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Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
astrogirl2
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8:21p
Yeah, Insert A "Not" Into the Text On That Icon
I still haven't started my Walks Into a Bar story. I still haven't even come up with an idea for it.
Also, for the past couple of weeks, every time I've gone to type the word "right," it's come out as "write." I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something.
current mood:  Kind of amused. Not writing.
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(8 comments | comment on this) Thursday, March 18th, 2010
fremantlebiz
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8:35a
The extraordinary history of the good ship Athena
There’s a pretty little passenger ship called the Athena which has become a regular sight in Fremantle because many of it’s cruises start from here. By accounts it’s charmingly comfortable, and is popular with West Australians for short economical trips locally and northward to south-east Asia and return. Occasionally it travels to Europe via the Suez Canal calling at some exotic places en-route. Apparently it’s ownership is Portuguese, as is the nationality of the crew.
The name Athena implies a Greek connection, but surprisingly the ship was built in Sweden in 1948 and launched as MS Stockholm. At the time it was the largest vessel the Swedes had attempted - state of the art, replete with a reinforced ice-breaker bow. It’s had a lot of other names since: Völkerfreundschaft, Volker, Fridtjof Nansen, Italia I, Italia Prima, Valtur Prima and Caribe.
Athena at Fremantle - 14 March 2010
In it’s earliest years the 525 feet long Stockholm operated on the North Atlantic route between Europe and the US. On 25 July 1956 in heavy fog 50 miles south of Nantucket there was a serious collision when the much larger luxury Italian liner Andrea Dora. The Italian captain made a 22 knot turn directly across Stockholm’s bows. It was a very poor decision. The Italians apparently misinterpreted the radar picture and tried too late to follow standard passing procedures. The ship was also traveling much too fast for the pea-soup conditions. The captain had a tight schedule to maintain. Five of Stockholm’s crew were killed and an indeterminate number of others were injured.
Aboard the Andrea Dora there was pandemonium. Some 46 passengers were killed as the Stockholm’s ice-breaker bows crunched forty feet through the passenger accommodation on the starboard side. Hundreds more were injured. The ship quickly took on a significant list which rendered half it’s lifeboats unusable. A major rescue effort by other shipping in the area prevented further loss of life, but it was extremely lucky that the event didn’t rival the Titanic disaster. Andrea Dora rolled and went to the bottom the following morning in just over 200 feet of water. Stockholm made it’s way back to New York where it was repaired and put back into service within months.
SS Andrea Dora sinking and MS Stockholm (now Athena) in New York
In 1960 Stockholm was sold to the East German Government and renamed Völkerfreundschaft. It continued operation as a passenger liner until 1980 when it was again sold and was temporarily laid up at Southampton as Volker. The next name change to Fridtjof Nansen coincided with it being used as emergency shoreside accommodation in Norway for asylum seekers. In 1989 the vessel was sold to an Italian company and towed to Genoa for a major refit and structural alterations. It became Italia I then Italia Prima. As Caribe it was used on the passenger run to Cuba. In 2005 the ship acquired its current name of Athena. It’s now operated by a company called Classic International Cruises.
Last Sunday evening marked the end of Athena’s second summer season based at Fremantle. It departed on a leisurely forty night cruise to Southampton via the Middle East. It’s scheduled to return here next summer when there’ll be a series of short cruises out of Freo. It’s impossible to guess the extraordinary history of this little ship from my colour photo which I took last Sunday morning.
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
 RSS feed.
Rottnest essays: 
 Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: The Ship Departs - Edward Artemyev
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(comment on this) Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
(4 comments | comment on this)
fremantlebiz
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7:15a
Dutch replica Stad Amsterdam sighted entering Freo
When we were stuck on on the North Mole last Sunday evening waiting for the QM2 inspired traffic jam to dissolve we noticed a sailing ship motoring into the harbour.
It was the 250 foot, 10 year old Dutch replica clipper Stad Amsterdam. It was retracing the 19th century voyage by Charles Darwin on HMS Beagle. (1831 – 1836). Darwin briefly visited King George Sound on the south coast but didn't come to Fremantle.
Reportedly the modern vessel carried an elitist supercargo, including some descendants of Darwin. Presumably one of the reasons for calling into the port was to replenish its shipboard supply of booze and gourmet nibbles.
