12 of 12 for March 2010

Well, I haven't been posting very well as of late but I hope this post will makes up for that. I also have not posted a 12 of 12 for some time so I'm really excited and happy to finally be able to share these photos with you. I took 162 photos so it was really hard to pick just 12, but I did pick some. All of these photos are from around our new home back in Sydney. We moved from Tasmania back to Sydney in January. Actually we are just on the north side of Sydney in a suburb called Freshwater. We kept our house down in Tassie and have leased it out who knows maybe when retirement time rolls around it will make a nice place to go to for those golden years. Anyway, as I said these pictures have all been taken either around our new home or around the area that we now live. So, without further adieu here are this months photos. I hope you like them and with that I say...Enjoy

We planted this Frangipani right after we moved back and we are extremely happy that it is blooming and doing well.

Just and interesting picture of a plant we replanted and placed in the garden.

This is a spider called a Golden Orb Spider. They are everywhere in our garden. This one has been in this same place for over a month. It is a female as they are bigger than the males. They can bite and are a bit venomous but not enough to kill you. I'm going to find out.

This is the mystery photo so you can guess what it is.

Just a bit of greenery which I believe is a Christmas cactus.

A very beautiful plant of which we have several in our garden. I don't know what they are but this one is actually about four times bigger than what I have shown you here.

I took this picture from the car on a trip back to the house from running errands. I wanted a picture of the beach that holds the name of the suburb in which we live AKA Freshwater Beach. However, inadvertently I got more than I bargained for and I'm sure you can figure out what I mean. I actually thought it was quite funny.

A better picture of our beach.

This was taken at my brother-in-laws. they live about five minutes awy, literally around the corner.

We don't know the name of this tree but I just think it's beautiful.

These are my brother-in-laws dogs. The older one is named Diesel and the puppy is namec Bronte.

And last but not least I saw this bug which I identified as a stink bug. However, the only stink bugs I can remember when I lived in the states were all green. As you can see this one is definitely not just green. Anyway, that it for this month I hope you liked some of the photos and I hope very much to take some next month. See you then...

What's wrong with this picture???

I took this picture the other day and realised something a bit odd with this picture. So I'm posting it here and asking the question of you of "What is wrong with this picture?". I'll give everyone (all 2-3 of you) a day or two to have a guess and in the next post I will reveal what is actually wrong with this picture. You will also notice that this is my lame attempt at making a viable post. Anyway, have a look at the photo and leave me a comment as to what you think is wrong with the picture. Until the next post as always take care and enjoy...

12 of 12 for November 2009...

Well, as promised here are my photos for this months 12 of 12. Now for those of you that know, this is a project that I take part of each month which allows me to have a bit of fun with my camera and also fills in a large hole when I don't post as often as I should. Everyone will also know that the 12 of 12 project is not my initiative but rather that of a very nice man named Chad and you can find out more about 12 of 12 from his blog here.

This months 12 of 12 was a bit difficult once again due to the fact that I was stuck at the house and I needed to become overly creative in my picture taking. Since I don't drive, it is difficult for my to get to different places when the 12th comes along but in saying that maybe next month come hell or high water I'll just walk into the city and when I'm finished I'll take a taxi home. Now see how much I'm willing to do just so you get quality in each post.

Anyway, this months 12 of 12 has a distinct floral feeling, mainly because spring is in full swing here and all of the flowers, especially the roses are starting to bloom. So indulge me and have a peruse of this months photos and hopefully one of them will make you smile and until next time take care and enjoy....

This list is on our fridge and it is the beginnings of our preparations for the big move back to the mainland. For those of you who don't know and who might care to know, we are moving off the island we have called home for the past five years because we are unable to find sustainable work on the island. We will keep this house and someday when we get ready to retire it will still be here when we need it.

This month also saw me get a year older and last week I celebrated another birthday with a very dear friend who also shares the same birthday as myself. She came over from New Zealand and spent the week with us and on Sunday we celebrated our very special day. I'm telling you all this because the next photo (the one above) is one of the presents she gave me. It is a piece of glass art that comes from New Zealand and it is called "The Twist" It represents the eternity of a special friendship or relationship. I can say without a doubt that I have always had a special friendship with this friend and it will continue for many years to come.

This is another gift I received, also from the same friend. This gift was not actually birthday gift but an early Christmas present from her to both myself and my hubby. This piece of glass is called Spiral - Koru and the koru is the Maori name given to the new unfurling fern fronds and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace.

