tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186537462023-08-04T21:59:37.183+10:00<br><br><br>Man and Malamute<br><br><br> <i>with a few surprises</i>Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.comBlogger1781125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-58137329412738397842020-10-29T11:41:00.001+11:002020-10-29T11:47:43.330+11:00

We pick up our story in 1930, at the onset of the Great Depression which had rippled out from the US in 1929. Jack Lang, the fiery politician starts his second term as premiere of NSW. Jack Lang *loves* the Pearson’s Fish Cafe in Pitt Street Sydney, and his presence there is frequently reported over the coming decade. 1932 – Jack Lang opens the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 19 March. (Noted for

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-90272666653665515962020-10-29T10:03:00.001+11:002020-10-29T10:08:38.392+11:00

Picking up from my previous post: 1913 – A notice in the August 11 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald announces that Pearson’s Fish Cafe is now open in three cities across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The notice is repeated on August 25. A wine license is applied for in December 2013. 1918 – A few articles in The Age and Port Fairy Gazette about the price of fish and the potential of

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-86359868819674236672020-10-28T22:11:00.001+11:002020-10-29T12:18:04.043+11:00

I’ve had a run of distant Australian relatives contacting me this year via Ancestry.com – a sign of extra time for the housebound to do genealogical research. My most recent contact has been with Arleen, whose son-in-law is connected to the Pearson family which is my Swedish lineage. I’ve written a number of posts about my search for information about my great-great grandfather Sven Pearson (

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-42470265049875611742020-09-06T20:18:00.003+10:002020-09-24T20:20:00.910+10:00

Gustav and Logan saw us off at 7.30 this morning as I aimed to reach Junee by lunchtime. The beginning of the journey had a long underground stretch as we entered the new M8 road tunnel starting near Sydney Park, emerging eight minutes later on the M5 motorway. Aside from a couple of roadside stops to empty Raff, it’s fairly dull highway driving until Gundagai. This retraces some of the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-80276378070335234002020-08-29T15:21:00.002+10:002020-08-29T15:23:38.239+10:00

It's been six years since my last roadtrip, and we're using this troublingly quiet time to our advantage with a circuit of western NSW through some places I lived as a kid (Bourke, Temora) and some new places like Broken Hill & Lightning Ridge. The last few years have been rather awkward in terms of away time coinciding with when Gustav can get time, but we hope to grab a week later in the year.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-25526326470867586272020-04-04T17:53:00.000+11:002020-04-06T08:26:39.568+10:00

It's three weeks since Rollo's fire went out and I still grieve his loss against the ambient shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Against all odds, I've found another pup to join our family, and he's Rollo's nephew, a sable-coloured mally from the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria. I went through my old list of names, and finding nothing that suited, I foraged online and came back

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-625364018837939122020-03-25T15:57:00.001+11:002020-03-25T15:57:14.054+11:00

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-22344101461103906542020-03-16T13:26:00.000+11:002020-03-17T16:44:16.279+11:00

After 24 hours emergency care from a spontaneous pneumothorax, Rollo passed away at Sydney University Veterinary Hospital just shy of 3years and 3months. It's just over two years since I felt Munson's slowing heart, and I can't express the grief of losing another companion so quickly, even before I'd had a chance to show him the world. Tomorrow will be the first time in over 21 years that

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-34175113834604992942019-06-19T21:40:00.000+10:002019-06-19T21:40:18.139+10:00

Rollo is now nearly two and a half, a strapping boy of 49kg - less than Munson or Bondi, but I suspect stronger than either. For those of you who followed us on our Facebook page, I'm sorry for the sudden disappearance, but I just got fed up with the whole site. We do post on Instagram still.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-58385667899441210312018-01-22T14:44:00.001+11:002018-01-22T16:58:03.677+11:00

Hello I'm Rollo, named after the Viking who became the first Duke of Normandy a looong time ago. Even before there was a Munson or a Bondi. Some of you may know me from my dad's instagram (hashtag Rollo or whatever that means) but if you are meeting me for the first time: HELLO! I am 12 months old, and while I am not as big as my brother Munson was, I am more than twenty times bigger than

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-29615116670071078482017-12-20T15:14:00.001+11:002017-12-20T16:27:47.499+11:00

Munson passed away peacefully at 1pm today, held by Mike and Gustav. As with Bondi's loss in 2009, for me this is like losing several limbs and a heart. Although cancer hit him early at age 5, Munson had an extraordinarily packed life, accompanying me through about fifteen countries from Gibraltar to Stockholm, and walking half the length of Offa's Dyke. He swam in Mediterranean,

