Bad Toad

One of Australia's biggest ecological catastrophy was the introduction of the cane toad as a measure to try and combat the cane beetles. As this animal was introduced from South America, it went on to spread (and continues to do so) and is a real pest in itself since it has poison glands and its tadpoles are highly toxic to most animals if ingested. It kills fish, lizards and any kind of wildlife really because of its poison and is spreading at an alarming rate. On the road to Katherine I always try to kill my good share while driving on these ugly pests. Unfortunately, I occasionally have one on my front entrance and I would be glad if the neighbour's cat could help me to get rid of it since he seems highly interested!

Record of the Week: Old Jerusalem 'Two Birds Blessing'

I still remember the first time I heard Iron & Wine. It gave me such a peaceful and happy feeling. The music was delicate and lovingly crafted. Sam Beam’s singing was so charming and sweet without being twee… All this to say that I had a similar feeling when I heard for the first time the previous Old Jerusalem album while I was in Portugal a couple of years ago. Therefore, I was very curious when I saw there was a new release this year. And it did not disappoint. It even greatly surpasses this Portuguese folk songwriter’s previous effort to become one of my favourite albums of the year so far. Go and visit its MySpace to hear some tracks as usual.

While I am talking about Iron & Wine, it is worth mentioning that Sub Pop issued a lovely live CD in the States last Saturday 'Norfolk 06-20-05' for the Record Store Day (hence only officially available in stores, in the US, on that day but surely available through eBay at silly prices) and a new double album will be out on the 19th of May (‘Around the Well’).

Fisho

What do people do on Sunday? They fish? What do people do in the morning? They fish? What do people do in the evening? They fish? What do people do whenever they have 5 minutes? They fish? Well, that is true for the Northern Territory. Everywhere you see a paddle of water you can see fishermen (called 'fisho' in here). It is the number one passtime for guys, girls and kids alike.

Yeehaaa!

Today is the International Record Store Day but well... there are not many in the area. Instead I went for a very Australian experience tonight. The rodeo. The event that took place at the Litchfield Pub, an hour drive away from Darwin, is the first meet in an eight-round competition which will continue throughout the year. It was an interesting experience as seen from a tourist point of view but it was a bit like being in a parrallel world for me. All those cowboys and cowgirls, hat and beer culture are a thing that do not have so much connection with my interests but once more it made for an entertaining evening. I particularly enjoyed the bareback and bronco showdowns. And in case you wonder, the action was way too fast for my little camera so I propose a crowd photo instead.

Mindil

Tonight we parked the park at the museum and went for a nice walk from the museum grounds, over George Brown's garden and down to Mindil Beach. It was actually the nearest I found myself to the casino. The above picture was actually taken last week but it is a photo of the casino which has always looked like an ugly blockhaus from distance. I was actually surprised to see that it could probably be a pleasant place. I will definitely have to give some of its restaurants a try.

Burnett House

Here is the external view of the Burnett House I was mentioning yesterday. Beni Burnett was quite an interesting character. He actually grew up in Asia; his parents were Scottish missionaries and he spent time in Mongolia and Malaysia. You actually do see the influence of his early years in his architecture. He subsequently became the Australian Government's Principal architect in the Northern Territory, and was commissioned to design quite a few houses in Darwin for senior public servants. Only a couple survive on the left and right of this building.

Tea Time

Every Sunday from 3.30pm to 6pm the National Trust hosts a High Tea in the verdant tropical gardens of Burnett House. Burnett House is a rare example of Darwin’s early tropical architecture, having survived both the Japanese bombings in 1942 and Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Today is not Sunday unfortunately but I promised myself I woul go there for that occasion one day. In the meantime I visited the place under a nice tropical day and could easily imagine the life in the area a century ago...

Build Down

Probably one of the last evening clouds of the season. Now that we are reaching the end of that cross season locally called the 'build down' (as opposed to the build up) the clouds are going to be a rare sight. We are in for a long 'dry'. The green of the nature will turn a bit yellow, the smoke will start to be a common sight in the evening sky and some of the birds will migrate to wetter pastures. In the meantime I continue to enjoy the view from my balcony...

Record of the Week: Cymbals Eat Guitars ‘Why There Are Mountains’

It is all in the title. Cymbals Eat Guitars certainly are the reason why there are mountains. It all makes sense now! A melodic chaos of sound. They are the band everyone is talking about. And you can’t read a blog review not comparing them to Pavement. Come on. Leave Pavement out of this. Cymbals Eat Guitars have their own particular sound but one thing is for sure is that they had to come from New York. Only New York bands know how to deliver melodies so easily but with an impression of slackness, wackness and nonchalance! If you can’t find their album anywhere on the internet – and even if you can – I still recommend you purchase it through Piccadilly Records or any other good music specialist who know their music.
Other contenders for the record of week title were the new The Juan McLean album ('The Future Will Come') on DFA and last week’s issue of the BBC concert of Elbow’s album ('Seldom Seen Kid Live At Abbey Road') that I only could listen to yesterday for the first time.

