STAND ASIDE HIPSTERS

You do not have sole ownership of that which is cool. This was a band and we liked them....a lot.

The Stems - Tears Me In two 1985

The Stems - At First Sight 1987

nothing is ever really new is it

PLEASE DON'T FLUSH THAT DOWN THE TOILET

On the back of the doors to all mining camp rooms are instruction sheets showing you were to go in the case of an emergency, a cleaning schedule a list of site rules, that sort of thing. Now it's often good fun to read through these rules because every now and then you'll find a doozy. What you have to remember as you read through them is that some of these rules exist because someone, somewhere, did something that now requires a rule to try and stop it ever happening again.

The back of my door has most definitely managed to produce such a rule, it's in the plumbing awareness section....

That there is even a section titled plumbing awareness is some funny shit right there, but this particular rule completely baffles me. I mean who or why would anyone flush an article of clothing down a toilet?

"These pants are a tad tight, I think I'll flush them down the toilet!"

"I'm not enjoying the touch of this shirt on my body, I think I'll flush it down the toilet

"Wash my hat? Why bother when I can simply flush it down the toilet"

"Man these boots are smelly, might as well flush em down the toilet"

etc etc etc

God help the world, seriously, if we've succumbed to this then what little hope do we really have

WORKIN FOR A DOLLAR

Some pics from this weeks excavations

BURNT SKY

I've been away from the Pilbara for so long that I'd kinda forgotten about the amazing sunrises

TIME FOR A FOOD REVIEW

It's been a while since I reviewed an eating house, so I figured hey, why not the dry mess at the mining camp. I'm not quite sure if this one will make it on to urbanspoon.com anytime soon though.

This evening my two work associates and I decided to tickle our taste buds at the local mine site wet mess. A risky choice as one of my dining companions is a vegetarian, but we had been assured that there were vegetarian options. Ravenous after a long day excavating rock shelters in the Pilbara we hurried to the entrance. We were a little taken back by some of the clientele who were exiting as we approached, mostly by their colourful language...

"yaaaaahhhhhh you gettin a drink poof?"

"fuckin yeah ya c###"

I have always lived with the strong belief that a visitor to a foreign land should not too quickly judge a foreign culture by first impressions, but even holding these liberal views we were, to a man, quite shocked at this display of manly affection. None the less we pressed on, two large glass paned doors teased us with glimpses of shiny stainless steel bain-maries, "what delectable culinary delights could they hold?" We were soon to know

I wandered towards the meat section were there was a display of deep fried crumbed fish.....? Oh and some type of meat in the form of a chop. I glanced towards the vegetable selection and saw a sign that said lyonnaise potatoes, my eyes widened "mmmm a french classic, how devine" They had even listed the ingredients for me on a small card above the dish "this dish contains potatoes, onion and MSG" <- wait whaaaaaat?

Moving down the line I selected the green broccoli, you could find it when you dug deep through the silvery brown broccoli. I wasn't until now aware of this other variety of broccoli. Next there was a tray of slow roasted pumpkin pieces, I couldn't pass that up. I did pause for a moment in front of the Hungarian Goulash, wondering what it was that made what appeared to be a tray of minced beef with kidney beans Hungarian. I decided not to try and find out. I rounded out my meal with some Hoikien noodles, a lot shorter than I recall but perhaps these one inch long noodles were now all the rage and who am I to decided what is and what isn't cool with the kids these days eh?

We headed to our table, decorated in a simplistic style with a plastic coated table cloth covered in words like - latte, cafe, chocolate and cappuccino. Interesting to say the least. I looked across to my vegetarian dining partner and noticed his sad expression, I then saw the contents of his plate and realised the cause of his anguish, 3 tomato wedges, some passed its prime baby spinach leaves, a few slices of raw capsicum and a bread roll. No meat there, no siree, a complete vegetarian meal for anyone who has forsaken flesh. Hmmmm

I decided to start with the "meat chop", unfortunately due to a distinct lack of butchers cleavers in the cutlery section I am unable to give you my thoughts on that particular item. I can say however that it appeared to be "well cooked" sadly my broccoli, whilst extremely green, was also extremely cold and that too was only nibbled on, it did seem vegetably. I was determined to eat something so I focused on my slow roasted pumpkin pieces, sadly it seems they were slow roasted by virtue of the chef failing to actually turn the oven on. Raw pumpkin is probably a better description. Never fear, at least I had the noodles right? Those trendy one inch noodles were sure to delight. I have since been informed that if you boil a noodle for double the recommended cooking time the result is instant one inch noodles. You can even make them smaller by simply touching them with your fork. The things I've learnt this evening ....!

