LRD does Triple J

It's Triple J Hottest 100 day (known to some as Australia Day). I'm just back from SOCSPO and am having a few vinos and ... ok, doing laundy and cleaning the house but I did just come back from leave... listening to the awesome countdown.

Twitter's been the place to be this year with each song being tweeted as soon as it's played on the radio (gone are the days of "what was that song again?"). Check out their website here.

Personally, I find a lot of the best Aussie songs are earlier in the countdown so was glad I caught the tail end first. Lots of Bliss n Eso (best hip hop outfit EVER), Gypsy and the Cat, Arcade Fire, and Art vs Science. The latter made the top ten with the rather bizarre "Magic Fountain". Special mention also to Evil Eddie for the fantastic "Queensland".

For the record:
100 - Neutron Star Collision by Muse
50 - One Life Stand by Hot Chip
25 - Eyes Wide Open by Gotye
20 - Sunday Best by Washington
10 - Somebody To Love Me by Mark Ronson feat. Boy George
5 - Fall At Your Feet by Boy & Bear

Yes, that's right. The top 5 song is a f**king remake. That's just terrible. It's not even a good version of the song. What the hell is the world coming to?

3, 2, 1... *drum roll*

Number one song is... Big Jet Plane by Angus And Julia Stone

And it beat out Rock It by Little Red to do it

Happy 100 day everyone...

PS - What's with the "Barbara Streisand" song?

It's a mountain. Let's cycle down it.

So, I'll be honest. When I first booked to go to SOCSPO in beautiful Hobart, I thought "downhill cycling on Mount Wellington, sounds like fun". And then I remembered that I'm the type of person who thinks an exciting thing to do on Sunday morning is drink tea in bed. And then I got up on Sunday morning and it was the most perfect, most amazing day ever seen.

Hobart in summer is often cold and rainy but this was stunning - sunny, 32 degrees, little wind. How could I not... careen headlong down a 1271 metre mountain?

Was definitely not fit enough for this but loved it anyway. Here's some piccies of beautiful Mount Wellington...




Photo: Hobart and surrounds from the summit of Mount Wellington



Freycinet today

Great day today. First day of SOCSPO (at least for me). Official opening ceremony is tomorrow but today I went to Freycinet. Beautiful weather - perfect weather! We stopped at the town of Ross on the way up - lovely historical place - and then kept going through Oyster Bay (not the NZ one with the good vino!) to Freycinet.

Photo: Historical town of Ross



The national park is just beautiful and we stopped at Freycinet winery on the way back and had some vino. Lovely cold weather grapes and a good day overall.

Photo: Freycinet national park

SOCSPO... here we go...

SOCSPO is the social and sporting carnival held every three years for staff, family and friends of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Statistics New Zealand. Hobart will be the venue for the 2011 carnival, which will be held from 16 to 22 January 2011.

And here I go...

Climategate no gate at all

Says it all really..

Climate scientists right

Little Red Dave stuck at Uni... again

So, what did LRD promise? More blog worthy? Nope! I'm back at Uni doing an intensive course in statistics. No travel, no embarrassing fan fiction writing, no blogging! The best-laid plans, huh?

I am, however, as part of this course doing a very interesting research project on the formation of online communities. If you're a member of a community and want to be involved

Click here to take survey

All responses are confidential and anonymous and data will be published in aggregate form only.

Little Red Dave thanks you for participating and saving his tiny red butt.

Little Red Dave leaves the bookshelf

It's the Anzac Day long weekend and, I know, I'm supposed to produce some serious tome of thoughtfulness on days like this. Instead I hit the road and thought I'd link to my previous posts on the subject and just say "ditto".

http://littlereddave.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-amyou-areanzac-day-2001.html

http://littlereddave.blogspot.com/2008/04/reflect.html

So, um, "ditto".

So, on to my trip! I hit the road about 6am Saturday morning and drove down to Mataranka via Pine Creek (lovely little town!) and Katherine (had vague notions about going on a Gorge trip but it was so goddamn hot!) and I also took the 'Daly River scenic route', which wasn't particularly scenic but was a nice change from the highway.

I did drive out to the Gorge in Katherine and had a look around but I have done a Gorge cruise on a very hot day and it was just too draining. My plan is to arrange it so I can do a sunset or sunrise cruise at some point and see a completely different perspective.

Katherine is also a good place to refuel and get some groceries, which I did.

Finallly arrived in Mataranka just after 1pm and booked into the Mataranka Homestead Resort. I dumped my stuff then drove up to Bitter Springs on the northside of town. I had a beautiful swim in the crystal-clear very warm water of the thermal pools (I'd estimate the water temperature at 30 to 35 degrees) but had to share it with a mass of Japanese tourists and children. It was a very hot day so I guess everyone decided they needed a swim.

Want to see a photo of Bitter Springs? You guessed it: I left my camera and my iPhone at the motel. Such a dope. I did borrow this photo from a tourist website though so you can get an idea. The dissolved limestone is what gives the water such a beautiful blue colour.

