Shark Island, Australia Day, 2007

Tomorrow is Australia Day. There will be celebrations happening throughout the country but if you can't see any of it from where you are check out Sydney Harbour Web Cam. There will be a lot of events happening on the harbour. Some of which are:

Australia Day Surfboard Challenge 08:30 AM 11:30 AM
Best Dressed Vessels Competition 09:00 AM 06:00 PM
Ferrython 10:45 AM 11:45 AM
Australia Day Parade 12:00 PM 12:30 PM
Awesome Forces - 21 Gun Salute 12:00 PM 12:15 PM
Awesome Forces - RAAF Defence Aerial Display 01:00 PM 01:15 PM
171st Australia Day Regatta 01:30 PM 06:00 PM
Awesome Forces - RAAF Defence Aerial Display 02:00 PM 02:15 PM
Awesome Forces - Search and Rescue 02:00 PM 02:30 PM
Awesome Forces - Red Berets splash into Circular Quay 03:00 PM 03:15 PM
Australia Day Tall Ships Race 03:00 PM 03:30 PM
Sydney Ports Jazz on the Water 05:00 PM 09:00 PM

If you watch the web cam at these times you may be able to see a bit of the action. I will be celebrating, somewhere, eating a vegemite sanger, enjoying my beautiful country.

For now I will leave you with a list of Aussie slang words. Your job is to tell me what you think they mean.

Al Capone
she'll be apples
bickie
big bickies
big smoke
billabong
billy
bit o' all right
blue
Bluey
chinwag
chuffed
dead-set
ear basher
fair dinkum
fang it
gone troppo
grouse
half your luck
hooroo
Joe Blake
knackered
lair
nong
ol' cheese
ripper
rock up
thongs
yonks
zilch
zonked

Leave your answers in the comments and I'll let you know how you went on my return. Go on, 'av' a go! Aussies, why not add some of your own slang words or tell us a story of your experiences with Aussie slang.

Till I return, avagoodweegend.

Oh! and don't forget to look up and smile!

I heart Happy Feet!

If you haven't seen it you really better jump 'n' move into your cinema to see it!

The music rocks, or rather grooves and so will you.

You'll love it!

Dans l'adversité de nos meilleurs amis nous trouvons quelque chose, qui ne nous déplaît pas.

- Jonathan Swift

if promises are like piecrusts
so are faces, hearts, doors, chairs,
bottles, walls, families,
cups, toys, pets, fists, heads,
hopes, dreams, schemes,
and many other things.

Reflections on Rossetti

Luckytheyneversarus

Their eyes looked so real it was difficult to remember that they weren't. These towering, powerful giants from long ago were splendidly recreated in a magnificent performance, Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. Today we watched mesmerised as lifesize animatronic dinosaurs came to life before us. They growled, they breathed, they snorted, they lept playfully and they looked at us with their amazingly life like eyes. But, thankfully, they never saw us.

The Dinosaur Workshop
The Live Experience: Torosaur VS. Utahraptor

Trees

(For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

Magnolia, Port Macquarie, 2007

Do you remember the song

Don't build your house on the sandy land
Don't build it too near the shore
Well it might look kinda nice but you'll have to build it twice
Oh you'll have to build your house once more.

You better build your house upon the Rock
Make a good foundation on a solid spot
Though the storms may come and go
The peace of God you will know.

I was thinking of this song as I was watching the boys build a sandcastle at the beach the other day. As a big wave came up and washed half of the front wall of our beachside mansion away, my brother said, "Now boys that's what happens if you build your house on the sand. You must remember to NEVER build your house on the sand." Of course I started singing "it might look kinda nice but you'll have to build it twice..." and before I was singing the refrain my sister-in-law - you have to know she is an architect - says, "Well, you can you know you just need a really good foundation."

Of course she is right - as usual - and so I wondered, Do you think Jesus would still use his 'the foolish man built his house on the sand' story if he were addressing a large crowd today? Imagine if there were architects in the crowd. The story just wouldn't work. The truth of the story has not changed. Even with architectural advances you still need a good foundation on which to build your 'house' (ie, life), nevertheless, I wonder if Jesus would still use this example today, and I wonder if I would use it when witnessing to an architect? What do you think?

After an extremely hot day, a thunderstorm has rolled in over my house.

