ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS:




In December as is tradition a group of us gathered to listen to Paul McCartney’s new album (are they still called albums?) ‘Electric Arguments’. Each time Paul releases a new cd we all make a pact not to sneak any listens before we can all gather and sit down and listen for the first time together, these have been some of the best nights ever, probably the best was hearing ‘Chaos and creation’ for the first time, we were all left dumbstruck at how awesome it was, as usual Janelle spoilt the boys by organising a huge feast for us all to gobble and masticate over .. i wonder if Nana Mouskuri fans have gatherings like this.

PROJECTED IMAGE:

Another graphic used at Phillips party.

TABLE OF KNOWLEDGE:

One of the drawbacks of living so close to North Beach is everyone that visits me wants to be taken to be photographed at the table of knowledge, the old Kebab guy is gonna come out with his knife one day and go me as i seat another person for a quick photo op, if you need to Google ‘The table of knowledge’.

B/W:

I remember as a kid this path seemed so long, weird how perceptions change, size, distance, now we fly around the world without a blink, sometimes i miss the days when the paths was as far as you could imagine.

9150:

This summer was all about travel, some modes a little less glam than others.

MISS MARILYN’S WHEEL:


While in Melbourne i got to spend some quality time with my friend Matt, we became pen pals years and years ago and now we’re older we’ve taken the friendship from the pen into real life. While i was with Matt he had to one up me by producing a photo of him as a kid at Moomba in the presence of Daryl Sommers and the one and only ‘Miss Marilyn, oh course Matt also lets me know each and EVERY time i see him that he saw ABBA at the Myer Music Bowl in 1977 .. not that i’m bitter.

RANDOM MOBILE PIC 2:

Here we see Dee Dee making her return in the Xanadu show at the Beaton park tennis club, fantastic, the crowd had tears in it’s eyes with emotion .. or it may have been from the Amyl being passed around.

MOOBS:



In January before my annual Melbourne holiday i went to Qld to visit my family and to see my sister for her ##th birthday, while there i caught up with my brothers family and this was long overdue, i hadnt seen my nephews since June 2006, my littlest nephew Danny is now a towering man, i also had some uncle things to teach them, as you can see in the 2nd photo i have past on the ancient secret of arm folding across the chest to hide, flatten and disguise man boobs in photo’s, not saying any of them have a set of jugs on them .. but as i have learnt it may come in handy for them in the future.

RANDOM PROJECTIONS:



For Phillips birthday party i put together a slideshow projection that took up most of one of his huge white walls, i love some of the images i selected to be shown, some really cool graphics.

RAIL ROAD KILL:


I was telling Tyson how on the way to Qld i saw a discarded kiddies puppet thrown on the rail tracks at the airport, i took a snap and showed him, when we flew back weeks later from Melbourne Tyson stopped me as we walked over the bridge to look down upon the still visible but trauma evolving and disolving puppet .. gee, and poor Woody felt hard done by after being left under the bed.

RANDOM MOBILE PIC 1:

I love shit like this, i came home one day to find this megalon head in my carport.

ARSTO BOI:



I’ve been rooting around looking through some old photo’s for peoples birthdays of late and in the process have come across a heap of me as a ‘wee one’. I remember Adam saying to me once that he thought in the baby and little photos of me that i looked like Astro boy, i’m not sure about the rockets out of my shoes, i do kind of have round, tho not manga eyes .. i guess maybe in the first photo i could pass for ‘Astro-esque’, at least he didnt say i looked like ‘Lippy the lion’.

A COOGEE MOMENT:

I spent the weekend looking for units with Phillip, while we were checking out the pool in one complex i could’nt help but be drawn to point 4 on this poolside sign, at least i now know how to spell feacal.

BY DAY PERCY PANDA, BY NIGHT SHIRTY THE SLIGHTLY AGRESSIVE BEAR:

I MUST HAVE THESE ALBUMS:






These albums are not a matter of want, i need these for my collection, i have seen them and i know they must exist, now i just have to find them, donning pith helmet and monicle and letting the search begin.

