Thunder down under

This is the time of year in tropical Queensland when the poinciana or flame trees begin to flower. They go from green to brilliant red overnight and they are supposed to signal the start of the wet season. No rain on the radar for a week or so yet, so maybe they're out of whack, just like everything else weather-related around here at the moment. I do have a few twinges in my gammy leg though, so maybe the monsoon's not too far away. They are predicting more severe flooding than usual this year and at least six cyclones (along with the usual 33 degree heat and 90% humidity), so we are bracing ourselves for another summer from hell.

Give me some sugar

We were sitting on our verandah last night, when we saw a little brown mouse-like creature crawling along the top of the sun shades. I immediately thought 'Time to put some more Ratsak in the ceiling'. But my wife thought it didn't look like a mouse, but more like a little bat or something. Our landlord has planted a particular type of tree in the garden with the intention of attracting sugar gliders (pictured above), which are a kind of mini possum that can apparently glide between trees. This guy has a pretty distinctive face, which I don't recall seeing on our visitor, so I am in two minds. We either have a very special guest or an infestation. I hope it's the former, because he's soooooooooooooooooooo cute.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

You know how they ask you if you could have any five people in the world to dinner, who would they be?
Well, here are my five ...

John Cleese, the greatest comic genius of all time (they only made a handful of episodes of Fawlty Towers, but I could watch them over and over forever and get something new out of them each time).

Bear Grylls for his bear-faced attitude to life (he once broke his back in several places after a bad parachute landing, and is still para-sailing down the sheer face of life at an alarming rate).

Richard Branson's mother used to abandon him in the countryside and force him to find his own way home (obviously worked, because he is now one of the richest men in the world and about to launch commercial space travel).

David Attenborough has done for wildlife cinematography what Albert Einstein did for relativity (theoretically speaking). He kindled and continues to fan my lifelong obsession with nature photography.

Tori Amos is invited because I know it will annoy my wife (I used to have a big crush on Tori in her Cornflake Girl days ... before she started disposing of bodies from the trunk of her car).

Send in the clowns

Came across this old work pic the other day and it made me feel a bit nostalgic. For all its faults; its pushy sales people, difficult clients, inflated egos, insanely high pressures and disgracefully low wages, radio still has a soft spot in my heart. Looking back on 17 years as a copywriter, it was like being in the circus. I got to travel a lot, I met all kinds of weird and wonderful people, and compared with a 'normal' job, I can honestly say there were very few dull moments. With the growth of the internet, radio is now dying by degrees, so I am proud to have been a part of this unique industry in its hey day.

RIP RADIO

My chequered past

Once upon a time, I was into chess ... not playing it, but the idea of having a larger than life chess set. The local park had one with fibreglass pieces about two feet high and a tiled board you could walk around on. I opted for something more modest, but still larger than life. The board was made from some black and white wall tiles I picked up when working for a tile importer. The pawns were spice jars, emptied of their contents and painted black or white. The knights were Johnnie Walker mini bottles (for some reason I had a few empties lying around), the bishops were the same bottles with painted fishing floats glued on their tops to represent their hats (miters?), the queens were fancy olive oil bottles and the kings were large economy size coffee jars with their lids inverted to make crowns. It all looked pretty impressive from a distance. I don't think I ever played a game on it, but it made an interesting conversation piece in the lounge room (mainly "Wow! Look at all the spice jars, coffee jars and Johnnie Walker bottles! What did you paint them black and white for?"). Sigh.

Old red eyes

When I worked at the local radio station, I never got many freebies, mainly because they were to things we didn't want to go to like the rodeo or the basketball. But one time I really lucked out. Kris Kristoffersen was coming to town and the station had an exclusive double pass to see him plus a backstage pass to meet him. My wife is a huge fan, so naturally I grabbed it when it was offered. Kris was a lot older than we remembered, but he still had his magic and sang all the old songs we both like. Then my wife got to meet him, so it was a great night. I took this shot of him just before the bouncer told me to put my camera away because the flash was annoying Kris. Now I know what that mean ole stare is all about. Oops.

Notes from a NASAphile

Our trip to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida was a real eye opener for me. Space travel is pretty mind boggling and so are the statistics that surround it. For instance, did you know that the shuttle silo pictured above is so big that the flag on its side is the size of a football field?

Or that this crawler used to transport the shuttle to the launch pad travels so slowly it is routinely overtaken by snails?

Or that Kennedy Space Centre has its own built-in security system (a network of alligator infested swamps)?

There is something larger than life about the whole place and once you've been there, you will never again entertain the idea that the moon landing was filmed in a studio somewhere. American space travel is the real deal.