Yurmikmik

It was a long drive for a short walk but totally worth it. Today we decided to explore another part of Kakadu and ended up in the Southern Part known as the Mary River area. We decided to go for a 4-hour trek from Yurmikmik. We were rewarded by a beautiful and peaceful fall and natural pool at the end of the track. It is funny though that you cannot help thinking about the crocs that might lure from below the water while you are swimming (even though it considered to be a safe place to swim). We also noticed how dry the nature starts to look like. It will definitely be a dry, long and harsh season for some of the wildlife in this park.

Box Jellyfish Safety

There are so many nice places to go walking to in Darwin. And we keep on discovering more and more of these pleasant spots. Tonight we went to the Casuarina Coastal Reserve. It features 13 km of sandy beaches, dramatic cliffs and casuarina trees. Unfortunately, as any beaches in the area, you can only walk or rest on them. But always remain alert in case of crocodiles. In the water the biggest danger comes from the deadly box jellyfish that can be present all year long really... so no swimming! That's frustrating.

Good Friday

We were a bit lazy today and we are not very Christian but as we always enjoy seasonal food goodies we purchased some Hot Cross Buns which are very popular all around the world in AngloSaxon countries. I had my first ones 25 years ago in England. Calling our family we discovered they all made their own for Easter, some the traditional way with raisins, others a bit more fancy with cranberries. I like the way they taste and it always is a pleasure, while eating them, to think that it will be a full year before I have another taste...

M/V Stella Deneb

215 meters long, 38000 Square meters. Those are the dimensions of the biggest Cattle Vessel in the world. It was here at the Port today to load another shipment of cows from the Northern Territory. Destination? The Middle East. When I was working in Dubai I used to see them coming full of sheep from New Zealand just before the Ramadan and cows from Australia all year long. Now I see them at the point of origin. I am just a bit more compassionate for the poor beasts and also wondering what the methane carbon footprint surrounding this vessel is.

Hoons on Utes

Two very Australian words in one title. The hoons are mostly white, suburban, teenagers. Not much of a brain. They are those kids whose main activities include speeding, street racing, burnouts or screeching tyres in their utes. So what's a ute I hear you ask? Just see the picture above. A ute is short for 'utility vehicle'. They have been very much in fashion for some years now but lately they have been mainly coming in funny colours and it is not uncommon to see gangs of them aligned at some reststop parkings. Each country has its own plague really.

Flix in the Wet – The Final

Yesterday evening was the last screening of the indoor Flix in the Wet festival. Now that we are entering the ‘Dry’, the festival will be back to its original location, outdoors, screening movies for mobs of aficionados from the comfort of their deckchair under the Down Under starry sky. This last movie had to be one of the best I have seen coming out of Italy in years. Having shared an office with an Italian guy for over a year I was very familiar with the main actor, Antonio Albanese, but I was surprised to see this comedian (‘Chiu pilu per tutti’) playing a rather ‘dramatic’ role. Meanwhile, the main actress, Margherita Buy, was seen before in another excellent italian movie called ‘Le Fate Ignoranti’ (His Secret Life) and she turned out to be fantastically charming once more in this one.

Record of the Week: Bob Evans 'Goodnight, Bull Creek!’

It might have been recorded in Nashville with producer Brad Jones but Bob Evans latest album is pure Australiana. A kind of Australian poppier version of Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy) if you ask me. The first single to be lifted out of his new and third album is ‘Someone So Much’ and features such a ridiculously catchy chorus that once you have heard it one time, it just sticks in your head for hours and days and weeks. The same is also true for some other album tracks like ‘Pasha Bulker’. Highly recommended Asutralian singer songwriter pop material.

Listen to some tracks on MySpace as usual, visit his website and if you cannot get your hands on his CD in your country, download it through iTunes or order it through JB Hi-Fi.

Yellow River

After a wonderful sunset yesterday, we started the day with an even more wonderful sunrise cruising through the Yellow River. We did not regret waking up at 5 and enjoyed the very active fauna living along this floodplain. This had to be the highlight of our trip to Kakadu. Seeing all these birds in their natural habitat and most impressively a good number of crocodiles. We then headed for a walk to another amazing Aboriginal Rock Art Site at Nourlangie also providing commanding views of Kakadu's escarpment. Finally, we ended the visit via a 1 hour flight all the way down to the famous Jim Jim and Twin Falls which are still unaccessible by car at this time of the year. It gave us a very different perspective. A wonderful week-end exploring Kakadu overland, over water and from the air.

Ubirr

Today we decided to take a private guide to try and learn more about the Art, culture and geology of the Bininj. And we indeed learnt a lot. Our guide was so entertaining, friendly and knowledgeable. We learnt a lot about the Mimi spirits visiting the mysterious Art Sites on the way to the top of a rocky lookout offering amazing views over the Nadab floodplains at sunset. A powerful experience.

Before Kakadu

Ouch! If Kakdu was planned for the week-end, the fact I would go under general anaesthesia to get two wisdom teeth removed today was not really part of the program. Not that they were paining but the monthly visit of an oral specialist from New South Wales up in Darwin motivated me to go for this operation and it was decided in a blink. At 1415 I still had my wisdom teeth and at 1630 I was out from the clinic without them and after a short but deep sleep. I do not see any reason why it would prevent me from enjoying my week-end!

