Saturday, December 30, 2006

off to Rotto!


We're off to the island today.

Time for a few days of Rotto Blisso.

We'll try to stay out of the fetid water at the pub.

Time for reading recent issues of the TLS on the balcony of our premium view Geordie pad, eating and drinking, attempting to break the course record at Brett Heady's Family Fun Park, snorkelling under gin palaces, wetting a line, eating and drinking...

Rotto Bloggo will be back in the New Year.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

the sea


Rottnest news: first, death.

The Herald Sun says a 41-year-old man was found floating in a bay around 3pm yesterday; ABC News says he was 47 and found at Thompson (sic) Bay. Both reported the death wasn't suspicious.

Second, fishing: new marine sanctuary zones will be enforced at Green Island, the West End and Armstrong Bay, while existing zones at Parker Point and Kingston Reef will be extended. This applies from July 1 next year.

The ABC says the Wilderness Society is disappointed. Rotto Bloggo can't see the opposite reaction from Recfishwest just yet.

"The sanctuaries are likely to provide for large 'trophy' size examples of several fish species, such as dhufish, that would be prized attractions for high-value tourism experiences like snorkelling and scuba", a boffin is quoted as saying in the Minister's media release.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

boat work


This could be worth looking into, if you've got a few weeks free until February...

'Boat person needed to live aboard a 30m luxury power yacht moored at Rottnest for the summer Dec - Feb. Boating experience necessary...'

The above link goes to the Seek.com.au ad, which concludes: 'Boating experience is essential and high regards will be given to presentation and keenness. Excellent pay and conditions are offered in a superb environment.'

Sounds good to Rotto Bloggo. The closest we've ever got to them luxury tubs is snorkelling under them near Geordie.

Not long until we're on Rottnest: four glorious nights from Saturday. The only fly in the ointment: the Rottnest Island Authority hasn't sent the bumf yet. They say it's a busy time. No!!!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

beach bum


A Rotto Bloggo reader has been bold enough to provide this pic.

It's more than 30 years old.

No hat! No SPF30! Tight white shorts! No doubt kaftanned women were swooning at the sight of this hirsute hunk of man meat.

It's hard to believe that this fresh-faced youngster is now a leading troublemaker.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

cable


Rotto Bloggo was leafing through the incomparable All The News In A Flash: we were re-reading Mr W.E. (Bill) Weaver's account of the second submarine cable being laid.

It was 71 years ago today that this happened, according to Bill:

"Arrangements completed for handling spare cable. Pit dug 20 feet and timbered and floored adjacent to jetty at Woodman's Point. Spear legs erected over pit using 26 ft wrought iron poles and winch fixed in position on jetty."

They worked either side of Christmas Day. The cable was done by 12 February 1936. ATNIAF says 11,662 pounds 2s 8d "to purchase and lay the cable had been notified in the Commonwealth Gazette."

Friday, December 22, 2006

beach outrage


Someone should be sacked.

There's a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that just one Australian beach got the nod for a list of the world's sexiest beaches.

"Byron Bay was the sole Aussie beach to get a nod from Forbes Traveller, which compiled the list based on research by their own journalists, and other industry experts including tour planners, meteorologists, hotel owners and marine biologists," the SMH said.

FT gushed thus about BB: ""chalky-white sands, deliciously temperate weather and occasional visits from dolphins and migrating whales".

Its nudist beach was also highly regarded.

Someone's head must roll: why didn't one of Rotto's beaches make the list? They are far, far superior to any hippie-strewn bit of sand on the east coast.

Would it help if Rotto had a nude beach?

At least none of the Gold Coast's 42 beaches made the cut.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

'randy Rotto teens'


We can’t wait.

Rotto Bloggo will be moseying down to Pinky Beach on New Year’s Eve to see the action.

The action is liquored-up young people having sex.

According to last weekend’s Post, kids in Years 8 through 11 behave abominably on Rotto.

“…the worst of them behave like the worst of Year 12 school leavers – drinking, fighting, stealing and having sex…”, the Post reported.

“They crowd on to Pinky’s (sic) Beach every night, up to 200 boys and girls, many of them drunk when they get there.”