Now, I know that by now most if not all of you has either seen or already owns an iPhone or iPod Touch. Well I had neither and since I have a phone of which I just started a new two year contract and so do not need a phone, hubby bought me an iPod Touch instead. I love my gadgets. It's all about colour, lights and movement. Give me those and I'm amused for hours. Anyway, I love my new toy and I love my hubby for being so good to me.

As I mentioned it is spring here and a lot of things are blooming in our garden. Some of the best things growing in our garden are our roses and this one is called "Blue Moon". This particular plant is well over 50 years old. The previous owners gave us it's history along with the history of a few other plants we have in our garden. Needless to say it's a wonderful rose bush with these beautiful purple blooms accompanied by the strongest fragrance. Also if you look really close to the right of the flowers you'll see a wee little visitor, come to do what they do best for all of flowerdom.

Just a close up of one of the bearded irises I planted a couple of years ago. There is something oddly strange about the purple and yellow together that make this flower pretty, or at least I think it's pretty.

A lovely closeup to another lovely rose that, as you can see, is almost fluorescent in a red and yellow combination.

This lovely yellow rose is growing outside in our front garden and is just outside our bedroom window. So we are greeted not on by the sun and the river down below but also this little bit of sunshine right from our garden.

Here's hubby, in the office, on the computer, being so kind as to be a model for one of this months photos. Actually, I believe he was paying bills so it probably wasn't the best time to take his picture.

This little cast iron cow door stop works a treat when we have all the windows open around the house and the breeze picks up momentum down the hallway and keeping the hallway door from slamming shut every few minutes.

The lavender around the house is also blooming like crazy and it smells so good when it drifts into the house from the open front windows.

Last but not least yet one more flower shot but this time they are not in the garden. No, moments before this picture was taken they were in they garden and then the next they were sitting on the fireplace mantle. One of life's wonderful little things where what we grow we can also harvest and although a few cut flowers from our garden is hardly a harvest the point is we grew them and instead of buying flowers for the house each week all we have to do is go out and pick what we want and these are what I pick for the next few days.

Well that's it from me so I hope all of the flowers didn't bore you and if they did well I don't know what to tell you other than check back next time and who knows maybe I'll spend the day taking pictures of your favourite things..

Religion, who am I...

I saw this test on religion over at this witty, bright and interesting bloggers blog. I thought I would give it a go and the following are my results. What is I suppose is the most interesting is that the religion I was brought up on ends up being the one that is next to last as to the one I am most closely connected and or have the same beliefs. My how time changes things once you start living your life and compare all of those early teachings to real life and not a fantasy world. As for my number one result, which is another name for me being agnostic and or atheist, I would have to agree with the results. Anyway, enjoy inspecting the rest of my results and you too can take the test if your are interested by going here. Enjoy...

1.	Secular Humanism (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (97%)
3.	Liberal Quakers (82%)
4.	Nontheist (82%)
5.	Theravada Buddhism (78%)
6.	Neo-Pagan (70%)
7.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (64%)
8.	New Age (57%)
9.	Taoism (54%)
10.	Mahayana Buddhism (50%)
11.	Reform Judaism (46%)
12.	Baha'i Faith (39%)
13.	Orthodox Quaker (39%)
14.	Jainism (37%)
15.	Orthodox Judaism (29%)
16.	New Thought (27%)
17.	Scientology (24%)
18.	Islam (22%)
19.	Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
20.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (20%)
21.	Sikhism (16%)
22.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (14%)
23.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (14%)
24.	Hinduism (14%)
25.	Eastern Orthodox (11%)
26.	Roman Catholic (11%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (7%)

Winter...

It's that time of the year agin. What time of the year is it you might ask? Well, it's that time of the year that we celebrate all that is cold, snowy and penguin at the the Antarctic Midwinter Festival

The next nine days is filled with all sorts of fun and interesting things. There is a photo contest, a film festival amongst other things and of course the penguins (some real and some not so real) So, I wanted to let you all know about the festival in case you wanted to pop in and join in the fun. Now if you aren't able to join us then at least visit the festival website and enjoy the photos and get a look at some of the things we'll be doing for the next few days.

Also as a side note in reference to some of the questions about my last 12 of 12.

Chocolate tea tastes like it sounds except it's tea. You might think it would taste like a watery hot chocolate but it is totally different. when you drink it you know you're drinking tea but it just happens to have a hint of chocolate which is just enough to soothe those chocoholic cravings.

The candle light picture is a candle holder that hubby bought me. the pattern on the outside of the top is etched into the pottery but it is done in reverse so from the outside with no candle it look a bit odd but once you put the candle in you see it's secret

The patterns are the top of an outside table top and the other one is the back of a chair.

