Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

When it comes to matters of colours and tones
There’s no printer quicker than Barnaby Jones
Then he told me he was really colour-blind
And his seeing-eyed dog was a wonderful find

Thank you for the hospitality

Once more we have spent some days and nights together with good friends at Asbjørn and Anne Katharina´s summer residence close to the North Sea.
Eating excellent food, drinking good red wines, singing old Ålesund songs, climbing the hills, walking costal safari for flower picking and ending the days / evenings with Jacuzzi bathing.
Thank you for the hospitality.
Part of the weekend was late celebration of Anne Kath´s 60 birthday, and the old bunch from Ålesund gathered together for an excellent lunch, dinner and over night party.Touring the landscape around the residence included climbing steep hills, was of course part of the event including guiding through the history of the islands around
A great view down to the "farm houses" and the North Sea. Out there to the west you find Greenland as your first shore. Sitting in the Jacuzzi with camera watching the sunset from 23.30 to 23.45 was spectacular.We return when invited. (do not wait too long)

Thank you for the hospitality

Once more we have spent some days and nights together with good friends at Asbjørn and Anne Katharina´s summer residence close to the North Sea.
Eating excellent food, drinking good red wines, singing old Ålesund songs, climbing the hills, walking costal safari for flower picking and ending the days / evenings with Jacuzzi bathing.
Thank you for the hospitality.
Part of the weekend was late celebration of Anne Kath´s 60 birthday, and the old bunch from Ålesund gathered together for an excellent lunch, dinner and over night party.Touring the landscape around the residence included climbing steep hills, was of course part of the event including guiding through the history of the islands around
A great view down to the "farm houses" and the North Sea. Out there to the west you find Greenland as your first shore. Sitting in the Jacuzzi with camera watching the sunset from 23.30 to 23.45 was spectacular.We return when invited. (do not wait too long)

X is for Xhibition in ABC Wednesday

Norwegians believe that they master the English language almost to perfection. Indeed, some of us feel that we do it so well that we can get away with molesting it too. This is a common belief in the adversing and shopping businesses. XHIBITION is a shopping centre in the heart of Bergen. It used to be the main post office, but when the authorities decided that we didn't need mail any more, it was converted into the above.

If you should ever come to Bergen, I'm happy to say that we have some normally named shops too. They are also more interesting to visit.


Today's post is an entry in the fourth round of ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via this Mr Linky enabled site

X Is For Xtra Special

Another Feather In This Street Musician's Cap

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Terry Sansom would have to be one of the most unique musicians I've seen anywhere in the world. He’s unique not because he plays the piano in the Bourke Street Mall here in Melbourne - he's unique because he treats it like a fully portable instrument.

He pushes the piano into the mall every day and when he’s finished, he pushes it away again. No fuss, no bother. No worries, mate. Me, I've never pushed a piano anywhere in my life, let along down a public mall, so I can only guess what a huge effort that would be.

And can he play? Mate, let me tell you, he so can play - he has a wide repertoire and he plays with a sense of fun as well. But because Bourke Street Mall is not one of my usual haunts, I'd never seen him until about four weeks ago.


Like I said, I don’t really spend a lot of time in this part of the city, but I was racing through the area one afternoon, in pouring rain. Naturally, I did not take my camera with me. My Pentax is efficiently weather-sealed, but I wasn't going to tempt fate in heavy rain that day. As I raced on foot through the mall, I suddenly heard the sound of a piano.

That’s when I saw him for the first time. Sitting there with a plastic poncho to protect him from the elements - and playing his heart out as the city bustled around him. He wasn’t part of a store promotion. He wasn’t playing with corporate sponsorship.

Just a bloke and his big old piano. Naturally, I had to ask the obvious question. I walked up, put some money in his bucket and asked him how on earth he gets a piano into the mall.


“Van”, he answered in a monosyllable because he was intent on playing. I had to find out more and I had to get some pictures of him. I asked if he would be there the next day, He nodded.

The next day, when I returned with my camera, the weather was clearer. Again I had to ask him how on earth he manages to push a heavy full-size piano around. This time I waited to ask him the question between songs. He told me he loads the piano onto his van at the end of the day and then brings it back into the mall the next day.

So how did he actually push it around? He pointed to the left-hand side of the piano. His eyes twinkled. "There’s a bit of redgum under there and I drilled through it to put a detachable wheel in so I can actually 'steer' the piano."


See, that another thing I’d never thought of. How on earth would you push a piano on your own - and "steer" it to ensure that it travels in the intended direction? It’s not like getting into a Ford, and turning on the ignition, is it? Just one of those things we don't think of because we've never had to do the task before.

