Bim bam boom

Losing It

2009-09-27T10:56:00.003+10:00

Design is kinky

2009-09-26T18:57:00.005+10:00

I submitted these to Design Is Kinky a few years ago for some design comp. Didn't make it, but they're kind of cute.

Super bunny!

2009-09-26T16:18:00.002+10:00

Here's Gen, Easter circa Feb '82

Doodles

2009-09-26T16:16:00.001+10:00

Some time I scans these little doodles in - might as well share then now.

Home made cards

2009-09-26T15:57:00.007+10:00

I'm also packing up my trusty home G5 Mac, deleting what I don't need and backing up what I do. Here's a few things worth another look before they hit the trash.

Birthday at the trusty Waverley Bowlo

Pre Doha booze-up at the newly opened Beauchamp Hotel

Post-Doha yum cha catchup

Christmas card featuring the world's biggest chandelier, photo taken in Oman

Shirty thirty

A couple of rags that were once Tshirts

2009-09-15T22:07:00.003+10:00

Pota! Pota! Pota!
My host family bought this Tshirt for me in 1998. I had been looking for some mementos that were in Italian and this was one of the few around. The words are apparently Bergamo slang for something, and some comedians used to always say it on TV, along with 'Fia!'. Hilarious apparently, so much that they made Tshirts.

This on is also special as it has a screenprint on the back that I did with my late cousin Jack, probably not long after my time in Italy.

The next one Zander screenprinted for me, as a birthday present to accompany the main present; a ticket to Kraftwerk, with him and Ashley. We all got a Tshirt, but I bet they didn't hang onto theirs as long as I did. I persisted with wearing this one to the gym until only recently, when I discovered quite how threadbare it was when it went basically see0through after a sweaty session!

Farewell old friends, to landfill!

Moving out

2009-09-15T21:45:00.003+10:00

Gen and I have started the packing process; we move into our new house in a week and a half. I've been coming across a few of those things that have to be thrown out, but need recording first. So I'm taking pictures or scanning stuff as I go.

Remember this? This is Gen's SIM card from her first mobile phone, which was with the now defunct One Tel

And here's a matchbox from my favourite cafe in the world, Kobus Kuch, in Delft. Best apple pie ever. Gezellig...

So now I've shared, now I can throw this stuff out!

Mark Priestly one year on

2009-09-01T09:46:00.004+10:00

About a year ago our mate Mark Priestly took his own life. We all still miss you mate.

Back to the future photo time machine

2009-07-17T09:56:00.004+10:00

This is what Michael Jackson was supposed to look like in the year 2000

Love ya Dad

2009-06-15T09:44:00.005+10:00

Keyboard Cat is the new Fail

2009-05-13T20:42:00.003+10:00

I have to admit to a weakness for cats. Not in real life, just on the internets, where they're so much funnier. I've blogged before about my guilty obsession with ICanHaz Cheeseburger.com, where photographs of cats (mostly) have captions added to hilarious effect.

Keyboard cat but this latest one is even more irreverent. As far I can understand, the original video of a cat playing a ditty on the keyboard was first uploaded to You Tube by one Charlie Schmidt in 2007.

Next, someone named Brad O'Farrell combined this with a Fail video to create pure internet meme genious. The effect is that the cat 'plays' the subject of the video 'off' (stage).

Check out the ever growing list of videos here.

Sparkly sparks

2009-04-21T17:16:00.004+10:00

The SMH had pictures online today of antics of the local backyard boffin obsessed with very dangerous looking experiments involving electricity. The photos are amazing (even if the website is daggy).

Easter in the country

2009-04-15T22:07:00.008+10:00

Gen and Evie and I went down to visit Dad and Henriette in Jugiong, possibly the last time before Dad moves away. I have lots of photos of Evie being cute, but I also got some nice landscape pics early one morning. There's really nothing like warm, dawn, country light.

