More London 1

Here are a lot of photos from London with a brief description below each one.


The Tate Modern


The London Tower


Tower Bridge, luckily it opened just as we were wandering past.


London Skyline including the Gherkin, which is one of the few modern buildings that is quite beautiful.


Big Ben, I couldn't get it and the houses of parliment together in the one photo.


Westminster Abby


The changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace, you need to get there a hour early to get a good view but fortuitously we were.


Buckingham Palace

London

I arrived in London on the 22nd of June after an awful day long flight from Sydney. I have to say there is nothing pleasent at all about long haul flights. The movie selection was rather awful and the three that I bothered watching were King Kong, Failure to Launch and Match Point. Out of these three Match point was by far the best but only due to the negligible competition.
After arriving in London the first day was spent seeing the sights and trying to stay awake.
The Tate Modern was the highlight of the day and in particular the surealist section, which had paintings by Dali and Picasso that even a phillistine like myself could recognise. My favorite painting from the gallery being Ein klein nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning. Other highlights included Carl Andre’s 'Equivalent VIII', which is really just a stack of 120 bricks.

Ein klein nachtmusik Plagarised from this site.

Also had a look at the St Pauls cathedral and saw my first tree rat.


St Pauls Cathedral


Tree Rat

Yet more Melbourne

Back for my fourth visit to Melbourne and probably my last work funded trip down there.
Results were rather average but I did spot a few new birds while going for a hungover wander.
Here are some average pictures from the trip.


Playing five hundred.


More cards.


Working?

Ebay worked

Yeah, I got my binoculars yesterday in perfect condition and extremely quickly considering they came all the way from the states via standard post.
But the best part is I saved about $300 AUD by buying them over the net rather than from a store here in australia.

Ebay continued...

Looks like my payment has been recieved and the binoculars are on the way. I'll try to keep the millions of readers of this blog updated with any further developments in the epic saga of my first ebay purchase as I'm sure you are quivering with anticipation, or at least I hope it is anticipation, of the final outcome.

Ebay

Just made my first Ebay purchase.

Dear lostandcold, Congratulations! You committed to buy the following item:

Nikon Monarch ATB 8X42 Black Binoculars Brand New Sale price: US $254.95 Quantity: 1 Subtotal: US $254.95 Postage & Handling: UPS Ground: US $10.00 for first item, US $5.00 for each additional item. USPS Airmail Parcel Post: US $15.00 for first item, US $7.00 for each additional item. USPS Airmail Parcel Post: US $25.00 for first item, US $10.00 for each additional item. Insurance (per item): US $5.00 (optional) Sales tax: (none)

Hopefully I won't get burnt.

Magpie lark

When I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday at 10am and staggered too the kitchen there was a magpie lark battling the hoards of cockroaches in the kitchen. Suprisingly enough it looked like it was winning as well, which is quite impressive considering there are a few hundred thousand roaches in the kitchen and there average size is about equivalent to a large rat.


A picture of a magpie lark that I stole from this excellent website.

Giselle

Went to the ballet last night at the sydney opera house to watch Giselle. It was remarkably good with very nice sets and dancing and seemed a little more acrobatic than some previous ballets that I have seen, which was nice.

Go the chiefs

A well deserved win for the chiefs on saturday.
Chiefs upset Waratahs

A nice site on knots

Grog's Climbing Knots Index