I had picked the right day to meet him. With winter's embrace of our city, he was heading up north to seek warmth and longer days. He won’t be back in Melbourne until November.

When I ask permission to take photographs, he nods with a smile. Then he tells me people don’t generally ask permission. But he’s not complaining. He tells me he’s on YouTube. Passers-by film him and upload the clips to the site.

Then he tells me about the German tourists who bought one of his CDs. They took his music back to the factory where they worked - and the CDs were an instant hit. They were so popular that no one was allowed to take them out of the workplace. So they then had to put in an extra order for some more stock!


Does he do gigs? Yes, he says, he's doing a 60th birthday tomorrow. Far from where he lives? He shrugs.

I have to ask one final question. Where does he live?

He gives me a wry grin before he replies. "Wherever I park the van".

POSTSCRIPT: A big thank you to Craig Glenn, who tracked down this YouTube clip of Terry Sansom playing.


For the home of ABC Wednesday, go to Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

Too High For His Own Comfort

Can Someone Tell Him How He Got Up There?

An Austrian student woke up in the cab of a 150-foot-high crane in Graz, after a night spent drinking with friends. He told police he had no idea how he got up there when they found him after construction workers called them in Graz. Officers said: "He had no idea how he got up there and just remembers leaving the pub and feeling very tired."

FOOTNOTE: Just for larks.

Post Of The Day

Today's joint winners are Dances With God with Pastor's Mirror and Heartbeats Of Faith with She Called On Jesus, Mary AND Joseph ..... The other top contenders were Dishing With Debbie with Squeezed; Southern Drawl with Days Of Wine And Roses; Hilary with Along The Way; Pheromone Girl with Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction; Sandi McBride with Where I've Been And What I've Been Doing; Call Bells Make me Nervous with Don't Mess With The Choos and James with Polish Rainbows In Newtown. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.

You can nominate a post too. Just leave a comment here with the URL or link - and tell us the name of the blogger you are nominating. Righty-o, then, it's over to you ....

See my photography at Images Sans Frontiers and Red Bubble.

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Back in the days when he trained as a swimmer
Cornelius Jones could not have been slimmer
Now he’s hampered by the size of his belly
He says it’s because he watches too much telly

Ageless Art

A City's Tribute To Unsung Artisans

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Last week I was walking towards Bourke Street when I decided to walk under the portico of the Melbourne Town Hall - always a visual treat by itself.

There are two of these huge arches with their distinctive colonial-era wrought iron work on either end. Because I was walking towards the business district, one of the high archways gave me a view of the upper facade of the Town Hall, while the other (the one I've photographed here) looked skywards.

As I shot the image, I wondered about the craftsman or the team of craftsmen who created this beautifully symmetrical piece of art. Did they first sketch the pattern on paper and then modify it until it had met everyone's approval, before starting what would have been a painstaking, laborious process to recreate it in metal?

It would be difficult enough to create something this ornate on paper, let alone to try and forge each individual element in metal and then weld each segment together. It is almost heresy for someone in the twenty-first century to walk past and capture it with a single press of a camera shutter.

But it's also a way of honouring their art - and sharing it with a wider audience.

Visit the creative team behind That's My World Tuesday.

Time And Tide Bait For No Man

Hook, Line And Sinker

A Chinese farmer dug a 50-foot hole inside his house to go fishing. The man hired 30 villagers, who took six months to dig the hole- because he wanted to reach an underground river which he suspected was full of fish.

FOOTNOTE: Gone fishing.

Post Of The Day

Today's joint winners are Fat, Frumpy And Fifty with Only Yesterday; Woman In A Window with One Day Tomorrow Will Come and Problems With Pirates with Memories, Vol.1. The other top contenders were Madame de Farge With Fingers Ain't Washed - They Used To Be; Eddie Bluelights with Happy Father's Day; Moannie With Lest We Forget; In The Gutter with Just When I'm Berating Myself; San Merideth with Recovering From Vacation; A Woman Of No Importance with Love Looks Something Like You; Kym with Ode To A Five-Year-Old; Dreams Of Quill And Ink with Wrong Side Of The Stars; Mushy with Sisters, Brothers, Ribs And Catfish; Willow with Pier To Pier. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.

You can nominate a post too. Just leave a comment here with the URL or link - and tell us the name of the blogger you are nominating. Righty-o, then, it's over to you ....

See my photography at Images Sans Frontiers and Red Bubble.

