…rural clique #75

outside the dromedary hotel central tilba ©260114

…rural remains #74

rowan's home & business cobargo ©140114

…rural unexplainable #73

…it was dead at midnight last night… australia just finished packing up the straya day barbeques… I was riding my bike through the tiny heritage town of tilba after passing through the other hamlet town of tilba tilba, a couple of km down the deserted valley… when I stopped to take a picture of the small memorial to soldiers gone… after an uneventful trip through wallaga lake, bermagui, coolagolite… got home, uploaded… there is a thread of light in the photo I never remembered was there when framing the shot… it seemingly emanates from one of the tombstone-like structures… (cue that x-files theme music here; fade to black)…

tilba ©260114

…rural weird #72

...how many cars in your collection does it take to qualify you as an auto hoarder, man... or it could be the sydney mafia having their annual convention at this secret hideout...

mogo ©240114

…rural peddle #71

"meet you by the light of the mandalay moon…"

gifts shop cobargo ©140114

…rural array #70

old cobargo butter factory ©140114

…rural fettle #69

old cobargo butter factory ©140114

…rural drizzle #68

tilba ©190114

...while dorothy-jane and her band played the blues in the dromedary pub nearby, I took a stroll in the rain... watched by two pairs of eyes...

…rural surreal #67

canning street, bega ©090114

...more of those hacked-off mannequins... what's with people's fascination with these decapitated things?... are they handing them out for free from some warehouse somewhere?... or are their shapes not svelte enough to reflect the current magazine image to sell clothes, therefore rendering them unemployed?... and why mostly female?... don't know the answers to all these but I do think that they certainly present weirder displays than dead cars on the front lawns...

…rural toddle #66

bega ©081113

…rural swat #65

...recently I reacquainted with the traditional malay fly-swatter, the 'penyapu lidi', after seeing it being used in an episode of 'serangoon road' on tv... 
...its main job is as a broom made of the woody central parts of coconut leaf fronds which were carefully shaven off their green leafy bits, bunched together and tied to create the handle... you can adjust the spread of the broom by twisturning its handle... very effective against aussie flies especially around this cow region where flies reckon they're immune to fly sprays until they meet the original, hundreds-year old 'sapu lidi'... they are now fully fucked, pardon my french…

bega ©101213

pride of place on the office wall of the public library gallery

…shot through a glass display case…

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…coastal aestival #64

dalmeny ©301211

…rural congenial #63

bega woolies ©061213

…the 'the-simpsons-opening-credits-with-marge-simpson' moment… whilst jamie oliver, bless the lad, flashes his million-dollar smile down the aisle…

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…rural plastic fiction #62

bega ©151213

… if in some particular cities, that carrier bag would've the whole block locked down… a little robot scampering about… choppers buzzing above, and an arsenal of tv cameras aimed at it… or was that in a movie?... here, it says 'no more plastic bags in coles or woolies!!'… or 'why don't they come collect this darn trolley!'… or 'come enjoy these artworks but be careful not to trip over the trolley.'… or 'hey, that's bob's shopping… wonder where the bugger's gone to?'…

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…coastal crack #61

 tathra historic wharf ©230111

…coastal interval #60

batemans bay ©040212

…taking a break, locals and tourists mingling amiably on the pier, the latter mostly canberrans from 200km inland… every man and his dog was out... including a shopping trolley, a pelican, ...

...meanwhile nearby, the resident yoga group's routine is in  full swing...

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…rural noel #59

...while there're reindeers everywhere else, the little country town of cobargo brings out cows instead... xmas poddy… 

the post office cobargo ©011213

…The New Testament is written in Koine Greek, and the Greek word for Christ is… get ready… Χριστος. See where I’m heading with this yet? In Greek, the first letter for the name of Christ is X. Instead of always writing the full name Χριστος, we see in early Christian history a trend to abbreviate Χριστος as simply Χ. … [W]riting Christmas as Xmas is hardly anything new or born out of a secular culture — this tradition dates back to the 12th Century. (Benjamin Corey)

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…I'm not prone to talking or posting about religion because I think it is a very personal matter… maggie smith, the british actor (downton abbey), neatly sums things up: 'my dear, religion is like a penis… it's a perfectly fine thing for one to have and take pride in, but when one takes it out and waves it in my face we have a problem'… however, I admire others who celebrate their faiths and beliefs in positive ways and encompassing others in the community to come and enjoy points in their calendar with them in festive fashion…

…thus I, not being a christian, eastern or western, myself, come to learn (from today's edition of sydney morning herald) with much interest that there are still people yet to celebrate xmas almost a fortnight after most have done with it and are pulling down their christmas trees… the orthodox christians are just ending their 43-day fast and beginning their celebration, culminating with their own xmas day on tuesday tomorrow… some eastern churches follow the julian calendar (1 january in the julian calendar is 14 january in the gregorian or the western calendar), which puts xmas on january 7, 13 days after it is observed in western churches… tonight is another xmas eve so I wonder whether santa has to come out and do another run... so, to some of you, merry xmas yet again…

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…rural frontage #58

the butcher's door cobargo ©011213

…"you're in luck, mate, we have premium snowy mountain wood smoked rainbow (trout) today"…
"but I come for some chops… this the butcher innit?"


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…coastal? rural? #57

©081113

(…this mysterious wtf splash of colours turned up among the photos' 'import all'… now the desktop wallpaper, I hope that staring at it everyday will shed a light what, how, who, where or why it turned out as it did… what was I thinking!… only the cryptic DSCN0396 came with it not unlike the old school 'KODAK SAFETY FILM 5063 ➛11' - but there you had to be extra careful how you take your next last shot… the luxury of digital: take as many as the memory stick can hold and trash the craps… but still I'm going to copyright this one… you never know what the vast cyberspace has in store… with one more of it…)

…rural tabula rasa #56

…'it is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end' - ernest hemingway

the bridge over bermagui river ©201113

…coastal quiescence #55

                                                           tathra wharf ©241112

… while a whale displays its pectoral fin slaps nearby… the cafe empties on to the old wharf...

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…coastal poesy #54

...my battered birkie

…here, at my feet, foam from the surf collects with the seaweed and blows across  the beach in the gentle breeze like a serpent's beard… I gather the fluff in the cup of my hand and gaze into a globule of air, reflecting a world within a world… I burst the bubble with my finger, and the world I saw a moment ago  explodes… but I behold it still in my mind's eye, a vivid image of what once was, and so it's as real to me now as it was before…

(beachcombing at miramar' by richard bode 1996)

barragga point ©240713

…rural integral #53

… once a pride and joy, stays a feature at the edge of a cemetery almost kerb-stone to the princes highway... perhaps there's a story between the car, the road and the grave... texting? ©100513

…coastal tint #52

… nearby is the bridge where cuttagee lake is cut off occasionally, from the sea ©130613

…coastal nocturnal #51

shrine to the war dead, horseshoe bay bermagui ©231013

…rural spectral #50

bega valley shire ©231013

...I have not come across any haunted house in the bega valley but this particular house apparently is... the common appearance of a young woman lying in bed next to this dress shop-owner's teenage son... I think I know what you are thinking because I thought the same too when I first heard it... no, she is not the boy's girlfriend coming to his room to help each other with their homework...

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…rural surreal #49

bermagui bridge bus stop 
before midnight ©231013

…coastal mackerel #48

bermagui breakwater ©120411

...I was fishing sitting on the breakwater, or as the locals call it the rock wall, opposite to the above feature... didn't catch any fish below but snapped some drama above...

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