Great Sight in the Morning Sky

Great sight in our southern hemisphere 6.am morning sky, Venus in the head of Taurus beside Alderbaran, with the Pleiades just off to the left, and Jupiter in between.
Be great if you're born a Taurean, all that love and power in one hit, lol.
Except, if you're an astrological purist ascribing to what the Sumerians brought to the table of knowledge over 4000 years ago, and due to Precession of the Equinoxes since.......
you're in the wrong house!
Astrologers will maintain that what you're born under is what's in their tables, but for me, I like what you see is what you get.
Have a happy time Taureans!

Book: A Walk in the Woods

This the first Bill Bryson I've read, should have been on to him years ago.
This book describing his assault on the Appalachian Trail is an hilarious read, particularly if you've done some bush-whacking and have sampled the delights of getting on with others on the quest.
Similarly, I liked the backgrounder detail, again having sampled a little of the Great Continent and its people.
My simple farmer observation was that the bush there wasnt very old, the trunks weren't big enough to be of much greater age than 40 or 50 years, and indeed he explains the countryside was once all cleared but its agriculture lost competitiveness when the Mid-West eventually opened up.
He cites the large combine harvesters couldnt handle the small dales of the mountain country.
Its much simpler than that mate.......
Farming's a mugs game in any environment, but hell on earth in a place where winters are 9 months of the year, and summer's only 3 months.

Practical Francais

A note in yesterdays Dompost reminded visitors to the Olympic Games, who were thinking of slipping over to France for a drive around, that its compulsory to have in the car an approved breath-testing device.
On last years tour I found the driving environment most amenable, the signage was helpful and expressive of concern for your safety, rather than heavy fist of the law stuff like here.
I dont doubt however that it could be, the fines for DIC are pretty substantial, but a glass of wine with a meal is part of the nations fine culture, and the carrying of the breath testing device an elegant solution.

That motorists are given, and take, responsibility for their own actions is a nice touch

Movie: Safe

Phwoar, boy's night out here, non-stop gratuitous violence, shootings and punchups, Statham at his best.
Interesting to note Kevin Spacey one of the producers.
9 out of 10.
And also caught a trailer of Expendables2 in the pipeline!

Movie: Prometheus

So, us humans are the product of an ancient race who came to Earth and seeded the place with their DNA and around about 2093 some archaeologists figure out where they came from, and technology has advanced enough the spaceship Prometheus can warp out to whence the star-map says they came.
Only when they get there the welcome aint so hunky-dory.
Noomi Rapace has settled into a better role than the western thing she was in a while back, I hope she carries on as the new "Ripley" in any sequels, the yarn certainly ends leaving an opening for one.
Despite the critics giving this movie a hard time, I liked it. Sci-fi that has an aura of possibility do it for me.
8 out of 10.
Charlise Theron's in here too, exhibiting yet again her versatile cool. I see she's in a remake of Mad Max this year.

Transit of Venus 6.6.12

Didnt give this much fore-thought, seeing the weather was so bad, but around 2-3pm the cloud peeled away.
An article in the local rag stated no-one alive has seen a transit in NZ, they come twice in eight years, every 100 odd years apart, the last one was in 2004 but you had to be on the other side of the Earth to see it, and the next one isn't due for another 105 years.
That was enough motivation for me.
The old boyhood telescope somewhere up in the attic would have taken too long to set up, wouldnt have a clue where the smoked sun-lens would be, so it was down to the workshop and the arc-welding mask. I used to map sunspots as a kid by projecting from the eyepiece onto a sheet of paper. I burned holes through a few bits of paper before I got things right, lucky I still got my eyes.
Actually, it took two welding lenses to shut the light down enough, and sure enough, there was little dot Venus. So there, I saw it.
Even tried taking a pic with the cellphone, Venus is the little dot down near the bottom, lol.
Rather fortuitous the sky clearing, just imagine being old Capt Cookie sailing halfway round the globe, if the weather had been inclement when he got here.

Movie: MIB3

Well, have to say it dragged a bit at the 3/4 mark, but the story-line was great and Josh Brolin did a top job depicting the young Agent K.
Jemaine Clement was an impressive baddie, nice to see the Kiwi boys doing well, following Bret McKenzie's Oscar.
Will and Tommy good as ever.
7 out of 10