Sirdan’s back

Sirdan has been away for a few weeks, having travelled with his mother, who was visiting from South Africa, to Perth in order to spring a surprise birthday party on Sirdan’s brother. It went very well, apparently. He travelled back by train across Western Australia to Adelaide, then flew back to Sydney. B went with him.

Heard some good tales over Sunday lunch at Chinese Whisper. Then we checked the Beresford, especially the space-age loo, after which the Midnight Shift.

 

In the Midnight Shift, Sirdan in red.

The Empress’s t-shirt

2008 in review 1: hot posts over the year on Floating Life

Who’d have thought Banjo Paterson’s rather odd poem would be so popular all over the world?

1. Australian poem: 2008 series #9 — A B Paterson "The Angel’s Kiss" 3,550 views in the past twelve months
2. Sarah Palin — Blogs, Pictures, and more 3,183
3. Australian poem 2008 series #10: Peter S 1,411
4. The Great Surry Hills Book Clearance of 2005  1,226
5. The Hollowmen – ABC TV 1,079
6. Dispatches from another America 906
7. Rampant: How a City Stopped a Plague 852
8. How good is your English? Test and Answers 734
9. Australian poem: 2008 series #8 – Indigenous Poetry 627
10. Kevin Rudd as art critic 541
11. Blog Roll 500
12. Christmas poem #1 — Louis Macneice, "Snow"  439
13. Australian poem 2008 series #17: "Australia" by A D Hope 438
14. How disrespectful! How tragic! 420
15. Delia Malchert – Migraine Aura – Scintillating Scotoma 397
16. About 382
17. Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam documentary 373
18. Cronulla 05 369
19. Christmas poem #2: Alfred, Lord Tennyson 360
20. NSW Local Government Election 2008 / Sutherland 359

Sun 7 Dec 2008 to Wed 31 Dec 2008

Greetings from Surry Hills 2010

Australia

What’s new: updated as it happens

• 21 December: On Ninglun’s Specials: A friend’s new apartment. On the photoblog a new category: views from Rosebery.
• Monday 22 December: added three to the Views from Rosebery on the photoblog; updated a post here — Random. Later I added the final photo to the current set of “Views from Rosebery”, taken yesterday at Sirdan’s. I also changed the template on the photoblog, upping the display to four and adopting one side bar. More photos and one video were added on 23rd and 24th December.
• 24 December: changed photoblog template again! Why? The last one dropped a small box over the top right-hand corner of photos when viewed individually. On some photos this was very annoying. A shame, because I liked the template. I am also constrained by the size of the photos. Only a few templates accommodate 650px +. After some experimentation, I have settled on the Times Roman version of this template, but with a sticky post featuring this:
  

  That's my first try at a collage too.

• Christmas Day: I have gone to the other version of the Journalist theme on the photoblog, so now all the blogs match. Today is a “found object” — a genuine one! See Redfern Park: Christmas Day 2008.
• 26 December: By WordPress counting, 80,000+ views of this blog have happened since December 2007. Sitemeter shows the 300,000 target for visits to all the Floating Life blogs in sight! On Ninglun’s Specials I added What’s been on Ninglun’s Specials in 2008.
• Saturday 27 December: started a new series on the photoblog — More East Redfern.
• Monday 29 December: nothing more will be added to Ninglun’s Specials this year. The photo blog is being added to daily, at least two pics a day.
• 30 December: I lied, or rather I found something for Ninglun’s Specials: Surry Hills afternoon: Japanese surfers and friend. There are new pics on the photoblog too.

Earlier items over the fold.