Great Photos

Alex from Every Day A Photo blog has listed his Top Ten Photographs of the Year on his other blog The Earl of Essence. If that sentence confuses you, simply go here and see Alex's photos.

Here's a link to my first Alex post.

Alex really has a way with the camera. He got a CanonSXi for Christmas, deservedly so.

Happy Christmas, Everyone...Enjoy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

John and Candace and our granddaughter Ella Grace wish you all Merry Christmas!

History's Long Arc

From the transition team:

Washington, D.C. - On January 20th, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration. The Bible is currently part of the collections of the Library of Congress. Though there is no constitutional requirement for the use of a Bible during the swearing-in, Presidents have traditionally used Bibles for the ceremony, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance. President-elect Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861.
'President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in,' said Presidential Inaugural Committee Executive Director Emmett Beliveau. 'The President-elect is committed to holding an Inauguration that celebrates America's unity, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage.'

Presidents often call for meaningful historical or personal objects to be used at their inaugurations. I view Obama's request to use the Lincoln Bible as very unselfish. Instead of marking his inauguration with a personal object that he can keep or use in his Library, he is using an object which already belongs to the people of the United States. The Lincoln Bible is a part of the Library of Congress collection.

Our First Squash

We'll report on the taste after dinner tonight!
UPDATE: Buttery and delicious

Word of the Week...

Every week, a new word...you know the drill...use it, claim it.

If I love a word, it's as much for its sound as its meaning. Case in point:

Jejune

Pronunciation: \ji-ˈjün\

1 : lacking nutritive value as jejune diets

2 : devoid of significance or interest : dull as jejune lectures

3 : juvenile , puerile as jejune reflections on life and art

Innaloo Fish Market

Photo of the whole fish at the fish market. We didn't photograph the octopus, squid or cockles. Maybe next time...

We bought one of these nannygai for the grill tonight.

Countdown: My Top 20 Favorite Movies

Here's #10-#6 for my list. For #20-#16, go here. For #15-#11 go here. More to come...stay tuned.






#10.Dr.Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(1964): "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."









#9.All About Eve(1950):"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"









#8.Fitzcarraldo(1982)












#7.Taxi Driver(1976): "Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man..."







#6.All The President's Men(1976): "Woodward. Bernstein. You're both on the story. Now don't fuck it up."

Hot Water Beach in New Zealand

What are these people doing, you ask? Notice how differently people are dressed; some for winter and some in swimsuits. This is the famous Hot Water Beach of New Zealand.


Volcanoes have developed underground reservoirs of superheated water which escapes to the surface through fissures under the sand. The idea is to go to the beach at low tide, dig a deep hole, allow it time to fill with underground water (it seeps in), and sit in your sand sauna until high tide comes in to destroy it all.


John gave it a go with one foot. It was hard to find water cool enough to stand in. The water is about 147F. Of course, the ocean is very cold, but at low tide, it doesn't fill the holes.

There are places in the ocean near the beach right around NZ where the water is hot because of this same phenomenon. Locals know where the spots are and swim there year round.

Hot Water Beach is located along New Zealand's Pacific coast just south of Mercury Bay at the northeast tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

No visit to New Zealand's North Island is complete without experiencing the hot water sand sauna at Hot Water Beach.

ObamaWear

Women's Wear Daily features the top designer sketches for Obama's Inauguration day and evening wear. The designers seemed to have an easier time drawing a likeness of the President-elect than they did for Michelle Obama. Some of the designers drew Barack Obama's face as a close likeness; others used headless mannequins; Tommy Hilfiger drew, well, himself.

The designers' sketches feature suits (which I don't find very interesting) and 12 ties (which are more interesting). Check it out.

Orion

(click to enlarge)

Orion or The Hunter is our summer constellation. It is barely visible in the eastern sky in October and disappears in the western sky in April. Orion is oriented differently in Australia than in the US. In the US the major stars in the center of the constellation are referred to as the belt and sword. In Australia those same stars are thought of as the saucepan.

Harrods Chocolate

Our son Ben and his partner Dana sent us Harrods chocolate for Christmas. They live in London, but are traveling to New Zealand for Christmas celebrations with Dana's grandparents and then to Brisbane for more fun times! Merry Christmas, Ben and Dana!

