TIL: Australia has no Michelen-star restaurants because Tourism Australia refuses to pay the tens of millions of dollars fee to have Australian restaurants listed.

Trying two different media for the same sketch. Top: India ink and brush. Bottom: Pigma coloured brush pens. The scene is High Lane, The Rocks, Sydney.

Recipe with "Preparation time: 10 minutes": 1. Make batter. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. 2. Remove batter from refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. 🤦

Okay, I'm desperate. Zoom updated to version 7.6.2 (MacOS), and it changed the UI from light mode to dark mode. I tried resetting the preferences to light mode, but it doesn't change anything! The UI is stuck in dark mode! I've searched and found no help online. Any ideas? #zoom #macos

News article: What the “I’m an American living in Australia” Instagram and TikTok trend reveals about both countries. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

I keep seeing ads for iPhone 17 Pro, which say it has “vapour cooling”. I got annoyed at the nonsensical marketing buzzwords... vapour implies a liquid-gas exchange and fluids moving through tubes and that's CLEARLY LUDICROUS in a phone. Except it's not!!! www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g...

I spent an hour cleaning the oven yesterday, including disassembling the multi-layer glass on the door and scraping off baked-on grease with a razor blade. One of my friends just asked. "Why???"

Finished leftover roast pork. Now just have to finish off: tiramisu Portuguese tarts panettone panforte stollen shortbread rocky road Lindt balls another panforte another rocky road cherry liqueur chocolates cinnamon almonds fruit mince tarts pfeffernusse gingerbread bar of finger lime chocolate

Australian perspective on the USA's 250th anniversary of independence. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

After some Christmas and New Year roasting, my oven needs cleaning. So I'm using the pyrolytic cleaning function, only for the second time ever since the oven was installed. It feels like I've hooked up the Lost Orb of Phanastacoria to the oven...

What was the weather like in Sydney in 2025? Much warmer than normal, and much wetter than normal. (Except the past three months have been a lot drier than normal. All the grass is dying.) #weather #climate #sydney

Sketches of Ashfield, Sydney. #sketch #sketching #sydney

Two views of Sydney, sketched today. #sketching #sydney

Now in the "turkey sandwiches for every meal" phase of post-Christmas.

I made a pavlova for Christmas lunch!

Just made a comic strip and had to update the date on it to 2026 (since it won't be published until next year).

reddit post: photo of metal object found in apartment under a hole in ceiling. "What is this?" I'm also wondering what it could possibly be. Wiring or construction that broke and fell? 🤷‍♂️ Curious, I go to the responses. Americans: How the hell is ANYONE stupid enough not to know this is a bullet??

Finished my Xmas gift for my wife! A Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, with the left page of each two-page spread filled with an ink sketch (of mine) for her to copy and paint with watercolour on the right hand side. Took me 2 months to complete.

Happy 5th birthday to my sourdough starter, a child of the COVID years. 🎂 We're celebrating today by making a rye loaf together.

Wow, that was the toughest 5k I've run in a long long while. 23.3°C, 84% humidity. Slow time of 27:54. And yes, this was the cool of the early morning. The overnight minimum temperature was 23.1°C. (After yesterday's 42.2°C max.)

Less than 5 days after the Bondi Beach shooting attack, Australian Government announces a gun amnesty buyback scheme, to allow people to dispose of surplus, illegal, or newly banned guns. Guns are not normal in a civilised society and do not need to be normal.

Dream last night: I was working with Elton John, recording an album of 80s song covers. I suggested "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel; Elton was like, "What? By who?" I played the song and he said, "I've never heard of this guy before. No, I'm not doing that song. I want WELL KNOWN artists and songs."

Just some photos I took of Scully at the park today. #poodle #toypoodle

In other news to make you feel old: As of today, Tetris was released closer in time to the release of Casablanca than to today. #history #tetris

Less than 24 hours after the Bondi Beach shooting attack, Australia's cabinet ministers and leaders of all states and territories agreed unanimously to strengthen Australia's gun laws: ownership conditions, number & types of guns allowed, registration, importation, etc. USA: THIS is how you do it.

If anyone's seeing the news from Sydney, I'm fine. Nowhere near the shootings. Just in a bit of shock watching the news.

I spotted this tawny frogmouth perched in a tree above my running route today. I finished my run and circled back around and it was still there, ready to pose for photos. #birds #australianbirds #birdphotos

This week at the supermarket, navel oranges changed from being grown here in Australia to being imported from the USA, as the growing season cycles. Guess I won't be buying oranges for the next few months.

As if I wasn't never going to visit the USA again anyway. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Dream last night: I was overseas, for some reason bought a gun & ammo, packed it in luggage to bring back to AU. But I forgot about it & just confidently said nothing to declare, & made it through customs without any problems. And then I'm like, "Why do I have a gun? I'm never going to use this."

Square Root of Minus Garfield comic—that was submitted in 2017 and just published today—predicted “AI slop” eight years ago. www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?co...

Listening to a 70s radio streaming station, and every second song is an older version of a song I didn't realise was a 1980s cover.

Took my dog Scully for a walk early, before it got too hot. This guy greeted us. #australianbirds #birdphotos

When you wake up and the weather forecast for the day is "40°C and smoky".

I can smell smoke outside. My friends are reporting it all across Sydney. The start of another bushfire summer I fear.

All my IT friends constantly talk about how their companies are making them use AI coding assistants and how much they suck and they have to keep undoing changes the AI makes to their code. Never been more glad I got out of coding as a job.

I'm decluttering. Do I throw away old photo negatives or keep them? They're all scanned and I have a backup routine. I haven't looked at the negatives in over 20 years.

Dream last night: Someone was giving me writing advice and said: "Unless you're specifically writing a character who is rich, you HAVE to show your characters having financial problems and struggling to make ends meet, otherwise it's not realistic." Me: How sad it is that this person thinks that.

Frozen was released 12 years ago. Just 12 years. I was surprised. That's more than 6 years after Darths & Droids appeared.

Netflix is recommending me various movies “for Sagittarians”. Annoying for two reasons: using astrology as a basis for movie preferences; thinking I’m a Sagittarius for some unknown reason.

Taking my dog Scully out at 11:15pm before bed and it’s 28°C. Gonna be a hot day tomorrow…

I appreciate that this is one of the images on the Wikipedia page for Pringles.

Annoyed that Aus retailers have "Black Friday" sales. "Black Friday" was one of the biggest natural disasters in Australian History. It's as if US retailers decided to import a foreign tradition called the "Hurricane Katrina Sales" into the US.

You can also get it with my sketch in the foreground.

Did you know you can frame the Sydney Opera House with palm trees?

Latest sketch from my Sydney staycation. The historic Sydney Observatory.

The hotel we’re staying in (with our dog Scully) has a dog minibar in the room.

Meanwhile my wife and I are taking a mini staycation in the city and doing sketching.

Kitchen floor is being sanded and recoated. Last step in our mini renovation.