Guilty, that's me...

Okay I'm going to list this post under 10 things you never knew about me and I never thought I would tell you. So here goes:

1. I sleep the way I was born, in the fetal position. Okay, I meant in the nude but sometimes I do end up in the fetal position depending on the day I had.

2. I hate oysters but I have sucked the heads of crawfish. (read into that what you want)

3. I've been in two accidents and one hit and run with a yield sign. The first two were not my fault. The last one I never knew it happened until the next morning. (again read into that what you want)

4. When it comes to television viewing two of my guilty pleasures are watching "Charmed" and "Sex in the City". Don't judge me you don't know me.

5. Lately, I cry at the drop of a hat and for a lot of other reasons too. Seriously, I find myself crying at the most innocuous things while watching something on telly. Maybe I'm becoming more sensitive as I get older. No, that's not it.

6. When I was much, much younger and very foolish I had a few risque (aka nude) pictures taken of my self and my then partner. I took possession of said photos and they came into close contact with a match and as the say ashes to ashes.

7. I had sex at the office. Once again when I was very, very young and foolish and I'm not telling you if it was with a colleague or the boss.

8. I believe in re-incarnation and I used to torment the nuns at my school by asking questions about it. I also spent a lot of time doing jobs around the convent for being impertinent.

9. I have a low tolerance for stupidity and the people who pretend to be.

10. When it comes to boxers or briefs, I like a little of both. Once again when I was wild and impetuous I usually went commando.

You know after reading this list I did a lot of things when I was younger. Gee, how things do change. Anyway I hope you liked reading this little list, maybe I'll come up with some more fun little facts later on. Until then Enjoy...

Friday Night at the Movies (on Saturday)...

Okay as I mentioned earlier here are the Friday Night at the Movie quotes a day late and a dollar short (what ever that means).

"If my dog was as ugly as you, I'd shave his ass and teach him to walk backwards."

Character: Max Goldman
Played by: Walter Matthau
Movie: Grumpier Old Men

Your turn

"Poor Winston's idea of foreplay was, "Brace yourself, Effie."

Character:???
Played by:???
Movie:???

Last weeks answer

"I hope you bring the cocktail sauce. She's got the crabs and I don't mean Dungeness."

Character: Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire
Played by: Robin Williams
Movie: Mrs. Doubtfire

Enjoy...

Friday night at the movies...

Gosh I can hardly believe it's Friday again. The weeks just fly by. I mean it's already July and the next thing you know we'll be singing Christmas carols. Anyway, let's move on to this weeks installment of Friday night at the movies. Now I'm not sure if any of you are enjoying these little weekly installments because none of you seem to be taking a stab at guessing the who, what and where of the quotes but even if you don't want to take a stab at guessing I'm still going to keep posting. You may learn a bit of trivia and if your lucky you might even get a chuckle off one or two of the quotes.

So last weeks answer:

"There's nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a head cold"

Character: Toddy Todd

Played by: Robert Preston

Movie: Victor/Victoria

This weeks quotes

"You have to kiss some ass to get a piece of it."

Character: Clayton Boone

Played by: Brendan Fraser

Movie: Gods and Monsters

Your turn

"I hope you bring the cocktail sauce. She's got the crabs and I don't mean Dungeness."

Character: ???

Played by: ???

Movie: ???

Enjoy...

Food for thought...

It's Sunday and I'm bored so what better to post than some bits of trivia that will be of no help one way or another except to maybe amuse. Enjoy...

• Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbour Henri Nestlé.
• An ounce of chocolate contains about 20 mg of caffeine.
• The world's oldest existing eatery opened in Kai-Feng, China in 1153.
• Coffee is the seed of a cherry from the tree genus Coffea
• Melba toast is named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931).
• Three quarters of fish caught are eaten - the rest are used to make things such as glue, soap, margarine and fertilizer.
• The world's most expensive jam (jelly) is Confiture de groselles. It is a redcurrant jam (jelly) from a 14th century recipe made in the tiny French town of Bar-Le-Duc.
• To make one kilo of honey, bees have to visit 4 million flowers, traveling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.
• Botanically speaking, the banana is a herb and the tomato is a fruit.
• Bananas are the world's most popular fruit after tomatoes.
• Approximately 44 million tons of bananas are produced annually, compared to more than 60 million tomatoes. Apples are the third most popular (36 million tons), then oranges (34 million tons) and watermelons (22 million tons).
• The scientific term for the common tomato is lycopersicon lycopersicum, which means, "wolf peach."
• There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
• In the Middle Ages, sugar was a treasured luxury costing 9 times as much as milk.
• Over 90% of all fish caught are caught in the northern hemisphere.
• Wine is sold in tinted bottles because wine spoils when exposed to light.
• Approximately one billion snails are served in restaurants annually.
• Vitamin A is known to prevent "night blindness," and carrots are loaded with Vitamin A. One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin A.
• Carrots have zero fat content.
• Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.
• Ice tea was introduced in 1904 at the World's Fair in St. Louis.
• An onion, apple and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavour are caused by their smell.
• China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year. 25 million trees are chopped down to make 'em sticks
• Chocolate is the number one foodstuff flavour in the world, beating vanilla and banana by 3-to-1.
• Watermelons are 97% water, lettuce 97%, tomatoes 95%, carrots 90%, and bread 30%.

