This will hurt me...

Ground control to Major Tom… Top of Mount Wellington, Hobart. April 2012. This Sunday Top Five I am taking the opportunity to vent just a little bit. Yes, it is my Top Five Things This Week That Are Annoying Me (That Do Not Involve Children)! Hipsters. Or just anyone who is generally badly dressed but looks down their nose at other punters in the street because of their clothes/ haircut/ appropriately-sized eyewear. People who push in line to order food, but when they eventually are asked their order they don’t know what they want. Having to flick through all your tabs in your browser just to see which page is playing that stupid and annoying music so you can kill it. Forms that ask questions requiring an answer but don’t provide anything like the amount of space for you to adequately respond. When people say ‘literally’ but they really do not literally mean it.

The tower didn't last very long after this photograph was taken. Indeed, an error in calculation (they forgot to carry a three) in its planned destruction led to the top 27 floors (including the observatory deck and revolving restaurant) struck poor Jennifer on the head!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! St Johns Park, December 2010. Quite why this aged care institution (I think) locks its guests in a tower, I am unsure. One assumes that they must get rowdy as the X-Mas season creeps up upon us. Henry and I have been working on a draft letter the Satan Claws Father Christmas over the weekend, but we cannot quite get the tone right. We are finding it difficult to strike the precise balance between worthy, pious, and grateful; and the extremely long list of expensive and ostentatious that we want this year. Maybe we should try the Great Pumpkin instead? If there is one thing that you can say about our desires, they're " sincere ".

We call it Babel II . The living room, Geilston Bay. November 2010. If the boys let me, I can just about manage to get the Lego Duplo tower all the way to the ceiling. Then the race is on to knock the bugger down! For some reason, my children seem to take a profound and personal offence to the wonderful and impressive constructions...

There are more mountains and more snow. Mount Wellington, August 2010. Can you still hear the radio? Mount Wellington, August 2010. All the pretty flowers. Mount Wellington, August 2010.

Here is the castle mentioned last Thursday (or at the very least, the light towers that allow the castle to host day/night cricket matches). Yes, it is Light Tower One (or Two or Three or Four) at Bellerive Oval! I know that many visitors will find the notion of getting excited about light towers at sporting arenas quaint, but here in Tasmania they are – for the moment – a new fangled novelty. Remember, we didn’t get television here until 1963!

Two Telecom Telstra towers that loom over Davey Street as it turns into Sandy Bay Road. Some years ago, while fuelled with Dutch Mexican Courage late one night I made it a good way up that red and white one there. If you’re reading this Henry, disregard that last comment. I am of the firm opinion that titular wonder that is Johnny and the... can carry any suffix to a serviceable band name. I’ve tried all sorts, from the bland to the inspired: Johnny and the Cats . Johnny and the Rebels . Johnny and the Detectives . Johnny and the Miracles . Johnny and the Broken Down Washing Machine . Johnny and the Over Theorising French Post Structuralists . I happen to think they all work, which leads me to today’s Tuesday Q and A : is there your own personal " Johnny and the [insert suffix here] " that you like best? Any you think don’t work?

Yesterday saw a rather misty start to the day. Here is a view from Salamanca of the Telecom [Telstra?] tower with some hills in the background. There is a couple that I know that seem as desperately in love as they were when they first met over twenty years ago. They are deeply committed to each other, treat each other with the utmost respect, and remain as passionate about each other as teenagers. They share all decisions equally , power is evenly balanced between the two, and they truly seem to respect and admire each other as human beings as well as lovers. They tell me that their love life is rich and exciting and that they continue to stimulate each other intellectually and emotionally . It really is enough to make you sick.