Cablog

Some joy

Here's some joyful images spotted around town last night. A bunch of oversized Christmas baubles at Botany and a large wedding party on the steps of the Mitchell Library. Then early this morning the Harbour Bridge conducted a preview of laser lights for tonights NYE show. Given what's gone down in Asia, I'd prefer a single rocket arching up into the night sky, to honour those souls lost with one brilliant burst. Accompanied by some appropiate music...

Despite this, I sincerely wish all my readers a Happy New Year in which yours dreams come true. 'Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness' - Thurber

Note : 'a preview' video (1.08MB) opens in Quicktime

Asian tragedy

This tragedy is really numbing me and a similiar reaction came from passengers last night. Most everyone was subdued and unable to describe their feelings nor comprehend the scale of the thing.

Including a sombre American Express employee. He told me he'd spent the last 2 days attempting to contact their members travelling in Asia with offers of assistance. The only success he was having was with some members who had 'roaming' on their mobiles. And no contact at all from the Maldives travellers.

Overall, he was getting a low contact rate and was obviously troubled by this. As Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer has warned, be prepared for more bad news.

Time out

With the terrible tragedy unfolding around south Asia now, it doesn't seem important or appropiate to post regular today. I'd rather just pray. A.

UPDATE : I went to work yesterday with the death-toll at 16,000, yet arrived home at 3am to a figure nearing 60,000 ! Hence the depressed post above, which now sounds sanctimonious. I should've however referred readers to Tim Blair, who is providing a sterling and continuous coverage of the situation. 

Bocce off !

Another game I played over the Christmas break was bocce. This is a famous Australian game invented by Anglo Saxons for Italian immigrants so as they wouldn't try to play cricket and upset the original boat people of Australia who had enough trouble amongst themselves getting picked for the local cricket team without any pesky wogs trying to assimilate by pretending to play cricket. They gave us concrete, so we gave 'em bocce. (click to enlarge)

Lazy is...

Lazy is...mobloging in bed. Rather than getting off my arse and taking two steps in order to fire-up the PC. Note the cabbie suntan - yesterday's thong marks after a rare day in the sun. For anyone interested in mobloging, this post cost approx. $1 - 0.70c to send and 0.30c to check it arrived onsite. Anyway, the cricket's on the radio and I've a new book to read on sports writing. I'm not moving !

Bad girl Ann

Just for a holiday laugh, bad girl Ann Coulter delivers her particular brand of Christmas wishes. In doing so, she posts a previously unpublished (US) interview by Carlos Baroni, Oriana d'America, Italy, October 2004. An interview straight from the Wog Blog school of charm. Ya gotta love her,

Q: Why do Europeans prefer liberals than conservatives ?

A: Because you're all a bunch of atheists, humanists and moral relativists. Love the food, though! And don't get me started on the shoes you wonderful people make! They're to surrender for...

No offense to my readers, or Wog Blog of course...Hmmm, likely candidates for the Cablog calendar...

Via Nickie Goomba

Backyard stars

Here's a moblog - in a Bowral backyard at a Christmas Day cricket match. It was a modern day mixed bunch of players comprising 9 females and 5 males. Many star performances were exhibited, none more so than yours truly pulling off 3 blistering one-handed catches ! Two on the left, one on the right, and I have witnesses ! Happy Boxing Day.

Value judgements

One Christmas gift I've received is a new book, Law and Order in Australia - Rhetoric and Reality, by respected criminologist Don Weatherburn. In the Preface, he uses economics as an example of how public debate on key social issues has matured over time. However in doing so, he draws an unfortunate analogy with taxi drivers,

Once upon a time only economists could see the value in a low Aussie dollar. Now even cab drivers will preach to you about its benefits for Australian exports.

‘Now even cab drivers...’, implies even stupid cabbies consider and understand basic economics. Talk about elitist. Needless to say I'll struggle with a book which, without a hint of irony, decries ignorant public perceptions...

The Xmas look

Here's some images around town exemplifying the Xmas look. Ah bugger it, I'm going to bed... 

UPDATE : Ho bloody ho ! A happy Christmas to all my readers. Remember, don't drink and think/walk/drive......just catch a cab !

Cheers, Uncle Adrian.

Found him

Finally I've located the artist who's responsible for lucky Sydney's Girl on the Wall. It would appear she is his signature piece. His name is Bruno Dutot and he operates a gallery out of the disused gas station on Victoria St/Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst. I took this snaps through his shopfront window (click to enlarge). Other examples of his Girl on the Wall image are found here,

Bruno Dutot regularly paints his famous lady near our place. It's always exciting around here when we notice it's changed. Does he sneak over here in the dead of the night, wearing a balaclava? We like to think so.

I too have also wondered how she changes overnight...