Dutch replica clipper Stad Amsterdam skulks motors into Fremantle
The steel hulled ship leaves for Mauritius today. It’s website reveals that anyone can still sign up as elitist supercargo for future sections of the voyage, if they have enough euros. Click here to sus out the Canary Islands section. I’ve been there, done that.
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: Dutchman - John Barry
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(comment on this) Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
fremantlebiz
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6:45a
Queen Mary 2 does Fremantle - The departure
The passengers on the QE2 couldn’t have had a better day to visit Fremantle last Sunday. The weather was perfect, everything was open for business and there were two very big local events. A ‘Chilli Festival’ on the esplanade and the pre-season charity-fundraising ‘Childrens Day’ run by the Fremantle Dockers football club at their home ground. The packed situation in the port was compounded by many thousands of Western Australians wanting to take a look at QM2.
We refrained from joining the mad throng during the day, but Jill and I took out youngest daughter to the North Mole in the late afternoon to watch the ship sail away into the sunset. There were even more people that there had been when I was there at dawn. (See yesterday’s entry.) I was lucky again with the parking. More arse than class. Here’s some pictures. That’s our daughter dressed in black and white standing barefooted on one of the rocks:
QM2 leaving Fremantle - next stop, Mauritius
There were plenty of private boats to see the ship away. The congestion on the water was chaotic on the other side of the harbour near the South Mole. We were expecting catastrophic collision. A fire-boat eventually sprayed water to clear them back from the main channel. When the ship passed by us we realised that many hundreds more stink-boats and their chardonnet-sipping, ‘look at me’ occupants had been kept back in the harbour to allow the ship out first. The huge armada churned along behind the ship, trying to keep up as it headed into the sunset. I suspect most of us ashore were temporarily glad we were where we were.
QM2 sailing into the sunset
A traffic jam occurred soon after. Luckily for us we’d not been caught in it. We waited on the Mole for an hour while it cleared. Next time we’ll make sure we take a picnic tea.
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: Sunsets - Rachel Portman
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(comment on this) Monday, March 15th, 2010
astrogirl2
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12:18p
Meme
Oh, look, it's another one of these memes.
Choose five series fandoms (no peeking before you choose them), list them, and then answer the questions behind the cut.
My choices:
1. Doctor Who
2. Farcape
3. Deep Space 9
4. The Pretender
5. Lost
( The questions! )
current mood:  wasting time at work
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(24 comments | comment on this)
matt_ruff
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7:18a
New web host, new email address
FYI, the AT&T Worldnet service I've used for the past twelve years is shutting down this month, so I'm moving to a new web hosting service. My web domain remains the same -- www.bymattruff.com -- but because I'm no longer using web forwarding, links to specific pages will have a different URL than they did before. Specifically, if you've got a link to my site that begins "http://home.att.net/~storytellers", you'll need to change that part of the address to "http://www.bymattruff.com".
My email address is also changing -- you can find the new one on the contact page of my web site if I haven't already sent it to you. As of this posting the old email address still works, so if you've sent me something recently I should have gotten it, but AT&T will be pulling the plug sometime in the next few days.
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fremantlebiz
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7:48a
Queen Mary 2 does Fremantle - The arrival
I crept from the house yesterday at 5am to go to the North Mole to watch the arrival of the largest passenger ship to visit Australia, the Queen Mary 2. So did thousands of others. However the rest of my family still at home had a long standing agreement to share stall space at the local flea market with some of our neighbours.
It was still dark when I got to the Mole. Had I been ten minutes later I wouldn’t have found a parking spot. The place was crawling with ship lovers and dreaming wannabe passengers. The morning was warm and balmy with almost no wind. I could see in the distance that Cunard’s super-liner was ablaze with lights. I imagined some early-risers were eating sumptuous breakfasts or a quick-start snort at the Veuve Cliquot champagne bar.
Don't mention the smoke
The liner presented an impressive sight as it silently approached. When it came abeam of the North Mole a large contingent of Australian passengers chanted an, “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oye! Oye! Oye!” war cry.
QM2 slips into Fremantle
The superlatives appearing in the press last week included stuff like the ship was three times the size of the Titanic. No mention that the lifeboats on QM2 were positioned 82 feet above the waterline for aesthetic reasons. They should have been at the regulation 49 feet. (See Wikipedia.)
The ship has been in service since 2003. It has capacity for 3,056 cashed up passengers. A good old fashioned class system applies on board. The upper-crust and any chanting Australian riffraff are kept well and truly in their respective orders.
