St Andrew The Apostle Melkite Catholic Church

front door, confessional, confessional, donation box, altar, tuna on altar, jesus with excommunicated legs, canberra tea towel, blessed table with rubbish, front door

Northbridge, Glendower St, facing Hyde Park, 28 May 2009
loaves and fishes and broken legs, don't upset the Northbridge Mafia

Fairbridge 2009

9ft tall scotsman with his dog 'ochie'

Champignon Lakes 20km ITT

www.atta.asn.au
29 March 2009
Le Chef, Wadd, OberGruppenFuhrer

24 Wadd 0:07:22 0:07:40 0:07:45 0:07:49 0:30:36 39.2km/h +00:22 standard
55 Le Chef 0:08:00 0:08:38 0:08:35 0:08:30 0:33:43 35.6km/h -01:46
63 OGF 0:08:30 0:08:43 0:08:53 0:08:52 0:34:58 34.3km/h -01:46

Aldgate Valley Rd

fuh2

Djiti-djiti

A pair of willy wagtails built a nest on the handlebar of one of my bikes in my shed.












a week and a half later











three weeks later











Proud parent

Spider Orchid Anstey Keane Wetland Forrestdale

Yumm - banana cake and akubra

Wine Critic

Drinking moselle next to the Mosel.

Gargoyles and other masonry

Musee des Arts et Metier, Paris




Inner Temple London




Hampton Court, London

fuh2

Hummer H2 in Prague 1










H2 in Luxembourg City Altstadt.

Bangkok

Getting pretty tired now. We are sleeping in until really late and moving very slowly in the mornings. However we managed to get moving yesterday and headed to the Chao Praya River for a longtail boat tour. The driver took us to his particular 'friends' and we ended up going to a Snake Farm with some particularly sad looking animals. Part of me was willing the snake to strike the bastards who were tormenting the reptiles. The birds were decrepit and obviously suffering stress, loss of feathers and mange. The gibbons looked bored with their tiny enclosures and there was very little to keep these intelligent animals occupied. We couldn't get out of there quick enough.



From there we walked into Wat Pho and wandered around the grounds. All very nice and everything, but in the end its just ABC, another bloody church and for a confirmed atheist the slendour of organised religion is a cover for subjugation of the masses to dogma. Tried to get a Taxi to go on his meter from Wat Pho, a short trip back to the hotel in Silom district and he said 200 baht. I reckon it would have been about 60Baht on the meter. He wouldn't shift, so we did. A short stroll later we found a Tuk tuk driver who would do the trip for 80baht.





Speaking of which, I heard Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn passed away, tough old bugger he was.

TdF

Odalisque is watching you.



The crowd around La Gioconda.

Paris

Paris. Ryanair lost Sandy's suitcase with our treasured "Tour de France" direction arrow (and all her clothes, toiletries, souvenirs. Hopefully things will turn out well. They didnt get the case onto the flight to Beauvais. Useless bastards. We have been walking and using the free bike service Velib. Using the Metro and watching the sun on and from Sacre Couer. Have walked from Beauborg to Notre Dame, to Tour Eiffel and back along the Seine and along Rue de Rivoli.

Tour Eiffel


Got the Velibs working on Saturday and rode to Sacre Couer. Metro'ed back to the apartment in the Marais. Then velib'd up to Arc de Triomph along the Ave des Champs Elysee. Velib'd back to Beauborg.


Velib avec Caitlin in Tunnel alongside the Seine.


Sandy apres circumnavigation of Arc de Triomph. BUZZED!!!

I heard her over the traffic noise. Fark fark FARRRRK!!!!





I took this pic while riding around the Arc de Triomph, all the time I heard Caity following me shouting dont take them on. Cobbled and slightly insane and so was the road surface.


Later today Le Tour will arrive in Paris. Bit hot today, so we will kick back in the apartment for dejeuner and have roast chicken, tomate, camembert, chardonnay and Le Tour on France 2.

Look for us near a camera on Place de la Concorde.

Marche Richard Lenoir near Place de la Bastille
Everything is sold here, including dignity.

If its Monday then we are in Ireland

Finally added the short video of driving in the tunnel of "little baby" Frejus.




