Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
``Have a fantastic 2007 and write another book. By the way, I read `Vegemite Vindaloo' and pal, how you remember Calcutta! Amazing insights.''
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON 
We were at the Giant Koala at Dadswell's Bridge in country Victoria recently and I spotted this roadster in the car park. Well, it wasn't too hard to spot, really, because there were only about four or five vehicles there and as you can guess, this one kind of stood out a bit among the sedate sedans! The sun was in the perfect position in a clear blue sky for me to take the first picture, with the rays reflected in the giant headlamp, whose spotless concave shape in turn reflected the chassis of the car. I was fascinated by the angle, because the warped shape of the car in the reflection looked like an image in those trick mirrors at fairs and circuses. I didn't get to meet the owner, but it had New South Wales number plates, so maybe one of my readers in NSW knows someone who knows someone who owns a yellow roadster.....
``I did have a chuckle at `Jack and Chill'. I tried to post a comment but it's too complicated. Write some real Australian stories every day, my friend.''
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Just a fun Yuletide shot, taken at Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula. The candle had been burning for a long time - so I guess this must be an old flame. Sorry about that, Jason Steger, I know you're groaning, but I couldn't resist the corny line.
``Your novel (`Vegemite Vindaloo') sounds fascinating. As the librarian for the Australian Anglo-Indian Association in Perth, I look forward to obtaining a copy for our library.''
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
There are Advent calendars - and there are Advent calendars! You know the ones where you peel open the date and eat the chocolate? Well, this picture was shot at Federation Square in Melbourne - where the entire side of one of the buildings in the Square was dressed up to look like a giant Advent calendar. Every day, there was a different pageant to mark the date - but the chocolates would have been the size of office windows!
``I remember your mother well - she was an example to all in her selfless mothering of her own and other children. Her family was her joy and pride, and every child a miracle.''
I just thought this would be the perfect time to share a photograph that shows a typical Melbourne Christmas scene.
``Why do they refer to your novel `Vegemite Vindaloo' as a surprise bestseller? I knew it would be – no surprise at all!''
Photographs copyright: PATRICIA D'COSTA
These are unedited photographs sent to me by a longtime friend, Patricia D'Costa, a former flight attendant whom I have known for 25 years. Remember how I wrote (see the post Jack and Chill from yesterday) about freeways being closed because of hail? She was on the M1 (the Monash Freeway, as Melburnians know it) on Christmas morning. Traffic was at a standstill as emergency crews worked to clear the road surface. As you can see from the bottom left-hand quadrant of her second photograph, conditions were so bad that cars had their headlights on.
``Would u believe I tried in THREE bookshops, looking for `Vegemite Vindaloo' and they're all sold out here :) BRAVO David ... so I have put my name on the list and they're in the process of ordering it. Will begin 2007 with `Vegemite Vindaloo' :) ''
Photograph copyright: MATTHEW McMAHON
My old friend, the New Delhi-based author, Binoo John, has told me more than once (with undisguised glee) that my young son Matthew is a better photographer than me - so this one is for you, Binoo. He shot this picture at dusk today, using my Pentax K100D. It was a cold day - even for us Melburnians who are used to wild fluctuations in our weather, with temperatures often dropping 25 degrees in 25 minutes. Ironically, we had the hottest December night on record about three or four nights ago, but we had snow yesterday and the Monash Freeway was closed on Christmas morning as emergency crews cleared banks of hail. The oddest bit of world trivia is that Christmas day in Melbourne (we're in summer, remember!) was two or three degrees colder than New York, which is in mid-winter.
``Read your story; quite beautiful. That, of course, is what Christmas is all about. Hope you had a splendid Christmas.''
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
These two figures caught my eye in a Muskoka shop called Christmas Thyme that I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog. Being a Southern Hemisphere person, I immediately wondered about the significance of the figures. Of course, it was my first introduction to the 1961 poem by an English woman, Jenny Joseph. The theme of the light-hearted poem revolves around growing old in idiosyncratic style and it seems her poem is known by many titles. Some people know it as ``Warning'', while other titles include ``When I Am An Old Woman'', ``The Purple Poem'', ``Old Woman'', ``I Shall Wear Purple'', or simply ``Purple''. Because responsible bloggers adhere to international copyright laws, I shall not reproduce the poem here, but I can direct you to WhenIAmAnOldWoman.com and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
``Keep up the good work of writing, my friend. I love the play on words you title your daily blogs on. How DO you come up with such wonders .... you have great imagination!''
