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Off-Topic => Something else => Topic started by: Steve on April 14, 2007, 10:39:40

Title: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 14, 2007, 10:39:40
I'm happy today because I'm going to see Roger Waters tonight in Budapest:-D

What's making you lot happy today??
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 14, 2007, 11:33:33
sounds great, hope you enjoy it!

to be honest, i can't be too happy about anything today:
i'm being grounded by a severe flu which is pretty much ruining all my weekend.
and i'm sure i'm going to be just fine till monday, by the time it's going to back to work anyway...  :?

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 14, 2007, 11:36:05
Oh Marika.
Sorry to hear that.
If I was over in Finland now, I would bring you a nice hot drink.
Take it easy.

Cheers.

Steve
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Druide on April 14, 2007, 11:39:24
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 14, 2007, 11:33:33
sounds great, hope you enjoy it!

to be honest, i can't be too happy about anything today:
i'm being grounded by a severe flu which is pretty much ruining all my weekend.
and i'm sure i'm going to be just fine till monday, by the time it's going to back to work anyway...  :?



Ohhh bad news...

Let's find a cure for you.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

And rest you please and sleep with socks  :)

;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 14, 2007, 13:12:21
hey thanks guys. hot drinks have been enjoyed all morning and socks are ready, to be jumped into :lol:
i guess i'll survive.

please don't forget to document the show for the rest of us steve!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 15, 2007, 10:45:08
HT because I have my new pornography t shirt  :D
The old one disintegrated (no pun intended), but I guess after 20 or so years, that was on the cards.
By the way. Roger Waters was fecking brilliant!!
Phone footage is unlistenable I'm afraid, but I'll see what I can salvage.
WOW!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 16, 2007, 03:01:21
hey that roger waters show sounds like it was pretty much worth it!
too bad they don't come over here.

i'll be going to see placebo in may - pleasedon't ask me why. :oops: i mean it, i don't even like them - but i guess it all  demonstrates the situation: too few good bands come and play around here and so you end up going to see all kinds of crap. uh-huh.

anyway, i'm starting to get a bit worried here since it's 4 am and i should be wake up and at work within hours...  :?
and yet i just can't :smth015....
i looks like it's definitely not going to be my day tomorrow...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on April 16, 2007, 15:28:31
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 16, 2007, 03:01:21
i'll be going to see placebo in may - pleasedon't ask me why. :oops: i mean it, i don't even like them - but i guess it all  demonstrates the situation: too few good bands come and play around here and so you end up going to see all kinds of crap. uh-huh.

Placebo?  :?

Please try to do everything as you can to see Roger Waters there in Sweden. According to the map, Stochkolm seems not that far from Helsinki.  :)

(http://www.wvu.edu/~alumband/tour/2007/scandinavia_map.jpg)

Really...it's an amazing show...

David.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 16, 2007, 15:30:05
Yeah.
It's only a few centimetres  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on April 16, 2007, 15:49:37
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 14, 2007, 13:12:21
hey thanks guys. hot drinks have been enjoyed all morning and socks are ready, to be jumped into :lol:
i guess i'll survive.

please don't forget to document the show for the rest of us steve!


here in Peru we have a strong lemon for flu. Drink lot of it plus orange and will make you feel better. Hope you are ok when you read this...  :smth056

(http://www.intiraimi-rest.com/limon.jpg)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 16, 2007, 16:26:02
Quote from: dsanchez on April 16, 2007, 15:28:31
Placebo?  :?

yeah. i'm ashamed of it, really. :oops:
because they suck!

Quote from: Steve on April 16, 2007, 15:30:05
Yeah.
It's only a few centimetres  :-D

oh yes, how did it go?: "a small step for a man but a huge step for mankind.. sweden here we come!" :-D

david, i will try. but getting the holidays is the problem. it wouldn't be so far by land by one needs to take a ferry to go over to sweden. that means it's 2 or 3 days trip at least. i guess if there was a land connection i guess one could make a one day trip. but ferry makes it slow.
and i have no money to fly. i'm broke! :(
:smth022

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 16, 2007, 16:28:31
Quote from: dsanchez on April 16, 2007, 15:49:37
here in Peru we have a strong lemon for flu. Drink lot of it plus orange and will make you feel better. Hope you are ok when you read this...  :smth056

thanks david. :smth001
anyway, hot drinks have been served and enjoyed on a regular basis here.
but i had to escape home early from work today because i have no speaking voice left - ppff!  :smth100
(thank god i can still type!)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 22, 2007, 10:19:13
SHT because I found these on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dszSuf2flk

:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 22, 2007, 10:28:46
no doubt about it  :smth001

have you found a recording for the show yet?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 22, 2007, 10:30:16
Not yet, but I have a lot of people looking.
I must have it............ :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 22, 2007, 10:51:59
Quote from: Steve on April 22, 2007, 10:30:16
Not yet, but I have a lot of people looking.
I must have it............ :rocker

i've found this:

Roger Waters - 2007-04-14 Budapest CMC4
Roger Waters
14th of April 2007
Budapest, Papp Laszlo Sport Arena, Hungary
equipment: Sound Pro CMC4 (FOB) - Battery pack - SB Audigy 2 ZS with 24bit/48khz
taper: kozakz

maybe you're interested? ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 22, 2007, 10:55:51
Errrr.
Yes.
Where is it?
& how do you find all these wonderful things??

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 22, 2007, 11:01:43
google is your friend my friend  ;)
just downloading it from the pink floyd torrents. if you don't have an account there and don't bother getting one, i can get it for you.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 22, 2007, 11:03:13
Marika.
If you were here I would kiss you.
I don't mind catching the flu  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 22, 2007, 11:11:28
you're a brave guy, it's a nasty flu you know hehe  ;)
:smth006
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on August 15, 2007, 04:13:17


Im so happy because today i got a new job..new things to do.. :-D

Yahoooooooo! :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on August 15, 2007, 08:00:15
That's great news Sussex.
Congratulations. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on August 15, 2007, 08:18:16
Quote from: Steve on August 15, 2007, 08:00:15
That's great news Sussex.
Congratulations. :-D


Thanks Steve... :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Aarna on August 15, 2007, 13:14:23
Congrats Sussex :)

I'm happy because it's very windy outside!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on August 15, 2007, 23:00:44
Congratulations for the new job Sussex  :D

I'm happy because today we have a bank holiday (not in all parts of Germany)  :-D


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on August 19, 2007, 21:23:27
Quote from: Aarna on August 15, 2007, 13:14:23
Congrats Sussex :)

I'm happy because it's very windy outside!

Thanks a lot Aarna.. :smth039

Quote from: silversand on August 15, 2007, 23:00:44
Congratulations for the new job Sussex  :D

I'm happy because today we have a bank holiday (not in all parts of Germany)  :-D




Not a problem with that i supposed Silversand.. ;)
btw..thank you..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Aarna on August 28, 2007, 14:43:11
My Curefans t-shirt just arrived :-D
Thanks, David!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on August 28, 2007, 15:12:26
Quote from: Aarna on August 28, 2007, 14:43:11
My Curefans t-shirt just arrived :-D
Thanks, David!

That was fast!.just 7 days from Peru to England! I hope the others who I sent the t-shirts also got them!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Aarna on August 28, 2007, 18:27:05
Yeah, post here is really fast. Good thing I'm in UK now instead of Croatia, otherwise it would take a month!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on August 31, 2007, 04:56:50

Im so happy today because its my country's 50th Independence Day! :smth039  :smth023

MERDEKA!!!!MERDEKA!!!MERDEKA!!!!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on September 01, 2007, 00:10:46
I'm happy today because I'm not as depressed as usual! :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 07, 2007, 14:57:52
I managed to register on Dime (about effing time & all) :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: j on September 07, 2007, 16:14:10
Quote from: Steve on September 07, 2007, 14:57:52
I managed to register on Dime (about effing time & all) :-D

Good luck playing catch up over there.  Your computer may hate you after this weekend!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: FarFar on September 11, 2007, 14:23:11
now i know...you are really cool person steve....

you can control your emotional.....wow...

you are created this topic....i happy today because you and japanesebaby advice me...thanks for your supportive....lets get happy  :lol: :lol: doing unstuck...hehe
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 11, 2007, 14:42:08
HT 'cos I made someone else happy :-D (I'm not a hippy, honest ;))
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on September 11, 2007, 19:38:49
hey i'm glad to hear we managed to cheer you up farfar :smth001
i personally really did have the most idiotic day today but for some reason i don't care - so yep, i think it's maybe because this medicine is working both ways  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: FarFar on September 12, 2007, 06:45:02
thanks to both of you (steve and japanesebaby)

tomorrow is a day for all muslim in malaysia celebrate ramadhan months....is a fasting day.... until end of the ramadhan ....about one month...no food no drinks till sunset....can you handle it????? hehehe....tomorrow,,,i need to fasting ......no more food or water till sunset....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 12, 2007, 17:24:48
Happy today 'cos I managed to get out of that ridiculous team building weekend my company arranged for me this weekend. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: FarFar on September 13, 2007, 03:49:10
Quote from: Steve on September 12, 2007, 17:24:48
Happy today 'cos I managed to get out of that ridiculous team building weekend my company arranged for me this weekend. :-D

wow finally you managed to get out from the team building...so you can do your usually activities...congrats...yaa bee daa bee duu  :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: FarFar on September 13, 2007, 04:34:47
today all in muslim in malaysia fasting...so do i....start sunrise....no drink no food till sunset.... :smth001

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Siouxsie_ on September 14, 2007, 08:38:25
It's Friday. ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 14, 2007, 09:04:13
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 14, 2007, 08:38:25
It's Friday. ;)

Two ways to look at that.
1. POETS day (P!ss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday)
2. Nearly Monday  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on September 14, 2007, 09:44:49
Quote from: Steve on September 14, 2007, 09:04:13
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 14, 2007, 08:38:25
It's Friday. ;)

Two ways to look at that.
1. POETS day (P!ss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday)
2. Nearly Monday  :-D

option 1 for me please! :D and screw number 2 - booo!  :twisted: :-D

just had a pretty damn annoying week and friday's my day off so it really feels like a blessing today, like i'm surprised that i made it this far... i've been sitting here and having my breakfast for almost three hours - just because i can and because no-one's pushing me anywhere today! heck i might be still having my breakfast at 8 pm - just for the fun of it!  ;)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 14, 2007, 15:31:06
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 14, 2007, 08:38:25
It's Friday. ;)

Yes, finally! :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 22, 2007, 18:49:37
Happy it Sunday morning 2:42am and ready to pop into a nice warm bed, I sleep with my dog by my bed,
and my possum runs, climbs and jumps around the house until sunrise, earlier sometimes, but i sleep through some of it.
Iam making a big home, running & climbing, jumping area of her very own, which she will love, with trees and branches, and then i can kick her out of bed in the day and pop her in her outside bed.... Little Princess sleeps in my  bed...Its warming up now, so she should be happy to play/sleep outside, although still be welcome inside too. 

And eventually after time, i can let her roam and play with other possums. The thought of that, after so much rehabilitation makes me happy- but its like a plant from a 'green house' you cant just suddenly chuck them outside, without adjusting first. :smth051

Love to go to sleep  :O zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Bloodflower on September 24, 2007, 03:08:58
I'm happy today because I have absolutely nothing to do for the next thirteen hours. Which is very nice.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 24, 2007, 16:47:06
sleeeeepy again, zzzzzzzzzzz  been busy, so once again happy its-a-bed time, ahhh relaxation finally.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on September 25, 2007, 00:45:11
I'm happy today because someone said something nice to me!

Wow, what an accomplishment.

I also got a new dog over the weekend.

And one of these:

(https://catalog.kansaslavender.com/images/100_0650%20dream%20pillow%20cotton.jpg)
They're called dream pillows and they are loaded with different types of flower, it smells like a good cup of tea and relaxes you, supposedly.

Just what I need, some relaxation! After serving detention today, the littlest things are seeming bigger and bigger!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Siouxsie_ on September 25, 2007, 11:01:45
There will be a full moon tomorrow night.   :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 25, 2007, 13:51:35
The moon looked pretty awsum, love it when i can see it during the day in the East, Swollen by the atmosphere, looked giant, and beautiful...

Made me happy too. The waters and tide's of my mind are crashing to shaw  :D


Carnage V ~ puppy and pillows, Yey - was it your b'day or something? I got one of those pillows in lavender, very relaxing indeed. Enjoy puppy fun  :smth006
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on September 25, 2007, 14:02:06
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 25, 2007, 11:01:45
There will be a full moon tomorrow night.   :D

And you Aussies witnessed a lunar eclispe last week. My BF took pics of it. Lucky him.
Here is one he took.

Not too happy this week. I won't have contact with my BF for a whole week. He's in Melbourne for his brother's birthday party. :cry:


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 25, 2007, 18:38:41
 :rocker Hey there Cure Freak,

Lunar Eclipse was 28 August 07, so almost a month ago- but thats probably what you meant to type.

There is another really nice site to see alot of photos of the eclipse -Blood Moon - and your b'friend takes a great photo :D

www.abc.net.au/backyard/stories/s2017860.htm   *There as so many pic's that capture it from all angles around Aus, but my fav is the one with a building beneath.-one at the top right of thumbnails.. - although it did look more dramatic to the human eye, but these are awsum non the less.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on September 26, 2007, 00:32:44
Quote from: ROGUE on September 25, 2007, 18:38:41
:rocker Hey there Cure Freak,

Lunar Eclipse was 28 August 07, so almost a month ago- but thats probably what you meant to type.


Yes, it was.  :oops:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on September 26, 2007, 00:36:27
A full moon you say? Hmmm... :shock:

What to do under a full moon...


I am happy today because I'm making a kick-butt mix CD of some of my favorite music that expresses myself. Due to limitations, I had to omit lots of Cure music...IT WOULD HAVE OCCUPIED THE ENTIRE CD!

Other than that, I could just die...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Siouxsie_ on September 27, 2007, 07:29:39
Someone on DeviantArt said that one of my pictures was "amazing".
:shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure on September 27, 2007, 11:28:03
i'm goin 2 c the 'control' movie 2nite !!  =)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on September 27, 2007, 14:58:54
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 27, 2007, 07:29:39
Someone on DeviantArt said that one of my pictures was "amazing".
:shock:

That's awesome! Do you have a link? Or would you rather not share?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on September 27, 2007, 20:13:35
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on September 27, 2007, 07:29:39
Someone on DeviantArt said that one of my pictures was "amazing".
:shock:

That's great Siouxsie. I'm happy for you  :)


I'm happy today because The Cure have announced the European Tour Dates!!!!!   :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: disintegration on September 27, 2007, 23:56:00
Happy today because The Cure come to Rome and Milan!!!!  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on September 28, 2007, 12:11:49
I'm happy I got a better seat,, than I had. for The Cure concert.
I'll be on the floor!
:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 28, 2007, 14:42:13
 :rocker AWSUM CURE FREAK ~       :shock: 

Very Jealous cookie over here, but cant be greedy, just seen them, Want to be greedy want more, NEVER ENOUGH of The Cure  :twisted:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on September 28, 2007, 18:45:56
Quote from: ROGUE on September 28, 2007, 14:42:13
:rocker AWSUM CURE FREAK ~       :shock: 

Very Jealous cookie over here, but cant be greedy, just seen them, Want to be greedy want more, NEVER ENOUGH of The Cure  :twisted:

Well, it's not front row. It's the 9th and I'm not a tall person either. But it's a far better seat than I had before.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 28, 2007, 19:06:28
Happy today because I just burnt a couple of discs for someone on the other side of the planet.
He only wanted 1 gig, but he's got shed loads :-D
Make the most of the postage, that's what I say.
& you know what?
It's a lot more satisfying & sociable way of sharing than downloading. I have had a few mails with the  guy & discovered we have the Sisters Of Mercy in common.
Don't get that when you download stuff.

:-D :-D :-D :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 28, 2007, 19:09:27
Not to forget.
I am mega happy today as I got my curefans tee shirt.
Many thanks David & thanks for the help Caley :smth023 :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 29, 2007, 12:03:01
Steve,  Roger Waters  :rocker

Anyway I gotta get my T-shirt aswell - YES and just happy because iam !   :twisted:  I didnt even noticed i became a 'master' - so that will do- Thats why iam-a-happy   :smth084
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 29, 2007, 14:35:53
Quote from: ROGUE on September 29, 2007, 12:03:01
Steve,  Roger Waters  :rocker

:shock:
That's spooky :shock:
I couldn't use paypal to pay for the tee shirt, so Caley helped & suggested I just posted the money. I did........ in a cd case with a rather nice roger waters bootleg in it.
How did you know that?
:? :shock: :? :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 29, 2007, 15:16:06
                            :smth051

Came with my "Master" statis ~ which power did you choose ?   ;)         
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on September 29, 2007, 15:38:52
Quote from: ROGUE on September 29, 2007, 15:16:06

                            :smth051

Came with my "Master" statis ~ which power did you choose ?   ;)

:smth017


(what comes to the topic: i'm not happy today i'm afraid. just can't think of anything happy happening today, sorry.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 29, 2007, 20:23:10
Awww Marika.
In that case, I'll send you a big sloppy kiss.   X
Better now? ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 29, 2007, 21:56:29
MY BIG EYE BALL SEE'S ALL-  ~GIGGLES~   and thats why iam happy today,   also its tomorrow already   :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 29, 2007, 22:15:27
Quote from: Steve on September 28, 2007, 19:09:27
Not to forget.
I am mega happy today as I got my curefans tee shirt.
Many thanks David & thanks for the help Caley :smth023 :smth023

Cool that you got your t-shirt, hope you like it :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on September 29, 2007, 22:22:09
Quote from: dsanchez on September 29, 2007, 22:15:27
Quote from: Steve on September 28, 2007, 19:09:27
Not to forget.
I am mega happy today as I got my curefans tee shirt.
Many thanks David & thanks for the help Caley :smth023 :smth023

Cool that you got your t-shirt, hope you like it :smth001

It's brilliant.
Great quality & it's got everyones' names on the back (even mine :-D)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on September 30, 2007, 07:11:42
Quote from: Steve on September 28, 2007, 19:06:28
Happy today because I just burnt a couple of discs for someone on the other side of the planet.
He only wanted 1 gig, but he's got shed loads :-D
Make the most of the postage, that's what I say.
& you know what?
It's a lot more satisfying & sociable way of sharing than downloading. I have had a few mails with the  guy & discovered we have the Sisters Of Mercy in common.
Don't get that when you download stuff.

:-D :-D :-D :-D
I love geting mail form people from other countries. I got  very dearing package from my BG ,last month. He ent me photos of himself, his art and his children.he has four sons. he also sent me some of his drawings and a braclet and something fromn his MM colection. I, also, recieved a nice gift from a dear Belguim friend of mine.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on September 30, 2007, 14:43:26
Congratulations for the Curefan Master ROGUE  :)

I'm happy today because the sun is shining and i have a week off!!! :D

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on September 30, 2007, 14:46:55
Quote from: Steve on September 29, 2007, 20:23:10
Awww Marika.
In that case, I'll send you a big sloppy kiss.   X
Better now? ;)

a little bit i guess...  ;)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on September 30, 2007, 18:39:36
Thanks Silversand,  :smth006    I didnt even notice for awhile, secret is to stop watching the numbers- like i was-. . .  Then suddenly you look and oh wow,  :shock: :D

I still have penpals from Germany, and Poland, Miss my best friend in Holland-Saskia- we just lost contact both moving addresses, etc, while we were teenagers. Think of her often. Its nice to receive mail, or open something and smell it, even just a letter, ohh thats nice. I love to get 'Real' mail, Even writting shows so much about a person, I love it.

EDIT~ nope nothing on happiness today, but content, Rained in the afternoon and had a nice nap, And yey its tomorrow again  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Siouxsie_ on October 01, 2007, 08:43:50
I need a penpal.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 01, 2007, 09:01:33
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on October 01, 2007, 08:43:50
I need a penpal.
& that makes you happy?
I'm happy today because it's Monday & I like Mondays very much. (yeah, I know, I'm an oddball :?)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 01, 2007, 17:54:00
I'm happy today because I am a Curefan  master.

(http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/6866/2006bobspeakfy7.gif)

It must not be a very happy day, if that is all that makes me happy. lol
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on October 01, 2007, 19:17:44
Quote from: Steve on October 01, 2007, 09:01:33
I'm happy today because it's Monday & I like Mondays very much. (yeah, I know, I'm an oddball :?)

you're weird!  :shock:

:lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on October 01, 2007, 19:32:15
Quote from: Siouxsie_ on October 01, 2007, 08:43:50
I need a penpal.

Why does that make you happy???  ???



@ROGUE:
I like also handwritten letter or postcards very much, because you can see how the person writes.
But unfortunately i get more E-Mails than 'real' mails :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 02, 2007, 12:59:33
 :smth023
I am happy today just because I am reading stuff from good fans.. I am happy because I saw my son when he hung around for awhile, while he was in town with his dad, and HE was happy.. THAT makes me HAPPY :lol: :lol: I am happy now cos I have a nice glass of red wine to drink while I post AWAYYYYY!! :smth020

But I wish i had a penpal too SIOUXSIE and I want a curefans tshirt too
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 02, 2007, 13:03:38
Quote from: scatcat on October 02, 2007, 12:59:33
:smth023
I am happy today just because I am reading stuff from good fans.. I am happy because I saw my son when he hung around for awhile, while he was in town with his dad, and HE was happy.. THAT makes me HAPPY :lol: :lol: I am happy now cos I have a nice glass of red wine to drink while I post AWAYYYYY!! :smth020

But I wish i had a penpal too SIOUXSIE and I want a curefans tshirt too

A glass of Red huh?
Thinking of a new thread now................
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 03, 2007, 12:31:32
My Vienna tickets arrived :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 03, 2007, 12:56:59
 :smth046
just saw a photo of steve ??? OR IS IT  ????

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 03, 2007, 13:13:50
Quote from: scatcat on October 03, 2007, 12:56:59
:smth046
just saw a photo of steve ??? OR IS IT  ????

:smth020
Yep, that was me on a boat on the lake I live near, last year. Glad you found it so hilairious ;)
Here's another from when I was 21
(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/784/pista3od0.jpg)
I think there's a pronography t shirt under that jumper (goffix huh?) :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 03, 2007, 13:21:50
 :lol:
u look great on boat.. but a little too real for me is the younger photo.. u could've been in pseudo echo or duran duran.. :smth023

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure on October 04, 2007, 18:17:14
happy 2 death 2day cuz i found & downloaded she wants revenge's new album, 5 days b4 its release =))
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 05, 2007, 03:31:16
Ohh Thats cool, great pic Steve, god i got some fun ones,  maybe oneday i post ??

Iam happy today because iam back !!!  :smth051
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: FarFar on October 05, 2007, 06:56:51
Quote from: Steve on October 03, 2007, 13:13:50
Quote from: scatcat on October 03, 2007, 12:56:59
:smth046
just saw a photo of steve ??? OR IS IT  ????

:smth020
Yep, that was me on a boat on the lake I live near, last year. Glad you found it so hilairious ;)
Here's another from when I was 21
(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/784/pista3od0.jpg)
I think there's a pronography t shirt under that jumper (goffix huh?) :D

i like your hairstyle steve.... :smth023 :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 05, 2007, 07:58:32
 :smth098 :smth041 :smth006 :smth040 :smth005 :smth027 ;D
Happy that everyone's so happy... and..just happy that it's the weekend tomorrow, got 2 relaxing days with my boy... happy ,, happy..

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 05, 2007, 08:36:01
IAM STILL HAPPY- BECAUSE IAM HERE, AND GET TO SEE A SILLY SOAP OPERA

THIS AFTERNOON- YOU KNOW "THE B & B'  cool, if i can i do watch, always funny to watch, although they never give anything away before a weekend.
Just those stupid pauses.......

but happy too :smth050 :smth051 :smth047
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 05, 2007, 11:01:10
 :-D VERY happy today because...
NO COLLEGE :rocker

YEY 3 DAY WEEKEND! :-D

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 06, 2007, 13:59:22
I'm happy because I just spent $400 on Cure CD's. :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 07, 2007, 07:52:42
my Irises (flowers) are starting to flower!!!


:smth040 :smth041 :smth027

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 07, 2007, 14:12:40
Another tooth popped out!! my second in 2 weeks....maybe something to do with the hockey stick that split my face open a few weeks ago?!?!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 07, 2007, 15:29:18
 Iam happy to see so many new faces here - YEY ENJOY !!! :rocker

and been busy gardening weekend, going to look great when i finished, and then iam going to revamp my old back
verandah.  Pick some native small bushes for the front, And just happy to be relaxed on a Sunday night, curling up ready for bed :smth015

:smth051
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 07, 2007, 15:50:49
my BF is back!

and i heard The Cure will be playing Cold at my concert!

:smth080
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 07, 2007, 17:55:35
 :rocker  Oh yey, lucky ducky - I wanna come and see The Cure, I was sort of hoping they would tour Europa last, because then i could visit alot of different countries- within reasonable distance (fair etc)- except with the Euro??mm not sure.
But thats great Cure Freak,   :smth020

I hope i can come to U.S.A to see them next year- if by the time iam organised there will be tickets... ahh-I tell myself- Theres always tickets- just $$ thats the question.

Happy for everyone looking forward  :D





Hero   :smth006 - i luv you avatar (below) - anyone know is this a squirrel ?   I hope you dont mind me posting it, just so cute  :smth045
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure on October 07, 2007, 20:46:04
i watched CONTROL at last !!
the movie's fantastic
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 07, 2007, 20:58:28
Quote from: Cure on October 07, 2007, 20:46:04
i watched CONTROL at last !!
the movie's fantastic

I am v  jealous. One of my favourite bands & the movie isn't in Hungary yet :roll:
Might have to wait for the dvd (xmas present?).
But I'm in London the week after next, so might try to catch it there.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 07, 2007, 23:06:00
ROGUE@ very happy indeeed. i am lucky.
Cure@ You are so lucky.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: LuvURobert on October 08, 2007, 07:41:56
Hmmm.  Well, that sucks!  Absolutely NOTHING made me happy today!!  :cry:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 08, 2007, 07:49:00
Quote from: LuvURobert on October 08, 2007, 07:41:56
Hmmm.  Well, that sucks!  Absolutely NOTHING made me happy today!!  :cry:

:( :( me niether... not yet anyway... :smth022 :smth022 :smth022

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 08, 2007, 09:10:49
It's Monday
I like Mondays :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 08, 2007, 12:46:32
Quote from: Steve on October 08, 2007, 09:10:49
It's Monday
I like Mondays :-D


What's the deal with Mondays?? like the bit u wrote about POETS day.. but don't get the Mondays a-liking thing..?? :-D :-D

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 08, 2007, 12:49:27
Well, Monday is the day where all reporting & operations reviews happen & this makes the day literally whizz past.
For me, Monday is the shortest day of the week.  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 08, 2007, 13:30:39
Quote from: Steve on October 08, 2007, 12:49:27
Well, Monday is the day where all reporting & operations reviews happen & this makes the day literally whizz past.
For me, Monday is the shortest day of the week.  :-D

I hate Mondays!! :( :( It signifies the start of a horrible week of torture at school. :( :(
For me Mondays are the longest day because 1st period is FRENCH and my teacher acts like she got a rod up her A**. :rocker

To keep on subject I'm happy because Monday is nearly over.

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 08, 2007, 20:24:09
Because I have today off from school and I am now listening to Virgin Prunes "Caucasion Walk" and the song itself makes me happy, the fact I even have a copy on MP3 makes me happy.

Also, I just got a hell of alot of HALLOWEEN stuff yesterday, TWO devil masks, some severed fingers, scars, etc...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 08, 2007, 21:04:22
Today is Thanksgiving!
Well, here in Canada it is.
So, I'm going to have to get off my ass and go to some relative's house and eat all their foodz.
Yee.
Oh, and I'm trying to order shitloads of band pins and shirts and other stuff online. Woot!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 09, 2007, 04:35:13
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 08, 2007, 21:04:22
Today is Thanksgiving!
Well, here in Canada it is.
So, I'm going to have to get off my ass and go to some relative's house and eat all their foodz.
Yee.
Oh, and I'm trying to order shitloads of band pins and shirts and other stuff online. Woot!

You join and no say hi me!
Hi Yanna! It is I, Johnny from Myspace and all that other jazz...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 09, 2007, 07:59:20
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 08, 2007, 21:04:22
Today is Thanksgiving!
Well, here in Canada it is.
So, I'm going to have to get off my ass and go to some relative's house and eat all their foodz.
Yee.
Oh, and I'm trying to order shitloads of band pins and shirts and other stuff online. Woot!

Iam not sure if iam happy, think iam dislexic- sometimes, ok all the time.....
I thought the above read-

Today is Thanksgiving, in Canada and my friends are strange and eating pins and roots ??? or something similar,
this always happens to me, during conversation aswell. (Hi Yanna, no offense, just my eye ball thing...its possessed)

So not sure if iam happy ? maybe twisted sounds more familiar.  :smth023

SilverSand  :smth006 -someones gonna be a master soon - just incase i miss it.  :smth023

So Steve- you are a teacher, did you like school when you were a student, aswell ?  I hated it, but only because i didnt know any better,
had nite mares of unfinished homework for years after i finished..

Hello CureFreak and everyone, hope you all good- then iam happy :smth051
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 09, 2007, 13:55:25
I AM HAPPY TODAY BECAUSE I FINALLY, SUCCESSFULLY DOWNLOADED THE AUDIO FOR THE NEW SONG AFTER AGONISING ALL DAY !!!!!  :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :smth023

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 09, 2007, 21:34:48
Quote from: Carnage Visor on October 09, 2007, 04:35:13
You join and no say hi me!

Hi... Johnny...
LOL. Was that from The Hot Chick or what?  :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 10, 2007, 03:35:15
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 09, 2007, 21:34:48
Quote from: Carnage Visor on October 09, 2007, 04:35:13
You join and no say hi me!

Hi... Johnny...
LOL. Was that from The Hot Chick or what?  :lol:

Yeah, it's a habit I have of quoting obscure quotes from movies...Good catch there!

"You passed right by Crazy Nails and no say hi me!" - from HOT CHICK (2003)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on October 10, 2007, 04:08:56

Im happy because, im going to see my parents tonite.. 8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 10, 2007, 11:31:06
I'm happy today because I am most likely going to be able to see my friends(all 2 of them!!) this December, heh..

I am really quite happy about that..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 10, 2007, 20:19:30
Happy today because....
(http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t127/psichonaut/Immagine066.jpg)
me and Steve are  ready now.....Siamo in PISTA
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 11, 2007, 05:34:33
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 10, 2007, 11:31:06
I'm happy today because I am most likely going to be able to see my friends(all 2 of them!!) this December, heh..

I am really quite happy about that..

@AlluvialL :  I'm Happy that u are happy... :) I only have 1 real friend :cry:...and my son of course!! :-D :-D

Today I am happy because ..last night I had a dream.. :smth060 and Robert :smth050 :smth050 and the band were in it.. Robert talked to me  :smth040 and they hung around for the whole dream!!wicked or what??!!  :smth041 :smth027 :smth026 THEN in the same dream, there was this guy that came up and gave me the best warm, cuddly cuddle that happens to be just what I  need at the moment.. AND he was into the Cure too!! there is more.. but I can't mentioned what happened.... ;) ;)
:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 11, 2007, 07:52:08
Happy today because one of theose Rome tickets is for me  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 11, 2007, 18:49:45


:rocker now that is cool, and great reason for happiness.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 11, 2007, 20:41:35
Control is playing in NYC til October 18th.
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 11, 2007, 23:26:03
I HIT THE JACKPOT and found all these old SMASHING PUMPKINS demos from when they were a "big Cure-influenced band" and Billy Corgan was a goth teen!

They're some pretty cool demos, and a whole site devoted to them! Not that anyone cares...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 12, 2007, 08:09:31
Quote from: Carnage Visor on October 11, 2007, 23:26:03
I HIT THE JACKPOT and found all these old SMASHING PUMPKINS demos from when they were a "big Cure-influenced band" and Billy Corgan was a goth teen!

They're some pretty cool demos, and a whole site devoted to them! Not that anyone cares...

I care! :rocker :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 12, 2007, 09:02:01
It's Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i have tikts to Monty Python's Spamalot.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 12, 2007, 09:05:41
Got my Siouxsie Sioux tickets for Sat 20th at the Astoria London. :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 12, 2007, 12:40:53
Happy again (good day huh?) as someone I was worried about is actually okay. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 12, 2007, 21:15:48
HT just because it's Friday.... :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 13, 2007, 23:12:15
HT because England beat France 14-9 in the rugby, my cat's come home & is sitting on my lap (makes it difficult to type)& is sticking his cold nose in my face.
I love my Millhouse (sometimes  :smth052)
Back's still fcuked though.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 14, 2007, 17:15:13
HT self medicating, with toothache, and in a 'krammer' like mood (seinfeld)
prob good way explain my personaltiy, everyday another stupid idea-that sounded good in my mind,
and always excited by my own idea's.
Except iam not in an appartment, but have friend like 'Jerry" and 'george too. hehehhe :lol:

Yep fken happy self medicating is working, but i do work with drugs- so wouldnt advice it, for anyone.

but ,e   yehhheaaaa;

Dentist tomorroe and reality.  :(   deeep fear of dentist..... once went into shock- i know what a whimp
pussy-willow, but iam a chick so  that s  my excuse......


ipod is great at dentist. !!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 14, 2007, 21:54:48
HT 'cause I did my stretching exersises & I felt a whole lot better.
Thanks scatcat. I thought they sounded suicidal, but worked out really good.
Getting down on the floor was the hardest bit. That hurt.....a lot... feeling loads better now though. :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 15, 2007, 05:54:46
Quote from: Steve on October 14, 2007, 21:54:48
HT 'cause I did my stretching exersises & I felt a whole lot better.
Thanks scatcat. I thought they sounded suicidal, but worked out really good.
Getting down on the floor was the hardest bit. That hurt.....a lot... feeling loads better now though. :D


Glad you're better!!  :smth023 It does hurt and get a bit worse at first, and i have another one where you get down on your hands and knees and ... arch your back like a cat ... slowly up then down.. holding for count of ten.. this will loosen you up!!!  ( it's not meant to be kinky)??!! :D

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 16, 2007, 00:43:26
HT because i was working alone alone and a little cat was with me all the working time
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 16, 2007, 17:05:12
Quote from: psichonaut on October 16, 2007, 00:43:26
HT because i was working alone alone and a little cat was with me all the working time

Ohh! I love my little Dwayne, my cat, little meow, best company for lonely souls! :-D Cats rule!! ;) I'm happy you are happy and I am happy because my cat sleeps on my bed as soon as I head off to bed, and waits for me to come home... SPECIAL  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 17, 2007, 12:25:24
Quote from: CureCrusader on October 16, 2007, 17:05:12
Quote from: psichonaut on October 16, 2007, 00:43:26
HT because i was working alone alone and a little cat was with me all the working time

Ohh! I love my little Dwayne, my cat, little meow, best company for lonely souls! :-D Cats rule!! ;) I'm happy you are happy and I am happy because my cat sleeps on my bed as soon as I head off to bed, and waits for me to come home... SPECIAL  :smth023

HT thanks to my cat, he slpet in this morning :rocker  and just hung around me all day, best company when you are alone! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 18, 2007, 10:44:42
Quote from: psichonaut on October 16, 2007, 00:43:26
HT because i was working alone alone and a little cat was with me all the working time

Yeh cats are so gorgeous and tempermental, i love that- similar to my little possum, i call her a cat most the time. Its nice she gives me beautiful cuddles, and sweet nose kisses, except gets a little too excited and starts to lick my nostrils out- I know yukee but gives her much pleasure ? so i let her do it. ? god that sounds strange- NOSTRILS remember and only my nostrils. !!   :lol:

But secretly, i know she is actually like a 'sucubus' :twisted: and **** my brain out, slowly and eventually removing my brain, Like the egyptians used to do to the dead, Its all through the nose.....
Eyes key to the soul
Nose penetration to the brain.?
I wonder how they got the organs out, slice and dice or anus ?   interesting.....


oops why happy= why not ?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 18, 2007, 14:30:28
Im far too happy today, everything seems to make me happy right now!
i think its just too much sugar :-D I've been living off haribo tangfastics and coca cola for 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
My cat 'Toastie' is making me happy today also because he makes weird furbyish noises and runs to the door to greet me - hes a bit weird!
AGHHH SUGER OVERLOAD!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 19, 2007, 07:39:16
 :) Happy today.. because someone that was sad is happy again!!  :D :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 19, 2007, 09:09:44
Happy and happy, glad Steve's back is getting better.

Lots of love sent to LuvUrobert and spending time with my husband, again, :smth047 and the other one too :smth030

Hi to Cure Freak - thanks for msg and hope you are good.  :smth006

aswell as everyone else, and those i have said hello to in msg's. another wave.

Happy because the misery wore me out, and then i cracked   :smth073
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 20, 2007, 18:56:58
oooh!! ooohh!! oooHHH!!! Just watched Rage  up late on T.V.(Melb) :-D  and guess what??!!
Our Boys with the original filmclip of "Primary" .. wicked!! :D :D
Made me happy and gees, Robert looks so young and beautiful.. I love that song.. I have live version from Concert- The Cure Live on VINYL!! tune in cos heaps of 80's era, punk, goth, alternative etc..!!
:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 20, 2007, 21:03:35
happy because i was in my friend's home and i didn't meet him from months.....and drunk 4 beers togheter
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 21, 2007, 10:54:23

HToday~ got some beautiful plants for my garden  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: [labyrinth] on October 21, 2007, 21:58:04
happy today because Kimi Raikkonen won the F1 world championship
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 21, 2007, 22:00:45
Quote from: [labyrinth] on October 21, 2007, 21:58:04
happy today because Kimi Raikkonen won the F1 world championship
A miracle today :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 21, 2007, 23:04:10
HT because I got this on Friday...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 22, 2007, 13:05:30
Happy today because its half term! WOOHOO!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: boneheadhaggar on October 22, 2007, 14:06:54
A Boy I Never Knew..............need I say anymore :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 22, 2007, 15:48:29
Quote from: Cure Freak on October 21, 2007, 23:04:10
HT because I got this on Friday...


HAPPY FOR YOU  :rocker





YEY Its beautiful luv it too Sussex.   :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on October 23, 2007, 03:28:12
Quote from: boneheadhaggar on October 22, 2007, 14:06:54
A Boy I Never Knew..............need I say anymore :smth023


Yeah..i spent the whole nite listening to that beautiful song.. :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on October 23, 2007, 11:16:08
Quote from: ROGUE on October 18, 2007, 10:44:42

But secretly, i know she is actually like a 'sucubus' :twisted: and **** my brain out,

That's a very scary thought. :shock: :shock: :shock:

I like butterflies and elephants. :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001 :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 24, 2007, 00:34:20
I get a day off from school tomorrow! YEAH baby! Late night sleeptime!

:rocker :rocker :rocker :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 24, 2007, 05:54:05
HT because I got this in the mail , finally! :lol:

I can't wait to start reading it!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: boneheadhaggar on October 24, 2007, 09:43:25
a great book to read scatcat, I must look out my copy of it again, haven't looked at it for years :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 24, 2007, 17:09:39
 :rocker Happy get to sleep in also tomorrow So Yeeeha !! nothing to do, and no interuptions,
can sleep the day away ~if i want to   :smth023 nice feeling



Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on October 24, 2007, 19:30:41
This is really a great book. One of the best autobiographies of The Cure i've ever read.
A very good choice scatcat   :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on October 25, 2007, 18:00:52
Quote from: scatcat on October 24, 2007, 05:54:05
HT because I got this in the mail , finally! :lol:

I can't wait to start reading it!


Happy reading scatcat..

Btw im happy today because im with HER.. :smth055
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 25, 2007, 21:13:25
I just came back from a school trip at a science museum!  :D
Yeah, that sounds pretty dorky, but it was awesome.
There's an IMAX theatre and it's just absolutely amazing! The massive screen is right above you and the sound and image quality is so unbelievably realistic. I sure would love to watch a horror or action movie like that. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 25, 2007, 22:11:51
Yanna Sometimes ~ Science is never dorky! SCIENCE ROCKS!!!  :rocker :rocker

Im very happy because i saw a friend i havent seen in sooo long and got a mint frappe AND got spiderman 3!  :-D Good times!

But im also really scared today because im pretty sure my house is haunted :shock:(its a really old house) and i dont think the ghost likes johnny depp :? eeeeek!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 25, 2007, 22:14:25
Quote from: Hero on October 25, 2007, 22:11:51
But im also really scared today because im pretty sure my house is haunted :shock:(its a really old house) and i dont think the ghost likes johnny depp :? eeeeek!

Haunted?! What makes you say that?

Yes, science does rock! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 25, 2007, 22:19:31
I'm not very happy today, some of my cartilage in my ear has broken, and it really hurts, blahhh.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 25, 2007, 22:23:53
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 25, 2007, 22:19:31
I'm not very happy today, some of my cartilage in my ear has broken,
Awww, I'm sorry. I got my cartilage pierced and it hurts mega hella lots. :( It takes SIX months for it to fully heal. I'm happy that I got it though.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 25, 2007, 22:45:46
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 25, 2007, 22:23:53
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 25, 2007, 22:19:31
I'm not very happy today, some of my cartilage in my ear has broken,
Awww, I'm sorry. I got my cartilage pierced and it hurts mega hella lots. :( It takes SIX months for it to fully heal. I'm happy that I got it though.


It's alright, wow lol...six months.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 25, 2007, 22:51:23
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 25, 2007, 22:14:25
Quote from: Hero on October 25, 2007, 22:11:51
But im also really scared today because im pretty sure my house is haunted :shock:(its a really old house) and i dont think the ghost likes johnny depp :? eeeeek!

Haunted?! What makes you say that?

Yes, science does rock! :-D

Movement in the corner of my eyes!!!
And my room is covered in posters but my two Pirates of the caribbean ones fall down everyday, even when i stuck them in the office instead :shock: And whispering...
ok i think im a bit paranoid and hallucinating due to illness but its deffiantly haunted  :smth009
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 25, 2007, 23:59:56
I joined facebook and joined the "Robert Smith will save us all" group.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 26, 2007, 00:16:20
Quote from: Carnage Visor on October 25, 2007, 23:59:56
I joined facebook and joined the "Robert Smith will save us all" group.
Ahaha. Me too. I joined a bunch of others similar to that and I'm surprised at how many people my age like The Cure and Siouxsie and all them. I joined the most random groups like "You Run Up the Stairs Because You Think Something is Going to Grab You." and "Awkward Moments Define My Life." For once I don't feel alone. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 26, 2007, 13:28:16
HT because I actually got a PM to say welcome back (thx CC).
Also as I got confirmation of the arrival of some DVDs in Oz (not the yellow brick rd Oz, the upside down one)which are being enjoyed. I Like it when people are happy. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on October 26, 2007, 16:44:53
We do all live upside here!!! :D :-D :-D  :smth100 :roll:   yes.., REALLY
Happy today because someone i was missing  is back!!! :smth023  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 26, 2007, 18:20:51
Doubly happy 'cos I got another welcome message from a very foxy lady ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 26, 2007, 23:35:50
Hehe! I also joined the "goth girls are hot" group, because, well face it...THEY ARE!

Something about that makeup and the fishnets, the hair...Very hot!  :smth020

LOL, I join the most random groups... :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on October 27, 2007, 16:20:33
HTB I just discovered my new Red Dwarf VII discs have extended versions on them :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 27, 2007, 17:13:47
HT because I'm going to a Hallowen party tonight and dressing up as Rob(as he looks Now)
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 27, 2007, 17:19:18
Wow Red Dwarf - havent seen that in ages, used to luv it, whats his name "rhimmah" funny stuff  :smth023
Hope you had a fun journey Steve,
good to see everyone Happy today~ Iam too  :-D

Had some nice afternoon drinks with my neighbor-, and he likes good music too !!

Carnage Visor - I agree, love fish nets, meow very hot.

Hero and Yanna you spooking me out, i fell asleep watching Blair witch 2- last night and woke up with the fear of
god, got that spooky feeling tonight, more horror on t.v.  :twisted:  but i like it.

Have fun Cure Freak- that spooky too, oops (as he looks now... lol interesting) still love him.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 27, 2007, 19:04:17
thanks ROGUE.
take a few pics,im my costume, before i leave for party.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:40:54
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D

I'm sorry, lol. Halloween is my favorite holiday, type thing. And I never have anything to do, mostly because I don't have friends, but I guess I'll live.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:44:50
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:40:54
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D

I'm sorry, lol. Halloween is my favorite holiday, type thing. And I never have anything to do, mostly because I don't have friends, but I guess I'll live.
don't worry, you'll have lot of chances to have friends, but don't be so whiny
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:47:39
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:44:50
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:40:54
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D

I'm sorry, lol. Halloween is my favorite holiday, type thing. And I never have anything to do, mostly because I don't have friends, but I guess I'll live.
don't worry, you'll have lot of chances to have friends, but don't be so whiny


:\ I wasn't trying to be whiny..it's just kind of a fact..

I'm sorry..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:51:26
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:47:39
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:44:50
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:40:54
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D

I'm sorry, lol. Halloween is my favorite holiday, type thing. And I never have anything to do, mostly because I don't have friends, but I guess I'll live.
don't worry, you'll have lot of chances to have friends, but don't be so whiny


:\ I wasn't trying to be whiny..it's just kind of a fact..

I'm sorry..
be happy
you look so young and life is long....time is on your side
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:54:10
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:51:26
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:47:39
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:44:50
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:40:54
Quote from: psichonaut on October 27, 2007, 23:36:20
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 27, 2007, 23:26:33
Agh, I wish I had something to do for Halloween, that makes me so jealous.
i'm sure...i have nothing to do for Halloween :-D

I'm sorry, lol. Halloween is my favorite holiday, type thing. And I never have anything to do, mostly because I don't have friends, but I guess I'll live.
don't worry, you'll have lot of chances to have friends, but don't be so whiny


:\ I wasn't trying to be whiny..it's just kind of a fact..

I'm sorry..
be happy
you look so young and life is long....time is on your side

Thanks..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 28, 2007, 16:31:13
AlluivialL should go out dressed up anyway  spook everyone out, and if you are dressed up, noone knows who you are. .
-you can have some wicked fun- Trick or treat hahahaahaha  :twisted: spooky mood still, must be close to Halloween  :smth023

(dont let lack of friends stop you-that an excuse?) You are young, and beautiful looking, is hard to appreciate ourselfs, but you
should.  Psichonaut is right you do have time on your side aswell  :)  so dont be hard on yourself~ I be your friend  :smth054 we all friends.
But you are not alone in being lonely ~ so many of us the same. (you know what i mean, same but different but same..)

And iam happy  :-D nice hearing from everyone makes me happy  :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on October 28, 2007, 16:42:22
I am happy because someone said something very kind to me when I was being an ass and complaining alot...I know I can be an annoyance and a brat, but I guess when you understand what I am going through in life it makes sense.

You know who you are, I appreciate the nice comment, especially after the whole big uncomfortable discussion about karma points and how I'm "overreacting"...I felt really awkward and put on the spot, but it was good to hear other people feeling the same way, and it cheered me up.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 28, 2007, 23:06:30
Quote from: ROGUE on October 28, 2007, 16:31:13
AlluivialL should go out dressed up anyway  spook everyone out, and if you are dressed up, noone knows who you are. .
-you can have some wicked fun- Trick or treat hahahaahaha  :twisted: spooky mood still, must be close to Halloween  :smth023

(dont let lack of friends stop you-that an excuse?) You are young, and beautiful looking, is hard to appreciate ourselfs, but you
should.  Psichonaut is right you do have time on your side aswell  :)  so dont be hard on yourself~ I be your friend  :smth054 we all friends.
But you are not alone in being lonely ~ so many of us the same. (you know what i mean, same but different but same..)

And iam happy  :-D nice hearing from everyone makes me happy  :smth020

Heh, if only I had something to dress up in! Oh well, I guess I'll have my chance..when I'm older. Then I'll just look silly.

I don't really think it was an excuse..I also have severe social phobia. It's my fault so, I have no one to blame.

and I'm happy about..reading some of the topics, were quite amusing.




*Edit* Sorry...I make every happy conversation unhappy..I'm kind of good at that, and it's very annoying.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 28, 2007, 23:53:40
Quote from: AlluivialL link=topic=3458.msg35027#msg35027
*Edit* Sorry...I make every happy conversation unhappy..I'm kind of good at that, and it's very annoying.
/quote]
wrong thread :-D
try the "what always annoyed me" thread :D :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 28, 2007, 23:54:37
Quote from: psichonaut on October 28, 2007, 23:53:40
Quote from: AlluivialL link=topic=3458.msg35027#msg35027
*Edit* Sorry...I make every happy conversation unhappy..I'm kind of good at that, and it's very annoying.
/quote]
wrong thread :-D
try the "what always annoyed me" thread :D :D


Lol, sorry.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 29, 2007, 17:00:33
I understand AlluivialL, am very anti-social aswell, except for here and other cyber-places.

Just wanted you to realize that you do have everything at your feet, at your age the world is your oyster.
-is that the correct saying ?  I dont find you annoying or unhappy, i hope i didnt offend you before. (guess iam getting older, and thinking how lucky it is to be young)
I have that gift of conversation killing, and i sigh to myself when it happens, its hard to get out there
and socialize when feeling awkward as i do, But when i force myself it gets a little easier. Although never/rarely natural
-like some people- lucky ones.

Anyway iam Happy i get to sleep in tomorrow. Think i frightened the tradesman away by hiding in my house today.  :oops:
True. . . but later told him i was out walking the dog- all to avoid a useless and boringly awkward conversation.  :roll:

But nice and happy, content.  :smth023



(edit because i spelt AlluivialL wrong) oops  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 29, 2007, 17:56:27
Quote from: ROGUE on October 29, 2007, 17:00:33
I understand AlluivialL, am very anti-social aswell, except for here and other cyber-places.

Just wanted you to realize that you do have everything at your feet, at your age the world is your oyster.
-is that the correct saying ?  I dont find you annoying or unhappy, i hope i didnt offend you before. (guess iam getting older, and thinking how lucky it is to be young)
I have that gift of conversation killing, and i sigh to myself when it happens, its hard to get out there
and socialize when feeling awkward as i do, But when i force myself it gets a little easier. Although never/rarely natural
-like some people- lucky ones.

Anyway iam Happy i get to sleep in tomorrow. Think i frightened the tradesman away by hiding in my house today.  :oops:
True. . . but later told him i was out walking the dog- all to avoid a useless and boringly awkward conversation.  :roll:

But nice and happy, content.  :smth023



Oh, no you didn't offend me, if anything I thought I offended you. I think I offend everyone.

You explain yourself very well, though. It's a good thing.. oh and by the way, having social phobia and being anti-social are very different.

anyway, I'm glad you don't find me annoying or unhappy.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 29, 2007, 17:56:49
HT it's Roger O'Donnell's birthday!
Happy Birthday!!
:smth041 :smth031 :smth035
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 29, 2007, 18:08:36
Thank you AlluivialL,
Iam anti-social because of phobia- I used to and still do hate going out my front door, but thats another story...
got some trees removed, thought it would make it worse and it didnt? Actually more comfortable with the new space..strange thing i know... its hard.
Thank you though.  :)

Cant wait to see Cure Freaks halloween pic's.  :smth023  Happy B'day Roger  :smth048

I also wish i went out all dressed up, but didnt, oh well next time.

Happy now, reading through all the recordings of concerts, etc.  Exciting times while The Cure is touring.  :rocker




Cure Freak~ Thank you i look see :oops:


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on October 29, 2007, 18:10:21
ROGUE, I made a thread, of my Halloween pics, in here hon. :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 29, 2007, 18:21:33
Yes..I haven't left my house in a long time..

and you're very welcome.

I'm not an adult, so I can't just do whatever I want..lol. My parents are fairly strict, and even if I could leave..and go where I wanted, I don't think I could make myself.

Did you remove the trees for more sunshine?..more openness? Heh...I hate sunshine, I have heavy blankets over my windows, in my room. The sun drives me nuts, and being in California and all, it never goes away.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on October 29, 2007, 18:25:41
They made the ground too dry, keep the ones on the other side of driveway- for animals.
But not too much sun either, no way !! i would melt.

putting more plants in soon, after i dig in some fertilizer, smaller plants that are better for dry conditions.

That will be nice.  The openness of the front is nice, seeing the sky when i walk out.

Have a nice day AlluivialL  :smth023

just realized i said nice about 3 times,  :oops:  iam a dag !!   :smth051
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on October 29, 2007, 18:29:23
Have a nice day, as well.


Happy birthday Roger.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 29, 2007, 19:52:57
@ Rogue and Alluvial...found you annoying?
Oh no, you make me feel as i was 17 old :lol: :lol: :lol: :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on October 29, 2007, 22:11:38
My lovely mummy surprised me with cure tickets for Paris!!!! :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on October 29, 2007, 23:21:50
Quote from: Hero on October 29, 2007, 22:11:38
My lovely mummy surprised me with cure tickets for Paris!!!! :rocker
my mother never did anything similar.....what a lucky son
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Yanna Sometimes on October 29, 2007, 23:23:42
Quote from: Hero on October 29, 2007, 22:11:38
My lovely mummy surprised me with cure tickets for Paris!!!! :rocker

Awww my mom doesn't love me. JK.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 03, 2007, 19:37:23
Quote from: Yanna Sometimes on October 29, 2007, 23:23:42

Awww my mom doesn't love me. JK.


IMPOSSIBLE!! us mums are different people.. you get a great one, an average one or a not-so-good-one, but we still love our kids..no matter what.. " over my dead body" I would do anything for my son.. try and beleive this.. i was probably ( some might say DEFINATELY) a troubled teen. You have to get through this, to emerge on the other side as the person you will become.. it takes time.. like a cocoon.. you will be a butterfly one day.. irresistable to all. :smth051

Your mum may not have tickets for Paris, but, does she look after you, feed you,  it's more than some can deal with, after all.. mums are just flawed same as everyone, we try our best.

here's ~hugs~ :smth058

Happy today because ...it's almost 6am and busy listening to the mexico recordings.. hearing the crowd there sing along.. priceless!! thanks J!

Happy today because... I just realised how typically naiive I am in the modern sex education/vocabulary stuff.. in regards to certain lyrics I never really got !  :oops: it makes me laugh..  :smth001  i gotta go on a field trip or something!  :-D


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 05, 2007, 18:20:25
Quote from: psichonaut on October 29, 2007, 19:52:57
@ Rogue and Alluvial...found you annoying?
Oh no, you make me feel as i was 17 old :lol: :lol: :lol: :smth023

-------

Lots of laughs, thats a cute compliment  :-D
-------

EEk its morning already, were does time go....- Happy because its a long weekend and i get to sleep inn  :smth015

p.s. Hero do you think your Mum might adopt me ?  please ? 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 06, 2007, 15:29:32
Quote from: AlluivialL on October 29, 2007, 18:21:33
Yes..I haven't left my house in a long time..


@AlluvialL: me too: boundaries don't just involve parents but mental boundaries. I'm a bit like a vampire.. don't sleep at nite, sleep in the day..
if I don't have nitemares!! :twisted:

Parents just need to know for their own sake that u are safe. First hand experience here! e.g.  I have to make sure my son is SAFE. + I have psychological boundaries that prevent me from going anywhere 'new'. freaky, but true..  :smth100

On topic: happy today   because my son is home again, and I picked 2nd in Melbourne Cup today!! 4th year in a row!!

and.. my migraine   :twisted:  is finally fading, ergo, I can look at the PC without having to lie down.  :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 06, 2007, 16:04:40
Quote from: ROGUE on November 05, 2007, 18:20:25

p.s. Hero do you think your Mum might adopt me ?  please ? 


Haha! My mum has been really nice recently (not that shes horrible normaly just extra nice) but it makes me suspicious  :? and happy obviously!

Im happy today beacuse.... everything is working out, i thought this week was going to be really bad but its turning out to be pretty good, except that i stood on glass and got my feet cut but im still very happy!

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 06, 2007, 16:16:20
I'm a mum.. but I wouldn't mind being adopted by a new mum.

Throughout my life, everybody else's mum seemed better and nicer and kinder than mine.. Still does.. Can I be adopted too?? I ask this to my friend's mum who cooks every week for the whole family.. my maternal mother won't cook for anyone!!

I'm happy things better with your mum. It kills us to think we are  not as great as we want to be, but life stops us from becoming the person we want to be, just as it does for the younger generation...

Response:  just pause and LIVE

Hero: I'm sure your mum is caring for your cut feet because she cares.  :smth058
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: AlluivialL on November 06, 2007, 22:00:43
Bleh...Migraines are the worst things ever. Thankfully I only get about 4-5 a year, but. I have chronic headaches, that are every day. I wish I could go the nocturnal way, but my parents make me get up in the morning, so. I usually end up getting like 2 hours of sleep. I know they need to know I'm safe, but I need some space too?
I think after I graduate I might have Agoraphobia. I practically do, but not severe.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 07, 2007, 19:23:43
Today has been brilliant!
There was a fire at school! In my class too! People were messing with chemicals and then my teacher casually said, you can make a bomb with that mix, then there was a fire in the classroom and two fire engines and the bomb squad ppl were called out and we got to go home early!!!
Then i went shopping and "lullabye" was on the radio in the shop (okay im a bit sad :-D) but it made me smile!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on November 08, 2007, 10:20:25
Quote from: Hero on November 07, 2007, 19:23:43
Today has been brilliant!
There was a fire at school! In my class too! People were messing with chemicals and then my teacher casually said, you can make a bomb with that mix, then there was a fire in the classroom and two fire engines and the bomb squad ppl were called out and we got to go home early!!!
Then i went shopping and "lullabye" was on the radio in the shop (okay im a bit sad :-D) but it made me smile!

Man you're lucky! :smth011 The best thing that happened at my school is when I got my arm broken from some creeep with a hockey stick.  :smth011 :smth011 :smth011

Maybe you're mum is so nice because she wants a christmas present....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on November 08, 2007, 12:46:10
HT..
it's my BF's birthday!

and it's Porl's bithday!!
:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: strange_day on November 16, 2007, 23:46:06
Im happy today because i managed to get tickets to see My Bloody Valentine in Glasgow next year! :-D

More than happy in fact, Dancing like i cant hear the beat and dont give a ffffffffurther thought to things like feet to follow next!  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on November 17, 2007, 11:08:08
HT because I saw BRMC last night & they rocked  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on November 17, 2007, 17:39:59
Happy today because the postal gods smile on me and bestow their blessings upon my mailbox -- I got my Cure tickets for Milan (bought them on ebay a few days ago since it was sold out) and the DVD of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead which I ordered over a month ago! And no bills at all!
What a lovely mail day! :smth081
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on November 17, 2007, 20:40:13
Because I'm here with my dad, my music, and I have you guys here to talk to!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 18, 2007, 08:51:18
Iam simply happy to be back to say hello to everyone, and be out of hospital..  (passenger car accident noone else hurt seriously thank god- OR any superior being/power)

Missed you all  :smth045
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 18, 2007, 09:28:14
Quote from: ROGUE on November 18, 2007, 08:51:18
Iam simply happy to be back to say hello to everyone, and be out of hospital..  (passenger car accident noone else hurt seriously thank god- OR any superior being/power)

Missed you all  :smth045



yes me happy for you too!! :smth058

glad you are okay.. missedya! :smth006
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 19, 2007, 03:07:09
Happy today, after reading a few funny replies!! There are some funny curefans out there, always making me giggle!!  :smth046
always someone to cheer me up!!  :smth023

(At least I think they are funny!!??)  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on November 19, 2007, 12:46:51
Hi ROGUE!
Missed you too and glad to hear you and the othere are okay.

HT..
it didn't snow today, just rain.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 19, 2007, 14:33:39
Thank you Scatcat ~ & ~ CUREFreak ~ and Everyone :smth023, iam very happy to be back in one piece,  missed you all so much, Even tried to get friend to log in,
but couldn't remember my password.

And also find alot of cute and funny answers that make me smile, I always go onto 'Funny Robert' thred in 'something else' and watch the youtube clips
"That ones a cracker" never grows old~ all those clips, and the '80's clips aswell makes me smile.  :D :-D
 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 19, 2007, 14:43:58
here's a picture, I don't know if you've seen it, it's my screensaver at moment. It reminds me of a limited Beatles photo I have, with the fab 4 in a magical garden of foxgloves... I'll try upload it:

hopfully make you dreamy and smiley!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 19, 2007, 14:48:37
Quote from: scatcat on November 19, 2007, 14:43:58

hopfully make you dreamy and smiley!!

Yes! Very dreamy and smiley (even more than normal) Lovely picture a dream of smiles of smiling dreamily - it looks like spring wow i really love spring all the sheep and the flowers with robert smith amoungst them haha!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 19, 2007, 17:53:20
 :smth038  Yes very nice, thank you scatcat, they look like 'corn flowers' but i know they are not, not so blue. (or maybe-ish) :lol:
their not digitalis definately (foxglove) But what ever they are, they surely are dreamy and pretty, very nice.

~trying to be smart for a minute, i know something about plants which is nice finally i know something, even a little  :smth023

Hope LuvUrobert   :smth069  you are okay at this time, we all miss you.  :smth045
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on November 19, 2007, 22:34:05
I'm glad you are okay ROGUE :)
We missed you!

A lovely pictures. Thanks for posting it scatcat. It reminds me of the summer :)

I also hope you are okay LoveURobert and we miss you all  :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 20, 2007, 03:55:52
Quote from: ROGUE on November 19, 2007, 17:53:20
:smth038  Yes very nice, thank you scatcat, they look like 'corn flowers' but i know they are not, not so blue. (or maybe-ish) :lol:
their not digitalis definately (foxglove) But what ever they are, they surely are dreamy and pretty, very nice.



yes, they are not foxgloves,they look like cornflowers!!
:D  the picture i have with the fab 4 have foxgloves!!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on November 20, 2007, 13:31:14
HT..
I found out Siouxsie is coming to NYC, next year. I may go see her.

And missing LuvURobert. also. Hope all is well with her.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on November 20, 2007, 15:49:10
Got a PM from a newbie in Hungary & practised my Hungarian typing.
Not too easy on an English keyboard, but got there.
Welcome anorex76   :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on November 20, 2007, 15:54:54
Quote from: ROGUE on November 18, 2007, 08:51:18
Iam simply happy to be back to say hello to everyone, and be out of hospital..  (passenger car accident noone else hurt seriously thank god- OR any superior being/power)

Missed you all  :smth045


Bl00dy hell. :shock:

Good to hear you are okay there ROGUE.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: anorex76 on November 20, 2007, 22:15:03
thanks for greeting:-)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 21, 2007, 09:19:34
I found out today that from midnight tonight (21st November) there is a "blackout" for all election material!! WooHHOooOO... the election is this saturday... so, we can turn the radio/tv on without seeing and hearing all the babbling bulls*it!! Oh my...what a relief..... :smth023 :rocker :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 21, 2007, 14:27:51
Quote from: melly on November 21, 2007, 09:19:34
I found out today that from midnight tonight (21st November) there is a "blackout" for all election material!! WooHHOooOO... the election is this saturday... so, we can turn the radio/tv on without seeing and hearing all the babbling bulls*it!! Oh my...what a relief..... :smth023 :rocker :-D


This just made me happy!! Switched off the goddamn T.V. because of the campaign blitz and MISSED the fact that there is a blackout!! thanks melly! To the rescue again!  :smth023

I can safely turn on the T.V. now, ... without having nightmares !! :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 22, 2007, 03:42:23
Quote from: scatcat on November 21, 2007, 14:27:51
Quote from: melly on November 21, 2007, 09:19:34
I found out today that from midnight tonight (21st November) there is a "blackout" for all election material!! WooHHOooOO... the election is this saturday... so, we can turn the radio/tv on without seeing and hearing all the babbling bulls*it!! Oh my...what a relief..... :smth023 :rocker :-D


This just made me happy!! Switched off the goddamn T.V. because of the campaign blitz and MISSED the fact that there is a blackout!! thanks melly! To the rescue again!  :smth023

I can safely turn on the T.V. now, ... without having nightmares !! :rocker

Glad to pass on good news!! BUT as far as turning on the TV and not having nightmares... don't, whatever you do, accidently click onto channel 7, Sunday night at 6.30, "There is NOoOO BiNGooo"....*screaming*
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 24, 2007, 10:59:06
poor melly... :(  tortured by bingo.. :smth046
..that made me laugh!!  :D

Happy today for two reasons..
1. got a delivery of a precious new guitar.. the RS-1000  :rocker

2. Elections over and done with!! :evil: 

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 24, 2007, 12:12:38
Quote from: Steve on November 20, 2007, 15:54:54
Quote from: ROGUE on November 18, 2007, 08:51:18
Iam simply happy to be back to say hello to everyone, and be out of hospital..  (passenger car accident noone else hurt seriously thank god- OR any superior being/power)

Missed you all  :smth045


Bl00dy hell. :shock:

Good to hear you are okay there ROGUE.

THANK YOU STEVE  :smth050 yes iam okay, recovering anyway but all is well, thats nice of you.

Is awsum to be back~ felt like a very long time.   :smth023 :smth020

HELLO also to Silversand and CureFreak~ have already said hello but wanted to say it again.  ;)
Luv that pic Scatcat- the cornflowers, ahh in a bed made of flowers  :smth055        ~ ~Hello also  :D Anorex76  :smth006
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 24, 2007, 16:04:01
Happy today because.. well, Its always nice when a plan comes together...especially when it involves glowsticks :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 24, 2007, 17:04:19
 :smth046
Hero?? may I ask what you did with the glowsticks???  imagination running wild here.. please tell me you didn't put them in a blender??!!  :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 25, 2007, 12:44:07
HAHA!! No, no glowing milkshakes...but that could be fun!? :D

Yesterday was one of my friends 18th birthday's but she couldn't have a party or anything because she doesn't get on with her parents. So we decided to have a surprise party but couldn't find anywhere to have it soo........We had a party in the woods!!! We had 1000 glowsitcks and decorated all the trees and lit up the path from her house to the woods (which isnt too far) and we had music and dancing in the forest! It was a little cold but so much more fun than conventional parties.

And i'm happy today because its sunday and its only 30 days until christmas (i feel like one of those christmas loving Who's from the grinch hehe!)


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 25, 2007, 14:38:23
Hero - that sounds lovely nice idea  :smth074 -looking for a glowing stick emo-thingo.  :smth023

Me happy sort of, bit dull actually, but happy is ok with me. :smth050  My neighbors have all gone mad with xmas
decorations, and vegas style over done... but iam the only humbug in the street, just to early, I like candles and
the small fairy lights, but not too much.  Dont think i will bother much with that, i live alone, maybe if i had someone
to help put them up, and take them down...maybe... but ahh sunsets and moons i prefer.  :shock: I still like seeing it all
in the evenings though glowing through my windows. 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 26, 2007, 04:22:01
"HERO"... I read your post, and it made me happy....what a lovely thing you did for your friend! My minds' eye saw it all.. in the woods, the glowsticks, dancing...just beautiful. What a good friend you are.. :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on November 26, 2007, 08:42:31
Quote from: melly on November 26, 2007, 04:22:01
"HERO"... I read your post, and it made me happy....what a lovely thing you did for your friend! My minds' eye saw it all.. in the woods, the glowsticks, dancing...just beautiful. What a good friend you are.. :smth023

Agree completely, it sounds lovely, and friends like you are hard to come by! :smth001

Now I want a glow-stick party in the forest...With a Cure soundtrack, of course! :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 26, 2007, 17:53:49
Hehe! I try to be a good friend...this made up for all the times i've set them on fire! ;)
Now your posts made me happy  :-D

Robiola, there were a few cure songs thrown in! My friends are aware of my "slight" cure obsession and have now realised that they are a good band!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 28, 2007, 03:31:41
Happy today; One of our little dogs, "Jimmy" has a suspicious growth near his bottom, and we were really worried. Cancer perhaps? Just came home from the vets., and all seems ok...just a funny little warty thing they think...no swollen lymph nodes, no internal growth...I looked into his funny little face and told him he was going to be ok...