Got the car, made the non-smoking hotel and approached the room through a fug of Winfield and Marlboro. Slept soundly drove to Cavan Town. Reduced the rabbit population of Eire by one. Had an average coffee in Kells among the leprechauns and artworks. Avoided the Kells Street Races and barrelled onto Cavan. Sleep is good. Found my father's home, found where he and his brother's and sisters amused themselves by carving their names into the red bricks. I said to one, 'You must have been very bored as kids' 'Oh but there were plenty of stones to kick'.

The craic is grand.

Found Enniskillen today and promptly put it back.

Heading West to Westport which is on the west of the country and is a port. Then we're heading to Newport which is older than Westport. Actually I made that bit up.

Might head south but we want to have at least a full day'ish to see a couple of things in Dublin. On Friday morning we are heading to Paris.

Aaah Paris - the city of dog poo. I hope to blog many examples of Parisian dog poo in an attempt to catalogue (scatalogue) the phenomenon. I will of course depend on my highly attuned epicurean senses and provide a full discriminitary matrix of values and rankings for each arrondisement.

Have actually seen and clambered over some neolithic burial mounds.





Not sure of the real purpose other than they work each equinox, which will do nothing for Jean Michel Jarre album sales. I think they were some form of lottery number generator using astrological charts and sheeps bladders.

Two weeks to go.

airports smairports

Frankurt airport noting to do but drink beer and pay for internet access at 22 euro an hour. Will post some pics soon. Did 4300 kms in the Bug, got the deposit back with no hassle, despite the scratches from the Passo del Tonale and Passo della Aprica. Who knows what will happen to the radar speeding fines. Goodbye Germany, we shall come back and torment you a second time. Vecher la vache.

Loved southern France and we are quitting work and be internet bums and offering a peculiarly Áussie canoeing adventure through the gorges of the Auvergne, beach barbies and please NO SAUSAGES. The Germans are crazy for the stuff, looking forward to a decent meal meal soon. Ireland, the home of four different ways of spuds for the meal.

Go cadel you whining skip!!!! I bought a Silence Lotto hat so you had better win and then sign the hat. Have sent a package of TdF loot, gimme hats, green hands and a special treat for all the Poseurs and Pussy Poseuses out there - if you respond to the blog there will be a present!!!! Yes I have resorted to incentives to get people to read and comment.

Auf widersehen and wheres the craic????
SSC
x

Cochem - Ziel

On the Mosel River. We are coming to the end of our association with the Bug. Over 4000 kilometres in 16 days so far and getting quite used to the routine. I think the Bug has brought us to its spiritual home. About a million other campervans can be found at this time year lining both banks of the Mosel. There is a bit of an industry built around this area, built around white wine and red win, weiss wein oder rotwein. Tried to get some from a bottlo and it was shut at 18.30. Oh well back to bier then.

Perth
Bangkok
Frankfurt Am Main (D)
Heidelberg
Frankfurt Am Main - lets get out of here
Bamberg - bloody fantastic AlteStadt

Eschenbach €11 to park in a car park next to a lake

Prague (CZ)

Innsbruck (A) We're not staying, we're just drinking the beer until we can get lost in Bolzano tomorrow.

Lago Como (I) - (hell drive 12 hours and two high alpine passes) and one 16km tunnel that cost $A77!!!!!!The tunnel of Frejus


St Julien Chapteuil (F)

Aurillac


Chartres (long drive)


After Chartres we went to the money pit of Monet's garden at Giverny. Quite lovely but for the queues, the seppos, the stupid shop. I spoke to the cardboard cutout of Monet and I reckon he would have been a bit of a curmudgeon and would have fucked this lot of vultures currently feeding off his artistic corpse. But then again he was part of the French artistic establishment...

Amiens - Villers Brettoneux, Albert, strangely sad but appropriately naff museum selling rusting WW1 bayonets in the shop. There was a Private Jack McKiernan from Queensland who died in the run down of the war following the Australian repudiation of the German offensive on ANZAC Day 1918.

Chimay (B) cannot do tours of the Trappist Monastery to suss the beer. Actually we quite hated Belgium and from now on it shall be named ROYSTON VASEY.

