Jamestown South Australia

I have written about our visit to the glass museum at Penn Cottage. Jamestown is a service town and in the past had a significant railway station. The station is still there but is a museum these days. The museum was unattended on the day of our visit. A call to the number on the door revealed that the caretaker had business in Port Pirie all day so we couldn’t peek inside. The only living things at the old railway station were some chooks seeking shade under a tree. its a lovely old building with a letterbox dating to the reign of Queen Victoria. Would have been good to peek inside.

The other big attraction was a German world war one cannon housed inside a substantial glass building in the local park. The glass panelling was so reflective I couldn’t get a decent photo. However there was a pine tree in the park sourced from the Battle of Lone Pine . I suspect that there are many such trees in country towns across Australia commemorating the Great War.

It was very quiet in Jamestown on the day we a were there because 300-400 people were attending a funeral. Also of note is that Jamestown is the birthplace of RM Williams the famous boot maker and supplier of outback clothes. There is a wooden sculpture of him as per the picture above. Glad we went may not get another opportunity to go there. There are lots of small towns like this in South Australia that we have never visited.

The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher

The Silent Death

The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The second instalment in the Gereon Rath Series by Volker Kutscher. I have read the previous volume Babylon Berlin. Rath presents himself as a man who does not play well with teams. He also has a capacity to annoy his superiors. Running off at tangents disobeying direct orders in the pursuit of clues or hunches. Then just keep to keep things complicated girlfriend troubles.
The investigations in the Silent Death are set in an around the world of movies. It’s a time in the Weimar Republic when movies are making the transition to “talkies” from silent films. Rath finds himself caught between the egos of rival film makers and entitled actors. In this the feverish Weimar Berlin may be in the grasp of a serial killer.
I was troubled by the term serial killer being used in this book set in 1930s. A quick check on google indicates the term is generally credited to an FBI agent Robert Ressler around 1974. That small grumble aside it was a good read with enough plot twists to me engaged.




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On the road to Orford Tasmania

The third AiRBnB on our road trip in January 2019 was Orford. Again like most of our trips the was only about an hours or so from Primrose Sands the previous stay. We travelled slowly as the next check in was after three pm.

As we left Primrose Sands we stopped at nearby Dodges Ferry. This had been and alternative place to stay which in the end was much nicer than Primrose Sands. We found another lovely beach there. Saw a man cleaning his roof carrying a pressure cleaner

Roof Cleaning at Dodges Ferry

We detoured to Richmond a town that we have been to about four or five times. Famous for the Richmond Bridge built by convicts in 1823′ the oldest stone bridge in Australia. Its a bit of an arts and crafts centre. Other than the bridge there is not lots to see. Its a a very tourist driven town with expensive gift and produce shops. Mostly highlighting local produce and wine.

We then continued on our journey towards Orford and the next AirBnB

Primrose Beach Tasmania

Continuing our road trip onwards from Hobart. We headed to the next AirBnB at Primrose Beach which is on the East Coast of Tasmania. The beach is fabulous and secluded well not many people where there. The beach is the highlight of this place it is glorious. The AirBnB was satisfactory and the hosts Jeff and Liz were lovely. We had a great walk on the beach with them and their dog Sofie.

The town itself is not much chop a collection of beach shacks and a permanent population of about 900. One general store come petrol station and not much else. Arguably the worst fish and chips that I have eaten. The only place to eat is the local RSL club. The people were quite friendly and the bar prices good. Seems as though the place is only open Friday and Saturday nights. The food which we ordered was a seafood platter not cheap or wonderful at $30 plate. Essentially a fryup without any sign of salad.

I guess that this is problem of being almost half an hour down a long dead end road. I imagine that this has been a shack town. The nearest big town is Sorrell about 40 minutes away. It’s a pity because the beach is fabulous and the people that we met were all really nice.

Road Trip to Tasmania

In January this year we headed to Tasmania for a week long road trip. We stayed in four different AirBnB’s along the east coast of Tasmania. This is our fifth trip to Tasmania. Luckily for us we missed the bushfires which had cast smoke across Hobart.

Our first AiRBnB was in the suburb of Lindisfarne in Hobart. Our host Sue an artist who works in many different media was super helpful. The B&B was only about eight minutes from the CBD. We were in sight of the Derwent River and walking distance to shops. We are increasingly using AirBnB for accommodation when we travel. Having someone who is local can help with things to see and places to eat.