Friday night at the movies...

It's Friday again albeit your Thursday but it's my blog so I say it's Friday. Anyway, it's time for Friday night at the movies and time to guess who said what in which movie. You know how we play the game, I list two quotes along with the characters name, the actors name and the movie from which it all took place then I list the second quote but leave all the other information blank for you to fill in. I know it's not much of a real game and is more of a filler as far as post are concerned but who knows you might learn a little trivia and depending on the quote you might even get a little chuckle out of it. So let's get to it

"Chewing gum helps me think"
"Sweetie your wasting your gum"

Character: Celsius
Played by: Luca Tommassini

speaking to

Character: Albert Goldman
Played by: Nathan Lane

Movie: The Bird Cage

"There's nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a head cold"

Character:
Played by:
Movie:

Until next week, Enjoy...

Movies, movies and more movies...

I too have unabashedly stolen this interesting little meme (Ok it’s not exactly little but is interesting) from Voenix Rising who stole it from here. Using the Entertainment Weekly list of the top 100 movies from the last 25 years:

• Bold the movie if you’ve seen it
• Put asterisks next to the movies you’ve seen and really liked.
• Put a line through the movies you saw and hated. (I couldn't figure out how to put lines through them even after i copied this from Word so I coloured them red)
  

I’ve seen 57 of the Top 100 films. I hated 16 of the 57 that I saw for reasons from to boring, to gory or IMHO just plain stupid. I won’t tell you which is which; I’ll let you guess. I’ve also taken this process one step further and I’ve put movies in italics that I started to watch and finally just gave up on and stopped watching because I just could not be bothered to finish. Once again I did so for a variety of reasons but the main reason was I just could not get interested even though I’d heard how great the movie was supposed to be so said the critics. I usually find I’m a better critic when it comes to the movies I choose to see. If a critic says some movie is a “fantastic, must see, Oscar potential” movie I am a bit leery if not down right positive I won’t like the movie, but if they say the hated the movie then I’m pretty sure I will love the movie and I usually do. Anyway, this was my take on this meme. If you want to try it feel free. Enjoy…