Luxembourg (L) The single spot on Earth with the most amount of silicon in women over 50. No question.

Cochem (D) the bottlo shuts early and the internet caff sells Becks. Alles klar?

Prague, Berchtesgaden, Innsbruck, Lake Como, Aurillac

heres some pics of these towns



You work out the kays.
sorry for the short post tired and seen too much

Tschuss

Greetings from bloody lovely Bamberg, Französische Schweiz. Its really lovely and warm and this city is a wonderful place to be on a weekday lunchtime time drinking the local brew.
Well we have been to Heidelberg and stayed in a quirky old hotel, seven walk up flights to the friggin attic to our bedroom. Lots of walking until we acclimatised. Beers and food and wandering, everything we do best. Train back to Frankfurt and thence to Offenbach Am Main to pick up the campervan.

Oh jesus.

The practice I have done on Need for Speed and GTA3 has NOT helped one bit. Nearly caused an international incident but remembered if there is any accident then it is verz likely to be my fault and quickly corrected my obvious mistake. Three tonne vehicles also should not driven through the old parts of UNESCO listed heritage cities. Quite stressful in parts.

Other news - Sandy is allergis to flying, she gets a rash.
Caitlin is allergic to parents.
I am allergic to beer but to beat your enemies you must let them get close.


This photo is of Heidelberg looking west from the Schloß.


This is of Bamberg looking up from the river to the Cathedral. Quite a stunning city.

Heading east today towards Prague. May not get there, we shall just look for camping on the way.




THE MIGHTY BUG!!!!!!!

Tchuß from the gumby's. German cities in summer are chock a block with people of all sorts riding bikes, I am feeling very tense about not riding the bike. Will have to rectify that in Prague methinks.


Bamberg Am Weg Zur Universität.

wattle

Saturday 14 June 2008.
16.27
Facing east.

Jandakot Regional Park

A week after the park gate has been fixed by DEC staff, the fence has been cut at the same location. Management of regional parks is seriously underfunded in Western Australia and the scumbags that dump their rubbish in these areas deserve the full penalty of law.

Renovation pics

Before during and after

Jandakot Regional Park - Frogs

When a public servant tells you a piece of bushland is degraded, she is talking about a moral assessment, not one based in ecological reality. The frogs you hear (but can't see) are voicing their defiance and their fecundity. They don't care about regional roads, access to shopping precincts or public servant decrees of ecological value.



This video and the other pictures are just a snapshot of the pressures placed on environmentally sensitive areas on the edge of encroaching urban sprawl. Pirate rubbish dumping, horses trampling plants, bringing in weed seeds, four wheel drives spreading dieback and deteriorating the bushland and trail-bikes and quad bikes. Cashed up bogans whinge they have nowhere else to go to ply their environmentally damaging hobby so they feel justified in illegally trespassing on regional parkland and flouting State Law.



There is currently a proposal by the City of Armadale to push a district distributor road directly through one of the Forrestdale region's largest pieces of intact and undisturbed parcels of remnant vegetation. This is being proposed so that houses that have not been built yet and the residents who have not bought and moved in yet can quickly get to shopping in Armadale, and presumably home again. This is despite there existing major roads that move vehicular traffic through and around these areas.



The Water Corporation has been enlisted in the City of Armadale's proposal to provide environmental offsets for the project. A distributor road through the Jandakot Regional Park will cause major disruption to ecological linkages in the Forrestdale area. The edge effects of having direct access through the middle of environmentally sensitive areas has been well documented. The impact of placing sewerage infrastructure and a 25 - 30 metre road reserve through this area is short-sightedness of the highest order.

Billy Bragg: Fremantle, WA. 04 February 2008

Bill did absolutely smoke this gig.

Battles: Big Day Out Perth February 3 2008

How Beijing designed its Olympics logo

Five Star Liquid Limestone for the win!

Cockatoo

Kor and Caitlin

climate action

Melbourne Cup Day

Who is this woman?