This was the first time QM2 visited Fremantle. The master on this visit was Captain Bates. You won’t find any lower class nautical jokes about Master Bates here - no siree. I know my place in polite society.
Tomorrow: 'QM2 part 2.'
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: On the Good Ship Lollipop - Tiny Tim
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(comment on this) Sunday, March 14th, 2010
fremantlebiz
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5:36a
A long, lone protest over the fate of a street tree
Since December 7 last year disabled pensioner Richard Pennicuik (57) has been perched high and dry in a tall gum tree (Eucalyptus melliodora) in suburban Thornlie to prevent it being cut down. Unless he’s removed beforehand, then next Wednesday will be his 100th day of protest, and from what he told me, it will possibly be his last day aloft. I had quite a long talk with him yesterday afternoon and he confirmed he has had enough of spending 24 hours a day in the tree. He wants to come down and at the same time retain his dignity.
The story has had a lot of media coverage since it began three months ago. Richard has become popularly (and unpopularly) known as “The tree man.” The several stories which have appeared on the Sunday Times ‘Perth Now’ website have attracted a lot of insulting, hostile and even hysterical criticism of him by very angry bogans. These have been countered by some polite neutral comments from people such as myself, aka ‘Sandy Groper.’
Richard's favourite Eucalyptus melliodora
Its been apparent throughout the entire affair that the city fathers have been very annoyed that someone like a mere ratepayer had dared to challenge their authority. The tree is on the street verge they ‘control’ and they have maintained it’s unhealthy and a danger to the public. It looked just fine to me when I saw it yesterday. I thought it was quite a beautiful tree. Apparently there are experts who agree.
Conflict resolution skills by the civic authority have not appeared to have been of the highest order. They've huffed and puffed a few times. Last Friday there was an attempt at a final showdown. A team of workers rocked up with a police guard and took down a similar tree a few doors away. There’s just a low stump now. A City of Gosnells ‘director of governance’ tried to apply the frighteners to the man by saying he was going to be exposed to a $5,000 dollar fine and $500 dollars for every day he remained aloft once the council lodged a writ. The threat failed to impress.
Richard allowed me to take a few portraits of him yesterday. I’m quite pleased with the result:
Richard Pennicuik "The tree man"
The tree man continually wears a safety harness. He said getting a good night’s sleep in his rigid orange stretcher was difficult because hoons drove past at all hours shouting abuse and hooting car horns. It was apparent to me that he feared for his safety because of these nutters. Wire mesh has even been wrapped around the base of the tree to thwart a nocturnal chain saw attack. Even when I was there in daylight there were hoons passing by screaming abuse, but there was also plenty of encouragement.
His house is adjacent to the tree and there is a temporary camp for his supporters and family inside his property line. If nothing else, he has to be admired for his fortitude. He’s endured one of our hottest summers on record. He said he used to have a fear of heights, but now using a few ropes he can move around the tree branches with ease. I hope for his and his family's sake he doesn’t cop a fine.
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: Enya: The Memory Of Trees
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(2 comments | comment on this) Saturday, March 13th, 2010
fremantlebiz
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8:23a
End of week food-shopping
Friday shopping for food is becoming less attractive. The Stock Road markets are still on the list, but the local Woolworths and Cole’s supermarkets have been dropping their bundles. The Woolies operation at Melville have decided that mid morning on Friday is the best time to partially block the aisles of all the refrigerated sections in order to restock the shelves. The sausage section is the worst, this is closely followed by the cheese and smallgoods section. The prices are no help. They are always high. Fresh meat from four legged creatures like pigs, sheep and cows has become particularly expensive at Woolworths. However, they usually do a special on chicken thighs in the deli section on Fridays. They were $3.29 a kg yesterday.
We bought a whole rump of beef from The Mad Butcher. It’s the front-name for a meat packing operation which has an association with Galati family at the The Potato Shed south of Fremantle. They are big time veggie growers. Another branch of the Galati clan is working at the Stock Road Markets. All these setups seem to be thriving because they easily compete with the big supermarket chains. They’re also expanding. Recently a Potato Shed opened at Wanneroo, north of Perth.