Top stuff. Rotto Bloggo hopes it’s happening Jan 31 – the Post said the imbibing/fisticuffs/robbing/boofing happened late last month.

The Post had a lovely front page photo of Pinky, with this stirring caption: ‘…idyllic by day, a boozy teen hotbed at night’.

What's this? A shirt torn off the torso of a randy teen at the start of a carnal frolic at Pinky, washed up on the beach the next day?

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Try harder to go backwards


A regular Rotto Bloggo reader was flicking through pages of 'The Architect', the journal of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (WA Chapter) and was thrilled to see an architectural retrospective on the waterfront cottages on Thomson, Geordie and Longreach Bays.

Being an architectural journal, the writing (by Simon Anderson at UWA)
Is, of course, quite…er…analytical.

Let’s have a look at Simon’s work:

The cottages’ purpose “…was to provide affordable and sustainable holiday housing in both historically sensitive (in the case of Thompson Bay) and environmentally delicate (in the case of Geordie and Longreach Bays) location, and it is hard to argue that they have not been outstandingly successful in these respects.”

Quite right. No argument there, apart from having Thompson instead of Thomson.

They were built en masse, yet they deliver a level of spatial variety rarely achieved in large scale repetitive residential developments.”

Spatial variety? They have different dimensions, we think that means…

Anyway, as Prof Julius Sumner Miller would’ve asked: how is it so?

As houses, they are everything that houses are now not. They are indestructibly robust. They are very small but very well planned and very well sectioned for privacy and outdoor amenity. They do not have big front doors, and the front door enters the kitchen…they are generous if you want to eat, talk, sleep, read, go fishing or swimming, but do not offer much in the way of domestic ceremony.”

OK. Not sure how they let you go fishing or swimming, but we’ll let it go through. Much better is this next bit:

They let you live your life rather than ruling your life. They are successful because they look backwards to earlier times. Is not Perth always supposed to be behind the times? Maybe we should try harder to go backwards?”

And the crowd goes wild! Deafening ovation for Simon!

Then there’s a list of what they don’t do. These include: “They do not countenance the curvilinear, continuous form or the monumental. Instead the use a logic of discrete rectilinearity to respond to the infinite and infinitesimal particularities of place at both macro and micro scales.”

Hmm. We read this several times, tried to work it out with a pencil, set a small fire under it, and made it a martini. But we were no closer to comprehension. Our guess: the straight lines work well.

There’s some talk about how they look different form far away and up close, and then:

They are successful because of this fractional dimensionality (the term given to objects which exist differently at two or more scales of observation) and pixellated viscerality.”

Pixellated viscerality?

Too much for this simple blogger. But the main message you can take from Simon’s monograph is the cottages are first-class.

Will the cottages in the new Mt Herschel development be as good? Don’t bet on it.

A chair admires the discrete rectilinearity of Thomson Bay cottages.

Monday, December 11, 2006

That's ambitious


The Ashes bandwagon has moved to Perth: hordes of Australians - which include Rotto Bloggo - fully expect our glorious team to win back the urn by the end of the Test at the WACA.
If only an Australian Test cricketer had been born on Rotto! Kim Hughes was born in Margaret River, but no wearer of the baggy green took their first breath in a Rottnest bungalow.
Still, there is a link between the looming cricketfest and the wonderful island: The Australian reported on an English fan wandering the Perth streets with a sign that says: Will swap cricket tickets for Rottnest Island Ferry token.
Will he have any takers?

A seagull outside the bakery, before he heads off to the WACA to see Australia win back the Ashes.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

east of Eden


Apologies for two weeks of no posts, but Rotto Bloggo has been in Melbourne.
Of course, there are Rotto connections to be found even in Bleak City.
Pink public transport tickets promote Ednafest and Barry Humphries' new show, Back With a Vengeance. It starts in Melbourne on 19 December.
BWaV has been on in Perth, and Rotto Bloggo saw it on Thursday night (taking care not to sit in a very front row).
The Rotto connection? Dame Edna described Perth as being East Rottnest - how right she is.
She also addressed the audience as quokkas.