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
The wonderful eyes of this Christmas moose caught my attention at a shop in beautiful Port Carling, in Muskoka, Canada. Alas, the moose was way too big to fit into my luggage, or else it would have found its way into our home in Melbourne. Instead, I bought a selection of decorations for our tree, as a reminder of my time in Muskoka. As I write this, it's just past midnight so it is now Christmas Day here in Melbourne. This is the perfect time to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas, as everyone gears up for the big day. Thank you too, for your resounding support of this blog. It is just three months since I took the decision to update the blog every day and in that time I have been lucky to attract regular readers from 26 countries around the world. So, a very Merry Christmas to all of you in Japan, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Chile, Brazil, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, China, Russia, India, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Dubai, Bahrain and the United Kingdom.
``Both your parents were wonderful people and it was a privilege to know them while I was in Calcutta.''
It was a gift I would like to pass on from a remarkable woman who taught me and my brothers that the most important Christmas attribute is to give, not to receive.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This one is dedicated to all my readers around the world who have been kind enough to keep visiting this simple blog. I wanted to take a shot that represented not just Christmas, but also Melbourne, the city that has been home to my family for almost two decades. This photograph was taken just after sunrise, and shows not only a close-up of the baubles on a giant pine tree at Southbank, but also the landmark orange-and-yellow exterior of Flinders Street Station. The station is one of the most distinctive landmarks in the city, and is named after the English mariner and explorer, Captain Matthew Flinders. But the shot (as you've no doubt noticed) has yet another element. Reflected clearly in the silver bauble is the interior of Southbank, the beautiful complex developed in the Nineties to bring another dimension to the city's graceful arts precinct.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
If you look up at the intersection of Malvern Road and Belgrave Road, Melbourne (not recommended if you're driving) you'll see this inflatable Santa on the roof of the Dairy Bell ice cream outlet. This picture was obviously taken as Rudolph and all of the other reindeer were doing circuits and landings on Australian roofs. A very hot day here today, with the mercury edging above 36 degrees Celsius. Methinks it might even be too hot for Santa to come down the chimney, so we'll leave a window open - just in case.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON 
It looked as though someone had set the Yarra River on fire this morning, but it was just the reflection of the sun that looked like an orange fireball in the early morning sky.
You could smell the smoke that enveloped Melbourne's CBD and suburbs long before first light, when it became apparent just how thick was the blanket of smoke from the bushfires in Gippsland.
The first shot posted here shows the sun rising through a thick sky that looks like beach sand, and you can see the distinctive shape of the Victorian Arts Centre on the right of the frame.
The second shot shows the reflection of the fiery sun in one of the office buildings on Flinders Street. Nomally at this time of the year, the building would reflect clear blue sky and white cloud, but today it caught my attention because it looked dark and threatening, like something out of Darth Vader territory.
There've been some great pictures from other photographers during this bushfire period. One shot from the actual firefront shows a property silhouetted in black against a blood-red sky. It looks so surreal it could be mistaken for a painting done in only two colours - black and vivid red.
And another shot (I'm not sure where it was taken) shows a chalk message scribbled on a blackboard, great evidence of Australian gallows humour. ``Sorry about the smoky atmosphere,'' says the message. ``The bloody cook's burning everything''.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
A friend of mine, Anick Cesaria, who works for VIARail in Montreal, gave me a list of must-see places in her home city. McGill University was one of them and she assured me she wasn't kidding. I walked across early one morning and was rewarded with the sight of a beautiful campus, great skyline and graceful architecture. Oh yes, and there was this great sign. I guess you could say I was in a no-standing zone!
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
It was about midnight and we were driving past Victoria Square in Adelaide when we spotted the giant, illuminated Christmas tree that is about the size of a six-storey building. So we backtracked and pulled over to photograph the tree and this surrounding display. This was one of those high-mounted stars, probably two metres in diameter and maybe three metres high. The light pattern started in the centre and radiated swiftly outwards. I tried timing my shot to get it exactly as the LED diplay reached the outermost part of the star. The first time, I wasn't even close, but I reckon I nailed it the second time.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
As you can see in this photograph, I wasn't kidding when I said the bush was tinder-dry. I pulled off the Western Highway between Nhill and Ararat in Victoria to take this shot. The windmill was turning faithfully, but the cloudy sky held no promise of rain. Because of the drought, the ground is straw-coloured, as far as the eye can see.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Sometimes you just have to stop the car, get out, get your camera bag off the back seat - and take a shot. This was taken on Bower Road, Adelaide. Musta been near the swims and roundabouts.
