No Fault

The Australian summer tennis season has started with the opening new Brisbane tennis centre at Tennyson.

Well, it was an excuse to use this pic.

Cute huh?

Good Thing It Was A British Explorer

Australia Day isn't until three and a bit weeks but one couldn't resist the temptation to go with this image early.

It is the third plate in the lovely Ladybird book series Flight One Australia.

The image is supposed to depict Captain James Cook landing at Botany Bay in 1770 but in fact it bares more resemblance to the portrait of Captain Phillip Arthur who settled at Sydney Cove on January 26 1788.

Note the difference between the naval ensign and the Union Jack in each of the portraits and this image.

Here's some text from the facing page in the book:

"They had an idea there was land here," said Mrs Spencer. "The old maps only had vague lines drawn on this part of the world and it was called the 'Unknown Land'. Three of four hundred years ago seamen from England, Portugal, Holland and France discovered the other side, but it was such a barren land they they didn't bother about it."

"Captain Cook came the other way," said Mike. "He sailed around South American and across the Pacific and landing in this bay. He was so excited about all the new plants he found that he called it Botany Bay."

"What a good thing it was a British explorer," said John.

Yes.

Yes indeed it is, John.

Another Brick In The Wall

Love this picture. Only the man's phone (and the lairy sports jacket) really date this image.

It was only taken in 1991 and found in the 1991-1992 Dick Smith Electronics catalogue.

Boasting that it's small and convenient, these babies have a small battery pack that can offer a whopping 1.5 hours of talk time and 8 hours standby.

Ah, 1991 when the biggest hit at the box office was Terminator 2 and its then revolutionary morphing technology turned Robert Patrick into liquid and back.

Maintaining Focus

Last week we showed a street view of Surfers Paradise and the newly opened cylindrical Focus building.

Here from Alexander McRobbie's unsurpassable history of the city, The Fabulous Gold Coast, we see the Focus still under construction in an aerial photograph taken in 1975 looking down The Strip, heading south.

The Focus was part of the 1970s construction boom in the city that attracted Nora's grandparents to the region. The boom continued until the late 1980s when Australia's parlous economic state brought the ambition plans to an end for a good decade.

Over the past eight years the big, ambitious high rise developers have returned to Surfers Paradise to create the iconic Q1, the rather interesting Circle on Cavill trio of buildings, Chevron Renaissance and the upcoming Soul building.

Experienced developers such as Jim Raptis have also turned their eyes to other parts of the Gold Coast, such as neighbouring Southport to help redevelop the city's tired CBD to create Southport Central.

Just as it did in the credit crunch of the 1960s, the down turn in the 1970s, the near bankruptcy of the late 1980s and the recession of the early 1990s, the start of low part of the economic cycle is here with Raptis exposed to the volatile US finance market and now forced to call in an administrator.

Hopefully this will be just for the short term and that projects such as the re-re-re-redevelopment of the part of Surfers Paradise that once had Cathay Cafe before it was torn down as part of the Dolphin Arcade Development which was torn down as part of the upcoming Hilton Hotel development will go ahead as scheduled.

Racy Red Head

Lovely pic.

Nora doesn't know where Nick found it, but it's fab.

Our red headed lass is not a piece of track side eye-candy. She looks like she really knows how to handle a stick shift.

So to speak.

The car looks too early to be a Cobra, perhaps someone with better eye for detail can help illuminate.

Ashes To Ashes

Y'know with one of these You'll never miss an episode of LA Law.

Ah yes, LA Law, one of the under rated show from the late 1980s which crossed over into the 1990s, yet struggled at the end its eight year run to remain relevant in changing times.

The show revived Harry Hamlin and Susan Dey's careers and turned Corbin Bernsen into his a star for his lovable rogue Arnie Becker, a number arguably as famous as Gordon Gecko to epitomes the winner takes all in love and business that is supposed to have been a touchstone for the 1980s.

The show was co-written by wretched bleeding heart David E Kelley who took LA Law's trite and true formula for dramas Boston Legal, Boston Public and The Practice.



Ye gods! The things you find looking at IMDB. Kelley is remaking the fantastic, cop/sci fi drama Life On Mars for American audiences. Gag, gag, shudder!

Don't waste your time. See the original:

What an Adventure!

Wow, we're looking at the cockpit of a passenger liner that's half a century old with technology largely developed during World War Two.

In fact the cockpit looks as uncomfortable and as utilitarian as a bomber.

Judging by the the line art on the book's cover (see the link below), it is reasonable to believe the plane is a De Havilland Comet 4B.

This is the second colour plate from Ladybird's Flight One Australia.

What an adventure it was! First they flew right across Europe, and on over the desert and mountains of Iraq and Persia. The plan stopped for an hour at Karachi in Pakistan and then went on eastwards across India, the land of the striped tiger and the lordly elephant.