Politics

Aunty Sue was published in the Melbourne Age for the second time in a few weeks.

Hoping this post will provoke some heated political debate....

North African Travel Plans

MB was rather alarmed to read that the Italian Embassy in Libya was torched by protestors on the pretext that they were upset by those Danish cartoons.
Libya & Tunisia are on the itinerary of the study tour MB was hoping to take later this year. One of the best preserved Roman cities, Leptis Magna, is located on Mediterranean coast of Libya.
MB did a blog search of Leptis Magna and found some great blog posts from bloggers who had visited this amazing site, there are also loads of excellent photos on Flickr. One can certainly travel vicariously using the 'net.
So the jury is still out on whether or not to go....

This Space for Rent

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of advertising on clothing and other objects? MB is a compulsive reader, if she is confronted by any letters or words she must absolutely read them, even the letters on vehicle numberplates. For a long time MB thought everybody was like this but in the course of growing up found that most folks don't have this need to read.
You can imagine MB being worn completely down by the plethora of marketing slogans, logo's and brandnames on clothing, in fact they are not just confined to clothing, they are virtually on every visible object.
MB was heartened to read a few days on a t-shirt being worn by a young Asian looking guy the following; "This Space for Rent". It's so good to see someone else has noticed and has a sense of humour.
MB predicts this blatant form of marketing will cycle eventually and in a few years we'll be back to wearing garments with much more subtle, or even covert, branding.

Breakfast in Rocky

After two weeks at home MB finally got around to doing some filing in her office, where she found a receipt for a breakfast at the Coffee House in Rocky. This reminded MB of the best breakfast to be had on the road between Brisbane and Cairns.
This little gem of a restaurant has the most extensive & wonderful breakfast menu. If you are a foodie check out the link http://www.coffeehouse.com.au/documents/Breakfast.pdf
Definitely a must visit establishment if you are ever in Rockhampton.

Keeping Focussed

Stop Press: MB has finally bought herself an MP3 player.
After extensive market research (and not getting suckered into buying one of those cute looking Ipods) she settled on a Creative 256mb with an FM radio. It's so tiny and can hold more than enough data, truly amazing.
The reason for this purchase is to have something other than the Gym's techno music to listen to while on the X-Trainer and the climbing torture machine that the Gym Maestro has directed MB to work on.
Now MB can download interesting podcasts and listen to them at her leisure, or rather during the monotonous workouts on those damn machines.

Tropical Splendour

Looks great hey?
Notice the inexorable slide back into the NQ vernacular now that MB is back in North Queensland.
This is a shot of the Marina at Mackay, taken last week when we drove through on our way home, stopped there for a fish & chip lunch.
MB has been having a torrid time readjusting to the unremitting heat and humidity which is NQ during the wet season slash summer. Poor MDR was even assailed by a sobbing wreck, last week, begging him to move the household to a more agreeable climate.
There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for at least a trip to the northern hemisphere at end of Feb. MDR has a conference there he needs to attend. MB is counting the days.....

"Swedish Secret"

The above headlined an article in the motoring section of today's Brisbane Courier-Mail showing photographs of a swedish test vehicle very similar to the one we photographed in Jindabyne (see blog post of 17 Jan 06 below).
These test vehicles were sighted in South Australia and Volvo have confirmed they are indeed testing and photographing their "New Generation S80".
You saw it here first!