WEEKEND SHOPPING:



The things you see out shopping, this past weekend i noticed a bit of a theme forming, it was a mash of Allan Jones and sweet potato’s. I was transfixed to see a new cd released under the banner of Allan Jones ‘Song’s of love and inspiration’ i didn’t have the nerve to pick it up and flip it over to see what tracks Allan selected to represent his idea and perception of love and inspiration, tho I’d hazard The Shaggs ‘My pal foot foot’ would have been on there, Them’s ‘Gloria’ perhaps?, later as i was flicking through the dvd’s at HUM i was cock o’ hoop to see that the ‘Tasty bust’ documentary had an ‘Allan Jones recommends’ sticker on it, i was this close to purchasing it but grabbed a pic instead, of course the ‘Tasty bust’ documentary tells the story of the Melbourne night club bust where gay and Lesbian patrons were violated and harassed by police officers .. hmmmm, nice touch seeing Allan sticker on the cover next to pictures of pills and a bottle of Amyl nitrite, it’s the thought that maybe during the day these random things will cross my path is what gets me up and going in the morning.

ADVENTURE ISLAND:

Hi ho, Hi ho
It’s far away we go
To a land that’s far across the sea

Hey hey, Hey hey
For a little while we’ll stay
And be home in time for tea

Set sail, set sail
In sunshine or in gale
The fun we’ll have will be really grand

Hurrah, hurrah
Follow the shining star
And come with us to Adventure Island!

Adventure Island was a popular Australian television series for children which screened on the ABC from September 11, 1967 to December 22, 1972 (repeats of the 1969-1972 episodes ran from 1973-1976). The show typically aired from Monday to Friday and each story would stretch across a full week, reaching a resolution on Friday.

Adventure Island was a joint production of Godfrey Productions and the Australian Broadcasting Commission, pre-recorded on videotape at the ABC’s studios in Ripponlea, Melbourne. Production was usually five weeks ahead of broadcast. It was a pantomime-style series set in the kingdom of Diddley-Dum-Diddley. Hostesses were Nancy Cato (not the noted author) from 1967 to 1968 (her final pre-recorded episodes aired at the beginning of 1969) and Sue Donovan from 1969 to 1972.

Characters
Regular characters included:

Liza (Liz Harris)
Clown (John-Michael Howson),
Mrs Flower Potts (Brian Crossley),
Percy Panda (Jack Manuel),
Dodo Panda (1967-1969) (Marion Edward),
Betty Bruin (Carole Walker),
Jim (James Smilie).
Baddies including Fester Fumble (Ernie Bourne), Miser Meanie (Colin McEwan (1967-1968), Robert Essex (1969-1972), Captain Crook (Ernie Bourne), Giggles Goblin (Peter Homewood) and Squire Squeezum (Burt Cooper).
Other characters were played by guest artists such as Vivean Gray (playing Mother Sparkle, who became Mother Tinkle – more famously Mrs Jessup in The Sullivans and Mrs Mangle in Neighbours), Patsy King, Brian Hannan, Frank Rich, Mary Hardy, Angela O’Toole and Lindsay Edwards.

Production
Executive producer Godfrey Philipp had studied television abroad and his main influence in the format of Adventure Island had been The Mickey Mouse Club, with its part-ad lib, part-scripted presentation. Godfrey, together with Nancy Cato, John-Michael Howson and Liz Harris were involved in a similar fantasy-drama program called The Magic Circle Club which screened on ATV0 from 1965 to 1967. When the channel axed the show after 555 episodes for cost reasons in July 1967, the ABC expressed interest in continuing production of the show, however this was nixed by Austarama Television’s refusal to relinquish the rights, so a lookalike programme was devised. Creation of Adventure Island was credited to Howson and Philipp, although it is believed Howson invented the entire setting and characters during a short aeroplane trip in mid-1967. He certainly wrote most of the scripts, with others contributed by Peter Homewood. Howson also wrote four storybooks based on the show.

During the Nancy Cato era, Nancy would open the show from an enchanted wood where she would first banter with puppets Gussie Galah (Colin McEwan), Crispian Cockatoo (Ernie Bourne) and Matilda Mouse (Marion Edward). Nancy would then start reading from the Adventure Island book – the story then being played out for viewers by the actual characters. At the conclusion of the chapter, Nancy would talk to a cat puppet (Ernie Bourne) which was named Samson in a viewer competition early in the show’s run. All the show’s puppets were superbly constructed by Axel Axelrad.

