The Hunter was lapping the top of the river banks on Sunday as viewed from the verandah of the hotel which was full of carefree diners in Raymond Terrace.  Don't choose the roast lamb (mutton dressed as lamb).  Seafood is the real speciality, I guess.  True vegetarian dishes are rarely on any menus, that is, a balanced meal not just vegetables.

Elsewhere, many are having floods for a second time in several months. Heavy rain has created widespread problems and a mini tornado hit Kiama, a very rare occurance, almost unheard of. Is it climate change? Ask Lord Monkton!!!

A 'black spot'. Just beyond Raymond Terrace, a local road was under water, yesterday after heavy rain.  It is close to the river probably the Williams River.  Water weed was evident and was breaking up and spreading around.

Is this two Jags?

The Mythbusters are gun happy.  Should they limit their glee over shooting up dummies while they smugly demonstrate their prowess at the shooting range.
Perhaps the show is one way of gratifying the viewer's desire to do deadly things with a pistol instead of launching into a real life disaster.  It would be better if the Mythbusters excluded guns from their show and concentrate on the other zaney experiments that they do so well.

At the same T intersection was this greenry and a bettle.

Civic art in Cooma.

+Why was Pope Benedict grinning wickedly at breadfast?
Someone asked him what he was giving up for Lent.
+What will the Pope eat for breakfast in his retirement?
Ex-Benedict!

 Leaders. Democracy and the possibility than anyone can get to the top.  In the case of Sarah Palin it is scary.  A 2010 doco, while it is British and low key, revealed the bizarre nature of Palin and just how far one can get with an intolerant totally selfish message. 

Misconduct. 

What's happened to the use of the name Working Class?  We only hear about Middle Class.
Are the alternatives to middle class the homeless and the jobless? Where do the working poor fit in?
So much for classless societies.

I'm glad that I don't experience the big struggle that the Americans have in order to get good and reasonable leglisation passed, or so it seems to me. Our system is a bit different to all that.

I certainly expect government to take the lead.

For a change, President Obama expresses ideals, just like a leader should and, would you believe, he extols people of the union to do good. He is good with media.  Even when it is likely that any decent, indispensible leglislation will wither and die up against extreme lobbists, the politicians rely on their thick skins and remain positive during the farce. 

Are we going the same way?

 Local beach: a source of mineral wealth

Nobbys was warm and bathed in special lighting and the tide was very low.

If we are to ruin our environment with coal mining and gas wells, and ruin our atmosphere with unhealthy dust, and contribute to global warming by burning coal,
we can at least have
a carbon credit scheme
and an effective mining tax.

Black swans taking cover in a little bay on Lake Macquarie. Dull weather has left us for warm February days.

Recently, the doco, Gasland, from Josh Fox in the USA, showed all the dreary problems that follow-on drilling for shale gas and the film was made some years ago when some states were already littered with wells. Is Josh still hiding out in an idyllic spot on the banks of the Delaware untroubled by fracking activities? Although it was filmed in warm weather.
Europe doesn't seem to be taking gas drilling as a given. Must we follow everything that is done by others and copy their mistakes.
Stuck at home lately I have seen more TV and the interest shown in movie making and the celebs is difficult to take seriously. This pervasive imported rubbish is all over commercial TV.  It has its following.
 Please girls, don't adopt, the must have hair styles featuring long locks carefully tumbling forward on each side of the face over the shoulders and down. Please be more down to earth.

The local food industry has been quiet about the horse-meat troubles in Europe.  Are we importing the same products? who knows? another black mark against processed foods.