And FINally, finally, the birds...the ones who swoop me, are using the damned bird bath!!
So..I'm happy... :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 28, 2007, 09:19:08
Hmm..just thought I should add....no, I don't sit around staring at my dogs' bum...his tail curls up and over his back as he is strutting around....easy to spot something not quite right.  I don't know why, but I felt I needed to clarify that... :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on November 28, 2007, 15:07:19
 :shock:  thanks melly.. i did get a sort of visualisation about dogs' bums... ahem..  :smth100

But as a pet owner... never overlook anything out of the ordinary... just like babies ( our pets are our babies too!!)  :smth039
happy today your puppy is okay...  :smth023 

AND congrats on the birdbath dilemma!!  :rocker  they are smart chickies you know..  :D
Happy today .. well most days because of this particular thread and how those who contribute.. give me the only laugh .. sometimes for days..!!   :smth082 :smth050 :smth052 :smth045 :smth005 :smth006 :smth027 :smth026 :smth025 :smth040
Definately a cure for depression!!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 28, 2007, 17:05:14
Melly ~ totally understand the whole staring at the dogs bum thing! hehe! My dog has a curlyish tail too. Glad your doggy is okay! :smth023

Im happy today because i've been watching The Mighty Boosh DVD and its so weird that it makes me deliriously happy. I love Old Gregg the funky hermaphrodite merman who wears a pink tutu and is obsesed with Baileys!
"Im Old Gregg! Do ya wanna come to a club where people wee on each other? D'ya love me? Im Old Gregggggggg!"
Ermmm yea...hehe...Happy as can be! Oh im also happy because i made Rice Krispie cakes yummmmm!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on November 28, 2007, 20:42:09
Quote from: Hero on November 28, 2007, 17:05:14
happy because i made Rice Krispie cakes yummmmm!
Yum indeed! I too am feeling rather satisfied for culinary reasons -- I made cornbread today for the first time in my life and it actually... tastes like cornbread!("I like that in a cornbread" said my sister when I told her. She makes me laugh.) It tastes the way I remember it from 20 years ago when I lived in the States.
And my husband even ate it (he's usually not big on American cooking).
I feel disproportionally proud of myself.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 28, 2007, 21:38:37
Quote from: robiola on November 28, 2007, 20:42:09
Quote from: Hero on November 28, 2007, 17:05:14
happy because i made Rice Krispie cakes yummmmm!
Yum indeed! I too am feeling rather satisfied for culinary reasons -- I made cornbread today for the first time in my life and it actually... tastes like cornbread!("I like that in a cornbread" said my sister when I told her. She makes me laugh.) It tastes the way I remember it from 20 years ago when I lived in the States.
And my husband even ate it (he's usually not big on American cooking).
I feel disproportionally proud of myself.

Wow! GO YOU!! :rocker

But...What is cornbread? Is it just like normal bread but made with corn or um..something else?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: strange_day on November 29, 2007, 03:39:09
Happy today (well tonight really).....

Because i just saw Interpol  :-D

On an actual stage, playing actual songs.

Awesome.  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on November 29, 2007, 06:43:34
Quote from: strange_day on November 29, 2007, 03:39:09
Happy today (well tonight really).....

Because i just saw Interpol  :-D

On an actual stage, playing actual songs.

Awesome.  8)

Good for You  :smth023

Im happy today because i just got back from outstation where i cant surf the net. N now Im ready to roll at this site again with all the curefans.  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on November 29, 2007, 09:49:26
I KNEW it...i just knew it!! That dreadful BINGO thing that was on tv here (We had to have it on, my Mum was staying with us!!) was RIGGED!!! Oh the joy!! It has been exposed as a sham, with very little chance of people at home winning. It has been scrapped, thrown out, never to return!! Ohh..that makes me happy alright..

And thanks to those who mentioned my little dogs' bum, your concern was very touching..of course, I am now obsessed with looking at the "thing" on his bot, he sees me coming and sits down..I pat his head and slowly make my way to his rear end, and he twirls around quickly and sits, staring at me.. hehe smart dog... Oh well, takes my mind off the...birdbath.... :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on November 29, 2007, 12:12:48
Quote from: Hero on November 28, 2007, 21:38:37
But...What is cornbread? Is it just like normal bread but made with corn or um..something else?
Kind of...It's a southern thing, kind of like soft crumbly bread made with corn flour, but richer then regular bread. I don't know, Thanksgiving last week put me in sort of an American food mood.
Happy today because (this is gonna sound weird) my son and I didn't feel too well last night so today we skipped work/school. Now we feel ok and we're spending the day together at home, with a lot of snuggling and cuddling on the couch surrounded by our cats. :smth057
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 29, 2007, 15:32:11
Quote from: robiola on November 29, 2007, 12:12:48
Happy today because (this is gonna sound weird) my son and I didn't feel too well last night so today we skipped work/school. Now we feel ok and we're spending the day together at home, with a lot of snuggling and cuddling on the couch surrounded by our cats. :smth057

That sounds cute  :D   Is cold there at the moment ?

Iam happy because my friend the possum has found another little possum friend, who has been watching us outside for weeks. Now it has enough courage it comes very close, most curious of me, but is too skinny looking,

So i been feeding it, I know i shouldnt, but only once a week!!, And no more.  But its not as if iam going away or anything.

We have had birds that wonder around starving after someone feeds them, and suddenly stops and i then get stuck weening them off., If you are aware of this, and make sure they still do normal things it is not so bad.
I wont be patting her though. Never know if she might trust someone,  when she shouldnt.  (i know got the blabla's)

Anyway made me happy she can teach my sweet possum friend things i can't.  :smth050 :smth051



Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on November 29, 2007, 15:42:21
Quote from: ROGUE on November 29, 2007, 15:32:11

Anyway made me happy she can teach my sweet possum friend things i can't.  :smth050 :smth051


Awwww ROGUE that is soooooooo cute, little possum friends!

Im happy today because Thursdays are usually really crappy and boring so i decided they would be the perfect day to dress up for school. So today i wore a multicoloured tutu, silver leggings, fairywings and a pink leopard print cowboy hat! I love freaking people out. My best friends wore similar things and the teachers got really scared  :shock:
They think we have gone mad....sadly that happened long long ago  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 29, 2007, 15:50:37
Thats cool, bet the teachers thought, "ohh my god, its a mutiny !! ahh what do we do? they could kill us  :lol: dont want them thinking too much  :?"
"unless we tell them to, of course  :roll: ahh the color ahhhh STOP !  :shock:"  lol

Attack of the killer fairy, tutu girls  :twisted:  :-D :smth043

p.s. thanks Hero, yes it is so cute watching them sus each other out.




edit~ good to hear Steve  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on November 29, 2007, 17:02:40
HT because I have finally got rid of the spyware (hoooooooorah!)
PC is running like a dream now. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on November 29, 2007, 19:12:38
Quote from: ROGUE on November 29, 2007, 15:32:11
we're spending the day together at home, with a lot of snuggling and cuddling on the couch surrounded by our cats. :smth057

That sounds cute  :D   Is cold there at the moment ?
[/quote]

Yes, it's cold and foggy today, that's the beauty of it. Snuggling-on-couch-with-kid-and-cats was expressly invented for days like this.

Wish I could see your little possum buddies, they must be adorable.

Edit: I don't know why I can't get the quotes to work right.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on November 29, 2007, 23:28:28
Quote from: Steve on November 29, 2007, 17:02:40
HT because I have finally got rid of the spyware (hoooooooorah!)
PC is running like a dream now. :-D
nice to hear that, Steve :smth023
I wait you on MSN these days ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on November 30, 2007, 19:31:46
Happy i found this awsum sweet video, very similar to my little friend,     :smth050
and is very cute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc1joMX5wGI  -watching it reminded me and the guy sounded
really caring, So made me happy.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on December 01, 2007, 13:32:47
Quote from: ROGUE on November 30, 2007, 19:31:46
Happy i found this awsum sweet video, very similar to my little friend,     :smth050
and is very cute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc1joMX5wGI  -watching it reminded me and the guy sounded
really caring, So made me happy.

I'm overwhelmed by cuteness!  I want a possuuuuuuuuuuum!!!! :smth026

Though I'm not sure how my cats would react. :o
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 02, 2007, 05:06:24
Have just finished stringing xmas lights along the roof line of our home. My darling man, up that tall ladder, patiently placing them "just right"...NO..over to the right a bit..down a little more...to the left to the left...that's it!!.. hanging them from the gutters, all the way to the opposite end of the house. Then, on a young eucalyptus tree which was sickly and laying on the ground when we moved in, we have placed more lights to sparkle and dance through its now strong branches. I step back, smiling, as we test them, make sure they work, and can see a faint twinkle in the daylight. We have no small children, they are men and women in their own right now, but I know the little kids around will see these lights and they will love them! We have them on a "timer", to come on at sunset.. We didn't do this last xmas, just moved in, way too exhausted and stressed to even care...but..this xmas, if I can make one little child stop and look in wonder at our small, yet pretty display, then I will be happy. And that makes me feel good....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on December 02, 2007, 16:17:36
Thanks Robiola~ they pretty cute and very clever too., but that video was a bit too long.  My dog loves the possum when she is away he worries about her, but the rest of the time they are typical brother and
                         sister, hassling each other.  Nice when they come together when frightened. But rarely they show that side.
                         In the night the possum sneaks in and to wake me up, opens and closes the bedroom draws shut, and if that doesnt work she goes and flushes the toilet about 20 times.  :lol:  too clever.

Ohh I love seeing the kids go mad accross the road to see the x-mas lights. But when the parents drive away they always smash into my letter box  :? It is a fullon display so i imagine they are rendered blind.
Really love to have those fairy lights, they're nice.  I love the small and pretty ones, that leave a little to the imagination, with some shadows and little lights, their nice and magical, mystical looking.
But the guy across the road is vegas-maniac.  :smth042

Also love Hero's forest idea, with the glow sticks, that sounds so magic aswell.  :smth050

Iam happy today, I heard from a friend that i missed.  :D :smth006 :smth050
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on December 02, 2007, 17:20:42
Wow ROGUE your possum stories never fail to cheer me up! :-D
Im happy for a similar reason today, I got a letter from some friends in New Zealand, I havent spoken to them since i left 6 months ago and it was so nice to hear from them. Made me miss New Zealand a bit though because they said its nice and sunny there and today in England once again we have torrential rain and thunder storms just like this summer. I can't even tell if its summer or winter in this country anymore, the weather is so weird :? i wish it would snow! (sorry for the whinge about weather, its just what british people do!)
But i am still happy! And happy about christmas and ADVENT CALANDERS! And my friends horsey had a baby!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on December 02, 2007, 21:13:31
Aside from an otherwise gloomy and depressing day alone, you guys made me feel much better with your kind support over in the annoyance thread.

I thank you guys for that!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on December 03, 2007, 14:39:04
C Visor~ you are welcome~iam sure i speak for everyone, and thank you also,  I like the permanent-type Karma. (Although appreciate that so much.) :smth045
Thats what makes me feel good, you know, the one noone can take away.  (Not whinging or anything.) 

:smth050 Iam happy because today there was a dog running mad on the road, frightened from storm and growling at people, Was nice i could help and
approach the dog, give him a pat- eventually, Poor thing was just so scared.  thought he would get run over. And every one else kept chasing him.  :?

Good to know we are each good at something. :D

And that always make me feel nice, and reassures me, knowing what iam here for.  Knowing iam good at something.  :D

Hero~ thats nice, have you seen the fowl yet ?(did i spell that right, Baby horse, incase i didn't)  little cute thing all shakey on its legs- thats gorgeous  :shock: :smth050
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on December 03, 2007, 15:11:55
Quote from: ROGUE on December 03, 2007, 14:39:04
Hero~ thats nice, have you seen the fowl yet ?(did i spell that right, Baby horse, incase i didn't)  little cute thing all shakey on its legs- thats gorgeous  :shock: :smth050

Its foal hehe, but yes i was there when it was born, well i actually ran away but i was around... its very cute and grey and its called Lily. Its got sort of wonkey legs though...but still cute as a button!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on December 03, 2007, 15:29:22
Wow i would love to see and help in the birth of a foal~ thats so cute, and watching it nuzzle mom for milk :smth050  :smth064
YEY that is so cute,  i wonder how long after birth does it stand up? you are so lucky to be there to see this little miracle :smth038

wonder if i can find foals on youtube ?  baby cute things,  :D  learning to run and stand,  eee so cute

Thank You Hero~ thats so nice to think about  :smth007
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 05, 2007, 04:26:16
As some of you may know, I was having quite an issue with a birdbath in my back yard..it actually drove me manic, and reduced me to peering through the windows, adding branches to it, and sending telepathic messages to the birds, whom may I add, sat on the fence or in the tree just looking at said birdbath. To my partners horror, I became somewhat obsessed by the bloody thing, fretting over why OH! why weren't the birds partaking in the cool water on offer?? WELL...I am happy and quite delighted to report that after a couple of weeks, all the birds are using it!! whew.. I can stop grinding my teeth in my sleep now... Every morning, there is a family of Murray Magpies, beautiful little black and white creatures,scratching around the garden, the young ones demanding their parents give THEM those grubs!! They drink and bathe in the birdbath,and it makes me smile... The little Sparrows, nuggety, brown and brave, frequently dive into it, quenching their thirst then leaving as quickly as they came.... beautiful, shining Blackbirds also find their menu in our yard, and in the middle of a hot, still night, as we lay there, unable to sleep, we hear their song, and it somehow calms us and we drift back to slumber.... the Honey Eaters who miraculously hang from flowers gathering the sweetness, bathe in the cool water, flitting in and out, splashing water everywhere...and it makes me smile..... two wild Doves, the male bobbing up and down, doing his special dance, trying so hard to impress the female, who looks bored and ignores his advances, take a sip from the birdbath...
I am so glad we bought it... and now, it makes me happy....(even IF the Doves are using it as a "pick up" joint !!!)...it makes me smile....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on December 05, 2007, 16:14:01

:smth038  Good to hear, Melly ~ Yey finally.  Cheeky buga's watching you the whole time.  :shock: Its so nice and will attract alot of birds to your garden.
Glad you are full-on about it, makes me smile too.  :smth050 that they will never go thirsty.

Just wait soon a honey eater will be flaunting itself infront of your window, Thinking  'who is this attractive male, I cant get rid of him'  and he will fight and impress himself for hours  :lol:
trying to out-do the 'other' male in the window.  Cute.   ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on December 12, 2007, 08:49:14
Monday's Led Zep gig is on dime & zomb already  :shock: :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on December 12, 2007, 17:48:52
Quote from: Steve on December 12, 2007, 08:49:14
Monday's Led Zep gig is on dime & zomb already  :shock: :-D
Wow... that was quick!
I myself was very glad this morning when I read that the concert was good -- I was afraid it was going to be one of those sad they-ain't-got-it-no-more deals, and that would have been so painful....

So, happy today because Led Zep still ROCKS!!!! :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 14, 2007, 09:38:28
Now, at the risk oh having 3 "mellys" in a row in this section...
I am SOOO happy... about an hour ago ( it's 7p.m. here) it started RAINING!!
real rain, not a drizzle that dries out before it hits the ground...the sky is as black as black, and it's forecast to belt down overnight and tomorrow... ohhh..what a relief....this drought we are having is bringing the state to its knees..rain is like pure gold to us.....

we have some...and it makes me happy.... :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on December 14, 2007, 15:39:20
I'm taking a day off from school at my mom's request. I have had a horrible week and have been crushed at school, so I need the break.

That's enough to lift my spirit!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on December 14, 2007, 17:28:06
Quote from: Carnage Visor on December 14, 2007, 15:39:20
I'm taking a day off from school at my mom's request. I have had a horrible week and have been crushed at school, so I need the break.

That's enough to lift my spirit!  :)

Thats great having a day of school! Have a great weekend :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on December 15, 2007, 07:59:38
Quote from: Carnage Visor on December 14, 2007, 15:39:20
I'm taking a day off from school at my mom's request. I have had a horrible week and have been crushed at school, so I need the break.

That's enough to lift my spirit!  :)

thanks great CV! I love it when my son stays home and we have a really good relaxing day, especially when things have been stressful.

I'm happy today because it has finally cooled down a bit here... it has been sooo HOT, unable to sleep.. so tonite will be sweeet!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on December 16, 2007, 16:34:11
HT beacause my little boy came home soo happy!!  :smth001 (he wil always be my little boy). I said 'what about a hug?'... and he grabbed the biscuit-tin and gave it a hug!!?? then.. of course I got a sqeezie one right after that!~  :smth020  he's a classic comedian !

after this annus horribilus ( horrible year).. things are looking up for the holiday season.  :smth023

my spirit soars whenever he is happy!! :smth059
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on December 16, 2007, 17:33:29
Quote from: scatcat on December 16, 2007, 16:34:11
HT beacause my little boy came home soo happy!!  :smth001 (he wil always be my little boy). I said 'what about a hug?'... and he grabbed the biscuit-tin and gave it a hug!!?? then.. of course I got a sqeezie one right after that!~  :smth020

Isn't it the best thing in the world to see them smile? :D

Pretty glad today because this morning at 5.15, on my third morning shift in a row, suffering horribly from lack of sleep, I had a customer who said to me "How lovely to find someone so nice and helpful and smiling at this horrible hour". It's nice to be appreciated once in a while, especially at an hour when I mostly just hear grunts!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 17, 2007, 01:29:44
Happy today cos later this week, we're heading to the "big smoke" (Adelaide!!) for xmas..it's a 400 kilometre round trip, but the BEST thing is...I will see my "boy" too..all 6'1" of him... :smth058.... we'll catch up with close friends we left behind, see my funny little mum ( some things that she says just make me laugh, unintentionally!) my gorgeous, brave sister ( going through a living nightmare re her hubby..so sad) my partners parents ( no doubt another hot debate with his father; bigotry and narrow mindedness at its worse!!) my "step-kids" ( two are really nice, the other is a shithead) but the very thing that makes me smile, lightens my mood and feeds my soul is being with my beautiful, funny, loving son. I miss him, but we keep in touch...but to wrap my arms around those broad shoulders, to sit and talk, and talk and oh! how he makes me laugh, to hear all his news, to see that handsome face, so intense at times, when he talks of troubles some of his friends may be having ( he has known most of them since he was 3 years old!) then breaking out into that wide, kind smile when we speak of the funny things which have happened to him over the last few months; I soak up his being, his presence, as we will be coming home after a short while, and he will be the last person I seek before we do, to get one more hug, one more laugh, to hear him say "love ya mum" as he drives away... amongst all the whirlwind of my life, the sadness and the happiness, the one thing that is constant, unwavering and strong..is the love and pride I have of my son......he makes me happy... :smth045  today and every day...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on December 19, 2007, 02:04:09
I'm proud to say that I love my mom. I hug her all the time, and (this is humiliating) when my friend was sleeping over, we got in a huge fight and I went and slept in her room.

NO, I am not a wimp, I was just raised to be very affectionate. It doesn't do me any good around my guy friends, because they call me gay. But when I have a girlfriend, I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

I am happy today because tomorrow is a half day of school, followed by a regular day, and I get Friday off! And then Christmas break from then on!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 19, 2007, 03:33:41
And I am proud of YOU Carnage Visor, for being honest and open about the love you have for your Mum.. your friends are probably jealous of your relationship with her, ignore their silly taunts!!
You know, I can't think of ONE of my sons friends who would be embarassed or ashamed to give their Mums a hug...and these are guys in their late 20's now ... (yeah yeah, I'm an old fart!! haha)
I read your post, and it made me happy... good on you...you're a nice person.. :smth023

OH!! enjoy your holidays too!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on December 19, 2007, 21:42:13
Quote from: melly on December 19, 2007, 03:33:41
And I am proud of YOU Carnage Visor, for being honest and open about the love you have for your Mum.. your friends are probably jealous of your relationship with her, ignore their silly taunts!!
You know, I can't think of ONE of my sons friends who would be embarassed or ashamed to give their Mums a hug...and these are guys in their late 20's now ... (yeah yeah, I'm an old fart!! haha)
I read your post, and it made me happy... good on you...you're a nice person.. :smth023

OH!! enjoy your holidays too!!

Hey, thanks! That's very sweet! I surely will.  :smth001

I am 16 though, so I don't consider you old!   :smth023


Hmmm...I feel I need to regain some sort of masculinity :oops:, and the girly signature isn't helping...jk
:-D lol
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 20, 2007, 07:22:08
NO no no...don't change a THING Carnage Visor!!  You make me laugh..I just read your post in "What do you want for xmas"....now, that's some list!!
and it made me laugh..
Now, I'm not "buttering" you up here, but when you're happy, you are so funny, and I enjoy reading your posts, cos sometimes, we all need a laugh!!
You have quite a way with words for someone so young...
thanks...for making me feel happy.. :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on December 20, 2007, 17:22:24
Quote from: Carnage Visor on December 19, 2007, 02:04:09
I'm proud to say that I love my mom. I hug her all the time, and (this is humiliating) when my friend was sleeping over, we got in a huge fight and I went and slept in her room.

NO, I am not a wimp, I was just raised to be very affectionate. It doesn't do me any good around my guy friends, because they call me gay. But when I have a girlfriend, I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

Hey there CV.. You are perfectly normal!! 
I have an absolutelty HUGE KING sized bed.. and ( my son would probably shy from telling his school friends this..) but i love it when he's on holidays.. and he jumps into my bed,he brings his 'teddy', and I have my 'leppy' ( the leopard'.. AND also our Cat climbs aboard).. it is just like when he was a newborn.. us mums love it.. he is getting a bit old I know, but.. loves the security from me, his mummy.. AND I know he will make a girl very happy when he is grown up, into a very mature young man. Without a father figure around.. MUMS do just fine in protecting and making sure their children feel safe and secure in the love that is without words.  :smth023

I take pride in my son , who is an intelligent teenager now, but with compassion to all those who are suffering..animals, humans, rainforests, environment, and he has great respect for his parents. He doesn't ALWAYS shy from holding my hand in the street, but he loves me, I know.. I can reduce him to jelly with a tickle in the right spots!! And the smile in return is what I live for.  :smth020

Have a great Christmas CV..  ;)

What made me happy today, other than my beautiful son, a day of laughing and fun,,.... just saw that in Melbourne BLACK BOOKS is back on the ABC at 8.55pm Wednesday nites..although I have the whole 3 series.. my digital-top-box-thingy is broken,... so need a new DVD and digital top box AND a new HDTV... will it never end???

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on December 20, 2007, 18:42:49
I'm very happy today because earlier i got bored and decided to cut my hair and now it looks cool again! And its decorated with various bits of ribbon and charms  :rocker
And its now the christmas holidays so no homework! (Actually i have to revise for exams in january but eh!)
5 days to go!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on December 20, 2007, 23:14:59
Thank you guys! I actually feel like I got alot off me old chest!

I hate to brag, but I get tomorrow off, (my bro and sis need to go to school tho! sorry for them) and I am really relaxed. It feels like I just fell onto a crate full of hypodermic needles and then drank ten gallons of highly-caffienated energy drinks! It's a great/odd feeling.

Since my dad and mom split up, the bond between me and my mom has become greater, I always bring along my IPOD and share with her all the forgotten post-punk mp3s I find, gothic rock bands, and hardcore punk from the early 80s, and she likes it!!!

I'm glad you like my siggy too...She looks so cute and sweet in that picture, I can't bring myself to change it. Girly or not!  :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU GUYS!!!   :D

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on December 21, 2007, 13:33:44
SAW "OVER THE HEDGE" TODAY
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on December 21, 2007, 14:36:36
Quote from: Janko on December 21, 2007, 13:33:44
SAW "OVER THE HEDGE" TODAY

Brilliant innit?
My fave bit is the when he treads on the dvd remote & that THX thing starts playing for what seems like an inordinately long time.
:smth043 :smth082 :smth044
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on December 21, 2007, 16:12:58
I LOVED THE ROTTWEILER CHASE SCENE AND THE SCENE WHEN THE GANG ENCOUNTERS THE PERSIAN CAT FOR THE FIRST TIME...

:-D

ANYBODY SEEN 'THE BEE MOVIE' ?!
ANY GOOD?

:?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on December 21, 2007, 16:31:35
Quote from: Janko on December 21, 2007, 16:12:58

ANYBODY SEEN 'THE BEE MOVIE' ?!
ANY GOOD?

:?

no, because I heard the reviews, and it is more of a Bee- rated flick!!  :-D  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on December 21, 2007, 22:51:58
Quote from: Janko on December 21, 2007, 13:33:44
SAW "OVER THE HEDGE" TODAY

I love that movie. I bought the DVD (supposedly for my son) and we've already watched it quite a few times -- cracks me up.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 29, 2007, 05:14:29
Quote from: scatcat on December 21, 2007, 16:31:35
Quote from: Janko on December 21, 2007, 16:12:58

ANYBODY SEEN 'THE BEE MOVIE' ?!
ANY GOOD?

:?

no, because I heard the reviews, and it is more of a Bee- rated flick!!  :-D  ;)

It's shite. pure and simple.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 29, 2007, 06:02:58
Happy today... we are home, after our journey to Adelaide for Xmas.. had 2 xmases, one with my partners family, one with mine...works well really. Caught up with friends, ate way too much, had some champagne with my sister,slow danced with her dying husband,( it will be his last xmas), saw my niece, her partner and 2 gorgeous kids ( saw them a year ago, they live in Melbourne) laughed, talked, hugged... But we are home, and it's a nice feeling.After the frenetic lunacy of Adelaide, it's nice to come home to our town.. which is buzzing with tourists, hundreds of them!! Ahh, but they help keep our little place alive!! It's freaking boiling outside ( we are having a few days of 100 degress plus!) but I am sat here, with a juicy ice-block ( don't let it drip on the keyboards!! BbBZzzZZZ PPffTTTT..there goes melly!) air conditioner on ( so cool) my partner snoozing on the lounge, two little dogs snuggled into him....the test cricket is on ( Aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi !) and all is peaceful. And it makes me feel happy.... :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on December 29, 2007, 20:58:40
Hey there, welcome back Melly :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 30, 2007, 02:03:52
Thankyou Robiola, nice to be back... your welcome home made me feel happy, so we're not going off topic here!! ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on December 30, 2007, 16:42:51
welcome back, melly.

i'm congratulating myself for finally leaving the church today - so from today on, i am an official atheist, i'm not a member of any sort of religious community.
i like that.
(besides, i don't have to pay the silly religious tax from now on. suits me!)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on December 30, 2007, 21:24:37
Happy because this year is going to finish in one day...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on December 31, 2007, 00:19:37
Quote from: japanesebaby on December 30, 2007, 16:42:51
(besides, i don't have to pay the silly religious tax from now on. suits me!)

you pay a tax for belonging to a church? how's that? :S
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on December 31, 2007, 01:07:55
This is not unusual i think. We have to pay here in Germany also religious tax.
You don't have to pay a religious tax in Peru David? Thanks for your answer in advance. If you don't have to pay it, you are really lucky :). I'm also an atheist, but i pay the tax.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on December 31, 2007, 01:28:15
Quote from: dsanchez on December 31, 2007, 00:19:37
Quote from: japanesebaby on December 30, 2007, 16:42:51
(besides, i don't have to pay the silly religious tax from now on. suits me!)

you pay a tax for belonging to a church? how's that? :S

"you took the words right out of my mouth..." ( meatloaf)  ;)

Quote from: silversand on December 31, 2007, 01:07:55
I'm also an atheist, but i pay the tax.

this I can't understand either?? where does the money go to then??
we have no taxes here... even if you're an athiest!!
happy I don't have to pay a tax... what if I created my own church... do I collect taxes ??? that would be cool!!  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on December 31, 2007, 01:36:25
Quote from: silversand on December 31, 2007, 01:07:55
This is not unusual i think. We have to pay here in Germany also religious tax.
You don't have to pay a religious tax in Peru David? Thanks for your answer in advance. If you don't have to pay it, you are really lucky :). I'm also an atheist, but i pay the tax.

90% people is chatolic in Peru and I've never hear about paying taxes. Of course people can donate to the church, but that's not mandatory.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on December 31, 2007, 09:13:53
& that's why they are one of the richest institutions in the world.
Remember that the next time they ask for money to repair the roof or buy a new stained glass window. :smth011
Thou shalt not steal?
Gimme a break  :roll:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on December 31, 2007, 09:22:39
A tax?? For belonging to a church?? That's just ridiculous!!! Does the church receive this money, or the government?? wow, I've heard of everything now!!!

Happy our government/churches don't have this...wouldn't affect me at all, (I'm not even christened..the Church Of England refused the person my parents chose as my god-mother as she was a catholic!! So Mum and Dad said "forget it"!!) but there are thousands of people that would be... I shake my head...money grabbing at it's best!!  :smth012
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on December 31, 2007, 11:50:14
Disintegration would be "honored" to pay a tax for belonging to a church... :lol:

Ok, I go before he arrives here... :oops: :smth075 :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: disintegration on December 31, 2007, 11:58:20
Quote from: Lady on December 31, 2007, 11:50:14
Disintegration would be "honored" to pay a tax for belonging to a church... :lol:

Ok, I go before he arrives here... :oops: :smth075 :-D
:shock: :smth043 Incredible.....  :smth078 :smth021
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on December 31, 2007, 15:52:11
Quote from: dsanchez on December 31, 2007, 01:36:25
90% people is chatolic in Peru and I've never hear about paying taxes. Of course people can donate to the church, but that's not mandatory.



Thanks for your answer David :)



You are all so lucky you don't have to pay the tax for the church. I think the tax is for the state to get more money :). The tax is 8 %.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on January 01, 2008, 02:53:25
Quote from: Lady on December 31, 2007, 11:50:14
Disintegration would be "honored" to pay a tax for belonging to a church... :lol:

Ok, I go before he arrives here... :oops: :smth075 :-D

Happy today because...Lady really made me laugh!!   :lol:

Also happy today because I've realised yet again how lucky I am to have the friends I have and to live where I live.  I invited my small group of great friends over for New Years Eve last night.  I live in a gorgeous little rented house in a gorgeous little tree-lined street with a great view of Sydney Harbour from the end of the street.  About 1/2 hour before the 9pm fireworks were due to start, the lovely old lady who lives in the street (she's in her 90s)came to my door and invited us all over to watch the fireworks from her front yard, then made her way to the house next door to invite them along as well.  I was so touched by her generosity as she knew I live alone and so does the lady who lives next door.  It also gave my girlfriend's 6yo step-daughter a chance to watch her first Sydney NYE fireworks from a great spot!!  There's just something sooo special about watching the fireworks with a little person and surrounded by great people!!

Sorry to babble on, but it just made me sooo happy!!   :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 01, 2008, 09:49:35

Nooo sues777... you're not babbling..that's fantastic, what a wonderful night you must have had!! And what a lovely, kind and generous elderly lady... makes me happy that you had such a special time, and also the gesture from the lady is just simply heartwarming...    :smth054
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on January 01, 2008, 11:23:07
Thanks Melly!!   Yes, it was a great night.  :D 
There are some truly special people around - a lot of them hang out here! :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on January 01, 2008, 12:03:36
Happy today because last night we went to a party (we usually stay home on New Year's Eve, but this was a kids-included party so we went) and had a surprisingly good time! We watched fireworks from the rooftop and it was lovely, fireworks all around everywhere you looked so that you hardly knew which way to turn, my son loved it and so we started the new year happy together laughing ourselves silly.
So now I'm off to work with a hangover, but it was worth it!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on January 01, 2008, 15:48:15
Happy today beacuse i had a really good New Years Eve! Its really great being 18, i got to go to a fancy dress party at this transvestite club. It was a blur of feathers with  a drag show every hour it was a lot of fun. Then at midnight we watched the fireworks in manchester.
I hope everyone else had a great night :-D
Sues777 - That sounds amazing, new year at Sydney Harbour, i bet it was magical!
Robiola - glad you had a good time too!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 02, 2008, 10:04:13
Happy today because we have a reprieve from the soul destroying heatwave..it's only lasting 2 days, then we are back to 40c (around 105 f)..but today, I opened all the windows, doors, letting the beautiful breeze cleanse the house.. we were able to spend time in the garden, the little birds flitting about, not sitting on the fence, their little beaks open, gasping.. I didn't have to refill the bird bath 5 times today ( as I do when it's really hot)... we were able to play with the dogs outside, enjoying the respite from the blistering heat..sitting out, with the sea breeze wafting through the back yard, cool, relaxing, not the hellish winds we have been having... so, so nice.....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 04, 2008, 11:45:52
Happy today because I've just known that I'm going to start a new job on monday!!! :rocker

New year, new life, uhuh!!! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on January 04, 2008, 12:05:09
Quote from: Lady on January 04, 2008, 11:45:52
Happy today because I've just known that I'm going to start a new job on monday!!! :rocker

New year, new life, uhuh!!! :-D

Great news Lady. Congratulations. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 04, 2008, 15:57:12
Quote from: Steve on January 04, 2008, 12:05:09
Quote from: Lady on January 04, 2008, 11:45:52
Happy today because I've just known that I'm going to start a new job on monday!!! :rocker

New year, new life, uhuh!!! :-D

Great news Lady. Congratulations. :-D
Thank you!!!
Can't wait for monday!!! :D

Now I could surf curefans.com from my office, too, eheheh!!!!! ;)

Just one problem: I really hope to obtain holidays for the concerts in february-march!  :?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 04, 2008, 16:19:02
Good Luck Lady!!   :smth023

as for the concerts and taking time off, maybe some tropical virus??  or  some serious personal time-off??
( we all know how imporatant it is to attend The Cure's concerts, for our general wellbeing !!)  :smth020


~edit~   (happy today because my teenage son has officially 'left the building' for a few days !!)  ssshhh..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on January 04, 2008, 16:48:22
Quote from: Lady on January 04, 2008, 15:57:12
Just one problem: I really hope to obtain holidays for the concerts in february-march!  :?
I'll write a telegram from Bologna saying I'm an old sick aunt in urgent need of assistance from my only living relative -- that would be you of course.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 04, 2008, 17:14:56
Quote from: robiola on January 04, 2008, 16:48:22
Quote from: Lady on January 04, 2008, 15:57:12
Just one problem: I really hope to obtain holidays for the concerts in february-march!  :?
I'll write a telegram from Bologna saying I'm an old sick aunt in urgent need of assistance from my only living relative -- that would be you of course.


hehehe... I thought of something like this... but I didn't want to attract bad karma!!
it would definatley work,...  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 04, 2008, 19:36:34
Thanks to everybody...even for your precious advices!!! :smth023 :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on January 04, 2008, 20:26:12
An old friend who had ditched me in 7th grade without word is now writing to me on Facebook, and apologizing for everything. Perhaps we can hang out soon.

Who knows?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 04, 2008, 20:28:43
welcome back from hollies CV!! really happy to hear that ur New York adventure was just that!!  :smth023

mmmwwwhhaaa  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on January 04, 2008, 20:30:53
Quote from: scatcat on January 04, 2008, 20:28:43
welcome back from hollies CV!! really happy to hear that ur New York adventure was just that!!  :smth023

mmmwwwhhaaa  ;)

Thanks! Thanks for thinking about me!!!

I'm also quite happy because I found a little shop and bought some strange movies and a "BREAKFAST CLUB" poster...

How was yalls' holiday season/new year???  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: disintegration on January 05, 2008, 13:53:32
Quote from: Lady on January 04, 2008, 11:45:52
Happy today because I've just known that I'm going to start a new job on monday!!! :rocker

New year, new life, uhuh!!! :-D
I'm happy for you, my love!
For the concert no problem!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 05, 2008, 18:43:14
Happy today... well... just that most days, the only time I smile or laugh, or even a little giggle.. sometimes bringing on the happy tears...   :D  ..is here on curefans..
OMG there are some funny people here!! Maybe not intentionally, but I am quite isolated, and it helps me see the lighter side of life and appreciate the ultimate bond the human race has...
to live every day, and enjoy!!  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on January 05, 2008, 19:34:50
Called someone "daft" & made them laugh.
You know who you are you loony. ;)
x
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 10, 2008, 09:47:01
Happy today....we ( my fella and I ) worked like dogs yesterday, laying new carpet in our lounge room...saved $100 a METRE in doing it ourselves...so, take down the ornaments, candles which sit on the huge TV cabinet, which also had to be moved...the lounge suite, chairs (big too!) coffee table etc.etc... clean all the skirting boards, wash the floor ( just vinyl was down)...he cut it, nailed it, put the trim on...took most of the day to get things back to normal...me, being limited in the old strength department, pushed myself to the limit...he with the sore back and knees after doing such a fabulous job...we fell into bed last night, exhausted...but happy...and to walk out here this morning, and see the beautiful, new carpet, made possible by some-ones generosity, made me smile from ear to ear...no biggy, I know, but now, after a year, we aren't walking on horrid old vinyl... my home is taking shape...a very nice feeling...   :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on January 10, 2008, 12:03:07
Happy Today because Exams are over YEY! I am so relieved, i havent slept for weeks trying to revise because my teacher got sacked because he didnt know what he was teaching. I never realised that i cared about grades so much. Results arent till march but at least i can do more fun things again like sleep and go out.  :-D
I think a party (cure music ofcourse) is in order to celebrate... now just to find somewhere to have one...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 13, 2008, 23:29:31
Happy today 'cos I was snooping in my son's room, just to look for a bookmark.. he has a whole collection somewhere... and I opened up his 'armoir' ( where he keeps all his very special things that I not allowed to touch!!) .... to find a photo of me, ( thanks here Steve  ;)) his "loony" old mum. It is a photo I haven't seen in years, one where I am happy & smiling, before I became unwell. What a precious boy.

:smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 20, 2008, 09:33:58
one day last week, a neighbours' 13 and a half year old daughter came to the door, and in between " oh, this is sooo embarassing" asked if I had a spare onion! Her Mum was cooking tea, cut an onion open, and it was rotten inside...  I told her to come inside, but " I don't want to interupt you" was the reply...I rummaged around in my pantry, and found the required vegetable, one left... with "thanks, this is sooo embarassing", I told her to tell her Mum not to bother replacing it, as we have a vegie garden...well, a couple of days passed, and the young girl was at our door, and I could see she had 2 onions in a bag...I opened the door, saying "Nooo, you don't need to replace it!!"...but she thrust the bag, and a card, into my hands and skipped off...Now, this single Mum and her girl are lovely people, Mum works,so we only really see her if she's doing a bit of gardening on the weekends, usually as we are taking our two little dogs for a walk, and we always stop and have a chat.... Now, this hand made card, obviously done by the daughter had " Thanks a lot", and a ribbon on the front..inside, it reads.." To our lovely neighbours, thanks for all your help, Love,...then their names.." We have always offered any help to this little family, ( as with any of our neighbours) if they ever need a hand with anything...and have, on a couple of occasions, been able to realise our promise.... but, to be given this lovely hand made card, over a "lend" of an onion, made me feel really good, and I broke into a smile...such simple things, put together with thought and kindness, can make such a difference... and it made me happy...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 20, 2008, 12:12:52
Quote from: Hero on January 10, 2008, 12:03:07
Happy Today because Exams are over YEY! I am so relieved, i havent slept for weeks trying to revise because my teacher got sacked because he didnt know what he was teaching. I never realised that i cared about grades so much. Results arent till march but at least i can do more fun things again like sleep and go out.  :-D
I think a party (cure music ofcourse) is in order to celebrate... now just to find somewhere to have one...
:D :smth023 :rocker
I think "Doing the unstuck" is the perfect cure-song for this occasion!! :-D
I always listen to it when something good happens in my life!!!! :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on January 20, 2008, 19:50:06
Ah, so you see melly...you neighbor-karma balances out in the end.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 21, 2008, 08:48:51
Quote from: robiola on January 20, 2008, 19:50:06
Ah, so you see melly...you neighbor-karma balances out in the end.

yes, it does..... everyone around here is really nice, always happy to have a chat, and we all help each other out, one way or another..there is just one person who takes and never gives back, but hey, that's life..... makes me happy to have such good human beings around us....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 21, 2008, 17:57:31
Quote from: robiola on January 20, 2008, 19:50:06
Ah, so you see melly...you neighbor-karma balances out in the end.

buddhists believe that the closer you are to 'enlightenment", the quicker the returning 'Karma'  :smth023

Quote from: melly on January 21, 2008, 08:48:51

..there is just one person who takes and never gives back, but hey, that's life.....

does this refer to real-life , or this forum? curious  :?

HT: because I finally got some sleep!! ( insommnia is a curse)  :smth011
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on January 22, 2008, 06:35:04


NoOOooo not here!!! In real life...everyone here that I have encountered is just lovely.... a neighbour ( you know WHO) doesn't know how to "give back", just take, take, take...I find that very sad, for her, but, that's her choice....

Happy today cos the tennis is on, and Rafael Nadal is playing right this minute... makes an old gals heart skip a beat........ :smth047
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on January 22, 2008, 23:19:47
Ugh! The KARMA talk again!!!  :lol:

I'll stop there... :eek:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 23, 2008, 17:01:08
well, happy today ... or rather a bit freaked out in a good way... my server was down for 5 hours Monday nite, and I had to reset all settings etc... anyway, since then, I can now see that the emoticons that I've been using... actually MOVE!!
Also, I can see animations in iwannshagsimon's signature  :smth023
also Cure Freak and C.V.. just to mention a few.. oh and JB's  unbelievable!! :smth045  I feel like I'm trippin'!!  ;)

I think, upon realising that the emoticons actually move, I may have been unaware of what I have posted!! So sorry to anyone who may have got the wrong impression from my little rolly faces or expressions!!  :smth039
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 23, 2008, 19:43:44
Happy today because after a long wait I received my curefans t-shirt!!!!! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on January 25, 2008, 18:02:11
Hey scatcat...I have the same problem. I dont really know how to utilize the smilies to their full advantage, so I think people misunderstand my intentions...I always thought the rolly-eyes guy was like a playful thing...like "Oh, you silly head!" something like that...but I guess it's more like,"Whatever, loser"...

Please, I only mean well!  :) See, that smiley indicates all is well.

:-D That indicates that I'm really happy or something cheered me up.

:lol: All that means is that I think something is funny.

There, no more conflict!  8) (That one is like, "Peace and love")
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 26, 2008, 17:09:21
Quote from: Carnage Visor on January 25, 2008, 18:02:11
I always thought the rolly-eyes guy was like a playful thing...like "Oh, you silly head!" something like that...but I guess it's more like,"Whatever, loser"...
I've noticed there are different ways to use rolly-eyes ( :roll:) here....for istance I use it to indicate something that makes me dream, or something good I'm waiting for..so it has a positive meaning for me...I don't know if this is right and I really hope people understand what I wanna express!!! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on January 27, 2008, 13:26:42
HT.. well, it is a public holiday tomorrow.. for the celebration of Australia Day ( which was actually on Saturday)  ;)

I get an extra relaxing day with my boy.  :smth041
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on January 28, 2008, 01:33:28
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_Kerviel

GO JEROME!!!

:D :D :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on January 28, 2008, 12:02:12
happy today because me and my mum bashed each other up with stiks in the backyard.  :smth023 8) 8) :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on January 31, 2008, 14:41:26
HT..
Depeche Mode will be making another album!
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on January 31, 2008, 18:07:34
February is starting!!!!!!!! :D

Still less than 1 month to go before the show in Rome..... :roll: ;) :smth007
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on February 01, 2008, 09:06:13
we are off to Adelaide (again)... cannot wait to see my lovely "boy", my dear little Mum, my beautiful sister ( whom we are staying with)...and whoever else we can catch up with...but most of all, I'm so looking forward to seeing my son...I miss him, of course I do, so I make the most of our visits...and he has a new lady in his life, and he is very happy...which makes his ol' mum happy too!! so nice to feel like this... :smth050 :smth038
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on February 01, 2008, 09:45:17
Quote from: melly on February 01, 2008, 09:06:13
we are off to Adelaide (again)... cannot wait to see my lovely "boy", my dear little Mum, my beautiful sister ( whom we are staying with)...and whoever else we can catch up with...but most of all, I'm so looking forward to seeing my son...I miss him, of course I do, so I make the most of our visits...and he has a new lady in his life, and he is very happy...which makes his ol' mum happy too!! so nice to feel like this... :smth050 :smth038
...You're not going to be one of those scary mother-in-laws (mothers-in-law? dunno)
are you???? I doubt it.... I'm so afraid I'll fall into the no-girl-is-good-enough-for-my-baby trap when my Daniel is all grown up....!!
Anyway, have a great time. :-D
Me, I'm happy today because I got my curefans t-shirts! And may I say -- I look kinda hot in the girlie one.... Shows off cleavage nicely. :roll:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on February 01, 2008, 09:57:02
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 09:45:17

You're not going to be one of those scary mother-in-laws (mothers-in-law? dunno)
are you???? I doubt it.... I'm so afraid I'll fall into the no-girl-is-good-enough-for-my-baby trap when my Daniel is all grown up....!!
Anyway, have a great time. :-D
Me, I'm happy today because I got my curefans t-shirts! And may I say -- I look kinda hot in the girlie one.... Shows off cleavage nicely. :roll:


hahaha noooo...I have kept my mouth shut ( I KNOW, amazing, isn't it?) when he has dated some other girls whom I really didn't like, just a "gut" feeling I had about one or two of 'em... of course, when it didn't last, I THEN gave my opinion, and usually, we agree!!  I think this one will be aok.... he is truly happy....

OoOOoo la la!! * wolf whistle*  you sexy thing you!!   :smth047   and to have cleavage to show off.... now Im jealous...  :smth089
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on February 01, 2008, 11:49:51
Quote from: CureCrusader on January 28, 2008, 12:02:12
happy today because me and my mum bashed each other up with stiks in the backyard.  :smth023 8) 8) :smth023

:shock: :shock: :shock:
Had to read this twice & then had a "coffee/ keyboard" moment.
:smth043 :smth042 :smth046
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 01, 2008, 13:19:02
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 09:45:17
...You're not going to be one of those scary mother-in-laws (mothers-in-law? dunno)
are you???? I doubt it.... I'm so afraid I'll fall into the no-girl-is-good-enough-for-my-baby trap when my Daniel is all grown up....!!

hey robiola!! I am gonna be one of those frightfully horrid mother-in-laws! I know it!
I have told my son how it will be... he's not to leave home, not to get married (at least until he's 35!!) I have the screening process all ready to go...  :smth023
I know i wouldn't live through him having a broken heart... oh.. if they would only stop growing up!!  :(

But.. I have to say this- though I may think i will be a scary mother-in-law, my son has a very admirable strong will, and likes to make his own mind up + choices.. so .. I'll probably melt..   :smth089

I am Happy today, as I have my ipod up and running... which BTW ONLY has Cure songs... hahaha  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on February 01, 2008, 13:29:33
Quote from: scatcat on February 01, 2008, 13:19:02
I know i wouldn't live through him having a broken heart...
Well, that's easy enough to deal with...you just pound the sh*t out of the little sl*t -- ehm, I mean, it's all a part of the growing-up process.

Quote from: Steve on February 01, 2008, 11:49:51
Had to read this twice & then had a "coffee/ keyboard" moment.
What be that? :smth017
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on February 01, 2008, 19:29:20
Quote from: scatcat on February 01, 2008, 13:19:02
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 09:45:17
...You're not going to be one of those scary mother-in-laws (mothers-in-law? dunno)
are you???? I doubt it.... I'm so afraid I'll fall into the no-girl-is-good-enough-for-my-baby trap when my Daniel is all grown up....!!

hey robiola!! I am gonna be one of those frightfully horrid mother-in-laws! I know it!
I have told my son how it will be... he's not to leave home, not to get married (at least until he's 35!!) I have the screening process all ready to go...  :smth023
I know i wouldn't live through him having a broken heart... oh.. if they would only stop growing up!!  :(

But.. I have to say this- though I may think i will be a scary mother-in-law, my son has a very admirable strong will, and likes to make his own mind up + choices.. so .. I'll probably melt..   :smth089


Well I won't ever have to worry about what type of  mum in law. I'll be. I can't have any more children.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on February 01, 2008, 20:19:07
Quote from: Cure Freak on February 01, 2008, 19:29:20
Well I won't ever have to worry about what type of  mum in law. I'll be. I can't have any more children.
So sorry Cure Freak. And sorry that our joking around reminded you of something sad.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on February 02, 2008, 10:02:28
happy today cos when we come back from Adelaide ( 400 kilometer round trip) some very dear friends whom we haven't seen for quite some time are coming to stay in the caravan park down the road, to see us... really looking forward to it... just what I need I think....

Quote from: scatcat on February 01, 2008, 13:19:02

But.. I have to say this- though I may think i will be a scary mother-in-law, my son has a very admirable strong will, and likes to make his own mind up + choices.. so .. I'll probably melt..   :smth089


exactly..!!  you just gotta sit back and let them be... it's hard sometimes, but hey, we all did it!! although I must admit, the girl with the piercings down the back of her neck made me look twice!!   :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 02, 2008, 10:58:56
Quote from: melly on February 02, 2008, 10:02:28

although I must admit, the girl with the piercings down the back of her neck made me look twice!!   :shock:


WTF!??  :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on February 02, 2008, 16:36:39
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 20:19:07
Quote from: Cure Freak on February 01, 2008, 19:29:20
Well I won't ever have to worry about what type of  mum in law. I'll be. I can't have any more children.
So sorry Cure Freak. And sorry that our joking around reminded you of something sad.
no worries hon.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 02, 2008, 16:49:12
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 20:19:07
Quote from: Cure Freak on February 01, 2008, 19:29:20
Well I won't ever have to worry about what type of  mum in law. I'll be. I can't have any more children.
So sorry Cure Freak. And sorry that our joking around reminded you of something sad.

sorry CureFreak..  :( I'm not very happy now.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on February 02, 2008, 18:38:37
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 13:29:33
Quote from: Steve on February 01, 2008, 11:49:51
Had to read this twice & then had a "coffee/ keyboard" moment.
What be that? :smth017

Drinking coffee whilst typing & suddenly exploded with laughter at said quote.
Can be expensive you know.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on February 02, 2008, 20:17:22
Last weekend my friend called me up and told me that he found an IPOD video classic (80 gigabytes).

He really did, and now I have it! I am really surprised at him, it's such a kind gesture on behalf of a friend. It's even more memory than his own IPOD has, and yet he decides to give me this one.

I am happy as a clam!!!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on February 03, 2008, 12:33:19
Quote from: Steve on February 02, 2008, 18:38:37
Quote from: robiola on February 01, 2008, 13:29:33
Quote from: Steve on February 01, 2008, 11:49:51
Had to read this twice & then had a "coffee/ keyboard" moment.
What be that? :smth017

Drinking coffee whilst typing & suddenly exploded with laughter at said quote.
Can be expensive you know.
Ah yes, I see... I once had a vegetable soup/keyboard moment... It was gross.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: ROGUE on February 03, 2008, 15:45:20
HAPPY TODAY  :smth023

SIMPLY OBLIVIOUS ~ And Big HELLO to everyone who wants one  :smth020  did miss you,
but only you  :roll:  Yeh ok didn't miss a thing
:smth047  thanks to recent correspondence, but manners prevail  :roll: OMG I MISSED YOU ALL :smth078    :smth048 :smth047 :smth043 :smth058  joking joyce

p.s. Hey CureFreak-  :D luv your avatar as usual, but that one looks like Simon says to Robert "That guys a wanker", and Robert then checks the guy and laughs in reply :)
    Hope you are having a Great New Year and all that. :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on February 03, 2008, 16:38:00
ROGUE!!!!! :D
Very happy to see you again, welcome back, we missed you!!! :smth001  :smth049
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on February 03, 2008, 20:03:55
Quote from: ROGUE on February 03, 2008, 15:45:20
HAPPY TODAY  :smth023

SIMPLY OBLIVIOUS ~ And Big HELLO to everyone who wants one  :smth020  did miss you,
but only you  :roll:  Yeh ok didn't miss a thing
:smth047  thanks to recent correspondence, but manners prevail  :roll: OMG I MISSED YOU ALL :smth078    :smth048 :smth047 :smth043 :smth058  joking joyce

p.s. Hey CureFreak-  :D luv your avatar as usual, but that one looks like Simon says to Robert "That guys a wanker", and Robert then checks the guy and laughs in reply :)
    Hope you are having a Great New Year and all that. :smth023

Welcome back sweetie!
Missed you. Was about to post MIA thread on you.
:smth002

thanks hon. yes, they do look like they are.
:lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on February 03, 2008, 22:25:15
ROGUE!!!  :smth006

Happy your back :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on February 04, 2008, 00:22:25
Hello ROGUE it's great that you're back!  :smth039
Missed you here :)
Hope everything is okay with you :)


cheers
silversand
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: LuvURobert on February 04, 2008, 05:14:28
Happy today because you are back, Rogue!!  So glad to see you, me little Karma Jockey!  We've missed ya lots!   :smth045 :smth050 :smth048
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on February 04, 2008, 09:16:56
@ Rogue
I thought you were gone for good, but I am glad to see I was mistaken.
Welcome back. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 04, 2008, 11:05:52
Quote from: robiola on February 04, 2008, 09:16:56
@ Rogue
I thought you were gone for good, but I am glad to see I was mistaken.
Welcome back. :)

:smth039
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 18, 2008, 13:29:36
HT .. because I found my new glasses!!   :smth045

I can see, I can see, I can see  :smth026
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on February 18, 2008, 14:27:36
Quote from: scatcat on February 18, 2008, 13:29:36
I can see, I can see, I can see  :smth026
it's a miracle :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on February 18, 2008, 22:04:02
It's my birthday!

I am turning sweet sixteen!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: psichonaut on February 18, 2008, 22:12:15
Quote from: Carnage Visor on February 18, 2008, 22:04:02
It's my birthday!

I am turning sweet sixteen!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Happy Birthday mate
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 18, 2008, 23:07:58
Quote from: Carnage Visor on February 18, 2008, 22:04:02
It's my birthday!

I am turning sweet sixteen!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

MMMWWWHHHAAAAHHH    :smth050  big kisses..   :smth058
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on February 18, 2008, 23:18:27
Quote from: scatcat on February 18, 2008, 23:07:58
MMMWWWHHHAAAAHHH    :smth050  big kisses..   :smth058

Thanks, pal. I feel great!

I'm holding off my party until next week, there's just so much I want to do!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 20, 2008, 13:53:52
HT: because my son wants to join up to greenpeace and become a vegetarian!!
(he soo takes after me.. at the same age ,13, i wanted to do the same..)
he actually wants to be a vegan : no animal products at all.
thank god my speciality is vegeatarian foods!

when he was born, my family teased me that i would turn him into a vegetarian.. but he's made this choice on his own!  :smth023

he doesn't like the fact of where meat comes from, and feels sorry for the animals. ( even fish and chicken!)
the tough thing is.. his Dad has no idea how to prepare vegetarian foods.. cos I used to cook them when we were married.  :roll:

so.. tofu on the menu starting next week, he already doesn't drink cow's milk, or eat eggs.

also one other thing: @melly.. we had tonnes of rain here yesterday/last night, so things are cooling down a bit here.. hope it does for you too.. in this "sunburnt country" of ours!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on February 21, 2008, 10:21:32
good on your boy!! There are so many delicious vegetarian dishes, you are only stunted by your imagination...it's NOT like what a lot of people think, just lentil burgers and celery sticks.!!.. yummy food that's so good for you too!


Rain?? what's that?? It  has gone right around us...not a drop...a drip..... nothing.... the earth is parched....the farmers are walking off their land.... :smth011

BUT I'm happy today...my "boy" is truly in love...he has told me he will be asking his girlfriend to marry him before too long.... and she has a little boy, only 5 years old...he adores my son, and when I saw them together when we were in Adelaide, it brought a lump to my throat... I am so proud of the man my son has become..... makes an old gal happy...... truly does... :smth050 :smth045
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on February 21, 2008, 15:33:30
Quote from: scatcat on February 18, 2008, 13:29:36
HT .. because I found my new glasses!!   :smth045

I can see, I can see, I can see  :smth026
I bought new amazing glasses, too!!!What a coincidence, ahahah!!!  :D
I'm so happy because these are the best glasses I ever had!!!! :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on February 21, 2008, 16:11:06
Quote from: Lady on February 21, 2008, 15:33:30
I bought new amazing glasses, too!!!What a coincidence, ahahah!!!  :D
I'm so happy because these are the best glasses I ever had!!!! :-D

I spent a small fortune on new frames and lenses ( i am long-sighted )
I have a focusing problem.. my eyes just get too tired and I can't read for too long, ( i have trouble reading and writing for too long without them!)
but my new glasses ..trendy new frames picked out by my bambino.. so i feel really cool now.  :smth023

I misplaced them.. and really happy i did find them hiding under a pile of books!!
I think mine are the best i've had so far.. i just supposed to wear them more often.. especially when on computer and when i get tired!!
:D :D :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on February 24, 2008, 20:23:37
I met some amazing people last night & got shedded with them.
Marika, Stef & Fabian.

Unforgettable. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on February 25, 2008, 07:48:23
I'm just happy! I just got a new poster of Dead Kennedys from my friend yesterday, and we went to see "BE KIND REWIND"  :-D

For some reason, I felt really hateful and depressed about myself yesterday. I wanted to kill myself, and I felt there was no way out of my miserable life and that I was never going to make it anywhere!!! :shock:

BUT THEN!

I realized that it was because I hadn't taken my perscription meds that morning (and skipping a day puts me into a wild mood swing, just like the album), and so today I took an extra pill and I've felt great all day...a tad tired at the moment, but that's because it's past 12.


P.S. Just to clear things up, I don't "abuse" meds or anything. I take what the doctor perscribes for me. I don't want anyone to get worried, thinking I'm a rapid pill-popper! (although I made it sound like I was didn't I? lol) :)

Peace.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on February 27, 2008, 13:21:36
 :D Happy today because I got perfect marks in History, Science , French and Chinese!!

I can pat myself on the back for knuckling down and applying myself!!
I feel good!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on February 27, 2008, 13:23:31
Going to Rome tomorrow.
Can't wait :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on February 28, 2008, 09:25:27
Quote from: CureCrusader on February 27, 2008, 13:21:36
:D Happy today because I got perfect marks in History, Science , French and Chinese!!

I can pat myself on the back for knuckling down and applying myself!!
I feel good!  :smth023

WELL DONE!!!!  sounds like hard work to me ( but I am of the age where my brain just flops about inside my head now!) and you SHOULD be proud of yourself!! :smth023 :smth023
fabulous...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on February 29, 2008, 05:02:45
Happy tonight because I get Monday off!

It's been a hectic week...a kid I go to school with was diagnosed with Cancer. (He'd been missing from school for a few months) and a teacher's husband died. I will write about that in the sadness board for those who want to grieve with me.  :cry:


So, not the kind of week I like to have at school. I was overcome with sadness and dread, a feeling spreading through the school like an epidemic. I hope he's alright, he was a great guy!

But the Monday Off somehow makes that feel better...somehow...in the back of my mind. Time to recouperate and get my head straight. Peace, everyone!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on February 29, 2008, 14:42:06
Hey CV sorry about your friend and your teachers husband, i hope you feel better soon. A long weekend will deffinatly help  :smth023

Im very very very happy today because i'm going to see Siouxsie tonight :-D Aghhh im so excited... I've got hours to wait and i'm stuck in school for nearly 3 hours but i'm so happy :-D :-D :-D I think im about to explode of excitment, God knows how hyper i'll be at The Cure :shock:

Anyway.. happy Friday everyone!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on March 01, 2008, 01:32:10
Happy Friday!!! ("Friday I'm In Mutual Acceptance")  ;)

Well, as I stated in the "Sad Today" thread, all is well with the student who was diagnosed with cancer. He's back in school, and seems to be doing just fine. I hope his treatment goes well!  :)

Today, as well, I got a discount at the local market on a 12 pack of COKE. The lady just said, "You know what? I'll let you borrow the [extra change] today."

They've been pretty good with letting me off the hook when I'm a few dimes short!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on March 02, 2008, 13:38:11
HT: got the weekend home, then away again.
great to see my gatto ( cat).. and my son..  :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on March 02, 2008, 13:44:15
Happy today because... I'm going to the concert in Milan tonight! My husband and I had been planning it since November, and then 10 days ago everything started to go wrong: from work they said they wouldn't give us the day off they'd promised us, then when we fixed that my husband had other problems (of a personal nature, I won't go into it now), then a few days ago --car trouble (we were going to drive up), then we both got the flu, now I'm better but my husband isn't so I made plans with a friend who would take his ticket and get us to Milan by car, then yesterday she called me and told me she was running a fever.... Aaaargh! As of this morning at 10 I still didn't know if I would make it to Milan tonight! I was really depressed. But now it looks like everything is ok and in a few hours I should be there, if nothing else goes wrong!
Please wish me luck.... Somebody up there doesn't want me to go this concert...?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on March 02, 2008, 13:58:04
Quote from: robiola on March 02, 2008, 13:44:15
Please wish me luck.... Somebody up there doesn't want me to go this concert...?

wish you luck! and just don't pay attention to the man upstairs (that is if he's even there... at least i know what i think of that...) - i hope you get to go and be there!  :smth023


you know what happened to me when i was about to leave to hamburg concert (15th february)? well i bet you wouldn't believe...
ok, something TOTALLY unimaginable happened, something that shoudn't have been possible,  which is that i missed my plane in the morning of 15th - that's right, i did! the plane was going up in the air and i was on the ground! oh god!  :smth087
and ok, it was my own stupid fault completely, i don't blame it on anyone. but just imagine if i was shocked...  because i was not just about to miss the concert in hamburg  but also the one in berlin as this was a combined trip. that was a pretty awesome feeling, sitting there and thinking like "oh my....!!!!". and of course i had booked cheapest possible economy plane tickets which means that you cam't change/switch flights. so i lost all the money on those original tickets, both there and back again... "oh, just what i needed!" *sarcastic tone* and by the way, if you might wonder, no i'm not a rich person, not at all... so it was a complete catasptrophy also financially.
but against all odds, i made it to hamburg in time. and hey just don't ask me what it cost me - but i made it!
and i remember standing in the crowds there in hamburg and hearing the distant bells of'plainsong' starting up. i remember thinking "it was worth it, it was worth it...". i really had no difficulties to enjoy that gig, i can tell you. :)

that was surelyso  a horror story in the making there - i hope we get no more of them!
and i hope everything works out the best way for you!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on March 02, 2008, 14:14:46
Jb, it gives me chills to think how much you must have spent to get to Hamburg after you missed your flight (I work in an airport, I see these things all the time).
But if you made it, I can make it too! And since it's been so difficult, I personally think I should be rewarded with the elusive Faith encore we've all been waiting for here in Italy. But really, it's my first time -- they can play anything and I'll be happy. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on March 02, 2008, 14:55:41
Quote from: robiola on March 02, 2008, 14:14:46
Jb, it gives me chills to think how much you must have spent to get to Hamburg after you missed your flight (I work in an airport, I see these things all the time).

it was damn awful situation and if one thing is for certain it's that i must make sure it will NEVER happen to me again! i'd like to keep it as onece-in-a-lifetime experience...

i always end up having these quarrels with god... :sigh:
the man upstairs: "japanesebaby shall not go to hamburg and berlin!" :twisted:
me: "shut up - and watch this!" :smth019
:-D


ok, it was a lot of money, some of my friends here at home told me it was madness... but like someone told me there in hamburg, the money i sepnt will be just water under the bridge after time passes. but if i had given up and accepted my fate and stayed home, i know i might have regretted it for the rest of my life... so it was not an option.


i hope you get your 'faith'.  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 02, 2008, 15:59:29
Got home in 1 piece from Rome & have to say that Marco (psichonaut) & his wife (Terry) were a delight to spend time with (even when Marco nearly got arrested for climbing on the St Francesco statue :oops:.
I wanna go back.
:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: terry on March 03, 2008, 01:13:54
Quote from: Steve on March 02, 2008, 15:59:29
Got home in 1 piece from Rome & have to say that Marco (psichonaut) & his wife (Terry) were a delight to spend time with (even when Marco nearly got arrested for climbing on the St Francesco statue :oops:.
I wanna go back.
:smth023
i need an explaination
(http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t127/psichonaut/Roma074.jpg)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 05, 2008, 13:19:25
That crazy man of yours.
I should just say that seconds later, the police pulled up & demanded Marco's ID papers etc.
Wasn't serious at all & Terry & I didn't take a picture of the police grilling Marco.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Carnage Visor on March 06, 2008, 05:18:21
Tomorrow, I am staying home. My school feels they need to punish me with countless sentences in dentention for stealing apples from the Daycare contained within our school building...Come on, they're just apples! And not to mention, today I went apesh**, was kicking lockers, swearing, shouting, and I toppled over a trash bin on my way out, followed by a sweet "F&^# You ALL!" before I stomped out the front door.

See what that place does to me? I'm so docile and sweet when I'm not there, but those kids, the teachers...they drive me insane! They're so hateful and rude and one-sided...it's like being in first grade again.

After telling a teacher to F-Off, I don't really want to go back anyway, I'll have to face the sentences in dentention. I guess hiding out like a fugitive isn't a good idea either, but at least I won't feel like I'm being tortured.

I've mentioned before how ignorant, prejudice, and obnoxious my peers are...but it's gotten worse (one in particular, the others are mostly my friends). This kid will jump at any opportunity to insult me to my face, even in front of teachers. I could be completely silent, minding my own business, and he'll get in my face and say, "HELLO, FREAK! YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS! YOU'RE SUCH A NERD!"

And when I retaliate, he gets all defensive and scared and says, "Teacher! He's picking on me!" WHAT A LITTLE PRICK!  :smth011

My mom thinks they are being ludicrous, therefore is granting me a day off! YAY!  :-D
Sorry if I upset anyone.

I'd never snap at you guys though, love ya!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 06, 2008, 19:50:10
Off to Lisbon tomorrow.
Hope to meet JB for a drinky :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on March 06, 2008, 19:55:31
Quote from: Steve on March 06, 2008, 19:50:10
Off to Lisbon tomorrow.
Hope to meet JB for a drinky :-D
(is turning green from envy) How many shows are you doing Steve?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on March 07, 2008, 11:03:26
Quote from: Steve on March 06, 2008, 19:50:10
Hope to meet JB for a drinky :-D

Lucky guy 8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: j on March 07, 2008, 13:48:47
Quote from: Carnage Visor on March 06, 2008, 05:18:21
Tomorrow, I am staying home. My school feels they need to punish me with countless sentences in dentention for stealing apples from the Daycare contained within our school building...Come on, they're just apples! And not to mention, today I went apesh**, was kicking lockers, swearing, shouting, and I toppled over a trash bin on my way out, followed by a sweet "F&^# You ALL!" before I stomped out the front door.

See what that place does to me? I'm so docile and sweet when I'm not there, but those kids, the teachers...they drive me insane! They're so hateful and rude and one-sided...it's like being in first grade again.

After telling a teacher to F-Off, I don't really want to go back anyway, I'll have to face the sentences in dentention. I guess hiding out like a fugitive isn't a good idea either, but at least I won't feel like I'm being tortured.

I've mentioned before how ignorant, prejudice, and obnoxious my peers are...but it's gotten worse (one in particular, the others are mostly my friends). This kid will jump at any opportunity to insult me to my face, even in front of teachers. I could be completely silent, minding my own business, and he'll get in my face and say, "HELLO, FREAK! YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS! YOU'RE SUCH A NERD!"

And when I retaliate, he gets all defensive and scared and says, "Teacher! He's picking on me!" WHAT A LITTLE PRICK!  :smth011

My mom thinks they are being ludicrous, therefore is granting me a day off! YAY!  :-D
Sorry if I upset anyone.

I'd never snap at you guys though, love ya!  ;)

Carny:

Take a step back and relax.  I know it is hard not to retaliate, but don't do it.  It just fuels their desire to push your buttons even more.  The best way to shut them up is to strive to do better in life than them.  There is one guy that used to pick on me furiously growing up.  Finally in 8th grade I snapped and beat the living shit out of him.  Anyway, I see him around periodically, and let's just say that he is definitely in a lower class of society than me (to put it bluntly).  I take great satisfaction in that (even if it does seem a bit elitist!)