Travel in the English Countryside: Part 2

After watching the movie The Gathering Storm which was filmed there, John and I knew we wanted to include Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill and a National Trust site, in our tour of England's countryside. We arrived in time for the last house tour of the day. The house and its interiors are simple and homey. The gardens are lovely, but not grandiose; the views from the gardens over the Weald of Kent are spectacular.

This post links to this previous post.

Ella's Xmas Gift

PoppieNan (that's us...we're like Brangelina, a blended couple) sent Ella Grace a cash register for Christmas. She got to open it early. (Thank you, Amazon...loved the free shipping this year!)

Garden Update

We finally had a hot day so one of our tomatoes changed from green to reddish, still not ripe though.
Yellow squash is coming on like crazy. We'll have lots of squash to eat and give away soon.
We love how the leaves form a protective canopy over the fruit.

We've added a passionfruit vine, capsicum plants, some vine tomatoes, and basil to the garden. None of it is doing much as the weather is simply not warm enough yet. We've just experienced the coolest, wettest November on record. Also some creature is eating the basil leaves so that's not good. We put out snail pellets. I am looking forward to insalata caprese from my own tomatoes and basil so I hope the pellets do the job.

Laila and Her Snow Angel

Our friends have moved from San Antonio, TX to Port Angeles, WA and are experiencing their first snowfall of the year, just in time for the holidays. They love the snow. Sue was born in WA state and Arnor is Icelandic (say no more!). Laila, their daughter, is getting her first taste of living in the snow. She makes great snow angels!

Leanne

Looking beautiful on her wedding day!

Look Up!

Tonight is the perfect night for looking up! Venus is so bright in the western sky that it's clearly visible at sunset. Orion is up in the eastern sky. The Seven Sisters (Pleiades) is clearly visible in the northern sky. The Southern Cross is low in the southern sky.

The sun will set at 8:18 and the moon will rise at 10:11. The air is warm, but not hot. There's a light breeze with no humidity and not a cloud in sight. So it's perfect for a night in the back garden on our banana loungers under the stars. What will happen? Satellites, for sure...Meteorites, maybe...

UPDATE: We saw dozens of satellites travelling through every part of the sky in every possible direction. No meteorites...but a bit of space junk came plunging from above and burned brightly overhead for several seconds. Also the ISS was visible for a long time as it came from the NW and continued across the sky until it disappeared in the SE. Venus was extremely bright, clearly visible before the sun's light disappeared from the sky. The moon was full and bright, rising just as we folded our loungers to return inside.

Cutie with Fish!

Here is my friend Kimberley with her fish. She moved to Port Hedland recently, and she caught her very first fish with a pink rod that her dad bought for her! The family says the fish was yummy!

Joint's Jumping

It's 35C (92F) today with a hot easterly wind blowing like crazy, and it's heating up all the creepy-crawlies who have been hiding out around the house in the cool weather we've been having. Today spiders, cockroaches and assorted other unidentifiable bugs joined us for lunch on the veranda. John's spraying now. Gotta get them before they get you! It's survival of the fittest here in AUS!

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

(click to enlarge)

The first movie in my Essential James Stewart marathon is Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder. A small town lawyer (Stewart) who would rather be fishing than in the courtroom takes on a case involving a soldier who claims he was temporarily insane when he murdered a bartender who allegedly raped his wife. The case is a tough one because the bartender was well-liked, the soldier demonstrates a combustible temper, and the wife is an incorrigible flirt.

The film which is ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Courtroom Drama" was nominated for seven Oscars but lost out to Ben Hur in 1960 for Best Picture and Best Director. Duke Ellington was featured in the film. His score won the Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album and Background Score from Motion Picture or Television. The film's poster (shown above, but not in color) has been voted the #1 movie poster of all time.

James Stewart's father was so offended by the film, which he deemed "a dirty picture", that he took out an ad in his local newspaper telling people not to see it. Part of the controversy surrounding this movie was its use of the words bitch, contraceptive, panties, penetration, rape, slut and sperm. It seems we still lived in puritanical America in 1959.

