Wednesday

At the mechanic's (taking the car for its annual registration check) - I saw this new safety device called an "air bag". It was affixed to a Fiat 100 they are restoring for a customer. Cute.

Tuesday

It doesn't look like much - not a great photo of it - but it was spectacular ... a huge contrail, pink from the morning sun, streaking across the sky.

Monday

My brother used to joke with the wait-staff at the cafe where we have lunch that he would have a "long black with milk". Last week, long after he had stopped saying it, his long black did indeed arrive a small jug of milk on the side. And when it happened today as well ... it was time to take a photo to remember it by.

Sunday

This death notice appeared in the NSW press recently.

Saturday

The girl on the left was doing a great job of being a mannequin in the window of this department store on the Central Coast ... for the one on the right, it all seemed like just a game! She looked quite surprised (but happy) when I took out my camera to take the picture.

Friday

Sydney Harbour Bridge plus walkers

Thursday

Meet Murtabak or Martabak, which, according to Wikipedia is an Indian Muslim (Mamak) dish commonly found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Yemen where it is called Motabbag (Arabic: المطبّق) which means "The Folded" so the name could be of Arabic origin. It is made from a thin dough filled with minced meat, usually mutton, and fried on a griddle until it turns golden brown. The fillings also include garlic, egg and onion. Martabak is served with slices of cucumber and onion, and a bowl of curry sauce. In Indonesia, Martabak also tends to be served with some kind of dark brown sauce made of vinegar and palm sugar. Well, that's what Wikipedia says. According to the sign where I bought mine, it was filled with chicken, shallots and onion, and you could have some curry with it if you wanted.

Wednesday

This arrived in the mail from our corporate headquarters this week - to mark my reaching "6000 Briqs" in our Ideas scheme. (When showing it to the boss, it seemed prudent to advise that I didn't spend my entire day submitting entries to the Ideas Central challenges!)

Tuesday

Virgin Blue now has television screens on selected flights - and it only costs $6 per flight to enjoy the privilege of nearly 20 channels.

Monday

This would have been an okay photo on Saturday, and a brilliant photo on Sunday - but since I missed it both times - it's Monday's. Balloons gently floating over the Gold Coast hinterland - close enough to hear the burners.

Sunday

Sky pines in the Gold Coast hinterland. They give no indication that behind us horses and riders were competing in a dressage event.
Don't believe it? Click on the small image to see two of the competitors.

Saturday

Sometimes one pic is not enough. Here's the wonderful dessert prepared for us tonight - Tarte Tartin (pronounced Tarte Tartin). It's cooked on top of the stove, and then in the oven - and then it's flipped onto a plate. It tasted as good as it looks! (Thanks L.)

Friday

Up on the roof ... actually up in the roof. My brother did some wiring for Mum in the roof space - and there wasn't a lot of it - and was surprised when he came down that he could not find his cap. Unwilling to get back up there he used 7 (my Ricoh camera) to do a sweep of the area ... but had no luck.

Thursday

A slow, but fruity, day. I did take a pic of one of my neices with a "quarter of an orange smile" but decided to make a pic of the remains the pic of the day instead.

Wednesday

View from the plane on the way to the Gold Coast (yesterday).

Tuesday

This image may be slightly out of proportion (an oddity in Internet Explorer not yet found in Firefox) but you may still recognise it as the clock hanging from the ceiling in the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. Around the top there is a wonderful configural showing date, month and time.

Monday

Monday morning, fog in the Sydney CBD.

Sunday

We were stopped at traffic lights for this photograph ... but I would have preferred the shot of the hot rod painted with bright orange flames that had followed us through a few roundabouts on the Central Coast.

Saturday

Seafood platter/stand for an early Mother's Day dinner (yes, we know that some people celebrate on Sunday - and we did that too).

Friday

Big Brother - Friday Night Live Games. Being turned off on our television set.

Thursday

The look on my face as I tried to decide on a new gel pen out of the many on offer at KMart - and then on realising that I had lost the two packs of glitter gel pens that I had purchased.

Wednesday

It may look as though Homer is trying to help with the cooking but he's actually trying his best to secure a piece of the chicken that will going into the (newly acquired, and truly wonderful) slow cooker.

Tuesday

Morning, from the bus stop, and in the distance you can see the garbage truck making its rounds. What you can't see in this photo (because they were going too fast) was the men running in front of the truck getting the bins - either dragging them onto the roadway - or running them to the truck. There were about five of them - and they were "a well oiled machine".

Monday

This is the first time I've managed to snap a photo of the crane driver either descending or ascending his perch across the way from my office. Note that he has his shirt on (which is not always the case when he's driving said crane).

Sunday

The Buddha Birthday festival was on this weekend in Sydney. We went down to soak up some atmosphere and for a look and to mingle with the monks and other worshippers.

Saturday

Meet Elizabeth (of the arm) and her finally-arrived chickens Ruth (after Rendell), Bubbles (following an on-line "which Ab-Fab character are you" quiz) and the, as yet, unnamed third chicken who now has the nickname - in my own mind anyway - of Mystery. You can follow their progress on Elizabeth's blog.

Friday

Again at this year's Show. I was waiting patiently outside the horticulture exhibition when I heard the banging of drums and went in search of the noise - hoping it was a Lion Dance ... and it was.

Thursday

I realised that I haven't pulled out many of the photos from our visit to the Show this year. So here's one that's dear to my heart but may be more than some can bear. Why is it that some entertainers can get away without wearing pants?

Wednesday

I found this in the window of a fast food outlet (pizza etc) in the Galeries Victoria Building (CBD, Sydney, NSW) yesterday. Hmmm. Not sure if they know this is discriminatory or are just pretending that it's not.

Tuesday

This is the work in progress - a birthday crossword puzzle. It is absolutely incredibly difficult to do one from scratch - particularly if you know the words you definitely must have in there.

Monday

This may look like just a piece of pavement - and believe me that's what I thought - and found myself wondering why on earth I had taken this - until I realised it was to test out the date imprint function of the camera (which was actually to finish doing a check of all of the items telling time I was carrying ... and there were a few).

Sunday

Missed opportunity - I didn't think to take before and after shots of the kitchen which was the subject of a major "reorganisation" (which would be funny if you could see the size of the kitchen!)

Saturday

This is actually from yesterday - an unexpected reward for finding a colleague's spectacles which had taken to hiding themselves in the photocopier area at work.