We have waited in the suffocating heat all day for this storm and now it is here. I lie in a hammock on my deck reading A Portrait of a Lady, listening to the different rhythms of the night: a chorus of courting frogs croak by the pond, the rain falls in soothing pitter-patters on the roof and I wait for it to build to a pouring crescendo while the thunder rolls and booms like loose skin on a big bass drum closer and closer, until it is directly overhead.

I read my book by the light of my flickering candle. The white light is dulled to insignificance in comparison to the brilliant blue flashes the lightning casts across the sky. I see the sky as an ocean, vast and wild, yet comforting in its unfathomable immensity. I am sure I see frothing white water lick at the sides of the lightning, like a line being thrown out and disrupting the smooth surface of the water.

I smell the freshness of the rain as all is being washed clean. I breathe deeply and drink it in.
I love it. The sounds, the sights, the smells, for this is summer in Australia, the land of incredible heat and summer rains.

A Snapshot From a Holiday

A Baby Staghorn in a Gigantic Tree,

Port Macquarie, Australia.

It's still the month of lists over at Rebecca Writes, so in keeping with this month's theme, I offer you

A List Challenge

The names of 72 bands are depicted in this picture (click picture to enlarge). I wonder if we could list them all?

To start us off I see:

1) Smashing Pumpkins

2)Green Day

3) Garbage

4) Guns'n'Roses

How many can you see?

Make a list in the comments and we'll see if we can get all 72. There is no way I could get them all on my own so I definately need your help.

UPDATE: Christopher has advised that there is another site on which you may view the picture above in an extended, or wide, version. As this may help us to solve the remaining band titles, it is most necessary that you follow this link to the complete picture. It even comes with a magnifying glass! The game continues. Play on! It certainly reveals more, like, for example, the inclusion of The Pet Shop Boys. There is much more we have not yet seen. Christoper also knows where the answers lie but I am not sure we are ready to give up yet. What do you think?

Oh!UPDATE #2: There are 74 bands to identify.

While I have been away, Rebecca has declared that it is list month. Lacking words after being on holidays for a while, I thought I could just write a list of things I did on holidays thus updating you all on my adventures while taking part in a blog list fest. This way we're all winners. This list is called:

Things missmellifluous Did on Her Holidays

1) Got very sunburnt on an overcast day. Ouch!

2) Went for a run with sunstroke - I do not recommend this.

3) Swam in the beautiful salty sea!

4) Swam in clean fresh rivers.

5) Caught a tiny and very pretty Butterfish and threw it back, and an ugly big Flathead and ate it. Yum!

















6) Tried to ride my dad's longboard.

For the record, this is not me wiping out,

although I did many times, noone caught it on camera.

7) Got hit in the nose with my dad's longboard while trying to undo the leg rope to hand longboard over to brother.

8) Remembered, as my nose started to bleed after being hit with the longboard, that sharks like blood and would perhaps be attracted to our surfing refuge buy the scent of my seemingly copious amounts of blood.

9) Was too dazed to get out of the water.

10) Teased brother with the thought of sharks being attracted to blood!

11) Scared myself instead.

12) Consoled myself with the thought that the water was too cold for even the hungriest sharks to brave. Only stupid sufers would dare enter such icy waters.

13) Read books.

14) Bought books I didn't and perhaps will not read.

15) Saw and caught some of the tinniest, cutest little green frogs I've ever seen.

Look hard and you may see one too!

16) Contemplated stealing said frogs to release in my garden but abandoned the idea when I realised I was a long way from home without suitable frog housing, and remembered that I think it is illegal, but was not sure as the frogs were on private property...nevertheless decided not to risk it.

17) Got caught in a magnificent but freezing downpour on New Years Eve and ran home enjoying the exhilaration of the surprise storm.

18) Walked everywhere.

19) Became salt encrusted.

20) Beat my sister-in-law - the Monopoly champion - at Monopoly!

21) Watched Karate Kid 1 & 2 again, and 3 for the first time.

22) Saw many beautiful plants and animals.

23) Had a great time with my family.

24) Took quite a few photos. Not as many as usual because I spent a lot of my time in the water. I'll post more pics later.

25) Realised that I cannot live without salt on my skin and in my hair and sand under my feet. I need the salt sand wave!

Happy New Year!

from me to you

I have been away holidaying and will update you all soon.

Till then...