Jesus Vs. Jaws

It was a big week for sharks down under. A snorkeler was presumably killed by a shark, 30 metres from shore, when a 24 year old man noticed that his father had been replaced by a shredded wetsuit and a pool of blood. The dorsal fin of a shark had been seen nearby. Several hours later, across the country in Sydney, a kayaker was bumped and knocked out of his boat and forced to share a hot minute in the water with a Great White. The encounter was captured on video (see below). Further beach closures around the country, including Bondi and Queensland, occurred when aerial surveillances detected shark activity.

Gourmet Sunday

Christmas is a time for family and friends. In true Christmas spirit we invited all of our friends over for a night of delicious food and drink. Unfortunately, none of them came. Zing!

Hosts: Rob and Spark
Guests: N/A
Appetizer: Palenta with a Mushroom Ragout Sauce.
Main: Fettucini and Steamed Vegetables with an Alfredo Sauce.
Wine: Wakefield, 2005 Promised Land Shiraz Cabernet.

The meal was good. But, then again, of course it was good, the sauce was made with 35% cream and a ton of butter. I did a a second workout with kettle bells just to compensate for the first two mouthfuls.

Gourmet Sunday

Dear Cancer Bats,

I would have loved to have come see your show, but it's Sunday, and, well, usually that means things are getting gourmet in the kitchen. P.S. Thanks for taking all our guests.

Hosts: Rob and Spark
Guests: Sarah and Tami
Starters: Thai Coconut Milk Soup; Vegetarian Springs Rolls.
Main: Steamed Greens and Marinated Grilled Tofu on a bed of Brown Rice, topped with a Tahini Sauce and Tamari.
Wine: Red (update coming soon... when I'm downstairs).
Oh Yeah: Green Tea with fresh Ginger.

Sean asked Aidan if they could eat healthier, by which he meant "Can you cook healthier food for me?" After work last week I went over for dinner and she prepared a delicious rice bowl with greens and tempeh. It served as a real inspiration for tonight's meal.

You may wonder what we talked about at dinner. We discussed: Serbian James Bond, fine chaps, feeling your phone vibrate when it actually isn't ("ghost buzz"), pets, microwaves and science projects, as well as other fascinating topics.

As well, Tami was sick when she arrived at Gourmet Sunday. She wasn't when she left. Magic? Nope, I doubt it.

Dodging Bullets.

Real Life Fake Suicide.

Sometime last week actor Daniel Hoevels was treated for a near fatal wound suffered on a Viennese stage. The audience for Mary Stuart, a play about Mary Queen of Scots, applauded what they thought was a brilliant on-stage suicide of Hoevels' character. Cheers quickly turned to gasps when the actor staggered off stage.

Apparently somebody switched a dull stage prop with a real knife. Hoevel didn't recognize the switch until blood was already spewing from his throat onto the stage floor. Police are investigating, and Hoevel returned to the stage for the following evening's performance.

Solo Mobile is the worst.

Nobody wants to read my long-winded story about poor cell phone service: We all have it. I have edited this post to include only the most important information.

DO NOT GET MOBILE SERVICE WITH SOLO.

More Sharks.

Moana Beach, Adelaide, has been cleared due to a Great White shark sighting 50 metres off shore. Early "reports" claimed the shark could be as large as 16 metres! Clearly absurd when one considers that the largest Great Whites are expected to reach about 9 metres. This is somewhat presumptuous, too, because the largest captured Great White on record was about 7 metres, though an accurate measurement couldn't be taken as the fisherman who caught it kept only the head and pectoral fins.

Oh yeah, a few weeks ago a friend send me pictures (see above) of a Great White that had washed up on shores near where her brother lives. It appeared at Mermaid Beach,the Gold Coast, November 11. Measuring 2.3 metres, it was dragging a buoy from the shark nets around shore when a life guard spotted it.

Gourmet Sunday

After having a pretty busy weekend, including a double 30th birthday party for Matias and Rennick, we decided for one night only we'd change Gourmet Sunday's mandate of extravagance and eloquence to include austerity and pedestrianism.

Hosts: Spark and me.
Guests: N/A
Appetizer: bag of Chipotle seasoned tortilla chips.
Main: Vegetable fajitas with grilled Portobello Mushrooms, braised with Chipotle sauce.
Wine: 2007 Fuzion.

Well, the turnout was below average, and the food was below average, but the preparation and clean up times were record-setting: Success!

'Tis The Season.

When Crocodiles Attack.

It's 26 January, 1945 when the Royal Marines, supported by 4th, 26th, 36th and 71st Indian Brigades and the Royal Air Force, encircled and trapped 900 Japanese soldiers in a 16 square kilometres area of swampland on Ramree Island, Southern Burma. The British were attempting to take the area from the Japanese in hopes of creating numerous sea-supplied airbases.

The swamp is characterized by knee-deep mud; it supports a multitude of tropical diseases and is home to scorpions, mosquitoes, and thousands of 4 metre-long salt water crocodiles.

The events of Operation Sankey are murky but one account is that, unable to escape from the British barricade, hundreds of Japanese soldiers became sitting ducks for the crocs. British naturalist Bruce Wright described:

"That night [of the 19 February 1945] was the most horrible that any member of the M.L. [marine launch] crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left...Of about 1,000 Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about 20 were found alive."

Guiness has recorded the Ramree crocodile attack as the "Greatest Disaster Suffered From Animals."