BALI 2010

For some reason I did not really want to go to Bali but when I realised it was cheaper to go there than most places in Australia, I relented. In fact it was just over 3 hours travel AND it is on the same time zone as PERTH. (Sydney is nearly four hours AND a three hours time difference.) As you will see if you watch the video, the roads are narrow and populated heavily both with Cars and small motorbikes.
I found their type of dancing a little boring and the music seemed repetetive. (as per video). We travelled to Tanah Lot which is situated about an hour away from the airport. The difference between our hotel (situated on a golf course) and the local housing was simply huge. We visited the memorial at Kuta as you should see on the video. This was where the two large bombs went off in 2002. The streets are very narrow and I just cannot imagine the panic that night.

I confess we did play golf three times complete with young girl caddies: an experience not to be missed and we










did a fantastic cycle from the top of a mountain to the bottom where we encountered the local culture. We finished the cycle at an elephant park. The locals are 90% Hindu which is a change from the other well known religions. The people are extremely friendly. After 2002 there were very few tourists for four years but the recovery is not well under way. It is designed for young people but even I enjoyed the experience mainly due to the cosmopolitan inhabitants of the hotel.

To view in Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaqYmj0Xdp0

St Patricks day Concerts.

Yes I know when St. Patrick's Day is but last week was a St. Pat's day week for me if you see what I mean. I managed to perform in 8 different gigs during the week and was very happy when I phoned up the places where I was to perform this week and find out that St. Pat's week was over until next year. The clips were taken on my camera by various members of the audience and I have made a short video from them.

Perth Festival

I suppose that most major cities have a festival. I especially remember the Belfast and Edinburgh Festivals. Of course in modern times we can simply look them up on the internet. Here is a short clip of ONE event from the Perth Festival. Apologies....you may have to crank up your volume a bit!

Hopman Cup XXIIa

Tennis in Perth around the NEW YEAR.
As far as I know, this format for the Hopman Cup is unique. Two players represesent their country, one female and one male. They each player a singles match and then a mixed doubles. They are quaranteed at least three matches and then a final if they win their group.
Great Britain had not beenrepresented for over a decade, so it was to some surprise that the fifteen year old Laura Robson and Andy Murray made the final and what a close one it was. In the video are some shots and two short clips recorded on my mobile telephone.

Merry Christmas from DOWN UNDER

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone out there. I have put together a small video of Albany ( a town in the south of the state that used to be a whaling station in days gone by) Please do not tell the Japanese!!! Kidding.

Double's Web Site

Well am getting the idea that perhaps a web site is better than blogging so I have created one with this url.

MacCDouble.com You can click here to have a peek or if you got here via the site then click to return. http://maccdouble.com/

It contains some video clips, photography, poetry, songs which you can play and of course words of the songs. It also contains some mathematical worksheets which you can ignore if you are not at school and trying to excel in this area.

For the story this time I would like you to go to the URL listed below. Page 31. I write the ULSTER SECTION for a magazine here and I was explaining about Christmas in Ulster in this article. If this is not a good way to view the article .... please let me know.

http://www.irishscene.com.au/images/pdf/nov_dec.pdf PAGE 31

Neptune

If like me you are not real good at finding things you want to see in the night sky, you might like to try to see Neptune as it is close to Jupiter at present (late October early November 2009).
Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun in our solar system but with a magnitude of 7.8, it is only visible with a small telescope. Remember the higher the magnitude, the more difficult it is to observe. A magnitude of 5-6 is about my limit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune