Pink

It's Thursday, so it must be another in my long-running weekly series of photos of salt pans with a single baobab tree in the background.
Okay, so maybe not that long-running.
Doctor Dive says: if you - like me - have high blood pressure, clogged arteries and heart problems, stop putting this shit in your mouth. I gave it up decades ago and - in much the same way as giving up sugar in coffee makes sugary coffee taste as truly disgusting as it is - after a couple of weeks of salt addiction cravings I suddenly discovered what food actually tastes like. Believe me, it's like waking up to a world of colour after having lived life in black and white.
The downside is that most restaurant meals now taste too salty to eat; the upside is that I'm still alive.

Poser

Men! Huh!
Preening, vain and so in love with their own reflections.
Here's another photo from Phil's African Adventure to demonstrate that it's not just human males who act like that.

Mmm … Jazz

A complete change of pace today.
Inside my favourite classical music shop (Prelude Records in Norwich), the wonderful and encyclopædically knowledgeable staff share not only my passion for classical music in all its infinite variety, but also my love of both jazz and of the sound of vinyl records. Hearteningly, they report increasing sales of both. Click on the photo and check out this glorious selection.
Happy Tuesday, hep cats.

WTF Monday - Best Art Exhibition of 2013

Joy didn't travel thousands of miles just to see the winning entries in the inaugural Golden Poop Painting Contest, the exhibition just happened to be going on in Suwon when she visited.
Honest!
And yes, Joy's glorious photos were taken at the Mister Toilet House museum and theme park and headquarters of the World Toilet Association, an admirable institution which seeks to improve sanitation in the third world and yet has the grace to be able to laugh at itself.
All hail the great Sim Jae-duck, founder and inspiration. I may well (you know me) post more of his achievements later.
Many thanks to Joy for this and so much more.

Make It Snappy

It's Sunday. Disturb me and you might regret it.

Saturday Statuary - Where In The World?

Many thanks to Joy for sending me the marvellous set of photographs she took on her recent travels.
Last week I posted the giant golden poo statue and asked you to guess where it was taken, WITHOUT the aid of the interweb (too obvious).
As nobody came close, today gives you another chance to guess where Joy was when she took these pics. Remember: no internet, just your intellect … and your warped sense of humour.
Believe me when I say that Monday's "WTF" post will help to reveal the answer but that shouldn't stop you guessing today.
Have fun!

Drift Away

It's Friday, so here's more Indian Ocean driftwood to help lull us into the weekend.

Black and White

Does My Bum Look Big In This?

More Boids

More boids from Africa. Phil assures me the egret was not chasing the plover; it was just coming in to land where the plover was roosting and spooked it into flight.
Nice shot, though.

WTF Monday - Poo Statue

Many thanks to guest photographer Joy, this morning.
Your quest today (educated or silly guesses, please; checking the interweb would be too easy) is to tell me where in the World our Joy found this delightful confection.

The Fisher King

 A splash of colour for a grey and foggy English Sunday.

Sing-Along-A-Frank

"Egrets: I've had a few …"
Etc.

Friday …

After a crappy, overstressed week at work, and with mum going in to hospital for an op today, I could do with a break. Phil took some fabulous photos of driftwood on the shores of the Indian Ocean so I might be posting a few of those on a Friday to help me relax.
Here's the first.

City Living

Some folk are just sociable, I suppose. Weaver birds of a feather flock together.

Bigfoot

More weird African avian action today.
If you're going to walk on water, you need clown feet deluxe.
Kinda revises one's image of Jesus …

Meanwhile, Back in Africa …

Meet the Night Heron.
Night herons know they're cool.
They don't just stalk their prey …

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa …"
They do Dracula impersonations to scare the crap out of unsuspecting frogs and little fishies.

"Didja see that? Didja see what I just did? Eh? How cool was that?
Here; let me do it again …"

"I am Count Dracula!"

WTF Monday - Master of Puppets

The Norwich Puppet Master (aka Puppet Man - he even has his own range of greetings cards and miscellanea in local shops) has been a popular figure here for many years. A while back, during one of the gutter press' periodic pogroms of hypocrisy the police stopped him using his trouser snake and forced him to use hand puppets instead.
But yay! Saturday saw the return of the trouser snake. For how long this will be delighting local children and frightening their prudish parents only time will tell, but I hope it's back to stay.

You Looking At Me?

Relax

It's the weekend. At last! Today's post shows us just how we should be behaving between now and Monday morning.

Of all nature's creatures, it is cats who have taken relaxation and turned it into an art form. On his recent African Adventure, Phil discovered this fierce pride of lions showing off their relaxations skills.

Cleanliness is of course important when relaxing, though I'll pass on this one (as I don't have anyone to lick) and soak in a long, hot bath instead.

So … Let this be your instruction booklet for the next couple of days.

Having said that, I'm so wired on coffee after Breakfast Club that I can't relax, which is just as well as I have returned from the market with turbot fillets and herring for the weekend and a whole turbot carcass, onions, carrots, fennel and celery for the pot and I'm stinking the house out making fish stock. Yummy!

Enjoy your weekends, folks.

Carmine

A convocation of carmine bee eaters.
"Say, guys; what shall we have for lunch?"
"How about bees?"
"Great idea!"

These little guys are easy to photograph when they're sitting still …

… Trickier when they're on the wing. Yay, Phil for capturing this shot.

Basics of Automobile Design

Another portrait from Phil's African Adventure.

Much as I love the old "Who needs designers? Just lay a book down flat, put a wheel at each corner and call it an Impala" early sixties classic Chevy, I do wonder if anyone at Chevrolet has ever actually looked at an impala.
Sluggish, wallowing, table-top-shaped, gas-guzzling rust-buckets they are not.

Hey, Guys; Let's Lollop!

Your task for today: describe in your own words precisely how silly giraffes look when they run.

A Note On Mealtime Etiquette

It is probably not a good idea to drive your jeep too close to a half-eaten warthog carcass …

… unless you want to seriously piss off the local dining clientele.

"Bloody tourists! Get away from my dinner!"

"Sheesh! They drive into my restaurant …

… try to steal my yummy warthog …

… point their bloody cameras at me like I'm some dumb celebrity …

 … I'm going to find another table."

WTF Monday - Water Buck

Phil's just back from Tanzania, where he discovered - among other things - why water buck are so named.
Captions, please …

A select selection of postcards from darkest Africa to follow over the next few posts, courtesy of my little brother and his spiffy new camera (Canon EOS60D, like mine, only with the bigger lens, dammit).

If Only Life Were That Sweet

Saturday Statuary - Snowballs

Meanwhile … back at the Cambridge Genome Research Facility, aliens have landed …

… and are very surprised by the cold snow against their bottoms.

Frabjous Friday

Well, the snow's gone … Now we're just left with floods, biting cold and gale force winds.
Until this evening, when Norfolk's due to get another load of snow dumped on us.
O frabjous day, etc.