Fractal Blog

Today my usual beach haunt provided a surprise. I walked along the coastal path in the Aquatic Reserve, and saw an echidna right on the path! It wasn't in the least shy, hence I could get several pictures quite easily. It clearly lives there since I saw it (or its mate at any rate) again a little later, when I took the opportunity to shoot this video. As you can see, at some point it decided to nibble my shoe. It was wonderful.

Also, I caught this cormorant just as it was landing, clearly bent on some of the nice fish that I know from snorkelling are in this location.

Today there was slightly more surf than yesterday. As you can see the swell might be, oh, as much as a whole foot in height. For some reason more than the usual number of paddlesurfers was in evidence. At any rate it was surfable, if you had a very long board. No bodyboarders at all that I could see. In fact, the beach was deserted, except for life guards waiting for something exciting to happen. After all it was the coldest day of the year so far -- 18 degrees and sunny. I even managed to catch the sun a bit.

I amused myself by taking seagull shots. Am quite pleased with this one.

Then I pottered over to Shelly Beach to see if there was any snorkelling. Shelly Beach was also almost deserted, except for the obligatory dive school. There is always a dive school going on at Shelly Beach as far as I can determine. Today's lesson was slightly disrupted by the presence of someone (illegally) fishing with a speargun. He made no attempt to even hide it. The divers were not pleased, after all, a diver looks pretty much like a very large fish (sharks frequently agree!), the sort one might want to use a speargun on. On the way back, spotted another cormorant, looking elegant.

Long time no blogging. This is largely because I have been playing with Facebook instead. Anyhow, today being a lovely day (for late autumn -- 20C and sunny), and The Provider busy earning beer tokens, I decided to have a look around Manly all on my own, and without dragging around any wet gear.

This was just as well because as you can see there was no surf. One would go as far as describing this as "flat calm". I have no idea what those surfers were waiting for -- if it's a wave this could be a long wait.

Having watched the surfers not surfing for a while I then went off to explore some of the Manly Scenic Walkway. Not all 4.5 hours of it, of course, just the start. Parts of it are very picturesque.

This is North Harbour Reserve, as far as I went.

Along the way, wildlife included this cormorant, drying its wings in the sunshine.

First of all, thank you all very much for my birthday greetings; they are very much appreciated. Sydney came through for me weather-wise, as in, it was 28C and sunny. So we went to the beach. This is me snorkelling. Noboby looks their best with a snorkel stuck in their mouth. More Persistent Snorkellers (or, possibly, those more resistant to freezing (all right, 22C) water) can see sharks but at least I spot giant cuttlefish.

Anyway, fun was had by all. Went out for a fantastic meal in the evening, at a Steak House in Darling Harbour. Finishing the meal with coffee meant that while waiting for the ferry home to depart we were awake enough to try out the new GorillaPod to take this night shot. Circular Quay at night from Wharf 4. Very successful, I thought.

Turned out that nocturnal seagulls decided the updrafts along the ferry were spiffing to play with. Naturally, no point trying out the GorillaPod as the seagulls inconsiderately won't stay in one place for long enough to fix it in place. I said "It'll never work", or words to that effect. The Owner Of The Top-Range Mobile With A 5 MP Camera would not be dissuaded so obviously I had to try as well, if only to show my camera can do better. It could. This shot was a complete fluke in the dark but turned out sharp and dynamic at the same time. Note the blurred background caused by the moving ferry (and the dark, and the long exposure, etc).

This morning, Nice People made me breakfast on the balcony. The plate had barely been set down when a lorikeet showed up. Even intense shoo-shoo noises from me wouldn't make it keep its distance. I said "H5N1" several times but it wouldn't budge for minutes. Long enough to take a shot anyway.

Did I mention that one of my birthday presents was an Operating System Upgrade to Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)? The upgrade worked like a charm. I'm blogging this on the new OS. Neat.

It's my birthday. No, shan't tell which one. As per tradition I got one prezzie at midnight. A gorillapod. It's like a tridpod only it's very bendy and quite small so you can carry it around and it will wrap securely around practially anything, including our balcony railings, eliminating camera shake. So I immediately had to take a picture of the skyline, naturally.

Having nearly caught hypothermia yesterday I gave in today and bought a wetsuit. "Springsuit" it is called -- providing some extra warmth in the autumnal chill. After all, air temperature is only in the high 20s. I mean, these days one has to wear a sweater in the evenings. So, I'm now fully geared up. And I didn't get cold at all during the first 30 mins of our snorkelling expedition today. Somebody Else had chattering teeth. The new fins worked fantastically well. I think my problem was cold all along. It's hard to move fins in the correct motion while nearly dying from cold. Fixed now. No cuttlefish today but huge groupers.