Frog in pitcher plant

I don't think that these baby black swans can fly very well
with those wings

I didn't expect to see a frog in a pitcher plant today, but we did.  At least Sha's dad and I did.  Sha and her mum went shopping.  I've just realised that I need to know Sha's dad's name.  Apparently it is YuKui Du.  Okay, I'd better remember that.  It doesn't mean anything.  The frog was sitting in the bottom of the pitcher plant and seemed happy enough.

We also saw some strange plants with long, fluffy, red, trailing bits.  We then walked across the botanical gardens to the opera house.  Then we met about 1 million people all walking in the opposite direction so we found Sha and her mum and went home.  I've just made some pizza bases and we've all populated them with our favourite ingredients. Sha and her dad had an argument about bacon.

Sha told me yesterday that her father was very confused about why I wanted him to swim across a river yesterday.   That was embarrassing.  I'd been trying to mime canoeing and obviously got it rather wrong.  Luckily he didn't jump in the river.

... but they can swim

There was a frog in here

time to eat the pizza 

Lunch in a cave

Yesterday I went crazy.  We were driving round and round in circles in a mega-shopping-centre.  We had entered assuming that we'd be able to find some lunch, but once in we couldn't find a parking spot, nor the exit.  It was horrible.  Anyway, it reminded me that I hadn't been on a long walk in the bush for ages.  So, today Sha and her mum had a relaxing day at home while Sha's dad and I went bush walking.  We simply walked out of our house, into the Lane Cove park and then kept walking for 3 hours.  It was beautiful.  We had lunch in a cave.  I made the lunch - no chicken feet in sight.  

Unfortunately I didn't charge my camera battery and so don't have any pictures, but I've found some photos on the web of the various birds and animals that we saw.

Eastern Water Dragon. From: http://danny.id.au/photography/galleries/20050115-water-dragon/p/51151231-water-dragon.jpg. We saw a huge number of these dragons.  They mainly sat on a tree trunk.  One jumped into the water as we came past and then swam away.

Common Fence Skink: From: http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Images/5947/Cryptoblepharus_S%20Swanson_b.jpg.

Red browed finch.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-browed_Finch.  These were everywhere!

Eastern spinebill: http://www.avianweb.com/images/birds/honeyeaters/easternspinebill2.jpg.  So beautiful!

Crimson Rosella:from wikipedia.  These birds always seem to come in twos.  One of these wanted our sandwiches.

We also saw lots of cockatoos, a kookaburra sitting on a BBQ and a Cuckoo.  Sha's dad got excited by all the big fish that we saw in the river.

Canoeing on the Lane Cove River

What a relaxing hour.  We drove down to the Lane Cove National Park and hired a canoe for Sha's dad and myself.  We left Sha and her mum on the bank!   As soon as we'd passed the first corner then we had the whole river to ourselves (apart from a large number of lizards, birds, and things that went splash).  The water was perfectly calm and we could glide up to ducks, herons, moorhens, cormorants, darters and water dragons.   Our conversation was limited to saying "big duck" and "fish, is it?" and so most of the time we just silently paddled up the river.



Then we came home and played Donkey Kong which is not very peaceful.

Sha and her parents ambled around taking a million photos
of this Kookaburra

Moorhen + baby, lizard + baby + duck

I'm back

I've finally worked out how to recover my gmail password and so can log back into blogger.  No idea what to write here, but my New Year resolution is to try and keep my blog more up-to-date.

News From KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK

Reading the North Korean news is very enjoyable.  Highly recommended.

