pantai kuta

i wish i was here right now.
[dont you reckon its really annoying when people try to show just how 'international' they are by throwing uncommon foreign words into sentences, especially in titles]
[btw paintai = beach in indonesian]

vacation reading recommendations

having recently returned from a couple of months hanging about in warm places, ive had the good fortune to read some stuff that i would not be caught dead being seen with in melbourne. 
[when you work at a public library, your borrowings are everybody's business and everyone has the right to comment on them. like the time a [...]

rafflesia flower

 
 
 
 
 
 
the rafflesia flower is the largest flower in the world, found only in sumatra borneo and the philippines.  the bud [see right of image] takes 9 months to open, and then after 7 days it begins to rot.
apparently humans are not meant to touch the buds before they have opened, because the body chemicals react with the plant and [...]

nagambie

nagambie is a country town in the goulburn valley. it is famous for fruit and also for a lake by the side of the highway. 
one of the joys of my job is getting to travel to different parts of victoria to attend meetings at different library services. it was nagambie library this week to discuss our library [...]

the bride wore hot pink

hardly the bogan wedding that i was expecting, all of the guests ended up travelling to donnybrook from melbourne or the uk anyway.
had never been to donnybrook before, and i dont think i ever will again. not sure what one does when they go on vaction to places down that way. apple picking??

tibet

i visited tibet less than two years ago. despite the growing dominance of the han chinese community, the tibetans still lived relatively peacefully, albeit as the poor cousins.
right now the capital lhasa and other towns in tibet are in lockdown as riots between ethnic tibetans and chinese occur.  apparently no foreigners especially journalists are being let in and [...]

the dirty mile

Come on a walk through Fitzroy’s Indigenous history to experience Indigenous peoples’ strong and continuing historical, cultural and emotional connection to this place – from its Woiwurrung beginnings right up to the here and now. Follow Doug Nicholls to footy training; listen to his sermon; meet our Returned Soldiers, our female WW2 Munitions Workers, Atherton [...]

caprioskas

are the best holiday drinks, ever.  with salt & pepper cuttle fish accompaniment [see bottom of image], the caprioska is the perfect end to a hard day in the surf.

WICKED

i had little idea of the power of the ’wicked‘ van until byron bay. if you cant be bothered clicking on the link to the photo gallery then let me describe it to you.
think cheap campervan covered with graffiti art, and the more sexist theme the funnier. for example, ‘inspect her gadget’ (inspector gadget).
i had great enjoyment spotting [...]

obsessed with byron

 
you know that you are in a town obsessed by surfing when the first, third and last pages of the morning newspaper are dominated by surf stories. [should or should not the rip curl pro tour be held at lennox head near byron bay]. and every second store is a surfwear/surf accessories store [my dream [...]