The Mad Butcher has been mentioned by me before. They initially had a small operation in Spearwood, but have been so successful they recently moved into a much larger premises in O’Connor, just a short distance from the Woolworth store. The retail shop at the front is obviously an appendage to the wholesale operation out the back. Importantly, it’s more conveniently located for us.
An Italian stereotype?
The young guy who served me yesterday said he’d been saving his money to finance a one year trip to Thailand in May. He was going to join a kick-boxing school. I wished him luck and hoped he didn’t get too badly injured by the Thais.
Later in the day I walked to the local Coles supermarket - it’s two minutes from our house. I needed some cockroach baits. The store has gone pretty limp and lacks the variety found in Woolies. In addition most of the advertised weekly specials were long gone. There was a time when Coles could be relied upon to carry enough stock to meet the demand for advertised specials through the entire week. I’ve never understood why they risk alienating customers by running out. It also raised suspicions of bait advertising, which is supposed to be illegal. Meat was very expensive at Coles too. No worries, we already had our rump steak from The Mad Butcher for $5.99 a kg. We’ll slice it up today.
Interestingly the boss cocky of the huge Wesfarmers/Coles empire got egg on his face last week when he started waxing enthusiastically that private enterprise could do a better job of running the type of holiday accommodation we enjoy so much at Rottnest Island. As minor shareholders in Wesfarmers, we reckon he needs to pull his head in and take a hard look at what is going on in his own corporate backyard - especially the flaccid local Coles store. Rottnest is doing quite okay as it is.
Some exterior all-weather rat baits which I set along the fence lines of our place a couple of weeks ago have been doing their job. I bought another packet of baits this week to deliver a coup de grace. On Thursday night I was in the back garden and could smell the gentle pong of dead rats. The waxy baits have a hole in the middle and can simply be slipped over a long nail. The brand name is ‘Tomcat’. I found them at Bunnings, which is also part of the Wesfarmers/Coles empire.
A gnawed rat bait amongst the grape vines
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: Lost In The Supermarket - Ben Folds
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(comment on this) Thursday, March 11th, 2010
astrogirl2
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6:06p
I Don't Really Write Sequels. But...
Here's a meme:
Pick one of my stories and I will tell you the first line of its sequel. Even if I was never actually planning to write a sequel. Even if it already has a sequel -- I'll give you the first line of another version of its sequel!
Notes:
My fic can be found here.
I reserve the right not to take this exercise seriously, for instance by coming up with cracky sequels to serious stories.
Answers may contain spoilers for the stories in question.
No, I am not actually going to turn any of these into a story.
Why, yes, this is what I'm doing instead of finishing my ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) help_haiti story or figuring out what the heck to do with my Walks into a Bar assignment.
current mood:  lazy
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(13 comments | comment on this) Friday, March 12th, 2010
fremantlebiz
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7:44a
Flashbacks to 1945
While recently rummaging through some packets of old photos I’d taken of our kids over the past 31 years I came across a much older packet containing some small baby photos of me taken 64 years ago. I was surprised because I can’t remember having acquired them. Anyway I quickly decided I had better get on with scanning them to preserve the images a bit longer.
The earliest photo of me was taken when I was three months old - August 1945 according to my mother’s handwriting on the back. I’m guessing it might have been around about August 15, 1945 which was VJ Day, the day Japan surrendered in WW2. The photo had a lot of scratches on it, but I’ve managed to clean it up a bit on the computer. I suppose I’m very lucky to have it. There were shortages of camera film for civilian use during the war. I haven’t found any old negatives.
War-time baby, Paul Richard Weaver aged 3 months - August 1945
A few other photos soon followed. The one below shows me being held by my father Alfred George Weaver. He was a WW1 and WW2 veteran and remained in the Australian Army until 1950. Judging by the quality of the image the film might have been in the camera since before the WW2.
Me with my soldier Dad - October 1945
The next photo I’ve chosen to show was taken in November 1945 when I was six months old. For me the image seems to relay a tacit message that the war was well and truly over. If you look carefully in the tree behind me you can see a fruit-fly bait jar.
A happy peace-time baby
In 1945 my parents were renting a house near the Windsor Theatre in Nedlands. My mother told me that it was beneath the flight path of Catalinas preparing to touch down on the Swan River. Sometimes they would fly quite low over the house showing signs of battle damage and trailing smoke. I have a single memory of living there. It was soon after I had learned to walk. I was happily toddling naked down a side path with my mum chasing me.
