Happy Birthday, Ben!

Our wonderful son is an adult - 18 today! A myriad of great memories and fun times to revel in....

Fantasy

Sex obviously still sells

Timber and Working With Wood exhibition

Roadside memorial

The first time I became aware of roadside memorials for people killed in accidents was in Italy. They are now reasonably common in Australia.  This telegraph pole on the Princes Highway at Tempe is cvered with plastic flowers. It has been there for at least the past couple of years.

I found a website cataloguing Australian roadside memorials.

Number plates

In NSW you can design your own car number plate, subject to certain styles available, and conditions. Check it out here.

Occasionally someone's idea is refused, if it is likely to cause offence. Recently there was a complaint about a plate reading "KIKI" which was a lifelong nickname of a woman of  Greek heritage, a term of endearment. Apparently it means "vagina" in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines. The complaint was dismissed. See here.

I saw this one on my way home, and reckon the owner/s has/have creatively escaped the number plate censors. It made me laugh. I trust they are enjoying their life together!!

Basking in the sun

Today is what I call a "perfect Sydney day" - still, warm (currently 20 degrees, heading for about 26),  sunny, and a weekend! This pair have found the perfect spot to bask. I am taming my garden wildrerness then going to stretch out with a long swim. Heaven.

Logo blast from the past

AMPOL was an Australian owned petroleum company, which was, according to Wikipedia, established in 1936 in response to Australians' concerns about perceived inequitable petrol pricing, and allegations of transfer pricing by foreign oil companies to limit their tax liabilities in Australia.

I hadn't seen its logo for years, until I spotted this shade tent at Bexley Swimming Centre.

It merged with Caltex in 1997, but the brand apparently still exists, mainly in country areas.

Walk the pony

This is not a good photo - snapped on my phone as I drove past, all out of focus. But it's the subject matter.....along an ordinary suburban street in Daceyville, a family takes their dpg for a walk - and the pony!

Beer O'Clock

Thank God It's Friday....

My boyfriend

Thought it was about time to introduce you all to my new boyfriend, but I see he has done so himself. And in lots of places arounf the world, so I understand!

Office works?

I had to laugh when I saw this stuff sitting out by the roadside in Botany. Maybe the fans were cooling the passing traffic - it was a hot day!

What is it?

Riddle time! What's going on here, and where do you think I spotted it?

The science experiment (my Sunday)

Today was the last day of the winter school holidays, and on an otherwise dull and slightly rainy day, my day was set alight helping my son with his school science assignment. He had to design an experiment and record the results, so with Dad on stopwatch and hose and mum on camera, he set loose his inner pyromaniac, testing the flammability of several fabrics.

Here we see dripping polyester, melted nylon, singed rayon, ash-producing linen, flame-throwing cotton, melting and burning wool wadding and hot-wheels cotton flannelette.

What's the best experiment you've ever undertaken?

Stub it out!

More yellow: retrospective

Post-theme day. Still confined to barracks with illness, so, inspired by some terrific collages featuring yellow on yesterday's theme day (Kim, Julie, Marley, Simon, Julia, Jeremyb - sorry if I missed anyone) I decided to look at the Yellows I'd captured in almost 3 years of this blog.

An Old Broom: Sydney Sandstone Part 8

Does an old broom sweep as clean? It was quite funny seeing it placed neatly along this sandstone ledge on my morning walk to the station.

The Headmaster's Office

I was walking past Sydney Grammar School one night after dark, and saw into this office, which may be the Principal's office (and that's a plant outside displaying its fronds). It brought back a memory of a time I was in the principal's office at high school. I think I entered the principal's office once in my six years there, and can remember being terrified. It was something fairly innocuous - an interview about future "career plans" I think, but you were made to stand, trembling, in front of her, and account for yourself. That school liked to pretend that most of its female-only students were "destined for the professions", which in the early 1970s, for most girls, meant nursing and teaching. The occasional few entered the more hallowed disciplines of the law and medicine.

It was limiting. Thank goodness girls have more options nowadays.

Did you ever find yourself in the principal's office, and what was it for?

Vale Alan Waddell

Very sad news arrived yesterday. Alan Waddell, aged 94, who has been such an inspiration to many died at 3am yesterday morning. Alan had been in poor health for a few months. In 2002, after his wife of 60 years died, Alan took up walking, and set himself the task of walking every street in Sydney's 232 suburbs. His adventures have been resorded on his website Walk Sydney Streets, with the help of his sons John and Graham. In an interview Alan said: "I know that Marj wouldn’t have wanted me to just sit around and give up on life, so I started walking some nearby streets and it grew from there.”

Walk Sydney Streets will be maintained into the future by his family, as a backlog of photos is posted; it is sure to bring many more delights.

Farewell, Alan - you brought fun and whimsy, a wicked sense of humour, and a sense of old-fashioned, priceless wonderment into many hearts, including mine. I never met Alan face to face, but I always had hope that one day our paths would cross in real life as well as the cyberworld. His memory will come with me as I pursue my own projects on foot around this city we share such a love of. My condolences to Alan's family who are part of the universal family of the blogosphere.

The Sydney Morning heral tribute to Alan can be found here.

Thankyou to John for permission to use the photos from Alan's site

Bus stop

Perhaps the seat at the bus stop wasn't quite comfortable enough?

Weekend

What were my son and his friends doing in my boy's bedroom last night?

Watching a DVD on his portable player! (The grown ups had the TV glued on the Olympics.)

Milk Crates

....stacked on the footpath outside St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Arncliffe, opposite Arncliffe Park.