Recent photos

William and I recently visited North Queensland for a week to see his grandparents. We went birdwatching at a swamp, enjoyed a boat ride on a volcanic crater full of water, hit the beach when the tide was out, visited a different volcanic crater full of water, went to my old school which is now part of a museum and saw a little horse at a local Show. We also froze our butts off.

New sensation

In case you haven't already seen it...

Territory dancers paid tribute to Michael Jackson by performing a dance to his hit Black or White at the recent Royal Darwin Show. The are now an internet sensation.

Did you know?

It costs around $8500 a pop to set up a circus at Darwin's Mindil Beach. Unless, of course, you do a secret deal with the Darwin City Council to waive the fee in return for, say, 700 tickets.
Which is what they did.

Community Service Link:

Do you have coulrophobia, a fear of clowns? Then go HERE for helpful hints and advice. Face your fear.

Currently reading

Ah, gardening. It's been a while since I actually did any. Not a real surprise after the 12 months of hard slog it took to get it up to scratch for last year's Open Garden. That was back in August and, after an okay wet season, the place is royally feral. Again. Time for a major slash and burn, and a bit of a re-think. I've redesigned the entire block in my head, largely thanks to Bill Bensley's Paradise by Design.
Based in Thailand, Bensley runs a landscape design studio. Like Bali-based garden guru Made Wijaya (I have a few of his books too), Bensley builds gardens for Asian resorts and such, as well as the odd private estate. (Be nice having an estate, I bet.)
Bensley has the happy knack of being both flamboyant and subtle at the same time. Strong design elements - coloured walls, statues, paved paths etc - blend seemlessly with the surrounding foliage and existing architecture, which is pretty much what modern tropical garden design is all about. The photos in Paradise by Design (there are lots) have one thing in common: you get a real sense of just how serene these gardens are. And if there's one thing I like it's serenity. Bit hard to come by in suburban Darwin with all the outboard motors, chainsaws, barking dogs, police sirens and illegal fireworks but I guess life in the burbs is what you make of it. All you need is a machete and, say, $100,000. That should do it. Or you could move to an estate.

Time to find my socks

Big chill hits Territory - Northern Territory News
Source: www.ntnews.com.au
TOP End residents were shivering as the recent cold snap deepened yesterday morning, with Darwin experiencing its coldest temperature since last August.

Meltdown Territory

NO mobile phones, no internet, no ATMs, no landlines.

..and, so far, not a peep out of the Northern Territory government.

It's all good fun until...

...somebody cops a brick in the face.

THE opening of the new waterslides at Darwin's Leanyer Recreation Park yesterday was marred by violence as a 12-year-old boy was taken to hospital after being hit in the face with a brick.

Crispy fried noodles

Disaster! One of our favourite Chinese restaurants is no more. The memories are fond ones.

Storm brewing

That low pressure system north of Darwin is likely to hit cyclone strength sometime today. It's a long way away and is expected to slowly drift west, further away from us, in the direction of East Timor over the next two or three days. The cyclone will be named Kirrily and unless it does something exceptionally dodgy it won't bother us at all.
Track Map

William's song of the week