We've been incredibly fortunate with visitors this year, in November only four days after Sarah and John left, our friends Amy and John arrived from Texas! They landed in Sydney about eight in the morning, so we assumed they might want to take a nap etc, but when they turned up to our apartment they were eager to get going! (Evidently better fliers than us!) First stop we went to the botanic gardens, a wonderful way to get introduced to the city. From the gardens you can see the memorable icons of Sydney like the harbour bridge and opera house whilst wondering through a leafy green setting, rather than experiencing the city bustle. Amy and John brought some beautiful sunshine with them, which along with a cool breeze made it a very pleasant temperature for strolling around. Being springtime in these parts of the world the gardens provided some great photographic opportunities of many different flowers bursting with colour. As you might guess from Amy's impressive cam...

The original Christmas Quiz post can be found here .  1) Skeletor: He-man and the other Master’s of the Universe from the animated TV series and movie 2) (Professor) Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes 3) Q: Captain Picard and the rest of the crew of the Starship Enterprise 4) Iceman: Maverick (played by Tom Cruise) in the film Top Gun 5) The monster: Dr. Frankenstein 6) Moby Dick: Captain Ahab 7) Lex Luthor: Superman 8) Shredder: Splinter and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 9) Harry and Marv: Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin in the first two Home Alone films) 10) Hans Gruber: John McClane (played by Bruce Willis in the film Die Hard ) 11) Mr. Freeze: Batman 12) Mr. Glass: David Dunn (played by Bruce Wills in the film Unbreakable ) 13) Mr. Kurtz: Kurtz is the central figure in the novel Heart of Darkness who is sought after by the protagonist Charles Marlow. When Marlow finally catches up with Kurtz deep in central Africa he discovers that Kurtz has fallen into murde...

Here I am holding the boomerang in the wrong direction. There's a boomerang and Aboriginal crafts shop near where we live that we've walked by probably a few dozen times. Jean finally ventured into the shop last week and got an exhaustive tour of the shop's wares from the ebullient store keeper. Jean also signed us for a boomerang lesson taught by "an authentic Aboriginal" as the clerk phrased it. We met Alfred, the authentic Aboriginal, at the shop Tuesday afternoon. There were over a dozen or so other lesson participants already gathered. We trooped over to Rushcutter's Bay Park where Alfred lined us up and gave a demonstration. The overriding messages of the lesson were: 1. Always throw into the wind or you might not get your boomerang back. 2. Give yourself plenty of space or you might knock someone out. Then the flinging began. The flight dynamics of a boomerang are really amazing. You throw it overhand like a baseball. The boomerang goes out ve...

We spent Christmas at Manly beach with our friends Tracy and Andy who were visiting from the UK. Check out the the slideshow below. I'll let you guess who's who Some Notes on the Slideshow - We took a ferry from the city to get to Manly. The Manly ferry is apparently world famous. I guess I'm sheltered because I didn't hear about it until I got to Sydney. - Andy is grilling up lunch on a communal barbecue. Many parks and beaches provide both propane and the grills. This has to be a uniquely Australian thing. - Lunch consisted of beef sausages, veggie burgers, grilled peppers and onion, kalamata olive tapenade, hummus, veggie sticks, crackers, crisps and cake (lots of cake). - The paper crowns Jean, Tracy and Andy are wearing are part of a English tradition that also involves a toilet paper roll and painful puns e.g.. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of trousers? This one has Jean doubled over with laughter. - The sandcastle I'm building is a not so e...

...at the behest of my in-laws here's a Christmas Quiz for you. Below are forty antagonists from history, literature, popular culture, not so popular culture and the big screen. All you have to do is name their opposing number(s). Note, that some answers will be highly subjective. 1) Skeletor 2) Moriarty 3) Q 4) Iceman 5) The monster 6) Moby Dick 7) Lex Luthor 8) Shredder 9) Harry and Marv 10) Hans Gruber 11) Mr. Freeze 12) Mr. Glass 13) Mr. Kurtz 14) Absalom 15) The Predator 16) The Alien 17) Rasputin 18) Cobra 19) Mal'akh 20) Dan Brown 21) Buffalo Bill 22) Nurse Ratched 23) Khan 24) The Green Goblin 25) Rita Repulsa 26) René Belloq 27) Palpatine 28) The one armed man 29) Bill Gates 30) The Morloks 31) The witch 32) The Grangerfords 33) Jezebel 34) The smoking man 35) William Dane 36) Tyler Durden 37) Ivan Drago 38) Bowser 39) Big Brother 40) Dr. Evil 

1) "...it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July." 2) It swam crossways in the direction of the Nautilus with great speed, watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight arms, or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name of cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body, and were twisted like the furies' hair. 3) "Release the kraken!" 4) Beneath this glassy surface, a world of gliding monsters! 5) "My God, it's full of stars!"