Monday, August 25, 2008

The Magic of Paris

I don't know about you, but over the past 2 weeks the Spam folder of my Gmail has been inundated with Paris Hilton messages. All Spam of course and almost all of them not fit for publication but the subject of one this morning caught my eye ... "Paris Hilton Refuses to Write a Book Until She Has Read One". More than a grain of truth I would have thought!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Sweet Smell of Spring


The Sweet Smell of Spring
Originally uploaded by Just1Thing

For me, the first sign of Spring is the intoxicating scent of those little beauties of nature, Freesias. I've been picking them every year since I was a kid at Newport where they grew in abundance amongst the low scrub behind Bungan Beach and on the headlands.

They live for a few weeks, until the heat of the day gets to much and they wilt and die until they bloom again in a years time.

Out here they grow in the lower Blue Mountains around Glenbrook and this year they are very late blooming. Still, winter is hanging on this year so maybe we are in for a late show of colour and heavy scented evenings.

Anyway, here are the first ones for this season.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

A Good Read

I must thank Judy for her kind comment regarding my recently found espresso-making ability. Not only is she my Mother-in-Law but she's a good sport and a thoroughly good sort (I know where Liz gets her good looks and other fine qualities from)! Anyway, enough crawling ... !

I've always been an avid reader and so much so that I could not go to sleep at night unless I had put a few pages behind me. And my literary tastes run to almost anything but I draw the line at comics and Mills and Boon! But my long love affair with India and South-East Asia has resulted in more than a few books about that part of the world and the people who live there. So here is a small collection of what I am currently reading and recommend....

The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman. The true story of the guerilla warfare against the Japanese in Malaya. A page-turning account of one of the most interesting periods and places of WWII.

The War of the Running Dogs by Noel Barber. After WWII the communists tried to take over Malaya. They called it an Emergency ... it was war and the pre-cursor to the Vietnam conflict.

An Eastern Port by Julian Davison. Wonderful recollections of Malaya and Singapore during the 1950s and 60s. Sprinkled with excerpts from Conrad, Orwell and other SE-Asian lovers it is a treat to read.

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but you could do worse. If you love that part of the world you will love these books.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Tangerine Dream

I may be an old fart but a lot of the music these days leaves me shaking my head ... I guess much the same as my dear old Dad felt back in the 1960s. But one of my favourite bands of those heady days is German Electronic band Tangerine Dream.

Some of their stuff is downright crap ... but when they shine they take you to places you've never been. Anyway, I've joined up with the Tangerine Dream Fan Zone on Facebook and they have a Tangerine Dream Podcast at the link below. All good wholesome stuff... there that should discourage the rappers and scramble-heads.

Get a hold of their live album Quichotte, stick on some headphones and strap yourself in for a treat.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

The Daily Grind

The title suggests that we're really back to normal... that is, wake up, go to work, back to sleep and so it goes. But "Daily Grind" around here is the wonderful Morgan's Coffee hit we brew every morning using our Sunbeam EM6900 Espresso machine.

We bit the bullet and bought this marvel of domestic engineering back in December last year and there's not a day goes by that we don't grind some Morgan's Cafe Verde beans and brew up a couple of cups of out-of-this-world espresso. Forget Starbucks and Gloria Jeans, this is the real thing and what makes our brew special, is that we buy the freshly roasted beans every week from Morgans and that's the secret, fresh beans. The beans you buy in Woolies etc are stale and not worth it.

So, if you are passing, drop in and we'll throw on the barista stuff and brew you a cup of pure gold.