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: Infant Eyes - Wayne Shorter
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(3 comments | comment on this) Thursday, March 11th, 2010
astrogirl2
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5:14a
Trekkish Musings
Some more thoughts generated by re-watching DS9:
You know, people on this show are always suddenly deciding they need to talk to folks on Bajor and just calling them right up, without ever stopping to check the time zone to make sure it isn't the middle of the night. Star Trek really does often just sort of forget that planets are round.
Also, please tell me that there's a way to program a replicator you use a lot to know how you like things. I mean, I know I would get tired of saying "coffee, hot, milk, no sugar" over and over, every damned day. Especially as I usually drink, like, three cups in the morning. Sure, Picard's "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." line is iconic, but is there a reason why he couldn't have just set the replicators on the Enterprise to automatically do that when he asked for tea, unless he specified otherwise? I mean, it's the 24th freaking century! Surely they have "change your default preferences" technology!
current mood: obviously kinda bored
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(30 comments | comment on this)
astrogirl2
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4:25a
This Is The Only Icon I Have For This Show.
Have started re-watching season one of Deep Space Nine. You know, I love DS9 a lot, but in S1, it's really just not the show it became, is it? Although it is pleasantly reminding me just how very fond I was of Odo. And, even if they were still defining everyone else's character in the early episodes, they had that great Quark-and-Odo frenemies vibe down pretty much from the very beginning.
Also, I really want Chief O'Brien to come to my house and fix things.
current mood:  calm
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(24 comments | comment on this)
fremantlebiz
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6:56a
Anyone for civet-cat coffee?
The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been in Australia for the past three days. Indonesia is our nearest northern neighbour. It has a mostly Muslim population of 230 million. It’s Mr Yudhoyono’s job to keep them all happy.
On Tuesday in recognition of his efforts towards strengthening relations between the two countries the Governor General made him a Companion of the Order of Australia - Australia’s highest honour. He was also forced to endure a patronising gum-leaf-shaking, rent-a-didgererdoo ceremony, replete with some droned in-jokes of the type which seem never to be picked up by the tone-deaf grand poobahs or their flunkies. Some doo players are very skilled at this. It’s a sub-cultural thing.
Prime Minister Rudd forked out and gave the visitor a top of the range Australian guitar - a hand built Maton with the President’s initials SBY on the side. Now in his 60s, the reportedly-kindly former army general likes to compose love songs and has recorded some popular CD albums. According to the Sydney Morning Herald the latest CD is in English and titled I'm Certain I'll Get There. The songs include numbers such as 'My Soul Was Alight That Night' and 'School Holiday'. Maybe they can be found on Limewire?
As a reciprocal gesture Mr Yudhoyono gave the Australian PM a packet of coffee beans which had been through the digestive system of a civet-cat and then picked out of the animal’s excrement. “Bummer!” I expect they’ll be useful for when Mr Rudd feels like enjoying a relaxing cup of ‘crappuccino.’ Is that some sniggering in Bahasa I hear coming from the north?
I watched the Indonesian President address members of the Australian Parliament on TV yesterday afternoon. The air conditioner must have been switched off because he was showing signs of being overly warm. The beads of sweat were dripping onto his suit lapels. The suit will need to be dry cleaned.
He mentioned that he and Mr Rudd winked at each other during international conferences. I didn’t realise the Australian PM was known as a winker. The Indonesian leader also said there were still people in Indonesia who still had an ‘Australia phobia.’ That’s okay, I guess many of us here understand. There’s a lot of Australian bogans who are offensive to just about everyone. They need a dose of civet-cat coffee too. He also said he hoped that ordinary Australians around the nation were watching his address on TV. Well I was pleased to do so on ours while I drank tea, and here’s the proof:
On our TV - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono receives a standing ovation from the Oz Parliament
The next bigwig to address the Australian Parliament will be President Barak Obama on March 23. He’s sure to get a friendly reception too. Being black he might get to enjoy a double serving of rent-a-didgeridoo. There’ll definitely be some nice official gifts. Maybe a first edition of his favourite book, Moby Dick and a kangaroo-skin basket ball? Hopefully he doesn’t give Prime Minister Rudd a bag of animal poo as a reciprocal token of appreciation.
Max is happy to oblige
© MMX Paul R. Weaver.
Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.
RSS feed.
Rottnest essays:
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
current music: One More Cup Of Coffee - Bob Dylan
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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