Personal Marathon #2: Essential James Stewart

I contacted the members of the Filmspotting forum and these films were recommended as Essential James Stewart Films:

• You Can't Take It with You (1938)*
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)**
• It's a Wonderful Life (1939)**
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)**
• Call Northside 777 (1948)
• Winchester '73 (1950)*
• The Naked Spur (1953)
• Rear Window (1954)**
• Vertigo (1958)**
• Anatomy of a Murder (1959)*
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)*
• Harvey (1972)**

**already seen at least once, but will re-watch
* never seen and obtainable

Three films are not available (so far) from my rental service or from the local brick and mortar video shops. So those may have to wait until I get back stateside.

I'll write mini-reviews because I know you are all dying to know what I thought of each film.

Traveling in Dubai, UAE, part 3

As Westerners who traveled in Dubai in May of 2005, John and I found out a few details of travel there that I'll share here in part 3:

Dining in Dubai:

Lunch away from the hotel will probably be at a mall or from a street vendor. There are a few other options: Walk inside a tall office building or apartment building and look around the lobby. Often there will be a little restaurant tucked away. These are very good value for money as they're where the locals eat. In an office building lobby, we found a small Asian restaurant where we ordered "hot rocks chicken" on a chance. We liked the service, the cleanliness, the food, and the pricing so much that we came back twice to eat there. The last time we were there, they treated us like regulars!

We were leery of the street vendors. The food looked and smelled wonderful, but there was no seating and no utensils, basically not Western-enough for our tastes. However, I think it could have been a memorable experience and I wish we had tried it.

In the malls there is the standard food court like you see all over the world. The malls are not non-smoking and the food courts can be very smoky as the young Emiratee men love to sit, talk, smoke, and text message in the food halls. There is always a table of men hanging out in every coffee area or food area. By the way, the coffee is delicious.

If you want to have a meal at an exclusive or expensive restaurant, book ahead. Or try to be there for late lunch instead of dinner. We ate a late lunch at Asha's (pictured) with no booking because we wanted to have the experience and it was completely booked every night we were in Dubai. I have read both good and poor reviews of Asha's online, but our experience there was wonderful. The sampler platter at Asha's was recommended by the server and it was extraordinary. There is a full bar and a wine list. Asha's is at The Pyramids in Wafi City which is the same mall where you catch the tour buses.

This post links to this previous post.

Gardenia Flower, Finally

Our gardenia bush finally put on a decent blossom! It's a beauty, especially considering that the plant is rather scraggly and unattractive. It wasn't planted in the right spot and never really filled out. Every bloom we've had until this year has been yellowy and sad.

Tim Winton's Dirt Music

Tim Winton's wonderful book, Dirt Music, is in the works as a film. "In pre-production", they say in the biz. Evidently, Rachel Weisz is playing Georgie Jutland, but there's a lack of clarity about the part of Luther Fox. First, Heath Ledger was announced. Even before his death, Colin Farrell was announced, but Farrell says now "that project didn't work out for me". According to imDb, Russell Crowe is "rumored", but that site still lists Farrell for the part of Fox. Confusion!

I've no doubt that the film will find its stars. What interests me more is when will shooting begin and will shooting take place on the Western Australian coast where the book is set? I have nightmares that shooting will be moved to the east coast because Western Australian shoots present expenses and inconveniences that shoots in the Sydney or Melbourne do not.

If the film is not set in Western Australia, I don't see how its story can be told. It's not only a love story between two people; it's a story about love of place as well. And that place is the red dirt and the blue Indian Ocean and the cloudless skies of the west coast of Australia.

Peanuts for Ella Grace for Christmas

Good grief! It's not much fun being away from your granddaughter at Christmas.
Charlie Brown: I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel.

Travel in the English Countryside: Part 1

A couple of years back, we planned a week's car trip through the English countryside for May. Just before we left Perth, it snowed for days in London. Air traffic was a mess; roads were nearly impassable; and it was bitter cold. However, a week later flying into Gatwick we saw the canola fields in bloom, the blue cloudless skies, the meandering country roads and knew that the travel gods were smiling on us once again!

And that was only the beginning of our wonderful holiday. Of course, travellers can't control the weather, but when they can make careful plans otherwise, it always pays off.