Rides around Leederville, West Perth, Subiaco, shouting and screaming and singing 'Waltzing Matilda' and 'Advance Australia Fair' and ranting about land rights and the stolen generations and her latest restraining order.

fast food delivery Phang Nga Bay , Ko Phanak

The skipper of the yacht "Sakai" got on his mobile phone and ordered prawns and fish to be delivered. Ten minutes later we heard a long-tail boat getting louder.



KeYat held the money out as the fisherman came alongside, some kind of protocol, I guess, 'Show me the money'



Beautiful prawns, fish and a stingray.



groovy place to visit and live I reckon

emulational high powered nicety

battery powered bb machine gun, try and get this through customs!

Alex Dancing

Get Up Campaign Ad

This was supposed to be broadcast during the coverage of the AFL Grand Final 2007. I didn't see it, I guess Channel Ten wanted too much money.

My Holiday (Fiction) by Steven

My holiday by Steven.

Day 1

I go on holiday today. Yay. I hope it will be good. We are going to Lancelin it is near a beach and Mum says there will be heaps to do. Dad is very quiet.

Day2

We did heaps of stuff and I had very fun, We built a sand castle out of sand from the sand at the beach. There is a lot of sand. It is going to be the biggest sand castle ever. A angry man said that we could not build a sand castle and Dad and he shouted at each other they used bad words and then we had to get Dad back from the police. The angry man was crying after dad hit him a bit with his hands. When the angry man fell over and Dad kicked him the angry man wasn’t the angry man anymore but he was sad. The police lady had a funny rash on her face. Dad kept using bad words and the police lady shouted at him. I don’t know what she said, but Dad stopped shouting. Mum said she was going for a walk and she came home late and she smelled like chips and beer. Dad and Mum shouted at each other and used bad words. They said things like fncking slnt and whoare and needle d!ck. I walked in their room but I was told to fncking get back to fncking bed and fncking fall asleep like a little sh!t and so I did. I am tired.

Day 3

We went and got Dad from the police people again. The police ladies rash is getting worse. She has scabs. Yuk. I don’t like twisties for breakfast. Mum said Uncle Brett was sleeping over. I have not met Uncle Brett before, he has tattoos and a moustache. He smells of beer. And chips. Mum said Dad was talking to a Madgestrater and would learning fncking manners. This is good she said. Uncle Brett told me to go to fncking bed. I know where that fncking is I said and he called me a cheeky little sh!t and gave me a whole twenty dollars to go to play pinball. I bought a fishing line and bait and a sharp knife and played pinball and tried to catch fish with the the bait on the hook and stayed out until the street lights came on and I got lost and the police lady (scabs are bleeding, vomit) found me. She took me back to our holiday house and Brett said all his clothes were in the washing machine because he was wearing Dad’s dressing gown, and Mum’s hair was all funny. They smelled like chips. I hate chips. And beer. I will catch fish tomorrow and kill them with my sharp knife

Day 4
I had toast. Mum said Uncle Brett was a b@stard, I said is he your brother? And she said Uncle Brett wasn’t a real uncle but a uncle and she put two fingers and did a funny shape like rabbit ears. I said a b@stard is someone whose mum and dad werent married and she called me a cheeky sh!t and hugged me and she smelled like soap and she was warm and I liked her hugging me but she cried and I wanted to kill fish so I said I was going to the fncking jetty and she cried and I left. I saw a man on the jetty and he was creepy he had a hat made of straw and feathers and smelled like wee and he gave me five dollars and I ran away with my fishing line and sharp knife and I threw the smelly bait at him. He scared me cos he smelled like lollies and he had black teeth. He should go to the dentist. I had weetbix for dinner. Mum is in bed and she says Dad wont be coming home to us for weeks I asked why and she said because he is a fncking b@stard and I said I thought Nan and Pop were married and she cried and I read a book about someone called “o”. Stupid name. It was boring and I didn’t understand it.

Day 5
Mum is wearing clothes again and not pj’s. She isn’t crying and everything is going into the suitcase. She is going to the laundry. I said just use the same washing machine as uncle Brett did and she just looked at me. My clothes are covered in bait guts. I need to buy more bait but I am not going to the jetty. Stupid fish don’t bite the hook and I really want to kill a fish and cook it and eat it. The scary man isnt there but I go stand on the point and throw the line in and catch a fish. Its slippery and doesn’t want to die and keeps opening its mouth and I get the hook out and get my sharp knife and stab it and cut its head off and it stops wriggling and it bleeds on me and its silver and red. I don’t like killing.

