This will hurt me...

Above us, the waves. Fishers Point, Southwest National Park, Tasmania Stealing again from Sunday Stealing . Currently, I am... Reading ... Pat Barker’s latest book, Noonday . Writing ... a blog post! Playing ... Minecraft, on survival mode on the Playstation 4. Watching ... Limmy’s Show. Trying ... to figure out what to do next. Cooking ... lots of curries. Drinking ... plenty of water. Calling ... all the shots. Pinning ... the blame on someone else. Tweeting ... the time and distance that I’ve run. Crafting ... lots of pick-axes! Doing ... whatever it takes. Going ... hard at the ball. Loving ... a bit of peace of quiet when I can get it. Hating ... the increasing pace of time passing. Re-Discovering ... the joys of shepherd’s pie. Enjoying ... myself immensely. Thinking ... far too much for my own wellbeing. Feeling ... like another swig of water. Missing ... out on foot rubs. Hoping ... that the creepers don’t ruin m...

Underwater hello. Douglas-Apsley Waterhole, Douglas-Apsley National Park. February 2016. Stealing a Q and A again, this time the Garage Sale Meme . Is your phone right next to you, or at least close by? It’s switched off and in a drawer. What windows or tabs are open on your computer right now? Only Opera browser. Three tabs. Is your phone a touch screen? Yes, a Nokia Lumia. Who is the last person to call you? My wife. What was the last movie you watched? Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . With the kids. What are you doing tomorrow? I’m thinking of climbing a mountain. Are you in a good mood? Pretty much. It’s early, though. Do you think exes can remain friends? It’s highly unlikely. Are you starting to realize anything? That things matter less than you usually think. Do you follow rules or break them? Follow. I am prepared to push against them if there’s an ethical blur. Are you currently looking forward to anything? Japan! We’re head...

A very cold river. Northwest Bay River, near Margate. July 2013. This must be upwards to three thousand questions answered thus far... Today, The Weird Question Meme, Part One Do you wear slippers? I did start doing so this Winter. They are quite nifty ones. How many pictures are in your living room? Four photos, two prints and a whole bunch of kid's paintings. Do you ever watch Brady Bunch reruns? No. I did as a young 'un though. Are you allergic to anything? Peanuts, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios and penicillin. Also, dogs and horses. When was the last time you called in sick? About six weeks ago I had a day or two at home with the flu. Have you ever been in a car accident? How funny you ask. I was in one just the other day... What is your favourite snack food? Pretzels. Or berries. Have you ever seen a tornado? No. I have seen a bunch of squid though. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy first? Heated pool and sauna....

Starfish. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. July 2013. A horrible Sunday Top Five today: Five Words That Fit Most Appropriately Into The Sentence "Martin Clunes' Extraordinarilly [...BLANK...] Head"! Abominable Unpleasant Beastly Abominable Grotesque

Octopus's garden? Bellerive Bluff, Bellerive. August 2013. Wordless Wednesday.

Life underwater. Clifton Beach, June 2013. Once Were Warriors , Alan Duff: Very dark, very gritty. It's a far bleaker portrayal of life for marginalised Maoris in modern New Zealand than the successful film. Domestic violence, urban violence, poverty, drugs, alcoholism, unemployment, gang warfare, rape, physical and mental abuse, suicide, gender, identity, race and culture are just a few of the subjects explored in gritty fashion. I'm not sure whether reading this is more akin to getting punched in the face or kicked in the guts. One of the two, anyway. A- . Maggie: A Girl of the Streets , Stephen Crane: Urban grit, 1893 style! Originally refused by all publishers because of sexual frankness, it might seem tame to the modern eye but remains shocking enough. C+ .

Duck feet (from below). Geilston Bay. July 2013. I'm back on the buses again, which ups the time I have to read. This is always nice. After The Wall , Jana Hensel: I'm always up for an East German generational memoir, which is Hensel's goal here. What differentiates this one from many of the others is that Hensel reflects on the very last of that generation, those that were at the tail end of their childhood at the fall of the Berlin Wall and whose teenage years coincided with the process of reunification. I'm not certain that this translation helped (it was packed full of jarring Americanisms), but was an interesting-enough reflection. C . Grendel , John Gardner: A fascinating novel that retells the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the monster and - quite successfully - explores (among other things) the nature of good and evil; man's capacity for violence; finding meaning in the world; and the power of literature and myth. I really enj...

Angry crab is... angry. Bellerive Bluff, Bellerive. July 2013. Wordless Wednesday. Angry crab's house. Bellerive Bluff, Bellerive. July 2013.

