The Red Hot Centre

Uluru is hot... Uluru is red... Uluru is in the centre. Uluru (the rock and the place) tick all the boxes as advertised.

It really is out in the middle of nowhere, but fascinating all the same.

A special bonus was to be able to view The Milky Way. So many stars in the night sky when away from all the lights. Even though everything that I recognise is upside down. And most stars and planets I don't recognise :)

I'm really glad I came to Uluru. Definitely a pleasure to tick off my bucket list :)

Melbourne - wishing I could stay longer!

Well, I've moved on from a gorgeous few says in Melbourne. Weather nice and cool (not freezing....), although the sun did make an appearance on our last day, together with lots and lots of white flesh. It is a myth that every Aussie is sun bronzed :)

I was beginning to think that kangaroos were mythical beasts (just like Racoons are...) but finally groups/packs/swarms of them were noted on the side of the road, ready to leap out in front of the unassuming motorist.

Speaking of which, lane discipline on Australian highways is ummmm different. At least from the passengers perspective. Mind you, any driver who has mastered the peculiar manoeuvre, probably unique to Melbourne, called the hook turn, deserves respect. Imaging wanting to make a right turn. Now position the car in the left lane, so you'll be cutting across the traffic lanes. Why unique to Melbourne? Trams. Note for readers in North America and other countries that drive on the wrong side of the road, Australia drives on the left (i.e. correct) side.

Australia in general, but Melbourne in particular is sports mad. Just witness the Melbourne cricket ground (MCG) which also houses the national sports museum and hall of fame. Not just cricket and footy are celebrated, but any sport that Australia excels at (i.e. Most of them...) Even Melbourne museum gets in on the act with a stuffed horse taking centre stage... That would be Phar Lap.

All in all, a delightful stay in Melbourne, which really deserves a longer stay to do it full justice.

And I haven't even mentioned wine tasting in the Yarra Valley, and the Great Ocean Road, which will both get their own posts when time permits.

Random thoughts on Hong Kong

It will be good when it is finished...

Hotels seem to be built randomly in whatever space becomes available. This leads to some incongruous locations. Next to full service car repair places, in the middle of residential districts. Etc.

Everything new is built high. Very high.

New coexists right next to old
It seems English at times. Then the Chinese aspect kicks in and reminds you it most definitely isn't.

Fook seems to be a common family name ....

I'm reminded a lot of the similarities with Gibraltar buildings clinging onto any nook they can, English spoken here ( but not quite...), roads winding up and down, feeling of pride about the place...

A multi-storey car park. For double decker buses... Then I saw another! So that makes two :)

Constant hubbub and noise yet metres away, peaceful contemplation in city centre parks.

Two days is not nearly enough time to understand HK in full, and I didn't even start to explore over 90% of HK.

I leave Hong Kong with another picture .. Of the former legislative building in the heart of the banking district

Buds

"When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear."

Bill, Love's Labour's Lost....

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

oh wow!



"In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope.

The photographer made this image using a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera.

Image Credit: NASA/Thierry Legault"

And yes, the music nerd in me was instantly reminded of this.....

Reach Out

I'll be there....

Hanging Colours

Colours captured, hanging on a line
blowing in the wind
drifting past.......

Standing Out From the Crowd

....for a friend.....

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."
-- Virgil A. Kraft

All The Worlds A Stage

".... And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..."

William Shakespeare, As You Like It....

Caged

trapped
seeking escape
I see it unclearly, far away
and try to reach the outstretched hand I see

getting there......

Permission To Do The Same

My CD Cover Meme.....

1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Take a fresh image to illustrate the album - any image will do, but be creative (the original challenge was to use a random image from flickr, but I was dubious about copyright infringement...)
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Palm Grove

sometimes it is truly difficult to see the wood through the trees, and at other times there is 20/20 clarity.......

I wish there were more of the latter than the former...

A burst of snowdrops

Jetty, Roatán

So, there was me, thinking that this ramshackle, ricketty jetty (pier) was looking very picturesque.

What I hadn't fully noticed was how ricketty it actually was, and also slick with rain from a recent shower.

In lining up my photo, I stepped back, and put my left leg through a gap in the planking.

Result: one left leg covered in bumps and scrapes, a sore bum from where I fell backwards, and a badly bruised ego....

be careful out there!

Country Life

Dartmoor ponies braving the wind

Watching Me, Watching You....

Death masks from Borneo.....

Earthrise

Possibly one of the most famous photographs ever was processed 40 years ago......

NASA image

Read an account of the image here.  Of particular interest to me, today, is the account of the Kodak employees entrusted with the film (see the second half of the article).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/forty-years-since-the-first-picture-of-earth-from-space-1297569.html

Frozen In Place....

Be careful when touching bare metal with your bare hands...... it is a long time since I have seen ice like this in southern England. This is what happens after a few days with the temperature below freezing.

Images are now being blogged from flickr - after a few hiccups with clashing templates.....

Let there be light!

Snow? no! Sand!!!