churchill: head my warning

So Perry and I spent a few hours in Churchill on Friday, always a pleasure, a fascinating town in so many ways. If you don't know the story, it is that the State Electricity Commission and the Housing Commission joined forces in around 1963 to build a town to house workers at the new Hazelwood power station nearby. The original idea was for the town to grow to 40 000 but it stalled in the late 1960s because the state switched its focus to natural gas from coal power. 

This thing (below) is the 'Churchill's cigar' monument which obviously has no purpose other than landmark and is a weird focus for the town because to get close to it (as Perry is, above) you really have to go out of your way. There you will find not only the 'cigar' but a wall, unveiled 1990, with all the early residents' names scratched into bricks. 

The town was originally to be called Hazelwood - figures - but then Churchill died, and so the state government decided to call it that. Clever. There was resistance but a later (narrowly decided) referendum confirmed the name. 

'Who will we get to lease our home darling?'

'How about the Babets, they seem nice'

I'm guessing that the below is the first, what would you call it, terrace? housing in Churchill (rare form), only this end is in this kind of condition, the other end is well-looked after. 

Backyard of above, below. 

Lol! 

Anyway, don't despair because...

hello seychelles

 

Bonzour to my new friends in the Seychelles, which for the first time ever has risen to the top of the hit polls for my blog. There are 121, 000 people in the Seychelles, and my blog has had almost 33, 000 hits from there, which is massive. I am not sure what they are looking for but I hope this extraordinarily high number of visits doesn't mean they haven't found it. Meanwhile, and this is interesting not a source of displeasure, I note that the people of Finland, as always, and the people of Estonia, first time visited by me last month, could not give less of a fuck what I think of their countries. 

port albert 2

The next morning we set out to have more PA experience, but being us, we went to exactly the same places (only in daytime). We did see this duck on a post. In case you're unsure, it's a real duck. 

We saw these people. Locals, I imagine. Looking very wholesome. 

About two blocks from here there's a block of land containing one shed and around 20 kangaroos. 

I don't understand what makes these cockatoos want to cling to the side of this tower but it seems like a pretty strong compulsion. 

A few times lately I've taken a picture that seemed so wrong I wondered if it was AI. For instance, below. 

Below is a snapshot of what people aren't reading in Port Albert (anymore).

Check out the joey's arms dangling there. 

There are quite a few dogs in PA's main street who like to bark but are no way going to get off their comfortable chairs to take it any further. For instance this one. 

OK this was just Friday morning then we set off for Churchill. I'll tell you a bit about that later. 

perry and me at port albert

Perry and I have spent a couple of days in Gippsland staying at Port Albert though really we were here to do some fieldwork, of sorts, at Churchill. We have had a nice time together. This is the lookout at Koo Wee Rup where we were unable to go up the lookout tower. That was a bummer. 

The next photo is when we got as far as Loch, which is a nice town where nothing at all happens. That I'm aware of. Certainly the photo backs up my contention. 

They've restored the station building but don't have a train line anymore. 

By the time we were exploring Port Albert it was dark there were kangaroos around and lots of frogs. 

This (above) is Perry on a jetty. Below is an old building, really old. 

So that was Thursday. I'll tell you about Friday tomorrow. 

kieku and kaiku and some kind of pancake which actually looks quite nice

which in English more or less means:

 

laura and me at helping hands airport west a few weeks ago... pt 2

 'Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find the books called Why Not Me? 

(Alright, I know there are only two I suppose that's not much but still... )

What did I end up buying? A couple of DVDs and a drummer t-shirt. $5 all up. 

helping hands a few weeks ago

Laura and I went to Helping Hands Airport West seeking both shits and giggles. I only came away with a drummer's t-shirt, a box set of Moving Wallpaper-Echobeach (I had never heard of this), Wilfred first season, and a 3-DVD set of The Best of Graham Kennedy. But what about this incredible cardigan I didn't buy (this is its back).

And here's something else I didn't buy - what a work of genius (books repackaged by their putative reading time matched to a particular flight!). I guess this is just one more reason why Qantas is a world leader in great ideas. 

More soon, because for some reason my phone hasn't synced the photos yet.