Hobart is a lovely harbour city with a working port and really easy to get around . A feature of the foreshore is Salamanca Square where you can find a market on Saturday Mornings. There are many high end gift shops featuring produce and local crafts. Lots of Tasmanian timbers on show. the prices where a bit heart stopping. No crowds when we there mid January.

No visit to Hobart is complete without visit to Battery Point. This is an area of Hobart that is full of old cottages that have largely been renovated. Nestled in the middle of Battery Point is a fantastic bakery Jackman and Mcross look them up on Facebook you won’t be disappointed.

This Gutenberg Thing

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Now we are in the brave new of Gutenberg and it seems that all is well . In the lead up to this I have been testing Gutenberg via a developers plugin. My biggest challenge has been understanding why the change was required.  I found a great explanation from a YouTuber called WPCrafter.com look at the video and it becomes clearer. In essence Gutenberg is designed in a way to ensures that editing looks like the final post. Additionally the blocks that are fundamental in Gutenberg can be dragged around and repostioned.

Like many innovations I think that Gutenberg wasn’t explained  sufficiently simply the  causing some users to panic. Other than the obvious visual difference Gutenberg works well. There are many of the block formats that I have yet to delve into but this will come.  

A Murder to Die For by Stevyn Colgan

A Murder to Die ForA Murder to Die For by Stevyn Colgan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Murder to Die For by Stevyn Colgan is outside my usual Nordic Noir type of reading. It is an a very funny tale set in an idyllic English village. Think Agatha Christie or Midsummers Murders and you get the idea. The whole premise is set against a festival celebrating a fictional celebrating a famous but dead crime writer Agnes Crabbe. The festival is crowded Milly Cutter looks a likes Agnes Crabbe’s famous detective. There a clashes between rival Agnes Crabbe appreciation societies. Then comes the obligatory murder and gruesome it is.
A murder to Die is a delight easy to read and quite funny in parts. Lots of confusing characters and red herrings. The village is awash with wannabe amateur sleuths getting in the way of the police. It all comes to a head in the space of a weekend. The other notable feature of the book is that it was published by Unbound which is essentially a crowd funding company that helps unpublished authors.
Thoroughly enjoyed A Murder to Die For.

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WP Book

An interesting application/plugin for WordPress is WPBook. This plugin installs on you blog allows your post to be visible on a Facebook page.  It only works on self hosted WordPress installs.

The installation is, from my experience of WordPress plugins, a little quirky. This is primarily because the WPBook requires that you create a Facebook application. This sort of thing is a little daunting for someone like me with no programming experience. However it is really more about creating the application within the developers section of Facebook, this creates an API key and another password or  key called a secret. You then enter theses details in the plugin section of your blog. You need to give your application a unique name so that it has a “canvas” name this is Facebook jargon for where they host their application.  So after a few trials and errors  I was able to create an application that now displays my deep and meaningful post on my Facebook page.

The guy who created it John Eckman can be found here http://www.openparenthesis.org/2009/01/19/wpbook-wordpress-facebook-plugin-goes-10

A History of South Australia by Paul Sendziuk

A History of South Australia

A History of South Australia by Paul Sendziuk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I heard the authors speaking on the radio about this volume both work at Adelaide Un9versity . I have never actually read a history of South Australia. This is despite living in south Australia most of my life. Its a chronological history which centres on european settlement and is not unsympathetic to aboriginal people. I found the earlier history up until about 1900 more interesting.
According to the authors there were about 700 Kaurna people living on the Adelaide plains when the english settlers arrived in 1836. What is remarkable is that by 1840 there were nearly 15000 european settlers in South Australia and they had already settled across the colony.
Money and farming seem to have been the drivers for settlement. South Australia did not have a penal colony. The authors paint South Australia as a contradictory place of innovation and conservative social values which fluctuate over time.
I think it’s well written and worth reading if you in South Australia or are just curious.



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A Quick Visit to Elliston

I had a flying visit to Elliston this week. I was there to facilitate training and had time to look around. Elliston is not a large place three shops a pub and police station. There isn’t much else other than a medical centre. That aside Elliston has a most spectacular coastline and I’m told the fishing is great. Sadly I didn’t come across any fish.  The day was bright and sunny however Elliston is exposed and quite windy.

I drove to Elliston from Part Lincoln which is a 340 kilometre round trip across mostly flat country. I did see lots of old stone walls and what looked like low lying lakes.