Look What They Done To Our Scarbs, Ma…

Cottesloe has the reputation of being Perth’s best beach. I’ve never understood this. It’s crowded as a bastard in summer, parking is a nightmare, the shore is shoulder-to-shoulder tourists and byootiful people, and there’s not much of a body wave. And the main drag is too upmarket.

Take Indiana Restaurant (pic from their website)…indiana-cottesloe.jpg
Pricey and pretentious. Actually, worse than pretentious – grandiose. And so ostentatious it has imposed itself as a Cottesloe beachfront landmark impossible to ignore.

The Blue Duck’s OK, I guess. It has become a bit of an institution at Cott and offers a great elevated seaside view to sip a coffee over – but it’s a yuppie mecca, as is the entire area.

A real beachfront main drag is about greasy burgers-n-chips, icecreams, soft drinks. Not calamari @ $30 a go, or wedges with aioli. Not aproned wait staff with silly Neighbours accents. You don’t want airs and graces at yer beach food-n-drink joints. You want no-bullshit with character, with perhaps a hint of brusqueness, like you get at Peters By The Sea, at Scarborough.

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Peters By The Sea is a site of heroism. This story might or might not be apocryphal – that’s not something I care to investigate – but it goes like this: Continue reading Look What They Done To Our Scarbs, Ma…

AntiSpywareBOT – Another ‘Free’ Software Con

I’m pissed off!

I did some way overdue computer housekeeping today. Having satisfied myself long ago via various tech-savvy sources that Norton and McAfee suck and that the best of the free anti-virus/anti-spyware programs – AVG, Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy – do the job just fine, I set about the once-routine task of running all three, clearing the cache, deleting temp and internet files, running Disk Cleanup, defragging…

I used to be diligent with this stuff and do it weekly. But bit by bit, I’ve returned to my default state of slackness. Dunno when I last ran Spybot Search and Destroy, but when I tried to update it I discovered it had been replaced with AntiSpywareBOT.

Not to worry. Spybot Search and Destroy is one of the good guys. No tricks. A quality program. And free when they say they’re free. It’s right there on their home page. See?

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[click to enlarge]

Without hesitation, I accepted the free download invitation, then ran the program as instructed. Spunky new skin. Nice. Let’s put this baby through its paces. I selected the C drive, clicked on ‘Scan’, watched for a minute to make sure it was working, and went off to lunch. Continue reading AntiSpywareBOT – Another ‘Free’ Software Con

See The Great Gardens Team In Action!

In my recent posts on waterwise gardening and sustainable gardening practices tailored to Perth conditions, I have sung the praises of the Great Garden Seminars. These free workshops are held throughout the year all over the metropolitan area. They’ve become increasingly popular over the last 5 years, and you now have to book ahead to ensure you get into your chosen seminar.

I can’t recommend the Great Gardens seminars highly enough. The GG crew include “celebrity gardeners” Sabrina Hahn, Josh Bryne and John Colwill, but all the presenters are experts in their own right, and represent the extreme cutting edge in contemporary sustainable garden design and practice in Perth and WA. Continue reading See The Great Gardens Team In Action!

movie reviews + occasional other musings