A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

Three cats, three dogs...

So why the hell is it up to me to get rid of the damn mouse?!

Home Sweet Hovel.

Ah it's good to be home! The peace, the serenity, the high-speed internet connection!!! The car is all fixed and the bank account is all empty, but hey, that's life in the new millennium. There was a time when getting your car fixed meant taking it to a workshop, having it worked on, paying the bill, and then pissing off.

But that was before the blogorama became a popular form of entertainment. Now you can't get it fixed without taking pictures so that people on the other side of the world who don't give a shit about your car anyway, can have images of the event...

I was actually planning to get the radiator fixed soon, so I killed two birds with one mechanic...

And speaking of the mechanic, here he is...

Blogging don't get no better than this!!

 

Turkey trot.

Before I get to the turkey photos and clips, something I know you've been anxiously awaiting, I must offer some grudging respect for the fairer sex. Why are they called the fairer sex anyway, I've never known a woman to play fair!

There are some things that women do that men, well, don't. No, I'm not talking about the obvious childbirth thing, I'm talking about asking directions, checking the price of something, realising a mistake and taking corrective action and finally, taking back an item they aren't happy with. While I wouldn't change genders for all the tea in China, or even all the money that Mark paid for his operation, there are times that I do admire the way women are prepared to make things right.

And so it was with MDW. After proving that there was nothing wrong with her computer, she did something that I would never do. She went back to the store and asked about returning it (a week later), and lo and behold, they said "Sure, no problem". So she got her money back and now she has to come up here to get her computer, now way I'm going back down there again, one trip per emergency is enough for me.

So now, on to the turkey. Here he is in close up...

Here is is getting the temperature of the mound just right...

This is a better clip of what they do all day...

And this is the mound...

MDW's hates it, but think it's a neat part of nature (plus you can't do anything about it because they're protected). We're not sure if there are any eggs in there, but if there are, he'll be around for another seven weeks. And before you all start telling me he doesn't look like your turkeys, that's because he's not. He's an Australian Bush Turkey.

A few more pics.

Props to Robin for noticing the 'Heather Goodman' influence in yesterday's second photo, I thought exactly the same thing when I saw it. However the reason lies elsewhere. Newcastle is a working port, it's a major coal loading facility, and the reason everyone was looking out the window was because of this...

They end up getting pretty close...

Which makes a change from what I see on a day to day basis where I live. I took these next two pics on Wednesday as I was leaving to come to the Coast. If you are driving up here, and you yell "you stupid cow" from the window, you're not necessarily abusing another driver...

They drive slow around here, due in part to the very low horsepower engines, I believe this one is only about one Hp...

This is my neighbor Bernadette, she is feeding some cows along the side of the road, a practice that is common in times of drought and which is referred to as ' grazing the long paddock'. Her and Brett breed horses as well as cattle, one of which she is sitting on. The horse is an ASH, or Australian Stock Horse. And in the interests of full detail, the cows are Australian Angus and Hereford crosses.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the ships come in to get loaded with coal for export to Japan (mostly), which is why you see so much of that red anti-foul in the pictures, when loaded they sit much lower in the water, the blue paint is actually the water line.

Too late to turn back.

The wedding went off without a hitch, hey wait a minute....how can that be, they just got hitched! And to prove it here's a picture...

As you can see, it was a low key affair. Being the second time around for both of them, they knew from experience that getting a gazillion people to show up at a church somewhere is no guarantee of success, so they took the low cost, low stress option and used the money saved on the mortgage. I've heard about registry weddings, but this is the first time I've ever seen one. I found it most satisfactory.

Afterwards we went and had a nice meal, in a flash restaurant. The water got a bit washed out because I'm too lazy to take the camera off automatic.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the beach.

I quite like this shot. Anyway, there is a reception being thrown for them tomorrow, so I'll take some more photos. Oh yeah, see that thing up on the hill? That's a big gun bunker from WWII to protect the port of Newcastle. These are all natural colours with no enhancement whatsoever.

A Geography Lesson

I'll be posting some more pictures of the trip the Coast in a few days. But first a brief lesson in geography.

This is a Map of Australia, the Yellow arrows on the left are two of the mines I worked at, the southern one is where Willow's Big Adventure takes place, the two arrows on the right are where our houses are.

This next one is part of New South Wales, specifically the Central Coast. The Top arrow is where I am, and the lower one is where MDW is. I'm drilling down so that you don't have to figure it out for yourselves

Finally here is a blow up of geography that will feature in the series of pictures I'll be posting over the next few days. The red star just under Gosford is where we live and the bottom one is where I took a bunch of photos from.

Here's a sample picture to give you the idea. It's taken from a bluff between Ocean and Pearl Beaches (or as I just explained, the bottom red star) and is about a 30 minutes drive from our house. I'm looking North(away from the ocean).I probably don't need to tell you, but the red arrow is our house. So, now we have laid the foundations I'll be able to post some pictures with an explanation of what we're looking at over the next few days.

But first, I'll be doing the next part of the Aussie trivia quiz.

Just one more map for anyone who likes things put in perspective...

It's always the way!

Blogging can reflect real life sometimes. You know, like when your place is a mess and unexpected visitors, who have never been there before, show up (and I don't mean Mormons, they would never see the inside of my house anyway).

That's a bit like what happened today, I was reading Jenny's conversation with her Australian hating husband and looking at pictures of her daughter desecrating our flag (shit, there'll be some weirdos showing up from google searches now, or worse, maybe the cops). While I was laughing I suddenly realised that she had linked to me and thought "Oh no! My blog is a mess! I should post something nice in case new people drop by." (The last few days have not been the best example of the fun that the Dingo can really be).

So in an effort to make the place look a bit better here are three photos that I took on the Coast, and one that is from here. The blue sky in the first shot only happened as I was about to leave.

This is our house on the Coast (while proof-reading this, I realised I don't call it our 'home' on the coast). I know that when most people in Oz refer to their 'house on the coast' they mean a two bedroom holiday house that they go to for weekends (a bit like that cabin in the mountains), but in our case  technically (for taxes etc), it's our main residence.

This is where it is, I've put in a little pink arrow to point it out. This photo is taken from a lookout that's a five minute drive from our house. Oh, and Tiff, that's all rain forest behind us.

If you turn around and face the opposite direction, this is what you see. There'll be more shots of this over the next few days, complete with a map because it's a kind of strange geographic feature that needs some explaining.

And finally for those who haven't already seen it, here's where I've spent most of the past three years. The picture is taken from a plane in case you're wondering. It's just on the edge of the Liverpool Plains so there is a bit of shape to the skyline (actually it's the Western Slopes of the Great Dividing Range), but another 10 minutes West it's just like looking out at the ocean, except without the water.

So, I hope this gives a nice impression of my blog for a change.