Day 6
Mum and me go to the beach and she is wearing bikinis and she is looking at me digging a hole and the sad man walked past and he has black around his face on his ribs and is limping and Mum laughs at him and he keeps walking and he doesn’t even tell me off about my sand castles and huge hole that is big enough to bury him. She buys pizza for tea and it is pepperoni and I get coke, bubbles go up my nose. Dad’s clothes are in a bag and she throws them into the bin and she packs the car and we drive home. The house smells funny and the milk has gone off and there are letters on the door and mum calls dad a b@stard and I think b@stard doesn’t mean anything about mums and dads being married anymore. Yay we are back home, holiday was boring we didn’t do anything except go to the beach. The beach is boring. I hate the beach. Now I am home and I have my playstation and it is good. My knife is under my pillow and it is still sharp.

Botanic gardens Mt Coot-Tha, Brisvegas

bunya mountains queensland

a river in perth

coal

Yarragadee

We are delighted to announce that Cassie-Jo Fiorenza’s Untitled Work (see image attached) is winner of the Tinderbox PEOPLE”S CHOICE AWARD from the Mullalyup Muster Art Prize 2007: Ancient Water

Congratulations Cassie-Jo! We look forward to seeing more of your gorgeous works in the gallery over the year.

Calendar Note: Cassie-Jo Fiorenza will be exhibiting at Mullalyup Gallery in January 2008.

SunnO)))

immense

heavy

and watching a wine glass is a little bit dull

banks reserve, joel terrace mount lawley perth

two weeks ago there was a big heavy oil spill into a stormwater drain at the mount lawley subway


yesterday I saw this chap, could still smell the petrochemicals though, might have to zoom in a bit

who is stephanie?

stephanie loves the beach, and who can blame her?

ninemustdie hydey 28feb2007

woman at cease gig

She was kicked out for 'interfering with the vocalist of Cease. She went to the window and we had a moment together.

ellenbrook water use +1

Ellenbrook - water use

N+1 Verge rubbish collection. New old bike

Found, a potential candidate for a fixie project.

Wandjina Menora

Wandjina watching over Alexander Park Tennis Club

Fitzgerald Street: Sign o the times

Not neat, not pretty, but says all it needs to say.

Wanjina

Quite a few wanjinas to be found, probably some more as well.

Shake a leg

Simon Nield - going fret crazy and having fun!

ALP Rudd and AWA's

St Kilda

This stall had some interesting ceramic vases that had quite surreal images glazed or painted onto them. I probably would have walked past and taken the sights in but for a sign that said "No photos permitted, Copyright".

Well that was a red rag to a bull.

I brought the camera out, turned it on and had some bloke in my face pushing me away with his hand covering the lens of the camera, I turned away, doubled back and took the shot out of spite and malice and a sense of justice. Since when has taking a photo in a public area been subject to copyright? I should have tormented him a bit more but I was waiting for a tram.

Graffiti Melbourne

Like Banksy I reckon

Found in Caledonian Lane, between Lonsdale and Little Bourke.

Mangrove - Roebuck Bay Near Broome

A place of such massive tidal variation that the very mud oozes life and potential. Millions of migratory birds stop over here to fatten up for their return to Siberia.





No doubt these fellas will be food for the millions of hermit crabs that abound. Missed the tide and lost the race.

Wanjina

Recently I have noticed a few of these graffiti wanjinas appearing around Perth. I like the work, usually brightly coloured, and appearing in unexpected spaces, an uncanny reterritorialisation of public space. Kinda spooky too.

South Perth Foreshore

Near the end of a bike ride, I saw a family of Black Swans grazing the grass on the South Perth foreshore. This parent was very cagey and made sure se put herself between myself and the cygnets. Quite a few swans are found here currently, unfortunately swans are not necessarily a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem.

