This will hurt me...

Things are looking up. The corner of Campbell and Liverpool Streets, Hobart. September 2013. A long-delayed Q and A stolen again from Sunday Stealing. This time, Meme 325 ! Something that’s holding you back from achieving your dreams: Life! Something you think you could win an award for: Irritability. Something you fear more than anything: Caring what people think. Something you wish people would understand: That life would be much easier if they were a little nicer to each other. Something that keeps you going everyday: The promise of sleep. Something amazing that happened last Summer: Henry and I saw a foot-long weedy sea dragon while snorkelling at Opossum Bay. We were less than a metre away for a good couple of minutes. Something you hate that people say: The casual use of the word ‘bogun’ in work contexts. Something you refuse to pay money for: Friendship. Something you wish you could have told that person that you never saw again:...

Lights camera action . ANZAC Park, Lindisfarne. February 2013. More questions? Of course! Stolen from Sunday Stealing, as usual. This week: The Back 15 Meme ... 15) How do you vent out your anger? Ranting and raving. 16) Favourite toy as a child? Some kind of ball, most likely. 17) Favourite season? I like elements of each, but if I have to choose I'd say Summer. 18) Do you ever get letters delivered by the post office? Most letters have at some point been processed by the post office... 19) When was the last time you laughed hard? Good question. I can't specifically remember, but it most likely involved cruelly mocking someone. 20) What is on the floor of your closet? My shoes. 21) Are you any good at drawing? Not very good, but I can manage the basics. 22) What did you do last night? Read and then slept. 23) What are you most afraid of? Irrelevance. 24) Plain, cheese or spicy hamburger? Spicy with salad. 25) Favourite dog breed? I'm not...

The bee's knees. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. January 2013. Sunday Top Five ? My Top Five Insects! Bumblebees Grasshoppers Butterflies Ladybirds Dragonflies

Tree. St Davids Park, Hobart. December 2012. Sunday Top Five ? So, at the end of last year I set myself to goal of knocking over 75 books this year. Thus far, I've knocked over 104 and am hoping to get through a few more before the year is out. Which leads me to... My Top Five Rated Books That I've Read This Year! Of Mice and Men , John Steinbeck The Painter of Signs , R.K. Narayan Tortilla Flat , John Steinbeck Cannery Row , John Steinbeck The Sense of an Ending , Julian Barnes Property , Valerie Martin The Glass Canoe , David Ireland Bring Larks And Heroes , Thomas Keneally Life and Fate , Vasily Grossman The Lost Thoughts Of Soldiers , Delia Falconer An interesting mix, to be sure. Three Steinbeck novels, three from Australians, an Indian love story, Barnes' mediation on memory, an exploration of gender and slavery and a lost Soviet classic. If I had to pick one? Tricky. Very tricky. Gun to my head, I'll go with The Glass Canoe ...

Signs. Tasman Highway, just off the Tasman Bridge. November 2012. Sunday Stealing and we're still trying to figure out who I am with the series Who Are you? Part 3 & 4 – Is it over yet? 34. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far? Being born seems important. 35. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Not murdering anybody. 36. What is your greatest regret? Not murdering anybody. Not backing myself earlier. 37. What is the most evil thing you have ever done? I've not done anything even remotely 'evil'. 38. When was the time you were the most frightened? When I found out that I was to be somebody's father. 39. What is your best memory? Anything involving sunshine and bare breasts is good. 40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic? I'm a rather confusing mix of the two, but with pessimistic leanings. 41. What is your greatest fear? Mutant armour-piercing snakes with short fuses and no time ...

The the reproductive structure of an Angiospermae. Napoleon Street, Battery Point. October 2012. Eighth Air Force , Randall Jarrell If, in an odd angle of the hutment, A puppy laps the water from a can Of flowers, and the drunk sergeant shaving Whistles O Paradiso!--shall I say that man Is not as men have said: a wolf to man? The other murderers troop in yawning; Three of them play Pitch, one sleeps, and one Lies counting missions, lies there sweating Till even his heart beats: One; One; One. O murderers! . . . Still, this is how it's done: This is a war . . . But since these play, before they die, Like puppies with their puppy; since, a man, I did as these have done, but did not die-- I will content the people as I can And give up these to them: Behold the man! I have suffered, in a dream, because of him, Many things; for this last saviour, man, I have lied as I lie now. But what is lying? Men wash their hands, in blood, as best they can: I find no fault...