A prime example is related to hockey.  I guy slashes you with his stick, you retaliate and slash him back.  95% of the time, you will get the penalty because the ref saw the reaction, not what provoked it.  Unfair, yes, but that is the way it is.  Life is alot like that as well.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: shel1971 on March 08, 2008, 04:39:56
My boyfriend loves me, it snowed in Texas in March, and Robert Smith and The Cure are stll making music!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on March 09, 2008, 03:57:57
Airfare to home to Adelaide, South Aus for my niece's wedding $x,
my niece's wedding present $x,
catching up with 3 generations of my family at the wedding - priceless, BUT
listening to my dear, 80 year old dad trying to sing along to Friday, I'm in Love while we were getting ready - one of the most priceless moments ever.... :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on March 10, 2008, 00:08:27
I'm happy today because i just got home from Crufts (the biggest dog show in the world) i was there for 4 days and my dog came second in her agility competition :-D 
But that happiness was short lived when i had about 30 emails from the same person who won't take a subtle hint like "F*ck off I'm not interested" and keeps trying to make me like him when he even admitted himself that he looked like a rat :smth011
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on March 10, 2008, 03:00:33
Quote from: sues777 on March 09, 2008, 03:57:57
Airfare to home to Adelaide, South Aus for my niece's wedding $x,
my niece's wedding present $x,
catching up with 3 generations of my family at the wedding - priceless, BUT
listening to my dear, 80 year old dad trying to sing along to Friday, I'm in Love while we were getting ready - one of the most priceless moments ever.... :-D

:smth036  hehehe;  a brilliant 'american Express' advert.. priceless. :smth045

sues777  you should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, to have grandparents. To me, priceless.  :smth002
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on March 10, 2008, 03:13:06
Quote from: Hero on March 10, 2008, 00:08:27
I'm happy today because i just got home from Crufts (the biggest dog show in the world) i was there for 4 days and my dog came second in her agility competition :-D 
But that happiness was short lived when i had about 30 emails from the same person who won't take a subtle hint like "F*ck off I'm not interested" and keeps trying to make me like him when he even admitted himself that he looked like a rat :smth011

:smth006  yay for the competition hero

:smth040  and for the creep admitting he looked like a rat! [ sounds like a stalker there] just say you know a blackbelt in taekwondo & i'll defend you if required
:smth027

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on March 10, 2008, 14:21:17
Quote from: CureCrusader on March 10, 2008, 03:13:06
:smth006  yay for the competition hero
:smth040  and for the creep admitting he looked like a rat! [ sounds like a stalker there] just say you know a blackbelt in taekwondo & i'll defend you if required
:smth027
Thanks! :-D :-D :-D :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 11, 2008, 08:33:40
Received a beautifully captured rendition of "happy birthday" which really put a smile on my face.
*not my birthday btw*
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on March 11, 2008, 22:26:07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on March 12, 2008, 13:22:59
Quote from: Steve on March 11, 2008, 08:33:40
Received a beautifully captured rendition of "happy birthday" which really put a smile on my face.
*not my birthday btw*
:-D

...but soon yeah?  :-D :-D

Happy today because i got a day off school.
but then, not truly happy because my mum is sick, and I looked after her all day .  :cry:

but we had a whole day together. that was good.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on March 12, 2008, 19:48:08
(http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/03/06/svBUSH_wideweb__470x263,0.jpg)


:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on March 13, 2008, 12:21:55
Quote from: CureCrusader on March 12, 2008, 13:22:59
Happy today because i got a day off school.
but then, not truly happy because my mum is sick, and I looked after her all day .  :cry:

but we had a whole day together. that was good.
Hey CureCrusader - I'm sorry to hear your mum is sick...but I'm glad you're happy you could spend the day together.  I think it's lovely you spent the day looking after her   :smth023
I hope your mum gets well soon!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on March 13, 2008, 19:20:33
Quote from: CureCrusader on March 12, 2008, 13:22:59
Quote from: Steve on March 11, 2008, 08:33:40
Received a beautifully captured rendition of "happy birthday" which really put a smile on my face.
*not my birthday btw*
:-D

...but soon yeah?  :-D :-D

Happy today because i got a day off school.
but then, not truly happy because my mum is sick, and I looked after her all day .  :cry:

but we had a whole day together. that was good.



A day of at school is always great :D



I'm sorry that your mum is sick CureCrusader.
Hope she will get well soon :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: CureCrusader on March 14, 2008, 02:43:29
Quote from: Janko on March 12, 2008, 19:48:08
(http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/03/06/svBUSH_wideweb__470x263,0.jpg)


:-D

I'll guess with this- George Bush finally learnt to walk?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 16, 2008, 17:40:42
I arranged to get some of my better bootlegs remixed into 5.1 audio dvds.
:D
Looking forward to the reults
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 17:55:17
Quote from: Steve on March 16, 2008, 17:40:42
I arranged to get some of my better bootlegs remixed into 5.1 audio dvds.
:D
Looking forward to the reults

I've never understood how one can take a simple stereo mix and magically transform it into 6 channels...

:?:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on March 16, 2008, 18:03:29
Quote from: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 17:55:17
Quote from: Steve on March 16, 2008, 17:40:42
I arranged to get some of my better bootlegs remixed into 5.1 audio dvds.
:D
Looking forward to the reults

I've never understood how one can take a simple stereo mix and magically transform it into 6 channels...

:?:

me neither. i saw a guy advertising this on another forum and i was just scratching my head  :smth017
because i never saw anyone being able to turn a mono recording into stereo either...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 16, 2008, 18:25:29
Quote from: japanesebaby on March 16, 2008, 18:03:29
Quote from: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 17:55:17
Quote from: Steve on March 16, 2008, 17:40:42
I arranged to get some of my better bootlegs remixed into 5.1 audio dvds.
:D
Looking forward to the reults

I've never understood how one can take a simple stereo mix and magically transform it into 6 channels...

:?:

me neither. i saw a guy advertising this on another forum and i was just scratching my head  :smth017
because i never saw anyone being able to turn a mono recording into stereo either...

I was curious also. So I arranged to send some stuff to see what he can do.
I'll keep you posted how it turns out.
TBH my AV amp simulates surround sound from stereo sources & it is quite good for concerts with all the crowd atmosphere.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 16, 2008, 18:29:04
Quote from: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 17:55:17
Quote from: Steve on March 16, 2008, 17:40:42
I arranged to get some of my better bootlegs remixed into 5.1 audio dvds.
:D
Looking forward to the reults

I've never understood how one can take a simple stereo mix and magically transform it into 6 channels...

:?:

I just thought about this a bit more.
Some DVDs of really old films have had the old DD5.1 treatment somehow.
All the old James Bond films for instance.
& then look at something like The Wizard of Oz. Is there not a DTS version of this?
I don't think the original had anything more than a mono soundtrack either.
Some seriously good gadgets needed there methinks.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 19:24:30
Quote from: japanesebaby on March 16, 2008, 18:03:29because i never saw anyone being able to turn a mono recording into stereo either...

Actually, this has been done quite a lot with stuff from the '50s and '60s...

By the same token I've also heard a lot of complaints about these fake stereo mixes. Unfortunately I don't know of any specific examples, and I've never had the opportunity to compare the before and after results.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 16, 2008, 21:29:29
Quote from: lostflower4 on March 16, 2008, 19:24:30
Quote from: japanesebaby on March 16, 2008, 18:03:29because i never saw anyone being able to turn a mono recording into stereo either...

Actually, this has been done quite a lot with stuff from the '50s and '60s...

By the same token I've also heard a lot of complaints about these fake stereo mixes. Unfortunately I don't know of any specific examples, and I've never had the opportunity to compare the before and after results.

TBH the sound on the James Bond (earlier) movies is not the best on the DVDs.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on March 18, 2008, 14:54:38
Got a ticket (standing) for Wembley on Thursday night :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on March 18, 2008, 16:18:30
(http://www.popboks.com/img/albumi/rebelstar.jpg)


I FOUND THIS BAND - REBELSTAR - FROM Szentendre-Belgrade-Becej (MEMBERS FROM Serbia AND Hungary) AND THEY ARE AWESOME!
REMINDED ME OF ALL THAT GREAT MID-90'S ALTERNATIVE-BRITPOP STUFF
PSYCHODELIC BUT STILL SIMPLE AND CATCHY
YOU CAN DOWLOAD THEIR FIRST ALBUM FOR FREE:

WWW.REBELSTAR-MUSIC.COM

GO TO : Arhiva PAGE


THEIR MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/rebelstarmusic
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on March 19, 2008, 17:36:59
Quote from: Steve on March 18, 2008, 14:54:38
Got a ticket (standing) for Wembley on Thursday night :-D
Hey, that's great!  :smth023
Got your plane tickets yet? All set to go?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on March 23, 2008, 05:27:46
happy today... I'm home, and my cat ( who was in a shelter while away) missed me so much, he's not left my side all day. In fact, he's sitting right in front of my PC screen, and playing with the mouse!! wherever I go, he follows. It's nice to know you are loved.  :smth050
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on March 24, 2008, 16:50:25
Quote from: scatcat on March 23, 2008, 05:27:46
happy today... I'm home, and my cat ( who was in a shelter while away) missed me so much, he's not left my side all day. In fact, he's sitting right in front of my PC screen, and playing with the mouse!! wherever I go, he follows. It's nice to know you are loved.  :smth050
Nice to see the critters again when you've been away, isn't it....
Well, we're glad to have you back too!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 05, 2008, 10:40:41
It has been a beautiful, beautiful day (weatherwise) today... the sun was shining, a gentle breeze.. inspite of mother nature doing her best to make things difficult, the raging winds, the 100 plus degrees not that long ago, the garden is awash with colour and looks lovely. The bees are busy on all of the flowers, the birds are bathing in the birdbath, ladybirds are seeing to the aphids making an appearance; seeds I planted just a week ago are breaking through, so my winter crop of vegies are on the way. A day to sit back and appreciate everything. Cool nights, warm days. Just perfect. Sometimes, it's the small things which can fill your soul and lift your spirits. such a lovely, lovely day.
And it  made me so happy....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on April 09, 2008, 08:04:04


Happy today because

My training class went well. Even though not all of them coming but i truly had lot of fun to train them. :!:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Poe on April 15, 2008, 17:13:13
...I'm gonna go see The Sting (1973) at an independent movie theatre (gotta love those...), and I'm swamped with the most exquisite music recommendations from friends, yay! Busy busy busy...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 17, 2008, 11:41:06
Tomorrow, (Friday) is our anniversary...17 years. Wow, that has gone so quickly, honestly. Second time around for both of us, but we are soulmates and feel like we've been together forever. Met at a school cricket match...both our boys played for the school... wasn't looking for a relationship, was quite happy being Ms. Independant. Well, that changed. We're not married, for no other reason than we never got around to it!! Nothing against being married. But, after 17 years, I think we qualify as being an old married couple huh? Probably go out to lunch, see how I feel when I wake up... but, I'm happy...very happy...
(and as I'm typing this, he, sitting on the couch, just let rip   :shock: ...oh he's a charmer alright!!) *laughing*  if you can't fart in front of each other, it's not true love..excuse me, I have to go...outside.. to get some fesh air!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 17, 2008, 11:52:11
The shiny shoe/ greasy hair & old school tie brigade that p!ssed me off here http://curefans.com/index.php/topic,3652.msg46975.html#msg46975
Have finally realised they were actually talking crap.
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 17, 2008, 11:59:35
Quote from: Steve on April 17, 2008, 11:52:11
The shiny shoe/ greasy hair & old school tie brigade that p!ssed me off here http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3652.new;topicseen#new

Have finally realised they were actually talking crap.
:-D

okaayyy...I clicked on the link and it brought up the posts about cats pooping in my garden..is THIS what you're referring to when you say the shiny shoe/greasy hair& old school tie brigade??????  realising they were talking crap... I don't get it Steve..was this directed at me??  If so, why so? Hmmm...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on April 17, 2008, 12:20:55
I edited the link to the post.
Should be pointing in the right place now.
Soz.
:oops:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 17, 2008, 12:25:22
No wuz!!
*whew* thought I'd really upset a very protective cat lover!!
ta ta for now, off to watch a dvd...
and I'm happy that Steve isn't cross..at me!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on April 17, 2008, 14:06:06
Quote from: melly on April 17, 2008, 11:41:06
Tomorrow, (Friday) is our anniversary...17 years. Wow, that has gone so quickly, honestly. Second time around for both of us, but we are soulmates and feel like we've been together forever.

Aww, that's so cool Melly..really!!  Relationship success stories make me happy!!

Now me, I'm happy today because I booked my birthday holiday this afternoon - 6 days and nights of complete indulgence at a fabulous beach resort and spa in Fiji with a good friend.  I'm so looking forward to falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the ocean.... :D  Happy, happy , happy!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 18, 2008, 09:12:51
OH! sues777!!   what a wonderful, wonderful birthday you will have!! I am green with envy!! Sounds too beautiful... I am happy for you... so nice to spoil yourself every now and then... massages, tropical drinks, lazy days around the pool, walks along the beach..  :smth004
need anyone to carry your suitcase??  :smth042

makes ME happy just thinking about it!! 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on April 18, 2008, 12:15:25
Thanks Melly!!  It makes me happy you're happy that I'm happy!! (Ok, I'm still a little over excited....) :oops:

Quote from: melly on April 18, 2008, 09:12:51
need anyone to carry your suitcase??  :smth042
hey, all curefans are welcome to tag along!!

I hope you had a GREAT anniversary  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on April 18, 2008, 19:58:55
I'm very very happy today because i got an A in my psychology exam which is something i never get. The last one i did i got Ungraded. I think its because i got a new teacher who actually teaches.
And its friday!! Happy Friday Everyone! Have a great weekend!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on April 18, 2008, 23:12:37
Quote from: Steve on April 17, 2008, 12:20:55
I edited the link to the post.
Should be pointing in the right place now.
Soz.
:oops:
I still come up with the cat poop posts when I click... I don't get it!
Of course, it's true that we were talking crap in those posts.... cat crap, to be specific. Oh well.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on April 19, 2008, 14:19:55
Quote from: Hero on April 18, 2008, 19:58:55
I'm very very happy today because i got an A in my psychology exam which is something i never get. The last one i did i got Ungraded. I think its because i got a new teacher who actually teaches.
And its friday!! Happy Friday Everyone! Have a great weekend!

that's great hero : maybe soon you can treat me!!  :smth100
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on April 21, 2008, 22:19:18
I GOT TO READ EXTRACTS FROM MARK E. SMITH AUTOBIOGRAPHY!!!
I SIMPLY ADORE THE MAN AND I THINK HE'S AMONG 5 OR 10 MOST IMPORTANT MUSICIANS IN ROCK AND ROLL TODAY...





(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/04/15/fall10b.jpg)




Drugs

I am one of the 3% who was made to take speed. It helps me sleep. It's not a big problem for me, but I can always tell when people are writing on drugs. On speed it's all nonsense.

I did heroin once at a party in Manchester in the mid-80s, just to be sociable. I started writing, thinking, "This is the greatest thing ever written." Then I fell asleep. I woke up some time the day after, thinking I'd written the masterpiece of all masterpieces. I felt like shit, told myself I'm not taking that again, but at least I'd got this work of genius. And then I started reading it, or trying to read it - this four-page epic. It was a mess. I'd fallen asleep on the fifth page. I didn't even know what it was, whether it was a song or a story.

The only hangovers I've ever had were off ecstasy. It's not nice. It's like going to hospital and being drugged up when you've had an accident. You're drying your brain up with that stuff - it's like a sponge. You feel sort of high, you go home, but in the morning it's as if you've eaten a lot of dust. I remember in the Hacienda days when you couldn't get any drink or speed - they'd all be dancing around and touching you. What the f*ck is all this about? I don't need to feel like this. I can feel like this in hospital. It's like a gross antidepressant mixed with speed. They all want to love everybody.

I'm not a big fan of pot, either. It cuts people off from their feelings, like Prozac. You've got to come out some time. At least you know where you are with booze. You drink two bottles of whisky and wake up in the morning, you know you've done something wrong.



CANT WAIT FOR THE BOOK...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on April 21, 2008, 22:23:05
 :-D  sounds very informative JANKO..  :smth023

when is it due out there?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on April 21, 2008, 22:28:45
I DONT KNOW YET...

HERE'S THE LINK FOR THE EXTRACTS...

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,2273649,00.html
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 22, 2008, 11:22:07
Firstly, for those of you who detest Police for all they stand for, look away, don't bother reading this, it's not for you.
My beautiful son has been accepted into the New South Wales Police Force. He has worked so, so hard to achieve this, the long hours swimming, running, weightlifting, ensuring his personal health and fitness is as good as he can get it. We live in South Australia, and he was rejected by this Police forces' "Integrity committee" because of speeding fines he had as a teenager ( he is 28 this year).. ludicrous and unrealistic, but, that is their policy. He was so disappointed,crushed infact, but, as I say to him "never give up, never give in!"...so, he applied to the interstate force. They have all his records, he underwent a rigorous series of medicals, then, 2 weeks ago, he flew to N.S.W. for the final testing day. A 600 question physcometric test, along with vigorous physical tests. He's made it. His dream is coming true. He starts at the university beginning of June, so, he will be leaving within a couple of weeks. I have shed my tears, at him moving so far away, but my heart is surely bursting with pride for my only child. He wants to work with street kids, to try and help find missing loved ones, to support and treat with care and respect those who will never be reunited. He will see and do things which will affect him deeply. Lets' face it, police regularly deal with the dregs of society, the illegal and the criminal, the crushingly sad and the hopeless. But there is a huge upside to it all too. Whatever he has to face, I know he will do it well, with compassion and genuine concern. I will miss him. BUT we will make the journey over there, don't worry about that! We are close, a magical bond which I treasure. Of course, I am a little frightened for him, would be unnatural if I wasn't.
So, for any Cure fans over that way, if you see a devilishly handsome copper, with broad shoulders and a broader smile, that's my boy.
and we couldn't be prouder of the man he has become...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 23, 2008, 10:49:32
just thought I'd add...incase you're thinking "Oh, isn't he a mummys' boy"... he hasn't lived with us for years, we are 200 kilometers away. Was just him and me for a while, and we are very close. I guess like every parent, if our kids are happy, we're happy!! I know what he's been through the last few years, and he has always held his head high; as the saying goes, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"... and he's one strong dude!!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on April 23, 2008, 19:53:53
Quote from: melly on April 23, 2008, 10:49:32
just thought I'd add...incase you're thinking "Oh, isn't he a mummys' boy"... he hasn't lived with us for years, we are 200 kilometers away. Was just him and me for a while, and we are very close. I guess like every parent, if our kids are happy, we're happy!! I know what he's been through the last few years, and he has always held his head high; as the saying goes, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"... and he's one strong dude!!  :-D

those 'mummy's boy's' you refer to melly.. end up being the best role-models, and husbands, fathers, grandfathers.. i know my son is going to be a fine young lad ( if i don't kill him during these teenage years!  ;)).. jokes aside, these boys we are raising.. the respect my son has for women, and his mother ( me.. :oops:).. he has no sisters to 'dag' on him or torment him.. and he is so far turning out a beautiful young man. ( he has his own mind and spirit.. determination.. and they are qualities you cannot teach!.. they are qualities that are totally aspiring)  ;)

I would be as proud as punch , to see my lovely boy ascent to a wonderful human being..
nurture as much as nature..  :D

you should be congratulated and also credited to bringing up such a fine person!! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 24, 2008, 11:08:32
thanku scatcat...you brought tears to my peepers reading that... and OH! those teenage years..my stepson is 6 months younger than my son, so you can imagine what those years were like!! How I have any hair left is beyond me...and that what I do have left isn't pure white!!
I'm happy that BOTH of them didn't end up in big trouble...touch and go there sometimes!! Years go so quickly, one day, they are boys...you blink...and there is a man...

I'm happy today because we have been forecast rain..good, soaking rain over 3-4 days...a small thing for some, but where the earth is parched it is indeed a blessing!! Our local farmers are ready to sow their crops for next season, and this rain is exactly what they need! They will be out in their paddocks until late, turning the soil with their machines, looking to the sky, waiting, just waiting, for those much needed drops...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on April 27, 2008, 11:02:12
Quote from: scatcat on April 23, 2008, 19:53:53
you should be congratulated and also credited to bringing up such a fine person!! :smth023
@melly
Just wanted to state my agreement with this quote... (I'm replying very late because I've been on one of my PC sabbaticals).
You must be awfully proud... it's not easy these days to raise kids, so many pitfalls... you've done a great job obviously -- and it's the most important job we'll ever have, isnt't it?
So good going, both you and your boy! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on April 28, 2008, 11:36:43
Thanku too Robiola, yes, rearing a child is the most important job anyone can do, and I am well aware there are some, even in this forum, who have lost a child, ( I cannot even begin to imagine THAT pain)so I am, indeed, truly blessed that I have a son.
Speaking to my sister on the 'phone today, I just burst into tears...silly, I know... talking about him leaving, being further away...  :cry:


But the rain came, soaked the dry land, and it smells fresh, new..the plants are standing tall, everyone is walking around with grins on their faces, and our rainwater tank is full!! Go into a local shop, and the conversation immediately turns to the "fantastic rain we had on the weekend!"... just love being in a country town...and it makes me happy...  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on May 01, 2008, 11:24:56
Guess what!! We have won a $100 hamper from one of our local supermarkets!! Was a national competition, and this morning a guy from the promotions department from Woolworths ( the chain) rang and told us the good news!! YAAAAY! Entered it ages ago, forgot all about it! Couldn't come at a better time... fabulous! Lucky me!   :smth035 :smth038 :smth039 :smth041 :smth026 :smth031
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on May 20, 2008, 22:08:19
i've decided to go see the boys next month, despite my illness and the meds. but i have to go alone.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on May 20, 2008, 23:18:58
Quote from: Cure Freak on May 20, 2008, 22:08:19
i've decided to go see the boys next month, despite my illness and the meds. but i have to go alone.

Maybe you can meet up with someone from this forum who is going to the show!

Hey, if you feel up to it, no doubt going to see The Cure is good for the soul, and you gotta keep that healthy too. Just make sure you don't tire yourself out too much, eh?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on May 21, 2008, 11:14:34
Quote from: Cure Freak on May 20, 2008, 22:08:19
i've decided to go see the boys next month, despite my illness and the meds. but i have to go alone.
Good news Cure Freak!  Robiola's right - I think it will be good for your soul!  I actually went to the 2nd Sydney show alone, but it wasn't bad at all - I made firends with 2 of the people sitting next to me and ended up going out for a drink with them afterwards.  You never know... ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on May 21, 2008, 13:11:58
...cause I've passed my exam today! Happy happy happy  :smth041
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on May 21, 2008, 13:19:03
robiola ~ that is a thought. i will consider it. it would be nice to mmet someone from here. :)
sues777 ~ thanks. and very true.  :)
coxoxi ~ congrats!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on May 21, 2008, 13:21:29
Quote from: Cure Freak on May 21, 2008, 13:19:03

coxoxi ~ congrats!
thanks! ;)
btw.lucky you cure freak! i would give anything to see them this year but that's mission impossible  :smth010
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on May 21, 2008, 21:05:39
Quote from: coxoxi on May 21, 2008, 13:11:58
...cause I've passed my exam today! Happy happy happy  :smth041


Congratulations coxoxi!!!  :smth038
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on May 21, 2008, 22:44:32
whoot coxoxi!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on May 21, 2008, 22:49:47
awwwww thanks darlings  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on May 22, 2008, 01:20:13
Manchester United won the Champions League!!! :-D I'm not a big football fan but i was forced into supporting them :roll:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on May 22, 2008, 12:03:12

I'm happy today because i just realized once again,whatever happen in my life..i mean regards to all the silly things that i had to face for all this while...

I still got THE CURE to cure me anytime,anywhere or anyhow..

Thanks The Cure.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on May 22, 2008, 13:52:19
Quote from: Sussex on May 22, 2008, 12:03:12



I still got THE CURE to cure me anytime,anywhere or anyhow..

Thanks The Cure.
That's so true!!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on June 04, 2008, 19:18:51
Flights for NY Trip (see what I did there?)......check
Tickets for MSG 2x........check
Ticket for RCMH............check
Kind relative of GF who will pick me up from JFK & let me have her spare room for the stay........check

:-D :-D :-D :-D

I is vvvvvvv happy today
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on June 04, 2008, 20:02:29
Have a great time in NY steve ! ! !  :smth023
And of course at the two concerts  :)


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on June 04, 2008, 20:49:51
 :-D

Oh & another  :-D for good measure
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on June 05, 2008, 00:59:14
have tons of fun, steve!
so youre flying from hungary to NY?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Steve on June 05, 2008, 07:12:50
Quote from: DJscribbles on June 05, 2008, 00:59:14
have tons of fun, steve!
so youre flying from hungary to NY?

That's right. Via Paris to change to a 747 Jumbo jet.
Always wanted to fly on one of those  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lady on June 05, 2008, 10:47:00
Quote from: Sussex on May 22, 2008, 12:03:12

I'm happy today because i just realized once again,whatever happen in my life..i mean regards to all the silly things that i had to face for all this while...

I still got THE CURE to cure me anytime,anywhere or anyhow..

Thanks The Cure.
You're right sussex! :)
They are "the cure" for everything! :smth045
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on June 05, 2008, 16:37:47
i cant imagine all the frequent flyer miles, devoted fans to any artists rack up.
damn, im so jealous steve! someone who likes flying! the trip itself will be enjoyable, how long are you staying in NY?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on June 05, 2008, 18:08:25
I saw NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS yesterday in Belgrade
They played 24 songs
2,5 hour gig
Played WEEPING SONG
Arguably the best show on the tour
WE ARE THE LUCKY BASTARDS

:D :D :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on June 08, 2008, 17:49:30
I saw THE TIGER LILLIES yesterday in Belgrade
They played a fascinating 2 hours set (two encores)
Perfect sound on stage, genius musicians, well educated and classy audience (knew all the lyrics and songs... and the jokes)
It was such a pleasure to be there...

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on June 18, 2008, 18:57:48
I,also, finally, bought the Freakshow single.
But i'm so happy because in a couple of days i will see my favortite band, for the first time! and maybe, meet a couple of Cure fans.
:D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: mint car on June 18, 2008, 21:42:52
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 18, 2008, 18:57:48
I,also, finally, bought the Freakshow single.
But i'm so happy because in a couple of days i will see my favortite band, for the first time! and maybe, meet a couple of Cure fans.
:D
I hope that you will enjoy on concert  ;) and that you will be to have wonderful memories from this... I have many perfect memories from my first the cure concert  :smth002 it was biggest experience in my life...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on June 19, 2008, 01:03:30
Quote from: mint car on June 18, 2008, 21:42:52
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 18, 2008, 18:57:48
I,also, finally, bought the Freakshow single.
But i'm so happy because in a couple of days i will see my favortite band, for the first time! and maybe, meet a couple of Cure fans.
:D
I hope that you will enjoy on concert  ;) and that you will be to have wonderful memories from this... I have many perfect memories from my first the cure concert  :smth002 it was biggest experience in my life...

thank you hon.
:D
i can imagine it, to be that, for you and i will treasure every minute of mine.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cold Colours on June 20, 2008, 04:54:52
...it's nearly the weekend and I listening to The Cure right now.  'Nuff said, true believer.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on June 20, 2008, 09:59:53
i got through a six-week work period with some crazy 10 hours days and practically without any days off. some paper work remains but i can do that at home without even having to get out of the bed if i don't want to - and maybe i don't! :)


ps. tomorrow is the longest days of the year: today the sun has risen at around 4 am, sets at 23 pm. :D
for those of you who do celebrate midsummer (probably just the scandinavians, i assume?): have a nice midsummer eve! :D

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on June 20, 2008, 10:05:54
tickets for sigur ros go on sale tommorow!! OH MY GOD, MY HEART FEELS LIKE ITS MELTING LIKE GLACIERS!! ive been waiting for this for 3 years.. *faints*. cant believe it.. AAAH!!
its either that or madonna on my birthday (yes i love her, there i admitted it.), but shes charging $350 for lower level - WTF?! WTF?!
either way... my parents said the cure would be the last id go to for a long while.. but its SIGUR ROS, not some teeny bopper shit!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on June 21, 2008, 18:56:30
I saw THE BREAKFAST CLUB again and that  made my day...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on June 21, 2008, 22:14:48
HTB...
i saw The Cure last night!!
:-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on June 22, 2008, 02:44:34
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 21, 2008, 22:14:48
HTB...
i saw The Cure last night!!
:-D

Excellent!!  It was your 'first time' wasn't it Cure Freak?  What did you think?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on June 23, 2008, 01:13:59
Quote from: sues777 on June 22, 2008, 02:44:34
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 21, 2008, 22:14:48
HTB...
i saw The Cure last night!!
:-D

Excellent!!  It was your 'first time' wasn't it Cure Freak?  What did you think?
yes, it was. 7 years i waited for this. it was wonderful. the songs, the music, the lighting, the bascvk drops.

and Simon looking at me.
:smth049
i'll tresure it  always.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on June 24, 2008, 13:37:53
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 23, 2008, 01:13:59
yes, it was. 7 years i waited for this. it was wonderful. the songs, the music, the lighting, the bascvk drops.

and Simon looking at me.
:smth049
i'll tresure it  always.

I'm so happy you enjoyed it Cure Freak!!  ..and Simon was looking at you...augh!!..sooo jealous   ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Cure Freak on June 25, 2008, 17:26:17
Quote from: sues777 on June 24, 2008, 13:37:53
Quote from: Cure Freak on June 23, 2008, 01:13:59
yes, it was. 7 years i waited for this. it was wonderful. the songs, the music, the lighting, the bascvk drops.

and Simon looking at me.
:smth049
i'll tresure it  always.

I'm so happy you enjoyed it Cure Freak!!  ..and Simon was looking at you...augh!!..sooo jealous   ;)
thank you. yes, he did. :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on June 26, 2008, 14:50:46
...i had great barbecue with my friends yesterday  :smth041
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on June 27, 2008, 00:55:15
There is a slight chance that Leonard Cohen comes to Serbia in fall. That made my week!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on June 29, 2008, 03:13:05
I just came back from the 80's party and on my way out I went to see what's up on the dark floor. The moment I came 10:15 Saturday Night started! I was in heaven!! Cause they are a bit niggardly with The Cure songs and that's my fav Cure song with A forest!!! So it definitely made my day!!! Now I can go peaceful to sleep  :D
It's great how these little things can make you happy  :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on June 29, 2008, 03:20:41
sound so awesome coxoxi!

hope you get to see him janko, heard hes aboslutely fantastic live! i am jealous
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on June 29, 2008, 03:22:05
Quote from: DJscribbles on June 29, 2008, 03:20:41
sound so awesome coxoxi!


it is  :D
:smth006
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on June 29, 2008, 03:29:32
where was it? club? *waves back*
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: coxoxi on June 29, 2008, 03:32:47
Quote from: DJscribbles on June 29, 2008, 03:29:32
where was it? club? *waves back*
yes, at the club  :smth038
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 05, 2008, 10:51:43
got to see steven wilson and gavin harrison again :eek: :rocker as i went to porcupine tree in ruisrock festival yesterday
very happyyyy :D

(http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/2851/p7040102cr1kc2.th.jpg) (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p7040102cr1kc2.jpg)
(http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/7744/p7040125bqv6.th.jpg) (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p7040125bqv6.jpg)
(http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/8886/p7040135bre8.th.jpg) (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p7040135bre8.jpg)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on July 08, 2008, 20:35:08
yay!! im very jealous :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 09, 2008, 21:17:36
Quote from: DJscribbles on July 08, 2008, 20:35:08
yay!! im very jealous :)

hey you like them too? :D


a freaking awesome gig - although i hate it that festival gigs are so short... but i'm still feeling happy-lucky that i got to be there!

i put some videos on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQvS6xQIA

(that guy is the coca cola cap in front of me, on that video... curse him, what an idiot he was: for instance, for some weird reason his pants suddenly fell down to his ankles in the middle of 'sound of muzak' and he was standing there and shouting to everyone "what the hell happened to my pants! what the hells happened to my pants!!" - hey come on wtf  just get those bloody pants up and shut up dude!
festival crowds are SO weird sometimes...)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: wish-man on July 10, 2008, 01:20:26

Happy 2day bcuz I feel tht I AM A REAL BIG CURE FAN!!!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: DJscribbles on July 10, 2008, 09:18:09
Quote from: japanesebaby on July 09, 2008, 21:17:36

hey you like them too? :D


a freaking awesome gig - although i hate it that festival gigs are so short... but i'm still feeling happy-lucky that i got to be there!

i put some videos on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQvS6xQIA

(that guy is the coca cola cap in front of me, on that video... curse him, what an idiot he was: for instance, for some weird reason his pants suddenly fell down to his ankles in the middle of 'sound of muzak' and he was standing there and shouting to everyone "what the hell happened to my pants! what the hells happened to my pants!!" - hey come on wtf  just get those bloody pants up and shut up dude!
festival crowds are SO weird sometimes...)
[/quote]
i freaking love them!!
thats what i love about fests.. that sounded so fun, japanesebaby! im gad soemthing interesting like that happened, especially during their set. im laughing so hard right now!!

i am happy today because i met my youtube friend from sweden (she is Poe on here), and we hung out in san francisco! i told my parents shes a foreign exchange student - ROFL!!! so all of us - my family and her, had dinner togethor. so f*cking SURREAL. if my parents found out, they would lock me up FOREVER AND EVER. and then my mom hugged her goodbye before i could... that was abosltuelyl hilarious. MY MOM HUGGED MY YOUTUBE FRIEND. i should get a shirt that says that.
Title: Surreal's the word
Post by: Poe on July 10, 2008, 10:20:18
Quote from: DJscribbles on July 10, 2008, 09:18:09
i am happy today because i met my youtube friend from sweden (she is Poe on here), and we hung out in san francisco! i told my parents shes a foreign exchange student - ROFL!!! so all of us - my family and her, had dinner togethor. so f*cking SURREAL. if my parents found out, they would lock me up FOREVER AND EVER.

Yees, we were playing with fire a little bit, weren't we? Fortunately we can blame it on being young and...a little crazy I guess...  8) If your parents ever read this ( :shock:), no hard feelings! We meant no disrespect.

Anyhow, it was great meeting you DJ, I'll never forget it! We were so lucky I happened to be going on vacation where you live, that's a one in a million (see, how could we not have met!?)! Too bad we didn't get that much time in SF to talk in peace and quiet (next time), but among other things we got to exchange some CD's and, in silent tribute to the band that made it all happen, walk around in SF wearing our Cure tour t-shirts, hehe (a couple of months back, we both commented on a youtube video of The Walk from the MTV Unplugged show in 1991, and later started writing to each other). Wouldn't have happened without you guys!

Quote from: DJscribbles on July 10, 2008, 09:18:09and then my mom hugged her goodbye before i could... that was abosltuelyl hilarious. MY MOM HUGGED MY YOUTUBE FRIEND. i should get a shirt that says that.

Gotta wear t-shirts like that next time.  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 10, 2008, 12:47:36
Quote from: DJscribbles on July 10, 2008, 09:18:09

i freaking love them!!

hey that's nice to hear. :D
imo they are an absolutely gorgeous group.

Quote from: DJscribbles on July 10, 2008, 09:18:09
thats what i love about fests.. that sounded so fun, japanesebaby! im gad soemthing interesting like that happened, especially during their set. im laughing so hard right now!!

you mean the pants thing? well actually what i meant was that that's exactly what i HATE about festivals: all these f*cking freaks ruining some performances that you yourself have been really waiting for for months! i do know festivals are festivals and there are a lot of things that can happen and you just have to deal with it and try to take it casually, but the truth is that i didn't go there to see this guy's "pants performance", i went to see one of my favorite groups to play. 
so i really could have kicked that "pants guy" straight in the balls (hey actually i should have because his pants were already down so i could have hardly missed...  :twisted:)

(i know one peaceful PT guy who actually did punch a similar kind of idiot straight into the face during 'anesthetize', just because that idiot was babbling to his ear all through the set. and no thtat guy is not a violent guy - there's just a limit of what you can take, even in a festival surroundings...)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on July 14, 2008, 17:34:49
I saw SEX PISTOLS, MINISTRY, THE HIVES and MARKY RAMONE yesterday at EXIT festival and it was awesome...

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on July 17, 2008, 09:39:55
Hello everyone :smth039 :smth006
I'm happy today because i'm back!! YEY! I went away for a bit to India but i just got back (via HMV to buy Sleep When I'm Dead)  :smth020 So i'm as happy as hippo :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: wish-man on July 17, 2008, 12:06:07

Happy today because I'm watching 'Revolver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(TV_series))' with famous Peter Cook & 'So It Goes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_It_Goes_(TV_series))' wish also unless famous Tony Wilson... and I think it was great time in 1978 & 70's!  :smth023 I love British TV & whole UK!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on July 17, 2008, 14:21:28
Quote from: Hero on July 17, 2008, 09:39:55
Hello everyone :smth039 :smth006
I'm happy today because i'm back!! YEY! I went away for a bit to India but i just got back (via HMV to buy Sleep When I'm Dead)  :smth020 So i'm as happy as hippo :-D

Welcome back Hero!!  India...sounds fascinating....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Poe on July 18, 2008, 15:57:34
Heard one of my neighbors play Coin-Operated Boy by The Dresden Dolls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAnyYTjjhJ0) this afternoon. Finally, a neighbor with taste!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on July 18, 2008, 22:41:22
Quote from: Hero on July 17, 2008, 09:39:55
Hello everyone :smth039 :smth006
I'm happy today because i'm back!! YEY! I went away for a bit to India but i just got back (via HMV to buy Sleep When I'm Dead)  :smth020 So i'm as happy as hippo :-D

cheers Hero!! lucky-duck , experiencing India!  :smth023

welcome home !!   :smth038 :smth041 :smth040  :smth006

on topic: happy today 'cos my Chairman Mao is recovering from quite an ordeal.. Heart disease, as well as  a severe attack from another cat !
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: silversand on July 18, 2008, 23:02:13
Welcome back Hero!!!  :smth039
Hope you enjoyed your trip to India :)


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on July 25, 2008, 11:54:43
Happy... my son, whom I sadly waved "good bye" to nearly 2 months ago at the airport, has received 2 "distinctions" already at Police College. Full time uni, masses of study, 5am starts. He just had an exam which was 50% of this terms pass marks...and he received a "distinction", ( exceptional, if people don't understand that mark).. he also did a huge assignment on law, and received the other "distinction".
Good looks AND brains... what can I say?! hahaha..that's my boy....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on July 25, 2008, 16:41:16
Quote from: melly on July 25, 2008, 11:54:43
Happy... my son, whom I sadly waved "good bye" to nearly 2 months ago at the airport, has received 2 "distinctions" already at Police College. Full time uni, masses of study, 5am starts. He just had an exam which was 50% of this terms pass marks...and he received a "distinction", ( exceptional, if people don't understand that mark).. he also did a huge assignment on law, and received the other "distinction".
Good looks AND brains... what can I say?! hahaha..that's my boy....

:D wow melly !   you should be very  proud! 

it is a credit to you for bringing up such a fine young man.. and very smart too!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on July 26, 2008, 08:23:47
Thanx scatcat... he's the one to get the kudos, I just helped him along the way until he realised his dream... you have to be disciplined,enthusiastic and totally committed to become a copper, and he's all those things...his choice, our love...you know, I feel like a little piece of me is missing...can't wait to see him, later this year...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on July 29, 2008, 11:23:08
okay okay, I know I shouldn't, but I'm going to have another "brag"... my boy messaged me today, he received a " high distinction" in a law exam... not much to be happy about lately, we're in the grips of foul winter, been really sick, had an operation, fed up with the cold weather, the ol' arthritis is crippling... then to receive those messages from the person whom I love beyond words can say, well, makes the sun shine and gladdens my heart... so proud and so happy he's found his niche in life.. he is where he is meant to be...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: wish-man on July 30, 2008, 12:09:34
Happy today because it's me on FAME cover  :-D

(http://c1.magmypic.com/usermags/5/5/5583c986aca6b7dd72c1f31b52e4e35f_3701.jpg)

Fake magazine covers (http://www.magmypic.com) with your picture on them!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on July 31, 2008, 18:25:41
Quote from: melly on July 29, 2008, 11:23:08
okay okay, I know I shouldn't, but I'm going to have another "brag"... my boy messaged me today, he received a " high distinction" in a law exam... not much to be happy about lately, we're in the grips of foul winter, been really sick, had an operation, fed up with the cold weather, the ol' arthritis is crippling... then to receive those messages from the person whom I love beyond words can say, well, makes the sun shine and gladdens my heart... so proud and so happy he's found his niche in life.. he is where he is meant to be...
You go ahead and brag all you want to -- I'm very happy your son is making the sun shine in your life, I didn't know you'd been sick and had an operation! Nothing serious I hope. Winter sounds so good to me now, though, it's so *£k%&ing hot here!!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on August 03, 2008, 11:15:16
Quote from: robiola on July 31, 2008, 18:25:41
You go ahead and brag all you want to -- I'm very happy your son is making the sun shine in your life, I didn't know you'd been sick and had an operation! Nothing serious I hope. Winter sounds so good to me now, though, it's so *£k%&ing hot here!!!!

No, Robiola, nothing serious... HEY!! send some of that sunshine my way!! I am a warm blooded creature, winter is vile I tell you, vile!!  wanna do a swap??!!
( if it's over 35 degrees celcius, you can keep it though...that's around 90 farenheit) Only 3 weeks to go and it's SPRING!! yes!! and that makes me happy....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: robiola on August 04, 2008, 19:04:55
Quote from: melly on August 03, 2008, 11:15:16
Winter sounds so good to me now, though, it's so *£k%&ing hot here!!!!

HEY!! send some of that sunshine my way!! I am a warm blooded creature, winter is vile I tell you, vile!!  wanna do a swap??!!
( if it's over 35 degrees celcius, you can keep it though...that's around 90 farenheit)
[/quote]
Well, today here we had 37 degrees, and it's incredibly humid too...sure you don't want some?
I'm happy today because I rediscovered a Cure song I'd never given much thought to, and it has recently become one of my feel-good songs...High! It just puts a smile on my face.

Ok, I screwed up the quotes, but you know how it went.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Poe on August 04, 2008, 21:00:53
Quote from: robiola on August 04, 2008, 19:04:55
I'm happy today because I rediscovered a Cure song I'd never given much thought to, and it has recently become one of my feel-good songs...High! It just puts a smile on my face.

Ha, I love it when that happens! Good for you. ;) I recently realized that I've been, well, ignoring Doubt for quite a while. Just started listening to it again, quite like it. Release the British fury!  :x

Anyhow, I'm glad cause I just got sent two Cure bootlegs to bite into; one from Toronto, and one from Madison Square Garden, New York. Both from 2008. Yum. Monday evening is saved.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on August 06, 2008, 10:58:52
yeah, I'm back again... it is one year today (6th.August 2007) that we were, as I type this, meeting up with friends and distant family members at a pub just a short stroll from the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. After a few champagnes, we lined up to enter the building where a band I had never seen live before were going to be performing in an hour or so. The excitement and anticipation in that arena was palpable, as we got to our seats, I felt like a kid let loose in a sweet shop. Chatting to each other as we waited, suddenly, there was a roar from the crowd, the lights dimmed then went blue, and there they were. And so began a journey I will never forget.Didn't take long to have us on our feet, moving with the music, screaming and clapping like we were teenagers again. What an amazing night. We left, ears ringing, spirits lifted and our souls reverberating with the ever changing sounds the band delighted us with for three hours. A night I will, personally, never forget, and this memory makes me very happy...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on August 08, 2008, 18:06:52
Quote from: melly on August 06, 2008, 10:58:52
yeah, I'm back again... it is one year today (6th.August 2007) that we were, as I type this, meeting up with friends and distant family members at a pub just a short stroll from the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. After a few champagnes, we lined up to enter the building where a band I had never seen live before were going to be performing in an hour or so. The excitement and anticipation in that arena was palpable, as we got to our seats, I felt like a kid let loose in a sweet shop. Chatting to each other as we waited, suddenly, there was a roar from the crowd, the lights dimmed then went blue, and there they were. And so began a journey I will never forget.Didn't take long to have us on our feet, moving with the music, screaming and clapping like we were teenagers again. What an amazing night. We left, ears ringing, spirits lifted and our souls reverberating with the ever changing sounds the band delighted us with for three hours. A night I will, personally, never forget, and this memory makes me very happy...

hehe.. you sweet groupie ...  :smth020

what i would give to keep up with u my friend!!    :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: melly on August 09, 2008, 10:22:51
Quote from: scatcat on August 08, 2008, 18:06:52
hehe.. you sweet groupie ...  :smth020

what i would give to keep up with u my friend!!    :smth023

*laughing* groupie, yep,that's me!!
The concert was only the beginning... what a night... fell into bed at 4.30am the next morning... thanx Robert..hehe....
as for keeping up with me...well, a good supply of painkillers kept this old gal going, wasn't going to miss THAT night for the world... the more I think about it, the more I smile... good memories and happy thoughts..
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on August 16, 2008, 11:13:21
Happy today because I took the first step to change a situation that's been making me unhappy for some time...Nothing may come of it, but at least I took that step....
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: billee on August 16, 2008, 11:58:43
The first step is the hardest one to take. Whatever happens sues at least you've taken it :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on August 17, 2008, 13:45:53
Thanks billee!!  As is turns out...it's not gone entirely to plan..but hey, I did it... :smth001
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: billee on August 18, 2008, 13:10:16
 :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on August 20, 2008, 18:09:20
Quote from: sues777 on August 16, 2008, 11:13:21
Happy today because I took the first step to change a situation that's been making me unhappy for some time...Nothing may come of it, but at least I took that step....

'Courage' is not an emotion or feeling, it is a result of facing fears and what may lie ahead..  during trying and 'testing' times we are sometimes needed to gather an inner strength. 
This is known as Courage.
It takes great courage to take that path sues777 !!    :smth023

u give hope to all that need a 'nudge'..    :smth020

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on August 21, 2008, 15:41:01
Quote from: scatcat on August 20, 2008, 18:09:20
'Courage' is not an emotion or feeling, it is a result of facing fears and what may lie ahead..  during trying and 'testing' times we are sometimes needed to gather an inner strength. 
This is known as Courage.
It takes great courage to take that path sues777 !!    :smth023

u give hope to all that need a 'nudge'..    :smth020

you're so sweet scatcat!!  :smth056 I really don't think I deserve all that...thankyou so very, very much....(geez, you mad me go all misty eyed.... :smth001)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Hero on August 26, 2008, 08:24:11
Hello again! (i've been away again grrr, this time not as nice as India)
But i'm home now  :-D in a new house (in Scotland) and have a new cat! YEY! And i called her Fuchsia so she's my lovely little curecat. Happy happy happy!!!

Sues777 good on you for trying to change something thats making you unhappy. Good luck and have strength. I hope you'll be happier! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 12:08:30
Because I beacame a "Coolfan" today  :P Up for more  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 14:41:16
I am also happy today because it's my 10Th wedding anniversary and I heard "Just like heaven" on my local radiostation.  :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Janko on September 05, 2008, 15:05:57
Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 14:41:16
I am also happy today because it's my 10Th wedding anniversary and I heard "Just like heaven" on my local radiostation.  :smth020

Congrats!

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on September 05, 2008, 15:44:14
Quote from: Hero on August 26, 2008, 08:24:11
Hello again! (i've been away again grrr, this time not as nice as India)
But i'm home now  :-D in a new house (in Scotland) and have a new cat! YEY! And i called her Fuchsia so she's my lovely little curecat. Happy happy happy!!!


hello dear friend!   :smth023    welcome back!  ;)

Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 12:08:30
Because I beacame a "Coolfan" today  :P Up for more  ;)

... hehe... IMHO .. Any Curefan IS a COOLFAN!!  keep posting, and you'll be a master in no time!!  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: sues777 on September 05, 2008, 15:52:30
Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 14:41:16
I am also happy today because it's my 10Th wedding anniversary and I heard "Just like heaven" on my local radiostation.  :smth020

Congratulations Trust...!!!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 08, 2008, 09:04:02
Quote from: Janko on September 05, 2008, 15:05:57
Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 14:41:16
I am also happy today because it's my 10Th wedding anniversary and I heard "Just like heaven" on my local radiostation.  :smth020

Congrats!

:smth023

Thanks  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 08, 2008, 09:05:18
Quote from: sues777 on September 05, 2008, 15:52:30
Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 14:41:16
I am also happy today because it's my 10Th wedding anniversary and I heard "Just like heaven" on my local radiostation.  :smth020

Congratulations Trust...!!!  :smth023

Thanks a lot!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 08, 2008, 09:07:44
Quote from: scatcat on September 05, 2008, 15:44:14
Quote from: Hero on August 26, 2008, 08:24:11
Hello again! (i've been away again grrr, this time not as nice as India)
But i'm home now  :-D in a new house (in Scotland) and have a new cat! YEY! And i called her Fuchsia so she's my lovely little curecat. Happy happy happy!!!


hello dear friend!   :smth023    welcome back!  ;)

Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 12:08:30
Because I beacame a "Coolfan" today  :P Up for more  ;)

... hehe... IMHO .. Any Curefan IS a COOLFAN!!  keep posting, and you'll be a master in no time!!  :-D

Ok, I will keep posting here! Nice  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on September 08, 2008, 15:44:54
Quote from: Trust... on September 08, 2008, 09:07:44

Ok, I will keep posting here! Nice  :-D

:smth023 :smth023 :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: feebee42 on November 04, 2008, 22:05:25
Yeah, very happy today...
Have been recovering from a big surgery these past two months, and just got good news from my doctor that all is healing well at last.  :D
Plus my copy of 4:13 Dream arrived in the post today, and I just love, love, love 'Underneath The Stars'. Can't stop listening to that track!  :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on November 04, 2008, 22:35:41
Quote from: feebee42 on November 04, 2008, 22:05:25
Yeah, very happy today...
Have been recovering from a big surgery these past two months, and just got good news from my doctor that all is healing well at last.  :D

Awesome! Really happy for you feebee42! And I agree too, UTS is an awesome song  :smth020

ps: I always put this one LOUD to celebrate some happy moment, enjoy it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo-DzgKO9fU
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: feebee42 on November 04, 2008, 22:48:49

[\quote]
ps: I always put this one LOUD to celebrate some happy moment, enjoy it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo-DzgKO9fU
[/quote]

Cool track, David.  :smth023 Thanks for that!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on November 04, 2008, 22:50:21
Quote from: feebee42 on November 04, 2008, 22:48:49
Cool track, David.  :smth023 Thanks for that!

"play this music loud" :rocker

"i'm so happy cause you're so happy"

better sound in this one --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAw1xl1AAEU
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 04, 2009, 14:59:47
Quote from: Trust... on September 08, 2008, 09:07:44
Quote from: scatcat on September 05, 2008, 15:44:14
Quote from: Hero on August 26, 2008, 08:24:11
Hello again! (i've been away again grrr, this time not as nice as India)
But i'm home now  :-D in a new house (in Scotland) and have a new cat! YEY! And i called her Fuchsia so she's my lovely little curecat. Happy happy happy!!!


hello dear friend!   :smth023    welcome back!  ;)

Quote from: Trust... on September 05, 2008, 12:08:30
Because I beacame a "Coolfan" today  :P Up for more  ;)

... hehe... IMHO .. Any Curefan IS a COOLFAN!!  keep posting, and you'll be a master in no time!!  :-D

Ok, I will keep posting here! Nice  :-D

Ha, and now I'm happy because I became a "Curefan" up to master! ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on March 04, 2009, 22:16:19
Quote from: Trust... on March 04, 2009, 14:59:47
Ha, and now I'm happy because I became a "Curefan" up to master! ;)

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 11, 2009, 10:12:45
I'm gonna meet a girlfriend I knew when I was little, i lost her for some reason and now I gonna met her after 16 or 17 years. Exciting ha  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scatcat on March 14, 2009, 13:31:45
Quote from: Trust... on March 11, 2009, 10:12:45
I'm gonna meet a girlfriend I knew when I was little, i lost her for some reason and now I gonna met her after 16 or 17 years. Exciting ha  :D

trust.. all the best,,  :D

I had long ago hooked up with my first 'true love'.. after almost 15 years later.. although we knew each other soo intimately , after dating for years: .. there is some baggage.. sometimes in the form of previous relations ( engagements, marriage, kids, etc..) .. we will remain friends for life.  :smth023

It IS TOTALLY EXCITING!   8)

I hope that you both can appreciate the lucky timing now, and both have reached a potential time in your lives , where this can prosper!  :smth020

Good luck, my friend!  ;)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 14, 2009, 21:47:04


Thanks scatcat. It was like this ...  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on March 24, 2009, 18:37:46
...because of some good news. ;) 

:D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on March 24, 2009, 19:56:04
... a very liked and missed collegue was back at work today.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 24, 2009, 20:51:02
no reason really, just feeling good  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 24, 2009, 21:16:04
Quote from: fiction on March 24, 2009, 19:56:04
... a very liked and missed collegue was back at work today.

Nice for you and for your collegue that she was missed  :smth023

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 24, 2009, 21:21:02
or he ?? My brains said it's about a woman ???
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on March 24, 2009, 22:24:51
Quote from: Trust... on March 24, 2009, 21:21:02
or he ?? My brains said it's about a woman ???

Yes it was (is) a Sheila.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 25, 2009, 15:50:39
i know this sounds very weird for all the curefan masters out there but i am soooooooooooooo happy that is says 'beginner' instead of just nothing :-D and i can see profiles and stuff that makes me happy too ( although i understand why new people can't of course )

and i only had two school hours and then i could go home. i wish i could just walk away for good but i still have TWO AND A HALF YEARS till i finish *sigh*

happy anyway  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 25, 2009, 16:35:07
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 25, 2009, 15:50:39
i wish i could just walk away for good but i still have TWO AND A HALF YEARS till i finish *sigh*

happy anyway  8)

HAHA; Believe me once you get older and you go to work, have kids, .... than you wish sometimes you could return to that period  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 25, 2009, 16:37:12
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 25, 2009, 15:50:39
i know this sounds very weird for all the curefan masters out there but i am soooooooooooooo happy that is says 'beginner' instead of just nothing :-D

For me it's not weird  ;) I'm still not a master but I'm also glad when I have a star more  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 25, 2009, 16:49:51
Quote from: Trust... on March 25, 2009, 16:37:12
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 25, 2009, 15:50:39
i know this sounds very weird for all the curefan masters out there but i am soooooooooooooo happy that is says 'beginner' instead of just nothing :-D

For me it's not weird  ;) I'm still not a master but I'm also glad when I have a star more  :D

thanks!!! you make me feel better  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: jbud1980 on March 26, 2009, 01:58:13
i am happy today because i have four dates lined up this weekend.  :-D  :smth023   8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 26, 2009, 11:33:29
I can go to a really black party in my country at 20th of May.  :-D

"I feel young again"
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on March 26, 2009, 16:10:08
I cykled more then 30 miles today and I´m still alive!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 26, 2009, 16:14:54
Quote from: fiction on March 26, 2009, 16:10:08
I cykled more then 30 miles today and I´m still alive!
:smth043
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on March 26, 2009, 17:33:45
I'm going to go see the original version of slumdog millionaire with some friends right now  :)
oh and i have karma and don't know why. I'm not doing anything  :-D  so thanks!!!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 01, 2009, 13:55:21
I wasn't happy but now I listen to Doing The Unstuck and while I was typing that I became a "Cure master" and my name is coloured now in SPRING green.

I'm so happy now !
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on April 01, 2009, 14:05:44
Quote from: Trust... on April 01, 2009, 13:55:21
I wasn't happy but now I listen to Doing The Unstuck and while I was typing that I became a "Cure master" and my name is coloured now in SPRING green. I'm so happy now !

:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 01, 2009, 19:51:40
...because starting from today, i don't need to travel by train to another city once every week. i won't miss sitting in the train for four hours (there and back).


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 01, 2009, 19:57:11
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 01, 2009, 19:51:40
...because starting from today, i don't need to travel by train to another city once every week. i won't miss sitting in the train for four hours (there and back).

Good for you JB! I'm happy for you  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 01, 2009, 20:11:11
Quote from: Trust... on April 01, 2009, 19:57:11
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 01, 2009, 19:51:40
...because starting from today, i don't need to travel by train to another city once every week. i won't miss sitting in the train for four hours (there and back).

Good for you JB! I'm happy for you  :)

thanks. :) i forgot to say that it was work related traveling, so it was rather tiring.
the only good thing was that this other city has better music stores than where i live so i always came back with a bunch of cds (as a kind of consolation - oops! ;)).

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on April 01, 2009, 22:31:21
stupid chemistry exam is over and i have my first star!!! great feeling :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 21, 2009, 09:52:31
Because it's Robert's Birthday and also the Birthday of my husband!

And our local radio knows this  :D look at the playlist today:

http://www.stubru.be/playlist?programCode=41muwv (http://www.stubru.be/playlist?programCode=41muwv)

A lots of Cure Music in my Office today  :smth023  :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 21, 2009, 13:26:42
I have the chance to say something about the anniversary book for the cure and something for Robert's Birthday on our local radio  :shock:  :shock:   :shock:

For all those people  :shock: WOW

Later more  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 22, 2009, 16:03:31
Quote from: Trust... on April 21, 2009, 09:52:31
Because it's Robert's Birthday and also the Birthday of my husband!

counting 2+2.... hmm, mary in disguise? :lol:
happy birthday to everyone in question. ;)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 27, 2009, 21:35:34
I can go Friday to a new wave party  :smth023 Time to dance and enjoy on the music I like  :-D
I feel young again  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on April 28, 2009, 16:58:12
Quote from: Trust... on April 27, 2009, 21:35:34
I can go Friday to a new wave party  :smth023 Time to dance and enjoy on the music I like  :-D
I feel young again  :-D

your too cute :D have fun!!!!! 
i discovered a cool video with robert wearing a headband todayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LujqYolMF8Y&feature=rec-HM-r2   ;) he looks like an indian
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 28, 2009, 21:14:50
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on April 28, 2009, 16:58:12
Quote from: Trust... on April 27, 2009, 21:35:34
I can go Friday to a new wave party  :smth023 Time to dance and enjoy on the music I like  :-D
I feel young again  :-D

your too cute :D have fun!!!!! 
i discovered a cool video with robert wearing a headband todayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LujqYolMF8Y&feature=rec-HM-r2   ;) he looks like an indian

Haha, nice, that was in my country ... I was 3 years old  :roll: I was so many times at the wrong parties, so now I'm getting older I'm going only to the parties I like  :-D And if it must I go all alone  :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on April 28, 2009, 21:33:21
I had a minor neck surgery a forthnight ago and i just shaved today, five days after removing the stitches, and the scar didn´t go open. And as a bonus I´m off that itch.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on April 28, 2009, 21:41:09
Quote from: fiction on April 28, 2009, 21:33:21
I had a minor neck surgery a forthnight ago and i just shaved today, five days after removing the stitches, and the scar didn´t go open. And as a bonus I´m off that itch.

that's good news. as i'm pretty afraid of any kind of surgeries myself i'm glad to hear all was well.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on April 28, 2009, 21:54:23
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 28, 2009, 21:41:09
that's good news. as i'm pretty afraid of any kind of surgeries myself i'm glad to hear all was well.

Thanx jb. You´re a Darling.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 29, 2009, 09:01:43
Quote from: fiction on April 28, 2009, 21:33:21
I had a minor neck surgery a forthnight ago and i just shaved today, five days after removing the stitches, and the scar didn´t go open. And as a bonus I´m off that itch.

Take cure   ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 18, 2009, 18:10:01
1. My tickets for Jarvis arrived today  :smth023
2. I've booked the hotel today for the meet-up in Den Haag  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on May 18, 2009, 21:49:45
Well to continue my story of the doctors carving in my body, I got the reprt today and there was nothing severe with the little lump of fat they removed from my neck. Just a lipome and no sinister tissue.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 18, 2009, 22:59:23
Quote from: fiction on May 18, 2009, 21:49:45
Well to continue my story of the doctors carving in my body, I got the reprt today and there was nothing severe with the little lump of fat they removed from my neck. Just a lipome and no sinister tissue.

thank god!!!! feels great doesn't it ?? my mum had the same thing but in her stomach. we were so glad when we found out that is was harmless :D

i have one day of school left and then 5 days off!!!!  :smth041
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on May 18, 2009, 23:03:11
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 18, 2009, 22:59:23
thank god!!!! feels great doesn't it ?? my mum had the same thing but in her stomach. we were so glad when we found out that is was harmless :D

Well thanx for your concern and I´m also happy for your mother.

Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 18, 2009, 22:59:23
i have one day of school left and then 5 days off!!!!  :smth041

Good for You! Have an absolutely lovely vacation. I will work two more days and then I get a four days break.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 19, 2009, 16:48:02
Quote from: fiction on May 18, 2009, 23:03:11

Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 18, 2009, 22:59:23
i have one day of school left and then 5 days off!!!!  :smth041

Good for You! Have an absolutely lovely vacation. I will work two more days and then I get a four days break.

thanks :) hang in there for two more days and then enjoy your time off as well !!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 25, 2009, 17:08:50
Today I went to the "prefecture" to ask for a new, or better said, a duplicate of the resident permit I lost. Unfortunately my class finished a bit late, and when I arrived there was so many people that they told me to come back tomorrow tuesday morning. I was so upset...

But in the afternoon things got better. First I went to the "Fanzinoteque", a place in Poitiers where they have hundres of music fanzines of France and all the world. As you know, The Cure played in this little city in 1980 and 1981. No recording, no ticket, no information at all besides the dates (which I knew about throught cure-concerts.de)

But guess what? There was a guy arranging some documents there and I asked him if there was anything about the Cure show back then, any poster, some flyer? a copy of the ticket... and the thing is that THIS GUY WAS AT THE SHOW. He has the ticket and in a couple of weeks I will meet him to make a scan and a little interview about his experience in this concert -a curefans.com exclusive 8)

And he promised to search if there's more info about this gig. Cool!!  :smth023

And then I went to the center. A friend told me there's a section of "lost and found" objects behind the Municipality of the city. I went there, and the woman ask me when do I think I lost my wallet. She searched... and OMG... "yes, there's a wallet found in... belongs to David Sánchez" :shock:

Actually, a police found my wallet near my house. Probably it falled from my pants when I was going back home, cause it was found in my street!!!!

Ohhhh... that was the best news ever. I felt so relief. No more tramits, and my travel to Belgium goes on next week. I am sooooo looking forward to be back in that little sweet country  :smth026

See you there, Trust! :rocker






Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on May 25, 2009, 17:33:41
Quote from: dsanchez on May 25, 2009, 17:08:50
I went there, and the woman ask me when do I think I lost my wallet. She searched... and OMG... "yes, there's a wallet found in... belongs to David Sánchez" :shock:

When I saw that someone had made a post in this thred I hoped that it would be YOU founding your wallet and papers! Glad to see that it was so. I´m happy for YOU!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 25, 2009, 17:35:37
Quote from: fiction on May 25, 2009, 17:33:41
I´m happy for YOU!

:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: frog_s on May 25, 2009, 17:42:02
That's some good news!!!

I'm happy you have your wallet back! And tell me when you're in The Hague how your trip to Belgium was  :smth023

Seeyou soon!

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 25, 2009, 18:07:33
Quote from: dsanchez on May 25, 2009, 17:08:50
I am sooooo looking forward to be back in that little sweet country  :smth026

See you there, Trust! :rocker

Wow, just great news and yes you see me here in our little country  :D :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on May 25, 2009, 18:27:30
thank god they found it!!!! have fun on your trip!!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on May 25, 2009, 18:46:42
good news. sometimes things are miraculously lost but also end up being miraculously found.

Quote from: dsanchez on May 25, 2009, 17:08:50
Actually, a police found my wallet near my house. Probably it falled from my pants when I was going back home, cause it was found in my street!!!!

(but hey from now on, maybe keep your wallet in your pocket and not in your pants. :-D)


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on May 26, 2009, 18:40:43
Yihaa! I got quite a high raise on my salary today. I like to spend and from now on I want the most bank for the buck! :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 26, 2009, 21:10:22
Quote from: fiction on May 26, 2009, 18:40:43
Yihaa! I got quite a high raise on my salary today. I like to spend and from now on I want the most bank for the buck! :lol:

Hey fiction, happy for you  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 03, 2009, 13:30:27
because ....

I'm going to the Arras festival in France the 4th of July  :smth026
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on June 03, 2009, 13:43:28
Quote from: Trust... on June 03, 2009, 13:30:27
because ....

I'm going to the Arras festival in France the 4th of July  :smth026

sounds good, have a good time! :D

i'm happy because i just got to spent five days in leipzig WGT festival, got to meet some friends, hear some great concerts and visit this beautiful city with a great history.
i wish the festival wasn't over yet and i wasn't back home but i'm happy i was able to make the trip.  :D

We possess the power
If this should start to fall apart
To mend divides to change the world
To reach the farthest star
If we should stay silent
If fear should win our hearts
Our life will have long diminished
Before it reaches the farthest star...
(vnv nation: farthest star)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 03, 2009, 13:50:36
Quote from: japanesebaby on June 03, 2009, 13:43:28
Quote from: Trust... on June 03, 2009, 13:30:27
because ....

I'm going to the Arras festival in France the 4th of July  :smth026

sounds goo, have a good time :D

i'm happy because i just got to spent five days in leipzig WGT festival, got to meet some friends, hear some great concerts and visit this beautiful city with a great history.
i wish the festival wasn't over yet and i wasn't back home but i'm happy i was able to make the trip.  :D

Yes, I will. It's a present from my sweet husband  :P I'm so happy that I'm gonna see Placebo live and that I'm gonna  smell, taste and feel the atmosphere from a festival  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 03, 2009, 15:35:59
Glad for the two of You, jb for the fresh memories and Trust for the forthcoming joy. I feel pretty glad myself since I think that I have cruise control over the grades that I´m supposed to set on my students efforts next monday.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 03, 2009, 16:47:52
Quote from: fiction on June 03, 2009, 15:35:59
Glad for the two of You, jb for the fresh memories and Trust for the forthcoming joy.

Thank you fiction  :D

Quote from: fiction on June 03, 2009, 15:35:59I feel pretty glad myself since I think that I have cruise control over the grades that I´m supposed to set on my students efforts next monday.

:smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on June 03, 2009, 22:29:06
i hope you have a lot of fun trust!!! festivals are great (not considering the sunburn or mud-bath ;) )

i am so happy because i survived my first driving lesson and not just that it was fun too. i thought i was going to have a heart attack, but my teacher calmed me down... ( respect for that :) )
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 05, 2009, 19:45:53
HTB I´ve just got the news sent to me that I´m one of the lucky five to go out to Utklippan and banding razorbills. Yihaaaa! Gotta count my fingers after that trip!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 05, 2009, 19:51:25
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on June 03, 2009, 22:29:06
i hope you have a lot of fun trust!!! festivals are great (not considering the sunburn or mud-bath ;) )

I will  8)

Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on June 03, 2009, 22:29:06
i am so happy because i survived my first driving lesson and not just that it was fun too. i thought i was going to have a heart attack, but my teacher calmed me down... ( respect for that :) )

Well done  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 13, 2009, 00:54:09
Cause today the pupils quit school for the summer vakation and I just´ve to work for two more days and then it´s SCHOOLS OUT for me to.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 13, 2009, 13:08:23
Quote from: fiction on June 13, 2009, 00:54:09
Cause today the pupils quit school for the summer vakation and I just´ve to work for two more days and then it´s SCHOOLS OUT for me to.

:smth023 great enjoy your vacation!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 13, 2009, 13:34:57
Quote from: Trust... on June 13, 2009, 13:08:23

:smth023 great enjoy your vacation!

Thamx Trust. I will. I´ll go down to Utklippan and will participate in the banding of Razorbills. I´ll put up some pictures when I get back.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on June 13, 2009, 13:39:40
Quote from: fiction on June 13, 2009, 13:34:57
Quote from: Trust... on June 13, 2009, 13:08:23

:smth023 great enjoy your vacation!

Thamx Trust. I will. I´ll go down to Utklippan and will participate in the banding of Razorbills. I´ll put up some pictures when I get back.

cool, have fun!!!! can't wait for summer vacation as well :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:07:49
Quote from: fiction on June 13, 2009, 00:54:09
Cause today the pupils quit school for the summer vakation and I just´ve to work for two more days and then it´s SCHOOLS OUT for me to.

lucky you!  enjoy your vacation :smth023
actually i should not complain myself, because my june work hours (the ones that got cancelled in may) got "anti-cancelled" some time ago so i've been back to work after all - like said, i shouldn't complain because i need that money. but otherwise, i wouldn't mind some break by now... 1 1/2 weeks to go... pppffffff.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 13, 2009, 17:16:44
Quote from: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:07:49
lucky you!  enjoy your vacation :smth023

Well thanx jb!

Quote from: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:07:49
but otherwise, i wouldn't mind some break by now... 1 1/2 weeks to go... pppffffff.

Hang in there tiger. I´m sure You´ll get a King Size vacation when it comes.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:20:50
Quote from: fiction on June 13, 2009, 17:16:44
Hang in there tiger. I´m sure You´ll get a King Size vacation when it comes.

yeah, i've already made myself a promise to do absolutely NOTHING at all in july! ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 13, 2009, 17:27:30
Quote from: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:20:50
yeah, i've already made myself a promise to do absolutely NOTHING at all in july! ;)

Well that sounds pretty nice in my ears. If You haven´t red it already You can always read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy or see the film which I think´ll get up in Finland later this summer. No dates for Sweden yet though.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:36:31
just checked the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtaIe1P0Q4) - looks like a good movie but not exactly something overly relaxing and/or "happy holidays"-ish so to speak...


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 13, 2009, 18:16:42
Quote from: japanesebaby on June 13, 2009, 17:36:31
just checked the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtaIe1P0Q4) - looks like a good movie but not exactly something overly relaxing and/or "happy holidays"-ish so to speak...

No perhaps not. But I have to say that there were more killing in these two minutes than I remember from the whole book. And from reading the book you didn´t get any guidelines whatsoever of what had happened. You just have to put up your own worst case scenario.

Still, it´s a very good and quite scary book well worth reading and I hope that the film will be as great as I expect it to be. The first trailer I saw wasn´t so filled with action. It took a deeper glance at the scenarios and the feelings of being an outcast in a wasted reality.