I have always said that the best way to have a diner remember your establishment is to send them on their way with a delicious dessert to round out the experience. I had spied a chocolate and raspberry pudding on the quaint blackboard menu as we entered earlier. it appeared to be in the hot bain-marie next to the ice cream selections, so I wandered over. My taste buds were dripping in anticipation, this should be good, I'll leave this picture quite large so you too can "admire" this dish....

1 iron ore train out of 10

SO THIS WOLF HE LOVED PORK

Two days sick now, sitting alone in a mining camp room, it's not much fun. Especially with sore throat, chest cough, puss filled eye and blocked nose thrown into the mix. I have so many liquids, concoctions, lozenges and pills it's nuts. So who better to cheer me up than Christopher Walken reading The Three Little Pigs.....

and that jumper!!

HERE'S A FEW TIPS FOR YA

Photography tips that is, this is a great and pretty handy little card if like me you don't always select the auto button on your camera. So if you're into a bit of manual photography check this out....

THE HOOD # 131

Another bubble bobble inspired piece I spotted in Highgate a couple of days ago, happy also to see the green lovers piece still intact after all this time. It helps that the people in this building have no problem with street art on their walls, in fact they encourage it....

CARMAGEDDON

Breakfast down at CNR with Waz and Gaz this morning, the usual smattering of lycra clothed bikers in the crowd but most noticeable was the news story on the giant screen. Carmageddon. A bridge is being torn down over the 405 Freeway in LA and is expected to cause major traffic chaos in that city, hence someone coined the phrase Carmageddon. It appears that the chaos never happened and people adapted well, aren't humans clever.

Jet Blue airlines jumped in with a special rate for flights that they said would help commuters avoid the traffic jam. Up steps Wolfpack Hustle, a group of dedicated bike riders in LA (I've mentioned them before) who reckoned they could do the distance the Jet Blue flight was going to cover in a faster time, just on bikes. The race/challenge happened yesterday and guess what?The Wolfpack Crew beat the flight hands (or should that be pedals) down.

Nice piece over here on Slate.com. It seems the Jet Blue flight was beaten not only by the riders but a few others as well....

According to Twitter-based calculations by @bcgp, the unofficial finish times were:

Bike: 1:34

Metro/Walk: 1:44

Rollerblades: 2:40

Plane/Lost Cab Driver: 2:54

There's a cool video over at North Hollywood Patch which explains everything behind the why and the how

COLOUR IT IN

At the risk of turning this into an architecture blog I'm gonna post these. I've just been noticing buildings lately that's all. These caught my eye because they run against the grain of Perth building design. Okay, they're nothing special architecturally, in fact they're both fairly ordinary buildings in my opinion, but what they've done is bring colour to the city's mid level skyline. Perth is and has always been grey, silver and dull when it came to new buildings. Suddenly someone's added a splash of colour and that, I think anyways, is a good thing. I give you red and green....

HALF BAKED URBAN DESIGN

This is not the building you want to ever spend too much time in, being as it's Perth Police HQ and all, but it is still one of my favourite Perth buildings. So very 60's, I love its' curve. I read once that there was meant to be a second building (exactly the same) built on the western end of the existing one. There was to be a large roundabout out the front (they did do that) with Adelaide Tce splitting the two buildings, so you would drive between them to enter the city. Now that would have been an awesome city entrance. But like most great plans some bean counter probably ruined it and it never happened. It also has the best radio antennae of any building in Perth.

