Saturday - Monday, March 26 - 28 2011 (diary)

I have combined my previous two Blog entries into one more Chapter (Chapter 15) of the Philosophy of Happiness saga and also uploaded a new download for the whole series. Is there more to come on that subject? Who knows. Especially after reading other articles or books, a new idea sometimes comes to my mind.

We still get brief rain and thunder storms almost daily, which keeps everything nice and fresh and the temperature in the mid 20s (°C). I really love it.
I still read The Economist every week and enjoy it. But, although we are very close to the place it is published and printed (Singapore), it arrives in Darwin a whole week late. Darwin's allotment of copies is first flown to Adelaide and only then flown to us in the NT. I have therefore subscribed to the magazine for a full year. Hopefully they will send me the issues direct. Anyway I will save 35% on the normal News agency price.


After 16 years of mismanagement the NSW State Labour Government has finally been kicked out in spectacular fashion. In view of the NSW election results the two Independent Federal MPs from NSW (who gifted, against their constituencies wishes, Julia Gillard Government last year) will definitely not be around after the next Federal election either.

On the National front Prime Minister Julia Gillard resembles, through her increasingly shrill, abrasive voice, more and more the evil fairy tale witch these days. After her recent admission that she had lied to the public before the election (last year) about promising not to introduce a carbon tax, her nose too is appropriating a Pinoccio-esque identity.
Gillard's Government is all about new taxes : mining tax, carbon tax, flood tax. And the refugees keep on coming. From a mere 350 during the Howard Government this number is now approaching 7,000. As a consequence the overcrowding of camps and long waiting periods for processing are igniting unrest and violence everywhere.

On the International front the Australian Government has dropped the ball too it appears, as this Sunday's SBS TV Dateline program revealed. The now independent nation of East Timor, located right on our doorstep, has accepted a massive amount of military and Government aid from China : armed frigates, military compounds, weapons, new Government buildings, generous training of Timorese officers and soldiers in China.
East Timor had come to Australia for help first, which had only offered ships commanded by Australian officers, clearly an unacceptable (and degrading) offer. And a mere two Timorese officers receive scholarships for Australia's Military Academy Duntroon in Canberra each year.

Tuesday - Thursday, March 29 - 30 2011 (diary)

I have been working hard on some photographs and an entry page to the various photo series on my Blog. I am also preparing a section containing my Black Forest walks, including maps and many photos I took along the routes.
I can't upload the latter, as it is quite bulky and the Palmerston Library's wireless access (which I usually use for all my uploads) is down at present. So that will come online probably sometime next week.

Above a large mural painted on the back wall of Peter's am Leo, a hugely popular pastry shop in Baden Baden I visited regularly while over there last year. In the confined space I covered the mural with two shots which I combined successfully with my Panorama Maker application. It came out quite well. The back of the customer shown on the left gives you a good idea of the mural's size.

It is still raining a lot and last night (Thursday) we had one of the coolest nights in Darwin on record, just lovely. There was a cyclone warning for a few days, but it veered away and never got anywhere near us.