This will hurt me...

Sydney, as seen from the Manly Ferry. September 2012. Theme Thursday again and the day is nearly over. I didn't have a strong FOUNDATION to start with, and I will be frank and confess that the sheer number of panties, knickers and assorted ladies undergarments that I was confronted with today really did undermine any potential ideas that I was planning this Theme Thursday. It was a warm start this morning. 23°C when I stepped off the bus in town (7:40 am) which meant that every second lady in Hobart seemed to have opted for a skirt or dress. However, the 140 km/h renders the combination every pervert's dream . What's the emoticon for blush again?

I'm not going rafting up the Picton River. Tahune Forest, September 2010. If anyone knows how one might best alter the tone and inflection of my elder son's carping, answers on a postcard please... Which brings me to today's Sunday Top Five ! Today, we're cataloguing Henry's Top Five Complaints! Yes, for a fellow still not four years old, Cranky Hanky has a long list of grievances that he likes, nay, needs , to share on a regular basis. " IT'S NOT FAIR !" " YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR ME !" " NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !" " GET OFF ME EZZIE !" " STOP TALKING TO ME !" I'm still not going rafting up the Picton River. Tahune Forest, September 2010.

The ties that bind... Sullivan's Cove, May 2010. I've long held that there are only two kinds of people: people who ask questions and people who don't ask questions. Oh, and mutes. I'm not a mute and I ask questions. That's the kind of people I am.

Here, for the very first time, I can present to you Henry as Telemachus and Jen as Penelope, discussing the long journey ahead. Off camera, of course, Ez and I re-enact Achilles' last stand.

See crab. Be crab. Seize crab. Eat crab. Be crab.

Little blokes in little boats, leaving bigger boats, while surrounded by other boats. It’s the story of my life! These boats are in Bellerive. Pretty boats. All the pretty boats.

Here is a shot of a penguin rookery located right in the heart of Burnie (West Beach, to be precise). You can't see any penguins because they are all fast asleep. How, I am not so sure, given that Henry and Ezra were making a terrible racket at the time.

A couple of buoys, waiting for some girls, down in Sullivan's Cove. There are boats everywhere in Hobart at them moment. Sameness , by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Over all hilltops is peace in all the treetops you feel barely a breeze; The birds in the forest have stopped their song Wait, before long you too will be still.

The water taxi chugs its way across the Derwent River Estuary towards Sullivan's Cove, perhaps from the Geilston Bay pier, loaded with cranky toddlers ready to hit the pubs and clubs and give the usual gang of pissed idiots a run for their money. One can only hope!

Watching Henry trying to figure out a drinking fountain is one of life's richer pleasures.

Another day, another photo from Seven Mile Beach! Christmas is coming, and nothing says Christmas in Australia like the beach. Last year, after a morning spent unwrapping stuff and a nap, we spent Christmas afternoon at the beach , and I'm hoping that the weather allows us to continue that tradition. It beats snow!

One day I am going to take the ferry to work. One day. Here is the ferry [I think] MV Jeremiah Ryan cruising its way around Bellerive Bluff. I lost my camera the other day, and I am very down about it.

She's back! In what must be the world's fastest trip to Antarctica and back, the Aurora Australis is back in town. I suspect that they never made it all the way down, and headed back to get some extra loaves of bread. Penguins, you see, can never get enough Vegemite sangers .

Another day, another shot of the surface of the water. Yes, it is the Derwent River again! In my world, it seems that the terrible twos have mutated into the wretched threes early, and we have one junior Idi Amin - only with less concern for others - on our hands. It makes for a pleasant day. I suppose that it could be worse, he could be Roman Polanski. If he were Roman, however, at least we could on Hollywood to stand by him ! It's a good thing that Polanski only raped a young girl, and not anything to do with dogs . The public's forgiveness has its limits, you know!

Here is one of the surviving branches down on Salamanca Lawns this morning. I reckon that it has rained pretty much non-stop for the past three days. Indeed, talk of the weather has garnered Tasmania a few headlines this morning . We enjoyed a few hours without electricity yesterday, delightfully coinciding with a feverish desire on behalf of two littlies for DVDs that only the most innovative use of Duplo could quench.

A firm rope is needed to keep me at work today, especially given this shocking cough that I seem unable to shake off. These ropes, however, are not shackled to me; rather, they are all that keeps the pirate brig tourist pleasure craft Windward Bound from pillaging the penguins who make Macquarie Island their home. If only I had a rope, however, for I am due in a three hour meeting shortly. Jesus, save me...

I'm continuing to use up my stockpiled winter photographs, a foggy morning down by the waterfront can be seen above. That said, the morning THIS fine September morning is bright and clear, with the sound of the washing machine doing its magic as the line steadily fills up today. Indeed, I expect it to be filled with handkerchiefs alone, judging by the past week around these parts! Time for the Sunday Top Five . I thought I'd go a little educational today, and list the Top Five Moneyspinners For The Tasmanian Economy ! Tasmania has a reasonably diverse economy with lots of different exporters. In the main, we export to Asia, and Japan being easily our largest single receiver of goods and services. 1. Processed metals : here it is all about zinc and aluminium. 2. Tourism : and growing. As soon as Henry and Ezra hit H B ollywood, it will only grow more. 3. Manufacturing : a broad brush, I know, but we're talking here about textiles, marine machinery, automotive components, hea...

A familiar view here in Geilston Bay the past three or four months. That, coupled with grizzling children caked in snot has ensured our share of [ahem] interesting evenings. I did consult with the most recent guide to the Geneva Convention rules and regulations, and wouldn't you know it, there, on page 367, full colour prints of Henry and Ezra! Designated deliverers of cruel and unusual torture , it reckons...

Water jets in Franklin Square, Winter '09 . Theme Thursday today, and what a task I have! The theme is RHYTHM, so I set myself the goal this morning of penning a lightning fast drabble on today’s them on my way to work on the bus this morning. Alas, my trusty notebook was elsewhere! Thus, I fished out a receipt from the fresh fruit market in Salamanca [APPLES GRANNY SMITH SML KG], and set about squeezing out 100 words on the back. I’m glad to say that I had the requisite number done and dusted by the time I hit the bridge and was able to dip back in to Dame Rebecca West’s interesting little tale The Return of the Soldier . Let’s take the easy way out and call this one RHYTHM . The rhythm of their relationship was a familiar one. He worshipped her, she loathed him. He adored her, she was disgusted . He would whisper the sweetest, gentlest paeans of his affection into her lovely ear as they made love, and she would shun his offerings a cat might a command. When he arrived home, h...

Okay, okay, settle down. It's another "surface of the water" shot. I can't help it that I like them . This one I'll call The Curse of Transcendental idealism or, Wer bin ich? . I don't like the label neo-Kantian . I am far more comfortable proclaiming myself a neo-Fichterian . I proudly proclaim that that self-consciousness is a social phenomenon, and that every subject's self-awareness is predicated on the existence of other rational subjects! Christ, I have to stop reading Kundera on the bus, it brings up all sorts of stuff I thought long buried...