This looks like a job for me.

Guess who' back, back again.

Grumpy's back, tell a friend.

Super solar sonar radar

Bat box, Hyde Park, Perth.

Collingwood supporter

Looks like he's listening for worms.

Wishing you a hot new year

Check the crepuscular rays on this one (although Hazel tells me they're not strictly crepuscular, as it's more the clouds than the rays that are streaming out*).

Still, it's amazing what one sees when one steps out onto one's front verandah toward the end of a hot new year's day.


*Divorce pending.

Not any more he aint.

Plumber's crack

Sadly, this is the last sample of rap graf from my sojourn in Lyon.

To all the Lyonnaise rappers I say, keep rappin, and tappin', and flappin' your jaws,
'cause on this hiphop lyrical blogspot you'll never, ever be asked to show reason or cause.

Ovine bovine

I love how the imaginary footpath here merges with the real one.

I haven't a clue what it all means though.

I believe my baby's got a black cat bone.

Enough said.

I don't know what they're doing but they laugh a lot behind the green wall.

This one's a bit more out there, literally and figuratively.

It was just reward for climbing a million-and-one steps up the world's steepest hill to Lyon's Fourviere cathedral.

I like how the piece organically merges with the remaining bricks. All in all, it's just another brick in the wall.

Baraka gives you back your B-B-Bounce!

Apologies to Berocca.

Quite a backdrop

When in Lyon recently (makes it sound like I pop over there all the time, doesn't it?).

Anyway, when in Lyon recently, the local arrondissement where we stayed organised a "keep active" style cycle race for the locals.

Only trouble was, Lyon's quite a hilly place, and the organisers showed no mercy with route selection.

It was fun, however, cheering the appreciative cyclists on with a:

"C'mon! Pull yer finger out! I know what it's like!"

Let's push things forward.

What I love about the small business owners of Lyon is they've embraced the humble rapper.

Rather than whinging to their local council about the graffiti problem, claiming it signals the end of civilization as we know it, the local business people take the artform on board to advertise their rustic wares.

In preference to the ugly blank shutters back home in Northbridge, I'd always choose this one a la rapper.

Perhaps if rapper could paint a wall, we'd never see a billboard at all.

Des Deux Places, Lyon

As just foreshadowed, a big word up to the bouchons (low-brow meat restaurants) of Lyon, France.

As per tradition, this one is only open Tuesday to Friday.

Luckily for Haze and I - but unluckily for the legless frogs (sauteed in herb and garlic), fleshless veals (broiled to a flakey texture in a butter sauce) and juiceless grapes (stomped into a yummy house wine) in the general Lyon district - we strayed by on a Friday.

Reservations essential. Click on the door of the 2CV for contact deets.

Heavy, heavy, monster sound.

For the next few days, good ol' Grump will be spotlightin' and soundcheckin' the graf art of South Central Lyon.

The rap graf you're about to witness is not in any of the tourist guides, but it's almost as good a reason as food to visit Lyon, the home of the bouchon*, the culinary capital of France.

*more on Bouchons later ... mmmmmm Bouchons.

Wotchoo tawkin' 'bout?

And in Cannes, the red carpet is permanently rolled out for this special little fella.