The Advanced 1300 Lego Set...

...offers unrivalled construction opportunities.

Batteries and plan for the dome not included. (Dome available in the 1400 Brunelleschi expansion pack.)

Severe Weather Warning

When it rains here, it's a news item. Normally, it's because we need the water, but as per the previous post relating to the one-day floods here, sometimes it's because it's news to us. We keep an eye on the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Weather Radar, but I'd never seen dark brown 'heavy' rain on it before:
This was preceded by a new noise we'd never seen before like someone chucking large ball bearings on our naturally noisy tin roof. It sounded like that because it was, essentially. Before the rain proper arrived we had the 'golf ball' hail.

Well, OK, it wasn't golf balls, but it was much bigger than I'd ever seen (no news to Bev) so in the interests of precise blogging and my obsessively non-fiction writing nature, here's a shot of a couple of the slightly melted hailstones with coins to measure against. The hail's about the size of a 5c piece (slightly smaller than a Euro 5c, or bigger than a TTC token!) For those in England, the 50c piece is the same size as the British 50p, the 5c about the size of the 5p.

Now awaiting the showers of fish. Blue Grenadier, please.

James

PS - Someone else got the golf ball hail. This photo from the Age.


PPS: And my friend Rob found this mention of showers of fish in the Northern Territory, here. Be careful what you joke about!

Glod, glod, glod, glod...*

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images - via the Globe and Mail article

Not to be outdone, the Canadian men's hockey team figured out how to do it, too.

Go you canucks! I'll be wearing my Olympic jumper with pride tomorrow. (Fleece. It's a fashion statement. - If you're Canadian.)


* Terry Pratchett reference for Sharon and Susan (and James)

Tower of tumbling strawberries

Late summer is in the air and autumn is coming. With it comes the thoughts of cooking treats and even having the oven on again. Of course, on a 30 degree afternoon it's hard to remember what you were thinking that morning when it was a misty 18.

The meringue mountain is wreathed in puffy clouds of rose-water scented cream. A scattered shower of strawberries has landed on the mountain slopes, lightly dusted with sugar-coated rose petals (sneakily snuck from beautiful roses up and down the street, ones that blew open in the heat and that are neglected enough to never have been sprayed).

And it was good. Good thing there were six of us to polish it off!

The leaf takes the ice

Globe & Mail.

The Canadian women wrap it up. That's three Olympic Hockey* Golds in a row.

Can the boys do it too?

*On this blog that's always Ice Hockey.

Historic Theatre under threat

We discovered on our visit to the Castlemaine (in regional Victoria) on Saturday that the historic and attractive Theatre Royal is under threat. Ironically the problem is because of the cinema's age, and it is also exacerbated by the same longevity. The summary of the issue on the theatre's website says:

The Castlemaine Theatre Royal is a 150 year old gold rush building that requires expensive refurbishment to meet modern Building Code regulations. If the required works are not completed the Theatre will be forced to close.

Many of the Theatre Royal’s heritage features are now non-compliant due to modern Building Code regulations. These include the height of the handrail on the main staircase, the height of the balcony barrier and the size and nature of the external fire escapes. The works will be complicated and expensive due to Heritage restrictions.

Because of today’s tough economic times, the operators of the Theatre do not have the necessary financial resources to bring this 150 year-old building up to modern building standards. Over the past five years they have made a significant financial contribution to the building (in the region of A$200,000 - US$180,000, £116,000), however these essential works are beyond their means.

They need A$300,000 (US$270,000, £175,000) to bring this 150 year-old building up to standard. Apparently, the Theatre Royal meets the Heritage Section ‘Jobs Fund’ criteria as it provides significant social, cultural and economic benefit to the community. We’ve certainly found the ice creams of great value. And one of the reasons I like it very much is because of the very Art Deco façade. Australian often seem to lament their 'lack of history' but as here we do seem to be a bit careless of really supporting the history we do have.

The Theatre Royal has been around for 150 years. It is the oldest continually running theatre on the mainland and an entertainment, community and tourist hub. If it goes, we lose a cultural icon, and there is no guarantee that the theatre business will come back.

Since it first opened its doors in the 1850s the Theatre Royal has served the district by continually providing entertainment in the form of plays, concerts, recitals, cinema and live music, as well as a restaurant and bar. In recent years it has behaved as a much needed community venue for welcoming new residents such as the Sudanese and Burundi, and has also played host to major film premieres such as Rabbit Proof Fence and Romulus My Father.

The theatre has a form here enabling concerned locals to support the application. Anyone that feels they can justify adding their name to the list is asked to do so, it’s a neat place!

James

This one's for the fathers

We've been glued to the TV on Thursday nights for a short 20 minute programme called Gourmet Farmer on SBS. This episode has got Ross and Jim written all over it, with whiskey, truffles, fly fishing, smoking fish and venison...


Matthew Evans was a food critic (and before that a chef*) but decided to give that up to go and run his own farm on Tasmania - with no experience. Thankfully the programme, rather than focusing on the inevitable mistakes, tedious hard work and problems, instead looks at the help he gets from the locals and the experiences - particularly with food - that he has, and most of those experiences and certainly the food are tempting - very tempting. Recipes here.

The show streams online after broadcast here in Australia, so I hope it's viewable overseas. This is the penultimate episode of the first series. It's a well put together and - did I mention - tempting show. We even forgive him for his previous Sydney bias.

Enjoy!

*Presumably, then, he's going to end up a poacher.