Save the Yarragadee gathering Margaret River

Western Ringtail Possum, Bussell Highway

Busselton is rapidly expanding in population and area. Large areas of Peppermints (Agonis flexuosa are being cleared for larger houses, and more residential development. Western Ringtails are being squeezed out of Busselton. Although they have been living very close with humans for a long time, their populations are being slowly depleted through predation and habitat clearing.

This poor guy didn't make it across Bussell Highway one Friday night.

Artificial wetlands, Pt Fraser Perth

This gulley is part of a stormwater nutrient stripping basin near the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan. It receives water from other 'soft' engineering across Riverside Drive and strips nutrients that may be present in the water. There is a two storey function centre that is proposed for the remainder of the site.

Everlastings on my front verge

They don't last forever, but they look better than my neighbours grass verges.

Banksia on my front verge

Banksia menziesii starting to generate seed pods

Swan River Sunday 03 September 2006

Named by Dutchman Willem De Vlamingh in 1606, fourhundred years later the swans remain. Took this shot when riding south along the Kwinana Freeway / Swan River foreshore bikepath ~ 6.45am. UWA in the background.

Ellenbrook - in Swan Valley,

Another couple of pics from a recent trip.

February commute Charles St north perth

freeway

corner charles and newcastle streets west perth

Dirty Three

Jim White on percussion, Warren Ellis on Violin Mandolin and banter, Mick Turner on guitar.

Fly By Night Club, Fremantle, Tuesday 20 June 2006.
A rather lovely evening where sonic waves of shambolic fucked up beautiful music crashed over the appreciative and quiet audience.
Well I had fun.
Supported by Schwendes, Perth group and damn fine they are too.

This is the Kwinana Freeway seen from Kings Park, looking south. Taken at 8.50am 1 June 2006. The day the State of the Environment was released by the Environmental Protection Authority. Whether the SOE has an impact while WA goes through a massive resource (mining) boom remains to be seen.

Normally during the financially good times the environment gets a higher profile through legislation and policy development. What happens when the boom ends and margins get tighter? Historically this has shown the environment is placed under greater pressure.

And this has nothing to do with consumption.

This is where Perth is locked.

Clear

scrape

dig

build

SUBURBIA

It fucking shits me.

Just a hat

Fairbridge Festival. Saw this hat and immediately wanted to put the pic here.

Under the jetty

In the underwater observatory at Busselton, looking back to the shore about a mile away.

Caught on busselton Jetty Saturday 13 May 2006

This poor fella had spent all his ink, and was slowly dying after being caught on a handline from the jetty.

His skin was phosforescing (sp?), trying to camouflage himself against the jetty deck.

My friend said "MMMMMM, squid rings"

Mandjar

Another banksia. I took this photo at a bushland next to Wanjeep St, Mandjar (Mandurah). The intact bushland is due for the bulldozer anytime soon. The sixty hectare site will have a remnant 13 hectare bushland reservation, but as urban areas encroach the likely impacts are more dumping and fires.

Bikes on Rottnest

Rottnest has a policy of not allowing motor vehicles onto the island, and all movement should be by foot or by bike. That isnt quite the case, buses run a ten minute shuttle around the island, the Ranger, the police, the fire crew, the hospitality service all run motor vehicles. A beautiful place to visit and stay.

Fixed

Riding Duncan's bike on the South Perth foreshore.

Fixed wheel, ~78.4 gear inches, chain ring 44tooth, sprocket 15, 700x23c, 165mm cranks

Two pics today! How jolly!

Taking some shots for yarragadee.org

Pumping 45 gigalitres of groundwater from the south west and piping it 250km to Perth doesn't fit my idea of sustainability.

Banksia

Excuse my ignorance, but I dont know the name of this Banksia.
Found near Lake Pinjar north of Perth, on Bassendean soils.

Just found out it is Banksia menziesii. Firewood banksia. Hasnt been burnt for over 20 years, pretty surprising given the arson abilities of humans in the northern suburbs of Perth.

Prolly going to post a pic every couple days. When I can be bothered. This is a security camera on Glendalough Station in Perth Western Australia. Didn't stop a young woman getting raped a couple of months ago.