How are you today?

[picsou]

Good to read that you're settling in okay.....at least i think you're settling in okay?

Yes, we are.

Found a very nice apartment, big, close to Iona's school. She will start there in January. For the 6 weeks left of this school year, she is in another school, really appreciating her school uniform. Next year, she will not have to wear a uniform, which one criteria in our selecting the school. A propos apartments, rents are high here, and buying is also very expensive. Can't understand how people can buy, considering IR are well over 5%. Luckily, ,my wife has a very good salary, thanks to leaving from home allowance.
Also missing the computers. A bit tough at times to have only one laptop for three people.

Just downloaded Stina's complete work from the pirate! Even with Yello, Vangelis,... Nice!

[blue]

Good to hear from you picsou.

Strange about property buying/renting being so expensive over there, in the UK we're always hearing about how cheap it is in Oz compared to here. Anyway glad to hear you've got a decent apartment and are beginning to settle in. I can imagine your daughter's delight at having to wear an Australian school dress! Did you name her for the Scottish island, by the way, or just like the name?

Good god it was busy in town today, I hate this time of year when the Christmas shopping trade starts bringing more people into town. I never used to mind it because I would only experience it as a shopper - now I work in the centre of town and it's horrible, constant people and noise, and the local council have had the brilliant idea of having even MORE unwanted music going on. They already permit a deranged Englishman in an alarmingly short kilt to stand outside Marks and Spencer's all day long on Saturday, playing bagpipes very badly indeed. This drives everyone insane and he never gets much money as far as I know, but still he's allowed to do it. Now I love the pipes, don't get me wrong, but they have to be PLAYED WELL. This guy hits as many wrong notes as right ones. Ugh. Migraine inducing.

Today in addition to the mad piper in the High Street they had a guy singing Italian opera tunes in the Market Square, complete with very loud backing tapes. In the other square they had what looked like Mexicans with keyboards playing some kind of South American music. I mean really, I ask you.

*grinch mode*

[alx5962]

I saw Martina Topley Bird and Massive Attack live tonight and it was very great !
And Martina sang on 1/4 of the Massive Attack songs so it was even better !

[d.a.walker]

If I had my time over I'd have never left the UK, I really hate Australia for so many, scarily big, reasons. It's a country rife with discrimination on epic levels, particularly racism, xenophobia and disability discrimination. It has the worst state benefits system this side of America, the health system is an absolute deplorable mess, unless you have private insurance you really don't stand a chance should anything major happen to you. They even bill you for an ambulance, around $700.

The country is dominated by two supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, whom literally dictate the price of food and drive every small business around them bankrupt. The house prices here are ridiculously high, getting a mortgage in comparison to the UK's process is nigh on impossible. And if you try to build, god help you.

Crime is on a massive scale here. Scrap metal theft, organised crime, armed robberies, each day the news saturated with so much daily crime that it almost becomes a part of life. The roads are supremely dangerous, mainly due to a very minimal police presence. CCTV is a technology yet to hit the shores here, you have to literally surrender your shopping bags on exiting any shop to prove you haven't been stealing. And my favourite of all is that the news each night tells you where the speed cameras are going to be in the state for the next day!?!?! The logic of which escapes me.

I could just go on and on and on. But I think that is enough!! For me it has been a sad and sorry lesson learnt, the grass is not greener, it's dead!!!

[paul-pgss]

So when are you moving back to the UK then, Daniël? [b)]
Make sure to do it before april, so you can join us in London....

[RobB]

So when are you moving back to the UK then, Daniël? [b)]

I doubt very much Daniel would want to give up his job with the Australian Tourist Board?

This afternoon i've had a quite a productive spell in the back garden,pulling up banks of dead stinging nettles etc, managing to fill four canvas recyling bags which will be collected tomorrow morning.

I've also given the six recently (august i think) planted lavendar plants a good haircut so that they'll bush out in the spring. The bees have certainly been at their flowers all autumn.

[blue]

Morning folks, hope everyone is well.

Daniel - [b)] [b)]

That's certainly a picture of Australia that we don't hear in the UK, but an interesting balance to the idealised image normally presented. Yeah, I guess there has to be a reason so many Australians come to live in the UK, eh.

Rob, I am in need of your bird-watching experience, and I'm talking about the feathered variety rather than the boobish kind.

I've been feeding birds on the field at the back of my house for quite some months now, because we get a lot of split bags of nuts and dried fruit at work - the birds are so used to this now that as soon as I open the back door they come flying in and sit on the garden fences waiting for me to get done throwing all the brazils, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, apricots, sultanas and raisins out, it's kind of hilarious how bold they are.

Mostly it's crows, magpies, seagulls and starlings that feed on the stuff (so funny to watch crows picking up three or four brazil nuts at a time in their beaks and flying off with them, presumably they must have stashes somewhere), but a few days ago as I was standing at my bedroom window watching them feed, I was startled to see these tiny little strangely-marked birds alight on the ash tree in the garden. They only stayed for a minute or so, but I was struck by the vivid red ring around their faces, and what seemed like smudges of pink on their breasts? Amazing little things, about the size of finches I guess, but I've never seen anything like them before. Any idea what they might be?

A couple of days this week I've noticed a Red Kite hovering over the field - they're a common site in my town these days, so successful has the breeding programme been - but I have a feeling I'd have to throw out meat to attract him down. Not sure I can face handling the stuff now I'm a vegan.