Listen up! Mayfair Plaza car park, Sandy Bay. September 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Blue skies. St David's Park, Hobart. July 2012. Sunday Top Five? Not today it is raining.

Down low atop the overpass. East Derwent Highway, Lindisfarne. May 2012. Theme Thursday and I still haven't posted? Damn! NEIGHBOURS. Gay bars? NEIGHBOURS! Hay cars? NEIGHBOURS!! Toppled Tsars? NEIGHBOURS!!! Hekmatyar's? Gulbuddin Hekmatyar??? For crying out loud, NEIGHBOURS!!! I don't know why I am, just that some days I am.

Wordless Wednesday...

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 morning sun over Storm Bay. Calverts Beach, South Arm Peninsula. January 2012. Watery Wednesday today and we celebrate with a Watery Wednesday today and we celebrate with a shot of the lovely (slow rising) morning sun over the water as it starts to burn off the cloud. This one was taken down at Calverts Beach, and you can see Storm Bay out to the south of South Arm Peninsula. I understand that it got its name when Abel Tasman was forced by a storm to take his ships out to sea before they could anchor back in 1642. No storms on this morning though!

Cloud and trees and leaves and things. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. October 2011. Theme Thursday is back with an all NEW process that suits the Antipodean amongst us! Of course, when I say NEW I mean back to the way that it used to be. Do you remember? Remember how we laughed when the gods offered up the modern form of GEWRINCLOD ? Remember the MYSTERY of that box floating in the river? The one that may (or may not_ have contained body parts? I certainly know that the tale of those crafty seagulls going about their filthy business on me left an IMPRESSION on many... A good Theme Thursday topic lets us explore the SURFACE of things; delve into HISTORY ; the vampiric tendencies of children on HALLOWEEN ; and the fundamental nature of MAD ness. Theme Thursday, how we have missed you...

Someone is playing silly buggers! Regent Street, Sandy Bay. September 2011. My Top Five Words Favourite Words [Today] The Don't Have A Direct English Translation! Mamihlapinatapei A Yagan word for the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start. Jennifer and I know this look all too well... Ilunga A Tshiluba word that describes a person who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense. It is safe to say that I am not really an ilunga . Torschlusspanik A lovely German word that literally translates as “gate-closing panic,” but contextually, it implies the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages. How very appropriate! Ya’aburnee One from Arabic now, a lovely little word that basically means “You bury me”. The desire for burial reflects the hope that one will die before one's partner because of how difficult it would...

Just what, exactly, are you trying to tell me? St Johns Park, New Town. February 2011. Historically speaking, barbed wire is a reasonably recent invention. Emerging in the 1860s, it is all about inexpensively securing property. At its most straightforward, barbed wire fencing requires only posts, wire, and some kind of fixing device. Even better, any bugger can assemble it! It’s also awfully useful for cleaning your teeth. 50-50 , by Langston Hughes I’m all alone in this world, she said, Ain’t got nobody to share my bed, Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— The truth of the matter’s I ain’t got no man. Big Boy opened his mouth and said, Trouble with you is You ain’t got no head! If you had a head and used your mind You could have me with you All the time. She answered, Babe, what must I do? He said, Share your bed— And your money, too.

Clouds seen in the hospital windows. Argyle Street, Hobart. February 2011. Sometimes the best way of looking at something is by looking at something through something else. We often fool ourselves that when we observe something for ourselves, we can achieve some kind of objectivity. Of course, all observation is mediated through the observer. If we consciously choose to observe something through something, we immediately abandon that pretence, and factor in the potential refractive points. We won’t get objectivity, but at least we might get something more contemplative. What that has to do with clouds is anybody’s guess.

Henry lurks in the shadows down at Bellerive Wharf...