Lowland Games

Inspired by the Highland Games, we spent countless hours tossing our schoolbags as far and as high as our little schoolboy arms would take them. This is my best attempt at training after school on October 17th 1985.

Swim Star

From my family roadtrip to Spain and Portugal in the mid 80s. This was when I was at the absolute peak of my swimming prowess.

Ned Kelly

From 1985, here's a scene from my Ned Kelly phase. 

Note the classic combination of Walker's roast chicken crisps and a Whizzer and Chips comic on the right.

Cover Art

Back in the 80s when I released my first collection of metaphysical poetry, my photographer friend created this for the paperback cover. This shot was taken from a second floor classroom at Langley Senior School in Solihull, and developed in the school's own darkroom, in the Chemistry department.

Cat Awakenings

Have you seen the film Awakenings (based on the Oliver Sacks book) ? Victims of a mysterious disease spend their whole day in a catatonic state of minimal consciousness, but with medical intervention, they awaken for a short burst of activity before returning to their normal immobile existence. This exactly describes my cats. A whole day of lying around is interrupted only twice a day. Firstly before brekky, there's the morning frenzy involving much miaowing and jumping on people's heads and "accidental" knocking over of stacks of CDs, which only ends when the tins of cat food are opened up. And a similar scene unfolds before teatime, whereby magazines and books on the coffee tables are "accidentally" pushed off, or ripped to shreds in a claw-sharpening exercise.

But now that I've made this connection, I know not to be upset. Instead I'll be writing to Oliver Sacks for advice on this serious medical condition afflicting not one but two of my felines.

Bushfire sun

Today's proscribed burn in Bullsbrook filled the northern suburbs' sky with smoke and an eerie red glow. Here's the view west from Lake Monger. By the way, my new School of Subtle Photography will be opening for enrolments soon.

Note the red sun in the centre.

And here's the scene to the north.

And a final shot of the sun before it was obscured forever, and our nightmare ordeal of life on a sunless earth began. Luckily there's a stockpile of 30 cans of salmon in the pantry.

Spectacular Fly-Past

While raking leaves from my back lawn just now, a spectacular fly-past of military aircraft went past, not just once but three times. They looped around so many times I began to lose interest, but I did manage to muster up enough enthusiasm to take a photo with my iPhone.

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If you need help locating the planes, see the photo at the bottom.

Announcing a New Festival

Having been an avid participant of Perth's endless summer of festivals, I have an idea for my own new one.

Since the Perth International Arts Festival film programme started in late November, followed by the Fringe Festival and PIAF and then the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, there's been hardly an evening when I've been free to chill out in the lounge room. Therefore I'm proud to announce today the Perth Evening-In Festival. Participants need not enrol, but they're encouraged to follow the official programme of events. Here's a sample, showing the activities for tonight.

Day 1 

7pm - assemble in your lounge room. Shoes off please.

7.15pm - start drinking. Cider or dessert wine is recommended to start.

7.30pm - watch Letterman's show from last night.

8.30pm - stick in a DVD from one of the following series (Game of Thrones, Penny Dreadful or House of Cards)

9.30pm - open up the liqueur chocolates, and start DVD number 2.

11.30pm - end of Day 1

* * *
Compared to the existing festivals, this one lacks overpriced drinks, and there's no difficulty in finding parking. Also, nobody cares if you fall asleep halfway into a boring show.

Visiting a 1982 Beach

Who could have known this lad would one day grow into a world renowned tennis player?

Forgive the squinting. This photo predates the invention of sunnies.

Brixworth Church

We visited All Saints Church, in Brixworth, Northants in September 1977. It was built prior to 675 AD, making it over 1,300 years old at the time. It's now another 37 years older.

Wintry Walk to Shops

Birmingham, after the blizzard of 1985.

Escaping Spanish Gaol

Here's a family holiday picture from 1985. As we passed a Spanish prison, we came across a young vagabond boy, fleeing down the street. We ended up adopting him, but he never lost that Spanish accent and fondness for paella.

Greatest Advance in Car Parks

Visiting the Claremont Quarter yesterday, the little red and green lights twinkling in the car park above each space reminded me of Christmas. However they turn out to have a practical use. Red marks an occupied spot, green a free spot and blue is disabled parking.

Giant Invasion

The French giants arrived in Perth on Friday, and after resting overnight, they arose early on Saturday morning.

The girl headed north from Langley Park, straight torwards me.

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GPO Christmas Lights

Perth GPO was lit up prettily prior to Christmas.

Hopman Cup

Smuggling my camera into the Hopman Cup a few weeks ago, I was able to snap some decent shots from the France vs Poland tie. This is Alize Cornet.

Floreat Time-Warp

Swimming at Floreat Beach this morning, I was curious to investigate its development over the decades. So returning to the Landgate Map Viewer , here are some aerial photos.

Floreat Beach 1953

The grid of huts at the south mark Floreat Beach.

Floreat Beach 2014

Floreat 1974

Wish I Were in Augusta

But this is my favourite temperature map of the day. Zoom into the south-west cape of WA, and notice how that region around Augusta / Margaret River never exceeded 33 degrees for the whole of the last year. Source

A Cool Change

In the midst of a summer heatwave, it's refreshing to look at some of the Bureau of Meteorology's cooler maps.

Sturt's University Pea

What a surprise to see a Sturt's Desert Pea blooming in the gardens of the local university. What are the chances that a seed had blown 1500km towards the coast from the arid interior, and had germinated.

Benoit's Serve

From the recent Hopman Cup at the Perth Arena, my front row seat was perfect for catching stray tennis balls. The Frenchman Benoit Paire even thanked me for returning a ball to him in the warm up. "Merci beaucoup monsieur" he might have said if he'd known I was bilingual.

Lost in the Labyrinth

Hopelessly lost in a labyrinth near Margaret River recently, I realised that an aerial view of the layout was essential in finding my way out. The GPS in my phone was hopeless and the rats I'd brought with me had found the path out successfully, but had headed off too fast for me to follow. Eventually emerging into the sunlight after five hours of frustrating puzzlement, having been winched out of the centre by the rescue helicopter, I headed into Bunnings and bought a cheap drone with onboard camera. And here is the result. Next time, armed with this photo, I'll have no difficulty in navigating the hedge maze.

Extended Christmas Season

Every year I'm tempted to extend the Christmas season further. Now that we're in late January and supplies of mince pies and Christmas puds are still holding out, I'm inclined to leave tinsel and other decorations up for another month. But I'm also conscious of the looming deadline of Candlemas - the 2nd February, which marks 40 days after Christmas, and is the traditional end of the festive season. In previous centuries, holly and ivy was taken down on Candlemas Eve, for any decorations left up too long would result in a death among acquaintances.

It also seems that Candlemas is associated with Groundhog Day, which falls on the same day.

So my plan this year is to leave the decorations up until 1st February, and then I shall release my groundhogs the following day.

Mystery Plantings

Spotted near UWA's sunken garden recently, please identify this plant.

My Cats' Top Ten Films

By the way, my PC has been uncooperative, and I've not been able to boot it more than a couple of times in the last fortnight. So my blogging has been severely hampered.

So in response to my top ten movies of 2014, my cats got together and decided on their personal favourites. Here they are, in no particular order.

Still Life

The Desloation of Smaug

Philomena

The Wolf of Wall Street

Finding Vivian Maier

Only Lovers Left Alive

Magic in the Moonlight

The Infinite Man

Pride

Mr Turner