This will hurt me...

Have you checked your manhole today? Long Beach Walkway, Sandy Bay. January 2012. Last week's Top Five involved the bowling line-up of players that I've seen play , so I figure this week's top five six should finish the task. Thus, The Top Five Six Batsmen I've Seen Play Cricket To Be In My Side I Was Picking A Squad To Play A Test Against A Team Of Robots Programmed To Play Cricket Really Very Well! [In Batting Order.] [Note: this team will be playing to the rules of the mid-1980s, so we're allowed plenty of bouncers. Also, the curator has been told to prepare a tasty wicket, so no flat track rubbish that you see nine out of ten in modern tests...] C.G. Greenidge S.M. Gavaskar S.R. Tendulkar I.V.A. Richards S.R. Waugh (*) A.C. Gilchrist (wk) This team is rounded out by Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Shane Warne, Malcolm Marshall and Curtley Ambrose. Should be tough to beat on all tracks I reckon. Just missing the cut were Brian Lara, Mohammad Yousuf, Javed Miandad, R...

Who left these shells here? Clifton Beach, January 2010 . Yesterday I had occasion to neaten the hair, have a shave and dust off the suit (no, it wasn't a court date). Anyway, I noticed the difference in people's responses to you when you're all professional-like. Not least of which was the verbal abuse you get from people being arrested. I never get verbal abuse from people getting arrested when I'm in normal clothes.

Wall in Battery Point, September 2009 . Look at that wall will you? Just look at that shoddy workmanship. Bloody convicts. No wonder they got sent off to the other end of the world... Tasmanians are a funny mob when it comes to convicts. You are probably aware that one of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony far, far away to send their overabundance of criminals. Over the whole period of transportation of convicts, over 165,000 rapists, murderers, handkerchief thieves were dispatched to Australia. For us Tasmanians, we have an extra-special relationship with these vile scum pesky miscreants. You see, the soft, feeble and indolent New South Welch-people decided that the vilest, smelliest and foulest criminals would be better suited to somewhere else, away from them. Thus, a new penal colony was established in Van Diemen's Land! All those buggerers perverts cannibals kiddie fiddlers Irish prisoners who were unable to...

Looking at a tree, what do I see? Sunday Top Five! Today I can present my Top Five Pets To Buy Henry For His Third Birthday: 5: one wombat ; 4: a breeding pair of fairy penguins ; 3: one Siberian tiger ; 2: one [male] saltwater crocodile ; 1: one [female] Great White Shark . I'm thinking that it will make for a hell of a party.

So here is number two in my planned trifecta of textures. Yes, it's some worn old red bricks, and no, not the same red bricks that I featured last October . These red bricks are on the side of a shop, and at some point must have had an advertisment or mural painted on them. I'm not sure if the degraded brickwork is because of time, or a hurried job to clean off the paint. There are some interesting gouges in the bricks themselves, but I've no idea who (or what) left them there. After reading the past couple of day's newspapers, I have developed a theory: Sharks!

It’s all about the textures this morning. I am on a texture kick, photographing walls, grass, bottles, concrete, water, you name it, and I’m taking a picture. Here you can see some of the fine handiwork of convicts. Working on the premise of “make it fit”, these guys seemed to just shove any old bit of sandstone in to finish it off. It makes for some interesting walls.