'Good bye Porpoise Spit' as Muloombinda, just visible under sea tow, off Nobbys Beach, leaves for other shores. It is a floating dock.
Leaves Newcastle on the edge of the de-skilling cliff.
 One last look, often things under tow sink or beach themselves. Our old ferries didn't get far before they came to grief off South West Rocks.
Real video of the departure can be seen on The Herald on line. I avoided the whole scene.

Next, a Hunter Street hot bread shop looks spick and span.  Not this time - which is unusual.  Is it true that Viet migrants are successful  in bakery shops became of the French traditions they saw in their home land.

Next, tribaltravel.com.au are responsible for the daggy camper van often seen driven by backpackers.  A rival for the original Wicked vans?

Next, who's hiding and reading behind the Christmas tree?  That's Christmas 2012 from Newcastle. Peace!

During the morning, these youngsters enjoyed receiving their end of year awards. From there, in contrast, to the evening when, during a ceremony, all children were remembered in prayer especially those who had lost their lives in the school in the US.

From Christmas in Word and Song with nine lessons come the words from a very traditional hymn:
...God is love, and he, enfolding
All the world in one embrace,
With unfailing grasp is holding
Every child of every race.
And when human hearts are breaking
Under sorrow's iron rod,
Then they find that selfsame aching
Deep within the heart of God...

Several tree varieties are displaying Christmassy red flowers. 
Visitors don't get to see the Australia that I know.  But really, we all have our own different vision of our country.

Red and alas, the blood of the innocent. Again. Overseas. Extreme action, extreme grief, drama, helplessness and tributes are rapidly becoming a fact of life.  We look serious and act out the sad Hollywood cliches. It is so not enough. In the cold hard light of day, try and question our society and its ways.
   

Outside 414 Hunter Street, a protest against hunting with guns in national parks was outside the shop front of Mr Tim Owen, Liberal (read conservative) party member.  'Not happy Barry' is aimed at the state leader.  My vote, as a visitor of national parks, is for nothing less than sufficient park rangers to well manage the parks.  Petition ....nohunting.wildwalks.com/ 

Belatedly, blog topics of the past came to notice with a new bio of Rachel Carson heard on LNL and Theroux was in a Pittsburgh blanked in snow.  

Close to the sea, scruby prickly open land displays patches of Christmas Bells at this season.
The bells are almost visible in the photo and idealised specimens are shown in the painting along with Christmas Bush with small red flowers, Mistletoe and the Christmas Beetle.  Biodiversity: we can't live without it!  

From the north coast, greenery, don't think any pot is included, that would grow in Newcastle but probably likes the warmer latitudes better.

 Time flies. Off with the electric blanket. Summer ahoy! Terminal velocity towards when the Saints come marching in!
And the north coast beckons. 'Good bye Porpoise Spit!'

Cooks Hill gallery.

'Swing through the sadness to fly up into happiness'....well....that's what this Cooks Hill resident wished us.

Out of sequence photo, Newcomen street again with a puzzle. Find the remnant of brick fence or wall or whatever.

Council van with frogs, one of the larger than life animal themes now showing at work sites.
Too much light and sun but who's complaining about that. A new playground and more is underway in Islington park. Renewal is spreading around the city parks.
References take on new meaning.  Disaster....Boardwalk Empire (SBSTV)...'Under the boardwalk'.. super size...climate change...sea levels...snow.  Also note the Caribbean people and their difficulties.
 

Short fur is incorporated into this design.

Bilum or string bags made by people in PNG.  Often carried resting on the back and suspended from the forehead by the strap to act as a carrier for an infant or to hold a heavy load of vegies or maybe carry bui plant and lime to chew as a mouthful stained red.
The culture of PNG is one in touch with 'the spirits' which are used to explicate many incidents. 
Stories of rampaging superbugs are reported in our media, for instance around the serious problem of TB so maybe sharmans would be as good as any cure. TB is endemic in PNG and Indonesia and is infectious. Some form of preventative treatment is available.

Halloween must be on Wednesday, the eve of All Saints Day and arachnids and you name it, are sure to spook the shoppers at Lombards in Kotara. We are easily led. The surge of consumerism and primeval mythology is storming in the unconscious.     