They really need to cut down those shit house pine trees from out front of it too

AND THEN YOU'RE LIKE - "CAN YOU JUST SHUT UP"

The best cooking show in the universe, yeah I said it - I give you "My Drunk Kitchen"

"I love apples....they're perfect for eating"

30 YEARS LATER

I found this pic on another site today and it's just too good not to share....

Chris Bray and his dad were at both the first and the last space shuttle launch and they captured the moment.

TODAYS' BIZARRE CLIP

I'm not really sure I can explain this video all that well. Morrissey tries to sum it up though

Little kid: "Where are we going?"

Morrissey: "We're all going mad"

Little kid: "I thought we were going to Kew Gardens"

But then Sandie Shaw (60's pop singer) suddenly turns up and Johnny Marr strums a guitar whilst she sings a song. I did a quick check and found this on Wikipedia which may help explain it....

Later in 1986, a new phase in her career began after she received a letter from "two incurable Sandie Shaw fans" - singer Morrissey and lead guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths - telling her that "The Sandie Shaw legend cannot be over yet — there is more to be done." Shaw's husband was a friend of Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, the label to which The Smiths were signed, and she agreed to record some of their songs

But it still doesn't explain this clip, truly bizarre

APPLE ME THIS

With an invite to Macca and Heidi's place for a Sunday roast tonight I felt I should whip up a dessert. What goes better with a roast than an apple pie eh? I haven't baked in eons and it showed. My kitchen has been nuked, back in my pro days I had teams of apprentices to clean up behind me, not so much any more. I managed to make twice as much pastry and three times as much apple than I needed too. As I only have one pie dish it was muffin tray to the rescue and some mini apple pies as a result....nom nom nom.

hungry?

WALKING THE COLD CITY STREETS

Headed down to Namh Thai last night to meet up with 6 of my besties and eat some awesome food. Awesome winter weather, cold enough to not work up a sweat wearing a scarf, which is often the way here in the west. If you haven't eaten at Nahm Thai then you really must, it's not your run of the mill Green Curry Chicken kind of Thai food, it's something very special and you will love it. I promise you.

SIMPLY WONDERFUL

Her name is Natsumi Hayashi, she is a photographer in Tokyo and she takes incredible levitation photos. She posts her photos on her website yowayowacamera.com. Some examples below but make sure you check out her page for so many more. By the way, she's not hanging by ropes here. She jumps into the air and has to get it exactly right and capture the exact moment, to make it appear that she's levitating. Good stuff....

BAD ASS ROO

Do not mess with these dudes, or they will pick your muddafuckin car UP!

WOULD YOU LIKE CAR WITH THAT

I'm dining at Nahm Thai this weekend, hoping we don't get a car through the front section between courses! Spotted whilst heading out tonight. Looks like this car got hit from behind which made it plow into the outside seats. Luckily it's way too cold to eat al fresco at the moment so the tables were empty.

BACK IN THE GAME BABY

I managed to finally get back out in the field today for the first time since my operation and it felt good. Good to be back amongst it, mind you it wasn't the tough old Pilbara but it was a pleasant journey through the Dandalup forest. It was kind of like having a run in the reserves before starting with the first 11 next week. Either way it was a good day.

It didn't start out all that well though

"are we lost?"

"cos I think we're lost"

"yeah but I think we turn left and go that way"

"I dunno, it's a pretty thick forest"

"yeah well we better put our coloured heads together and work this out"

"hey you coloured heads, I think we should go straight, not left"

"okay, we'll give that a shot"

"whatevs, I'm gonna stare at these grass trees"

"you know what, screw it, it's morning tea time"

"hey there's a fun guy!"

"so you just pour the cement into the Hessian bags, let em dry, remove the bag and you have an instant bridge support"

"cool"

"creeks never get lost"

We finally found our way to the survey area, only took us 3 hours and surprisingly only 45 minutes to get back. Take a wrong turn in a forest where all the trees look the same and you are one sorry arsed bunch of lost environment officers and archaeologists. But it didn't matter, we got it all done and had a cruisy day. Good times.