"Librarian Idol" Andrew Finegan on St Valentines Day

I went with Jayshree, and met with Rod and Jessie and also Di Sinclair to enjoy "Librarian Idol", Andrew Finegan's reprise in Darwin of his "Librarian Idol" show before he takes it to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March. Andrew is a fine singer and keyboard player and a stand up comedian (along with his day job as a public library manager and his show is a witty look at librarians and how they are portrayed and his own journey to become Darwin's and Australia's own Librarian Idol. See his blog Or listen to his voice

Book launch by CDU Press

I attended a dual book launch this evening at the university organised by Charles Darwin University Press.The books were launched by the Administrator of the Northern Territory, His Honour Mr Tom Pauling QC. The books focus on courage and conflict in the North.



Very topical is "The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Understanding the past,
imagining the future" a collection of papers originating from a CDU symposium held in November 2006. It's edited by Associate Professor Dennis Shoesmith,

The volume addresses the historical, social and political causes of unrest in Timor-Leste. Sadly only last week we held a two day conference on East Timor at CDU exploring some of the issues

The second volume, The Shadow’s Edge: Australia’s Northern War,is a new and revised edition published by CDU Press on the 20th anniversary of its first publication, and recounts the history of civilian and servicemen’s experiences of war in defence of Australia’s northern borders during World War II.
Its author, Emeritus Professor Alan Powell, the Northern Territory's most distinguished historian, highlights experiences of people who lived,workedand,in some cases, died during the conflict. It also discusses the political, strategic and tactical decisions made during the northern campaign.



Steve Farram with Alan Powell
Jefferson Lee, from the Australia East Timor Association with Jayshree

A tale of two scooters

Hugh bought a Bolwell Jolie (aka Sym DD) scooter recently and convinced me I needed something similar, a Bolwell Red Devil even though its blue (aka Sym BL05W)
I found a photo taken in about 1970 when I was about 20! This was my Vespa.

Here is the Red Devil in blue

Frogs again...

My visitor was back on his porch seat again so around midnight I tried my ring flash out and also cropped his eye from a shot last night and cropped tighter on an image from last night at somebody else's suggestion

Heralding of the monsoon ...Frog chorus

The monsoon has returned to Darwin and we have had frogs noisily heralding the rain. There were a couple of Green Tree frogs really creating a cacophony of sound on the front porch.





Don’t really mind them… although getting off to sleep can be an issue.
Main thing is though is that we are glad that they are not Cane toads.

Sunday music at the Darwin Sailing Club

Brooke Barnett, is one of my colleagues and invited me to her gig with JK at the Darwin Sailing Club so of course some photographs were needed.



We chatted with Duncan,the new Darwin Sailing Club Manager



It was good late afternoon listening to her own songs as well as covers.
Both she and JK are good guitarists and Brooke has a great voice.

Nirvana... a meal with friends

I found Nirvana tonight.... no not what the Buddhist's call " a blissful spiritual condition where the heart extinguishes passion, hatred and delusion. ..." but the popular eatery in Darwin, a restaurant called Nirvana.I went there for dinner with friends and Hugh who was keen to eat lots.

Friday night at the Darwin Ski Boat Club

A change of venue this Friday for drinks and a meal. We went to the more laid back Darwin Ski Boat Club.

Hugh had got back during the early morning from Bali and was relating his dramas from the trip to Jayshree and Peter. He had gone for a wedding but had not had a good time once that was over.



The sunset and storm were good!

Friday morning tea to farewell Alan Davis

One of the library team, Alan, is off to greener pastures so the usual great morning tea was held to wish him well.

Australia Day Long Weekend

On Australia Day there was a Ute Run and there were lots of ute's like this one proudly showing the Aussie Flag.

On Sunday I storm-watched at Stokes Hill Wharf.

The pearling family Paspaley's received Australia Day honours.
"For service to business and commerce through the marketing and promotion of pearls and Australian designed jewellery,and to the community. " This is one of their pearling vessels Paspaley 4, built in Norway.

On the Fort Hill Wharf there was a controversial vessel,the trimaran ACV "Triton". I was curious as to why the ABC Darwin News Crew were filming the vessel behind the tug. It appears that there is an industrial dispute over the crewing of the Customs vessel. Read more!!

A brief stop at Knuckey's Lagoon to check out birdlife. There were quite a few Magpie Geese flying and settling for the night, as well as Magpie Larks and a couple of Egrets