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

If you ever happen to meet
Mister Control-Alt-Delete
Just tell him your computer
Comes with an online tutor

Mellow Yellow

The Adventures Of Peter Pansy

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Yes, it’s winter here in Melbourne, Yes, there have been mornings when I’ve had thick ice on my car. Yes, there have been heavy frosts. Yes, my rose bushes needed to be pruned.

But despite the visible signs of winter everywhere, there are still pockets of colour all round the city. We have terracotta planting boxes of all shapes and sizes that are blooming in a very healthy fashion. How so, you might ask? Because they are cunningly placed under a verandah, so they are shielded from the frost.

And we’re not the only ones who enjoy a splash of colour – these pansies were a riot of colour a few days ago on the Crown promenade beside the river. Victoria used to be known as The Garden State a couple of decades ago – for good reason.


Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

While You Were Sleeping

Was I Dreaming, Or Is This Caravan Moving?

Thieves fled empty handed after stealing a caravan in Sweden - while the owner was fast asleep inside. The holidaymaker woke up to find himself being towed away in his mobile home, but began screaming so loudly that the thieves abandoned their car and fled on foot.

FOOTNOTE: Full dozer.

Stony Faces - Monochrome Maniacs

Watching the shoppers in Kristiansand, Norway.

This Monochrome concept came from Aileni at The Monochrome Maniacs

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

I went to school with Molly Cule
She tinkered around with rocket fuel
She wanted to command a mission through the heavens
Lightyears before Apollo Eleven’s

Painting in Pastel colors

My paintings are normally known as sometimes overloaded with strong colors. During these sunny days I had to recall the view from Asbjørn and Anne Katharins´s house at the seashore at "Lepsøya" north west of Norway, and express the colors on a sunny day towards the North Ocean. Title: Land and Ocean.

Have a sunny Sunday and feel the colors warm your hearts.

Painting in Pastel colors

My paintings are normally known as sometimes overloaded with strong colors. During these sunny days I had to recall the view from Asbjørn and Anne Katharins´s house at the seashore at "Lepsøya" north west of Norway, and express the colors on a sunny day towards the North Ocean. Title: Land and Ocean.

Have a sunny Sunday and feel the colors warm your hearts.

Dog Tired

Thereby Hangs A Tail

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Some weeks ago we were at a friend's place when their two dogs took a break, away from the noise and hubbub of a large gathering. They were indoors, but I had to get the camera out to shoot a scene of utter togetherness and tranquillity.

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

The Sunday Roast

Espousing The Cause Of The "Heard" Mentality

This week's interview is with Mojo,
who writes the blog Why? What Have You Heard?.

Here's the first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

Well I originally started this blog to meet chicks, but then it got all serious. No, I'm kidding of course. I suppose I have the same reasons as anyone. Blogging offers a platform that's uniquely mine. No editors, no publishers, no advertisers, no board of directors or shareholders to satisfy, just me. More to the point, I never get rejection notices from myself (I'm good that way).

What's the story behind your blog name?

"I Could Tell You But Then I'd Have To Kill You" wouldn't fit on a t-shirt, so I opted for my second favorite all-purpose response to any question: "Why? What Have You Heard?". There really isn't a story behind it, it's just something I say. Not very exciting I suppose, but you'd be amazed at the number of people who leave comments saying they love it. Well, I'm amazed anyway.

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

I'm almost tempted to copy and paste my answer to #1, but that would be cheating wouldn't it? And while it would be true, it wouldn't be the whole truth. This platform gives a voice to people who might not otherwise have one. When you write for a publication, you're always going to have to compromise.

There will always be the disclaimer that "the opinions expressed here may or may not reflect the views of management, etc". When you're writing for your own blog though, all of that is stripped away. You're the management, you're the editor, you're the publisher and the opinions expressed damned well do reflect those of the "bosses". At the end of the day, the only person who has to be satisfied with my content is me. Of course, it's helpful if my readers enjoy it too, otherwise I'm talking to myself in the biggest empty room in the known universe.

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

Lesson the First: I can sum up my best advice in two words: "Be. Genuine." Because if you're not, it will show and you'll find yourself talking to yourself in the biggest empty room in the known universe. (See how I tied that together? Neat, huh?) Find a direction that's important to you. If you do that successfully, you won't care if you're read by 10 or 10,000. And in the beginning don't be surprised if you look at your Sitemeter reports and find out that both of the people who read your post today were you at work and you at home. Chances are -- unless you're an ace at self promotion -- you're going to start out that way.