I couldn´t help but take a picture of the entrance of my school with no students, no sun and, so far, no summer.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: wish-man on June 15, 2009, 21:13:46

I'M FALLEN IN LOVE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

   :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049  :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049  :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on June 15, 2009, 21:28:30
Quote from: wish-man on June 15, 2009, 21:13:46

I'M FALLEN IN LOVE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

   :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049  :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049  :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049

Oh so lovely  :D Enjoy it!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on June 15, 2009, 22:08:32
Quote from: wish-man on June 15, 2009, 21:13:46

I'M FALLEN IN LOVE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

   :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049 :smth049  :smth049

Good 4 U wish-man!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 01, 2009, 20:54:54
i'm really not sure whether i should post this into this thread or in the "sad today because...". anyway i guess this one's the right one:
i am happy because i was just able to see NIN twice in germany, in düsseldorf and berlin - and not some poor man's shortened festival sets but both were real genuine bad-ass NIN shows. :rocker :rocker
:rocker
and as it's their farewell tour, now i can die happy.
simply terrific gigs, i really do have to say the best concerts i've ever been to. an extra bit of an emotion and energy on both sides i suppose, on stage and in the audience. it was really pretty emotional and energizing, watching the show last night and knowing it's probably the last time ever you were going to see it all and hear those songs live, waving goodbye.
i am so grateful i was able to be there but i am also :smth022 :smth022 :smth022 as a very important and close-to-the-heart sort of a book has been closed now.
thank you trent thank you thank you thank you and wave goodbye :smth006


beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
i am still right here...




Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on July 02, 2009, 11:10:22
Because my new Cure-shirt arrived today  :D Now I have also a shirt with a beautiful Wish-heart   on  :smth026

Thanks kima for the link that I received from you  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 02, 2009, 11:36:14
i have a new window :D i live directly under the roof and i have two small windows but it was always kind of dark and felt more like a cave than anything. now they just put a giant hole in the roof and now i have LIGHT :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on July 02, 2009, 11:40:39
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 02, 2009, 11:36:14
i have a new window :D i live directly under the roof and i have two small windows but it was always kind of dark and felt more like a cave than anything. now they just put a giant hole in the roof and now i have LIGHT :-D

Not only light  :D clouds, stars , the moon, birds, ... My bed is standing directly under a roof window (velux) and it's so great, every night I go to sleep I have the feeling "Underneath the Stars" It's such a different way to look outside  :D

Enjoy your new window  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 02, 2009, 11:59:48
Quote from: Trust... on July 02, 2009, 11:40:39
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 02, 2009, 11:36:14
i have a new window :D i live directly under the roof and i have two small windows but it was always kind of dark and felt more like a cave than anything. now they just put a giant hole in the roof and now i have LIGHT :-D

Not only light  :D clouths, stars , the moon, birds, ... My bed is standing directly under a roof window (velux) and it's so great, every night I go to sleep I have the feeling "Underneath the Stars" It's such a different way to look outside  :D

Enjoy your new window  ;)

thanks :) it's really beautiful. i can see the sky with the sun and clouds and of course the forest next to our house. when you come into my room it looks like a big amazing picture! a whole new feeling
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 09, 2009, 19:09:42
Because it has rained now for three days and the surroundings are as green as a rainforest. I´m inside listening to good music (Guadalcanal Diary for the moment) and reading as many books as I can. Just finished "Mamma, pappa, barn" of Carin Gerhardsen and now I´m on "Ruling Passion", a classic by Reginad Hill. And then there´s always Cormac McCarthy and his Border Trilogy. Love that Rain! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 09, 2009, 21:32:05
Quote from: fiction on July 09, 2009, 19:09:42
Because it has rained now for three days and the surroundings are as green as a rainforest. I´m inside listening to good music (Guadalcanal Diary for the moment) and reading as many books as I can. Just finished "Mamma, pappa, barn" of Carin Gerhardsen and now I´m on "Ruling Passion", a classic by Reginad Hill. And then there´s always Cormac McCarthy and his Border Trilogy. Love that Rain! :smth023

ah sounds nice.  :D
i'm still so exhausted about last week that i can't even think about reading a book (i'd fall asleep within minutes, even if it was a good book :-P).
i can somehow manage re-watching comedies:
http://curefans.com/index.php/topic,3678.msg65090.html#msg65090

:P


stormy day here. no constant rain but some showers and strong winds. almost like september - scary... to find oneself suddenly thinking about autumn already.
:|
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 09, 2009, 21:42:09
Quote from: japanesebaby on July 09, 2009, 21:32:05

stormy day here. no constant rain but some showers and strong winds. almost like september - scary... to find oneself suddenly thinking about autumn already.
:|


i actually can't wait till christmas ;) i can't stand summer... too warm, too noisy, too many people and you always have to DO something. i like bad weather as an excuse for just staying at home and doing exactly what fiction is doing :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 09, 2009, 22:10:28
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 09, 2009, 21:42:09
i like bad weather as an excuse for just staying at home and doing exactly what fiction is doing :)

Welcome to the club then RAINprayer. You didn´t take that nic for no reason then. :lol:

I also almost bought another camera and a new lens today aswell. Gonna sleep on it but I think that tomorrow I´ll score. It´s a good buy.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 09:16:13
Quote from: fiction on July 09, 2009, 22:10:28
I also almost bought another camera and a new lens today aswell. Gonna sleep on it but I think that tomorrow I´ll score. It´s a good buy.

what did you get? knowing it's you, it must be something nice.
i've been thinking about getting a new one too. then again i'd want just something small that fits in one's pocket, so i'd be nowhere in the same league with you. ;) but i really hate my old olympus by now. especially since it's crap in low-light conditions which makes me grind my teeth because i'd like taking concert pics. and newer pocket cameras have some nice features, like possibility to choose exposure settings maually. i hate the old ones where just about everything is automatic. 
but i'm afraid i don't have any extra money right now to buy anything. :/
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 10, 2009, 11:52:21
Quote from: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 09:16:13
what did you get? knowing it's you, it must be something nice.

A Canon 40D for just 700 Euro. The price might get even lower now when the 50D is going to replace the 40D. Basicly it´s the same camera, just added 4,0 megapixels and from what I heard the sensors are said to be even better on the 50D. But still, the 40D is a GOOD camera. The lens...Well I decided to wait on that.

Quote from: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 09:16:13
i've been thinking about getting a new one too. then again i'd want just something small that fits in one's pocket, so i'd be nowhere in the same league with you. ;) but i really hate my old olympus by now. especially since it's crap in low-light conditions which makes me grind my teeth because i'd like taking concert pics. and newer pocket cameras have some nice features, like possibility to choose exposure settings maually. i hate the old ones where just about everything is automatic. 
but i'm afraid i don't have any extra money right now to buy anything. :/

Yeah, money is always King. But there are lots of good small cameras out there. I got one myself, an oldie, a Canon PowerShot A 450. It still takes good pictures but I know that there are compact cameras out that are way better than that, and to a stiffer cost unfortunately.

This is good. In this little cornaer of Curefans I can still keep sending posts and yet keep Donald´s number.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 12:00:14
Quote from: fiction on July 10, 2009, 11:52:21
Yeah, money is always King. But there are lots of good small cameras out there. I got one myself, an oldie, a Canon PowerShot A 450. It still takes good pictures but I know that there are compact cameraw way better than that, and to a stiffer cost unfortunately.

actually i've been considering some canon powershot models. the problem is i'd like to have something that has at least 10x optical zoom, would include 28 mm wide angle, possibility to manually choosing the exposure, possibility to film video clips in HD - and preferably would use AA batteries (and not an akku). so, perhaps i'm just wanting too much. ;)
maybe this isn't so bad, although doesn't have everything i'd wish:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_SX200_IS/index.asp

Quote from: fiction on July 10, 2009, 11:52:21This is good. In this little cornaer of Curefans I can still keep sending posts and yet keep Donald´s number.

:smth081


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on July 10, 2009, 12:50:14
Quote from: fiction on July 10, 2009, 11:52:21
This is good. In this little cornaer of Curefans I can still keep sending posts and yet keep Donald´s number.

do i NEED to get what you are talking about ?? ???

;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 10, 2009, 18:50:45
Quote from: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 12:00:14
actually i've been considering some canon powershot models. the problem is i'd like to have something that has at least 10x optical zoom, would include 28 mm wide angle, possibility to manually choosing the exposure, possibility to film video clips in HD - and preferably would use AA batteries (and not an akku). so, perhaps i'm just wanting too much. ;)
maybe this isn't so bad, although doesn't have everything i'd wish:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_SX200_IS/index.asp

I think that this could be what You´re looking for. Even if the zoom is just half of Your request.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=17624

Since You understand Swedish I´ll give U this one to:
http://www.canon.se/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_G10/index.asp

This is an absolutely Darling. When and if I get another compact one, this´ll be my choice.

See? Still 313!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 15, 2009, 18:12:12
Well this li´l red hot and sexy car made my day. I just wonder how the market is for this merchandise on a parking lot out in the suburbs. And, might I add, what are the prices on those these days?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on July 19, 2009, 19:54:44
Quote from: fiction on July 15, 2009, 18:12:12
Well this li´l red hot and sexy car made my day. I just wonder how the market is for this merchandise on a parking lot out in the suburbs. And, might I add, what are the prices on those these days?

what are they selling there? dont know swedish :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on July 19, 2009, 20:42:25
Quote from: fiction on July 10, 2009, 18:50:45
Quote from: japanesebaby on July 10, 2009, 12:00:14
actually i've been considering some canon powershot models. the problem is i'd like to have something that has at least 10x optical zoom, would include 28 mm wide angle, possibility to manually choosing the exposure, possibility to film video clips in HD - and preferably would use AA batteries (and not an akku). so, perhaps i'm just wanting too much. ;)
maybe this isn't so bad, although doesn't have everything i'd wish:
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_SX200_IS/index.asp

I think that this could be what You´re looking for. Even if the zoom is just half of Your request.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=17624

Since You understand Swedish I´ll give U this one to:
http://www.canon.se/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_G10/index.asp

This is an absolutely Darling. When and if I get another compact one, this´ll be my choice.

See? Still 313!

thanks for the links fiction. i bet that canon g10 is a good choice for a camera. it lacks a higher quality video option though, which i'd really like to have (even many smaller pocket cameras have even HD video quality these days - some with mono sound though which i find really dumb! so one needs to make sure one doesn't get fooled with the "HD video" alone. it's not always quite as blissful as it might sound like. for instance the canon sx200 that i mentioned above has just mono sound - but well i knew there had to be some catches there, for that price.)

anyway, i'm afraid that i do need to settle with something a little bit cheaper though. i've been spending a bit too much on running around europe this summer. :-P
i know i won't get anything quite as great with less money but i just have to live with that i guess.
btw i wonder how those newer panasonic lumix tz models are like? i guess there might be some catch there too, to be found...
anyway this is on the brink of turning into a camera thread soon... (but btw maybe we should have a separate thread for cameras/photography? there seems to be a few people around who take pics every now and then.)

anyway, on topic:
happy today because it's (still) summer and i don't have to do anything at all.  :)


ps: that car is funny lol  :-D
@david: it's about household services.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 19, 2009, 21:26:32
Quote from: dsanchez on July 19, 2009, 19:54:44
what are they selling there? dont know swedish :-D

I was merely thinking of the name "Dicks" which in english is the name (in plural) of, well You know, the thing with what a guy pisses with.

But it is as jb says, a firm that deals with household services such as installing fridges and washing machines and the firm´s name is Dicks (Dick is a rather common name in Sweden).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on July 19, 2009, 21:33:34
Quote from: fiction on July 19, 2009, 21:26:32
I was merely thinking of the name "Dicks" which in english is the name (in plural) of, well You know, the thing with what a guy pisses with.

yes of course i know :P

Quote from: fiction on July 19, 2009, 21:26:32
Dick is a rather common name in Sweden

thats really funny, isnt? :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on July 20, 2009, 16:48:57
Cause since 12 o´clock today (CET) I´ve been cleaning my fu...ng kitchen. The time is now 16.44 (still CET) and I thought that by now I would be finished with the whole apartment, but I just finished the kitchen some 15 minutes ago (given a 25 minutes recess while skipping down to the local liqouer store to by some beer). Why Happy Then? Well my kitchen is shining as a diamond reflecting the sunrays and the beer is cool and..., well I´ve obviously managed the roughest parts of my cleaning voyage throughout my flat.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 23, 2009, 13:14:29
I found finally the time and a site for the ordering off my Curefans.com shirt.
I'm so excited that I've gonna have my shirt soon  :smth026
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 25, 2009, 21:44:36
Quote from: Trust... on September 23, 2009, 13:14:29
I found finally the time and a site for the ordering off my Curefans.com shirt.
I'm so excited that I've gonna have my shirt soon  :smth026

WTF  :shock: I received today a mail that they don't want to produce my shirt because of some copyright issues  :smth011

I was so happy and now so sad  :cry:
What I need to do?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 26, 2009, 00:40:07
Quote from: Trust... on September 25, 2009, 21:44:36
Quote from: Trust... on September 23, 2009, 13:14:29
I found finally the time and a site for the ordering off my Curefans.com shirt.
I'm so excited that I've gonna have my shirt soon  :smth026

WTF  :shock: I received today a mail that they don't want to produce my shirt because of some copyright issues  :smth011

I was so happy and now so sad  :cry:
What I need to do?

the easiest would be to go to any print store, they would do it in some minutes ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 27, 2009, 12:06:33
Quote from: dsanchez on September 26, 2009, 00:40:07
the easiest would be to go to any print store, they would do it in some minutes ;)

I hope so.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on September 27, 2009, 13:19:02
Quote from: Trust... on September 27, 2009, 12:06:33
Quote from: dsanchez on September 26, 2009, 00:40:07
the easiest would be to go to any print store, they would do it in some minutes ;)

I hope so.

good luck
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 27, 2009, 15:09:44
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on September 27, 2009, 13:19:02
Quote from: Trust... on September 27, 2009, 12:06:33
Quote from: dsanchez on September 26, 2009, 00:40:07
the easiest would be to go to any print store, they would do it in some minutes ;)

I hope so.

good luck

Thank you  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 28, 2009, 11:35:39
 :smth026 My shirt is in production   :D

Just a forward with the original mail by dsanchez was enough  :smth023
So David without your knowing you where helping me a lot  :-D So many thanks for that :rocker

I'm so happy now  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: wish-man on December 22, 2009, 22:25:29



LOL)) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTkGXuiT55w)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on January 09, 2010, 15:35:18
Because, I'm gonna see the Belgian Tribute Band "Strange As Angels" tonight. :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on January 09, 2010, 15:37:09
Quote from: Trust... on January 09, 2010, 15:35:18
Because, I'm gonna see the Belgian Tribute Band "Strange As Angels" tonight. :rocker

nice! enjoy the concert  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on January 09, 2010, 16:12:36
Quote from: japanesebaby on January 09, 2010, 15:37:09
Quote from: Trust... on January 09, 2010, 15:35:18
Because, I'm gonna see the Belgian Tribute Band "Strange As Angels" tonight. :rocker

nice! enjoy the concert  :)

Thanks JB :)
Of course I will  :-D (surprise from my husband)  :smth026
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 18, 2010, 16:27:17
..because the weekend is approaching again! I love sleeping in  :twisted:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 18, 2010, 17:46:47
This bulls_it thing with work & my **** supervisor is clearing way!!
It seems I am past my probationary period before she decided to complain about me SO which means I can't lose my job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 :-D :-D :-D :-D
Beyond relieved & looking forward to not working under her after the 2 weeks are over, tho weirdly enough....I will kinda miss this position  :shock:
Take THAT supervisor boitch!  :twisted:  :smth023 :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 19, 2010, 16:08:59
It's friday!!  :-D
yeh! for the weekend  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on February 19, 2010, 18:09:12
The february holiday starts TODAAAAAAAAAY!!! Yiha!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on February 19, 2010, 20:53:40
Quote from: fiction on February 19, 2010, 18:09:12
The february holiday starts TODAAAAAAAAAY!!! Yiha!

oh my god i am so JEALOUS!!!!!! i have till the 27th of march till i get any holiday....

but happy for you of course ;) i hope you have a good time and relax :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 19, 2010, 23:11:01
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Hey you are on curefans.com here NOT on cureconnections, so if you don't like it here, you don't need to be here and if you like it more on ccc you can stay there off course  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on February 19, 2010, 23:36:07
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on February 19, 2010, 20:53:40
oh my god i am so JEALOUS!!!!!! i have till the 27th of march till i get any holiday....
but happy for you of course ;) i hope you have a good time and relax :D

Ah, but don´t be jelaous, think positively instead. When the 27th of march comes I´m back at work and You´ll have your whole holiday left to spend!

Love You
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on February 20, 2010, 02:14:06
I got accepted into a university today! :-D Although it was not my first choice...I am still waiting to hear from them and I  have a portfolio appointment tomorrow so I hope that goes well, but at least I have somewhere to go (now I dont have to stay home and work at Mcdonalds...although I probably wouldnt mind working there since I actually like their food :lol:)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 20, 2010, 04:52:18
Quote from: Trust... on February 19, 2010, 23:11:01
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Hey you are on curefans.com here NOT on cureconnections, so if you don't like it here, you don't need to be here and if you like it more on ccc you can stay there off course  ;)

Well said. I can only imagine there are other The Cure forums with similar topics of other forums. Very very weird that anther forum would even be mentioned here & in this topic  :roll:  :?

I'm happy today because I get to sleep in with my furry princess tomm. mornin  :-D :smth060 :smth050
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 20, 2010, 05:17:51
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Actually we copied the other 104 million pages out there where they speak about the same subject:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=forum+happy+today+because (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=forum+happy+today+because)

Yeah, no-one is original :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 20, 2010, 05:20:35
 :smth081
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 20, 2010, 05:31:18
Quote from: skellington on February 20, 2010, 02:14:06
I got accepted into a university today!

Congratulations. Very happy for you :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 20, 2010, 05:34:38
Quote from: skellington on February 20, 2010, 02:14:06
I got accepted into a university today! :-D Although it was not my first choice...I am still waiting to hear from them and I  have a portfolio appointment tomorrow so I hope that goes well, but at least I have somewhere to go (now I dont have to stay home and work at Mcdonalds...although I probably wouldnt mind working there since I actually like their food :lol:)

Congrats!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on February 20, 2010, 05:53:35
Thank you :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 21, 2010, 02:11:14
..that my gig collection is growing like mad! :-D :-D
& that I can sleep in again tomm.  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: lostflower4 on February 21, 2010, 02:40:30
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Ok "punka", looks like you had us punked. But it turns out you're just  Steve (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1149) from CureConneCtions (http://www.cureconnections.com) (or whatever "CCC" is supposed to stand for :lol:).

There are ways to check this, aside from all the other obvious hints you gave. You really should have known better, being a moderator yourself and all.  :oops:

Anyway, what was the point of all this?  :smth017
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: japanesebaby on February 21, 2010, 13:32:36
Quote from: lostflower4 on February 21, 2010, 02:40:30
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Ok "punka", looks like you had us punked. But it turns out you're just  Steve (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1149) from CureConneCtions (http://www.cureconnections.com) (or whatever "CCC" is supposed to stand for :lol:).

There are ways to check this, aside from all the other obvious hints you gave. You really should have known better, being a moderator yourself and all.  :oops:

Anyway, what was the point of all this?  :smth017

how stupid. :roll:

and exactly, what was the point? to post all kinds of that spam on several boards - why?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 21, 2010, 13:58:10
Quote from: japanesebaby on February 21, 2010, 13:32:36
Quote from: lostflower4 on February 21, 2010, 02:40:30
Quote from: punka on February 19, 2010, 23:06:36
is this another direct copy of a topic at cureconnections?
There one is better.

Ok "punka", looks like you had us punked. But it turns out you're just  Steve (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1149) from CureConneCtions (http://www.cureconnections.com) (or whatever "CCC" is supposed to stand for :lol:).

There are ways to check this, aside from all the other obvious hints you gave. You really should have known better, being a moderator yourself and all.  :oops:

Anyway, what was the point of all this?  :smth017

how stupid. :roll:

and exactly, what was the point? to post all kinds of that spam on several boards - why?


Ridiculous from you punka  :roll:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 21, 2010, 14:00:01
Quote from: skellington on February 20, 2010, 02:14:06
I got accepted into a university today! :-D

Congratulations skellington  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: fiction on February 21, 2010, 14:00:39
Happy (and a bit prous aswell) because I´ve corrected all my students national tests in swedish concerning understanding of written texts and soon to be finished with their national tests in writing their own texts within given subjects. Pfuii! And outside the sun is striking hard on a 15" thick carpet of snow. Sweden is actually a beautiful country during the winter even though you can´t see the actuall country because of all the snow.

ad. FINISHED!!!   And now I can enjoy my holiday!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 21, 2010, 16:46:54
I loveeeeeeeee sleepin in  :-D
& today I'm going to talk to a very special overseas person again :smth050 :smth005 :smth039
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: PerfectBlueSkyDolls on February 21, 2010, 23:00:25
I just got off the phone with a special someone  :-D & he was very glad to hear me  :smth052 :smth058  :-D :-D :-D

Then after 20 mins the phone card died *pout*  :x
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 24, 2010, 20:28:04
Tomorrow I will be back on the radio Studio Brussel :rocker

I may give a DREAM TEAM and need to explain why I choose those songs  :-D

So if somebody want to hear it, you can listen live on www.stubru.be (http://www.stubru.be)
between 13.00 u - 14.00 u (Belgian Time GMT+1)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 12:55:26
Just opened the radio website, have a nice time there Trust!

If you can, send me hellos :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 13:14:50
Quote from: Trust... on February 24, 2010, 20:28:04
So if somebody want to hear it, you can listen live on www.stubru.be (http://www.stubru.be)
between 13.00 u - 14.00 u (Belgian Time GMT+1)

there's also a webcam :)

I just sent an email to the Dj requesting any Cure song. We will see :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 13:29:42
Thanks for the regards Trust :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 13:31:24
Good choice. "Charlotte Sometimes" from the "Concert" is the darkest version of this song live.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 25, 2010, 13:51:26
Quote from: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 13:29:42
Thanks for the regards Trust :rocker

Cool ha :rocker and I also mentioned curefans.com again  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 25, 2010, 14:03:32
Quote from: dsanchez on February 25, 2010, 13:31:24
Good choice. "Charlotte Sometimes" from the "Concert" is the darkest version of this song live.

Thank you  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on March 01, 2010, 20:15:39
I've got Cure LP's for my BD  :rocker

- Pornography LP
- The Head On The Door LP
- Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me LP
- Boys Don't Cry LP
- The Lovecats Maxi LP

:rocker

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 19, 2010, 17:37:43
Because ... some ... BIG , HUGE different in my life  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 19, 2010, 18:26:39
Quote from: Trust... on May 19, 2010, 17:37:43
Because ... some ... BIG , HUGE different in my live  :D

Happy for you! but tell us the whole story :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 19, 2010, 21:20:59
Quote from: dsanchez on May 19, 2010, 18:26:39
Quote from: Trust... on May 19, 2010, 17:37:43
Because ... some ... BIG , HUGE different in my live  :D

Happy for you! but tell us the whole story :)

To MUCH ... to COMPLEX to tell  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 19, 2010, 21:38:19
Quote from: Trust... on May 19, 2010, 21:20:59
To MUCH ... to COMPLEX to tell  :-D

lol. then send me a PM :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 28, 2010, 14:38:14
It's a  GREAT and WONDERFUL day in my life today :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 28, 2010, 14:52:39
Quote from: Trust... on May 28, 2010, 14:38:14
It's a  GREAT and WONDERFUL day in my life today :rocker

:rocker

Doing The Unstuck (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcO6iPMbyg#)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on May 28, 2010, 15:07:02
Quote from: dsanchez on May 28, 2010, 14:52:39
Quote from: Trust... on May 28, 2010, 14:38:14
It's a  GREAT and WONDERFUL day in my life today :rocker

:rocker


Thanks! Good choice :rocker especially the part

it's a perfect day for dreams come true
for thinking big
and doing anything you want to do
let's get happy!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: shel1971 on August 05, 2010, 04:38:27
I have kids that I love, and they love me, a boyfriend that thinks I am a goddess, and a job that I love and pays my bills at the same time. Not to mention that I woke up for another birthday. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 01, 2010, 13:12:17
Quote from: shel1971 on August 05, 2010, 04:38:27
I have kids that I love, and they love me, a boyfriend that thinks I am a goddess, and a job that I love and pays my bills at the same time. Not to mention that I woke up for another birthday. :)
Great! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 02, 2010, 12:17:04
I am back to chat :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Druide on September 04, 2010, 22:17:16
Quote from: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up

Happy weeding anniversary miss... :smth023 :smth023 :smth023

Kisses to the family  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 05, 2010, 00:30:10
Quote from: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up

Congratulations! :smth039
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: crowbi_wan on September 05, 2010, 06:10:02
I met the three remaining members of Interpol!  :-D  They did a signing at a local record store in Seattle.  Nice fellows. 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 05, 2010, 10:25:27
Quote from: Druide on September 04, 2010, 22:17:16
Quote from: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up

Happy weeding anniversary miss... :smth023 :smth023 :smth023

Kisses to the family  ;)

Thanks Druide  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 05, 2010, 10:26:02
Quote from: dsanchez on September 05, 2010, 00:30:10
Quote from: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up

Congratulations! :smth039

Thank you David  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 05, 2010, 11:20:43
Quote from: crowbi_wan on September 05, 2010, 06:10:02
I met the three remaining members of Interpol!  :-D  They did a signing at a local record store in Seattle.  Nice fellows.

Awesome! I recently met the singer of The Flaming Lips in Katowice (Poland). He was walking in the main street and I recognized him. He was kind enough to sign my Festival book. Very friendly guy!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on September 05, 2010, 13:37:08
Quote from: Trust... on September 04, 2010, 18:36:23
Off my 12th wedding anniversary  :smth057 ... going to dress me up

awwww Congratulations!!!!  :D :D :D Have fun!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: jbud1980 on September 05, 2010, 22:34:44
...i am attending a boat christening in dana point  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 05, 2010, 22:40:36
Quote from: jbud1980 on September 05, 2010, 22:34:44
...i am attending a boat christening in dana point  8)

Cool! :smth023

In my case, happy because:

Peru 2 Canada 0 sabado 04 setiembre 2010.mpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UZoSaOkSGY#)

:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: jbud1980 on September 05, 2010, 22:59:26
lol, perhaps they should stick to hockey???

jaja, estas bromeando!  :P
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 05, 2010, 23:19:23
Thanks alwaysprayingforRAIN :) (can`t quote with my phone  :( )
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scottm on September 06, 2010, 10:39:04
Happy today because I'm making some progress learning German.

It's been a goal of mine for awhile but it isn't easy and I don't always have the time.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 07, 2010, 14:30:17
Quote from: scottm on September 06, 2010, 10:39:04
Happy today because I'm making some progress learning German.

Great :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on September 08, 2010, 04:51:48
I am starting to make some friends at University :-D Now I don't feel so lonely, must find someone who likes the Cure as much as I do...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 08, 2010, 14:19:58
that is a good plan  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 08, 2010, 23:06:21
Quote from: skellington on September 08, 2010, 04:51:48
I am starting to make some friends at University :-D Now I don't feel so lonely, must find someone who likes the Cure as much as I do...

I hope you make good friends and hope you will meet some Curefans, but if you don't find any, maybe you should introduce them to the Cure World. All the best! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scottm on September 08, 2010, 23:11:34
Quote from: dsanchez on September 08, 2010, 23:06:21
Quote from: skellington on September 08, 2010, 04:51:48
I am starting to make some friends at University :-D Now I don't feel so lonely, must find someone who likes the Cure as much as I do...

I hope you make good friends and hope you will meet some Curefans, but if you don't find any, maybe you should introduce them to the Cure World. All the best! :smth023

No exaggeration, it is amazing how many people will at first mock the cure, and then become huge fans.

I had a mixed tape (yes... tape...) of mostly Disintegration/Wish/Mixed Up tracks and my friends used to make fun of me for it at first. They thought they might find me hanging from the rafters somewhere (since cure fans apparently commit suicide so much!) But many of them eventually asked me to make them a copy :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on September 09, 2010, 05:23:09
Thanks for all your support and advice :D Yeah I hate it when Cure fans are sterotyped like that, but once they hear the actual music and the range of emotions (not just sadness) they (hopefully ) will see that the Cure are so awesome!!  :smth020 Will update on progress, hopefully will find at least one person:)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 09, 2010, 12:24:33
Quote from: skellington on September 08, 2010, 04:51:48
I am starting to make some friends at University :-D Now I don't feel so lonely, must find someone who likes the Cure as much as I do...

Good luck  :smth023 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 09, 2010, 12:28:45
Quote from: scottm on September 08, 2010, 23:11:34
I had a mixed tape (yes... tape...) of mostly Disintegration/Wish/Mixed Up tracks

I also had / have tapes ... Wish / Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me / Mixed Up and Staring at the Sea  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 15, 2010, 14:32:14
I had my first guitar lesseon today and it was so much fun and I am really excited about learning more and more....

but mi fingers hurt really bad :( so that kinda sucks but I am sure I will get used to it...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 15, 2010, 14:47:05
Great Tilda! Nice that you enjoyed your guitar lesson! I am happy because I go to Praha for three days, away from the daily stress :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 15, 2010, 15:14:01
@ Tilda: you will get use to it :smth023

@ Trust: enjoy! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 15, 2010, 15:30:51
oh i am sure i will get used to it but typing and starting to learn how to play the guitar doesn't work together................................................but i want to talk ... it's hard :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: scottm on September 15, 2010, 17:10:23
Quote from: Tilda on September 15, 2010, 14:32:14
I had my first guitar lesseon today and it was so much fun and I am really excited about learning more and more....

but mi fingers hurt really bad :( so that kinda sucks but I am sure I will get used to it...

I've trained with the guitar and then put it down more often than I can count.

It takes me about a week to develop callouses on my fingertips, but I actually prefer the first few days without them because it feels like I can better feel where the string are beneath my fingers! If I ever get good at it, I doubt I'll need such minor advantages though.  :lol:

I've owned guitars for around 14 years or so but I can't really say I know how to play well. I know a few songs and that's it.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 15, 2010, 17:17:00
oh i wish i was able to play at least a few songs.......and i don't even have my own guitar, i borrowed mine...

plus 14 years of having a guitar or two (even without playing) is more than i can look back on...but i am looking forward to being able to play the songs i like in 14 years...

we start with songs for little children but i want to learn how to play songs for the older people like me...and i want to sing to it...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 15, 2010, 19:02:23
A friend of mine is self-learning guitar with the help of some YouTube videos, you maybe should take a look, too :)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guitar+lessons&aq=f (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guitar+lessons&aq=f)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on September 15, 2010, 21:28:31
Quote from: dsanchez on September 15, 2010, 15:14:01
@ Trust: enjoy! :)

Thanks David  8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 16, 2010, 12:22:55
Quote from: Trust... on September 15, 2010, 21:28:31
Quote from: dsanchez on September 15, 2010, 15:14:01
@ Trust: enjoy! :)

Thanks David  8)

thank you so much...i'll try but my fingers still hurt so I might wait until tomorrow to start playing again...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 22, 2010, 16:44:41
had so much fun at my second guitar lesson!!!

whats with this forum? where is everyone?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on September 22, 2010, 17:04:29
Quote from: Tilda on September 22, 2010, 16:44:41
had so much fun at my second guitar lesson!!!

whats with this forum? where is everyone?

sounds cool!!!  :smth023

in my case: studying for a bunch of important exams...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 22, 2010, 17:06:30
oh wow...how fun huh ... ^^

good luck writing them!

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on September 24, 2010, 22:18:22
Got to see my best friend before she goes off to England for University, and got a compliment on my boots :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on September 24, 2010, 22:42:24
Quote from: skellington on September 24, 2010, 22:18:22
and got a compliment on my boots :D
now you made me curious!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 29, 2010, 14:13:47
yeah me too!!!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: skellington on September 30, 2010, 06:00:55
Oh well there nothing special, they are just a really cool looking pair of black boots (I think my almost knee high converse look cooler) but the boots were a great find. Each one has a zipper on the side so I can just slip them on and off with ease. I found them at Urban Planet, if anyone is interested in getting themselves a pair. Shoes are the only clothing items I can stand shopping for, and it is rare for me to find something I like. I will be sure to wear them if I go to a Cure Concert, (which I hope will happen someday!) My friend is in England now, I will miss her but she will come visit in the summer.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Tilda on September 30, 2010, 13:37:48
oh cool

thanks for sharing the boots story :)

i like boots too but I hardly find any that I really like and want to buy...

maybe I will look for some boots that look like yours...

:D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on October 07, 2010, 13:56:42
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writter, just won the Nobel Prize of Literature :smth023

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/06/world/europe/AP-EU-Nobel-Literature.html?_r=1&hp (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/06/world/europe/AP-EU-Nobel-Literature.html?_r=1&hp)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on October 17, 2010, 20:19:16
Quote from: Tilda on September 22, 2010, 17:06:30
oh wow...how fun huh ... ^^

good luck writing them!

thanks!!! must have worked because i have quiet a good feeling on most of them :D

happy today because i am going to amsterdam for two days with a friends of mine tomorrow.  :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on October 17, 2010, 22:31:47
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on October 17, 2010, 20:19:16
Happy today because i am going to amsterdam for two days with a friends of mine tomorrow.  :rocker

Cool  8)  Have fun :rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on October 17, 2010, 22:51:03
Quote from: Trust... on October 17, 2010, 22:31:47
Quote from: alwaysprayingforRAIN on October 17, 2010, 20:19:16
Happy today because i am going to amsterdam for two days with a friends of mine tomorrow.  :rocker

Cool  8)  Have fun :rocker

thanks!!! you bet i will. i was there once before and immediatly fell in love with this city  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: alwaysprayingforRAIN on January 25, 2011, 21:45:04
for graduation each student has to choose thirty seconds of a song to play as they recieve their report...
and i just send in that really beautiful instrumental part of 'just like heaven'  :smth055
first cure song i ever heard  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on January 26, 2011, 09:52:57
Awesome! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on January 26, 2011, 11:00:02
Well done ! alwaysprayingforRAIN ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 06, 2011, 14:52:15
I came downstairs and my 11 years old son asked me the question: Can I place a vinyl on the turntable? And I looked at him and he is standing there with my kiss me, kiss me, kiss me vinyl in his hands :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 06, 2011, 14:55:22
:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on April 20, 2011, 18:32:10
Because off the great weather here in Belgium, it seems to be the hottest place in Europe for the momemt. 26°C :-)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: billee on January 23, 2012, 03:25:04
Got tix to see New Order on March 1st  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Sussex on January 25, 2012, 17:10:31
Quote from: billee on January 23, 2012, 03:25:04
Got tix to see New Order on March 1st  :smth023

Clap2 :smth023 :smth020
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on April 24, 2014, 17:16:58
I am going to see the first Slowdive show after 20 years next month!

:rocker
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 21, 2019, 09:45:37
... I slept so well and I have some work to do and the weather is nice.  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 08, 2019, 16:14:36
Did 86km by bicycle today (forgot to start the recording button at the beginning in the app though but it does not matter). Three countries in 6 hours: Slovakia, Hungary and Austria :cool

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on May 28, 2019, 21:07:15
Because I am the most liked user (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=stats) on curefans.com :oops:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: chemicaloverload on May 28, 2019, 21:37:01
Quote from: dsanchez on May 28, 2019, 21:07:15Because I am the most liked user (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=stats) on curefans.com :oops:

Hahaha Mr Popular ;).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 29, 2019, 09:05:42
Quote from: chemicaloverload on May 28, 2019, 21:37:01
Quote from: dsanchez on May 28, 2019, 21:07:15Because I am the most liked user (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=stats) on curefans.com :oops:

Hahaha Mr Popular ;).

Pah, that's just because people see he's the Admin.  :winking_tongue
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: chemicaloverload on May 29, 2019, 22:04:41
Quote from: Ulrich on May 29, 2019, 09:05:42
Quote from: chemicaloverload on May 28, 2019, 21:37:01
Quote from: dsanchez on May 28, 2019, 21:07:15Because I am the most liked user (http://curefans.com/index.php?action=stats) on curefans.com :oops:

Hahaha Mr Popular ;).

Pah, that's just because people see he's the Admin.  :winking_tongue

Hahahaha I know right, the table is a fix!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: chemicaloverload on May 30, 2019, 12:25:00
Thank you Mr Popular, you've made my morning a happy one
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 30, 2019, 13:18:22
... I can watch The Cure live via internet, even though they are far away in Australia! Sound & picture quality are good!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on June 19, 2019, 11:30:24
Bolivia 1 - Peru 3 with some nice goals :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on June 21, 2019, 18:11:45

In 2013, I missed six volumes in my Strindberg collection. Now it is complete. Bubbly time! 🍾
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on July 05, 2019, 12:07:40
Peru classified to the final of Copa America (plays with Brazil on Sunday) and Simon Gallup smiled at me:)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on July 27, 2019, 12:01:57
Pan american games (https://www.lima2019.pe/en) just started in Lima yesterday, first time we host the games! And the inauguration was awesome!


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 27, 2019, 13:42:15
Quote from: dsanchez on May 08, 2019, 16:14:36Did 86km by bicycle today (forgot to start the recording button at the beginning in the app though but it does not matter). Three countries in 6 hours: Slovakia, Hungary and Austria :cool

Wow, we can't do that here - I mean, yes we can ride 86km (in theory, but at the moment it would kill me I think, we had the flu really badly recently and are still recovering fitness), but in Australia we could ride 20,000km or more and still never get to another country unless we had some kind of amphi-bicycle...

You're talking not only to a Cure-enjoying household, but also to a cycling household - but not as serious as you.  When I was a whippersnapper, I time trialled for a bit (outdoors trials), and toured a lot, and generally rode my bicycle everywhere because I was dirt poor and couldn't afford a car, or even a driver's license for one, till age 21 - after university.  The silver lining was that I got incredibly fit, and didn't have such a huge carbon footprint.  Have you ever seen that cycling saying, "Burn fat, not oil"?

The longest distance I ever did in a day touring was 120km.  It took 6 hours (it was as flat as anything) and there was a lot of wind.  I think I could probably do a 50km (flattish) ride at a stretch these days, but would have to prepare seriously for anything longer or significantly hilly, because I no longer cycle everywhere... Our current regular training ride is a mere 16km... laughable, I know, but we're planning to stretch it as the weather improves... why can't there be 40 hours in a day?

I gather it's mountainous where you cycle?

Are you watching the Tour de France?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 27, 2019, 14:23:57
Happy today because:

-It was finally nice and sunny after several days of grey sky and refrigerator temperatures that made me wonder if we were having a nuclear winter I'd missed by not watching the news

-I trimmed eight donkey hooves in the one session, which means these guys are fine for the next month.  Let me introduce you to Nelly and Benjamin:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47977354563_0b941ca631_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2g6Au1k)

Benjamin knows he's really cute... he has zebra characteristics, like leg stripes, and the appearance of his head...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47977310457_f17d295929_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2g6AfTT)

These two donkeys (a mother/son pair) needed a good home late last year, and because we already had three donkeys, we were asked.  You'd think anyone who's got three donkeys wouldn't possibly want any more, but after visiting these guys, we couldn't say no...

Our three original donkeys we've had since 2012, and they came from our Donkey Society, whom I'd dropped a note saying I was available to adopt some donkeys in need of a good home.  This group came up because the owner had health problems, and she wanted her donkeys to stay together as a group because one of them (the spotted one) is blind and needs her friends as guide donkeys.  Meet Don Quixote, Mary Lou and Sparkle:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/3929/32835254696_d6f27b955b_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/S2xgfY)

Donkeys appear to have Easter Bunny and teddy bear DNA and greatly contribute to the happiness of all the people I know who have donkeys.  They are such characters.  And the noises they make... :rofl

Further reasons for happiness:

-Sushi for lunch - we did smoked salmon and cucumber today

-A nice morning walk with my husband and our dog, who was chasing the tennis ball everywhere

Jess the dog:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4493/37614858282_61f9c0ae1e_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/ZiTYTm)

And with us on a mountain climb recently:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1828/42751350974_d2fbfcfb50_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/288MRdb)

I'm not bothered if people know what we look like; I contribute to a lifestyle magazine and we've been regularly in print, with photos, for years, even to the point that my husband got recognised and stopped in the supermarket last year! Just to clarify, that's because the alternative lifestyle community in Australia is smallish and fairly connected.

-The drainage ditch finally got completed - there's been a curse on it, I swear; for weeks it's been raining on me every time I go out to try to work on it, but now it is DONE!!!

- We had pizza for dinner

- And we're watching Loch Ness to see whodunnit; next episode is later this evening!  ;)

This is just the main points.  I could go on for hours about birdsong and fresh air and all the basics of life being lovely.  I mean, I used to do gratefulness journalling and that always turned into a long list that included things like the colours of the feathers of the birds in the garden...

Hope you all are having a happy day. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 27, 2019, 14:41:43
Quote from: Ulrich on May 30, 2019, 13:18:22... I can watch The Cure live via internet, even though they are far away in Australia! Sound & picture quality are good!  :smth023

We watched that too!  :) But it dropped out three times, due to the poor quality of the transmission tower in our local area.  I was just grateful to see any of it, and we now have the thing downloaded so we can watch it again without interruption.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 27, 2019, 17:35:04
Thank you for the pics, nice to see you and your partner and all the animals!

Quote from: SueC on July 27, 2019, 14:23:57Hope you all are having a happy day. :)

Yeah, it's okay, most work is done.
Heat is slowly going away (possible thunderstorms coming on)...
Maybe going to the cinema (Cure @ Hyde Park) tomorrow, fingers crossed!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 27, 2019, 20:02:18
Quote from: Ulrich on July 27, 2019, 17:35:04Thank you for the pics, nice to see you and your partner and all the animals!

Do you think Mary Lou (the Irish long-hair that looks like a yak) is the donkey most likely, of our donkeys, to join The Cure on audition?  She's got style, she's got the hair, and she's very musical.  I don't have a film of her...well actually I do, but not one that shows all her singing talents... (I'm not suggesting she should or could replace Robert Smith, but she'd make an excellent backing singer... :angel )


I think she was being shy because I had a camera.  This is Ben, a little less shy but still not at full roar with the camera out:


This gives you an idea of asinine musicality... :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 28, 2019, 10:34:09
... because it's cloudy and raining (after a heatwave)!  :happy

Quote from: SueC on July 27, 2019, 20:02:18Do you think Mary Lou (the Irish long-hair that looks like a yak) is the donkey most likely, of our donkeys, to join The Cure on audition?  She's got style, she's got the hair

Most definitely!  :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on July 30, 2019, 14:15:21
Quote from: SueC on July 27, 2019, 13:42:15and generally rode my bicycle everywhere because I was dirt poor and couldn't afford a car, or even a driver's license for one, till age 21 - after university. 

this is interesting to read because now that I have a very good economic situation I ride my bicycle more than ever (1000Km this year so far) and although I can afford a car, getting one is the last thing in my mind. After all, if I didn't need a car in 40 years, I suppose I won't need one for the remaining of my life. Plus this city is so small that I literally can get anywhere in 15-30 minutes (by bicycle) :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 30, 2019, 14:47:09
That's so nice, @dsanchez, to have such bicycle-friendly cities!  :cool Munich was like this, and we drool when we see places like Amsterdam on documentaries, with their cycling culture.  When I rode everywhere, I was in Perth, Australia  (for university, then I went and worked in the country) - and that was OK-ish, except traffic in Perth is like LA and it's a problem getting clean air when breathing on the roads, especially nowadays!

On the whole it was a good experience to be forced by circumstances to cycle.  It's just, winter was appalling - riding in rain and hail without high-tech stay-dry clothing and no hot showers in our facilities - I carried a change of clothes and a towel in a plastic bag in my backpack, and swapped my saturated clothes into the plastic bag and then tried to get warm again...

When you live in rural Australia, it's a bit more difficult to cycle to work, as the distances are so great.  For example, farm to town is 35km for us, 20km of which on a highway with inconsiderate drivers that I wouldn't want to ride on (I stick to quiet back roads out here; Albany itself has cycle paths and lots of people living locally are now commuting, some with e-bikes because of hills and lack of shower facilities at work).

Happy riding! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: A Strange Girl on August 01, 2019, 17:49:17
Happy today because I just signed up for a Japanese course :) my goal is to learn a new language, this time a completely different one :) let's see what will happen! I feel very motivated ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 02, 2019, 02:36:14
Quote from: A Strange Girl on August 01, 2019, 17:49:17Happy today because I just signed up for a Japanese course :) my goal is to learn a new language, this time a completely different one :) let's see what will happen! I feel very motivated ;)

That's so much fun - wishing you much enjoyment! :) Will they also teach you that cute bowing?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on August 03, 2019, 14:45:25
Bought tickets for cycling track for #Lima2019 for my baby brother

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on August 03, 2019, 15:39:33
Invested some money in solar panels related stock two weeks ago and already made a profit of 50% :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: A Strange Girl on August 04, 2019, 13:58:30
Quote from: SueC on August 02, 2019, 02:36:14
Quote from: A Strange Girl on August 01, 2019, 17:49:17Happy today because I just signed up for a Japanese course :) my goal is to learn a new language, this time a completely different one :) let's see what will happen! I feel very motivated ;)

That's so much fun - wishing you much enjoyment! :) Will they also teach you that cute bowing?

Thank you! :) Ooooh I really hope so, I find Japanese bowing very elegant :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 05, 2019, 02:00:26
Quote from: A Strange Girl on August 04, 2019, 13:58:30
Quote from: SueC on August 02, 2019, 02:36:14
Quote from: A Strange Girl on August 01, 2019, 17:49:17Happy today because I just signed up for a Japanese course :) my goal is to learn a new language, this time a completely different one :) let's see what will happen! I feel very motivated ;)

That's so much fun - wishing you much enjoyment! :) Will they also teach you that cute bowing?

Thank you! :) Ooooh I really hope so, I find Japanese bowing very elegant :)

Isn't it just?  We sometimes watch the Japanese news on our international channel SBS here, just to watch them bow at each other and listen to how they speak.  There's something so nice about having that kind of courtesy as part of the culture.  And speaking of Japanese things, I want to show you the cutest thing... it always makes me very happy to watch this... and how architecture can change everyday lives... hope this makes your day! :)


I'm happy today because we woke up in time to watch the dawn - the last stars twinkling in the sky and then light suffusing everything, and the sound of the kookaburras, who like to sing at dawn.  I challenge anyone to hear their call and not smile! :)


Because the above clip doesn't show an actual singing bird (but has that lovely rollicking group call that they get into where they egg each other on), here's a clip of an individual kookaburra making its sounds!

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 08, 2019, 20:31:39
...because Richard Stanley's new movie is now official and get its first screening in Sept.! (I met Richard a few years ago in France and he's a cool guy. He was hit by bad luck in 1996 when a production company pulled him away from a film he'd written the script for and thus ruined his career - now he's finally back!)

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3577366/tiff-19-richard-stanleys-color-space-premiering-midnight-madness/
QuoteOne of the highlights from this year's selection is Richard Stanley's hotly-anticipated H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, which stars Nicolas Cage and signals the director's return to the Midnight Madness lineup after 29 years.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 09, 2019, 03:06:14
Oooh, HP Lovecraft, Brett's re-reading him at the moment! :)  I'll let him know.

Happy today because the dog is looking so happy on our weekly beach trips.  She always chases waves...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48487970992_6068629e40_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2gSHwtS)

This dog lives for adventures - much prefers action to food!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 21, 2019, 17:21:52
... because I received an order from a long-lost customer (I'd already worried they'd be gone forever, but I was still hoping/praying that they might get back to me at some point!) - thus now I got some work to do before I have a few days off, but I am enjoying it!  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 10, 2019, 10:27:54
Once again, happy for R. Stanley:

https://www.slashfilm.com/color-out-of-space-interview/
QuoteAfter crafting cult genre curiosities like Hardware and Dust Devil, South African filmmaker Richard Stanley was presented with the opportunity to break into Hollywood productions with a big adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. But things didn't turn out as planned, and Stanely found himself fired by the production – a saga chronicled in the documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau. Stanley then stepped away from feature film directing for over 20 years.

Now, Stanley makes his return with Color Out of Space, a big, weird adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's tale of terror The Colour Out of Space. The project finds Stanley working with Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson, and the three were on hand at the Toronto International Film Festival where the film had its world premiere. Stanley, Cage, and Richardson spoke with /Film about what makes this particular Lovecraft adaptation so special.

One of the first reviews:
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-color-out-of-space-pays-crackerjack-tribute-to-h-p-lovecraft-story/
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 15, 2019, 14:32:19
Super happy because...nice mountains exist in our local area!  And I didn't think I was going to die climbing this one last Sunday, which means my fitness must be improving.  A picture of Brett on the ridge, and of me on the summit.  In the background in the bottom photo is the mountain on which Brett proposed to me nearly 12 years ago; we'll be climbing it on November 2 to commemorate!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48731142328_927681b56f_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hfcQR7)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48731452476_e8ea0e5d01_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hfer3u)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on September 22, 2019, 13:52:34
  Safari works again (on my big computer). Have the operating system reinstalled and at 1:13 pm downloaded the new version (13.0!). Coincidence? 😜
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 25, 2019, 11:42:44
... possibly an impeachment is on the way for Mr Trump.  :beaming-face
And Boris J is probably on his last legs too. Makes me a bit more hopeful for the world of politics...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 26, 2019, 16:45:54
Happy today because I finally finished digging and prepping my dedicated rhubarb bed.  Three half days!!! I was thinking, is that price worth eternal rhubarb self-sufficiency?  Most of the first two sessions was just removing the African runner grass mats...  :1f62d:  Then digging fairly wide, deep trenches to loosen the soil and incorporate manure etc...  :-D  and putting wood chips on the sections between the growing trenches.  Tomorrow I transplant my seedlings from the greenhouse that are ready to go out, as well as two older crowns that will benefit being moved from their previous spot.  No photos of that yet, but here's a shot of our food garden.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/40684056833_814ab70222_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24Z7qFK)

People often ask if we have giant spiders when they see this photo.   :rofl   We have to put nets over our fruit trees in Australia because otherwise the parrots and cockatoos and a whole bunch of other birds will eat all the fruit and leave nothing for you!  So we net and after harvesting leave some smaller fruit on for the birds.

And some of what comes out of the garden:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48096040513_9ba2e6915e_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2gh5McP)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 30, 2019, 16:24:34
...once again, happy because of the wonderful mountains around here.  OK, if you're from anywhere with "real" mountains you might laugh, but the landscape here is so scintillating and this is from last Sunday!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48807165827_f8fe2c1594_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hmVtZ6)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48807007191_8339eb7d4a_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hmUEPZ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48806973771_9e2ced12ac_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hmUuTM)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48807103312_99e7230765_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hmVapf)

If any mountaineering Cure fans come West, we'd love to show you around!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 30, 2019, 20:12:48
Quote from: SueC on September 30, 2019, 16:24:34...once again, happy because of the wonderful mountains around here.  OK, if you're from anywhere with "real" mountains you might laugh...

Don't worry, you'd laugh at what we call "mountains" here.  :lol:
Pic is from a nice little walk I took yesterday, the 3 "hills" in the background are what we call the three "Kaiserberge":
(https://s17.directupload.net/images/190930/4a6ybhgh.jpg)

P.S.: And I'm happy to look back on that nice Sunday walk.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on September 30, 2019, 23:02:08
I can join in too!!
This is a lookout walking distance from my house, always makes me happy to sit up there. The mountains are called the Dandenong Ranges

Pic (https://www.instagram.com/p/B3DLNWBJzwm/?igshid=pyqlwlea83h8)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 01, 2019, 01:34:53
It's so nice to see where other people live! :)

@Ulrich, most of the land around where we live is flat too - it's so ancient, most of it has been eroded down.  We have two mountain ranges - the Stirlings, which is what the photos above are of - there was crust movement to raise that lot up a looooong time ago - it's metamorphic rock, formed from sedimentary rock in the first place.  We also have an even lower, very eroded range called the Porongurups, made from igneous rock - that granite range is over 1 billion years old and used to be islands in a sea when sea levels were higher - we're due to visit those again sometime before Christmas and will post a photo or two then.  And all along the coast there's little granite monadnocks, rising up out of the flat land much like your Kaiserberge - have you got walk tracks on those?  The view off those would surely be great?

That's a nice early autumn shot of yours - the crops are harvested - nice colours and some room to breathe - not like the spreading suburbia on the rural-urban fringes in Western Australia.

@word_on_a_wing, that looks like a lovely spot you are in!  Are there good walking tracks on the Dandenongs?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 01, 2019, 10:36:37
Quote from: SueC on October 01, 2019, 01:34:53most of the land around where we live is flat too

It's (relatively) flat where I live (on a high plain, but there is a steep climb where it ends/starts), you can see a bit of it on the photo to the right side.

You can choose the language on this touris website (translation is a bit lost at times):
https://www.schwaebischealb.de/alb-entdecken
(mind you, there's some place mentioned even I haven't visited yet!)

Better English is found here:
https://www.tourism-bw.com/destinations/regions/swabian-alb

Quote from: SueC on October 01, 2019, 01:34:53all along the coast there's little granite monadnocks, rising up out of the flat land much like your Kaiserberge - have you got walk tracks on those?  The view off those would surely be great?

Yes, I have been to one (there is a castle and a church on it), one other has nothing on it (but I think you can get on it) and the other has ruins of a castle (but when I go there I need to call/text my mate first, who lives nearby, last time I tried he wasn't available)...
Maybe I'll post more pics if and when I find time.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on October 01, 2019, 11:30:53
Quote from: SueC on October 01, 2019, 01:34:53@word_on_a_wing, that looks like a lovely spot you are in!  Are there good walking tracks on the Dandenongs?

Yeah if you drive up into the mountains there are plenty of different forest walks. I've lived in the foothills of these mountains for 34 years of my life (wow!) I feel like they are dear friends watching over me. This view is from a lake about 10min drive from the foot of the mountains. I walk to this spot and around the lake at least once a week... many times while listening to The Cure, especially Disintegration (which feels a beautiful fit with the expansiveness of the scenery). 🙂
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 12:17:49
Peter Handke receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. 👏🏻
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 11, 2019, 13:15:59
Did you see the Guardian article, @MeltingMan?

I'm hoping Alex Zverev will trash Roger Federer tonight - they're playing as we speak.  I always go for the underdog.  Oooh yeah!  He just got his first break against him!   :smth023   I will be very happy if he pulls this off.

I'm happy today because I managed to catch two swarms of bees yesterday.  One really big one, which will make honey for us by Christmas.  And a small one, which may not survive, but I'm giving it a chance anyway.  We've got three existing hives, but last year we took no honey for the first time in eight years of having bees, because we were in such drought that the eucalypts didn't flower.  The honey they managed to make was needed for their own survival (we won't switch it with sugar, we only take truly excess honey and in a normal summer that's buckets and buckets of honey).  This year, the eucalypts are flowering early, so we should get a lot of honey.

It wasn't much fun shifting one of the boxes after nightfall, because my clothes snagged on the lid and it came off, and angry bees came out, and I had to put the lid back on quickly in the dark, which unfortunately squashed a lot of bees on the rim of the box, which upset the hive even more.  I carried the box very carefully after they'd had time to calm down.  I was so relieved when the box was in its spot.  You have to move the box to where you want it the same night you catch a swarm, because they take their orientation flights the first morning and reset their GPS then.  Anyway, very happy to see the bees going in and out of that box today, commencing normal business.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 15:05:23
Quote from: SueCDid you see the Guardian article,?

No not yet. I will make up for it. Only one newspaper in this country has mentioned it at all, otherwise I would not have heard about it. For example, I do not know Mrs. Tokarczuk, which is understandable in the Nobel Prize itself, but Handke is (almost) ignored by the print media. 😕
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 11, 2019, 17:32:38
Quote from: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 15:05:23Handke is (almost) ignored by the print media. 😕

How do you have an overview of the German print media? You've obviously not read the "Schwaebische Zeitung", huh?  :winking_tongue
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 20:47:52
Every morning I read the headline(s) in Bild, Neue Westfälische and Westfalenblatt. Only the Westfalenblatt mentions him today on the front page. Of course, I do not read the Schwäbische Zeitung. But thanks anyway! 😉
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 12, 2019, 02:27:19
:rofl  You people!  Funnily enough, I've not read the "Schwaebische Zeitung" today either.  My bad! :)

Zverev did win, hee hee ha ha ho ho.  :smth023

And not only that, none of the "Big 3" are in the Shanghai Masters semi-finals at all!   :yum:   I get quite tired of the same old same old winning big tennis titles for what seems like forever while my hair gets grey.  They've got enough money and titles, and it's time for it to be other people's turn.  (This is not a concept I apply to bands, by the way.  Music is cooperative, not competitive.  The kind of music I like, anyway.)

Excellent fact:  The Shanghai semis have the youngest cohort of any Masters event since 1999!  21, 22, 23, 23.  It's an all-next generation contest.   :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 12, 2019, 11:22:56
Happy about the weather today (nice & warm) and the concert last night.  :happy

Quote from: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 20:47:52Every morning I read the headline(s) in Bild, Neue Westfälische and Westfalenblatt.

Well, for an overview of the "print media" you'd need to look at "Sueddeutsche", Frankfurter Allgemeine, Focus, Spiegel etc. etc.!?  :?
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 12, 2019, 14:17:42
Quote from: Ulrich on October 12, 2019, 11:22:56Happy about the weather today (nice & warm) and the concert last night.  :happy

Quote from: MeltingMan on October 11, 2019, 20:47:52Every morning I read the headline(s) in Bild, Neue Westfälische and Westfalenblatt.

Well, for an overview of the "print media" you'd need to look at "Sueddeutsche", Frankfurter Allgemeine, Focus, Spiegel etc. etc.!?  :?

When I want to know what's going on in the world, I just sit down and look at my navel.  :angel

Happy today because I got my tomatoes planted out.  Let tomato season begin.  Also planted the potato patch yesterday and today.  And we're finally going to re-watch that Cure concert from the Sydney Opera House this evening, which we saw originally as that live stream, sans three songs when the signal dropped out here behind the moon.  It will be nice to see the whole thing uninterrupted.  And eat the strawberry icecream we made this afternoon.   :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 14, 2019, 00:14:31
Here's a double-happy:  With our happy dog playing "The Wiggle Game" on our Sunday hike...


Often she will lie on her back and start wiggling and pointedly looking at me, at home, so I will come play... We thought we'd catch one on film. She was very happy because it was a walking day: 18km through sand dunes on the Bibbulmun track, from the Wilson Inlet to the sea and then back again. Took us four hours, breaks included, which wasn't too shabby, but when we got home, after showering (the humans) and eating spaghetti (all three of us), we all just went to sleep for two hours, in the middle of the afternoon! Honestly... I suppose we have to make concessions to midlife. We don't get home and clean the house after something like that anymore - we go home and enter a minor coma instead. :rofl
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 15, 2019, 00:26:23
(https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fesotericastrologer.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F05%2Fleunig2-seven-types-of-ordinary-happiness.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

8. Reading Michael Leunig cartoons! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on October 18, 2019, 22:57:27
Just noticed this year I made so far 1200 Km by bicycle. So unless a bus runs over me, I might live a bit longer in the long term (https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1456) ;)

P.S. I know it's not too much compared to the woman in the video below :P

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 19, 2019, 01:28:50
See, @dsanchez?  No reason to worry about your age.  ;)  Congratulations on your miles!  :smth023  And that's a fabulous clip, good for her! :cool

That age-worry thing is a funny phenomenon, you know.  I felt so unbelievably old when I turned 25.   :rofl  :rofl  :rofl   Quarter-century and all that.   :1f631:   And then 30... OMG.  But by 40, no worries.  I just see it as a bonus now, considering that I would have been long dead by now as a caveperson.  And it's a pretty excellent bonus!  :cool

I honestly think that for me, that early age-phobia was due to my parents having a bad attitude to ageing - I remember my father's howling when he turned 39, everyone always catastrophising over every wrinkle and grey hair, my mother always remarking, "OMG, hasn't such and such aged!"  My husband's family weren't like that when he was growing up, and he's really mellow about all this, which very much rubbed off on me.  We just laugh about it.  We had to get reading glasses early this year and Brett was running all over the house with them going, "Sue, come look at the doorknobs!"  :rofl  He was like a kid with a telescope.  The up side of failing close vision is that you don't seen your wrinkles in hard focus anymore, bwahahaha.  So now I can iron something without wanting instinctively to iron the inside of my elbows!  ;)

We're not up to your bicycle miles this year, but we're very happy to have gotten back into extensive hiking, where we're averaging over 100km a month.  This is great - of course on our first two-week holiday together in 2007, we did 200km of hiking tracks in Tasmania.

(https://sue.coulstock.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_4015.jpg)

That photo was taken by a Yorkshireman wearing shorts!!!  When we asked him, "Aren't you cold?" he said, "No, it's warmish today!" and his girlfriend laughed.  :rofl

So my official happy for today is that one New Year's Resolution worked out well:  We got back into hiking properly.  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 20, 2019, 11:15:01
... I spent a great evening (well, half the night) with old friends at a gathering of people of the same age in our town. To my surprise, when I was ready to walk out the door, the door bell rang and outside were old school mates of mine to pick me up on their way to the gathering (they'd sent a FB message a short while before, but I hadn't seen it). So the evening started off nicely!
We then met so many familiar faces (and some unfamiliar ones). We ate and drank as well, but the most important thing was chatting to many people we once knew, but lost touch with long ago...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 20, 2019, 19:19:50
Very tired, but happy after spending much of the day working with bees.  We took honey for the first time in nearly two years - last year the drought was so bad the eucalypts didn't flower, and the bees could barely collect enough nectar to get them through the winter, so needless to say we didn't take any (because we won't substitute them with sugar, it's not good for them).  But this year, the blossom is great, and after nearly forgetting the taste of our own honey, we ooohed and aaahed afresh over how excellent it is (you can't buy honey this good commercially because commercial bees are hothoused and the honey is heated for processing - we cold extract from hives that don't get shifted or fed sugar, and the honey is multifloral from several dozen wildflowers including tea-tree and eucalyptus, with a little lavender from the garden hedges thrown in).

I uncap the frames in the kitchen before they go in a hand spinner.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4219/34794604755_bc32bf1326.jpg)

We've been doing this since 2010 and usually have around four hives.  I'm also happy because I caught another swarm today, the size of a soccer ball and really worth catching.  It was the easiest one I ever caught - sat on a low branch and I just knocked it straight into a box and the queen went in first go, so I just closed the lid.  By evening they were flying already. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 02, 2019, 12:16:07
Happy because today is the 12th anniversary of when we were engaged.  Usually people remember mostly their wedding anniversaries, and ours is coming up in three months, but we remember our engagement anniversary too because Brett proposed to me on a mountain climb, at the top of Mt Toolbrunup, which is a spine-tingling climb in Australia's Southwest.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48731130768_6a2e96fd0a_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hfcMpN)

It's being pointed to in this photo, taken recently on a neighbouring peak.  I might add one of today's photos later - but we're a bit too tired to deal with photo downloads at the moment.

Anyway, we spent all year getting back into proper mountain shape so we could climb this really strenuous track without needing an ambulance afterwards, and I am happy to report that we did it, and without feeling awful on the way up - but I did have to stop a heck of a lot more than 12 years ago, because for some reason I'm not a young whippersnapper anymore!   :-D

2.5 hours climbing, 45 minutes having lunch and reminiscing on the peak, 1.5 hours descending.  Neither of us have the slightest bit of buyer's remorse - we'd do it all over again.  If anyone out there thinks they're never going to find the right person, that was us, until our mid-30s - but then we did.  Also we know people who found the right person far later in life than we did.  There's nice stories coming out of old people's homes too.  If you're still looking, don't give up!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 04, 2019, 09:44:07
... I'm going to go out later today, drive my niece to her appointment and then go into a shop to look for the Cure "anniversary" Bluray (2 disc version)!

(And if I won't find it, I will order it as soon as I get back home & online.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 10, 2019, 18:28:58
... I found a few spots here in our "mountains" which were above the fog!! Gave me the opportunity to take some great pics.
(https://s19.directupload.net/images/191110/m7b8829l.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 11, 2019, 13:05:28
Have you been hiking, @Ulrich?  Those are lovely photos, thanks for sharing!  :smth023

I'm happy today because I'm sitting here with an enormous soup mug of jasmine green tea with a teaspoon of our own honey (which is super yummy) and a big creamy dash of real cow's milk that didn't come from the supermarket.  Just heavenly; really needed that because I've just returned from trimming a set of horse hooves all around and that was really really hard work because the horn is like marble this time of year and the damn horse didn't want me to put his hind leg on my leg for support, and it's so hard holding it up with your arms and then using the nippers at the same time.  Ever tried holding up a bottle of beer straight in front of you?  Think you can do that for five minutes?  Try it, might surprise you...  :1f635:

Anyway, he's trimmed now and that means I don't have to do him again for another month.  It was good to get that done on top of a solid work day whipping the garden and grounds into shape.  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 11, 2019, 15:15:11
Quote from: SueC on November 11, 2019, 13:05:28Have you been hiking, @Ulrich?  Those are lovely photos, thanks for sharing!  :smth023

Thank you very much! Not really "hiking", just a "walk" up the hill to a castle and later, to a spot at the edge of a "mountain" (where I took above pic).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 20, 2019, 10:17:30
You have castles, @Ulrich...we don't, but I suppose we have cave art tens of thousands of years old.  Some of it is great, but I did see some that looked like ancient graffiti!  And I bet there was ancient graffiti, too. :)

We've finally uploaded some photos from that mountain hike I said I'd append. This is from the re-climb of Mt Toolbrunup on the 12th anniversary of Brett proposing to me on the summit of the thing.  It's miraculous we can still get up there, bwahahaha. I have a walking stick now to save my knees on the descent.  :P

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49089480142_cb93b5f4ed_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMSqch)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49088755603_7d6b330c59_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMNGPe)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49089250516_579e771896_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMReWd)

If anyone likes to see these sorts of landscape photos from the West Australian wilderness, there's more on the source site which you can get to by clicking on the photos.  And no, we're not on holidays (as some people have asked me), we've just been walking regularly on weekends and Brett's days off this year, and not been taking many photos of anything else...

And I'm happy today because Brett just came home and this time next week will be on holidays for nearly two weeks!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 20, 2019, 13:46:42
Nice pics!

Quote from: SueC on November 20, 2019, 10:17:30You have castles, @Ulrich...we don't, but I suppose we have cave art tens of thousands of years old.  Some of it is great, but I did see some that looked like ancient graffiti!

We have lots of caves here too (even one in the town where I live), some of 'em can be accessed. I'm sure there's some art graffiti in one of 'em too.  ;)
Well, these pieces of ancient art was found in one of the caves here:
https://www.schwaebischealb.de/kultur/eiszeitkunst
(language can be changed to English, btw)

Can you beat that?  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 20, 2019, 14:45:54
Very nice!  Although that female-body sculpture makes even the Barbie doll look normal... :angel  I wonder if the sculptor was male or female... :angel

Australia is mooted to have the oldest cave art in the world, estimated 50,000+ years (Aboriginal people have been on this continent for over 60,000 years, longer than Europeans have been in Europe!).

This is more recent:

(https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Group_Tassel_Gwion_Figures_Kimberley.jpg)

More here: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2016/03/top-7-aboriginal-rock-art-sites/

This gallery is especially nice, and is where the sample photo above came from: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2015/11/gallery-rock-art-of-the-kimberley,-wa/

...are you from Schwaben?  ...I really like Spätzle, actually!  With roast and gravy and nice vegetables...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 20, 2019, 20:17:01
Ok, when it comes to "cave paintings", you win! You can be happy about that.