Here are a few of the plans we put in place before leaving Perth which served us well:

• Since we had seen London on a different trip, we decided to stay away from that city altogether, choosing the English countryside instead. Before leaving Perth we reserved a rental car that we would pick up at Gatwick. John researched it carefully, considering the following: fuel consumption, room in the boot for our luggage, road worthiness, riding comfort. He decided on a mid-size Ford Mondeo. [Note: This trip took place before we stopped traveling with over-sized luggage.]

• We made reservations at B&Bs across the countryside, estimating the length of stay in each area as best we could. England invented the concept of the B&B, and they know how to do it right. There are several excellent websites that give complete details concerning every possible accommodation outside London. We chose farmstays in all cases except one night. The main reason for choosing farmstays was parking for the rental car. In towns, there simply is no extra parking. At the farmstays we had parking galore at the accommodation, so we avoided having to park outside the town and traipsing with baggage down the town street to the B&B. [More details about the different accommodations in a following post.]

• We decided to have a purpose for driving. Instead of aimlessly poking down roads or breezing through towns, we decided to see the National Trust homes, castles, gardens, etc. So we went on the website and used their intelligence to plan our days in England. The website has ideas for everything from day trips to picnics to two-wheel adventures, in short all you need to plan your visit. We priced the membership and decided it was a terrific deal because once bought all the National Trust venues are free. [More on specific National Trust stops in a following post.]

• We had good road maps. John studied these maps ahead of our leaving. He found good routes for sightseeing and for getting to accommodations. He knew when we had to drive on the highway and when we could take the scenic route. He also looked at the venues we'd visit on Google Earth and got a sense of where we'd be in relation to other stops we'd make. This map study was very essential because when you are driving on the narrow roads, the super highways, the town streets, you don't have time to read maps and you don't always have a way to pull off the road. In all the travel we did, we only missed seeing one venue that was scheduled (the map was more wrong than we were) and only circled one roundabout extra times in seeking the right exit. Other than those two minor glitches, we drove staight to all our desired locations.

After making those four very important decisions-organizing the transport, the accommodation, the tours, and the map study-we were ready to begin our experience.

A Ride Upcountry

Today we rode north of Perth, up Wanneroo Road to Seabird, to enjoy the Australian Christmas trees in glorious bloom in the Australian bush. (brilliant yellow-gold blooms pictured here) In Seabird, a tiny cray fishing town on the WA coast, we stopped at the local general store (as the sign says "Assorted Bits and Pieces") and bought fish and chips to eat on the beach. After eating we stopped back at the store and bought two green crayfish which were pulled from the Indian Ocean yesterday and frozen. The cray fishermen don't go out on Sundays anymore or the crays would not have been frozen. Anyway, it's a real treat to get green (raw) crays. They're great on the grill with butter and garlic. Also we got a box of strawberries, fresh from the field, at a roadside stand on Wanneroo Road. Good times!

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Compare for yourself! Our first gardening post is here. We have found that the tomato plant is root-bound so it must be watered frequently...something to improve on next year.


Our lemon tree is still producing lemons. I have already squeezed and frozen enough lemon juice to last us through the summer. Still the lemons come!

Traveling in Dubai, UAE, part 2

As Westerners who traveled in Dubai in May of 2005, John and I found out a few details of travel there that we'll share here in part 2:

Lodging in Dubai

If you are staying at the Burj al Arab in Dubai (pictured above), then none of the following applies to you. However, if your pocketbook will stretch only to a more conventional stay, here's the best advice we have to offer:

Pick your hotel very carefully. Stay in the 5-star hotels only. To read the rating of a Dubai hotel, take off a star from the rating system you are accustomed to in the West. It doesn't really matter where the hotel is located in terms of whether it's in the city or near the airport or which side of the water. What does matter is the amenities at the hotel. You will spend a lot of time there. Choose your hotel for the room size, the restaurants available at the hotel, the club and bar facilities, and swimming pool and other outdoor facilities. Dubai has no "night-life" in the terms that Westerners are accustomed. There are clubs and bars where you can drink and dance and smooze; all of these are located in hotels. The hotels are spread out across the city so a bar crawl is not a real possibility. Therefore, if night-life is your bag, it's going to be happening most likely at the hotel where you are staying. Likewise, most of your breakfasts and dinner meals will be eaten at your hotel. Check-in at the hotel can be hectic with lots of waiting around for a room. Evidently, hotel service help is difficult to keep. The desk will apologize but it won't get any better during your stay than it was at the start.