Lesson the Second: Find other bloggers who share your interest and focus. Visit them, read them, leave comments for them. Visit their regular readers -- chances are you have the same things in common. Find your segment of the blogging community and make yourself at home. Even if you're in a niche that's made up solely of left-handed, vegan practitioners of Santeria there are others out here that share your interests. There are roughly 70 million blogs online, with new ones being launched every day. Believe me, in that number there are at least a few left-handed, vegan Santeros to share your stories with.

Lesson the Third: Resist the temptation to pen a Great Epic in every post. First of all because you'll find yourself not posting because it's just too much like work. But more important, you'll find you're not getting read because... well because people don't read Great Epics. If you really have that much to say, break it up into blog-sized chunks and publish it as a series. Five hundred words is good, 700 is pushing it. Three hundred is probably better still.

Remember, the people who are reading you are also visiting 10, 20, 50 others today and if you put a 3000 word article in front of them, they'll say "I'll come back when I have the time to read this". Which will probably be "never". Because tomorrow will bring another 10-, 20-, 50-visit tour of Blogaritaville. (Of course, that rule goes out the window when you're answering questions in an interview. *wink*)

What is the most significant blog post you've ever read?

This is a tough one, because I've read some very powerful posts. In fact, I read at least two significant posts every single week at the blog Violence UnSilenced. Because there's not one single post on that blog that isn't significant. I'd nominate that whole blog for "Most Significant" and I'd be in good company. But since you asked for a post, not a blog, I'll have to go with the first time I heard the title of it on Maggie's (the author's) other blog, Okay Fine Dammit. Because it was that post that cemented my own commitment to support her efforts. But I can't do it the justice it deserves, so I'll ask you (and you, and you too) to see for yourself. That's not to say I haven't read significant posts on blogs that weren't related to either of these. I have. But this one affected me enough to get me moving, to do something. Pretty significant hai na?

What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?

This should be a slam dunk, because I don't write all that much, and even less that would be called "significant" by most. Especially when the authors I mentioned in #5 have set the bar so high. But out of the nine hundred and change that I've either published or scheduled to date, I can think of two posts that had a direct, measurable and positive impact on some person or group.

The first was my contribution to Mimi Lenox's BlogBlast for Peace last November. No, if it had brought about world peace I'd think we'd have heard. That kind of thing usually makes it into the news somewhere between the winning lottery numbers and the latest Wall Street scandal. (At least unless Sarah Jessica Parker has a wardrobe malfunction at the MTV Movie Awards or something.) But it did have a big impact on some people very close to me as a side effect. Wasn't a bad piece in its own right either.

The second one I didn't actually "write", although I did "storyboard" it. Just as Violence UnSilenced launched, I was working on a promotional YouTube video for it. The day after VU went live, I published it with an apology to my readers whose comments had been largely ignored with the explanation I'm Not Ignoring You, Really I'm Not... But I've been busy working on this. The video took off and has apparently been turning up on blogs and FaceSpace pages all over cyberspace. Who knew?

And now, since I'm already at better than double the recommended word count from my newbie lessons, I think it's a good time to practice what I like to call "The Art of Shutting Up".

Today's Sunday Roast with Mojo is the 73rd in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.

Quick March

What About Army Intelligence?

An illegal immigrant from Afghanistan was found inside Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst military academy - after stowing away on an army coach. The coach was carrying a number of officers and other personnel but was driven by a civilian contractor.

FOOTNOTE: Changing of the guard.

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Said Tinkerbell to Captain Hook
"I think your pirate ship needs a cook,
Your roast is vile, your chicken’s like leather
You’ knock MasterChef down with a feather."

Flag Day

Fancy A Flutter, Mate?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There’s nothing like a crisp blue winter sky if you want to shoot flags fluttering in a strong breeze. Actually, we are a few days past the winter solstice here in Melbourne and the days are (imperceptibly) getting longer, with an extra minute of daylight every evening – but this shot was taken about four weeks ago, in late May, the last week of autumn.

I was walking up Bourke Street when I noticed this cluster of flags near a visitor information booth. I was about to shoot them front-on against the façade of a building when I realised there was a better shot if I kept walking and turned round in the other direction.

That way, I was facing a clear blue sky, the perfect foil for these long rectangular flags. Also, by shooting from this angle, the actual lettering on the flags is the wrong way around – so it’s kind of irresistible to try and sit there for a couple of extra moments and work out what the message is.

Just for the record, the flags were advertising last month's "Melbourne Italian Festival".


Visit TNChick's Photo Hunt. Today's theme: "Flags''.