Yes, I'm happy to say I live on the "Schwaebische Alb" (where other people come for holidays; only in winter it's pretty grim here) and yes I like Spätzle (and Kässpätzle) too.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 12, 2019, 14:03:11
Ha!  I read another article on cave art, and it appears that Australian claims were overstretched. Possibly it has cave art going back 60,000+ years if the indigenous people got busy painting caves soon after arriving across the land bridge, but they've either not found stuff that old or haven't been able to date it.  Anyway, here's a link to what they're apparently currently considering the oldest cave art that's not random squiggles etc (or however they define it) found across the world, estimated at 44,000 years and in Indonesia:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/11/earliest-known-cave-art-by-modern-humans-found-in-indonesia

This is in response to previous posts here.  But I better put a happy because in too:  So right now I'm happy because it's nice and cool now after a hot day, and I am enjoying it while I can because our forecast maxima are 39 degrees Celsius for the next three days running.  The first ridiculous summer heatwave has come ridiculously early this year, and it makes one contemplate becoming nocturnal for the rest of summer...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on December 25, 2019, 11:06:09
... got some nice Xmas presents, e.g. a book I wanted to get anyway!  :happy

Merry Xmas (or whatever you choose to celebrate) everybody!  :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 03, 2020, 02:36:40
Happy today because I like a nice cartoon, especially when its contents go like this:

(https://media.guim.co.uk/1275f2a3b678e8631ad94b7fb10cf43e6b382cb5/0_0_3508_7346/3508.jpg)

from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/18/the-greta-thunberg-lovely-award-for-driving-bitter-old-white-men-apoplectic-goes-to-

Well done, Doggie.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 05, 2020, 11:05:16
Well, the ATP Cup is on, and is just as much fun as the Davis Cup - team event tennis.  This morning there was a very happy moment for many in Australia as John Millman stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Nick Kyrgios, who was nursing a back strain, to play Canadian young gun Felix Auger-Aliassime.  Millman is an incredible team player who seems to grow wings far bigger than on display in "normal" individual tournaments, when he's playing for his team, and supported by his team.  It's always a joy to watch him play for Australia.  And after getting behind in the first set, he clawed his way back and then defeated the much higher-ranked player in straight sets.  Well done, John Millman! :cool


They wound up defeating Canada 3:0, after defeating Germany 3:0 on their last outing (sorry @Ulrich - our Alex had never beaten your Alex before in four previous attempts, and had been behind when I remarked on this the other night, but somehow managed to hang in there and score his very first defeat of the very talented Alex Zverev... the best tennis match I've ever seen in my life was between Alex Zverev and Nick Kyrgios in Australia last year - the two were airborne much of the time and performing all sorts of trick shots and just red-hot, but best of all was their sportsmanship and how they kept congratulating each other when the other would score a great shot! :heart-eyes It's great when sport isn't more important than everything else, in professional sportspeople... this generation is far better rounded than some of the previous ones, whose sportsmanship was generally much more superficial...)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 08, 2020, 12:41:42
Happy because living in such a scenic part of the world.  Got some photos from our recent walk on the Bald Head Track - 16km return walk from Isthmus Hill to the end of the Torndirrup Peninsula and back.  I've done this walk many times over the past 26 years and still oooh and aaah every time.

This is the view of the peninsula as you come up and over Isthmus Hill:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49349659208_ae9f320640_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ibRUnf)

You walk right to Bald Head at the end of it.

King George Sound is to the left and the Southern Ocean to the right.

This is halfway along on the return walk:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49349534293_d53e2fef88_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ibRgex)

If you enjoy landscape photos, you can get to a slide show of the walk by clicking on any of these photos to get to their external location.

It's great to have walking as a serious hobby when you also like eating...  :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 08, 2020, 13:23:07
Quote from: SueC on January 08, 2020, 12:41:42If you enjoy landscape photos, you can get to a slide show of the walk by clicking on any of these photos to get to their external location.

It's great to have walking as a serious hobby when you also like eating...  :angel

Ah well, that rings true...  :lol:

Beautiful photos, thanks!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 12, 2020, 09:59:04
...2 members kept the forum ALIVE with lots of posts!  :1f62e:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 12, 2020, 11:55:43
Imagine if you ever get half a dozen people with hypergraphia like me!  Bwahahahaha!  :evil: :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 03, 2020, 11:57:18
Our 12th wedding anniversary today.  And it's the best thing we ever did.  :heart-eyes

anniversary.JPG

Crazy shot taken in Torndirrup National Park that day - with a tripod and a timer!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on February 03, 2020, 12:39:36
🌸 Happy Anniversary! 🌸
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 03, 2020, 14:54:12
Thank you!  :)  I hope you meet Mr Right this year and that he's supercalifragilistic!  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 03, 2020, 16:29:30
Happy (belated) anniversary!  :smth023

I'm happy today about my nieces and my sis coming over for a quick visit.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 09, 2020, 12:55:45
Happy to have got some fun shots down at Bornholm Beach the other day! :)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49510106887_6d4e52a43f_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ir3eSx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49509874251_ca80acbf84_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ir23Hz)

Ultra relaxing, apparently, for humans and dogs alike...

Great landscape; granite plus limestone in the geology!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49509392193_4e7664420f_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iqYzqe)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 09, 2020, 19:09:22
Last night, I was at home, smoking a cigarette.
And I heard someone howling like a wolf.
It sounded like a call... and at once, it sounded sad... or did it sound happy?
I didn't know what to make of it.
I was in a particularly brooding mood yesterday, and hearing that howl had a strange soothing effect on me.

One day I'll learn wolf language. For now, I can only struggle with cat language.
Meow. Oh, Long Johnson. Oh, Don Piano, why I eyes ya? All the life long day...

Love on ya.


Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 10, 2020, 04:35:16
Quote from: piggymirror on February 09, 2020, 19:09:22One day I'll learn wolf language. For now, I can only struggle with cat language.
Meow. Oh, Long Johnson. Oh, Don Piano, why I eyes ya? All the life long day...

Do you have cats, @piggymirror?  :cool

We have a "special needs wolf" (=dog) at our place, and I speak a little in that language.  :-D

This is Jess - an Australian Kelpie (with a Border Collie paint job because that's in the ancestral mix).


Brett said that next time we get a rescue dog, he wants me to pick a sane one.  I told him this is sort of pointless, because to have a sane dog, you need to have sane owners.  :angel

Happy today because that dog is currently curled up on her sofa (the cream and green thing in the back corner) sighing with contentment after a long early morning outing, a swim and a bellyful of the milk that was left in the old bottle (Monday is milk delivery day and I get new bottles).   :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 10, 2020, 07:40:54
Quote from: SueC on February 10, 2020, 04:35:16Brett said that next time we get a rescue dog, he wants me to pick a sane one.  I told him this is sort of pointless, because to have a sane dog, you need to have sane owners.  :angel

Actually, there are articles and videos about how animals can have a positive effect on certain... let's say "damaged" people.
Not one particular kind of damaged people, although I'm not sure this works for every kind of damage.
Not long ago I saw an article about a prison using cats to "tame" the behaviour of certain inmates.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 10, 2020, 10:36:45
Yes, that's very important, @piggymirror.  :)  Companion animals have been shown to be therapeutic for general mental/emotional health, as well as for some specific conditions.  For example, children with Aspergers often benefit from having a dog, and horse therapy is a recognised tool for treating war veterans with PTSD.  :cool

I think donkey therapy is probably worth its weight in gold.

My husband is from the Anglosphere and grew up with cats, and I'm sure it was they who taught him to be cuddly, because it certainly wasn't in his cultural or family background.  :lol:

And I'm happy today (as I am every day) to have these guys at our place:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/3929/32835254696_d6f27b955b_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/S2xgfY)

Total mood improvers.  :heart-eyes
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 14, 2020, 03:03:23
Happy today because I got Don Quixote's feet trimmed this morning.  (He's the chocolate brown one on the left in the last post.)  It's always a helluva lot of work and he has a tendency to pull his feet away at the wrong moment (oooh me back), which doesn't make things any easier, but he was pretty good today.

Also I have the impression sometimes that he wants to come in and sit on the sofa.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47977414206_a6859c7f07_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2g6AMJE)

Hot and humid as well, so I'm having a cup of chicken broth with lots of salt in it and I should be OK to go again after that.  The humidity did have a side effect:  We had a wonderful, spectacular, loud, ground-shaking electrical storm night before last which dumped more than 15mm of rain on us - 100% appreciated as we are in drought.  There were puddles in the paddocks!  :)  This will give the perennial grasses a little kick, which in turn will make the animals happy. :cool  And the light show was great too! :heart-eyes

PS: I've measured his ears, of course.  They are 28cm long.  That used to make him the longest-eared animal on the place, but Benjamin beats that measurement by several cm. :angel

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47977310457_f17d295929_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2g6AfTT)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 14, 2020, 19:13:37
Happy that the light's back on, after a blackout.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 15, 2020, 04:16:30
Happy that I like to turn the lyrics upside down.

FVCKINGCOMPLICATEDSONG  :winking_tongue 

You know it's sunny and it looks like sweat, I say
And the wind isn't blowing and it all stops dead, I say
And it's so warm, it's like the warmth of a breast
And I frowned for a second

I think I'm young and I'm feeling great, I say
And it's all filling in but it never ends, I say
And It's so warm, it's like the warmth of a breast
And I frowned for a second

You always make me feel
Like I am living at the center of it all
Like I am living at the center of it all
It's just the way you cried, I say



LET'S NOT GO TO BED JUST YET :winking_tongue

But I do care if you do
And I do feel if you do
And I do want it if you do
And I will say it if you will say it next
Doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo
Doo doodoo


 
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 15, 2020, 04:26:38
That is actually very funny, @piggymirror!  :rofl

It would also be funny to do the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction like this.

Sort of, "You can get dis-satisfaction / You can get a hate inaction!" etc :cool

Well, that's a happy for today! :)

PS:  Bloody infectious.  Can't stop doing this now... :-D  ...Amazing Grace... Modern Love...Twist And Shout... bwahahaha :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 15, 2020, 04:34:06
Quote from: SueC on February 15, 2020, 04:26:38That is actually very funny, @piggymirror!  :rofl

It's funny... and it's the other side of life.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 15, 2020, 06:07:03
And I am happiest...

Because someone actually told me off for being late!!! Isn't life beautiful? :D  :D  :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 15, 2020, 15:41:01
Quote from: piggymirror on February 15, 2020, 06:07:03And I am happiest...

Because someone actually told me off for being late!!! Isn't life beautiful? :D  :D  :D

You see, now I am completely confused because I don't know which side up you are writing this!  :beaming-face

"I am saddest...
Because noone congratulated me for being early!!! Is death ugly?"   :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 16, 2020, 10:40:45
... 1. because there's been album news
https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-cures-robert-smith-says-new-album-will-definitely-arrive-in-2020-2608430

2. because I spent a good Saturday in the Stuttgart region, took a walk in the sunshine by the river, visited an old mate and went to a good concert by The Strange (it was great to hear the songs I'd listened to from the cd for months live now)!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Nosferat on February 16, 2020, 13:38:44
Happy today because.......i'm not! I've got a fight with my son (11), it's very windy and its raining so i can't go for a running session. Time to listen to 100 hundred years.....and then i'm becoming happy again i guess.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on February 16, 2020, 16:26:28
I've taken a few days off...

I'd like to go out a bit, but I also would like to stay at home.
I'll see what it is I end up doing. Probably both.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 17, 2020, 09:38:42
Quote from: Nosferat on February 16, 2020, 13:38:44Happy today because.......i'm not!

For these cases, there are lots of other possible topics, e.g. "what made you feel sad today" etc. ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 26, 2020, 14:07:07
... I managed to create a new doorstopper (or say: addition to the exisiting doorstopper)!
(Not being "technically gifted" that's quite an achievement.)  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 26, 2020, 14:14:46
Congratulations on discovering your inner handyperson!  :cool

I'm happy because Brett's on holidays for the next two and a half weeks.  Not only do I get to have him around in the daytime for four more days a week, but the poor man basically had no holidays last year.  In the middle of the year, we both caught a flu so badly that we were actually bedridden for two weeks (that was unprecedented, we could suddenly see how people die of this stuff) and that was half of Brett's annual leave gone, and it took another month or so before we were properly recovered.  Then he had another two weeks off around November, and on that occasion he helped me get the place ready to do Airbnb.  So he was totally burnt out and in need of a break, and I'm glad he finally has one.  I'm going to spoil him rotten.  I started by buying some chilli chocolate and hiding it in the cupboard, and I just told him about it! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 03, 2020, 13:02:50
A dear old mate emailed me because the film "Die Farbe aus dem All" (Color out of Space) will be shown in a cinema nearby (not in the biggest & late at night)! So happy to be able to watch this soon.   :cool

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/richard-stanley-i-m-the-guy-for-the-doomed-project-1.4182713
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 07, 2020, 09:13:01
A guest sent us a fabulous panorama of a mountain climb she did with us this week.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49617179462_48f06867fa_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iAv1Pq)

We climbed up through that crack in the cliff face on the right.  It's a wonderful mountain. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 18, 2020, 08:46:42
Happy today because in the midst of all this madness, you can still go for hikes or walking your dog without increasing anyone's infection risk.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49509489008_56ab026a36.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iqZ5cs)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 26, 2020, 12:54:30
Happy today because we got up really early in the morning to do a 2-hour coastal walk.  The light was lovely that time of day, and it was before the heat set in (we have another heatwave).  We ended up doing the walk in under 90 minutes, and while the steep hills on this hike are hard work, I am really happy that it no longer hurts - no more breathlessness and muscle lock-up and palpitations on the uphills.  So, I'm finally properly fit again.  I even had a skip in my step because I was so happy to be walking.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49089514952_03d92ec2d8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMSAxs)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49088809498_dde46d5d7a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMNYQs)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49089301676_9e34e1c9e4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hMRv9h)

You can see the trail on this photo - it starts over the top of the hill in the distance, goes down the dunes, and then up into the granite peak from which the photos were taken.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 29, 2020, 13:57:50
Maybe you might like to share the little things (and the big things) that can still make you happy in a time like this?

Because of the crap situation so many are in, I've been hesitant to do another post on this thread the last couple of days, but I'd like to thank the people who wished me a happy birthday this week, and to thank the forum staff for the little birthday poem that popped up in my notifications. :cool  Little things like that do make a difference to people, and so I think we shouldn't hesitate to do little things like that for other people, even if we think they couldn't possibly make any significant difference in a time of big trouble for the whole world - because actually, it does, and it's sort of contagious, in a good way.

With all this social distancing etc, I'm remembering that other than to stay clear out of respect to others and myself at this time, so I don't unwittingly infect them or me with a bug, I can still smile at people and greet them and wish them a good day or ask how it's going, when I'm in a shop or walking in a public place.  Also I am practicing Japanese bowing so I can start using it in public.  We live in a quite remote area and I've always made a point of waving to people when meeting another car on our back roads; now I do that with extra gravity, because one thing this pandemic is doing is depriving people of many of their normal positive social interactions, and for a stranger to acknowledge you is a positive interaction that does make people a smidgen more positive about being part of the human race.

I'm sad for the many who are having difficult things heaped on their shoulders at this time.  We've been lucky so far as we live so remotely and my husband works in health, so the worst thing happening to us immediately here is that he's got to do extra shifts, and obviously that he's going to be coming into contact with COVID-19 at work.  My work on the farm and doing freelance writing is unaltered.  I can't go meet my friends; my husband is one of those who actually likes the excuse not to have to socialise with people outside our household so this aspect isn't bothering him.

I'm happy to be in a good, supportive marriage and that social distancing doesn't affect that.  I'm happy to be living remote and not in a city, at this time or any other time, but it does make things easier at a time like this.  I'm happy to be surrounded by nature and to be able to go hiking on remote tracks in our region. Yesterday, we did a 3-hour hard hike with lots of uphill/downhill as part of celebrating my birthday - I got to pick the trail, and chose Mt Hallowell, a granite monadnock on the edge of the Southern Ocean, covered in Karri forest with challenging walking, amazing geology and sea views.  And a cave too!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49707639501_1e71c84b37_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iJuDrg)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49707102473_eba64af541_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iJrTNa)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49707079108_db23069596_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iJrLRj)

I'm also happy that 49 doesn't feel nearly as bad as I imagined it would when I was a mere 20-something.  In fact, it doesn't feel bad at all.  I'm amazed at how good it feels.  To those under 40, or under 30, I'd like to say that if I could go talk to my younger self about getting older, I'd tell her not to be so concerned about it, but to keep on exercising and eating well and getting enough sleep and stay mentally active and humanly connected.  Like a lady who lived to be over 100 said to me 20 years ago, "Use it or lose it - body or mind."

And in your 40s you lose visual acuity anyway, so I've not been noticing my wrinkles so much lately. Things are a bit blurrier than they used to be.  Also I'm a little creakier. :lol:  But it's still amazing to be alive.

Best wishes to everyone in this difficult time.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 29, 2020, 16:51:20
... this cold, grey day is an 1 hour shorter due to daylight saving time, i.e. putting the clocks forward last night (however no one woke me in time, thus I missed to put my clock forward at 2am). ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 09, 2020, 16:08:33
ROFL.  We just had to evict a frog from our bedroom!  :lol:

They can get in through the bottom of the magnetic insect curtain in the French door.  That's happened in a guest room before, but it's the first time it's happened in our bedroom because I only installed the insect curtain there recently.  So I've been leaving the French door open a lot.

And we have unexpected rain.  It wasn't forecast at all - and we've had a solid 10mm already and it's still coming down.  This is so excellent, after a late heatwave that had nearly killed the annual seedlings in the pasture that had germinated after three weeks of steady moisture.  They were looking so sad this morning, but this is going to save them all, and get them established.

Also, it's nearly bedtime and I love lying in bed listening to the rain come down!   :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 27, 2020, 04:40:33
Happy because all three horses and five donkeys are now de-wormed - over the course of three days, as they are all free-range and none of them are wearing halters and they quickly get suspicious watching the reactions of others.  If you want to do them all on the same day, you kind of have to hide them from each other, but even then they get suspicious.  :-D  This time it was tapeworm treatment as well, and nobody likes the taste of that when it's in the mix.  Down the hatch! Sometimes with front feet waving around, while I strategically stand to one side, usually having to hold on to a top lip temporarily while singing little lullabies, always with "how-could-you-I-thought-you-were-my-friend" expressions on their faces.  Neither equines nor monkey enjoy this process, but the parasitic invertebrates enjoy it least of all, I'm sure...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 27, 2020, 10:51:19
Quote from: SueC on April 09, 2020, 16:08:33I love lying in bed listening to the rain come down!   :cool

That's what happened tonight... I thought "what's this strange noise?", turned out it was something I hadn't heard for way too long: rain! (Not nearly enough, but more is going to come this week, which I'm happy about, it was too dry.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 27, 2020, 12:05:31
Yay for rain!  It's dry here too.  The pasture is only just hanging on, and I'm having to irrigate the fruit trees and vegetables again so they don't complain.  We need more rain too.  Maybe this song will help:  ;)


Love love love the drums on this track!  :)

Super day today - relaxing at home in the morning, then out to Denmark after lunch to do a nice 10km walk through the sand dunes to Lights Beach (again), lots of uphill-downhill and we're now fit enough to throw ourselves up the slopes without having to stop at all, and that's much better than this time last year!  :)  Did the walk in about 1h 45 minutes.  Brett claims that the iced coffee after lunch had made me hyperactive because of the amount of coffee powder I put in it... :angel

Ridiculously, going uphill made me happy today - just feeling the muscles work and the sun and breeze all around, and not running out of air.  We also did an alternative route to take in another beach on the way, that we'd not been to.  The surf was pounding like mad.  There was a coast risk area sign and someone had written on it, "Expect nudity!"  ROFL :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 02, 2020, 16:23:43
Quote from: SueC on April 27, 2020, 12:05:31Yay for rain!

It's been a wet day (and it has rained on and off since Tuesday), so I'm quite happy that it's not too dry any more (for a while at least).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: chemicaloverload on May 04, 2020, 23:48:36
I'm happy because I get to live vicariously through a friend, who can go out and drink wine and I can shut my eyes and pretend I'm there, keeping the lush in me alive. Go out and see life and then come home and tell me all about it.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 05, 2020, 13:10:58
I'm happy right now because it's raining!  And I mean, really really raining!  We've had drought here for two years now, getting just over half the normal average annual rainfall for 2018 and 2019.  We had an early break of season (March, not April), but a very marginal one, and the new seedlings in the pasture were barely hanging on.

Also all of our house water is rainwater, collected from the shed and house roofs.  You can see it, and the very short, very marginal state of the runner grass in the utility areas where we feed the animals their mineral supplemented bucket feeds.  The tank is still half full, which at this time of year is super (the garden areas run off a bore, and we have waterless compost toilets that save over 30,000L of drinking water a year and feed nicely back into our production cycle - you should see the apples and pumpkins)...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49437473811_35d280585f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ijBYA8)

And that's very heavy rain coming down on the roof, from thunderstorms that started before with massive light shows; just ahead of the cold front crossing, which is expected to bring severe weather and damaging wind gusts up to 125km/h.  I went around this afternoon putting anything loose outdoors into the house and shed so things don't get blown away; my greenhouse plants are indoors tonight, the horses are in rugs, the donkeys are intelligent enough to use the shelter shed, the cattle are sheltering in the bushland, and the dog is on her sofa...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4495/37614865832_42b3e4eee7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/ZiU28w)

The big deluge looks like this from the satellite (if it attaches...)... that cloud band over Australia's Southwest - we're on the underside, right under the "J" of cloud at the moment...
IDE00135.202005051030.jpg
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on May 05, 2020, 15:29:34

What does a baby platypus look like? Just the sweetest darn thing ever!!
Photo  (https://www.instagram.com/p/B_zqTWLJ6f_/?igshid=nt2p3o4r2fc6)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 06, 2020, 00:26:50
OMG, @word_on_a_wing, you just made my day! :heart-eyes  That is even cuter than a baby hedgehog...

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-lQrgo3C4KnE%2FTeEKCY39_2I%2FAAAAAAAAALU%2FgWbyDCxD6oA%2Fs1600%2Fbaby-hedgehog.png&f=1&nofb=1)

...and that's saying something!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on May 06, 2020, 13:21:16
Oh my God!!! I've never seen a baby hedgehog 😍... the cuteness thermometer is of the charts!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 21, 2020, 13:51:31
Triple happy today:

1) A good friend is staying with us for 5 days - the first stayover we've had since the pandemic.  Restrictions were eased on Monday.  My friend was supposed to be going to NZ and had booked the annual leave way ahead and then the pandemic happened.  But she's come down to hike with us instead and we've had a great day doing three coastal walks in splendid autumn weather.  We'll be walking more on the weekend, and spend tomorrow doing things in the garden and I'll be trimming a set of horse hooves.

2) I like being Mrs Growly Bear (married to a very cute Growly Bear)

3) Today I went to see my GP to get the results for the bone density scan I had last week - my first, a sort of midlife requirement so they can get a reference value for your "downhill run" into old age.  I'm 49 and theoretically at risk of osteoporosis because I had premature ovarian failure (runs in the family) at around 40.  Having said that, if you've got POF you can go on pretty good HRT these days and I feel in all respects like I felt in my 30s (except I have to put in two extra cardio sessions a week to maintain my fitness at the same level these days, but it can still be done).

...anyway, so I got into my GP's office and she said, "Sue!  This is amazing!  You actually have better bone density than the average 18-25-year old!"  And I said, "Well, that's not necessarily saying that much because most 18-25-year-olds these days are couch potatoes!"  (Australia has the "honour" of having the most overweight population on the planet these days, having won this "honour" off the USA a couple of years ago - and has a very inactive population physically).  And she went, "No, this is really good!" - and showed me a normal distribution curve like this:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.71vuXaS9lDeuP1GRPcY4jwHaFO%26pid%3DApi&f=1)

Three reference values were taken:  Lumbar spine, hip, femoral head.  The first two were sitting on the right-hand side of the green area of the curve, the lumbar spine on the border (1.0 standard deviations across) and the hip close to it (0.8 standard deviations across), so they're better than 74% and ~70% of 18-25-year-olds respectively - at twice the age of these young whippersnappers.  The bone density in the femoral head was sitting just above average for 18-25-year-olds, at 0.1 standard deviation across - so I was saying, "Well, I'll have to work on that one, won't I!" - and load it a bit more, and my GP was laughing at me and saying that osteoporosis is in the red zone on the left side of the curve, and osteopenia (thin bones) in the yellow zone, several standard deviations across from where I was currently sitting, and I should just keep doing what I'm doing and wouldn't need another scan for at least ten years.  She said, "Well, you're a great example of what regular exercise, decent nutrition and a positive and proactive approach can do for your health!"  ...and it's kind of nice when your GP says that (and they're always saying it...)  :cool

Very nice day.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 21, 2020, 19:34:48
Today is a holiday here ("Himmelfahrt" = "ascension"), but it felt like Sunday. How happy I was this afternoon when I realised that tomorrow is not Monday, it's Friday!! :happy

Also I was out hikin' in the woods, which makes me happy too.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 22, 2020, 02:04:49
How lovely you could go for a hike!  :)

Quote from: Ulrich on May 21, 2020, 19:34:48How happy I was this afternoon when I realised that tomorrow is not Monday, it's Friday!! :happy

I know this is really bad, but Brett says you shouldn't care if Monday's blue.  :-D  :winking_tongue  :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: piggymirror on May 22, 2020, 15:47:28
Today I went to work for the first time since we entered lockdown.
On a Friday, yay!! That feels so much like a boss that you can call me Hugo.
I felt odd, a bit disorientated, but overall, it was a quiet day.
Except for a minor detail that's best not mentioned here, and which has infuriated me to no end.
But that minor detail, on the other hand, is... I guess it can be called "part of being back to the new normal".
I like to think it is. But why oh why certain things must always go hand in hand? Sigh...  :disappointed:
And I've been glad to see again some work faces, and also some non-work faces pending the coffee break.

On an even happier note, the cats are alright.  :beaming-face  They looked a bit sleepy.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 22, 2020, 16:19:36
I'm glad the cats are all right, @piggymirror, and hope that the exasperating thing will become less exasperating!

We're flat out daytimes and then doing movies nighttimes, but here's a few "postcards" our friend took of our main hike on Thursday - we had unbelievably resplendent weather which brought out all the colours of the landscape...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 27, 2020, 15:23:22
More "postcards" our friend Eileen took when doing the Point Possession Walk with us - it's really incredible to live in such a scenic part of the world...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941688622_5aa4a3d878_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bd5W)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941384376_af78f38bc5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j69DDj)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941776007_2b2eedc597_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bE4z)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941772892_554ac8ee18_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bD8S)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941462116_9ba5020d2c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6a3KE)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49940941733_4a4b7b5a08_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j67o4x)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941456281_f8dba2475a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6a224)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941737062_72faf542b3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bsu7)

...and this is the happy walkers:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941714797_dee651239f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bkSe)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 05, 2020, 03:12:59
OK, more happy stuff:  A few more "postcards" Eileen took last week; these are from the day we spent in Denmark (the town, not the country!  :yum:)

The first one is not a postcard, but a photo of our crew fuelling up for walking at the famous dozens-of-bakery-awards-at-State-and-National-competitions-winning Denmark Bakery.  We're in standard household-group pandemic seating here and a bit more "together" for the moment the photo was taken, but we weren't breathing on Eileen or she on us, and with Brett and me it's a moot point since we're exchanging body fluids on a daily basis.   :angel

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49941786497_6cba2c462b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j6bHbr)

Note our pandemic haircuts.  Eileen decided to go blonde for this, I've been cutting my own fringe for months, and I had to cut Brett's hair recently because his work colleagues said he was starting to look like a shagpile.  :1f62d: (They've obviously not spent much time looking at The Cure playing live.   :beaming-face)  Personally I prefer my man with a bit of hair, but he grows it back rapidly (especially when fed lots of French Provencial Chocolate Cake, which seems to act as fertiliser).  Plus, unlike most hairdressers no matter what you tell them, I left enough length through his top sections so that I can still get my fingers into it while I'm waiting for it to grow back.   :angel

The pies are:  Shepherd's, Lamb & Rosemary, and Seafood (off-camera).  Drool.  :yum:  Generally speaking, I think most commercial pies are a culinary aberration made with the very worst ingredients, but the Denmark Bakery, located in a hippie town, actually uses quality ingredients - imagine that!   :1f631:   I'd rather pay twice as much for a decent pie and only have one every now and then, than constantly eat rubbish...

Anyway, thusly fuelled up, we took Eileen on the Monkey Rock car park to Lights Beach and back walk, which is a section of the famous Bibbulmun walk track (Perth to Albany, the long way around).  Here's some of the postcards from that she sent us!   :cool

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49969843371_0a3804a6ec_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8EvvD)

That was the dog at the beginning of the walk, which tracks through a farm.  We were then too busy walking 6km through farmland and dunes till we got to the beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49969840201_4da5e0b557_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8EuyZ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49969323318_c298409542_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8BQVd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49969831206_66214db4e9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8ErTU)

Eileen and I went off to the adjacent beach...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49969313313_51325ec568_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8BMWH)

...and then we went home again.  Eileen got this lovely shot back over Lights Beach on the walk out - just look at that glassy wave curling over:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49970089207_abd959af53_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2j8FLAc)

Happiness is wonderful basics:  Your friends and chosen family, nice food, exercise in sun and air, meaningful stuff to do, amazing landscapes.   :heart-eyes

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 21, 2020, 15:19:29
Views off Mt Lindesay today - 10km return hike; 3h 15 min including 45 min total breaks.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50028649848_18a7efb61c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jdRUCq)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50028659838_b240886abc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jdRXAE)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50029176011_f5e9002e8c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jdUB3c)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on June 26, 2020, 09:53:07
OMG, MeltingMan did it. I spoke to her. She "escaped" me twice, but today it worked.
As Kierkegaard said so nicely: "Dare to take a decisive action." 😎
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 26, 2020, 12:05:20
Well done @MeltingMan ! :smth023

I am happy today because after a looong phase of "nothing" some decent work has arrived, which should be done & delivered in the course of the next week.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on July 04, 2020, 10:37:09
 Have finally found a way to wear my mask so that my glasses don't fog up. Oh man...🤓😷
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 04, 2020, 11:02:02
OMG, @MeltingMan, where were you when I was insulating our ceilings? I could never work out how to stop the safety glasses from fogging up when I was wearing a mask.  So I had to choose one or the other and usually the glasses won because you can't see what you're doing when you've got eye irritation from fibres falling into your eyes...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/8340/8218016433_2c0eeac15d.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/dwctYv)

I'm happy today because I'm sitting on the sofa right now, and because I'm making calzone pizzas later.  Crunchy tops and stretchy mozzarella, yum...  :yum:  (When all else fails we turn into hobbits here.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 11, 2020, 15:19:35
I'm happy for a number of reasons today, but I'll try to do this in the "three good things about today" format that's a good intro to gratitude journalling (which I did for years, but it had this tendency to turn into amazing food, amazing walking trails and various natural phenomena and hobbity interests).  The thing is, if you just start getting in a habit of picking out three good things every day, eventually you find that's not enough and you just want to write more and more, which is great because what it's really doing is training you to look for wonderful stuff you're taking for granted or that's not really getting through to you because you're living in your head etc.

For today:

1) The battery bank finally filled back up to 100% because for the first time in a long time, we had a completely sunny day.  So what, you might think, but we live off-grid and were trying to freeze >300kg of beef in the middle of the Southern winter this week, off our 12 solar panels which have to run everything.  We had a bit of trepidation about it but did manage to do this - Monday, which is when the butcher cut up the quarters and I packed the stuff, we had sun most of the day even though the forecast was cloudy.  Stroke of luck; Brett was ferrying boxes of the stuff home at intervals from the mobile coolroom (at the neighbours' who had also killed a steer, and we helped each other out; the coolroom is big enough for two), and everything was good and cold by nightfall.  And then came four mostly overcast days, which progressively drained the batteries more and more, until it got critical yesterday.  Alas, though, today was sunny and the beef is all frozen and the batteries are full again. 

2) So FINALLY I could get back to watching concert videos, hooray - and re-watched the first half of the Curætion gig, because it's been too long to just start from the middle.  Got to Step Into The Light - excellent song...

3) ...and also, it was a perfect day for drying sheets in the sun.  There's few things as lovely as getting into fresh bed linen that's been washed in rainwater to which you add a sprinkle of real lavender oil, and which is dried in sunlight and fresh air.  You don't generally need detergent to wash your bed linen, unless you are an exceptionally greasy person - every now and then maybe, but most of the time plain water and some lavender oil are just perfect.  No detergent residues, nothing nasty, just clean crisp fresh heavenly sheets that smell of flowers and sun.  I banned synthetic fabrics from the bedroom long ago - natural fabrics are so much nicer - linen is great, as is flanellette cotton.  I'm sure hemp and bamboo would be wonderful too, but I've only seen those as shirts and socks respectively where I am (and can highly recommend both).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 16, 2020, 13:20:55
Happy today because we did our annual mountain climb in honour of Brett's birthday, which is actually tomorrow, but today was his day off.  Considering how tired we've been, it was a minor miracle we managed to drag ourselves out of bed this morning to do this, but we had a fabulous day, and have recovered well.

We headed for Mt Hassell, in the Stirling Ranges - it's always the birthday person's choice.  Good choice.  The Stirling Ranges had a horrific wildfire in the summer gone by - a very hot fire that ripped through much of the National Park.  It's nice to see the flora beginning to recover - Australian sclerophyll is very fire-adapted - but with such an extensive and hot burn, the fauna will be having a hard time with recovery, and a few more extinctions are quite likely as a result unfortunately.  This is mostly because for the past 200 years, Aboriginal people have been off the land post-dispossession, and they previously managed the sclerophyll actively by doing small-patchwork, mostly cool burning (Brett and I do exactly this in the on-farm nature reserve we steward), which reduced the fire hazard through reduction of fuel loads as well as the heterogeneity in the landscape creating buffer zones instead of a large area with equally high fuel loads.  It also suited the native fauna very well - Tim Flannery (Australian ecologist) reckons one of the main reasons for the horrific rate of mammal extinctions in Australia is the removal of the Aboriginal fire management patterns - and obviously, large-scale clearing of native vegetation for agriculture and "development" - but I digress.

We hope you enjoy the following photos of the climb - and if you want to see the full set, just click on any photo to take you to the Flickr photopage.

The earth was tilting strangely when we got there:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118109533_5532f64712_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmLpSM)

Our dog Jess loves going on outings like this.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118095928_3fc9d61f77_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmLkQd)

It was cold today, with a gale blowing, but I much prefer that to heat...it's so much easier to dress for it.  We had to hoist the dog up a couple of rock faces when we got to the spire, but that's OK too - at eight she's getting middle aged and appreciates the assistance with hard scrambles.  Just like I appreciate keeping my joints warm, lately of the hands as well, with the right layers, and an electric blanket at night - nobody likes arthritis, but these tricks are very helpful.  The dog, by the way, sleeps in the warm house, on her personal sofa.

This is Kingia australis, and it's producing seed heads like mad because it's trying to get the next generation into the ground after the fire - now that there's space and light, and nutrients available from the ash:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118862032_6d4bdb19fa_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmQgyU)

I'm still smiling because the walk hasn't actually killed me:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118850862_87899292ea_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmQdfj)

Kingias in front of Mt Hassell spire:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118568086_66c3c0837c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmNLbS)

Brett with Kingias, on the ridge.  These were totally burnt black and what you see is half a year's regrowth of their leaves, plus new seed heads.  If you look closely, you can see how the prior leaves were burnt off just below the new leaves - the black "beard" is their remains, burnt short and blackened.  Kingia stems grow around 1.5cm a year, so you can work out how old these plants are if I tell you Brett is 173cm tall! :angel

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50118561136_1803743020_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmNJ83)

Final ascent:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50117946218_accf73a023_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmKzk1)

Brett and Jess back on the ridge on the descent, with Mt Trio to the left in the background (a really nice one to climb in spring because it's bursting with Darwinias and other amazing wildflowers only found in this area).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50117933278_b302f644c7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jmKvtU)

And for comparison, three photos from the same mountain trail, a few years ago, also mid-winter, before the wildfire:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/714/20788543640_1bb3e22c20_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/xF1HLd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/649/20789808059_80e9168cca_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/xF8cCx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/5699/20788642138_c8dc54a887_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/xF2e3s)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 07, 2020, 13:51:57
...the working week has ended (but I didn't have much work anyway).

...something else has ended (been paying something by installments).

...it's not too hot yet (but that might come over the weekend & next week).

... someone brought me a small package, which the parcel service had just left at his door (wrong street, same house number); good to see there's honest & nice people around!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 08, 2020, 09:35:41
Quote from: Ulrich on August 07, 2020, 13:51:57... someone brought me a small package, which the parcel service had just left at his door (wrong street, same house number); good to see there's honest & nice people around!

Yes, this kind of thing is very encouraging when it happens!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 09, 2020, 14:31:13
OK, I'm very happy today because everything we missed out on due to me going "splat" badly yesterday, we managed to do today.  We just had to do it during gale-force winds and between storm fronts, instead of in sunny weather - but it turned out that the photography was much better because of it.  Check out the wild seas down at Lights Beach today!  The ocean was pushing the water one way, and the wind was pushing it the other, with very spectacular results.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50206050187_104a6b73c5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jux8yX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50205739701_f7dbd88717_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2juvxgK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50205202033_090b20f004_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jusMrB)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50206002122_1b7c7a8f2c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2juwThf)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50205989867_63029722c6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2juwPCX)

And one walking back to Monkey Rock:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50205679746_a35af65641_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2juves3)

Full set at Flickr as usual.

PS:  I just wrote up this walk here (https://www.horseforum.com/member-journals/trotters-arabians-donkeys-other-people-479466/page67/#post1970896393) - includes an account of waxing lyrical over a strawberry-custard tart...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 06, 2020, 06:38:28
Brett and I had a go at hiking today, but got massively rained out!  Aborted the hike and came back completely saturated after walking less than an hour (soft shell is fine for light rain, but not for a total deluge that's like being hosed).  However, I'm happy because last week a friend and I did a "ladies' week" hiking, and she just sent me some lovely photos.

This was our place at 7am Wednesday just as we were leaving:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310743261_b1fb1131e9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDMHaX)

We swung by Middleton Beach at 7.30am:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310742981_37bef7c2ea_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDMH68)

Top photo from the Peak Head hike:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310101953_456efbc236_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDJqwV)

If anyone would like to see more, just click on the first photo and use the left arrow in Flickr.  The wildflowers are really starting to come out!  This is a Dryandra:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310938822_2ba7542a37_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDNHiG)

And there's Frenchman Bay:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310937782_815d54ff1c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDNGZL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310096388_74d5b78dce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDJoSY)

There's some old ship remains; also our dog loves chasing waves:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310762896_e11b7cdd6f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDMP1u)

...and we found some sea anemones!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310929792_f723697ee9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jDNEC1)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 06, 2020, 10:36:01
Nice photos, thank you!  :smth023

I'm happy today because last night I went to a birthday party and my hangover isn't half as bad as expected.  XD
We were sitting outside with a bonfire and barbecue and beer and all that. Lots of rubbish was talked (and a few serious things too), saw some people I hadn't seen since last year's b-day party and so on... :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 07, 2020, 04:24:58
:) You should visit us sometime.  Our guests keep leaving us booze; we've got quite a collection in the pantry now.  Bottles of wine, now even beer.  Sadly, nobody is leaving us any cider.  :1f62d:  I think I can make some nice Welsh Rarebit with the beer (which ironically is called Corona Extra :lol:).  The wine we occasionally get around to when other people are present.  And now we've got something very unique called Keith's Kickn Raspberry & Cranberry Komboucha which is vaguely alcoholic and produced by one of Brett's colleagues...

A friend sent me this clip and though it's four years old, it's worth sharing... It's all excellent, but if you're short of time, at least check out the person playing guitar with their toes at 1:44, and the drummer without arms at 4:00...

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 14, 2020, 11:38:34
Happy about my excursion to the town of Ingolstadt (worth the 2 hour drive). While I'm just reading "Frankenstein", it seemed a perfect place to visit (the first part of the book is set in Ingolstadt, because Mary Shelley knew about the university and dissecting room there).
Guess what? When I arrived at the tourist info looking for a guided tour, I found out that on this very day there was a special tour about Frankenstein which started 10 mins later (couldn't have planned it better)!!  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 14, 2020, 14:50:16
Sometimes, things just magically seem to go right, @Ulrich!  :)

...here's a lovely shot Eileen took on the Kalgan River walk we did recently:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50340011816_21af93b2da_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jGnHGd)

That's only one example; more on the photopage (click on photo).

...and wildflower season is in full swing now (which means I have to start checking the beehives...)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50339324818_8cf0613c6a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jGjctq)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 16, 2020, 15:00:53
...I've had some good work coming in today; just as I'd hoped things would pick up a bit after the summer vacations/holiday time (which ended here on Sunday).  :happy  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 18, 2020, 16:10:56
Excellent, @Ulrich!  :cool

Here's some more photos from our recent all-girl hiking week - these are from Mt Hallowell, which Eileen had never been to.  First shot is extraordinary orchids, of which we have many in WA.  This is Pterostylis nana, otherwise known as the Snail Orchid...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50355619181_f95e20c296_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jHKHdH)

Eileen going in the cave:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50354913238_a103961461_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jHG6nh)

A cave exterior:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50354912608_d557a58efc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jHG6bq)

Incredible views:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50355766862_74746595aa_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jHLt7W)

Relaxing at Monkey Rock:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50355766252_a210e8d6da_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jHLsWq)

Eileen is a fabulous photographer, and all 48 of the best photos of this particular hike are on our main Flickr page here (newest on top):  https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/

...no wonder I'm happy, living in a wonderland like this...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 27, 2020, 06:48:05
Happy because it's peak wildflower season - and the West Australian sclerophyll is so full of wonder.  The orchids are peaking, and some of the most amazing ones are really hard to spot because they're not colourful, oh no...

Meet the Flying Duck Orchid...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/647/31191468330_9b4a5e6314_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/PwhqQJ)

Brett took that one in the nature reserve we steward on our farm - if you don't know what you're looking for, it's hard to see them, drab and tiny against the multicoloured backdrop of Australian bush in wildflower season.  However, he's always had an eye for detail, and if I lose an earring, he's my best bet of finding it quickly. :cool  Likewise, he reliably spots stuff like this.

What on earth is it, and why doesn't it have nice coloured petals?  Well, to explain that, I will explain the Hammer Orchid, which also grows on our place and is one of the best examples of something that, when scientists first worked it out, they held off publishing for fear of offending the "morality police" at the time.

This photo is not one of ours, it's an educational composite:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net%2Fnewman%2Fgfx%2Fnews%2F2018%2F2-wartyhammero.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

On the left is the wingless female of a native Australian wasp sitting on the end of a blade of bush grass waiting for a winged male suitor to elope with her.  And on the right is the Hammer Orchid.  It features an imitation female wasp body, complete with full-on pheromones, the combination of which the winged male finds irresistible.  The male wasp grabs the dummy wasp and attempts to fly off with it, and because of the hinge in the plant, catapults head-first into the receptive female stigma of the orchid, where he hopefully deposits some pollen from another Hammer Orchid, if he's been previously duped, and picks up some pollen intended for another orchid.  The catapulting action separates him from the dummy female, and he flies off (with or without a waspish headache), maybe to encounter an actual female of his own species, but frequently to be duped again by another Hammer Orchid.

This was deemed too risqué a discovery to bring to the attention of the wider public, not too many decades ago.  Isn't it funny how, by contrast, humans have been quite happy to swing other humans off ropes, invade other countries, take indigenous people's land and resources, etc etc etc, without apparently feeling there's anything indecent about that. :evil:

Anyway, the hypocrisy of Homo allegedly sapiens aside, the existence of all the wonder, complexity and beauty out there makes me very happy.  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 28, 2020, 09:45:40
Happy about my excursion on Sunday - with the weather on Saturday and Sunday morning I didn't expect to go anywhere, but as soon as I realised the sun might be out towards the east, I drove to a town in the east and visited "Schloss Brenz" and an old church next to it.

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120288685_3226251217451974_5811325690429774045_o.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=orTWx_NYMrEAX8xRPNg&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=df78f7e997ac7acb64973f1848105da1&oe=5F961BA2)

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120323194_3226286730781756_7638106707764473072_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=Rp7RNE1vzSkAX8ELoBl&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=264e411059f7a0d8ed4d6ebf743efe1c&oe=5F97A503)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 02, 2020, 16:34:55
Lovely photos, @Ulrich.   :smth023  :cool

I'm happy because I got my first dozen tomatoes seedlings planted into the garden today - they were big enough to transfer from their tube pots in the greenhouse, and the next lot of tiny tomato seedlings is ready to go from the punnet tray into the tubes.  Hopefully we won't get a late frost...

I'm also happy to report that Sexual Encounters of the Floral Kind is now on YT, at least in parts - fabulous plant reproduction documentary which always had eyes popping in the classroom.  It's well shot, and very humorously narrated, with a good choice of soundtrack for increasing the weirdness vibes... and here's the part about the Hammer Orchid, which I talked about in the last post I made to this thread, because they grow in the nature reserve on our farm and are just coming out...

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 05, 2020, 16:11:17
... on Sunday I spent some time in a peaceful valley:

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120773241_3246188302124932_633882887694108254_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=fYvOT-9-k6QAX_yohK1&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=baa646b7d9a0dcfec56cfdbae0d99d18&oe=5FA0AC90)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on October 12, 2020, 13:04:03
I have my extra strong beer for Christmas. 😋
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 12, 2020, 14:50:49
So early? I haven't even eaten a "Lebkuchen" yet (even though they'd be "fresh" now)!  :1f635:

I'm happy about some work arriving. Something to do for a week or so.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 12, 2020, 22:07:11
OMG, Lebkuchen.  :yum:  Now I'm starving... and wishing for a nice piece of chocolate-coated Lebkuchen to go with my woke-up-in-the-wee-hours cup of tea...

I might have to have a go at making some for this Christmas - international mail orders are terribly delayed just now, and you do have to order the good stuff in this part of the world unless you live in a gastronomic metropolis like Sydney or Melbourne... but even they tend to import the cheap, sugary type instead of the proper stuff from Nürnberg...

Speaking of beer, we currently have a bottle of it in the pantry that some visitors left us weeks ago and are debating what to do with it... we're thinking of turning it into Welsh Rarebit, which is a nice use of beer if you can't stomach the idea of drinking any.  Amusingly, the beer is called "Corona Extra"...  :lol:

I'm happy because a friend from the Perth area is coming down for a week to hike and generally hang out, week after next.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 13, 2020, 15:32:52
I'm happy because we have such crazy animals.  This is Mary Lou looking for the humans...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50470387147_359fdc4136_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jTTVJK)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 15, 2020, 13:34:38
... in the meantime I had the first "lebkuchen". :yum:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 15, 2020, 13:54:42
Mmmmhhh!  Yum!  Chocolate, plain or white?  :)

This evening I'm happy because I've just had an enormous serving of warm apple/pear/mulberry strudel with cream - and then I went back for seconds!  :yum:  It's from our very first take of mulberries off our very young trees, which we didn't bother netting (birds!) last year, but this year it's worth it already.

If you want to make this at home, make strudel dough in the usual way (German cookbooks will tell you how - and I make it in the breadmaker - 250g plain flour, 125ml water, 1 small egg, 1 tsp oil, let the machine do the kneading while you get on with other things...)

I used 1kg of apples and pears (about 50-50) and a big mugful of black mulberries.  I chopped the apples and pears - and I don't bother with peeling, I just wash thoroughly - and mixed them with the mulberries and the juice and grated zest of one large lemon.  The mulberries stain like mad (my fingers are still purple) and this gives the apples and pears a lovely rosy colour all over.  To finish my filling, I rough-chopped a big mugful of almonds in a food processor and mixed that through (because you should have some protein and essential fatty acids at every meal).  No sugar in the dough or in the fruit filling - completely unnecessary.

Using a teatowel for rolling out the strudel dough is a helpful trick - just dust it with flour first, and then make a very large rectangle nearly the size of the teatowel.  Spread your filling over 3/4 of the pastry, leaving margins and a free end.  Use the tea towel to help you roll up the strudel, then seal the sides (if anything comes out of them, just push it back in first) with your fingers and a fork.  Roll the strudel off the teatowel onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake 40-45 minutes at 200 degrees C, fan forced, middle shelf.  It's ready when the top starts to brown...

(On the flip side of my day, it's after sunset and this recalcitrant swarm of bees I'm trying to catch is still humming and hawing about whether or not they like the box I shook them onto/into.  Can't make up their minds.  Half of them are inside on the honeycomb, the other half are hanging on the outside of the box like a big beard.  Beekeepers specialising in swarms have special vacuum cleaners to aid in these scenarios... Wish me luck.  I can't move them unless they're all "indoors" and if I don't move them before dawn, they will take their orientation flights from where the box currently is, first thing in the morning, and then I will be unable to move the box more than 1m a day, which would be highly inconvenient, as the box is right in front of the shed access door...)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 15, 2020, 14:01:59
Quote from: SueC on October 15, 2020, 13:54:42Mmmmhhh!  Yum!  Chocolate, plain or white?  :)

Plain, it looked a bit like the one top left:

(https://www.genussregion-oberfranken.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Lebkuchen02.jpg)

I hope to have all other types as well before Xmas.  :yum:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 20, 2020, 04:06:29
Peak wildflower season here - total floral wonderland.  There's hundreds of amazing flowers out, here's just a little sample...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507796741_5f8d0c3029_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXcEiK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507969902_b3cb4e9e31_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXdxMh)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507815286_86aff025c7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXcKPu)
(Not a flower - just new growth - but still pretty)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507963242_1c73b83505_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXdvNs)
(Probably not native, just gone native)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507822726_76b9dd6939_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXcN2L)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507761736_2141dd3cd3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXctUd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507931147_904325174d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXdmg6)
The (white, on a stalk) flower isn't there yet, just the rosette - this is a carnivorous plant - has sticky secretions that catch midges for fertiliser, because the soils these plants grow in are so poor...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507060923_93431d8f1b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jX8Tze)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507937337_dc88705e1e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXdo6P)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507775526_3d7b10135f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jXcxZY)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507069663_aef4486ed6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jX8WaV)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507086633_54637a65fd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jX92dv)
(If this looks weird, it's probably because you're from the other hemisphere ;))

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50507074678_8de12dbceb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jX8XEo)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: chemicaloverload on October 20, 2020, 19:04:20
Oh Sue, how I would love to spend a day in your surroundings. Absolutely divine for a picnic
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 21, 2020, 01:54:14
Quote from: chemicaloverload on October 20, 2020, 19:04:20Oh Sue, how I would love to spend a day in your surroundings. Absolutely divine for a picnic

Got a TARDIS?  :cool  I've got to say, I salivate when I see the Scottish Highlands and far islands, which I've never been to, but of course moving to a farm makes it difficult to travel even without a pandemic happening. Bit of a trade-off, but no regrets - we already live in a spectacular part of the world and haven't even discovered half the trails and secret beaches around here because there's just so much of it.

I accidentally met Karen Matheson once in an interval in a Capercaillie gig at our arts centre, and she told me that the coastal scenery in our part of the world reminded her very much of Scotland.  Remote, windblown, spectacular...

So I think it's really cool when people from different parts of the world on a forum post photos so we can all do some virtual travelling that way.  I was born in Germany but never got to see the incredible region @Ulrich lives in, and now he posts these amazing photos of castles, karst landscapes etc, which makes up for it significantly for me because it's not just the photos, it's knowing that someone known to you is enjoying it, if that makes any sense.  I mean, we could all look up photos of the whole world online, but it means a lot more if the photos were taken by people you talk to and like - it's like there's already someone in that place doing the exploring and enjoying, so you don't have to be there - it's more than a photo, it's a journey someone is sharing with you, a window into another world.  (I kind of learnt this from the other forum I'm on, which I've been on over six years, and every day I can travel from the armchair, through people I talk to and really like, in their various parts of the world - and then when I travel around my own area, I can share that back to them.)

So that actually makes me happy.  It's a sort of global community thing...  I've got something really cute to post that I'm going to add to this when it's on YT - the friend who's staying with us just now went to interview two of our donkeys yesterday and made an adorable film of it...  :heart-eyes

OK, here goes:


:lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 21, 2020, 09:46:38
Quote from: SueC on October 21, 2020, 01:54:14... now he posts these amazing photos of castles, karst landscapes etc, which makes up for it significantly for me because it's not just the photos, it's knowing that someone known to you is enjoying it, if that makes any sense

Thanks, makes it all worthwhile!  :cool
Nice flowers pics you posted, btw!

Here's some strange clouds I saw on Sunday (no filter, with my photos it's mostly "what I saw is what you get"):
(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/121967552_3286984228045339_2681888223920988513_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=SYiTCz7sqe0AX_JH3NX&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=c732852d3eadb1966ba6d151301a3893&oe=5FB3AF62)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 23, 2020, 10:42:52
Wow, where we live is usually too windy to get clouds that shape.  Very "moody" photo!  :cool  Is that black-and-white, or just the time of day it was?

Eileen is back with us and taking incredible photos as usual.  Here's a sample from an afternoon at Cosy Corner Beach - the closest beach to us, by the back roads:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50518559082_8876f26da2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY9Pzm)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50518388166_541f8e4d52_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY8WLw)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50518387571_9e89ed5708_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY8WAg)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50517667843_f37c914f8f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY5fDa)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50517664738_645f9450d6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY5eHC)

...and this is what happens when you don't know someone is clicking away...  ♥

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50518552122_b4f262729a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jY9Mvm)

Which reminds me of one of my favourite pieces of writing about love relationships:

Let there be spaces in your togetherness
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
  (Khalil Gibran)

The rest of the beach photos can be accessed directly on the Flickr page (by opening any of the photos here).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 23, 2020, 17:52:49
Nice photos by Eileen!  :smth023

Quote from: SueC on October 23, 2020, 10:42:52Wow, where we live is usually too windy to get clouds that shape.  Very "moody" photo!  :cool  Is that black-and-white, or just the time of day it was?

Well it was a cloudy, grey day. I saw these clouds and took a photo with the camera headed towards the sky and this is how it came out (no b/w, no filter).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 29, 2020, 09:26:26
I'm happy because even though I have to do tax paperwork, the garden out there is beautiful:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50522988886_bb4a0c0299_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYxwph)

And because it's nice to walk through ancient mountain ranges.  The granite in the Porongurup Ranges is over 1.2 billion years old (older than multicellular life), and at one stage the hilltops were islands in an ancient ocean.  These photos were taken by Eileen on a hike we did last week.

The ascent through Karri forest (an outlier of this wet forest type, which survived here due to orographic precipitation - Australia's been getting drier as it's drifted north, which it does at the rate of approximately 7cm a year, so its temperate wet forests have receded to the higher-rainfall continental edges, and of course now things are getting drier more rapidly with climate change on top of that).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50522988001_1bcfc859d0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYxw92)

The start of the ridge walk across three peaks - with the Devil's Slide in the background, across the valley.  I worked out 20 years ago why it was called that, when I climbed it in the rain for the first time!  :lol:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50522263658_c69f4e0b91_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYtNPm)

As the afternoon progressed, we got some drizzle - always atmospheric - and here's Eileen with her high-tech beating-people-over-the-head-with sticks:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50523163037_3807b5d933_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYyqaT)

Descent from Nancy Peak, the highest peak in the ridge walk.  This peak was named to commemorate a cow called Nancy who was found by a farmer over a hundred years ago sheltering in the lee of this peak during a bad storm.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50523162772_e99ed1f816_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYyq6j)

Descent from Morgan's View, into Eucalyptus woodland.  Great fun to walk this track, and a decent workout.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50522986026_55d33a7550_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYxvxY)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 03, 2020, 01:09:48
I'm happy because John Millman won an ATP tournament in Kazakhstan.  He's an Aussie tennis player with a never-say-die attitude and just an all-round nice guy.  For years he's been an important component of our Davis Cup team, and I've seen so many of his successful slogfests on that stage as well as in "normal" competitive tennis.  A couple of years ago he beat Roger Federer at the US Open - but he'd never actually won an ATP tournament, before this week.  Well deserved!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 09, 2020, 13:26:08
What's that expression, The Bluebird Of Happiness?

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50581056933_1883595edc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k4F91v)

This is the Splendid Fairy-Wren, which lives in South-Western Australia.  We've planted back around 7,000 native trees and bushes in the form of shelter belts and shade clumps in pasture, and created a bird-friendly native garden - and it's just wonderful to see literally thousands of birds thriving in this new habitat.  We can't get away from the birdsong!

Our friend Eileen is a huge bird enthusiast, and always brings her (enormous) camera.  She got the above shot and the following ones in our garden:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50581908032_085944f38c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k4Kv1C)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50581057373_2e03503150_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k4F996)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50581057818_97484e3418_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k4F9gL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50581057953_d87162cfb5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k4F9j6)

These birds are tiny, the size of a little mouse - but very noisy!  They also have a tendency to knock their beaks against windows at dawn - which can get you awake at 5am.   :1f632:

Here's one that had just woken us up:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/568/31691497942_f0bce7b687_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/QhtddW)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 09, 2020, 17:51:52
...I'm enjoying my "lockdown holiday" (i.e. not much work due to people staying home), the weather has been nice, so I've been out and about.

(Thanks to Eileen for the bird photos.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on November 14, 2020, 13:43:13
...I used *hr*p*x p*nk at night for the first time (no, it's not what you're thinking 😉).

OMG...hello 🌍
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 14, 2020, 15:06:36
Quote from: MeltingMan on November 14, 2020, 13:43:13...I used *hr*p*x p*nk at night for the first time (no, it's not what you're thinking 😉).

OMG...hello 🌍

I will amuse you with my incomplete guess.  After going through the alphabet, I hit on the idea that the first letter is an "o" and you are using "Ohr*p*x pink" or some kind of pink earplugs.  Couldn't unscramble the rest of it though and maybe the first letter is actually c or s or u or e (most likely alternatives) and I'm totally off track.  Meanwhile, I'm having visions of you getting some blissful sleep courtesy of a set of pink earplugs no matter how much bad music your neighbours are playing late at night.  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on November 14, 2020, 17:06:50
Yes, pink earplugs. I had a choice between different products. These are made of silicone. The color is actually secondary. They excellently dampen noises. It had become necessary because someone in the attic had a device running all night that emits a signal tone every thirty to ten seconds. Probably a fan heater or something. By the way, O is correct. It's a brand name.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 14, 2020, 17:43:10
I was thinking "ohropax" immediately. Strange about the "pink" though... ;)

Could've been "uhrupix punk", eh?  :winking_tongue

I'm quite happy about the weather - it's very mild & sunny for November, good for walks etc.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 14, 2020, 23:44:30
Yeah, the "punk" thing occurred to me too, but I had trouble reconciling it with the ears...

Well, that was a lucky guess.  Glad they are working, @MeltingMan - we once lived in a place where people raced their cars around the block after midnight, every night...  The silicone option sounds very good; all the ones I've ever used were some kind of foam and made my ears itch...

HAPPY TODAY - because I found a brand of toilet paper made entirely from recycled newsprint that I don't have any adverse reactions to (I have perfume allergies, and don't ask what happens when you get those to toilet paper or I will tell you in great detail, you have been warned :angel).  So now I'm happy to think about how much of my toilet paper used to be Murdoch press, as I'm making use of it.  :smth023

PS:  @Ulrich, your "Uhrupix Punk" is giving me ideas - punk-themed rotating wallpaper for digital watches maybe?

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tokyoweekender.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2FX1018857L-copy-the-erections-and-takashi.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhonestampsimreviews.files.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F01%2Fpunks.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmlleclio.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fstreet_punk.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.CkGOUDSfrVKW2wx0ZtW0NgHaLl%26pid%3DApi&f=1)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 17, 2020, 11:34:36
Happy to live near such an amazing coastline and not to be on photographic duties whenever our friend Eileen is here.  Here's some of her snaps from a place called Conspicuous Cliff:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50611580653_bd7f706f39_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7nzDx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612437042_976afc6099_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rYdS)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612436342_c5100199fe_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rY1N)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612436007_147477d45f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rXV2)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612431757_e1438d78dd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rWDK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612304581_2d41404c8e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rhR4)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612409392_391777029f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7rQ19)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50611534298_84e83dcf04_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7nkSj)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612171448_4d9427b216_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7qBgE)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50613031862_29a562e46d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7v23o)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50612173428_68c96ec933_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7qBRN)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50613027007_406fc67d61_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2k7uZAF)

Eileen took so many photos of this amazing place - this is a fraction.  Seascapes, rock pools, this hidden little beach we discovered where our dog was in seventh heaven playing... to see more just go to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 25, 2020, 13:49:33
...after a long time of "nothing" finally some work arrived!

...after 2 days of "grey & fog" the sun came through!  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 26, 2020, 10:30:31
Happy because a friend and honorary family member is happy volunteering at the Black Cockatoo conservation centre in Perth and sent a lovely photo of her with one of the cockatoos!  They're huge, by the way, and endangered, sadly, but we are encouraged that flocks of them regularly visit the conservation reserve we steward on our own farm.  ♥

(Attachment can only be seen by logged-in people!)IMG_20201123_213530_801.jpg
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 27, 2020, 14:16:01
...I took a nice photo of some mountains in the "mist":

(https://s12.directupload.net/images/201127/temp/g8khw8bh.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net/file/d/6015/g8khw8bh_jpg.htm)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on November 27, 2020, 17:08:11
Quote from: SueC on November 17, 2020, 11:34:36Happy to live near such an amazing coastline and not to be on photographic duties whenever our friend Eileen is here.  Here's some of her snaps from a place called Conspicuous Cliff:

wow... adding Australia to my bucket list ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on November 27, 2020, 22:34:20
Quote from: dsanchez on November 27, 2020, 17:08:11wow... adding Australia to my bucket list ;)

I still pinch myself on a daily basis and still have trouble breathing when I walk onto a beach like that, and I've lived on the South Coast for decades... ♥

If you make it to Australia you won't be disappointed - and if you turn up at our place, we'll give you a comfortable bed in a cosy room, probably give you too much to eat, and personally take you to the places you've seen in the photos!  :)

And let you decide which Cure concert we're all watching!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 05, 2020, 03:25:06
ANOTHER FIRST

Culturally, hosting a farmstay is really interesting - such a diversity of backgrounds come to stay with us. Currently we are graced with someone of NZ First Nations ancestry (plus a bit of Welsh and Irish), and a visitor from Myanmar. It's so fascinating hearing about other cultures, and being able to ask questions. For instance, I love the haka, it's so powerful - first saw it at a televised rugby game while channel-surfing as a child, when NZ was playing! And the woodcarving, and how the Maori gave the English colonisers a run for their money. And what life is like in Myanmar, and how people are coping with the pandemic there. Just so many things.

Anyhow, this morning I did not one, but TWO laps of our valley floor, with two different riders! Our female visitor had never ridden a horse before - however, she had ridden an elephant! I just sprung it on her - asked at breakfast if she'd ever ridden horse-back, and when the answer was no - did she want to? And it was very like when Eileen did her first 20-minute lap on Sunsmart last year - initial apprehension that turns into enjoyment within five minutes. "This is normal, your brain is reacting rationally to being on a half-tonne animal and high up by saying, Is this a good idea? But give it five minutes, and if you're not feeling better by then - well, you can get off the horse anytime!" And within five minutes, the anxiety drops and the smiles begin. 🙂

I asked, "So what's this like compared to an elephant?" and was told that there were four people on the elephant, in a sort of carriage seat - not astride like on a horse. Higher up, though!

It's always lovely to spring something like this on a complete beginner (where your instinct is that they have both the fitness/flexibility and the right disposition for animals) and after the apprehension wears off, know they're having an experience they're never going to forget: First ride on a horse, led so it's safe, through gorgeous Australian bushland currently bursting with wildflowers. 💞

I took photos with the guest's phone at the end of the ride, and our other guest had just gotten back, so I asked, "Would you like a turn?" He ran and changed into tights and off we went again. This guest did have prior experience, growing up on a farm with horses. I apologised for having him on a led beginner setup, because impromptu and following a beginner (no bridle on the horse, just led by halter with a rope for "reins"), and he said no worries, it had been a long time since he'd ridden and he'd just enjoy the walk around the valley floor. Seeing as I was there anyway, I multi-tasked the ride into a conversation about fire management, wildflowers etc.

After the rides, one of the guests went out to explore the Torndirrup Peninsula, and the other spent the afternoon in a hammock between two trees in the forest behind our house, reading his book and having naps while surrounded by a flock of black cockatoos who happened to have dropped in. Days like this, hosting farmstays is magic! :heart-eyes
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on December 07, 2020, 14:05:16
Under the impression of dwindling social contacts, I was pleasantly surprised to see a Peruvian (?) Family at the cash register. Three adults who buy groceries (very healthy) for over one hundred Euros, including a young woman in a kind of gray leggings with butterflies on them and knee-high boots made of black velvet. Is it already Christmas? 🦋🎄🔥😜
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on December 11, 2020, 10:35:23
... because it seems like Indiana Jones #5 is in the making!

QuoteFilm producer Frank Marshall recently told Den of Geek he had no intention of replacing the actor in his iconic role.

"We are working on the script," he said. "There will only be one Indiana Jones, and that's Harrison Ford."

The actor first appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), followed in 1984 by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, then Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, and in the fourth instalment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in 2008.

The fifth instalment has long been in the making, with several screenwriters coming and going, and was further slowed down by the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55270909
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 15, 2020, 00:29:05
This made a really nice dessert last night - and a great breakfast this morning:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47597847622_7f8492d481_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2fw4pPd)

Yesterday I spent three hours tying up rapidly growing berry brambles to espalier wires so they don't take over the whole garden, and can actually be netted (so we can eat the berries - otherwise the birds get them all).  And I've got another hour to go today (thank goodness for iPods, and that's exactly why I get to listen to so much music and so many podcasts these days - all this farm stuff).

Tying up brambles is not my favourite job, because you invariably get prickles in your fingers (you can't wear gloves when actually tying knots and yes, I do use pliers to help me handle the darned things).  But the silver lining was that when I took the net off the boysenberries, there were lots of ripe berries - the first haul for the season - so I just had to go make a boysenberry tart afterwards... as a bonus, it was a complete surprise for Brett that evening.  :heart-eyes

I hate shortcrust and make my pie crusts mostly with porridge oats mixed 50:50 with wholemeal flour, and just enough butter and water to make it stick together.  Makes a lovely crunchy crust with actual nutritional value. The secret to keeping the pastry crunchy when you make a custard-fruit tart is to melt some good-quality dark chocolate and spread it all over the base, then let it set before topping with the custard and fruit.  The chocolate layer is a great moisture barrier, as well as a wonderful addition to a fruit tart.  Soggy pastry completely unnecessary - even the next day, same crunch!   :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on December 16, 2020, 11:36:03
... I received a very polite, positive e-mail after I sent one out, voicing an idea I had. IF this should come to fruit, I'd be involved in a nice project...
Still, it will take months to complete (if not longer), so it might be a while until you hear more (watch this space)!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on December 17, 2020, 10:58:42
I finally ordered a chair for my 'basement studio', matching dark blue. I couldn't make up my mind for a long time. One shouldn't look too much like an 'office' and a classic piano stool wouldn't have fitted either because I wanted one with a backrest. Then I cleaned all the cables. Now it looks good again and that makes me happy. 😌
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 17, 2020, 12:52:40
How lovely, @MeltingMan!  It's good to find exactly the right thing, especially after a delay.  Can you believe I didn't buy myself a proper ergonomic office chair until I was 29?  I could have theoretically done that when I was 22 and first earning a decent salary.  But did I?  ...I don't know why some of these things take us so long.  To think of all the hours I spent as a university student studying and writing assignments in a bad chair...and writing a dissertation for my first job...and then later on, marking student work at home... Had I bought it when I could first afford to, that would have saved me seven years of bad posture... Maybe I thought ergonomic chairs were for other people... you know, real people...  :1f636:

Best of luck, @Ulrich!   :smth023

I'm happy today because Brett told me he's going to read a funny Christmas poem for this forum; he's making a clip of it and thinking about buying a Santa beard and some performance props.  He's got one of those reading voices (and I don't, and anyway, this was his idea!).  He's hoping to get it finished by Christmas... presumably this Christmas...  :-D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on December 17, 2020, 16:18:14
Another happy moment, when an unclear situation at work has cleared up (at least for now).
(One company had been bought by another and I was uncertain whether they would still buy my products. Now they want a little something, so there's hoping they'll want more in 2021.)  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 28, 2020, 04:20:52
Very happy with a wonderful way to spend Christmas Day - taking a long walk in the coastal scenery 25 minutes south of us.  The botanical diversity here is so spectacular that when I did go back to Europe once, I was really missing it... and the coast around here is larger than life in many ways; it makes me feel like a tiny ant, in a very good way!  ♥

The steps leading up to the elevated coastal path from Cosy Corner:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766290388_ef90d4cc1a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km3vsL)

Gorgeous woodland (Casuarina grove in this spot!) where the path runs between Torbay Hill and the sea - the hill sheds much water down to here:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50767106537_2b349bf726_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km7G5i)

This Dasypogon reminded me of Christmas baubles:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766242298_c50ac0123e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km3gaC)

The trees grow every which way:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766232713_0ec080592c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km3djn)

Old fire-scarred tree trunk:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766966571_5bf96226a9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km6Yt6)

Enormous dunes under coastal heathland:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766084533_831892e8a0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km2sgx)

The elevated track:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766760001_da1cd3b5e0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km5V4x)

Extra-gnarly eucalyptus trees:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50765959483_331aea2c17_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km1P6v)

Dingo Beach. At the very far end, there's a little white strip you can see nestled in the headland. This is Dunsky Bay, which has a fabulous little beach where the wave motions are so amplified that when you're floating in the water just a stone's throw from the beach, you're going up and down around 4 metres, like a watery fairground ride ...I found this out when I walked there with a colleague who was practising for climbing Kilimanjaro in Africa 15 years ago - she was dragging me all over the place for strenuous walks, which was a good thing!  :)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766687031_e6ca0e92d3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km5xnr)

Migo and Richards Islands, off Cosy Corner, on the way back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766765857_c988e3865b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km5WNv)

Eucalyptus "nuts" forming:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766748837_98c98c0f90_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2km5RK4)

That's a little selection of photos; if you want a vicarious walk through our coastline, click on any of these photos to get to our Flickr homepage.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on December 28, 2020, 09:55:35
Nice, I took a walk on 2nd Christmas day too and this looks even more "Christmas-y"!  :happy

(https://scontent-ber1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/133027402_3465760713501022_7915836676054099131_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=4kRZp3mVihIAX8FWbnx&_nc_ht=scontent-ber1-1.xx&oh=79ebe5274e2715741ca433bb8c21762f&oe=600F7673)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on December 30, 2020, 12:17:38
We were very fortunate to have two sets of very lovely guests this week after that shocker last week, and they were so much fun we invited them to dinner every night and had food feasts.  It's the last night for one of the couples and they decided I was having a night off and they would cook Seafood Paella for us - she's Spanish and has actually won prizes in Australian Paella competitions!  So after picking some boysenberries and turning them into icecream earlier, I'm just sitting back salivating at the smells permeating the house.  She said, "I'll give you a proper Paella recipe, forget what they say in cookbooks!  No, no no (reading a recipe, rolling her eyes), that's not what you put in Paella!"  :)

That's usually what I sound like when I read a recipe - "What???  HOW much sugar?  Are they trying to blow up their pancreas?  No way am I putting that much sugar in!"  - or, "Pineapple?  On pizza?  In America maybe, but not in Italy!" - or, "This is nutritionally useless - why are they afraid of wholemeal flour?  And maybe I'll put some nut meal in, but I'm not using refined flour; may as well put sugar in your petrol tank..." ...and it's hilarious to meet someone else who mutters things like that when they read a recipe book!  :lol:

Beatrice is making her own stock and everything - she was mashing up prawn heads before.  The smells of the cooking are completely amazing...I had a pretty sparse lunch because I was so busy (OK, I'll be honest, I had a bowl of CCs with a dollop of sour cream because I needed something quick and salty) so now I'm starved for real nutrition and in a perfect state to thoroughly enjoy the upcoming meal...  :yum:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 08, 2021, 09:32:02
It's 3.30pm and I'm happy because the wind has finally changed from northerly to easterly, meaning that the red-hot 39 degree C afternoon is going to start cooling off, now that the incoming wind is blowing from the Great Australian Bight, and not from the Central Australian deserts.