Houses to hunt

2009-03-29T13:12:00.000+11:00

House hunting sucks

It's a girl! Introducing Evie Pearl Ricketson

2009-02-08T10:29:00.003+11:00

For all your Evie needs go to her bloggy-wog here

To jump straight to photos, go to my Google web album here.

The olden days

2008-12-29T13:35:00.007+11:00

I just found this old photo while cleaning up my computer. It's from the big night we had when Gen moved over to Sydney in 2002. Young, silly, fun.
There are more here.

I also found this photo, showing many of the same stylish moves, from a dodgy club in the Cross, around the same time:

Bigger guts!

2008-12-15T13:39:00.001+11:00

Gen has reached 34 weeks. Everything is going along great!

Guts!

2008-11-07T18:35:00.000+11:00

Bub is coming along - 26 weeks down!

Our 'wedding' table

2008-11-07T18:33:00.001+11:00

Genevieve and I were married in April this year and our bridal registry was a hand-made cherry wood table for 10 people. This stop-frame animation shows the christening meal at table. Thanks to all those who generously contributed to it, we look forward to having you around for a meal soon!

Bill Posters is innocent!

2008-11-07T18:31:00.001+11:00

Spotted this today in Darlinghurst. Set Bill free

Introducing Marley Jay Dugard

2008-07-24T19:49:00.003+10:00

Born 6:45am, Friday 24th July 2009, to Ben and Jenny Dugard

(No this is not our baby - not yet!)

Danger danger!

2008-07-24T15:31:00.001+10:00

Rule Brittany!

2008-07-24T15:19:00.002+10:00

I have become lightly obsessed with the Tour De France, last night even staying up to the exciting end (just).

Admiring the cyclists' stamina is fascinating, as I'm puffed going up a gutter on my bike. Then there's the beautiful French countryside and towns, espsecially from the helipcopters.

And the finaly thing to enjoy is watching the loony European spectators who apparently camp beside the road for up to a week for w good position.

Amongst the all-orange Dutch fans, and the sunburnt fat Germans, and the occaisonal boxing Kangaroo, I have noticed this weird black and white flag. It kinda looked like the American flag, but bad-ass. I wondered if it was actually some kind of marketing thing and half expected to hear Nike had infiltrated.

In fact, the commentators mentioned the flag last night, and it's actually the flag of Brittany, also called the Gwenn-ha-du in Breton. There are some riders int he Tour from that region of France. So it all makes sense.

Allez! The coolest flag in the world.

Baby time!

2008-07-18T16:35:00.003+10:00

Great news - Gen is 12 weeks pregnant! Due late January 2009. We just has our first ultrasound - all things are good!

Wow. Deep breaths....

Full circle

2008-07-14T20:56:00.004+10:00

OK so I have come full circle in my musical tastes. I now officially like (almost) everything. My recent guilty pleasure has been the hokey country love duets by Skeeter Davis and Bobby Bare.

They're full of banjo, slide guitar and corny lyrics. But there's something about these two that's just real. They had screwed up lives, and they came together with music, and then they sang about it.

I haven't seen Walk the Line, but from what I understand of Johnny Cash and June Carter's life, there are some similarities. And their best-known duet Jackson was also recorded by the duo (it wasn't written by Cash and Carter), two years later in 1970. I actually prefer the Cash-Carter version, but some of their other duets are brilliant; heart-felt and a little creepy.

For example, Your Husband, My Wife is about them being in love, but both having other partners and families. I can't think of many other songs that explore this impossibly difficult situation.

Then there's There Never Was A Time We Didn't Love, about a tragic, hard, poor, but happy marriage. It's totally corny, but so heart-felt I totally love it. If only we could have played it at our wedding. But people would really have thought we weird (even more so that Sigur Ros down the aisle).

The of course, there are the fantastic album covers...

Skeeter Davis is a fascinating musician, born in a cabin in Kentucky in the 1930s, one of 7 children. She almost died in a car accident, and her singing partner did die, the dead girl's mother forcing Davis' sister to join the group.

She was a bit of a rebel in her own deep south Christian country music way. You can her influence on people like Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and more lately, Gillian Welch.