[sound world]

Could be....
Lesser spotted woodpecker?



Stonechat?



Redstart?



Doesn't sound like a goldcrest (they're really tiny).And I assume you know what a chaffinch is.
But maybe a Firecrest?


Bullfinch? (Unmistakable-we get lots here)



Linnet? (lovely song)



Redpoll?


And leave your Red Kites to themselves.Just report any bastard you see shooting/setting traps for them or stealing their eggs. It happens a lot.

[blue]

Good lord Dave, I never realised there were so many kinds of birds with red markings! I've never seen any before, I was thinking they must be quite unusual.

All the ones you've posted seem to just have the red patch on the head, but these had a complete red ring around their faces, and looked a little bit like they had Mohican haircuts.

It's coming into winter of course, so maybe they're visitors from foreign shores?

Re: Red Kites, oh my god I had no idea people did that. How dreadful. Why on earth would anyone want to trap them? What a horrible thought.

[sound world]

Yeah,they might be some rare visitor...or maybe a common British bird in winter plumage....
Dunno,I just put up some pics of British birds that have red bits. Yours sound intriguing,Beth.If you hadn't said they were tiny,I would have gone for Fieldfares,which come in about now and have a certain ruddiness and hang out in trees. Fieldfares kind of sum up British wintriness for me.

Hey RobB,I'm no twitcher! I just like the little fellows I see by serendipity,I don't pursue them round the country with hordes of other men with massive phallic binoculars ticking them off on lists. Yuckyyuck.

But I do subscribe to the RSPB,and something that comes down from them a lot recently is that birds of prey are undergoing heavy persecution at the moment. Poaching is on the increase-the credit crunch.

[RobB]

Hey RobB,I'm no twitcher! I just like the little fellows I see by serendipity,

I just enjoy the birds in the garden to be honest.
And they can be so funny at times.
Every morning i'll throw a handful of oats onto the patio,just beneath the bird table. The sparows like hopping around after the oats, as do the field mice (and occasionally voles) who regularly come out of the undergrowth to feed.
And its quite comical seeing the birds and mice keeping a wary eye on each other whilst making the occasional aggressive move to deter the other from getting too close.

The other evening in the lobby i could hear this tap tap tap sound coming from outside. It sounded like the bird feeder which hangs from the wisteria knocking on the wall by the door although i knew there was no wind that night.
So i turned on the patio lights and looked out the kitchen window and could see five field mice on the bird feeder, all scrambling about trying to get the best position for scoffing the peanuts.
And having the light come on suddenly didn't deter them either. They were merrily scoffing the nuts for a good twenty minutes until they all suddenly shot off, running headfirst down the brick work.

I've never seen a Redpoll before.....actually i've never even heard of a Redpoll before. Pretty looking bird though.....I think i'll always remember its name if i saw one now though.

[blue]

I just enjoy the birds in the garden to be honest.
And they can be so funny at times.

It is funny watching them, and interesting too for someone like me, who knows bugger all about them and doesn't normally have time/opportunity to observe them. I didn't realise till recently that crows stay in pairs all year round, not just in the breeding season, or that magpies have blue-black wings and tails. Unlike most people I love magpies and I really appreciate seeing them up close when they briefly fly up to the ash tree when the crows have chased them away from the food. They're actually beautiful looking birds.

The other evening in the lobby i could hear this tap tap tap sound coming from outside. It sounded like the bird feeder which hangs from the wisteria knocking on the wall by the door although i knew there was no wind that night.
So i turned on the patio lights and looked out the kitchen window and could see five field mice on the bird feeder, all scrambling about trying to get the best position for scoffing the peanuts.
And having the light come on suddenly didn't deter them either. They were merrily scoffing the nuts for a good twenty minutes until they all suddenly shot off, running headfirst down the brick work.

I had no idea mice could climb! How wonderful to see something like that, I bet you not many people have.

Obviously there are no cats in your garden at night Rob, or the mice wouldn't be so bold.

[RobB]

I suspect there are cats about at night as i've had to chase them off during the daytime on a number of occasions. No doubt quite a few mice and voles have met with a sudden end but thankfully they breed in sufficient quantity to keep the population flourishing.

Mice are brilliant climbers, running up (and down) brick walls as easily as you like. So don't keep those windows (even the bedroom ones) open for too long in the cold weather or they''ll be in......

.....and, if you have a cat, out just as quickly.

[blue]

Ha, they'd have no chance with Missy around! She's a demon hunter, I dread to think how many poor rodents and birds have met a grisly end in her jaws. [b)]

My cats join me at the windows when I'm watching the birds feed. I don't know if you've ever watched cats watching birds, it's hilarious. They have these involuntary jaw spasms/teeth chatterings, and make these annoyed little squeaks as if to say 'how very dare those birds fly right in front of me when I can't get to them!'.

[blue]

Put my Christmas tree up this morning, after spending yesterday doing my 'winter clean' - the place is all ready for the festive season, and the cats haven't actually pulled the tree down yet which is remarkable as it's been up for a couple of hours.

I need more tree decorations. Every year when I pull the box of decs out of the hall cupboard there seem to be less things in there ..... The angel has disappeared this year, which I'm rather annoyed about as my daughter made it when she was little and the tree isn't the same without it. It occurs to me she may have filched it when she left home in the summer. Either that or there's some kind of evil sprite in the cupboard who likes to eat Christmas decs.