I've just come back off the roof of the house, where I've thrown an old blanket over the solar water heater, because the water was starting to boil in the unit, and if you don't stop that, the unit rattles on the roof, and starts losing water - neither of which are good for the unit or the roof (boiling hot water with copper ions isn't great for the zincalume).

If you've never been in an Australian summer heatwave in the Mediterranean-climate regions of Western Australia and South Australia, let me describe it a little.  The heat is leaden the moment the sun rises in the morning, and escalates to giant-hairdrier/oven levels by midday.  We're on a farm and on days like today, I'm in for 15 minutes on the sofa in front of a fan cooling down and relaxing (and writing ;)), before going out again for 15 minutes with long pants, long sleeves and a big hat (the UV is brutal) to get our animals and garden through the day.  I repeatedly check watering points to make sure water is available and cool, and that bees aren't preventing livestock from drinking.  The cattle and donkeys are pretty good and will drink from the farm dam, but the (ex-race, artificially reared) horses are scared of the dam and rely on manually topped up watering points (large drums).

By mid-morning, every shaded building surface is covered in flies of all descriptions:  Blowflies, bush flies, midges, seeking to escape the desiccating heat.  Clouds of midges buzz around and settle in garden beds containing mint.  Bees are flying in swirls all around the watering points, and are sitting on the rims of bird baths and at the junctions of tap fittings, imbibing all the moisture they can get before returning to their hives to help cool these down so the wax honeycomb doesn't melt and the bees don't die of hyperthermia.

I'm moving large-droplet sprinklers around all day to keep fruit trees and lawn alive, and hand-watering seedlings and thirsty vegetable varieties so they don't perish in the heat.  On extreme days like today, I throw old bedsheets over the most recently planted vegetable seedlings so they don't die in the midday heat.  Everywhere the sprinklers have been, bees are on the ground, drinking water.  Little birds like silvereyes, New Holland honeyeaters and fairy wrens dive straight under the sprinklers to cool down; ravens lap from livestock watering points and puddles on the ground; any earthworms coming up in the wet are picked off by various of our feathered garden inhabitants.

It's so hot you can't stay out for more than 15 minutes without getting seriously overheated - leastways, I can't - I've got some Viking DNA and don't tolerate heat well at all.  So you rotate your watering stations, do a spot of hand watering, then go back to the sofa and the fan and drink fluids and cool down again.  If you stay out too long, you get dizzy - at that point, it starts to become seriously stressful, so you just avoid doing that, otherwise you'll end up with heat stroke and/or electrolyte depletion (and we keep electrolyte tablets in the house for days like today).

It's not like this every day, but this is the reality of getting a food garden and lawn areas through an Australian summer heatwave.  We've had a mild summer so far; this is the first proper heatwave, of three scorchers like this in a row - December was mild, with only a handful of days above 30 degrees C.  Last year, we had heatwaves like this from November through to March.  Last year was also the third year of drought in our region; just 60% or so of normal annual rainfall, so last summer our landscape was parched, as this drone footage a guest took shows:


This year, we had a wet spring, and therefore a decent growing season.  The bushland is green, and there is a good amount of green perennial grasses and legumes and dry annual grass in the paddocks.  It will be interesting to see if the drought stays broken - that depends on whether the autumn rains come on time, and at normal rates - they haven't since 2017.

The green zone around the house is what I preserve through the summer, with the help of a low-capacity solar bore which gives us 8 litres of water a minute during daylight hours - that's enough water to run two garden hoses to watering devices throughout the day.  That's the only way to keep things green in a summer-dry climate, and keeping the zone around the house green and lush is an important part of bushfire safety around here.

A few years ago I thought it was a bit crazy to spend heatwave days like this; a questionable use of my time, but then I saw the drone footage and realised what an oasis the green zone is, for hundreds of birds, dozens of microbats, thousands and thousands of insects; plus a garden that feeds us, and a safety zone from bushfires - and now I think differently.  Computerised reticulation, by the way, doesn't suit our situation; you can spend as much time clearing ants from irrigation pipes as you spend rotating stations manually, and at the end of the day, an on-the-ground human makes better decisions about watering than pre-set time cycles, and can multi-task with other garden jobs while there.

I've just been back out to top up water drums; the bush flies cling to your face the moment you step outside, trying to drink from your eyes and crawl up your nostrils and suck up your sweat, such is the pressure for water on days like today.  I wear a veil when that happens; so do the horses, who will come running if they see you with their veils, and literally push their own faces into them.  Nobody wants to have flies all over their face.

The nights are getting warmer, which means the bush flies will very soon thin out considerably, courtesy of the dung beetles, which start to become active when the cold nights are over.  We're looking forward to that.

I hope you've enjoyed this postcard from Australia. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on January 14, 2021, 14:00:46
Three completely strangers who grow closer to my heart the more I see them. Today it was that time again. Most Central Europeans are (sometimes) in such a hurry that they rush past the important things. Not so these three. I love you for that. 🇵🇪
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 15, 2021, 10:01:37
... of no snow tonight, i.e. no endless shovelling today. Phew.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on January 16, 2021, 19:20:59
I glued 57 old black and white photos into a new leather album (15×20cm). They had been in an envelope with a handwritten report for 32 years. I knew it existed, but I haven't bothered about it until now. The images were badly deformed, but no problem with the Pr*tt pen. 😉
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 17, 2021, 11:21:44
Quote from: MeltingMan on January 16, 2021, 19:20:59The images were badly deformed, but no problem with the Pr*tt pen. 😉

That's something like a glue stick, in case anyone wonders.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 17, 2021, 14:20:01
Quote from: Ulrich on January 17, 2021, 11:21:44
Quote from: MeltingMan on January 16, 2021, 19:20:59The images were badly deformed, but no problem with the Pr*tt pen. 😉

That's something like a glue stick, in case anyone wonders.

At least he's not using *h*.  I mean, it would work, but who, apart from Germans, would know what it was?  :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on January 18, 2021, 13:04:50
Quote from: SueCbut who, apart from the Germans,

🤓

Quote from: pr*ttworld.comThe Pr*tt pen is available in 38 countries.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on January 20, 2021, 12:16:21
This video made me smile today. I've never seen a cow as cuddly as this!
Twitter- Animals Australia  (https://twitter.com/AnimalsAus/status/1351774280195866624?s=19)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 20, 2021, 16:12:58
That's really cute, and made me happy too!  :)

...do you know about Bavarian Ox Racing?

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.1mE4Okes2_uhXFETZqD4eQHaD4%26pid%3DApi&f=1)

Maybe we could send @Ulrich as an emissary from CF to go look at that in real life for us, and report back!  ;)

I wonder if he's got any Lederhosen!  To blend in, etc.  :angel
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 20, 2021, 19:00:26
Quite happy that no right-wing terrorists or other crazies tried to disturb the inauguration and it seemed to go smoothly.

Quote from: SueC on January 20, 2021, 16:12:58I wonder if he's got any Lederhosen!  To blend in, etc.  :angel

No I haven't. Not a big fan of "typical" Bavaria in general. I prefer Frankonia tbh.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on January 23, 2021, 05:21:22
Quote from: MeltingMan on January 18, 2021, 13:04:50
Quote from: SueCbut who, apart from the Germans,

🤓

Ah, I see you put a the in!  :)

And now it's time for a little monologue on the weirdnesses of the English language, which, unlike German, is not a particularly logical language.

Let's make a sample sentence, say, "Who, apart from Germans, likes Weisswurst?"

This is quite correct in English (in Australia anyway) - the is not required here (but it's not wrong either, just superfluous), unless you're talking about a specific group, to distinguish them from someone else, e.g. you'd say, "There's Germans and Italians present, and it's the Germans who are eating the Weisswurst!"

There you can't have "the" before the nationalities in the first half of the sentence, but you can use it to emphasise the Germans in the second half.

This works for all nationalities who are pluralised, e.g.

General Germans versus specific the Germans
General Italians versus specific the Italians
General Australians versus specific the Australians

But...some nationalities aren't pluralised, e.g. we don't talk about Japaneses but the Japanese, ditto it's not Swisses but the Swiss, and it's not Englishes but the English...

...but you can say Englishmen or Englishwomen or even Englishpersons, for argument's sake, without having to use the in all cases; e.g. Englishmen are known to drink warm beer.  You could say the Englishmen are known to drink warm beer, but that's a tad too specific, and a bit redundant, so most people would drop the the.

You can also say Frenchmen but you definitely can't say Japanesemen or Swissmen.  Because...you just can't...

English is such fun!  It's full of stuff like that.  It nearly exploded my neatly ordered, rational, logical German brain when I switched languages at age 11.  :lol:

And don't get me started on other stuff like, why is abbreviation such a long word?  :P


And re this thread, I'm still happy today because educated, responsible adults are back in charge at the White House - floating about 20cm off the floor, actually, even though I live nearly halfway across the globe from the US - but it has been highly disconcerting to see a toddler who was apparently dropped on his head in charge of the nuclear codes, and to generally be able to wreak havoc and destroy lives from his position of power - not to mention such a thoroughly nasty human being elevated to such a position.  Huge sigh of relief here.

PS:  @Ulrich, I don't have any Lederhosen either, but I have a hide in the freezer I could possibly craft such a thing from.  It would be a black-and-white patched pair, because it came from a black-and-white patched cow.  Could be quite the fashion statement - not to mention, would probably not wear out quickly even if you have pointy seatbones!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 03, 2021, 14:16:33
13th wedding anniversary today! ♥♥  And we've got two and a half weeks of holidays in which to enjoy it, so we're not confining it to 24 hours.  Sort of like we're spending a whole week celebrating a birthday these days.  Just stretching it all out - no reason we have to stick with conventions if we can make our own.

I remember exactly 88 days after we got married, we celebrated our "First Mercurian Wedding Anniversary" because I was impatient and Mercury takes only 88 days to go around the sun (it has the fastest year in our solar system).  We lost track of how many Mercurian anniversaries we've had; but here we go:  We've been married approx. 4748-4750 days (there have been some leap years but I can't be bothered looking those up); and that's nearly 54 Mercurian years!  :)

This morning we agreed once more that we'd do it all over again; and I said that if we could live for 1000 years, I'd still just want to be with him for all of that time (and he said, "Awwwwww! ...imagine how many cups of tea, how many books, how many mornings waking up with each other...).

I don't have to imagine how many mornings - that's a simple shift of the decimal point!  ;)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 03, 2021, 15:52:42
Quote from: SueC on February 03, 2021, 14:16:3313th wedding anniversary today!

Congratulations! :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 07, 2021, 10:22:20
... it's Sunday, not Monday (as I first thought when I woke up)!  :beaming-face
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 11:47:56
I'm happy today because off my new online website that's be online since today 🤩 Since corona I put back some creativity in my life.

www.victoriapastels.com





Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on February 07, 2021, 13:03:34
Quote from: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 11:47:56I'm happy today because off my new online website that's be online since today 🤩 Since corona I put back some creativity in my life.

That's very fine work, Vicky! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 07, 2021, 14:02:14
Quote from: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 11:47:56I'm happy today because off my new online website that's be online since today 🤩 Since corona I put back some creativity in my life.

www.victoriapastels.com

They're lovely!  :)  I especially liked your poppies - I managed to grow very similar ones this year:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50522988886_bb4a0c0299_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jYxwph)

Thanks for sharing!  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 18:09:08
Thank you I have the poppies also in our garden, took some pictures off them, placed them in a composition. I lost for a while my creativity and I'm glad that I found it back. Same as the long time ago I was here. So I'm back 😏
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 18:10:00
Quote from: dsanchez on February 07, 2021, 13:03:34
Quote from: Trust... on February 07, 2021, 11:47:56I'm happy today because off my new online website that's be online since today 🤩 Since corona I put back some creativity in my life.

That's very fine work, Vicky! :)

Thank you David ☺️
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 10, 2021, 08:10:00
Happy today because Su-wei Hsieh played rip-roaring tennis against a Top 10, former US Open champion and came out on top, as she not infrequently does - she's one of my favourite people to watch in the Australian Open - also very funny in interviews!  :)  Today she was giving a male post-match interviewer politeness lessons when he kept referring to her age (35) - reminding him that "in Asia we don't mention the girl's age in public!"  :lol:

Su-wei Hsieh explains Taiwan here (https://www.facebook.com/tennischannel/videos/330995348237614/) - and in case you've not seen her highly interesting style of play:


...watching some tennis players, like Djokovic, is like watching the grass grow.  :1f635:   Speaking of, young Frances Tiafoe is currently pushing him further than he's been pushed in a while, and my fingers are firmly crossed for Tiafoe...

PS:  Later on Nick Kyrgios won a 5-setter after being match point down to super young French player Hugo Humbert.  When Kyrgios converted his opponent's match point to break point the crowd just went wild.  They were officially clocked as the noisiest tennis crowd since the start of the pandemic!  The Australian Open is running about one third capacity with large spacings between social groups, but the spectators are punching way above weight in making a racket!  Australian tennis crowds are something else when an Australian player is in action.  It's nice to hear all this noise after a year of mostly silent tennis.  Another really happy thing, that this is even possible, because of the pandemic management in Australia, the strict quarantine and biosecurity bubble for players, and the fact that Melbourne beat the second wave and went back to between zero and a little community transmission (and the little gets jumped on big time).  :cool

But what makes me really happy is that Thanasi Kokkinakis is through to the second round, because he's one of the unluckiest tennis players in the world, with injuries plaguing him most years since he was one Australia's top juniors together with Kyrgios - and then last year he got glandular fever and was knocked right out - but he got a wildcard into the Open and won his first-round match in straight sets two days ago.  Fingers crossed no more injuries.  He's got a big assignment playing the Greek star Tsitsipas, but he's beaten Federer in the past, so it's not impossible.  Will also be great to see him playing doubles with Kyrgios tomorrow and I hope they go far in the competition!  Looking forward to seeing and hearing the crowds. :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 16, 2021, 13:30:24
... after my driveway was like an "ice rink" this morning, it's been getting warmer and it all melted away.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on February 16, 2021, 13:42:19
I hope that you had a chance to do some pirouettes on your ice skates before your imprompu rink melted, @Ulrich.  Carpe diem and all that!  ;)

I'm happy today for many many reasons, but especially because I no longer feel burnt out - after getting incredibly depleted by three months of hayfever, hayfever-associated sleep deprivation, and anti-histamine side effects late last year and then having a really stressful week on top of that, which knocked out all my remaining reserves.  I was still working as best as I could all of January, but both of us having the first half of February off was very helpful, even if for most of it we just vegetated around our home.  I was still having energy issues last week but now I'm finally no longer feeling bottomlessly depleted, which is great, because that's actually really scary, aside from no fun and really debilitating.

So now, we can look forward to resuming our hiking of local mountains and coast.  :)  Also, I'm actually getting things done again while feeling good, instead of having to drag myself around to do basics.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 05, 2021, 16:09:53
We were hosting a dinner this evening with calzone & salad on the menu, and chocolate pear tart for afters.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F3931%2F15457710405_0d871b594f_b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

I had actually tried to make smaller calzones than usual, with dubious success - they were still the size of a human stomach... as I passed a plate with one of those pizzas on to a guest who happened to be Italian, I asked him, "Do you reckon you can manage that size, and still have room for dessert?"  He smiled and rolled his eyes about and told me, "Of course.  I have survived many Christmases in Italy!"  :lol:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 06, 2021, 12:14:29
... I received a letter from a lawyer, who's the liquidator of a company which went bust around 2006/7. Thus, some 15 years (!) later I might receive a (small?) percentage of the money they owed me. (They don't know the exact proportion yet...)  :1f62e:

(I'm happy about the news; not about the time it took.)  :1f636:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 14, 2021, 23:49:54
Firstly we're ecstatic because the weekend election here in Western Australia all but wiped out our Conservatives - nowhere in the Anglosphere have the political right been ground into the dust like they have at this election:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/wa/2021/results?filter=all&sort=az

Current count:  Labor 50 seats, Conservatives 5
Predicted:  Labor 52 seats, Conservatives 7

Labor are (soft) neoliberals as well, and we despair of the Labor-Liberal duopoly in Australia, but this particular Labor government has been surprisingly good across a lot of policies - and you can compare and contrast Labor vs Conservative policies taken to election here:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-13/wa-state-election-your-guide-to-the-wa-election-2021/13137918?nw=0

In summary, the proposed spending of the Conservatives mostly goes to a few of their business buddies (that's called "looking out for your mates" and is what our conservative PM is always spruiking), while the proposed spending of Labor gets spread more equitably across the community, in a more logically planned and less "let the market decide" manner, and actually addresses things like climate change, environmental degradation, social justice, improving things directly for the community instead of "stimulating private enterprise" (= throw our tax at the big end of town) to provide infrastructure and services in that direction.

The Education policy in particular was telling - the Conservatives were going to throw the majority of the money at a handful of schools in middle/upper class areas (which also means building contracts for their mates in the big construction companies), while the remaining hundreds of schools could apply for a grant to "improve their playgrounds"... :evil:  Labor proposed to share out the funding more equitably across schools in general.

Interesting going through the policy comparisons across the board.  I don't know what it's like in your country, but here, the Conservatives have gotten truly evil - it actually has become a moral/ethical issue, not just a question of political preference.

On election day we also had another reason to be really happy - we did a half-day hike across a pristine section of coast; 16km in 4.5 hours including breaks.  It's the longest hike we've done all year so far, and also the longest hike since before we had hayfever really badly for three months at the end of last year.  We've been building our fitness levels back up recently, and it was fabulous to be back at the point where we were really motoring on the return walk - throwing ourselves up the dunes and then making long gravity-assisted steps on the downhill stretches.  It's an amazing feeling when your body is capable of stuff like this again.  Here's some scenery.

Cosy Corner - our starting point:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51034809476_cce4c516f9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kKLJQd)

Dingo Beach with views to Torbay Head:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51034822321_238067a525_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kKLNDF)

Looking back over Dingo Beach towards Forsyth Bluff, with Peak Head across the bay in the far distance (the spiky faraway point across from the island):

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51034810066_c6fc97b1a5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kKLK1o)

Descending into Shelley Beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51034914612_9a04be3719_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kKMh5U)

Fun and games on Shelley Beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51034811751_f01e0c48eb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kKLKvr)

Thanks to Eileen for the pictures for this one! :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 15, 2021, 13:04:28
Quote from: SueC on March 14, 2021, 23:49:54Firstly we're ecstatic because the weekend election here in Western Australia all but wiped out our Conservatives ...

Similar thing happened here in this federal state (election), where the "conservative" party CDU lost a few seats (quite deservedly, after a scandal about MPs who enriched themselves).

I was/am quite happy to see the liberal democrats do well.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 21, 2021, 03:07:28
STARLIT BEACH WALKING

We've got a late heatwave in Western Australia, where it's impossible to do a hike in the middle of the day, which made me think, "There goes the weekend!" as the cool change wasn't coming till Monday.  So we did useful things around the house and outside (brief stints into the heat, like skin diving when you're holding your breath, before coming back in to cool off) in-between recreational indoors tasks.  A whole list of things was done between us by evening:  House cleaned, laundry done, garden watered, all the stock troughs cleaned and filled, the nine honey frames from one super extracted - I was uncapping, Brett was spinning with our little two-frame hand spinner, end result was 20kg of honey but it does always take hours (CDs and iPod type activity).  I did the daily supplementary animal feed at dusk and noticed the sky was clear, with a low half-moon; also the heat was finally subsiding for the day, and it gave me an idea...

So after flying my idea over dinner, we drove to our nearest beach for a night walk.  Last time we tried to do this we ended up nearly freezing in a cold wind, having come unprepared for an Antarctic blast in mid-summer; also there was a bit of cloud cover.  But last night, there was only the gentlest of breezes and it was still 19 degrees C at 9pm.  The sky was completely clear and the moon had dropped below the horizon and this is the Southern hemisphere, 400km from the nearest large city, so what you get on such nights is a black velvet sky with luminous crystal-like stars.

The Southern Cross hung relatively low over the southern horizon and waves rolled in beneath it in the wide bay at Cosy Corner, the surf illuminated by starlight.  You'd be amazed how bright moonless nights can get where we are - after starting with the red light on our head torches to get down to the beach, we switched that off and walked as our eyes adjusted. (Red doesn't interfere as much with the development of night vision - don't use a white light when you go do this because you don't have proper night vision for around 20 minutes after removing yourself from that kind of light.)

This is the general view we had...

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnineplanets.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FSouthernCross.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

...except that's just a diagram; in reality the stars look more like this:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.fineartamerica.com%2Fimages%2Fartworkimages%2Fmediumlarge%2F1%2Fthe-constellation-of-the-southern-cross-luke-dodd.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

I never used to see it like that in the Northern hemisphere as a kid; too much light pollution in Europe and you need cameras with long exposure to get a look at the smaller points of light there - but not where we are; the clarity is amazing.  We were thinking that it's so sad that since the invention of the Edison bulb, so few Westerners ever see a proper starlit sky - if they're not confining themselves to the indoors at night as is the cultural norm, and actually make a point of going walking at night, the light pollution from others cuts the view down so much in many places in the Western world.

Night walks are great for other reasons too - during the day, the majority of our brain's processing is visual.  In the dark, other senses kick in far more strongly.  I'm guessing most people reading know the difference between listening to music in daylight versus sitting quietly in the dark - now apply that to the outdoors... it's amazing how much you become aware of what you're hearing, and of the scents around you, and how your internal GPS activates when you're walking in the near-dark.  We walk around the tracks of our on-farm bushland at night a lot, and you can really hear the crickets, the various different frog species, the odd chirp from a roosting bird, leaf rustling if there's a breeze, and the low range of the calls of the hunting microbats - as well as some of their wing flapping when they get close!  Also, the smell of Lemon-Scented Gum (a eucalyptus tree) on a still night is an incredible experience - it's one of our favourite smells in the world, and especially extraordinary when your brain doesn't have the usual background noise of daytime visual processing going on.

A night beach walk too is a totally different experience to going there by day, even on an overcast night.  You become aware in ways we're not normally aware in everyday Western life.  But on a starlit night, the universe is right there, without a curtain of clouds or daytime Rayleigh scatter (which gives us our blue sky).  You can see beyond "Earth view" into "here we are in the universe" view - and you go from, "Look at all these amazing things everywhere!" to, "All this stuff around us is really small by comparison, as are we..." -

Now add to that a little reflection on the speed of light and that when you look anywhere, you're always looking into the past - even when you look at your foot, the image is slightly in the past because of the tiny delay from the photons travelling from your foot to your eye.  Across the vastness of space this becomes super significant - if you turned off our sun, it would take 8 minutes for us to notice - and the distant stars are many light years away.  Sirius, which you can see from both hemispheres, you see where and as it was nearly 9 years ago when you look up at it.  The Magellanic Clouds we get in the Southern hemisphere are around 200,000 light years away, so that's how old the image is that you see of them - and Andromeda, if you see it, you see where and as it was 2.6 million years ago...

Here's a song by Australian band The Church which conveys some of all that - with a lovely clip on the theme.  Enjoy!


PS:  If you do ever stand on the seashore looking at stars, you're essentially looking at two cradles without which you would not exist:

1. - because all of us are made from what we can romantically call "stardust" - as the heavier chemical elements from which we are composed, such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, iron - were all formed from the nuclear fusion of lighter ones like hydrogen and helium at the cores of suns, in a process called stellar nucleosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis) - more fun reading about that here (http://thegreatstory.org/Stardustbackground.html); and

2. - because our ancestors crawled out of the sea...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 21, 2021, 19:21:14
It's been a cold & grey Sunday, so what did I do? Well I went on one of my "adventures" anyway, to see something new, I walked a bit and even found an interesting museum that was open ("Meteorkratermuseum Steinheim")!  :happy

(https://scontent-dus1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163495789_3691208844289540_175254076277077590_o.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=QxtDZoFyuKUAX_lbBb7&_nc_ht=scontent-dus1-1.xx&oh=ab50bbab6eb0aa82946e3ebeb8bd9d9a&oe=607DADDA)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on March 22, 2021, 07:30:22
You got a meteor crater near you, @Ulrich?  :cool

That reminded me of something - many years ago I was travelling through outback South Australia on the way home from Sydney, and spent some time hiking various trails coming up through the Flinders Ranges.  At the northern end of those is Wilpena Pound:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fs1.at.atcdn.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F02%2F0D8A0038_2.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

It's not a meteor crater, it's just impressive folding in the sedimentary rock.  I was there for a day and climbed Mt Ohlssen-Bagge.  I thought you'd enjoy some of the pictures and information in the two links below, to go with your noir remote South Australian detective novels!  ;)

https://www.australiantraveller.com/sa/outback-sa/flinders-ranges/wilpena-pound-australias-unknown-icon/

https://www.walkingsa.org.au/walk/find-a-place-to-walk/park/flinders-ranges-national-park/

I've always wanted to go back and perhaps one day we will.

Meanwhile, of course, we've got the Stirling Ranges right in our backyard:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.inspirationoutdoors.com.au%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FStirling-Ridge-view-38.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

...and I'm happy today because after a suffocating night, the cool change has come!  :)

...and as we get into autumn and cooler temperatures, we'll be able to return to hiking in the Stirlings.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 22, 2021, 12:13:32
Quote from: SueC on March 22, 2021, 07:30:22You got a meteor crater near you, Ulrich?  :cool

Well actually there are two! (It is likely that the impacts happened at the same time, with a meteorite or asteroid coming down in 2 parts. Supposedly.)

The smaller one ("Steinheimer Becken") is about 40km away from me and the other is the more famous "Nördlinger Ries" (another 30km away from Steinheim).

http://www.steinheimer-becken.de/ries_steinheimer_becken.html
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 03, 2021, 12:57:34
Walking from Lowlands to West Cape Howe Camping Hut and back today - 10km.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51092278270_69c0c9f289_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQRhiu)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51092273315_809c37d077_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQRfQ4)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091532514_a65a739d7d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQMsBC)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091543002_e620ae39d2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQMvJs)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51092238180_b4484059fa_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQR5oh)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091959023_995558fb4b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQPDpe)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091945598_308b2e9d75_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQPzpL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091509857_ba79b6a7d5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQMkSZ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091956183_15e3ebd9a4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQPCyg)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51091934953_d6efd8896a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kQPwfe)

If you want to see them all, click on any and use the arrows (left is forward).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 12, 2021, 10:47:15
Happy about the hike I went on yesterday (nice weather), complete with a view to the Alps:

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/172177739_3753307298079694_5808335390742736657_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=1YUufUechYsAX8YbiQo&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=7b68ff317f5bc8eaa368f1a4082ea335&oe=6098237E)

And at the Danube:
(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/172836315_3753319048078519_6265827771162967540_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=-8McbTl9rtAAX80iWgd&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=86f922321dcea0ba7b445ae313aecefa&oe=609AF8FB)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 12, 2021, 15:29:48
OMG @Ulrich!  That's the first time I've seen the Alps on the horizon like that since I saw them like that as a kid with my own eyes! :1f62e:

Nice photos!  Glad you had fun!  :)

And sorry I can't properly participate in this topic myself today - it's been raining 48 hours and everything is saturated and I'm gloomy.  Highlight of the day was harvesting the Josephine pear tree when the rain briefly lightened to drizzle and then washing and drying a lot of pears and peeling, slicing and stewing a huge cauldron of them to freeze in packets for later.  I didn't feel like listening to music and generally didn't enjoy anything today - sometimes there's days like that - but at least I got a few things done.  There's a name for this - "anhedonia" - I sometimes get a day like that!  They're best used for accounting, actually, since that's enough to make your day shitty anyway, so you may as well use an already shitty day with temporary anhedonia to do your accounts...  :P
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 12, 2021, 21:09:29
Quote from: SueC on April 12, 2021, 15:29:48They're best used for accounting, actually, since that's enough to make your day shitty anyway...  :P

Actually, last week I had to "fix" some accountancy stuff and did it today as well; as I managed the big step ahead that was needed, I am pretty happy with it! :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 16, 2021, 00:55:35
Novaxx Djokovic got turfed out before the quarter-finals, bwahahahaha!  :D  By Daniel Evans, in their first-ever meeting.  After his entitled behaviour in Australia re compulsory SARS-CoV-2 quarantining, and his general brainless conspiracy theorising and partying during COVID-19 and then hopping on a plane with this virus when he inevitably contracted it even though he thinks it doesn't exist and that he can purify water with his thoughts (etc etc etc) this is very sweet.

Anytime an underdog wins is great, in my book - especially if they win against the Eternal Trio of Tennis.  But the smelly sock in this trio is definitely Djokovic - he's been incredibly annoying for a long time, not just since the pandemic.  Brett says the other two are boring beige socks.  I dunno.  They play tennis very well, but when it's this predictable it's like androids vs humans...

...also happy because yesterday the rain stopped long enough for me to remove the end of an offending horn that was growing into the face of one of our steers.  I've kept cattle 10 years and never had to do that before - freak thing.  I yarded them peacefully in the portable yard the neighbour had dropped off for us, with food and lots of acclimatisation time and no pressure and this guy walked himself into the crush without pressure when I put a food bucket in the front and left him to it.  Then I just had to close the tailgate and engage the headlock, and again let him settle with his food bucket before gradually getting him used to having his face touched.  When he was OK with that I popped the wire saw into the gap between horn and face and found the lowest effective point to cut it, and pretty quickly it was off.

It's those camping saws you can buy - just a thin cutting wire on two rings - and because I didn't want my fingers broken in case the >700kg animal moved its head, I clipped the rings into nice thick cotton lead ropes.  I was trying to avoid live tissue but as the local dairy farmer told me when I looked at calves last week, this isn't always possible and the main thing is to stop the horn from growing into the skull in a case like this.  So there was a little bit of bleeding but it stopped very quickly and the steer was relieved to have that end no longer digging into his face.  I flushed out the skin wound with chlorhexidine and then covered the crusty edges with good old Stockholm tar so the insects won't bother him, and he was actually rubbing his face on my hands when I did this, clearly glad that the pressure was gone and to have the irritated skin tended.  When I let him out he didn't go far from me.  I was going to keep the horn end to show others but the dog snaffled it!

Because of a headlock malfunction I didn't get to do the other steer yet - he's got a more superficial problem, so at least the worst case is done.  The headlock ended up turning into a trap I couldn't release when he wiggled a shoulder out of the gap  before I properly engaged the headlock.  Having worked with horse equipment all my life, I thought I could release the clamp under pressure if there was a problem - but it wouldn't let go, and the animal panicked, and we could not disengage the lock.  Eventually he wiggled himself out but I was cursing that the equipment turned into a trap.  It's so stressful for animal and handler.  The neighbour who loaned me the yard told me that most cattle headlocks don't allow you to release the lock under pressure.  Talk about bad design - this means you can't let panicking animals out in an emergency!

I'm extremely happy that steer got away without obvious injury and is still walking around (and still talking to me), and that nobody got badly hurt.  But I bet he's bruised where he wiggled through the headlock, and that doesn't make me happy.  I wish people made cattle headlocks with emergency releases.

Going to buy some cow cubes as a treat and feed the steers in the yard a couple of times before trying again and next time, the neighbour says he's coming out to run the headlock (is hugely experienced at this) so I don't have to worry about it happening again.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 19, 2021, 09:16:21
Spring comes to Spiddal Metzingen:

(https://scontent-dus1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/175742291_3772891692787921_4222886237264784512_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=7pEE-d3gRM4AX8_DrrR&_nc_ht=scontent-dus1-1.xx&oh=850492d14fe6d9712b09b3ef24959608&oe=60A2C6B9)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 19, 2021, 10:22:56
Hahaha, @Ulrich - maybe Mike Scott can sing that version on his next tour of Germany... :)


I'm happy because I've just finished an essay that turned into 4,000 words.  Yesterday it was only 2,000 words and I thought I'd largely finished it.  But that's how this goes.  :lol:

Topic is "A Place Called Home" - a broad sweep into the general topic - for the 40th Anniversary edition of the Australasian Owner Builder, which will be the last issue until someone else wants to take it over - the editor has done this for nearly two decades and would like to do something else now!

I'd already written a DIY piece for that edition on how to properly construct wet area floor drains (because ours actually work and so many in Australia do not) - including how to tile so you don't ruin the even drop you need into the drain - many people care more about lining up to some optical edge than about whether they are going to spend the rest of their lives pushing water down a hole with a mop when it should actually just flow there naturally...

And it still looks nice:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/7217/13230720685_e61a30c502_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/ma9UiT)

That's when floor tiling had just finished.  I went from flummoxed when starting tiling to thinking lots and then doing a really good job - because I didn't start until I worked out exactly how I was going to do it.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1823/42563186365_fe2e771b5b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/27RasqM)

I ended up having fun with the kitchen backsplash:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/834/43419374832_cc1307b45b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/299PDqU)

...and with growing and eating heirloom pumpkins...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4435/36467304996_1449e32327_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/XyutgS)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 20, 2021, 12:12:25
...steers all done.  Clipped the end of the horn off the third one as well just to make sure his doesn't dig into the skin two weeks from now...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 26, 2021, 04:24:18
We worked out yesterday that we've finished Map 8 (Albany to Lights Beach west of Denmark) of the Bibbulmun track, as day-walk sections, several times over since we first decided that we wanted to walk every bit of it in our local area, 18 months ago.  So today we're buying Maps 7 and 6, that go west to Walpole and then up to Pemberton in the Karri Forest, and we're going to have over 100km of fresh sections to walk where we've never been before.  :heart-eyes  It just means driving a bit further out.  And that's on top of doing the six official Stirling Ranges peaks at least once a year, plus the Porongurup trails, and various other local trails - but there's a difference between old friends, and exploring completely new places.

Yesterday we found a track we've never walked before, which was scenic but too flat and boring to hike, so we determined, after 2 hours on that trail, to come back with mountain bikes for that and the other 100-odd km of flat rail trails in this region, that we've not done because we really dislike flat walking in mostly straight lines.  The dog will be able to come along as these are bushland trails away from traffic and you go hours before you meet anyone on them, if you don't go during school holidays. :smth023

We happened upon the Wilson Inlet at one point - here's some nice photos, sadly taken with an iPod camera because we'd left the proper one at home.  The complete set as always is reachable by clicking on any photo to go to the source page.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51137128428_761befec8b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kUP9G5)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136923081_fcdf95c449_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kUN6DB)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Oneiroman on April 26, 2021, 13:33:42
When I saw your mention of Pemberton it reminded me of a weekend trip I made just after I arrived in Perth in March '82 with a couple and their daughter and a visiting American academic.  We travelled through Mandurah and Busselton down to Cape Naturaliste before heading inland to Bridgetown to spend the night in a caravan.  I won a darts match for the one and only time in my life in a local pub.  The following morning we headed to Pemberton and climbed the Gloucester Tree.  Well, the American and I did.  Our guide, a Kiwi who fancied himself as a rugged bushman chickened out, blaming it on the fact that he was wearing flip-flops (I think you call them thongs).

On another occasion he took me out for a night paddling a kayak from the University of WA up the Swan River to central Perth.  After two minutes I thought my arms would drop off but once I got used to it it was fine.  I started to mess about a bit and he was almost screaming at me to stop in case he got his t-shirt wet.  Why do lots of blokes from the antipodes like to come over so macho when they often turn out to be wimps?  When I was in Arnhem Land my host took me up a local river in a small power boat and thought it was hilarious to goad some of the huge crocs lining the river bank by drifting in as close to them as possible.  Being a Brit I kept a stiff upper lip even when a giant maneater shot into the river nearly capsizing the boat.  He stopped laughing then.  I won't tell you about the time in Wyndham when a massive goanna that used to march around the campsite as though he was the owner tried to get into my tent one night.

I have found out quite a few things on the internet that I had no idea about at the time concerning my visit to Australia.  I think I mentioned in another post the Hunters and Collectors song '42 Wheels' about an incident at Uluru I narrowly avoided and that l also found out that The Warumpi Band's song 'My Island Home' is about Galiwinku (Elcho Island) which I paid a brief visit to in 1983.  I've also found videos on YouTube made by or featuring some of the characters I met in my travels.  One bloke I met in Sydney called Ace had his five minutes of worldwide fame when a programme was made about him and a friend who purchased a lion cub in Harrods in London and later had it released into the wild in Kenya.  When a clip from this of the pair hugging the fully grown lion was uploaded to YouTube it "went viral" - https://youtu.be/cvCjyWp3rEk - although when I met Ace he was a rather refined "aesthete" type rather the the gung-ho ocker that some of the other characters I met were.  In reality most of the people I encountered were extremely friendly and welcoming.  The outback was nothing like it was portrayed in 'Wake in Fright'.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 27, 2021, 02:38:37
Ah, @Oneiroman, so you got to Australia half a year before I did!  And if you came back to the Busselton/Margaret River area, you'd not recognise it.  Busselton was a sleepy fishing town; now it's endless faceless suburbia.  Nearby Dunsborough used to be just a village with a famous little bakery and a beach; when I tried to find that tiny main street with its little bakery again in 2005 (after not seeing the place since the late 80s) it was gone and in its place was a wide bitumen road with generic shopping malls such as you can see anywhere in the corporatised West; and the Legoland of modern Australian suburbia spread out far and wide from that as well.  :1f632:  :'(

Margaret River was a specialist dairy area when you saw it; then the little dairy farms were bought up by cashed-up Perth yuppies as holiday homes for their vacations, and the agricultural community pretty much died.  Some of the best soil in Western Australia now grows sprawling lawns which support nobody with food, and which people mow with ride-on fossil-fuel-powered gadgets, where once the herbivores grazed.

From Bridgetown south is still lovely; all the way to the South Coast.

Perth has quadrupled and looks like a miniature LA and Mandurah is now part of it - all freeways and sprawling subdivisions.  I've been avoiding it like the plague especially in the last ten years.  Everywhere on the coastal plain is air pollution and traffic noise, all day and all night - nowhere you can go where it's quiet and the air isn't contaminated. 

The Gloucester Tree is still there, and I've never climbed it - I can't deal with sheer drops.  Tried to once on the general principle that you should stare down your phobias, but nearly blacked out 10 m up and decided that genuinely wasn't a good idea.  With a harness I'd do it, but some reactions are so biologically inbuilt you'd lose your life in the wrong situation if you tried to defy them without a backup.  Others, like heebie-jeebies about public speaking, are easier to fix.  The heights thing doesn't affect our mountain hikes though, and didn't stop me from getting comfortable on a scaffold when we built our house.

It probably isn't a great idea to goad large crocodiles - they do regularly eat people, plus it's generally a good idea to leave the wildlife in peace, even if it isn't carnivorous.  Sounds like you were a bit of a terror back in the day.  I do note your point about Australian male machismo; especially in the era when you visited - and yes, the same sorts are very susceptible to the "man-flu" etc.  :beaming-face

Sounds like you made good use of your time and have vivid memories of WA.  Landscape-wise, it was better then (less destroyed and depleted and built over - it really is shocking in Australia; it's so rapidly growing in human population still and we've long since exceeded sustainable carrying capacity here, ditto the planet, but that's another topic); culturally there's been some improvement - especially in terms of food, and the ability to get "ethnic" ingredients (which, when I arrived, included oregano!!!).

How cool you've been to Elcho Island.  I've never been up north anywhere in Australia; furthest north was Yanchep (in WA), Wilpena Pound (outback SA) and the Central Coast (NSW) - Brett and I have both tended to go south, and have spent a lot of time in Tasmania.  Much cooler there.  But we love the documentaries from the areas we've not been.

And that lion video was fantastic - thanks for sharing the link. Made my day.   :)

My official happy-today for this morning is that I've at this stage got energy for dealing with my long list of chores to do outdoors!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on April 28, 2021, 18:24:54
Just got a SMS that I will be getting my Astra/Zeneca shot this Saturday. Yay!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on April 29, 2021, 04:44:55
Onya, @dsanchez!   :smth023  :smth023

"Onya" is the abbreviation of the Australian expression of approval, "Good on you!"
In Australia things tend to get shortened:  Mozzie instead of mosquito, arvo instead of afternoon, barbie instead of BBQ.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 02, 2021, 15:26:23
I wonder how @dsanchez's arm is.  Hopefully the nurse didn't hit the nerve.

Happy today because the rain moderated for long enough to be able to get out and do a section of the Bibbulmun we've not done before, near Muttonbird Island.  It was a walk through woods and dunes to the coast, a descent down to Muttonbird Island, some rock-hopping to get around the point to Muttonbird Beach, and then returning along the dune-woodland trail again.  Seas were phenomenal today - we get the full benefit of the Roaring Forties here on the South Coast...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51153147624_20904b52a9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWefD7)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51152596958_0fc6a6b3ea_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWbqWS)

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(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51151700262_757f7cabae_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kW6QoA)

One unfortunately blurry one of the massive boiling seas:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51152607273_6b93733e0b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWbu1H)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51152376371_404621a5d6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWainD)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51153487250_f4d0298e70_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWfZAJ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51151717117_d3488cae5a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kW6Vpc)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51153502950_9dd35383a9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWg5gq)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51151729882_4266ff4f8d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kW6Zch)

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(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51153194424_d7e5b28501_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWeuy1)

iPod camera again as I wasn't taking the good one in the drizzle, so the resolution isn't great.

If anyone wants to see all 36 photos, just click on the first one to go to the photopage.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 06, 2021, 19:24:13
I'm happy because we set a personal best for the longest distance hiked in one day today - we did 25km on the Bibbulmun track from Parry Beach to Boat Harbour and back - a beautiful, wild, remote coastline, and the track wasn't exactly flat either - really strenuous walk and even the one flat part, a beach before Boat Harbour, was hard work because it was "aerosand" - you sink in like in soft snow...

We've done around 20km several times before, mostly with a mad colleague of mine who was getting fit for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa, but that was 12 years ago - in recent years, our longest walk was 18km.

The ocean was insane with waves again today - typical winter pattern for us with the Roaring Forties etc.  Have a look at these waves... and there wasn't much wind at all today, by the way, this is just what blows in from where there is lots of wind between us and Antarctica...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162322564_399ac59138_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX3h2J)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161778203_3914672bb6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWZudc)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162646710_95db0b43ae_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX4Wos)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161537261_5a0461272c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWYfA2)

We did have some complications, like being caught in a 45-minute downpour near the start that was literally like standing at home under the shower - Australian weather can be pretty wild.  So we got soaked to the skin even through our water-resistant thermals and soft shell (which thankfully still keep you quite warm when wet, sort of like a wetsuit) - and our boots were full of water, so we had to stop several times to wring out socks and insoles... and we still had hours of walking to go at that point...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161882343_807672df9e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX12aH)

One of the most beautiful walks I've ever done...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161748523_631d62ca23_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWZkot)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162297559_dc9d86830a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX39AB)

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(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162634885_a250103abd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX4SSz)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51160883407_5b953d8502_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWUUdF)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161791328_7ecae198f0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWZy7u)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161794988_1389cd4902_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWZzcA)

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(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162344234_6f07d69f82_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX3otm)

We took so many photos - if anyone wants to see them all, just click on one of them and go to the Flickr photostream.  The coast here is so spectacular...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 14, 2021, 19:15:28
Super happy because we gave ourselves a kick up our backsides and got ourselves to that concert I was deliberating about yesterday.  I'd been under the impression Steve Kilbey was going to do acoustic versions of two of their early albums, with string backing - since he wasn't coming with the current incarnation of The Church, who by the way have made 25 (!!!) studio albums (I can see I've got a few holes to fill in their back catalogue... :1f62e: ).  On reflection we thought that was worth going to.

And this is what we actually got:  Full electric concert with a cellist and a violinist (both electric) standing in for synth!  In a 600-seater, which due to the pandemic and to perhaps a lack of interest in alternative music amongst the older people in Albany was less than half full.  That didn't dampen anyone's spirits, however - fabulous, enthusiastically received concert in an intimate venue with amazing acoustics.

I didn't have The Church's 1981 and 1983 albums because that was just a little before I got interested in music; the first one I've got by them is 1985's Heyday, which is excellent.  But, as it turns out, so were these predecessors - this concert was a real treat...  Here's a sample song off The Church's debut Of Skins and Heart:


This was all lushly presented live - the two string players really added something to the overall soundscape - and soundscape is what The Church did so incredibly well through the 1980s, and what sat so beautifully against the plasticky, trashy pop backdrop that was a large fraction of the 1980s mainstream.  I've got journals from the mid-80s in which I decided to host my own music awards, and in them, The Church got Best Australian Band both times  I held those - to my mind, they had so much more depth than INXS or the Hoodoo Gurus or even Hunters & Collectors (not to mention Pseudo Echo and their ilk), and were multi-dimensional in ways that few other Australian bands were (and Nick Cave hadn't grown up properly yet).

Hearing two early Church albums I'd not been familiar with (save a couple of songs off them) showed me all over again exactly why I took to this music back in the day.  I sat enthralled in mesmeric, often gorgeous, sometimes experimental soundscapes, and let Steve Kilbey's richly resonant voice wash over me.  The lyrics have always been above-average as well, which really helps to get people into my good books.  The band played two full albums plus encore, but I could easily have listened to twice that this evening!

Steve Kilbey also amused the crowd with stories in-between songs; most of which centered around his memory of all the bad reviews they got by various critics.  "This (Electric Lash) was called 'the stupidest song ever' by such and such a critic... - and this song was lauded as a better effort by us; he said that we should leave 'haunting' up to people who are actually good at it."  (Heartfelt boos and hisses from the audience at these poisonous comments, one of which had been from the NME.)

He mentioned that gated drum reverb had been an issue on the next album they presented, Seance - and they do it without live.  Here's a nice sample off that album (which some critic had apparently called an "unnecessary stoner jam"):


With the added strings the intro to this piece was extraordinary, quivery, electric...this is why I listen to music...

A few things were given different arrangements - Memories In Future Tense, he said he preferred 3/4 not 4/4 and as a sort of 1930s Hungarian barn piece, and so they went on to play it like that, and it was excellent.  The alternative arrangement also didn't have what he called the signature 1981 guitar sound, which he demonstrated on his bass.  One song off their debut album he refused to play altogether, and said to make it up to us he'd play two B-sides instead.  Much comedy was extracted from his explanations about vinyl, Side 1 versus Side 2 ("...but of course that means nothing anymore, nowadays it's all random!"), etc - and at one point he said to a guitar player, "In the 80s blah blah..." and got, "But I wasn't alive in the 80s."  :lol:

Somewhere in the middle of the concert, an audience member exclaimed, "Now I can die happy, Steve!" - and Kilbey joked, "What? I'm as deaf as a post - and also as blind as a bat!" - turning to the wings of the stage, bowing at 90 degrees to us, and telling us we were such a fabulous audience.  :rofl  He mispronounced "Albany" as quite a few Eastern States blow-ins will, and got some giggles which immediately informed him of the mistake - it isn't said like "Albury" - and he then went on to make favourable comparisons between our lovely seaside town and that landlocked place in Victoria ("and what sort of a name is Wodonga anyway?").  It's great fun when you're at a gig where there can be these kinds of conversational exchanges with the crowd.  :)

Interesting things happen when a singer plays bass instead of guitar - listening closely, I could hear that it affects the singing - since he's playing rhythm, and pretty complex forms at that, rather than accompaniment, and it seems like he has to fit his singing in between his playing because of this.  It makes for interesting stops and starts and timings in the singing.

The encore presented three commercially successful songs by The Church which, bless their hearts, were still alternative songs - The Church never made pop:  Metropolis, I'm Almost With You and, of course, Under The Milky Way.

To make it perfect, I'd have loved another encore with Pharaoh, Happy Hunting Ground and Tantalized in it - but they clearly can't rehearse the whole back catalogue for concerts, especially with alternative musicians standing in for original band members.  These did a great job, by the way - the guitarists not quite as sharp as the original playing, but of a high enough standard to sound fabulous.

I actually took some photos which I'll share tomorrow, but I'm too tired for that now!  :1f634:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 15, 2021, 11:26:51
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51180108608_71e8eddf7f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kYBrcE)

Shaun & Adrian Hoffmann (guitars), Steve Kilbey (vocals, bass), Shaun Corlson (drums),  Rachael Aquilina (violin), Anna Sarcich (cello); guest drummer "Lockie" behind string section, did one song outright on his own kit, and got an extra cheer and his name called out as they made their way off the stage post-encore - and he paused, smiled and gave a little bow.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51180108828_38611597f8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kYBrgs)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51180982545_64b288069d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kYFUZx)

We had the good fortune to be sitting right by the string section - both of us find strings extra-fascinating.  Brett says that the first time he saw an electric cello at a gig, he thought it looked like a instrument from the future which had been beamed back in time...

Just from a low-range phone!  And really just so we could remember it better...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on May 23, 2021, 16:16:31
Well, I'm happy because I've NEARLY finished roasting and freezing three massive Musqué de Provence Pumpkins that weighed 20kg each, which is ridiculous because they're supposed to get to 10-15kg.  Usually they store well, but all three had been nibbled underneath by slaters before harvest, so I had to preserve them quickly - and we're also eating lots of pumpkin soup, I've made pumpkin bread, tonight we had pumpkin/feta/cashew pizza, and I'm making citrus/pumpkin/almond cake this week... and the dog is getting a bit of pumpkin with her dinner at the moment, and we did split up half a pumpkin into nine wedges which were doled out to friends to try...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51198245430_24e1b43d9e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m1doDu)

Also happy because the four new calves we got in have accepted their shelter and are curled up happily in a bed of food in it tonight while the storm is raging outside - we've got a severe weather warning, with a sheep weather alert, which means stock losses due to hypothermia can be expected, with sheep or other animals of around that size exposed to these conditions.  (It may not be below freezing here, but between the rain and the Roaring Forties you can be chilled to the bone in no time where we live.)

This is a snap from when they'd just arrived yesterday off a neighbouring dairy.  You can see two in the shelter and two hiding in the tree lucerne on the right (edible leaves, yum yum and they're going for it, and there's also some corn plants in the foreground for them to try because I'm harvesting our last batch of eating corn at the moment).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51196488797_98c85288ea_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m14osH)

Last but not least, we managed to nip out this morning for a 90-minute seaside walk when there was a bit of a weather break between the two cold fronts.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51197434928_91f2935f20_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m19eHj)

This is at Muttonbird Beach, and there was this surfer out there we swore was motorised because he kept zooming from one end of the beach to the other:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51198295395_4847e5b73f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m1dDuX)

Jess was chasing waves as usual.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51197442293_0ed66f99b0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m19gUi)

Here's a film of her doing that on an inland lake a few years back. The bigger the surf, the more she runs, so this is a mild case of wave-chasing for her!

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on May 28, 2021, 19:06:39
After my second vaccination (June 15th), I am allowed to eat again in the fast food restaurant. I do that now and then. 😎
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 31, 2021, 11:41:08
Happy about my hike on Sunday, with 13km the longest so far in this year!

Towards the end, the reward was this nice path alongside a little river (canal):

(https://scontent-dus1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/193479495_3896871240389965_9156095410699237913_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=7Q7jcLc2XREAX-dD8rA&_nc_ht=scontent-dus1-1.xx&oh=208e853498d7b5e9e94507d4e6e2184b&oe=60D9D646)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 04, 2021, 04:55:56
I recently wrote an essay on the theme of "Home" for the 40th anniversary issue of the Australian Owner Builder (https://theownerbuilder.com.au/) magazine. Yesterday the hard copies arrived and I read the finished product, and was relieved that it read just fine, even (or especially? :angel) after Lynda pulled out all my rants about neoliberalism and extant politicians named-by-names etc (which I knew she was going to do)! It's really nice to be edited by someone who can pull out the ranting you automatically do from the bottom of a deep well so that you still end up with something that does speak outside the normal conventions of what we do and don't talk about, and that does still communicate the core things you felt you needed to communicate - and it's seamless, not at all like a Swiss cheese, so you wouldn't know she pulled out nearly 2,000 words in the process.  :cool  :winking_tongue

Poor Lynda.  :-D  Mostly over the past two years I've been writing things that she didn't need to chainsaw down, but home is such a big topic, not just about shelter (or, misguidedly, about investment or status  :1f629:), but about love and creativity and joy and relationships and communities and the very planet, and sadly, the forces of greed, ignorance, bureaucracy, corruption and evil which destroy those things. The more articles on these matters I read beforehand just to bring myself up to current developments, the more irate I got, until I sat down to write...

Loved the image she chose from the potential pool I floated by her, to go with this essay:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/844/29567209998_a53621a55e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/M3KFqJ)
by Ilkka Jukarainen, on Flickr

It's still pretty clear from what's in print that the status quo needs to be rocked on a whole number of levels, and I am impressed that she let my assertion that current national energy star ratings are like a C-grade high school physics project stand - well yes, it's no exaggeration, because it actually fails the houses that have the lowest energy consumption in Australia, like the ones the ABC's Background Briefing visited in Canberra in 2012 - and our own house barely passed, even though running it uses less than 10% of average operational energy inputs (from electricity, direct fossil fuels, wood) into an Australian family home, and apart from four camping-size bottles of cooking gas a year, we're entirely off-grid solar-electric at that, and the vast majority of heating and cooling in our naturally-thermally-comfortable house is just through decent passive-solar design (orientation, thermal mass, insulation, glazing, eave design, etc etc) picking up sun when we need it for warmth, and excluding it in summer, when there's good cross-ventilation etc.

Oh yeah, and Lynda even posted a suggested music playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6c8hEjJmECseJG6V9dNySR?si=UVUJYlfdSRS8jMHqFbo0FA&nd=1) at the end of my "Recommended Resources" section, which I'd sent her not expecting that bit to see the light of day, but she emailed me halfway through listening and was enjoying it, and made up a list on the Internet she linked from. And yes, there's three Cure tracks on it, as part of all the ones that were playing in my mind when I was writing that weekend...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 09, 2021, 15:35:02
... I slept well last night, for once. Felt tired the whole evening, went to bed before 11pm and slept through until 7am...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on June 09, 2021, 16:52:51
Luck in misfortune: while my cancellation of the golden / silver wedding led to considerable dissatisfaction (solution not in sight, without bending myself), I was allowed to see my surrogate family today. I love you very much. Don't you want to adopt me? 🇵🇪😉

PS: OMG - she bought three packs of Kl**n*x (probably to remove make-up). 😜
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 10, 2021, 20:05:43
Quote from: MeltingMan on June 09, 2021, 16:52:51PS: OMG - she bought three packs of Kl**n*x (probably to remove make-up). 😜

Maybe she does a lot of crying when you're not looking.  :winking_tongue  You could buy her a beach towel.  :angel


I'm happy today because Nelly is feeling better after giving us a scare.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47977303463_bb54baf987_z.jpg)

She's in the foreground, with offspring Ben behind.

I don't know what she ate but we found her unable to walk properly in the edge of the bushland last night when she didn't come in for bucket o'clock. There was a severe weather warning (again!!!) and it took Brett and me half an hour to shift the 200kg donkey the 100m back around the house to the internal paddocks and the shelter, with one of us pulling at one end and the other pushing, and lots of encouragement. She was starving hungry so we fed her some hay after her hard feed, and because she then lay down in a big sand hole outside the shelter I put a rug on her.

A late-night phone call to the emergency line of our usual veterinarian had the duty vet suggesting she might have laminitis, which really freaked me out because it's the middle of winter and she's not obese and she didn't get into a feed bin, and with laminitis you really have to know the cause and eliminate it, or it can conceivably kill them. It was suggested I ring the vet clinic in the morning.

Early morning when I went to check on her she did a fabulous dead donkey impersonation which gave me a scare - lying flat on her side with glazed eyes, and unresponsive to my calls. However, Ben responded to me with a loud bray, which is sort of like a foghorn, and this startled Nelly awake - phew! Not dead, just in deep sleep.

Example of a dead donkey impersonation, starring Don Quixote:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1670/24219352763_0407afec3a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/CUbvMD)

Nelly was definitely not happy. Nobody at the vet clinic could come out before lunchtime and they suggested I ring around to see if anyone else could do it earlier - which is how I contacted Dr Shae from Nullaki, who whipped out to our place after finishing a bit of surgery. I instantly liked her and her approach to the animal and trying to figure out the problem. Like me the night before, she couldn't find evidence of a bounding digital pulse or of pain when pressure-testing her soles, so she listened to her gut sounds and found them too quiet, and had a look at her last batch of droppings. Her hypothesis was that Nelly had a bad belly-ache, at least partially caused by probably not drinking enough the previous day, which had dehydrated her manure and made her uncomfortable - and possibly by eating something unsuitable out in the bushland. She also said because her heart rate wasn't badly elevated and her colour was good, she wasn't particularly worried about her at this stage. I should encourage her to drink (I'd already placed a bucket next to her previous evening but she wasn't that interested) and keep an eye on her.

The vet gave her an IV painkiller and told me donkeys are incredibly sooky when they do eventually get overwhelmed by pain, but that like in humans, gut aches can be really bad without actually being dangerous. But because we didn't know the cause, to call her again if she wasn't up and about next day.

Nelly was up and about in the afternoon, still a bit staggery but determined to do some grazing, so I let her and Ben into our garden, which is where they are spending the night. She's looking better and hopefully will continue to improve.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on June 11, 2021, 13:18:09
I'm happy today because after a chaotic week of things being shaken up, it feels like things are finally starting to ease up.

The week started with me losing my phone, with it taking 24hrs before it was found (wet from heavy overnight rain). Thankfully the cover gave it protection and it survived.

Then on Wednesday night there was the biggest storm I've ever seen, with howling winds and trees crashing around the place. Thankfully our house wasn't damaged, though several plants and a small tree on the property didn't survive. About 15mins from me there are many people living up in the hills (where there are many large trees) and lots of properties were damaged (Thankfully no lives lost). From hearing people talk about it on the news it sounded like a terrifying experience, with trees falling all over the place, and an uncertainty where one may fall next.

Driving to work was bizarre yesterday  morning... a cold misty morning, with trees down all over the place (incl across electricity lines), roads blocked, and traffic lights at many major intersection not working (quite scary to navigate).

We lost power and mobile phone reception for 24hrs, with it coming back on this morning.  I don't think I've ever been as happy as I was this morning to turn on a lamp and see the light come on. It's the middle of winter here so with no electricity it meant no heating or warm showers. I feel for the thousands of people who still haven't had their power restored (and the estimate is 2 more days before it's restored).  Add to that here in Melbourne we are in Covid lockdown again, so warm alternative places (e.g libraries, cinemas, gyms, shops etc) are not an option.
Anyway... I feel like I'm going to really appreciate the small comforts this weekend (being in a warm and safe place).

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: word_on_a_wing on June 11, 2021, 13:21:36
I'm glad Nelly is feeling better Sue!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 12, 2021, 07:19:16
Sounds like truly awful weather, @word_on_a_wing!  :1f62e:

Also sounds like some of our weather had enough left in the tank to go east. We had THREE severe weather events with sheep hypothermia alerts in the space of one month and the last one seems to have just hit you. We even had snow on Bluff Knoll and over here that's a rare thing. We had winds of 90-100km/h in some places, but the last front was more sedate, with local winds peaking at 70km/h. At one stage we had 80mm of rain in ONE DAY (a tenth of the annual average) and everything here was waterlogged for a week afterwards.

The really weird thing is that between all this cold, wet, stormy, apocalyptic weather it's been unseasonally warm for this time of year. The past four years here we've just not had average weather - but it does seem we have now come out of our three-year drought.

Nelly went out with the others into the huge area today. She's not exactly well yet, but does seem to be recovering. Or maybe it's the drugs!  :winking_tongue

I'm happy today that I'll be able to watch a French Open final in which neither of the participants is a past grand slam winner.  :cool  They're both gutsy players and it's great to see them make it this far! One after over 40 attempts at grand slams, one on her first for singles (I think) - after winning at the doubles in several tournaments. I'm happy for both of them and only wish both of them could win!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on June 25, 2021, 10:01:36
A friend drew my attention to this story and made my day.  :heart-eyes

(https://www.horseforum.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.horseforum.com/attachments/f38950dc-c368-4da6-94af-92d07b4cca4f-jpeg.1114944/)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 27, 2021, 15:06:12
Tired and happy today about my excursion yesterday, which included castle ruins and lots more (here is a pic of castle Niederhaus):

(https://scontent-ham3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/205732586_3969325209811234_2987464226492741152_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=e3f864&_nc_ohc=fdGhqLVIkL8AX8kUgb8&_nc_ht=scontent-ham3-1.xx&oh=b1afc0383b7a94c57223e8871492efc0&oe=60DE2212)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 30, 2021, 10:47:51
I am almost happy that England's team won the footie match against German team.  ;)
Well I met my relatives for watching it on telly together and I got a beer and pizza for free, so who am I to complain?  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 04, 2021, 05:16:25
SUNSHINE AND SEASHORE

I'm super happy that we got a lovely day of sun and seaside walking to start off the weekend, in the middle of what is turning into a long, bleak winter. It was like an unexpected bubble of golden light and happiness in a sea of grey.

Here on Western Australia's South Coast, we've had three years of drought (only 50-60% of normal annual rainfall) followed by one of the wettest winters on record - our region has literally been drowning for the last two months and large areas are affected by flooding, waterlogging, soil erosion, structural and landscape damage. There's been a severe weather warning with sheep hypothermia alert at least once a week - normally we would get that once or twice a month in winter - and we've been regularly lashed with gale-force winds, sleet, and never-ending downpours. We live on a smallholding and I've been walking everywhere in gumboots for weeks. It was wet last weekend and it's forecast to be wet again later this weekend and for most of next week. Just what we need - more rain when the whole place is like a giant bog.

We made a pact that if we got a bright sunny day on one of our days off, we'd go somewhere we'd never been and make a day out of it, and that's exactly what happened. Having walked the Bibbulmun track from Albany to Denmark in day-walk sections several times over now, we bought track maps for Denmark to Walpole and north to Pemberton and the inland Karri forests, so we can systematically walk another 150km or so of the famous track in sections over the next couple of years. We got a good start to this fitness and sanity project by doing a 25km walk from Parry Beach to Boat Harbour (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774800#msg774800) and back in May - I posted some photos of the spectacular, pristine coastal scenery in this thread at the time.

West of Boat Harbour is a little settlement called Peaceful Bay which we'd never been to before, and that's despite of the fact I've lived and walked on the South Coast for decades. It's simply such a vast place that you can keep yourself busy just climbing every Stirlings and Porongurups peak every year and doing the dozens of short and day walks in the Albany-Denmark region over again. But the Bibbulmun track has got to be the best way to see the coastline from Albany to Walpole, properly, on foot and totally immersed.

We'd warmed up for this big day out by doing a 10km hilly section locally on the Bibbulmun east of Bornholm on Thursday afternoon, and the hike we planned around Peaceful Bay was to go west around the seashore for about 7km and then shortcut back to the village via a 4WD track - about the same distance.

Fabulous outing. We started on the town swimming beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286783841_e2202083c7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93b2P)

The end of that beach was a rocky cove:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286039207_078c526aa7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YmFi)

From there on, we walked through a succession of beaches separated by dunes and rocky points. So this is the second beach, and you can see the next "up-and-over" at the end of it already:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287510634_609467c466_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m96U5J)

Our dog loves to chase waves; here's a nice photo of that:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286046892_87f45a3699_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YoXN)

The geology of the Peaceful Bay area is mixed and diverse: Ancient granite, more recent intrusions of basalt etc, quartz veins, limestone, all creating a diverse and spectacular seascape:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286800181_392d9e2862_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93fTx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286800741_11d08fb570_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93g4c)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286804786_32d03f8a65_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93hfW)

The South Coast has a lot of very white, fine-grained icing-sugar beaches from sand made of granite. On this walk, we also found cream-coloured beaches because of underlying limestone geology and the erosion of that. This particular little beach had much of its sand made of broken-down seashells:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287822560_0cdca49076_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m98uNL)

We kept on following the shoreline, walking beaches and track...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286980278_bca07a8f3c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94bqE)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287529709_149f5d377a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m96ZKB)

The coastline in the distance behind Brett has the huge sand dunes behind Quarram Beach (we've not been there yet) to the left, and then the 12.5km Boat Harbour to Parry Beach stretch we did that return walk on in May, to the right of the photo.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286062562_a49fab37ac_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YtBY)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287533014_38c7da8bb2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m971JA)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287537399_a216462835_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m9733c)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287835630_cc427f2dd0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m98yG7)

From here, the climbs became more serious as we got into more elevated coastline:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287838355_4ab57633ed_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m98zv6)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286996338_8d6fc052af_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94gcy)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287842235_37bf2f2525_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m98ADZ)

Look closely at the next photo - there's two kangaroos in it. They were less than 10m from the track and quite unconcerned with us as long as we kept walking!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286083572_5c7c31e44b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YzSd)

The track got increasingly elevated, and there were quite a few sculptural-looking rocks around.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287008538_b6e6d9aeed_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94jPU)

This is the coastline west towards Rame Head and Conspicuous Cliff.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286836531_827dee2f66_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93rGg)

Quick snack stop - one thing I do quite religiously from two hours into a walk, to keep energy levels up...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287854720_4c07b18ce5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m98Enf)

More rock pools, and crabs!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287565259_f551a482df_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m97bjx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286098357_bb5506ecf7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YEg8)

A rounded-rocks shoreline:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287567744_e8320085a8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m97c4o)

Imagine where this log came from, and how much power the sea has to toss it up on the shore like this:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286101302_9a7e51b517_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YF8U)

This was entering a zone called The Gap:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286849711_2bb2d6d04c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m93vBv)

There was a beach in this cove, at the end of which we sat down to eat and drink, before taking the 4WD track from there to shortcut back to Peaceful Bay village.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287023343_b8552caa04_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94pea)

By this time my feet were feeling the walk, and Brett produced a pair of headphones from his backpack and invited me to listen to the music on his iPod, which I'd carried to take photos. I don't normally do this, but I tell you what, a cover of "Blue Monday" by an outfit by the name of Orgy sure woke me up, and we made the 2.something km back in no time, despite the deep sand...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51286106667_a5d6419066_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m8YGJp)

Peaceful Bay reminds me of a cross between Tasmania's Dootown (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dootown&t=ffab&atb=v113-1&iax=images&ia=images) and the South Coast's Windy Harbour - little informal villages of holiday houses, not built to suburban specifications - with a quirky feel to them.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287028308_316b08338d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94qGL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51287028773_c0e1163b1c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m94qQM)

Really good day out - and looking forward to more hitherto unexplored tracks, hopefully within the next fortnight. :)

To see all the photos and do a sort of "vicarious tour" just click on any of them to go to the Flickr photostream.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 11, 2021, 10:42:05
STORMY WALKING

The amount of rain we are getting is ridiculous - five fronts in one week, three of them associated with severe weather warnings. Well dammit, we'd had enough of being indoors and yesterday started the weekend by going out out to walk 15km (Muttonbird to Grasmere Wind Farm End return) as one of those fronts was approaching.

