Ok, so the last word in that title is pretty contrived. But it’s late, and I’m waiting for Robyn to put the finishing touches on the first draft of her reports.
But, contrived or not, this hose fitting makes it much easier to feel like the tough gangster type when you’re watering your herb garden. Though perhaps a concentrated stream of water isn’t the best thing for those delicate plants…
This is quite incredible.
It really wouldn’t be out of place in a circus – and I feel like I should know. Because last night Robyn and I hit big top for the Great Moscow Circus. It’s in Townsville for three weeks.
It was worth the price we paid for admission (free through a work contact) and probably worth the price others will pay.
There was a disappointing scarcity of scary animals – unless you’re scared by miniature ponies. Which Robyn isn’t – she wants four for the yard. She dreams of running our very own menagerie of rare and bizarre animals. That’s why ordinary people have pet dogs – and we have turtles.
It was actually a thoroughly enjoyable night – despite Robyn’s head cold/flu thing (she caught my man flu but it’s bashed her about a bit) – and it’s pretty cheap.
There are 13 performers (by my count) who each take on multiple roles (including selling pop-corn before the show and flashing trinkets and refreshments during intermission). It’s impressive. As is the guy on the ball – who prompted the post, and was discovered here…
Robyn and I spent the last 5 days (not including today) in far north Queensland – that is anywhere north of Mission Beach (actually our boundaries have been redrawn and it’s probably anything north of Cardwell… statistically speaking)… but I digress.
What follows will be a series of reviews of the things we did while exploring the far north.
We spent most of our time away in Port Douglas – but made a couple of journeys to the tablelands, spent time in Cairns and made an eventful trek to the Daintree rainforest.
For the record, I really like going on holidays with my wife.
I have a confession. I have a dangerously low tickle threshold – lower than indicated by this graph. My wife likes to tickle. This is a shameless attempt to prevent any future tickling.
But as it turns out – you can’t take the “ladette” out of the girl. Despite what TV might attempt to teach you.
We watch Ladette to Lady. It continues to be one of my wife’s favourite programs… so we watched the reunion special the other night. What we didn’t see – but what those staying at the hotel the girls were reunited to did – was this:
“A hotel source confirms the ladettes drew at least a dozen complaints after having a topless romp in the hotel swimming pool at 1.30am, throwing objects from windows and trashing a hotel room, resulting in a cleaning bill worth several hundred dollars. “
The SMH story also demonstrates that the Herald’s sub editing department has an issue captioning people with just their first names… see below
The Australian Ladettes ... students (from left to right) Nicole Skye, Emily Krisyn, Bianca Maria, Sarah Zoe, in class with teacher Mrs Liz Brewer.
The countdown is over. We voted this morning. Robyn told me afterwards that she’d voted for Family First. It was a funny joke. We laughed.
Here’s why I don’t vote for Family First…
I have no numbers to back this up. But I’m sure I could find them. I know that some people who are single issue voters on abortion will get angry when I say this. But voting for family first when you’re a nominally conservative voter who doesn’t like abortion is pretty much a vote for Labor – who (despite their name being similar to the act of giving birth) are the most likely party to legalise abortion in Australian states.
Obviously the preference system allows you to make this statement while still essentially voting for the LNP – but a real statement would be made by the number of people not preferentially voting at all – and ousting a government without having to rely on preferences at all.
It may be a principled move. It may make a statement. But it’s a phyrric victory only. So I won’t be making that move any time soon.
This is too late to change anyone’s mind anyway. But it’s my two cents worth.
Also, I think it’s slightly ironic that the Greens print out how to vote cards. They’re such a waste of paper. Perhaps we should change the legislation to allow each nominated candidate to place a “how to vote” card in the voting booth. That’s under 10 printouts per candidate per booth – rather than thousands.
Robyn loves a good puzzle. So no doubt if she had her way our house would be decked out with this sort of classy furniture. They’re available for an unspecified but no doubt expensive price from here.
Me, well, apparently I’m a nerd (or a geek) so I’d be more likely to deck our place out with these chairs of retro gaming awesomeness. Pacman eat your heart out.