Back to Mataranka, it was now about 3:30 in the arvo so I parked the car and then took the short walk from the resort to the Mataranka thermal pools. These are a part of the Elsey National Park and were used by nearby stationed army officers for swimming.

I have heard negative reports of the springs: that they're crowded, dirty, smelly, and that the local flying foxes are intrusive and a nuisance. Maybe I was just lucky because I had a lovely afternoon swimming in the pool. It wasn't that crowded, smelly or dirty and the water was at least 5 degrees cooler than Bitter Springs.

It could be the time of year (it's only late April) and so June or July might be incredibly crowded, but I didn't have to share it with too many people and enjoyed myself a great deal.

Photos: Mataranka's thermal pool, Dave at Mataranka's thermal pool (the light is different because this was taken when I went down for another swim the next morning) and the flying foxes of Mataranka (couldn't quite capture this, but they're there I swear!)

The next morning, I had a sleep in, another swim and then headed off to Cutta Cutta caves near Katherine for a guided tour. These limestone caves can only be accessed on a tour ($16) and are comprised of karst. The tours leave practically every hour on the hour from 9am. I made the 10am tour and was glad because the 11am tour looked like it was far too crowded.

Cutta Cutta means "many stars" in the Jaewoyn language and the calcium carbonate crystals do shimmer in the torchlight. My photos were completely inadequate of course, but here's my attempt:

So, it being another sticky day I put the pedal to the metal and made it back to Darwin about 3pm. It just shows exactly how much you can get done in one weekend so I'm planning to head off again next weekend to Jabiru.

Oh, I shouldn't have written that! Now, I'll sprain my ankle or get swine flu or something. Agh! No, but really. Great weekend. As much as I love the wet though, it is an awfully late one this year and I found myself in the middle of a tropical downpour as I went past the Territory Wildlife Park and then into Darwin itself.

On that note, actually, I went to the Territory Wildlife Park a few weeks ago and that was fantastic! Highly recommended. It's right near Berry Springs as well so you can spend a few hours at the park and then picnic at the nearby Springs. Great day out!

That's all from me... and Little Red Dave. Score one point for (a) updating this blog and (b) bringing LRD with me. Well done me!

The adventures of the owner of LRD: aka that slack bastard

So, where have I been the last few months? I did the worse thing anyone can do when it comes to making time for travelling or blogging - I took a promotion at work. I've also been exploring both my creative side and my nerd side by engaging in an activity that the writer of a travel and lifestyle blog should never ever admit. Those who know me are aware. Those who don't can remain oblivious of my extraordinary geekiness, thank you very much.

Needless to say, I've been slack on the blogging front but hopefully this will change over the next few months. The wet season has come and gone, my ankle has healed, I'm still in Darwin (!) and it's just about time for the fun of the dry season to begin.

LRD and I have three challenges over the next few months. I will be giving updates on some of these challenges so as to keep me honest.

Challenge 1: Be more blogworthy. Now the dry season is coming, I make a commitment to hit the road and enjoy living in the NT more. This challenge is easy to monitor and report upon: it means more blog posts.

Challenge 2: Remember Dave. Another one that's easy to prove. Poor Dave keeps getting relegated to the bookcase in his own country but no more! Photos of Dave out and above are proof of my response to this challenge.

Challenge 3: Get fit and lose weight. Since I did my ankle last year (it took about two months to heal) and then got a new job, I have almost completely stopped exercising and, like most people over thirty who do this, my weight has gotten out of control and I've lost nearly all my fitness. This is not some tweezy weight loss journal and I despise a culture that tells us to be thin for thin's sake. But I am not fit enough, nor do I any long have the energy, to do the things I enjoy doing. This is about being fit and healthy and the weight is the first thing I have to shift to get back into shape. I don't have to lose much (about ten kilos) but I start now. I'll keep you informed (that's exciting, I hear my readers say with extreme sarcasm).

Best time of year

If you can stand the heat and humidity, this is the best time of year to be in Darwin.

It's been a pretty poor build-up so far but we've finally had a few fantastic storms. A week or two ago, we also had a water spout out of Darwin Harbour (photos below). You could see this from my new building and someone kindly took photos. Bring on the thunder bolts and lightning!

Did the Earth move for you too?

Aftershocks are common in Darwin. Earthquakes, usually further north in the ocean somewhere, frequently travel all the way to Darwin where they make the Earth sway briefly beneath your feet and, at first, lead you to question your sanity. "Is it just me or...?" In fact, my favourite local news report was when the top story started, "no, you didn't imagine it..."

But last night was a whopper. A magnitude 7 earthquake in Indonesia was felt in Darwin last night and was my first official earthquake. I woke about midnight when the bed started shaking and quickly realised this was no mild aftershock but the real thing. The whole building shook, the windows rattled, the appliances wobbled. It was disconcerting but not overly violent (Indonesia is after all still a way away). The lack of major fault lines in Australia means I wasn't frightened. I knew we were just getting the edge. But it was definitely an experience. One I wouldn't want repreated at a higher magnitude.