When Sue Donovan took over the hosting role, the structure remained the same but each episode began with a conversation with a house (Mister House, later named Serendipity House in a viewer competition – voiced by Jack Manuel and sometimes Ernie Bourne). Sue would walk into the house where she would ad lib with Crispian Cockatoo (Ernie Bourne) and Gracie Galah (Brian Crossley) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and with Maxie Mouse (Ernie Bourne) and a vertical waveform called Chi on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each show would close with Sue talking to Samson the cat, but on Fridays she would click her fingers and magically transport herself to Diddley-Dum-Diddley for a sitdown chat and a cup of tea with all the characters.

The scripted part of the show – the serialised story – usually involved the inhabitants of Diddley-Dum-Diddley being set upon or tricked in some way by one or more of the “baddies”. On many occasions the dimwitted Clown (with sawdust for a brain and an appalling memory) would save the day with his uncanny ability to see through disguises. The show was highly moralistic with a strong “good over evil” motif in every story.

A notable feature of the show was the music. Nearly every moment of the show was accompanied by instrumental improvisation. Each episode also contained two original songs (generally prerecorded and mimed by the actors), written by musical director Bruce Rowland with lyrics usually by Howson. Rowland later found great fame and respect in the field of movie soundtracks. When he left the show in 1971 many of his songs were reused in later episodes.

As colour television was not introduced in Australia until 1975 no episodes of Adventure Island were made in colour. Many viewers believe they saw the show in colour, but this was mainly due to Paul Cleveland’s brilliantly designed sets and the fact that colour photographs of the show have been published since. In 1971 an American network expressed strong interest in the show, so Howson engineered a method by which the show could be simultaneously videotaped in black-and-white and filmed in colour. However his proposal was met with total disinterest by the ABC and never went ahead.

Cancellation
The show’s axing, announced in mid-1972, was highly controversial and an unprecedented flood of public protest ensued. A group of MPs headed by David Kennedy formed a “Save Adventure Island” campaign during which questions were asked in Parliament. However the campaign was unsuccessful and the final episode, number 1175aired on December 22, 1972. Godfrey Philipp had been the mastermind behind the Australian Labor Party’s successful “It’s Time” campaign, which in 1972 brought about a change in government in Australia for the first time in 22 years, so the decision to cancel Adventure Island may have been politically rather than economically motivated.

THE MAGIC CIRCLE CLUB:













Another memory from the recesses of my mind, at dinner on Tuesday night we got to talking about Adventure Island and The Magic Circle Club.

Thanks to “Have phaser, will travel” for the images.

The Magic Circle Club was a childrens show produced at the ATV0 studios in the 60’s.

Bobby & Laurie was Twoddle & Boddle in The Magic Circle Club.

Living in the Magic Forest were…. Nancy Cato, Fredd & Feefee Bear, Twoddle & Boddle, Marlena DeWitch, Max, Mother Hubbard, Cassius Cuckoo, Leonardo De Funbird.Liz (Liz Harris), Sir Jasper Crookly, Bo Bo the Clown, Hep Cat.

Also Featuring: Max Bartlett, Bunny Brooke, Ernie Bourne, Colin McEwan, Fred Tupper, and John Howson.

The Magic Circle Club was a children’s television show, which aired in Australia on ATV Channel 0 (now ATV-10), from 23 January 1965 to 1967. There were 550 thirty minute episodes. Its roots were those of live pantomime and classic fairy tales, and the show often featured music, original songs and dance routines. Some older female characters were performed by males, in pantomime dame style. Godfrey Philipp was the producer and director, with many scripts and song lyrics by John-Michael Howson. Max Bartlett became a regular script writer in addition to his on-screen roles. Music was by Bruce Rowland and scenery designs by Brian Thomson.

