This will hurt me...

More smoke! Errol Flynn Park, Sandy Bay. March 2013. Another stolen Q and A from Sunday Stealing: The Basically Obscure Meme-Part 2 . 38: How did you spend Valentine’s day? Much like any other work day. I've never been someone to be told when and how to express my emotions. 39: Do you eat enough vegetables? I think that I do. I eat more than most. 40: Do you like horror movies? How about thrillers? They're okay. I'll be frank though and admit that I've had little time for films in the past six or seven years. 41: Do you like scotch? ? Not particularly. 42: Who is someone you would never swear in front of? I avoid swearing in any work context (unless I'm very sure of the sensitivities of the person that I'm talking to). 43: Coolest thing you've ever seen on Halloween? We don't really have Halloween here in Tasmania. I did like the film, however. 44: If you could change your natural hair colour, would you? To what? I'm happy wi...

Lunch. Errol Flynn Park, Sandy Bay. October 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Achene. Front yard, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay. September 2012. Three books this week, well, two plays and one Regency romance (written in 1944) to be precise... The Caretaker , Harold Pinter: A play in three acts, largely a psychological study of lonliness, power, allegiance, innocence and corruption. Set in a dingy room with a cast no larger than two brothers and a tramp, this is quite a claustrophobic treat. B+ . An Inspector Calls , J.B. Priestley: Another three-act drama, this time set in 1912. A wealthy middle-class family receives a visit by a mysterious fellow calling himself Inspector Goole, who interrogates the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman. Essentially a scathing critique of the hypocrisies of Edwardian society and a premonition of the inevitable Socialist future. Striking. B+ . Friday's Child , Georgette Heyer: Incredibly silly romance featuring a cast of oddball characters and improbable set pieces. Although some of the tone jars...

Ball in focus. Casino as seen from Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay. Theme Thursday again and I'm being asked 'WHAT'S COOKING?'! "WHAT'S COOKING?", I ask myself. WHAT'S COOKING? indeed! Mischievousness, that's what! Casino in focus. Casino as seen from Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay.

Word gets around. Sandy Bay Rowing Club, Sandy Bay. August 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Events underwater. Just off Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. December 2011. Today for Theme Thursday I want to talk about taste. It is generally agreed that there are five basic tastes. Today’s theme is one that does not agree much with me: SWEET. I may be SWEET, but I have no great desire for it. People go on about SWEET want it, are addicted to it and in some cases are enslaved by it; but it has never particularly rocked my world. You see (and you would never guess this by the blog) I like Bitter , Sour and Salty. I have some time for Umami , but it is a clear runner at number four in my list. Colourful events underwater. Just off Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. December 2011.

Bleak times. Jetty as seen from Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. October 2011. James Wright is one of my favourite poets. Here is one of his poems. Youth , James Wright Strange bird, His song remains secret. He worked too hard to read books. He never heard how Sherwood Anderson Got out of it, and fled to Chicago, furious to free himself From his hatred of factories. My father toiled fifty years At Hazel-Atlas Glass, Caught among girders that smash the kneecaps Of dumb honyaks. Did he shudder with hatred in the cold shadow of grease? Maybe. But my brother and I do know He came home as quiet as the evening. He will be getting dark, soon, And loom through new snow. I know his ghost will drift home To the Ohio River, and sit down, alone, Whittling a root. He will say nothing. The waters flow past, older, younger Than he is, or I am.

Seen better says. The Derwent Estuary, as seen from Errol Flynn Reserve. October 2011. Theme Thursday again, and far be it from me to try and give you some kind of cheap THRILL by penning a brief Drabble inspired by the above tired boat. But I shall. He loved that boat like he loved his wife. In many ways she resembled the little runabout: THRILLing to begin with; developing into a sturdy and dependable relationship of shared joy. And it was. Eventually his eye was drawn to bigger, flashier models. Faster, sleeker, smoother and seemingly capable of giving him whole new range of experiences. She knew it too. It wasn’t quite resentment and it wasn’t quite resignation. There was anger. Nobody likes being taken for granted, especially after giving your all for so long. So early one evening, amidst a gentle chop, over the side he went.

