Spider-Cam

'Graveyard' - byJulie Fletcher, winner of the People's Choice Award for the ANZANG Nature Photography Competition 2012, the South Australian Museum; taken at Menindee Lakes, NSW

Less spectacular is my 'nature' photo from last weekend:

I had a run in with this little fella on Sunday afternoon, whilst sitting on our balcony reading my book. I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye and looked down at my chair to see this female redback spider a few inches from my left leg.

Redbacks are described on wikipedia as "one of the most dangerous spiders in Australia"; they don't look like much, but they can make you pretty sick from a bite. Not quite a photo of a storm at Menindee Lakes, admittedly. And also nothing compared to what Angelique's brother found on the screen door of his house yesterday - a large and unidentified snake:

Dusk this evening from our lounge window

In other news, in honour of Newington's sesquicentenary (150 years) in 2013, our 1st XV will be playing The King's School in a curtain raiser to the NSW Waratahs match against the British & Irish Lions in Sydney on 15 June 2013; very exciting news as it will hopefully mean getting tickets.

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One of the great things about following the US election results here is that it doesn't involve staying up late in to the night; the results started filtering through mid-morning on Wednesday, so I was able to follow the declarations of each state as they happened.

ABC News Australia put this collection of the best and funniest social media and internet memes compilation - featuring Donald Trump, FoxNews, John Stewart's 'Chaos on Bullsh-t Mountain' skit and the 'if Obama wins we're moving to Australia' meme.\

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Finally, for all those of you who have thought "What has Australia ever given the world apart from Neighbours, Home & Away, Kylie and Shane Warne?" then check this out - 10 Australian Inventions. You might be surprised.....