONS? Here are my CONFESSIONS... 1) I don't rate dogs. 2) If someone tells me I'm "nice", I don't take it as a compliment. 3) I think that people that enjoy the television show Friends must be a bit simple in the head. 4) If I can bring myself to forgive, I really don't forget. 5) Even though it probably isn't true, sometimes I am convinced that collectively, human beings have entered their highest stage of stupidity over the past fifteen years. 6) I have been known to truncate a storybook in the evening to ensure a quicker transition to bed. 7) Sometimes if I say, "It's not you, it's me", I really mean "It's definitely you". 8) Inwardly I judge people who take the elevator rather than the stairs very harshly. 9) I'm more offended by Lord Monckton's supremely rotte...

He thought that he had cut his lip. He did not.

He doesn't even show caution on the downhill curves!

My boys are unable to walk past a sausage stand without demanding one (or two, or three) sausages. Sans sauce, you understand. Straight up sausage in bread. Abbas is less sure.

Flowers. Bellerive Bluff, Bellerive. September 2012. A special Christmas Sunday Top Five today: My Five Favourite Kids Books That Venture Into Slightly Uncomfortable Territory But Impress The Children Immensely From 2012! Whatever , William Bee Tadpole's Promise , Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross Duck, Death and the Tulip , Wolf Elrbruch The story of the little mole who knew it was none of his business , Werner Holzwarth Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable , Nicola Davies and Neal Layton

We need a bigger boat. The Derwent Estuary, as seen from Bellerive. November 2012. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham: Fantastic premise slightly undermined by sloppy execution. The great set up is spoiled by too many lengthy, turgid monologues. That said, the central theme (i.e. human/ species 'nature', survival and society) is a powerful one, and the conclusion (albeit somewhat predictable) delivers. C .

Dead babies. Bellerive boardwalk, Bellerive. November 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Long Henry Silver or Calico Henry?

Destiny calls!

Does that smile look genuine to you?

The end of the race. Victoria Esplanade, Bellerive. February 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

A rock set among the shells. Derwent foreshore, Bellerive Boardwalk. January 2012. A very special Theme Thursday today, and all that I am seeking is a little BALANCE. It's Australia Day you see, and I hate Australia Day. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate Australia (some of my best friends are Australians!), I hate Australia Day . I hate the dickheads who shout AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE all day. I hate the pissed dickeads. I hate the dickheads decked out in Australian flag thongs , Australian flag shorts , Australian flag singlets , Australian flag hats waving little Australian flags . In the course of my lifetime Australians have gone from taking pride in their wry snub of ostentatious hubris and wrapping oneself in bits of cloth representing an empty symbolism to the kind of moronic culture that fuses heavy drinking, wrapping oneself in bits of cloth representing an empty symbolism and the kind of macho aggressive xenophobic posturing that has always been present bu...

Ezra tempts fate. Bellerive Wharf, Bellerive. January 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and daggering.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning ... YouTube is taking over the world! Don't say "man yoghurt" in my house... Anti-establishment Berlin football club sells its soul [to its fans]... Traps shut, kiddies! You've never had it so good ...

Not quite what I meant by 'chin up', but whatever gets you through the night.

One thing that you can say about the bloke: he puts on a hell of a show!

A close finish. The River Derwent, as seen from the Bellerive boardwalk. December 2011. This poem depresses me very much. I like it. Gunner , Randall Jarrell Did they send me away from my cat and my wife To a doctor who poked me and counted my teeth, To a line on a plain, to a stove in a tent? Did I nod in the flies of the schools? And the fighters rolled into the tracer like rabbits, The blood froze over my splints like a scab -- Did I snore, all still and grey in the turret, Till the palms rose out of the sea with my death? And the world ends here, in the sand of a grave, All my wars over? How easy it was to die! Has my wife a pension of so many mice? Did the medals go home to my cat?

Pointing south. Bellerive boardwalk. October 2011. Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes was written in 1958 and details the emergence of the ‘mod’ and explores uneasy race relations in inner-city London in the lead up to the swinging sixties. I initially found it a frustrating read, as the (unnamed) teenage narrator speaks with a litany of (now-) clichéd slang and puns, but once I reminded myself that in many respects MacInnes is recording this language in print for the first time I decided to roll with it. As such, it is an interesting snapshot of a very specific time and place, and the story rollicks along at a cracking pace to a decent conclusion. Recommended. I will be frank and admit that I did not find the same thing with Women As Lovers by Elfriede Jelinek. In the novel, Jelinek – an Austrian novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004 (a seemingly controversial choice) – employs an ‘interesting’ style. She avoids capitalisation entirely (including proper nouns). ...

One day Henry, this will be all yours...

No Henry, you can't have one...