Characters were denizens of the Magic Forest: Fredd Bear (Tedd Dunn, also the costume designer); Fee Fee Bear (John-Michael Howson, billed as John Howson); Mother Matilda Hubbard (Fred Tupper); Max (Max Bartlett); a young Shirley Temple analog, Curley Dimples (Gael Dixon, also the show’s choreographer); enchantress Crystal Ball (Gabrielle Hartley) and her pet, Hep Cat (Nola Finn); Marlena DeWitch (Marion Weir); and villainous Sir Jasper Crookly (Ernie Bourne) and his henchman Gaspar Goblin (Colin McEwan). The show was hosted by Nancy Cato, cousin of author Nancy Cato. A later addition to the cast was Liz (Liz Harris), who also took over as hostess when Nancy Cato suffered temporary paralysis and was confined to a wheelchair.

Episodes were serialized across five days, with the Friday program usually wrapping up the week’s storyline. Each episode finished up with the hostess sitting on a large mushroom, with Fredd crouched beside her (usually after dusting off the stool with a handkerchief), while the pair shared viewers’ letters and artwork. Another regular feature included viewers’ riddles with Cassius Cuckoo, during “Cassius Cuckoo’s Corn Corner”, and limericks with Leonardo de Funbird. These characters were wood and felt bird puppets (created by Axel Axelrad; voiced by Colin McEwan). Cassius inhabited a longcase cuckoo clock next to Mother Hubbard’s cupboard in The Magic Cottage, and Leonardo lived inside the IKAN (Instantaneous Knowledge Accumulation Network) computer.

Recurring guest characters included BoBo the clown, Montmorency James Rabbit, Sebastian Bear, and Aunty Vale (Bunney Brooke). Twoddle & Boddle (Laurie Allen and Bobby Bright, aka Bobby & Laurie of The Go!! Show) were analogs of Tweedledee & Tweedledum, characters the pair had played previously in a pantomime. Max Bartlett often played additional guest characters, including King Size of nearby Enchantmentland, wicked innkeeper Simon Sneak, of the Cross and Bones, or Mother Hubbard’s accident-prone great-nephew, Claude Clumsy. Ernie Bourne and Colin McEwan often doubled up roles to play guest villains. Even Nancy Cato played a chambermaid, Sweet Nelly, in a Barbary Coast pirate storyline.

A specially written Magic Circle Club episode, “The Stolen Smile”, was performed live on stage at the Tivoli Theatre (Melbourne) from December 27, 1965. In this adventure, Sir Jasper and Gaspar had banished Clocko the chief clown (Max Bartlett, again playing a dual role), and Spangles the trapeze artist (Gael Dixon), from their circus, and taken away Clocko’s smile. Appearing on stage with Max, Curley and Nancy were Fredd, Fee Fee, Mother Hubbard, Crystal, Hep Cat, Montmorency, Cassius and Leonardo, all played by the regular TV cast. This production was stage managed by Sue Nattras, Simon Wincer and Jim McElroy.[1]

The TV series won the first Logie Award presented to a children’s show. When ATV axed the show for cost reasons, ABC TV wanted to buy it, but ATV refused. This led to the start up of the program Adventure Island on the ABC, with some of the cast and writers from the Magic Circle Club.

TV director and costume designer Tedd Dunn stayed with Channel 0. He played the Fredd Bear character (Channel 0’s answer to the Nine Network’s more enduring Humphrey B. Bear) two years after the Magic Circle Club’s demise, as co-host of Fredd Bear’s Breakfast-A-Go-Go.

OOOOOOOH, I’LL GEH YU BUH-LAH:


Vale Reg Varney, this guy made me laugh so much when i was little, i totally got off on the camp value of ‘On the buses’, of course my favorite character was Olive who was always trying to make sexy time with her impotent husband ‘Arfar’, any time Olive got spikey Arfar would baulk and say ‘Not tonight my love, otherwise i’ll have to have another operation’.

PURE GOLD:

Now you all know the secret on how i keep my figure such as i do, i follow Patti Newton’s excersice guide to the letter, right down to the leotard and leg warmers.

BERNARD UPDATE:

RESEARCH ASSISTANT:

LITTLE BRITAIN OUTTAKE:

You have to be a hair trigger finger to get a screen capture like this, ‘Pleased to meet you .. ‘

CAMP-O-RAMA:

WORK AND STUDY:


Greg and Phillip at work and study on a freezing Sunday afternoon.