It felt so good to stretch our legs we walked merrily for three hours, through bursts of sun alternating with downpours and even sleet. What never stopped was the wind, which turned the 11 degree Celsius maximum into near-freezing due to wind chill. They don't call'em the Roaring Forties for nothing...

The secret was to walk fast, and I'd had coffee, which tends to hypercharge me.

This is a sort of natural Stonehenge...there's a few of them around the coast:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303960583_2a92c37608_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mayd5x)

Views west to Grasmere and Albany Wind Farm...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303018967_7f32594cc8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2matoaM)

A burst of sun... (...and spot the dog, who was ecstatic after mostly being on the sofa for two days...)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303019772_99f263c439_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2matopE)

The heathland is starting to flower:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51304486014_b6390bf9b6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maAUgG)

This is a Holly-Leaf Banksia:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303962818_aebc5f5478_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maydK5)

Grasmere / Albany Wind Farm:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51304488134_ab09b8a9f0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maAUUf)

Happy dog, who can't understand why we're not always driving somewhere to go for a walk and then coming home to eat and collapse on the sofa (her favourite type of day):

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303965153_cdff554bb4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mayerk)

Between coffee before walking, thermal mountain pants, a rainproof breathable jacket and walking fast all the way, I wasn't too hot or cold:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51304786085_5ce7f702e5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maCrtk)

Turning around on reaching the first Grasmere turbine, to return home:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303771651_7ca6e0f5eb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maxeV6)

Pretty spectacular cliffs, and Torbay in the background:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51303969153_9b70fa4e48_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mayfCi)

On the way back, we side-tracked to a campsite to shelter from a burst of sleet.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51304493449_7493c2bc52_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maAWtT)

Of course, when we got to the hut the sleet stopped. We decided to go again a couple of minutes later, and within a minute, sleet was coming down at about a 45 degree angle on gales. The storm clouds were pretty impressive:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51304494634_bdb451b433_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2maAWQj)

As usual, to see the full set go to the Flickr page by clicking on any photo...

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 12, 2021, 19:44:59
... it is nice to get on with the neighbours!
On Sunday I went for a little walk and met a neighbour (I don't see often, there are hedges in the way), so we chatted shortly.
Today I had something to do outside near the street, other neighbours (lady & her kid, over on the other side of a crossing) were also out, I didn't know whether they had seen me, when suddenly I heard "hello neighbour", so I said "hello" as well and later even went over to chat a bit.
They are kinda "new" (moved in last year), it was nice to finally "really" meet them.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 13, 2021, 12:43:18
Quote from: Ulrich on July 12, 2021, 19:44:59... it is nice to get on with the neighbours!
On Sunday I went for a little walk and met a neighbour (I don't see often, there are hedges in the way), so we chatted shortly.
Today I had something to do outside near the street, other neighbours (lady & her kid, over on the other side of a crossing) were also out, I didn't know whether they had seen me, when suddenly I heard "hello neighbour", so I said "hello" as well and later even went over to chat a bit.
They are kinda "new" (moved in last year), it was nice to finally "really" meet them.

It's very nice if you can get a good neighbourhood atmosphere going by being friendly and considerate. One of the big, very common problems with urbanised modern Westerners is a lack of local community, and a lot of neighbours are strangers to each other. I noticed this more in Australia than in continental Europe - we're more urbanised here and people move around a lot for work, resulting in a fair bit of disconnectedness and social instability. I thought London was very similar with that problem, from my short-ish experience working and living there in the 90s - partly an Anglo thing I think, but then rural communities both in the UK and Australia can be much better that way (though don't have to be, especially if you look different from the locals etc).

Best place I lived socially was a little community in the foothills of the Alps in Italy - terraced smallholdings, olive trees, everyone growing their own F&V and keeping goats, rabbits etc. I was a kid and in Italy, the whole village raises the child, so I had amazingly nice experiences with neighbours, adults and children alike. It was like everyone was your uncle, aunt, brother, sister, grandparent, and they just included you and showed an interest and shared food with you and taught you things. Wonderful feeling - though the very idea makes Brett, who's very Anglo, shudder!  :lol:

I'm happy today because Brett has two and a half weeks off a week from now, and we're both going to have a proper break with lots of hiking, and minimal work!  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on July 16, 2021, 20:21:10
Had an impromptu date with @hippiecat that went really well. 😎
We've known each other for a long time, to be honest. Here she is relatively new.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 18, 2021, 04:35:53
FOREST OF THE ENTS: OLD-GROWTH KARRI/TINGLE FOREST

We've been doing a lot of coastal walking, and Brett wanted something special for his birthday yesterday. I pored over the Bibbulmun maps near Nornalup and found a likely section which met with HRH's enthusiastic approval, in the rare remaining old-growth Karri/Tingle forest, the majority of which has historically been pillaged for timber. Most tourists go to a curated place on the South Coast called the Valley of the Giants. The Bibbulmun track is walkers-only and takes you to places you will meet very few if any people - because most modern people don't want to get out of their cars and go for long walks. Bit sad, but given the human overpopulation, this makes for special experiences to those of us who like walking.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316076537_f311ac53ec_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCiJi)

Karri forest has an understorey with a distinctive peppery smell that's unique to this forest; it's like being in a building filled with exotic incense. Walking in the Karri feels a little indoorsy, because you don't see much sky and your footfalls are so muffled by the thick "carpeting" underfoot. Brett says these forests have a cathedral quality - with tall columns going way way up and the same sense of hush, and very similar light.

The sheer size of the older trees is jaw-dropping...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316077387_920d7971a0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCiYX)

...and to think that this was once the norm in many forests, before human destructiveness took over post-industrialisation.  :'(

You literally can't get even a quarter of a tree like this into shot with a camera.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316078012_617fb15250_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCjaJ)

It's like a Lilliputian experience.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317541199_092e047187_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbKP86)

These trees are hundreds of years old - typical life spans of Tingles exceed 400 years and they attain heights over 75m. Karris reach similar heights and live to 300+ years if people will let them, which they usually won't. Old-growth trees are full of nesting hollows for birds and native marsupials.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317023863_03150d1a7c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbHakv)

Creek crossing...lots of water in the landscape as you'd expect from this incredibly wet winter, more on that later...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316813596_5e86105ce5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbG5Qd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317545229_b53ff77a9a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbKQjz)

In the "cathedral"...and while these photos give the appearance of having been shot lying down looking up, this is in fact just  from face height walking along.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316818966_ace4a93975_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbG7qN)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316087012_3a06bd1211_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCmQU)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317830420_e9e58d03d3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbMi6E)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316822571_7bcd19827a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbG8uX)

It's very oooh-aaah... very Lord of the Rings, which was shot in New Zealand for a reason - there's so few forests like this left in this world... NZ and Australia still have patches like this, though sadly, the vast majority of the forests even here have been either cut down entirely to make room for agriculture, or looted for timber.

Here's an old eucalyptus tree (both Karri and Tingle are eucalypt species) hollowed out progressively by fire, which is one of the natural mechanisms for making animal shelters.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317552654_95a7b0ced2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbKSwA)

This is a close-up of a Karri trunk - no wonder it's called Eucalyptus diversicolor...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317834930_d065cf7492_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbMjrq)

After a few kilometres, the Bibbulmun track joined up with a vehicle access track that was going to the famous Sappers Bridge, one of the few over the Frankland River and built largely with natural materials. We needed to cross that bridge to get to the other side of the river and up into the hills to our walking destination, the Frankland River camp site...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316824416_edb9956900_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbG93L)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317870565_90a6f34763_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbMv2P)

We came from the "X" at Boxhall Road and were going to head via the second "X" on the track map to the campsite, and then loop around and return on the riverside track (dotted red line) to check out the rapids en route - which would have been a nice long walk but alas...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317037513_101ea9d202_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbHeoR)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316094367_6c8affb141_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCp2H)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317556859_d25b5d8beb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbKTM6)

Our birthday-person-on-his-birthday-walk, Brett, was laughing till he was bent double, and of the opinion that this sight compensated him for the walk being rudely cut short.  :lol:  He also said he "couldn't get over it" bwahahaha, puns are such fun.  :winking_tongue

I have been telling people for two months about how unbelievably wet this winter is. So here's the Sappers Bridge all washed out, and they're going to have to do repairs, because the road surface has been undercut and worn away so that the bridge has become inaccessible structurally, and not just because of current flooding. Typically for bloody-minded me, I was looking at the railings to see if a pedestrian could cheat their way across after all, but I'd have had to jump 2 metres across rapids to the edge of the bridge, onto the concrete base before clambering on the handrails etc, and of course I can't jump 2 metres, and God only knows how many metres I'd have had to jump at the other end, plus we have a dog etc.

This was the view of the oncoming and outgoing water respectively:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316828336_65fdca7e15_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbGadm)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316096517_fe90b9f07e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCpEM)

If you're wondering about the foam, it's a natural phenomenon linked to the tannins in the water. When we got home we found that the bridge was first closed because the foam had made it impassable for vehicles - here's an official picture of that:

(https://images.perthnow.com.au/publication/D5F736094258FDAD3DF3FB6C2DC93F4C/5fc54b10cb8348d2fad6b505f199069f.jpeg?imwidth=828&impolicy=pn_v3)

That was before water levels kept rising and the bridge itself was flooded, and the roadways to it washed out.  :1f62e:

Here's a historical image of this bridge prior to being fitted out with its metal rails, to show how much water there usually is beneath it when things are quiet...

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rainbowcoast.com%2Fphotographs%2Fsappersbridge%2Fsappersbridge_IMG_1895.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)

So we can agree - that's a hell of a lot of water running down the Frankland at the moment...  :1f635:

Therefore we retraced our steps, but it was still a lovely walk back, plus of course we have 2.5 weeks off from Thursday and plan to do a lot of hiking on new-to-us trails. We're planning to do that circuit walk properly when the waters recede - although that probably won't be till September.

Brett thought it would be hilarious if I stood in front of a certain road sign partly obscuring its writing...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317559459_fffdc38f6a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbKUxV)

Backtracking...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317042123_20cb9db548_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbHfLk)

When we got back on the proper foot-only trail, we found an uprooted old tree. Here's a human for scale:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51317043153_13084fb019_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbHg56)

It's such a fabulous forest.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316099942_aee95c4cc9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbCqFQ)

The foreground giants are Tingle, the background white trees are Karri.

And then we were back where we'd parked.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51316833351_64b78d75b2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mbGbGP)

We hope you've enjoyed your virtual Australian Ent-forest adventure!  :)

There's a few more photos on Flickr directly as usual...but this time I've used most of them in the walk report because it was such a fantastic place...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 19, 2021, 14:12:43
Well, I am happy to have been successfully stabbed today by someone who was as good as the nurses who usually give me my flu shots. Zilch discomfort after, and the actual puncture just felt like a scratch - March flies, by contrast, really hurt. Now verily may that immune brigade make antibodies to the spike protein that my body will make courtesy of the mRNA instructions.  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 25, 2021, 09:41:14
SAND PATCH/GRASMERE

Yesterday there was enough interruption in the downpours to be able to have a decent 2.5-hour walk of about 10km through the dunes and along the clifftops of the Torndirrup peninsula coast. This is the twin of the Muttonbird to Grasmere (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775067#msg775067) return walk we did a fortnight ago, where we came into our turn-around point in Grasmere (Turbine 19) from the west. So this time we walked in from the east, from the entrance point at Albany Wind Farm.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332037563_4d3b25a9c1_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md37op)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332554439_cf46f4673a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5L34)

There was drizzle on and off, but the wind chill was the biggest issue - we were walking between 11.30am and 2pm when temperatures peaked at 15 degrees Celsius but the wind had the apparent temperatures down to 1-2 degrees Celsius - and that was at the airport where such data is recorded; not out on the windiest edge of our wild coast, where the town's 19-turbine wind farm is located. There it was brutal and certainly felt below freezing, but we're equipped with outdoor thermals including gloves, and within 15 minutes of walking at a decent pace you're fine, as long as you've got enough calories on board.

This is the view down the tourist lookout platform at the ocean, which was properly roiling not just with wind speeds peaking well over 50km/hour, but mostly from the long stormy fetch between the South Coast and Antarctica.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331827271_91a93f3aee_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md22SF)

To see this on a photo doesn't actually give you any idea, because it doesn't quite give you the scale - everything about the coast is huge, so you feel like a tiny ant walking around. The cliffs tower, dunes are massive, ocean and sky are infinite, and the waves are enormous, with king waves known to exceed 10 metres in height and sweeping unwary anglers off the coastal rocks every year. Even the "ordinary" surf crashes into the cliffs with a force that makes the earth shake. We used to live a mile inland from Sand Patch and we could hear the waves thundering from there. Standing on the edge of the coast, you physically feel their force; in your ears, in your legs, in your ribcage.

On the South Coast, massive wind turbines with nacelles the size of buses and 35-metre blades look like children's toys in the landscape, just as huge cargo ships entering King George Sound look like toy boats in a bathtub.

I post these walks in the "Happy Today Because..." topic because they make me happy. Not just the healthy exercise in ultra-fresh air, but being able to do that in this wild, majestic landscape, where you understand that the human species is not quite as clever and powerful as it likes to think it is. In view of the decidedly un-sapiens-ness of our species, it comforts me to know nature in the raw, and to know that it will still be here in some form when we've wiped ourselves and lots of other species off the planet with our un-sapiens-ness. (For more on that, see the last photo in this post.)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331095922_ec6754c9aa_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXhtd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331097437_41412ab06f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXhVk)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332559244_4b47bc96a5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5MsU)

The coastal heathlands of the South Coast are a botanical wonderland - near-pristine pieces of ancient Gondwana and a world biodiversity hotspot. We oooh-aaah our way through this stuff even now, after decades of acquaintance. It's like walking in a botanical garden, and the best kind - one not put in place by humans as a collection, but a place where staggering species diversity occurs naturally. Here at the edge of the world, you can get a pretty good idea of how life used to be before humans industrialised the planet, and you can mourn for what people have destroyed, and what they will yet destroy with their so-called progress. But eventually, by doing this, they will destroy themselves.

Wildflowers are beginning to come out in a steady stream that will become an explosion in spring.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332831340_f10f905172_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md7bmd)

These are Banksia flowers in varying degrees of expansion:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332563269_f5dcca9b51_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5NEi)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331837641_4dd35dafca_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md25Xt)

When their filaments first come out - between the two stages shown - Banksia flowers make a good "bushman's compass" because they unfold on the north side first - facing the sun, here in the southern hemisphere. There are hundreds of Banksia species in Australia.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332050868_c16d4b49f8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md3bkN)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331106747_4e42f8d9dc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXkFR)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331832886_6efaa4fc4f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md24xu)

The Roaring Forties don't just shape the waves, coastline, general landscape and vegetation here, they're also pretty good for line-drying your washing on a winter's day without actual precipitation - such as today; laundry day is also when I write up walking reports in-between tending to the twin tub (a hippie washing machine popular in Japan) and the line drying.  :winking_tongue

Next is someone's idea of a practical joke - carrying off the car park sign and placing it in an interesting spot, especially for car park directions:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332568369_c67d4f41c3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5Qbe)

Interesting car park indeed - and no, it wasn't us; I prefer to prank people with ultra-realistic fake huntsman spiders. Humans are the deadliest species on the planet but recoil at something a thousand times smaller than them that has a lower chance of killing them than a flying champagne cork, and about the same level of interest. Look in the mirror and be afraid, people - not for yourselves, but for our fellow creatures and the planet. :1f62e: It's just as ridiculous as all those stereotypical "hostile aliens coming to kill you" movies - don't people love to project.

Brett with a Roaring Forties hairstyle:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332838915_ec78565692_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md7dAP)

See, Robert Smith could save so much hairspray doing it like this (with the slight inconvenience of having to remain on location).  :angel

A tunnel of Banksias:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332840445_9c7755506b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md7e4c)

Slowly creeping up on the Grasmere extension (Turbines 14-19) - and creeping because I'd forgotten to have morning tea and it was now lunchtime. I'd been so full from breakfast I'd blithely only brought morning tea - fruit, peanuts, a slice of lemon meringue pie to share - but now I was full-on fantasising about a nice roast beef and cheese sandwich made with wholemeal mixed-grain home-made bread and a whole shrubbery of salad leaves, including Wasabi and Red Mustard (which are leaf varieties, if you grow heirlooms, which we do), slathered in whole-egg mayonnaise and dusted with freshly ground four-colour peppercorns, and with a dollop of home-made tomato sauce between the cheese and the beef.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331844061_dda16687d1_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md27Sa)

Alas, I would have to wait until 3.30pm to get my jaws around one of those. Meanwhile, we had a snack break in which I attempted to re-fuel on peanuts and fruit. This did improve my walking speed again (but nowhere near when I'm walking after a good lunch with a cup of coffee in me - I can walk many hours on a good lunch and as I rarely have coffee, it increases my walking speed around 25% - woohoo).

Later on, we got to Turbine 19 and had another food stop - more peanuts and fruit and the lemon meringue, but my beloved husband also produced a surprise bar of chocolate I didn't even know we had, because he'd bought it on the sneak and sequestered it away for an emergency (which he says he sees as being part of his job). Sadly, my body was screaming for a decent lunch and didn't want chocolate, but I ate some anyway because I didn't want to crawl home. Therefore we made a decent pace back.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332842375_6239fc6bd3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md7eCt)

These walks are one part of what our dog considers a perfect day: A drive in the broom-broom with outraged barking if we have to slow down, a lengthy walk preferably in new territory where she can say, "All of this is now mine!" with her frequent territorial marking (she's an alpha female and actually lifts her leg to do this), another drive in the broom-broom surveying further opportunities for expanding her personal kingdom, and then a nice big dinner, after which she curls up between her pillows on her personal sofa, getting her belly rubbed by the Useful Monkey (a dog's life indeed) while the Useless Monkey pontificates at her ("Where's your dignity?" etc) and the Useful Monkey reminds him that he has precious little dignity himself when it is he who is getting his belly rubbed, etc, to which the Useless Monkey always says, "I don't know what you mean."

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332058743_5712aa548d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md3dFz)

The sun smiled upon our backs on the return walk, which warmed us nicely. There was even a rainbow.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331114567_478879d837_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXo1F)

The fungi, and the amphibians, just looove this super-wet winter. Fungi out everywhere.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331115877_7cc205e21d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXopg)

The dog always wonders why I'm stopping again when the camera is out...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332847230_be055f1897_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md7g5b)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331117347_cabe7c5b33_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcXoQB)

And then we were back at the starting point (from which the total displacement was zero, you might like to know :yum:).

Here's a good closing thought:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331823771_dd93f34353_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md21Qk)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 26, 2021, 11:31:40
Brett's look and your clothes seem to suggest it wasn't too warm.  ;)

I'm happy about a museum visit yesterday (on a "schloss"/castle) - about (horse) carriages, coaches and "chaises", hay carts etc.!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 27, 2021, 11:41:15
LIGHTS BEACH TO HANGING ROCK

This little expedition was done on the Thursday just before the Sand Patch/Grasmere trek, but it can be hard to keep up with writing these things up if you're potentially doing 2-3 of these a week because you're on holidays. We don't photograph and write up every big walk we do, only the ones we've not done before, not done in a while or not documented previously. Sometimes we just walk.

Because we've not been "away" on holidays for ten years - ever since we bought our smallholding, planted 5,000 trees, built our own house, started growing our own fruit & vegetables and doing general farm, nature reserve and livestock management - we decided to have a genuine holiday closer to home by doing a lot of new-to-us remote walks on the South Coast. We're really enjoying this - what was driving us mad was doing the same 30-odd walks (Stirling Ranges, Porongurups, Albany Coast) all over again and never exploring anything fresh.

One day we hope to go to Tasmania again for, you guessed it, more walking - but right now there's the pandemic. However - we've got the maps for another 150km of Bibbulmun trail we've mostly not done before, between Denmark and Pemberton. The Forest of the Ents (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775102#msg775102) walk was a sample from there; with more to come soon.

Lights Beach to Hanging Rock is just west of Denmark, and another good place for a Roaring Forties hairstyle:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332461804_312665eb16_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5huU)

I last did this particular walk with a colleague called Sharon over 15 years ago, pre-Brett. I've long wanted to show him this one, but we have a dog, and this section has "dogs forbidden" signs because of 1080 baiting of feral animals and other avoiding-lawsuit-related reasons from the managing government department. I used to be a law-abiding citizen, and then I moved to the country, and started doing things like buying milk straight from a person with a cow (forbidden) instead of letting the truck take it up to Perth for bottling and then bring it down again so I can buy it from the supermarket with 500 "food miles" and most of the profit going to middlemen instead of the cow owner. Rebel that I am. I now do lots of things that are verboten, mostly as a form of protest against unjust regulations that favour the wealthy, and actually remove ordinary citizens' rights to do useful things that were lawful for most of human existence, like grandmothers selling jam at the markets (now forbidden, unless she's hired or bought a stainless steel kitchen to make the jam - of course, McDonalds can legally make people ill from their stainless steel kitchens...).

The trail leading out:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331003222_97c015c535_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWNUW)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331003887_4720d6267a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWP7p)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331948418_32f031e6ed_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md2DTq)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332464934_51090d41dc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5iqS)

If that bit seems easy and straightforward, look again at the first photo in this series: Because it's been so wet, we had to make our way across that stream, and upon leaping across, we landed in quicksand. Not very bad quicksand, just the type that makes you go, "Oh, it's quicksand!" as your foot suddenly slides into it up to your knee.

We love the vegetation tunnels regularly encountered on the Bibbulmun trail...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331738631_8554050313_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md1zwp)

Also the shapes of trees when they're wild things growing in their own wild way:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332737245_274135c26d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6GnT)

You just don't see them like this in parks.

As mentioned on recent walk reports, there are a lot of fungi in the landscape at the moment. This is a coral fungus.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331741051_03fa271296_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md1Af8)

The landscape is full of water this winter. Even the higher-up areas are like saturated sponges; in the low areas there's inundation. We're about to break "wettest ever July" records.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332739035_1a7227f442_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6GUK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332469839_dbe26e0e52_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5jTr)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331011647_2a8227905b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWRqc)

More fungi:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331013022_013c11b580_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWRPU)

Some of these are hallucinogenic, and this is the time of year police in Nannup deploy two full-time people for several months (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-04/magic-mushrooms-foraging-with-nannup-police/12317246) to discourage mushroom tourism in the local tree plantations. As if they have nothing better to do. As a taxpayer I object to the expense of this operation. The "really-bad-consequences" they are citing here include some dude high on mushrooms selling his $10,000 car for $1,000 (squarely his own problem), someone walking around nude in the centre of Balingup (I'm sure we've seen it all before), and someone else going missing for four days sleeping in the forest thinking he was in a bear cave. Ho hum. Personal responsibility, natural selection, etc, and I for one would rather these two police were chasing burglars or breath testing drunk drivers instead of pontificating about fungi while we pay their salaries.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332743275_dff1c37c37_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6JaR)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332745790_48cd224f9f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6JVd)

Lake William:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332481399_7859b836d7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5ojK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332751445_bfc805e643_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6LAH)

Mushrooms everywhere...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331966738_324e3d3871_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md2Kkh)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331755801_c0ca681444_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md1ECr)

On the way to Hanging Rock:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332484159_62812a8fdb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5p9k)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331025402_d8892b07a4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWVvm)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332756095_97448c3340_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6MYT)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331026902_818a5657cc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWVXd)

The view back to Mt Hallowell and Monkey Rock (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=9201.msg770618#msg770618):

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331759921_576be3f4f6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md1FRt)

The coastal heathland is like a Japanese garden... only better!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331028542_36a61ec2bc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mcWWru)

Here's some photos of Hanging Rock.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331975238_44d6652bd5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md2MRQ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331975973_d9bcc36507_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md2N5v)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332493014_ae529ff04d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5rM1)

There's more on the Flickr page but I'm going to abbreviate the rest; too many photos and I've got chores to go do. So if you'd like to see the full set, just click on any photo to go to the photopage.

It's not officially called Hanging Rock but I called it that when I went there with Sharon many years ago, because it's reminiscent of the scenery of the classic Australian gothic horror flick Picnic at Hanging Rock.


Tomboy foolishness indeed. OMG. Speaking of, the track to Hanging Rock actually had an official diversion around it, with a sign saying it was "dangerous" - we duly ignored it, and went to see for ourselves if there really was a problem. There wasn't - one fallen tree it was easy to clamber over, a couple of exposed roots, nothing to worry hikers who do the Bibbulmun, which is a serious track, not a park cakewalk. We later worked out that the real reason they had put a diversion around it was because a new tourist access road was constructed a little further up from Hanging Rock two years ago, and they apparently forgot to take the sign down when the construction project was finished over six months ago. This explains why other hikers before us had removed the barrier that had been erected on the track. Honestly, hello.  :1f635:

But it was Hanging Rock I had wanted to show Brett for years, and so I wasn't abandoning that trail without good reason, which it turns out there wasn't anyway. And we had our picnic at Hanging Rock.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332494874_cda89d36fd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5sk5)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332765240_05dded2083_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md6QGy)

We went a bit further, towards the new tourist access road - down a steep, densely vegetated valley and back up into dunes with lovely sea views. Then we turned back. Those photos you can see on Flickr directly.

Something abstract from the way home:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332510424_c1e0ecbe42_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5wXb)

This is just sand patterns in a temporary stream which has tannins in it. Brett loves these sorts of photographs because they could be alien planets etc - there's no sense of scale. Here's the context:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51331784001_9174a0d7a3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md1P1D)

And I conclude with another fungus - this is a Brain Fungus...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51332461019_87fb9f5d02_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2md5hgn)

Another happy walk.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 28, 2021, 09:16:21
Great pics, nice scenery, strange fungi! Thanks for sharing those.  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 28, 2021, 14:21:47
You're welcome, @Ulrich! ...I think we need a few castles and carriages and European landscapes and historical thingies on this thread. Can you help? Otherwise people are just going to get Australia, Australia and more Australia...  ;)

SARS-CoV-2 is restricting movement around the world, so people sharing local adventures can offer people "virtual trips" to other places in the world. If people reading are enjoying their vicarious Australian adventures (our borders have been closed since March 2020 and probably won't open until 2022 the earliest), maybe they have some local adventures from their own areas they can share in turn! :)

By the way, that Brain Fungus is really big - about the size of a human brain...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 29, 2021, 11:50:19
WALPOLE ADVENTURES

Sandwiched between Monday/Tuesday's destructive severe cold front (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3781.msg775122#msg775122) and the next one like it forecast to come in Thursday (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3781.msg775127#msg775127), we grabbed the chance to go on an outing to Walpole on Wednesday. However, we hadn't been entire slouches during the severe weather and did a 5km hike through the local valley floor in our wet weather gear on Tuesday morning. Mostly this was in sheltered woodland and not so bad - not like being out on the coast, where 100km/h wind gusts were occurring and could have blown people off the cliffs. All the normal animal paths through the bushland had turned into creeks though, so we had to pretty much hop from bushgrass clump to bushgrass clump to avoid the water in many places.  :1f62e:

Today the rain hasn't set in yet, but the wind gusts inland where we live are now working themselves up past 80km/h and are forecast to potentially go past 100km/h; not a good time to be on the road, and later tonight the next deluge will hit. So we are happy to have gotten out yesterday. Walpole is just over an hour west of us past Denmark and home to tall Karri and Tingle forests (and lots of historical and modern clearfelling  :1f62b:); it also has houseboats on an estuary, and lots of scenic coastline we've only explored a fraction of so far (meaning, on foot, in the wilderness areas etc, not just driving from tourist car park to tourist car park).

We got to Walpole at morning teatime and decided to warm up for a slated Bibbulmun track section in the afternoon by doing a circuit walk around and into Walpole itself. If you only ever drive into a town, you don't really get to know it, so we decided to park at Coalmine Beach out of town (marked X on map below) and take walk trails from there to the inlet and then through town (mostly the yellow tracks) and back out again on a circuit (red dashed line), as a way of getting to know the place better.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342877309_cc8740df46_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZEEz)


1. THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF WALPOLE

These are our "setting out on another happy adventure" photographs at the Coalmine Beach car park.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341397852_c96128414c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS5SG)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343132190_0a938c1406_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1Yr5)

This, by the way, is typical happy body language from Brett and he did exactly the same at our wedding nearly 14 years ago...  :winking_tongue

(https://www.horseforum.com/attachments/img_4565-jpg.1003891/)

From Coalmine Beach, a walk track runs through a conservation area to the Walpole Inlet and the outskirts of Walpole. This is typical coastal heathland grading into woodland.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341399907_f752e0ef8e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS6u8)

The trees, as is so typical for what grows wild on the South Coast, have all sorts of sculptural qualities.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341400887_1a4951e54c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS6M2)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342347083_de992f1b2c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWX3K)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342120911_57e6fd45e2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVMPe)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342863619_0a3be6a925_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZAAx)

A rather impressive bridge/boardwalk over the Collier creek brought us to the town periphery.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342349978_035dd81d78_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWXUE)

The ants have been building their nests higher out of the ground than usual with all this wet weather we've been having. These mounds are now everywhere and are presumably in aid of an ant colony not drowning below ground level, where all the soil is like a saturated sponge.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341406347_9f058eb300_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS8pa)

Coming up to the Inlet:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343140120_a82318a073_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me21MN)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343140880_c365344f53_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me221U)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341408457_7a9ddb7a05_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS92x)

Paperbark trees:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341409087_14b0fd2407_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS9dp)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342355078_5b3709a21f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWZqA)

This is on the Swarbrick jetty:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341410572_d10f7215cd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS9E1)

...and this is the amused reaction when the photographer says, "You've got a spider on your nose!"...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343144495_c1080ccc13_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me236e)

Metropolitan Walpole!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342871614_3aecc37aa9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZCYo)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343145925_74e0ca18a6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me23vT)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341413427_f9f99f2e3b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdSave)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343147350_a7be12d19f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me23Ws)

Walpole feels like a cross between a typical small SW-WA country town, and a holiday-shack village (e.g. Windy Harbour (https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/windy-harbour), Peaceful Bay (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775052#msg775052), Tasmania's Doo Town (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=9194.msg774028#msg774028)). We walked through the residential streets to the main street where craft and gift shops and coffee shops cater for visitors. There we had fish and chips and bought some treats to take on the afternoon's forest walk. Then we completed the circuit walk back to Coalmine Beach.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342874114_d0296304f8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZDHu)

This is Coalmine Beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343148660_e64a93a9ce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me24k3)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342134021_0a55f2ea82_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVRHg)

Then we drove a short way to the Hilltop Forest car park to begin the afternoon's walking in quite a different environment.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 29, 2021, 12:11:28
It seems to be warmer now. ;)

Quote from: SueC on July 28, 2021, 14:21:47...I think we need a few castles.

Ok, here it is (older pic of the one I visited last weekend):

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/210729/molmwthp.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on July 29, 2021, 15:58:33
That's lovely, @Ulrich!  :)  :smth023  I'm sort of looking at the hilltop with appreciative eyes, and then there's a slight jarring that happens when they alight on the concrete utility buildings in the castle's circumference. Oh well. Sadly, it seems we can't have hospitals and flats that look like (genuine, not Las Vegas) castles.

And it was indeed a little warmer, mostly because we didn't have 70km/h wind gusts on that one!  :)

OK, now for Part 2 of our walk, which I couldn't fit in the last post...


2. HILLTOP LOOKOUT WALK

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342877309_cc8740df46_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZEEz)

The section of Bibbulmun track we ended up doing is bounded by double arrows on the above walk map. We had meant to start at the base of the hill but couldn't find parking there - and the track which led to the Bibbulmun there wasn't signposted. So we drove up the main track.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342114641_7bf735bccd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVKX8)

This is regrowth Karri forest, which a lot of people who don't spend much time in old-growth forests oooh and aaah about. If you live in a city, or if you live in Europe where there really isn't any pristine wilderness left, you may be overjoyed by walking or driving through a forest like this - beautiful tall trees as far as the eye can see.

But if you're a biologist or keen amateur naturalist, and you live in a place where you can spend a lot of time in old-growth and near-pristine ecosystems, this kind of forest makes you grieve. It's closer to a plantation than to what it was before industrialisation: The understorey, where most of the species in these kinds of systems reside, has become hugely impoverished, causing local extinction of species and contributing to world biodiversity loss. The species diversity of the canopy trees is also reduced, and the trees you do see tend to be of fairly uniform size and age, because they were all seedlings who regenerated in what was essentially a humanly caused natural disaster area, and all grew up together, competing for light as they went and growing more closely together, taller and straighter than trees do in what's called a climax forest - and of course, the foresters prefer that kind of regrowth because it suits their commercial purposes better.

Old-growth forests (and other pristine ecosystems, such as Western Australia's coastal woodlands and heathlands) took thousands of years to evolve into their present degree of diversity of species, form and ages, and to become intricately interconnected. As a European I'd never seen an ancient ecosystem before I came to Australia. Even the remnant bushland we have on our farm represents millions of years of largely uninterrupted evolution from ancient Gondwana - never were the woodlands on it clearfelled, and never was the understorey or the heathland bulldozed: Unlike the majority of the planet's land surface, especially since human industrialisation which started about 1760 - less than 300 years ago.

We're destroying everything. It's hard enough to get some people to care about genocide and refugees when they're in human form, but what about all the other species we share the planet with? That's even more difficult, because modern humans feel culturally entitled to take what they want from nature, and to exterminate so-called "lesser" species. My problem, by the way, isn't with being part of a food chain (in both directions), it's in the complete imbalance as each day, more and more of the general biomass is replaced with human biomass, as the human population grows exponentially like a pandemic, devouring not just individuals from other species, but whole other species, either as food or as convenience. Humans as a species are behaving exactly like bacteria in a laboratory culture - they explode exponentially until they exhaust their resource base and die in their own wastes.

It's because advances in medicine and sanitation increased infant survival and the general human life span, and modern human beings still don't effectively limit their family sizes to replacement-only levels with contraception (and many would be mortally offended were they asked to do so). Actually, these days even replacement is too much - as we've already exceeded the planet's long-term carrying capacity, and are now irreversibly damaging the biosphere.

And it's not talked about, because we're drowned too deep in the narcosis of civilisation; most of us don't see it. Our economic system pretends that you can have infinite "growth" in a finite system with limited resources and space. Societies like Australia have a financial elite who thrive on land speculation; who parasitise scarcity and property booms, and they won't let up until they've carved up every acre they can claw their way into for "development" - agriculture initially, and now mostly creating more and more suburbia for booming migrant populations. This makes millions and millions of dollars for real estate agents, real estate speculators, construction companies, "investors" (people who have enough surplus money to own more than just their own home, and out-compete a lot of people who can't afford a home of their own), councils who can charge land rates, etc.

People only rarely seem to feel they have enough - enough stuff, enough prestige, enough money in the bank. Westerners expect constantly rising living standards - i.e. constant increases in the energy and resources available to them, and to their children, no matter how many, on a finite planet. We talk scathingly of parasites, of freeloaders - and yet as a species, that's exactly what we are. We're the very worst parasites and freeloaders who have ever inhabited the surface of this planet, and most of us can't see it. We're eating everything else alive.

But I digress. To see real old-growth forest, have a look at our Forest of the Ents (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775102#msg775102) post. That is what the forest either side of the access road in the picture above used to be like, less than 200 years ago.

We drove up this access road until we got to the Hilltop Lookout car park. It was a one-way road, so we couldn't backtrack. Therefore we decided to walk in both directions from there, not from the bottom up as we'd originally planned to. Here's some views off the Hilltop Lookout, where a section of the forest was removed so people could see the coastline.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342854029_1b6d5eab44_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZxKc)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342854629_bdb7bdb563_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZxVx)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342338948_cf8840f28b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWUCu)

The ribbon of blue is the Frankland River leading to the Walpole-Nornalup Inlets, and the views across are to East Point and Rocky Head, and beyond that Saddle Island and other offshore islands.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343121640_5d5f7570b6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1Vib)

The section of forest we began to walk through to the east and south of the Hilltop Lookout was ecologically better than what we'd driven in through. There were still old "giants" in it - not everything had been cut down by forestry; logging had been more selective, and some trees had been left standing.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341390207_ee3391600a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS3AT)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342105971_2798145f19_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVHnD)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343116460_7deff77d61_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1TKS)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341385562_f69cf1d295_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdS2dN)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342327248_8eabfc9ecc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWR9L)

This last group of photos, Brett took with a proper camera (which he first got out on the lookout) - most of our recent walks I've just documented with a little iPod camera, for convenience. Makes me think it's worth taking my own proper camera in again too. The iPod is fine for "sketching" quickly, but you'll be able to see its limitations for yourself by comparing the photo qualities in the mixed batch to follow!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342835299_496e384646_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZsbg)

You'd just not get shapes like this in plantations, or in ground-zero regrowth - they take a long time and a complex environment to form.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343109605_fde37dec2f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1RHF)

It's nice to come across old "survivors" like this. ♥

Here's what the bases of these trees look like when they eventually fall over...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342318433_7c38ac5f3f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWNwM)

I just loved this next tree...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341365812_fbefbb9a56_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdRVmh)

Brett took photos of bark textures.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343099775_81e1e1ae86_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1NNc)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342309663_faa4768736_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWKVz)

This tree had a little window through it...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342066421_293d6c0748_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVvBK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342293428_4bc5cd16b3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWF6E)

It takes many years for these tunnels, hollows and cavities to form - and they are ultra-important as shelters and nests for native birds and arboreal marsupials. You won't find these in the kind of regrowth forest we drove in through. One of the many reasons our Black Cockatoos are endangered is because many thousands upon thousands of their erstwhile nesting hollows have been cut down with the old trees. Black Cockatoos have a life span of around 60 years, so it took people a while to notice that most of the population that was left were essentially pensioners.

The blue Cortinarius is one of the prettiest fungi in the forest...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342295023_786c2de502_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWFza)

It grew near a "tunnel" in the base of a tree you could have sat in.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342068191_48f274f253_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVw9g)

You can just see this little tunnel in the broader "porch" behind Brett.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341350747_734063d1a0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdRQSx)

Here was an attempt to photograph a sort of pond in a fallen tree trunk, which was a bit impeded by taking it with an iPod...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342811879_321f6ded10_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZkdt)

Everywhere you turn there's something amazing.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343085255_ca1560a705_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1JtR)

Like a fern growing in a "natural flower pot" high up in a tree, and catching the sun.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342807764_1710dcd799_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdZiZw)

We walked back to the lookout and then in the other direction, down the hill. There Brett did some lovely studies of shelf fungi.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342056346_2f610c2201_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVsC3)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342057721_22b2d44b15_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVt2K)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51343074015_e37affde47_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2me1F94)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342282138_abb71948d7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWBK1)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342059346_58dd050905_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVtvL)

That last close-up was hand-held and would have benefitted from a tripod. So, Brett should bring his tripod in future, and I my proper camera! :yum:

Our final photo from the walk was meant to demonstrate an unusual phenomenon: As we stood there, it was raining significantly behind the tree with the fungi on it, but not at all where we stood maybe 10 metres away - and it went on like this for quite a while!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342277638_1d72622a75_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdWApq)

The sunlit gap behind the tree was actually filled with a shower of raindrops. None of it ever moved further south to start raining on us. We kept on walking downhill, and when we got near the highway, turned around and made our way back up. When we came to the same spot, the same thing was still happening! We then made our way through that extremely narrow stationary rain band, continuing up the incline.

Something else I saw a demonstration of, and wanted to relate, since we're in a pandemic and all that: Just how much aerosol you exhale when you're exercising heavily! At one point I stopped and leaned against a mossy fallen log, trying to catch my breath, when the slanting sunlight combined with the high humidity in the forest made the aerosol I was breathing out (through my mouth, because I'd been climbing for a while) clearly visible, and we could see it drifting for over three metres away from me on a light breeze. Wow! If I had SARS-CoV-2 and you breathed that in, you'd highly likely get it. Under the right conditions, from more than three metres away, and in an outdoors environment.

Breathing out through the nose cut it down, but breathing straight out through the mouth made truly spectacular amounts of aerosol. Proper layered masks are really good for cutting down on aerosols (and even better with droplets), whether produced by heavy exertion, coughing, sneezing or just speaking. Works best if both parties are wearing them - the aerosol-maker, and the bystander. I'd not generally wear masks exercising outdoors because we walk quite remote trails, but I would in a higher-density outdoors situation, and I'd certainly move a few metres off the track to let someone else pass when I'm not wearing a mask - and face away from them. I've already done that out of an abundance of caution, in supermarkets as well - but I was quite amazed just how far those aerosols can carry.

I have, by the way, finally had my first vaccination. Brett is still waiting. We're doing second worst of all the OECD countries in the vaccine rollout. But even fully vaccinated, I'd still consider wearing masks under certain circumstances. Like, it's not actually fun to catch ordinary colds or flus either, so I'd from now on wear masks if I had any kind of respiratory infection and for some reason had to venture into public - or if I was around such people. And, people can still catch, harbour and transmit virus when fully immunised - what the vaccines are good at is preventing serious illness. (At least until the virus evolves new spike proteins. Then we'll be playing vaccine catch-up again.)
 
I'll close this post with some photos of the very swollen Frankland River at its intersection with the South Coast Highway, that we took on the way back. This is the river we couldn't cross further upstream on our Ent walk because the Sappers Bridge was flooded (plus it had foam all over it).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341332757_bbe2910db1_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdRKwn)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51342051806_a179738b76_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdVrgL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51341330832_3d3f8b7432_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mdRJXb)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 04, 2021, 14:07:14
EXPLORING PARRY BEACH TO POINT HILLIER

After days of soggy, horrible weather, we finally got a slightly better forecast and ventured out to Parry Beach an hour's drive from home, for a day's happy exploration of the local area. We still got wet on and off, but it was good to be out, in places that were completely new to us!

We've been to Parry Beach once before, but that was to do the 25km return walk to Boat Harbour (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774800#msg774800) back in May. The Bibbulmun track crosses Parry Beach Road slightly out of town, and 25km kept us plenty busy for the day, so we'd not had a chance to actually explore the immediate Parry Beach coastline.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355439272_de4438311e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf73U9)

You can see the Bibbulmun track in yellow/black, on which we headed westwards last time - and I've marked yesterday's route in green, but it wasn't straightforward, and we looped around and backtracked quite a bit. So I'll break this walk into four sections to make it easy to understand.

Section 1: Coast immediately south of Parry Beach - stopping at hill

The first section took us from Parry Beach village south along the coast to the white sticking-out headland you can see on the map with the "D" shape in my green track line. That "D" is a very overgrown bush track around the top of a hill, and when things got hairy there (more on that later), we turned around and headed back to the village.

This is the village beach, looking north:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356382738_719d2d5cea_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbTmN)

As we headed over the rocks due south along the coast, we met a very cute, very unperturbed sleepy seal.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356380153_eddb3d1902_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbSAe)

Brett thinks it probably gets fed fish offcuts by the recreational anglers. Our dog had never seen a seal before and was incredibly intrigued, but I kept her well away on a leash so the seal wouldn't get stressed.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356364693_56b49986e8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbMZF)

Soon we reached the next beach, and Jess was able to devote herself to her wave-chasing hobby.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357156485_48a0199080_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffRng)

That hill in the distance is "the" hill we got stuck on, by the way. At the far end of this beach we had an early lunch - huge ham/cheese/avocado/salad sandwiches we'd brought from home. This was our picnic spot:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356369633_8b2bc2b9f2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbPsR)

Note all the doggy footprints between us and the water - the dog spent time with us, then went out to chase waves, came back, went out again etc. We managed not to get rained on while eating. There were some striking sea sponges washed up.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356142026_b929d7c8f7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfaDNA)

After our meal, we headed south along the rocky shoreline, imagining we would be able to follow it all the way to the next beach, as indicated on the track map.  :-D

There was nothing to suggest it wouldn't be so - here's a shot back as we began clambering.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355401682_874d6e3dbe_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6RJ3)

We soon hit an area with really interesting, aerated volcanic rocks.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356881529_137e43ccdf_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mferCD)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356880229_bac6e6b421_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mferfe)

There were lots of crabs in the rock pools.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355405507_e00c9c9b15_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6SRZ)

Soon after, the coastline became treacherous...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356357703_f2519b0a8d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbKVa)

The waves were ramming into the shore, and the path passed too low for the weather conditions and swell to be safe. People get washed off the South Coast rocks and die on a regular basis because they ignore conditions like this. Later on I'll show the area in question from the other side, complete with waves bursting over the shore.

We were unable to find an alternative route through the bush over the top of the hill, so we simply backtracked to the village.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356355853_e3c9b9a412_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbKng)

We got rained on, and as the sun came out again we had a welcome break in a warm car, drying out our raincoats and backpacks outside and sipping hot tea from a thermos. Then we set out again, in a different direction.


Section 2: William Pinniger Trail & Hillier Beach South

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357138125_b39d7b6c30_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffKUH)

This time we walked west along the main road (red on track map) until we reached the William Pinniger Trail (red dotted line), which we followed to Hillier Beach.

This is not a creek, this is the actual track - it was flooded in sections, and we had fun trying to leap from edge to edge to keep to reasonable footing.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356858134_da296c01a3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfejFh)

Hillier Beach:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356125041_a0ac8ecd5c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfayKK)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356125886_a3910ba36b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfaz1j)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355383652_d180b68844_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6Lnb)

The dog loves hiking days.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356325688_810f198a00_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbApb)

Fabulous coastline...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357105775_6f2448d153_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffAhX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355346177_9ac79c7f14_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6ze4)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356307688_e9f0d55b95_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbv3Q)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355334842_6d2c06e5e6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6vRC)

Then we backtracked along the beach towards a path straight up!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355335522_138c7b4827_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6w4m)


Section 3: The Big Dune & Ridgetop Walking

...and I mean up...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355333052_7e776e3185_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6vjL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356298413_3c7c3fe738_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbshV)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356807614_a5e52b11bb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfe4Ef)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355329147_56ac96e66d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6uar)

Once on the ridge, we had to bushbash our way across to the ridgetop 4WD track (red on map). Brett was a bit suspicious of this process - I often joke that his middle name should have been Thomas. While he grew up in the wilds like I did, he's a bit more civilised than me and more reliant on external compasses etc instead of instinct. So here he was, impudently playing air guitar at my person and informing me that the piece he was miming was called Watching Me Fall.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355292382_2affa0d7bb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6iey)

Alas, we soon found the track and the lookout named in Bill Pinniger's honour.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356039216_3a33ff1ac0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfa8f1)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357054655_12fb9c1e9b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffk6z)


Section 4: Hillier Beach North, over the hill and back to Parry Beach Village

The Pinniger Trail returned us to Hillier Beach again, spitting us out via this staircase:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356267268_284d4953ac_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfbi2W)

You can see by the dog prints we did this twice - the first set fading on the left, the current set fresh on the right.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357056470_ca96a264ce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffkCS)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356776689_c9bb969172_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfdUt4)

There was a lot of purple staining (from red algae) on one section of the beach.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51355301077_1a258bfe2d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mf6kPt)

The views back towards Point Hillier reminded me of a glass artwork.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356042746_9023987730_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfa9hS)

And so we made it back to the other side of the hill, with a clear view of the treacherous section of rocks we didn't want to cross in these conditions.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356779384_989d135c90_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfdVgw)

At least from this side, we weren't going to suddenly fall over a cliff, not knowing the local lay of the land. We could see where we'd have to round the hill.

This is the first of a series of nine photos I took closer-up of what exactly the waves were doing on that bit of coast.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51357060945_56ba91773b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mffmY2)

To see the others, click on the above to get to Flickr, then press the right arrow to go forward. Brett says I should have taken a film at this point, but at least the pictures will give people an idea of the force of the waves - and these were normal waves for the day. You also get periodic rogue waves called king waves, which can be two to four times higher than the highest waves in "normal" sets in any given conditions...

So we went up and over instead.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356783284_0bcecff927_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfdWqL)

...and finally found the connection to the beach we'd had our early lunch on, about four hours before.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51356783649_ed21f54474_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mfdWx4)


That was a summary only - we have far more photos than I can cram into a post, of really beautiful things, and it has been painful to leave so much out. If you want to see the full set with lots more amazing stuff - this was an incredible walk - here's a slide show: Use the right arrow - photos finish with the dog in the back of the car!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/51355439272/in/photostream/lightbox/

We hope you have enjoyed another virtual guided walk on Western Australia's remote and wild southern coastline. ♥
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 10, 2021, 09:34:26
Someone praised this photo with "looks almost like a Monet painting", so I share it here:

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/234055467_4092016794208741_3967165892744633754_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-4&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=v-QtNcRlRgUAX_Ow4Zb&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=a429874e9dd8a89559fbcfe2822533b1&oe=61162779)

Plus another one of an old door (pic taken in a former monastry):
(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/233714949_4089383747805379_6150816827296577888_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-4&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=34D6Iq5lb44AX98uZj0&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=f6e4f38e9928e6596afa693425e2ad13&oe=611643A2)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 11, 2021, 05:29:59
Oooh, that's lovely, Ulrich - and that door!  :heart-eyes  Some acquaintances who were building a strawbale house the same time we did have a really old carved wooden entry door from Egypt (not dissimilar from your photo, especially in shape and dimensions) which they'd fallen in love with in a secondhand place on overseas travels, and shipped home to use one day.

Someone else we know used an old wooden hospital entry door from the inland town of Katanning for their build to good effect. We just have a relatively plain production-line front door - but I do like the leadlighting in it, and I made some nice rustic architraves with swirly patterns and various colours (not expensive, cut from a $5 Jarrah facecut board from the local mill, which I put through a thickness planer and table sawed into strips - the colours and patterns you can find in these rough boards are amazing).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1553/25017729955_8231b3fa75_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/E7JpvD)

I'm happy today because it's NOT raining and I may be able to do some outdoors work (although in gum boots).

I'm also super happy because I had my second shot of Pfizer on Monday. The needle scraped bone this time (different nurse), I noticed that immediately and felt a bit bruised for the first day in consequence, but it's good today, and the vaccination gives me peace of mind as Delta will almost certainly crawl out of NSW and cause a problem over here in the next few months.

NSW had a softly-softly approach to Delta leaking through quarantine two months ago, which backfired on them spectacularly - now in major lockdown that will go on for months; not nipped in the bud, too little too late, consequently growing case numbers, and sadly university studies say there's only around 50-60% public compliance with health orders in the state. (Also NSW aren't stopping their lockdown zone people who aren't supposed to travel from getting on highways out or interstate planes, so Tasmania had to turn someone back to NSW and they turned out infectious with Delta-strain COVID at the time, which meant over 200 people in Tassie had to isolate for two weeks, thanks a lot, considering Tassie hasn't had an active case for over a year... We expect to sooner or later get someone trying to crash through into WA from locked-down NSW... Brett is still waiting in the vaccination queue, his first shot is next month.)


Also a belated happy from Friday.


THE ROAD TO NOWHERE: OWINGUP SWAMP

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51371568360_440d666433_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgwHvS)

(Proffering map) "Look, Brett - this fine sunny day we could have a picnic lunch at Boat Harbour and the good look-around we didn't get to have when we walked the 12.5km from Parry Beach in May (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774800#msg774800) and had to go back again before dark. There's a road to it; the last 5km or so it says 4WD only. Some of that our car may be able to do and then we can just walk the rest, it's not so far."

What could possibly go wrong?

I'd made fish cakes and rice salad for the picnic, we had fruit and nuts and chocolate for snacks, and iced coffee and thermoses of hot tea. A nice way to finish off the holiday walking with the weekend forecast wet and windy again.

The 4WD track turned out non-negotiable for 2WD because sections were too soft and sandy, so we parked at the corner and started walking (marked blue on map).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51370551466_42b0be38ac_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgrved)

It's not as much fun to walk on vehicle tracks as on dedicated walk trails, because you're not as "immersed" and because the footing is frequently loose, so it can be like walking on a beach, except it's not a beach.

Nevertheless, we'd never been down this track before, and the Owingup Nature Reserve offers gorgeous woodlands, heathlands and wetlands, en route to spectacular Boat Harbour. Wildflower season is about to get into full swing - the bushes with white blooms in these photos are tea-trees starting to flower, and the yellow pom-poms are wattles (various Acacia species).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51370552116_17850ef44e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgrvqq)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51370553021_cafae8d36f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgrvG2)

From halfway to our destination, we could see the ridge of dunes over which the Bibbulmun trail wends its way from Parry Beach to Boat Harbour - in this photo, the blue coastal ridge starting about one third of the way across from the left (the first third are wooded inland dunes).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51371283829_f4fcf01d4f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgvfWa)

There was a fair bit of water on the road itself; many corner puddles like this one, and some sections completely inundated. We made our way past those by diverting over the road banks.

If you look at the map, there's seasonal wetlands marked in next to the 4WD track. To say that these were full is an understatement. Here's a view west directly from the track:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51371284279_3209d7c623_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgvg4V)

It was those that broke banks and flooded the road at intervals. It's just that time and again when the track looked like a creek or swamp for the next 50 to 100m, we were in luck with higher ground on the eastern roadside, and could clamber along there until the track was dry again.

And then we were nearly there. We could smell the ocean and hear the waves, and were looking forward to our picnic. The sign said Boat Harbour.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51370554431_4dba2e634a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgrw7k)

"Yay! In ten minutes we can unpack our picnic on the granite shores of Boat Harbour!"

But then there was this.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51370550891_f5e8abe2fd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mgrv4i)

"No worries," we thought. We'd done this half a dozen times in the past hour. Road underwater, but look at the dry verge on the left - just follow that along. Piece of cake.

About four fifths of the way along the photo, the dry verge ends at an intersection with another flooded track - this one in a valley, and more than thigh deep. We didn't want to swim. I don't have a photo from there because I literally had to hang off a peppermint tree to be able to see around the corner. Sometimes it would be useful to have tentacles, but because I don't, there's no photo.

So we backtracked to the place near which the last photo was taken, and had our fine picnic lunch there, on the bank next to the flooded track. It was lunchtime, we were starving, and we knew that our brains would think better after some nourishment was on board.

After increasing the blood glucose levels, I went back to the flooded intersection with the deep water to see if there was any way through the vegetation on the left to try a crossing further south - but the whole thing was a thicket.

I walked back along the bank testing the inundation depth with a stick. All of that section was at least knee deep. On getting back to where Brett and the dog were resting, I floated the idea that we might be able to roll up our pants, take off our shoes, and wade barefoot to see if a crossing was possible if we stuck to the right-hand side of the inundated road.

Brett wasn't keen because he'd seen broken glass on the road, and the tannins in the floodwater make it impossible to see the bottom. We both remembered the scene in the specials for Lord Of The Rings where the hobbits ran into the water and Sam stopped as if he'd hit a wall and folded over. Because glass had come through the actor's latex hobbit feet.

I remembered a middle school classmate when we were on an afternoon outdoor education excursion to the local weir to go swimming in the sweltering heat, running into the water and just collapsing. They pulled her out and her big toe was nearly sliced off from sharp glass thrown in by the kind of total idiots who do things in this world without caring about the consequences for others. I remember how pale and still she was when our teacher pressure bandaged her before the ambulance took her away.

I remembered how I used to run around barefoot and carefree myself as a teenager, cross-country, in the river, in the billabongs and farm dams. Until one day I stepped onto some splintering wood under the billabong surface, which embedded in my instep. That was a painful experience I never wanted to repeat.

Brett was right. While the chances of injury from a barefoot crossing attempt were small, the consequences of such an injury were prohibitive. We both had to be able to walk back; if one of us got incapacitated, we'd have to call in an emergency rescue team - since we have no 4WD ourselves.

So sadly, we had to turn back, but: Just perhaps, we're going to add jelly sandals to our backpacks for future winter forays onto potentially flooded tracks.

I admit, going back was really anticlimactic. Road To Nowhere played in my head.


It was hot and the sun bit for the first time since April, there was no breeze, and the road was flat and boring. I cursed that - in keeping with Murphy - it was the very last flooded bit that had proved impassable, when we could already hear the ocean. To have come so far, and no scenic picnic - eating our nice food on a road bank next to a swamp.

And then I had a go at changing my attitude, so it wouldn't spoil the outing. Because most of the eastern seaboard is in lockdown, and there are millions of people who would have given a lot to be walking this unspectacular-but-still-very-nice track on this fine, sunny afternoon with the blue sky and fresh air and the frogs croaking from the wetlands and the wildflowers starting to bloom, and a lovely dog and your best friend and life partner beside you.

We usually walk the Bibbulmun, or other coastal or mountain trails, all of which are like something from Tolkien, and it's spoiling us, so that perfectly good scenery can bring on disappointment if we don't watch ourselves. I know I'd cry if I went back to Europe, if I had to live in a city, if I had to live on the West Coast - because I have grown used to living at the edge of the wild, on a spectacular coastline, in a world biodiversity hotspot with ancient flora and fauna. And that's exactly why I need to occasionally adjust my attitude so I can appreciate something non-Middle Earth.

So sometimes, being happy is about consciously looking for things to appreciate, in settings that don't automatically make you go oooh, aaah. This is a good thing to practice - and it's why people keep appreciation diaries, where they have to look for and acknowledge good things about their life on a daily basis. Not to put their head in the sand, but to pull it out, in a way - because often we don't really look, don't really listen, don't really think about it, we take good things for granted, we don't see all the possibilities in front of us, the things we could be doing this day that would add to the happiness of ourselves and others.

And about that 4WD track: Yes, it's long and flat and sandy and comparatively boring, but we'll be back - with mountain bikes, in the summer. We'll ride in (getting off to walk the really sandy, churned-up sections) and this will make the journey in faster and more interesting. And then we can have that picnic at Boat Harbour, and perhaps even have a proper hike on a section of the Bibbulmun.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51161528221_2c10ee8e2d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWYcUa)
This is Boat Harbour, from a previous quick stop.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51162302269_d15aa516b4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kX3aZP)
A context shot from slightly further east along the coast, of Boat Harbour and surrounds. Boat Harbour is the natural harbour in-between the two granite headlands in the middle distance.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 17, 2021, 16:20:08
Since it's back to work since last Tuesday, there is going to be a bit of a hiatus before I post another "new" hiking adventure - we're just doing repeat tracks in our local area. But I'm happy today because the spring planting in the food garden is making significant progress. I've been at this for half a day each day for about a week, when the garden was finally drying off enough after our sodden winter that the back vegetable beds were able to be planted - they're no longer a swamp (but the bottom beds totally are).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51383245262_5d563c1463_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhyyDL)

This is what I spent most of today on - I should have had a "before" shot - turn this overgrown bed into a weed-free space ready for planting climbing peas, sunflowers etc in front, and potatoes at the back. There was grass halfway up the trellis when I began and it had to be laboriously pulled out from under the wire divider. Either side I'd mowed down first, but still had to remove roots - and if you're European, you may never have had to deal with Kikuyu roots... Kikuyu is an African runner grass that's a pasture mainstay here. It's wonderful in pasture - tough, green through most of summer, roots that go down to a metre. But try removing those roots - and each piece you leave in the soil will grow again. Which is why glyphosate is an essential thing for planting shelter belts back into pasture areas here (there's more toxic stuff on the market specifically for grass control, but despite all the press about it, glyphosate is far less toxic than most other herbicides and isn't residual, only kills the plants you target, and is the treatment of choice for people doing environmental rehabilitation planting in Australia).

Anyway, kikuyu is always getting back into the garden, either by growing runners, or by seed dispersal, so that often, half my garden time can be spent removing this stuff, sifting out the roots etc. After that came the actual trench digging for the potatoes, who like their soil just so... don't be fooled by the shovel, I do this mostly with a garden fork because it aerates and loosens the soil properly. You do trenches, and work the soil in the trenches so that it's nice and loose under the surface, after which I dug in some manure and blood and bone. Then the potatoes went into hollows in the bottom of the trench, and I loosely covered them over again with about 10cm of soil. They will come up in 2-3 weeks and then you can transfer some of the hilled-up soil back into the trenches (which means more potatoes will form in the extra soil).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51384745124_d78bbdf1f9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhGfvs)

Another advantage of having them in trenches is that it makes watering easier when you have non-wetting soil, which is a big tendency around here. Trenches encourage the water to soak in instead of run off the surface.

If you wonder why anyone would spend hours digging potato trenches, you've never had a home-grown potato... as huge a difference to supermarket fare as home-grown tomatoes are. The potato taste is through the roof, and because less watery than commercially grown ones, they crisp up incredibly well when roasted... so that orgasmic sounds usually accompany their consumption at our dinner table. This year we're planting Claret (a red-skin, yellow-flesh variety), and Baltic Cream.

And this is what I did last week:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51383245717_1ccde8a716_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhyyMB)

Mulched up the bed in front where the peas, beetroot, broad beans and fennel had miraculously survived being mostly waterlogged for weeks, and planted - you guessed it - potatoes behind. There's leeks at the very end that have been growing all winter.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51383246277_8ef3c6a1c1_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhyyXg)

Yesterday's project is in the foreground - cauliflowers that may or may not head as I couldn't plant them out earlier with the endless rain and bog, lettuces, Wasabi greens (that will take your head off if you put them in sandwiches, excellent experience :beaming-face), a row of turnips (sounds bad, tastes lovely, but then they're not from the supermarket - grew my first ones ever over winter and decided to repeat the experience). I start everything from heirloom seed in the greenhouse, which is why sometimes my timing is still out, e.g. the late cauliflowers...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51384001901_77cde77c9f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhCrzg)

That little bed took half a day, because to begin with it was a matured compost heap I'd grown tomatoes in last summer, and I had to remove the wire trellis, the weeds, and then the majority of the compost heap (to top-dress grateful fruit trees) before I could plant... and after that I had to mow lawn to get mulch (at least in permaculture, you never do anything for just one reason).

This is how many weeds I removed in just over a week:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51383244477_f3625f0a00_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mhyyqe)

On top of that were buckets and buckets of kikuyu, none of which must go in the compost heaps because it completely infests them otherwise, so I feed that straight out to our animals.

Life in the country. Planting always takes longer than you'd think. Really happy with the progress though.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 21, 2021, 11:10:02
Happy about my recent walk in the woods to find a very beautiful castle (Ruine Blankenhorn):

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/237685821_4123543781056042_2258651385298640272_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=OseQ_pN66QsAX8K0soU&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=e7b9f542825ee954b796f3ec12ab0201&oe=6126AE7C)

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/237948265_4123545714389182_8532878774011968186_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=mNDaaLFa9MoAX_t99Yh&_nc_oc=AQktMGFobW7WnUViF-aukyo23gqZqQkfqPBUonJeIkizDGtiPnD9bl7LD50xQOh2rHdAH6EqTtOpoMZrjjYxktVU&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=8c4d6da2485c95b391edc494138f6ba0&oe=6124EC41)

(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/237701534_4123549904388763_3871164933243760151_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=cqV041sCGJ4AX9nIqYA&tn=Q-rHPYh2Vxj1-qHP&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=aea9e337445c1910ca73eab327b7cc22&oe=6126852B)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 22, 2021, 13:58:19
That's such lovely stonework, @Ulrich. The funny thing is, the three last photos we took today kind of parallel yours. We went back to Mt Hallowell, a regular haunt (see also here (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg773557#msg773557)). Usually what we've done is to walk from Ocean Beach Road through the Mt Hallowell Reserve to Lights Beach Road, and then complete the loop on the road - which you can see on this map:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51394112756_aa03b2572a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miwgbm)

...so from the car symbol on the right-hand side of the map along the yellow track to the car symbol on the left-hand side, and back along the road marked in red. The road section is deadly dull to walk because it's flat all the way around and, well, a road. So we had another idea: Just to walk to the top of Mt Hallowell, have lunch at the Kordabup lookout (triangle), and then simply backtrack. We'd actually never walked this track in the other direction before, so that was in itself a new experience!

We didn't take many photos because we've documented this walk several times - just a couple at our lunch destination:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51395113675_ccf216219f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miBoHz)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51394366293_d79af36edd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mixyxF)

It was a really cold day here, a bit of a contrast to the spring weather we had all last week - the maximum was 13 degrees Celsius, but most of the time the apparent temperature hovered around 8 degrees. This is a good day to do uphill walking through a forested hillside - you don't end up overheating. Also, in the forest you're sheltered from the cold winds blowing on a day like today. But up at the lookout, the icy Antarctic wind blasted us and we cowered on this side of the rock in the pictures to eat our sandwiches and sip hot tea from a thermos, and didn't linger after that.

Just to the left of Brett's ear you can see Lake Williams, and if you look closely just under my left hand (right in the picture) you can just make out Hanging Rock which we walked to a while back (see here (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775129#msg775129)). The headland in the distance (just above and to the left of Brett's head) is Point Hillier, which we also walked recently (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775156#msg775156). It is exciting to start to recognise in the distance the places you've walked before, from a lookout point. But it was so cold and windy in that spot that we couldn't even line the horizons up straight in a dozen attempts!

The walk back was mostly downhill, and we thoroughly enjoyed the different perspective. This is one of our favourite walks - it combines Karri Forest, granite monadnocks similar to the Porongurup Ranges (see here (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg773792#msg773792)), and scenic views over the countryside and coastline.

Also it has a really impressive series of natural rock "castles" - one of which has an extensive cave in it (which you can see inside shots of in the links above).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51394107266_1bca17d8b9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miwexG)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51394368018_f82fc08819_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mixz4q)

Mt Hallowell provides an excellent all-body workout because of its considerable gradients, twisty-turny paths, uneven footing, boulder-crossings, obstacles, etc, so that you're using muscles you never use walking on easy footing. All the while, the birds are singing, you're surrounded by nature, the air is fresh and carries wonderful damp-earth, eucalyptus and other distinctive plant aromas, and you're not having to put up with horrible music or other people's sweat, unlike going to a circuit training class.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51394104311_65ccf7132c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miwdEK)

We had a really happy outing today - and we weren't even exhausted after walking three hours, which was a bonus!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 24, 2021, 05:54:54
THE SPIDERS ARE GOING FISHING

This morning I went for an ultra-early walk around the conservation area of our farm when the temperature was just above freezing (brrrrr) and found the whole place festooned with thousands of spiderwebs, made visible by the dew!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397884382_d9f57a9447_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRAmo)

Ghostly webs were absolutely everywhere! I went back for the camera. It's hard to capture what it's like to see masses and masses of spiderwebs glowing in the early morning sun all over the landscape, but at least this will give others some idea of this morning, in this part of the world...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397885197_742913687f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRAAr)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398634741_4c209ec931_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miVrpB)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397887097_5351826b2d_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRBac)

Spiders are such excellent meteorologists - we've got a sunny, still day coming up today and they got ready to go "fishing".

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398900698_dbb290e600_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWNt5)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398901513_17ed0a8296_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWNH8)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399652270_88e23f0aa3_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mj1DTd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397890292_5f8dc283e6_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRC7h)

Also there were lots of "tightropes"!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398896383_84caa4a12e_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWMbF)

So now you can all go and put on Lullaby.  :winking_tongue

It's great to see evidence of the place teeming with life. Thousands and thousands of spiders that usually live unobtrusively in the bushland - and millions and millions of insects beginning a population boom with spring only a week away here.

The valley floor section in which the spiderweb photos were taken burnt in a hot fire three years ago and was completely black afterwards. Thankfully, it was able to be contained so that only a 10 hectare section burnt; we've got 50 hectares of bush all up, and there's more on adjoining properties. By keeping fire areas relatively small, as the Indigenous people did with their mosaic burning (which we replicate here), more animals can escape and/or re-colonise from surrounding unburnt bushland when the vegetation grows back. But if fire areas get too large, it wipes out millions of individual animals and plants, and not infrequently, entire species of e.g. orchids that only grow in tiny little areas.

Here's the valley floor three years ago after the hot fire:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1906/43651669860_281b55b499_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29vmdDA)

You can see that there's really nothing left on the ground after a hot fire:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/1950/45417267602_065fb8ed99_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ccnnkY)

Australian sclerophyll plants are fire-adapted and grow back from their bases, or through the next generation when seed pods open in hot fires. And, if you're doing mosaic burning, most of your fires are "cool" anyway and don't cause this kind of razing to the ground (but even that, in small areas, occasionally, can be useful for plants that open seed pods only after hot fires).

Anyway, you can see how it all looks three years later - the nutrient recycling from ashes has acted as fertiliser for new plant growth, so you get spectacular flowering displays 2-3 years after fire. It's going to be another amazing wildflower year here, and it's already starting. Taken this morning:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399370729_a0a555ac73_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miZdc4)

These are pink and blue "foxtails":

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397880807_9484097240_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRzhK)

Acacias:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398613336_7d0f0574fa_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miVk3y)

Curry flowers (they smell like curry, hence their name):

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51397865857_cb0cac1582_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miRuQZ)

Basket bush:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399629465_725930c29d_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mj1x72)

Tea tree (which makes excellent honey...)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399632445_4de817b666_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mj1xZp)

This is a climbing sundew (Drosera sp):

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399625920_de14083a72_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mj1w3U)

This is a carnivorous plant - the red things on the stems aren't flowers, they are "sticky traps" for catching midges etc. We have several dozen species of Drosera at our place, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Here's some more examples of Drosera species (it's an international genus): https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=drosera&iax=images&ia=images

Because we have such poor soils in many parts of Australia, we have proportionally more carnivorous plants than average. I read somewhere we've got around 40% of the world's carnivorous plant species described so far.

