ianbee: this is instead of getting a dog

Return Ticket

Hello. In a few minutes I leave Sydney to fly to the UK. I am returning for a holiday and then am flying back to Australia again because it's okay over here and I am happy to stay a bit longer.

I don't know if I will update this blog in the next three weeks. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. All I plan on doing in Britain is meeting people for coffee and eating branflakes, so there might not be anything to write about. Best not to expect anything and be pleasantly surprised.

See you in a bit. Thanks for all the lovely comments.

How I hurt myself snorkeling yesterday

Cross-cultural washing machine collaboration

I feel I need to close the loop on the washing machine (minor) saga. My new Australian machine was delivered earlier in the week on the back of a ute*. It's actually second hand but it's the best and newest in the laundry room. My neighbour came to watch me install it and was very impressed. In Australia they like to keep all the washing machines together here in one place, for company and protection I guess. That's mine in the middle, it's huge! Australians like top-loaders because you can add socks half-way through the wash, if you like half-washed socks. It was nice to wash some clothes yesterday and not look out of the window and see water pouring out of the door of the laundry room into the garden.

 

On the other side of the world, my new Edinburgh washing machine was delivered earlier in the week and installed with minimal fuss by my resourceful tenants. It has a timer function so you can say "I want to wash these clothes, but not quite yet. Surprise me." Incidentally, for the Australian readers, you'll notice that in Britain we keep our washing machines next to the cooker. This is so that dirty tea-towels don't have far to travel. If we kept our machines in a little room behind the tennaments we would spend half our lives deicing them, although all the tramps would have cleaner clothes. When my resourceful tenants pulled the old machine out from the wall, they reported minimal mouse poo. I knew it was personal.

* a pick-up truck. Usually has an unrestrained dog in the back and a big bit on the front to scoop kangaroos out of the way.

Amazing photo of kangaroo in the wild

It's not that hard to take photos of kangaroos; sometimes you can walk right up to them and often they pose almost on request. However, if you make the photo all blurry (either intentionally or not) it looks like you caught a fleeting glimpse of a rare animal after lying patiently in wait for hours and it makes you feel like a proper wildlife photographer.

Gig catch up

Live music! You can't beat it! I've done really well over the past few months and I have totally failed to write about any of it. I keep thinking I'll wait until the next gig and then do a double post. Well, I'm now having to do a major spring-clean catch-up post. Mainly for the benefit of Simon.

Before Christmas I went to see Nouvelle Vauge who are a bit of a niche act, performing French bossa nova versions of 80s and 90s cult classics. The Bridget-Bardot-like singer announced she was actually Australian and proved it by swearing. Any Aussie audience would have cheered, but this one just stood in shock as half were French. Good gig though.

In the new year I saw Stars live. I had only recently heard of them, but had been quickly enchanted by their story songs and the whole guy/girl two singer thing. I think they've been around a bit, but they had a young fervent audience who eagerly swallowed the exuberent package.

True to their name, Cinematic Orchestra make music for a film that doesn't exist. Soulful electronica with a layer of gospel. And they have a double bass, always a bonus.

Mr. Scruff does his DJ thing and also has his own brand of tea. But I have written about him before. He played at the old barracks in the centre of town and it was raining but it didn't matter one bit.

The Cat Empire are one of Australia's biggest bands. Kind of funky skiffle rap fusion with a hint of Islamic-call-to-prayer. They were supported by a balkan gypsy accordian ensemble. I almost missed the start because my friend declared she was too hot in jeans and had to go back to the car to change into shorts. I'm bored of finding links, I'm sure you can google them. The lead singer looks like an architect, I think I've mentioned that before ...

The best gig I have been to for ages was Bon Iver. A group from Wisconsin who play a sort of etherial folky guitar rock that was written in the snow, and you can tell. They were a bit out of place amongst the formal seating of the Sydney recital hall but played with passion and energy; it was the last concert of a world tour and they wanted to make it count. They had one of those flexible approaches to assigning-instruments, the drummer had a keyboard, the guitarist had some drums and the keyboard player had a guitar. Everybody sang, someone made a guitar sing and they all wore singing-checked shirts. Their album "For Emma, Forever Ago" makes me think that everything will be alright and whatever happens in my life, if I at least have track two and maybe track nine, then it won't matter, I'll be safe. You should own a copy, whether or not you're called Emma.

More photos from a helicopter

Wildlife

I really enjoy my annual visit to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. I usually go to see it at the Natural History Museum in London around Christmas time, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the exhibition is also held in Sydney. Although the photos are about a quarter of the size of the British ones. Probably to save on postage.

As usual I persuaded someone to come with me and then subjected them to the ritual of choosing their five favourite photos before telling them why their five photos were rubbish and mine were better. No-one has come to see the exhibition with me twice. The lucky chum this year was a guy I used to work with. He started off badly by being an hour late (his computer is his alarm clock and he had set the volume to mute) then proceeded to choose a mushroom as his favourite photo. A mushroom.

To be honest there were too many swans this year. It was all swans and snow-leopards (not in the same photo). And no penguins at all, not even a chick. Despite the lack of flightless birds, it was great. I really liked this photo of a fox pouncing on a mouse (mouse: "what the ****!!") and this snow-leopard coming to getcha ...

Clicking around the website I found out that you can hire the exhibition! What an ideal birthday present or surprise gift. How wonderful to come home from work one day to find the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in your garage. I highly recommend it.