This past weekend i had Phillip staying with me, it was a bit of a packed two days, Friday brought a welcome visitor and ALMOST a visit to Tingle Manor by Davey Lane, Saturday i was up bright and early to get to Newtown by 9.00am to continue training for my Certificate III in Phone Counselling, after that it was a stroll up King St and running into buddy, friend and pal Viv who led me astray into the arms of the worlds best Gelato then a call from Barb’s had me racing over to Alexandria for pizza with herself and Lynne, then Phillip called and it was time for me to head back down the foggy mountain where i stopped in at Franks in Bulli and gathered Phillip to come back to Tingle Manor for a visit and sleep over, Sunday was breakfast at the beach at
Diggies then shopping in town where i hoped to lock horns with the cute, and bulgingly packaged and shaved of body hair but ultimately bad of service guy in General Pants who i know has not ordered the shorts he told me he was going to, alas he was not working this day so my anger and emotion had to be channeled elsewhere so it was a command to Phillip ‘Off to JB Hi Fi we must go!’ but alas i was left unsated there as well with the dvd i was after not released yet, so off home we went with Phillip settling to do some work from home and me settling down to my first homework since ..oh, the early eighties?.

PAT MULLINS:

The Tingle archive trawl continues to cough up gems, here is a pic of my fave charactor from ‘We can be heroe’s’, i remember watching the first episode of this show and being totally sucked in for the first ten minutes or so, then i woke up to what was going on, this show was the best and when Pat shockingly died at the end i actually shed a tear, love the above photo of Pat, you even get to see a tantalising hint of Pat’s raised ‘Herman Munster’ shoe to accomodate her uneven leg lengths.

MOZZA:

I’m saving my coins, i just found out Morrissey is coming back to Aussie in 2009, cant believe how hot this photo is, he is such an astoundingly handsome man.

BUT IT HER-ETTS:



Over the past few weeks i’ve been having a few oral ‘iss-eew’s’ i went back to the dentist on Thursday and the dentist told me they would be cleaning UNDER my gums with an ultrasonic machine that would have given Dr Evil a stiffy, she asked if i was good with pain and i thought (i think silently) ‘Hmmmmm, well they say it’s a fine line between pleasure and pain’ so i said i should be right, i was trying to be cool but it became surreal, the pain, the noise and the fact that she was wearing a top that had a pattern of little teeth printed all over it, tho some of these blouse teeth must have been naughty as they had frowns and most others had smiles, i have no idea what that was supposed to mean, but mixed with the industrial instruments hovering over me and the top spun obviously not of material from Spotlight, i was left slightly dazed by the whole experience. I’ve made another appointment for four weeks time, like they say ‘It’s a fine line .. ‘

MISS MARILYN:












The scanner in the ‘Tingle Photo Laboratory’ has been working overtime of late, the excavation of my photo collection continues and here we have a group of photo’s from the set of ‘The Super Flying Fun Show’, i loved this show as a child and even had a little crush on Miss Marilyn, tho when i think about it i was actually obsessed with her perfectly manicured LOOOOONG finger nails, so long and perfect were these Krueger-esque claws that when she used to ring up the children for the prize wheel she would use a pen to stick in the phone dial instead of her finger like us plebs would do, i used to gasp in terror when Miss Marilyn plunged her hand into the bulging leather bag that sat beside her chair to pull out some lucky kids letter for her to call and and give them a chance on the wheel, not once did her finger ever come out of the bag with a traumatised nail.

The show had a cast of regulars including Marty And Emu (sort of a poor mans Rod Hull .. and if my memory serves me right Rod Hull started on this show and when he left they swapped him for Marty, come on oldies, who remembers this?) also starring was a giant cross promoting bird called ‘Wing Ding’, at the time there were chicken flavoured snacks called Wing Dings, cant remember if he talked or anything, also joining the cast was Smokey Dawson, and country and western singer who used to come on each Friday which i think was pet day and sing the classic ‘A four legged friend’.
The show used to have little comedy shows in it, one was based on the Keystone cops, i think it was called ‘Comedy Capers’ and the theme song had the lyrics ‘Comedy capers, comedy capers for rollicking, frollicking time’ this featured Desmond Tester and Geoff Harvey before he picked up the baton for Mike Walsh.