There is a Western-style grocery store ( a French chain, I think) which is a godsend. After checking into your hotel, catch a cab for Carrefour supermarket. Get lots of bottled water and drinks, mixers and snacks, cheese, etc. for the little frig in the hotel room. Be sure to buy some plastic ware. There is a cab queue outside Carrefour so it's easy to get back to your hotel. There is another popular supermarket called Spinney's, but since we only went to Carrefour, we don't know what the Spinney's experience is like. There are more Spinneys around than Carrefours. We saw another Carrefour in a mall, but we don't remember which one. To get to any location in Dubai, jump in the cab and give the name like "Carrefours" or "Spinney's" and the cabbie will drive you straight to the nearest one.

The hotels rock until after midnight so if your room is near the bars or clubs, expect to hear the racket or join in the fun!

This post links to this previous post.

The Wire

Family and Friends! Please watch this wonderful series. It is 5 seasons of the best cop series ever produced. You'll be hooked from the very first episode. Turn on the subtitles so you won't miss a word of the best-written show to come to air. The Wire should be required viewing for every one of us.

Australia (the movie)

Just got back from seeing Baz Luhrman's Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Guess what! We enjoyed it. We agree with most of the negative criticisms. It is filled with cliches. It runs long. The bombing of Darwin seems tacked on. The sweeping epic quality matched with The Wizard of Oz is a bit silly. But, still, it's a fine film experience. If Luhrman had cut the cattle stampede, I think the film would have been better as a lot of the problems with the film are in that scene, ie overuse of CGI and Aboriginal magic.

However, the landscapes are immense and beautiful. The love story is fine. The villains are just evil enough. Jackman is gorgeous and Kidman is natural and believable. The script is over-reaching, but still interesting story-telling with moments of real humor and tenderness.

In a year in which critics are giving films like The Wackness and Zach and Miri Make a Porno 31/2 stars, I think those same critics should be ashamed not to credit Luhrman, Kidman, and Jackman for what they have brought to the screen.

First Summer Squash

Can you see it? It's our first summer squash of the season. We have so many plants which have set so many flowers that this is the first of many. Our tomato plant has set flowers and it has tomatoes too, but it's pot-bound and that's becoming a watering issue so something will have to change. A bigger pot maybe?

Michelle Obama's Image

Women's Wear Daily commissioned top designers to create the inaugural gown for Michelle Obama. Here's the slide show.

Forget the dresses. Look at how our future First Lady was drawn. Could it be that difficult to portray a black woman? In some of the drawings she's not even dark-skinned; in several there is no head at all; ET comes to mind a few times; and in one, she looks exactly like Jackie O instead of Michelle O.

Ella's Artwork

Granddaughter Ella, 3, has learned a lot about coloring inside the lines and choosing appropriate colors since we last saw her. She was a scribbler then, but now she's an artist!

Personal Marathon #1: Bogie and Bacall

I have recently finished a mini-marathon...the four films that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together:

To Have and Have Not (1944) which was very much like Casablanca (Bogart's breakout role)
The Big Sleep(1946) which was my favorite though the plot was a bit complicated
Dark Passage (1947) which was the weakest of the quartet but still a fine film
Key Largo (1948) which had a sweet Bacall instead of the femme fatale I'd come to expect

Of course, they fell in love and ended up together in every film as well as in real life. Chemistry? On-screen and off-screen, it seems.

Countdown: My Top 20 Favorite Movies

Here's #15-#11 for my list. For #20-#16, go here. More to come...stay tuned.





#15: The Last Picture Show (1971): "One thing I know for sure. A person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offering them a handkerchief. "








#14. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961): "Well, when I get the mean reds the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!"









#13. Toy Story 2 (1991): "Here's your list of things to do while I'm gone: batteries need to be changed. Toys at the bottom of the chest need to be rotated. Oh, and make sure everyone attends Mr. Spell's seminar on what to do if you or part of you is swallowed. Okay? Okay, good, okay."











#12.The Right Stuff (1983):"Monkeys? You think a monkey knows he's sittin' on top of a rocket that might explode? These astronaut boys they know that, see? Well, I'll tell you something, it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially one that's on TV."









#11. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969): "I couldn't do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?"