Robyn, Chris, and I are going to coffee school tonight at Coffee Dominion. Should be fun. It’s pretty much all you can drink coffee – and we are learning about the following:
I’m taking the camera and will no doubt give you all a run down tomorrow. I’m pretty excited.
A long time ago – in 2006 in fact – I contemplated making icecream reviews a regular feature on this blog. The idea never had legs. I never really found a worthy icecream contender.
Turkish Delight Cadbury icecreams were good. They would have scored a mention had the feature continued. As would the Drumstick Sundae line. Other than that there aren’t any particularly regular icecreams featured on the Campbell itinerary.
Until now. Weis Coffee Almond and Cream bars. Mmm. Fantastic. The. Best. Weis. Bar. Ever. And that’s a big call – the mango Weis bars are pretty spectacular. But these were great. Robyn gave them the thumbs up. They’re now on the menu. If you like coffee they should be on yours too. They’re no doubt as good as these things.
While playing around with WordPress I’ve created a new account here at nathanintownsville.com – for my lovely wife. Robyn. I don’t know how often she’ll post. If ever. She said she might. But at the very least it’s nice she’s got that option.
This Tetris inspired street art (in Sydney, from Flickr) is awesome. I would like all my belongings to be Tetris inspired. Moving would be a breeze. Robyn would have to be chief moving consultant though – her Facebook Tetris score is still the best of my 600+ friends.
Activism is a funny thing. There are plenty of worthy causes out there to choose from – and I suspect they’re something people hold to with vehement passion. One such activist once told me that the dying pandas were of more inherent value than the child I sponsor – it takes a particular type of person to be that misdirected. I met a guy in the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane who argued passionately that the Australian dollar should be valued based on our gold stocks (this system), I signed his petition so I could read the “free” newspaper he was handing out describing the system – and he rang me about a year later seeking my support – a request I duly turned down. Joe has many causes he believes are worth fighting for – mostly the legacy of George W Bush.
In the last few weeks “pirate” anti-whaling ships have been hassling a sanctioned whale (cuisine) research vessel. I’m not anti-whaling – I think if you can manage to bring in a massive fish you deserve to be able to eat it as is your right in the food chain. During the initial stages of the piracy the Sea Shepherd organisation’s leader President Paul Watson said he’d be prepared to “die for these whales if need be.” And he tried – his pirate ships repeatedly rammed the first Japanese whaling tanker – the Kaiko Maru causing the ship to put out a distress signal and cutting short its valuable “scientific” mission. What made Mr Watson wake up one day and decide to save the whales? Did he read Moby Dick at a particularly influential time in his life? Did he have a bad experience giving a past flame some perfume? What is it that makes people take on a cause with such do or die enthusiasm. Maybe he saw this video…
There is something refreshing about the idealism of these sometimes misguided activists. But really there are just so many causes out there to fight for – the whales, a trial for Australian terrorist David Hicks (ala Dick Smith), climate change, the future of the Liberal Party… there are things that need saving on every corner. How do you split such worthy causes? Is it just a matter of finding a subject that makes your blood boil? Or makes your heart sing? Some time ago Phil and myself offered our services as mercenary protesters (I actually suspect the term “freelance” writing is derived from such a concept). I’m looking to go one better – suggest a topic and I’ll get active for an appropriately proportional amount of my time.
There are some people out there who have chosen to take on the cause of scamming the Nigerian scammers – a story in today’s SMH caught my attention – you can read about it here, or just watch the video below…
I’m not at work today – Robyn had a nasty fall on the indoor soccer field last night and I’m helping her with the first part of the rehabilitation process having sat through a few hours with my intoxicated indigenous friends in the casualty ward of the local hospital. That’s the last time I let her play soccer – she’s thrilled that her swollen ankle now looks just like one of my cankles.
Design brief
I have a new design – that’s obvious for those of you visiting – but for the subscribers you should perhaps stop by and check it out.
Robyn doesn’t like it though – so I may have to change it if I want her posting more often.
Also, apparently commenting is difficult for some people (not the general vibe but a specific) – I think it’s got something to do with the OpenID plug-in I’m using. If commenting has been a problem – can you try commenting on this post without including a website in the website field – that will confirm my suspicions if it works.
Oh yeah, feedback on the design/design issues would be more than welcome.
May 25, 2009