Friday, May 29, 2009

Friday Night Fights

Let's get ready to RUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBLLLLLLLLLEEEEE!

I still can't believe that bloke not only make a living but made a shitload of money with that phrase at the Caeser's Palace boxing matches. Dang, I coulda been a contenda.

I know it's not Friday night for most of my loyal readers AND these pics were taken Friday morning (8 hours ago) but by the time I get this post done I'm quite sure it'll be Friday night SOMEWHERE on this planet.

I'm thinking Kiwis will be perusing this post on Friday night. Everyone else will have to wait till it's Friday night your local time to read the post.

No, I'm kidding. You're actually reading this as I think the words thanks to my new invention that'll revolutionise blogging! It involves a tin foil hat, electrodes, metal colander, and several car batteries. Who wants to be the first --oops-- I mean "second" to try it?

Back to the Friday Night Cockatoo Fights!

First, let us me the ref. A ref for any sport should either exude authority out of every orifice so nobody messes with him, or s/he should be so big and/or ugly that nobody messes with her.

Here's the ref:
the referee
Hmmmmmm, big AND ugly.

The nosebleed seats are filling up fast
nosebleed section
The sparrow's selling peanuts and beer, btw.

The lucky ones get the balcony seats
balcony seats 01

balcony seats 02

balcony seats 03
C'mon! I wanna see a punchup!


The two protagonists have the traditional staredown
the staredown
Grrrrrrrrrr! Grrrrrrrr!

Meanwhile, the rowdy crowd is being entertained by a naked female trapeze artist
bird giving birdie



Our galant gladiators come to attention for the National Anthem
nat anthem
We who are about to die, salute you!

Even the rowdies in the mezzanine section stand for the anthem
rowdy fans



They're especially well-behaved because of the security presence
security
You know the security bloke is a badass when he wears pink!

The Champ breaks with tradition and jumps onto the ring first!
champ



The challenger is quick to follow!
c vs c



The crowd gasps in breathless antici........Pation!
anticipation



The two combantants circle each other, both looking for an opening to launch a furious assault!
warily circling 02



The crowd leans forward, sensing something big is about to happen!
something happen soon
Oh boy, this is gonna be great!

The challenger makes a feint to his right which the Champ easily evades!
warily circling
Hahaha! Your puny attack won't work against The Schwartz!

But wait! The feint was just a setup for the real attack!
dueling cockatoos
And the Champ is down!

To the victor go the spoils
the victor
What? Just sunflower seeds?



See how easy it is to make a story up with a bunch of random pictures? Now it's YOUR turn!

I'm putting in five pictures and you get to make up a story. Try to keep it under a thousand words and feel free to use the comments, no worries.

Or if you want to do the story with above and below captions so it's illustrated like mine, then just format it thusly is the comment section:

{top caption}Blahblah
Dave, picture #1 goes here
{bottom caption}blahblahblah

{top caption}Blahblah
Dave, picture #2 goes here
{bottom caption}blahblahblah

and so on.

So put on your thinking caps (or toupe) and have some fun!

Here's the five pictures you have to work with:

Picture #1
caption this 01



Picture #2
caption this 02



Picture #3
caption this 03



Picture #4
caption this 04



Picture #5
caption this 05



So have some fun! Heck, even if you only want to caption one picture then go ahead, no worries.

You have until the sands... run up.

PS how many movies did I reference and what are they?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Wild Kangaroo Pictures

Well I think the title of this post pretty much say it all. Can any of you guess just may or may not be contained within this post?

If you guessed roo pics and dave trying to be funny for things contained in this post, then you'd be right mate!

If you guessed serious, thought-provoking, inspiring writing as something NOT contained within this post, then you'd be right again mate!


WP and I go to Belair National Park pretty regularly. We know the trails to go down to see loads of koalas, the places to brambling, cherry picking, herb picking, etc. Wanna know where a family of kookaburras hang out? Just ask and I'll tell.

I know where a flock of long-billed corellas congregate at sundown.

Wanna know what a yellow-tailed black cockatoo sounds like? Yep, I know.

I even know a good place to see emus, but they aren't always there.

But roos now. Roos have always been hard to spot. Well they are nocturnal, sleep in the underbrush, and we are outta there by sunset. Needless to say, we've only seen one roo there before --and that was the old blind roo that's been around the area for yonks and knows all the trails, well, blindfolded.

Getting back to the kangaroo photos...

I proudly present Skippy and his brood!