Ezra tries to get out. Clarence Aquatic Centre, Montagu Bay. June 2013. New Finnish Grammar , Diego Marani. Slow, but well-constructed meditation on language, memory and identity. Well worth the depressing mood. B .

Waratah Anemones. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. June 2013. Wordless Wednesday. More Waratah Anemones. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. June 2013.

Bubbles. Bellerive Beach, Bellerive. June 2013. Theme Thursday ? Of course! There is JUBILATION in the nation even when they’re facing castration while avoiding the conflation of causation and damnation. I express a fixation for an excess of flirtation that at its very foundation is a classic formulation of cessation of narration through the privation of starvation and the utter stagnation and frustration of mindless gyration. The feeling of admiration, extreme adoration. Adulation of creation, a negation of temptation. Translation and inflammation, your vocation a vacation. A summation of elation to consternation and fragmentation and immediate detonation (followed by a dissipation and distillation): devastation. JUBILATION? Try ‘deflation’, ‘degradation’. Lubrication? Exclamation! Toleration? Confrontation. Abdication? Germination. Abrogation? Desperation. A classy accusation, a little affectation, a positive affirmation, an allegation, an avocation. ...

Obviously not a fish then...

Ezra from the perspective of a crab: underwater .

Henry: Portrait of a boy taken underwater.

Under water, looking out towards the sky. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013. The Sea: Day by Day , Philip Plisson: Magnificent images, could have possibly used more exposition. B- . The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read , Susan Hill: Subdued stories that explore loneliness and loss. Bleak. C+ . Pantone: The Twentieth Century in Color , Leatrice Eiseman: Some lovely colours and images, somewhat marred by shallow complementary text. C .

Not snorkelling weather. Clifton Beach. May 2013. Sunday Top Five ? That's right, here are Five Words That We Really Need To Start Using In English! Pelinti ( Buli ): You know when you're in a rush to eat a hot pie and you have to open your mouth and tilt your head to avoid burning yourself? Ghanaians have a word for that. Myötähäpeä ( Finnish ): the nicer relative of Schadenfreude . Think, "vicarious embarrassment.” Above us the waves. Clifton Beach. May 2013. Layogenic ( Tagalog ): You know how sometimes you can see something (or someone) from far away and it/ they look pretty good, but when you get a close look it's not quite the case? That's layogenic . Cavoli Riscaldati ( Italian ): a very bad move: trying to revive an unworkable relationship. It literally translates to "reheated cabbage." Litost ( Czech ): I'll defer to Milan Kundera on this one: “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.” Th...

Hormosira banksii, a.k.a. Neptune's necklace. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and RSS feeds.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? An article on the importance of “likeability” in novels. A selection from the 2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest . Syphilis, sex and fear: How the French disease conquered the world . Splashdown! The Breeders' Cannonball-Like Re-Entry . A compelling case against empathy, arguing that empathy alone is not sufficient to uphold morality — and may even work against it. A map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries . Astronomy porn. The most depressing thing I've read all week. Five Warning Signs That You're Finally Getting O...

Leaves and twigs in the water. Hot Springs Creek, Hastings Caves State Reserve. April 2012. If you ever decide to swim in the rivers and creeks of Tasmania, particularly those located in forests, consider shoes... The Pig , Roald Dahl In England once there lived a big And wonderfully clever pig. To everybody it was plain That Piggy had a massive brain. He worked out sums inside his head, There was no book he hadn't read. He knew what made an airplane fly, He knew how engines worked and why. He knew all this, but in the end One question drove him round the bend: He simply couldn't puzzle out What LIFE was really all about. What was the reason for his birth? Why was he placed upon this earth? His giant brain went round and round. Alas, no answer could be found. Till suddenly one wondrous night. All in a flash he saw the light. He jumped up like a ballet dancer And yelled, "By gum, I've got the answer!" "They want my bacon slice by slic...

Events underwater. Just off Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. December 2011. Today for Theme Thursday I want to talk about taste. It is generally agreed that there are five basic tastes. Today’s theme is one that does not agree much with me: SWEET. I may be SWEET, but I have no great desire for it. People go on about SWEET want it, are addicted to it and in some cases are enslaved by it; but it has never particularly rocked my world. You see (and you would never guess this by the blog) I like Bitter , Sour and Salty. I have some time for Umami , but it is a clear runner at number four in my list. Colourful events underwater. Just off Errol Flynn Reserve, Sandy Bay. December 2011.

SHARK! Melbourne Aquarium. April 2011. Despite the fact that it was the stingrays chewing on the diver's head, Henry remained as terrified as ever of the cute 'n cuddly grey nurse shark. It seems that once you've got yourself a reputation (earned or otherwise), some people have you pegged for life!