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-40375729434584963542016-09-24T15:42:00.001+10:002016-09-24T15:42:38.276+10:00

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-22608466754926023652015-08-01T21:34:00.000+10:002015-09-20T11:59:20.993+10:00

The amount of work involved in doing the tattoo on a large “canvas” my arm spun out an extra day, giving me a total of about 32 hours on the table. Day three saw my upper arm completed and then the shoulder work on the last day. These sections involved working through my original “Fais que ton rêve …” armband done in Paris back in 2006 (seen above) and then my most recent

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-76929213218881266402015-07-31T06:07:00.000+10:002015-08-07T06:06:29.126+10:00

When I arrived on the island yesterday I spent some time with my tattooist Uffe Berenth, going over the themes which would shape my tattoo. This is the first time I’m having work done where artist and executor are one and the same, and for such a large canvas it’s really necessary for the topology to be taken into account. So, for the first few hours, I stand shirtless and arm-shaven

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-33476410571318914422015-07-29T03:05:00.000+10:002015-07-30T15:53:53.793+10:00

Oh look, I’m on an island. In the Baltic. Without a malamute. I’m not sure which is more surprising: me being an island I hadn’t even heard of a month ago, or travelling without a dog. On Monday, Gustav and I flew to Copenhagen for a vacation and to attend a family celebration. Unfortunately a brief long-distance trip meant leaving Munson behind,

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-27342091522285206642015-07-18T12:54:00.000+10:002015-07-18T13:13:24.765+10:00

Gustav and I were doing some shopping on King Street this morning, but our main destination wasn’t opening for another forty-five minutes, so I took Munson down to Sydney Park for a spell to fill in time. We haven’t been there in a good while, partly due to time of year (it’s dark when I get home from work), weather (intermittently freezing) and public works (long

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-58218774670030431472015-05-27T17:41:00.000+10:002015-06-08T19:34:29.475+10:00

On May 27 2005, I made my first blog post, having two days earlier taken off from Sydney for “a year or so” of European travel. Nothing special in that, other than my principal companion being a 75kg Alaskan Malamute by the name of Bondi, who I had adopted at eight weeks in Seattle just before Xmas 1998. The blog took off slowly – I didn’t take or post many pictures

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-59334260245669483812015-05-24T16:12:00.000+10:002015-06-08T17:28:41.303+10:00

I discovered the work of Joel Moore aka “Mulga” via Tumblr last year. His presence across Sydney is becoming more widely known thanks to murals like this one in Surry Hills. This mural is known as Rainbow Ronnie.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-31023254483439862612015-05-05T05:05:00.000+10:002015-05-05T22:00:04.690+10:00

In memory of Bondi leaving us six years ago today, some pictures of him in Croatia – notably in Dubrovnik and Split in April 2007, brought to mind by the use of these cities as settings for The Game of Thrones. I’d also like to pay respects to my friend Richard Squire who passed away unexpectedly last week. I worked with Richard on and off from Sydney

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-8442485085744783592015-04-25T17:04:00.000+10:002022-11-16T15:15:44.525+11:00

Gustav got another taste of extreme Sydney weather today with a furious mid-afternoon rain and hailstorm. For Munson however, it was the closest thing he’ll get to a snow-day here. And how else do you know you’ve got a malamute? First instinct is to lie down in in the faux snow. The only bad thing was that all my trees and

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-70224865699518711292015-02-28T18:35:00.000+11:002015-06-08T15:55:21.339+10:00

Twenty-nine kitesurfers, one malamute at Silver Beach, Kurnell.    

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-7332515831000892142015-02-25T20:26:00.000+11:002015-05-05T19:54:07.222+10:00

There’s a cafe in our neighbourhood that opened last year and has gone from strength to strength. The owner alerted us to the fact that Munson appears in a few photos used in an online article in broadsheet.com.au

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-80776915108161184112015-01-30T08:23:00.000+11:002015-04-27T19:25:50.552+10:00

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-13900100226465145112015-01-26T17:13:00.000+11:002015-04-27T19:22:32.620+10:00

Enmore Park was alive with all sorts of groups celebrating Australia Day. One group stole Munson’s attention for pictures and a group howl.  

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18653746.post-78321517694187384542014-12-12T20:04:00.000+11:002015-04-26T19:07:23.873+10:00

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16494731273916705327noreply@blogger.com2