US Urged to Abandon Its War Plan

Pyongyang, September 23 (KCNA) -- The U.S., seized by megalomania that it is the world's only "super power", is going reckless without any elementary calculation only falling into ruin. Rodong Sinmun on Sunday says this in a bylined article. It goes on: Anachronistic is the intention of the U.S. to ignite the second war to invade the DPRK in order to escape the crisis. What the U.S. has forgotten is its bitter defeat in the past Korean War. The Korean War in the 1950s clearly proved that there is no match in the world to the Korean people all out for the just cause. The U.S. experienced the great might of the stout-hearted people for the first time in its history of aggression. It was more horrible than A-bomb. The present U.S. ruling quarters and warlike forces are now oblivious of this. They are also forgetful of the reason why the preceding administrations dared not unleash a war for aggression on the DPRK though they eagerly wanted to start it. If the U.S. provokes a new war against the DPRK, it will suffer the great defeat incomparable with the one in the past Korean War. A new Korean war being attempted by the U.S. is a hopeless adventure. The war will bring the U.S. nothing but only ruin.

Got to Narrabri

Apparently the World's largest sundial

After 515 or so kilometres we have arrived at the telescope.  My GPS made it quite an adventure again.  I'm sure that we went on every small, windy road that was in the GPS's database.  We did pass lots of vineyards, the world's largest sundial, a burning mountain (that has been burning for 6000+ years), a mountain road that was burnt yesterday, two foxes, a wedge-tailed eagle that we forced to drop a live rabbit, lots of kangaroos, the Gundegah Noodle House and the "Who'd a thought it lookout" (which, admittedly was a bit of a disappointment).

The burning mountain

Our rather unexpected route to Narrabri -- but it was enjoyable

Lots of yellow fields

Arrival into Narrabri

In Beijing

Some more photos of China ...

Going to another Chinese wedding

Here comes the bride

Bride and groom

Trying to find a cup of coffee

Sha and nephew

At home

The forbidden city

Behai park

Arriving at the forbidden city

Find Rob Hollow!

Having a "Sydney fire tea"

At the Lama temple

The mathematics hall where everyone worships all the mathematics!!

da shizi

buying incense

From Xinjiang to Beijing

Dick and the people that he has worked with over the years in China

A lot of people at Dick's birthday party

I'm becoming forgetful.  So much has happened in the last couple of weeks.  On the last evening in Urumqi, we had a party to celebrate Dick's 70th birthday.  This involved him getting a lot of presents and various songs and dances.

Then I flew back to Beijing.  The flight was crazy.  Everyone (including myself) had bought at least one box of grapes.  Unfortunately all boxes of grapes look the same and so this led to some disagreements when we were all trying to pick up our luggage when we arrived.

I was met by Sha and her uncle (who seemed remarkably impressed by my Chinese). The next day, Sha, her parents and I went to the history museum.  The museum started with the Peking Man and went on to almost the current day.

The first section was just as you'd expect from a major history museum.  Very informative.  Lots of pots.  Interesting exhibits.  The second section was much more fun.  It started with a "preface" that read "The Chinese nation is a great nation whose people are Industrious, courageous, intelligent and peace-loving and have made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization ... highlights the glorious history of China under the leadership of the Communist Part of China."  Apparently people like Sha are "standing firm in the east".

Actually Sha was telling me how, when she was a little girl, she tried to steal the frogs in the earthquake detector.  Anyway, the exhibition continued and said that we should all "hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "strive for the great goals of implementing the 12th Five-Year Program and building a moderately prosperous society."  Why would any country strive towards a "moderately" prosperous society?

Drunk on a Kazak Horse

The view from my hotel room!

Strong spirits, fermented horse milk, a dead sheep and liver kebabs make for an interesting meal.  This combination seems to make you think that heading off through the Kazak scenery with a random chap that you've just met (who has a horse) is a good idea.

Arrival in Nanshan

We had a great day today. A bus picked us up in the morning to take us to the Nanshan observatory.  I saw the largest ground-hog in the World.  And lots of eagles.  We clambered around on the telescope for a while and then continued up into the mountains for lunch with a local family that has known Dick Manchester for 15+ years.  They killed a sheep specially for us and we ate it in their yurt.  Then I got drunk.

Preparing to climb on the telescope

The view from the telescope

Dick walking to lunch

Lunch time!

The freshly killed sheep

The owners of the yurt

Inside our yurt

The "ceiling"

My beautiful horse

Back in Changji

A hole for the largest ground hogs that I've ever seen

Dinner in a hui restaurant in Changji