I took this photograph yesterday, looking across the Yarra River to the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. As this frame shows, there was only a single rower on the river. There was not a trace of the clear blue sky that we are so accustomed too; instead it looked as though some unseen painter had covered the entire sky with some thick, opaque coating. Today's most dramatic story of a bushfire escape was Eric and Joan Gardiner of Cowwarr, who drove their burning Holden Commodore sedan through the fires in Toongabbie, Gippsland, for more than three kilometres. They only stopped when the windscreen cracked from the heat, but they were rescued from the surrounding flames by a fire crew. ``Bloody oath, it's the only time I shook in my life,'' Mr Gardiner told The Herald Sun.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This photograph, taken early today, shows the sun rising above the trees that fringe the Melbourne boatsheds on the Yarra River. There was still a fair amount of early haze from the bushfires, but it was a much clearer day than yesterday, when a quiet, all-enveloping shroud covered the city. Today's edition of the Herald Sun has photographs of people using masks to combat the smoke. There was also a vast difference between yesterday's sunrise and today's - yesterday, the sun glowed ominously, like an orange-red fireball.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
I couldn't help myself; I just had to take this shot, because it is so typically South Australian. There's the corrugated-sheeting fence, which you hardly ever see in Victoria, my home state. There's the scarlet bougainvillea in the foreground - which thrives on the hot, dry conditions (and often sandy soil) of Adelaide, capital city of South Australia. And there's the iron lace on the wide verandah of the neighbouring home.
When I grew up in India, iron lace was very common in Calcutta's houses and in the old business precinct, except that it was referred to as ``wrought iron''. I'd never heard the phrase ``iron lace'' until I came to live in Australia, but I think it is the more evocative of the two terms. I was probably in my teens when my father, who had spent his entire working life in the shipping industry, explained the profusion of iron lace.
Apparently it was used as ballast in the merchant vessels that plied to and from the United Kingdom and India. And when it was unloaded on Indian soil, it was put to good use on building sites in what was then a very young colony. If you ever wondered why so many old homes in India had crazy-paving floors, there's a perfectly logical explanation for that, too. Dad told me that tons of broken china and glazed pottery were loaded in the holds of the early steamships - also for ballast. And instead of being put into landfill or garbage tips, the shattered pieces were used to create the haphazard crazy-paving floors.
Like Canada-based Rene said in one of her comments on this blog, it was the perfect example of early recycling - on an international level.
Photograph copyright: NIRMAL GHOSH
This great image, almost like something out of a cinema verite sequence, was emailed to me by my childhood friend, Nirmal Ghosh. Regular readers of this blog would know that Nirmal is an author, photographer, wildlife expert and award-winning documentary maker. You can see some of his impressive body of work at NirmalGhosh.com but in the meantime, here is the story behind this picture, in Nirmal's own words .....
``I have often been up on my roof in Bangkok (on the 11th floor) doing my workouts and yoga and noticed the sun set in the little patch of sky that is left between the buildings that have steadily risen, blocking the sunset in the four years I have lived in the same apartment in Bangkok. I have often said to myself, I must take some pictures of this one day. This week I remembered, and lugged my camera bag up nine floors to the roof, telling myself it is good exercise (and it is, with one camera and three lenses!)
``I put on my Nikon 300mm f4.5 ED lens for the series of shots, but in the beginning because my heart was pounding from the climb, I was unsteady. Still, the shots were ok, I slowed my breathing, and the shutter speed was fast enough to compensate for the shake. Eventually I also rested on the parapet to steady myself, and took some care in composing the shots.
``The scene reminded me perhaps of the mesmerising Michael Winterbottom film Code 46 - a sort of post-global warming world dominated by smoggy cityscapes. I wanted to take the shots before lights came on in the buildings as well, so that the city looked grey and defeated - and empty - against an ominous sky. The camera is my now-trusty Nikon D70.''
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
The stunning bride in the first picture is my niece Tracy, just before she walked into St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Adelaide on Saturday, to marry Grant Myers. The second shot shows the bride and groom - both of whom are very close to our hearts - in the beautiful cathedral, after the exchange of rings and the signing of the register. Technically, they were difficult photographs to take; the first because of the harsh light outdoors in the fierce heat (it was 41 degrees Celsius) and the second because of the muted sunlight inside the cathedral, casting orange tones through the amazing windows and across the dark timber interior.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
That's Tracy and Grant after the church service, with their immediate families - but you probably guessed that, didn't you! (Just a quick technical note for family and friends: these are low-res images so they will not show the clarity of prints. If I posted high-res images, the blog would take a very long time to load on your computers.) We were all in the shade cast by the beautiful sandstone cathedral, but let me tell you, it wasn't much cooler than being in the direct sunshine. With the strong northerly breeze, too, it was like standing very close to a blast furnace. But, hey, the bride and groom were ultra-cool.