Casuarina Square

As probably mentioned a few times over this blog, people are not that interested in shopping in the Northern Territory. Their main occupation is fishing and after work people do not have many goals: fishing, fishing and fishing. And having a beer. Or several. Casuarina is the largest shopping centre. It can be fairly busy on Saturdays but as the fishing rule also applies to the Ladies here, you never see many of them browsing through the handbag section in the fashion stores.

Petits Canards

A fish story could have been appropriate for April Fools Day but it is actually a sad story. All my little fish that have always been so happy to see me when I was approaching to feed them and that looked so healthy and lively in their pond died on Sunday due to water poisoning (probably too much chlorine in Darwin's water). Fortunately, I still have thousands of natural fish in the marina at the back of my house and most importantly the little duck family that had disappeared for a while has just started to reappear. It is amazing to see of the ducklings have grown since the last time they paid me a visit. I had feared they might have been eaten by a crocodile or something but they are obviously too smart for that!

Nightcliff

Just the name is kind of exotic to me, or at least mysterious... It is somehow rumoured to be associated with one of the Beagle trips. Darwin is pretty small but it is only recently that I started to enjoy the Northern suburb of Nightcliff. It has a long footpath along its foreshore that is used for walking and cycling and it is particularly busy in the evenings after work. Along the footpath there is Nightcliff Jetty, Nightcliff Beach and Nightcliff Swimming Pool. All are very pleasants places to wander around.

Record of the Week: Felice Brothers 'Yonder is the Clock'

Even though I definitely dislike the way the USA saturate the world with their manufactured mass produced bland and tasteless music there are always a few bands and artists escaping the mould. They represent the real America and they deserve much more exposure. Take Calexico, American Music Club or David Bazan. The Felice Brothers can also be added to this list. They are composed of three brothers Ian, Simone and James Felice, their friend Christmas, previously a traveling dice player, and, most recently, Farley, a washboard player and fiddler. Their new album is out soon and you should definitely check their MySpace page to listen to some tracks or their website for info and updates.

Rapid Creek Market

The market season is approaching with the famous Mindil Beach Sunset market soon to reopen as it seasonally does every year in late April. In the meantime you can enjoy a few markets in Darwin, especially on weekends. Yesterday, we went to the Parap Market which is pretty small and a bit hippie but still enjoyable. Today, we were in search of organic fresh fruits and vegetables so we headed to the famous Rapid Creek market. It has a strong Asian influence. Coincidentally, a few people have been questioning me on Darwin's legendary Asian influences lately and I have to admit that I kind of see them less obvious here than in Sydney for exemple. But in between Thai massages, Indian spices and Vietnamese food stalls you could be mistaken for thinking you are somewhere in Asia.

A dragon fly can tell a lie on early Dry

The above was a title of the local newspaper (NT Newspaper) at the beginning of the month. It is true that the Dry season is not supposed to have officially arrived before mid-April. But it has been quite beautiful and dry since the beginning of March (to the exception of a couple of flash storms). I have also noticed that the reed beds in the mangroves are starting to lose their bright green wet colours in favour of dry browns. for the locals, one thing is for sure, the en masse arrival of the dragonflies clearly marks the end of the Wet (even if they can tell a lie). The one above was flirting with some others above my fish pond.

Saltie

Not a day in the Northern Territory without its croc story. And crocodile catching is a full time job for a wildlife ranger team in the area. Your typical newspaper front-page always carries one their sighting experiences. It was amazing to read that 58 crocodiles have been trapped in the area since the beginning of the year including three on this very day. If I have my statistic correct and if we continue with that trend it will make an average 250 crocs caught in the year. If I remember correctly it is more or less the figure that was also reported for the whole year in 2008. What happen to these crocs? They are sent to the crocodile farm with the nicest specimen kept in captivity and the rest probably end up in handbags, shoes or barbecue skewers.

Hand cream

It might be the result of too much swimming but my hands have pretty dry lately. Therefore, to keep them moist I have started to use my favourite cream once more. I do not want to sound like a walking advertisement when I talk about the products I use but I believe I would not hesitate to criticize loudly all the same if I were to be disappointed with something. That said, I am generally of a positive nature so these occasions might be pretty rare.

Evening at the Esplanade

This was actually taken yesterday evening from the same place as the thunder at the Esplanade. The picture has not been edited from its original content (except cropped). Sunsets can be fantastic in Darwin, and if there is no sunset you can get scary colours before the evening thunderstorm!

Thunder Lightning

Back in the Northern Territory after an absolutely gorgeous week-end in New South Wales. And I am back in what Darwin is famous for: thunderstorms. After a beautiful day, the sky suddenly turned balck by 6pm tonight and the wind started to blow. It is very usual up here but not all the storms are spectacular and they more often than not disappear after a few minutes. I have never experienced such beautiful lightnings as what I was given to witness tonight. Spectacular! I parked the car on the Esplanade and joined the crowds trying to capture it on picture but it is far from being an easy task. At least 50 black or white pictures...