Thursday, June 13, 2024

In which the pond hits the road for a time ...

 

As flagged, the pond is off to the Athens of the south for a mid-winter break and will be gone some time.

The aim in the interim is to make the blog look like a travel blog, innocuous and wholesome, free of taxing herpetology studies...

Attempts to lure the pond towards the flexitarian light must be forsaken ...




Instead the pond must do a Jack Kerouac and take a walk on the Hume wild side and encounter strange beasts in the dawn light ...




Travelling the Hume, all sorts of sightings are possible ...




There are tragedies too ...




Poor Bill's legacy is a little shop worn ....




As Basho almost said:

“Derelict fields
The only remains
Of Bill's sporting dreams.”

For the sake of completeness, one version of the original:

“Summer Grass,
The only remains
Of soldiers’ dreams.” 

Naturally there's a twist to the tale. 

The snaps above were taken on a previous road trip. 

This time the pond is going by mighty rail, which is just as likely to be a bus to Albury, or from Albury to Melbourne ...




And now a shameless attempt to pander to passing vulgar youffs with a meme ...




As for the herpetology studies, they will hopefully resume in the not too distant future. In the meantime, the pond hopes to be back in time for the lizard Oz celebration of the climax to the story ...






And so to conclude with an apology ...

The pond had been distracted by the detail ...





As a correspondent pointed out, the full cartoon ...






... referenced Monet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, and even though pressed for room, the pond should have at least noted it ... but better late than never ...





8 comments:

  1. DP, passe un bon voyage et ramène-nous des souvenirs!
    Have a good trip and bring us back some souvenirs!
    A T-shirt 'll do.

    And some anti-ranti news for you.

    REPORT | 2024
    "The Cleantech Revolution
    It’s exponential, disruptive, and now.

    "... the energy system is being disrupted by the exponential forces of renewables, electrification, and efficiency.

    "The past decade has seen remarkable progress and growth in cleantech. Cleantech costs have fallen by up to 80 percent, while investment is up nearly 10 times and solar generation has risen 12 times. Meanwhile, electricity has grown to become the largest source of useful energy, and the deep force of efficiency has reduced energy demand by a fifth.

    "As the drivers of change continue to overpower the barriers, cleantech will continue to grow up S-curves, pushing fossil fuel demand into terminal decline and pulling the Paris Agreement within our reach.
    https://rmi.org/insight/the-cleantech-revolution/

    "What You Want is an S Curve
    And we're finally hitting the sweet spot of the crucial one"
    BILL MCKIBBEN
    JUN 11, 2024
    https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/what-you-want-is-an-s-curve

    Via "An end to the climate emergency is in our grasp "
    https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/12/s-curve/#anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-eventually-stops

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great meme - clearly a pic of earth from the moon - we're not known (galactically speaking) as the planet of the dinosaurs for nothing; vulgar youff will be stoked! Wonderful pics of the great Aussie countryside - beautiful one day, perfect the next; Europe's got nothing on us. Just wait till you get to the politically correct great southern state. You have chosen well to arrive by train (or bus, failing train) - these things are noticed down here.

    PS. I was looking for the fifth prime minister - then I spotted her at the back corner - lettuce remember. AG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "The aim in the interim is to make the blog look like a travel blog"

      I always look forward to when DP goes on the road, the ones less traveled by
      even if they do feature the Breaden sports ground in Wagga Wagga.

      Delete
    2. Despite the sudden surge in Australia's population - now up to 27 million apparently or about 2 million increase in 2 years - there's still many, many "roads less travelled" for DP to traverse. So yeah, looking forward to the travelogue once again.

      Delete
  3. I once took the train to Sydney - for work, of course - and instead of geting up very early to make it out to Tulla for an early flight, I caught an evening (about 9:30ish if I recall) train and had a good night's sleep and a shower and some breakfast in the morning and arrived in the middle of Sydney CBD at about 08:00. Much better than flying - and didn't even have to change trains at Albury because the line was duplicated with two gauges (one NSW, one Vic).

    So enjoy your train ride, DP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know a retired race car driver who leaves the hot rod in the garage and now says... "I'm taking the 140inch panorama ride instead" aka a train with big windows. No stress. Enjoy.

      Delete
    2. I considered similar, swallowed the considerable cost differential, thought of the planet and nearly press "book" on the site...but then became distracted and sought reviews - as people are wont to do these days. A chap had posted a video in which he was more than polite, but concluded that the amount of shakes and bumps throughout the night was enough to ensure zero sleep occurred.

      Your tale buoys me considerably however, and it's over to DP for a 2024 update. Maybe I will return to the rails afore long?



      Delete
  4. Hi Dorothy. You will find that Melbourne is under construction bonanza much to the chagrin of the murdochracy. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete

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