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
So there I was, walking down the pier at Semaphore, trying to get a shot of the sand dunes and the beach and the gulls - and I heard the whistle of the miniature train about two hundred metres behind me. I knew the mini-train had pulled into Semaphore and I knew it would be gone in a couple of minutes. Now I'm no Olympic sprinter, but I was out of there like a shot. Back across the pier, then trying my best to race across the sand (yes, I know it must have looked funny, but we'll discuss that later). I got to the train just as the driver climbed into the cabin to reverse back down the track.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This shot was taken at the beachfront suburb of Semaphore in Adelaide. It was a warm, cloudy evening as the temperature slowly began to unwind from the fierce oven-like heat yesterday. The Semaphore Hotel must have a rich history, but I was on a tight deadline and only had about fifteen minutes to shoot scenes on the street, on the pier, near the waterfront and at the miniature railway that runs parallel to the beach.
not a star; it is the mid-afternoon sun. And the spires at the bottom of the frame are the Cathedral on Flinders Street.
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This shot was taken a couple of evenings ago. We were in the car when I noticed a wonderful range of colours in the sky, but I could not pull over and grab the camera. Sitting at the wheel, I thought the colours would evaporate by the time I was finally able to pull over - but to my good luck, they were even more arresting when I was finally able to stop, park and get the camera out. The light was changing very quickly and I didn't want to waste a couple of minutes climbing to a vantage point, so I just made the best use of the scene. The tree branchess on either side of the picture didn't really bother me, but of course there was nothing I could do about the street light. In retrospect, though, it does provide a point of perspective to the frame.
Photograph copyright: MIKE KEMBLE
This remarkable photograph was sent to me by UK-based military historian Mike Kemble, who describes it in his own words, while chuckling at my comment that it looked like something out of a Harry Potter movie:
``I spent a beautiful day on the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway in early September, with my wife, and as we left Gosforth for the return journey we had to pass through a tunnel. I leaned out of the carriage window and took this image. The people who have seen it all remark about Harry Potter! I was so lucky to capture this once in-a-lifetime image.''
Photograph copyright: MIKE BRUCE
This picture is from my colleague and friend Mike Bruce, the Deputy Editor (Features) of the Herald Sun, Melbourne's largest-selling newspaper. I'll leave it to him to tell the story behind the photograph ....
``Obecnà Dům, or Municipal House, quickly became one of my favourite buildings during the year we lived in Prague. For several reasons. It's one of the best examples of the decorative art nouveau style for which Prague - among only a handful of other European cities - is renowned. Not only does its facade leap out at you as you approach the threshold of the Old Town, but also features a stunning art nouveau restaurant and a cafe, with the most beautiful chandeliers that form a kind of soaring jungle of glass that hang like a canopy over each room. Downstairs is the iconic art nouveau American Bar, upstairs is home to the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
``It was also here that the Czechoslovak nation was born in 1918. But my fascination, and frequent lingering, was for the mosaic on its facade - the Homage to Prague by Karel Å pillar. I loved the way the mosaic would sparkle against the building's buttery facade in the spring and summer sunshine, and would provide that splash of much-needed colour against the concrete-coloured skies of the relentless Czech winter. If you're in Prague, brush your way past the red-coated and wigged Vivaldis and Mozarts spruiking concert tickets and head inside Municipal House for a lingering look.''
Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Photograph of Mark and Ray Hanna reproduced with permission of OFMC
Earlier this month I asked if anyone knew of pilots who had flown Spitfires and Me-109s (see Who Made A Mess O' Schmidt?). The question was prompted by the fact that the RAF flew and assessed captured 109s and Fw-190s during World War II, just as the Luftwaffe did with Spitfires and Hurricanes. There has been a significant discussion thread on this subject on the Axis History Forum and I have received valuable feedback from around the world.
Before I post the details kindly sent to me by Mike Kemble and Ville Pitkänen, I just want to cite the example of the late Ray and Mark Hanna (pictured above), who both had an international reputation not just on the basis of their Old Flying Machine Company, but also by virtue of their accomplishments in the cockpit.
I recalled, from my research on my forthcoming novel, `The Jadu Master', that Mark had flown not just the Spitfire but the 109 as well. I immediately emailed his sister Sarah, who replied promptly, ending her email with the sentence: ``By the by, my father flew both aircraft as well, but it was Mark who really loved the 109.'' This rare distinction probably makes them the only father-son combination to have flown Spits and 109s - but if you know of any others, please let me know.
Interestingly enough, there are some very dramatic shots of Mark flying the 109 in New Zealand, taken by Richard Seaman and displayed on his site, Richard-Seaman.com. There's also a great story I'd heard about Mark, so I checked its authenticity with Sarah, who confirmed it did indeed happen ....
Mark and another OFMC pilot were flying a 109 and a Mustang (as you know, deadly adversaries in World War II) to an air show in Europe, when one of the planes developed a problem, which meant both pilots had to ask for permission to land at a US Air Force base. They were immediately met by a very perturbed officer who asked in an agitated tone: ``Are these planes armed?''
The punchline certainly belonged to Mark, who replied with dry humour: ``Not since 1945.''
Watch this space for more details on men who flew Spitfires and 109s.