1. Pulp Fiction 1994
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy 2001-03 **
3. Titanic 1997
   
4. Blue Velvet 1986
5. Toy Story 1995
6. Saving Private Ryan 1998
7. Hannah and Her Sisters 1986
8. The Silence of the Lambs 1991 **
9. Die Hard 1988
10. Moulin Rouge 2001
11. This Is Spinal Tap 1984
12. The Matrix 1999 **
13. GoodFellas 1990
14. Crumb 1995
15. Edward Scissorhands 1990 **
16. Boogie Nights 1997
17. Jerry Maguire 1996
18. Do the Right Thing 1989
19. Casino Royale 2006 **
20. The Lion King 1994
21. Schindler’s List 1993
22. Rushmore 1998
23. Memento 2001
24. A Room With a View 1986
25. Shrek 2001
26. Hoop Dreams 1994
27. Aliens 1986 **
28. Wings of Desire 1988
29. The Bourne Supremacy 2004 **
30. When Harry Met Sally… 1989
31. Brokeback Mountain 2005 **
32. Fight Club 1999
33. The Breakfast Club 1985 **
34. Fargo 1996
35. The Incredibles 2004
36. Spiderman 2 2004
37. Pretty Woman 1990
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004
39. The Sixth Sense 1999 **
40. Speed 1994
41. Dazed and Confused 1993
42. Clueless 1995
43. Gladiator 2000
44. The Player 1992
45. Rain Man 1988
46. Children of Men 2006
47. Men in Black 1997
48. Scarface 1983
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000
50. The Piano 1993
51. There Will Be Blood 2007
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad 1988 **
53. The Truman Show 1998
54. Fatal Attraction 1987
55. Risky Business 1983
56. The Lives of Others 2006
57. There’s Something About Mary 1998
58. Ghostbusters 1984 **
59. L.A. Confidential 1997
60. Scream 1996 **
61. Beverly Hills Cop 1984 **
62. sex, lies and videotape 1989
63. Big 1988
64. No Country For Old Men 2007
65. Dirty Dancing 1987
66. Natural Born Killers 1994
67. Donnie Brasco 1997
68. Witness 1985
69. All About My Mother 1999
70. Broadcast News 1987
71. Unforgiven 1992
72. Thelma & Louise 1991
73. Office Space 1999
74. Drugstore Cowboy 1989
75. Out of Africa 1985 **
76. The Departed 2006
77. Sid and Nancy 1986
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991
79. Waiting for Guffman 1996
80. Michael Clayton 2007
81. Moonstruck 1987 **
82. Lost in Translation 2003
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn 1987
84. Sideways 2004
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin 2005
86. Y Tu Mamá También 2002
87. Swingers 1996
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 1997
89. Breaking the Waves 1996
90. Napoleon Dynamite 2004
91. Back to the Future 1985 **
92. Menace II Society 1993
93. Ed Wood 1994
94. Full Metal Jacket 1987
95. In the Mood for Love 2001
96. Far From Heaven 2002 **
97. Glory 1989
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999 **
99. The Blair Witch Project 1999
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut 1999

Friday night at the movies...

Like last Friday night I have a glorious quote from a past movie. I'll tell you who said it and in which Movie and you have to quess the second one.

First up we have :

"I'd ask you to stay and have a drink but I'm afraid you might accept"

Character: Lynn Markham
Played by: Joan Crawford
Movie: Female On the Beach

Now your guess:

"I'd like to take you south of my border and north of my garter"

Character :???
Played by:???
Movie:???

The answer to last Friday's quote is:

"If you look at her carefully, there are so many lines on her face you could drive a train on it"

Character: Marina Rudd
Played by: Elizabeth Taylor
Movie: The Mirror Crack'd

It's the weekend. Enjoy...

Friday night at the movies...

Well it will be Friday when I post this even though it's still Thursday for most of you so you'll just have to work with me on this one. So I'm going to try and see if i can start a new regular feature which will be "Friday night at the movies..." ("FNATM..."). Now what this will entail is really something very simple; each Friday I will post two or more quotes that have appeared in a movie (not necessarily from the same movie). I will tell you from what movie and which star/character uttered the immortal lines, keeping in mind that theses lines are that said the line. Occasionally I'll leave that information out and see if you know who said what.

So to start off the very first "FNATM..." we will have one with all the information and one without everything you needed to know and you can tell me where the quote is from and who said these great and sometimes scathingly scripted lines. Enjoy...

"Paris is for lovers. Maybe that's why I stayed only thirty-five minutes"

Character: Linus Larrabee Played by: Humphrey Bogat
Movie: Sabrina 1954

This one is for you to guess

"If you look at her carefully, there are so many lines on her face you could drive a train on it"

Character: ??? Played by: ???
Movie: ???

You're too kind...

I truly appreciate all of the recent comments and I am taking them all on board so from now on you get what ever I've got to say; be it good, bad, ugly, pretty, angry, happy, optimistic or pessimistic, which ever it may be you can be guaranteed that I will be telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God, Buddha, Allah, Shiva who ever..

Now I need to first follow through on a recent tagging, by this lovely man, that occurred back on June 4th. so I'm a little slow on the uptake. Unlike a lot of you I read every blog on my list. OK I'm kidding. :) Ok no I'm not, I actually I do read them all. I have way to much time on my hands. Anyway, here's how the meme works, although I must first notate that the rules were changed slightly from the originals but I'm doing as I'm told:

Step One – pull out a book on the book shelf.
Step Two – go to page 123.
Step Three – read and write out the 5th sentence.
Step Four – tag 5 more people.

1) My Book is "The Year of Living Biblically" A. J. Jacobs

2 & 3) " An ancient Israelite sect called the Essenes dressed in white, as do some kabbalists."

4) I'm not a tagger as I learned from last time I did such a thing so I won't be tagging a single sole. Now on the other hand if you want to try this then I say give it a go. Don't forget to let me know if you did try so I can have a sticky beak as to what you came up with. Enjoy...