This will hurt me...

Not the most comfortable place you will ever find yourself sunbathing. Excellent skipping stone fodder, however.

Metal plus seawater equals rust. Blinking Billy Point, Sandy Bay. September 2011. The Internet can be a wonderful place. The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last few days. I might call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning ... A fantastic spiced cauliflower soup with yoghurt recipe that I made last night. Well worth the [little] effort. A depressingly familiar tale from Africa, How the teachers of hope I met in the Congo were brutally killed A well researched and written piece on shark nets in Australia . Conclusion? Shark nets are a placebo that happen to be a dangerous one for other wildlife. An interview with Steven Pinker about his new book that explores brutality is waning. A big call, but his thesis is that far from being the bloodiest era in human history, ours is a time when violence has been in steep decline. To end with something lighter, 50 of the World’s Best Breakfasts ! India seems a little off, but I like to the look of Ir...

Self portrait on wet rocks. Blinking Billy Beach, Sandy Bay. September 2011. Another day, another Q and A! Today this is the Questions Galore Meme , Part 1... 1. Is there someone in your life you know you’d be better off without? I generally don’t keep those people around. I’m not what one might call ‘a soft touch’. 2. Do you get criticised because of your body? Not that I hear of. The most critical would be myself. 3. Did you kiss the last person you called? Called? On the telephone? No I didn’t. I’m not sure that business contacts would appreciate that sort of thing. I could ask him... 4. When was the last time you danced? Monday afternoon. Henry and I danced to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture . Lots of spinning. 5. Do you keep in mind other people’s feelings? Of course. That said, I am a little more uncompromising than many. 6. If you have a hang nail, do you pull it or clip it? Clip. 7. Who do you want to forget? Scott Muller. 8. Who was the last person to send you a letter? Kevin ‘Big...

Ezra and some of his favourites from his rock collection....

I shudder to think what they found in there...

Rock on. Blinking Billy Beach, Sandy Bay. May 2011. I will confess that part of me admires the tenacity of people who ring an incorrect telephone number, and insist that it is in fact the correct number. That is, the fact that you are not (for example) Dave's Mowing Service is not their fault, it is YOURS. Indeed, the fact that you are not Dave, you have never been Dave, nor do you mow lawns as a matter of business bothers them not a jot, the simple insistence that you ARE because the number that they've dialled IS will somehow magically transform you, your phone number and Statewide and Mental Health Services with it - through sheer force of will and belief - into Dave's Mowing Service. I wish that I had that kind of belief. It'd almost make you think that the world was a halfway decent place...

An abandoned gun emplacement and a lighthouse (in your backyard). Blinking Billy Point, Sandy Bay. May 2011. The above gun emplacement was originally intended to stop the Russians (not the Soviets, but the Russians). Yes, at the outbreak of the Crimean War the nervous folk of Van Diemens Land were quaking at the thought of the vicious Imperial Russian Navy. Alas, they were not really very interested. Which leads me to today's Sunday Top Five: My Top Five Invading Hordes That I Wouldn't Be Too Fussed By ! Finns , Sw ed es or Nor wegi ans : any Scandinavian invasion would be welcome. They're a friendly mob, and have plenty of good-looking sheilas with liberal attitudes to beach attire. I think we'd cope. Liechte nstein : let's face it, it would have to be some kind of corporate takeover by European tax exiles. The Holy Roman Empire : any 'Empire' that manages to go by such a name despite the fact that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, must have ...

Rocks on the beach. Blinking Bill Beach, Sandy Bay. April 2011 Good news: there’s been a lot less carry on out the front of my place of work. Bad news: it is a combination of cold weather, asbestos and jack-hammering that’s chased them off. Better than rocks in your head. Blinking Bill Beach, Sandy Bay. April 2011

It might be too cold to swim – outdoors at least – but it’s never too cold for the beach! You will all be pleased to know that Ezra has started his swimming classes, and he’s already excelling. I call him “my little bluefin tuna”. Just so you know.

Be very careful Henry, I have it on very good authority that there is a grumpy old troll™ living in this here shed…

Pine cones versus rocks. Henry wins.