Throsby Villages met for the third annual pow wow in Islington Park.  The long table could be compared to the length of an Olympic Pool.
So are the banks of Throsby Creek and Islington Park still shared with gays and prostitutes?  Everyone is welcome.

Wickham and Islington residents were celebrating today. Splendid weather and a cool southerly with a refreshing bite but free of storm clouds saw markets, Ukulele Fest, new playground, church goers, community garden and Throsby community partygoers meeting in the parks.
Sayonara...going cold turkey and leaving blogging soon.....

Fast food in its strategic role of military support.
For the warmongers. The Bushman is an Australian military vehicle that has multiple uses.  Used in Iraq and Afgan areas and taken up by several nationalities the 4x4 vehicle has been licensed with North American customers.
Difficult to fall off this venicle even when it rolls considering recent reports.
Julia went for a driving test in a Renault car, the model where the gear lever emerges from the dash board, as well the brakes were given a work out on the steep streets on the Hill, just to make it more difficult, quite some time ago.
Au Revoir.

Newcastle South Beach.  Nais tumas.
Gut Bai.

That our economic survival is based on cupcakes was one of Julia's theories and more importantly is that of a coffee led recovery. A newish cafe next to Jim's in Tudor street combines both strategies. Sooo energising!
Adios adios adios adios adios.......

Whimsy in the school yard.  It's unheard of.  What are they on?  Once before it was a moo cow standing there.  Schools in general: often difficult to understand what they are about.

Here's another 'boy'.  A lowboy seeking a new home.

Aldi are opening another store at Kotara in the group of independent stores which means one can avoid an excursion into Westfields.

We heard about American foreign policy today.  It's too much.
Julia has met one of the 'American watchers' who provide media commentary for us and who regularly visit the US Academic scene so that the university of Sydney can keep informed.  Where is the counterpart in the US?  Maybe found under Asia-Pacific studies.  

Retro messenger 'boy'.
Imagine travel round sixty years ago. Beijing or Shanghai and S E Asia before the building boom. Big things were traditionally carried on bikes. Coming to terms with another culture in its original form and without fully escorted backup and five stars was an adventure.
Julia is very old fashioned. In those times were fewer drunk, outspoken Aussie backpackers that disregard local dress codes.
No obligatory gap year devotees.  Fewer cashed up dowagers with a check list of destinations to create demand for Westernised this and that. It must have been hell in those days.

An extract barely relevant to anything is from an Australian adventurer who wrote, in 1963, about Spain. He and his wife went swimming at the Basque seaside.

'Laura's one-piece costume was well within the regulations, which are not stricly enforced at Ondaretta beach, anyway.  This being the beach favoured by the Corps Diplomatique, it would be embarrassing to have to bring indecency charges against some daughter of the French or Italian or American ambassador for being over-exposed in a two-piece.  But, diplomatically, she would not wear a bikini - any more that she would say, as a foreign playgirly in a two-piece is once supposed to have said when told she should be wearing a one-piece, 'OK. Which piece shall I take off?'

Take Me To Spain by Colin Simpson, 1963, published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney.

Over and out.

Were the pelicans about to take off again?  Mobile site shed at Civic.

Construction site. Created out of dust, the law court is in a cement hopper and about to take form.
Viewed from Hunter street towards the city council.  

The ocean drive remains closed to traffic as it has been for an eternity. Falling rocks.  Strangly, it is good enough for cyclists and joggers and that's nice. Forget about unlimited access – it is not going to happen.

In a similar spot down the south coast, a stretch of road out over the rock platforms is very trendy.

Another project to shore up Elizabeth Street Tighes Hill was completed in record time - once it was started which had been looking doubtful.

Rome wasn't built in a day. For years, Newcomen Street was half closed-up along an old fence line that probably became unstable and required sorting out and, at long last, a new fence has been unveiled. A remnant of brick work, unearthed during a building project, part of a very old structure, is displayed on the corner. Perhaps the new bricks match up with the colonial bricks. Hope this government property is not ready for a trade off with the developers. 

It just doesn't do to hear mumurings about the world's greatest democracy (yesterday comment) or revelations about what's behind all the razzamatazz. We hadn't noticed! Just imagine, all that and more is possible when we become a republic.