A great mate of mine turns 40 today - hurrah!
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Cycling the empty streets at night after a couple of glasses of red wine is still a great feeling.
I really do feel like this when I'm cycling home from seeing friends at night.
Tags: being seen, cycle nerd, dark evenings, holidays, lights, snow
From today's Age newspaper
The organisers expected 10,000 people to turn up at the State Library yesterday to walk against warming. We wanted to send a strong message to the politicians at Copenhagen that we want a deal that will tackle climate change.
Meeting at the State Library
It takes a long time to walk down Swanston Street
Passing the centre of consumerism - Bourke Street
Flinders Station in a sea of people
Once on the bridge, we were corralled into letters
To try to spell Safe Climate Do It
We were in the cross bar of the E of SAFE. You can’t tell, even when you look at the biggest photo on the Walk Against Warming web site. But we were there.
Tags: climate change, copenhagen, march, negotiations, protest, talks, walk against warming
tumble driers are a stupid waste of energy
It’s great to see that people in the US are fighting to legalize clotheslines. I find the sight of a clothesline a lot more attractive than most buildings, but never mind the aesthetics, everyone should have the right to dry their clothes in the outside air.
Say Yes to Clotheslines
I put this blog post up ages ago, but today turned out to be laundry day as it is the only day in the week with no rain forecast: what a beautiful sight!
A reader from Florida wrote in to say:
Here in Florida, USA, we have a law that prohibits an HOA or other
governmental entity from blocking use of clotheslines as part of a larger
measure protecting the use of solar panels:
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/solar_hot_water/q_and_a/rights.htm
What a smart law.
Tags: I hate tumble driers
We visited a lot of wineries on our trip to Margaret River, WA (20), and some of it is a blur, but one of my favourites was Kerfuffle. I admit that I gravitated towards it because of the name, but the boyf discovered that it had a good reputation too. We called to make an appointment (after a rather unwelcome visit to Random Valley wines, we couldn’t be too careful) and rocked up 45 minutes later to find Ben had put together a comprehensive tasting for just us. Ben is a great marketer (hence the name of the winery and the “Humdinger” blend) and dips each bottle in a tub of wax to let it drip into a distinctive seal.
The mostly organic range of Kerfuffle wines
Ben and Henry the dog show us round the vineyard. This is Shiraz, which grows like a weed
Pest Controllers
Although Kerfuffle isn’t certified organic, they spray as little as possible and use natural forms of pest control, like chooks and guinea fowl.
And the wine tastes great!
Tags: humdinger, kerfuffle, low impact, organic, wine
The 25th Stanley Awards were held overlooking Darling Harbour, Sydney
As a celebration of my 40th birthday, Duncan and I tacked on a Big Trip to our Sydney visit for the Stanley Awards. The trip started well – it was fun to catch up with fellow cartoonists, as always, and the Awards night was a cracker. It was also the 25th birthday of the Awards, so most people made an effort to dress up (I confess though that I bought my dress in an op shop and altered it!).
The first time I have seen Duncan in a tux.
Cartoonists of many talents
Tom and Anna Richmond on the harbour cruise
It was great to make a few new acquaintances. Tom Richmond (MAD magazine and much more) and Pat Oliphant were guests of honour from the US. Tom and Anna confessed to being fellow foodies, so Duncan gave them some good tips on places to go in Sydney (we had so much good food, coffee and wine there, it would be boring to detail it).
A penguin pops up in Glebe
Milsons Point Pool
I turned 40 the Wednesday after the awards and started my mid-life as I mean to go on, with a swim. The Milsons Point pool is one of my favourites – 50metres, outdoors and with a stunning view of Sydney Harbour.
The boyf and I at Fix St James
Fortunately, the swim gave me a huge appetite for the lunch that the boyf treated me to at Fix St James.
We then got on the train to Perth - the Indian Pacific
mid-trip
Admiring presents in our tiny but marvelous little sleeper cabin
This trip was a lot more stylish than the train trip I did up to Coffs Harbour (sleeping in the seat…) last year and the views were superb. Thank you, boyfriend!
Good to see a big long windfarm just out of Adelaide
Loved the souvenir stalls at Broken Hill station
The view at Cook, Nullabor Plain
Tags: 40th birthday, awards, cartoon, cartoonists, conference, great rail journey, indian pacific, margaret river, perth, surf, wine
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