So .. thats just about all i can remember, except i do recall the name of the Bruce Spence looking guy was ‘Greg Bepper’ .. why do i remember that when i cant remember what i ate last night?.

ZAC:

I’m just saying ..

ONLY IN AMERICA:

Fantastic.

ROSE WATCH:

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a picture of Rose but the fab Beryl turned up this photo from last weeks paper, come back Rose all is forgiven!!.

PROP-8

Some parameters, as preface. This isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics, and this isn’t really just about Prop-8. And I don’t have a personal investment in this: I’m not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics.

This is about the… human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.
If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not… understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don’t want to deny you yours. They don’t want to take anything away from you. They want what you want — a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them — no. You can’t have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don’t cause too much trouble. You’ll even give them all the same legal rights — even as you’re taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can’t marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn’t marry?

I keep hearing this term “re-defining” marriage.

If this country hadn’t re-defined marriage, black people still couldn’t marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal… in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn’t have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it’s worse than that. If this country had not “re-defined” marriage, some black people still couldn’t marry…black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not “Until Death, Do You Part,” but “Until Death or Distance, Do You Part.” Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are… gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing — centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children… All because we said a man couldn’t marry another man, or a woman couldn’t marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage. How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the “sanctity” of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don’t you, as human beings, have to embrace… that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate… this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness — this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness — share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

—

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of…love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don’t have to help it, you don’t have it applaud it, you don’t have to fight for it. Just don’t put it out. Just don’t extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don’t know and you don’t understand and maybe you don’t even want to know…It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow **person…

Just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

CHOC TOP:

ABOVE PIC: Courtesy of Tyson who’s credibility has gone off the scale after landing me this real ad for the Coogee bay hotel caught up in the ‘shit scandle’, just read the wording of the ad!, it’s almost as if this was printed as a joke after the ‘Skat incident’ .. ‘Free ice cream, decorate with a selection of toppings’ indeed.

Coogee Bay Hotel pays Whyte family $50,000 after faeces-in-gelato fiasco
By Nick Leys
The Sunday Telegraph
November 09, 2008 12:50am
The Coogee Bay Hotel may have paid up to $200,000 to a family whose gelato was contaminated with faecal matter. 11/ 2008 Sky News

Poo payout Settled … the Coogee Bay Hotel will pay $50,000 to a family allegedly served gelato contiminated with faeces.

THE Coogee Bay Hotel will pay $50,000 in settlement to the family at the centre of the ice cream scandal to avoid further legal action.

It follows a 12-hour mediation session on Friday between hotel management and Steve and Jessica Whyte.
It is understood the $50,000 was agreed upon, plus a full apology from the hotel and a retraction of any suggestion the Whytes staged the whole affair to extort money.
The only questions remaining are: who put the poo in the gelato and why?
A police investigation is still underway.
While a substantial amount of money, it will have to cover hefty legal fees the Whytes have incurred after a two-week fight with the Coogee Bay Hotel.
The money also does not take into account losses to the family business as the Whytes have fought for an apology from the hotel.
The settlement also gags all parties from discussing its details with the media.

Related Coverage
• ‘Poo hotel’ destined to be the butt of jokesNEWS.com.au, 31 Oct 2008
• Family get $50k after poo-in-pudding scandalNEWS.com.au, 8 Nov 2008
• Ice cream ‘poo’ tests inconclusiveNEWS.com.au, 6 Nov 2008
• Pub pooh-poohing complaint, couple sayNEWS.com.au, 27 Oct 2008
• Coogee Bay footage ‘shows nothing’NEWS.com.au, 2 Nov 2008
LOVE THE ABOVE HEADLINES:

Steve and Jessica Whyte refused to answer questions yesterday, as did their solicitor Steven Lewis, of Slater and Gordon.
Prior to Friday’s mediation, The Sunday Telegraph was told the Whytes would file a legal action in court on Monday morning if an agreement was not reached.
It is understood that action would have been followed by a claim of defamation against the hotel over the imputation that the Whytes were attempting to extort money from the hotel.