Hello cocky. East Derwent Highway, the Lindisfarne/ Geilston Bay Border. September 2011. The rural and remote health workforce innovation and reform strategy , that’s what I’ve got on today. I was in two minds as to whether to wear the suit or an akubra (with semi-permanent squint and a gratuitous piece of grass wedged between gritted teeth . As there will be doctors involved, best to go with the suit. I couldn’t pull off an akubra anyway... Then I remembered that most of Tasmania is considered 'remote' and relaxed a little.

The sixth-ugliest building in Sandy Bay. Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay. September 2011. So I have the flu. Bravery / foolhardiness compelled me to go to work yesterday (that and a meeting that I really didn't want to have to reconvene), and it was indeed a struggle. To give you an idea, try this on for size: work up a nice little temperature and then chair a meeting in the late-afternoon (with teleconference), within which you also have to do a fair whack of the talking, as you arranged the thing. After valiantly making my way through the meeting (relatively) unscathed, the voice completely gives up the ghost in the cab on the way back to the office. Thus I find myself 'resting' at home today. Kogel mogel all around! Have you ever tried to pull to rowdy children through the delicate art of mime?

The usual suspects. Errol Flynn Park, Sandy Bay. August 2011. [..From left to right...] Uno. Dos. Tres. Cuatro. Cinco. A view of the Estuary. Errol Flynn Park, Sandy Bay. August 2011.

Full steam ahead means trouble for Papa . Starboard tack Henry! STARBOARD TACK!!!

E is for...? Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay. August 2011. A good week’s reading had this week, packed with quality. First up is Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs . An interesting exercise in creative writing, Black Dogs ‘mashes up’ the concept of a constructed autobiography. The story revolves around a frightening event which changed the whole life of the narrator's mother-in-law, and ripples throughout a family (continuing through to the extended family). Compounding the effect, the experience was not shared by her husband. Thus set in transit is a conflict of one partner’s pragmatic, scientific and materialistic beliefs set against another’s faith-based, spiritual journey. So, in spite of an enduring love and attachment, the couple part and pursue their own lives, shuffling children between the two worlds. Constructed in flashbacks (and flash-forward’s, and assumed reconstructed events by the narrator), the human interest is never overwhelmed by subtexts that include exploration of class...

Five boats. The Derwent Estury, looking towards Howrah from the direction of Sandy Bay. August 2011. I need to know what I need to know, but I need to know much more than I need to know because a lot of what I need to know I don’t know what I need to know. I don’t know what I need to know because I can’t know what I don’t know and I can’t know what I don’t know if I don’t know if I need to know (or to not know).

Now, this here looks familiar ...

Juvenile Kelp Gull. Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay. July 2011. I won't be late today, thanks to the twenty-fiver meme ! 1. Tell us about something that made you laugh last night. Tell ‘Em Steve Dave Overkill . 2. What were you doing at 8 pm last night? Writing this post. 3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? I am guessing drinking coffee. 4. What happened to you in 2006? Everything changed. We call him “Henry”. 5. What was the last thing you said out loud? [*This was last night as I’m typing the post, not 8:30 am*] “Are you going to leave those pants on?” 6. How many beverages did you have today? Knowing my habits, I will have had one glass of orange juice and one cup of coffee. 7. What colour is your hairbrush? Alas, I don’t own one. 8. What was the last thing you paid for? An apple. 9. Where were you last night? At home in bed writing this post right here. 10. What colour is your front door? A matte black glass door. It’s quite classy. 11. Where do you keep your change? In the...

It's all about your perspective. Marieville Esplanade looking up Napoleon Street, the Sandy Bay/Battery Point border. July 2011. I always think that if you find yourself out and about armed with a camera and don't come home with dirty knees, you haven't done all that you can do in pursuit of a halfway decent photograph. Granted, the older I get the more difficult it is to get back up without straining some muscle somewhere or dislocating a kneecap, but are we not supposed to suffer for our art? Now I'm not talking about nailing one's old fellow to a two by four or self flagellation atop a canvas. I just mean get down in the dirt and check out those parallel lines. Tired of another photo of the clouds? Try it lying flat on your back. You might be surprised at what you see if you mix you angles up a bit.

One of the bonuses of the new place of work is that this park is a mere two minutes away (on foot)! As you can see, Henry now feels as if he owns the place.

Handsome Henry harnesses his habromania.

Black Bart Roberts, Stede Bonnet, Sir Francis Drake, William Kidd, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Redbeard, Jean Lafitte, Henry Morgan and John Hawkins eat your heart out!