Keep in mind they do sorta blend in...
blending in



And they like to play hide-and-seek:
peekaboo



And it turns out it's a bloke and his sheila:
daddy and mommy roo



They must be starting a family cus there's a joey in her pouch
joey in pouch



She's fairly petite compared to him. Just look at those shoulders!
mommy and daddy



We really weren't too close, this shows the distance better:
farther away



She is just sooooooo cute!
shes so cute



This is one certified stud of a roo:
studly



And he's gracious too! Ladies first.
ladies first



Well, time to get home and cook dinner...
dinner is served
Mmmmmmmmmm, roo burgers...druuu-aaaal!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

I'll Get You, My Pretty! And Your Little Doggie Too!

HeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHeeHee!

Ill get you



And the flying monkeys go crazy!
lorikeets in action



On a serious note (yeah, riiiiiight) can anyone I.D. this little bloke. I know what it is and I know it's darned hard to get a good picture of the flighty little bastard so I'm very pleased with this. But do YOU know what it is?
new holland honeyeater

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Journey Home: FINAL LEG!!!

Wow! I'll bet y'all never thought you'd finish this trip on down to the Limestone Coast and back. And what a loooooonnnnnnng, strange trip it's been...

I really didn't plan to drag out the whole thing this long. I did plan on this many posts but I thought I'd be posting every day or every-other day. However, when you've got almost 3000 pictures to sift through, lot's of research to do, beer to brew, bread to bake, cheese to make... and a pool to clean... Well, I hope you understand how it just sorta got away from me.

To make up for that (and to thank you for your neverending patience on this seemingly neverending story) I'm putting up 3 pics of local aussie wildlife before starting on the final leg of the journey.

This bloke was just too cute not to post:
cute koala

The next two pics are purposely posted to give Fishsticks nightmares
aussie magpie

upset bird 2


Ok, now for the final leg of the Naracoorte trip!

Let's start with a map:
meningie to sturt


Well, as usual, that stale, generic, BORING, map won't do. Lemme see if I can fix it up a bit. Hang about while I break out my crayola crayon box...

Hmmmmm, where the hell did I put them?

Damn, someone straightened up my desk! Hate it when that happens; can't find a darned thing...

Aha! Here they are.

Give me a sec to do some scribbling...

.
.
.

Tada! This looks much betta:
meningie to sturt painted



Notice that long boring stretch betwixt Meningie and Wellington? Guess what? There's no pictures from that part... flat, boring...really boring. So the first pic is when we arrived at the ferry crossing over The Mighty Murray at Wellington!

We just missed it...
finalleg028

Poor little car, has to wait
finalleg036

Buh-bye!
finalleg004


But that's ok, gives us a chance to look around. Hey cool! Lookie what supplies the power
finalleg001

And it's free! 24 hours a day!
finalleg002

I'd say that the cables are pretty darned well secured.
finalleg006



On our side of the river we could hear a rather large flock of parrots that were on the other side. This is the 5600 on full zoom.
finalleg007
Anyone bored enough to count them all?



Yea! Here's comes the ferry!
finalleg046


I hope that rig knows which side of the road he's supposed to drive on
finalleg052



This is halfway across the river. Maybe about one fourth of the flock.
finalleg026
Cool lens flare, eh?

Driving up the far ramp
finalleg065



How's abouts we drive around to take a look at the flock? I'm sure my regulars can identify what kind of parrot it is.
finalleg072

Head count anyone?
finalleg074

Try this one
finalleg086



Notice that long boring stretch after Wellington on the way to Strath? Yeah, no shots from there either. In fact, we didn't even break out the camera till we got to that park in the middle of town.

You'll notice the huge flock of parrots isn't around... THAT'S CUZ THEY'RE ALL AT WELLINGTON!!!
finalleg089


There's also "Public Facilites" there. That's a fancy way of saying "crapper". But oh what a crapper it is! How many country towns do you know that decorate the outside of a public crapper like this:
finalleg102

Let's zoom in a bit
finalleg101

I stupidly neglected to that a picture of the commemoration plaque, my bad.

But here's a few closeups of the artwork:
finalleg103

finalleg104

finalleg105



Coming up next is meself bein' back to me normal self! Which means pretty much anything I want to post along with a whole buncha cool parrots, birds, roos, koalas, lizards, and whatever other "exotic" critters I can find down here.

Thanks for reading about the trip and I hope I didn't bore too many of you over these last couple of months.