Originally the hotel offered the Whytes $5000 without accepting liability. It now appears the Whytes, who rejected that amount, will walk away with not much more.
All along the couple have reiterated their position that they have only wanted an apology and for the hotel to admit liability.

Friday’s 12-hour mediation session was without breaks for lunch or dinner and concluded about 10pm. The mediation was between the Whytes and the hotel and did not involve other members of staff as previously requested.
The hotel has employed three well-respected former NSW detectives in a bid to get to the bottom of the scandal as quickly as possible and find out who was responsible.
They are Ken Bowditch, who headed investigations into the Bulldogs alleged sexual assault scandal; Steve Mathews, an ex-detective of the armed hold-up squad, and Brian Haddin, who was involved in maintaining Olympics security.

The scandal arose after the Whyte family was served a bowl of ice cream containing foul-smelling brown matter at an NRL grand final lunch at the hotel’s brasserie last month.

Laboratory reports confirmed it was faecal waste.

Hugh Macken, president of the NSW Law Society, said a civil case against the hotel by the Whytes would have been unlikely to succeed.
“Clearly, if there was any prospect of recovering damages from an act of negligence against a hotel, they have reduced their cost very significantly by resolving it before the litigation starts,” he said.

But defamation cases regularly award plaintiffs payouts of more than $100,000.
“A defamation act would have been far more likely to succeed,” he said, unless the hotel could prove the extortion allegations were true.
Legal experts estimated the Whytes’ legal bill to date would range from between $10,000 to $30,000.

….

So basically for eating a nob of shit you can pick up fifty grand, that sort of money will get you a lot of mouthwash and maybe a bit of tooth whitening. Greg is trying to train his thoughts away from what he’s thinking and planning, basically it involves the North Indian diner and the possible deposit for a house hmmmmmmmmmm.

‘LONELINESS’ BY YOKO ONO:
There’re many things in life i can endure,
One such thing is poverty.
But loneliness, loneliness,
Is one thing i can’t endure.

There’re many things in the world i can endure,
One such thing is humility.
But loneliness, (loneliness) loneliness, (loneliness)
Is something i can’t endure.

How could i stand loneliness, loneliness?
How are you suppose to cope with loneliness, loneliness?
How would one live with loneliness, loneliness, lo-oh-loneliness?

(oh, loneliness)

There are many things in time and space i can endure,
In fact, i can endure most anything.
But loneliness, (loneliness) loneliness, (loneliness)
Is something i can’t endure.

How could i stand loneliness, loneliness?
How are you suppose to cope with loneliness, loneliness?
How would one live with loneliness, loneliness, lo-oh-loneliness?

Lo-oh-loneliness.

(loneliness, so lonely)
(loneliness, so lonely)
(loneliness, so lonely)
(loneliness, so lonely)
(loneliness, so lonely)

Say what you will about Yoko Ono but without question some of
lyrics and songs are truely amazing and carry an undeniable weight.

I wish i could figure how to get sound clips up on this blog, this
song really should be heard.

FRED BEARS BREAKFAST A GO GO:


I cant believe i found this on the net, i think i’m the only person i know who remembers ‘Fred Bear’ from Aussie tv in the early 1970’s, and to see there was an actual album released as well? .. oh no, more hours for me waste trawling my arse through ebay looking for this.

For years friends have been trying to get me to check out Pam Ann, an Aussie comedienne who seems to have a large following in the gay community. Finally the other day i got hold of the DVD, and i have to say it was the most unfunny thing I’ve ever tried to sit through.

I tried to get into it, but it was just so astoundingly unfunny. I think during the half hour i managed to sit through, i may have at some stage had an involuntary lip movement that could have been mistaken for a smile, but no nothing more than that. I pride myself on being at the the leading edge of appreciating humour and comedy, the more offensive and intelligent the better, but let me tell you people, Pam Ann is a one joke wonder.

JUST CHANGE THE CHANNEL:

This is enought to drag me all the way to Gracelands, i never knew they had a tv on display that Elvis actually shot.

CABBAGE TREE:


Old postcard from where my sister works, boy if these rooms could talk, i had my fortieth birthday here and it was the perfect setting.