An all-round beautiful morning this morning:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51399625150_3fd4d70686_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mj1vPC)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398880443_fb80430a17_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWGrR)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398884968_5e128b454b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWHMS)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398883073_078e116c2e_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miWHec)

This is the world's largest species of mistletoe - the Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda) - it flowers spectacularly in the summer - you can see that, and more information about Australian sclerophyll ecology, in an old post here (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=9316.msg772565#msg772565). That post was done a year after the hot fire.

There's more photos on Flickr directly, but this post already has "photo overload" so I'm not putting any more on - with the exception of this lucky shot of two Australian ravens. ♥

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51398621671_babb8df95b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2miVnwg)

It pays to "zoom in" on this photo to have a look at the remarkable eyes of these birds. ♥

Very happy this morning to be stewarding this 50-hectare conservation area.  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on August 30, 2021, 05:44:27
YOU CAN BE HAPPY EVEN IF YOU'RE FREEZING

Last time we went on an outing, it was a warm, sunny day - so much so, I applied sunscreen for the first time since the sunlight began returning to our hemisphere. I put on light cotton pants and a long-sleeved breathable special keep-you-cool-and-UV-protected type shirt. I did not look at the radar map.

The latter turned out to be a bad oversight. Within 20 minutes of driving towards the coast, rain started to come down. It wasn't just coming down, it was bucketing down in squalls, the light levels were suddenly akin to a nuclear winter, and the horizon was pitch black with ominous clouds promising further deluging. Oops.

Having come within 5 minutes of our destination, we decided to park at our hiking target and wait it out for half an hour. (We don't have smartphones, on purpose; therefore we had no portable radar information.) In Western Australia, fronts tend to bucket heavily for half an hour or so, if they're gonna, and then calm down a bit. So we nibbled at carrot sticks and cheese wedges and watched the horizon. It eventually lightened slightly, and we decided we could chance walking in the lighter rain that had replaced the drubbing.

Sadly, the lack of usual preparedness for all eventualities included that our thermal hiking pants weren't in the car, where they normally live, as they had recently been laundered. So while we had raincoats in our backpacks, Brett was in jeans and I in cotton pants; and we knew that we'd get soaked from the raincoats down. Nevertheless, we were here, we needed some exercise, the dog was happy to be out, let's go!

We did an 8km return from Eden Road to Nullaki Hut, with the temperature now down to 8 degrees Celsius and the wind gusting to 40km/h. When you're not properly dressed, feeling cold means walking faster, so we got to Nullaki Hut in under an hour, even though that's the net uphill part of the track. There we nibbled fruit and peanuts and watched the rain come down outside, before making our return trip, which was even faster due to a combination of now being on a net downhill, and turning into homing pigeons at the thought of the warm cup of tea we'd have back at our house.

We took two quick photos to remember our adventure by.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51405789351_0b1af15351_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mjy7dX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51406546999_4b7c400be6_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mjBZrR)

As you can see, Brett, being male and of British descent, is better able to hide being cold than I am - what with all the men don't this and that / British stiff upper lip stuff. Also, unlike me, he didn't end up with chilblains all down the front of his legs. And in case you're wondering, my pants were made from curtains stolen from an opium den.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 08, 2021, 02:28:09
HOW TO BE A HERO

Recently we bought a new dish drainer. The old one as usual had gone manky after a decade - the plastic had started to split around the metal, and rust was seeping out. Ever noticed how dish drainers usually come either in plastic, or plastic-coated metal, and neither items last over 5-10 years? (Perhaps not? ...most people apparently have dishwashers now; in our house we don't have enough people to justify it and even when we have guests staying it's so easy and fast just to do dishes in the sink - in that case you just have one person drying up to make room for more things...)

So we found a really well-designed stainless steel drainer that we're hoping will last for another 30+ years. It even has a cutlery caddy so you can put cutlery upright and in order rather than higgledy-piggledy, horizontally, with half of it sliding back into the sink and never drying by itself.

Since I usually prepare food, Brett usually washes up - I love making stuff, Brett enjoys an excuse to listen to audio drama, win-win. So when we got the new drainer, we agreed that the cutlery handles should generally be facing up, for hygiene reasons and also to avoid getting stabbed by the pointy ends of knives. And I mentioned that the possible exception would be spoons, since they nest if they go spoon-side down and then don't dry properly.

Next time I was putting dishes away in the morning while waiting for the kettle to boil - first time from the new drainer - I noticed with astonishment that all the cutlery handles except spoons were up, and that knives, forks and spoons were in separate sections.  :cool  It made it so easy to put these things away.  :smth023  When I thanked Brett, he said, "It's really not much trouble to separate these things and face them the right way when you're washing up."

I told him that with my family of origin, just the suggestion that spoons would best go the other way up by itself would have caused screaming, shouting and general World War III, and there's no way anyone would have taken care over putting each cutlery type in separate sections. In my birth family, people didn't even bother to rinse dishes. When I left home at 16 I started rinsing my dishes. Later I studied Environmental Toxicology one particular semester, and I remember visiting my family over the weekend and deciding to speak up - previously carefully avoided (while looking in secret disgust at the streaky glasses and the detergent film over everything). But, I'd now learnt about the serious health effects it's possible to get long-term when continuing to ingest detergent residues - as we will especially from drinking vessels, soup and cereal bowls, cutlery and food storage containers - so I decided to mention it, and to suggest that everyone washing up (which included me, but not male members of the household  :pouting-face) also rinse from now on, what was the issue, there was a double sink etc.

And the screaming immediately began. Apparently I was some kind of lifestyle Nazi. My mother was puffed up like one of those puffer-fish at the seashore, and bright red to boot, eyes like slits, throwing a tantrum over how hard she worked and didn't need life made any harder for her. (My mother spent at least six hours a day watching television, more time than she actually spent working - she did the bare minimum of cleaning and cooking and complained incessantly about how hard she worked. She had no external responsibilities. I ran my own household and spent at least 10 hours each weekday studying for my undergraduate degree. It mystified me how she had no time for anything, and how she always typecast me as lazy and herself as extremely hard-working.)

After a while, the screaming died down a bit. There was little support from the males in the family for the suggestion dishes should be rinsed - after all, I was doing a "hippie course" at university (B.Sc. in Environmental Science/Biology) and the hippies were always eating brown rice and banging on about how we shouldn't cut down trees or wear synthetics blah blah. As they didn't wash up it did give them less platform for how it ought to be done, but it was interesting that they didn't mind ingesting detergents. I voiced a general comparison: Should we now hang up the clothes after completion of the suds cycle and before the rinse cycle began? Think of all the water we could save, and after all, it didn't matter. Detergent residue on clothes or on dishes, what did it matter? But - in my birth family, things are always done because of how they were always done. There is no reflection, no flexibility, no opportunity for new data to affect anything - in short, no learning, just rigid rituals either arrived upon personally or passed down from other people.

Recycling? Not in my birth family - not once we came to Australia and the social pressure was off and the bins were big and the easiest thing was to just dump everything in it. When I was in high school and still living with them I volunteered to coordinate the recycling for the family. They refused to cooperate. Nobody wanted to wash out the milk bottles, food cans etc before they could be recycled, and suggestions they be included in the standard washing up were met with more screaming and shouting. (I always hated this; it's not until I grew up and saw how lots of other people lived and behaved that I realised just how extreme my own family's aggression was - and I'm not even going to start on the violence.) If I wanted to recycle because I had nothing better to do and was such a greenie, I could wash out the containers myself. So I did; but of course whenever I wasn't there, the containers just went in the ordinary rubbish.

One disgusting constant feature in the kitchen, courtesy of a family ritual passed down by my mother's step-father apparently, was the plastic milk bottle with the top cut off it, stuffed with organic waste, pill packets and other "small rubbish" and left festering for days by the side of the sink. The reason for its existence apparently was to stop the main kitchen bin from getting mouldy and needing to be cleaned out regularly. Once the milk bottle was full, it was carefully placed upright in the rubbish bin. I suggested that we start using a dedicated organic scraps bucket, not kept on the sink top and taken out every day to a compost heap we could start outside. More screaming. All that extra work: Specific trips to the compost heap, managing the compost heap, rinsing the scraps bucket, rinsing and recycling the milk bottles properly.

Appeals about resource conservation and the health of the planet fell on deaf ears. Everyone else except the minority greenies were throwing their rubbish in landfill, so what difference would it make? Appeals about setting a good example and about doing the right thing in our own lives were mocked as do-goodery. If I wanted to recycle or compost anything, I could feel free and go ahead, but not expect anyone else to participate. (The key principle of free-dumb, when you think about it: Don't agree to do anything for the good of the group, society or the planet. Everything has to be about what you want and what makes life most convenient and fun for yourself in the short term.)

Years later, when recycling and composting became often talked about positively by the breakfast programmes my mother watched, she made a concession to composting by taking out her organic scraps and throwing them randomly around the landscape, where they became an eyesore and a fly breeding ground.  :1f631:  :1f632:

With that kind of background, I am grateful every day for the sanity of my life with my husband, and for the ease and harmony with which we share a household. We've never had a screaming match over how to run our household. We've not had to talk much at all about recycling, composting and household hygiene - we were each doing that separately already before we met. We occasionally discuss and agree on better ways of doing things; tinkering around the edges.

When soft plastics recycling became available here last year through Replas, we didn't even have to talk about it: From then on, we had a separate bag for collecting soft plastics, and we included dirty soft plastics like cheese wrappers and mince bags in our standard washing up, hanging them from the outdoor clothes line to dry if necessary (because soft plastics have to be clean, like all other recycling). The screaming at the suggestion of this would have lasted an eternity with my family of origin.

Oh the bliss, of living with a person with similar values and attitudes. :heart-eyes No arguments about rinsing your dishes, leaving the spoons up and everything else down in the cutlery caddy, recycling, composting, general hygiene and neatness, nutrition, occasional upgrades to the way we do things, etc - just mutual cooperation and shared thinking and problem-solving. And it's not just in this I'm lucky; it's also that I live with a man who pulls his weight around the household without having to be asked - in Australia, the vast majority of households are still stuck with women doing more hours on household tasks than men - and that's even if both work fulltime outside the home as well. Study after study shows it; some women spend more time cajoling men into household tasks and subsequently thanking them than it would have taken to do the task themselves - even among younger generations (although those come off a bit better than GenX and older).

A friend of mine who was married to a man who was quite happy to sit back and let her do the majority of the housework recently divorced, after years of trying to change this. People only change if they want to, and he didn't want to - he'd make token efforts if he felt the relationship's future was in danger otherwise, and not until. The total irony is that he was heavily involved in campaigning for social justice, and would go dangle fliers off pedestrian bridges over freeways and spend hours in socialist group meetings - but in his own home, he was happy for the situation to be inequitable. Talk is cheap and action speaks so much louder than words. Plus: Why would anyone think that justice in wider society is important, but ignore it in their own home?

More irony: After the divorce, he moved into a male share household, and he was ringing up my friend complaining about how dirty and untidy that household was. OMG! He no longer lives in a self-cleaning, self-tidying house!  :1f62e:  :P

I read an article a while back which posited that Australian women required a different kind of heroism from the men they live with than the heroism that seems heroic to many men - like the heroism of doing dishes and laundry without being asked, or bathing their own toddler. I'm really lucky that I'm with a male who understands this, and lives by it. I've been in a fair few houseshares travelling around Australia in the first five years of my 30s, and I've never, ever been in one where the males didn't in some way, shape or form try to pass off things they didn't want to do to the women. Mostly they'd sit back and say, "If you want it clean and tidy, you make it clean and tidy - I'm fine like this!" and go back to drinking beer and watching TV and letting their dishes rot in the sink. Sadly that's how it was, every time, the exceptions in my own generation are so few in this country. My friend was married to someone like this - and thankfully I am not. My husband is a jewel. ♥ He understands that we shouldn't take advantage of others but pull our own weight, and that justice, equality and respect are at the very basis of love. ♥

Nearly 14 years married, no regrets. ♥  It's not that we're perfect, and it's not that we never have conflicts or say and do things we shouldn't, but it's that the basic pattern of the relationship is one of justice, equality and mutual respect. ♥
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 08, 2021, 11:10:58
First this:
Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 02:28:09most people apparently have dishwashers now; in our house we don't have enough people to justify it
I would find it hard to part ways with the dishwasher. I could easily find ways to justify it. No, doing the dishes is not the worst household chore (if there'd be a machine that would fold my washed clothes, take my money!). I can find it relaxing. It's more that it is something that needs to be done straight away. Sure pots and pans don't normally go into the dishwasher, but that is something you can bear with and is often taken care of towards the end of the cooking.

Before I'm turning into a sapient housewife, let me address the hero thing. The rational part of my brain says that it is a rather sad state of affairs that doing the obvious would make you a hero. Many other parts of my brain can't see these obvious things. It just doesn't come naturally. But it can be trained.

Nature or nurture? I was raised to always clean up after me and vacuum clean the house, mow the lawn, etc. and was always encouraged to do things without being told to do them. I remember one episode when we were visiting a family in Mexico and my mother told me to help clearing the table. The mother of the household was surprised and asked my mother if she taught her boys to help out in the household. I was surprised too. Have they not come further in Mexico? At the age of 16 I thought the entire world had moved past these stereotypical divisions of what is appropriate for a man to be doing.

In all my long term relationships, it's been obvious that doing the tedious and heroic effort is something both will have to take responsibility for. And whenever someone has done the laundry, that person will get praise. I don't do it for the praise but it's nice to get the recognition. I know I am not as orderly as my girlfriend and often I get that it plain writing. In general I do, however, think that living together in a household demands that all parties take responsibilities. I do most of the cooking, because I like doing it.

After having said all this, I know that I very well could have vacuumed all the dog hair from the hallway instead of typing this. The lure of instant gratification won this time. In my book, dog hair on the floor is nothing to get angry about. Not respecting that the responsibility of taking care of things and getting things done is shared, is far more serious. I know there is sometimes an uneven division of this in my household. But I also know there is only one person in this household who is making sure the wifi is always working and that we have have a sound system that (even though the record player currently is out of order (working on that)) serves our purposes and to a reasonable cost. This last bit is obviously a joke but I couldn't agree more with the notion of domestic equality. I think most men in this country would agree. Equality has been and is a mantra here and while I'm the first to say that we still have a very long way to go, I think in some regards we have reached a bit further than what it was like 50 years ago. People in general frown upon the stereotypical male who won't accept responsibilities at home. And people who don't recycle, well, they are surely a bit odd.

Speaking of recycling, we do communal composting here, we fill paper bags and throw them in the bin. Then, at least once a year, a van comes by handing us as much soil we want. I like that a lot.

I don't want to come off praising the place I'm living in as the most progressive and best country of all. This is, like all other countries, a shit country in many respects. But in this area, I think we are on the right way.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 08, 2021, 11:55:42
Scandinavia has a good worldwide reputation for making a lot of progress with social justice, which is great. Unlike the USA and Australia. You guys also score well for appropriate and thorough sex education and prevention of teenage pregnancies, and women's reproductive rights to limit family size and have access to safe pregnancy terminations if needed - just have a look at the doings of the "Texas Taliban" recently to see how that's looking in other parts of the West...

No country or person is perfect, but some are definitely easier to live in/with than others, for the average person. Denmark usually does really well on its national happiness score, which I think is so much better than GDP for assessing quality of life - and the two don't have a big correlation!  :)

Re dishwasher, far be it from me to make anyone feel guilty, especially as I have a clothes-washing machine instead of a copper.  :yum:  It's just that we actually find it faster to wash up by hand than to load a dishwasher, and then offload again, and maintain the dishwasher - having previously lived in households with dishwashers. I'm very organised at preventing excessive washing-up making, by rinsing things that don't need detergent as I go and being efficient, and Brett is even faster than me at washing up spotlessly.

You sound happy to have a dishwasher, and may you have joy in it. And I'm happy this afternoon because my apple and berry strudel has just finished baking after infusing the house with delicious aromas, and when I've fed the animals I can reward myself with a slice of it!  :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 08, 2021, 12:52:20
Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 11:55:42Denmark usually does really well on its national happiness score
Indeed, the happy Danes. I think æbleskiver have something to do with it. They are doing many good things through policies and legislation to make life easy for the people. My guess is that corruption is very low in Denmark.

Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 11:55:42You sound happy to have a dishwasher, and may you have joy in it
I am :)
I know I can live without it if I have to. But currently, I will sing its praise across the valleys.

Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 11:55:42And I'm happy this afternoon because my apple and berry strudel has just finished baking after infusing the house with delicious aromas
Do enjoy it!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 08, 2021, 13:46:49
Quote from: Pongo on September 08, 2021, 12:52:20
Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 11:55:42Denmark usually does really well on its national happiness score
Indeed, the happy Danes. I think æbleskiver have something to do with it.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.6ffngt1zC6Ew5yrZhJ59kAHaJb%26pid%3DApi&f=1)

Until a couple of minutes ago I had no idea such a thing existed in this universe!  :)

These look so good I absolutely have to make some; they will add greatly to our happiness.  :cool  A couple of years ago I learnt how to make chocolate nut horns...they turn out well and have been on the "repeat regularly" list...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4878/31784016427_b68c8a2be2_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/QqDoKe)

Also I learnt to make Lefser, which you'd be familiar with but is totally exotic here...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4336/35680253654_5e765acc22_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/WmWCk9)

Only thing is, they're so filling you don't have to eat anything else for 10 hours afterwards!

We also love Kavli, which a Danish friend who worked in our region a while addicted us to. Do you know of any way to make these at home and have them come out as good as the ones they send in boxes all over the world?

A fun fact: Brett was reading Stieg Larsson and initially thought Aquavit was a brand of mineral water hahahahaha!  :lol:  The protagonist was often having open sandwiches and Aquavit...

Well, Brett and I are definitely Hobbits, and take a lot of happiness from good food and being home. Here's some of the hippie food we make and eat and inflict on our poor guests:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/albums/72157687753093115

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 08, 2021, 14:47:27
Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 13:46:49Also I learnt to make Lefser, which you'd be familiar with but is totally exotic here...
I have never tried these but I can imagine what they are like. Looks very tasty.

Quote from: SueC on September 08, 2021, 13:46:49We also love Kavli, which a Danish friend who worked in our region a while addicted us to.
Sorry, have never heard of this. To me Kavli is the maker of melted cheese in tubes.

Aquavit as mineral water...well, a majority of the finnish population would drink it like that :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 08, 2021, 14:48:47
Regarding the hero thing:

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 09, 2021, 02:10:48
Bwahahaha, @Pongo!  :beaming-face  :1f635:

That's very typical dumb-Aussie male and also a good demo of the Dunning-Kruger Effect - the amazing confidence with which he holds his ridiculous views.


A disproportionate amount of people like this make it into politics, especially in our country and the US - remind you of anyone?

Lefser is Norwegian apparently, and I got the recipe from John Seymour's classic self-sufficiency book. It's a pancake made from mashed potato and rye flour, done in butter not oil and traditionally topped with smoked fish and sour cream. :yum:

Kavli is a brand of sourdough rye crispbread, totally different to Ryvita which is good, but Kavli is superb...

Melted cheese in tubes? Is that a bit like the American cheese in spray cans?  :1f62e:

Happy today because it's our day off and we can go walking. It's raining and apparently going to do that all day but we are going anyway - this time with appropriate clothing for the weather...

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 09, 2021, 13:50:25
Quote from: SueC on September 09, 2021, 02:10:48A disproportionate amount of people like this make it into politics, especially in our country and the US - remind you of anyone?
They are here as well. Though they are maybe not as prolific as the world known examples.

Quote from: SueC on September 09, 2021, 02:10:48Kavli is a brand of sourdough rye crispbread, totally different to Ryvita which is good, but Kavli is superb...
Ah, it's the same company that makes the cheese. Don't remember seeing that one. We have a lot of varieties of crispbread here.

Quote from: SueC on September 09, 2021, 02:10:48Melted cheese in tubes? Is that a bit like the American cheese in spray cans?  (http://curefans.com/Smileys/twitter/1f62e.png)
Maybe it's similar. This is perfect for camping as it can stay unrefridgerated for a couple of days. Also ideal to use as a treat when training the dog.

I'm happy because I have manage to do what I set out to do today workwise. On the minus side, it feels like I'm getting a cold.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 09, 2021, 17:08:27
CONVALESCENT HIKING (AND SUBSEQUENT HIBERNATION)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50766290388_ef90d4cc1a_b.jpg)
Cosy Corner when it's not raining

I'm happy today because we went back on our first hike since I caught my first cold in two years - symptoms started last Wednesday night. Highly annoying - especially considering we're taking all the recommended pandemic precautions - but I walked along appropriately distanced behind a guest in a corridor when they coughed suddenly and so I got the aerosols with what turned out to be the highly transmissible RSV that's currently spiking in WA - found this out AFTERWARDS when I ended up with a particular set of symptoms. (We're social-distancing in WA but no mask recommendations at present because we currently don't have Delta or any other form of COVID in community transmission - though that's not going to last now that NSW is an incubation vat and infected NSW truck drivers are coming through at least once a week because of the lag times between incubation and viral shedding, and test and result.)

I happen to be super susceptible to aspiration pneumonia due to having a paralysed vocal cord - it makes swallowing a problem when you're lying down at night, and things can more easily go down the trachea than in "normal" people. So when I get a bug, it tends to get delivered down into the lungs, grrrr. No matter in this case; RSV goes straight to the lung epithelium anyway and I'd inhaled the aerosol in the first place. So I had unpleasant ants-crawling-in-the-lungs sensations for two days until the immune system won (which I helped along by resting aggressively, staying super hydrated, good nutrition, extra VitD, VitC, zinc and lysine, etc); then it was cleanup time - getting rid of all the dead cells and gunk.  :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:  Unpleasant for anyone, but especially so if you can only retract half your larynx and the paralysed half just hangs there accumulating gunk which you can't just flick off like a normal person, so you end up retching and choking quite a bit. How I wish for a special vacuum cleaner attachment at times like this...  :triumph:

Aaaanyway, by today I reckoned I was up to a shortish hike, so we did the 7km section from Cosy Corner to the camping hut and back documented previously for our Christmas hike (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774167;topicseen#msg774167) (lovely photos...gorgeous part of the world!). At Christmas we went on past the hut to the far end of Dingo Beach, but today it was raining and I didn't want to overdo it while still not 100%. We often do this little walk because it's one of the nearest to drive to from our place, and such an enjoyable one - spectacular beaches, islands and coastal cliffs (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg773742;topicseen#msg773742), and a clifftop walk through rather lush, Hobbity woodlands, with a hut to stop in before going further or returning. If you keep walking you can do a 20km return to Shelley Beach (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774522;topicseen#msg774522) or do 600km to Perth meandering around the long, scenic way - because this is a section of the world-famous Bibbulmun walk trail.

It felt good to be out again and to climb my first proper hill since last Wednesday. The rain was mostly drizzle but lasted all day and the landscape is overflowing again all over the place, plus the unsealed roads were pure mud today - this unseasonally wet winter has caused a lot of damage to roads, culverts etc throughout this district.

But the humidity was good for my recovering lungs, and we chucked in a short beach walk at the tail end of today's excursion so the dog could chase waves.

This was Jess chasing waves at Frenchman Bay years ago - the bigger dog is the now deceased Toby, a neighbour's dog we used to walk.

After that I was ready for home and cups of tea. I had lots of interesting things planned for the afternoon, but after lunch I ended up hibernating in bed with a book because my body told me this would be a really good idea while I'm still cleaning up a respiratory infection. So some of these interesting things will have to happen tomorrow instead. Fingers crossed we can go for a proper long hike on Sunday, when better weather is forecast.

PS: The dog says she is super happy today and it was like Christmas. She says her monkey has been rather impaired and making coughing sounds for a week and not walking her nearly as much as usual and that the previous two days had been truly lamentable in that department. So today, after taking an eternity to get out of the house - why don't monkeys just get up and go, why do they have to boil kettles and make tea and drink tea and have first breakfast and second breakfast and wash their monkey faces and arrange their monkey hair etc etc etc - anyway, after her monkey and the useless monkey took an eternity to get out the door, she FINALLY got to have a ride in the broom-broom and a decent walk, and a session of wave-chasing.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/7470/15632045559_ea11832851_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/pPmjwT)

And when she got back, her monkey was cutting up ossobucco into bones and stewing meat (the monkey says that's because when you have four legs in the freezer, you can't always make Italian-style Ossobucco or Jamie Oliver-style Chilli Con Carne made with ossobucco), and while the monkey kept most of the bucco, she got all of the osso today and spent two glorious hours chewing, because one of the sections was from near the hock and as big as a saucer. After that she curled up on the sofa, batted her eyelids at her monkey to get a cuddle, and slept for the rest of the afternoon...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/3822/11486995626_3814beae43_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/iv4RAJ)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 13, 2021, 01:15:38
Happy today because Daniil Medvedev won the US Open final - and did that on his third wedding anniversary! Very funny that the guy handing him the cheque said, "Happy Anniversary!"  :happy

Well done to him breaking through to win his first major title - he's always interesting to watch because he plays with his brains, not with brute force.  :smth023  Also his head doesn't inflate when he wins something; nice to see.

Great women's final this year too. To watch I preferred their semis where it was Davida versus Goliatha both times, and all-court diverse playing versus dull power baselining. The worst thing is if you get two power baseliners doing an "I can hit harder and scream louder than you" contest - so dull and aggravating to watch. Good to see finesse winning over grunt in both semis.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on September 13, 2021, 12:37:10
Visiting a "fat tower" on Sunday made me happy:

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/241873938_4193765474033872_3122755359479647812_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=oBy4phUn6_4AX8QFyQu&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=7de817638dd21230af4ae1c9366a445f&oe=61451404)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 15, 2021, 03:48:22
Quote from: Ulrich on September 13, 2021, 12:37:10Visiting a "fat tower" on Sunday made me happy:

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/241873938_4193765474033872_3122755359479647812_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=oBy4phUn6_4AX8QFyQu&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=7de817638dd21230af4ae1c9366a445f&oe=61451404)

I really like where we live and we built it ourselves etc etc, so lots of emotional investment and low energy input to run etc etc, but in another life I would enjoy living in a tower like that...even if I had to wear thermal underwear and mountain clothes inside in winter...  :)

I'm happy today because my bronchitis has been rapidly clearing.  :smth023  Of course, the forecast for our day off is apocalyptic again, so that looks like a precautionary indoors day at this stage...which is not so bad; fun things can be done indoors too, and at least the weekend forecast is relatively sunny...

How's that cold you thought you were getting, @Pongo? Did your immune system jump on it? Mine was a bit out of practice I think. Plus the leaky larynx blah blah.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 15, 2021, 10:13:53
Quote from: SueC on September 15, 2021, 03:48:22How's that cold you thought you were getting, @Pongo?

Hi! The cold has hopefully reached its peak now. The throat is lined with unspeakable horrors and my voice is sending a clear message to everyone that I am not well.
Maybe I was irresponsible but on Saturday I went to a birthday party. I could feel the cold coming on slowly but I just couldn't miss this one. Tried my best to keep my distance from people. But of course, there were people who wouldn't keep their distance from me. Thankfully there are no reports of people catching anything.

So I'm happy today that it is moving in the right direction and that I can work from home. Also happy about the fact that I can and will have a nap now and no one will be complaining about that. And after nap I have progress talk with my daughter's teacher. So thankful that these are held online these days.
Title: Re: Happy today because...
Post by: SueC on September 16, 2021, 14:49:54
FICIFOLIA ROAD TO NUT LOOKOUT WALK

I'm super happy because we went walking in spite of the sheep hypothermia weather alert that's current with a very wintry cold front crossing the Southwest today. I completely missed out on hiking and outdoors time all last weekend because I was recovering from bronchitis. I'd felt much better the last two days and started walking the dog and mowing the lawn again; this morning I took a look at the radar and thought the front was patchy enough to get lengthy rain breaks, and that we should be able to do a road trip with at least a little hike.

I'd not left the property for a week (since a small hike near Cosy Corner last Thursday) and not gone into public for nearly a fortnight; it's funny how people like us don't notice a huge difference between lockdown versus no lockdown. Even in the initial prevention lockdown at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 we were allowed to go hiking throughout our regional area:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gsdc.wa.gov.au%2Fmedia%2F1191%2Fgtsouthernmapgeol.jpg%3Fwidth%3D500%26height%3D387.09677419354836&f=1&nofb=1)

That's 300km by 200km and it's pretty easy not to go further than that - we don't hike that often to the west of Walpole-Nornalup anyway. All the green stuff on the map is Nature Reserve, and stuffed to the gills with walk trails, plus there's the famous Bibbulmun track all along the coast west of Albany. Brett and I spend more than 10x as much time on hiking trails than socialising with other people, and during the handful of short snap lockdowns in Western Australia, hiking and other remote outdoors activities have always been allowed in our region, even when visiting other people was not.

So, bronchitis interfered with our hiking plans where the pandemic hadn't in 18 months. I guess it gave me a small taste of feeling antsy and locked-down. Today we headed west; morning tea in Denmark and then to Ficifolia Road near Peaceful Bay. By the time we arrived we'd already traversed some squally rain bands, and things looked clear for a while. It was cold and windy, but at that stage the wind was still blowing from the north-west, and the Antarctic blasts from the south-westerlies weren't expected until mid-afternoon.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483600099_1f59e00a79_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqUDz)

There's an 8-9km return hike from Ficifolia Road to Nut Lookout I'd had my eye on for months. Usually that would have been stacked in with another shortish walk or extra sightseeing, given the hour's car journey to get there; but by itself it was a perfect distance for the tail end of bronchitis recovery. If you overdo it, you can get setbacks. Today I've pulled up fine, so that's great.

The wind was blowing mightily on the road where we parked the car, surrounded by low coastal heathland; but this track went up into hilly landscape that was forested on the ridges, and the thick understorey acted as a fabulous windbreak. This was us just after starting up the trail, and out of the wind.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482076872_49c92b8695_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mri6R3)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483078128_f73620511d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mroeu5)

You can see the road and the coastal heathlands behind it from this shot looking back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483582529_2b1ea647a6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqPqD)

The bright yellow in the foreground is a flowering wattle (Acacia sp - lots of different species). The red blotch in the next photo is a Beaufortia flower (AKA Swamp Bottlebrush). And if you're wondering why the tree trunks and the big branches are so dark, it's because this place had a hot fire three years ago, just like 10 hectares of swampland on our farm nature reserve coincidentally did that same year. Three years ago, this entire landscape would have been burnt black - the understorey has regenerated from underground structures, and from seed.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483583939_401595d466_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqPQX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482082037_490af346d8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mri8o6)

The bare branches in the photo above would have been burnt in the hot fire and died as a result, but the eucalyptus trees themselves survived and made new branches from epicormic shoots.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483083088_a017832cd8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrofXA)

The grass-trees in the foreground are Xanthorrhoea preissii. Next is a close-up of a Redgum (Eucalyptus calophylla) trunk. Redgums are named after the sap they ooze, which is good for closing wounds on the tree that can be caused by animals (including insects), fungi etc. Normally this tree has grey bark, but the burnt exterior layer can stay on for 3-5 years after a hot fire. Underneath, the tree has healthy bark - it just hasn't exfoliated the burnt top layers yet.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483586549_4df6f53b65_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqQBX)

Looking back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483588134_f71d639d4a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqR6h)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483589049_7b465af5d4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqRn4)

We had a burst of sun:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483794300_2c97580f6b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrrUnS)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483592689_4bfdbc5bc5_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqSrP)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483796300_d9e0deb6d2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrrUYm)

The bushland flowers gloriously 2-3 years after a bushfire, and we were completely spoilt today.

We really enjoyed the gently undulating landscape, diverse plant communities and spectacular flowering displays.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483091258_fb74afa2ec_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mroios)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482859006_8412987c3d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrn7m7)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482070747_f9fc4e9080_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mri52r)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482812846_da369ce287_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrmSCf)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483533039_2deaf025b7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqyHn)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483740470_d63048784d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrrCnL)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483551434_7fba15fa2b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqEbw)

The middle section of this walk reminded me uncannily of a place called Clifton Park more that 35 years ago, which no longer exists. It was a 200 hectare area of uncleared native vegetation near Lake Clifton which an investor with links to the local government had bought cheap hoping to subdivide at enormous profit for residential lots down the track, and eventually that was exactly what happened, as it always does when investors have mates in government, even though there's allegedly a clearing ban, but this is one of several ways the small remaining fraction of Australian native vegetation continues to be destroyed. In the agricultural and urban areas of Australia, between 80 an 95 percent of native vegetation has been bulldozed (and continues to be bulldozed), in just over 200 years of European occupation - and this is the main reason we have the highest rate of species extinction in the world.

Between ages 12 and 16 I used to ride a horse solo on bush trails close to my parents' farm to get away. I didn't have a bicycle at that point because my father didn't want me to be mobile, so I started riding horses long-distance instead and this was something my parents were unable to stop me doing. In truth, they often had no idea just how far away I went; I rode upwards of 25 kilometres though the local bushland, and this is not something they ever did themselves, so they probably could not imagine me doing it. Therefore I got away with it.

Clifton Park was nearly next door and beautiful, and the gateway to state forests that stretched over 80km south. It was undulating country near the coast, with wooded ridges and heathland flats, bursting with wildflowers each spring and just a magical area I grew to love. The years exploring these places on horseback reinforced my growing passion for Australian wilderness; I started hiking seriously the month I began to earn my own income post-university and have never stopped. I can still see Clifton Park in my mind's eye long after its demise and I still grieve for it; for millions of years of evolution going back to Gondwana, razed to the ground to make way for essentially feedlotted cattle and sheep on hobby farms, just like on my parents' farm. It's a crime when it happens in the Amazon and it's a crime when it happens in Australia. Don't get me started on exponentially growing human populations with ever-increasing material greed per capita and what it's doing to the planet, and how what the pandemic is doing to our species isn't even on the register compared to what our species is doing to the planet...

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.4KSG_KAb5BjP7szU2upsHAHaGH%26pid%3DApi&f=1)
Here's a satellite image of Australia's Southwestern agricultural area - dark areas are what remains of the native vegetation; the rest- the vast majority of it - has been cleared. We continue to lose what's left of the vegetation and associated wildlife on a daily basis.

We talked about this in the mid-section of our walk, about how someone could just come along and push it all over with machines and kill over 99 percent of the species and individuals there and then be happy with the "parkland" they had made and the "close to nature" lifestyle they could spruik. We were walking in National Park, where that is unlikely to happen at least until civilisation collapses, but it's still happening all over the planet on a daily basis, while people cheer the stock market going up and their investment portfolios getting fat.

Too few people in this country ever take even an hour's walk in remote unspoilt wilderness. Most who venture out of the cities do so in 4WD vehicles and miss all of the minutiae, not to mention the communion with nature.

When we bought our rural property, it was because it happened to have 50 hectares of largely unspoilt native vegetation on it which the previous owner, whose family had it since the area was "opened" to agriculture (i.e. okayed for bulldozing), had carefully preserved, right down to carrying on with traditional Indigenous fire management. We bought the place so that this area would continue to be conservation area in our lifetime. While ostensibly there is a clearing ban, there is nothing illegal about buying a place like this and putting 2,000 goats into the bushland, and they will devastate it in a few short years. If a politically connected property developer buys it, they will eventually get government permission to bulldoze it to "parkland" and subdivide it into residential properties. If the government wants to give someone permission to frack or explore for minerals (which they can do on anyone's rural property), they will have permits to bring in the bulldozers both for the exploration and for the "development" stage that may follow. That last possibility we can do the least about, although we'd try, like the Lock the Gate (https://www.lockthegate.org.au/) movement.

Drone footage a visitor filmed summer 2020. Close-ups of what's in our conservation reserve here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/albums/72157632759314682).

Meanwhile, we are conserving the native vegetation and continuing agriculture on the 12 hectare section that was cleared in the 1950s. Here we are working largely organically and focused on sustainability, which is why we have planted shelter belts of mostly native vegetation back into the cleared area in the last ten years. We continue to farm this 12-hectare patch because if we don't, it will increase the pressure to clear the little that's left of largely unspoilt native vegetation elsewhere in the world to produce the beef cattle that this property produced before us, that we're continuing with. Ideally we'd be encouraging kangaroos and harvesting the population excess for meat here - it would be much kinder to the soil and general environment - but that's not permitted, even though that's what the Indigenous people did, and still do in areas they have a say in.

It's funny; we have a voluntary conservation area and small eco-farm, and the people who come to our educational farmstay are usually already people who are interested in nature and conservation - but when we take them on walks through our on-farm conservation area, they often say to us, "We've walked through bush many times before but we've never noticed so many things you've shown us today." So we're doing our job, for what it's worth - but the people who come here largely care, and sadly, many really couldn't care less if every last scrap of Australian ecosystems were bulldozed into the ground and replaced with housing, parks, farms and industrial areas. The divorce from nature is so huge in this country.  :'(

These tall grass-trees are Kingia australis:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483036238_ed5bb39896_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mro22Q)

The yellow of the wattles in bloom was spectacular. This is springtime in the Australian bush.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482822986_ff332ffd38_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrmVD5)

Brett with a Kingia:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482040202_95d6321247_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrhUWN)

Kingia stems grow around 15mm a year; this makes the specimen Brett is with over 200 years old. We've seen stands twice that height. Many Kingias were cut down after European colonisation to make brooms and brushes from the fibres in their ancient trunks. Our culture seems to have trouble valuing other life forms for anything other than what we can eat or otherwise make a buck out of.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483546259_a2165d3a37_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqCDi)

I swear my husband could fold himself up into a dinosaur egg. He just drops down like this to talk to the dog. The secret to remaining flexible is to never, ever stop exercising your flexibility. Way too many adults never sit on the floor and actually can't get up without using their hands. Both of us sit on the ground regularly and have no problems getting off the floor no-hands. A lady who lived to be 100 told me when I was in my 20s that you must never stop doing things like this or you will lose them - it's not age, but lack of use that stops most Westerners doing these things as they get older.

View off the Nut Lookout:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483045118_361241d9c9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mro4EW)

A bit further on:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483753725_43e5502bdd_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrrGji)

Some photos from the way back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483553509_a3f556e9fb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqENi)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483757725_e0027c5980_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrrHvg)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51483557194_e4bb1f9d09_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrqFTQ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482055292_d1127fbe4c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrhZqY)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51482840041_2cb05d0056_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mrn1H8)

The last two are a Macrozamia palm.

We were really lucky with the weather - it turned nasty soon after our walk, and rained most of the rest of the afternoon. By the time I was feeding the animals back on the farm, the wind chill had the apparent temperature below zero. Brrrr. So we made a mushroom risotto and enjoyed our warm house - which was warm just from the bursts of sun today, being a solar-heated house.

That's quite a few photos, but not nearly all of them. If you'd like to walk through front to back, click this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/51483600099/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/

Use the right arrow and stop at the photo of the "rainy cows" (from the way home).

We loved hiking through this spectacularly species-diverse area today, and ooohed and aaahed over the brightly coloured flowers everywhere. We hope you enjoyed your vicarious hike on the South Coast of Western Australia, and that some of you will post hikes in your part of the world for the rest of us to enjoy!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on September 17, 2021, 15:15:51
I want to go hiking as well. Truly beautiful nature there. Good that you are doing what you can to preserve it. During the pandemic we've had a surge in hiking in Sweden, leading to a great deal of littering as many are unprepared and don't know how behave in the fragile areas. Some people even took emergency supplies from cabins without reporting it.
Nevertheless, I think it's positive that more people find their way out so they can see what we stand to lose if we don't change our ways.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 19, 2021, 16:40:06
PEACEFUL BAY TO RAME HEAD HUT WALK

I am very happy that today we did a major hike - a 16km return walk from Peaceful Bay to Rame Head Hut. You can see on the track map that this is twice the distance of the hike we did on Thursday.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51491496367_71c72063c9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ms8nW8)

On a very sunny day back in July, we had already done the around-the-headlands section from Peaceful Bay to The Gap (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775052#msg775052) (magnificent seashore walk!), then shortcut back along a 4WD track back to Peaceful Bay. This time we took that same shortcut track to get back out to the Bibbulmun Track near The Gap, and hiked across dune paths towards Rame Head Hut - a section we've never done before today.

You can also see on the map that we now only have one section to go to complete Peaceful Bay to the Nut Lookout in both directions; in day-walk sections. We'll get to it soon, but I think we'll go back to the Karri forest or the mountains before we do another coastal walk.

The shortcut track out:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493159815_8463cab335_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msgUqg)

Pretty soon it turned into a billabong. It's been the wettest winter in years. (The 4WD vehicles drive straight through this stuff.)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492453568_efaef5bb4d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdhtA)

This exact same thing had happened in July, and it's really annoying to bush-bash around it. When we got stuck in tangles of vegetation today, I went back to the track and waded the section barefoot with my pants rolled up - the water was clear and I could see to the bottom, so I thought that was OK. Brett, who was worried about broken glass, persevered with the vegetation, and we met up again around the same time on dry land the other side of the water feature.

Views southeast and southwest from the track:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51491444092_22c1a202a0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ms87oQ)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492946534_4955138799_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msfP21)

Start of the Bibbulmun Track proper:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492456788_b5d6e2fb1d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdir7)

Pretty soon, we were dealing with water over the track again. The boardwalks looked more like pontoons. Unfortunately we had not brought an inflatable canoe.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492240671_aca13c7817_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msccbX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51491448052_1ea8948364_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ms88z7)

Wildflower season is in full swing.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51491451152_eb97acb646_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ms89uy)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492462998_01745430e9_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdkhb)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492956749_0a74217867_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msfS48)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492468423_590863f175_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdmTH)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492249676_1bea211bdb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msceSd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492961939_c78139da55_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msfTAB)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492472808_11345d85df_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdocj)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51491466587_d0e434f67b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ms8e5F)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492483598_9a3499f05b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msdrpm)

Looking north, we could now see the walk we did three days earlier. We'd started near the exposed granite on the left-hand side in the background, and walked across the hills to Nut Lookout near the tower on the right-hand side.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492258901_e41b3c5ea2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mschBg)

Today's walk took us along the side of a huge swale.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493186180_baa6b6523e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh3fQ)

Eventually, we got near Rame Head.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492974634_e54b0db8d6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msfXnu)

After a long, loooong time and many false hopes before various bends in the track, we finally got to the hut - by this time we were really ready for our lunch (pasta salad, fruit, chocolate, nuts).

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493193040_6dc2ce395b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh5i7)

We saw that bees had recently made a hive in the wall cavity of the hut. They were flying around the door and into a gap between the interior wall and the elevated camping platform.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492977334_88e630141f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msfYb3)

The hut was rather artistically decorated and had messages written on the windows of its sunroom.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493194960_d2792496cf_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh5Sd)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493195425_dd049685e0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh61e)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492271006_c8a96cbb6c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mscmcY)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493197380_bd429f6831_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh6zW)

There we met a party of walkers in their 50s and 60s ex Walpole, who looked wonderfully fit and happy after walking 20km through hilly terrain from the Giants campsite to Rame Head Hut today. They are looking forward to having hot showers in Peaceful Bay tomorrow night, after camping out tonight. I sat with my thermos of hot lemon tea chatting with these lovely people. Because Brett and I keep bees, we were able to reassure the campers about staying out of trouble with the resident hive: Bees are generally OK, but don't go too close to the hive entrance (2-3 m away is good and stay to the side); avoid their flight path in; wear a beanie or hat near bees to avoid them getting caught in your hair and panicking (getting stung in the scalp usually means that for the next week you look like you've done a losing round in a boxing ring), back off if they buzz you and protect your nostrils and face in general (bees like going up your nostrils to sting if they get mad - as happened to me once in a Psychopathic Bee Incident (http://sue.coulstock.id.au/fuzzy-little-jetfighters/)).

Bees also don't like the smell of scented shampoos, deodorant etc (riotous laughter at this from the campers, who felt they were at the opposite end of that spectrum), and they are a bit suspicious if you wear dark, fuzzy/woolly clothing. If you do get stung, and you are of an older vintage like me, try to get stung near your finger joints because bee venom is reputed to help some people temporarily with their arthritis.

The female campers and I exchanged embarrassing getting-caught-with-your-pants-down incidents when trying to discreetly go bush. It's my personal view now that if you point your posterior at the direction unguarded by your walking buddies, you have a strategic advantage because nobody will be able to subsequently identify you by your posterior, while they would very likely remember your face.

After more pleasantries, Brett and I headed out again for our return to Peaceful Bay, which was thankfully net-downhill now. Some views back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493197915_041cb52afc_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msh6Ka)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51492272681_94b9fc24e4_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mscmGR)

This is Brett collapsed at the starting point:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51493158865_4116f7837d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2msgU8T)

We were both tired after our outing, but worst of all, our feet had been screaming at us for the last 5km of the walk. When I ripped my boots off the moment I got to the car, I found peeling skin and outraged blood vessels. Brett wouldn't take his socks off for fear of what he might find. It was decided that the leather boots we have are excellent for scrambling up and down the minor mountains of Western Australia, but rather useless for long cross-country walks, and we'll look for something more cushioned for that particular purpose. Anything over 10km will in future disqualify our leather boots from accompanying us.

We had lots more photos as usual and if anyone hasn't had enough yet, you can click on the track map photo to go to Flickr and then just click the right arrows until you hit the next track map.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 27, 2021, 16:41:07
LOWLANDS BEACH TO WEST CAPE HOWE HUT WALK

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51521968917_b9dcf456c7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muPymV)

We've done this walk quite a few times before, as it's not far from us, and I even wrote it up for this thread in April this year (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg774603#msg774603). But I never actually showed the track map before, and also they've built a new walkway at Lowlands Beach.

We started at the Lowlands Beach car park:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523455704_697914994f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muXbkb)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523658185_ddc4f4df5d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muYdwe)

If anyone is wondering what we're doing walking on a Monday, I say, "Thor save the Queen!" It's a public holiday and we didn't get out the previous two days because we had guests. They were lovely people and one of them made us sourdough bread, and left me a culture to use, and detailed instructions! So we had a happy weekend, but today we really needed a good walk, and this is 10km including decent uphill on a track section which I always seem to walk as fast as I possibly can - probably for two main reasons:

1) The vegetation doesn't change very much all along and there's very few lookout points, so I don't spend much time taking photographs

2) The walk to West Cape Howe is net uphill, the return is net downhill - so I can make it back quickly even if I've pretty much exhausted myself on the way up. The gradient of the walk doesn't interfere with taking long strides, it just makes you work hard on the way up. Then, on the way down, you can go fast even on jelly legs because gravity assists you.

The weather today was miserable, and the soaked landscape is bleeding water again after days of rain. Today was 15 degrees and drizzling, but by the time we got to the walk trail we only had to deal with light drizzle, and it had lengthy breaks in it.

This was about two thirds of the way to the hut - there's a bench at a lookout point which invites you to have a little break and snack. This pretty much means you always end up taking the same picture back towards Lowlands:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523458279_fc4d20ca73_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muXc6z)

After the Rame Head Walk screaming-feet experience, we bought boots more suited to long cross-country hikes than our mountain boots:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522752496_fed53e4a72_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muTzhU)

I've had these exact ones before but after three years, had walked their soles off. They were the most comfortable hiking boots I ever had and I was very happy to buy them again (amazed actually that they still made them). Keens make a really comfortable toe-box that's nearly square, instead of rounded like most manufacturers. I think that would save quite a few toenails on long-distance hikes - for example, on Thursday we did Cosy Corner to Dingo Beach - the maiden voyage for our new footwear - and met someone called Jack who'd walked nearly 600km from Perth, and he told us he'd lost six toenails on his walk.  :1f635:

This is Jess at the lookout, when she was exhorting us to get going again and I asked her if she wanted "more walkies?"...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51521946287_a1b6d8b155_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muPrCK)

The camping hut:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522759691_65e3c33228_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muTBqX)

Rolling dunes on the way back:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51521951827_608fd3972b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muPthg)

At the conclusion of the walk, we checked out the new walkway at Lowlands Beach, which was built because the old one had been damaged in a storm that had caused beach erosion. The waves were thundering into the bay today, and there were interesting things down on the beach, including bluebottle jellyfish and marine snails with floats.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522762276_87dd8dc284_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muTCcw)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522992263_31f65a86ce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muUNyP)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522766231_db9a0c3cf3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muTDnH)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522998503_2017b5e0e2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muUQqp)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523477814_d0fe69caec_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muXhUo)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523681215_14ddc88f67_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muYkni)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523476959_65dc0cea43_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muXhDD)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523680095_d28937d360_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muYk2Z)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51523001203_a3c575d05f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muURdX)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51522773496_bce1d194c3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muTFwY)

Happy outing and good fitness training. :smth023  For the full photo set, click on the map and then use the right arrow.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on September 30, 2021, 15:48:10
VALLEY OF THE GIANTS / NUT LOOKOUT

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51536033325_27d1fd0891_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw4DdH)

Today we had excellent weather and a wonderful sanity outing. After a scenic drive nearly to Walpole, we walked from the South Coast Highway into the Valley of the Giants, then back to the highway (first 10km) and then from the highway to Nut Lookout, which we'd approached from the south on a previous walk (http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=3458.msg775519#msg775519) two weeks ago (+4km). We've got one day walk to go before we will have effectively walked all the way from Peaceful Bay to the Valley of the Giants and back again - that's a total distance of 64km, of which we have done 48km so far on 4 outings (plus another 7.5km in leadout tracks so we could split one section into two day walks, = 55.5 of 71.5km of that section done). :cool

Trail start:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534072727_ede55e4a0f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTApi)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535797610_bf1a10aceb_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3r9E)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534078997_ca5587e964_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTCgp)

The above forest floor detail shows some eucalyptus flowers scattered around a discarded bit of bark. The flowers can fall off the trees in the wind, but are more commonly dislodged by cockatoos feeding on them.

Pretty soon, we were getting into tall timber...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535802460_2e112923b8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3sAh)

The whitish-barked trees are Karri, and these enormous buttressed trees are Tingle. Other tree species, like Jarrah, Marri and Casuarina, also occur in these forests, with each species having their own preferences for soil type etc.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535807360_afd08cc5d1_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3u3L)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535810710_5706ee4d4e_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3v3w)

This is a stand of Casuarinas. They shed needles (but aren't conifers) which are always superb to walk on - springy, and also the needle carpet seems to hush the sounds all around quite a bit.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535609114_5cbdb811ce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw2t7J)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535135308_39aafac7b2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvZ3gE)

Tree hoveas have purple flowers - not in focus here because a breeze blew in...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534110267_4b70fe8708_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTMyx)

When we reached our destination, I lay down on a comfortable log and looked at the sky for a bit.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535830800_bedc437851_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3B1U)

Meanwhile, Brett was getting us ice-creams from the shop at the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. The school holidays are here, and children were screaming like howler monkeys getting out of cars at this popular tourist destination. Not just children from one car, but children from quite a few cars, making an ongoing ululating din. Grrrrr.  :persevere: Their howling disturbs bird breeding and children should be taught the same manners going into natural cathedrals as they are taught going into man-made ones. There's plenty of places you can scream, but this isn't one of them. It's amazing how loud people are. I've also observed this in nocturnal houses at zoos. :1f62b:

Here comes the ice-cream man.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534111697_1c47c90f7a_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTMZc)

Dangling from his left arm are two Macadamia/Salted Caramel ice creams.  :yum:  We don't normally get ice-creams at our hiking halfway marks - this definitely added several stars to today's experience. The walk from the highway to the Valley of the Giants includes 130m of net uphill, and even more if you count the total uphills from all the ups and downs. It was a good workout, and the ice-cream was very welcome after that. The way back was net downhill.

Casuarina bark:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535152788_f036b3057f_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvZ8t3)

Brett inside the base of a very old (400+ years), still alive Tingle Tree:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535153848_1cfb742dc8_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvZ8Mj)

Tingles grow around 50m tall; historically there were 75m tall Tingles before most of them were logged.  :mad:

The white flowers are Clematis, a climbing plant.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534908041_3ba675a8ce_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvXSHg)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534120317_c8d1829199_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTQxP)

We probably should have stopped at the highway, but walked another 2km to the Nut Lookout to close the gap from a previous walk, where we'd approached that lookout from the south. The forest here is completely different; it's not Karri/Tingle wet forest, but sclerophyll - Jarrah/Marri open forests and woodlands with a far more species diverse understorey, as you can easily see from these pictures.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535849980_2751364176_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3GHA)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535644544_e9d01e0c34_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw2DDA)

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51534130012_0d52422867_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mvTTqY)

The view from to the coast from the lookout:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535856785_32c92f1d22_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw3JJV)

...and some interesting trees from the way home:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51535652974_028e8e56f3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mw2G9W)

To see all today's photos we thought worth keeping (50 of them), just click on the track map and then use the right arrow as usual. Plenty more shots of wildflowers etc and also our own mugs. 

And now I must do this: :1f634:
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 04, 2021, 11:37:26
Happy about my Sunday excursion to a former monastry in Fuerstenfeld (Bavaria); very impressive front:

(https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/244340031_4261910213886064_6430501751811645004_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=Fo9RTON9KLYAX975sIR&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&oh=2b72cbc304f5aada5674e5b5556fb2e3&oe=61603EBD)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on October 05, 2021, 13:52:37
I bought a new record player!
To be first tested in the new flat. Which record should be the first one I play? Sparks No 1 in heaven is currently my pick.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 11, 2021, 11:38:15
Finally I did get to see a real live concert again!  :happy

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/245334287_4282569955153423_6745133997211910917_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=LM31xl7MUecAX9RwJs7&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=6f177acd2ea34e18fc62832b09b8727d&oe=6168693D)

Just the sensation to hear (and feel/experience) live music again was overwhelming: Chris Eckman (trio) at Geislingen (Raetsche).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: SueC on October 16, 2021, 13:38:14
I'm glad you had a good night out with real music, @Ulrich!  :cool

I'm happy today because at the last Tennis Masters tournament this year, the underdogs have been winning and none of the "big guns" made it either into the men's or the women's last four. There's no Top 10 players in either semis and only one from the Top 20 (and that person is now going to make Top 10 and be the first Arab player to ever achieve this)!

It's so nice when other people get a turn - and it's far more interesting to watch competitions when it's not a foregone conclusion. The level of skill has been really high in the "underdog" group.

Also John Peers from Australia got into the doubles finals!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 30, 2021, 16:58:45
... I watched a football match (live, youth amateur league) with a relative playing and after a sloppy start, they kicked the other team right from the lawn (6:0)! Despite the drizzle, it was great to witness this. XD
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Pongo on November 01, 2021, 10:27:12
Quote from: Ulrich on October 11, 2021, 11:38:15Finally I did get to see a real live concert again!  (http://curefans.com/Smileys/twitter/1f603.png)

I can't wait. Hopefully there'll be something soon. I have Divine Comedy and Lloyd Cole lined up for the spring. But surely something will come along sooner.

Quote from: Ulrich on October 30, 2021, 16:58:45... I watched a football match (live, youth amateur league) with a relative playing and after a sloppy start, they kicked the other team right from the lawn (6:0)! Despite the drizzle, it was great to witness this.

I have been to a few ice hockey matches. Good thing with that is that it's indoors. But my team is having a dreadful season so far. Despite that it's a rather strange feeling being together with so many people and no one is sure about how to behave properly with the distance keeping and all of that.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 12, 2021, 16:41:03
...I've been taking a break from spending too much time online (staring at screens), which has been good for my eyes. :happy

Also, witnessing a sunset in a vineyard was very nice
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 03, 2022, 14:37:23
The year started off pretty nicely, with a walk on a beach (lake of Constanze), the clouds and the sunlight behind them made for a special atmosphere:

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/220103/avmk8p6p.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 08, 2022, 15:00:56
Went to a supermarket, then to another one (because while I like the first one, there's things I couldn't find there, but needed to bring my mum), there I got some bananas, a woman crossed my way from the left, so I stopped and let her pass, she nodded to say "thanks" - and we looked at each other... with the masks on, you can almost only see the hair and the eyes... I said "oh it is you", because I finally recognised an old friend. Hadn't seen her in years, but she lives nearby now, so she expected to run into me some day. (We'd lost touch a few years ago, but that should change now.)  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on January 29, 2022, 13:14:51
Colombia 0 Peru 1 in a key victory for the World Cup in Qatar. It was Peru's first victory in Colombian soil since 1997. Still three matches to go but Peru depends of itself, so fingers crossed! Chances for qualification intact. Scroll to 07:00 for the goal.

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on February 12, 2022, 17:06:53
Finally some sunshine! 😎

...but only today and tomorrow.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 24, 2022, 20:31:18
On this rather sad day, it made me happy to go chasing some little white spots in the woods (we call them "Maerzenbecher", they're "spring snowflakes" in English I think)

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274729029_4747419182001829_213388683543913484_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=e3f864&_nc_ohc=BuTfBiWooLQAX83nxgX&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=00_AT8bnkco_wFtz7N6ozXFpT4eiIO9DqU_b9-U1YG0yPasHw&oe=621D5B15)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 28, 2022, 13:39:06
I keep making historical excursions to keep myself happy... yesterday on the way home, there was a beautiful evening sky and I took this photo (church tower of the "Michaelsberg" can be seen in it):

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274927829_4757772134299867_2471521433273628561_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=lsMASaAnRGUAX-19r6e&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=00_AT9JiLbno1Ao8xZyUJ-jq3P0YUaU-iK3reKUMBDVrqhd-Q&oe=62212A92)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on March 30, 2022, 17:01:34
Peru won to Paraguay and will play against Australia or UAE in June for a final spot to the World Cup :)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 31, 2022, 13:00:01
Quote from: dsanchez on March 30, 2022, 17:01:34Peru won to Paraguay

Is it too late for a t-shirt contest?  :-D

I am (kinda) happy because I did some walking/hiking while the weather was nice (for a few weeks), now with snow coming over the weekend, I might stay indoors more.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 27, 2022, 11:56:36
... the pain in my neck & shoulder has disappeared.  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on June 13, 2022, 17:39:08
I had the last check-up appointment with the surgeon without any waiting time.  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Lollo on July 10, 2022, 20:30:23
Im happy today because im on summer vaccation and im home relaxing in the sunshine
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 15, 2022, 15:18:26
Happy about my decision to go and see Bob Geldof & band. Good show, crystal-clear sound, the hits and other songs were played...

(https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/293005585_5129928360417574_5464670718563297303_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=vwrpKjTHxoUAX_5GeD_&_nc_ht=scontent-muc2-1.xx&oh=00_AT_xcg1CnduiGPoUwKWRVdDjMQp2bLhST6N7Foa--e5SYA&oe=62D59514)

(Not bad for my first ever pic of him, eh?)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 25, 2022, 14:48:51
I'm often very happy when I come home from an excursion with some nice photos to look at!

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/220725/temp/4zom27he.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net/file/d/6621/4zom27he_jpg.htm)
(Click for larger image; this is from Oettingen i. Bay.)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 04, 2022, 11:03:47
Nick Cave Alone At Rastatt Palace  ;)
(Well not all alone; there was an audience of 6,000 people and his band waiting in the wings)

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/220804/9aqaqrpg.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net/)

The concert was very good, very emotional (for me at least). Never saw Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds before, so it was about time. Before I went to the Palace, I had a look around town (nice). Soundcheck was done while I was near, it was good to hear a short instrumental part of "Carnage" being played, as I was hoping for stuff from this album (it's "only" Nick Cave & Warren Ellis on the album, so I wasn't sure if Bad Seeds concerts were going to include this, but seeing Warren Ellis is part of the band, of course they did)!

It was a very hot day, first thing Nick Cave told us (after a "hello" and "thank you") was "It's f***in' hot" then (I assume someone shouted something) "No, the jacket stays on".  :-D

They started with "Get Ready for Love" and "There she goes, my beautiful world" (both from "Abattoir Blues" 2004), then an old one "From Her To Eternity", then "O Children" (from "The Lyre of Orpheus, also 2004!). Many favourites were included (although Nick Cave released so many albums, he could play for five hours and there'd still be songs missing). One of the many highlights was "Jubilee Street", which started slower than the studio version, then transforming into a faster and rocking version! Nick Cave on piano performed "I Need You", which brought tears to my eyes...
Hits like "The Mercy Seat" and "Henry Lee" were also in the setlist of course.

"Mermaids" was one of the encores, apparently they hadn't played it for years, but it went well. The show went on for about two and a half hours. Some people left after the first encore, which gave me the chance to move a bit closer to the stage. (The setting in the court of the Palace was perfect anyway.)

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 31, 2022, 16:25:53
Happy Halloween!

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/221031/g7x6bvkn.jpg)

Pic is from the Damned reunion show last weekend, something that made me happy (for them, although I couldn't be there)!  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 02, 2023, 17:32:37
Happy about my New Year's day trip and managed to catch the sunset by the lake!

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/230102/3xvxycee.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on January 02, 2023, 19:16:50
I'm happy about the unexpected "financial injection" in the last month. That gives me more leeway in the first quarter. Many thanks to my pension insurer and my energy supplier! and... I have to be careful, I might not be single much longer. ♊️😶♎️
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 03, 2023, 11:40:03
Quote from: MeltingMan on January 02, 2023, 19:16:50... I have to be careful, I might not be single much longer.

Good luck to you! And take care indeed, or all of the "financial injection" will soon be gone.  :winking_tongue
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 15, 2023, 13:14:21
... I solved not one, but two crosswords today, so no one can say I'm a non-achiever. :beaming-face :D
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on February 13, 2023, 16:08:57
I couldn't believe it anymore myself, but now it's becoming apparent that I'm back in a relationship. However, it's not official yet. It will still be a long way, but the basis and the direction are right. ♊️😌♎️
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on February 14, 2023, 16:28:03
Well I'm happy about seeing the sun(set) when some days here are grey/foggy...

(https://s20.directupload.net/images/230214/temp/qdztkx5u.jpg) (https://www.directupload.net/file/d/6826/qdztkx5u_jpg.htm)

Quote from: MeltingMan on February 13, 2023, 16:08:57...it's becoming apparent that I'm back in a relationship. However, it's not official yet.

Good luck to you on your way there!  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on February 22, 2023, 11:56:36
Saw two people again after five to six years each. Life is slowly coming back...  :cool
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: dsanchez on March 12, 2023, 22:41:41
My accountant managed to get me a tax refund... :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on March 13, 2023, 16:24:22
Totally happy about spending an evening in Munich with The Damned and a lot of (old and new) friends!  :happy

First of all, my mate Michael was kind enough to drive all the way to Munich & back (took about 90mins, but it felt like 20 mins, because we chatted happily about old and new times).
At the gig, I met a woman I'd only known via the internet before. I'd seen many photos of her, so I immediately recognised her when she walked in. Nice to finally be able to chat a bit and enjoy some music together (or apart, because her favourite spot near the front seemed too loud for my ears).

Also I met another guy I knew from gigs way back, but hadn't seen in 20 years. We also recognised each other immediately.

How cool was that... and the gig itself was rather good too! Many new songs, soon to be released on "Darkadelic".

P.S.: In the audience, I saw quite a few people wearing The Cure t-shirts (from the recent tour), which made me happy as well.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on March 17, 2023, 09:01:01
Quote from: FOCUS onlineAxel Springer is resigning from the entire "Bild" editor-in-chief. This emerges from a press release by Axel Springer. The editor-in-chief will in future consist of two instead of four people.

Marion Horn will take over as editor-in-chief with immediate effect, and Robert Schneider will become editor-in-chief of "Bild" as planned in mid-April, Axel Springer announced on Thursday in Berlin.
The current editors-in-chief Johannes Boie, Alexandra Würzbach and Claus Strunz are stepping down from their previous roles. Boie took up the post of editor-in-chief on October 18, 2021, succeeding Julian Reichelt.

Marion Horn is back - very good.  :smth023
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on April 19, 2023, 15:09:11
... I spontaneously went to an event with someone reciting poems & stories (about the 4 seasons), while a woman on piano and a man on violoncello were playing musical pieces (by Vivaldi, Schumann and others).
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 06, 2023, 11:40:53
... my trip to Frankonia was a great day. Saw a few nice places, then went to the gig, where I met so many nice people (incl. the artist himself, TV Smith & his partner Sally)! The concert itself was very good, after four years I got the goosebumps listening to those old & new songs...

Here is a pic from a nice little town in Frankonia:
(https://s20.directupload.net/images/230506/oz96ri2v.jpg)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 08, 2023, 16:37:46
... I might have made a new acquaintance. Not long ago I reported this:

Quote... I've been reading some issues of "Time" magazine (my mother knows a lady who's married to an American, so he gave those to her for me to read)...

To say "thank you" I gave my mother a card with a handwritten note for the man, which he seems pleased about. He might need someone to chat to occasionally, as his wife's friends mostly speak only German.

He's about twice my age (over 100 years old!) and used to fly helicopter for the U.S.A. (I guess he was in Korea and/or Vietnam). That is so far removed from "my world", that any conversation can only be interesting!!  :1f62e:  :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on May 09, 2023, 19:06:33
It must be summertime or the days getting longer, anyway I saw two people after a long absence including hippiecat who is registered here with us.  :)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 15, 2023, 19:34:10
... I got an invitation to be on the guestlist of a radio show (a duo playing live on a small independent radio station)! :happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 17, 2023, 12:16:46
... because this was great fun!

Quote from: Ulrich on May 15, 2023, 19:34:10...on the guestlist of a radio show (a duo playing live on a small independent radio station)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on May 21, 2023, 10:57:13
... went seeing a band I hardly knew (The Silos), they were good and I met some nice people I hadn't seen in years.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on May 22, 2023, 12:19:56
Aimed at someone outside the forum.

@Queenofcupss (old channel name)

I am happy that you are back. Now I know at least two experts where I can hear the freight train in the background every now and then.  ;)  Awakens childhood memories. Keep it up!  :smth023

PS: A comment on the Gemini readings: the number of clicks has already exploded in the past year. I cannot judge whether this will remain the case. Some don't like it and this affects the readings that are sold as 'positive'. If I have a problem with a specific person or group and I know their zodiac sign, how is an unbiased reading possible?! Just one example: I don't need to know if someone is "sneaking around my house" or performing "sexual acts" on themselves. That's ridiculous.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 06, 2023, 15:17:20
Happy about the trip to the lake in Starnberg:

(https://share-your-photo.com/img/f8b2303dfa_album.jpg) (https://share-your-photo.com/f8b2303dfa)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on June 07, 2023, 16:27:44
I'm happy because I saw a lot of Ukrainian or even Russian mothers. You are a role model for many.  :heart-eyes
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on June 09, 2023, 13:27:20
... last night I went to see some friends supporting a "strange" band named "Knarf Relloem Arkestra" (yes they're pretty crazy...)! It was great fun, dancing & drinking alc-free beer in this half-pub (at night), half-shop (during daytime).  :cool

https://www.laut.de/Knarf-Relloem
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on July 31, 2023, 14:24:17
Happy about my trip to Hohenhaslach:

(https://share-your-photo.com/img/5fa5a7aa69_album.jpg) (https://share-your-photo.com/5fa5a7aa69)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 22, 2023, 13:40:40
Happy (but a bit exhausted) about a short holiday in Franconia:

(https://share-your-photo.com/img/95138dab10_album.jpg) (https://share-your-photo.com/95138dab10)
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on August 30, 2023, 12:59:49
During my short holiday, I spent a few days doing a "sightseeing tour" with friends from UK (which I'd organised and planned a bit beforehand) and I received this nice "feedback", which made me happy:

QuoteIt was great to see you again.  It was a lovely informative tour and I really enjoyed and valued your kindness to an 'old lady'.
:happy
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: crespi on October 02, 2023, 13:29:17
I finally realised which my most favourite Cure song is. Might be a third world problem to some, but I finally found all the courage to let it all go.
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on October 04, 2023, 15:30:04
Welcome to the forum @crespi !

I'm happy about the visit to a nice town I made yesterday (old town centre & museum in castle).

Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on November 17, 2023, 17:45:36
Many thought it was impossible for him to ever rejoin, but last year's original line-up reunion paved the way!

https://vivelerock.net/blogs/news-1/rats-back-legendary-drummer-rejoins-the-damned-permanently

QuoteVive Le Rock can exclusively announce that founder member Rat Scabies has rejoined The Damned for tours, festivals and more in 2024!
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: MeltingMan on November 30, 2023, 18:42:29
An acquaintance of mine is picking up his future wife from St. Petersburg(!) the day after tomorrow. :smth023 🚗  :heart-eyes


In the meantime, I'm wondering whether my friend from the Zaporozhye area might be living in Germany (again). Her husband was a member of the Red Army in 1990. Who knows...
Title: Re: Happy today because....
Post by: Ulrich on January 02, 2024, 14:27:18
Happy about my New Year's Day adventure (drove to the Lake of Constanze):

(https://share-your-photo.com/img/6547420ffa_album.jpg) (https://share-your-photo.com/6547420ffa)